Chapter 78

Waking up in the morning, Natalie was as groggy as always after she woke up. She had another dream, but it was just a copy of the one she had before. Her leading an army, turning full warrior wolf woman and ripping monsters to shreds as they attempted to hurt her. Nothing changed for her, except a slightly increasing desire to learn how to do that, and be able to not be tired after using it for an extended period of time. However, now that she woke up, she realized that she could faintly feel the same warmth from the night before. Hesitantly, she just started trying to move it around her body without initiating any change. The movements themselves felt sluggish, unresponsive even. Like she was a toddler trying to walk without constantly swaying or falling over. Unlike the shift she had attempted the night before, this time did not wear here out, nor decrease the energy inside of her. Maybe the whole thing was just a matter of control, and the more delicate and fine she could manipulate the energy made everything easier. It could be any or a combination of all the different theories she currently had.

Resolving to practice it while she walked later, Natalie got up from the tangled mess of canine bodies around her and headed out of the tent. Just as she reached the door, a few different smells hit her nose at the same time. Wood burning, fat being grilled, and the smell of bread being toasted. The smells were soon mirrored by sounds of what seemed to be things grilling on a fire. Stepping out, Nat looked at the fire pit only to see Shannon there, cooking over top of a solid sheet of metal. Where had she gotten all of that? It took Nat a few minutes, but she eventually noticed that Scout and Seeka were already up and about. They must have come in the tent and Soulscape to grab things that Shannon requested.

""Morning." Natalie grumbled out as she went up to sit on the opposite side of the fire from Shannon. As she got closer, she finally realized what Shannon was making and got excited. Bread had been buttered and was being grilled, eggs were slowly cooking as they got scrambled, and bacon sizzled over top the metal sheet that Shannon had gotten to cook on. Thankfully, as Natalie looked over what had been used to flavour the breakfast, she felt relieved. None of the items were harmful to canines or their digestive systems. Sure, the salt could be bad in larger quantities, but Shannon's breakfast BLT's barely had any salt on them anyways. The main way she flavoured them had always been a crowd favourite. She would always throw the bacon on first, and when she built up a suitable amount of grease and drippings from the meat, did she mix it with the eggs. They always ended up being far greasier than one would expect, and the eggs would take on a brown colouring as they absorbed the juices. But damn did they taste delicious.

"Morning." Shannon replied, the extravaganza in front of her taking up almost all of her concentration. Seeing the quantity of burgers that had been gone through for dinner last night, she took the idea of quantity to a whole new level than she had ever before. A small mountain of scrambled eggs was constantly being mixed with the grease from the meat, while everything else cooked. Shannon was trying to make three dozen of the sandwiches at once, and she managing everything fluidly. The fact nothing showed signs of burning was probably one of the most impressive things of the whole spread. Using a similar platter to what had been used for the burgers, she started stacking up completed sandwiches as she went. The sight was so impressive, you could believe that she went to cooking school for her dexterity. Within minutes, everything was plattered up and prepared, looking delicious as all hell.

Storing it quick, as all of them knew the canines would want more than this despite the already impressive quantity, Scout quickly went in and out of the Soulscape. Once the delicious sandwiches were stored safely away, the four of them were joined by the coyotes that had been on lookout until that point and they all dug in to the meal together. While eating, slowly more and more bodies emerged from Nat's tent and joined in on the early morning feast. When they started complimenting Nat on another amazing creation, she along with Seeka, Scout, and the four coyotes all pointed directly at Shannon. One by one, each of the canines went up to give her their thanks. Which happened to be in the form of giant sloppy of kisses all over Shannon's face. At first, Shannon seemed nervous when the other pointed at her, but by the end, she was laughing as multiple wolf pups stood around her prone form tickling her with their tongues in thanks for the food.

While they were eating, Nat filled Shannon in on her findings. Both with the changes that were probably happening to her, and the energy she could feel inside that she could use to shift. While she did exude a desire to see Natalie shift into a giant wolf woman again, she relented when she found out how draining and hard it was. But only with a promise to be the first one to see her do it. She still planned on bonding with gorillas if she got the chance, since the dreams had been continuing their entire journey, and she was now wanting to get to Calgary as fast as possible. She had apparently originally thought of temporarily bonding with Scout to get her Soulscape started, but now was unsure if that was the best idea. If she did, would that lock her to only bonding with canines as well? It was a risk that she was unwilling to take right now. As they cleaned up camp and prepared to leave though, she kept muttering to herself, "Run away, it's Kongette!" Natalie struggled to keep her laughter down as both of them headed down the road towards Granum.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Eric, Corgi, Lachlan, Adam, John, Nicholas, Jacob, Onean, Hades, Neal, Sebastian, Sir Hellington, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 25 patrons, which I will then open up an official discord for everyone to come and discuss the story in and hang out!