Chapter 95

Natalie walked out of the tent with two less than pleased wolves following her. Their pups were now quite sizable, and very unaccustomed to how much weight they had to throw around now. This meant that they still had the nasty habit of jumping up on you when they wanted attention. And while Natalie called for them to help her get up, she herself was not safe from the sheer vitality and energy that was present in the pups. There was sure to be a bruise on her stomach later, but it was totally worth it. Quickly, she ran off to the bushes on the side to take care of business. While the pups still bounced around them, Maia and Kali walked up and checked with the coyotes how the night went. Spirit was becoming exceptionally large for a wolf pup, almost matching Edwin in size now. However, Spirit never tried to push boundaries with any of the more mature pack members. As a whole, they had become a very close family, and all of the group gave respect out in spades to one another. Probably the reason that Edwin had no issues talking or dealing with Spirit, and even seemed to be quite happy as he did. None of his pups were able to talk nearly as much with him, but that sort of fell upon him, and his lack of any sort of communication skills. With at least three in the pack that talked to him and understood him, he never felt unwanted though. Some of the other canines were even making an effort to get to understand him better, as they were trying to with everyone.

As Natalie came back from her morning relief, she saw that the night lookouts were talking with Maia and Kali. Well, at least with Lucille. The final one, Copper, was still keeping a watchful eye out on the horizon. Assuming that everything was fine, as they would probably say something otherwise, she headed straight for the fire pit to get it started. Thankfully, it was still nice and dry, so the firewood sitting beside the pit was still nice and usable. It took a couple minutes, but once the fire got started, it was a quick and easy thing to get it to build up. By the time that Shannon got up and came out of the tent, the fire was raring to go and the metal sheet that they used to grill on was in position. "Morning," Shannon said, still sleepy, "any breakfast requests?"

"Morning hun. And I am not too picky, maybe eggs today?" Upon hearing Natalie's idea, Shannon thought for a second, before making a list of what she needed from the Soulscape and dictating it towards Scout. When she believed she had thought of everything she needed, Scout bolted forwards and into Nat. Seconds later, Scouts paw came out with a table, followed by ingredient after ingredient. And everything would have fit on the table, had Shannon not made a request for meat. With a loud thud, a dead pig dropped out and onto the ground, surprising everyone but Seeka and Shannon. As soon as it came out, Shannon got to work butchering up the back. While others would look at them skeptically, the draw of back bacon to a Canadian was almost irresistible. Cutting and grilling that up, she mixed it up with some scrambled eggs, some peppers, and a fair chunk of cheese. The smell itself was divine, and almost instantly a large group had gathered, patiently waiting for the chef to finish her work.

Having once again made a large batch, it was stored and brought out numerous times by her two assistants. That was all followed by silence. Well, as silent as it could be with a fire raging and a bunch of predators devouring a ridiculous amount of scrambled eggs. And other than Nat and Shannon, all of them were messy and noisy eaters. The sheer delight on the faces of the canines as they ate her cooking elated Shannon's mood immensely, getting her all fired up for the day.

Maia and Kali planned to stay out once more, but Bryden planned on joining them for the trek today. Once he was finished eating, he bounced in and out of the Soulscape, leaving enough time for Nat to put the veil of energy up and let him know where to exit. He was still one of the more awkward of the group when it came to walking on two legs, but he felt confident that he could learn relatively quick with three teachers watching his every move. As long as he did not get too irritated with them first as Shadow had. Still, after seeing the other male wolf's improvement after that session of criticism, he almost begged to be the one to join them on the next day. The feeling of falling behind was not one that he enjoyed, and this would be his chance to catch up and surpass both Shadow, but also Sol. Both of them had the step on him.

Cleanup this day took longer than expected, as bits of egg had flown everywhere. Messy eaters plus such a loose food proved to be disastrous. While both Natalie and Shannon were glad that it was not spaghetti, their minds could not help but imagine the sight of a bunch of canines trying to eat the thin pasta as it was covered with sauce. Sharing a look, they both knew what the plan for dinner that night was. It was going to be tasty; it was going to be messy; it was going to be so worth it. When their impromptu camp was finally cleaned up and left in a comparable state to how they found it, all of the other canines disappeared inside the Soulscape, either to spend the day with their mates, or to work on improvements. Either in the area of their attempt to farm, or in working on getting all of the pups more used to the idea of learning how to hunt and fight as a group. Meanwhile, the journey north continued, with training and a bit more shouting than what had been normal.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Eric, Corgi, Lachlan, Adam, John, Nicholas, Jacob, Onean, Erudual, Hades, Krimson, Neal, Juuso, 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 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!

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