Druidification

     Waking up, all that Natalie could see and taste was once again mounds of fur. Getting up was more of a chore than an action, as the moving of the canines that were lying on top of her did not happen easily. Most times, they just cuddled in closer to her rather than move away. As she got the first two off, she noticed that all of the pups piled together on her stomach. The wolf pups slept in a sort of ring, with the coyote pups laying in the middle of them. As if they were protecting their smaller brethren. She stopped moving bodies off of her to look at it, before Emily who she had just moved off her yawned loudly as she woke up. The noise waking the pups, causing them to head out the open door of the tent to play in the morning dew covering the grass. She could only shake her head as all of the pups, even including Rogue, rolled around in the grass and over top one another.

     The sight that awaited Nat outside the tent surprised her. As she walked out, she saw that the two coyotes were sitting by the fire pit, with black blood covering their muzzles. Seeing the sight, she immediately went to them and checked them over for any injuries or issues, not even taking a second to ask what had happened. Surprised at the sudden advance of the crazed human, they were unable to move in time as she started feeling over their muzzles and backs. When Nat found no signs of damage or injury, she collapsed onto her ass and breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness you two are alright. Why did you not wake anyone to help?"

     'Was late. Only three. Moved quietly. Picked off easily.' Was the reply she got from Edwin. Thankful that the coyotes were fine, the idea of there being more goblins was a little worrying. They had taken out so many the day before running up the hill. Were these three stragglers? Were they scouting out for another large group? It was impossible to know. Knowing that she could not do anything about it now, she confronted the two coyotes, "Do not be afraid to wake any of us if there are more goblins. I would rather lose sleep than lose any of you." The two coyotes bowed their heads, their ears lowering and their tails stilling as if they had been scolded. Seeing that they were properly reflected, Natalie moved forward and pet both of their heads. "That's for next time. For last night, good job to both of you. Thank you for keeping us all safe." Hearing the praise, both coyote' tails picked back up in frequency and they moved forward, licking and nuzzling against Nat in compassion.

     As she got their help with breakfast, Emily walked over to her and got the pups to come on in from their playing. The adult wolves were making it a standard thing for the pups to hunt for breakfast, and after talking with Edwin and Lucille, they even got the coyote pups to join in on the practice. As a way to provide competition and growth, they decided to run them in two groups, males versus females. Today was the first day they were trying it as now they had equal numbers between them. First up was Emily watching over and seeing how they did. The only incentive they could give was that the winning group got first pick of the meat off the morning hares.

     Starting up a small fire, Nat got the grate back in place and got Lucille to help with getting bread, butter, and jam from the Soulscape. Buttering up one side of the bread, Nat put the buttered side onto the grate and let them toast over the fire. The grate made it a little easier to make toast, but it still barely held a flame to the toaster she had. How she missed the convenience of having toast ready in no time at all at just a push of a button. The coyotes beside her checked to see if she was all good with what she needed, and then disappeared into her when she confirmed that she was. They decided to first wash off the black blood around their muzzles at the lake before they observed the pups all going through the hunting practice.

     The toast was finished and pulled off the fire just as the rest of the wolves finished waking up and came out of the tent. Throwing on another layer of butter, than covering it with jam, Nat dug in to the crispy pieces of bread. When the wolves saw that there was no meat out in her cooking they headed into the Soulscape. Seeing that the male pups had finished, they all gathered up with the two coyotes and watched the female pups hunt together and bring down their hare. As they brought back the hare that they caught, Emily declared them as having been the better hunters, for having done it in less time and with more precision in their attacks. They had lead the hare right to Athena, who was hiding in a small bush. After their hare had gotten in range, she leapt out and caught it by the neck. The sudden latch on of the pup caused the hair to stumble, and before it could try and run off, sue had gotten to it and tore into its rear leg. Without that, it collapsed causing Athena to have an easy time tearing out its throat. The guys had just all chased it and then bit on at random parts and had fun riding it till it passed from blood loss.

     Having known the two hares would not be enough, Shadow and Ash headed off and quickly hunted three more hares.  To keep the eighteen canines fed for the day would take a fair amount of food. The reason they went for it was because it was their turn to rest in the Soulscape today. So as to not cause any favoritism, they switched out who traveled outside with Natalie. Today was Emily and Maia's day to travel with her. Tomorrow was back to Shadow and Ash, as Bryden and Kali were still injured. They were recovering swiftly, with both of them set to be back to full strength within a week at this rate. After they had eaten, Emily and Maia headed out to help Nat with the clean up of the camp. They tried to do an extra thorough clean as they had at every property they passed along the way, replacing everything they looted. There was no way to know if people would return to their homes here or not, but it seemed like the respectful thing to do was to leave it as they found it. When they finished up, they headed back out to road and on to Mountain View.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Lachlan, Coen, Adam, John, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times.