Chapter 18: 18

As Natalie was going around the standby room collecting gear and supplies, she could not help but notice Bryden's body laying on the dolly she deposited him on earlier. Leaving him there, and Angie's body out in the break room did not sit right with her. Grabbing a second dolly, she moved it down the hall and into the break room. There she carefully loaded Angie onto the dolly before rolling back to the standby room. She rolled the dolly up beside the one holding Bryden, before heading out into the enclosure. Picking an area clear of rocks and plant life, she started digging.
Bryden, who had been following her around and observing everything, raised a question to her, 'Digging hole. What for?' To him, he could not see a connection between collecting the two bodies and digging a hole in the ground.
"Well, in our culture, we show respect to our dead by burying them, and letting their bodies peacefully return to nature. It is mostly to avoid scavengers from picking apart those we care about." Nat replied in between digging and throwing dirt. "Usually, by custom, we bury them just a little deeper in the ground than I am tall. I am not sure if I am going to be able to dig that much though."
Bryden took a look at her working, before moving quickly into her Soulscape. Not a minute had passed and all of the wolves came out of the Soulscape, except for Kali. Before Nat could even ask what was going on, the wolves had started digging themselves. It was one thing to know that a wolf could dig a area of about three feet or one meter cubed in less than a day. It was another thing entirely to see it in person. The pace with which the holes were being dug was astounding. Seven pups went at one area, while two adult wolves helped her dig the hole she started on. Bryden had led the other two adult wolves to start digging another hole beside that one. When she noticed what he was doing, she looked over to him questioningly.
'Bury to respect. Bury separately to respect both equally.' Bryden responded. He may not have gotten as close with the other people working there, but he had spent time with his name sake. He knew the man was kind, caring, and deserving of respect and admiration. Upon hearing his response, Nat was touched. She had always gotten into arguments in university, debating with other aspiring veterinarians on which the best kind of animal to have by your side was. This just made her all the more happy that she had always vouched for canines. The fact that they had the empathy and ability to understand reasons they were unfamiliar with had always been astounding. The move that these wolves were doing made her realize that despite losing someone close to her, she had gained not just friends, but a valuable family that would stick together through thick and thin.

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Many hands, or paws in this case, made light work. It only took about two hours to have two six foot deep graves dug into the ground. All the while, Natalie either talked about moments with either of the departed, or described what their grave would have looked like if they had passed when civilization was still prevalent. She went into detail about how Angie had frustrated her day after day, how Bryden would scold her for making a mistake but would always immediately show her how to do it better or safer. The wolves listened on in silence as she carried on and on with the stories, memories, and descriptions. For half of the time she digging, Natalie had tears running down her face. Unlike the grieving tears she had cried for them earlier, these were with a smile on her face. The memories now were not in mourning of their passing, but in celebration of their life. The more that she shared with the wolves, the more it felt like a weight was coming off her chest.
Thanks to the pups efforts, there was a small ramp leading into each grave making it easier to carefully deposit the two bodies to the bottom of each grave. Moving into the standby room, she rolled both dolly's out one by one. Carefully she lifted the corpses and carried them down into where would be their final resting spot. As she came out of the second grave, the wolves all sat around the graves. In their own sort of funeral, they all howled to the sky in unison sending off the souls of the departed in harmony with each other. The howls were followed by a moment of silence, before they started back on filling in the graves.
By the time that they finished filling in the two memorials, the once lustrous coats that all the wolves had were covered in dirt. They did not necessarily look happier with the dirt, but they did all seem more at ease than when they had started the digging. Just as they were finishing, Kali popped out of the Soulscape, bringing two rocks with her. They looked like a rougher version of the tombstones that Nat had described earlier. They were set up at the head of the graves after a quick hug between Kali and Nat, and left the whole situation feeling complete. They weren't carved, and nothing would be able to tell the two apart, but that did not matter. To Natalie, the two who had touched her life the most here in this park were respected and taken care of.
After taking a few minutes to thank every wolf for their help, she finally took a chance to notice the time. The sun was on the verge of setting, with the moon already sitting fairly high in the sky. Travelling would not be an option with how late it was, so it was decided that they would crash the night at her place before leaving in the morning. Heading back into the standby room, she did one final pass, making sure that any tools that would be useful and any medicines or supplies were all stored within the Soulscape. On her way out of the building, the last thing she took and stored in the Soulscape, was the picture of her and Bryden that he had kept sitting on his desk since she had started working with him, all those years ago.
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times.

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