Chapter 27: 26

Natalie awoke in a fugue, feeling her body slowly rocking side to side. Blinking her eyes a bit to get adjusted to the brightness in the tent, she looked down and saw the cause. Most of the pups were up early, with Rogue still sleeping beside her head. Spirit was leading Apollo, Artemis, and Hera on a bouncing run around the tent. While the bottom part of their track was below her feet, the top section was across her chest, shoulder to shoulder. Lower down on her belly, Athena and Ares were wrestling with one another. It was hard to believe they weren't just playing and having fun, given the rate that their tails beat upon the blanket.  Most of the adult wolves were asleep, however the one who was awake just sat by and watched as the pups played, a satisfied smugness surrounding her. As Maia noticed that Nat had woken up, she turned her attention towards her.
'Morning Alpha. Feeling better?' Maia asked. The tone was joking as if hinting that the pups playing around was her idea. However, the feeling underlying that joking tone was filled with worry. Remembering the events of the previous night, Nat closed her eyes for a minute and did her best to keep her emotions in check. It was just a nightmare. It means nothing. Slowly she opened back up her eyes and looked towards the concerned wolf. As Nat looked at Maia, she could tell the wolf did not want to worry the pups, the idea supported the more that she felt the two wrestling on her belly. Understanding the thought, she smiled towards the wolf in a show of strength. 'Better than last night. It was just a night mare. Nothing to worry too much about. Just a little bit of missed sleep is all it should amount to.'
'Don't let affect you much. Less sleep means less prepared.' Natalie had to acknowledge the wisdom in the wolf's words. Already she could feel sluggish and less focused than before. She also found she was less perceptive as she suddenly felt a tongue lap out across the side of her face. Both turning towards the movement while also leaning away, she found Kali's face there, concern in her face. Signalling Maia to come over, Natalie wrapped her arm around Kali. As Maia got close, she was pulled into a small hug. Natalie sat there for a while, just hugging the two wolves closely. She had moved out from home immediately to go to university, and other than Shannon, no one had checked to make sure she was okay regularly. The compassion she was feeling from the two mother wolves overwhelmed her and left her so happy she started to cry.
"Thank you. Both of you." She whispered to the two as she let them go. Before backing off, they nuzzled briefly against her before rounding up their pups. Spirit and his running buddies slowed down and stopped running right by Nat. Ares and Athena had not felt like they played enough yet, so they both escaped their mother quickly and disappeared into the Soulscape to continue wrestling. Shaking her head, Kali just left them be to continue since they were no longer in the way. Now that the pups were not moving on top of her anymore, Nat finally got up out of the bed, and started changing clothes. She kept the same jeans that she had on the day before, but she just changed her top to a darker sweater. The hoodie from the day before was a nice grey, but the recent encounter with the goblins and the night mare both made her more paranoid about travelling carelessly.

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Leaving the tent, Natalie was just as impressed by the morning view of the lake as she was by the view the night before. The crisp morning air quickly snapping her out of her daze, she moved to sit down beside the extinguished fire pit. Having noticed that Maia and the pups had followed her outside, she asked them to quickly pull out one of the boxes of cereal. Hearing this, Spirit broke into a run and quickly grabbed it from inside. After a few more trips back and forth, she finally also had the bowl, spoon, and milk that she needed for breakfast. When she was good, Maia led all the pups, including the very sleepy looking Rogue, into the Soulscape. She was not going to let them just have an easy breakfast. Thanks to this, Nat got another chance to watch the training hunt of the pups going after a hare.
Nat finished her breakfast at about the same time the seven pups managed to finally bring down the hare. They had a few issues here and there, such as Spirit accidentally tripping over many roots since he wasn't looking where he was going and Hera not quite making a turn properly and slid sideways into a tree. Nonetheless, she had Maia help her clean up the breakfast stuff as it was her usual helpers turn to eat. She walked toward the tent, only to be met with two of the wolves coming out. Shadow and ash came out and just as quickly as they came out, they disappeared into her. There they woke Emily and dragged her away from Bryden. They had to set an example to the pups. It would be no good to try and teach them to stay on top of their hunting ability if they did not show that they also needed to stay there.
As they got breakfast for the rest of the wolves, Kali and Nat went to work getting the camp taken down and stored away. Every time they deposited and de-spawned a pillow or blanket, Kali kept reminding Nat that they had to get more. More of all the comfy things. As the last piece disappeared into the Soulscape, the hunting group finished dragging their captured prey back to the rest of the wolves. This time Bryden got up himself and walked over to the elk, digging in right beside Emily. Leaving the wolves to their meal, Natalie did one quick final check around camp to make sure that they had gotten everything. Satisfied at the cleanliness, she started heading east down the highway.
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times.

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