Chapter 23

Taking care of Bryden's wounds took quite a while to go through. There were multiple gashes on both his back and either of his sides. All of the while, Nat kept one part of her mind on what names to give the rest of the wolves. It took her half an hour to go through and get names for all but Kali's five pups thought up. In that time, she had just finished cleaning ad dressing Bryden's wounds, and started working on her forearm. The wound opening up hurt, but she just wanted to make sure that it was still clean and healing properly before re bandaging it. Her wound she got the day before was deeper than any of Bryden's, but he also had his fur to dampen the hits from the goblins.

Finishing re bandaging her wound, Natalie took the chance to just lay down and rest some more. Her entire body hurt from all of the exertion she had in the past couple days. The sun beaming heat down upon her felt nice in comparison to the slight chill in the air. Bryden moved his muzzle over and touched Nat with it, before disappearing into the Soulscape to heal. Excited about the prospect of getting names, the rest of them stayed out and looked expectantly towards Nat. She chuckled, before asking Kali, 'Could you get me a strong stick that I could use to support myself? I would like to keep moving and get to decent camp area before it gets too dark.'

Kali quickly acquiesced the request, before disappearing into the Soulscape herself for the trip. One of the branches that they had stored in the forest earlier turned out to be a great thickness for a walking stick, if not a little on the tall side. Getting up, Nat started hobbling down the road at a more relaxed pace, while the wolves flanked her and kept watch. Most of the pups just bounced around her, excited for what was coming. She looked down and noticed that the cautious one kept walking beside her, right between Nat and her mother. Deciding to start there Nat looked down at the  little pup.

"I decided to give you the name Rogue, for your always careful and planning attitude. You always seem to want to be prepared before you do anything." Natalie was surprised when a feeling of smugness and pride came from the little pup. Apparently, she really liked the name. It was seeming to fit her more as Nat started to understand and get closer to this little pup. Looking to her mother, "And I wanted to give you the name Maia. It is the name of a strong mother in my kinds history." All that the female wolf did was start walking closer to Nat and nuzzled her for a second, before moving back into her previous spot. She had always been hard to read, but Nat took that as a positive opinion of the name. Looking towards Maia's other pup, she noticed that he was leading the rest of the pups with seemingly boundless energy. Giggling, Nat gestured towards him with her free hand, "And I am giving you the name Spirit, for you are probably the most spirited of all of us." After hearing this, he seemed to bounce even more than he was, which was astounding to her as he was already moving three times as much as the rest of them.

Going to the adult wolves from the enclosure, she first spoke to the one that came over to check on Bryden. "I am gifting you the name Emily. Bryden's namesake had a wife, who perished in an accident a couple years back. That was her name." Emily looked over, and had a twinkle in her eye. 'Thanks, Alpha. Take that as okay?' Getting a smile on her face, Nat just nodded back. The gleam in Emily's eyes got sharper, as if she now had prey to focus on. Moving on from the wolf with romantic intentions, she looked towards the pair walking on the other side of her. "My idea was to name you two Ash and Shadow. The female of you two is Ash. I have not interacted with either of you that much, so I just went off the colour of your fur. Is that alright?" The two wolves looked between themselves, before turning towards Natalie, nodding in unison. They must have been paying attention to her behaviour, as she had never heard of wolves nodding in acceptance before.

Noticing that they had been making good time, and that the intersection between Highways five and six. Stopping and resting against a road sign, she got the last five pups that had yet to be named to line up. When they did, the three female pups lined up on the left and the two male ones beside them on the right. Working her way down from the left, "I decided to give you the names Athena, Hera, Artemis, Apollo, and Ares. They are a family of powerful people in our history, from the same stories and myths where Maia's name came from." Happy about the new names, the pups all jumped onto Nat and licked her all over. She sat there and rested, submitting herself to their vicious attacks, for a short time, before finally getting up.

Moving down the road, she just walked a little farther to get to the spot overlooking the lake. Maskinonge Lake looked as beautiful as ever, reflecting the mountains and sky beyond clearly. It had a beautiful open view of the surroundings, and just had the feeling of peacefulness. This was probably the best spot for camping the night that she would come to today, and it would take her longer to set up anyways. The injuries on her body sore and demanding. Taking one last look at the majestic view, Nat turned back from the cliff and got to work setting up camp.

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.