Chapter 36

Finally have the finished art that I commissioned for this series. It was done by the wonderful @fauzanzein who you can check out their work on Instagram. definitely recommend checking them out as I find their work amazing! The full image is available to see publicly on my Patreon!

Natalie opened her eyes and saw a familiar forest. It was the same one from her previous nightmare she had just a couple days prior. Knowing that this was a dream, she chose to move in a direction that she believed to be different from before. Walking straight towards an open plain full of goblins was not her idea of a good and relaxing time sleeping. As she moved through the forest, it slowly became less filled with shrubbery. The dirt under her bare feet slowly turned to cold stone. Surprised at the feeling of stone under her feet, she looked down at her feet. She found that not only did she have no shoes nor socks, but she was completely Au Naturel. The wind suddenly picked up, flowing through the trees and fog to bite against her skin. Shivering slightly, Nat continued on through the dream forest.

Eventually the trees followed the smaller vegetation and slowly dwindled in number until all that was left was stone under her feet, a light biting wind, and a thick layer of fog. Suddenly, the wind picked up, strong enough to force her to close her eyes. As they opened back when the wind died back down, the view she had was spectacular. She had come across a giant mountain range, where either clouds or fog obscured the tops from view. Numerous caves dotted all over the faces of the mountains, giving the feel of almost a beehive. It looked as though you explore those caves for years and still not even see most of them. Before she knew it she was already approaching the mountains, moving at a snails pace as she stared on in awe of giant landmarks. Just as she reached the base of the nearest mountain, a howl rung out through the air, making Nat freeze in place.

As if to answer the noise, more howls came out, slowly growing in volume as what sounded like hundreds of canines sounded out. As the howl stopped in front of her, the sound continued riding down the mountains like a wave, as it was maintained by the next closest wolves downwards. Then, as the howls from each cave stopped, canines came out from the caves in mass. Hundreds of coyotes, wolves, and larger household dogs came out of the caves, all moving in unison. There were even other sizes among them, but some of those were the size of a truck. As Natalie stared on in shock at the giant mass of hounds, they all craned their necks and looked at her. The view itself was daunting, as hundreds of apex predators were staring her down, with a clear numerical advantage. Nat's mind told her to run, while her gut told her to stay put. The argument between the two halted for a minute, when an all too familiar bark rang out from the closest cave.

Looking at the cave, she saw two female wolves at the entrance. Kali and Maia stood beside one another, standing tall as they looked upon Nat. Around them, were five more cave entrances which were also occupied, and it was easy to tell that these were all of the pups. While she could not piece together which was which, as they had all become mature canines, she could still recognize who they were as a group. Two were pairs of wolves, while the other three had pairings of one wolf and one coyote. The difference in size between them was not jarring, but cute and adorable. A second bark rang out from her right. There she saw Emily and Bryden, standing at the mouth of their own set of caves with more surrounding them. Looking left, she noticed that Shadow and Ash were there as well. Turning around, the dream had changed, making the mountains wrapping around her completely. Sitting at the mouth of their own cave was Edwin and Lucille. Many cave surrounded all of them all, with canines of many types and sizes carrying outwards.

Another bark rang out, however this time was from a different set of beasts. Where a wolf was generally two to three times as large as a coyote, this pair were each two to three times as big as Bryden or Kali, who were at the upper range for gray wolves. Slowly, they started walking towards her. As they did, every other canine in the mountains surrounding her started to move forward, keeping the same pace as the larger ones. Coming close, the words 'Help us.' were suddenly thought towards her. While the voice itself was unrecognizable, it was obvious that it came from the two larger predators in front of her. Than as if they were all standing in a whirlpool, all of the hounds congregated on Natalie, causing her to be lost in a mound of fur brushing and pushing against her in every direction. She tried to climb her way out, but was unable to find any purchase. Slowly, she slid into a darkness filled of fur.

Groaning as she awoke, she noticed that she had her face pressed against Maia's back. Her tongue covered in loose fur, helped her realize that she must have woken because her mouth had been filled with wolf hair, making breathing difficult and uneven. The small wet mark on Maia's back helped reinforce the idea, causing Nat to quickly try and clean the fur off her tongue. Looking up, she slowly took a quick account of the area, she found she was still in the office, but it was well into the night as it was pitch black. The starlight barely coming in through the boarded up window allowed her to barely see Edwin and Lucille still watching the door, but nuzzling up against each other to stay comfy. Settling back down into the bed, she tried to quickly tried to will herself back to sleep. What had been that dream, and who those two were remained to be questions to answer another day. For now, she was tired, and quickly re-embraced the void of sleep.

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.