Chapter 53

When next she knew, all Nat could feel and hear was the wind rushing past her. Opening her eyes, she was inside a pitch black area, with no light visible anywhere. After a couple seconds, she finally realized where the wind was coming from. It was her, she was falling down yet again. Down into the dark abyss where she saw her best friend being abused and tortured. Wait, of the two other dreams she had recently, only one had repeated itself. Which happened to be the one that actually came true. Despite not being religious at all, she started to pray, hard and fast. 'Don't let Shannon be at the bottom of this. Oh please do not let this repeat and be true!' She repeated to herself over and over again. Thankfully, her falling did not last too long, as she quickly ended up submerged in liquid. Worried about air, she scrambled in swimming in the direction that she felt was upwards. Falling and then being submerged really messed with her sense of direction.

Surfacing with a gasp of air, Nat spent a few minutes treading water as she regained her breath and a sense of calm. At least, as much as she could. She could already see a shore, outlined by a lit up area behind it. Despite the fear of what she may find, Natalie felt she had to know. If this nightmare truly repeated itself like it did with the wargs before hand, pain be damned she was riding one of them straight to Lethbridge in the morning. Well, maybe not one of them. They were pack predators, meaning that they did not have to worry about long bursts of stamina like a pursuit predator would, just short bursts with a bunch of power. They overpowered their prey instead of outlasting. Rotating them out when one was tired may be the best option, especially with the four times recovery. With that it would make it in time. As she pulled herself out of the body of liquid, her fears came to life.

In front of her, bound to what looked like office desk was her best friend. There was no cushioning, scars all over her body, and marks of where she had struggled against the restraints. Those marks however had already slightly healed, showing that she either did not have the energy or the will to try and break free. Whispering words unto the wind, Nat heard, "Kill me" come softly out, before figures surrounded her and started violating and beating her. While the figures made no sound, they where made entirely of black mist and were not in the shape of either variety of goblins, but of people. Human people shrouded in black mist. Nat was physically unable to move her body as she watched on. In the scramble, papers flew off the desk, scattering in the air before turning to nothing in the void. However, on those papers was the biggest clue she could have hoped for. At the top of each and every page was a symbol, one that was easily recognizable for anyone in area.it was Lethbridge's university.

As she watched on, everything froze with a howl. Looking around, she saw no canines anywhere around her. Yet once more the howl rang out. This time she was listening and could tell that it was higher pitched. Almost like a coyote..... Edwin and Lucille! Waking up with a shock, she looked towards where the two lookouts were positioned the night before, to see them slowly backing up towards the corner. Pushing them back were five hobgoblins, each armed with a thick pointy stick about as long as they were tall. They were moving together, slowly and carefully toward the growling coyotes and by extension her. As she got up out of the bed, her movement disrupted the sleep of Maia and Kali, causing their slow waking forms to instantly wake up. Seeing the sight, they sent their pups into the Soulscape. One quickly returned to them with Nat's axe in hand. They were already too close for the bow to be useful more than for a quick and poorly aimed shot. She felt the axe would serve her better.

The efforts of the other pups became quickly apparent to all involved. The three wargs and every wolf came out of the Soulscape. Before the hobs could react, the pack ran as a whole against the hobs. Two of the monsters that were side by side managed to raise their sticks as if they were spears, but with Natalie's positioning, she made those two sticks the first thing she hit. With them knocked out of the way, the canines tackled the hobs to the ground, effortlessly tearing them apart. Edwin and Lucille took care of the biggest one together, grateful that their hard work paid off. After holding back the monsters for a little while before waking up, tearing into one of them gave them the greatest feeling of satisfaction. Within a minute, all the hobs were dead, with limbs ripped off, throats torn out, and one just had their head plain missing. Looking at the three wargs, she could not help but gasp in surprise as one of them spit out the head, and arcing straight into one of the higher up bathtub displays.

Once they were sure that the hardware store was completely cleared out of any other monsters that may be hiding, the pack dropped a bunch of logs in front of the broken glass door that was at the front of the building. As that exit was blocked off, every canine that came out headed back into the Soulscape, but not before giving a quick nuzzle to the two coyote lookouts. They had just saved all of them from something terrible once more, or worse. Scratching behind their ears while whispering words of thanks, Nat left the two back to their diligent watch as she returned to the corner of comfort with Maia and Kali. No sooner had the three settled down as pups came back out and quickly curled back up on top of them. They were still tired, which was expected for puppies at three months of age. 'Wait, I still need to check for signs of aging. Eh, I'll do it in the morning.' Putting the thought to the side, Nat and the canines surrounding her quickly went to sleep. This time, no dreams or nightmares were had by any, and by the time morning would come, Nat was going to be grateful that there were no more terrors in her sleep.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Corgi, Zmal, Lachlan, Coen, Adam, John, Ty, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 25 patrons, which I will then open up an official discord for everyone to come and discuss the story in and hang out!