Chapter 84

And thus began the pack's much needed time off. The first couple days were nothing much more than eating and relaxing. The last encounter they had pushed them all to their limits, and that was when their tanks were already near empty. Sun bathing, relaxing under the trees, and just enjoying one another's company was the only real objectives for them. The only one still doing anything not relaxing was Natalie. Throughout each day, she practised more and more with moving the energy around inside of her. When she felt moving it around in her chest was easy enough, she started moving it through her limbs. When that became less straining, she tried to split it into parts and move it independently of one another. That was where her control faltered the most, as the amount of times she accidentally sent some energy outwards was far higher in that practice than any others. Bits of fur with flurries of exhaustion kept coming to her, but she kept at it seriously.

One thing that stood out is that Bryden was unable to exit the Soulscape and join everyone outside. Every time he tried, he was blocked by a wall of rapidly appearing green mist, as well as a timer. However, this timer was not moving at the same speed as the Soulscape, but rather the outside worlds. When he first checked it, it was saying six days and just over four hours. Hearing this, Nat bet it had to be related to the green mist reforming his body. While it was plentiful inside the Soulscape, it was ridiculously scarce outside. His body probably had to stabilize before he could exit, or risk having to go through the whole process again. However, this was both good and bad news to everyone. While they now knew death was not necessarily the end, not having access to Natalie or Shannon's therapeutic petting and belly rubbing seemed like torture in and of itself. The hardest part for Bryden though was apparently his lack of an ability to walk around with Emily outside. He was definitely shaping up to be a worrywart of a father, not that any of the canines were surprised. He just had that air about him from the beginning.

Most of the cooking was being done by Shannon. She was by far the least physically exhausted of the group, and felt that it was the best way for her to help. While she was not as used to cooking with the more gamey meat that Natalie had a tendency to use, she was quite proficient with the chicken, pork, and beef that they had. Being in the sports medicine course throughout university, as well as spending time as a personal trainer, coach, and top level martial artist, Shannon had quite a strong idea as to what was needed to make whole, filling meals that were both good for taste as well as rich in nutrients that were needed. Large batches were made up regularly, mainly so the wargs would be able to eat enough in just a couple of sittings rather than a few dozen. She only had to ask a few questions to Nat for the food, such as what was healthy and not for canines to intake, but otherwise she was happy to be left to her own devices. Scout always seemed to be getting larger portions than the wolves, but none of them minded that much. Nat had actually directed Shannon to do that. All because when Seeka saw that the rest were showing signs of pups, she started getting a serious case of baby fever. The sooner that he was at full health, the sooner that Seeka would hopefully calm down.

Starting on the third day, the canines seemed to be starting to get restless. They understood the need for Natalie and Shannon to rest longer, and to wait until all of the pups were birthed safely. However, that small bit of stir-crazy started to rear its ugly head. Looking around the abandoned property for something for the active hounds to do, Natalie came across something that might just work. An old school plow, one meant to be pulled along by a horse, was found lying around in a shed. Seeing that there were not even signs of rust, Natalie counted their blessings. Explaining her idea to the canines, all of them immediately got onboard. They had gotten such a large variety of seeds, fertilizer, and other farming supplies from all the farms they looted, that they were going to start one in the Soulscape. However, with Nat having been unable to directly change how the soil sat, she had difficulties planting anything in there before now. With this plow though, that all changed in a blink of an eye.

Hearing the potential, Sol immediately got his saddle out from the Soulscape, while Maia stored the plow, only to bring it back out in an open clearing. Now, since none of them had ever tried to hook a plow up to a saddle, much less one on a warg, it took a bit of figuring. That took an hour of problem solving, but everyone was participating and having fun. After that, when he tried to take it for a test run, he quickly found he moved to fast and unsteadily to be really effective. Nothing he tried really seemed to help, till Seeka came up and did her best to guide it from one of the handles in the back. After that, they went around in the Soulscape, getting better and faster with each and every line they plowed. The wolves split to each grouping and planted a variety of different seeds. None of them knew what they were planting, just that it had the potential to be used as food. Sadly, it would be at least twenty days till they got any decent returns, according to what Natalie knew.

However, on that day none of them saw Seeka or Scout till the end of the day. However, none wondered why or where they had gone. Apparently, that morning, Nat gave the green light on Scout's bill of health, and Seeka had all but dragged him off to her own corner in the Soulscape. All of them did appreciate the space and quiet though. Seeka's pup-craziness had spread in its reach, and everyone had to deal with it. When they got back, Seeka seemed to have this glow radiating out from her, while Scout seemed to be weak and staggering as he walked. Immediately Shannon tended to him, while Nat chastised Seeka for pushing him too hard. No matter what was said though, Seeka's grin never seemed to leave her face, with a matching grin coming straight from the shepherd's muzzle.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Eric, Corgi, Lachlan, Adam, John, Nicholas, Jacob, Onean, Erudual, Hades, Neal, Sebastian, Sir Hellington, 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 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!

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