Chapter 123

As they walked north down the road, and Natalie was writing down in a notebook all of her latest findings, Shannon was working on feeling the energy inside her. According to Nat, there was some energy inside of her body, it was just small in quantity. Nat said not to worry if she could not reach it right away, stating that it took her almost ten days before first using it. And even then, it was due to the sudden rush of energy from Kali to act as a sort of jumpstart before she was even partially cognizant that it existed at all. The fact that there was a small amount did not bother Shannon, as everything has to start somewhere. That, and she had only bonded with the gorillas a few days ago. Such an immediate change was unlikely at best. That did not stop her from trying though.

While she was glad to hear all of the ideas and theories that came out of the brain of her lover, Shannon had her own ideas on what the energy itself was. As far as she could understand from Nat had told her, the energy was a part of their bodies, and was a dynamic element. From what she knew, that meant it could be classified as a muscle. Ignore it, and it degrades, work on it on a daily basis, and it would grow stronger and stronger. However, unlike the physical human body she had, the energy did not take up any space. Potentially, it had limitless room to grow and expand, leaving it to be a powerhouse that would be a hidden trump card. Based off what she knew and heard, she just needed to find the energy itself.

It was not until they passed Highway 566 that she first felt an inkling of what the energy might be. On the opposite side of her chest from her heart, she felt a small and warm sensation. Gently, she mentally pushed at the area, not expecting anything to happen. The fact that the energy started to move back and forth surprised her, almost causing her to jump while they were all walking down the road. Thankfully, none of the eyes around her were focused into the middle of the group, so no one noticed. Slowly, she started trying to feed the energy through her body, starting with the lungs and heart. Bit by bit, more of the energy drifted off and flowed through those organs. As it did, Shannon started to feel her heart beat in her chest, as well as her breaths becoming more stable and measured. It was as if they had not only been reinforced, but brought up to peak levels. Sadly, there was not enough energy to dissipate throughout her whole torso, but there was barely any of this drain that Natalie had mentioned. In fact, if Nat had not brought it up before, she wouldn't have even noticed it, the amount that was being used up was so miniscule that it did not matter in the slightest. Was it because she constantly worked out, and kept her body in as good of shape as possible?

That raised a whole new line of thinking. To what extent did it boost one's body? Was there a way to measure the amount of energy? Was the drain increased if one was performing strenuous activities? And did it function like the muscles in their bodies, where if it was used and expended constantly, would it become stronger and larger? Knowing all that she did about the human body, this was her wheelhouse to test. Getting one of the awake gorillas to pass her out a notebook of her own, she started jotting down things she wanted to experiment, as well as test and evaluate. And she had the most adorable guinea pig to help her get a good baseline read for how it all worked.

Almost instantly, Nat felt a chill down her spine as they made a left turn to continue on the same road they were on. Turning her head to look back, she saw that Shannon had a notebook of her own, and had that same sadistic smile on her face as she wrote stuff down furiously. Something warned her that she was in danger due to her, but she also felt curiosity. After all, they had been together long enough that she knew her lover's experimental side well. During the period of testing, it was terrible repetition with minor differences each time, but in the end it had always proved worth it. What's the best mix for vodka? What is the optimal speed at which to rip wax off of a leg? And the most horrendous of memories, how wide was the line between a good and a cringe sounding pun. So many dad jokes were thrown out that Natalie started to run in terror for a month every time it sounded anything like a set up for a pun.

Looking forward once more, she saw a dust cloud on the road ahead, and it was as if it was moving closer. No, it was definitely moving closer, and at a fast pace as well. "Get in the Soulscape now!" She commanded. Almost instantly each canine fell back into her body. It was easy enough for them to come back out to fight if it was monsters, but she did not want to freak any people out due to humanoid wolves walking around. Shannon even stored away her notebook and came up beside her lover, hands clasped together as they walked slowly towards the dust cloud.

As it came closer and closer, the forms were far more easily recognized. It appeared to be a few horses with riders on their backs. Seeing this, both of them released the breath that they had unknowingly been holding. As they got closer and closer, Nat fed some energy to her eyes, taking a look at each of the horses and people. After what had happened in Lethbridge, she did not want to take any chances. Thankfully, each person had a noticeable chunk of green energy swirling within them. As the horses rode up on them, and Natalie's vision returned to normal, the horses broke off and encircled the two women. In near perfect unison, each of the riders brought up a crossbow and aimed it directly at them. As Nat and Shannon moved their hands up in the air, one of the riders called out, "We see you two, now where are the other three of you?"

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Selvaria, Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Jacob, Onean, Neal, Sebastian, Ethan, Sir Hellington, Adam, 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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