Chapter 177

Time flew by as they watched the scene in front of them, and before they knew it the camp was coming alive behind them. They had moved quietly, out of benefit for those still sleeping. No one wanted to be the reason everyone missed out on sleep after all, that could be over a hundred angry bodies coming at them. The two Vilkas women where so focused in their own slice of the world, that they did not even notice Shannon and Sophie working away on breakfast behind them. The sign that gave them away was the curious young ones in front of them who had tired of smelling each other's farts. When they smelled something delicious, they immediately started making a move in the direction of the scent. This had caused all of the adults to turn around and see what had occupied their current attention, only to see the two toiling away making a large thing of scrambled eggs with bacon and toast.

Seeing that the food was nearing completion anyways, they shared a look before walking over and joining them. There was just morning small talk, that all but Sophie joined in on. She was far more focused on the food and making sure not to hurt herself while she helped out. After a few minutes more of this, Nat started peering over at her parent's tent. After all, her father was an early riser, just like the rest of the family was. The fact that he wasn't up and about yet was really surprising to her. As soon as she got a glimpse inside the hanging tent however, the entire scenario made far more sense.

There, she saw her father trying his best to struggle his way out of the fully laden tent. For he was on the bottom of a pile of large and shifted bears, all of which were still asleep. There were only five of them, but it was easy to see that the hanging tent was straining under the weight inside. The scene itself was so surprising to her, that she couldn't help but start laughing her ass off. Her laughter caused everyone to laugh and join in with her, save for her mother. "Oh Honey, did you not learn from the last few times? Do I have to help you out from underneath again?" The words that came out only exacerbated the laughter that flowed out, imagining this happening multiple times. The glare that came from him did not help his situation in the slightest, but neither did it worsen it. After all, his daughter, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter were already on the ground without breath from laughing as hard as they could.

Sheera did not hold herself back though, seemingly already used to this situation and what was needed to be done. As she neared the tent, Matis' expression changed from a glare to one filled with worry in an instant. He begged and pleaded to have a bit longer to get out himself, though Sheera paid attention to none of it. She just extended one of her claws as she walked up, causing Matis to curl into a ball as best he could, bracing for what would happen shortly. Her claws were razor sharp, and cut through the thick rope holding up one of the corners of the tent in a second. As she did, she took a leap backwards, allowing the entire thing to play out in slow motion.

The tent had only three pickup points, as it was in the shape of a triangle. This meant that when one of the supporting points was introduced to slack, the entire setup spun that way. It used the axis of the other two spots as the center, turning the entire tent on its side. Now, that did free Matis, having him now on the side of the pile rather than on the bottom. However, it also meant that the bears on top of him fell to the side as well. Thuds sounded out as the bear who was at the top was now on the side, and the bears who were on the side were now on the bottom. The way they acted showed that they barely felt the impact, showing that it seemed to feel more like they got tapped awake then dropped from a few feet up. Seeing his opening, Matis quickly got out of the tent and joined the rest of his family for breakfast.

Breakfast was delicious, though the teasing towards Matis continued. How he kept getting in that mess, how they were impressed with how he could bear that amount of weight, and the occasional compliment to Sheera to how sharp her claws were. It was all taken in good stride though, and some of the bears even gave some of the best zingers. Eventually he just shut up and ate the food, his only words were those praising his wife for another job well done. It would have been better for him to completely put a sock in it, as everything only escalated when it was revealed that she had no part in the cooking whatsoever. He had been so focused on getting out from the tent after all, he hadn't noticed anything that had gone on that morning in the camp. He didn't even look up from the plate after that, embarrassed at how badly he had fuddled that up.

They did ease up on him though, as they felt he had probably had enough teasing. At least for the morning anyways, the rest of the day would be fair game if he exposed any openings, just as it was for everyone else here. While Natalie had originally wanted to hear the tale of her parent's journey since the event happened, there were other things that she and Shannon found to be more important. And when they filled in the older Vilkas couple, they immediately agreed with their plan. The story could wait until this afternoon. For now, they had to go to the birds of prey area, and see if there were any owls still hanging about that wanted to share a bond with Sophie!

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Hades, Sir Hellington, Onean, Sebastian, 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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