Seeing the dirt now covering the space inside her, Natalie decided to see what the limits of what she could do with the space that she had decided to call her Soulscape. Something about the word just seemed to feel right, but she did not know why. She walked over to the pile of branches she had gathered and tried to will the dead wood inside. No matter what she tried or thought, nothing would happen. As she was on the edge of giving up, one of the pups noticed what she was trying to do and came over. It first set one paw on the wood, then the other on her causing it to enter into her. Unlike any of her attempts, the branches went with the pup inside her.

'So, a bonded animal has to bring it in. That makes it difficult to do anything on my own. Can they bring it out though?' Following her train of thought, she asked the pup to pull back out the branch. While watching inside, Nat saw the pup put their paw back on the branch, and then saw the pup come out of her with the branch almost magnetically attached to it's paw. At least, until the pup was fully out. Then the branch just flopped onto the ground and acted like any other branch. As she was considering how useful it was, her attention was drawn back inside the Soulscape by Kali.

'Natalie. New thing. Watch.' As her gaze moved inward, she saw Kali sitting with another branch that was an exact copy of the one that the pup had just brought out. Looking back in front of her, she noticed that the other one was still there, albeit being sat on by a wolf pup with a wagging tail. Asking the pup once more, she saw it disappear into her Soulscape and grab the other branch, and exit with it. Now she had two branches that were exactly the same. Holding the two, she couldn't even tell the difference.

'Kali, can you create more of them?' Nat had to know. The idea of being able to duplicate anything brought in was more than she could have hoped when she started these experiments. An easy way to store all of her things was all she was hoping for, but this turned out to be so much more.

'Yes. Only total brought though.' Looking back in, she could see yet another branch was in there while the two remained outside. Thinking about it practically, she tried to have the pup bring one of those two branches that were outside back in. Sadly, neither of them were able to be brought back in. This meant she could only bring in unique items then. Trying again, she got the pup to try again, but this time with a completely different branch. This time, it went in smoothly, supporting her theory that no duplicates of what were in there could be re-added. Almost as if there was a directory of some sort.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

'Hey Kali, when you create the branch, how do you select it?'

'List. Blue good. Red bad.' going by this, Nat could assume that if Kali could spawn something, then it showed up in blue, while things that were unavailable to spawn showed up in red. Now having all of this info, she quickly went around her camp getting everything brought in and out by her helper pup. As she went around, she noticed that every place the pups entered her had tiny spots bare of grass. Looking inside herself, she saw that there was a small patch of grass, and little bits were growing around it. This hinted that living organisms were treated differently than dead matter, as dirt just spread out completely despite only having a little added. Kali helped confirm this by saying that she did not notice it on the list. She did however move over and start laying down on said grass.

learning about this, she decided to bring a couple of the trees around camp into her. Again, they did not show up on the list, but they looked as vibrant and lively as they did out here. Once she finished with everything around her camp, she headed out to check on her rabbit snares. The first two she came across were still set, so she left them be. As she came across the final one, she found that it had caught and killed a hare. Separating the hare from the snare, she first got the snare in her space before turning to the hare. Deciding that more knowledge is always better, she got one of the pups to bring it in. What happened next she did not expect.

Peering inwards, she noticed that as soon as the hare had entered, it started hopping around as if it was alive! Before it could move too far however, Kali was on it and had clamped down on its neck, ending the poor rabbits life. Satisfied watching all the pups gather around and eat it, she smiled for a second before asking Kali, 'did that treat show up on the list?'

Looking up from her meal, Kali seemingly checked the list, and then went wide eyed. A sole 'Yes,' came out of her before turning back to the meal. Natalie watched in fascination as when they finished the hare, the remains turned into particles. Almost immediately, another one had spawned. This time, Kali got the pups to work together to bring down this hare. As they did, both Kali and Nat had a feeling of satisfaction from watching the pups, as if they were growing up in front of their eyes. When they finished their hunt, they surprised them both when they collectively brought the hare they hunted and presented it to Natalie. Praising them, Natalie turned back to her camp, content to let the wolves hunt as it seemed to have no negative effects on her. No, now was for something much more important. Now was the time for food!