As the sun hovered slightly over the horizon, the workout finally ended. All four of them felt exhausted, and were wondering where the satisfaction was. There was no noticeable difference between now and when they started, but apparently this was normal. According to Shannon, they shouldn't even start noticing any improvements for two weeks, and even then, it was more in a how you move sort of way compared to a how you look. Over all, it could take months before there became any additional definition to their body's muscles. Maia, Scout, and Kali all were bent over, hands on their knees as they breathed heavily, while Nat was flat on the ground, panting as she tried to regain her breath. Shannon had pushed them all hard, and even had Natalie do her best to keep up with the canines. In the end, her body ached and her energy reserves neared empty. The drain turned out to not only be a passive thing, as the more she moved with it flowing through her body only accelerated the use of the resource. It was actively boosting her body and making it perform at superhuman levels. Thanks to this, she was actually close to achieving the same speed as the canines she was training with. In fact, in each exercise the number gap between her and Kali had shrunk remarkably.

Then, in between the scarfing down of food, she filled in Shannon with how the energy responded to what she was doing. There were once again piles of food ready and waiting for her to crawl over and eat, showing that Shannon had indeed been keeping a close eye on her as she went. The way the energy worked and responded to her actions, how fast it was used up at different points, anything and everything that could be used as a data point was collected in earnest. At this point, Shannon seemed to have a better understanding on how it worked compared to Natalie, but that was not much of a surprise to Nat. None of the canines had been able to manipulate this energy, leaving her to be the only one capable of providing data. And she was not that familiar with human physiology. When it came to the state of the human body, Shannon knew far more, as Natalie's knowledge was more based upon animal bodies, heavily showing a preference towards the canine form.

As they were conversing, the coyote lookout team came out and started finding a good spot. At least, they started doing that, as usually they take a walk around the camping area to scope it out and find a spot that allows them the best view to see as many angles as possible. This way they can better keep everyone safe should there be an issue. Tonight however, they started their walk around, only to send a message out to all of the canines and Natalie. 'Act Natural, someone is watching. Chances are they followed from the community from earlier.' Lucille sent that out to everyone, while keeping the other two in line. Right now, no movements had been made, so they should not alert them to the fact that their presence had been discovered. Most of the group was up on the north side of the driveway, and had been there for the few hours past. No one had really ventured to the south side before the coyotes. Currently, they were currently at the south-west corner, which was a solid two hundred meters away. With the wind coming from the north, all that would have alerted them was sound, but each of the people that were on horseback seemed to have experience hunting. They could have slowly tracked the group while keeping the sound to a minimum.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

There was no way to know how long they were there, but that was another matter entirely. What mattered now was everyone's safety. While Nat still ate and made small talk with Shannon, the canines started moving. All they knew was that they were around the southwest corner of the property, which was mostly surrounded in a wall of trees, with the west side being auspiciously empty. None of the wargs could head off, as they were far too large and easily noticeable, so Bryden led Shadow and Max backwards through the tree line while the wargs body blocked with some playing around and rough housing. And when there were five large canines playing around and being rough with one another, it definitely attracted attention. Shannon watched the whole thing with one eye raised, but she felt that if it was important, Nat would have told her.

Nat kept tabs on what was going on every step of the way. The three coyotes continued their rounds of the property before heading up onto the hay bales. Meanwhile, the wargs played around for a bit, before diverging off and doing their own things. Sol went back into the Soulscape to spend time with Luna and their pups, while Trooper took up the spot beside Nat and rested his head on her lap. Sierra had found some signage, and was working on reading it, letter by letter, while Lady and Tank disappeared back behind the hay bales. And they were not quiet in the slightest, but that probably just helped with holding the attention of their perp. Meanwhile, the assault team moved slowly in the tree line, keeping close to the trunks as they moved down the southern side. With there being no start to the farming this year, there was just empty field out there, which was just as advantageous for the wolves as it was detrimental. It did mean that they would not be able to sneak up behind anyone, but it also meant that they would be easily able to see them should they be out there.

Sure enough, as they neared the corner where the coyotes noticed the interloper, the wolves started barking loudly and aggressively, signaling the rest of the group. Among the first of the group was Tank and Lady, as they had apparently just been acting it out the entire time. While Nat filed their acting as something to keep an eye out for, she had a bigger issue. Shannon was confused as every single adult canine that was not nursing immediately bolted out towards the south-western corner. Since the canines would have the person cornered and under control, Nat took the time to explain what was going on. Thankfully, Shannon understood that not telling her was the wiser move, and actually laughed about how seamlessly the pack had pulled it all off. Hand in hand, the two of them walked over to the rest of the pack. There, they found a man and a horse surrounded by all of the canines, while looking absolutely terrified. Upon seeing who it was, Nat sighed before dismissively asking, "So, what excuse are you going to tell me to explain all of this, Eugene?"