As they moved north on the highway, the movements and actions of the tattooed goblin replayed through Nat and Shannon's heads. Was it some sort of special enemy, that only came up sporadically? Or was it more indicative of a growth in the strength of the monster forces? If this was going to become a commonly occurring foe, then future encounters would need to be planned more seriously. Especially from the side of the wolves, given by the injury that was delivered to Mike. Having to watch out and give special consideration for the enemies that could control the black mist would make their usual pack tactics ineffective, and possibly even dangerous for them. As it was, wolves normally went for a grip and shook their prey back and forth as Mike had done, or nip and wound until the prey had succumbed to the blood loss. Sadly, this left them open to being attacked viciously, especially by monster who would not care if they died.

With the four wolves keeping an eye out and making sure that there were no enemies approaching them, Shannon felt it was the best time to ask. "So, what happened back there? Not only you, but the rest of the canines seemed pretty worried when Mike was on the ground in pain." She had a worried look on her face, especially given how pale that Nat appeared. While this was normal when she had used up a lot of energy, the current state went a step beyond, as if she felt fear down to her very core.

Natalie took a deep breath before answering, as the stuff that she felt was transmitted to every other canine she was bonded with. "I could feel what was happening, and that was transmitted to all of them. The wound itself was not bleeding him, but instead devouring him. The energy that filled him was painfully getting devoured and changed to black. On my end, I could feel the bond between us degrading, changing. It left me with very little options, but those options all fill me with dread. I chose to try and repair the bond, but that took most of my energy to wipe out the mist that had already invaded his body, similar to supplying someone with bacteria to fight off invading bacteria. The other two options I had open were far more ghastly, either breaking the bond or following along with the degradation. And there is no telling what would have happened to him, me, or the entire pack should either of those happened."

Shannon stayed silent for a while, ruminating on the information she had just received. Similar worries that plagued Nat's mind started to hit at her. Both of them were worried about what path that could lead down, but none of their thoughts had a happy ending. At best, they would lose one of their bonded, who would either die or turn into a monster. Hopefully, they reformed back perfectly fine in the Soulscape like they had when Bryden got fatally wounded back in Claresholm, but there was no guarantee. In fact, it almost seemed as if the chance of them reviving was minimal, in comparison to the chance of dying outright.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

These worried continued in their mind, and light questions back and forth showed that they had similar thoughts. The radical change that they would need was to evolve their whole method of fighting. The energy and mist were now clearly opposed, and the best way forward was to weaponize it if they could. Thankfully, Nat had already started moving in that direction, if slowly. Shifting to a wolfen form, and shifting the canines to more humanoid forms was the next step forward. However, this step was going to take time, energy, and practice. The entire pack would have to get used to moving about in their humanoid forms, as well as fighting in them. Thankfully Shannon knew extensively how to train people, but that did not mean it would be an easy journey. The gorillas would probably have recovered from starvation naturally before the canines would be in a good enough spot to fight skillfully against larger monsters. It would be months until they were both strong enough, as well as adeptly coordinated to be able to move in their shifted forms comfortably.

Thankfully, Maia, Kali, and Scout were already going through this process, and especially the two female wolves were already fairly adept at moving. They just needed to get better at the complicated and delicate movements, and they would surpass Nat's current fighting ability on two legs. Now, while this was not admittedly high currently, that was merely due to her current fitness level. The training she had received from her parents when she was younger in regards to hunting already gave her keen insight to moving and flowing through, and the medical knowledge obtained as a veterinarian helped her be aware of where to strike. It was just a matter of uniting the knowledge in her head with the skills of her body. And once the three of them were in a decent shape, training the rest up to par would be made far easier. They started working on a new plan, getting the canines that lounged around in the Soulscape all day to stat undergoing training. Pups and nursing mothers were obviously excluded, but Shannon and Nat both wanted Kali and Maia to start putting all of them through their paces, even the coyote lookouts. No sense leaving them at that point, when they could be stronger and far more capable.

As the sun started to descend from its zenith in the sky, they came across a collection of buildings and farmland. Some of the land was being worked on by young men, while children either learned from them or played in open grassy areas. Women were milling about, either cleaning or running stuff back and forth. While Shannon and Nat had been too distracted to notice earlier, the wolves had heard them miles away. However, since they did not sound like monsters, the canines did not feel a need to bring it up to the two human women. As they came up to what was clearly a Hutterite colony, a couple of the older men who were working on a building came over to greet them. "Hello there, may we ask what two young women and a bunch of wolves are planning from travelling here?"