The sun had barely rose above the eastern horizon by the time that Nat finished explaining what was going on today. It was going to be a long day, and it was going to be tough. As she finished off the food that was left on her plate before starting to help take down their campsite, the one who it would probably be toughest on walked up to her. "Mom, are we going to be okay?" Sophie asked, worry carrying clearly through her voice.

Swallowing the last bite off her plate, Natalie set it to the side before picking up Sophie and setting her in her lap. "We will be fine honey. But while we go through the city it will be extremely dangerous. I am going to need you to stay close to either me or Shannon, alright?" Natalie asked her, hugging the munchkin in close. Even with her eyes closed, Nat could still feel the nodding of her head, as well as Sophie embracing her back strongly. Whatever had happened to her fathers still worried her immensely, and that worry must have shifted onto her and Shannon. All that did was just fuel Nat's desire to make it through this in one piece.

They sat there for a while hugging one another, before Nat let go first. As Sophie looked up at her with worry still in her eyes, Nat gave another quick peck to her forehead. Sophie buried herself in Nat once more, hugging for all she was worth, before letting go and helping out with camp clean-up. She decided to talk to Shannon once more before they left, making sure that the two of them were on the same page when it came to Sophie and what she knew. "Hey Shan, I think we should tell her about what happened with Bryden."

Shannon turned and looked at Natalie like she had three heads. "You want to explain to that little girl that it's alright for the bonded animals to die, because they can just come back?"

"Maybe not so blunt and blasé about it, but I think that talking to her about it before hand is the right thing to do. Would you rather try to explain it to her when she potentially sees one of the canines or gorillas fall in combat? Cause with the shit show that Edmonton is sure to be, there is a high likelihood of that happening."

Shannon stood there for a minute, clearly mulling over the thought. She would be lying if she dismissed that outright, both to herself and to everyone else here. All of the canines knew it was a possibility, and they were willing to jump into the fire so that she and her family wouldn't have to. To discredit that would be disrespectful, at a minimum, to their dedication and bravery for the pack. "Fine, but I am the one explaining it to her, and I want Bryden there with me when I do. So she can hear from his first-hand experience with it." She relented. She knew that talking about it now was the smarter choice, especially given how the tyke was having issues with loss, and nightmares focused around it. If they waited until after it had happened and tried to calm her down, it would have a high chance of backfiring. All in all, she knew that they would have to bring this up now, for fear of larger damage should they put it off. The nine-year-old girl's mentality was just in a far too fragile place to deal with it otherwise. Hell, it may even be in a bad place to deal with it being explained ahead of time.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As they finished up with taking down the camp, they started walking down the highway north towards Leduc. At this point, there were only four bodies walking down the road together. In case they ran into monsters and had to fight their way out, all of the gorillas and majority of the canines were on standby inside the Soulscapes. That way, they were not consuming either their stamina or energy needlessly or by accident while travelling out in the world. The only one that was not human outside walking was Bryden, helping Shannon explain to Sophie what happened when an animal who was bonded died outside. At least, when one died and was not affected by the black mist in any way. After all, she had gotten enough of an idea to stay away from it by the fact that monsters were the ones who used it, let alone what Nat and mike had told her in snippets. Neither of them wanted to scar or traumatize the child with what could happen after all.

By the time they got to the city limits of Leduc, they had finished explaining everything they knew and felt in regards to the death, as well as had answered any and all questions that Sophie could think of. She said she understand clear enough, but her grasp on both Shannon and Bryden's hands told them otherwise. The idea of any of the people she had just gotten close to dying was not one that she wanted to entertain, and her face mirrored that feeling. They all knew that it was going to be hard to take, and none of them even liked the idea in the first place. But they had seen what happened to the monsters that were bonded with people back in Lethbridge when their host died. And they were willing to bet that it worked a similar way to how natural energy worked. Though, they would be more than happy to never figure out the answer to that question.

Once all questions had been answered, they kept low and quiet, making sure not to make any excess noise. It proved difficult, with the entrance to the city being very similar to Gasoline Alley back in Red Deer. Buildings were in shambles, and cars were torn apart on the road. Metal parts and pools of various colours of blood covered every visible surface, providing a smattering of variety to break up the look of the asphalt road. The thing that stood out the most to Nat and Shannon though, was the disturbing lack of corpses. It heralded one of the biggest worries they had entering the area, for very little had terrified them as much as thousands of zombies rushing them in High River had.