《Druidification》Chapter 17

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The hallway leading to the enclosure was littered with blood everywhere. Majority of it was pools of black blood, but there was a steady pace of drops of red. The further down the hall, the less pools of black blood there were, while the groups of red grew in size. Natalie followed the blood with a grim determination, knowing that since she already found Angie, this blood could only belong to one other. There had to be close to fifty pools of black blood down this hallway. While she wanted to believe that Bryden was alive, the farther down the hallway she got the less she believed that he would have made it. Finally, as she entered the standby room to the enclosure, all of her doubts came crashing down.

Collapsed against the door into the enclosure was Bryden. Claw wounds covered the parts of his body that she could see, bruises spattered about in between, and he was in a pool of his own blood. Surrounding him was a semi-circle of black blood. But none were inside that semi-circle. It was as if he took every single one that came at him down, before succumbing to the wounds they had given him. The fire axe at his side was stained black, the only parts showing through were the two handholds where his hands would have been. He must have fought off dozens of them, holding the line against the horde of monsters. However all that Nat saw was his body.

Natalie dropped her shovel, and unsteadily walked up to him. Reaching the spot beside his body, she collapsed to her knees. Reaching forward gingerly, she tried to find a pulse, some warmth, any sign of life that she could. When nothing came up, she hugged his body close and started crying once more. While she was lost in grief, Kali came out and nuzzled up against her, to provide some warmth and stability to her mourning friend. They stayed like that for almost half an hour before Nat wiped the tears from her eyes, and backed away from his body.

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Kali put one paw on her shoulder. 'Seemed good, strong man. Will be missed. Will be remembered.' Nat just nodded sullenly to this, still distraught over the loss of her mentor and role model. Unable to form words, she gestured to Bryden, and then to herself. Thankfully, Kali understood exactly what she was asking. Putting one paw on Bryden, she moved into Natalie's Soulscape. This time however, Bryden's body did not follow her in. Finally finding a limitation in the Soulscape, and realizing that she would never again be able to see or spend time with the boss she looked up to again, she broke down and cried yet again. Kali came back out and let Natalie hug it out while she was stricken with sadness yet again.

Getting up off the ground, Natalie gently picked up Bryden's body and put him on a dolly. Now that his corpse was temporarily dealt with, she moved towards the door with Kali following close beside. As she opened the door, her tear stained face was met with the wolves all in a semi-circle around the door. They seemed ready to pounce on whatever came through, in case whatever came through was a threat to them or their pups. When they saw that it was Natalie, and that she was in grief, they all slowly walked up to her and nuzzled her, showing warmth and togetherness in the action.

While the cuddle puddle was going on, Kali explained to the wolves there about the Soulscape as best she could, and how it was to bond to Natalie. The first to bond to her was not one of the adult wolves cuddling her to give her stability, but the over eager pup who loved being the center of attention. He just pranced right up to her, licked a tear off her face, and stepped into the Soulscape. When he poked his head out to lick more tears off her face, the rest of the wolves took turns bonding to Nat, before coming back out to comfort her more. Finally, all that was left was the more cautious of the two pups. She took her time walking up to Natalie, but given that she was in the middle of a literal dog pile, she made no movements toward the hesitant pup. The pup sniffed her hand carefully, gauging whether or not she liked Natalie, before barking once and entering into the Soulscape.

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When Natalie finally felt like she had gotten it all out and felt better, she asked all of the wolves if she could get up. All disappeared inside of her save two. The over eager pup tried to stay on her shoulder, excited at the view it could see. The other was the leader of the pack that was in there. She turned to him with a questioning look. When he noticed, all he responded with was, 'You are now Alpha. We stand beside.' Touched by the feeling she patted his head lightly.

Still unable to form words with her parched mouth, she thought to the wolf, 'You don't have a name, right?' Unlike with Kali where she asked what a name was, the wolf just replied with, 'No, you choose.' given the reliability that this wolf had shown so far, she decided to name him Bryden. Upon hearing this, the wolf's tail started wagging. 'Other human? Strong, reliable, nice. Like name, acceptable.' Glad that he liked the name, she moved towards the door to the standby room. Walking inside, she gathered up all the medical tools that she could. Given that she still had to help get these seven wolves healed, she would need all the supplies she could get. She also grabbed the fire axe, but she did not clean it off before getting it stored in the Soulscape. It was now part of Bryden's legacy. And she planned to respect her memory of him in the best way she could. By using it to cut down a bunch more disgusting goblins.

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