As they headed north out of the campus, the group could not help but attract the eyes of all the people that they passed by. Most people probably did not even know the specifics of what went on, but when you were being escorted by a large pack of predators, some around the size of a small car, it had the effect of drawing attention. Noticing a path that led down into the river valley, Nat knew this might be the best chance to avoid crowds. The entire western side of the city was covered with tents and people, but she had not seen any when she passed over on the bridge earlier. She could be wrong though, as her focus was primarily on the giant horde of goblins that she essentially chased across. Gesturing the direction to Shannon, her friend's nod was all the prompting she needed before directing the canines to head down the path. Thankfully, no one followed them as they went down. As the number of eyes watching them dwindled, Nat could feel her shoulders relaxing.
They followed the path down for a while, passing underneath the bridge that Nat had crossed on days before. Finally, after they were five minutes passed the bridge, Nat decided to get a direction from Shannon. "So, where do you want to go from here? To your home here in Lethbridge? To your family in Ontario? Or maybe leave it all to me and my amazing decision skills?" That last one got a snort out of the downtrodden woman.
"What amazing decision skills? Whose idea was it to glitter bomb the school cafeteria at university? We spent a week cleaning that up, and glitter was still found for months!" Laughter erupted out of both of them as they remembered the whole thing. It was the year they were graduating, and they had wanted to go out in a bang. How they managed to come up with that idea, or think it was a good idea was anyone's guess. However, a no glitter allowed rule was strictly enforced after that by campus security. After their laughter died down, Shannon was finally walking with a smile. Sure, it was strained as all hell, but it was a smile none the less, and for that. "You know, if we were able to, I would like to stop by my home, grab my things and settle things with this town once and for all. It's just, my house is up in the north, on the eastern side."
"That's the only problem? We are just making another jaunt into monster central? Whatever, it is not that bad, especially when you have such wonderful giant fur balls of death travelling with you! Lead the way, dear friend of mine." Upon seeing the bright determination on Nat's face, Shannon could not help but have a slight bounce to her step. Everyone had already written off the entirety of the eastern side as completely uninhabitable, but here she was. Leading her friend straight into the madness. The obvious lack of fear or hesitation shown emboldened Shannon, causing her to lead them on. Instead of turning back to cross the foot bridge, they pushed forward to the one farthest north. They could have used the train bridge, but should there be any issues, they did not want to have to worry about balance while dealing with monsters. As they walked down the trail, they ended up walking alongside the river as well as moving alongside a protected wetland area. Neither had much movement other than in the water, but there were a few fishes and frogs, and thankfully barely any bugs. This early in the year, it would not be too bad as a lot of the still water was still either frozen or close to. But if they had to pass through a month from now, the amount of mosquitos would make them rethink on whether vampires turned into bats rather than swarms of the little blood suckers.
Coming up to the bridge, they were not surprised to find that another barricade was set up here. Having it set up anywhere else would just make it easy to bypass after all. While most were fine with them leaving with the giant predators to head to the east side, there was one man that tried to convince them that they would be safer staying over here. When he tried to make his protests physical, he was abruptly interrupted and chased off by a visibly pissed off Seeka. The look on the man's face as well as the image of him backpedaling as hard as he could was so funny, and while Shannon did her best to internalize it, Natalie could not help but laugh out loud at the man. Who in their right mind would try and stop someone who was travelling with canines that were this large, let alone try and get physical? Barely able to breathe between calling him an idiot and laughing, Nat had to be pushed down the road and past the barricade by Luna. However, the warg was also doing her best to refrain from the show that her pack mate put on. As soon as the rest of the group was past the barricade, Seeka huffed loudly then chuckled audibly for everyone at the barricade to hear before running out to join back up with the pack.
Thankfully, no monster horde rushed the bridge this time as they crossed it. As they got to the other side, Nat came face to face with a realization. Scenic Drive did not end at the previous bridge, as it was the main road that ran through most of the eastern side of the city. Understanding that they were back on the scenic route, they started their way back along the road as Shannon led them towards her house. Unlike before, where the road was flanked by greenery everywhere, the road seemed to just be completely open at this point. Knowing that they would easily be able to be seen even with the sun slowly starting to lower in the sky, they moved as fast and low as possible. Three times along the road they were attacked by the most basic of goblins, but they were able to be seen just as far away as they were themselves. Each encounter was just a slaughter of goblins, though Scout and Shannon held back each time.
Eventually, they came up to an intersection, where Scenic Drive turned more into the city. Turning left, Shannon led the pack up a road named Stafford Drive, and up past a power station. Thankfully the whole place was open and desolate, but as they got closer to it, the more that Nat got a feeling of wrongness to it. After going past, the weird feeling dissipated away as they found themselves in a still growing suburb. As they went in, lots were still clear, with some of them having houses that were in progress, doomed to never be finished. As they came to the end of what was slotted out to be a cul-de-sac, Nat was surprised to see that there were only two houses. Before they walked up to Shannon's house, she just had to ask a question. "Hey Shannon. Do any of your neighbours have a motorcycle?"
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Eric, Corgi, Lachlan, Coen, Adam, John, Nicholas, Ty, Jacob, Onean, Sir Hellington, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 25 patrons, which I will then open up an official discord for everyone to come and discuss the story in and hang out!
As they headed north out of the campus, the group could not help but attract the eyes of all the people that they passed by. Most people probably did not even know the specifics of what went on, but when you were being escorted by a large pack of predators, some around the size of a small car, it had the effect of drawing attention. Noticing a path that led down into the river valley, Nat knew this might be the best chance to avoid crowds. The entire western side of the city was covered with tents and people, but she had not seen any when she passed over on the bridge earlier. She could be wrong though, as her focus was primarily on the giant horde of goblins that she essentially chased across. Gesturing the direction to Shannon, her friend's nod was all the prompting she needed before directing the canines to head down the path. Thankfully, no one followed them as they went down. As the number of eyes watching them dwindled, Nat could feel her shoulders relaxing.
They followed the path down for a while, passing underneath the bridge that Nat had crossed on days before. Finally, after they were five minutes passed the bridge, Nat decided to get a direction from Shannon. "So, where do you want to go from here? To your home here in Lethbridge? To your family in Ontario? Or maybe leave it all to me and my amazing decision skills?" That last one got a snort out of the downtrodden woman.
"What amazing decision skills? Whose idea was it to glitter bomb the school cafeteria at university? We spent a week cleaning that up, and glitter was still found for months!" Laughter erupted out of both of them as they remembered the whole thing. It was the year they were graduating, and they had wanted to go out in a bang. How they managed to come up with that idea, or think it was a good idea was anyone's guess. However, a no glitter allowed rule was strictly enforced after that by campus security. After their laughter died down, Shannon was finally walking with a smile. Sure, it was strained as all hell, but it was a smile none the less, and for that. "You know, if we were able to, I would like to stop by my home, grab my things and settle things with this town once and for all. It's just, my house is up in the north, on the eastern side."
"That's the only problem? We are just making another jaunt into monster central? Whatever, it is not that bad, especially when you have such wonderful giant fur balls of death travelling with you! Lead the way, dear friend of mine." Upon seeing the bright determination on Nat's face, Shannon could not help but have a slight bounce to her step. Everyone had already written off the entirety of the eastern side as completely uninhabitable, but here she was. Leading her friend straight into the madness. The obvious lack of fear or hesitation shown emboldened Shannon, causing her to lead them on. Instead of turning back to cross the foot bridge, they pushed forward to the one farthest north. They could have used the train bridge, but should there be any issues, they did not want to have to worry about balance while dealing with monsters. As they walked down the trail, they ended up walking alongside the river as well as moving alongside a protected wetland area. Neither had much movement other than in the water, but there were a few fishes and frogs, and thankfully barely any bugs. This early in the year, it would not be too bad as a lot of the still water was still either frozen or close to. But if they had to pass through a month from now, the amount of mosquitos would make them rethink on whether vampires turned into bats rather than swarms of the little blood suckers.
Coming up to the bridge, they were not surprised to find that another barricade was set up here. Having it set up anywhere else would just make it easy to bypass after all. While most were fine with them leaving with the giant predators to head to the east side, there was one man that tried to convince them that they would be safer staying over here. When he tried to make his protests physical, he was abruptly interrupted and chased off by a visibly pissed off Seeka. The look on the man's face as well as the image of him backpedaling as hard as he could was so funny, and while Shannon did her best to internalize it, Natalie could not help but laugh out loud at the man. Who in their right mind would try and stop someone who was travelling with canines that were this large, let alone try and get physical? Barely able to breathe between calling him an idiot and laughing, Nat had to be pushed down the road and past the barricade by Luna. However, the warg was also doing her best to refrain from the show that her pack mate put on. As soon as the rest of the group was past the barricade, Seeka huffed loudly then chuckled audibly for everyone at the barricade to hear before running out to join back up with the pack.
Thankfully, no monster horde rushed the bridge this time as they crossed it. As they got to the other side, Nat came face to face with a realization. Scenic Drive did not end at the previous bridge, as it was the main road that ran through most of the eastern side of the city. Understanding that they were back on the scenic route, they started their way back along the road as Shannon led them towards her house. Unlike before, where the road was flanked by greenery everywhere, the road seemed to just be completely open at this point. Knowing that they would easily be able to be seen even with the sun slowly starting to lower in the sky, they moved as fast and low as possible. Three times along the road they were attacked by the most basic of goblins, but they were able to be seen just as far away as they were themselves. Each encounter was just a slaughter of goblins, though Scout and Shannon held back each time.
Eventually, they came up to an intersection, where Scenic Drive turned more into the city. Turning left, Shannon led the pack up a road named Stafford Drive, and up past a power station. Thankfully the whole place was open and desolate, but as they got closer to it, the more that Nat got a feeling of wrongness to it. After going past, the weird feeling dissipated away as they found themselves in a still growing suburb. As they went in, lots were still clear, with some of them having houses that were in progress, doomed to never be finished. As they came to the end of what was slotted out to be a cul-de-sac, Nat was surprised to see that there were only two houses. Before they walked up to Shannon's house, she just had to ask a question. "Hey Shannon. Do any of your neighbours have a motorcycle?"
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Eric, Corgi, Lachlan, Coen, Adam, John, Nicholas, Ty, Jacob, Onean, Sir Hellington, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 25 patrons, which I will then open up an official discord for everyone to come and discuss the story in and hang out!
