《Druidification》Chapter 169
Advertisement
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."
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
The Cosmic Interloper
Synopsis: A cyborg transhuman escapes her corporate indenture and through unfathomably unlikely circumstances, she ends up in a fantasy world of full of unique magic, angry people with sharp implements, and the whole flavor-spectrum of divine entities. Hilarity ensues. Features: - No blue boxes or cultivation, this is not a LitRPG nor about martial arts - Hard-ish Sci-Fi meets hard-ish magic - Generally trying to keep this "rational" Rationale: My primary goal with The Cosmic Interloper is to write something that I myself would enjoy reading. Of course, that’s not the only motivation, but I think it’s the most important one for me to keep in mind, especially as the author. In fact, this whole story came about because after consuming oodles of fiction, I found myself craving a very specific type of story which I couldn’t find many examples of. Then I asked myself, “why not write it myself?” and here we are. Disclaimer: In general, while I’m not writing a comedy, I do intend for this story to be funny and a bit wacky or absurd. That said though, I am using this story as a vehicle to explore some potentially dark topics including (but not limited to) slavery, speciesism/racism, and existential questions of self, consciousness, and identity. Still, I’m going to leave the “traumatizing content” tags off, because I don’t feel that what I’ve written so far (or plan on writing) exceeds the threshold that would be necessary for me to tag it thusly. Also, [insert your favorite boilerplate “views expressed” disclaimer here]. I shouldn’t need to say this, but the main character can be wrong on occasion (gasp!) and the way she views the world is not the objective truth (if such a thing even exists).
8 162Project Pegasus
Amidst having almost everything he wants, Hiiro Akira, a grade 12 student is still caged by the death of his first love, Haruka. As he was remembering her again, a strange loud noise disturbed him. It came from a burning airplane falling towards him. Waking up, he found himself in an unknown, desolated place. The worst thing is that he became a skeleton of a familiar necromancer. Who is this girl who looks exactly like his first love?author's note: this is the revised version of "An airplane crashed into me so I've been reincarnated as a skeleton"
8 103(EX)tinction.Protocol() - All Life is precious...unless it gives EXP.
Nightmares. Monsters. Creatures. MAJIK? HP? MP? WTF IS MAGN??? The world is falling into a twisted dark age where organic and inorganic matter is being ‘changed’ giving birth to disturbing nightmare creatures. Humanity is not excluded however; they are given the chance to reach new evolutionary heights and absorb power.... As long as they can fight and kill. Follow fresh parents Goduyne and Marrigan do what they can to protect newborn boy Lone, in a harsh and terrifying world that has technology and normalcy abruptly rug-pulled from humanity.Already facing the harsh tests of being new parents, can they survive long enough to give their child a chance at life?.. This isn’t your ‘happy-go-lucky’ RPG MMO theme park experience. There is no system. Just the raw laws of physics, twisted & bent. There is no help guide. Just bloody trial and error. There is no noob zone. Just harsh survival. All life is precious…. ...unless it gives EXP it seems.
8 141Unplanned//Luke Hemmings
Jaymee Reynolds met Luke Hemmings a punk. Fell in love with that punk. Shared her past with that punk. Then got pregnant with that punks baby. 2 years later will Luke and Jaymee come together and forget what has happened in the past. Will they stay together for there child or stay together for each other.
8 6216 & Pregnant • z.m
Zayn Malik Fanfiction"The baby's father is you" I said really fast closing my eyes hoping that when I open them he will not be ready to yell or hurt me."What" he said softly, I never heard him talk softly before. His voice is actually quite calm."This baby is yours. This is what happens when you take advantage of someone. Now please don't hurt me!" I opened my eyes to see Zayn with his hands on my belly looking at me with innocent eyes. I never in a million years thought I would see him like that.best ranking: #1 in nonfiction--------------SEQUEL: What's Happening?
8 174Vocabulary / Word Lists for writers
A list of words that would help you to polish your writing.***DISCLAIMER: All word lists and vocab came from different websites. Therefore, they are not mine.
8 288