Sophie opened her eyes to an unfamiliar sight. Fog surrounded her everywhere, with dirt stretching out beneath her feet. Looking around, she saw nothing that could even resemble a landmark of any kind. There were no trees, shrubberies, or rocks of any kind, just an undulating mist that blocked her view entirely in every direction. The lack of anything around her gave rise to feelings of worry and abandonment. She had no idea where she was, nor anyone else.

"Mom? Mom, are you out there?" she called out, desperate for any kind of a response. What she got in response scared her stiff. It was as if someone who had been smoking was calling out 'whoa', in a very deep voice, followed by a fairly higher pitched, almost shrieking mix between laughing and snorting. It was hard for her to even imagine what they sounded like, as the sound itself was entirely alien to her. Stranger yet, it seemed to be resonating out from all around her. Not wanting to stay around the sound, she turned and started running.

As she did, the sound itself kept getting louder and louder, as if it was trying to deafen her with the sheer level of the shrieks. She tried running in many directions, even the one she came in, but it continued to get louder and louder. Soon, she was just running with her head down and covering her ears, making sure she kept putting one foot in front of the other. Not that covering her ears helped, as the sound felt like it was being sent straight into her brain. But all of a sudden, the sound stopped coming out, and silence once again filled the foggy void. This coincided exactly with Sophie running into something headfirst, causing her to fall back on her ass.

"Ow, ow, ow." she groaned out, rubbing her head first. While she had landed on her ass, she felt as though she had just run her head into a brick wall. Slowly, she looked up to see what she had run into. Looking up, it seemed to be a very tall man, but the closer she looked, the more she tried to scurry backwards. The colour of its skin, the bulging muscles, and the horrible face that marred her nightmares was standing far above her. The orc she had run into turned around, grinning as it lay its eyes upon her fallen form. It started to slowly walk after her, a new prize in sight. Sophie tried to scurry away faster, to stand up and run, anything to get away from this hulking monster of death and devastation. No matter what she tried though, her body could not respond how she wanted it to. As the orc got closer to her, it reached out its arm to grab her. Feeling unable to get away, she tried to will her eyes shut so she would not have to see the barbarity, but they as well would not respond. She could only watch on in horror as the orc got closer and closer.

And then one more of the loud and deep sounds rang out through the fog, before the orc was taken out of her view. It was not swallowed by the fog, nor had it decided to just leave. No, a white blur flashed across her vision, slamming into the side of the orc's head. One second was all she saw of it as it not only impacted into the monster, but carried it with it, down to the ground. Looking over to where the orc now lay, she saw what had hit it, or rather who. A blob of white sat atop the cranium of the monster, staring directly at her. Black blood oozed from the wound, as well as a bit of grey, showing that the seven-foot-tall monster had clearly been brought down and eliminated by the animal that could be no taller than two feet. Sophie could not help but match its eyes, dueling their sight lines, at least until it let out one last call. A loud and deep whoa mirroring all the others she had heard before, but not on the same scale. If anything, it was louder, loud enough to cause her to fall back in shock, once again embracing the void of sleep.

As the sun shone in on the tent in the morning, Sophie groggily arose. Nat had already headed out of the tent, as was shown by the hole in the sleeping pattern between her and Kali. Slowly, she got up and extracted herself from Shannon's grasp, being careful not to wake any of the other occupants of the tent. She was not too worried about waking up Shannon, but Kali and Maia were another story. She knew for a fact that neither of them were morning wolves, and did not want to end up on the wrong side of that. Once she was free, she walked out of the tent and towards the spot where the coyotes were set up, planning on finding Natalie there.

Sure enough, Nat was there, alongside Edwin today as Lucille and Tin were working with the pups down below. Copper was still keeping up the watch, but Edwin was just sitting beside Nat. He was once again trying to remain stoic and proud, but the way his tail moved betrayed how he felt like always though, that was most likely due to Nat's careful ministrations when she was massaging his back with one of her hands. Knowing that it would be fine to bring up, Sophie went up, sat in Natalie's lap, and hugged her. "Mom, I had a weird dream last night." She said, still slightly shaking due to the memories of the orc approaching her in her dream vividly.

Almost instantly, she felt both of Nat's arms wrap around her, as well as a third hand resting itself upon her shoulder. Looking up, she saw that it belonged to Edwin. He still said nothing, but he gave a light smile, which somehow made her feel more secure. Nat loosened the hug up slightly, only to ask, "Do you want to talk about it hun?"

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Hades, Onean, Neal, Sebastian, Sir Hellington, Adam, 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 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!

 

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