Moving though the town, Natalie made stops at all of the shops. Grabbing tools, more varied supplies, and even a steel frame collapsible pool. The last one was so she could have baths every now and then. Because if this world had truly gone to shit and monsters were gonna keep attacking her, she wanted a way to take care of the blood that would inevitably cover her. As her looting spree continued, she found no trace of any monster other than footprints in the dirt, but those tracks were over a day old by this point. Sadly, the only people she found were all of the bodies, left behind in the wake of their death. Some already being fought over by scavenging crows, rodents, and insects. They were given an extra large berth by Nat, as she did not want anything to do with them.

     As the count of corpses she passed increased, so did her sense of nausea. So to however, did her feeling of thankfulness. She was glad that she had taken care of Bryden and gave him a burial. While he would still be feasted on by the underground denizens, at least he was not on display for the world to see his grisly end. The thought of doing a mass burial for everyone else in town had occurred to Nat, but the fear of goblins in the area and her extremely sore muscles had dissuaded her from that. There were over a hundred people in Waterton, and digging a hole big enough to bury them all without any power equipment was too big of a job for her to be able to handle. She felt some guilt, but she felt a distinct need to leave town.

     Waterton was a small town, and there was no way of knowing if this was all that was happening, or if the worst was yet to come. In all of the fantasy series she shared with her mother, goblins were always the lowest on the power scale. Orcs could be next, or the goblins might ride through on wargs. The trees themselves could come alive and decide they wish to destroy everything fleshy. When it came to monsters in fantasy, anything was possible. The fact that right now, was that all of the terrible monsters she saw growing up could just show up in front of her trying to eat her. Not knowing what was out there, thinking of her as dinner, scared her.

     Working as a fish and wildlife officer had helped, but that was because every animal they could come across was listed and observed. There were plans and guides on how to deal with any kind of threat they encountered out in the bush. Now, none of those guides were worth shit, as she was now the Alpha of a wolf pack, on the watch out for goblins that wanted to do far worse to her than kill or eat her. There was no standard to act on. No rule book that made sense of things. The stress she had been bottling up inside was rising, and she had no idea how to deal with it.

     LICK!

     Startled by the sudden lick on her face, she turned to her right to see one of the pups sitting on her shoulder. His tail was wagging, looking at Nat with bright, cheery eyes. That was right, she was not alone. The wolves were there and would back her up. While still feeling stressed, she kept repeating to herself in her head, 'One step at a time, just worry about one step. The rest just follows after.' she scratched the pups head, before starting to move down the five.

     After moving for just over an hour down by the road, she heard an unnatural shriek. While she did not immediately recognize it, the sounds following it placed it. The loud laughter of goblins resonated through the air. Looking to her left, she noticed that this was the location of the golf course. Knowing that they were there forced Natalie to make a decision. Did she move on and ignore them, hoping nothing would come of it? Was it better to take them out while they were distracted? Remembering her choice about wanting to stay being the ambusher made her choice simple.

     She moved away from the road and through the brush, not following the main path up to the golf lodge. That approach was the one that goblins might actually watch. As she did, she let the wolves know that they were probably gonna fight some more goblins, depending on how many there were. All of them got to a ready position inside the Soulscape, knowing it was easier to sneak with less. Coming up to the edge of the parking lot, Natalie saw that she was probably biting off more than she could chew. Over twenty goblins were milling about in the parking lot. Some were just sitting around with their finger literally up their ass. Others were swinging around golf clubs and laughing about the damage they did to the parked cars. Seeing their numbers, Nat quickly started to back track, knowing that this number was way to much for her to handle.

     Before she had moved back though, the goblin closer to her took another swing at a car with a driver. As it hit, the driver bounced back and flew out of the hands of the amateur golfer. It spun through the air before colliding with Natalie's shin. Before she could stop herself, she briefly cried out in pain. Clutching her leg, she noticed that it was bruised, but it didn't hit hard enough to cause a break or fracture. Looking up from the sore leg, she noticed that every single goblin in the lot was looking directly at her. "Oh shit!" She breathed, before quickly hobbling off back towards the five. The bruise on the leg already inhibiting her usual movement speed. Behind her, a loud shriek sounded out, and every goblin started rushing after her. Their loud cries, laughter, and shrieks followed after her as she fled into the forest.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times.