Chapter 188: Work Smarter, Not Harder

Tera stood at the edge of the newly cleared field with her arms crossed and a grin on her face that she couldn’t wipe off even if she tried.

Before her, over thirty males were digging.

Wolves and Dow clan beasts worked side by side across the wide, damp clearing, digging up mounds and ridges with a coordination that shouldn’t have been possible between two groups that had been strangers less than a month ago.

Bessier and her mates took turns supervising and digging.

Bessier especially was more enthusiastic, shouting instructions and mimicking Tera while he mostly instructed the wolves.

"Deeper! No, not THAT deep! What are you doing?! You are not burying a body!"

A wolf paused mid-dig and stared at Bessier, visibly alarmed. "How deep IS a body?"

"It was a figure of speech! Dig to your elbow!"

The wolf looked at his own arm, then at the hole, then back at Bessier with the expression of someone who was doing his very best and still failing.

Tera chuckled and shook her head.

This scene had taken a lot of work to make happen, and the journey to get here had been a little too smooth.

While spending some time with her mates and the clan, Tera had realised that she didn’t have to go through a repeat of teaching the wolves how to dig proper ridges and mounds when she could have her beasts do it instead and save herself the stress.

So she had opened the portal two days ago, and a number of the Dow clan members had poured through with the organised chaos of beasts who had done this before and were excited to do it again.

Tera had brought nearly all her males and a handful of females, while the rest stayed behind to tend to the cubs and maintain the settlement. Even Xavi and Ermin had come through, excited to help Tera on this mission.

The wolves had been very nervous about the large number of varied beasts, but one of her clan members had broken the ice by literally going around to shake hands with every wolf he could reach while loudly complimenting their territory.

"Your trees are MAGNIFICENT! Look at the size of that trunk! We don’t have anything like that!"

The wolves didn’t know what to do with this.

Several of them had stood frozen mid-handshake, their tails caught between fight-or-flight and a strange, unfamiliar warmth.

But the real shock had come from the elders.

Tera had fully expected them to be hostile. Cold stares, muttered complaints, a wall of disapproval that she would have to chip through over days.

Instead, a number of the elders had come to suck up to her.

"Leader Tera. We are pleased by your return."

Tera had blinked. ’Eh?’

[Is this system seeing things?]

[(⊙_⊙)]

[Are these the same wolves who wanted Host to choke on her own cooking a while ago?]

The second elder stepped forward, his hands clasped in front of him. "Your contributions to our pack have been noticed and valued. Thank you. You have such beautiful eyes."

’What the fuck?’

"The water from the stream was wet. Very wet. Good water."

Another one just nodded aggressively, while more chipped in, commenting on her appearance and offering whatever help they could and Tera inched back with each step as the elders hounded her.

What exactly had happened in her absence?!

Every wolf within earshot had gone dead silent at this spectacle.

Even Greymaw, who had been standing near the back of the group, looked like someone had slapped him with a fish.

Even the wolves were stunned by their elders’ reactions.

One of the younger wolves leaned toward another. "Are the elders... sucking up to the shiftless female?"

The first elder whipped around and snarled at the whispering wolves. "We are being RESPECTFUL! There is nothing strange about showing gratitude! Stop gawking as if you have never seen manners before!"

"Not from you—"

"You insolent little—"

The second elder grabbed his companion’s arm. "Compose yourself! We are being welcoming!"

"I AM ING!"

"You are SHOUTING!"

The elder that had nodded before kept nodding with visible effort.

Another one chimed in to Tera, "We are looking forward to your... continued involvement."

"And the pen. The new pen is... it is a very fine pen. The animals have not escaped ever since."

He beamed as if this was the highest compliment he could conceive of.

"Uh...." Tera had managed to keep a straight face through all of this. "Thank you. That means a lot?"

The elder looked relieved that the interaction was over and retreated so fast he nearly tripped over a cub.

[These wolves look like cubs who have recently been scolded by their mother]

’Hold on a second...’

Tera looked around and then noticed Calis, who was surprisingly in some discussion with Xavi and Ermin.

What had Calis told these wolves?

Xavi and Ermin, on the other hand, had been very surprised by the warm reception, especially with what Xavi had known about the wolves. Calis had been pleasant and had assured them that Tera had been in safe hands and would continue to be.

But the real shift had come when Faelynn had joined in and told the two males with quiet pride what Calis had done, especially regarding the stubborn elders.

This had led to a flustered Calis who shooed away his sister and brought up an excuse to detach himself from the two males.

The cubs had been the easiest bridge between the two groups.

They were the most curious about the variety of beasts that had walked into their midst. And they had been more fascinated with these beasts’ appearances compared to Tera’s shiftless form.

Two had even asked Xavi for uppies, and an embarrassed male had rushed to take them away, especially when the second had mentioned how the bear’s breasts were too big.

Xavi, who was no stranger to ridiculous talk from cubs, had been shell-shocked. None of the cubs in his clan had ever uttered such a statement.

The noise level in the wolf territory had tripled that day, and the pack, who had spent years in disciplined quiet, was unnerved by this.

Especially when it was their cubs producing the most noise.