With an explosive snort Rhys backed out of the mouth of the hole. What had once been mid sized burrow was now a hole big enough for the young wolf to muscle her way inside. Down in the belly of the burrow was the strangest creature Rhys had ever smelled. She had yet to lay eyes on it but already she knew it was all kinds of weird. She kept running into these super sharp little sticks as she dug. They were thin and long, and looked like sharpened twigs. A thought suddenly struck her and she stilled, her gaze directed downward at one of those sharpened twigs. Slowly she bent down and gripped it between her teeth. She tasted it and bit down on it a little to confirm the thought she'd had: it was like one of her nails, not a twig! Her breath caught and she let the spine fall from her mouth. Bonebreakers! She stared at the hole she'd dug with wide eyes. There were bonebreakers in Imperium! Well, that wouldn't do! She could defend herself just fine and so could her brothers, but what about Dagmaer? She was still sick. They'd probably come here for her.
Determination set her jaw. Nothing was going to hurt her friend! Nothing! She was going to tear this bonebreaker apart! Honestly the thought of confronting this thing by herself was a little scary now that it was actually happening, but she was going to do it! Rhys nodded to herself. She was going to go down there and take care of it.
With a growl that really just served to boost her confidence Rhys crouched down and shimmied into the widened burrow. The passage got progressively narrower and more than once she had to stop and expand the tunnel. The air was thick with dust that made it difficult to breathe and her nose and the corners of her eyes were clogged with grit but she pressed on.
At last she reached her destination. The tunnel was almost pitch black but she could tell there was a corner up ahead. And just on the other side of that corner was a bonebreaker. It growled at her and gnashed its teeth, and while she was a little alarmed Rhys stayed right where she was. She was going to do this.
Three...two...one...GO! Rhys darted forward and was around the corner before she had a chance to change her mind. Before she could get a bite in the bonebreaker darted forward and struck first. She was blindsided; slapped across the face by something hard and laced with hundreds of needles. It all happened very quickly. She went into retaliate, jaws wide as she sought to bite into whatever was within reach, and she succeeded - something that earned a shriek from the bonebreaker - and then the repercussions of what she'd done caught up with her. Quite suddenly the adrenaline wasn't enough and her whole face felt like it was on fire. She'd never felt anything so awful before and very quickly the pain and the fear became too much for her. Rhys screamed, the fire growing in intensity as she quickly backed out of the burrow.
She stumbled backwards into the sunlight and promptly fell back onto her tail, the sudden strike ricocheting through her and jarred the countless barbs that were hooked into her face. Rhys screamed again, her eyes pouring tears as searing pain lanced through her with each beat of her heart. In a panic she tried to pull the needles out by swiping a paw across her nose which only succeeded in worsening the damage and sending a fresh wave of pain through her. She screamed again. She dropped her face to the ground and scratched the injured side across the ground. Again she screamed. Terror turned her scream into a wail as a feeling of hopelessness set in. She didn't know what to do, but she did know who to run to. Rhys sucked in a deep breath and then screamed the name of the one person she knew could save her. "MOM!" She screamed again, tears and snot mixed with dirt streaming down her face. "MOOOMMY!"
OOC: she has porcupine needles all along the left side of her face and nose, and inside her mouth.
