Mycophobia

Kumiho winced as every step brought sharp stabs of pain inexplicably through his front paws. Had he stepped on something while chasing Kitsune? With all the snow everywhere, it was distinctly possible. "Kitsune!" he shouted out at her again, his usual temperate patience wearing thin while he tried to prevent the little girl from accidentally poisoning herself. No matter how much it stung his feet to run, Iho didn't stop, not until he'd caught up to Kit and reached for her. He mistimed his grapple though and only ended up bumping into the princess, sending her stumbling, and then falling. He skidded to a halt and rushed to grab the fire fox's jaws and pull the mushroom from her teeth, but when he went to do so, the mushroom was gone. Oh shit! Iho hurried to pry Kitsune's jaws open, but doing so revealed an empty maw with a few glowing spores across her tongue. Oh fuck oh fuck oh FUCK! She's swallowed it. Kitsune had eaten the mushroom!

Collapsing back onto his paws, Iho's mind began to race with panicked thoughts. Was she going to die now?! Would she suffer? Would he have to put her out of her misery? Would that be considered a crime or a mercy? Shit, then what? Bury the body? Push it in the river and hope it gets washed away? Just leave it and pretend he'd never heard of an Ashen princess in his life? Gods be damned, he'd make such a terrible criminal! And by the gods, why did his paws hurt so much?! Glancing down at his own feet in frustration, Iho noticed his paw pads were bleeding a little, just as if he had cut them on something sharp. Except the blood coming from his paws was a fluorescent blue, just as the mushroom had been. Panic began to rise in the young man once more. He needed to wash his paws immediately before he touched anything else.

"Kit, we need to get that mushroom out of you now!" he nearly shouted, realizing that if the spores did this to his feet, they could be doing it to the inside of Kitsune! As if hearing his thoughts, Kitsune's stomach began to make grotesque gurgles and groans as the mushroom inevitably arrived in her gut. A look of horror crossed over the arctic wolf's visage, eyeing the smaller girl with worry. "Uh, Kit...? You feeling okay...?"

"Speech"