Symptoms May Include...

She had woken up with her head pounding, but she wasn't quite sure what part of the day it was anymore. The sky seemed permanently dark, and it was seriously throwing her off and she felt like complete shit. She felt more sick than anything. Her chest hurt. It hurt to breathe. Her throat was sore, and she felt like her skull was splitting in half. She had tried to walk it off, but as the day progressed, her symptoms seemed to have gotten worse. Her stomach felt like it was churning, her throat and mouth feeling dry but also like she wanted to throw up. What the hell was going on?

She stumbled her way to the sound of water, and when she reached the shallow stream she quickly leaned in for a drink, though her movement was jerky from disorientation. She took a few quick laps of water but it didn't seem to help much. When she pulled away from the water, a strange purple glob of liquid fell into her reflection and her eyes widened. "What..." Her heart pounded in her chest, and when she took a closer look, she swore there was a small purple mushroom growing from one of her ears, and there was purple ooze spilling from her eyes and nose as if she had a severe cold. Panic began to rise in her chest, fur bristling as she stared wide-eyed at her reflection. What the fuck was going on!?

She uttered a hoarse bark to her companions, which brought both of them coming to her as fast as possible. "Proserpina! What is that on your face!?" The barn owl landed neatly in front of her, her wide dark eyes inspecting the she-wolfs features. "I-I don't know! Give me something to wipe it away!" She exclaimed while trying to wipe it away with her forepaws. The ooze smeared across her fur, though she could still feel the stickiness from it on her face. The owl pulled out a piece of cloth from a small pack beneath her feathers, offering it to the honey badger so the other companion could wipe Ina's eyes with it. "This is the thing we got from the strange firefly man, yes? I don't know what we use it for, but this is good a time as any to use it, hm?"

The honey badger rose up to wipe away at her master's eyes, trying to clear away the ooze that had been seeping from them. "Hold still, wolf." She had managed to wipe away most of the ooze from her face, but she had a feeling it would come back soon. "Done...but it may come back...I wonder what is the cause..." Isra stepped back, cloth still in her paw when Ina suddenly snapped at her. The honey badger startled back, half the cloth now torn away in Ina's jaws. "I-I don't feel so good..." Ina whined as she sunk to her belly, head throbbing as ooze started to slowly leak from her eyes again. She felt a sticky warmth from her ears, too, along with building pressure where she had seen one of the mushrooms growing. It didn't help that the stuff was glowing...and now she felt like some weird freak with a beacon on her now that the world seemed to be thrown into continuous darkness.

How was the rest of Aerie faring? Were Eli and her other pack mates sick, too? She groaned as she instinctively pawed at the throbbing in her ear, and yelped when her paw caught a mushroom and tugged a little too hard. "Fuck! I need to get rid of these things...maybe I'll feel better..." She whined as she looked at her companions. "Get them off!" She demanded in a desperate tone. "I-I don't think that to be a good idea but..." The barn owl scooted closer, ready to hop out of range should Proserpina decide to randomly attack her like she had done to Iskra moments ago. She hesitantly reached for a mushroom with her beak, gently grasping one on Ina's ear and she yanked as hard as she could, successfully popping a mushroom free from the she-wolf's ear.

Proserpina, however, fell back in excruciating pain. She made a cry that had never come from her before, and the usually composed Abraxas was now writhing on the floor in pain and panic. The mushroom had felt like it had been yanked from her very bones, and it took her several, long moments before the pain began to subside, but barely. Her heart pounded hard in her chest, her breathing heavy. And when she finally managed to lie still, she could see her companions looking at her with concern. "Ina...I don't think we should do that again...more have grown where that one was plucked..." Blinking with wide eyes, Ina rushed back to the water and looked at her reflection. Isra was right...there were three new mushroom growths where the other one had been. What the fuck was going on!?

"W-we need to get back to Aerie...I feel like I'm losing my mind..." She breathed. Before her companions could say anything, Proserpina was already moving. She didn't wait for them, but she figured they'd be following soon enough. She didn't quite feel like herself. How the hell could she with mushrooms growing from her ears!? About an hour or so passed, and she started to feel a slight pressure over her eyes. She prayed that mushrooms weren't going to start growing from them, too! And the idea of mushrooms growing out of her eyes was a whole other fear she didn't know she had. She slowed her pace until she was practically stumbling along. Mist covered the ground and made it harder to walk. She wasn't sure where she was, but what was even worse, was she seemed to have lost her companions in the fog. She hadn't been moving that fast, right? "Isra! Namid!" She called out, legs shaking as she began to cough again. She felt out of breath from her previous fast pace, and knew she had no choice but to slow down now that she was alone in all of this...