You couldn't kill me if you tried
Tel stirred in the early morning hours. The sun had not yet risen, and she had been sleeping after her night patrol. It had been a long, weary day. Her heat season was annoying for one, and another annoyance was the fact that a buck had gotten away from her, slipping free from her grasp with nothing other than luck on his part! It had managed to escape her claws before breaking for the opening in the wall, and in the process, Tel had gotten very dirty and frustrated. She had bathed after that, and when she returned to her den to sleep, things were...fine.
She saw some faces when she had gone into her den in the alcove. But this morning, the pack was either sleeping or keeping watch on the walls. She began to stir, suddenly feeling...chilly. Had the fire gone out? Had her blankets slipped off? Or maybe it was snowing enough outside that there was a draft somewhere. Whatever the case, she slowly stirred awake and blearily blinked the sleep from her eyes. Half asleep still, she stumbled to her paws and slipped out of her den, into the main alcove, and out into the night. Not a soul in sight so far, but she was thirsty. Her favorite drinking spot was in the Moor, and knowing the lands like the back of her paw, she made her way there with half-closed eyes, shivering all the while. Why was it so cold all of a sudden?
Perhaps it was just the early morning fog...after all, the Moor was known for that. Maybe it was the fact that Winter was drawing closer, that it was just colder than usual. Paws padded along the soft ground until finally, she reached the water. Dropping her head to drink, she didn't notice the fact that her bare skin was open to the elements. Or the fact that her tail fur wasn't dragging on the ground or that the longer fur that draped from her cheeks wasn't touching the water's surface, let alone the fact that her fur was neither a bright beacon nor that it was completely off now that she had finally mastered how to control it.
It wasn't until she finished drinking and she wiped the sleep from her eyes, the cold water helping her wake up a little more, that noticed something was wrong. She looked at her reflection in the rippling pool for a moment, pointed ears and snout rippling with the movement of the water. When it stilled, she saw...someone. No...it was...her...? "What..." She rubbed her eyes before looking again, and then she figured it out. She was staring at herself. But...she had no fur. Her face was bare. Gasping, she fell back onto her haunches, startled, and she immediately twisted and turned to find that her once beautifully flowing tail and the celestial fur that adorned her frame was...gone.
Panic settled in. And she screamed! Her heart raced and hammered against her chest as she wildly looked around for somewhere to hide! "No no no no no, this isn't happening! How!? What did I eat!? What's wrong with me!?" She frantically searched for something to hide away in, or hide behind...and all there really was were some low bushes and the stones. There was no way she would make it back to her den without someone seeing her! And if she did make it without getting caught by some miracle, what would she do!? Hide in there until her fur hopefully grew back!? What if it was gone forever!? She didn't understand how this happened, nor was she in a stable set of mind to figure it out. Instead, she ran behind one of the stones, using it as a shield from anyone who might be passing by...though she didn't think about how little it would to to help considering her other side was still exposed. All in all, she wasn't exactly in the mindset to think rationally and clearly on what to do.
"Speak"
