The paranoia came on about the same time as others of her pack began to grow mushrooms and crystals from their eyes, and that was enough for Aryn to run. There was no way she was getting whatever infectious disease that turned you into a walking fungus - absolutely not. Healer or not, Aryn was determined to make it as far away from Habari and the infected wolves that lived there as she could manage.

It was not intentional to wander directly into the Soulless Forest a second time, but it felt fitting that to the fog-ridden forest was where her nervous and paranoid paws took her. This was where it began, where the ghost wolf ran through Eligos and her. Whatever had touched her mind had come from here. Her nose felt wet and Aryn lifted a paw to swipe at it, painting her foreleg with blue ooze that only heightened her fear and paranoia. "What did you do to me?" She yelled into the empty fog. She swiped her paw up along her wet face once more, finding it had begun to leak from her eyes as well. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Throwing her head to the ground she began to thrash into the dirt, beating her paws against the ground in tear filled anger.

Everything had gone to hell in a handbasket faster than Kali could blink. Her mother had gone into labor and delivered her siblings the day before, barely making it due to the crystals growing out of several orifices of her body. Worse yet, she herself had started growing crystals and they hurt like absolute hell. She’d tried, in a fit of panic, to pry them from her skin but she’d nearly blacked out from the pain. Those she did manage to break off had left her with more than she’d had before, enlightening her to how even more fucked up everything was. Several other members of the pack were sick and it was all hands on deck to make sure everyone was taken care of.

At least it should have been.

Kali had noticed the deteriorating mental state of one of their members, Aryn, in passing. She’d noticed her mumbling to herself, pacing, the general wild look in her eyes, but she’d assumed it would just pass. Yet, when she saw the woman racing from the borders, she got a sick feeling in her stomach. She’d stumbled after her, squinting with her one good eye as crystals had encrusted her pink one and grew out of the ear on the opposite side. She was partially blind and partially deaf, but that didn’t mean she was going to let one of their own slip off into the night. Especially not a healer when they needed them the most.

She watched the woman fall to the ground, screaming at nothing, and she stumbled into her path. ”Where do you think you’re going?” she said, suspicion clear in her expression. She had better have a good explanation.

"Kali Klein"

Someone was following her and Aryn spun in the dark night toward the sound of movement. "Leave me alone!" She called out to the fog, her lip lifting as a figure emerged and spoke. This was turning out exactly like her last time in the forest, except this time she did not have Eligos to protect her from the ghost canine. Aryn was not a fighter, but when backed into a corner and filled with paranoia she had little choice but to show her teeth.

The stranger was in fact not a stranger - and not a ghost, either - but Aryn's addled mind struggled to comprehend that this wolf was familiar to her. Everything seemed tricky and strange in the endless darkness and mists. Crystals protruded from the yearlings' eyes and body and Aryn bristled, backpedaling upon the damp forest floor. "Stay back!" She commanded, frantic. "I won't catch it, I won't." Aryn's voice shook with fear and uncertainty, her oozing eyes peeled wide with alarm. "Don't make me hurt you, please."