It was stupid of her she knew, but she had been soooo hungry and didn’t want to have to tramp all the way back to Darkwater Rapids to raid the caches. When she had come across the shiny red berries, she had convinced herself that they were just regular old cranberries, like the ones her mother had showed her as a pup. Perhaps it was delusion that hid the waxiness of their skin from her mismatched eyes, or maybe it simply her own youth and inexperience. Either way, it only took the taste of two of the bitter berries to scrunch her muzzle up in distaste and move on.

Within half an hour the blue flashes began. Her legs felt weak as she stumbled through the trees, at least having enough sense to drag herself away from the edge of the creek, and then her head began to feel heavy. The combination of the lights and pressure that had built up in her head was enough to force her to a seat, her head hanging low between her forepaws as she tried to shake the images from her mind. With her eyes squeezed tightly shut “Kite fish tree!” she muttered forcefully under her breath, her own confusion apparent as the words that were uttered were so far from the Bloody berry bush she had intended to utter. Clearly something was more than wrong with her and her every instinct suddenly screamed at her to get out of sight and lay low, at least until this illness passed.