Two more long days of travel and minimal occurrences left Denza with even less patience for immature stories, talk about gentle motherly love and childhood ideals. He was grateful, though, for he knew that it was only another day or two until they could split and go their separate ways in their lives. The brief friendship they had built had last him survival through the dense woods, and it would be best to move on and forget the sooner they arrived at the edge of the forest. None of them knew quite what lie there, except that animals of all kinds generally avoided the area – humans had made their homes there, and intricate pathways of theirs warded off most wild predators... but that was all they knew for sure.

The trio had been traveling for a few hours already, eager to end their nervous trudge through the dense woods. Caspar had begun to talk more now that they had been together for so long and he had become more comfortable. Lately, he had begun to bring up his sister more and more. It seemed that his elder sister, Veya, had become involved with an unclaimed male who had wandered close to his family's territory. Caspar regaled them with his initial distrust for his sister's potential mate, and how the male had simply shown up, skirted the edges of their boundaries, and convinced Nora to slip off with him, for days at a time, before she would return to her pack, happily convinced that she had found her lifemate.

“And then,” Caspar huffed, close on Lorza's hocks as she strode quickly through the pines of the forest, “Veya took off one morning and then returned to our den with him. He didn't seem like a bad guy or anything, but it's just weird for her to bring him right to our den, where he knows where we live and everything.”

“Yeah, that is a little risky... she must trust him,” Lorza replied. “She make her decision?”

“Yeah,” Caspar continued, “she chose him and they took off just before... everything else happened. Then I saw her twice after that, once just a few days after and then again the morning I ran into you.”

Denza had quickly figured out that by, “everything,” the black pup was referring to the afternoon he had returned to his parents' den, only to discover the mangled bodies strewn about, all tinged with the now familiar green blood-like stains.

“You said she was chasing you...?” Lorza glanced back at the black pup.

Denza perked his ears, eyeing the back of the pup's head.

“Yeah... after she left with him we didn't see her again. So... after everything... I just took off and hoped to find help to get through the woods, and I did run into her. She looked hurt and I thought she had been attacked, so I asked her what was wrong but she told me to get away and not come back. She just... she was going to attack me, I know it. But she looked sick and hurt and I could smell her mate nearby. I was scared, so I ran.” Caspar lowered his head. “It feels so wrong... I just left Veya there.”

Lorza hesitated to speak, then turned to look at the pup. “There was nothing more you could do. She needed to go in her own space and without watching you suffer.”

“But that wasn't it,” Caspar said. “I saw her again after that... I thought she had died but then the morning I saw you guys, she found me somehow and chased me. For so long! And she was definitely sick. She had so many cuts and scars and she looked awful – and she was foaming something green around her mouth -”

“Wait,” Denza interrupted. “You said she was foaming green?”

“Yeah,” Caspar stopped walking and faced Denza. Lorza turned around as well.

“So... she ingested it.”

“Ingested what?”

“Whatever causes the green disease. The sickness, the poison, whatever it is.” Denza looked to Lorza.

“I only ever saw the green on their fur – like it had been smeared on.” Lorza looked down at the earth beneath her paws. “You think they... eat it?”

“Eat it or both eat it and wear it,” Denza shook his coat, diffusing the situation.

“Why,” Lorza pondered, as they turned around again and pressed onward, “Would anyone do that willingly?”

“Maybe they're not doing it by choice,” Denza mused. “Maybe they're being forced or coerced by someone of power.”

“Of power?”

“Either whoever is causing all of this is immune or they don't use it and inflict this disease and injuries onto the subjects.”

Lorza looked horrified and Caspar looked equally shocked.

“Maybe it's just a toxicity, Denza,” Lorza pleaded, clearly trying to make what she was hearing easier for herself to understand, “Maybe they're just eating... whatever it is... unintentionally.”

Denza shrugged, cocking his head to the side. “Perhaps....” He was reluctant to simply accept that kinder theory. Her idea was much less dire than his – being prepared for poison by force as opposed to eating something that glowed with a disease was a far more serious situation.

“We should prepare for the worst.” He set his shoulders and his sights straight ahead before reiterating. “Assume the worst and be more prepared.” He resumed a brisk trot past the young female.

“Okay,” Lorza agreed, falling into step behind him. “I think that sounds good.”

Denza caught a gentle scent of fur on the air and slowed his pace to concentrate – ashamed at his need to slow, he feigned concern.

“Denza?” Lorza stopped behind him, Caspar just behind her.

Denza was quickly pleased with his decision, as he both felt pride in his attempt to cover up his slowness and the subtle shock of nervous fear, as he recognized the sickly scent of earthy must on whoever it was nearby. There had been many markings left on trees by deer, the musk scent powerful to his nose.

“We need to check something, but we need to be careful,” he looked both Lorza and Caspar in the eyes. “And quiet.”

Both of them nodded, Caspar lowering himself to the ground slightly behind Lorza.

“This way,” Denza jerked his head to his right and made off into the dense brush. He could clearly hear both of his companions behind him and he wrinkled his muzzle in frustration. A few steps further and the scent of rotting flesh hit him so hard that he shook his head slightly. He felt Lorza crowding him and he flicked his tail for her to back off. He could hear them slow, and he realized that they probably had caught the scent and stopped. His heart was finally pounding now and he knew the sick creature was near. It smelled like deer.

He rounded the corner of a bunch of trees and found his prey – it was a deer, and he was almost not shocked to notice the gashes in its hide, the green splattered all over the ground where it stood and all over its body and face. Even the eyes seemed to glint green. Heart pounding furiously and confusion and curiosity gnawing at him like never before, Denza stepped clear out from behind his covering of the trees and stared straight into the deer's face.

She didn't even seem to notice him. She clearly had such an accommodated sense of smell that she had no idea he was even in the vicinity – not that it mattered anyway, she clearly couldn't see him well enough to charge. Denza knew he could test her without concern for his safety, so he crept towards her, slowly at first, then walking normally as if he wasn't approaching a potentially deadly target.

The deer's ears never swiveled to check her surroundings and though her eyes were in clear sight of Denza as she swung her head from one side to the other, she never acknowledged his presence. Denza approached until he stood directly in front of the sick animal. He glanced around to see where Lorza and Caspar where, but when he caught no sign of them, assumed them to be hiding safely somewhere. He faced the deer, ears pricked toward her as she continued swinging her head. He let out a small yip, but the deer didn't respond. Frustrated, Denza growled, assuming she simply had no sense of hearing either.

The doe immediately swung into action and Denza, unprepared for her rage, found himself scrambling to avoid her flailing hooves. Humiliation and fear swept through him as she raked his back with her sharp black points, trampling him beneath her powerful legs. A cry escaped him and, embarrassed, his clamped his muzzle closed. He was able to dart around her side and stand opposite her in the clearing, catching his breath as she ambled mindlessly about, shaking her head, huffing desperate breaths for air. Denza forced his breathing to slow, not willing his companions to notice him dazed by the encounter. He watched as the doe trampled around, tongue lolling and eyes unfocused. The green-tinted blood oozing from her gashes ran and dripped the more enraged she became. Denza realized the sickness was too far in her to do anything but put her out of her misery – but he stopped to wonder if it was contagious through biting. As the doe stumbled to face him, his ear flicked to the left and he started as he saw Caspar and Lorza peeking at the scene from between the dense trees.

A moment later, Caspar squealed and ducked into the trees, closely followed by a terrified Lorza, as the doe trampled toward them, head down, legs kicking out in front of her. Denza watched for a moment as he realized the doe's consciousness had gained some headway and she angrily chased his companions through the trees. He mustered up a breath, winced at the pain on his back from the gash she had left, and took off after her.

She hadn't gone far, unable to see as well as the wolves could. Cadenza easily spotted Lorza trying to shush a frightened and whimpering Caspar a few leaps away from the enraged deer. The sick doe flung her head to and fro, shaking it as if trying to swat an imaginary fly – or as if she was trying to shake off some strange voices in her head, like Denza's Aunt Samma had done shortly before his mother did her the favor of ending her suffering.

Unsure if he could handle the doe himself, Denza waited as he battled with his mind, trying to ignore Lorza's wide eyed plea to join them in hiding. He might be able to take the doe down on his own, but that was something he had never needed to do before – and while it would look as much of a heroic gesture as he hoped he could pull off, he also knew better than to act recklessly. A full grown doe could easily kill a predator with those sharp hooves. The only other alternative he had was to leave her be, and escape with Lorza and Caspar. Part of him continued to argue whether that was the right thing to do or not, simply due to the fact that he knew this creature must be suffering so.

Morale in death was about the softest his mother had ever come to.

Denza, Lorza mouthed, Denza!

What? Denza mouthed back.

Lorza jerked her head toward them, encouraging him to join her and the black pup under their tree. The doe continued to look about, bewildered and lost. Denza trotted quietly around her and joined Lorza's side quickly – the doe never heard him.

“What are we going to do?” Lorza hissed.

Denza watched the doe for a moment, then looked to the young female.

“I think... we need to leave her, get on our way, be out of this place,” he whispered. He was met with a look of dismay from Lorza.

“Shouldn't we... help her?”

Denza sighed, rolling his eyes slightly. “You ever taken down a full grown deer on your own?”

Lorza looked to the ground in response. Caspar was watching the doe intently as she began to stomp closer to their hiding spot.

“I know I can't do it on my own,” Denza continued, eyeing the doe again. “And unless you think you can do it, there's nothing more we can do here.”

His stomach hurt from want to feed, as he knew they all felt. He also felt a little sick at the scent of the mess on the doe.

“Come on,” he backed away further into the brush. “Let's go.”

Lorza hesitated, cast the doe a backward glance, then followed him, Caspar close behind.

They trudged in silence for a few moments through the dark, dense trees and brush. The doe far enough behind them now, Denza winced as a branch scraped the gash on his back and he was reminded of his injury.

He knew that Lorza and Caspar had learned it best not to say anything.

Letting them get ahead by a few paces, he halted to turn and clean his wound. It stung in a sharpness that he had felt few times before and he squeezed his eyes and jaws shut as a hiss escaped him.

Lorza and Caspar had slowed and Denza trotted to catch up with them. He shook his unimpressive mane in acknowledgment and joined Lorza's side, casting her a brief glance, eye-to-eye.

After seeing the look on Lorza's face, Denza felt slightly apologetic for his response to the situation with the doe and for his terse behavior. He knew Lorza must think him callous.

“I know what you're feeling... I wanted to do the same,” he explained. “But....” The scent of deathly sickness was suddenly so powerful in his nose, Denza grimaced. The doe was nowhere to be found.

Lorza glanced around, presumably for the doe, then at him, but he could see that she was silently testing the air as they walked onward.

“Guys,” Caspar whispered. Denza ignored him.

“We can't risk ourselves to whatever mess she got into -”

He wheeled about as quickly as he could, pressing his face into Caspar's personal space, snarling just enough to show his frustration as he felt the prick of small teeth on his hock.

“Denza,” Lorza murmured, turning around.

“You never listen,” Caspar leaned in toward Denza and he felt himself more disgruntled at the pup's boldness. Caspar glared for a moment more, then turned his head to his right and nodded.

Denza looked to his left and narrowed his eyes at the carcass he saw there. The disheveled body of what must have been a fawn lie in the grass, torn up more than any kill he had ever seen. The body was covered in the green substance and the scent lingered all over the trees nearby. Denza realized that many of the trees near the body had also been stained with the sickness, and he glanced behind him to check that they weren't too close to any nearby.

“What is going on?” Lorza shut her eyes.

Denza looked back at Caspar, preparing to attempt an apology for his ignorance. Instead, he followed the pup's wide yellow eyes up into the tree boughs overhead.

At least a dozen limp, black bodies of crows hung from the branches circling the corpse, their black eyes glinting, thick beaks parted, all tainted with the green sickness.