Moonspear we're gonna die young.

 Welp, since I didn't actually manage to get her return thread up at the beginning of the week, looks like I have to mangle her to explain why she's been gone so durn long. Free for all :D

Everything hurt.  That was all Finley was aware of as consciousness began to seep back into her bruised and battered frame.  Every inch of her felt raw and burning with pain, so much that it took several long seconds of agony before she could even force her eyelids to part.  The light of the sun was hanging high above somewhere and it blinded her and sent her head reeling.  Her head now throbbed so hard that she thought it very likely her skull would burst into pieces, and almost the moment her eyes had opened, they were shut again, and the world around her faded back to black.

How long it was after that when the Blackthorn opened her eyes again, she had no idea.  It was dark now.  Not even starlight pervaded her sight, which was blurred and patchy.  When Finley finally moved, she felt the pain shooting all over her aching joints.  She tried to pull herself to her paws, but fell back to the ground with a sharp whine.  Her head smacked down against cold rock, and the pain was so intense, she thought she would pass out once again.

Somehow, Fin kept her consciousness.  She laid still for a while, focusing hard on steadying her breathing as her entire body trembled.  Weakly, the beta looked about her, searching for a distraction.  All she saw was rock and sparse brush.  She stretched out a forearm to steady herself as she listed her head again and felt it brush against a series or hard, sharp barbs.  The instant her arm touched them, she felt pain stab yet again, this time centered on her right cheek, up near her eye and down the side of her neck.  

Straining, feeling panicked, she turned her gaze to try and peer back at herself where she spotted them, and suddenly her memory came flooding back - the sheep, the cliffs above, and the porcupine that had appeared seemingly out of no where to fill her with barbs and send her falling down, down, down into darkness.

With a strangled sob, Fin tilted her head back and cried out - a miserable howl, a plea for help, renting across the silent twilight.