Nocturne Summit BWP3: PREY OPPORTUNITY

When her chase gained its speed properly, the rain evidently took it as a cue and picked up its downpour to fight against her. She was already soaked, already slipping here and there, but determination dug sharply into her sides; they had come this far. With an unknown amount of her pack hurt, pulling up now was not an option. There were times when she couldn't see anything at all at this speed and simply trusted her paws and the mountain underfoot, but when she did get a readable glance at the landscape spreading before her, all she focused on what a good enough path of pursuit to get something done.

But something else pulled her focus, something in the very air and the rain itself. Her fur stood on end and in the next second, before she could process it, everything felt scorching. Lightning. She pinned her ears and her sights went white.

Even from just nearby, she felt the spark's force rush her spine faster than anything she could know, lighting the way for all the other sensations to follow as they rattled her every bone and fiber from toe to ear tip. Her interest in the chase hung out of reach as she couldn't even seem to perceive these upper echelons of electric heat and noise, and instead, she felt suspended in the second itself -- frozen, burning, all with the most direct line to the heart of the storm itself that she'd never come so dangerously close to. It choked the air right out of her lungs, and now aware of a new pain in her slipping paws she lurched first upward in escape, but was not able to make the landing so fell to the rain-soaked dirt.

And when it all stopped, there was sharp silence. A ringing steadily replaced it then followed the sound of heavy rain and its cooling relief. The charge still hung heavy on the air but compared to the wattage of seconds before, it felt worlds better with half her head pressed into the cold mud.

She stumbled to her feet with momentum still dragging her forward from the chase, and realized the bitter sting running up her right leg when she put weight on it. Dimly it registered the rain cooling a spot on the side of her head more than the rest of her as well. The reality of the small patch of scorched off fur by her ear, the blood pulled up beneath her skin, and the angry blister were lost on her, though. Everything ached in a strange, electric way and her mouth tasted like metal and mud. 

Adrenaline still sang in her blood and protected her for the time being despite her small grip on consciousness. She staggered drunkenly and looked around in an attempt to refocus to see the smoking strike-sight far too close to her right with an instinctive shiver. Blearily, ahead, she could see the dark shape that signaled Peregrine's (and likely Fox's too, she couldn't see) escape and noticeably lacking her pale mate or Dash ripping either of them apart. This spurred instant concern and a rich hatred soon after, and while still moving messily down the mountain, she clambered along until she got to Charon first, who lie stilled.

Please just do not be dead, seemed to be the prevailing thought as she shakily pulled at his scruff with hopes to rouse him. They had too much to do.. and she was nowhere near ready to face it if he did not wake.

I AM SORRY that this got so grossly long

also the fact that the snippet i've had in her title for about a million years ('i taste like thunder') may have just become a wee bit more fitting than it ever has been before 8)