Moonspear ghost in your stereo

She felt herself flush with shame when she remembered how she'd carelessly climbed the mountain's wreckage, singing and dancing her way upward without paying any respect whatsoever to the lives lost or ruined here. But that wasn't even the worst part. She'd found some unidentifiable remains along the way, puked all over them, then kept on frolicking like it didn't even matter. Meerkat felt dismayed disgust at the recollection.

You really need to stop, an inner voice urged right before another voice spoke nearby, startling her. "Hello, dear." Meerkat whipped her head to the side so quickly, the bones creaked. "Everything okay?" asked a stranger who bore a vague resemblance to both her Neema and her elder sister.

She opened her mouth to answer, her eyes widening a little when she suddenly remembered: she had meant to go to the caldera to check on her family. Meerkat jumped to her feet, momentarily forgetting the kindly stranger, sending a stricken look in her homeland's direction. She could see it distinctly beyond the treetops of Bramblepoint.

She took a step, hissing in pain the instant she put weight on the same foot she kept spraining time and time again. Had she really injured it again? This damn ankle was the reason she was behaving so erratically: getting high; doing silly and often stupid things; falling asleep; and then waking up feeling groggy and regretful. It was becoming a thing with her, a cycle Meerkat realized she needed to break.

Blinking, she remembered the she-wolf standing there. "Ah..." She really didn't know what to say or how to answer that question. No, everything's definitely not okay. How am I supposed to get home with a busted ankle? Then, in spite of her own revelation, she wondered, "Do you know what a poppy looks like...?"