Steliana had never seen such an outbreak in her career as a healer. She had seen an epidemics before, one passed by fluids and it seemed like that was how it was passed though she wasn't completely sure if it was.

       There was one way to be completely - or mostly - sure.

       That was the reason the wolf-jackal found herself in the mountains of the second ring, furthest away from anything or anyone. She wasn't dumb enough to try testing it near the water supply. She dug a hole with help of the rocky steep edges and found two live mice to place in there. The female had already collected samples of the black substance - a painstaking task when making sure she and the black substance never came in contact - and placed a couple of drops into an acorn bowl.

       It hadn't taken long for the creature to grow thirsty and began to drink from the acorn. She was deliberate in making sure that there wasn't too much since mice were much smaller than wolves and it would take less to take effect. She watched as one of the mice drank from the acorn.

       'Subject one has drank from the acorn' the silver medic noted in charcoal. Then she carefully picked up the acorn and unceremoniously dumped whatever was left - only a drop - onto the other mouse who didn't seem to like that and scampered away. She had been careful to only get it on the creature's neck so it didn't lick it off. 'Subject two has had contact with substance.'

       The argent wraith wanted to understand what the substance was. She felt like she had to. Was it safe to touch? What would the effect be on a healthy specimen that drank from it? She remembered the sickness that affected a pack that she had joined, killing more than half a dozen of them.

       This was even worse than the sickness the gold-eyed medic had faced. And after the events of last week, she was past "on edge" and was now thoroughly worried. What happened to those animals? Was it the substance or was it something else?

       The slate and cream medic waited in solemn silence, watching the mice's every move.