Aloe and Gnath

Aloe is a corrupted pup with a black-ticked cape and vile, unfocused eyes. She is an underpaw of Phoenix Tribe's first Head Scout, Mercy, and Cedar. She is a littermate to Sigil and Crumb and a younger sibling to Fern and Willow.

Gnath is a colony of parasites that live in Aloe's brain. It is part of a larger gnathostomaic infection that infests her central nervous system and gastric wall. Aloe contracted the parasites in her youth by eating a "freaky looking fish" as a dare from her siblings.

View her infection progress here.

Puphood
Spoiler
Aloe was born a cream furred pup with a black ticked cape and yellow eyes. She was such a mama's girl back then! She was often found nuzzling up to her mother's flank or trying to play-fight with her. Mom stayed full-time in the pupsitter's den and spent every waking moment with her litter, showering them with love and affection. Aloe got everything she asked for from Mom and became very outgoing, borderline reckless. She always knew Mom would save her if she got into trouble!

Her father, on the other hand, gave tougher love. Mercy found Aloe to be a bit loudmouthed and tried to lecture her on holding her tongue. It never worked, mostly due to Mom going behind his back and encouraging Aloe to speak her mind.

Aloe had a rivalry with her littermate Sigil. As soon as they could walk, they were trying to outpace the other. From racing through the camp to keepaway games with hooves and bones, the two seemed up to something at all times. She liked giving him a tough time when he tried to be the group leader, questioning his judgments. When push comes to shove, Aloe trusted her brother when he seemed to strongly believe something.

Crumb, on the other hand, was her nap buddy. He found their explorations and competitions tiring and preferred to relax by their parents' sides. When Aloe was feeling clingy with Mom, Crumb would usually follow suit, hoping to sneak in another nap. It was a win-win; Aloe got more mom time and Crumb got more sleepy time! They could outvote Sigil when he wanted to explore, which led to him playing more with their father or chewing on their toys alone.

Once the pups weaned, Cedar let underpaw Kala bring them on her journeys to the river. Cedar, Hayden, and D'arc would carry them to the bay, where they would be suprvised as they explored the riverside. Kala encouraged the pups to not drink the river water, trying to teach them about her water filtration system. She would get too excited and say big complicated words none of them understood, so they instead made faces at each other while she rambled.

Sigil managed to actually catch a fish one day! They didn't know what it was, and they certainly didn't know what those lumps were on its body! Weird, right? Even Crumb seemed to get caught up in the wonder of this weird animal, shooting Aloe a coy grin and daring her to eat it. None of them had fish before, and it looked gross! Aloe wrinkled her nose and refused while her littermate egged her on. Ultimately she looked to Sigil to break the tie, and after some consideration, he joined in daring her. She took a big, gross bite! Ewww, it tasted wet and squishy and slimy!

Aloe's tummy didn't feel so good after that, but after several reassurances from Mom that it was normal, she went about her usual pup antics.

Changes began a few days later. She complained a lot about tummy aches, and she always felt too queasy to eat. She was taking more naps with Mom than even Crumb could tolerate! Her consciousness was fading in and out even when she was awake, staring out into nothing for minutes at a time. She had scary moments where she couldn't control her body, where it wouldn't move or couldn't stop twitching. Her fur seemed to be ticking darker, which Mom attributed to stress and the coming winter. Everyone felt concerned when her skin started swelling at her legs, puffy red bumps that came and went.

Gnath began to have their first thoughts. They reached her central nervous system quickly due to her small body mass and reached her brain stem, creeping up into her brain.

Their brief moments of motor function evolved into perception with their host's senses. Their first memory was being curled up by their host's broodmother, who was making soft, low, melodic sounds as her spawn slept. Gnath's unfocused gaze passed by the siblings' pelts, which were buried in a second wolf's long red fur. The den was dark and smelled thick. Their host's mouth tasted like bile from throwing up its food, and their abdomen pricked sharply. They let the female wolf's sound pass through their ears - the last thing they thought was how painful their body felt. Painful. Painful... they twitched a leg into the large brown animal, which began to gently lick their head.They slipped out of control of Aloe's consciousness at that thought, and the pup fell asleep.

Aloe didn't realize she was sharing her consciousness. She started feeling better after Gnath's first surfacing - not in the tummy, but in the rest of her body. She was eating and drinking a lot, which Mom was overjoyed to see. Her memory seemed to be getting worse, and the other wolves seemed exasperated they had to explain things she had been there for.

Likewise, Gnath was always a step behind Aloe's development. They gleaned some words from the host species and could walk, chew, and swallow, but was lagging behind their host. The wolves seemed to look at the host oddly. They disliked the pain they experienced and tried to slow spawn rates in their host, although they didn't have effective influence on parasites outside of the nervous system.

Aloe felt weird in the tense atmosphere her family seemed to be in. She was bouncing back to her funloving personality, though, and managed to shatter the ice here and there by cracking some jokes or getting competitive with Sigil. Her fur was a darker, peculiar shade of brown, but most symptoms deeper than her skin seemed to improve.

Once Aloe became an underpaw, her stomach pains had become something like normal to her. She insisted she learn with her brothers, Lynn, and Kala, but was ordered by Mom and Twig to spend most of her days resting in the Bitter Den to treat her symptoms.

One of the Swift Claws plans to abandon her on a hunt for the good of the pack, since she doesnt track well and her dizzy spells lead her to get lost easily. However, Gnath learns now to survive they have to harness their body power and mind power. They save Aloe, and hear the first "thank you" from her consciousness. Their words strike Swifts as horrific and they steer very, very clear of Aloe, highly dissatisfied with her presence. She only earns their respect once she starts killing - and killing well. At this time, Aloe's skin is turning a charted black color, the bumps are continuing to swell and multiply across her body, and her eyes begin to shift in a deeper, bloodier, glazed orange. Her eyesight remains oddly unchanged.