She hears the faintest howl coming from the woods, low and mournful...but it's not Mela's.
She stumbles through the woods and eventually reaches the clearing...there's a pack of foxes gathered around in a circle, some having more tails than others, all of them seeming incredibly mournful...and in the center of the circle lays Mela, still in her human form...she's-dying. She's passed out, pale...her fingertips are black and her lips are blue, veins painfully visible under her skin...one of the foxes is closer to her than the others, nuzzled into her-the source of the howling.