Silvertip Mountain loss of breath

it takes a little while to regain her strength, but once she'd taken her leave from Sapphique, she wastes no time. Karst is still, to her knowledge, on that mountain; he belongs with her. or at least her father. but she thinks, at least—

she's traveling, and musing along these lines when the scent hits her, a direct blow to the solar plexus.

Ursus.

her heart is beating faster than she seemed possible as she draws closer, nostrils flaring. Ursus. how? why? so far. . . right? she'd come so far from the valley, and this definitely wasn't it.

she stares up the mountain, and the smells only grow stronger as she approaches.

mother.

a sob wrenches up her throat, lodging tight at the top. she stands, swaying slightly, afraid—unwilling—unable to call out.

stranger. intruder. a blood clot silhouette in the distance, piquing the interest of the void-touched creature lurking above. asperas kept to the dark corners that blended so well with her nightspun pelt as she descended, eyes ablaze and nostrils flared. so few strangers called upon the bear cult... none of their own accord since the birth of the unchild, as far as she knew. perhaps this one desired to meet the bear-god — either in the flesh, or in the void.
asperas slunk from the shadows with a crooning growl somewhere between warning and half-hearted greeting, lingering on her own side of the border with a possessive rigidity to her posture. she did not call for her parents, nor for the guardians of the pack. she did not greet the ruddy stranger with words. the cultspawn only watched.

a greeting leaves her mouth in a quiet sigh, a gentle exhalation of breath. she stiffens, but does not move, looking at the shadow with contemplative eyes. it strikes her so much as her mother—her brother—and she wonders. . .but she cannot assume.

merrigh, Avicus says, keeping her posture respectful, neutral. she's on unfamiliar borders, after all, even if the scents are all too familiar. wan' him.

she really wants astara, but she's suddenly bashful, and she cannot say her dam's name—damned tongue! her gaze rakes the ground, tail swishing slowly and quietly behind her. it's a strange feeling—

she hadn't been this weak before.

the time away has softened her.

garbled speech, a flash of the shadow of a mangled tongue within an unfamiliar maw. but asperas recognized the request... and it did not please her. slowly, almost lazily, vantablack lips peeled away from gleaming ivory teeth, followed by the telltale ripple of razored hackles. this time the rumble bubbling from her throat was no crooned greeting, nor even a warning. asperas stepped forward on stiff limbs, drawn up to full height, unimposing in the fine-boned lankiness of her still-growing form yet oozing hostility beyond her age. mine, the snarling voidsent conveyed with every hissing breath, every twitch of wrinkled muzzle, every shudder of thorny ruff.
no, asperas commanded, punctuated by another threatening step forward. not him. you will not have him.

the bruin-witch of ursus belonged only to his night-pearl.

wrong move, night-pearl.

forgetting herself—forgetting all rules—she ranges up to the girl with teeth bared, chin lifted high above the youth's still small form.

I—AM—HITH—'HAUGH-HER, Avicus roars, indigo eyes burning deep.

her mother's eyes. 

doesn't the girl recognize those, at least?

she is bristling, standing just shy of the border. should Aventus come, he'd kill her. but so be it. 

she wants to see Astara. and her sire, she supposes.

she needs help to get Karst back.

she will not be turned back by this whelp.

this time, asperas did not understand whatever the mangled cretin sought to communicate to her. she did not care. in her blind jealousy, her quickly-sparked ire, the voidsent saw only one thing.

a threat.

and she did not stop to think through the consequences, the logistics of such a fight. the bearberry had not yet grown into that foresight. but the violence written into the core of her, coded into her very being, spoke quite loudly of the opening left by the stranger's enraged show of dominance.

bloodthirsty from birth and merciless by nature, asperas lunged for avicus's throat.

a small dark shadow, at her throat.

once upon a time, Avicus wouldn't have hesitated to create a diplomatic crisis by throttling this stupid kid. 

but this wasn't "once upon a time."

she backs up hastily and lets loose a howl, at least for as long as she can, for @Astara and @Merrick. she will feint and backpedal for as long as possible; she doesn't want to make an enemy of her people.

is this growing up?

she wars with the impulse to show her might, chin raised sky high, bearing the blows the girls inflicts upon her person.

he was there, and swiftly. he had not thought avicus would return but here she was upon the borderlines, locked in a thrumming conflict with the sparking asperas.
"she is family," merrick seethed toward his snakeling, seeking to shove himself between them if need be. "she was born under the tooth of the bear," merrick murmured toward avicus now, swinging his gaze toward her.
what had happened? what life had lashed her so fiercely?
"she drew blood in infancy. you understand — blood flower."
the lantern eye searched her crimson features, the gaze of her mother. avicus smelt of seasalt and travel. "has the bear brought you back to us?"

while avicus warred within herself against the desire to shed blood, asperas waged a war quite different, for all its similarities. she had not anticipated the immediate regret of teeth meeting flesh, no matter the lesson taught to her by the rabbit, by her father.
merrick.
she had not anticipated the ruddy stranger's retreat, either, and knew in an instant that it must be for the sake of the bruin-witch. the unchild did not wait for the howl to confirm it, but that renewed her rage all the same. all of it — the shame and hurt, the jealousy and indignation — became one, a burning mass lodged in her throat and bleeding fire down into her chest. all of it, she turned outward, and poured like hot oil against the flesh of the one who had given such offense.

until the one who had sired her came, with scathing words to snuff the flame of her own ire. family, he proclaimed, and asperas felt for the first time the sting of betrayal.
she could not have him. and yet, she did.
momentarily stunned from her violent path, the voidsent was faced with a choice: flee in shame of failure, or commit every ounce of herself, and forge ahead, and chastisement be damned.

always, she chose the path of pride.
asperas did not allow more than a moment's reprieve, pushing past the bulwark merrick had made of himself however she might in order to press yet another attack, as vicious as the last, with no intention of relenting.

she could not have him.

i'm so sorry lmaooo

here is Merrick—

the boy, Avicus declared, eyes flashing toward the young shadow. Karrrhh. she rounds her shoulders, squaring them up, trying to mimic her friend's bulky stature. then nods to the southwest. he o'er 'herre. gonna geh' him.

before she can explain further, another strike from the dark little wench.

family! Merrick had exclaimed.

and, yet, Avicus doesn't feel so. she skirts away, avoiding those small sharp teeth, snarling.

if this one drives her away, and nothing to be said from her father, she will be gone for good.

fuck these Ursus wolves if so!

she will take Karst from the mountain and be done with it all.

again, plz don't let me hold up <3 I want him in here for reasons

He had been thinking, long and hard, about his encounter with Merrick. He knew in some ways where he wanted to go here, but in others, he was just as lost as before. This was not good, and he lamented it as he sought answers through the late-summer days. None were forthcoming; he remained stuck.

He hunted frequently and, of late, roamed the borders even more. It was not because he wished to protect their lands... rather, he sought to protect those outside. If he could send them away with words, then maybe they did not need to see the teeth of the bear.

No one should be forced to see those teeth.

But a few had beaten him to the first unfamiliar voice. Ashlar's tail sank, but he still walked forward timidly. It was one of Merrick's children, one he had not yet met, alongside the king himself. And... a familiar face. Whose voice he should have known, except he had rarely heard it. His ears pricked up immediately and a huge smile broke across his face.

They were tense, and there was a fight. Merrick was between them. But still, Ashlar couldn't help his happiness. You! She'd told him her name once, and he remembered it... but saying it now seemed strange. Like it had been a secret shared. He did not run to her as he wished, and held back. All of them were family - and though considered her a good friend still, when she'd left... he had failed to help her, just before. Perhaps she did not feel the same.

karst. tuur. suckled on the blackbird's milk and made a slave to his red girl. but it seemed avicus too was bound to him in some way. that was why she was here, and it was not the bear.
"ursus has eyes in that place," the bearwitch managed, thinking of aventus and his preparations for infiltrating their neighbors.
if tuur was there, then they would meet. and merrick, who had worked to keep ursus a savage secret upon the mountain; he knew that the meeting of red child with the rogue would bring the eyes of this world to suddenly light upon them.
"stay, a while. your mother needs you."
so cruel to utter! and ashlar went unnoticed for now; so harsh to say! and yet he knew he could not let avicus go, no matter what noble quest she now sought.
and then there were no more words. merrick rounded upon asperas with the controlled fury of a dragon's closing jaw. 
once he had allowed his children to come to blows and they had shed one another's blood. now they had been pared so long to their very core that merrick had come to know all its precious nuance 
he sought to grasp her scruff and shove her mercilessly, harshly, into the dirt. a warning growl poured from the confines of his narrow chest. merrick thrust his face close to asperas. "stand down."
an order. 
the set of his jaw meant more if she continued. ursus had survived through its violent creed, and he would use this to teach an unforgettable lesson if this little bearcub did not swiftly learn temperance.
the snakeling, the princess of ursus, and merrick was hurt to loom over her so.

and so merrick made his choice. this time, asperas understood. this time, the unchild made no move to defy the bruin-witch's denial, despite the rage thrumming in her veins, screaming for blood and fire and vengeance. how could he? HOW DARE HE?
but she would not, could not — no, not merrick —
she bore his wrath with muscles tensed but lacking resistance, lips still peeled back in a silent snarl. she held her pride tight between her teeth, and when the moment came, she slid from his grasp with all the grace of the snake he had named her as.
asperas did not look back as she fled deep within the territory, seeking that secret sacred place she kept to herself. she did not think twice as she stole away with the cursed gift the bear-god had bestowed upon her, the only thing truly tying her to the mountain now, so easily uprooted. as easily as a father's love.

she would not return to ursus.

i—

she shakes her head, still backing up, watching as the shadow wrestles with her father and then departs. her jaw is slightly slack, then she closes it, trying to take note of what Merrick has said.

i wanh—

and then she sees Ashlar, and straightens, eyes firming upon his dark brown form.

there is no right move.

heh'p me, she says to Merrick, to Ashlar, to everyone around them. geh' him bahh.

it's a longshot. he was just a bastard in Ursus. in fact, why did she care so much? no—it was silly. but she feels a strange protection toward him; she. . .

heh'p, she says, and looks directly at Ashlar.

He was shocked when the other wolf took off, watching with eyes as wide as the others. His tail stilled and some of his open joy fell away to confusion. As always, he just could not understand. Why would they greet her like this?

His attention snapped back when Avicus spoke. He'd only heard pieces, but the important part was now. Help. She wasn't asking him to fight.... she was asking for help with something else. And perhaps, this time, he could.

He couldn't know for sure if they'd allow it, but he nodded anyway. She was his friend - of course he would.

asperas slithered away from the fray she had created, lunging away on gangly nightmare legs for the tall and proud secrecy of ursus.
merrick felt as though she would go to her mother. the land felt as though it might crumble beneath his paws. why had the bear put such a shard in asperas so early? 
but the witch was not to question.
he would hurry to her after. the madwolf thought only that she had stormed away in anger, and felt relief that this conflict should be over.
he turned back to avicus, somehow irritated that she continued only to speak of this boy. but their reunion had been ugly. she was not to blame for that. 
merrick finally caught sight of ashlar, and saw the way his daughter's eyes fell upon the bard. 
"i see that i cannot stop you."
but he would not help. he had given enough to avicus this hour, and now he must mend his bond with the snake-child. 
"i gave him a place among us. he returned and i gave him another. now he has gone. he chooses no part of ursus."
"who harmed you?" merrick demanded suddenly.
the blaze of his eye fell to ashlar for a moment.

her eyes lock with Ashlar in an iron-clad understanding. yes, we must.

'hemm, she says fervently, nodding her head in the same direction as before. they had taken Karst; they'd taken her tongue. 'hadda go.

her eyes follow the path Asperas had taken upon her retreat. snap back to Merrick. im sure you have better things to do, they read.

but she is not here for reconciliation. she is here to exact revenge.

He felt out of place with the two of them as they exchanged half-words and concern. Ashlar's tail tucked some but this did not stop him from slowly moving towards her, all the while with eyes on Merrick. Would he stop him?

He had agreed to go and it sounded like they were rescuing someone who had left. The messages were mixed. I cannot stop you. He chooses no part.... Yet Ashlar felt this was something he could finally do. He would convince whoever they spoke of to return.

Maybe he would find his answers as a result.

I can help. He said, quietly, but with confidence. What they were asking was not a fight, not in the way he heard it.

merrick, finally, caught in another hurt. not questioning, not mention of her mother, nothing paused avicus in her foolish headlong quest.
he was not in a position to command.
her mother-gaze harmed him further.
ashlar, moving closer. merrick pinned him with an inscrutable look. in all things their way, ashlar had failed. perhaps this was to be his moment.
the dragon stood back and said nothing. he would not order ashlar to leave, but neither would he be stopped. if avicus wished some breakneck mission to rescue a foolish, forgotten child, then so be it.
inside him, the churning of hurt.

her father says nothing. looks disappointed. Ashlar says. . .something, to her surprise. her eyes cut to the dark young man, widening. she gives him a quick nod, fervent but brusque.

then snaps back to her father.

where Ma? she asks, chin lifted. maybe it's too late, forgotten, trailing. but Merrick had heeded her call, and not Astara. why?

she begins to meander toward Ashlar, taking her side at the other wolf's side.

she's still breathing hard, sharp sucking breaths through her gritted teeth.

posting once more to pull merrick out <3

"with your new brother and sister. she is weak these days," merrick purred darkly, though he was not at all pleased. for all his desperate happiness at seeing avicus again, it was tainted by her demands that someone not of their family be placed first.
he did not blame her for it, and so there was no forgiveness to give, but he would not stay.
the bearwitch turned, seeking to depart, leaving his blood flower and the bard to plan their hapless mission.