He rested, likely not for as long as neccessary, then spent a day descending the Sunspire mountain. It was an impressive formation that filled Revui with a deep longing; but he could not look back now. He was doing as Kukutux had suggested - he was leaving his family behind in order to find his own path. He made quick work of the lower hills, and felt the first wave of relief flood across him as a gust of brisk springtime wind ruffled through his serrated scruff. It wasn't much - but before him rose smaller spires that opened up to sprawling green hills, an azure sky blotted by creamy clouds.
As he wove his way through the gulley and through a forest Revui came upon a river, and there he stopped to rest for an hour or so, letting the afternoon slip away while he bathed and drank, investigating the bank on the adjacent side. He considered lingering to fish, but by the time he made up his mind the sky had darkened to moody oranges and purples. He moved on to the sprawling meadow next - and there, surrounded by nothing but tall pollen-rich grass and a purple sky brimming with stars, he knew that above all, he wanted to show Arcturus what he had found.
in the days that passed, merrick had turned his baleful gaze upon easthollow. the wolves of bearclaw would grow fat and bored if he did not give them something to do, and for the present, the pack where laurel resided was as good as any.
mouth sewn into a grim line, merrick lowered his muzzle outside the valley, picking up the changing traces of astara's scent. his blackbird — he tried not to think of it.
now a grey-smudged shadow silhouetted against the dying light of the day. in silence merrick approached slowly, shadows darkening him to a vulture with a shard of topaz set in his face.
It was as if his thoughts had manifested his own kin, for the dark shape took form and drifted near enough for him to notice. Upon spotting the other wolf Revui felt a conflicting wave of emotion flood through him, but reasoned swiftly that it could not possibly be Arcturus. They looked more ragged, and judging by the slanting light that flooded from the horizon, touched slightly with a warmth to their coat that Arcturus lacked. Revui did not immediately view them as a threat and so he remained neutrally poised within the meadow.
He remained vigilant all the same, though. Listening for footfalls (which were subdued, and made him immediately suspicious), for any kind of intonation from the stalking shadow. Growing quickly bored of being the subject of the stranger's attention, Revui boldly turned to blatantly stare them down, a frigid gaze meeting the embers set within the stranger's gaunt face with as much interest as a prison guard might afford an inmate.
a smirk.
teal ice, sloughed off from glaciers; two hard eyes fell upon merrick and he felt himself shiver a bit to have found such a hard-edged creature in his keep.
"bold," the boy-king commented, cocking his head as he stopped some feet away. he made no move t veil his scrutiny, eye flickering with curiosity over the man's ashen hues.
merrick, the traveling snake oil salesman.
merrick, with proverbial hands at the latch of his suitcase.
"this is ursus." didn't you smell all the piss?
He showed no sign of having heard the boy speak, not a twitch nor a shift of his eyes from their empty stare. Not until a name was issued, and Revui finally looked away from the stranger in order to peer around the emptiness of the meadow. He did this in one fluid movement and without much fanfare; stoicism, or boredom, take your pick.
Not much to look at.
He glibly surmised as his gaze rested on the boy again. It wasn't entirely certain if he was speaking of the terrain or the wolf in his presence. They appeared young - like himself, the giant realized - except they were smaller, not that size mattered much when it came to true threats. Small things could be terrors. The boy looked hardened and Revui had half a mind to ask aloud if they were a warrior, and then didn't.
Then, he recognized that the stranger had one eye missing. Did I mention Revui was slow?
slow or not, merrick enjoyed the cold directness possessed by the stranger. he supposed this man reminded him of skoll in several ways.
"most of it is next door," merrick chirruped in response. my my my — to warm that permafrost stare. "if you're not doing anything, i could use some help staking out this herd. there's calves in there."
he arched a brow and stood waiting, placid but alert. the newcomer hadn't been occupied; merrick was unconcerned over acceptance of his offer.
Next door was vague at best. He wondered if the boy meant the mountains flanking them, or something further ahead that he had not seen yet? The mention of possible food did hinge his attention from the horizon to the nearer patches of grass, towards which Revui looked and then paused to observe. The boy stood waiting for a reply. He gave one, but nothing verbal—the slackening of his taut shoulders and a shifting of his weight as he began to stride towards the distant grouping of bodies. While he watched these shapes with a new sense of focus, his other senses remained alert to anything the boy might do.
merrick was pleased to pull to the larger man's side. "a man of few words," he commented, though there was nothing but approval within his tone. he took the next moment to drag in the gunmetal crags and heavy step; this stranger was a shard of rock where merrick was a harmful spike.
he was assured, somehow, and curiously he thrust his worn ears toward the other. "they still bring their babies here," the bearwolf grunted, pausing atop a hillock to stare hungrily at the milling herd. "it's like they want one to be snatched."
a snicker, and he was off at a lengthening lope.
He pauses atop the rise and peers down to where the herd lingers, watching their shapes as they mill about. There are fattened does, and some with smaller lookalikes cavorting like fools along the outskirts of the group. Intrigued as he was by the sight, it took the physical prompt of the boy vaulting towards the gathering to get Revui in the mood to move. He still wasn't perfectly healthy, a fact he had concealed, but he could serve as a distraction or at least a set of teeth should the herd turn against them. If they kept to a safe distance it would spook the herd regardless, and hopefully at least one fawn was still too new to escape.
the boy was reticent and silent, the opposite of gregarious, talkative merrick. refusing to allow a wall of quiet to be erected between them, the coywolf flicked his tail, dropping the speed of his gait. "the price is blood," merrick blurted cryptically, turning his single eye upon his few-worded companion with a hot expression.
it passed as quickly as it had come, and merrick began to creep forward again.
He turned an ear as the boy spoke again, and while Revui wasn't sure about the meaning behind the words, he thought that it might have been an offer. Shed some blood, get a hot meal - that was the way of things. He was already following the boy towards the herd; he could be the muscle, the bulwark facing a wave of bodies if the shadow spooked them. The mothers would run without thinking at first, he had seen this before; so startled by danger that they temporarily forgot their children. That would be the prime moment to strike.
Merrick was ahead of him. He was smaller but faster, something that Revui had overlooked even though Hydra had often insisted that he learn to be better. When the boy went one way, Revui went another - more direct, drawing towards the center mass of the gathered bodies, which prompted segmentation, as expected. Some veered for the shelter of trees while others - panicking - bolted across Merrick's path while their newborns struggled to keep up.
merrick pursed his lips thoughtfully, but his eyes roved the ripple of muscle in the stranger's body. yes. trade blood for a place. why not. he was clearly a warrior, and those would prove useful in the times to come.
answering the silent edict of their kind, merrick let his companion tank, using his own fierce DPS to track the galloping herds that thundered before him.
the ashen beast was fearless, and the boy found himself buoyed, leaping through an opening between the milling bodies to seize a calf. it kicked out with knobby legs, but he wrestled it to the churned earth, closing sharp jaws upon the back of its neck and eyeing the cow that snorted and began to trot back toward the predator and her wounded child.
Revui did not notice which creature was chosen to fall, but he saw the erratic shift in an adult doe as they doubled-back, and moved to act himself. She came to the rescue of her child; Revui, throwing himself between Merrick and the mother. He snapped at the air, at her, and crowded closer and closer, which served as a thin distraction. The doe was insistent on returning to their calf and called out for it, swinging its head and stabbing with a few kicks, and Revui shot forwards in time to grapple with a wrist, shake his head violently, and hear the splintering of bone.
the calf gasped out breaths from its now-torn throat; merrick dodged nimbly from his companion's path, eyeing the whirling stamp of hoof and hoarse breath and snap and bellow
he swept back to cut across the cow's flank, delighted by the heavy jaws of the stranger that had come to him, to ursus, to the bears, to the throb in his veins as blood spilled between his teeth and he choked upon a laugh that splutted a spiderweb of crimson across the elk's straining hide.
The crippled doe balked at him, swaggering, but persisted despite its injury and Revui had to slouch sideways to avoid their off-kilter approach. Merrick moved in just as swiftly, abandoning the calf as it drowned in its own fluids. As he ventured for the mother's exposed side Revui roared before her, triumphant, incited by the taste of blood between his teeth - then bowled forth and lunged for her chest, her neck, her face, and while the doe spiraled to escape him she placed herself closer to the shadow.
They tag-teamed the beast mercilessly; it soon became apparent that Revui had lost himself in the chaos of it, inflicting wounds that would not outright kill her - just to watch her bleed. To feel superior, powerful. He peeled skin from her shoulder with a scrape of his fangs, rebounded to bludgeon at her with his momentum, snapped at her legs, tore an ear clean off; anything to keep his blood warm and furious in his veins.
and merrick felt the push and pull of great energies between them, and found himself suddenly realizing he had never before exposed the muscle of a large beast such as this before. the bloodied mountain of ash crushed her ear beneath the tectonic force of jaws far larger than merrick could ever dream his own to be.
he bit into the tendon between thigh and belly, provoking a howl of anguish from the animal. she stumbled, slid in grass wet with her own blood, and her haunch smashed against the ground. merrick darted forward, seeking the rolling white of her eyes with his incisors as he cackled merrily toward his bloodied cohort.
Their aim had been the calves of the herd — but now they were set upon the mother and there was no stopping them. Revui especially. He grew increasingly assertive with his strikes, wedging himself dangerously near the mother's flailing hooves or forcing her off-balance with a snap near the raised broken limb, harassing, harassing, harassing; he heard the serpentine laughter of the boy and flashed a bloodied grin his way, his vision fogged by his blood hunger. In place of Merrick he saw Arcturus; they were together again, maiming this weeping hind as she fought to save her babe.
He was struck by a powerful nostalgia as he rounded between the mother and her struggling calf, by now having choked nearly to death on its blood. It could not call out but it tried, weaker and weaker each time, and Revui
wanted to play with it the way they had before — but then the mother shrieked a new, terrible, empowering dirge that drew his attention away again. She sagged away from Merrick and tried to brace herself, only to be reminded of her crippled limb - too late. Together the brothers would fall upon her and strip her away.
merrick would forever idolize the ferocity of this cow to protect her guttering young. it seemed every mother aside from his own was made up of maternal bones, even as he stripped skin from them to provoke throat-tearing shrieks. it seemed every mother aside from indra would have stayed alongside their child —
oh he was bitter bitter bitter
wormwood teeth tore into muscle.
he did not know when she died, only that she did; he crept back to the calf with a sore jaw, matted with the torrents of scarlet he and his companion had wrought from the cow. placing a paw upon its dying flesh, merrick cleaned bits of tissue from between his teeth with a quick-working tongue, and then placed his single eye upon the bloodied ash of the man.
"welcome to ursus," merrick whispered hoarsely, blood dripping from one corner of his mouth as he grinned indelicately.
Down she went. The rest, a blur. Pieces of slick meat pulled from a fragile chassis; like the babe, the mother drowned. She flailed against the dirt and then lay still, and over her lingered the menacing Merrick, vulturine. As he grinned up to Revui, the gunmetal man grimaced in return — breathing heavily, exhilarated, and soon, well fed.