Wolf RPG

merrick, pleased by those that had come along, set out that afternoon in search of @Earp. he knew little of the man beyond his name, perhaps not even that. but he would come to know it. hunger speared the bearwolf but he did not pause in his travels, fording the edge of the swollen nameless river he had idly begun to call 'bearsong waters.' dramatic, but was not merrick also so?
on he went, pleased.

this man was the opposite of averna; where his sort-of relative was pale and silvered, this man was emblematic of the night's darkened peak. merrick was perturbed and allured; he came closer with a more considering step. "you could be a spy," he joked, "blending into anything you wanted." single eye flicked over earp with an assessing gesture. "what do you think of the place so far?"

attractive. bountiful. fertile. and tied to something that seized merrick's attention immediately. his ragged ears trained upon earp; the single eye shone with more intrigue than before. "what are the ancients?" did earp feel attuned to the woodland bears as the coywolf did?
shadowman became the focal point of the brat prince's existence — he was silent, waiting, trapdoor spider awaiting its choice moment to pounce.

merrick fell into the void of earp's eyes, considering slowly what had been said to him. it was sensible, he felt, that a man should keep his bloodties to the land pure.
but his gorge rose at the truth of what the shadow spoke. merrick did not think even he could stoop to such corruption, but the snake-eye glinted all the same in his mind, once, filing reluctantly the concept.
"here you're blessed by bears." flick of his shabby ears, pointed but in no way concealing the toothed grin that cut his face from side to side. 
"no incest required."

"well they gave us this valley, to begin," merrick purred, single eye gleaming. "in the winter the threat of them keeps others away, and in the spring — well," and here the boy finished with a chuckle. earp did not need him to elaborate upon what happened to those who did not praise the god well.
"i'm interested to know how you found your way to ursus," he inquired of the full-shadow man, eyeing him with open intrigue. "what you did before." a clear invite, and no judgement attached.

"four months," merrick answered, thinking of the things that had brought him here. had brought the bearwolves together. earp was an interesting sort, he decided; the atramentous nature of the accented man held several levels of intrigue.
"your last clan," and here he paused the question, tonguetip touching lips. all of it: the ancients, the sibling-fuckery, the way earp's voice sounded to his ear. "they came here?" priest. now that was a name, though merrick found himself found of this one's title, for he was in service to the bear now. "did you ever sacrifice then?"

had he known earp's thoughts, merrick might have pointed out that whilst ursus had only been here a handful of months, bearclaw valley had existed beyond the years of himself. he peered at the shadowman a long moment more, brimming with questions but asking nothing.
punishment by culling one from the packland. hmm. a word to put aside for later. tongue lolled; the man blinkd his single eye and lifted his chin. "let's go hunting." not so much an invitation as a command, and one meant for the darklord himself. he thrust shoulders and head beneath a shrubbery, hunting whatever scent seemed most intriguing.

he prowled into the undergrowth, pleased. there were rabbits here, of course; skunks, weasels, martens — but merrick wanted the quick grey fox he had seen a hundred times and never caught. "do you think it is possible for us to come back as something else? after we die," the bearwolf explained, not caring what derailed train of thought had dragged such a notion to his head.

"teaching?" he chortled a bit, amused. "i'm no teacher, earp. i just ... say whatever comes to mind, and if they listen, they listen." and many did, and many chose not to, and many had once listened but had moved on. ursus was a place that craved its autonomy, and that extended to each member. "maybe i will now, though." single eye hooked to the blackened pupils. "would it be wrong of me?"

"guess i'm just that charismatic," merrick purred, and meant it. for how else could he explain the nature of ursus, how he sought with regularity to separate wheat from chaff. and this allblack saint, this satyr come to them — merrick wanted another look beneath the man's skull at the rotating cogs. 
"there's a fox around here. he looks like a stormcloud. i want him." simple enough, and a laugh tipped earp's way besides.

amused by earp, merrick licked his own scarred lips. "easier said than done," came his gentle purling. "first, ah, we has to get close." this coalstained man and his sooty knowing stare; what had he seen? what had he become?
the boy pulled ahead, catching a glimpse of a shadow beyond them, and hungers whetted, began to stalk.

it was into an easy silence they moved, earp disappearing and reappearing between shadows, mirroring merrick as if he belonged in that way to the boy. the bearwitch marvelled; he thought of a thousand sundry ways in which he might put such a creature to use;
aha
the musky scent of flushed vulpine on the air, and the coywolf streaking along the trail in near-silence, scarce breathing as at last he held the trail of his great quarry.

merrick panted, grinning, catching earp's sideways glance. a jerk of his muzzle leftward, and he would dart right. they would pincer the fox between them in one of the bearwolf's favorite tactics, and then,
perhaps they would see how a fox loses its pelt,
merrick sped on and on and on, gleeful at how well earp had fit into the shadows, and how terrified the beast would be to see pure nightfall reaching for it.