Meadowlark Prairie to savour your accent

tags for ref <3

he would not go home.
there was no home.
it had been buried in her womb, a charnel house stained with his own tears.
merrick wandered. the scent of the nightwalkers still clung to his pelt, but was fast fading as his fur was touched with snow, with rain. it had begun to tangle, but he would not allow even @Astara to tend him, pulling away from all and withdrawing wordlessly into himself.
nothing in merrick had shifted; he remained unchanged, still-made, stillborn. empty. stagnant. 
there was but one way to feel, and he had accepted it before indra breathed her last.
let her name fade upon his tongue.
the boy began to hunt for flesh.

everything is different, as if someone had dropped the entirety of the Wilds in her absence and it had shattered on the floor. she's lost, familiar landmarks missing or marred, her way made difficult by floodplains and great cracks in the earth. most disconcerting are the great movements of the earth beneath her paws, and the distance cacophony of noise that erupts when the earth thunders. she has no idea what to make of it, but she has to believe that it won't be permanent, that Kaisteloki will be where she'd left it. 

where that is, however, she has no inkling. she's hungry, too, a great emptiness that threatens to consume her desire to do anything but hunt for what she can. the distant silhouette of a man serves as distraction, however, and is the first so far she's seen out here. in a place normally teeming with life, she can't believe it's a good sign. 

she barks, an attention-grabbing sound that is the only precedent to her approach, stepping lightly around depressions and furrows in the earth. "do you know what happened here?" she calls out when she thinks herself within earshot, not quite pausing yet.

he immersed himself in thoughts of why the change had not come to pass; they burned like iced water upon naked skin. lips trembling, he lowered his muzzle to the earth, searching across the scattered bones of a mouse for anything palatable.
it was not game he wanted, but blood; it was not hunger he wished to satisfy, but the dry-toothed gape of a soul unmended, left to chance.
merrick would have paced further, had not a bark rung out and paused his steps. a feminine billow of silken tresses and chestnut eyes, not quite wolf and completely fey with youth — the boy was careful not to drink the sight of her in too deeply, cunning, starving mind driving out the pain for a moment.
”i don’t think anyone knows,” merrick answered, a friendly sway to his plume. ”it’s everywhere, though.”

her own tail echoes the stranger's, easy friendliness set on her features. despite the subject matter at hand, the destruction that lay spread all around them, she is glad all the same to see another. he's certainly interesting looking, too—as if a fire was set on his crown, fading to ash and smoke down the rest of him. "it's horrible." she comments, a little subdued, though she can't quite believe that this destruction is everywhere. it must certainly end somewhere, and she'll find that place. 

"and it's all because of the shaking?" it was hard to miss, though she'd yet to experience the kind of quakes that had set of volcanoes, levelled territories and cleaved through stone and earth.

”it’s ruined lots of things,” merrick confirmed. he had yet to learn of the coastal flooding, the split mountain. and he found it all very irrelevant in this moment; if death was to come, he would be the one to escort it into existence.
”i’m finn,” the boy introduced, the lie slipping easily from his throat. ”i was heading toward the mountains, see what’s going on there. scouting for my leader.”
that was true, he supposed, bemused by his own willingness to mislead. ”do you think it will end?” the yearling inquired, continuing on with a dip of his head that invited her to walk with him.

the boy introduces himself, and she quickly offers her own name in return. "i'm fern." he's a scout, then, which could certainly be helpful. she takes a moment to attempt to discern the scents on his pelt, but they are entirely foreign, and faint enough as it was. she is prompted to reveal her own purpose here when he does, offering, "i'm a little lost. i thought i knew where i was going, but—well, everything looks so different." 

bashful smile stretches across her muzzle. some traveler she is, compared to the scout! she decided it would be positively impolite to immediately ask his help and be on her way, and besides, the offer of a travelling partner, as least for a little while, is too tempting to pass up. once she's nearer to the mountains, perhaps she'll be able to find her way, anyways. "it has to! it can't very well go on forever, i think." she'd hate if it did, even if the destruction couldn't go one forever. she liked the Wilds, especially the island she'd lost so long ago. she wondered if it, they, were doing alright.

fern. ”that’s a pretty name,” merrick grinned, suspecting the girl might be vulnerable to a gentle flirtation. were he after such things, the boy felt that bedding those of the female persuasion could be quite easy for him. but only astara had ever inspired such sensation in merrick; he was not eager to partake without those flames climbing his veins.
for now he was content to play the role of charming young man, escort to a lovely lost girl. in the mountains would lurk caverns; in the rocky recesses her vivid voice would vibrate with agony, unheard.
”i think it will stop, eventually. but we have to be careful until then. where were you headed?”
merrick punctuated the silence that followed with a sniff to the earth, as if his beautiful quarry was not already simpering and affable at his very side.

merrick is correct in his assumptions; his simple comment brings a shy smile to her face. "thanks," she offers, quite unsure of how else to respond and feeling a little stupid as she trails into silence, not quite able to wipe away the small twist of her muzzle. his next question, thankfully, moves things along, and the nervous bubbling in her stomach ceases. 

"i'm looking for a pack called kaistleoki. i was a member, but i wandered a little far one day and found myself on the wrong side of the mountains. i think i'm close, but i should have a better idea once we get nearer the mountains. it was on a river, but i haven't found the right one yet." she rambles as she walks by her side, conscious at once of how quickly she's walking, attempting to match his step pattern. but not too exactly—that would be strange, right? she doesn't want to slow him, or walk too quickly. a moment later, and her attentions shifted to her steps, finding it hard to return her full focus to the conversation in the same way it's difficult to do so after becoming aware of one's own breathing, hardly trusting her legs to go on without her guidance.

her smile charmed merrick! for a long moment, he thought of nothing more than pulling that glow of sunbeam from her lips and turning it to horror. a nod as she went on; she was so self-conscious, he decided, this fern of the girlish eyes and gentle paws.  "i know where kaistleoki is," he murmured. had he not found The Boy there, and his own would-be hunter? so careless of the father to give away the nest; perhaps one day, merrick would return to finish off the fledgling.
"mm, whitefish river, i want to say," he hummed, facing in a coastward direction. "was it inland from the ocean?" merrick asked — yes was the answer, but fern would confirm that for him, and then he would better be able to influence their trek.

oh, luck was with her! she glanced back at him as he spoke, fumbling over her paws a moment but quickly regaining her steps. "really?" she murmured, a little jolt of excitement going through her. would evergreen be very angry with her, should she return? he was certainly intimidating, at least physically, but he'd never been anything but kind the whole time she'd known him.

"that sounds right!" she offered when he gave the name—certainly, it was familiar. at his next question she thought a moment before nodding swiftly,  knowing the ocean was somewhere near, certainly, but not exactly where. she's silent a moment, considering, before asking trepidantly, "do you think you could show me the way, finn? or even just point me in the right direction; i'd be super grateful!" she does not think he'll refuse, for he seems kind in the same way that evergreen of speedy was, but she doesn't want to distract him from his mission, or get him in trouble, somehow.

so excitable; so enthusiastic about the very nature of their interaction. charming, in a puerile way. merrick found himself enjoying their exchange as he realized how easily guided fern was. 
”i’ll take you to where i think the river begins, near the mountains,” the boy offered, flashing her a roguish beam. ”there isn’t much hunting to be had, but maybe we can find something.”
now there was only the problem of astara, who would draw up merrick’s trail and assume all manner of untrue things, he suspected. his work then, should be quick.
”you said you got lost? what were you doing?” the young coywolf inquired with a teasing glint to his single eye. 

he agrees, and she beams, entirely glad for the guidance and the companionship. maybe they could be friends; where had he said he'd come from again? but no, she was getting far too ahead of herself, and it'd hardly do. "that'd be great! i haven't found much of anything in ages, i'm starving—even the fish seem to have run off." she grinned, and then chastised herself. he wouldn't think he stupid, would he? she dearly hoped not. 

luckily, he offers a distraction in the form of further questions, which she answers easily. "when I was little, i belonged to a pack called undersea. it was great! but I got lost then, too, and after i joined kaistleoki i thought i might try and find them again. it didn't go so well. maybe i should just stick in one place." her smile turns bashful again, really hoping he doesn't find her silly. hoping they move on quickly in their conversation, should he, she asks, "have you always been a scout? how do you know your way around so well?" 

"no, you're right. how did the fish manage to leave too?" merrick assured, seeking to assuage her girlish anxieties with the confidence of his own bearing. something seductive in it; though astara remained the only one he truly desired, the boy allowed himself a series of small images featuring himself and fern — entangled. how would she sound? it was irrelevant, after all; the only cries he wished to wring from those fluted lips were those of terror.
impassioned, the yearling strove for control silently. "most of a year i've been a scout," he answered. "i like to wander. it sounds like you might enjoy the same, fern. have you ever considered it?"
they were drawing near to the pack he did not know was blackfeather; merrick paused to peer in its direction for any sign of wolfish movement before pressing on, quickening his pace with an encouraging look at fern.

at his question, she purses her lips, half glad he doesn't think her stupid. she'd never really considered the why, only the what, though she supposes, "they might have gone to deeper waters. or—or maybe, fallen through one of the cracks." the ravines and sinkholes she's seen had all been landlocked, but she supposes it isn't impossible for the same thing to have occurred underwater. that seems bad, though, and some pressing nags at her, but she doesn't stop to wonder at it. 

her attention returns fully to him once more when he answers, and she takes a moment to consider before replying in turn. "I like wandering, exploring. but I'm not much good at finding my way back, or navigating at all, really. and being alone so often doesn't really suit me, I think." she wants her people, just like Dulce had said. Undersea where he true people, this she understood to be a basic truth of her character, despite the fact that her memories of the place were faded and sometimes, warped. but it was, had been, perfect; one day, she'd find that place again. 

they draw near to another pack, for a moment, she's hopeful, but the dark trees are entirely foreign. taking a cue from her companion, he hastens her step, leaning slightly nearer to him as her attention turns on the borderline, half expecting someone to charge out at them.

"there is an awful lot of solo navigation," merrick lamented as the trees beyond blackfeather beckoned. his stomach churned; it would be easy, then, to grab her now, but they could be wrested apart by whoever could hear them. nostrils flared; water nearby. "could use a drink," he suggested, turning them in the direction of the little creek.
the area would be dotted with willow and birch, branches hopefully interlaced. "have you got family other places in the wild, besides undersea?" merrick inquired conversationally, the very brush of moss beneath his paws enlivening him with a barely controlled dart of lust.
wait and wait and wait and wait; heartbeat tripping upon its own wires;  the serpent curls, biding its time.