Bearclaw Valley antlermoon

sibling reunion! but AW <3

"stay here."
they stood in the center of snowy rivenstone, she and he. 
"i am going to get your brother."
it would be her chance to run. this deep into the territory @Indra III did not have a dream of escape. the den shared by arielle and aventus was too close to the front of the valley. 
but she would be unchained here and without his gaze upon her.
merrick did not warn her again what might happen if she ran.
he turned away and circled out of the meeting-place, to where @Abel Redleaf was kept in tumbleview.

They came up from stillrift together, slowly due to the limp that the girl endured. Indra was told to wait. She watched as the one-eyed  man loped away and stared off after him for a minute, straining to see where he went as he vanished. Indra didn't know how far he'd have to go or where her brother might be hiding; he hadn't been in stillrift with her.
Leaving wasn't an option. It was so far from a possibility that Indra didn't even think about running, even after Merrick had warned her against it. She didn't want to disrupt what little trust she'd built with these people — with the bear — mostly because she felt she owed them all. The bear had saved her, hadn't it?

sorry to keep y’all waiting!

Abel looked a mess. 
The ends of his fur which now hung over his willowy form had knotted. Clumps of dirt burrowed into the forming mats. His lighter fur had turned brown. 
His claws which were once pink and pointed were now blunt and blackened from lack of movement.
His breath was rancid. His eyes were sunken.
Abel was a mess and he had no desire to do anything about it. He couldn’t even bring himself to stand. Even when the one-eyed man approached all he could do was lift his head and whine beneath his breath.

<333

merrick was without grace. he'd never had the capacity for it and that did not change when he came upon the pathetic boy prone in his den and whinging. "get up," the bearwolf snarled, clouding the weakened young features with a cloud of horrible breath.
and if abel did not show signs swiftly enough that he would obey, merrick meant to grab his scruff and drag him bodily from the den, roughly down the stones until he rested at the bearwolf's feet.

She returned to her usual post with half a rabbit hanging from her jaws. She’d eaten some, but carried the rest for Abel. When she caught Merrick’s scent in the area, her heart lurched. In the early days of her heat cycle yet, she was still ravenous. But when she realized Merrick had gone for Abel, a different feeling seized her.

She caught his command as she approached, and pinned her ears. She clenched her jaws, causing the rabbit’s bones to crack audibly. She growled, a low warning note.

She hadn’t been taking great care of Abel. She hadn’t been terribly sympathetic or nurturing. But maternal instinct flooded through her now, as her hormones surged. she stepped forward, stiff-legged. If Merrick made a move to touch her captive child, she’d drop the rabbit and tear into his flesh instead.

permission to skip indra

Abel didn’t budge, even when the man growled his command. He wouldn’t need to. The beast seized him by the scruff, eliciting a yelp from the worn child, and dragged from the spot. 
He kept his eyes fixed to his paws that fumbled beneath him. He dare not look up until he was taken to whichever hellish place was around the corner. But he couldn’t help but take a peak towards the sound of cracking bone.
The annoying woman stood in the path of the beast. Abel didn’t know what to make of it.

indra waited.
abel lay at his feet.
ash growled.
merrick rounded on her with clack of jaws and thrust of a hardmuscled shoulder; it was respect that kept him from desiring to wound her; it was something else which compelled him to act at once;
to remind;
in another world he might have already possessed her and he him, but astara's ghost lived inside merrick, haunting all the corners of him with her indigo light, and this was how it must be, for this was how he wished it.
but there was no dearth of wanting light in his single eye as he sparred with her a moment;
"they are blood of my blood," he said in regards to the children who lay prone and raptured.

Yellowed fangs grabbed Abel and dragged him to his feet and just as Æsilfír dried in to snap at Merrick, she was warded off by a hefty shove of his shoulder. His jaws clicked far too close to her ear for comfort as she side-stepped, but did not completely yield. 

She stood, feet squared, head lowered and teeth bared. In that line eye she saw no ounce of wanting, and that rejection spurned her. If she could not have what she wanted, then he could not either.

”That doesn’t make them yours. He is my charge,” She snarled in response. Blood meant very little to her, and she doubted it would save the children from harm, either, considering that he had it out for their mother. Still, this was Merrick’s pack. Her growls quieted a bit. ”What do you want with him?” She asked. 

She glanced to Abel, and then back to Merrick. Wherever the boy went, she would go too.

merrick ran tonguetip over toothridge and regarded ash with a cocked head. "perhaps i'll kill them and save their bitch mother a trip."
why did she goad him now;
why did he respond?
"it matters for everything. if you knew the story of my first indra, you would understand that they are part of her too." voice wretched. dry. muted. 
"she is waiting in the meetingplace. i mean to reunite them." merrick did not move toward abel again; all his blazing fire was fixed in totality upon ash.

She tended and flicked her tongue over her teeth to wet them when he made an arrogant threat. Like a sceptre jabbing her in the ribs, she flinched and hissed a breath through her teeth. She could tell he was simply jousting, now. It seemed unlikely at all he’d want to kill them. 

”You would tempt a mother into battle over the blood of her children?” She chastised. ”Sounds more like a suicide mission. Don’t make this so hard for yourself.” she uttered in a low voice. Sending Indra into a grief-fuelled fury would get him killed for sure. 

She turned toward Abel, and moved toward him. Still hunched at Merrick’s feet, but she went to his side- so she might act as a buffer if Merrick sought to punish the boy for no reason. ”D’you wanna go see your sister Li’l Man?” It was more rehetorical than anything else, and she lowered her muzzle to give him a gentle nudge and prompt him to get to his feet. If he moved willingly, he’d get dragged around a whole lot less.

The man released his grip on his nape to snap at Æsilfir, who’s growls barely ceased. 
Abel glanced between the two as he spoke. He was confused by the woman’s aggressive nature (did she not serve the beast?). He was frightened further by the man’s threat to kill the redleaf siblings.
But most of all, he was shocked. Abel believed his mother was killed. The man had said much. Thoughts of seeing her once more were nothing but hopeful fantasies that had now been cast aside. Now he suggested Laurel had lived, intentional or not. Abel’s eyes widened. His heart skipped a beat.
Then another when he heard of his sister.
His head snapped back towards the woman, and he nodded hastily. His eyes glowed with newfound anticipation.

ash betrayed him in that moment;
he heard her voice change;
he saw that she did not keep her sharp lines, but grew motherly.
it disgusted him. they were not present for such.
merrick stood back and stepped aside. he would not order her; both of them blurred and fell from his sight. 
but he would expect ash to bring him. this meeting would not be skipped.

Given a choice, the young wolf responded with a quiet nod. Æsilfír wondered if Merrick might sneer, knowing he’d be leading the boy to his death. But he said nothing, simply turned around and began to stalk away. 

Ash’s hackles settled and she reached over to give Abel a soft touch with her nose, before she began to follow after Merrick, assuming that Abel would follow so that he could see his sister again.

For the length of time Merrick abandoned her, Indra did not think of leaving that spot even once. She felt her belly churn, all at once starving and nauseated by her anxiety. There was a nagging feeling like she should be doing something else - like the shadows were watching her - and so she looked around at every snap of twig or shift of wind through the trees, expecting something.

last post for me since so much has happened since! <

reunited.
guarded by ash and merrick, the siblings were allowed into the presence of one another once more. it was something that he wished to wield as a tool: a safeguard against either of them attempting to escape without the other.
a low wind rattled the branches. merrick chuckled.