Bearclaw Valley "I have plans for you."

The soldier marched his way through the valley until he came to another impasse: a clear path carved along the heart of the valley where wolf-scent lingered.

Although he did not recognize who left the markings, Glaukos found himself thinking back to a conversation he'd had as a boy; except, fragmented. He did not remember the woman's name, or the bulk of what they'd been speaking of. He remembered a mixture of feelings, and in his current state—and after so many years—it did not make sense. All of this he put aside.

The smart thing to do would be to stand and wait, perhaps to watch for patrols if the scents were fresh enough. Maybe to linger and make another camp, try to count the bodies if he saw any; but, Glaukos did not feel smart right now. He was exhausted, and wounded, and frustrated.

He chose to ignore the scents of other wolves and passed over the path, hiking his way deeper in to the valley. He did not move as if he owned the place (this was not Rivenwood) but there was a certain familiarity that gathered inside of himself as he roamed.

Once, this place had been his home.

Ameline remained as close to @Ancelin as would his shadow- perpetually bound to him and incessant with her demands. They tended to their borders still, even in her time of need- though their passionate cries proved to be less effective than a howl As a means to mark their claim. 

Her glossy gaze sharpened when she caught the scent of another wolf wafting in on the wind- and she realized that the stranger had trespassed over their markings and into the valley, beyond her current position.

Kindness. Humility. Forgiveness. All things she was trying to convince herself that she could have in her new reign and yet it was impossible for her to quiet the anger that rose like an angry fever within her. Perhaps it was hormonal, perhaps it was because she was overtired- but she snarled and issued a rallying and began to lope down the narrow path in pursuit of the one who dared trespass at a time when she felt so emotionally fractious.

There was a call deeper within the valley—not so far that Glaukos was ignorant to it, but not so close that it was of huge concern to him. As the call sounded there was a flash of movement and the soldier paused, lifting his head to peer after the shape of another wolf. Another woman. The fur between his shoulders began to lift with unease, while Glaukos stared at them in the manner of a bear waking from hibernation, swinging his attention to and fro as they ran along the path.

She was defensive; her teeth bared with a snarl, but Glaukos did not move. He saw no reason to run yet, and would not want to incite the woman further in to a predatory chase regardless. Neither did he advance beyond where he stood. Instead, Glaukos was a bloody, brooding gargoyle.

It wasn't too surprising that someone still lived here in the valley. Beyond having found their scents, he knew it to be a fertile place and a well protected one as well, at least in the past. The woman who came careening down the path looked healthy enough and on the younger side; perhaps she had been born here too, in a previous year.

Has Ursus risen again? He bellowed, his question emotionless, his features sullen. There was no fear within Glaukos—but there was the edge of danger in case this woman got too close.

The man in the distance loomed as if he was a great statue, unmoving now that he realized others could be on their way. In the shrinking distance between them his voice boomed. 

Lilia wouldn’t have hesitated to attack regardless of the fact that this was potentially a new recruit. But this wasn’t Lilia; not completely, anyway.

She glared, fastening her salty blue gaze to him as she slowed her pace to a stiff-legged walk. She bared gore-stained teeth at him and uttered a low growl of warning. 

”Wrong pathword,” She growled. She noted his wounds- his weak spots, as she would consider them now. ”That pack ain’t here but we are. That maketh you a trethpather but I get the feeling that ain’t thomethin’ you never done before,” Someone had torn a chunk out of him; she pushed her whiskers forward to see if she could catch a trace of scent on him, but the scent of blood masked it.

He would have snorted if he'd cared enough about her impediment; the concept of a pathword made sense to some extent though, and he put aside the rest of it. The answer was there: Ursus had not risen again. There were no ghosts or ghouls here, no one-eyed witch doctors, nothing. It didn't matter at all really, but Glaukos was still curious.

The woman was possessive of this place. Glaukos flashed his teeth but it wasn't menacing, at least not on purpose — it was closer to a wheeze through his teeth, a mirthless laugh, a gasp of it anyway.

I'll leave. There was no reason to be here and he knew it. There was no Ursus, there was no Avicus—he knew that part already, she was on the Rise—and there wasn't a reason for Glaukos to linger. He pulled back a step but he made a point to regard the woman in a lazy manner, almost dismissive, and still without worry.

I was only curious of the place I was born. His nose wrinkles as he sucks in a breath, clears his throat. There's that sleepy quality to his expression as he turns his attention away from her, and begins to stalk the path without even watching where he was going—because he knew these paths so well, even now.

ancelin stepped from the long shadows across the path of the man. he didn't like how the stranger wasn't taking ameline seriously, but more than that, the rogue in ancelin saw how he moved.
he'd been born here.
"what is ursus?" he asked in deadly calm, the melonii indigo eyes glinting as his teeth glimmered in a horrendous parody of a grin. the man was big, huge even, but he was standing in the territory clouded by ameline's scent, and they was enough to slowly bring his hackles prickling.

His posture failed to show any signs of being willing to leave. A flash of his teeth was all that was given- a sign that led Ameline to believe that he didn’t consider her a threat. 

She caught Ancelin’s scent- and knew he had managed to get closer than she. She kept her eyes on Glaukos so she might not give away her mate’s position, and she felt at least appeased that he was willing to leave- but the note about this place being his birthplace piqued her interest. 

And Ancelin’s too, it seemed. She padded closer, trying to deny the urge to simply wave the man off and beg Ancelin to fulfill her needs. Deep down inside, she admired too the formidable stature of the man- and felt a burning in the pit of her stomach. 

Hornones, she told herself- hormones and nothing more. 

So she moved to Ancelin’s side and watched the other man with interest, now that it seemed he might provide them the missing links in their knowledge of the beautiful valley.

What did it matter if new blood came and took residence in this place? He held no claim to it, only the ghosts that inhabited a time and place that no longer existed. Glaukos didn't know why he even came this far in the first place.

His thoughts were suddenly and intrusively flooded with the image of a den whose floor was soaking red mud, and he saw the looming shape of a great bear standing glass eyed above him; or was it his children he saw, with himself the looming figure?

What is Ursus? A voice ruptured the air behind him, beside him; close enough to be a surprise and far enough to avoid the sharp lash of his glare when Glaukos returned to himself. With his focus divided he only heard the first wolf, the slurring woman, move to stand beside the other.

A coven of powerful witches. Glaukos would answer, and the glare in his eyes became a faraway thing. Followers of now dead gods. He wasn't sure if he could believe that, though. Given how his life had panned out so far—had Glaukos ever really escaped from his role as a subservient little boy, afraid of the wrath of those more powerful than himself?

Bothered now by this level of introspection and strange vulnerability that flooded him, he grimaced at the pairs of eyes trained upon him and stalked with more insistence along the path. His movement was sudden, hulking, and boldly close to them; but it was clear he did not mean to strike, only to continue on his way in this distracted manner.

a coven of powerful witches.
ancelin exchanged a look with ameline and kept right up with this stranger, now putting a respectful buffer of space between he and the giant as his interest grew.
followers of now dead gods.
his father hadn't said anything about this; ancelin's brow furrowed deeply. "aventus. do you know that name?"
it felt awkward in his mouth; the young bearclaw couldn't remember the last time he'd spoken his dad's name aloud. indigo eyes studied the stranger and then ameline; he shot a smirk her way, jerking his chin up in a manner that said i see you, hottie.
but there was more here, more to know. more than what the man said. ancelin could see it in the way the man's stare had become leaden with memory. for a moment, the threat sat suspended over the stranger's head. "aventus," he said again, voice firming.

Ameline resisted the urge to snort, skeptic of both magic and witches. Instead, she showed her disbelief with a slight wrinkling along the bridge of her nose. She couldn’t tell if the man feared or revered these wolves of Ursus, or if he was ambivalent; he was difficult to read.

He’d humoured their questions, but they seemed no more intriguing to him now that he’d been assured that Ursus remained no longer. 

He moved forward and with a low growl, Ameline moved to block his path, baring her fangs in warning. 

Ancelin asked a question- and while she wished for her husband to have answers, she would not weather the sin of trespass. She thought to warn him- but wondered if the mention of Aventus’ name might be enough to stop him in his tracks.

It was enough.

The soldier's shoulders tensed together, his brow creasing. He watches the man for a beat and focuses his attention on him for a second. How did they know this name? He draws a tense breath in and there is some kind of recognition or understanding in the hard expression.

Aventus and Avicus, son and daughter of... Merrick. Saying the name of the one-eyed man aloud, here, felt somehow dangerous. Glaukos knew better than to expect a dead man to have power, but Merrick had been such a real and tangible force to Glaukos growing up, it was as if he spoke of a dangerous secret buried since he was a boy — and really, wasn't that true of Merrick?

They were my... siblings? Superiors? He did not know how to label that relationship either; it was as dead as anything else in this place. A deep breath steadies his thoughts and he rephrases. I was made to serve them. The fur along his spine serrated further, and he stared at the two wolves who seemed so undecided about his presence here, but he no longer held curiosity about them or about this place.

Rather, Glaukos wanted to leave and not look back. He did not want to face any part of who he used to be—or who he potentially still was, and would be forever.

merrick.
merrick merrick merrick
ancelin rolled the name around in his proverbial fingers like a worn rubix cube, panting over each side and their coloration, how it felt in his hands. he almost said it out loud, and wore an expression that was quite thunderstruck. 
he'd never heard the name of his grandfather before, and stared up at the man with indigo eyes shifting, searching, trying to know if this was some elaborate joke. but the way the giant had stopped said everything.
it felt like his heart was about to leap out of his chest; it ached and fluttered.
"made to serve them? like a slave?" his jaw tensed. it did not fit with what he knew of his parents. "merrick and —?" he breathed, hopeful to have the name of this grandmother as well.
his features tightened further, then smoothed. "aventus is my father. avicus is my aunt."
his eyes probed harder, seeking weaknesses in that stony face.
"who are you?"

The man stopped- and her gaze flicked to her mate to see his face when he heard the name of his family members. She saw a moment of skepticism, followed by belief. She understood the feeling- finding out what had become of her mother, and meeting her sister had filled some sort of void that she hadn’ realized had been a part of her problematic behavior. 

But now Ancelin learned that his father, at least, had had this man as a servant, and that his family had been a cult of witches. It wasn’t exactly the news she’d wanted for him- but it might help him make some sense of himself.

The man was uncomfortable with the things he was admitting, and it served as a deterrent; he now seemed to want to leave. As much as she wanted to see him go, she wanted for Ancelin to get his answers, too. 

”An’ why’d you come here?” She asked, now hoping to dissolve the mystery around the wounded man. ”Look, we’ll-“ She glanced to Ancelin hastily. ”We’ll feed you…You can maybe take sheltuh here while you heal- if you’ll help him learn more about hith family.”

He grimaced again, not wanting to think about any of this; but where did he have to be right now? What was he meant to be doing? Nobody wanted him, and he was injured so when the woman spoke of a deal Glaukos considered the offer.

He looked between the two of them as if deciding, and when he answered, he'd stopped his movement entirely and had turned to face them. Glaukos. To answer the man. Merrick was my father too. Except he did not call himself a brother to either Aventus or Avicus; he had never known his true father, and in those early days Merrick was the closest thing to such a thing.

The man wanted to know more about his family, which was a sentiment Glaukos did not share and could not understand. He studied the man's face with a moment of intensity. Astara. Merrick's mate, your... grandmother. You have her eyes. It was jarring to see.

Glaukos looks to the woman as he finally reaches a conclusion about her proposition, and gives a tired nod.

astara astara astara astara
his breath was ragged. he registered ameline inviting the man into their home and wanted to frown, but the information he'd provided became more and more invaluable as the seconds passed.
her eyes. he blinked at the bearlike wolf and swallowed hard, boyish and young in that moment.
as if a circle had come full.
merrick was my father too.
the indigo gaze waxed, waned, shifted; the melonii indigo which he had thought was shared only with avicus shimmered.
the dude was torn up, but not so injured that he could not answer the bewitching fragrance in the air. ancelin stepped forward. "stay a while, like ameline said. rest. i want to know more."
humour filled his countenance once more; "i want to know in a bit, i mean." the curiosity scorched in his eyes as he looked over this glaukos, an uncle who was not an uncle, a piece of the chapter-book studded with holes that had been ancelin's birthright.
and then he turned his attention to ameline, and lifted an eyebrow. "pick a spot to rest," he said for the man's ears, but toward her. "we'll hunt and be back."
he could be fast, sweeping a lecherous tongue over his lips as he stepped toward his mate.
but the stare that flickered once more to glaukos said i want to know everything.

The mountain shifted and turned toward them, as terrifying as a landslide. He offered a name, which Ameline accepted with a light nod of her chin. Given the information they’d received thus far, she concluded that while he might be kin to Aventus and Avicus, there seemed to have been some preference. Not only had Glaukos been told to serve them, but he’d not been given a name that matched the others. 

She tensed slightly as Glaukos met Ancelin’s gaze- but in a way that was studious. His comment made her heart flutter; she loved his eyes. The chances that their children might have the Bearclaw indigo seemed to be higher, now. 

Ancelin’s demeanour shifted and she shook herself from her defensive stare as he looked to her. She felt the weight lift from her shoulders, now that they had some sort of arrangement. 

He was a stranger- but he was useful. He might become an asset should his attitude prove him worthy of being invited to stay but for now, the newly discovered man would need to rest. 

While she felt lightly begrudging of Ancelin having more competition for his attention, she moved along with him after offering Glaukos a brief nod, so that they might hunt.

As if to re-establish herself as his first priority, however, she would wait until they had caught something and then demand his attention once more before allowing him to bring the kill to Glaukos.

Glaukos wasn't sure if his fortunes were turning, but he now had a deal in place and would be able to recover from his physical wounds. It would only cost a walk down memory lane; but that was a wealth of information that Glaukos' brain would not want to give up. He did not want to think of things that came before, because he had been a different person then (or so he believed).

The pair of younger wolves showed him to the familiar stone slabs that stood as sentinels before the mouth of the valley, where the woman had first spotted him. Then they slipped away from him, off to hunt, and Glaukos watched them a moment before turning his attention to those stones—and to the path that led deeper in to Bearclaw, having never thought he'd be standing in this place ever again.