Bearclaw Valley the warning he caught from your eyes

merrick walked beside @Snowskip on their trajectory from lake to meadow, pacing proudly through the sodden wildflowers. they thinned, skimming back and back until the red-mud trail spread bright before them. 
at the entrance to the valley, the sentinel-boulder, atop which any member of ursus stood to watch merrick accompany the dazzle of snowskip's bearing.
they paused alongside the great rock; he called sweetly for @Astara, wondering if she might come to judge their joiner. an amused grin lit his lips. "what do you think?" merrick asked of their sprawling forests, the way moss-edged slabs of stone dripped with the constant rain.

"Wow, the meadow was beautiful." Snowskip was throughly impressed by the wildflowers gracing the entrance to Ursus. She had to stop sometimes to smell them throughly, before bounding after Merrick and his large strides. She nearly had trouble keeping up with him! Though of course, the small winter wolf sometimes looked back to see if Earp was following.. But he never did.

Sad.

But moving on! "It's nice looking, i'm very much used to the mountain pines." Everything was different then her home of ShadowClan.

"that's ours too," he told snowskip of the meadow. "i always have someone patrolling it."
cat out of the bag as far as his identity; merrick chortled and indicated they should press forward into the territory. his ravenwife did not arrive; a small frown appeared and then brushed away under merrick's good humour.
the boy stopped before the giant gnarled tree that toad had named one song, staring up at its ancient shape.
"here we live side by side with bears. you may see them in the valley. fear them. respect them worship them."

She squinted her amythest eyes while looking at Merrick. It was a small amount of silence, while continuing her non-aggressive glare, "you the Alpha?" what a load of bull! She felt tricked- what reason was there to lie to poor Snowskip, she would've tried to wow him so, to be impressive! A mighty clan wolf!

Show off her skills!

Which was uh. Talking?

"Bears? I don't think I ever seen a bear," but her small tantrum of surprise was dropped pretty fast as the subject changed. The winter wolf doesn't believe she saw them in person, and was quite curious to the bear-worshipping wolves. Was this common for non-clan members? How weird!

cackled @ ur post not sure why, but i love her <3

"i am. i wanted it to be a surprise," merrick laughed softly. "never seen a bear? well, here we are bears, in a way," he explained. "i was born in this valley, a long time ago. i came back after i watched a bear die. and he told me to go home."
"so i came here. and i created ursus. me and my ..."
what were they?
was there truly a label for their interactions?
was wife too domestic a claim?
"lover." there. surely that would make clear the nature of their relationship and not scandalize snowskip too thoroughly -- yet. "you will meet her soon." he continued on into the field of blue flowers where the meetings were held. "you like kids? there are four of them running around."

She looked at him, "i'm pretty sure you're a wolf?" she listened to his story, but was confused on when he claimed they are 'kinda' like a bear. Aren't bears, big and tough, with big claws? Though Merrick was bigger then herself, and can look a bit intimidating, but her mental image of a bear was far from his appearence.

He was a bit weird, but kinda cool! Looked like a mighty warrior that the clans would be proud of, be he also claimed to be a bear, and has a lover, rather then a mate. She wouldn't judge of course, each to their own! Someone may rather just indulge in the more pleasurable parts, then take on the romance... Snowskip prefered walking on sunshine with her future husband.

"Oh I love kids! They're like.. Tiny berries." Quite cute, she definitely wanted to meet them.

:o

"the bear lives inside of us," merrick explained patiently, passing through the blue-bedecked field and continuing his tour. he brought snowskip to tumbleview next, dilapidated chunks of stone and ancient, worn boulders, all blanketed in thick moss and surrounded by oaken trees with their pine-needle neighbors.
"you will meet them," merrick assured. "we actually call them bearberries. what a coincidence," the bearwolf remarked, teeth glinting a moment in the dappled light of the canopy here. "what are you really good at? if you had to choose?"

Snowskip didn't get it, but she simply deducted it was due to different culture. It seemed pretty odd for her for a wolf to claim a bear lived inside! "thats cute," but the obsession gave quite lovable names, so she also was okay with it!

"Uhmmmmm, I suppose hunting?" the small winter wolf tilted her head, "though I liked helping others like the medic did, however I could never understand herbs or healing." To the clan-wolves, a medic was often assumed to be a sort of counselor. It was how she saw them anyway, even if they were the meaniest of cats, many went to the medic's den to ask for advice, as they were also the closest to StarClan. 

She enjoyed the fact of helping, but her mind couldn't wrap about the dang medicines.

"evien is very skilled at what he does. he's our medic, and also our bruin-leaf. third leader." three of them. merrick was pleased at this numbering, pausing a moment to revel in it. "but i'll be honest, i could never do what he does. i prefer hunting myself."
he ticked a smirk toward her.
if the wide-eyed, animated innocent of her brightsnow features was anything to go by, snowskip hadn't so mich as bitten another wolf. "have you ever sparred before?" the bearwitch asked in the next moment, gently, conversationally.

"Riiight? Learning all those herbs seem like such a hassle! Kudos to them." Snowskip could never do that, and respect whoever Evien was. There was far too many medical plans to memorize, and far too many treatments to start, her mind couldn't handle all the information her medic once tried to give when she grew curious of what it was like. Since then, preferred to stick amongst the warriors.

"My Clan teaches the basics for hunting and sparring, if you aren't a medic, you are required to know both! So I know basics!" As she only just graduated from being an Apprentice, her knowledge was limited. Snowskip was never in a real fight before either, even when SkyClan attacked- she ran.

merrick flashed a grin — good — and then flashed forward to begin their conflict. teeth, controlled, sailed not toward face or chest, but low, a snap aimed at her ankle. it was not precendented, and so he hoped to catch the little skeptic off-guard.
in the next moment merrick had twisted into a tight spin, reveling in this defiant show of the way he had cultivated physics to his own musculature. a lesson, a lesson; let this be a beautiful warning, an example of what one must become for ursus.

Snowskip was definitely not expecting the man to attack her so, but reminded her of ShadowClan's form of 'play.' So when he snapped she made a small yelp before bouncing a bit backwards- only to be greeted by the sudden spin of the man, and she only continued to bound away. 

Every warrior gains a name from their leader, and she was granted the suffix of 'skip,' for not only her optimistic personality.. But as well for her swiftness. She was not of muscle, but the winter-wolf was of speed and stamina, she wouldn't fall short to any large warrior in the area, especially one who gave a surprise attack.

Like a rabbit, she was circling him with a 'skipping' tactic that she developed gaining her name. It was simple running with a hop to it, before swiftly try to nip at his own heels. However, one attack could prove fatal for the small wolf. Snowskip needed to be careful.

true to her name, snowskip began to make quick work of her bearlord. merrick did not bother to stifle his mirth nor his intrigue; it gleamed toward her from the last socketed eye left to him, each time he turned with the alabaster girl and her feints.
game though it was, he felt the neat slicing hunger to win. her next leap forward grazed his hock; he waited for snowskip to draw close again, whirling in a flex to grab for the girl and drag her down into the dirt.

She was only whimsical with her steps, not heavy. When he grabbed her so, she went with an 'oh,' before being dragged into the ground. There was a squirm, maybe a plea, but in the end, she had to give into the one-eyed man.

"That was fun!" She said, while captured to the floor, "but i'm probably better at hunting!"

he grinned down into the jovial little face, suddenly wretched with the want to rip cheek from bone and end the simpering notes of her voice. careful, careful; merrick chose instead to back away, hiding his abrupt hunger beneath a low chuckle. "go and hunt around the place then," he invited, allowing snowskip to depart if she chose.
"or come with me on patrol." was she corruptible, then? he intended to discover this for himself.

"Patrol! I'd like to explore a bit." While hunting was always a love, Snowskip prioritized the need t get acquantinced with the new place. It was a valley, full with bears; that was the extent of her information. Maybe alongst the way, Merrick could show her tidbits about more indepth of this Bearclaw Valley.

She was interested!

we can keep going or fade, up to you! <3

with a smirk, the boy rolled a shoulder as if to gesture she should follow. there he would show her the things that he knew; there he would name trees and speak the title of the river, nameless; he had given it a hundred so far and none of them stuck in his brain.
the witch set off along a path leading beneath conifer-trees, shooting snowskip a sly look as he went.