Bearclaw Valley drowning

The priest had been very withdrawn. She tended minimally to @Karst and @Astyanax. She would answer queries about half the time, and she would speak nonsense a lot of the time. Her meeting with Chipper had pulled her back to earth a little bit, but overall, the woman was slowly losing her mortal mind and drew more and more into the darkness of Sithis and the spirits that swirled around in this valley. At times she thought of Powergirl @Kiwi , in her more grounded moments, which was like a tether that kept the woman attached to this earth.

She tended to the altar for Sithis, but little else happened in her life. She longed for a change, for something real. Thief @Astara was busy with leading her pack and being jealous of anyone who dared come close to Bear @Merrick most the time, for which the ghost did not blame her counterpart. They had always been like this; intertwined when needed to be, bound by blood, but most of the time they were separate wolves with their own lives and mannerisms. It made sense to the priest.

Day and night only touched at dawn and dusk, after all.

Her longing for the realness of the mortal world lead her to frustration. Who was she, if not an extension of Sithis? What did this world have to offer? Why even was she still in it? Guiding others, perhaps, but to what end? Should she perhaps sow more chaos and pain to please Sithis? This had her desiring to claw her eyes out, drove her madder by the day, and yet she found no answers no matter how diligently she tended to the altar and how much she studied.

What was the point?

Would she ever know?

She did not even know where in the territory she was at that moment. Lost in her thoughts, lost in Sithis' whispers, and lost to the world around her.

Drowning in the world of the spirits.

merrick was growing bored.
there had been little conflict in the weeks that had passed, at least not that which he had been involved in. his teeth ached for blood; his jaws ached to tear flesh from bone and gristle from femur.
to crack marrow;
to whet himself crimson for the honor of the bear.
a service in the name of ursus.
"sister," merrick whispered sibilantly when he had found the ghost. slowly merrick puzzled at their relationship; this was his determination of it, an honorific for the she-wolf who had been so dutiful. "it is time to kill again."

It was hard to even drag herself back to the world of the mortals these days. When her leader approached she did not even notice it, not right away. Not until he spoke.

Sister.

She turned her hazy pale eyes towards him and upon his next words — it is time to kill again — there was a wicked smirk on her lips. Sithis demanded chaos and destruction and blood. While the killing was not necessarily in his honour and service, the chaos that flooded out from it was.

Who? she asked him, curious if he had a target in mind or if it was simply that his mind screamed for blood to be shed.

no resistance in her, only a dark grin that reminded him of the blackbird's ice. "whoever you want." why not give a gift to his flaxen sister? she had been loyal in the sight of the bear and in his eyes as well. "i have had a hunger in me for a long time,"
laurel laurel laurel la—
"and it needs to be fed." he stared at her, running tongue across the ridges of his teeth.
"but you know what that's like, i expect."

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Whoever she wanted — Oh, if only she had any enemies. She stuck mostly to the maddening depths of these Valleys these days, even though her mortal body longed for something else. Her mind flashed instantly to Powergirl @Kiwi. Perhaps not murder, but to see her body at the ghost's whims and to cut into her held a certain appeal. Just to feel her squirm and to taste of her blood and whisper sweet profanity in her ears. Those thoughts sent a thrill through the ghost's body and for a moment she wondered if it would be an alternative deal that she could strike.

But, ah — would it sate the bear's hunger, though?

No, Powergirl was hers alone if she ever got her paws on her, and for matters far different than just ripping out her throat. The thought was tempting, but the priest would rather keep this in her own control. Besides, Powergirl did not necessarily need to die, if the circumstances did not call for it.

The answer to his suspicion lay in her answer, which was ready fast after she thought of Powergirl and realised she did not want to kill her — but someone like her would suit her just fine.

A woman, said the priest to Bear, her eyes ablaze with madness and desire both. A strong, feisty woman who will struggle until the very end. But I will have the last bite — she can be just alive, as long as she still has fire left in her eyes. Not normally one to demand, it might surprise some that the priest was so quick to cash in on her check now. It was perhaps partly because usually, she was not offered — and now she was, so she demanded what was offered already — and partly because of the growing madness inside of her head that seemed more all-consuming with every day.

merrick blinked, his face going black and lightless for a moment as the single eye closed.
the same feverish madness that had always driven him now bit in her own voice. averna. ghost in the arms of the ancient woodland. sister to the bears that drove with raven wing and white tooth the bloodthirst that had always howled in ursus.
"you shall have her," he declared, wanting very much to provide the snowpriest with a reward for her devotion.
and it was merrick's admiration. he laughed, "where shall we find this dream woman?" whilst admiring averna for her refusal to be loyal when it came to matters of flesh. she belonged to the in-between land, and some part of him held her in fearful reverence; she answered to something beyond the bear that thrummed and growled beneath his breastbone.

You shall have her, he answered. The priest had expected no different answer. To his next question, however, she held no particular answer. She again thought of Powergirl but there was no knowing where she was now.

This woman would be nothing but a replacement for the temptations that the ghost actually wanted. Nothing more than a revel in madness and something to quench more than just her bloodthirst. Someone that she could have been with, if circumstances were different.

Something to ground her and at the same time make Sithis revel in the blood and madness he spread.

She did not reply right away to his question, for she knew that she had no answer to it. Eventually she said, Wherever she happens to be. The answers to questions were not always as hard as others made them out to be. She did not look for a particular woman, even if her heart did. She looked for someone like that woman, which made the search a lot easier.

always, riddles, riddles with his alabastrine sister. merrick knew that he could only call her that, never feel it, never experience what it was to have such — again. nunataq. for all of his hatred and anguish, merrick had never forgotten her name. or that she had left him behind.
swallowing now, throat thickening with an emotion he would rather not feel. he grinned balefully at averna. "when do you want to leave?" whispering; he wanted the raven to course with them also, and perhaps bring along their growing brood. blood for a blooded-family, the core of ursus. interesting that he had come from no sense of it back to a familial regard.
any who stood before him could be torn asunder, and had. more assurance in these times.

More questions, always more questions. Mortals were so interesting with all of their questions, and the pale ghost felt no desire to answer them. This time, she humoured him. Perhaps because she knew that he would expect only riddles in answer to his next question, and instead she granted him an answer to his questions: When you are ready. She presumed that her counterpart would come, too — of course she would come, would she honestly miss a good blood sport? — though who else mattered little to her. Perhaps let the little worms that she was in care of come, too, to see the world bathed in Sithis' glory.

fade or keep going, i am cool either way <3

merrick's ears upthrust, quivering; he sank into a little cackle and nodded. "when i am ready." whenever that would be. whenever he was prepared to welcome it. "thanks, sis." drybone smirk and then the bearwolf had pulled away. "i'm going to find something and take its skin off," the boy sighed delicately. "maybe when i come back you will want a meal." he did not ask; merrick lifted his chin, waited for any retort or lack thereof before he began to move off in pursuit of an offering.

When he called her 'sis', it was strange. She had never been called sister; the dark Thief had never spoken, and the pale ghost herself had never considered herself a sister. The word felt foreign to her, though her face remained unmoving. She canted her head as he said he would find something and take its skin off. A peculiar occupation, for it was chaotic and destructive as well as meticulous and detailed. It interested her, though she did not move to join him.

Instead, wordlessly and hearing their whispers already ready to swallowed her back up, she vanished deeper into the territory.

i'll fade, ty <3