Hushed Willows [YULE] What's this? What's this? There's something very wrong

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Careful to remain in the shadow of the moon, Merrit lifts his head until, over the bustle of the crowd, he catches glimpse of his mother's midnight fur. She is alone, and for just a second his heart relaxes - until he sees the object of her attention, and he stiffens again. Greyback waits for her, and Merrit can't help but feel a stirring of something unpleasant when he notices the way she walks to meet that man who isn't his father: controlled by a peculiar sway, and boasting a countenance he has never seen her wear, not even with Stark.

What is she doing... his brow furrows and his jaw tightens as a group of wolves passes in front of him to temporarily obscure his packmates from view. Merrit his lowers his head to find a new vantage - but his efforts are cut by a noise to his right -- a girl's voice, and with mechanical motion, he clicks his attention to face her, his eyes sharp and startled. If the scuttled hunch of her thin and mottled body says anything, he reckons she feels the same.

He merely stares at her, and he takes in everything the moonlight allows him to see - the glacial brilliance of her eyes, the strange pattern of her fur, the stark shadows that separate rib from rib - and no words come. His thoughts are too rapt on figuring out what to do; too keenly aware that he isn't supposed to be here; too naive of what to do with someone of a different pack, someone his age, let alone, in the middle of trespassing.

A familiar voice is his salvation, and he turns to face her. "Miss Ira!" he hisses in a sharp and quiet breath. His salvation, or his undoing, but he holds out hope that Ira, of anyone in Easthollow, will understand. He still feels the need to explain. "Mother and Greyback left - I needed to know where they were going," and his eyes flicker back to the girl with the dappled fur - wondering how much he can say in front of this stranger, and keenly aware of the glint in Ira's voice - and he is afraid. "I didn't think."

Because even if Valette and Greyback had received a welcome here, he had not - and this puts him in a dangerous position. The girl has every right to tell on him - something he can't afford. He has to make sure mother never finds out he followed her here, so he bows his head to the blue-eyed girl, characteristically stiff in action and word.

He has never been sharp in social finesse. "We will leave," he states abruptly, as much as he wishes to stay, "I'm sorry to have startled you, Miss...?" and he leaves the air open for a name.