Overture Downs he was eager for the tale to go on

<3

but she did not forgive him, and merrick was left trembling in her wake, copper eyes wide as nunataq fled.
fled him.
nunataq.
his sister — no, no, not that. he could not call her that. the boy shook in his trail, fury sweeping to choke him until he gagged bile onto the ground next to the dead coyote. she had left him left him left him left him
SHE HAD LEFT HIM
what was that din? that crescendo? was he screaming? merrick knew nothing, only the flailing of the limp body between his jaws as he grabbed it, began to crush it, shrieking, howling, until his voice hoarsened and stopped, until the coyote was unrecognizable, only tufts of bloodied fur clinging to a shattered skeleton, eyes plucked out, muzzle smashed.
merrick screamed; the birds rose from nearby bushes and fled him, and he shouted muted curses at them for doing as nunataq had done, for leaving, for leaving, for leaving —
he would kill her he would fucking kill —
no no no no no no
"nuna!" merrick wailed, collapsing. the last to leave. the only one he had trusted not to depart. she had to live. she had to die. he could not decide how to judge her.
the boy did not go home that night; he lay unseeing as the stars ticked across the darkening sky and blinked at the dawn when it came, when dew beaded on his fur, staring all the while into the dried-blood eyesockets of the coyote.
she
left