Bearclaw Valley your dark splendor

merrick, the disrespected.
merrick, the unheard.
merrick, the oddity, even in his own ranks.
and though he had tried quite hard to weed out the weak from ursus' rank, surround himself only with pretty creatures gone off the edge of madness — for you had to be mad in order to follow a clear candidate for a padded room — he was learning now how very different he remained.
merrick loved astara only. she had been the unchanging star in his firmament far longer than any other.
and so hurt leapt into his gaze as fields came upon the scene and warned him, the click of a calloused thumb against the edge of a lighter, and evien acted as though these vague potentials of life were somehow as valuable as a living wolf.
how dare you act as though i would hurt him for speaking his mind?
how dare you put the silt in her belly before my nightbird?
pain, and merrick lifted his proud young head to grind them both with a hard expression.