Bearclaw Valley you can't know what i mean by what i say

merrick is v mopey & in a horrid mood, joiners beware

his nightshade had never turned him out of doors before.
he had gone from king of this entire wild estate and a meadow beyond to a spurned puppy booted out of @Astara's presence.
at first merrick had wondered what he had done when his fat killbird first turned his teeth upon him. something akin to regret, though its nature was self-serving. next, anger. she was his equal and the boy had not ceased to see her that way.
but she had never placed such a barrier of feral flaring between them. and one such occasion the bearwolf felt forced to act as if he were some wordless beast, heeding her edict and fleeing.
scorned, merrick wandered the left bank of the unnamed river, his step a shambling wreck of despair. but in the cyclops' single eye a banner of deepening suspicion begin to again mingle with malice.
the raven was leaving him.
leaving him for —