Bearclaw Valley let me pay the price for you instead

death was a cruel mistress even in the very moment most needed. the death rattle sounded; the feline arched once, twice, as if to fight off the immortal hands of darkness reaching for it now. then all at once, it was still. merrick felt rather empty as his ears began to realize the absence of clicking breath in the shredded body, and he pushed himself away from the cooling carcass with disdain.
yet to revui he gave a grin and a nod; he sauntered closer to seek tendrils of fur along the stoneman's shoulder, to groom through them for a length of seconds before he invited the other to hunt more lively things.