Bearclaw Valley [M] they breathe you in, and dive as deep as they can

normally she might have argued, but given the extraordinary circumstances, Avicus allowed herself to be herded toward the pale woman by the one-eyed man. but her eyes were for Astara, still. she watches the two clash, one a giant like the man, the other her lithe mother, dark and fierce. her heart is in her throat.

and then— it happens before she can really process it. one moment of two living creatures, the next of just one. her gaze follows the blood that blooms out over the earth, like waves over a beach she's never seen. a red tide from her mother's jaws.

squeezing, squeezing. crushing the worm had been similar, as had merrick's slaughter of the man in the field. now she knows their kind is able to die. to be killed.

blood. death. she isn't sure what to think or feel and instead simply, silently watches, the iron tang in the air sparking a kind of hunger-ache in her belly.