Bearclaw Valley Completely Zoned Out

Merrick said he would tell Skoll about it, and Skoll was there to listen. The dark man wasn't going to ask for a story and not listen when he got it. He assumed it would be a somewhat long story, with the history he thought Merrick had with that place. Every time the coyowolf mentioned Easthollow, it looked like the name left a bad taste on his tongue, and Skoll wanted to know why. To see if he shared that same hostility. Being born in the valley wasn't an unusual thing, he assumed most wolves that he'd met were. Skoll just. Traveled there. He traveled for a long time before coming across this place and meeting Merrick. It all was a haze that his head tried to make sense and just didn't want to. 

Merrick's mother left him behind, alone. Skoll wondered how alone the smaller man felt after that. Being told your mother and aunt were leaving to find some other family member you had never met. He must have felt betrayal. Skoll wasn't the most emotional man, nor did he really understand emotions. But he did know what it felt like to be broken down. He wondered if some of this was why Merrick was so aggressive with some, and mostly strangers. Skoll had seen him have and use too many emotions to call him solely aggressive. The man had other feelings inside that head of his. 

It sounded like Merrick had known the raven women for a long time, it seemed like it, too. With how the two seemed to gravitate to one another even when they pick fights. Was that love? It sounded like it. The uttering of a name and the trailing off made Skoll pause and look over to Merrick, to catch his stare. Something about it felt like a warning, as if he wasn't supposed to learn that name for as long as he lived. Skoll was good at keeping secrets, and he didn't anticipate telling anyone in the future. 

The story went on and Skoll's face went to a frown. His mother really had abandoned him without another trace. He understood, why Merrick was so angry with that place. Maybe things would have been different for him if the pack didn't accept Indra within it, or if she had never left Merrick there in the first place. Or brought her with him. Anything that a parent should do. He was sure the other man had thought of that before - was that why he was so angry? 

"It sounds like none of them cared." Skoll said. "You have Ursus now. The pack is like a one large family isn't it? You can trust all of us to be there."