Bearclaw Valley [intruder] pack, pack, kill, kill

their work here was done. faustus was propped against the stony arch of bearclaw like an obscene scarecrow, bloodied and disfigured beyond reckoning. astara eyed that grim token approvingly, turning to evien with a content gaze.

her counterpart did not look so pleased. if anything, astara thought his expression was one of thunderous confusion. had not his first sting with quelling an adversary roused his blood, his appetite, even his libido? astara felt a headiness cloud her, the wake of red battle keening her senses and heightening her drive for conquering -- in more ways than one.

for a moment she wished to stride to the healer, and make him her own -- to bathe in the gleaming twilight of their carnage, to meld their bodies as one and lustfully seal their hearts in both blood and desire and indiscriminate power -- to share what she and merrick had shared violently and lovingly at once -- but something stayed the licentious wandering of her eye. the very same darkening that soured evien's complexion.

she let him leave, silence billowing after the pair of them like a cloud. gradually, astara's hunger for the healer abated -- replaced then by a flood of confusion and guilt for merrick.

she would find her bear -- her one true bear -- and yield her body to him. and she would forget that she had ever nearly strayed from merrick.