Bearclaw Valley eight seconds

merrick turned away from them.
he stared at the bloodied head beneath his stone-made paw.
the green eyes; he gazed into their very pupils, willing a blink, a breath, some proof that evien had not died.
of course he had; of course nothing would come to pass, nothing save for merrick's empty gibbering gaze, light stolen with the physician's death.
a swallow, bobbing his throat.
merrick picked up the head and was gone.