Bearclaw Valley goldclaw

What more could there be for him in this place? Karst had witnessed enough from both the older children to have built a solid foundation (in regards to how the world works) and he could not fathom any change to that fabric of his reality. If it was safety Merrick worried over, the safety of the boy, or the solidity of either of his children's future, perhaps there could be a place for Karst; but he did not see the man as the kind to worry or to care in that regard.

No, instead he saw some idling threat. A serpent in the grass, coiling slowly.

Karst had been born to nothingness, he was nothing. What could he change about the circumstances of his life, how could Merrick's vision become the truth, when Karst couldn't see the way himself? He was in the bottom of a deep black well; claw as he might against the stones of his prison, he could not tell up from down enough to free himself.

I will try. The boy went on to say, dripping with doubt. He did not know what answer would satisfy the man. He did not think himself capable of much, even as he grew in to his furs and soon would rival the adults in size.