Swiftcurrent Creek but anything is preferable to the pain

aventus doused whatever stirrings of doubt had threatened his father's mind. merrick straightened with a look of pleasure. "i do not plan to fail. not for many years." unbeknownst, he considered adjacently, inside his mind, how these new children might be made to better respect their elder sibling.
"you have learned to listen to ursus," the bearwitch commented glibly.
"spar with me."
there was a moment only for a grin and glow of lantern-teeth before he was unexpectedly rushing the boy, hoping to pin upon him the importance of a second's fluidity.