Swiftcurrent Creek but anything is preferable to the pain

aventus twisted with a grace that merrick envied. long months of tedium in ursus had compromised him, the bearking felt. this incensed him as much as his son's teeth seizing for his hackles. merrick sidestepped as jaws knifed pain through his flesh.
he followed momentum; merrick surged forward against the tight pull of the bruin-jaw's grip, propelling upward with corded hindlegs, meaning to aim crown up as he twisted. foreleg lifted, the other steeling into a bar against the earth.
merrick, a comma of whiplash kicking and a low guttural threat pouring from lungs.