Silvertip Mountain loss of breath

karst. tuur. suckled on the blackbird's milk and made a slave to his red girl. but it seemed avicus too was bound to him in some way. that was why she was here, and it was not the bear.
"ursus has eyes in that place," the bearwitch managed, thinking of aventus and his preparations for infiltrating their neighbors.
if tuur was there, then they would meet. and merrick, who had worked to keep ursus a savage secret upon the mountain; he knew that the meeting of red child with the rogue would bring the eyes of this world to suddenly light upon them.
"stay, a while. your mother needs you."
so cruel to utter! and ashlar went unnoticed for now; so harsh to say! and yet he knew he could not let avicus go, no matter what noble quest she now sought.
and then there were no more words. merrick rounded upon asperas with the controlled fury of a dragon's closing jaw. 
once he had allowed his children to come to blows and they had shed one another's blood. now they had been pared so long to their very core that merrick had come to know all its precious nuance 
he sought to grasp her scruff and shove her mercilessly, harshly, into the dirt. a warning growl poured from the confines of his narrow chest. merrick thrust his face close to asperas. "stand down."
an order. 
the set of his jaw meant more if she continued. ursus had survived through its violent creed, and he would use this to teach an unforgettable lesson if this little bearcub did not swiftly learn temperance.
the snakeling, the princess of ursus, and merrick was hurt to loom over her so.