Bearclaw Valley [TW] My summer tan has begun to fade

she came up.
merrick stared at her for a raw and searching moment.
he flared his gaze over her wounds.
"you look like my mother." merrick's voice was grave.
"she did a bad thing. so i had to kill her." merrick's voice was crooning;
he blinked;
and his scarred face flushed with a maddened, boyish light;
"you're a part of her. you wear her face. like my daughter."
blood flower
"but she is better than my mother was. and you —"
"— you were sent her to be better again. to be — new. reborn."
merrick turned away abruptly, slashing his tail for the girl to follow.
he led her to the pelvic bone, the skull of evien, the headpiece of astara.