Bearclaw Valley a seminar about whether or not deer feel pain or are just sad

Next round ends March 31st or once everyone has posted, no post order, @Indra III and @Abel can post this round!

No one spoke. Aventus took it for the stunned silence of shock. Merrick was the sort of wolf who seemed to be everlasting, evergreen despite the ragged quality of his body or the tattered edges of his psyche. The Bruin-jaw knew he would never wield charisma how Merrick had, that these wolves were more likely to go their own way now than to band together beneath the son. That was simply how things were, and he had always been a hidden component of Ursus, in a way. Never the outspoken leader that his sire was.

It eased him some that none spoke out in defiance. His silver eyes warmed only a sliver when Ash took to the command like a hound on a raccoon trail and took off to where Abel hid higher in Tumbleview. No one else moved, at least until Val finally lifted his voice in protest.

Aventus swept down from where he stood in a pantherine prowl, advancing until he was nearly nose tip to nose tip with the swarthy sea wolf. Val would find no hint of Aventus' hidden warmth in his eyes now. Both of his parents were murdered. Only Merrick had asked for it, but that did nothing to ease Aventus' grief. Nyra had somehow got away, denying him retribution for Astara's murder, but he would not accept only Laurel's death as payment for Merrick.

Kids grow, he said softly, tilting his head, and become killers. Merrick killed Laurel. They will grow and hone their teeth and come for us again. He clapped his jaws together, lashed his tail once, and boomed, I end the cycle. That they were also his blood mattered nothing to Aventus. He had never measured family in blood, nor was he moved by the blood of a woman who had started the entire cycle with her self-involvement. His family was Ursus, and he would not let them grow up to hurt his family.

Perhaps you should run back to yours if you are such a coward, he suggested, pinning Val with a stony stare, and then he brushed past and streaked toward Stillrift. He cleared the distance at a flat run, stopping only when he delved into the depths of it so that he did not fall and break his neck. He thought errantly that it would not be so bad to die right now, but then he would leave Arielle alone. It was her worst fear. He could not do that to her.

Indra! he called out in a thunderclap compared to his normal soft tone with her.