Blacktail Deer Plateau i surrendered to their fragrance

backdated to the sixteenth. @Astara to post first plz. tagging @Vercingetorix & @Aurëwenn; @Dragomir for visibility

a more sane person might have immediately removed themselves from the area of such a crime, but we have established, dear reader, that merrick was the opposite of such. 
and so he lingered near, the damned mountain from which he had thrown the boy rearing at his back as the inviting scent of a pine forest wreathed forth, and he went with his shadow to explore its recesses.
in truth, the memory of all they had done in the cave had been drowned by the anticipation of meeting his mother once more, and presently he turned his burning eyes upon astara, showering her with gestures of something as akin to love as merrick might ever come.