Bearclaw Valley you're not to stop me, whatever happens

out and out and out and!
easthollow! so close!
he shook and trembled and vibrated in the snow, chasing his tail in a furor of delight that broke into a boyish spate of laughter.
indra, surely mouldering! indra! "and now we will be neighbors, mother," merrick trilled to himself, delighted at the idea that her bones had been brought back to lay in state among her packmates.

Begrudgingly Riley headed for home.

His sojourn had not been an entire failure. He had seen some strange wolves, had sharpened that little weapon called instinct - and had even learned, he could rely on himself better than others.

He did not return to Easthollow for his mother, nor his brother. He found himself tackling familiar trails only out of sheer boredom. Living alone was not exactly a thrilling life: while the vistas were hauntingly pretty and the lonesome trail thrilling, Riley didn't have the capcity to appreciate such things. He wanted company only because, he himself made for poor company alone.

He came across a wolf older than him muttering to himself. Riley had noticed his scent in the area, but had not particularly cared. Something in him - that uglier part of him - wished for confrontation as he came upon the thin beast. His eyes set on the male with a glittering hardness unusual for one so young, pointedly to observe he had just heard the wolf talking to himself.

tailtip caught between pale teeth, merrick pretended to yelp, then allowed himself another ripple of chuckling that did not abate when he straightened, single lantern eye alighting on the man who stood grimly across the way.
merrick did not care that he had trespassed, though he suspected astara would have thought differently, but that did not stop the young madman from immediately approaching the stranger.
childlike, but not so much as to dodder into the other's personal space, merrick found himself fascinated by the waves of dark chocolate, the burnished gold accents, the arrogant stare.
"enjoy the show?"

The male unraveled, approaching Riley with a glint in his eye the boy had never seen before. He stood his ground, but the fur along his back lifted instinctively. Somewhere his gut was reacting. Somewhere, stifled deep down.

Seconds passed after Merrick spoke before Riley replied. It was as if there was some delay - some hidden switch to be fumbled in the dark - before the boy blinked owlishly, and answered truthfully. "No." He was not a conversationalist and so fell to silence, electing to study the wiry build of the wolf before him - a wolf he suspected was far more dangerous than he appeared.

there was a simmering wordless thing in this man, a pinprick of awareness that lit the primacy of merrick's brain and pooled red within him.
enraptured, then emboldened by the wary lift of earthen hackles.
"well, there are other ways to hold your attention," the boy chuckled, glancing toward the horizon. "maybe blood is more your interest?"  the coywolf pressed, single eye searching this fascinating new addition to the valley.

Unsettled by this man, but unwilling to show it, Riley found himself staring into that void -- that black hole in the man's skull. It was eerie, but it held his interest -- much in the way a horrifying sight might compel onlookers to gawk. With no understanding of social manners, he did not realize his stare could be construed as impolite.

Blood? Riley's gaze flickered, sluggishly affixing to that burn of copper beneath Merrick's narrow brow. A fear simmered beneath his skin, coursing his blood like a bounding jackrabbit. There were depths of the boy he was too terrified to indulge - and yet... every now and then, something ugly within him seemed to stir in malcontent.

Was this man one that had fully embraced the ugliness inside of him? Riley inhaled slowly, shifting through all of his collected responses -- none of which seemed to answer appropriately the male's question.. for Riley had never been asked such a thing before.

"What do you mean?" The boy replied, his tone thick but not all-together taken aback as it ought to have been.

merrick thought little of his missing eye these days. it had been the price demanded for newfound knowledge, for the cacaphony of a thousand pleasures that had coursed through him upon throwing the child from the cliff. even he, a vain creature, did not see the empty socket as a reason to believe he was any less beautiful.
lucifer
they were related, the pair, but neither of them knew it that the blood of cousins spanned their veins in between. "would you like me to show you?" the young coywolf whispered breathlessly, peering up with a lone candle-flame eye into the other's face.

This man was wicked - too wicked for Riley's taste. He had his own primal urges, but this creature unsettled him. He was not like the fox-not-fox (Dakota), he was not like the loners he had met - no, this man was something else.. something malevolent posing as a harmless yet quirky forest ghoul.

Riley shook his head. No he did not want to see, no he did not want to be here anymore. He was not brave, not this brave - he was not strong, not this strong -- Merrick was his superior in every way, and he had no stomach to witness whatever malignant design Merrick schemed to show him. Mute as a hare, the boy began to backtrack -- and then turned around in a flat run away from Merrick and his haunting candle-flame gaze.

a shame! a pity! merrick watched with a true reluctance as his would-be playmate backed off, and then turned to hightail it out of the valley. he frowned, blinking in surprise: usually his serpentwork did well. but not today. "not today, bear," the boy murmured his thought aloud.
"ah well. he wasn't for us," and he grinned with an unhinged air at absolutely nothing in the empty snow around him, before ambling away at a leisurely pace in search of his raven.