Bearclaw Valley a seal on the subject

pack howl! just one round. ty to everyone who helped realized ursus! will archive when everyone has replied <3
@Astara @Ulysses @Evien @Skoll Almir @Ico taylor @Toad @Averna @Phoebe @Galena @Rosina @Revui

also @Orson, if u were joining, and @Fraser if u wanna join this one toooo

the day bloomed and with it, the relief of a dread run-off. merrick woke and rose unencumbered; he hunted through a spring rain, and brought with him the lower jawbone of a small bear to the valley's entrance.
positioning his paws atop it, the boy crooned into the air, a coy song of threat and determination and pride that filled all of ursus and spilled over.
the culmination over.
the chapter to come.

a day like any other, and yet, astara knew this one was different.

new wolves had come to their fold.

for so long, it had just been her and merrick...

and now, all these pretty little faces.

astara found herself relieved and bitterly upset at once -- for these faces were here for her bear and not her. they loved him, but they could not have him.

she had not forgotten their last meet. even now, with her belly full of merrick's little savages, astara found herself prowling distantly behind him. keen to observe, and yet, not so keen as to be within the centerfold.

Yay!! Congrats on the pack everyone! <3

He has finally joined a pack it seems. One that he finds himself thinking about often. It almost warms him inside now that he thinks about it. Overall he’s glad he has something that he can call a family again. Though when he thinks of the work family, he thinks of his two legged family. Ursus is his family now, and he’s happy to admit it. 

The howl of the one and only Merrick echos within his ears. Instantly he rises and heavy paws are thumping against the ground as he runs to meet him. Upon arrival he sees the borderline twin wolves of opposite gender. Merrick and Astara. A small, polite smile tilts him mouth up at the sight of them both unharmed and he comes to stand beside them with a curt nod of acknowledgment.

<3

He had found it. Nay, he'd been given it: somewhere to stay put.

Heart abliss and ablaze with a joy that felt like a long drink after a longer walk, Ico emerged from the pines to add a silky, androgynous howl to Merrick's symphony. It sounded to him like a perfect fusion of sweet simplicity and a proud herald-song of strange, great things to come.

The voices rose from places he had not yet tread, and many were not known to him. He should have felt something when he lifted his own voice to mix with the rest — some semblance of worry that maybe Hydra would hear him and recognize his betrayal, or pride in his ability to seek out what he needed rather than live beneath the weight of her control, something. He was empty, though. Serving himself up and aligning his commitment with this group of strangers had no effect upon his spirit - and so his raucous voice joined the mass, a rolling thunder within a storm.

Fraser had never taken part in a pack howl. He had never helped to settle a place. The closest he'd gotten was when his human masters had moved into a new residence, and he'd pissed all over the back yard, claiming it as his own.

This was different. This was wild. The looming crags were less fences than walls, keeping them safe, keeping out enemies. He was free to come and go as he pleased. He was free to hunt, to fight, to run without boundaries.

And when the howl went up, he felt it in his soul. He would never go home again.

The deerhound added his voice to the mix—foreign and strange, a ululating melody. But a part of something bigger, as he now was. A servant of Merrick and his shadow-mistress, and of the valley he now called his own.

The lands were plentiful and beautiful. Those whom lived within it were too, yet of course, not all. There was the wolf with the mangled foot and now as she comes, one creature with mangy and wiry fur that caused her nose to wrinkle. They were mostly young wolves and her eyes cast to her one-eyed lord with a smile. Still more were to come - Fields, Toad...whom else? Then those bright blues past over the little snow flake and fell upon the stark black female with brightly purple eyes. She gasps. Oh...! A whisper off her lips. The beautiful enchantress stood Sentinel, plump in her womb with children to come. Children... How wonderful!

It wasn't so simple— he had to pull himself together before walking into the meeting. For a long time he stood just outside biting down on his shaking hands.
Merrick howls, his phone rings, he scrabbles at it, holds his ruined ear close to it. Come home, it said. The world washes in and out of electromagnetic interference. His voice was beautiful. It was terrible. Taylor explodes in through the door and howls alongside them with coarse and shuddering yells. All the while he's thinking, from one god to the next, from one god to the next.
He had bled for this. Everyone here, they had worked their fingers to the bone for this. He pulls up the flowers by their roots, and is surprised when he doesn't see red.

It had been almost a month to the day that Evien had been with the Ursus wolves, but it felt like longer. The young Kastner had developed as his own person here, learned that he was braver than he thought he would be. Felt things that he never thought he'd feel.

Was it still frightening, from time to time? Yes. But if there was ever a place that needed him, it was here, and he found himself warm with affection for this little group. It had grown, yes, and there were many wolves - and not-wolves - for him to get to know. But this was his home, and he was more than happy to be here.

Evien perked his ears at the call and stepped away from the blooming flowers he was examining - when the scent of bears lingering around this valley become less offensive to him? - and set off at a brisk, uneven trot toward where he'd heard Merrick. The brown wolf paused at the edge of the meeting, arms crossed over his chest, and smiled as he leaned on a nearby tree. He waited, listening to their howls, before adding his own to the song. A smooth, low sound - a vow to remain here, to care for them for as long as he could.

She had been wandering when the call raised.

It was enough to give her pause as swiftly other voices joined in, each with a distinct melody of their own. Phoebe felt the pull to join them but had restraint; to hear them, to know that they were altogether and seemingly whole had a moving effect on her. These were not the distant voices she had heard singing on cold nights in the thick of winter. It filled her with something she had been deprived of for some time of her own accord—hope, comfort.

She rallied to them, her own voice then picking up to ring off not-so-distant rocky walls.

---

Like a slow rain-cloud, Galena roved the Valley... her new home. What would her Mothers think of this? Her Sisters and Aunts? This wasn't her intended final destination, but it held great promise --  a fruitful place to grow her tiny seeds. Galena hummed to herself, maybe they would be proud. She could feel their presence, even now... like a tall shadow casting over her. 


She reached the center of the territory: a carefully curated landscape of thin trees and blooming flowers. Incredible. But where was everyone? A howl resounded off the Valley walls, followed by another, and then another. The acapella became a booming sound... like a hurricane siren. It was mighty, wonderful, and dangerous. Galena tipped her head back to join the chorus, proud to be one of the many voices who called Ursus their home.

---

She had found a new place to exist, although she did not like it as much as the gloomy forest. That had been her home, a place where she stuck out. A place where her shadow-side melted into the woods, ready to strike from its shadows, and a place where she, the bright ghostly spirit, shone as brightly as some of the other spirits and mushrooms. The spirits had lead her here, but she was yet to decipher what it was, precisely, that she was doing here.

Perhaps time would tell, or perhaps it would simply sway her elsewhere. Ears pressed back to listen to the howl, but she did not join in her own song, simply continuing her business figuring out the territory that harboured her, for now.

At the far edge of the valley had he sat alone, quiet, in thought. The song interrupted it all, his tawny ears flickered upward with dual surprise and excitement. He'd been bored lately- here was something to remedy all that. Time to rise as Ursus. To crush their threats and serve their cyclops king. And so he threw back his head and joined them, the chorus of voices both familiar and unfamiliar, together.