Bearclaw Valley let me pay the price for you instead

aw <3

bobcat, lurking in the stone shelves beneath the feathered conifer branches. feline, ears swiveling; merrick watched with near-obsessive interest as it stole quietly through the mossy place titled tumbleview. 
he lifted his muzzle, caught the air, stole after the cat when it had disappeared from view.
merrick did not fancy himself a stealthy hunter, but so focused was the trespasser that the bruin-witch went unnoticed for the present.

He saw the black boy spidering across the terrain, long before he caught sight of the cat. The thing was small and well blended to its surroundings. Revui stalked closer, but he knew his body—he was too heavy, too obvious. If Merrick was to be successful then the mountain would have to hold back and be patient. It was not his strong-suit, but he would try.

the bobcat slowed, sniffing at the earth. merrick's lips skinned back from well-honed teeth, and he darted forward from cover. a hiss; the feline's body exploded in a show-off display of quivering ivory hackles, and a growl poured to warn the bearwolf beware.
merrick had not yet sensed revui, and as claws shredded toward him, his concentration went into a sidestep and a sharp snap toward the unguarded paw.

He watched as the cat's attention shifted towards the bruin-witch, and he tensed, striding closer. The feline's back arched and its rear end lifted, tail or no tail, bristling and yowling. The mountain did not like the look of the creature and picked up his pace, unable to regulate the beat of his heavy steps; but it did not matter, for Merrick lunged after it, keeping it distracted in time for Revui to come barraging across the grass—and as deftly as he arrived, he reached to sink his teeth in to the cat and twist it away, snarling as he felt his teeth sink in to flesh.


(But more violent.)

lmao merrick reacting maturely as usual

merrick was closing in, hungering for fresh blood; revui thundered forth, seemingly from nowhere, to crush his prize and carry it off. the young coywolf drew up, panting, and a scowl twisted his lips when he had caught his breath. "revui." not a stern voice, not one of threat — a statement, and the grey man would interpret it how he might.
the need for the snap of a throat in his own jaws was high; the bobcat would have sufficed, but now he must seek something else for his sport.

He had crushed the cat's spine just shy of the shoulder, his fangs settling in to the flesh by the creature's clavicle as he tore it from its position on the earth. The yowl that erupted from it carried comically after it. Revui was eager to shake the thing to death and feel the triumph of his win, but his proverbial hand was stayed when Merrick spoke—just his name, and without malice. He stopped short, punching the soil to release his momentum, and then turned to regard his leader.

The cat, meanwhile, was not yet dead. Its fur was shifting to a crimson; it kicked against air, catching Revui's chest with a hind paw, but the forelimbs were spastic until they stopped altogether. The wolf dropped the creature after that and sank backwards, licking his bloodied chops, glancing between the cat and Merrick. It was still alive but disoriented.

revui turned stare upon merrick, and the boy felt the weight of it. here was perhaps someone who could not be easily controlled; would the ashen giant follow where the madman led? a calculating moment as he weighed the need for blood against revui's clearer desire for it, and then he nodded.
the cat would belong to the stonemaw; merrick chuckled a skittering laugh and coursed 'round to watch. only a paw or tail he wished, for some patriarchal working in the murderous boy suggested he must return to the den with it. single eye glowed; he watched with rapt attention, awaiting the moment that the warrior might strike for death.

The cat shuddered in the grass, tucking its limbs in as close as it could manage, while every inch of its focus was upon the assailant; except it wasn't as successful as one might think. Its hind limbs refused to budge, for instance. Blood was soaking in to the fur along its back. The terror in the creature's eyes was obvious—and Revui looked on with his own indifference, until he felt deigned to move in for another assault.

The cat tried to swipe at him and hiss, but the sound came out disjointed.

His lunge brought him so close, and then he gripped at the creature, lifted it from the grass and with a heave of his broad shoulders, threw the cat across to Merrick. It landed awkwardly on its back, hissing and twisting, reacting as if it could still use every inch of its broken body. A pathetic display; a horrible, torturous moment in the creature's life.

Revui watched the creature squirm, but his focus was drawn to Merrick and what the leader would do.

the fear of the creature was palpable, its twisted body battered further as revui, with an impressive show of force, hurled the feline toward his leader. merrick pounced forward at once toward the thrashing, tortured body. breath came harder, hoarser; flanks heaved with adrenaline and the pounding head-sense of satiation soon to be had.
a flash of teeth; he snapped wildly at the face of the creature, hearing screams reverberating through eardrum and vein and femur, gnawing, cutting through flesh and through bone until the enfeebled writhing began to die.
only then did he rock back on wearied haunches, mouth dripped from brow to throat with black gore, and grinned at revui.

He watched as his leader tucked in to the easy meal, relishing the violence, the spectacle of it - at least until the man rose up to grin through bloody teeth. Revui turned away at that. He could hear the ragged breathing of the cat as it lay dying, but did not move. His ears were pivoted to listen while his eyes scanned the horizon, wondering if the cat was a lonely thing, or if perhaps there were more of them nearby to pay with. The beastly man did not know that cats were solitary; he kept vigil while Merrick toyed with the creature, and when the breathing became wet and ragged, he knew it would not be long before death came to it.

death was a cruel mistress even in the very moment most needed. the death rattle sounded; the feline arched once, twice, as if to fight off the immortal hands of darkness reaching for it now. then all at once, it was still. merrick felt rather empty as his ears began to realize the absence of clicking breath in the shredded body, and he pushed himself away from the cooling carcass with disdain.
yet to revui he gave a grin and a nod; he sauntered closer to seek tendrils of fur along the stoneman's shoulder, to groom through them for a length of seconds before he invited the other to hunt more lively things.

aah sorry this is short!!

He was distracted by a collection of dark marks in the sky — vultures maybe, alerted to the blood. Revui watched these broad-winged creatures drifting ever closer, and was spooked by the silent appraisal of Merrick, who was suddenly alongside him. Preening at him.

The blood between the boy's teeth matted Revui's fur a little bit, not that the Ironfang minded. Then Merrick seemed alert to something else - perhaps the birds, perhaps another cat - and Revui followed his attention. Were he to prowling along, Revui would follow diligently behind.

ur posts are lovely no matter the length <3

trailed by the surefooted sentry of ursus, merrick paced lithely through their land, muzzle questing for his quarry. birds indeed; a brace of pheasants that had fled into the thick undergrowth, and waited to be spurred from underfoot. such foolish little things, and no match for even his slender jaws.
the desire to quell, to snuff out breath; merrick felt godly with revui as his retinue and cast a brazen glance toward the man, smirking.

Their first hunt - which had endeared Revui to the scrappy darkling - had been a moment of rare entertainment for the warrior. Playing catch with the cat had been similar, and now Revui wondered what hi-jinks they would get up to as they marched along. He was not skilled in the more finesse-driven athletics that Merrick utilized; far more skilled to be the powerful but blunt object, or an obstacle, rather than anything sleuthing or slick. Merrick vanished among some green and for a moment Revui was unsure of his role in this new game - he paused, looked around at the wilderness around him, and heard only silence.

we can fade & have another? <3

not seeing revui close at hand, the bearwolf prowled back along his path. the stone giant gazed about himself in something merrick could not recognize. he glanced back toward the trees, the abandoned trail, and then sauntered toward the guardian once more. "let's go to the river," he invited instead, thinking of the coolwater banks inside ursus.
thirst for blood now quelled by want for clearer liquid; he was amused.

Gaah yes please. Sorry I'm having a hard time focusing on rp right now D:

When the shadow reappeared, it was to offer another course of action - the river. With a grunt of acceptance, Revui swung in to a different trajectory and began to prowl again, keeping his attention mostly focused on the surroundings as he followed Merrick towards the scent of water. Perhaps there they would find something more tangible to eat; it wouldn't be as bloody nor as visceral as the game of cat-ch, but the effort of swinging the cat to and fro had aroused a hunger in him all the same.