Phoenix Maplewood tryst

aw, but maybe @Kaertok? <3

he was hunting, hunting again. ursus was thinning, becoming smaller; even his new lover in the canyon of red sands could not pull merrick from his murderous fugue.
blood, to satisfy; blood, to tug him back together at the edges.
the never-ending rain veiled the dark figure as he flitted around the edges of a forest dripping with berries, yanking them down from their branches and trampling them unceremoniously, destructively, upon the earth.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. How life can sprout again from the maplewood territory; first delicate, green and small. Only to grow again to huge proportions like trees, luring in all sorts of animals in its wake. Traces of smothering fire, hot flames and mass destruction had gone to slumber. Everyone in life deserved a second chance, even if this time the circumstances had been different. Like a Phoenix rising from the grave, so had Epic said his first steps into the lands of Teekon Wilds again even after more than a year had passed. It was a lifetime to some and only a blink of a moment for another.

It was the enticing smell of sweet berries that lured him into the maplewood forest because -- as always -- once a scavenger, always a scavenger. But would he get more than he bargained for? For he wasn't alone in his berry quest and some didn't like the stench of strange, unpredictable lone wolves while he was drawing near like a shark. Good thing, it was only doofus Epic.

merrick stared down in satisfaction at the paws now stained red. like donovan's had been, he noted contentedly to himself. the rain rushed, watering the berry-juice into thin crimson rivulets, and he looked up to see a thin, lanky boy, on the move toward him. the longer merrick remained rooted, the closer the figure grew, until he beheld the young features and dirtied pelt of the hungry-looking urchin.
"come for a snack?" the coywolf teased, eye lighting and teeth aglow in a teasing, cruel grin. he stepped aside, waved his plume at the berries he had stomped into blood-purple mud.
"help yourself."

The scenery looked like one from a horror scene; a berry-stained river of crushed red and blue massacre. Merrick's paws covered with a combination of berries, rain and dirt. Then there was the invitation from a stranger to a stranger to join in with the berry massacre and to divide the spoils of war. Good thing it were only berries, right? Good thing it was only ...Merrick, right...?

"Only a snack?" Epic replied, his face filled with a shadow-like glee. His golden eyes glared at the crushed berries everywhere. Somehow it didn't feel like berries for the moment, it felt like a whole empire torn asunder and a blood-stained ground filled with the death and gore of their enemies crushed underneath their toes. Poor berries, hardly showing any resistance save for the thorn-bushes they sometimes resided in. "I want more." He proclaimed, almost blood-lusty and savage. And as words promised an action, Epic began to scavage and eat from the very berry spoils of war. Soon his entire muzzle was covered in a horrific mixture of berries, mud and rain. Who was the boogey man now?

"Do you want more?"

"wow, calm the fuck down, killer," merrick laughed, though his tail began to lash to and fro with a great humour. he watched the boy blunder forward into his crushed berries, licking them from wet dirt with a complete lack of shame. merrick's single eye danced, he pressed closer, reaching up with his jaws to shower more fruit into the mud.
"do it again," he encouraged in a low growl, churning berry-gore into the dirt with stamping of forepaws again, teeth glinting in the rain as he licked its worst rivulets away from his jawline.

Epic felt like a true King, a harsh ruler who could make the law or break it as if he had a divine power. All his subjects would either love him for all his glory -- or hate him with pure passion and spite. Epic the Conquerer, what a story that would be. But he wasn't alone, there were two kings with a kingdom to divide. There was also Merrick; though he wasn't quite sure if he was the good one or the bad one. And his comment about to stop made him glare at the other male while a ghost-like coy grin tugging at the edges of his leatherly lips. Stopping? This party was just getting started.

A satisfying growl slipped from his lips, a sound only strengthening when Merrick joined in on the gore and treated his mud-stained body with even more berries. A massacre-like fruit punch. With even more enthousiasm the wolf crushed the berry subject underneath his paws, a dance of very berry death and fruity gore. "Come." Epic said, inviting the other male to join in on the party. "Get berry-down and fruity-dirty with me."

An invitation that couldn't be resisted, right ...-

irresistible indeed. merrick stooped at once and dragged a thick mouthful of the muck into his jaws. the dirt grit between his teeth; he grimaced a bit, but in the next moment a trickle of juice through the mud reminded him why he had done it. 
deciding not to think over his actions too deeply, as always, merrick continued with tail waving at his haunches until he was full. 
knowing it would turn to sickness, and welcoming the dull ache in his belly, the coywolf pondered his companion. "what's your name?" and so on and so forth, until merrick came away gleeful and sickened and exhausted.