Bearclaw Valley a chalice of pastel blood

backdated for about ... aug 27th, lettuce say <3

merrick, pleased by those that had come along, set out that afternoon in search of @Earp. he knew little of the man beyond his name, perhaps not even that. but he would come to know it. hunger speared the bearwolf but he did not pause in his travels, fording the edge of the swollen nameless river he had idly begun to call 'bearsong waters.' dramatic, but was not merrick also so?
on he went, pleased.

He was being hunted.
No, sought.
In a pack, he was sought by his packmates.

And it was Merrick. The other that seemed to lead here. Earp hadn't spoken to many of his packmates, just mere nods and shit. Whatever.
But a wolf behind him crossed the river, and he stopped to turn. He waited patiently. He wouldn't be rude, but nor forthcoming unless prodded. 

this man was the opposite of averna; where his sort-of relative was pale and silvered, this man was emblematic of the night's darkened peak. merrick was perturbed and allured; he came closer with a more considering step. "you could be a spy," he joked, "blending into anything you wanted." single eye flicked over earp with an assessing gesture. "what do you think of the place so far?"

He smirked at the joke. Yeah, he probably could.
"Or wherever you like," he jested back in a light manner. That was what he was here for really. Something to do.
It seems Merrick may want something though, so the conversation must go on.

"It's pretty," he mused, "the pack is nice, seen some children about. Plenty of food, nice area." And seemed to have some allies, or so he's heard. But that was fine. All cool, all fine. He was rather sentient for the time being.
"I think the Ancients like it here too," and probably why he was drawn here in the first place.

attractive. bountiful. fertile. and tied to something that seized merrick's attention immediately. his ragged ears trained upon earp; the single eye shone with more intrigue than before. "what are the ancients?" did earp feel attuned to the woodland bears as the coywolf did?
shadowman became the focal point of the brat prince's existence — he was silent, waiting, trapdoor spider awaiting its choice moment to pounce.

"The Ancients," he mused, thinking on how to put it to the man.
"Our ance'tors, our makers. Teh ones who funded a bloodline say pure, yet tainted by too many."
Even his cousin suggesting he breeds with his own blood...something so normal that the Ancients certainly had shunned them for doing so with the deformed, weak young. If they were born weak then the bloodline was too tainted to continue and the ancients made sure to let them know.
"The Ancients make our child def-ormed if the bloodline be impure. In our fam'ly, an impure coople is redjected."
Earp truthfully hadn't yet hedged his bets. He may have to soon, he was getting into his prime. And here he was under someone certainly not of his bloodline.

Now he looked though, he seemed full of trepidation. Who the fuck was this? Why did he seem so ready and interested? He watched Merrick, lips pursed, eyes fathomless to the scarred Bruin-witch.

merrick fell into the void of earp's eyes, considering slowly what had been said to him. it was sensible, he felt, that a man should keep his bloodties to the land pure.
but his gorge rose at the truth of what the shadow spoke. merrick did not think even he could stoop to such corruption, but the snake-eye glinted all the same in his mind, once, filing reluctantly the concept.
"here you're blessed by bears." flick of his shabby ears, pointed but in no way concealing the toothed grin that cut his face from side to side. 
"no incest required."

Bears, huh.
He always thought of them to be things seen from afar, and any much closer they'd try to eat you.
He didn't know what Merrick really meant, and will probably ask, but would accept this blessing of sorts as long as it didn't mean he was a meal for the ursine race.

He chuckled at his comment, glad for it.
"Good," well, it was all good and well Merrick saying so,​ Earp just hoped it was really true.
"Wha' duh the bears do fur us, 'hen?"
Better be something good, like strength.

"well they gave us this valley, to begin," merrick purred, single eye gleaming. "in the winter the threat of them keeps others away, and in the spring — well," and here the boy finished with a chuckle. earp did not need him to elaborate upon what happened to those who did not praise the god well.
"i'm interested to know how you found your way to ursus," he inquired of the full-shadow man, eyeing him with open intrigue. "what you did before." a clear invite, and no judgement attached.

He wondered what was meant by that.
Bears didn't give up anything without good reason to.
It also seemed strange that the man thought the threat of bears was something to be scared of in the winter, when they were seldom seen around their dens.
His lips twitched downwards, thinking.

But the spring was most dangerous for them..." 'ow long has Ursus been 'ere?" Hell, if he said only since the summer gone Earp was leaving...before the bears woke up. Fuck getting eaten for a bears breakfast.
But Merrick steered the conversation in a different direction then, and Earp happily told him.

"Well, me Family split up, went our own ways. Den, I met me cousin Priest 'ere. But 'e then left again wit de rest who came."
Abandoning Earp in this strange world. Probably because he expressed disinterest in fucking his half-sister, but whatever. He could make his own legacy now.

"four months," merrick answered, thinking of the things that had brought him here. had brought the bearwolves together. earp was an interesting sort, he decided; the atramentous nature of the accented man held several levels of intrigue.
"your last clan," and here he paused the question, tonguetip touching lips. all of it: the ancients, the sibling-fuckery, the way earp's voice sounded to his ear. "they came here?" priest. now that was a name, though merrick found himself found of this one's title, for he was in service to the bear now. "did you ever sacrifice then?"

He looked to the sky.
Four months. So in his ways, it was four moons.
Four moons was just barely a couple of seasons.
Shit.
He held back the incredulous look he wanted to deliver.

He grunted in confirmation of Merricks first question with a nod of the head.
"Came. An' lef'."

But the next question was a bit more complicated.
Did they ever sacrifice other wolves?
"We rectified dem. If de Ancient's d'spised our choice, den we kill the won dat made it." Except for the parents. No, never parents who'd given birth to unholy offspring. They either lived because their parents sacrificed themselves, or the young were slaughtered before they could know better. 

had he known earp's thoughts, merrick might have pointed out that whilst ursus had only been here a handful of months, bearclaw valley had existed beyond the years of himself. he peered at the shadowman a long moment more, brimming with questions but asking nothing.
punishment by culling one from the packland. hmm. a word to put aside for later. tongue lolled; the man blinkd his single eye and lifted his chin. "let's go hunting." not so much an invitation as a command, and one meant for the darklord himself. he thrust shoulders and head beneath a shrubbery, hunting whatever scent seemed most intriguing.

He didn't comment about the practice of the Sahirans.
Probably for the best.
He didn't want to explain their entire history in one sitting.

They walked for a few more quiet moments.
Earp could admit he wasn't much of a question asker, and he was glad when Merrick suggested a hunt.
"Let's," he replied, following after than already delving into the undergrowth.

he prowled into the undergrowth, pleased. there were rabbits here, of course; skunks, weasels, martens — but merrick wanted the quick grey fox he had seen a hundred times and never caught. "do you think it is possible for us to come back as something else? after we die," the bearwolf explained, not caring what derailed train of thought had dragged such a notion to his head.

Scents wrapped around them in the brush.
Some sharp, some warm. Some prey, some just prey with teeth and a will to fight and steal their way through life.
Merrick seemed to not like the fox trail they followed. He chases it with purpose, but his words were...absent from the task at hand.

"Prolly no." Nothing in their Ancestors teachings mentioned a yes or no to the fact.
"Be tha' wha' yous teaching Merrick?"
There were kids here. They were to be taught the religion, certainly.

"teaching?" he chortled a bit, amused. "i'm no teacher, earp. i just ... say whatever comes to mind, and if they listen, they listen." and many did, and many chose not to, and many had once listened but had moved on. ursus was a place that craved its autonomy, and that extended to each member. "maybe i will now, though." single eye hooked to the blackened pupils. "would it be wrong of me?"

He hummed in response.
It wasn't his place to tell Merrick to force the religion upon others.
Not like a Sahira.

He thought they might continue on in silence, but the Bruin-witch looked back at Earp with his single eye. Asking just the question Earp thought best to not comment on. It was funny how minds thought alike. How the Ancient's conveyed messages between them all.
"If dey dun't like yous talkin', den they wouldn't be 'ere. No?"
If you couldn't stand your leader, then you wouldn't join. You'd be stupid to do so in Earp's mind.

"guess i'm just that charismatic," merrick purred, and meant it. for how else could he explain the nature of ursus, how he sought with regularity to separate wheat from chaff. and this allblack saint, this satyr come to them — merrick wanted another look beneath the man's skull at the rotating cogs. 
"there's a fox around here. he looks like a stormcloud. i want him." simple enough, and a laugh tipped earp's way besides.

Earp chuckled.
Yeah, what a smooth talker. He thought of Merrick as being rather sleazy, like a car salesman that looked like he'd rip you off then beat the shit out of you if you complained or tried to get a refund.
Earp wouldn't try his luck.

"Well, use dat charisma on 'im." 
Earp returned the laugh with a grin.
But that was what they were hunting for it seemed. Perhaps Merrick would hold it up for all of Ursus so feast upon. Gift the tail to his lovely mute wife, or as a chew toy for those children he could smell.
​

amused by earp, merrick licked his own scarred lips. "easier said than done," came his gentle purling. "first, ah, we has to get close." this coalstained man and his sooty knowing stare; what had he seen? what had he become?
the boy pulled ahead, catching a glimpse of a shadow beyond them, and hungers whetted, began to stalk.

Earp only grunted in response.
He said it so casually, but foxes were crafty. He should know that by know if he hadn't caught the crafty thief by now.
His dark eyes watched for an elusive tuft of quicksilver Merrick so wanted to clutch betwixt his jaws as some prize or other.
Revenge, or just to prove he could, Earp didn't care.

It seems Merrick had his sights ​set upon the perpetrator before himself, as he moved with particular purpose now.
Earp only followed, supposing he was a safety net more than anything -- the bruin-witch should have his glory.
Earp slid from his side to flank the fox. Watching Merrick and for the silver canid.

it was into an easy silence they moved, earp disappearing and reappearing between shadows, mirroring merrick as if he belonged in that way to the boy. the bearwitch marvelled; he thought of a thousand sundry ways in which he might put such a creature to use;
aha
the musky scent of flushed vulpine on the air, and the coywolf streaking along the trail in near-silence, scarce breathing as at last he held the trail of his great quarry.

Their pace increased. Merrick moving faster through the undergrowth, Earp keeping pace.
His shadow.
He could faintly smell the trail as it weaved, sometimes it disappeared for Earp. But not for Merrick, it seemed, as he hunted. A hunter never lost his prize.

Then, there it was.
Earp's breathing became near-silent as he spotted a glimpse of grey through the darkness.
Merrick must have seen it too. He turned hard eyes to the man, waiting for his reaction -- or orders.

merrick panted, grinning, catching earp's sideways glance. a jerk of his muzzle leftward, and he would dart right. they would pincer the fox between them in one of the bearwolf's favorite tactics, and then,
perhaps they would see how a fox loses its pelt,
merrick sped on and on and on, gleeful at how well earp had fit into the shadows, and how terrified the beast would be to see pure nightfall reaching for it.