Bearclaw Valley hey, have you guys seen my juul?

i can mark this as pack formation if y'all need but i am hoping to have her join! also if any assumptions about the smell of the place and such aren't okay i can edit as needed!
@Merrick @Aventus @Arielle — but anyone welcome to answer!

this place fucking smelled sour.

and she was disgustingly intrigued by it. fresh wolf piss, blood, bear. she was dying to know more. although she had enough wits about her that day to know better than to stroll on over and into the place like she owned it. she decided she could play nice and compliant to learn some more information. maybe weasel her way in since winter still had a chokehold on the lands.

she remained a respectful (barf, she thought) distance away and let out a little call. ears cupped forward and spring eyes alert for whoever might emerge first.

the first thing he noticed were her eyes, which would seem flagrant for anyone else. for merrick they comprised part of the full psychological profile he set up whenever he met someone new, which was a healthful happy way to regard interactions with others.
there was one entrance into the valley and she was there, half-hidden behind the large boulder that marked a sentinel. merrick was behind it in the trees just where they thinned, watching her. he assumed it was a wolfess; ursus had gained quite a few female joiners recently.
the bruin-witch loudly laughed and emerged from the forest after some minutes, the sound reverberating through the valley as ravens rose in a flurry of disturbed caws. his single eye roved openly over her features, the tucked waist, the expression in her bright eyes. "well. you've found us."

she had planned to be all polite and respectful but, uh, scratch that because she eyed him up right in return. the scarred shape of his swarthy form. planned to look on in his eyes as well but she found only…one. one single amber for an eye. spooky and intriguing.

i sure did. she offered with a wide grin. you got all the good smells floating around here, hard not to come take a look.

and look she did at the giant valley walls, curved and arched. trees and worn pathways.

direct, to the point. she had few qualms. merrick felt that perhaps she'd suffered little to no trauma in her life. he could change that. 
"is that all you're doing?" merrick challenged in a rasp, though his body showed no intentions toward barring her from the borders.
yet.
his teeth still ached.

who would have thought the one eyed dude would be such a bore.

no, she settled on dully. i want in. even if he seemed boring he didn’t appear — based off of scars and his weird approach to her — to be some sort of nurturing leader who wanted to frolic in flowers and pop out a million children when the spring rolled away the snow.

at least…she didn’t think so? a place that stunk of bear and blood probably wasn’t home to that energy.

easily bored and entitled. objectively she was pretty enough to have anything she wanted. but she'd stopped at ursus. merrick smirked. "what makes you think you're good enough to get in?" he paced to her left, starting to circle the silken little princess at his borders.
he glimpsed the delicate roundness of her skull's back, thought again of his teeth and how they hurt — they smarted with need. merrick waited for her to speak.

well, you haven’t rushed me off or said no. you told me i found you, which sounds like you wanted me to. seems like a good start. head turning to look at him through a squinted gaze as he saw it fit to circle her. he acted like a vulture and she supposed maybe he could be.

what makes you think i’m not good enough to get in?

perhaps a bit presumptuous, certainly a little bold.

she was both of those things.

"can you kill?" merrick's breath was suddenly on her nape;
he wanted to see her jump;
and fluidly pulled away in the next motion, glancing back toward the forbidding trees of ursus.
"it's a requirement. bloodshed. if that's not your bag, move on now. i do bite."
now his single yellow eye filled with malevolence. she'd tarried too long here without solid words.
and merrick was hungry.

she reeled from him, his breath hot against the plush of her neck. hated it but whatever.

yeah i can fucking kill. that’s nature or whatever. a little close to tipping over that whole respectful act she had wanted to put on, but if one-eyed weirdo here wanted her to do bloodshed, she had an idea that maybe respect wasn’t the same here as it was elsewhere.

so bite if you want, but i bite back.

perhaps the princess had a hidden blade. the malicious glow cleared to plain interest. merrick tilted his head as if re-appraising her. he drew away and drifted toward the stone that marked the entryway to their land. "show me."
in the next moment he was silent, whirling, lunging for the girl. it was not a spar. merrick would not be gentle, and he intended to feel her own teeth if she wanted entry.
the man's particular brand of interview was unpopular.

lemme know if i need to edit anything :D

Teeth, hot slicing into her shoulder. She cried a sound of pain and anger. Uninclined to dash away when instead she could seek to retaliate, whether he had asked for such or not.

She did not care where she hit on him, but she whipped her head to snap at him with her own teeth, heels and nails digging imprints into the snowy muck earth.

merrick savored her cry; it tore into his bloodstream as if he had been shot through with an arrow. 
her fangs closed on his left ear and ripped a notch. the bearwolf grunted as blood abruptly trickled, twisting to hit her ribs with his hard shoulder.
his single eye was filled with admiration and pride. now she was absolutely killing it, this princess with a switchblade in her pretty skirts.

his shoulder met with the curve of her ribs and how easy it was to feel the wind pushed out of her as she stumbled to the side. off guard, poorly footed and hardly the proud figure she tried to hold.

all of this only served to anger further.

so she sought to lunge at him from her twisted, serpentine position. a body slam for a body slam.

her body crashed into his own. merrick felt his ankles ache with the connection of their figures. he laughed, taking a bruise high to his shoulder. now he came after the girl, silent, teeth sheathed; he sought to tangle her into his forelegs and the leap of his long body, to bring her down, bring them both down, in the churned snow and red dirt just at the entrance to ursus' sanctified lands.

and down they would go.

down into snow, into dirt, into each other as tangled as serpents or spider webs. the aggressive pound of her heart thrummed against achy ribs as she found herself here.

she might have dared to toss snarky words at him if she did not still feel the need to be prepared for more.

so she remained silent, chin tucked to chest as she looked at him through squinted eyes.

merrick chuckled and pulled away, a wave of his tail signalling that it was over. "welcome to ursus." he felt the blood gathering beneath the blood of his shoulder. "i should get your name before i let you in," he snickered, tattered ears swinging forward. "i'm merrick."
in order to stay she would have to fall in with aventus and arielle, who would each test her in her own way. but to the bearwolf, she had earned her right to enter.

it was over.

which was good because she could finally feel the blooming bruise where his body had met her ribs. not to mention the ache of her shoulder. she had not been maimed, but she certainly hadn’t come out unscathed either.

she supposed at least they had managed to get each other. no one sided bullshit.

treva — or trey, whatever you feel. she grunted as she stood upright. stretched as she looked at him through new lenses.

merrick, ass kicker of ursus.

gotta fight you more sometime. even if she had been angry through it, it wasn’t all that bad.

"treva. trey." he tried them both on, teeth glittering in a glasgow smirk. "i like treva." it reminded him of evien; he too had held that distinctive syllable in his name. 
her offer made his remaining eye glint. "we will."
the bruised pair swung along the path leading into the ancient trees; ursus opened before them and he looked at the high stone walls with love, leading her to their meeting-place: a wide meadow that would bloom with purple flowers at the end of spring. "your other leaders are my son and his intended." call it what it was. "i'm sure they'll be along to find you, treva."
he gestured. "we worship the bear here. you've proven you can shed blood. that means you will be called on to do it." the single eye flickered toward her.

she followed with a lazy grin on her face as they cut by stone into an open expanse. unfortunately the winter would hide its delights from her, but she wasn't hard pressed about that. especially not when he saw it time to load her up with other information.

his son and his intended...something, she didn't know what he intended, were also leaders. full up on crowns here, eh? she wondered what that would look like in the long run.

worship bears, shed bled. got it. her features split once more into a wide grin.

how do you like to worship them? with the whole shedding blood...?

"shed your own. shed that of those you find raiding our caches. and shed the blood of others," merrick grinned. "but if you catch your own sacrifice, do bring them back. that's a family affair."
he chuckled, nudging her with his shoulder as he pushed past frozen limbs collapsed in the snow.
here he reared up and scratched at the bark, creating a mark.
"ursus favours devotion to the bear. if the spirit calls, we answer."

fade? <3

she had walked into party city apparently.

regardless, she could vibe with this for now. it would be easier than harshing it out alone. and undeniably more interesting.

oh, i'll make sure to drag them straight to you. she offered with a grin and wink.

perhaps she'd learn a bit more while he showed her around. and she could ogle him while ignoring the crazy.