Bearclaw Valley i've seen their worlds inside my head

AW, tagged for reference <3 we can leave this as a simple one-post "RO" or we can have it be a traditional thread, just wanted to get this in my thread log bc i had no idea so much time had passed!!

astara had been an unorthodox mother; an unorthodox dam for an unorthodox brood. she had let those of ursus approach, though never enter the den -- and now, she was imbued with the instinctual sense that it was time for her clutch to begin stretching their legs.

@Avicus and @Aventus might find their horizons broadened in the days that came; they were just shy of a month old, and had begun being hardy little roamers. astara used to herd them back from the den mouth, but today, she placed her frame in a pool of sunlight just outside of the den, on a flat shelf of rock that marked the lip of their holt.

today, no sharp teeth would reprimand them back to the darkness - but, astara would not let them wander too far from her either. while spread out across the golden glow of early morning sun, astara wondered if @Merrick was near. she had interacted with him little since that fateful day, and wondered jealously if he had found comfort and love elsewhere.

no comfort for him; no love for him, nor the bare hope of lust. ulysses had gone, and merrick, while saddened, was more fraught with annoyance. he had stayed away from the densite save for slinking trips here and there. the reddish babe and the dark knew him, but merrick knew not by what name. he abhorred the notion of fatherhood, though from time to time in their clearing he dropped various intriguing things on which they might whet their baby gums.
he found his rook lying glossy beneath the sun with the unearthly little weaklings close at hand. despite the initial urging of his wounded masculinity to stalk past the shelter, the sight of her feral beauty dried his throat and he could not move.
he longed for the darkwater woman, pined for her. unable to stifle himself this time, merrick cut carefully into the clearing, drawing closer toward the place where he had slain his loyal fellow, and pausing there to see if he would be welcome or driven off.

june challenge -- quality

mother was outside today. Avicus follows, a tiny russet shadow slinking from the den to settle by a bush nearby. Astara's tail is in her direct line of sight. its movement is all too tempting.

with a kitten-like pounce, she sails several inches into the air and lands on the tail, taking the tip in her mouth and shaking her head back and forth in fierce glee. she is too occupied with this toy to take much notice of the other wolf's approach.

she doesn't remember him, anyway.

But Aventus remembered.

He followed his mother closely out of the den, waiting for her teeth to clip his flesh and send him scuttling back into the shadows, but it never came this time. She sprawled out in the sunlight and the boy crept over to her, timid and cautious as he looked around the lawn outside their subterranean home. So focused was he on his surroundings that he startled badly when Avicus pounced on Astara's tail, a sudden red blip against raven-black fur, and his own stood abruptly on end.

When his heart's stuttering stilled, his tail picked up a mischievous wag and he prepared to ambush his sibling, but then movement drew his eye away. He froze when he realized who had come to visit: the one-eyed dragon with his fiery breath, his fearsome aspect. Aventus pressed himself back against Astara's knee to ground himself, reverent but afraid, as he always was in Merrick's presence.

wasnt sure if i was supposed to post next or D:

a flash of red. merrick watched the girl bounce into the air, a set of needle-teeth briefly glinting. head cocked, he drifted ever closer, warily eyeing the blackbird. 
shifting movement soon drew his attention, and he stared at the child that had almost died the first night. by his edict.
someone else had paid that blood price.
mollified by the terror surging from the boy, merrick stole a few more steps, peering at them both with a carefully inscrutable expression.

one was bold, one was not. astara would have laughed at life's irony had she known the beginnings of indra's life -- now came a red brand of confidence, borne of her own blood -- instilled with something far more feral than any melonii had ever whelped. she watched as avicus slunk forward, her eyes trained on her tail -- nimbly, she twitched the tip as the girl pounced, incentive for her to play all the rougher.

for now she ignored the nettling pain; her children would grow strong and confident, not insipid like indra had been. pathetic and helpless -- how astara loathed the red woman for her last few breaths; if only she had died quicker.

to not even fight.. to not even press against the oppression that dared suppress your life -- astara could not understand.


merrick was a deviancy from that line, and how lucky he was to have dodged that genetic lottery. her gaze lifted from daughter to startled son, but a shade lingered out of her periphery that she knew all too well.

soothing aventus' frilled neck-fur with a lap of her tongue, astara eyed the man as he pulled closer. she had once considered him her lover; did he still love her then, despite the weeks that had passed like an eternity between them? had he found comfort in another's flesh in that time -- would she know if he had? her suspicions of phoebe where wholly ungrounded, but all the same her gaze needled as she bore merrick in full; devastating and as familiar as the crunch of bone against her teeth, but hers all the same.

would he be hers always?

mm mm mm. the game is hers, and she gnaws softly but devotedly. only when she feels her mother stiffen and sees her brother cower does she cease, dropping Astara's now saliva-coated tail to stare up at the newcomer.

he. . .looks like them. he's one of them. Avicus draws in his scent and finds it smells of home, but of nothing entirely familiar.

she takes a hesitant step forward, then another, belly dragging against the ground as she stalks. her growing ears swivel uncertainly atop her head as she casts her midnight gaze toward the stranger.

questioning, always.

A distracted tongue smoothed the lifted fur on his back, but did little to calm the boy. While not frantic, he knew that where he stood in relation to Merrick was as great a distance as the chasm between ants and gods, and that kept him worshipful and submissive in Merrick's presence.

Avicus crept toward the dragon, and Aventus was seized for just a moment with the desire to grab her tail and drag her back. The moment passed quickly; he loved his sister fiercely but he feared the dragon's wrath more. He didn't know if approaching the man was a step out of line, but he was quick to decide that if Merrick should become upset with this behaviour, it was better directed at Avicus than himself.

the dip of his raven's tongue brought a deep fascination to merrick. he remained as enamoured by her as he had been, though their meet had been fractured somewhat by the arrival of these two ... he hadn't a word for them. grubs no longer, clambering, daring, eating, staring.
he met the blood-child's questing eyes, watched her stalk toward him. her brother sought favour with their murderous sire by remaining still. enchanted despite himself at the boldness of the girl, merrick stooped to meet her with a single brush of his nose.
it was all for the sake of his blackbird; he looked to her now.
i know they are you.
betrayal in her motherhood, but merrick forgave her everything, and sought her ankle with a low whine and a lap of his tongue.

astara's tail was dropped; she canted an ear towards the red jellybean as she made for merrick, unaware of the tenuous tension that hung in the balance.

avicus stayed by her side; either out of self-preservation, or paralyzing fear.

astara remained still as she watched merrick levelly. how would he meet his dam born-again? she tensed, ready for that flash of teeth, ready to fling all aside and fight for her child's right to life -- only to have the bear-chief stoop to his red child's level and brush her tenderly.

a ripple of something foreign seized astara's heart. she met the bear's gaze as he brought his muzzle towards her in the first initiation of contact they had had in weeks (how many other women had he touched in her absence, she wondered maliciously). half tempted to yank her limb from merrick's reach, astara inhaled roughly from her nose -- and then gave in with a single thud of her tail against the stone floor in acceptance.

he greets her as other wolves had. she lifts her chin to accept his muzzle upon her head, eyes filled with a kind of wonder as she stares up, at his face, his— there's something missing. something off-balance. is it. . .?

oh. it's his eye. he only has one of them, when others have two.

Avicus turns and is beginning to examine him more closely when he reaches out to her mother, and alarm bells begin to clatter in her mind.

no one gets this close to Astara. no one touches her. no one except for her and Aventus.

no one no one no one!

a tiny growl rumbles in her chest, her throat, her lips lifting without volition. she wants to shove herself between the man and her dam, but the connection has happened; she is too late; she is powerless to stop it, and now the anger is fading away to confusion:

who is he, anyway?!

Aventus watched on tenterhooks as Avicus approached their one-eyed sire and held his breath for a flash of disapproving teeth. It never came. Concern writ a narrow line just over his eyes, but Merrick touched Avicus gently and turned his attention to Astara.

Perhaps the corkscrew feeling in his gut in Merrick's presence was unfounded, after all.

He was shaken out of his reverie by Avicus' growl, followed by a sinking feeling in his stomach. Maybe Merrick wasn't as malevolent as Aventus' instincts led him to believe, but he knew with certainty that the dragon was dangerous. Avicus was playing with a fire whose size she had no inkling of. Aventus moved, swiftly but cautiously, from his mother's side and launched himself into Avicus, snapping admonishments as if to say, shut up, shut up!

he was welcomed home; merrick seemed to wilt in a paroxysm of relief. the witch snuck close as he dared, seeking her warmth. he would not touch her again, not until the known dangers of her teeth had passed. up and up his muzzle lifted, staring first toward the girl cloaked in blood and the dark boy who had once shrunk away.
merrick did not return the growl; merely laughed aloud and cast himself down alongside their mother. his gaze shifted to the son now, and he saw a razor knowingness in the command of the boy's small bulk.
there now, perhaps some ember that could be coaxed. "good," he grunted toward the pair, intrigued to see if the daughter would capitulate or fight.

their tense contact came to an abrupt end as a blur of red wedged its way between them. astara noted with wicked pride the assertiveness of her daughter -- the way a growl pressed from her chest unbidden.

while it was directed to her mate, astara would not admonish the tiny terror. nor would she interfere when the growl and subsequent posturing earned aventus' attention. to astara, there was no betrayal greater than suppressing the excising of instinct -- her children would grow fine and powerful, and never want for anything.

she rose carefully as aventus swung towards avicus, sitting close enough to merrick she could feel his body heat emanate outward. her gaze rested on the dark form of her magpie; watching him in interest as he watched their children.

the man is forgotten as she feels Aventus's sudden plow into her side. she meets him snap for snap, clicking her tiny teeth in his face as if to say in response: make me, make me, make me! then she pounces again, this time launching herself at her brother.

whatever occurs today between her dam and sire, from this point forward, goes wholly unnoticed.

last post for me!

His sister's retaliation was expected and welcomed. For the right cause, Aventus could be strong, too. He reared on his hind legs to catch his sister's pounce head-on, crowding her space and taking strategic shots at whatever she exposed: her neck, her eyes, her ears. Any blows that landed were softened by the blunt ends of play, but bruises weren't off limits, and he planned to give her several if it meant teaching her not to come up against the one-eyed dragon.

It was some perverse love that drove him to do so, and like Avicus, his attention was wholly redirected to this pursuit.

Last for me as well.

and for me <3

for the remainder of the day, merrick would remain with the raven and the children he had not quite claimed as his own. it would be the longest that he had stayed among them, and in this moment his firelit cyclops-stare watched with a brazen enthusiasm above a grin that widened the more brutal the cubs became in their learning play.