Bearclaw Valley I just slip away and I am gone

toad arrived, in due ursus form -- if ever astara's heart sang, it was with the joy of violence.

her daughter persisted. skoll fought like a cat cornered. and earp -- earp was soon to be another grave marker downed by ursus' might.

astara winced through the smarting pain of earp's last blow, but like avicus, she would not let go.

he might squirm and he might bash her brains in, but astara sought to hold him down with a bull's ferocity, giving skoll any opportunity she could to clip earp's life from the wellspring of his throat.