Wapun Meadow traitor

he did not go far from ursus, only to the well-travelled meadow to stretch his legs.
by and by, thoughts of nunataq came unbidden to him. this time he did not push them away; he crouched in the flowers and peered muzzily off into the distance, considering the last memory he had of his one-time sister's face.

A wild Vesta has entered the chat

 

Ursus was low in numbers, this Solaria knew by the lack of different scents, save for the newest pups, which Vesta made sure to give a wide berth to. She purposely avoided getting within more than ten yards of Astara's whelping den, as a show of respect at the very least. 

Today, Vesta decided to trail after Merrick as he went to the meadow. She hadn't seen a whole lot of him lately, and though she understood he was almost certainly guarding his pups, she wanted to check in on him, in her silent way, and see how he was doing. 
She chuffed audibly as she approached. Unsure of his mood, Solaria kept her ears flat and held a modest amount of submission in her body language as she came closer. Whether it was instinct or pure desire to please him, the warrior kept an assumption that with his latest children born, there was a chance the Bearking might be more aggressive than usual.

he did not linger long in the north. the familiar sights became overwhelming, and when he reached whitebark stream, everything came crumbling down upon him once more. it was no longer settled, devoid of all old packmates. no dawn or artyom, no aphrodite. . .

aphrodite. perhaps his first love. where was she now? dead, like papaji?

surya entered the meadow once more with morbid thoughts on his mind. he had traveled deep into the flowers when he realized he wasn't alone. one—no, two. two wolves on the horizon, neither of them resembling the man who had comforted him before.

he stood off to the side, watching them with wary expression. time on the road had sharpened him, at least, pushing down the grief in favor of spatial awareness. that anything could lurk around the corner. . .

father. your real father.

and his brow came together, eyes narrowing, teeth clenched behind lips set in a taut line.

a pretty figure in the distance. vesta, slinking closer. merrick allowed her nearness, body horrendously laid, but his invitation did not suddenly turn to teeth. she was, after all, a loyalist. aventus too had seen this. 
but would she too leave in the end? like tadec? like indra? like nunataq?
he hoped the other two were dead. he knew what had become of his mother.
pushing himself upright, the bearwitch stalked toward the strange form, possessive of his meadow. but this time there was no slow and poisonous charisma, only hunger, and the want for blood.

The red-nape paused at Merrick's side, moving sideways slightly as he rose in brisk fashion, to the stranger she also just now noticed.

The bearwitch was no-nonsense today, it seemed. All the same, Vesta leveled her head with her shoulders and prowled alongside her Alpha, scarlet gaze and rippling muscle weaving a strong, nonverbal statement.

This is ours.

surya had never seen a shark, but if he had, he might well liken this pair to the creature. they prowled closer, clearly on the offense, though their movements were slow (for now). he did not look straight at them but slightly off to the side, watching their approach from the corner of his eye.

have i done wrong? he asked in his still heavily-accented common tongue. his face betrayed no irritation, though it could be found, perhaps, in the small but agitated twitch of tail at his hocks.

after all, he had crossed no border. he had come here before with no trouble. so why now this not-so-welcome party? 

once, he may have been inclined to play nice, but rajendra's death had broken something in surya. he cared very little about smoothing over a misunderstanding he hadn't meant to cause.

"that depends on why you are here," merrick chirruped, a cheery sound that did not match the baleflame of his remaining eye. vesta, close; he knew that she would go into battle for him if he so wished. 
the bearwitch's gaze slid with carnal want across the strong young limbs, the haughty throat. 
the accent reminded him of many things, but namely things that merrick did not want to recall.
"ursus hunts this meadow," he informed the stranger pleasantly, catching the scent of several places, but none of pack.

The stranger seemed to try to stay facially unreadable, though Vesta took a moment to size the man up and look him over as he spoke. 
Aside from the slight irritated twitch of his tail tip, all she could see was wariness, especially as Merrick responded and voiced Ursus' claim to the meadow they stood within.

Solaria kept scarlet hues on the stranger, her body poised and still. A viper ready to strike, unmoving until the moment of attack.
She might look akin to a statue now, at first glance. But an observant eye would notice the smaller rise and fall of her sides as she breathed.

a snort, not quite a laugh, escaped his nostrils. i am no threat to ursus, he assured the pair, shaking his head. though the meadow had its bounties, there were plenty of places to hunt elsewhere. and surya knew well that you picked a bone with individuals, not an entire pack.

he would leave.

except. . . tell me more about your pack, surya continued, stepping closer while carefully watching their movements in response. his shoulders were set low, tail hanging limp behind him. his slim build only helped paint a picture of an underling.

he could not go home. not when every memory was of rajendra, and of their last exchange. he could not face his siblings again, nor yet his mother. 

if 'home' was no longer, then he would have to build one. from scratch? perhaps. but then, there was this ursus.

"ursus is small and has many enemies." they had never been a towering sort of pack, and merrick had reexamined himself. there was no shame in the telling of these facts, for he had no shame in ursus, and all the commitment in their glorified righteousness.
"my mate. our children, one of whom stands beside me this year as leader. our warrior," a smirk to vesta. "a healer. a boy who is still finding his way." that was ursus. 
his eyes fell to the stranger now, who had not moved away but come toward them.
"we live alongside the bears and we serve the bears, for giving us our lives and our valley. we shed blood when strife comes to us. our name is in living memory." he grinned, beckoning the young man closer; testing him.

Solaria remains in her position as the stranger assures he is no threat. 
A step or two does he take forward, and to this, Vesta's scarlet gaze blazes warning.

He wants to know more about Ursus. 
To this, Vesta internally narrows eyes in suspicion, but ultimately remains still, poised, eerily resembling a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike.
Merrick tells of Ursus then, describing their members and she can tell he smirks to her, out of her peripheral vision.

Ever still and eternally voiceless, Solaria waited.

the man's words were unlike anything he'd heard before. 

bhaalu? he wondered aloud, not necessarily aiming the question toward the others—not that they would understand, anyway. his curiosity was piqued, but it was too much to take in all at once.

instead, surya dipped his head respectfully, taking steps backward. i will leave this meadow to your wolves, he replied, and began to take his leave.

should they stop him—but why would they? he had been nothing but compliant, though he supposed that wolves mad enough to worship bears might try to test him.

let them try. let them come. 

something had broken within him, when rajendra had died, and he worried sometimes that it was his sense of caution.

something he did not understand.
merrick, straightening as the pretty young man reacted in terms he did comprehend: to depart. it was a fitting thing to do when faced with such feral majesty as the bears provided.
he would not move to halt the stranger. merrick only glanced to vesta, gave a tilt of his chin upward, turned to go. let him leave. the spirit of ursus' might would guide him back. if not, they had no need of one who left so abruptly.
pride filled the bearwitch as they walked.

The stranger spoke in foreign words. Words Vesta didn't understand.
Then he left. 
Ever atuned to her Alpha, Solaria turned to follow Merrick, glancing once more back to the retreating man before she looked only forward.

Silent as always, Vesta swayed her tail and offered a brief bump to Merrick's shoulder in kinship before bounding forward in a slow burn of speed.

vesta's muscles bunched with energy. merrick attended it with a lengthening of his own stride. the red-nape was a fast woman, forcing the bearwolf to call upon every bit of his own sinuous expression to match her coursing ability.
he melted along her flank, ready to match her strides.

And into the valley they go, to free their minds and find their souls. 

Solaris slowed to a fast trot as they breached the borders, glancing to her Bearwitch alpha before moving to melt into the trees again, unless stopped of course.