Silvertip Mountain gunmetal mouth

can be a read only or a single post thread! PPing everyone tgt since this is a pack wide event. set many hours after asperas leaves ursus, after silvertip has been presumably searched

"bring her back."
when he had left @Avicus it was to speed after @Asperas. but she was not tucked into the recesses of the den with @Astara.
merrick did not know what void truly loomed in asperas, but he held the tongue of the divine in his reach. avicus had returned. his snakeling would also be returned to their cunning cobra's nests of bear blessed forest. he must only believe it to be true. 
he looked before him at @Vesta, @Surya, @Arielle who had only returned. and for the @Taggerung, and merrick felt a particular relief in him to have that one about.
and @Ashlar, who had by now made his choice, but if the boy was at hand; "if you want peace, keep it in ursus, with your queen. do this or go, but choose."
with @Aventus gone, the lead fell to vesta. he nodded at the red-nape.
"false names and no mention of ursus. we go to find our child, not build another altar." oh, he was spiraling! he himself bound to silvertip lest his eldest son find himself within hardened jaws.
lest they lose their captive.
"go!"

not since she had seen that white bitch fling her son headlong to the dirt had astara felt so fluttery with fear; so verklempt--

@Asperas, gone! astara's own stupidity had lead to this, her own weakness; here she languished in the shade of her own suffering while her blood met some miserable end. why had she felt so sorry for herself, so consumed by her illness? gods, now she could not even be a good mother...

astara howled and howled, chasing shadows well into the night searching for the missing form of asperas.

he was dedicated.

i'll find her, promised surya, among the melee, among the skirmish. he knew what the dark girl looked liked; had encounted her—

this wasn't a surprise, right? she had wandered before. . .

but still, for her father to sound the alarm, it must be important. 

surya raced through the trees, down the slope, nostrils flared to catch asperas's scent. it was fading with time. he breathed deep, trying to keep it.

but time had passed, and it was fading.

he would grasp it, even the barest scent of it.

he'd help his overlord.

he would find her.

Vesta came to the urgent call, listened intently as Merrick told them of their mission. 

Instructions were given. False names, no mention of the cult. 

Just find the missing bearberry of royal blood. 

Merrick nodded to her, a confirmation that the lead on this fell to her. 

With his instructions, Vesta melted off into the terrain with whomever would join her on the search with Surya.