Silvertip Mountain many lilies lost in the choking grass

"there are wolves close to us."
beneath a cicada afternoon, he sought @Aventus.
"it will not be a raid, but —" his look was knowing, and filled with anticipation.
"i mean for you to go. take who you wish, if anyone. and quietly gather what information we do not have."

Merrick would find Aventus lounging beneath a tree, sucking marrow from a bone. The chirring of insect wings masked the sound of his sire's paws approaching, but Merrick's long shadow fell over him moments before the Bruin-witch began to speak.

Overhead, a hornet buzzed among the foliage. Aventus angled one ear toward Merrick and kept tabs on the stinger with the other. He dropped the bone across his elbow and peered up at his father, lips tugging up at the corners. Neighbours? His favourite.

Give me leave to spend a week in the flatlands, said Aventus, and I will pretend to join their rank when our scent has gone, if it pleases you. That was a most surefire way to gather information. Aventus could pretend to be whoever he wanted to be, gain the trust of the locals, and report to Merrick on the side. If his father wished that, anyway, and if Ursus could spare him for a time.

"you have it." merrick did not need to instruct aventus toward caution. he was the son of his mother, and she was more shadow than any of them.
the thought of his eldest upon their insides shifted something within merrick. he pulled his mind from it. "asperas, when she is older, she will be a blood-letter. and not careful," the bearwitch suspected aloud.

So it would be done. Aventus nodded briskly, ignoring the unwelcome battering of nerves in the cage of his chest. He dreamed in secret of being a great infiltrator, a little spy on the inside. It was a role better suited to him than the deceit he maintained in order to hold his place as Bruin-jaw. He would never admit it aloud, because she had looked to steal from him, but his title would have suited Avicus more.

Bruin-gaze, now that might fit him better. Or Bruin-breath. But she had tried to steal from him instead of standing beside him, and she wished him dead, and he was too afraid to admit to anything, and was powerless to change his fate now. Perhaps this could reset him somewhat.

She will need to learn caution, Aventus replied, turning his thoughts too to Asperas. She cannot afford to be reckless when the rest of us might hinge on it.

"she will learn. you did."
it was a cruel addition, but merrick did not mean it maliciously, and felt that his son might comprehend. the children of ursus learned only through violence against them. and asperas had already drawn blood.
"a heavier path than even mine might belong to her." for he had not yet seen what the world had done to avicus.
"caution will be the first of those lessons."

I was always cautious, Aventus countered, straining to keep a petulant frown from his face. It was Avicus who had learned the consequence of her violence when she turned tooth and claw upon her brother, but Aventus had been instilled with it from the moment of his first breath, when Merrick's teeth closed on him and nearly snuffed out his life. While he had no recollection of it, his soul still did. It was largely what tempered Aventus' respect for his sire.

He did not know what to say about Asperas. His private opinion was that she was allowed too much freedom to fling about her entitlement, and he suspected eventually she would turn those entitled teeth upon those who fed and protected her now. He loved his little sister, but he did not like her. She reminded him too much of Avicus, and he still stung when he thought of the traitor.

We will see, he said, rather at a loss for what Merrick meant by sharing all this.

merrick too did not know what compelled his tongue.
"ursus has that lesson for us all."
by turns he hungered and was tired. 
"i have faith in your mission, my son." so like his raven mother the boy seemed now, careful and corded and darkling. "report to me when you are able."