Moonsong Glacier Take away everything I am
Firestorm
90 Posts
Ooc — Liv
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#1
RIP 
@Merrick but AW! <3 


The night Merrick told her to go look for the Saints, she had done everything right. She washed Ursus from her pelt, went looking through the forests, over hills, the works, but Vesta found nothing.
It was on her return trip that disaster struck. 
Within the reaches of Moonsong Glacier, Vesta trekked towards Silvertip Mountain, unaware until she was right on top of it that there was a Grizzly mostly gone with rabies. 
It was already too late by the time Vesta called loudly for the aid of her pack, sprinting towards the mountain she called home. 

Long claws swiped her hind legs at just the wrong time for her. 
Vesta tumbled messily forward, rolling just in time to face the crushing jaws that came for her own skull. 

Pained shrieking as the rabid Ursine tore her apart, leaving a broken and battered, gory, bloody mess in the bearknight's place, wide, terrified eyes looking towards Ursus with a twisted neck. 
In the final seconds of her life, Vesta looked with fear for her Bruin-witch, pleading to what might've been nothing that she wouldn't die here alone. 

Please, don't let me die alone... 
6 / 2 THREADS
506 Posts
Ooc — Chelsie
Tactician
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#2
On his way up the mountain, Aventus was tugged in another direction by the panicked sound of a packmate's summons. Was this related to the horrible sensation in his stomach that something was wrong? Was Ursus in danger? The Bruin-jaw sprinted toward Vesta, feeling his throat constrict with fear for what he would find.

What he found was a bloody pulp that once wore white fur with a shock of scarlet at her napeand pleading, pain-filled eyes. Aventus almost rushed for Vesta, knowing there was nothing that anyone could do for her but end her suffering, until his gaze landed on the bear. That froze Aventus in place.

He was not afraid of bears, but there was something wrong with that bear. The bloody foam flecking its muzzle and the fire-stricken madness of its eyes was all he needed to see. Aventus knew better than to go anywhere near that thing, and so he had to stay away. On top of that, he could never strike a bear. With one last, helpless look at Vesta dying there, the Bruin-jaw backed away and sent up his own voice.

Danger! Danger! Stay away! The bear was dying, too, and with any luck it would die long before it discovered the wolves at Silvertip Mountain. His father would come if he wished, of course; Aventus sought only to warn away the others.
this is my book
and i know how to work the spells and charms in it
i know them all
1,610 Posts
Ooc — ebony
Master Warrior
Master Missionary
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#3
the bear. the mountain. blood caught in the wind's teeth. 
a bear maddened, sickened; vesta was mangled and pleading.
merrick grit out his breath, staggering to aventus' side with a figure that wished to lunge forward.
he met her eyes with his remaining one and wept aloud at the eternal power and might and cruelty of the bear;
"vesta," and his voice shook horribly, and he was at last unable to call this a blessing.
Firestorm
90 Posts
Ooc — Liv
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#4
RIP 
Last from Vesta, thank you to all of Ursus for being her family! Feel free to Pp and kill the rabid bear <3
 


Her pleas did not fall on deaf ears, it seems. As Aventus and Merrick both came to witness her brutal demise, the bearknight wept from dulling eyes to see her king's pain. She wished to comfort him somehow, but she was unable.

Her scarlet gaze met Merrick's pained cyclops stare. It was at this moment she took her last breath, and the exhale, along with the last flicker of life in her eyes said only one thing seemingly, swear-by-it audible despite her being mute:

"Thank you." 
And her body stilled, with her lifeless gaze still on Merrick's. 
He and Ursus had been her home, her family. Until the very end. Vesta died with a slight, relieved smile on her gored face. She didn't die alone.

Seconds after, the rabid grizzly faced Aventus and Merrick now, gurgling and maddened. It staggered some, disoriented and violent. 
And it began to stumble forward again. What did fate have in store?
6 / 2 THREADS
506 Posts
Ooc — Chelsie
Tactician
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#5
Aventus' hackles rose in peaks along his neck when Vesta's eyes dulled and the bear turned to his father and he. The beast was no longer a sentient thing, but doubtless ravaged by hallucinations and fears of its own. Foam dripped from its jowls. A towering, grizzly harbinger of awful things to come, and this only the first of several.

We cannot remain here, Aventus said, his voice a far-off echo in his own ears. His eyes had not left Vesta's mangled body. He hadn't even returned to Ursus soil from Moonglow yet and already this, but the cascading blackness of his unexplained fear continued to swirl in his belly. We cannot lead it back to Ursus, he added.

They had to run, lest they suffer the same fate as Vesta or the bear itself. Something primal told him that to let those jowls touch them was death. They could not fight this thing. It was suicide. The boy stepped back, two steps, three, willing Merrick to follow. They could lead it away from here, abandon it to its fate in the lowlands, and return for Vesta's body later when it was safe.
this is my book
and i know how to work the spells and charms in it
i know them all
1,610 Posts
Ooc — ebony
Master Warrior
Master Missionary
Offline
#6
a sacrifice.
his son's voice paled and fell away; merrick watched the bear, saw its weaving and dripping jaws over the jarring gore it had made of their loyal vesta —
he grew peaceful within himself, and at last let his consciousness back into the chaos and whirl and tight, pragmatic voice of his son. "yes," he breathed belatedly; "we will give her a martyr's burial;"
his wish despite what was to come;
she had been chosen and the blood that painted the earth was the breadth of ursus' cruel blessing.
merrick turned, shouting a challenge to the bruin. its heavy blankweight head swung, and numbly it followed, drooling, a shattering growl echoing beneath hoarse breaths.