Flycatcher Downs deum verum

for anyone in ursus: @Merrick @Aventus or @Arielle

Jagged walls capped with white rose from the earth. They seemed an insurmountable obstacle, there to halt her forward progress. Nevertheless, her pace would not waver.

With a stilted gait the bear-dog made it trough the tightly-packed snow, dark pelt starred by snowflakes. With a single mind she headed for the stone peaks she did not yet know cradled a valley. Not once did she question her direction. All would come to fit in its place, such was eventuality.

outside the reaches of the valley merrick prowled.
the bearwolf was remembering all the myriad places of the valley; where he had walked and run and loved. with each step the blackbird came to mind; 
breath synced with steps in the snow — merrick felt the corvid queen unfurl beside him, heard her ghostly breath, turned his cyclops'-gaze turned to the beautiful jet face and glowing indigo eyes that only he could see now. his heart was seized with a terrible aching that prickled the remaining eye with painful tears.
a bear, moving too swiftly to be a bruin and yet drawing closer.
a sign.
merrick coursed down over the low rise, swiftly closing the large space between himself and the figure.

There it was, another sign. Hunter of the valley, dark like she, approaching across the snowy expanse. Still her speed did not decrease. They would pass by one another or meet and converse. Which it would be, she would not influence. Only afterwards will she try to divine what the encounter meant.

merrick slowed and moistened his jaws. "you have the resemblance of the valley's god." he stared at the other, taking their scent. unwolven. alien. the long fur which had seemed the pelt of a bruin rose wide and silken and rufflike.
merrick took in the details and alike. he had known kynareth. he had known other dogs.
what sort might this one be?
for now he was silent, prowling slowly to the right.

The wolf spoke, and his words were mystery. The traveler halted. 

Maned head turned to him (for the anatomy of her face did not allow the bear-dog to watch him from the periphery) and she took in the sight of him, the swathe of rust and cream upon his nape and back, the huntsman's build and size of him. He dwarfed her. This fit him. Same words spoken by a lesser creature would not have held as much strength.

"What is the name of this god?" Her voice was deep and guttural, masculine.

"no name." the bear spirit thumped powerfully below his breastbone. the last time merrick had chased a woman he meant to kill her; the lilting ermine in the meadow.
he was far larger than she, a novelty for a man built like a shadow and made for more than blind and crushing violence. "the bear lives in ursus. we gather where the powerful one commands."
the single eye burnt the air around them as he glowered into her face. "what is your name?"

sprry for the wait!! DD: i haven't written anything in too long so my writing is rusty 

There was power in the syllables of a name, rawness that begged to be tamed and turned to greater purpose. Absence of these holy vowels and consonants meant either insignificance - or power so vast it escaped all attempts to be harnessed.

Bear. Yes, the mighty beast from which her own name was derived. This held meaning. She ached to divine it.

From the blackness which hid her eyes, she marveled at the single golden coin lodged in the wolf's skull. Wisps of a myth tickled at the edges of her memory.  Nine days and nine nights spent hanging from a tree, the sharpness of a spear trough meat, an eye traded for knowledge...

"Bernadette." Came her name. It was her plain, worldly name, not the hidden one. With genuine curiosity, which had her head tilting slightly, she inquired. "What is yours, bear-priest? And Ursus, where can it be found?"

no worries!! <33

bernadette.
a sedate name for a creature so odd.
and yet regality was upon her tones.
"merrick of ursus." they would no longer hide.
"hunter of wolves."
teeth glinted in a grin.
"come with me to the valley."