Bearclaw Valley Why is the raven like a writing desk?

set for late evening, 19 F

The old altar had been of special interest to the bruin-heart. She knew it had belonged to the former queen of Ursus, and Arielle couldn't let it sit, covered in snow and dirt. 

She finally understood how she could honor Astara, and she had spent much of her time since returning, cleaning the stone and decorating it with things of her own—things that represented her connection to the bear.

During one of her patrols, a raven had dropped dead and fallen from a tree to land right in front of her. It had been a sign, one she couldn't understand yet. So the healer had placed it on the altar to decay. She found the skull of a rabbit while cleaning out one of the caches and had placed it on the altar too. 

On the first night she had slept in the valley, Arielle had dreamed of a mother bear. She followed her for miles until they came to the mouth of a giant cave. Inside were two bear cubs and at the entrance was a wolf, ripped to shreds. Its blood ran over the stone, painting it with a symbol. Instantly, she knew it was significant. The mother bear had dipped her paw in the blood and then touched Arielle's flank, leaving a bloody print behind. When the healer had woken, she had gathered sticks and placed them in the form of the symbol directly in the middle of the altar. 

A garland made from thin branches and dried elder leaves was draped across the altar. Arielle felt at peace when the scent filled her nose, which helped her connect to the bear. There were still more things to be found and dedicated here, but the bruin-heart was pleased with how it had come along so far.

The half moon spread it's soft glow across the altar tonight, and Arielle sat in front of it with her eyes closed as she tried to interpret the sign of the fallen raven. The icy breeze blew flakes across her back, but she had tuned out all feeling.

@Sequoia, @Witch and @Heda seemed particularly preoccupied lately. Often, Druid found herself left to her own devices. She felt lonely at times, though she managed to keep busy too. Still a little sour over her encounter with @Indra III, she spent more and more time just outside Rivenwood, favoring exploration over her own pack mates.

This Christmas morning, she suddenly remembered the hollow she’d spotted to the south. The sprightly Mäher loped along the winding course of the Mudminnow until she reached the spot where she and her mother had turned back last time. She lingered only a moment before trotting forward with a deliberate step, keen to discover the forest’s secrets.

Lost Creek Hollow was too similar to her homeland to capture her attention for long, as was the deep glade right next door. When she saw the stony palisades just beyond, Druid clicked her tongue and nearly turned away. She wanted to explore someplace that didn’t immediately resemble the bypass where she lived.

Though the day grew short and she should hurry home, something stilled the young woman. Druid pointed her muzzle back toward the valley’s entrance and found herself padding forward, proceeding cautiously even as the air went from cool to cold, from dim to dark.

Druid didn’t see or hear anything ahead in the darkness. The air was so still due to the rocky ramparts, she didn’t smell anything, either. But she sensed something out there in the deep December night.

Of course Arielle knew the girl was there. She scented her on the air and felt the presence of her energy. An intruder it seemed. Arielle's eyes flicked open at once. Had the bear named a sacrifice? Why else would this girl come while she attempted to connect to the spirit? Her heart beat with excitement. 

The healer stood and moved through the darkness towards the sacrifice. When she was close enough, she spoke from the shadows. You have entered the land of Ursus—of the bear. Arielle drew closer still, watching the girl as the words reached her. She must pay for her disrespect. Her blood must flow into the land of the bear.

Everything was preternaturally still and Druid’s instincts warned her that she should be on her guard. She pressed on despite this, curiosity mingling with trepidation, but froze when she heard Mahler’s words whispering in her mind, warning of larger predators.

She grew very still and watchful. Nearly the same instant Druid decided to retreat, a voice spoke up from the darkness. It spooked her so badly, she instantly lowered into a defensive crouch. “You have entered the land of Ursus,” the voice told her, “of the bear.”

For a frantic instant, she wondered: did the voice belong to a bear? She had never seen one, nor did she want to change that. Her muscles coiled as she prepared to spring away. In the instant before she turned and fled back toward the valley’s entrance, she thought she saw the silhouette of a wolf. But Druid couldn’t be sure as she ran for her life.

This is not intended as an exit, necessarily; feel free to pursue!

Nothing worth anything in life was ever easy, so when the sacrifice turned and sprinted towards the exit of the valley, the bruin-heart moved quickly to follow. 

Arielle glided across the snow-covered valley, a wide grin on her face as the scent of the gift filled her nose. She released a howl, letting the girl know she wouldn't get off so easily. If @Aventus or @Merrick heard and joined, then all the better. 

The healer called out: You will have to run faster to escape the bear. Her words were taunting, meant to spike fear in the heart of the sacrifice.

merrick stood upon the stone at the entrance. he had come upon the scent of the interloper but did not follow it into the territory.
the cry of their bruin-heart was feral and delighted; it fired the bearwitch and as the fleeing intruder passed below the shadow of the rock, he jumped down, snapping for her tail;
a child, a girl-child;
if he missed or if he did not, it did not matter; he gave full chase now, thinking of blood in the wide white expanse of wapun meadow and how it would be beautiful to kill her there.

Bear or wolf, it taunted her as she fled back the way she’d come. Druid did not think she’d ever run this fast in her life, nor had she ever felt so afraid. Adrenaline pounded through her veins as she burst back through the stony interstice.

Druid screamed when a shadow swooped at her from above, the sound of four paws hitting the earth ratcheting up her terror. Something snagged her tail and she felt the sharp rake of teeth, compelling her to veer abruptly, speeding toward the cover of the glade.

No conscious thought found footing in her young mind, though some survival instinct told her she would have a better chance there than on the open meadow. Speaking of footing, she nearly lost hers when she did not lower her breakneck speed upon hitting the cluttered forest floor.

Somehow, she managed to keep her balance, only to strike her shoulder against a tree. Druid hissed through her teeth and pinballed wildly for a moment, rapidly losing momentum.

Merrick dropped down just as they reached the narrow, stone entrance, as if this had been the plan all along. Perhaps it was the bear that connected their paths so perfectly. If so, she would not let the gift go to waste. 

The addition of the bear king as well as the smell of blood had her heart pounding in her ears. Excitement surged through her veins as the chase continued beyond the valley and towards the trees of the glade. It was not an ideal place to chase, but no matter. Arielle wouldn't give up easily. She would not let the bear or Ursus down. 

She heard the girl clumsily making her way through the forest, and although the bruin-heart had slow her own pace a little to avoid her own collision, she knew the sacrifice would have been slowed too. As quickly as possible, she weaved around tree trunks and jumped over a log that attempted to block her path. 

The girl was in her sights now; Arielle watched her slam into one tree and then another and another. She smiled as the distance between them shortened. Once close enough, she would leap forward with snapping jaws, hoping to tackle their sacrifice to the ground and sink her teeth into her flesh. She yearned to spill more of her blood.

the girl stumbled into a tree and there her speed changed;
merrick, lunging after, arielle sweeping in; they converged upon the hapless child.
the bruin-heart struck first.
the bruin-witch aimed his shoulder at the fleeing stranger's ribs, hoping to knock the breath from her and send the half-grown wolf spinning into another trunk.
he laughed; pinball, he and arielle the razor-edges into which the trespasser bounced again and again.

Please let me know if I need to make any edits; I’m happy to accommodate! Injuries are okay, but please no maiming or killing. :)

As she ricocheted off the third or so tree trunk, Druid began to panic in earnest. She knew her pursuers were closing in on her, even though she couldn’t hear anything over the sound of own breath shaking from her. Had it been a mistake to come into these woods, rather than head for open ground where she might’ve had a real chance at outrunning them?

Something struck her ribs with much more kinetic energy than a standing tree. It flung Druid sideways with so much force, she went airborne. A second set of teeth snapped at the spot where her face had been just a second ago, though now she sailed through the air, only to hit the ground and roll violently through the underbrush.

She had absolutely no control over body, though Druid managed to let loose a ululating cry for help as she flopped end over end like a ragdoll. Perhaps, if she was lucky, Mahler, @Sequoia or any of the other wolves in Rivenwood might hear it.

She slammed into yet another tree, this one horizontal and covered in moss. Druid let out a shout of pain even as she rocked haphazardly to her feet. Covered in leaf litter and bleeding from her tail and myriad other places, Druid bolted toward a break in the trees ahead.

Her teeth snapped only air, but it was because Merrick had slammed into the girl from the other side. This knocked the sacrifice off balance again and pushed her back towards Arielle who slammed into her in hopes of sending her back toward the bear king. 

The girl hit the ground then and rolled into a tree, the thud so loud it could be heard over any other sound. Arielle was sure it would weaken her further. 

The intruder managed to pull herself up before they reached her, but the bruin-heart pushed herself forward, close enough behind the girl to attempt a nip at her heals in the hopes of tripping her. If she fell this time, Arielle would be right there to take advantage.

merrick's fangs flashed in the half-light, carving a shallow wound along the girl's right flank;
the scent; tangled! mind exploded with thoughts of indra indra indra indra and auntie laurel,
standing over him;
laughing laughing laughing laughing
the bruin-heart, searing for blood, burning for it'
they could catch her. they could kill her.
"she's a messenger," he grit, and slid on claws to a stop, growling for arielle to also follow suit.
spared not by mercy but by usefulness.

She wasn’t going to make it that far. The certainty came to her when fangs bit into the tendons on her right hind leg, cutting them deeply. It was a miracle she wasn’t snared in full, though her luck held for less than a second. More teeth scored her flank. She kept running but the two predators were closing in from either side and Druid didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of fighting against them. She was going to die. She screamed wretchedly.

Then the onslaught suddenly stopped as the hunters fell back. Druid did not look back, slow down or stop as their ghastly figures vanished from her flanks. She galloped for the far side of the glade, toward the downs, the grove and Rivenwood beyond, aware that she was only alive at the mysterious whims of her terrifying pursuers.

Finally. Her teeth met flesh. Blood touched her tongue. She clamped down and pulled back, attempting to cause as much damage as possible. The girl still ran, unfortunately, so Arielle still chased. She was high on it all now, her bloodlust blocking everything else out except the wolf who screamed and clumsily ran ahead of her.

Nothing would have pulled her from her chase—nothing except for the growl from beside her. Still in the moment, her instincts kicked in, and she whirled around on Merrick, a snarl leaving her jaws before she was able to stop herself. 

She yanked herself back and stared after the girl for a moment. Now she would get away. 

When she looked to the bruin-witch again, anger hardened her expression. What do you mean? she asked. The intruder was meant to be a sacrifice, she knew it in her heart.

well, if arielle was going to marry into the fucking family, she might as well know everything. 
merrick gestured toward the retreating girl. "she's carrying my aunt's scent. laurel. my mother's sister. the fucking bitch who ruined everything."
he was panting; merrick licked the girl's blood from his jaws.
"we'll track her. see where she goes. laurel would be a far better sacrifice than her."
his single eye asked arielle to trust him. "if they're where i think they are, they're weak."

He told her of his aunt and his mother, how she apparently ruined everything. The healer was filled with questions. But when he suggested they track her back to her home, where this aunt might be, she nodded. She trusted him, he didn't need to ask it of her. She had been angry and confused, but her loyalty to the bear king never waned. 

Your mother, she started hesitantly. What did she do to you? She could tell the anger still very much lived in his heart, and she suddenly grew angry herself for whatever had happened to him.

was it time for therapy already? merrick grunted. he was too restless to sit, and so as he began this portion of his past — i was born, i was tormented — he picked up the girl's scent and trotted alongside her clumsy trail.
better to multitask than anything.
"well. she left." 
beside itself, it was nothing. but;
"this was after she chose some winner to knock her up and not stay around." merrick scoffed a laugh. "you know," he went on, "i could have understood if i'd had siblings and one of them disappeared. you know, whatever."
merrick was shifting, the serpent rippling, his tone changing from maddened to boyish as he reverted back to the time of his greatest pain and greatest sin. "but no. aunt laurel also chose a loser and on top of that none of her kids wanted to stay. so she told my mom that they were going to leave to look for her brats. and my mom, uh, just said okay. and then she left me alone in a pack full of wolves i didn't really fuckin know."
merrick didn't look at arielle. his stare was fixed ahead, as if the girl would materialize and they could kill her anyway.
"so now im alone. not a year old yet. my sister and i, well, my adopted sister — that didn't matter then but it mattered after — she left me too. i killed a coyote and i guess she decided the vermin was worth more."
"so i left. i went to the mountains. that's where i met her." the raven queen. his blackbird love. merrick cleared his throat. "she saved my life. and after that we began ursus and after that — after that i found my mother again. she'd never come home, she had just ... started over. not far from the valley or where she left me."
"i had to kill her after that, it was like she was — flaunting herself. she said she came back for me but i waited and waited. and she didn't." there were tears on his face, the old unhealed wound bleeding as he pushed his proverbial thumb into it.
"but maybe they both need to die. she paid for what she did. laurel hasn't yet." the man walked on now in sudden, pointed silence.

Arielle followed at the bear king's side, listening intently as he told her of his past. She could understand the need to find a missing child—as much as a woman who had never had her children could understand. But to never return? To leave Merrick with the pack like he meant nothing? That was unforgivable. The healer understood now why the anger still burned within him. Her memories of her own mother were fuzzy now, but she remembered how it felt to be with her, and she never felt like she was unimportant. 

He told her of his sister and how she had rejected him for killing and left him too. His family had abandoned him. And if his sibling couldn't handle his vicious nature, then she thought he was probably better off without her, although that wouldn't have made him feel better about it. 

Her heart ached for the bruin-witch when he told her that he found his mother later only to see that she had started a new life without him. She was glad to hear that his mother had paid for her sins against the bear king; only her life would have been enough. It was a relief to hear he had found the former queen when he was most alone, but it also made her death feel heavier. She better understood why it had devastated him so much. 

But his aunt still lived. And now they had the means to find her. It seemed she had misinterpreted who was supposed to be the sacrifice. She needs to pay, Arielle told him. The bear demands it; I know it in my heart. That was why the girl had come. I will help you find her. It was now just as important to her.

can probably fade this and have it count toward relocation! <3

arielle;
merrick turned and looked at her for a long moment, the remaining eye attempting to crawl behind her own gaze to the softer parts beyond. she had a capacity for gentleness but the bear had shaped her, remade her. she was fit for ursus. fit for his son. the bear spirit provided many things, and in arielle it had given them an apt and skilled bruin-heart.
"i'm glad you're here," merrick said in answer to her voice.
he leant forward to nudge her shoulder, a rough gesture. the bearwolf was not affectionate. not since her.
the girl's trail was leading northeast, pawprints leading from the borders across the meadow, into the glade, and toward the forbidding stone walls of the bypass beyond.
merrick licked his jaws. "let's go back and find our bruin-jaw. you can update him." 
he grinned, turning back toward ursus.

sounds good <3

They had stopped as she spoke, and she felt Merrick's eye searing into her; it didn't make her squirm. She knew that he would only find the heart of the bear within her.

He was glad she was here. The bear king offered a nudge to her shoulder that she returned with a touch of her nose to his own shoulder. Arielle smiled despite the anger still coursing through her. I'm glad too, she returned. She truly was; Ursus was where she was meant to be.

He suggested that they head home, and she nodded in agreement before starting to walk back in the other direction. Her heart raced with the mention of the prince. They hadn't been gone very long, but still she longed to be in his presence; the thought heated her face. She was probably being ridiculous. Still she picked up the pace in hopes they would get back sooner.