Bearclaw Valley soot & violets

aw but looking for @Val :D

merrick wasted no time.
he came down harshly upon coyotes; he drove badgers from their sets.
he covered the boundaries of ursus with the thick reek of the bear-worshippers.
all the while whispering. praying. he had neglected their follower far too long, and it was for the boy that the long body of merrick hunted now.

ursus had once claimed these woods, and when it left, new life seeped in. how quickly too, thought val -- for even he saw evidence of past claim in these woods, and how moss, pinestraw, and dirt collected on once worn-smooth paths and stones.

he was standing at the edge of a stony clearing when merrick approached him. val had been intrigued by aventus the first day he met him; there was something about him that was so different from val, it was hard to put into words. but merrick and the impression he left upon val was easily translatable: the man scared the shit out of him.

he instantly curled his tail to his stomach, his ears down and eyes turning quickly to what looked like it may have once been an altar. val kept his tongue, scenting blood along merrick's coat and hoping his would not soon join the thousands that had found their end in merrick's teeth.

the boy was at the altar. merrick reached out to nudge snow from its surface, then glared at the boy who stood close to what had been the blackbird's joy. "why are you here?" came the scudding rasp of his voice. 
in this place?
inside ursus?
merrick would not explain. he stood stone-still with breath seething whitely from his nostrils.

val flinched under the burn of that single eye; for all its lack of a companion, it did plenty to communicate the emotions behind its wielder. "i was hunting." val answered, and when he saw the glare of merrick's countenance, he knew that was not the right answer to a question which had doublefold meaning. "aventus found me." the boy began to explain, feeling as if his skin was gradually being undressed from him, layer by gristly layer until he was but vulnerable and brittle bone.

"we talked. he gave me an offer." val still wondered what it was aventus saw in him -- but, in a way, he couldn't explain what it was that drew him to aventus either. could it be that the boywolf, now man, filled a contemporary role in val's life that he had always yearned to see fulfilled? val was friendly, but he had never had friends -- only siblings and mothers and other wolves of familial tie. it seemed, in a way, aventus had shown up at the right time. or maybe it was val.

before val knew it, he was saying too much. "he said my experience with a bear made me stronger. he said i could learn to conquer my fear, and maybe be stronger." he was rambling incoherently, feeling as if he were an ant under the glaring gaze of a great piece of sunlit glass. "should i not be here? i... i can go."

he was not prepared to hear his son's name on this one's voice. merrick watched over the youthful face as val spoke, seeing all the ways that youth and inexpertise made the boy weak. he did not want another ashlar. no more chances given to those with or without their blood.
avicus held the key to come home —!
the bear had come to val. merrick lifted his chin ponderingly. "if ursus chose you then who am i to question it?" the bruin-witch stepped beyond the supplicant and jerked his head for the other to follow. "what do you most fear?"

even though merrick mentioned the bear may have picked him, val still felt uncomfortable prickling edge gently under his fur. he was so different than them - he felt it in every way - and it awoke misgiving in the boy that he could not be the perfect fit to their little puzzle.

his gaze jerked up as merrick moved, motioning for him to follow. there were many things val feared, and each could roll easily off of his tongue if he was allowed the time to list them — but one was most evident. the ocean. val answered, wondering why his fears might be called in question. how come? what’s yours? somehow, he didn’t expect this exchange of fears and hopes would serve to transition wariness into budding friendship — so what was the purpose?

"nothing."
merrick's remaining eye burrowed into the fear and vulnerability behind val's young eyes. "look at me." look at the twists and ridges and burls of scar tissue, the toothmarks pitted long ago around eye socket and jawline.
"if i took you to the ocean and threw you into it, would you sink? would you allow your horror to consume you? or would you swim, val?"
it's the same as killing.

val did as he was bid, but even then his gaze was etched in thin white terror. how could a wolf so gnarled be so fearless? had merrick not witnessed firsthand the cruel bite of life, and all its bitter tonics? and yet, remained unafraid?

he tore his gaze away. he believed whatever answer he gave would be unsatisfactory. "i would likely die." val felt his stomach seize in icy terror. "is that how you became afraid of nothing? you threw yourself at your worst fears?"

"you would only die if it's what you want." merrick smirked at the boy. "your instincts would kick in. and that is what this is: the formation of a new instinct."
the bearwolf nodded. "everyone had left me by then. what did i have to lose? i discovered my power was in pain. inflicting it. receiving it."

val definitively did not want to die. he kept his thoughts to himself -- a trait that was becoming his own more and more these days. his instincts told him many things -- that all this was wrong, that he was in the wrong place, that these were not his friends -- and yet, he desperately wished to believe otherwise. aventus could be that brotherfriend he so desperately longed for his entire life. arielle could be the sweet sister, the flitting crush -- and merrick.. well.. merrick encapsulated everything in life that val's mothers had so carefully kept from him; it was alluring and terrifying at once.

he thought of the stories he'd heard of the deep; the monsters within them. merrick didn't look like hydra, but that didn't mean he was any less malevolent. would merrick have been different if he'd never lost anything in life? would val?

"oh." val answered quietly, unsure of what else to say. if this was a test, he knew he was failing -- but he did not wish to be on the receiving end of merrick's pain. "that makes sense." he tacked on lamely, hoping merrick wouldn't mistake his being taken aback as a lack of interest.

merrick snorted and straightened. it was enough for one day.
"come hunting," he ordered. they would need to reestablish their caches here in the valley. he was pleased to see easthollow still downed and his valley empty.
val showed more promise than ashlar had. but it would not be only merrick who tested him.
he would lead the boy off into the primeval forest among the decade-worn stones and there they would catch hares, as many as they were able before parting ways.

maybe he'd said the wrong thing. val's eyes dropped, waiting for a lecture that didn't come. merrick rose and began to head towards the gloomwood. val followed unquestioningly.

he was relieved for the change in topic. tough conversations he struggled with greatly, and he had enough sense to know he had not even come close to glimpsing the true hardship in merrick's gaze... but hunt -- why, val could be a fine hunter.

and hunt he would, coursing rabbits from warrens and dispatching those too slow for his quick teeth. the caches would be filled, the rabbits dead, and val and merrick would live to kill another day.