Noctisardor Bypass [raid] going deeper underground

merrick lunged;
the boy before him; @Abel Redleaf driven like a calf to the charnel house;
and in his mind the cadence of death, and in his heart the resplendence of life;
merrick ran, snapping upon the boy's heels and not quite closing, hot breath a rush as though it were a snort from the nostrils of some apocalyptic horse. the songs, the snarls: the beginning — oh, aunt laurel, i am coming for you
and then perhaps merrick might at last be able to die, to be ended, to lie headless in eternal repose with her his blackbird — ah! corvid queen flashing alongside him, her indigo eyes alight, alight, alight, with the glory of the kill!
his single eye snapped to ash (@Chacal); and with a cunning thrust of his muzzle he aimed to trip the boy into her grasp. "laurel's child," merrick rasped. the four syllables would illustrate their insurance in the shrinking, dirtied child that the hunted had left out for ursus to find.
ahead; his son grappled with a stone mass of a man, and arielle sliced out with her own glittering fangs.
merrick did not pause to help.
the bruin-witch shot beyond the trio, headed for the path ahead where his aunt's scent had thickened, overlaid with terror and mingled with the;
another child
"you've been busy," merrick cackled, hard paws pounding along the trail.