She bounced through the snow that had accumulated around the plains, creating a path back to the den for Marigold and Dandelion to follow. The antlered fox had heavily protested the attempted trip to go out and find herbs in this kind of weather, but Briar just couldn't stand sitting around the pack lands doing nothing for one more second. Dandelion had given squeaky bleats of protest the whole way and Briar had suggested maybe leaving the dik-dik home, but Marigold had insisted on bringing him and his little saddlebags along just in case they did manage to find something to bring home. "I'm not going to carry your stuff, you hard headed pup!" she had said to which Briar just as vehemently responded, "Fine! But he's your responsibility to lead him through the snow then!" In the end they both had to work on clearing a path to get back since a snow storm had whipped up while they were gone, but both of them were too stubborn to admit it. She got them over to the little shelter that stood against one of the trees outside of the family's den that Briar had created for Dandelion to live in after she got quite a few disgruntled responses to his squeaks in the middle of the night. She thought it was adorable, but her siblings didn't seem to think so. Once the dik-dik was situated inside his little hut and his leather harness was tied to the tree, Briar turned back toward the den just in time to see Marigold duck inside to go warm up. The Princess rolled her eyes at her companion and called after her, "Oh come on! It's not even that cold!" That was an absolute lie, but she wasn't about to make it look like she wasn't more tough than a fox. With both of her companions seemingly refusing to embark on any more adventures with her today, she huffed and turned her attention back out across the plains in search of some other form of entertainment. She caught a flash of dark feathers in the sky over head and looked up in time to catch Marshal's form disappear past some trees ahead of her. With a grin she took off through the snow again in the opposite direction from where her father's companion was heading since she thought that for sure she'd find her father at the end of it. Sure enough, her intuition paid off and Sirius' dark figure came into view through the bare trees. As much as she would have liked to sneak up on him, all this crunchy snow made it nearly impossible to even try. Instead she just bounced up to him with a grin, hopping up onto her back legs putting her snow covered front paws on his shoulder so that she could reach his cheek and give him an excited, loving kiss. "Hey, dad! What are you up to? Where is Marshal going?" "Briar" | "Marigold"

He moved through his patrol, Bast a small distance behind him, ducking through the trees and keeping watching. Marshal moved on ahead, scouting the way and keeping a birds-eye out for any trouble. Some time into his patrol, a small form bounded towards him. He stopped to bend down and give the antlered girl a kiss, returning the one she had given him.

He cupped a paw about her back to support her, and then started showering more kisses across her, growling as though he was play fighting as he kissed her cheeks and nose and chin and ears. He tucked at one ear, and then knocked his head lightly into her antler. “Hello, trouble.” he teased the young girl. “Marshal is patrolling, just like your old man.” he explained.

Briar grinned and her tail wagged happily as her father showered her in kisses, pulling squealing giggles from her. It was a rare moment when she got to have him all to herself - even though he was technically working right now. But he could do both, right? Between her giggles she growled back at him in her much less threatening puppy growl and returned the bump he gave her antlers with a head butt into his shoulder, though she was careful not to poke him too hard. Her antlers hadn't fully grown in yet, but there was still a couple little points that had formed so far and had learned the hard way when she was play fighting with Marigold that they were pretty sharp. Her fox friend had glared at her for a whole day after that, but it had been a good excuse to practice putting herbs on a wound so at least in Briar's eyes it hadn't been all bad! Once Sirius pulled back to explain that he had Marshal were both patrolling, she hopped down from where she was perched against his shoulder and gave him another wide grin. "Okay! Let's go then!" she replied confidently, effectively inviting herself to join in on his patrol. Without waiting on his response, she set off down the border of the pack's lands. She had to kind of hop through the snow where it had gotten swept into deeper snow banks, but a little bit of snow wasn't going to stop her from patrolling with her dad! Well... until it actually did stop her. One of her hops sent her into a snow bank that was much deeper than it seemed because of a dip in the ground underneath. The powdery ice almost entirely swallowed her up, leaving just the top of her back and her little antlers sticking out of the snow. Briar sputtered and stuck her head up into the air, flailing a bit as she determinedly tried to climb her way out, but the soft snow kept collapsing under her paws and sending her deeper. With a pout, she called, "Daaaaaad!" "Briar" | "Marigold"