Ulric worked his way around the perimeter of the castle wall, doing one final sweep of the grounds before he finally turned in for the night. He knew that even if he went up to bed he wasn't likely to sleep so he was in no hurry to go inside, especially now that the world had begun to thaw and the bitter, angry cold no longer bit at him every time he left the comfort of one of the hearths inside. It was pitch black outside with low hanging clouds covering much of the faint light that the stars might have provided, the clouds occasionally drifting across the moon and cutting off even that light from time to time. Something sat uneasily on him and he kept trying to explain it away as just knowing how badly Resin was doing and knowing that it could be any moment now that Tamsyn and Sirius would come up from the dungeons to tell him that she had passed.

But there had to be something else. It was too constant, his instincts just wouldn't let him settle. As he made his way back to the castle gates, he spotted a hint of movement out of the corner of his eye and he froze, his silver gaze darting toward a place along the outside of the castle wall ahead of him. He stood there for a long moment with his ears perked, listening and watching for any other signs. He had nearly let it go, thinking perhaps he was getting paranoid, when he caught a glimmer of eyes watching him from the darkness as a cloud shifted away and allowed the light of the moon to be revealed. His hackles bristled, and he carefully edged closer to the gates, keeping his back to the castle and remaining facing the unknown eyes, a snarl pulled at his lips as he hunkered down into a more defensive stance. "Come out and fight or get out of my land," he growled at them, the threat earning him a dark, rasping chuckle from the intruders.

They moved toward him, four of the massive dire wolves he had fought off to save Aranea, seemingly lead by one in particular that was missing an eye. "My fight is not with you," the leader of the band growled back as they stalked closer. He began to back away from them toward the castle, his heart beating harder in his chest, drawing them in, getting them closer to where the rest of his fighters would be more closely at hand before he called for them. If one of these wolves had very nearly taken him down there wasn't a chance against three of them on his own. But if he could get a few key fighters out here... He drug it on for as long as he dared before responding, "It is now," and tossing his head back in a quick, urgent howl to his most experienced fighters. Rage crossed the leader's face when he seemed to catch on to what Ulric was doing and lunged for him, the Aegis jumping away and beginning a game of cat and mouse with the even larger, slower dire wolves until his backup arrived.

Ulric Adravendi

Tamsyn had called Sirius back to The Hallows somewhat reluctantly. She didn't want to pull him away from the Armada so soon after he had gone back - and before she had really had time to move past what had happened between them - but Resin had only gotten worse and worse in recent days and she felt like she had to be with her mate in what could be the final days or hours. But she couldn't do it alone. She had tried desperately to just stay in the dungeon, laying across the room from the cell by the fireplace, but any time Resin would leap at the bars or start on a maddened tirade she'd lose what little bravery she had left. She had to have someone by her side to keep her from breaking down again and she didn't want it to be her children. She didn't want them to see Resin like this any more than they had to. She also couldn't take Ulric away from his pack duties now that he was the Aegis. Sirius was the only one she could call on and she was grateful to have his presence by her though this.

She was quiet as she looked at her paws, lingering on the fur by the fireplace. She kept replaying the last conscious moments she had gotten to enjoy with Resin, keeping them firmly in the front of her mind through all of this. Resin had wanted her to remember her as she was and so she would. It was a precious memory that she was grateful that she had gotten to experience so she focused on that instead of the faint ghost of a wolf currently locked in a cell. This wasn't her Resin any more most days, but she felt like she had to be here all the same. She had to be loyal to her mate though everything, down to the very last minute. Perhaps it was just her own way of making up for falling for her weak heart momentarily with Sirius, though she wouldn't admit it.

The world was quiet outside of these stone walls until suddenly Ulric's urgent warning cut through the silence and made her head pop up, her heart immediately hammering in her chest as a rush of adrenaline hit her system. Gods, what now? More saber cats? Her wide, mint eyes went to Sirius before she scrambled to her paws and began moving toward the stairs. "Come on!"

"Tamsyn" | "Blue"

Of course he came. There was no hesitation in the Warlord. He pushed back the darkness that had been creeping into his lonely heart. He stayed by Tamsyn, wrapping her in his arms at night, and keeping himself awake. He caught cat-naps throughout the day to keep himself going, and stayed near Resin.

He saw little of the noble warrior he had known. The raging terror that confronted them each time they went near the dungeons was a monster of what she had been. Violent, aggressive. A stranger. He discovered, to his dismay, that his heart could indeed break a little further.

The stone prison that the Hallows called pack had some benefits. The fireplace was classier than the firepit they used back home. With only a room to warm, its wood went further and did more. Winter was changing to summer at last, and his thick coat felt overly warm, but Tamsyn was by the fire. So he remained near her, feeling the heat, and little else.

He came to life suddenly at Ulric's call, and was on his paws and beside her in a moment. She had told him about the sabers that they had chased from their borders - had they returned?

"Speech"

Jumbled. Clouded. Confusion. Fear. Hatred. Confusion. Terror. Confusion. Thoughts were hard to form and cling to. And who were these wolves just staring at her like she was some sort of...of... Whyyyy were they there? The thin woman lay curled at the back of the cell, not on the pallet of furs, but by the grate that covered the rushing, underwater stream. The steady sound of the moving water helped drown out the static in her brain. There was no stopping the static these days. In between the long stretches of static might be a face or the blip of a memory, but most of the time, it was just static, instinct and autopilot. Different wolves had come down the stairs to stare at her. She didn't know them, she didn't like this, but she was powerless against it. Sometimes they tried to talk to her. Sometimes she acknowledged them, other times she simply stared at the wall. Like now. She didn't recognize the swimming faces of the wolves that were looking at her, so she had her back to them, looking at the wall. It was the howl that did it. The call to arms. It pulled away the shroud that had encased her mind an Resin blinked for the first time in a while. The voices of Sirius and Tamsyn sounded and they prepared to run from the room. The urgency in Ulric's tone... something about it made her uneasy. There was something wrong. Pushing off of the wall, Resin slammed her emaciated form against the bars much like she had many times since she'd lapsed into the final stages. "Let me out," she spoke clearly, in her own voice. "Let me help." At that moment, she seemed very much like her old self. Her words were clear and direct. Forceful in the manner of an alpha and not of a dying woman. That golden eye burned into both of them, demanding her freedom so that she could carry out her duty as a member of the pack. "Resin"

The rattle of bars stopped her in her tracks and she froze, muscles tensing when Resin spoke. Her Resin. Her voice. It slammed her hard in her chest and for just a beat of time she stopped, staring wide eyed at the stairs in front of her. She spun around to look at her mate, her ears falling back against her head uncertainly. What if she turned back to the feral ghost she had been as soon as they opened the door? What if it was a trick, a momentary slip just to make her seem like herself? She knew that in her current, emaciated, frail state, she knew that Sirius would be able to stop her fairly easily so she felt more confident about it with him here, but did she risk doing that to him either?

But there was also the pressure to make a decision quickly, knowing that Ulric was up there seemingly in danger and needing help. Perhaps... Perhaps if she let Resin out she wouldn't have to die in this cell. Maybe she could go out in glory the way she deserved. The thought choked her, but she pushed forward anyway, hurrying to grab the metal bar that Lúta would use with Raga to pry the piece of metal wrapped around the handles apart. She shoved the bar through the small gap in the bent metal before looking at Sirius with a pained, but determined look. "Help me," she said simply before she starting pushing and prying at the lock, her heart hammering in her chest.


















"Tamsyn" | "Blue"

He froze at the sound of Resin getting to her feet and smashing against the bars. A part of him wanted to go over there and pad the walls so she could not hurt herself. He turned icy blue gaze to the Hallows Founder… and then froze. She spoke, her voice sounding richly familiar.

Her words didn’t coalesce into a meaningful demand until Tamsyn began to move again. Heading towards the cell, to her Wife. He jerked, starting and stopping suddenly as he both realised what Tamsyn was doing - and what Resin had asked.

He moved again, jerkily stopping before the cell and looking in. looking into his Mothers eyes, searching for… something. He almost denied Tamsyn her request but… he understood. In Resin’s shoes, he would never stand to be locked away when trouble came to his borders, no matter what. A look at Tamsyn told him she understood the consequences - to themselves, and to Resin.

His understanding had taken only a few short moments, and then he was nudging Tamsyn gently aside, grabbing at the lock and yanking it free. “Together.” he said, to both these woman of his heart.


"Speech"

Her words got through to them. Both Tamsyn and Sirius came rushing towards the cage. Together, they pulled away the bar and the door to Resin's prison swung open. For a moment, the shard of her mind that remained her own flickered and threatened to fade. A husky chuckle pulled from the emaciated fae's chest and her golden eye widened at the freedom that was offered. Who should she kill first? The man or the woman? She could already anticipate the feel of their bones between her jaws, her teeth ripping into their soft flesh, drowning in their blood.

And then her vision flickered. Resin couldn't waste time. she knew that her hold was weak. Not sparing a glance towards either of the wolves in the room with her, the ashen fae surged up the stairway. Claws scraped the stone as she skittered out of the castle and towards the battle cry that had gone up. They were back. Beating them bloody the first time hadn't taught them a lesson. Killing their number, permanently maiming them. It hadn't gotten through their thick skulls that they had lost.

She was old and sick and frail, but she wouldn't let Ulric fight alone. Part of her knew that this was the end, but she had enough of herself left to protect her pack one last time. If she lost herself before the end... Sirius was here. Together with Ulric, they could end her if it was necessary. But not before she did what she was born to do. Kill.

Resin moved out into the night air, breathing deeply and absorbing the coolness and the freedom. Steam poured from her maw as her golden eye scanned the area. She could see the shadows milling about in the darkness. Again, that part of herself that was no longer herself released that husky chuckle. Serrated teeth gleamed in the muted light. And she was off.

The giant woman thundered across the landscape, crashing hard into one of the giant dire's bodies. Her teeth instantly ripped into its flesh and the beast screamed, trying to shake the demon off of its back. Resin imagined that she could hear her own bones clacking together as she struck the wolf, but spared it no second thought. She was here to kill and possibly be killed. Her own well being mattered not. She would protect the Hallows and she would go down fighting.

Teeth speared into the woman's side and a yelp of both surprise and pain bubbled up from within her. The heat from the wound seared through her and Resin grimaced before releasing her grip on the first dire. The second one that had his teeth in her didn't anticipate the woman throwing her entire body to the side. The teeth were jerked out of her flesh and the blood flowed like rivers down Resin's side. Something vital had been struck but there was no time. If she was going to die, she was taking at least one of them with her.

Startled by the crazy fae and her self inflicted wounds, the brute let his guard down for a moment. That was all it took. Hind paws planted and the thin, sickly woman rocketed forward. Her jaws slammed hard into the brutes throat, cutting of his air and slicing into his flesh. Though she had lost muscle during her days in the dungeon, Resin's teeth were as sharp as ever. They sliced through flesh like water and soon the dire wolf was bleeding out, veins and arteries severed. One down.

Another set of teeth bit into her shoulder this time and the woman spun, jaws wide, a guttural snarl erupting from her throat. It took a few bites, but her jaws finally snapped onto flesh. Back and forth she whipped her head, tearing off strips of bloody skin. Her lungs were beginning to wheeze and the blood pouring from her maw was no longer only that of her enemy. The dire had pierced a lung. Torn a hole clear through. Tiny stars had begun to appear before her eye and the sound of the world became muffled and dull. She wasn't done here. Just a little longer, she begged whatever gods were listening.

Things began to move in slow motion. Resin struck out at another passing form, bloodied jaws wide, only to realize at the last moment that it was someone that she used to know. Still knew? Something slammed into her side and the weakened woman felt her ribs creak beneath the force. With one lung punctured and with the other being robbed of air, a low whine pulled from the woman's maw and she staggered, sinking to the ground. The dire was on her in an instant, its teeth tearing bloody furrows from her spine. Something pulled from her, a scream mixes with a squeal and she felt her strength waning. Her hind legs gave out and her back half crashed to the ground. Resin fell to her side, the world around her shuddering. She could feel her heartbeat in her ears as she fell to her side. It was hard to breathe. Harder and harder to draw in air.

The woman's golden eye went wide and her body began to still. One beat. Two beats. Three beats. With each beat, the faces of those that she loved flashed before her. One. Tamsyn. Two. Iolaire. Three. Sirius. Four. The faces of her pups. Five. The man that died. Six... six...

The wolf stood over her, breathing heavily and staring down at her with its one eye. Recognition flared within the downed, destroyed wolf. One eye. Had this bastard come back for Artorias? Summoning every ounce of self that she had left, life flared back into Resin and she pushed up with one foreleg, her jaws opening wide to close around the lower jaw of the one-eyed brute. The sharp teeth of the woman cut through flesh and down to bone in an instant. Placing her front paws against the beasts chest, Resin used the last of her strength to throw her head to the side like a crocodilian tearing apart its prey. The wolf's lower jaw came off in Resin's mouth and it wailed, screaming and flailing and backing away. She never did see what happened to it. She never saw anything every again.

Lifeless, covered in blood, her spinal cord exposed, the woman's lone, sulfur yellow orb was opened wide... and her enemies jaw was still clutched between her teeth.

"This is the end."

Coding|Alice. Art|Resin.

He darted and dodged around the yard that surrounded the front of the castle, occasionally getting a quick bite in on one of their legs or shoulders or anywhere that he could manage to sink his teeth. They got small bites and scratches in on him as well, but it was all a game of cat and mouse. Biding his time while he waited for the warriors to emerge from the castle. At some point he saw a couple of figures come running out of the castle doors though he was too focused on the beasts in front of him to pay much mind to who it was, though he thought perhaps he had seen the distinctive gleam of Artorias' sword somewhere in the mix. He managed to stumble back out of the fight for just a moment to catch his breath, panting hard and trying to take inventory of what was going on and if any more had appeared in the mad scramble to keep away from them. Seemingly out of no where he saw a blur of gray fur and his eyes went wide when he realized who it was. Resin. Resin had gotten out some how and he could only stand there in absolute shock as she joined the fray and immediately slammed into one of the giant dires with the same ferocity and bloodthirsty vigor that she had when he saw her at the fight with the saber cats.

Dread filled him, knowing full well that she wouldn't survive this fight in her current state and he grit his teeth, preparing himself to jump in and try and stop her, but before he could he felt someone at his side and glanced down to see Tamsyn standing there, giving him a shake of her head. She had let her out along with Sirius, who was only shortly behind her. It clicked in his mind without him having to ask. He didn't entirely understand the reason but there was nothing to be done now. He let a breath out through his nose and charged forward, mostly just to do damage control and make sure that Resin's wild attacks only went to their intended targets, hopping in to help where he could with the other fighters that worked to battle these intruders.

He caught glimpses of Resin occasionally and each time he felt like he saw more blood, more gore - hers and theirs. He and Artorias brought down one of the dires that she had injured but not killed, the brute already staggering away by the time he slammed into him, knocking him to the ground before standing back so Artorias could run him through with his sword. He looked up just in time to see Resin snapping in Artorias' direction, probably blindly reaching for the dire they had just killed. "Look out!" he shouted as he lunged forward, knocking his shoulder into Resin's side and shoving her away. He wasn't quite fast enough to keep her razor sharp teeth from catching the Baron's shoulder, tearing a wound into his skin, but it was probably a fraction of the damage she could have done. He winced and hurried to get Artorias to his feet, focusing on getting the boy away from the battlefield before he got any more injured or got caught in the cross fire while trying to recover.

A scream sent a chill through him and he looked back, seeing the devastating wound that the last remaining giant wolf had caused on her spine. He did his best to block Artorias' view, still urging him away as Resin fell to the ground, grief ripping at his chest. The one eyed dire loomed over her, but not before Resin took things into her own paws. She lunged up, making his eyes widen with shock as she ripped away the brute's jaw, causing him to stop in his tracks and stare as the massive wolf staggered back, screaming in pain with blood streaming from where its jaw had once been. He grit his teeth, looking away as Tamsyn's pained cries filled the air. He was vaguely aware of Sirius finishing off the one eyed bastard that had finally done Resin in. He left Artorias' side to start going around to each of the other fighters that had rushed out of the castle, quietly ordering them back inside. They didn't need to be here, not while Tamsyn mourned her mate. He'd call a funeral for their fallen founder once things were cleaned up here.

Ulric Adravendi

The chuckle Resin made as they opened her cell made her nervous, but it seemed like a momentary flicker before Resin darted out of the room and up the stairs, leaving her and Sirius behind. Her ears fell back against her head and she desperately hoped she had made the right decision as she rushed up after her mate, frantically climbing the stairs two and three at a time and running out the castle doors into the dark of night. She could only watch as Resin threw herself into the right without even a moment's hesitation. She slowed to a stop for a moment beside Ulric, sensing him tense when he saw Resin, but she looked up at him, her mint gaze pleading to let Resin have this. Let her go out in the same way she had approached most of her life - biting and swinging.

She knew this would be the end. Deep in her bones, she knew. Though the blur of the bloody fight as she leapt in to get bites in where she could, pulling attention here and there, weakening their opponents in any way she could manage. She didn't see most of the wounds that Resin received till toward the end, the whole thing a haze of fear and sorrow for what was to come. Her heart ached in her chest before the time even came and at some point she turned around to look for the next opponent to see Resin on the ground, covered in blood, a huge wound across her spine and holes torn at her sides. She froze in place, heaving trembling breaths into her lungs. She saw the giant dire wolf, one with a single eye looming over her, but she was frozen. She couldn't make her paws move. She wanted to jump in, rip out his throat, kill him for what he had done to her dying mate. But she couldn't. She was stuck, frozen by fear and heartbreak.

In true Resin fashion, she didn't need them. Tamsyn watched as Resin reached up, snatching the bastard's jaw and ripping it clean off of his face. It was a horrible, bloody mess, but she barely spared it a glance. The rest of the world fell away as she watched Resin go still, laying on her side, surrounded by blood and gore and everything that shouldn't be there. A sob choked her, and she staggered forward, slowly at first. One step and then another and another until she was running to her side. She knew she was crying, she knew she was screaming Resin's name, but she couldn't hear her own voice. She couldn't hear any of them. She fell to the ground next to her fallen mate, pressing her face into Resin's bloodied neck, heavy, body shaking sobs leaving her as her paws carefully wrapped around her broken form, pulling her close as her heart shattered in her chest, breaking apart any pieces that were left.

At some point she thought she felt someone pull at her, but she shoved them away, refusing to let go, gripping tight to Resin's body as if it was the one thing keeping her from drifting off to sea. Everything hurt as if her emotional trauma could manifest itself into physical pain. She muttered and moaned Resin's name again and again, gently shaking her as if that could get her to wake up, make all of this a horrible nightmare, and she would wake up in bed beside her with everything back to how it once had been. It didn't matter that she had let Resin out, that she had wanted this instead of watching her die in a cell. None of that mattered in the wake of her soul crushing, heart shattering sorrow. Perhaps later she would be able to see the beauty in letting Resin go down fighting, of keeping her from suffering any longer. But not right now. Right now her mate was dead and the inconsolable pain in her chest ripped at her worse than anything that had caused the scars that were painted across her body.

Tamsyn Carpathius

Artorias kept focused eyes on his paws while he ran the whetstone down the length of his sword, listening to the satisfying shhhhnkk of metal being sharpened to a fine edge. As he twisted and moved the sword, the boy marveled at how the blade glistened in the light, captivating him with its beauty and lethality. The way it always seemed to be reflecting firelight is what had prompted him to dub his blade Embershard. Ever since his mothers had given him his birthday gift, Artorias had taken painstaking care to maintain it. He hadn't even gotten to use the sword yet and he was still making sure it was sharp and battle-ready. Who knew when another threat might come to the castle looking for them? As the Baron, he would need to be ready at all times to respond at a moment's notice.

As if on cue, Ulric's howl for all fighters boomed across the castle. Artorias' eyes narrowed with focus. This was not a drill. Snatching up his armor and fastening the buckles around his body, Artorias grabbed his sword and ran out the door to answer his Aegis' call. As he emerged into the castle courtyard, he saw several other Knights join him on his charge. "Knights, with me!" he barked in order, rushing through the gatehouse. "Find the Aegis and engage with any enemies you see!" Once they had exited the shelter of the castle walls, Artorias saw the reason for the call. It was a pack of giant dire wolves coming for the castle, and Ulric was trying to fend them off alone. Artorias' eyes burned as he charged into the fray, growling loud and fierce as he flung himself towards the closest dire wolf. He deftly dodged a swipe of a big, clawed paw and brought his sword up, cleaving the dire wolf's leg off at the knee like it didn't even exist. The dire wolf howled in terrified shock and pain, but was quickly cut off when Artorias followed up with a one-two slice that sent his sword through half of the dire wolf's neck, severing arteries and causing the dire wolf to slump to the ground while he bled out in seconds.

Artorias stared at the bloodied blade of his sword, awed by the killing power he now possessed. This was no longer a meager wooden sword used to bonk people over the head with. This ended lives. He turned to face off with the pack of Paleolithic dire wolves—but before he could charge forward, the sound of vicious snarling tore past his side in a blur of ash gray. The Carpathius boy blinked in surprise, staring in shock at the form of Resin leaping into battle to carve a bloody swathe through the dire wolves' ranks. Mom?! Resin was free?! He looked back over his shoulder, searching around for Ulric to find clarification and seeing him off to the side with Tamsyn. What were they doing? He watched Ulric give a nod to his mother, and then the Adravendi wolf ran back into the fight. Steeling himself, Artorias ran to join his Aegis, following dutifully with a steady gait while they walked behind Resin's bloodbath, executing the dying wolf she had left behind. He was still in awe at how easily his sword pierced the bodies of the wolves, snuffing out life with minimal effort.

But while he was distracted finishing off the downed enemy, Artorias heard the feral snarling again, this time much closer—and getting closer! Artorias glanced up in time to see his mother charging him with a manic look in her eye, but it was too late to move or heed Ulric's cry of warning. He saw his mother's jaws open, going for his throat, and instead rolled his shoulder forward, blocking his neck but catching all of her sharp, serrated teeth into the flesh of his shoulder just outside of his armor. Artorias growled in pain, feeling the searing of teeth ripping skin and warm blood on his fur, but then Resin was gone and Ulric was standing in her place, shielding him from his frenzied mother. He watched in horror as Resin lost control, going back to killing everything that stood near her, which fortunately was another invader. His eyes continued to follow her wild movements, realizing that this was it. This was the end of his mother. There was nothing left of Resin in there now.

Artorias was only partially aware of Ulric helping him back up and ushering him away from the fight, though Art wanted nothing more than to keep going and to watch his mother. He wanted to go fight with her again, to stand by her side, to defend their home together. Except that wasn't his mother—not anymore. Then he saw the biggest of the dire wolves catch Resin off guard, massive jaws ripping into her spine, and the bloodcurdling scream she let out seared into his brain. Artorias reacted on sheer instinct, hearing his mother scream and pushing back against Ulric to try to get to her and help her. The Aegis held firm though, bigger and stronger than the boy and able to prevent him from slipping away. "Mom!" Artorias shouted instead of thinking this time. "Let me go! We need to help her! We need-"

Another agonized scream, except this one was male, and when Artorias took advantage of Ulric's stunned state to slip past and see what had happened, his eyes went wide when he spotted the dire wolf stumbling about without its lower jaw, blood gushing from the gaping wound where its muzzle had once been. It was a horrific, gristly, and gory sight. But what was worse was that Resin was lying sprawled across the ground, unmoving. Artorias' body turned to stone, the young wolf frozen in place as if time itself had stopped all at once. Wide, amber eyes never left Resin's body. Warm blood continued to run down his right foreleg from the bite he'd sustained from Resin, dripping and forming small pools around his paw. Artorias didn't feel any pain though; he didn't feel anything at all. Tamsyn rushed up to Resin, and Artorias saw the fear contort into unbearable pain on his mother's face. His heart stopped beating. His mind stopped working. The world stopped. Everything stopped.

Artorias was gone. He felt nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing. A ringing in his ears drowned out his mother's screams of anguish. Ulric was somewhere else now, helping the wounded get away from the remaining dire wolves as the battle waned. All he knew was that he had to get to Resin. His paws began to move on their own, a slight limp to his right step from his mother's final gift to him. Artorias stumbled forward in a singular focus like he were sleepwalking, except he was hyper aware of everything. As he passed by the body of the dire wolf he had last executed, he grabbed his sword's hilt and pulled the blade that had still been stuck from the corpse, advancing toward his mothers in a steady march.

As he drew closer and closer, he saw the hulking form of Sirius finishing off the dire wolf that had killed his mother—and saw one final enemy approaching his wailing mother. His eyes narrowed, his feet kicked off the ground, sprinting forward silently to intercept the wolf with a horizontal slash that took the wolf's leg out from under it. The dire wolf toppled, but Artorias was far from done. A seething rage burned in his eyes as he swung again, and again, and again, carving through the wolf's chest and neck over and over, spraying blood every which way and covering himself in gore while he eviscerated his opponent. His anger came pouring out in seven, eight, nine swings of his sword, tearing the dire wolf to ribbons before taking its head off with one last strong blow to its neck. Artorias turned and stepped warily over to Tamsyn and Resin, staring down at the nightmarish sight. His stomach churned and a surge of overwhelming emotions ripped up his insides. Dead. Resin was dead. His mother was dead.

Artorias dropped his sword to the ground with a clatter of metal, taking the last few steps to come beside Tamsyn and slumping back to his haunches, crumbling in on himself. He couldn't take his eyes off of Resin's broken and bloody body if he wanted to. Staring at the glassy, lifeless eye of his mother, the mother that had held him close to her when he was a small pup and called him her little knight, the mother that had shaped him into the wolf he was today, the mother that had fought beside him to defend their home and gifted him the means to be even deadlier as a show of her faith and pride in him. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair! He wanted to yell, to scream, to pick up his sword and hunt down every remaining extra dire wolf in Auster. Instead, all Artorias could manage to do was throw his head back and release a long, sonorous, mournful howl to the world that contained all of his sorrow and pain, announcing the passing of Resin Carpathius, founder of the Hallows, a proud warrior, and a beloved mother.


"Artorias" | Thoughts | "Corbin"

One big happy family

Artorias has two ravens named Corbin and Eira and a fox named Argent. Assume they are within calling distance at all times.
As his mate, Briar may enter Artorias' threads unless marked Private.
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