As soon as she could break away from her family after her mother's return she had. She was eager to get back to Artorias and the stability he provided. Nothing in her life had ever been easy or simple. There was always some sort of tragedy or twist or some part of it crumbling and falling away. Artorias had been the only constant, the only one she could always count on no matter what. She appreciated Mortis' renewed presence in her life, but for much of her life he hadn't been there. She appreciated Aslatiel's support through the last couple of seasons, but she had children of her own now and had been absent for stretches of time recently. She wanted to lean on her parents, but her father had been unstable ever since their mother "died" and well... now her mother was the cause of her current confusion. Her own littermates had always felt distant and disconnected from her, some of them just entirely absent. Artorias was her stability and her comfort and always had been.

She went back to where she had left him at the training grounds, feeling a bit like she was walking through a fog of shock and confusion. She knew she should feel excited, she should feel relieved, she should be jumping for joy that her mother was okay and that she was back with them at last. She should be grateful that her mother had survived and had made it back to them in one piece. Instead, she was just conflicted and guilty that the most she could feel was relief that her father had his mate back and a hope that he might be able to go back to how he once had been now that she was here. She didn't know why Aris and Gossamer had fallen all over themselves to greet her, sobbing with happiness at her return, and yet... all she had managed was to kiss her cheek and wag her tail.

Briar walked over to Artorias, blinking as she lifted her gaze to look at him as if she hadn't realized that she had made it all the way to the ocean side training grounds already. Her thoughts still felt so distant as she eased down onto her haunches, looking as if she had just seen a ghost, which in some ways she had. "Zee... My mother is alive. She's here," she said softly, still very much in disbelief.

"Briar Fatalis"

Artorias gave a low grunt as he twisted to bring his sword around through one of the legs of the lupine-shaped training dummies he'd set up for solo practice. He had been on patrol with Briar earlier before a training lesson with Mortis again, but Sirius' howl for all the Fatalis wolves had put an end to those plans. He'd smiled and returned her kiss before ushering her off to see what her father wanted. A part of him had considered accompanying her, just to know what was going on, but the Warlord's call had been specifically for his family, and as much as he liked to think himself one, he wasn't a proper blood member of the Fatalis clan. So he had headed back to the barracks, grabbed Embershard, and headed to the beachside training area, filling some dummies with sand the way Seer had shown him how to, and going to town.

The young brute watched as his blade easily severed the dummy's leg, cloth and sand spilling to the ground. Without a moment's hesitation, Artorias continued his swing, turning it into a full 360 to bring the sword back up and around, carving through the dummy's neck and spilling the rest of the sand out of it. He practiced his footing, his spins, twirls, and pirouettes with his sword, learning combo moves and counters that would allow him to turn one strike into three and ways to break through an enemy's guard. Embershard was lethal; all it would take was one well-placed slice or stab to end a fight. He turned to the next dummy, repeating the same motions as before. Dodge to the left, swing in the sword, cut through a limb, then follow through with a cut across the dummy's throat. More sand piled on the beach. Artorias smiled; he was getting better.

The Hallowed wolf had been so focused on his training that he hadn't noticed Briar approaching him until he turned and saw her coming towards him. Immediately his eyes lit up, tailing wagging in a rapid fanning sway—but that enthusiasm slowly died when she didn't return his excitement. Briar looked vacant, stunned, like she'd just received the worst news and was still trying to process whatever it was. Artorias' brow creased, eyes narrowed in concern. He drove his sword into the sand so it stood upright, leaving it behind while he came up to his lover, not stopping until he had reached her and pressed his chest to hers while she sat in silent disbelief. He didn't have to ask her what had happened; she let him know soon enough on her own.

Artorias looked at her with a start. Her mother was alive?! But... how? His mother had confirmed that they'd found Zee's body and buried them. Briar had seen the body. How was Zee alive?! "Briar, that's..." What? Unbelievable? Impossible? Wonderful? How did he even respond to that? "...that's great!... Right...?" He smiled, feeling delighted for his girlfriend's sudden change of fortune. He would have given almost anything for a little more time with his mother. Now Briar would have that chance! But... why didn't she seem happy then? His smile dropped and he nudged the side of her cheek with his nose, gazing deep into her turquoise eyes. "How are you feeling?" he asked, softer, wondering where her mind and her emotions were at.

"Artorias Carpathius"

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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Briar leaned into Artorias as he came and pressed into her and she was grateful that he was just the quiet presence with her till she found her voice. He was exactly what she needed, just as he always was. When she dropped the news about Zee's sudden reappearance she saw the obvious surprise on his face, an understandable reaction to that kind of news, but it was quickly followed by the confusion at her reaction and him trying to say that it was good news and questioning her on it. Even Artorias seemed more thrilled about the news that she brought than Briar herself felt and that just made the confusion and guilt clouding her expression deepen. Her gaze shifted to refocus on his when his nose nudged at her cheek, listening to him question how she was feeling. She didn't know how to even answer that question, but this was why she came to him, wasn't it? Because he helped her untangle her thoughts when they became too much for her to sort through?

"I... I don't know," she began with a sigh. She glanced away, looking down at the sand as she tried to pick apart bits and pieces of things to tell him. "I feel like I should be happier or more excited than I am and I feel awful that I'm not," she admitted softly, a frown pulling at her lips. "Gossamer and Aris were just... throwing themselves at her when I showed up, sobbing and yelling about how happy they were and I just... I didn't feel like that at all. I mean I'm happy that she's okay, but nothing like how they were." She felt guilty and ungrateful, like a terrible daughter for not being over the moon that her mother had suddenly reappeared, but even when she tried to make herself feel that way it just felt forced.

She leaned into him more, resting her head on his shoulder - being careful not to poke him with her antlers of course. She was quiet for a moment while she sorted through more of her thoughts. "When dad came home with... well, what we thought was her body I guess... I was more upset for him than I was about her being dead. I just kept thinking about how bad I felt for him and how heartbroken he looked and... I never really thought about her being gone. I was sad of course and I thought about how I was never going to really get to know her now, but..." She sighed, letting her eyes close while her ears folded back against her head. "I wasn't close with her... We never really spent time together and it never felt like she tried to do stuff with me before she left... But if Gossamer and Aris were that torn up at her funeral and are that happy now that she's back... Did she care more about them? Did they get to spend more time with her than me? Did I do something wrong?" All of her guilt and her doubt piled on top of one another, pulling her down into a hole. Unlike the last time she overwhelmed herself, she didn't push him away. Now she leaned into him, her forelegs wrapping around his sides to hold herself close.

"Briar Fatalis"

Artorias sat still and quiet while Briar tried to collect and sort through her thoughts and emotions enough to put them into a coherent sentence. She began to confide in him her feelings, or lack thereof, for her mother's sudden return from the dead. He pursed his lips while he tried to consider her position, though admittedly it was difficult for him. He'd been close to both of his mothers, and when Resin had died it felt like a part of him had been torn away too soon. From an outsider's perspective, Briar and Zee's relationship seemed weak at best and nonexistent any way else. He hadn't known what her home life was like, but now he felt like he was getting a glimpse behind the curtain to the Fatalis family dynamic. Zee and Briar had never really bonded or done things together as mother and daughter, it sounded like. Artorias' heart dropped for her; she never got that relationship a child should have with her parent. That was why she had been able to heal and move on from her mother's "death" readily. Her relationship with her father seemed miles stronger and he was clearly where her connection was.

As she leaned into him, Artorias lifted a paw to drape it around her shoulders, holding her close to him while very narrowly dodging an antler poke to the nose. He let her sit like that for as long as she needed, just resting her head on his shoulder while he listened to her spill her heart forth. Of how she had felt more sadness for her father's suffering than over her mother's death. Of how she didn't feel emotional or overcome with joy when she saw her mother was alive. But what broke Artorias' respectful silence was the moment Briar questioned if she'd done something wrong. "No," he said firmly yet compassionately. "No, you didn't do anything wrong, Briar. Your mother failed you by not taking the chances she had to be your mother when she could. That's never your fault. That's her doing, her choices, her consequences."

He squeezed Briar's shoulders gently with his foreleg, craning his neck to place tender kisses along her crown. This was the last thing Briar had needed. She was already coming back from a low point with her self-esteem, working through those confidence and self image issues, but now with her mother returning she was facing the doubts of why she and Zee didn't have any semblance of a real relationship. "I never knew what your family life was like, Briar. I hate to think you were neglected by your own mother. But none of it is your fault, and if she loves any of your siblings more, then she's a terrible parent." Artorias went quiet for another moment to let Briar digest his thoughts and process her own for a minute before asking, "What do you want to do? Do you want a second chance with your mother? Whatever you want, you know I'll back you up one hundred percent."

"Artorias Carpathius"

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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Artorias had been quiet all through her emotional ramblings up until she began to question if this had been her fault, if she had done something wrong to drive her mother away. She listened to his advice and his assurances that this wasn't because of her. As harsh as his words sounded, it almost felt like the words that she was too afraid to say or even think. There were vague memories of her mother in the earliest days of her childhood, but they were all indistinct and distant. For most of that first year of her life her mother was like a floating figure, around and yet not. She had so many memories of times she had spent with her father and the things she had done with him, but try as she might she couldn't think of any of those with her mother. It was hard for her to say if her mother had actually spent more time with any of her siblings than her or not, but that was the only justification she could think of for why Aris and Gossamer would behave as they had. She knew if the roles were reversed, if it had been their father that had been thought to be dead and then suddenly reappeared to prove that fact false then she would have been running back to tell Artorias the news and dragging him off to reintroduce them. But now...

Eventually he questioned what she wanted to do, asking if she wanted another chance with Zee, and for a little bit she really didn't know how to answer. She was quiet, her claws lightly scratching absently at Artorias' back. As much as she wanted to lean into Art's words and put the blame on her mother for their lack of a relationship and just say that the chance at that had passed, she just didn't have it in her. She thought about what her father had told her at the reunion she had just left and she let a slow breath out through her nose. What he said didn't exactly sit well in her mind and it made her wonder who was viewing the past wrong - her or her father - but either way she felt like she was supposed to give her mother the benefit of the doubt. She was supposed to be happy and grasping at the chance to make up for lost time, but right now she just felt tired. It was an emotional whiplash that she didn't really know how to keep up with. At the same time, she knew her father wouldn't just let her ignore her mother forever. He'd make sure she was at least trying so she wasn't really sure if she had a choice in the matter.

"I have to try," she finally answered, her voice not even really sounding certain in her own ears. "I don't really know where to even start, but... I guess I have to." She lifted her head from his shoulder, letting her gaze find his again. She smiled softly when she found his amber gaze. She wasn't completely at ease about the situation and she didn't really have a solution, but he was her voice of reason as always, the calm in her storm. "I'm really glad you're here. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here and I don't think running away to The Hallows right after she got back would have helped things." She chuckled softly and leaned in to leave a soft kiss on his lips.

"Briar Fatalis"

While he spoke, Artorias saw the wheels turning in Briar's head behind the turquoise jewels she called eyes. He wished he had the ability to peer inside her mind, to see what she was thinking in that moment. He wanted to be able to reach into her brain and fight those demons of self-doubt and uncertainty plaguing her thoughts. Though she was quiet while she pondered her situation, Artorias felt those sharp feline claws of hers sneak through his fur to scratch lightly at his back with idle absence. The boy gave a short, soft huff of breath at the pleasant tingles her claws left on his skin, his eyes fluttering a bit as she made little quivers run through him at her touch.

When Briar did eventually speak again and voiced her desire to attempt to rekindle a relationship with her mother, Artorias gave a slow nod of his head. "You don't need to have all the answers right now. Some things come easier when you just let them happen." He tilted his head to be able to meet her gaze, staring deeply into her turquoise pools with a crooked smile. Her words made a warm blush touch his cheeks and ears fold back bashfully. "No, I don't think fleeing to the castle will work this time, Princess," he teased gently, returning her soft kiss to her lips. "You know I'd never leave you to face anything alone. We've got each other's backs for the rest of time."

Artorias gave a little chuckle as another thought came to his mind. "I guess you're gonna have to properly introduce me to your mother at some point as your boyfriend, huh?" He shot her a roguish grin and licked the end of her nose. Meeting her parents as her boyfriend... That was going to be fun to navigate!

"Artorias Carpathius"

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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