During a recent trip around the castle gardens to prune and tend to some of the plant life that they had growing around the castle, she happened to make her way around the alpaca's corral. She wasn't often in this part of the grounds since her trips out of the castle, on her own at least, tended to be either to the green house or the God's Garden, so it was the first time she had really noticed the state the wooden fencing was in. The livestock the Hallows kept wasn't exactly her area of expertise, but she was fairly crafty and it gave her something else to contribute besides simply sticking to the infirmary and working on her already plentifully stocked collection of herbs, poultices, and extracts.

While she had an idea of how to refresh the weathered fencing that had clearly worn some in the years since they were built, it was something she was going to need some help for. Since she hadn't had too many opportunities as of late to spend time with her siblings, she recruited Asheila to help. She likely would have drug out Artorias or Rudyard to help as well since some muscle could have been helpful, but she didn't want to bother the two fathers when they had growing pups to tend to. There was plenty she and Ash could do on their own to make the pen look better and reinforce the fencing.

She sat down the basket of supplies she carried next to the first fence post in the row, pointing out the sun-bleached look to the slightly cracked wood. "I'm sure they'll need to be replaced at some point, but I figured we could at least refinish them a bit and maybe replace some slats here and there if we need to," she explained, glancing over at Asheila while Blue clamored off of her back and started pulling out the various paints, rough, sanding materials, and adhesives that they could pick from, laying them out next to the basket. There was a stack of wood boards off to the side that she had gotten a couple of the warriors to carry over earlier in the day, but with any luck they wouldn't have to use too many of those.

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

Asheila had been mostly quiet since she returned back into The Hallows but that didn't mean she wanted to be away from her family. Just as Gwyn had thought, she was giving their brothers space and time with their new additions to their family especially after the visit from Briar's family. In her own mind she thought she was fitting in nicely. Maybe not standing out, but doing her part where she could as she was working on her weaknesses coming back inside The Hallows. Time went on, but that hidden fear in the back of her mind of being taken again still lingered. She certainly wouldn't have went outside on her own at least.

So when Gwyn had asked her to help out around the pack she didn't hesitate. Maybe similar to the rest of their siblings. It wasn't just her family, but for the pack. They all meant a lot to each other.

Ash was quiet as she usually was, watching as Gywn and her lemur starting getting the supplies out and ready. "Sounds like a plan." She responded with a soft smile, moving forward to start with the work. It seemed though that just being diligent wasn't on her mind. She had her own space while she was in recovery after her return. And while she wasn't very outward about getting into her siblings business it was now the perfect opportunity to open up to her sister. So much time apart had made her a near stranger though that didn't mean they cared about each other any less. "So... you and Ysmir?" Maybe a funny place to start, but it seemed to be the easiest talk amongst her siblings she thought. They all seemed to be growing up she supposed.

"Asheila Carpathius"

With no objections to her plan, Gwynevere got to work alongside Blue and Ash, the three of them gradually moving down along the fence line with sanding stones, working over the surface of the wood wherever it had gotten rough and splintery. She also made a point of marking whichever slats seemed to be too rough to salvage so that they could double back and swap them out with fresh ones where needed. It wasn't difficult work, by any means, but it was a bit time consuming so she was glad that she brought Ash along for the task. It was going to go much faster with an extra set of paws to help out and wouldn't feel as long either with the added company. She most certainly wasn't the most talkative or social out of their siblings so she didn't immediately launch into any kind of conversation, but she also wasn't all that opposed to working quietly either if Ash preferred it that way.

Luckily, Ash made the decision for them as she posed a question about Ysmir. Gwyn's ears perked at the question and she glanced over toward Ash with a shy grin before looking back to her paws to follow where she was sanding. "Yeah," she confirmed with a little chuckle. "We've known each other for quite a while, but he just moved in with me couple of seasons ago." The smile she wore when she was talking about the quiet man was noticeable even though she had a hard time picking out what exactly to say. It was hard to express the kind of feelings she had for Ysmir and in the end she finally just added, "He helped me through some really rough patches and he makes me really happy." That felt like it summed their relationship up fairly well, even if that was a very over simplified version of the events that got them to this point.

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

It was somehow easy for Ash to fall into this basic lifestyle of maintenance around the castle and she was sure one day she'd be doing her part outside the borders. She didn't like to think that far ahead, but she knew one day she'd have to get over her fears. She had picked up a few talents while in captivity on the islands, sanding and repairing fencing wasn't one of them but some things similar when making items for trade. It's not what was on her mind right now of course, but maybe too easy for her to pick up tasks like this without much restraint or difficulty.

She smiled a little as Gwyn seemed a bit shy on the subject, but overall happy with the man she brought up. That's all Ash could ask for really. She kept her paws to work as she did her little mentions. Her lip twitched a bit as Gwyn had suggested that Ysmir was there for her during some rough patches in her life. She hummed a little to herself, maybe opening up to her sister some but not drastically. "It seems most of us have had our share of rough patches." Most of us being them and their siblings. She was really directly thinking of Bowen because Asheila hadn't known or heard about the goings with Oxx and everyone who had been tormented by him. She wouldn't ask Gwyn about what may have troubled her, but she was always open and available to listen. She didn't really want to be pestered about what happened to her. So if something as bad happened to Gwyn, she'd understand why she'd want to stay quiet. Even if for no reason at all.

"Asheila Carpathius"

The work they were doing eventually faded into the background in a way as she talked with her sister and her mind started to wander on to other topics. The motions were easy enough to repeat as she went and of course Blue was all too eager to correct her when she did something wrong, the black lemur not even bothering to chide her and instead just redirecting her sanding to a better spot or position occasionally. He hummed softly with a small flick of her ears when Ash pointed out how most of them had been through their share of rough patches. "That is certainly true," she agreed with a soft sigh. She couldn't remember a single part of their lives that didn't have some kind of darkness somewhere in amongst the light. "It always seems like our family has the highest highs and the lowest lows one after another," she added thoughtfully.

She knew that Asheila had been away for the bulk of what had happened with their mothers, with Oxx, and everything in between, but she also knew that her sister had gone through her own trials and tribulations while she was gone, much as Bowen had. Gwyn had never tried to pry into either of her sister's lives or questioned what had happened to them, assuming that if they had wanted to talk to her about it then they would have, but she also could tell that the fact that they hadn't said anything about it also meant that it hadn't been pleasant whatever it was. The silence said more than maybe her sisters realized. There was a long pause as Gwynevere tried to find the right words, but eventually she glanced toward Ash and said, "If I'm being honest, I know that out of all of us I didn't go through the worst of it by any means. What I went through compared to the rest of our family or our moms wasn't much, but... being the healer for everyone and having to patch everyone up over and over and not being able to prevent any of it from happening... It's hard."

"Gwynevere Carpathius"