She was tired of the snow and tired of the ice and tired of the cold. She had complained and complained about the current weather all through the winter and was assured that once spring came the warmer weather would return... and then she got this. It had only gotten worse and now everywhere around her home was completely covered up with snow and ice and it was always freezing. She had to bring poor little Dandelion in to the den at night to keep him from dying in the cold. Little whispers of the raid that Ashen had done with The Hallows spread through the pack and it reminded her that the pack that her father was friends with had moved further south, which she was honestly jealous of. From what she had heard it was still cold there too, but not as bad as it was here. With that information in mind, she finally drew her last straw and took off to go south. Surely she was old enough now to take a little trip on her own, right? If her father found out she'd just say she missed seeing the wolves that lived in The Hallows and was just paying them a visit, easy as that. Working her way down past Ashen's lands, she used the islands connected to their shore to island hop her way down to Auster. There were small stretches of water that were too deep for her to just walk through and that was really the only bad part about the trip since she had to get into the cold ocean water. Luckily she had gotten to be tall enough that the water just came up to just past the mid point of her sides. Reaching the southern continent was... a bit underwhelming, at least at first. It was still super cold here and there was still plenty of snow around, but after further inspection she decided that it wasn't all bad. At least it was better and at this point that was all she could ask for. Maybe if she went even further south... The idea was awfully appealing, it just depended on how much she wanted to push her luck. She inched a little bit further south at least till she reached what mostly just looked like an open field of snow right now. There was some trees and woodlands around it, but from here that seemed to be the only real distinguishing feature. Soon she caught the first whiffs of the pack scent, the one that she recognized from their former neighbors. So this is where they had ended up... Or at least near here she supposed. Turning away from the pack's border, she started making her way over toward the trees to investigate some more, hoping to find something that would make this trip worth her while - besides the slightly better weather. "Briar" | "Marigold"

The cold wind stung at the young male's face as it whipped across the open plains that surrounded the castle. This sort of weather had become normal as of late, but from what Artorias had gathered from whispers amongst the pack, none of this was normal. The warm promise of spring had been stolen away by this second, much harsher winter, and there seemed to be no end to it in sight. Today was a good day, as far as good days could go in this "ice age". The sun was still obscured by heavy gray clouds and the cold and snow were still here, but at least the gale force winds had calmed some and the snowfall had stopped for the time being, leaving Auster noticeably colder than it should have been, but also eerily peaceful. Art had decided to take advantage of the nicer day to get out and resume his usual patrol routes, lest he fall behind on his exercises, and to give Corbin a chance to spread his wings. The poor raven had been cooped up inside the castle for the last several days while the blizzard raged. He would enjoy the exercise too.

As he trudged through the snow along the southern border of Hallowed lands, Corbin danced about in the skies overhead, gliding to and fro before shooting off in another direction with a few strong flaps of his inky wings. From the skies, Corbin surveyed the land, more than a little concerned by the lack of any vegetation growing or prey animals about. Hopefully this winter would subside soon before all their resources became scarce... As the obsidian avian flitted and fluttered through the air, his sharp eyes picked up on the form of a tawny brown wolf down amongst the thicket of dormant bushes and ruins that made up the massive botanical garden south of the castle. He circled about in the air a couple of times, noting that no other wolves seemed to be near, and then dove back to Artorias.

"Master Artorias, there's another wolf just south in the gardens," he reported while coming to land on the near-yearling's back. "They seemed to be alone. Perhaps lost in the storms?"

Corbin's words troubled him. A slight sting in his cheek from the three deep cuts the supreme dire wolf had left him with reminded him of the dangers of other wolves creeping into their lands. This wolf hadn't done that yet, but if the dire wolf was still out there, he could still be a threat, and if there was a loner lost out in the winter wasteland, the Hallows could be their shelter. "Let's go see if they need any help then," he replied with a nod to his companion. "Lead the way, Corbin." The raven took to the air again and led Artorias south past the pack borders and into the gardens. The last time he had been here, the garden was dormant for winter, but now it almost seemed dead. Only the hardiest of plants poked their stems and leaves out from above the snow, and every tree and bush was stick bare and sad. Artorias pursed his lips, hoping they would awaken once warmer weather arrived. Their healers would need the bounty of these plants sooner rather than later...

With Corbin as his guide, Artorias soon found the other wolf—a female he noted from her physique. With the lack of any kind of wind, he was unable to pick up her scent from this distance, but there was something familiar about her fur patterns and coloration. He approached slowly, watching her with guarded trepidation, his paws crunching through the soft snow to announce his presence while Corbin came down in a flurry of feathers to land on his back. "Excuse me, miss...?" he called out to the wolf. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I wanted to make sure you... were... all right..." Artorias' words slowly faded off when he noticed the unique stripes across the female's back, and most iconically, the set of antlers she was sporting atop her head. He hadn't noticed them until he got closer and she'd lifted her head to start inspecting a tree. Art's expression fell into one of shocked disbelief. No... no, it wasn't possible...

"Briar...? Briar Fatalis...?"

"Speech" | Thoughts | "Corbin"

Part of her had hoped that she might have better luck finding some herbs or plant life of any kind as she moved further south, but perhaps that was a hopeless dream. She walked over to the trees that lined the otherwise empty field and studied them for a moment, tipping her head with a slight frown at their completely bare limbs. There was a light coating of ice over almost every inch of bark, encapsulating the plant in a shiny coating that would have been beautiful if it wasn’t so bothersome. The sound of crunching snow gave away the approach of someone else and as soon as she heard a voice calling out to her she cast her turquoise gaze toward the wolf in question. Perhaps it was because his coloring was far more distinctive than her own from a distance, but as soon as she saw him the memories immediately clicked into place while he didn’t seem to know who she was straight away. Something jogged his memory though as she turned to look at him and she couldn’t help but smirk at the shocked expression he wore. “Well well, if it isn’t Blue Boy!” she teased with a grin, turning away from the tree she had been inspecting so that she could face him properly. She gave him a quick once over, noting to herself how much he had grown, but she had grown just as much. In fact, they seemed to be matching each other in height. “I was wondering if I’d run into any Hallows wolves... Oh, and you have a friend! What’s your name?” she asked, tipping her head a bit to look past him at the raven perched on his back. "Briar" | "Marigold"

The fiery amber of Artorias' eyes instantly found the cool turquoise of Briar's when she turned to face him, and there was no doubt in his mind any longer. Somehow, the young fae had found her way down to Auster, despite the distance and the weather. His eyes widened, watching her smirk at him with a dumbfounded look on his face. She was the last wolf he ever expected to find wandering around out here, and yet here she was. So many questions raced through his mind, but none ever made it to his tongue. He just stared back at her while she greeted him with the same bravado she had when she was a puppy. Except she wasn't a puppy anymore. She had grown so much since he'd last seen her all those months ago. She now stood just about as tall as he did, showing that they would probably end up matching in height, with a distinct feminine shape to her body hidden beneath the dense winter coat she wore. The little nubs on her head had grown into proper antlers now, and as she got older, it was apparent that she was taking very much after her mother. It was impossible for Artorias to keep his eyes off of her, too stunned not only by her appearance but by how much she had changed and grown as well.

Corbin, taking note of Artorias' stupor, decided to save his friend's pride and hopped further up Artorias' back to better present himself to Briar. "A pleasure to meet you, miss. My name is Corbin, companion to the young Master Artorias," he replied, wings spread to his side as he bowed in salutations to her. "I take it you two know one another?"

"Her family is close with mine," Artorias explained, though his voice was distant as he remained in his surprise. The blue-furred wolf finally blinked his eyes to snap himself into reality again and furrowed his brow in confusion. "Briar... what are you doing here? How did you even get to Auster?" Artorias was having trouble processing what he was seeing and what he was feeling. Was he happy to see the Fatalis girl? He still didn't know if they were friends or not, since their first and only interaction had been at the playdate that ended in a spar—a spar he won and she had been quite upset about if he remembered correctly. He didn't know if Briar's appearance was something to be celebrated to watched with caution.

"Speech" | Thoughts | "Corbin"

Artorias' stunned speechlessness didn't go completely unnoticed by her, but luckily for him his charismatic raven stole the show so she wasn't given too much of a chance to consider the strange reaction. She grinned at the very proper introduction Corbin gave, even going so far as to call him 'Master Artorias'. She wondered how Marigold might respond if she was instructed to call her Madam Briar or something equally as pretentious... she was pretty sure the antlered fox would just bite her nose in response. She was about to respond to the avian's question when Artorias answered for her, explaining that their families were close. She supposed that was the long and short of it so she didn't object, just giving a small nod to confirm. She raised a brow at the blue furred young man as his obvious shocked, distracted state, wondering what had caught him so off guard. Sure, she was pretty far from home all things considered, but to get so flustered for just that? She didn't question it too much though and just assumed that's all it was since his next question centered around how she had ended up here in the first place. "Well the last time I checked I didn't have wings like your friend here, so I'm going to assume I walked here," she replied with glimmer of amusement in her turquoise gaze, giving him a grin. Tossing her head toward the shore she eventually added, "If you really must know, there's a trail of islands leading off of Ashen's archipelago that lead right to the upper part of Auster. It's a nice little short cut to get down here without going all the way over to the bifrost." When she looked back to Artorias again, she noticed the cuts on his cheek that seemed to just be beginning to heal. Her brows lifted with interest and she trotted closer, disregarding any personal space as she leaned in close to his cheek and examined the wound more closely. "Something got you pretty good, huh? What did you get into a fight with?" She didn't touch him, but she did get very, very close to get a really good look at the cuts. They looked like something her brother Azure would have done with his big, mutated bear paws, but she couldn't imagine him coming down this way for any reason and even beyond that why would he claw Artorias in the face? "Briar" | "Marigold"

Artorias probably should have expected some of the scathing sarcasm Briar had introduced him to the last time they'd interacted in her response, but it still baffled him how she ever ended up this far from her pack lands. Surely Sirius wasn't allowing his children to go roaming willy-nilly already, was he? Did that mean Briar was sneaking out behind his back and to an entirely different continent? Finally, she gave him the answer his puzzled brain had been trying to piece together. The Bifrost was frozen over, so she had navigated the small archipelago of islands that ran from Boreas' southern coast to Auster's northern shores. He had to admit, that was a clever path to take, but it did make him wonder if she'd actually subjected herself to the frigid and deadly arctic waters just to get out of her home. That seemed reckless and idiotic at best, but he didn't press the issue. She was here now and that was the important part. How she got to be here was just a detail in the footnotes.

He was still trying to decide whether seeing Briar again was a positive or negative thing when he saw her gaze shift to something on him that drew her interest. Before he could react or realize what she was up to, Briar was in his space, coming within a few inches of him. The young wolf instinctively drew back as she approached him, not stepping back and instead reclining back on his haunches to try and put some more space between them, almost causing poor Corbin to topple off his back as the bird's perch abruptly became vertical. Corbin fluttered and took to one of the nearby trees, landing on a low branch and watching the two wolves curiously. Artorias swallowed hard as Briar's sudden invasion of his personal space made him shift uneasily, unsure whether he should keep looking at her or try to ignore her or what the hell he was supposed to do. He wasn't used to others just coming up on him like this, although she seemed to have no qualms about their instantaneous closeness.

Her words caught his attention and pricked dark-furred ears atop his skull. It was the cuts on his face that had caught her eye? "Oh, this?" He gingerly brought a paw up to the tender wounds on his cheek. "Yeah, I... uh... I..." Artorias' words began to stumble while Briar leaned in even closer to inspect them, speech quickly becoming a chore for the young brute. "I... don't think you'd believe me if I told you, heh..." A weak chuckle punctuated his statement, feeling trapped by her and frozen in place all at once. When it became clear she wasn't going to pull back, he decided to tell her anyway just to keep him from focusing on the awkwardness of his position. "It was a wolf... a really, really big wolf," said Artorias, a crooked grin flashing pearly teeth to her. "Got him back as good as he got me though, so I guess I won in the end."

Artorias realized that it was probably the healer in her that caused Briar to take interest in his injury, and it was for that reason that he didn't immediately push her away—but he couldn't say he was too happy with being fronted on by her either. He especially wasn't going to tell her about the bite he'd taken to his hind leg. If there was one place he didn't want her poking around it was his hindquarters. "Your antlers have been coming in, I see," he remarked, just trying to keep the small talk going to keep him from sitting in silence while she got uncomfortably close to him, studying the cervid-eque bones growing on her head. Up close now, he was able to make out all of the details that made up Briar Fatalis. Every individual strand of fur in waving colors and hues, the turquoise highlights around matching eyes and down her body, the stripes of lighter brown fur along her back, her scent which had evaded him before now all his nose could detect. How long they stayed like that he couldn't tell, but every second felt like it dragged on for an age.

"Speech" | Thoughts | "Corbin"

Briar paid no mind to how Artorias leaned back from him, eventually making him sit back on his haunches in his attempts to get away from her examination and sending Corbin fluttering up into the trees. She scoffed softly at the obviously uneasy expression he held as she leaned in to take a closer look at the cuts. They were healing pretty nicely so far, though she wouldn't really expect anything less since he lived in The Hallows. She had heard that being a place for healing was kind of The Hallows' thing - the same way the Armada was made for fighting. Although there was an awfully lot of her siblings that were interested in healing... Maybe the tables would turn on that soon enough. The idea made her smirk while she turned and tilted her head to see how the skin was beginning to mind and looking for any traces of herbs or ointments they may have used on him. As he started explaining what it was that had injured him, she gave him a curious glance when he tried to insist that she wouldn't believe him. She had a hard time believing that he could really surprise her with his answer considering the range of things that she and her family had on them from weird claws to horns and antlers to wings and saber teeth... Her family as a whole was a story of not believing them till you saw them. When he reported that it was just a really, really big wolf she looked at him doubtfully. "Just really, really big? No crazy claws or anything?" Sure, she supposed fighting and winning - or at least getting even - with a wolf that was significantly larger than him was commendable, but she was expecting a far more interesting opponent than just a really big wolf. She made a little "humpf" noise as she finished up her examination of the wounds that cut across his cheek, beginning to back away from him as he commented on her antlers. She grinned proudly and gave a little toss of her head in response. "Of course! They're not quite as big as mother's yet, but yes, they're certainly coming in nicely." Briar looked back at him, her turquoise eyes meeting his warmer amber gaze with a smirk. "Careful, I might poke you," she commented with a giggle, giving him a wink before she trotted past him, her shoulder brushing his as she started walking off toward the castle that was looming in the distance. "So you live there now, right?" she called back, glancing over her shoulder at him. "Come on! I'll need a tour!" "Briar" | "Marigold"

Despite the obvious signs that he wanted her out of his space—or to at least give him more than a couple inches of space—Briar gave him no reprieve, continuing to stay up close in his face while she studied his injury. One of the greatest perks of living in a pack full of healers was having access to top notch healthcare on the regular, and it had only been a matter of minutes after he'd returned home from his fight before he had been set upon by healers at his mothers’ insistence, applying a variety of herbs and remedies to his wounds. The cuts and bites might scar, but if anything they would be minor if present at all. Briar seemed to be decently impressed by the healer's work at least. She also didn't seem as skeptical as his family and pack had been when he'd limped back to the castle after his fight with the extra dire wolf. It surprised him a touch, but it also made him feel a little more vindicated enough to open up a little more to her.

"No, no crazy claws or anything. I mean, I don't think so at least. It was a little hard to tell when those paws are smacking you upside the head," he remarked with a chuckle and a glance back to her antlers, knowing how simple that explanation must have been to a Fatalis wolf, given that each member of their clan seemed to possess some variation of unusual mutation. "It was insanely big though. Bigger than any wolf I've ever seen, even your father." Sirius and Ulric were both the largest wolves he knew, and this wolf had to have had at least a good six inches—if not more—on either of them, not to mention fangs and claws that were devastatingly deadly and a hide so thick all of his attacks basically just glanced off of the monster.

Finally, Briar concluded her examination of him and retreated enough to allow him to sit properly again without leaning back. Artorias breathed a sigh of relief, not even consciously realizing he had been so tense with her that close. He didn't exactly have a reason for it, but he was more than a little gun-shy at having any wolf that close to him after his encounter with that monstrous dire wolf. To no surprise, Briar readily accepted his comment on her antlers as a compliment, grinning all proud of herself. Artorias' amber eyes met Briar's cool turquoise gaze when she peered back and teased him with the prospect of antler pokes. He smirked back and shot her a playful look. "Careful, Deer Girl. I'm not afraid to get paws on with you. Remember what happened last time you got cocky?" He was referencing their previous spar, where he had not just beaten her, but beaten her badly, completely pinning the overly confident girl in a spectacular fashion that she had to practically beg for surrender under him.

Artorias' smirk faltered a touch in surprise when she winked at him, watching from the corner of his eye while she moved past him to observe the castle in the distance. He turned his head to peer over his shoulder back at his home, a proud smile now adorning his features. "Yep, that's home now," he remarked, following her lead and rising to his paws to follow her through the snow back towards the castle. So Briar wanted to see the castle, eh? Now it would be his turn to get to show off and impress her. "As you wish, my lady," he retorted with sarcasm heavy in his tone and an exaggerated mock bow. "Come on, Corbin!" The raven sprung from the tree into the air seamlessly, gliding ahead of the two wolves as Art ran to catch up to Briar, doing his best to hide the slight limp in his hind leg where he'd been bitten and leading the way towards the Hallows castle.

— EXIT ARTORIAS —

"Speech" | 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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