Her offer to Ophelia to join in on a training session with Artorias had slowly gathered interest and by the time she she actually had a moment to prep for it ended up more like a pack wide fighting lesson. She wasn't going to call for everyone, but anyone that wanted to join in could. Maybe it would be even better this way. Ophelia would get even more of a chance to get out and interact more and all the attention wouldn't be right on her. She, Artorias, and Lia spent the morning prepping a few of the sparring areas in the sandy Sea's Plain by the barracks and once everything was ready she grinned and stepped away from them closer to the edge of the grassy plains so perhaps the wolves that gathered wouldn't notice everything they had planned just yet.

She lifted her head and howled for anyone that might be interested in training with them, but especially for Ophelia and Gossamer since she knew they had been interested in it to begin with. She kind of hoped some others would show up as well since it would be even more interesting with more participants. Briar settled onto her haunches between Artorias and Lia, leaning into Art's side happily. As much as she wanted to hide away with him for the last few days of his time here in the Armada, she felt like it was only right to follow through on her promise of holding this training with him and to give him even more opportunities to get to know her family before he left. This was also a good chance for them to get their minds off of the trouble that had happened with their supply stores and do something at least a little more fun.

"Briar Zeitgeist Fatalis"

Artorias knew how highly Briar regarded his abilities when it came to combat and fighting prowess. He knew she had been bragging about him to at least Idalia, let alone whoever else. But he hadn't known Briar had volunteered him into doing a training session with her sister Ophelia until she voluntold him he was going to be doing this. Unable to deny Briar when she batted those big turquoise eyes at him, the young man had of course agreed to whatever she was setting him up for. Besides, he'd done one-on-one training with Lia already, how much different could it be with one of her siblings? They spent the morning setting up training dummies around the sand sparring rings on the beach, Artorias carrying two of his wooden sparring swords, one for himself and one if anyone else wanted to practice using a weapon.

It wasn't until Briar howled for not just Ophelia, but Gossamer as well as an open invitation. Artorias turned to look at Briar with a raised brow and an incredulous look of "excuse me, what?" that he realized he'd been shanghaied into teaching an open seminar on fighting and exercise. With a sigh and roll of his eyes, Artorias began to draw a couple more sparring rings in the sand so they would have enough arenas for the other wolves to spar with one another and put theory into practice. Once they were fully set up, Artorias drove the wooden swords into the sand to keep them standing and sat on his haunches to wait. Briar leaned into his side, and as soon as he felt her weight against him, he shot her a mock annoyed look before leaning to place a gentle kiss on her temple. He knew she'd done this to help her sister and pack, and he supposed teaching a group lesson would be beneficial to his training to become an alpha.

"Artorias Sirius Carpathius" | "Corbin" | "Argent"

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.
____________________

Ophie yet again found herself hesitating, shifting her weight back onto her hind legs as Briar's call reached her ears. It was friendly enough, nowhere near as intimidating as the Warlord's summons but she knew what was at play and felt a pang of regret. She shouldn't have said yes, training with Hikaru was one thing but Ophie was terrified she'd make a fool out of herself. That her first meeting with Artorias would be soiled forever because Ophie was inept at pretty much everything she did, besides eating and feeling terrible about herself. It would have been easy to pretend she simply hadn't noticed, to toddle off into the depths of the grass and remain hidden as she tended to do; and yet even the thought of letting Briar down made her eyes sting at the corners. She wanted her sibling's love and affection, to be recognised as someone who mattered and was important, but just because she wanted something didn't mean she deserved it.

Swallowing her fears, and there were a lot of them, Ophie made her way towards the Sea's Plain, taking extra care to go slow in case she winded herself too quickly. These days she saw Hanako galloping about the beach quite a lot, and though she was a little nervous to bother the Diplomat she couldn't help but watch from a distance and dwell in envy. She made it all look so easy, like the ground was eager to sweep beneath her paws.

By the time Ophie trundled onto the scene Briar and Artorias were already good and settled, with equipment in place and ready to be used. She had no doubt the pair made a good couple, complimenting each other's strengths, and that she'd be in good paws but it was difficult to lock onto reason when her thoughts were always painted blue.

"Hello. I'm Ophie." She cheeped, shuffling closer with already sandy paws dragging across the beach.

Using her front paws she pushed the final stone into place for her new den. She was covered in dirt but satisfied with her work. Gossamer had dug her den up on higher ground, adjusting the angles and creating a system to drain water away from her den should they have another torrential rain. Now all she needed to do was finish up her personal storage den.

Gossamer's ears perked up as she heard Briar's call for training. Oh, excellent! Granted, she was a bit tired but she'd been looking forward to this training session and she made a beeline for the Sea's Plain. She arrived to see Briar and Artorias as well as Ophelia. Gossy headed over to her rotund sibling and settled down next to Ophie with a grin. Of all her siblings, Ophie could most appreciate a good layer of earth.

Lia was happy to be a pair of paws. Setting up beside Briar at Artorias at the Princess direction. Once the prepping was complete, her Princess called for children of the Warlord and settled between herself and the Baron, leaning against the former. Lia, quiet, and more than a little nervous, settled demourly on her paws and held her pose. Waiting.

It wasn’t long before a silver, blue-eyed wolf she had seen before in passing arrived. Shortly behind her was a dark pelted wolf, sprinkled with a layer of snow-white. Holding her silence, the slave kept her eyes downwards, feeling a little out of place sitting amongst the Royalty that surrounded her.

"Speech"

Briar didn't have to wait long at all for her sisters to arrive. Ophelia was first and she was really just proud of her sister for holding true to her word and coming to the training that she had offered for her even though she was probably nervous about it. She gave Ophelia a wide grin, letting her introduce herself before she leaned forward to give her a sisterly tap with her nose on her cheek. Just a few moments later Gossamer arrived and she offered her monochromatic sister a grin as well. When was the last time the three of them had done anything together? She tried to search back through her memories and it was hard to think of anything that was fresher than when they were pups and would play and wrestle together. She hated that they had all grown so distant, but hopefully this would start bringing them all together again.

She noticed that Lia was keeping to herself with her eyes downcast and Briar shifted closer to her, slipping a paw around Lia's foreleg and giving her a smile before turning her turquoise gaze up toward Goss and Ophie again. "This is Lia. She just joined recently so I wanted her to join in to the training with us!" She didn't think her sisters were really the type to treat Lia any differently if they had known she was a slave or her handmaiden, but that wasn't pertinent information right now so she left it out all the same. With that sorted she looked out over the plains again just to make sure no one else was going to join in before she looked toward the group and Artorias. "Art, Lia, and I set up a bit of an obstacle course to test agility with," she told them with a grin. "Art, do you want to explain the rest?"

"Briar Zeitgeist Fatalis"

Artorias knew that this training session was mostly meant for Briar's sister, Ophelia, but it would also be for any other wolves that wanted to hone their skills, or just get a bit of exercise in. He glanced over to Lia; this would also be good training for her. Ophelia, the star of the show, showed up very soon after Briar let out her call, and Artorias regarded the smaller girl with a smile and nod of his head. "Hello, I'm Artorias." To his surprise, Gossamer also showed up! Artorias met the girl with a familiar smile as well. After their trip to the top of Fenrir's Maw, he had found some common ground with the Fatalis princess, and was happy with the connections he was making with Briar's siblings.

When it became clear that this would be their class for the day, Briar began to introduce the lessons to their pupils. Briar glossed over the agility course they had set up, including slaloms between a row of stakes, a log balance, and two points marked on either side of the beach about a hundred yard across the length of the coast. "The agility course is split into three parts: a slalom, a balancing test, and a running circuit. None of these are tests and the objective isn't to beat any records, it's just exercises to get your body limber and active." He glanced between Ophelia, Lia, and Gossamer. "We're all going to run the course together. Afterwards, whoever's feeling up to it, we can do some practice spars so I can see what Fatalis princesses can do."

He chuckled, then motioned to the obstacle course. "Ready? Let's go!" Artorias took the charge, leading the others to the slalom posts and weaving his body through each one, going slow so they could observe how it was done. He also didn't want to show off or make the others feel like this was a competition, especially for Ophelia. This was just step one in a workout plan for her; it was meant to be fun and challenging, but not discouraging. Once he reached the other side, he waited beside the balancing log to watch the others as they took their turns.

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Corbin" | "Argent"

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.
____________________

Gossamer returned the grin to her sister and Artorias. She was settled in and waiting for the meeting to start when she noticed an unfamiliar, and arguably the most gorgeous girl she'd ever seen sitting next to Briar and Artorias. Gossamer's mouth fell open as she stared at the flame colored femme. Now when had she arrived in the Armada? Her gaze was broken when Briar spoke and introduced the girl as Lia. Gossamer glanced shyly at Lia, wanting to look at her but also not wanting to be caught looking. She felt a little flush of embarrassment over her earlier staring.

Shifting her focus back to the lesson she winced a little as Briar explained that they'd be working on their agility with an obstacle course. Agility was not her strong suit. She glanced to Ophelia, knowing her sister probably felt the same. Well, she supposed it made sense to work on their worst skills. Gossamer swallowed hard, desperately wanting not to make a fool of herself in front of the new girl. She was a bit relieved when Artorias said it wasn't a competition and they could all do it together. Maybe she wouldn't stand out so bad then. Gossamer got to her feet. As Artorias asked if they were ready she nodded, determination on her face. She bolted forward, racing after Artorias through the slalom, at one point taking a corner a bit to sharp. Gossamer stumbled, tail waving wildly but she managed to recover her balance and keep on running.

The tubby princess was quick to offer Artorias a friendly tail wag, hard enough that her whole rear wiggled with each swish. She'd heard enough about him to feel as though he wasn't an entire stranger, but the same couldn't be said for the second newcomer. Though she hadn't'd made it public knowledge-cause why would she, shy thing she was-  there was no denying that Ophie thought ladies were very pretty and nice to look at. For the most part this meant getting a little flushed whenever she saw Hanako bouncing about but-wow this girl was really nice too. Just about as tall and-oop, was Artorias speaking?

Ophie made a face, her ears twisting flat as she heard the word agility. Just as Gos surmised, it well and truly was not her strong suit and the thought of making a fool of herself already had her heart racing in her chest. Of course, she knew it would be good for her, the more exercise the better, but this was like nightmare fuel incarnate. All of Ophie's worries and fears smushed into a public display of effort, with plenty of watchful eyes to judge her if she just wasn't good enough. She didn't want to be a stick in the mud, nor did she want to disappoint Briar and Artorias by wasting their time but... In part Ophie felt like she couldn't really say no either.

"Okay." Was all she managed, her voice barely above a whisper, watching Artorias show how it was done. And naturally he made it look effortless, Gos too as well.

And then it was time for her turn. Yay.

Though her attempt was neither as seamless nor as smooth as the others, Ophie somehow managed to avoid tripping over her own paws. At first. Her steps were thudding and heavy, as she wove around each post, having to sway out wider than the rest for...obvious reasons. The balancing log was a whole 'nother issue in and of itself. She took it slow and hesitant but even then that wasn't enough to stop her from toppling over one side, as she landed on the sand with a muffled ooof.