There wasn't much time left before she finally made the move to join The Hallows, but before she went there was a couple of things she wanted to do with her family first. She and her siblings had always felt a little distant, but she had tried to at least make a bit of effort to spent more time with them before she left and today was certainly no exception. There was a tub that she had utilized pretty frequently for her baths that her father had showed her how to fill with warm water and that's where she was today, the tub filled with steaming water with a plethora of soaps and good smelling oils on stand by just waiting to be used.

This bath wasn't for her—although if her plan didn't work out she'd still take advantage of it. No, this time it was for her dear sister. Leaving the set up alone for a moment, she trotted through the plains back toward where most of the dens were located until she spotted her gray and turquoise sibling. Ophelia had been doing an amazing job on her training as of late and Briar was so proud considering the state she had been in the last time they had a heart to heart, but there was still work to be done and Briar would feel terrible if she didn't at least try to nudge Ophelia in the right direction before she left.

"Come on! Lets go!" she insisted as she trotted over to her sister, nudging her shoulder and starting to lead her off. "You're coming with me and I'll hear no protests otherwise!" She chuckled and started leading Ophelia off toward the bath, refusing to tell her where they were going out of fear that maybe Ophelia might try to escape.

"Briar Zeitgeist Fatalis"

Idly gnawing at the stringy remains of...something, Ophie's ears flicked forward as she noticed Briar approach. Her tail began to swish and sway, coating the underside with even more mud and muck as she picked up the pace. It felt as though it had been forever since they'd last spoke, but above all else the fat Fatalis was glad her big sister was well. That the end of the world-or whatever happened- hadn't broken her stride. "Oh hey Briar I-" Oh that sounded worrying. What did she have in mind? Ophie swallowed thickly as she glanced about, all shifty like a dog caught stealing off someone's dinner plate. She nudged the stringy meat between her paws, wondering if she could slither her way out of this. If she even had a fighting chance. She did not, they both knew it. With a defeated sigh-overdramatic much- she trailed after her sister till the bath came into view. "Oh um, you don't gotta. Dad made me bath the other day." Not that anyone could tell, she was both filthy and stinky one again.

Briar immediately shook her head as Ophelia tried to insist that Dad had already made her have a bath and that she didn't need to. Whether or not she had been washed recently or not, she was still dirty and therefore needed a bath. Briar usually bathed every day or at least every other day, but she knew not everyone was as picky about it as her so she certainly wouldn't expect Ophelia to adopt her routine, but she did think there was plenty of room for improvement about consistently keeping herself at least a little more clean. "Come on, I've already gotten it all set up!" she insisted, bringing Ophelia over to the warm bath and supplies she had prepared. "Besides, dad doesn't know anything about having a good bath. Think of this more like a spa day! Let me treat you to a nice bath, okay?"

She nudged Ophelia toward the tub, making sure her sister actually got in before she turned her attention to the soaps and things at her disposal. She poured some bubble bath into the water and started swishing it around with her paws, making the surface of the water bubble up with suds and fragrant bubbles. It was a light, floral smell—nothing too over powering. "I've noticed that you've been doing a lot of training lately," she commented as she got a washcloth ready with some soap, giving Ophelia a sweet smile as she started scrubbing some dirt out of the fur around her neck and shoulders. "I just wanted you to know that I noticed and I'm really proud." She hadn't anticipated getting emotional over her little sister, but in a way she was. She rinsed out the washcloth in the water before moving her scrubbing to Ophelia's scruff, thinking about all of her siblings. "I was really worried about leaving all of you," she admitted after a moment, keeping a smile on her face, but her ears flicking back while she worked. "But seeing you and Kotori really working so hard on your fighting and doing better means a lot and I just wanted to make sure you heard it from me."

"Briar Zeitgeist Fatalis"

Ophie bit back a lamenting whine. She trusted Briar not to scrub her within an inch of her life, but baths were still in her mind a pretty negative thing. Like a sort of punishment, like she needed fixing and twisting back into a proper Fatalis shape. With a long sigh, she carefully scaled down into the bath and waded into the centre. She'd had some pretty forceful baths before, lots of hasty scrubbing whilst she screamed as though she was being murdered. But this was...well the water was nice and warm and smelled good too. It wasn't awful, she'd give Briar that. Settling on her rump, she reached out for a bubble and gave it a light jab. "I've been trying really hard." She admitted, proud of this fact. "I'm a little annoyed improvement has been so slow. Everyone makes it look so easy and...it's tempting to fall back into old habits." And then she sat up a little straighter, her ears perking up as she realised Briar was indeed leaving soon. Felt like too soon. "Oh yeah you're gonna be Queen of the castle! I wanna visit you once you're settled in, if that's okay? I've never been before and...it might be good to go outside more."

Briar gave a soft chuckle and a knowing smile when Ophelia talked about how slow her progress had felt and how easy everyone made it seem. "I know that feeling," she said half to herself as she reached up to rub behind her sister's ears, cleaning away a couple little clumps of dirt. "Just hang in there, Ophelia. If you just keep doing a little better every day that's all that really matters... and remember that just because someone makes it look like it was easy for them it doesn't mean that it was." Her path to getting where she was confident in her own abilities had been a long and troubled one—and one she was still actively working on. Even if she had the skill and had trained diligently there was still the confidence in herself she was continuing to build.

She leaned back and put down the cloth she was using just as Ophelia mentioned her going off to be the queen of the castle and she grinned bashfully at that. She was still getting used to the idea of being considered a queen and leading a pack with Artorias even though that's what she had been preparing herself for over the last couple of seasons. Now that the day she made that move was just around the corner it felt like it had come way too quickly. She didn't know how ready she was, but she was still excited. "Of course you can come visit! I would love for you to!" she insisted with a grin, picking up a bowl that she used to scoop the warm water and pour it over Ophelia's back and shoulders to rise the soap out of her fur.

"The castle is really nice. Dad doesn't like how enclosed it is, but once you get used to it it's really cozy. And there's all kinds of fireplaces so when it's old outside it's really warm. Oh and there's a tower you can go to the top of and see out over all of Auster!" She was excited for her family to come visit after her move to Auster so she could show them around and introduce them to her new home. Their father had been several times of course and she thought maybe Kotori had been once, but she didn't think that anyone else had been. "I'll come back and visit here too from time to time of course," she assured her sister as she finished rinsing out her fur. "I'll miss all of you too much not to visit."

"Briar Zeitgeist Fatalis"

The tubby length of Ophie's tail wagged, sloshing the water as she rocked from side to side. Briar was always such a breath of fresh air; Artorias really did seem to bring out the best in her, their attributes complimenting one another as though they were a match made in heaven. A preordained sort of thing. And that was great for them, it really was! Briar deserved it all for everything she'd gone through, but sometimes Ophie couldn't help but feel a little bitter about not just Briar but the rest of her siblings as a whole. They'd moved on long ago and here Ophie was, still rolling in filth and smelling like something had died. Just as she had when she was a little pup. Her ears flicked forward in fervent interest, drinking in her sister's words as she described the castle and allowed an image to form in her mind. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen before, the thought of something new and fresh intrigued her...but was also somehow scary at the same time. "Was dad mad when you told him you're leaving?" She looked at the edge of the pool, as though considering making a dash for it. Briar would catch her, how could she not? There was a lot to catch. "I've always...really admired how you stand up to him. I could never do that."

Briar gave a little thoughtful tilt of her head when Ophelia asked if dad had been mad over her asking to leave. "Not as mad as I thought he was going to be," she said honestly. "I think he was more... sad than anything, but he didn't put up much of a fight over it. It also probably helped that he's gotten to know Artorias so well and he's really familiar with The Hallows so it's not like I'm just running off somewhere random." She had always been so worried about the day that she'd eventually have to ask him to leave, but ever since he and Artorias began to get so close that worry had begun to diminish. It might have been a different story if he didn't know Artorias, didn't know The Hallows, and she wasn't going with the knowledge that she would be leading the pack alongside Artorias when she got there, but as it stood there was a lot of good reasons and connections for her to leave.

She chuckled a little with a shrug at the idea of her standing up to their father. "It doesn't always go well for me," she said as she finished rinsing the soap out of her sister's fur and put the bowl down beside her. She remembered the look she got when she tried to fight fire with fire the day he caught her with Artorias, but their father really wasn't as unreasonable as he sometimes seemed. "As long as you come at whatever you want with good intentions and have some kind of logic and reason to back it up he's really not that bad. Maybe he's gotten softer over the years or something." With that she took a step back from the tub and nodded for Ophelia to get out with a smile. "Alright, all done. Try not to immediately jump into a mud puddle, okay?"

"Briar Zeitgeist Fatalis"