code © skelle & art © snow--chan 2023
"Speech!"
Surprisingly, it had been somewhat easy settling back into his life in the Hallows again. Perhaps that had been because of that piebald man he'd met a few weeks ago, a flirty and attractive man that made getting over Malachai easier. Though the wine helped, of course. It made sleeping easier for him, when he could sleep anyway. Now was another one of those times. The sun would be rising soon and yet again, Grimshaw had been up through the night. It had to have been his third, maybe fourth, night without sleep.. but he lost count. He wasn't even drunk now, but someone might think he was stumbling through the halls on his way to the courtyard.

He wasn't even really sure why he was going to the courtyard, but it was better than spending any more time in his room, in his bed, alone. He needed a purpose here, again. It was hard enough living with the lack of recent memories, but living without anything to do was even worse. He was used to patrols, trainings, hunts, running a bar, the whole gamut. The Armada had been good for him, had given him the structure he needed to get through one of the many tough times he would go through, but it had also made him restless. Even in his exhaustion.

With a heavy sigh, Grimshaw slumped to the ground in the middle of the courtyard. The sun would be rising soon, and so the pale glow was beginning to brighten the eastern sky. Stars still littered the sky overhead though, and he found himself looking up at them with tired eyes, and getting lost in them.

Artorias had always been an early riser, even as a wee pup he liked to be up when the sun rose. As an adult, he had built his daily routine around the dawn, beginning with his morning meditations and patrol. His family, however, were decidedly not morning wolves for most of them, and so the dire wolf had to be especially careful and quiet each morning when he got up, grabbed his sword, and slipped out into the dark pre-dawn corridors of Hearthstone. Large azure paws followed familiar paths down the halls and descending the grand stairs to step out into the brisk early morning air. Dew still clung to the blades of grass in the gardens, the sky just beginning to shift in color as the morning sun started to make its presence known to the east.

Ordinarily, Artorias would simply ascend the castle walls alone to begin his tai chi, but this day he spotted the dark form of a wolf slumped out in the gardens also on their lonesome. Head tipped to the side, Art studied the figure curiously as he drew closer. The familiar violet and green swirls of aurora-like fur gave away the identity of the wolf even before he said a word to the man. Grimshaw was staring silently up at the lingering stars overhead, lost in his own thoughts. Artorias approached his brother at a leisurely gait, his claws clicking on the cobblestone pathways to announce his presence to his fellow Carpathian.

"Seems like you still enjoy the nighttime gardens, although you look more sober this time," he remarked with a lopsided grin and a cheeky gleam in his fiery eyes, remembering the last time he and Grim had been in the gardens at night. That night felt like eons ago now. Art came to sit beside his brother, following the dark-furred man's silvery gaze skyward to the stars. "Couldn't sleep, eh...?"

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Eira" | "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.
____________________