But if it had to perish twice,

Artorias was not a happy wolf. It wasn't bad enough that his mother Resin was still locked away in the dungeons like a psychotic animal and his pack was stretched thin with her care, but now his other mother had run off with Sirius somewhere out of the blue without so much as a word as to where they were going whilst still injured, and to top it all off Rudy had gone missing too. No explanation there either, just gone with a message from his bird that he'd headed off on his own. With both of his parents out of the picture, the world suddenly felt very heavy around the boy. If it hadn't been for Briar's companionship, he didn't know how he would have maintained his sanity. So when Briar was recalled back to the Armada for some urgent matters, it worried him. What could have happened back north to demand she return home at once? Did it have something to do with why his mother and Sirius had run off so abruptly?

In the wake of the uncertainty and confusion, Artorias had found solace in maintaining his daily routines. He adhered to his training schedule like nothing had changed, and he doubled his patrols to make up for the loss of some of the pack's able-bodied warriors. That was where he was now, patrolling the edges of the castle walls, adorned in the new armor he had crafted from remnants around the armory, his wooden sword across his back, keeping his stern gaze focused out across the open, snow-covered fields that surrounded the fortress. It had been three days since both Tamsyn and Rudyard had gone off without explanation, and every day he kept his eyes up, searching the horizon for when they would return. A part of him yearned to go out and find them—to run past the borders as if they didn't exist and make sure his family was safe and brought home. But he couldn't just abandon his family, his pack, his responsibilities like that. As much as it ached, he needed to stay here. All he could do was pray they returned safely.

Each day that passed, that prayer had gone unanswered—until today. Artorias spotted the approaching wolves coming from the north while they approached the plains around the castle. The Carpathius boy stood on the battlements, watching with keen eyes to try and figure out what he was looking at. It took him a moment to realize it was Sirius pulling some sort of cart with... was that his mother in the back? Was Tamsyn hurt, or worse?! Artorias' heart wrenched in his chest and a cold dread gripped at his soul while panicked paws skittered backwards, almost tumbling over himself while he all but threw himself down the stairs along the walls and out the main gates, paws tearing through the snow at a full tilt sprint to intercept them. Oh gods, please, no no no no, not her too...! His thoughts came out in a terrified flurry the closer he got to them, not even bothering to spare pleasantries with a greeting howl.

"Mom? Mom?!" he shouted out as he came upon the two of them. The first thing he noticed was how utterly exhausted and beat down both of them looked. The next thing he saw was the singed paws, both wolves sporting burns across their lower extremities. The third was the patches of skin rubbed raw across his mother's back, the fresh wounds in her shoulder, her generally defeated appearance. "What happened?! Where did you go?!" he asked, his sentences terse and hard with concern. He looked between both Sirius and Tamsyn for an answer. Someone was going to explain what happened and why his mother, who had previously been hurt and needed recovering, looked significantly worse for wear.


"Artorias" | Thoughts | "Corbin"