But if it had to perish twice,

Tamsyn's words were curt, yet still held some of that motherly softness that despite her obvious irritation somehow worked to soften the edge of her voice. It did nothing to deter the worried boy though, especially not when he saw the way she struggled to get up and winced while she limped her way off of the cart. Artorias' mouth hung agape while he appraised his mother's condition. She was so much worse than when she'd left. Before, it was just the bites to her face. Now she looked like she was returning from a war. If she thought he was upset, Gwynevere was going to be so pissed when she saw the extent of Tam's new injuries.

Artorias ignored his mother's vexation at his questions since he got an answer from her in the end. She had gone off to find Sirius' missing mate and son? He remembered Zee only briefly from their first playdate, but admittedly didn't know her beyond that. Even still, his expression dropped to hear that they had been found dead. He didn't know what to say at first—until Sirius snapped back to her to tell the whole truth. The reality of their fates was much more grim, and Artorias cringed inwardly when the Warlord described how they'd perished. It was too awful to imagine, he didn't know how to respond, especially not when Sirius' anger continued to manifest itself while tore the cart apart with growls, somehow winding up clocking himself in the back of the head with a part of it.

"How far did you travel?" Artorias pressed his mother, seeing as how Sirius was temporarily incapacitated. "Mom, you know you're supposed to be resting up. Gwyn told you to take things easy and you went off on a cross continent chase?" He turned his steely gaze back to the Warlord on the ground, amber eyes starting to flare up with that frustrated anger he had come to know so well over the past week. "You knew what state she was in and you still dragged her along?" It was so difficult for Artorias to know how to conduct himself right now. He had been taught to be respectful, especially to his elders, other alphas, and family friends—all of which Sirius was. But this was also the wolf that had knowingly endangered the life of his mother—soon to be his only mother. By what right did he dare to put her through whatever the hell they had gone through?

"Why would you do that to my mother?" he asked, a hard edge to his voice, all trained decorum gone from his words. No more Mister Sirius. No more "yes, sir". Right now, he was trying to determine if Sirius was a threat to his family. He looked back at Tamsyn for a moment, taking stock of just the obvious injuries she sported, then turned to demand the answers for each from the wolf that had subjected her to them. He was no healer and couldn't say for certain, but several of them did not appear to be wear and tear from long distance running. Art moved to position himself in between the smoldering dire wolf and his much smaller mother, summoning up all his courage to stand up to the Warlord and block him from Tam. "What happened to her? You told me you were going to help my family, not harm us more. So why is she hurt even more? Why didn't you protect her?"

Artorias did not state a direct accusation at Sirius, but the implication was there. The anger Sirius was displaying rang very similar in his ears to the sounds he had heard from his parents' bedroom the night Resin had attacked Tamsyn, the wild rage, the uncontrollable anger... He didn't know if Sirius was responsible for any of Tam's wounds or not, but at the very least he neglected to shield her from any of them. He would allow him to explain what had happened, hoping this was all a misunderstanding and not what he feared it actually was.


"Artorias" | Thoughts | "Corbin"