But if it had to perish twice,

The boy had forced himself to focus on each individual step he took to keep his mind from buzzing with the upset thoughts swarming around like his brain were a hive of hornets. All he wanted was to get back to the castle and go back to his training so he could keep his mind and paws occupied and not dwelling on how fucked up everything had quickly become. Snow crunched under his paws while he walked, only for a louder, heavier set of crunching to be heard coming up behind him. A heavy, frustrated sigh and a roll of his eyes. Great, Sirius was following him... There was still a bit of distance between them and the castle gate, so it wasn't like he could just pick up the pace to get away from the Warlord without it being obvious and rude, and Seer would definitely catch up to him before he could get away. The confrontation was inevitable, but even as Art steeled himself to remain calm when he faced their "guest", he kept repeating to himself that his mother did not need him behaving rashly.

Artorias continued his steady stride away until the footsteps behind him became impossible to ignore. It was only then that the boy stopped and turned on his heels, facing his pursuer with as stoic an expression as he could feign, although the bitter hurt and his fiery temper still glowed like hot embers in those youthful amber eyes. He didn't say a word to Sirius, or to his mother who was following behind him at her own pace, still biting his tongue so he wouldn't say something he would come to regret. Artorias was usually so careful to pick and choose his words, but with his emotions in a whirlwind as they were, he didn't trust himself to stay in line or not cause any more damage. He fixed Sirius with resolute eyes, waiting to see why he hadn't been allowed to walk off and why the Fatalis patriarch had hurried to catch him instead of leaving him be.


"Artorias" | Thoughts | "Corbin"