david and goliath

When he returned from his diplomatic tour with Ulric, Artorias had immediately launched himself into the full duties of the Baron role. Getting to meet all of the other alphas of the packs and see what they were like, how they operated, and even meet some of the other heirs he might be ruling in conjunction with one day was an eye opening experience. He was more driven than ever to make himself worthy of one day taking over the pack. But in order to do that, first he would have to excel at his current position—and that included making sure all of his Knights were up to his standards and ready to protect and defend the Hallows. If there had been one thing that the raid with Ashen and the multiple animal attacks had taught him over the past seasons, it was that the Hallows had room for improvement.

He had been down at the beach filling a few training dummies full of sand to give them more weight and resistance, then slowly lugging each one back to the training grounds just outside the castle walls. The work was slow and arduous, but it was also a good workout for the young man's body. He had been pulling one of the dummies up to the grounds when he heard the howl from one of the Adravendis come from the sparring arena, black ears perking on his head. So someone was looking for a challenge, huh? It made him proud to see someone taking the initiative with their training.

Lugging the dummy up to the grounds, Artorias tossed the sand-filled burlap target to the ground just beside the sparring ring, looking over the small white and gray dappled girl in the arena. He recognized her only from the pack meeting, but he knew who it was simply from his unfamiliarity with her. This was Ulric's daughter, the one who had been sick for so long. Lillith, was it? Lily? Something like that. "Always good to see someone keeping up with their training," Artorias commented as he began to erect the dummy at the edge of the ring, driving the stake it was mounted on into the soft dirt. "I don't know how many wolves you'll find free right now to fight though. My brother took yours out on a hunt just a bit ago, and my sister is probably out on patrol."

Artorias stepped back to inspect the newly placed training dummy, nodding to himself as he approved his own work. He straightened out his armor and the sword across his back, then turned to face Lillith. She looked positively fragile, the poor dear still in the lengthy road to recovery. He didn't say anything about it though; if that were him, he wouldn't want anyone to look at him with sympathy or think he was lesser than anybody else. He would give her the same dignity. "It's Lillith, isn't it?" Artorias gave her a half smile. "Are you training to be a Knight, like Ezra, or just needing to blow off some steam?"

"Artorias Carpathius"