Consolation Prize

Despite his protestation and insistence that she stop and talk to him, Briar said nothing all throughout his efforts to get her to open up and clue him in on what was going on in her head. Anger and frustration and self-deprecation filled her eyes while crystalline tears poured down her face. Artorias had seen Briar cry before, right after her mother and brother had died, but this felt different. This was a pain directed at herself from within her own heart. Briar was waging a furious war with herself and nothing he said seemed to be working or even helping the situation. When Briar lifted her paw to rest it over his on her chest he had a brief glimmer of hope that maybe he was getting through to her. But that hope died seconds later when she pushed his touch away from her, rejecting his affections. Artorias' expression dropped in a look of shock and bewilderment. Briar was rejecting him, refusing him, denying him.

Leaving him.

Briar tried to reassure him that it wasn't his fault, that she needed time alone, away from him. She berated herself more, kicking sand angrily towards the ocean while chastising herself for not being good enough, for giving up on being a healer and a hunter, and being nothing more than a princess. Artorias' confusion only deepened with every pained word she muttered. He could not see the Briar she was seeing. All he saw before him was a beautiful and talented young fae who had so much love and kindness to offer. He saw his best friend who had helped get him through the darkest and toughest times of his life. He didn't see this failure she spoke of, this wolf so unworthy of him, as if he were some sort of messiah. Did she not see that he was no better than her? As far as he was concerned, they were the same.

More than anything, seeing Briar reduced to a crying, loathing mess crushed his soul. She begged him to leave her alone, to go away, but just as she refused to see his perspective of her, he refused to entertain her demands. Amber eyes narrowed with determined focus and the boy moved closer to her, undeterred by her volatile state. He didn't know if wild, rampant emotions ran in the Fatalis family, but he didn't care. Briar, the girl he cared so deeply for, was hurting. He wasn't going to leave her alone, not now. "I'm not going anywhere," he muttered in defiant reply, lifting a paw to stroke Briar's cheek and wipe away some tears while her head hung in defeat. "I'm not gonna let you sit here and beat yourself up unjustly. Don't you know..." You're mine. "...how much I care about you?" She should have known him better by now. Artorias wasn't the type of wolf to abandon a wolf he cared about. "Briar... don't do this."

"Artorias Carpathius"