Not happy, but way less sad

After leaving the derailed training that Mortis had planned, she immediately ran to the falls, not even stopping in the Armada territory purely out of fear that she might run into Artorias some time during the day or Mortis or her father... Anyone really. She needed a moment to collect her thoughts, to let herself cry, to think of some way to begin building Artorias' trust in her again. She stumbled to a stop outside of the den that they had shared the night he came to see her during his and Ulric's tour of all the packs, managing to slip inside and hide before she collapsed onto the furs and covered her face with her paws. She was vaguely aware of Marigold curling against her and nosing at her cheek, but it took awhile before she was able to calm herself down enough to wrap a paw around the fox and pull her closer.

"What do I do?" she asked quietly between hiccuping gasps as she started to catch her breath, angrily rubbing the tears away from her cheeks. Marigold got up form where she was laying against her chest and sat in front of her, holding her cheeks between small, dark paws. "Briar, you've gotta pull yourself together," she said sternly, catching Briar off guard and making her blink her wide, turquoise eyes at her companion. "You know I'll always be straight forward with you and I'm tired of just watching you beat yourself up for no reason. If you don't want to lose him, right?" Briar gave a small shake of her head and Marigold nodded, lowering her paws. "Okay then. Forget all this mess about you being a princess and stop thinking about your family. Think about you. What you want, what you need, what makes you happy. Artorias makes you happy, right? And what makes him happy? I'll give you a hint."

Marigold reached up and booped Briar's nose. "You! You silly girl. You make him happy. With or without you winning fights or whatever it is you're trying to use make yourself feel like you deserve him. You make each other happy so why is it complicated? I'm also pretty sure that if you just relaxed in your fights and your training and stopped putting so much pressure on yourself you'd do better." Briar looked down between her paws, picking and messing with the fur under them. "Hey hey hey, no!" Marigold said as she grabbed Briar's chin and pulled her head up to look at her again. "No fidgeting, no worrying, okay? Now it's time to snap out of it. I'm not going to let you do this any more. You know what's going to make you a good second alpha for Artorias? Spoiler alert, it's not fighting skills or healing knowledge or being the best hunter. It's being able to support him emotionally, help keep his head on straight, and help him stay happy. And you do all of that so well without even trying. You already had your skill and you were just ignoring it."

Briar stared at her companion for a moment, the realization crossing her features. She thought about holding him in the training room after he destroyed it in a rage, she thought about all the times she caught him smiling like a fool when he looked at her, she thought about all the nights they spent cuddling and sharing little kisses and whispers, she thought about the night they had spent here learning and playing with one another. None of that had involved any kind of fighting, just a lot of love, and tears collected in her eyes as she began to realize how big of an idiot she had been. She threw her forelegs around Marigold and squeezed the fox close, much to Marigold's displeasure, before Briar got up and started taking off her armor, setting it off to one side of the den and placing her bracelet carefully on the top of the pile. She still didn't know if she could win Artorias back, but that determination and that fire was back in her chest and she was desperate to try. She went outside and spent some time washing herself off in the river that led into the falls, cleaning off all the dust and dirt from her travels and fights over the last week or two, realizing that she hadn't been taking care of her coat as much as she usually did with how out of sorts she had been.

Once she was pristine once again, she shook herself off and then spent some time gathering fire wood while she she dried in the sun, building a camp fire a short distance from the den in a collection of rocks that had clearly been used for this purpose at some point in time - though she was extra careful and added some of her own as well to make sure there was a good radius from the fire and the grass outside of it. After how her mother and brother died she was a little overly cautious around fires. She didn't light it yet, but the time she spent collecting all the wood was enough for her fur to dry from her bath and she shook her fur out again, smoothing it down into silky tawny waves. She pulled a couple of the furs from inside the den out to lay them near the fire, making a place for them to enjoy a little picnic and the view from this spot at the top of the falls. By the time she had gone and hunted a couple large rabbits, got them skinned, lit the fire, and the pieces of meat laid out on the stones beside the fire to let it begin cooking the sun was starting to set and the falls were colored with the reds and oranges that gave this area its name.

She straightened herself up again, slipped inside to put her bracelet back into its rightful place on her wrist, and then went out to sit on the furs outside with a nervous sigh. Now she just had to wait and see if he showed up or not. She tried her hardest to not stare off in the direction of the plains, making herself fuss with their dinner or anything else so she wouldn't just be sitting here watching for him the whole time. Please come... Please come...

Briar Fatalis