What is real, what is fake

Briar leaned into Artorias as he came and pressed into her and she was grateful that he was just the quiet presence with her till she found her voice. He was exactly what she needed, just as he always was. When she dropped the news about Zee's sudden reappearance she saw the obvious surprise on his face, an understandable reaction to that kind of news, but it was quickly followed by the confusion at her reaction and him trying to say that it was good news and questioning her on it. Even Artorias seemed more thrilled about the news that she brought than Briar herself felt and that just made the confusion and guilt clouding her expression deepen. Her gaze shifted to refocus on his when his nose nudged at her cheek, listening to him question how she was feeling. She didn't know how to even answer that question, but this was why she came to him, wasn't it? Because he helped her untangle her thoughts when they became too much for her to sort through?

"I... I don't know," she began with a sigh. She glanced away, looking down at the sand as she tried to pick apart bits and pieces of things to tell him. "I feel like I should be happier or more excited than I am and I feel awful that I'm not," she admitted softly, a frown pulling at her lips. "Gossamer and Aris were just... throwing themselves at her when I showed up, sobbing and yelling about how happy they were and I just... I didn't feel like that at all. I mean I'm happy that she's okay, but nothing like how they were." She felt guilty and ungrateful, like a terrible daughter for not being over the moon that her mother had suddenly reappeared, but even when she tried to make herself feel that way it just felt forced.

She leaned into him more, resting her head on his shoulder - being careful not to poke him with her antlers of course. She was quiet for a moment while she sorted through more of her thoughts. "When dad came home with... well, what we thought was her body I guess... I was more upset for him than I was about her being dead. I just kept thinking about how bad I felt for him and how heartbroken he looked and... I never really thought about her being gone. I was sad of course and I thought about how I was never going to really get to know her now, but..." She sighed, letting her eyes close while her ears folded back against her head. "I wasn't close with her... We never really spent time together and it never felt like she tried to do stuff with me before she left... But if Gossamer and Aris were that torn up at her funeral and are that happy now that she's back... Did she care more about them? Did they get to spend more time with her than me? Did I do something wrong?" All of her guilt and her doubt piled on top of one another, pulling her down into a hole. Unlike the last time she overwhelmed herself, she didn't push him away. Now she leaned into him, her forelegs wrapping around his sides to hold herself close.

"Briar Fatalis"