Pinch myself awake

Briar heard her mother's voice call from inside the den and she gathered herself up so that she could duck her head through the doorway, always careful to not get her antlers caught on things. She blinked her eyes to adjust to the change of light within the den and then her gaze focused on her mother, laying under the familiar cheetah coat. If it hadn't been for the fact that she was significantly thinner than she had once been then Briar might have been convinced that she had never left. It was strange, like being teleported back to being a pup and walking into the den to find her mother here. But she wasn't a pup any more. So much had happened and shaped her since then and she wasn't the same wolf she once was. She stepped into the den, giving her mother a smile while her heart twisted in her chest.

She settled down beside Zee, the two tan and turquoise women alone in this den that she had been raised in. She realized that this was the first time she had been in this den since the night that her father had bitten her and that realization caught her off guard. She glanced around the familiar space, the deja vu almost unsettling. They hadn't been in this den when he attacked her thankfully so that wasn't the memory she was forced to face, but it was still strange to be back here after so long. The only way she knew how to describe it was that she felt like she was remembering someone else's memories. They seemed strangely distant and she didn't know why.

Her gaze turned back to her mother when she asked how she was and at first she didn't really know how to answer. "I'm... doing okay," she finally settled on, giving Zee a smile. All in all that was true. Before the moment she laid eyes on her mother things were truly beginning to look up and she was improving in so many ways thanks to Artorias' and Mortis' help, but this felt like it shook her and reminded her of too many things she had been trying so hard to forget. Guilt gnawed at her and she shifted her gaze away, looking down at her paws. "Um... I'm... I'm sorry if I didn't seem happy when you came home," she said after a moment, her ears folding back against her head. "I didn't mean to hurt you if I did, I just... I don't think I knew how to react." Even if she didn't feel like she had been close with her mother, Zee still didn't deserve a daughter that didn't seem grateful that she was alive. "I really am glad you're okay. It's been really difficult since you've been gone."

"Briar Fatalis"