The Broken Knight

When his head turned to catch her lips in a quick kiss she returned it with a pleased hum, a grin pulling across her lips while her tail wagged and brushed against his hip happily. "Of course. You don't need to thank me. I could tell how stir crazy you were getting, but so was I," she replied with a chuckle, curling her paw around his elbow as she settled in to enjoy the warm Auster day with him. Last winter they had been stuck in the terrible ice age so Auster hadn't been all that much different from Boreas when it came to snow and cold, but this year it was far warmer and it just added to the list of reasons why she would rather be here an in Boreas. The weather was honestly a small perk in comparison to getting to be with Artorias, but even a small perk was still something to add to the list. "It really is beautiful here," she added as she looked up toward the clear blue sky through the leaves of the magnolia tree they were laying under, a little smile pulling at her lips. "I'd love to see more of Auster sometime. I'm sure you've criss crossed all over Auster already at this point, but you could take me to your favorite places," He was much more of an explorer than she was, but she still liked seeing the sights with him and loved the eye he had for beautiful landscapes. She'd never forget the first time he took her up to the top of the tower so she could look out over Auster.

She brought her turquoise gaze back down to look at the bangle around her foreleg, smiling as she rotated her foreleg one way and then another in a shaft of light, watching the amber stones glitter and sparkle. It was kind of crazy to think that it had nearly been two full seasons since he gifted this to her in mid summer. It didn't feel like it had been that long, but at the same time it felt like ages had passed. "I don't guess my mom ever actually talked to you about a birthday celebration while you were staying in the Armada, did she?" she asked, giving him a glance as he confirmed her suspicions. She gave a little nod and looked back down at her bracelet. "Okay. I was just curious and never got to ask you about it. She said she was going to when I talked to her, but I also haven't gotten to talk to her since then so..." She just gave a little shrug and looked back up at him with a small smile. She had given up hope on expecting anything from her parents. After her talk with her mother she had really thought maybe something would be different. She had written off her father's issues for so long as just the strain that her mother's absence had caused, but now that Zee was back she wasn't really sure anything had changed. With everything else that had happened her birthday felt like a silly, petty thing to think about, but it wasn't necessarily the fact the birthday itself that she was bothered by. It was more the feeling that her and her litter mates had been forgotten. Maybe it was the birthday thing that started this domino effect of her thoughts, but it wasn't the only issue.

She quickly shrugged it off, giving his foreleg a little squeeze with her paw. Him being attacked and hurt really had put things into perspective. She had already had to shift and refocus to figure out what was really important to her when he told her about the love and desires he felt for other women, but this had just cemented things for her. It still didn't sit right with her that she hadn't been here to force him to let her help with his search or hadn't been here to talk some sense into him before he went running off to fight this obviously dangerous brute. She didn't know if she really would have tipped the balance one way or another, but the fact that she hadn't even been with him to try still bothered her. Living without him in the Armada was miserable and now this... But she still didn't even know what happened. She didn't know if he had walked into a trap or if he had confronted this guy directly, what kind of fight it had been or what had actually happened. "I haven't asked because I didn't want you to have to think about it too much, but... Would you mind telling me what happened?" She asked curiously after a moment, her gaze lingering on his. She could obviously see the after affects of it, but the road that led him here was still murky to her.

"Briar Zeitgeist Fatalis"