It Would Make Him Happy

Briar was a little surprised when Bowen asked if Artorias had told her anything about her or where she had been. She gave a little shake of her head and was about to ask for herself, but luckily Bowen launched into the tale of her past, about the terrible and awful things she had been through, about the things that had kept her from her family and the things she had to do to earn her freedom. Briar's expression softened as she listened and as Bowen explained and revealed this side of herself Briar really started to understand the ivory and caramel fae a bit more. Once she explained how her motivation to do all of this and survive was to get back to her family and Artorias it all began to make more sense in her mind. She wasn't sure why the love and attraction Bowen had for Artorias felt more justified now that she knew the background behind it, but it did.

She of course hadn't been through anything to the level that Bowen did, but she understood the feeling of depending on someone like that. After her mother's supposed funeral, after the incident with her father, with all the continued distance between herself and her family, she had leaned heavily on Artorias. For a while any of her confidence or self worth purely came from the support and love that Artorias gave her and when he wasn't around she quickly began to slip back into believing her doubts and insecurities and making herself believe that she wasn't good enough for any of it—but especially not good enough for Artorias. She had grown past most of that now and had found enough confidence to stand on her own paws most of the time, but she understood and even just having some kind of common theme to relate with the other woman on helped tremendously. She didn't want to tell Bowen she understood or that she could relate because it didn't feel right to relate what she had been through to what Bowen had endured, but she smiled softly and nodded when Bowen said how she just needed Artorias sometimes. Briar could see why and she couldn't fault the Carpathius girl for that.

After she mentioned how she would have to go back to her father's pack, Bowen surprised her again with her question of when she would be coming "home" with them. It caught her off guard and she blinked with surprise at Bowen before a more genuine smile pulled across her features. There was something about Bowen calling this her home that touched her and truly made her feel like Bowen meant what she said when she spoke of how she didn't want to take Artorias from her and she understood how happy they made each other. It would have been easy for Bowen to not be welcoming or accepting of the idea of her moving here, but instead she actually seemed bothered by the fact that she couldn't stay and called it her home. "I don't think my father is going to let me leave until I turn two in the summer," she replied. "But the second I'm able to... I'll be here."

She gave a relieved nod when Bowen promised to keep Artorias safe, a bit of the tension sliding from her shoulders. She knew she could trust Bowen's word on that and that helped ease her mind. She wasn't entirely sure how she would force herself through the next season and a half back in the Armada, but she would manage as long as she knew someone was looking out for Artorias and keeping him safe. She knew Artorias would look out for Bowen as well so she didn't even need to ask him to do that. One day soon she would be able to join them and she only wished that day was sooner than it was. "I'm looking forward to moving here and getting to know you better," she said with another smile. "I don't really have any friends and I'm not that close with many of my siblings... But I'd like having you as a friend one day if you're okay with that." Besides Artorias, Aslatiel, Mortis, and Lia there weren't really many wolves she could call herself close to. She was on good enough terms with Kotori, Ophelia, and Gossamer now she supposed, but they weren't wolves that she felt like she could go to with anything. She wasn't nervous about moving to The Hallows, but she'd be lying if she said that knowing that she'd have another wolf to be close with here didn't make her feel even more confident about the change.

"Briar Zeitgeist Fatalis"