Birthdays come and go

Briar's ears flicked a bit as her cheeks warmed at the sound of Lia's greeting, hearing the slight rasp in her tone and knowing full well what was causing it. It was different now that she had lived through he season of her first heat and now that she actually understood what it was like. All of the hormones that translated into thought clouding desires were a powerful thing. She smiled warmly to Lia's complement, her face flushing more. "Thank you," she replied, settling onto her haunches beside Lia for a moment. She gave a nod of understanding when Lia explained that it was too hot to sleep, knowing that it wasn't the temperature of the mild spring evening that was making Lia heat up. "It certainly is," she said in agreement anyways, her thoughts drifting away to the morning they and spent cuddled together in Lia's bed while they experimented with each other for the first time.

She tried to find something else for her thoughts to linger on before she got pulled down too deep into those and she landed on another idea—something still solely for Lia, but in a far more innocent direction. "I have a surprise for you," she told her, giving her a little grin as she lightly nudged Lia's shoulder with her own. She nodded for Lia to follow as she got up, leading Lia out of the main hall and through the large front doors and out into the courtyard. From there she brought Lia out into the training grounds and stopped just outside the storage shed that stood on the edge of the marked off fields, saying, "Wait here." She quickly stepped into the shed, emerging a moment later with a piece of armor wrapped up in a piece of cloth like wrapping paper.

I had to hide it somewhere I knew you wouldn't look," she explained with a grin. If it had been in her room or somewhere that Lia frequently looked then Lia would have found it and it would have given away the surprise, but Briar was fairly confident that she would get away with hiding it in the training friends storage with the spare dummies. "I know you don't like me doing things for you, but I had to do something for your birthday. Turning two is a big birthday so I had to make you something special." She pulled the armor out of its wrappings to present it to Lia, revealing the dark brown leather that had gold leaves stitched into its surface to represent the fall-colored foliage that Lia's colors reminded her of. "I wanted you to have something to help protect you," she explained. "I know I'm busy more often than not and I can't be with you all the time so... for the times that I'm not I hope this helps protect you."

"Briar Fatalis"