Looking for the Daylight

The hustle and bustle having the castle so full of pups and wolves had kept her distracted, but perhaps that was for the best. It allowed her to keep her own emotions and reactions at arm's length. She had stepped in to help watch after her younger siblings while her father did what he needed to do, doubling the amount of work she would have usually had from just taking care of her own litter. Honestly, she was grateful. It would have been so much more difficult to face things if they hadn't been here. What she wanted right now was to be with her family, but there was no way she could be away from her very young children for any length of time and with the Armada now so far away it would have been impossible to be with them during this time. Maybe she wasn't with them all, but she could at least give what she could to the babies of the family and her father who she knew would take this the hardest.

As she was going through her early morning routines, making sure everyone was up and ready for breakfast, she quickly realized there was a face missing. Worry gripped her and as soon as she was able to hand off everyone to Artorias she hurried out of the castle in search of Andromeda. She could tell that the young girl hadn't gone too far and that she had left the castle semi recently since her scent was fairly easy to find. It was really just a stroke of luck that they hadn't had any of the Auster spring showers in the night so she was able to find the trail and follow it quickly. As she trotted out onto the plains she spotted a figure laying in the grass. At first she could have sworn there was two there—one larger and one smaller—but when she blinked it was just the small, curled up form of her younger sister. She shook her head a bit, deciding she was still just waking up and it was a trick of the light.

Hurrying over to where Andromeda was laying she immediately began to assume the worst, at least until she realized that she was fast asleep. Briar sighed softly, a little smile crossing her lips. She didn't know why Andromeda was out here on her own, but she was okay and that at least eased her worries. Settling on her haunches beside Andromeda, she started gently rubbing the girl's back, speaking gently and quietly as she said, "Andromeda? It's time to wake up, sweetie. Everyone is heading to breakfast."

"Briar Carpathius"