The plan was made and the location was chosen. Each woman had their task and Bowen had set off early that morning to do her part. Hitching one of the smaller carts to herself, the cream and caramel fae made her way to the beach, careful to choose the end furthest away from where her mother and Kane had set up their den. They needed some privacy. Besides, if things took a more adult path, she didn't need her mother catching her sleeping with her brother. That lecture was all that she needed...

The ladies had decided on early afternoon for their rendezvous time. That gave Bowen more than enough time to set up their little surprise. Hopefully Briar was able to entice Artorias away from the castle for a bit of fun. If not, Bowen would be spending a long night alone, though it would be a luxurious night. The small fae set up a simple canopy, digging poles into the sand that had an awning attached to them. It would shield them from the sun that blazed down overhead. With that in place, Bowen began setting up other things. Up above, the calls of the seabirds served as the woman's symphony. She hummed a little tune as she spread first a sheet on the sand, then positioned a few plush furs beneath the canopy. Next came an assortment of covered dishes to keep the bugs and birds from stealing it. There were closed jars of fresh water, a bottle of wine or three and a few special little things for dessert.

Once she decided that her work was done, Bowen sprawled on her belly on one of the furs, enjoying the salty sea breeze that ruffle her silken fur. The woman's long tail swished back and forth over her extended hind legs and she closed her emerald eyes against the sun, content to relax until the other two arrived.

"Speech"

It hadn't been too difficult to keep Artorias busy for the morning to give Bowen time to get the supplies for their surprise lunch out of the castle without him knowing. A patrol around the far edge of the plains had taken up a good chunk of time and then bringing him around to the alpaca paddock, the training grounds, and the greenhouse to discuss some future plans and improvements filled up the rest of her stalling. Leading a pack and caring for it certainly took up plenty of time so there was no lack of things to distract Artorias with, but it was hard to keep their secret a secret as she led him through some more day to day tasks, barely able to contain her eagerness to lead him down to the shore.

As it neared their agreed upon time she started to drop a few hints about wanting to spend some time together down by the shimmering shore and with a brush of her side against his and a sway of her tail against his thigh he was pretty easily convinced. Under the guise of wanting to relax a bit after a morning full of required alpha duties, Briar walked with him down the sloped path toward the beach. It certainly wasn't a lie—there would be plenty of relaxing involved—but she doubted that Artorias would be able to guess what she and Bowen had in store for him.

When they reached the beach she spotted the set up Bowen had constructed for them a short distance away at the far end of the shore and tossed Artorias a grin before she started to lead him toward the canopy shaded bed of furs. She was honestly impressed with this luxurious set up Bowen came up with and when they got closer she noticed the spread of foods and drinks that were awaiting them as well. "Surprise," she told Artorias with a chuckle as they reached where Bowen was laying and waiting for them, giving his cheek a kiss before she came over to join Bowen and laying down on the furs as well. "This looks amazing, Bowen! You've really outdone yourself," she told the smaller caramel and white woman, giving her an appreciative smile.

"Briar Fatalis"

Artorias didn't suspect a thing that either of his ladies were planning for the first parts of the day. He'd woken up beside Briar and began his morning routines with his usual meditation, which ended with Briar coming out to join him for his morning patrol. He was more than happy to have her join him, and was surprised when she asked to take the longer path around the northern and eastern borders. He was sure she'd want to whisk him away back to their bedroom as soon as she could, but he didn't mind getting in some extra exercise with his love first. The patrol had taken the better part of the morning, and by the time they finished, the sun was well on its way across the sky. Briar joined him for all the rest of his duties, occupying his time during their walks with chatter about how she found life as a leader, her hopes, aspirations, and concerns, and general chitchat about acclimating to the Hallows. However, the longer they spent together, the more Artorias began to notice an odd anxious edge to Briar's behavior, almost as if she were trying to hide something from him.

By the time it reached lunchtime, Artorias was fully suspicious of whatever Briar was trying to hide from him. But his suspicions were quickly dispelled when she began to drop innuendoes about spending time alone with him at the Shimmering Shore. He vividly remembered the last time they'd been alone together on the beach and what they'd gotten up to, and her not so subtle brush of her side against his or swish of her silky tail against the back of his thigh and some very sensitive parts of his anatomy told him exactly what Briar was trying to hide from him. So she wanted a romantic outing to the beach? He'd be happy to oblige that.

It didn't take much after that for Briar to convince Artorias to follow her down to the sparkling golden coast, mentioning how she'd like to relax and unwind after their busy morning. He could certainly think of some very pleasant ways for them to unwind together, and the sly grin on his face betrayed his lewd thoughts while he followed at her side down the sloping dirt path to the shore. The sand was soft and warm beneath his paws, and the day had thankfully remained dry. He spotted the canopy set up down the beach and immediately assumed this was Briar's secret surprise she was trying to keep from him, returning her grin while he loped eagerly after her. It was only once they got closer did he see the familiar form of Bowen's caramel and cream fur resting on the blanket of furs beneath the canopy, relaxing beside a spread of food, water, and wine as she lay in repose. Artorias' heart immediately missed a beat—out of panic or excitement he couldn't tell—and gazed at both his ladies with wide, surprised amber eyes.

"Briar. Bowen. What is this?" he asked, still reeling to take it all in while Briar kissed his cheek and invited him over onto the furs. He watched in a stunned stupor while Briar sauntered over to lay out on the furs and compliment Bowen's handiwork preparing everything. Bowen had prepared all of this for them? The two faes had been in on this surprise together? Walking almost as if in a trance, Artorias padded over to settle himself down between his tawny queen and his russet seafarer, still glancing between the two in bewildered awe. "I... don't understand. Am I about to be assassinated?" he asked with a joking smirk on the corner of his lips. Never did he expect the two wolves he loved to come together like this, especially not when Briar had been so guarded around him having a relationship with his sister, and Bowen had been quite envious of the time he spent with Briar.

"Artorias Carpathius"

The russet and cream fae lay there, humming a little tune as she waited. Soon the shift in the calls of the sea birds above alerted her to the approaching pair. Bowen curled her neck around, flashing a smile to Briar as the antlered woman drew near and complimented her work. "Why thank you," she gave a dramatic bow while still laying down. Briar soon joined her on the ample furs, getting comfortable before Artorias came to complete the trio. He seemed a little apprehensive at first and it was rather comical, but she could understand. As far as he knew, she and Briar weren't exactly the best of friends.

As the giant black and blue brute joined them on the pile of furs, placing himself in the center like the meat to a sandwich, Bowen leaned up to kiss the cheek closest to her. His words brought a husky chuckle from the tiny woman and she nudged his shoulder with her own. "We've been found out," she chuckled again. "Briar and I have decided that she and I have to be together and there's no room for you in the picture. Sorry, brother dear, but you have to go." She leaned up close one obsidian ear and purred. "The wine is poisoned. You probably shouldn't drink it."

Rising from her place, Bowen sauntered over to the stack of items that she'd brought and took up three bottles of wine that she'd pilfered from the cellar. Coming back, she handed one off to Briar, "My lady," she sad dramatically before sticking a bottle between Art's big paws. The third she took for herself, settling down upon her belly once more. She leaned into Art's side, not ashamed at all to show him little affections, though she wasn't trying to make Briar uncomfortable at all. This was an opportunity to see how they all got along. In order to do that, they had to be themselves.

Uncorking the bottle, Bowen gave it a little 'cheers' wiggle. "Here's to new friendships," she grinned, trying to be optimistic. Bowen then placed the edge of the bottle against pale pink lips before upending it, draining a large quantity of the brew in one long draw. To combat the jealousy that she would likely begin to feel, she was going to need it. Bowen then placed her chin on her brother's shoulder, looking up at him with big, emerald eyes. "Ai fost surprins?"

"Speech"|| "Romanian"

Briar didn't really know what to expect when it came to Artorias' reaction to seeing the two women together like this, but his shock and appreciation made her grin with amusement. His quip about this being an assassination made her laugh, her braided tail brushing against the furs as it swayed back and forth behind her. Bowen's humorous story of how that was indeed why they had brought him here to poison him with wine so they could get him out of the picture and be together themselves was the icing on top and made her giggle with a bright grin across her features. She settled into the furs with her paws crossed gracefully in front of her, smiling gently while Bowen got up and moved across to where the spread she had prepared was waiting. It was the first time she had been around both Bowen and Artorias since they were pups and it was interesting to see how different the caramel and white woman acted around Artorias than she had when it was just the two of them. She seemed much more relaxed now, joking around and being pretty flirtatious as well. Briar made a point with herself to not let Bowen's affections toward Art rub her the wrong way. The whole reason they were doing this was to see how they could all get along together and if they were going to do that she couldn't let her own possessive nature stand in the way right off the bat.

She grinned and gave Bowen a grateful nod to Bowen as she presented her with a bottle of wine. She hadn't been expecting a whole bottle of wine for each of them, but was almost a little glad that was the case. She needed a little something to help her loosen up a bit and she knew wine could help with that. She pulled the cork out of her own bottle as well, following Bowen's lead as she lead them in a toast to new friendships. "To new friendships," she echoed before lifting the bottle to her lips as well, taking a few long swallows of the sweet, bitter wine. The warmth spread down her throat and into her stomach and she welcomed it happily as she sat the bottle back down in front of her. She leaned into Artorias' side as well, her ear flicking as she heard Bowen say something to Artorias in the language she had heard him say little phrases in to Gwynevere occasionally as they were doing their rounds through the infirmary while they were taking stock of things that might need to be collected or cultivated to keep the pharmacy well stocked. She had never really considered the fact that his other siblings would likely know the Carpathian language as well, though it did make sense.

She swallowed back the inkling of jealousy with a smile—and another swig of wine—before she tried to slip in and pull a bit of attention as well. Her tail brushed his hip while her soft paw brushed up his foreleg that was closest to her. "Hopefully I wasn't too obvious with trying to keep you busy this morning," she said with a chuckle. "There's only so many things to patrol and examine so I'm glad that managed to last long enough for Bowen to get this all set up." She did feel a little bad that her only part in this was just keeping him occupied and out of the path from the castle to the shore for a period of time when Bowen had put so much effort into this set up she had made for them, but at least she had successfully executed her part of their plans.

"Briar Fatalis"

No sooner had he settled himself down between his lovely ladies, Artorias felt Bowen's soft lips press to his cheek, bringing about a more genuine smile from the Aegis. His sister laughed and made a dramatic show of admitting to their plan being found out, how she and Briar were conspiring to kill him and usurp the Hallows together as lovers. Art gave a husky chuckle and grinned back at Bowen, flashing his sharp teeth to her. "I knew putting the two of you together would be trouble for me," he quipped back, pausing just a gentle quiver at his sister's purred words right into his ear and humming beneath his breath. "Hmm, certainly not the worst way to go, though I can imagine some more pleasant ways I'd prefer." It still felt quite taboo openly flirting with his sister right beside his girlfriend, but they had clearly intended this surprise to be a way for the three of them to get comfortable together, so he supposed he shouldn't behave any differently with either of them if that was the intent.

Artorias watched while Bowen moved with fluid grace, gathering up a bottle of wine for each of them, much to his surprise. The azure brute couldn't recall ever seeing his sister drink before now, and to get them each their own bottle, the ladies must have planned on getting drunk—or getting him drunk, at the very least. "Iti multumesc, sora," he said with a crooked grin when she placed the bottle between his paws, wasting no time in uncorking it and letting the bittersweet scent waft into his nose. Sandwiched snugly between Briar and Bowen, Artorias felt like the luckiest brute alive in that moment. He didn't know what he'd done to deserve this sort of spoiling, but if the wine truly was poisoned, he'd wind up dying happy right now.

At Bowen's toast, Artorias lifted his bottle in a "hear, hear" motion while Briar repeated the toast. "To new friendships," he spoke assent, then brought the bottle to his lips and drank a deep swallow of the wine. The weight of Bowen's head on his shoulder brought the alpha's head to turn and peer at her with ember-like eyes, meeting her gaze with a smirk. She asked if he had been surprised in their native Carpathian and he chuckled, leaning in to place a slow kiss on the end of Bowen's nose. "Foarte surprins. Acest este minunat." Artorias felt the soft brush of silken fur against his other hip, sending a delightful shiver of static up his spine and drawing his attention over to Briar. He wanted to be fair with his attention to both faes, so when Briar brushed her paw up his foreleg, Artorias slid his foreleg over to settle between hers, holding her paw while letting her other one stroke over his leg.

He gave a short laugh when Briar mentioned trying to not be too obvious with her diversions, a playful spark in his eyes while he grinned at her and leaned in to give her a tender kiss. "Y'know, at first I had no idea you were even doing anything," he explained, taking another long sip of wine before fixing Briar with a knowing smirk. "But when you started wanting to go patrol the greenhouse and refused to leave my side for any reason, I started to have my suspicions you were up to something, but I never would have guessed this!" He didn't know whose idea this was or if it was a combined effort, but he was truly impressed. The beautiful day, the cool sea breeze, the two most important wolves in his life on either side of him... yeah, this was a damn good day! "I really can't say enough how nice this is. You spoil me, both of you."

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian"

Bowen was surprisingly comfortable in the situation. All of it was thanks to having Artorias there with her. Being beside her brother gave her confidence and put her at ease. It wasn't that she didn't like Briar, it was simply that they didn't know one another. They didn't have the necessary balance yet. And, thanks to their rather peculiar situation, it would likely take longer than usual. Not only did they need to find a balance, both women needed to come to terms with the fact that their lover would also be loving the other woman. That would be the difficult part. Especially for Bowen. The older she got, the more jealous she became. It seemed that each passing day made her a little more green. That was exactly why she suggested that they do this. She needed to see them together so her imagination didn't run wild.

Artorias seemed excited about the whole ordeal and said as much. Bo hadn't been sure if he'd be excited or nervous and was glad that it was the former. The trio drank along with the toast. Bowen placed her bottle against pale pink lips, tilted her head and let the sweet, fragrant liquid slide down her throat, taking a few hearty gulps. Let it be known that Bowen was small, but she could hold her alcohol. The perks of living with pirates. Once she'd finished with her sips, the tiny fae tucked the tip of her cork back into the bottle then stretched her slender body outward to wedge the bottle upright in the sand. Natural cup holder.

As she was sinking her bottle into the sand, the other two spoke of Briar's distraction. Apparently Artorias had been suspicious, but he hadn't expected any of this. Their mission had been a success. Her brother then admitted to feeling spoiled and Bowen laughed, giving her head a little shake. He was easily impressed.

Pulling back under the canopy, the rust and ivory fae draped her front half over the back of Artorias, facing in the direction of Briar, her slender belly pressed against his side with her paws hanging over the curve of his rib cage. "I asked him if he was surprised in our tongue," she informed the antlered fae. "He said that he was." Bowen and her kin practiced their mother's tongue regularly. She imagined that it might make her brother's woman feel a little left out, so she was informing her of what had been said. "If you'd like to learn, I can teach you." Copper ears shifted forward as she kept her emerald eyes locked upon Briar. Did the woman have an interest in learning the language? If she learned it, she'd never have to wonder.

"Speech"|| "Romanian"

Briar's paw flexed to gently squeeze Artorias' when he slid his paw over in front of her to hold hers, her other paw resting over his foreleg. She thought for a moment that her ruse of simply joining in and helping with his morning duties around the pack had been a success as he spoke about how he hadn't known anything was up at first, but then he went on to point out the pass through the greenhouse she had insisted that they do. She grinned and laughed, giving him a 'guilty as charged' smirk. She knew that had been a stretch, but they had been rapidly running out of things to do and it was one of the last things she thought she could squeeze some time out of. At least she had managed to keep what the surprise actually as a secret even if she hadn't managed to keep the suspicion completely at bay.

The absolute happiness on his face was hard to miss now that they had all relaxed into the lovely set up that Bowen had prepared. Why wouldn't he be? He had the two ladies that he loved most on either side of him with the beautiful beach in front of them and plenty of food and wine to keep them here for as long as they wanted to stay. It made her feel worse for not feeling like she could fully relax herself or completely shake the jealousy that wanted to creep up on her for the littlest things. She would do anything to keep him happy and this clearly made him so happy so she wanted to enjoy this as well... She took another drink of wine and tried to chase away her own thoughts with the warm tingles it spread over her skin.

Bowen surprised her as she set the bottle down again by climbing over Artorias' back to look at her. Briar blinked as she turned her head to look at the emerald eyed woman as she explained what she had asked in their language, her tawny ears giving a small flick in response even though she kept the smile on her lips. She hadn't thought that she had been obvious in how she felt about the two of them speaking together like that, but had Bowen noticed somehow anyway? Or was she just being thoughtful? She was even more taken aback by the offer to teach her the language, making her brows lift with surprise. "Oh! Um... Sure, if you don't mind," she replied with a glance over to Artorias before she looked to Bowen again. "Only if you two don't mind... I know it's special to your family." It was a nice offer and as much as she would like to know what was being said around her she didn't want to intrude on something that was special and particular to the Carpathian family.

Attempting to shake the feeling of this weird division she felt while she tried to determine if it was just her that felt it, she pulled a smile across her features as she quickly tried to move the conversation along. "How about a game?" she asked, hoping maybe if she had something else to focus her attention on it would help. "We have all this wine... maybe a drinking game? Maybe truth or dare? If you don't want to tell the truth or do the dare you have to drink." She looked between them both to see what they thought about the idea with a little grin. "Or if you have any other ideas I'm open to suggestions!"

"Briar Fatalis"

Given that he had been looking at Bowen when he'd spoken to her, Artorias had missed the look of confusion and exclusion Briar had when they shared a few comments in their mother tongue. Bowen, it seemed, had not, as once she'd deposited her wine in the sand and come back, she threw her lithe body across his back, her light weight noticeable but far from uncomfortable as she lay across him like a giant mattress. He smirked at how silly his sister was, relaxing on the blankets and letting her lounge on his body while he sipped away at his wine, head turned to watch the two women of his life while they interacted. It was then that he caught on to what the two of them had been planning for this. This was the first time all three of them had been together, and they were experimenting on how they interacted and got along. Very clever, ladies... he thought to himself while he began to observe them in turn.

Bowen explained to Briar what they had said in Carpathian to one another, trying to include her in their dialogue. Artorias didn't mind, of course. He didn't keep secrets from Briar and anything he said to his family in their language, he was happy to translate for her. Bowen took it a step further however and offered to teach her the Carpathian tongue, a very clear surprise to Briar who seemed taken aback by the gesture. Briar accepted, albeit hesitantly, looking to him as if for approval. Artorias gave her a smirk and a look as if to say "Really?" before replying, "Briar, you are going to be a Carpathian. You're a part of our family too. If you'd like to learn, Bowen and I would love to teach you." He chuckled again and grinned. "If I can learn it, I know you'll have no trouble picking up on it too." That would be a good bonding activity for his girlfriend and his sister, and it would give him and Briar another activity to work on together. Between the two Carpathian siblings, they'd have Briar speaking with them in their own language in no time!

Briar then suggested they make good use of their time and the alcohol they had to play a drinking game. Artorias thought back to the drinking game he'd played with Artisan not too long ago and laughed with a grin. "Sure, I'm game!" he answered, turning his head enough to gaze between the two ladies. "So what order do we wanna go in? Or are we just doing a free-for-all?"

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian"

Briar seemed shocked that Bowen would offer to teach her the Romanian tongue. "Well it doesn't belong to us, though I do find it rather special," the burnished woman admitted. Artorias went on to remind the antlered fae that she would be a part of their family soon enough and, even though that sent a streak of burning jealousy through Bowen, she didn't let it show and simply smiled and nodded in agreement. Dealing with emotions and coming to terms with the fact that Briar would eventually be the wife of Artorias was difficult, but it was something that she had to learn to deal with. She had to accept the woman to have Artorias in her life and that was more important than anything to the copper and cream fae, so she would do it no matter what.

The topic of conversation shifted as Briar suggested a drinking game mixed with truth or dare. Oh boy. It was a good thing she'd brought a bottle for each of them. Artorias was on board with the idea and Bowen was as well. Pulling back, the tiny fae took up her bottle once more and repositioned herself so that the trio could all see one another. She sprawled out on her belly at the edge of the furs, her long tail hanging out onto the sun soaked sand. "Sounds good to me," she spoke, taking a quick sip of the sweet wine between her paws. Pre-gaming for the win.

"I'll ask first," she volunteered, turning her attention to Artorias. "Since you're the man of the hour, you get to answer first, then when you're finished, you get to choose who you ask. Sound good?" The fae's verdant gaze shifted from wolf to wolf, assuring that they were all in agreement. Bowen then grinned at Artorias, flashing pristine, white teeth. "Truth or dare?" She imagined that they'd start out with easy little ice breakers, then move on to more daring tasks and deep questions later on in the game when their tongues would be looser and their inhibitions would be lessened.

When Artorias chose dare, Bowen grinned. Easy... they were starting out easy. Curling her neck, the small fae looked about for the cork that she'd pulled from her wine bottle. Taking it in paw, she handed it to her brother. "I dare you to balance this cork on your nose, walk all the way to the waters edge and back without dropping it. If you do, you have to drink." Surely an impossible feat, right? Bowen wiggled her brows at the blue man, then cast the antlered fae a wink. Bowen gestured wide with one sable dipped paw, telling her brother to get a move on. The game idea had been a good one and she already felt herself loosening up a bit, the tension seeping away.

"Speech"|| "Romanian"

Artorias was grateful for Bowen for stepping up to kick off their game. He smiled to his sister, knowing she would have some sort of great idea to start off with and break the ice. And sure enough (and much to his misfortune) she did, beginning by asking him to choose the first truth or dare. Well, Artorias just had to show off his machismo to his ladies, so starting with Truth was out of the question. With a cocky, confident smirk on his lips, the young alpha proudly declared his choice: "Dare." He didn't think Bowen would start with anything too lascivious or embarrassing, so he felt pretty confident choosing such a bold opening move. Turned out, Bowen was a conniving little succubus, giving Artorias an all but impossible task to balance a wine cork on the end of his nose all the way down to the ocean and back.

Artorias gazed down at the tiny cork stopper in his paw, then glanced up to the lapping waves of the ocean what seemed like an impossible distance away. He shot a look to Bowen, knowing she'd set him up for absolute failure and smirked, giving her an incredulous shake of his head. "You doubt me too much, dear sister," he teased, then straightened up his posture and held his body still. With a careful paw, he positioned the cork on the end of his nose, watching with crossed eyes while it wobbled for a moment, then stilled. Ever so carefully, Art rose to his paws, keeping the cork level while he took his first step across the soft sands. The cork wobbled with every step, but did not fall. The obsidian and azure wolf's heart was beating like crazy, suppling his muscles with much needed adrenaline to keep him stable. Two steps and the cork did not fall. Three steps... four... five... A smile slowly grew across his lips. He was doing it!

Then a coastal breeze kicked up, ruffling his fur and sending the cork toppling to the sand. Artorias groaned and looked back to Bowen and Briar. "That doesn't count! Double or nothing!" he called back, hurrying to reposition it on his nose again. Except this time when he went to stand, the cork immediately toppled off to the beach again. Art huffed and slumped his shoulders, snatching up the cork and bringing it back beneath the tent. "All right, all right, I lose," he conceded, picking up his bottle and downing two healthy drinks as punishment. Now it was his turn. He fixed his fiery amber gaze on Briar with a crooked smile and asked, "Briar, truth or dare?" When his girlfriend chose the truth option, a roguish grin crept across Art's face. "Tell us an embarrassing story from when you were a puppy. And no, losing the fight to me right after you met me doesn't count, because I tell that story anyway!"

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian"

Briar still felt a bit like she was encroaching on something special to them even as Bowen assured her that it didn't belong to them and Artorias reminded her that she would be a Carpathian as well one day. Maybe it was because nothing had been firmly set in stone yet as far as their plans for being married or maybe she was too worried about treading on Bowen's toes, but thinking about herself becoming one of their family and taking their name still felt odd and far away. Bowen only gave a smile and a nod in agreement with what Artorias said though so she tried to assure herself that it really was okay and she smiled in return, chuckling softly to Art's comments about how if he had been able to learn it then surely she'd be able to as well. She had never tried her paw at learning another language, but it sounded like an interesting challenge. "Alright then! I guess we'll have to set up some lessons soon."

Artorias and Bowen agreed to her offer of a bit of truth-or-dare so she got settled herself with her bottle of wine at the ready while Bowen got comfortable and laid out the start of the game. She nodded in agreement when Bowen looked to each of them for confirmation and glanced between her and Artorias while the Carpathian woman started out their game and asked Art if he wanted truth or dare. Briar wasn't surprised at all when Artorias picked dare. It seemed very like him to go for the most challenging option of the lot. She grinned and giggled at Bowen's task for him, knowing that between the shifting sands and the breeze off the ocean keeping anything balanced on his nose, much less a lightweight little cork, would be nearly impossible. To Art's credit he got up and gave it a good go, but even with a second try he still failed the task and had to come back and get a good swig of his drink. Briar laughed lightly and patted his shoulder with fake sympathy as he came to lay with them again.

Then the attention was on her as he turned a grin her way and asked her which of the options she would pick. She hummed softly with consideration for a moment before responding, "Truth." Unlike Artorias she was a bit more trepidatious when it came to dares and she was still getting the lay of the land for what kind of things they would be asking each other to do so she thought that truth would be the wiser option. She quickly realized though that nothing was safe when Artorias declared that she needed to tell them an embarrassing story—not including her loss to him right after they met. She shot him a mostly playful glare and groaned with displeasure at the task, but the little grin on her lips gave away that she was still having a good time. She fidgeted with the bottle between her paws while she throughly considered just taking a drink to have to avoid digging through her embarrassing memories, but decided she should probably save those outs for harder questions than this—especially considering that she was already starting to feel the wine she had already enjoyed.

She thought through a couple of options, some more embarrassing than others, but most of them just kind of cute, silly things that puppies tended to get into. It had been pretty difficult to get into much adventure or trouble when she was little with how she was raised so it was pretty hard to think of anything at first. She started just trying to think of her most embarrassing moment over all and one moment immediately came to mind that made her face heat up with a blush... but it did have the added bonus of embarrassing Art at the same time. She smirked and said, "Well... There was the one time my dad walked in on us in the barracks..." She felt like that sentence alone painted enough of a picture without having to give details, but that also felt a bit like she was getting off easy if she did that. "My dad ran in looking for Art while he was in the Armada training with us and found us... well... you know..." she told Bowen since obviously Art would already know the story, feeling like her face might just burn off from embarrassment while a guilty grin tugged at her lips. "He just said like 'Oh good, you're both here' or something like that and hightailed it out of there."

Once the flush on her cheeks began to dissipate and her own chuckling at their misfortune had died down, she then turned her attention to Bowen. Since Bowen had asked Artorias and Artorias had asked her she figured it was her turn to ask Bowen. "Truth or dare?" Once Bowen responded with her choice of a dare, Briar hummed with thought for a moment before a little smirk pulled at her lips. "Okay... Until after your next turn whatever you say you have to say it with a really silly accent. The sillier the better!"

"Briar Fatalis"

Okay, so Bowen had been sneaking drinks the entire time that Artorias was toying around with his cork, which was terribly amusing by the way. When he failed and wanted to give it a second try, the russet fae merely shot him a Cheshire cat grin and waited for him to fail. It happened quickly, thanks to the wind and Artorias was soon back under the sun shade with the two ladies. He took his two, deep draughts and then moved on to asking Briar the name of the game.

Briar chose truth just as Bowen suspected that she would. The woman was a little shy, so it made sense. Bo definitely wouldn't hold it against her at all and was curious to hear the story that was asked for. Of course it had something to do with the pair having sex and getting caught by Briar's father. Bowen laughed along with the pair, giving her head a shake and taking yet another drink from the bottle of wine. She needed to loosen up a little after the surge of jealousy that bit her after Briars story.

Then it was her turn and she chose dare, of course. Briar dared her to speak in a silly accent until her next turn and Bowen chuckled. She had been on a ship and had gone to many different places. Having a knack for languages, she'd learned bits and pieces of many different tongues. Some, she spoke fluently. Bowen sifted through the many accents that she could mimic and chose an Asian dialect. In lilting words, stressing syllables in certain parts of words, she asked Briar truth or dare. When Briar chose dare, Bowen smiled sweetly, flashing pearly whites. Leaning forward, one emerald eye winked. In the same silly accent, she spoke to the antlered fae. "I dare you to tell us your dirtiest sexual fantasy without using words." Oh yeah, it was time to kick this game up a notch. Enough of the puppy shit. With another grin, Bowen sipped her wine and waved a paw at the shy fae, urging her to proceed.

"Speech"|| "Romanian"

Briar giggled as Bowen took on an exotic accent to ask her truth or dare in return, grinning as she took another drink of wine. She was starting to get more comfortable as time went on, partially thanks to the wine, and after a moment of thought she finally replied dare. She didn’t want to be the only one that never did a dare and seem like a scaredy-cat or something. However, when Bowen delivered her dare Briar nearly spit her wine and regretted her choice immediately.

Briar’s face flushed and her ears folded back shyly as she glanced at Artorias and struggled to find a response. "Um… Well…” It was hard enough to even think of an answer at all much less thinking of a way to act it out without words. The whole world of sexual acts was still partially a mystery to her—or at least anything beyond just the things she and Artorias had done together. She also didn’t know what defined a “fantasy”. Did it have to be something she wanted to do but hadn’t done? If that was the case she didn’t even know what the options were.

That was all besides the fact that this was in front of Bowen. When she was alone with Artorias it was easier to just do whatever felt good and not worry about anything else, but now she was having to balance trying to make friends with Bowen and not wanting to make things worse between them. If she did come up with an answer and she did find a way to play it out it would all center around her sex with Artorias which she couldn’t imagine Bowen would appreciate. "I um… I tap out on that one, I’ll just drink,” she said after a long pause, chuckling a little as she tried to play it off and she tipped the bottle back to take a long drink of the wine.

"Briar Fatalis"