Her big brother had asked her to check in on his ward while he ducked out on patrol. So she left her elevator in peace and made her way to the feast wall. Trotting along with her head held high, roughly 5” off the ground. Which was the highest she could hold it. She entered the foyer and made a sharp left, entering the feast hall where the fire was always roaring, and looked about for this ‘ward’ Artorias had been talking about. She knew there was some commotion about him, and his name was Zeph, and little else. The tiny girl looked up, up, up where most people could be found, and sniffed the air. “Zeph, are you in here?” she called out ”Speech”  ’Thought’

His savior had opened up an entire world beyond his fireplace and 'goose room' to the hatchling, who had enthusiastically accompanied Artorias everywhere the man went for each moment afterwards. While it was more than likely the sword-wielding beast was growing tired of playing mother duck, Zephyr was blissfully unaware of any feelings of annoyance that may have bubbled up and merely hopped along as well as he could manage behind the long charcoal limbs. Eventually he'd been told to remain put, there were responsibilities Artorias needed to get to and while Zeph did not understand the need for patrols, he was quite used to being left behind while adults went to find him food. Wholeheartedly accepting that his new wolf was just out fetching him a much needed meal, Zephyr happily agreed to remain in this oversized room as long as was necessary.

The remnants of faint smells clung to the air, though the scent was different then that of freshly-made-corpse which he was used to. It smelled like food, but not like food at all, and try as he might to tilt back his beak and sniff the air as he'd seen wolves do, he didn't feel he was getting any extra information from it at all. Hop-stepping across the hard floor with wings extended, the chick made his way across the large room toward the roaring fireplace, settling down upon the mantle and tucking his beak in beneath his wing for a short nap.

'Zeph, are you in here?' Nap delayed, the bird lifted his head and gave a shrill but unmistakably happy call. "I'm here! By the hot thing!" He had no idea who the voice belonged to, but surely it was bringing more food.. right?

"Zephyr"

The tiny girl waited, and sure enough a funny-sounding shrill voice called out to her. She crinkled her nose and considered that for a moment. Did he have a sore throat? No matter… hot thing. He had to mean the fireplace, right? She padded along the floor. The long feast hall felt like a marathon that took her a long time to cover, but she eventually found her way over to the heat. When she arrived, she found a funny, scruffy ugly-duckling type thing fluffed up in front of it. She paused, taking in the beak that was just about the size of her and its lanky funny looking body. She lifted her head and cautiously sniffed the air. It smelled like a fowl of some sort or variety. It was like a giant chicken with its feathers all out of whack. “Your Zeph? My brother's ward?” she asked a little sceptically ”Speech”  ’Thought’

Zephyr was soon able to put a face - a very small face - to the voice that had called up to him, blinking slowly as it grew closer and closer. An illusion? The bird pushed up from the mantle and hop-stepped down, wings extended upwards for balance as he wobbled around her in a circle. Her skepticism was echoed clearly in the hatchling's eyes, and as she spoke once more he couldn't contain his reaction - pure, uncontrolled laughter.

His neck bobbed as he chortled loudly, occasionally taking a second glance only for his laughs to devolve into even louder shrill fits. He could hardly manage words between the sounds, his stubby wing reaching down towards his heaving breast to try to contain them and nearly toppling him over in the process. "You are SO SMALL!" Zeph managed, eventually, from upon the ground where his laughter had forced him. Artorias was a giant to end all giants and this.. this.. this shrimp in comparison was outrageously hilarious to see.

"Zephyr"

Woooooh. She felt like prey as he teetered around her, like a vulture waiting for its prey to fall. She followed him with her eyes, which meant looking way up and making herself feel like she was getting dizzy and going to puke. She also wasn’t expecting the funny-chicken to laugh at her. She showed him her fangs, wondering if she was going to have to fight for her life, and what parts of him would be the softest to bite. Maybe she would really need to be thinking about where she could reach. “Hey! Watch who you're calling small, chicken! Just wait until I’m older and bigger than you! Like Artorias. I eat chicken, not keep it” she warned him, snapping her tiny little teeth together a few times for emphasis. ”Speech”  ’Thought’

The tiny creature did not take kindly to his fits of laughter, displaying to him those terrifying teeth that Artorias wielded so skillfully. Catching sight of the snapping jaws was enough to halt his uncontrollable giggles, his feathers shrinking in towards his body in a small display of childlike fear. "You can't eat me!" He stated, struggling off the floor and wobbling unsteadily upon his talons before her. "I won't let you!" Artorias had vanquished the bad bird who wanted to eat him, but he was not here now to cleave this small fry in half in his defense. Without the beast's protection, Zeph knew he had only himself to stop this vicious bird-eater from making him a meal.

In a flurry of mottled grey down the hatchling attacked, wings spread high above his head and flapping frantically as only a bird suffering great injustice could. He waddled up into her space, curved beak coming down again and again in an attempt at landing a fit of angry pecks upon her skull.

"Zephyr"

She squeaked in surprise as the chicken-duck-bird-thing suddenly attacked her. Its puffy feathers fluffed as it shot at her and began to stab her with its beak. A hit landed, and then another, and by gods did it hurt! She yelped in pain and anger “Bad bird, Bad!” she yelled as she curled herself into a tiny little bullet and shot out at his talons. Grabbing them in her little mouth as she attempted to knaw down on them as best she could. Even with tiny wee dire fangs slowly starting to come in, her attack was pretty pathetic. But she didn’t see it that way! She had come in here in good faith, and it was attacking her in a place of sanctuary! “I’m telling Art on you!” she threatened between vicious snarling ”Speech”  ’Thought’

The pure savagry of these creatures was startling, and Zephyr's panicked flapping only grew in intensity as her tiny mouth of beaks came down upon his talon. His talon! His foot was featherless and sharp, and Zephyr assumed it would be the least appetitizing part of him! The chick's beak split open in a loud shrill cry of pain and fear, unable to escape the mental image of her devouring him alive starting with his toes.

His not-currently-being-eaten foot lifted in retaliation, bringing his young body to slam down upon the stone in a puff of grey fluffy feathers when nothing was left holding his body upright. Now sideways, he kicked out toward her nose with his free talon, reaching his stubby wings overhead across the floor as if he could drag himself out from the vicious wolf's maw if he only could find purchase on the smooth stone. "If you don't let go I WILL POOP ON YOU!" He swore vehemently, shrill voice echoing across the oversized room.

"Zephyr"

Artorias hadn't gone further than the courtyard, stopping to talk to his mother while his young half-siblings roamed the castle. While initially on his way out to do a patrol, Tamsyn had convinced him to let the other warriors handle it and take the time to play with his siblings and his young ward. She was right; now with Zephyrus under his care, Art felt the pressure to keep security on the pack up. He hadn't even known about the birds roosting in the tower room until recently! And so, returning back into the castle to go find the younglings, the dark-furred male headed in the direction he knew two of them would be.

Approaching the great hall, the Aegis was concerned to hear the sounds of scuffling and screeching from within. His pace quickened, paws rushing across the smooth stone floor until he emerged in the hall, spotting Zephyrus and Sierra struggling against one another on the floor. "Hey, hey! Break it up!" he shouted as he hurried over to separate the two combatants, easily able to pry tiny Sierra off of Zephyr's talon while also trying to keep the rapidly growing raptor away from his sister with his other large paw. Gold-flecked amber gaze narrowed while he looked between the two, positioning himself to keep them both arm's length apart at all times until they'd cooled off and caught their breaths. "Does someone want to tell me what's going on here? Why are you two going at each other like cats and dogs?" Art's voice was stern, but not angry, aggressive, or yelling. He wanted answers, but he didn't believe in getting them by inspiring fear in either his ward or his sibling.

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Argent"

One big happy family

Artorias has two ravens named Corbin and Eira and a fox named Argent. Assume they are within calling distance at all times.
As his mate, Briar may enter Artorias' threads unless marked Private.
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She yelped as he landed a solid kick to her nose, digging her teeth in further even as her nose smarted. That had hurt! Brat bird. The next thing she knew, Artorias was in front of them, pulling her off the bird, and she hissed and spat in his grip for a solid three seconds before she regained her composure. Breathing heavily she forced herself to stop, for the anger and pain and sheer bewilderment to settle down in her heart. “He attacked me! He’s feral, Arty! He started pecking me, and he kicked me. My nose is bleeding, look!” she said, turning her head to show her brother the tiny spot of blood under her nose. ”Speech”  ’Thought’

Before Zephyr knew it, massive paws were separating him from his attempted murderer. He continued to flap angrily against the strong obsidian limb, his talon coming up and seeking to perch upon it so he might be able to jump up and over the barrier. The shrimp wolf's words brought an argumentative croak from his beak - how dare she call him feral!

His head whirled to face the wolf that had rescued him not once but twice from the vicious jaws of death. "She said she was going to eat me!" Zeph exclaimed, indignant. "I was defending myself!" To the wolf pup he pried open his beak and gave a shrill, anger-filled shriek in reply. He'd barely even scratched her! She was chewing on him!

"Zephyr"

As soon as he'd gotten the two miniature combatants separated, he was able to turn stern eyes from one to the other, assessing what on earth he had walked in on. Zephyrus perched himself upon the wolf's obsidian foreleg right over his ash gray stripes, still puffed up and screeching in anger at Artorias' half-sister, who also was spitting and hiss-snarling at his ward. It took a few moments for either side to calm down enough to speak coherently to him, yet even when they did, the Aegis didn't have a much clearer picture of what had gone down than when he'd started. Sierra claimed that Zeph had attacked her first, Zeph claimed that Sierra had tried to eat him. Both claims were so outlandish given their sizes that Artorias could only heave a sigh and shake his head.

"That's enough, both of you! I don't care who started it, we're ending it now." Artorias looked over Zeph, checking him for any injuries, and when he didn't find any beyond some teeth marks on his legs, he gently set the fledgling down on the ground. Then he turned to look at Sierra. Other than the pinprick of blood beneath her nose, she had a few welts on her head, but nothing serious. "Here, let me take a look," he spoke far softer than he'd started. With a ginger swipe of his tongue, he lapped away the blood from her nose. "There, better. Now, we don't threaten to eat our friends and family." Art turned to look at Zeph again. "And we don't try to hurt our family either." His stance was made clear: Artorias wasn't picking a side in this, he was mediating between the two. "So are we going to play nicely together, or do I need to find something for the two of you to do to keep you out of trouble?"

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Argent"

One big happy family

Artorias has two ravens named Corbin and Eira and a fox named Argent. Assume they are within calling distance at all times.
As his mate, Briar may enter Artorias' threads unless marked Private.
____________________

Sierra scowled as Artorias scolded them. She loved Art. This was totally unfair. She glanced over at Zeph, and debated sticking her tongue out at him. In the end, she decided that would only get her into more trouble. And what would her mother say if she heard about this. She heaved a very world-weary sigh. “I’m sorry Zeph for calling you a chicken. You don’t look anything like a chicken, and I wouldn’t eat you. You're clearly a… uhhm… uh.” She glanced up at her brother, wondering if he would bail her out and fill her in. [i] He [/] clearly knew what Zeph was, and had made him his ward. Probably everyone knew what Zeph was, but she’d never seen one before. ”Speech”  ’Thought’

Zephyr's beak tipped down in shame as the wolf's voice took on a stern tone, demanding the end to their conflict. Begrudgingly he accepted this, as Artorias was the one who appeared food for him and without his friendship the chick would surely starve to death within minutes. Glancing over at the diminutive wolf, he no longer felt the desire to laugh. She was mean.

Her sigh brought his brows to furrow and he considered screeching at her again, though he did not want to lose favor with Artorias. When she spoke to apologize, Zephyr at least found it was easier not to hate her. "I'm sorry I pecked at your head." He grumbled in exchange. When the small wolf turned to give Artorias a questioning glance, Zeph found himself doing the same. Yeah! If he wasn't a chicken, what was he? Zeph knew he was definitely not an owl like his surrogate mother had been, but beyond that he'd had quite little an education on his species.

"Zephyr"

Being a stern teacher was hard! Artorias hated feeling like he had to be the bad guy when both pup and fledgling looked shamed and upset. He just wanted to love them both and make them both happy, but sometimes children had to be scolded to be taught. He remembered back when he and Rudy had been pups, how their mother had scolded them for sneaking past the borders unescorted. Sometimes love had to be tough to be sincere. Despite testing his resolve, Artorias maintained his facade until Sierra sighed and apologized to Zephyrus, and then his ward apologized in turn. Only once they had both issued their apologies did Art's expression begin to soften, returning to the familiar warmth and kindness he usually wore for the younglings. "There, that's better," he said, giving an approving nod of his head. "Things are much nicer when we all get along. That doesn't mean it's always easy, but it is better."

Artorias had thought that might have been the end of it and was prepared to send both kids on their way to play together (nicely, he hoped) but Sierra wrangled him back in by trying to assert what Zephyr was and ultimately failing. Artorias blinked surprised eyes to his sister while she looked to him for backup, then to Zephyr when the fledgling also looked up to him for an answer. Well fuck! He had no idea what Zephyrus was! He could only identify a few common breeds of birds around Auster and Boreas, and his ward was like none of them! How was he supposed to answer that question?! "Zeph is a raptor," he answered tactfully, hoping neither youngling would press the issue further for now. He really needed someone who was an avian expert to help him out. "A raptor is a large bird of prey, like eagles, falcons, and vultures. He's like a wolf to birds." Did that answer their question? He sure hoped so; it was the best he had right now! "Now, are you two going to play nicely together, or do you need the big, bad Aegis to stalk you all day?" he asked with a playful chuckle and smile.

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Argent"

One big happy family

Artorias has two ravens named Corbin and Eira and a fox named Argent. Assume they are within calling distance at all times.
As his mate, Briar may enter Artorias' threads unless marked Private.
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