She and Indigo had made the trek from Elysium to The Hallows a little bit ahead of schedule. Manea had given birth and was mostly back in shape, so Asla was confident that being gone for a short time wouldn't be an issue. The pair had run hard and fast, making the journey in short time. Indigo had split off when they were close to the castle, needing to tend to something, so Aslatiel went on ahead. Arriving at the border, Asla released a howl, letting the pack know that she was coming. Her pace never slowed as she moved down the well worn path towards the stone keep. She was family, after all. The invitation had been received, so she assumed that she was welcome. Padding into the great stone courtyard, Asla stopped to slake her thirst at a big basin of water. It had been quite a long journey and she was a bit parched. Once that was done, the tawny fae seated herself in a patch of grass and waited for her sister to find her. "Speech"

The final preparations for the wedding were in full swing and they had gotten to the point where most of the decorations for the castle and the surrounding grounds were either ready or in place. She was working on making sure their guest rooms were all prepared just in case anyone wanted to stay the night after the reception and had even begun to prepare a few of the open rooms on the top floor for more trusted wolves like her family just in case they needed more space. It felt like she was planning for a lot of “what ifs”, but it was her first time planning and putting together something of this scale.

She was upstairs in one of the now temporary guest rooms, laying out some furs from their stores, when she heard a familiar voice calling from the border. Her head popped up and an excited grin crossed her lips before she turned and trotted out of the room, hurrying down the stairs to get to the first floor of the castle. She hadn’t been expecting anyone to arrive for a couple more days, but it had been far too long since she had seen her older sister and she certainly didn’t have a single complaint about her early arrival.

By the time she got down to the ground floor and walked outside she found Aslatiel waiting for her in the castle courtyard. Her thickly braided tail swayed with excitement behind her as she bounded toward Asla, affectionately bumping her smaller sister’s shoulder with her forehead—while avoiding poking her with her antlers of course. “Asla! I’m so glad you’re here!”

"Briar Fatalis"

It didn't take Briar long to come out into the courtyard to find Asla. The smaller fae's tail swished back and forth in a wag as her sister drew near. Briar pressed into the fawn fae's shoulder and Asla licked her sisters teal tinged cheek in turn. Briar spoke and Asla grinned. "I'm glad to be here." Really, Briar was the only family that hadn't treated Aslatiel differently for her particular tastes or the fact that she'd struck off on her own. She wasn't surprised to be invited to the wedding, but she was thankful for it. "Indigo should be here soon. I figured we'd come a little early to help wherever you need." The smaller fae tilted her head just a bit. "How are things coming along? Are you nervous?" There wasn't a reason to be nervous. Asla knew that Artorias loved Briar and her sister new it as well. She supposed any nerves would come from the event itself rather than the vows and promises made. "Speech"

She was glad to hear that Indigo would be coming as well. She had invited all of her siblings regardless of where they stood with one another or with the family as a whole and so far it seemed like everyone was coming, even all of her older siblings. It made her feel feel their love more than she could possibly express purely for the fact that they were willing to travel to be here and put aside the differences they had with one another to take part in this day that was so important to her. Even more than that, she was grateful for Asla for being so thoughtful and thinking to come early to help with the preparations. The wolves of The Hallows had gotten most things prepped and ready for the most part, but there was of course small things here and there that she could enlist her sister's help with.

"Honestly... I'm mostly just excited," she replied with a giddy grin when Asla asked if she was nervous. "The pack really came together and did the bulk of the preparations so now I'm just checking over everything and making sure some last minute things are done. I would probably be more nervous and worried about it all if it wasn't for them." She didn't have a single regret about moving from their family's pack to The Hallows, especially not after all of this. She chuckled and added, "It is wild to think that it'll all be over in just a few days... It feels like we've been planning this for ages and then it's just going to be done and I'll be Briar Carpathius."

She gave a little shake of her head, reveling in how wild that thought was, before she got to her paws and nodded toward the castle. "I was just finishing up getting the extra guest rooms ready for you and the others upstairs. Do you want to help me with those? I just need to finish getting furs on the beds and make sure they all have firewood since we don't use them typically. Auster can get cold at night."

"Briar Carpathius"