Wandering south had brought the father and daughter duo across a number of different lands, but none had stood out to Dusk enough to excite the little pup into wanting to explore them. So onward they walked until Dusk called out in delight and caught Artorias' attention. What had enraptured his excitable little girl was the large inactive volcano on Auster's eastern coast, towering high above the rest of the continent. It's dark rocks and black soil painted it like a mountain of shadow, so it came as no surprise to Artorias that Dusk would want to investigate the place that was so radically different from the rest of Auster. He just wished it didn't have to be this place of all places... Still, Art was a softie for his children, and he relented to Dusk's requests to see it closer. The sire led the way for his daughter, moving from loamy earth to ashy sediment as they approached the mountain.

Amber eyes surveyed their surroundings, keeping his senses heightened and his guard up. It was ridiculous of himself, he knew. The threat that he had faced here seasons ago was long dead, his skull perched neatly on a shelf back in the Hallows and his pelt on the wall. But despite his common sense telling him otherwise, Artorias could not shake the lingering anxiousness he felt being back here. "Stay close to me, Dusk. Okay?" he gave his child the simple and nonnegotiable instruction. Giant paws pressed deep into the soft earth, leaving behind a distinct and defined trail of paw prints in his wake while he walked with Dusk around the base of the dormant volcano. If he strained his hearing enough, he could swear he could almost hear that manic laughter...

"Artorias" | "Carpathian"

Any time that her father took her out to spend time with her alone, Dusk was over the moon with happiness. She liked her siblings well enough, but the girl soaked up the individual attention like a sponge. The dark child absolutely adored her father. The man was akin to a god in her young eyes. Eyes that were so much like his own. Artorias would forever be the child's first true love. Not to say that she didn't love her mother. Dusk adored Briar. There was just something within Artorias' soul that called to Dusks soul, as cheesy as that sounds.

There was pep in her step as the pair made their way towards the giant, dark mountain in the distance. One couldn't deny that this outing was making the child happy as she kept pace with her giant father. Dusk hummed little songs, hopped after birds and bugs and every once in a while stalked and leaped on her father's tail. And questions- Gods did she ask a lot of questions. Why were bugs so small if there were so many of them? Who decided that birds should get to fly when wolves couldn't? What made grass green and trees tall? Why didn't fish have fur? Endless, endless questions.

Though Dusk was happy to be out, she could feel the tension emanating from her father with each step that they took towards the mountain. By the time they arrived at the base of the volcano, the girl had stopped her prancing and was very focused. She focused even more so when her father told her to stay close to him. Dusk nodded, her brow etched in concern. She followed along beside him though, her gaze taking in the black rocks and the ashy earth. It was almost like snow in some places, if snow left you dirty instead of clean. Dusk noted that the ash made her obsidian paws grey and she was sorely tempted to roll in it so that she could pretend to be her grandmother, whom she'd been told was grey. With the tension in the air though, she stopped herself from doing so. Maybe on the way out.

"Dusk"

Were it any of his other children who had asked to come to these sorts of places, Artorias would have been hesitant to bring them. Talyssa, for all her love of exploration, was far too sweet and naive to be exposed to the kinds of dark stories that came with places like this. Thorn had his adventurous spirit, but the boy was far more interested in racing than exploring. Dusk, however... she was his wild child, and she reminded him so much of himself as a pup, yearning to get out and run and explore for himself. In many ways, Dusk's soul felt like it had been fabricated from a part of his own, and their kindred spirits bonded father and daughter in special and unique ways. Artorias would always love all of his children, but little Dusky would always have a special piece of his heart with her.

Approaching the base of the dormant volcano, Dusk's enthusiastic and endless questions which the sire wolf did his best to answer for her gradually tapered off into obedient silence. He felt her presence around his paws. Father and daughter maneuvered around the base of the mountain, leaving behind a matching pair of trails, giant dire and tiny puppy paw prints etched into the ancient volcanic ash that dusted the ground. The air was silent around them. No birds flew overhead, the nearest songs coming from the nearby trees that receded from the volcano as if it emanated a wave of malice to keep life away from it. The air stank of lingering brimstone and pumice. All in all, it was not a very pleasant place to be. No wonder Oxx had enjoyed it out here so much...

"I'm going to tell you a story, Dusky. A very important story with a very important lesson to it." The dire wolf looked down to his daughter at his side, giving her a gentle, loving smile despite the clouds that lingered in his bright eyes. "Once upon a time, there was a terrible monster that roamed these lands. This monster was a wolf, just like you and me, but he was a violent and evil creature. He lived to hurt others, taking pleasure in others' pain. For a long time he stalked these lands, hunting anyone he could. Eventually he set his sights on his next targets—" Artorias glanced down at Dusk again. "Us."

The Carpathian brute spotted a slope along one of the ledges of the mountainside, gentle enough for the two wolves to walk up and continue exploring. Art guided their path that way, leading Dusk closer up the mountain to let her experience more of the land. "He attacked our family numerous times. Each time we came back stronger. Eventually, we hunted him down, cornered him on this mountain, and killed him. We made the world a little safer that day and delivered justice to a violent criminal." Artorias paused the story for a moment, briefly wondering if this was too dark to tell to his half a year old daughter. Oh well, too late to go back now. "That monster was once a member of our family. He turned against us, twisted and corrupted. The lesson of this story is this: sometimes our greatest enemies are the ones closest to us, and sometimes we have to make difficult choices against our own for the right reasons."

Artorias did not recall which specific ledge he had slew Oxx on. It had been dark, he had been disoriented, and in the end he supposed it didn't really matter. What mattered was that justice had been dealt on this mountain not so long ago, and a harsh lesson had been learned. He just prayed his own children would never have to face such challenges in their lives. The young father wished only for peace, prosperity, and happiness in their lifetimes.

"Artorias" | "Carpathian"