As Autumn progressed, Lia became aware of the changes in her body. As she reached adulthood in the Hallows Castle and her body reached the stage where it could begin to bear children. She had always known this would come, but the situation was far different to how she had once expected. She would have thought to have woken to her head to a brute of a slave master, and began her duty of making him a hoard of beautiful children. Perhaps one to be his heir, perhaps all of them to be turned into slaves themselves and raised to a life of abuse.

She made her way to the feast hall in the wee hours of the night. The warm crackling of the central flame the only sound in the night. Her body felt too warm, the heat of the flame on her flushed face was uncomfortable. Made bearable by the chill of the night air occasionally brushing through the rest of her.

"Speech"

It wasn't often that she found herself unable to sleep and even when she did most of the time she could just lay in bed beside Artorias while she looked at the stars through the window until eventually she would drift off. Tonight though she was having an exceptionally hard time with all of her fledgling plans for the wedding beginning to take shape and keeping her thoughts running wild. Artorias was sound asleep and she didn't want to disturb him so she very carefully slipped out of bed, her tail making a soft whisper as it trailed across the floor on her way out of the room.

She wasn't sure where to go at first once she was out in the hall and her tawny paws ended up carrying her down the passage that lead over to the opposite wing of the castle to where Lia's room had been moved to once one of the rooms on this floor freed up. She was surprised to see Lia's door ajar and a quick peek in told her that her friend was up late as well. Curious, Briar went down stairs and followed Lia's scent, finding her in the main hall. She recognized the signs of Lia's first heat very easily since she had just lived through it herself and she sympathized with her friend immediately. "Can't sleep either?" she asked with a smile as she approached her, coming to her side to press her nose to Lia's cheek affectionately.

"Briar Fatalis"

At the sound of an approach, Lia looked up. Looked up, and found her thoughts grinding to a halt. The pillow-tussled fur of the Queen added volume to her coat, and her long, elegant tail was free. Sweeping behind her like the trail of a dress. Her short ebony horns were as regal as any crown. She was, beyond a doubt, beautiful. Breath-takingly so. She knew some of the emotion sloshing inside was hormones, but it only crystalised what was already there. Briar was a wolf very easy to fall in love with.

“Briar” she said, her voice a little husky. She swallowed, and closed her eyes as Briar pressed her nose against her. She smelled good, really good. Like vanilla, and the warmth of spring. She bit back the urge to groan, and pulled back slightly from Briar’s touch. It was too hot, a fire against her skin. “You look stunning, My Queen” she admitted a little shyly. “No… it’s too hot to sleep tonight” she explained.

"Speech"

Briar's ears flicked a bit as her cheeks warmed at the sound of Lia's greeting, hearing the slight rasp in her tone and knowing full well what was causing it. It was different now that she had lived through he season of her first heat and now that she actually understood what it was like. All of the hormones that translated into thought clouding desires were a powerful thing. She smiled warmly to Lia's complement, her face flushing more. "Thank you," she replied, settling onto her haunches beside Lia for a moment. She gave a nod of understanding when Lia explained that it was too hot to sleep, knowing that it wasn't the temperature of the mild spring evening that was making Lia heat up. "It certainly is," she said in agreement anyways, her thoughts drifting away to the morning they and spent cuddled together in Lia's bed while they experimented with each other for the first time.

She tried to find something else for her thoughts to linger on before she got pulled down too deep into those and she landed on another idea—something still solely for Lia, but in a far more innocent direction. "I have a surprise for you," she told her, giving her a little grin as she lightly nudged Lia's shoulder with her own. She nodded for Lia to follow as she got up, leading Lia out of the main hall and through the large front doors and out into the courtyard. From there she brought Lia out into the training grounds and stopped just outside the storage shed that stood on the edge of the marked off fields, saying, "Wait here." She quickly stepped into the shed, emerging a moment later with a piece of armor wrapped up in a piece of cloth like wrapping paper.

I had to hide it somewhere I knew you wouldn't look," she explained with a grin. If it had been in her room or somewhere that Lia frequently looked then Lia would have found it and it would have given away the surprise, but Briar was fairly confident that she would get away with hiding it in the training friends storage with the spare dummies. "I know you don't like me doing things for you, but I had to do something for your birthday. Turning two is a big birthday so I had to make you something special." She pulled the armor out of its wrappings to present it to Lia, revealing the dark brown leather that had gold leaves stitched into its surface to represent the fall-colored foliage that Lia's colors reminded her of. "I wanted you to have something to help protect you," she explained. "I know I'm busy more often than not and I can't be with you all the time so... for the times that I'm not I hope this helps protect you."

"Briar Fatalis"

Briar understood, and Lia knew why. Her own first season had recently come and gone. A natural part of adulthood, but Lia hadn’t quite anticipated the strength of the feelings rushing through her. It was a good thing Briar had other thoughts on her mind, or Lia might not have been able to stop herself from brushing a paw lightly across Briar's cheek. Instead, her Lady's words caught her off guard, and she blinked. Wondering what sort of surprise the Queen could have prepared for her.

“A midnight surprise, My Lady?” she asked, amusement and curiosity in her tone as obediently followed after the Queen. Whatever the surprise was, Lia hadn’t expected it to take them to the training fields. She sat, and watched Briar vanish into a shed, her curiosity growing and a touch of bewilderment forming.

Her Lady re-appeared with cloth and the scent of leather, and handed it to Briar. Explaining, as she did so, that it was a present. A birthday present. Lia’s very first. She blinked, stupefied, at the wrapping in her arms. She sat down rather suddenly, and after a moment cradled her arms to her chest. It was lucky that Briar opened it for her, Lia wasn’t sure she would have been able to bring herself to do so. Tears pricked her eyes. She sniffed, and realised they had started to fall. She wiped at them quickly, but they just kept falling. She leapt up suddenly, and wrapped her arms about the Lady. despite the terrible breach of etiquette. She hugged Briar tightly, knowing she was getting salt into the other wolf’s coat. “I love it. I don’t think I’ll ever want to take it off” she admitted, as she regained some composure and released Briar. “Did you… want to help me put it on?” in for a penny, in for a pound. She was breaching all sorts of etiquette tonight.

"Speech"

Briar chuckled and gave a little shrug to Lia's questioning of a midnight surprise. "Well... No time like the present, right?" It was a weird time to be giving her a gift, she couldn't deny that, but she hadn't found a good time to present it to her yet and since they had this time alone she figured she might as well do it now. With as many wolves as there were living in the castle and with as busy as she tended to be, finding a quiet, secluded moment was sometimes quite difficult. Fate had them both up at the same odd hour so now was as good a time as any. Besides, she hoped maybe the gift would help give her best friend a bit of a distraction for at least a moment.

After she presented her specially crafted gift, she waited eagerly to see Lia's reaction, but she didn't have to wait long. As soon as she pulled back the cloth wrapping to reveal the beautiful yet protective armor, she saw the tears in Lia's eyes and the shocked disbelief that colored her expression. Briar smiled happily, knowing without a doubt that she had done well with her gift, and her tail brushed against the ground as Lia suddenly leapt up to embrace her tightly. Briar hugged her in return, giving her a gentle squeeze in her forelegs. "I'm so glad you love it," she replied, genuinely happy to see Lia so happy. She knew Lia probably would have loved anything she gave her, but she still wanted to do something special. She doubted that Lia got to have anything of value for her fist birthday so now Briar felt like she was making up for lost time in a way. She was constantly trying to make Lia see how special she was and how much she was loved and this was no different.

Eventually Lia settled back and released her and Briar reluctantly let her go, her turquoise gaze finding Lia's warm eyes again. She gave Lia another wide smile when her friend asked her to help her put the armor on and she nodded in agreement. "Of course," she said as she sat back on her haunches and picked up the piece of armor, loosening the laces that were stitched up one side of the breast plate. When it was loose enough to slip over Lia's head she did just that, picking up one of Lia's paws in her own to help guide her foreleg through the other leg hole before she slipped it on properly. She got up and stepped around to the side where the laces hung from their eyelets, carefully pulling them together until the armor was fitted around Lia's torso, but not too tight.

It was a shame it was so dark so the details and embroidery couldn't really be seen in their full glory, but as she took a step back to admire her handy work she was still pleased with how well it fit. She had mostly made educated guesses for the size and shape, but she was around Lia so much that she knew her build very well. The thought made a slight blush come to her cheeks as she realized she was only that confident in the shape of Lia's form because of the time she had spent admiring her handmaiden and the times they had snuggled together. "It looks wonderful on you," she insisted, grinning as she leaned in to give Lia's nose a small, teasing kiss. "Happy birthday, Lia."

"Briar Fatalis"

Lia would never understand the twist of fate that had led her here. It had been unexpected and a little bit alarming, to go from slave to handmaiden and friend. It was more than she deserved, but she would do anything to keep it. To keep Briar, who was so much more than just her mistress.

At her request, Briar was quick to agree. Fiddling with the straps for a moment, before pulling it over Lia’s head. The handmaiden wiggled her head through the gap, and was surprised when she felt Briar’s grip on her paw. She shifted her weight and let the Queen lift the limb, and guide it through the hole.

Lia stood there a moment, feeling conspicuous as Briar moved around her, adjusting the armour until it fit snugly around her. Lia scarcely dared breath, feeling the rich leather against her coat. She knew she didn’t deserve anything so fine. “I feel a little silly, like I’m playing knight” she admitted softly. “But I love it. Thank you Briar.”

"Speech"