Getting out of the castle had been quite the feat for her, but she eventually made those steps with Bowen in due time. It still wasn't easy but it was definitely relieving. That wall in her head wasn't holding her back, she just didn't want to do it alone.

One of of her early memories of her life in The Hallows had been the stars of the plains, so she asked Artorias to go with her this time. Maybe it was more because it was him, he was strong and protective not that Bowen wasn't but she just felt better coming out here with him during the night. The days had lasted just a little longer since she had arrived in the Auster winter. She waited for him in courtyard before taking that deep breath out of the castle walls. The sun setting over the plains she made herself focus on everything except the fears that were so forward in her mind. A path ahead of them seemed to light up maybe by fireflies or maybe it was just some kind of strange illuminated, unreal light in the grasses. She would see ahead that the path led by the plain's river and then veered off towards the grove. As strange as it was, she wasn't worried by that. And being here with her brother, and the other surroundings she was so familiar with in her youth is what made her calm.

"Ashelia Carpathius"

The mystical autumn that had fallen over most of their home, while strange and unnerving at first, had turned out to be quite the blessing. Artorias loved the fall. It reminded him of his first autumn in the Sunset Falls with his family as a young pup, the games he would play with his siblings, scampering about the falls and cliffs and woods as the leaves shifted colors around them. Now his children would get to grow up experiencing the same in their early lives. That was a whole lot better than the cold and snow of the winter Auster had been experiencing only weeks before. With the change in the weather and seasons spontaneously, everyone in the Hallows was getting out to enjoy the outdoors as much as they could. That included Artorias, and much to his pleasant surprise, Asheila as well! Art knew Bowen had been helping their sister out with her confidence as well, and together it seemed they were gradually bringing Ash back to life and into the folds of their family once more.

Ash had asked him to bring her out to the plains during the evening so she could see the stars again, and of course the Aegis was willing to do anything for his little sister. Together, they had both embarked from the castle at sunset to walk the fields around their home. Originally Artorias had brought Embershard with him, just to make Ash feel a little safer, but as they neared a walking path set up by some of the familiars from the God's Garden, the creatures urged Artorias to leave his weapon behind. He hesitated, concerned for Ash's confidence, but did relent and left his sword back at the castle. As golden sunset bathed the plains in fiery light, the two Carpathians walked the path, fireflies slowly rising from the grasses around them to illuminate the world in their glow as sunlight gradually faded. In the past, the fireflies would have made Artorias feel dread and apprehension, but in this setting, Artorias just felt... peaceful. His amber gaze moved about the golden fields of grasses around the paths, looking to the autumnal trees at the edges of their territory. All around them the world was changing, evolving, going through its natural cycles. It was beautiful.

"I'm very proud of you for doing this," Artorias said to Ash after a moment of walking, casting a warm smile to his sister. "I sometimes wonder what life would've been like if none of us had separated... If you hadn't gone missing and Bowen hadn't been taken. If Mom..." Art's words drifted off into silence, quiet reflection of their departed mother stealing the words from his tongue. Even after all this time, talking about her still hurt. Artorias lifted a paw to his right shoulder, rubbing over the thin lines of scars her teeth had left on his flesh in her final moments. He hoped she had found her peace.

"Artorias Carpathius"

Ash was comfortable with just Art being here with her so when the familiar creatures insisted he keep his sword out of their walkway she wasn't worried about it. She felt a lot better once she left the castle gates, it was just getting past them. Beyond what the statues meant, the familiars, and the changes of the land was nothing to worry for her. She was in a corner of the world that wasn't affected by the long night or at least the huge effects of it. She remembered the drawn out night, but there was no sickness or demonic fireflies or anything of that sort. One of the lucky ones when it came to that she supposed.

She blushed just a little as Art had said he was proud of her, she had known but there was always something that made it better to hear, from any of them not just Artorias. That gentle smile shifted just a bit as he continued on though. She stopped to turn towards him, feeling that twinge of hurt from the things he had been through. Overall, the things they had been through. She had missed this catastrophic event their lives but she still could feel the loss of their mother as if she was here that day. "Art..." She reached forward to wrap her arms around him through a sororal hug, squeezing just gently before backing up to look at him again, "We're all together now. That's what matters." A paw placed up on her chest as she looked down at the scars that seemed to be a remembrance of Resin, "And I know she's here too." She didn't know the story behind Resin, she never asked. Honestly, she wasn't sure if she wanted to. Resin was in bad conditions the last time Ash had been in the castle. And it was hard for all of them to see her that way. In a way she did believe she was at peace now, just as Art had hoped. Without knowing the extent and the details.

"Come on." She spoke gently with a turn of maybe a fake smile to keep moving down along the manicured path of the walk. She looked up at the slightly clouded sky of the plains though she couldn't tell if it was an autumn sky or the winter beyond. The castle and plains were given this break from the snowy winter of Auster, the grove hadn't though. Ash wouldn't know herself, she hadn't been. She did know that whatever was happening wasn't quite right but she didn't jump to any harsh conclusions. She was one that couldn't be too careful, but she didn't want to be weighed down by this constant worry. "It isn't the sky in the spring that I remember." The only time she was able to experience The Starlit Plains by it's name, "It's still beautiful though."

"Ashelia Carpathius"

Artorias would never complain about the trials and tribulations he had faced in his lifetime, because he had faced them all for the sake of his family. For them, he would take on any challenge, bear any burden. No cost was too high when it came to the wolves he cared about. Perhaps that was why it took Artorias by surprise when Ash stopped their walk to face him and throw her arms around his side in a sisterly embrace. The larger Carpathian blinked in shock. After being away from their family for so long, subjected to whatever she had to endure alone, Asheila was still more concerned about his own wellbeing over her own. Maybe that was just a trait of the Carpathius family—self-sacrificing to a fault.

Gradually, Artorias began to relax enough to hug Ash back, squeezing her gently in his forearms as a gentle smile touched his lips. "You're right. Nothing can break apart our house," he agreed while looking back to her as well. Ash's eyes dipped, and he followed her gaze down to the scars on his shoulder. The smile on his lips faltered a little, but never vanished. "I know... She lives on in us all." Just as Ash didn't talk about her experiences, neither did Artorias speak of the day when Resin died. He would answer her questions if she ever wished to know, but beyond that, the scars he wore were enough of a bitter reminder of what their adoptive mother had become in the end of her life. Nobody needed to remember her that way.

At Asheila's behest, Artorias released her so they could continue their walk down the autumnal path. The grasses of the plains had become a rich golden brown color, dry and crisp beneath their paws. Fire-toned leaves drifted in the breeze from the nearby woods to float lazily about the fields of their home. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Art's keen gaze watched the familiars as they tended to the path around them, offering each one a friendly smile as they passed by. The Hallows was open to all—that didn't just include wolves. These sentient creatures were also welcome within their home, regardless of the means of their strange and sudden appearance.

Ash made a comment about the sky, and Artorias turned to see his sister gazing up at the darkening sky overhead, speckles of glowing stars just now becoming visible. "The plains never fail to impress," he spoke in agreement, nodding his head assent. "The summer skies are the prettiest of all. Clear almost always, with hundreds of constellations to be seen." As they walked, Artorias looked back to the autumn woods to the east, looking at the reds and oranges and golds of the leaves like a sea of fire in the distance. "Do you remember our first home, back at the falls?" He looked back to Ash with a little wistful smile. "We saw the world for the first time in the fall. It looked just like this. The trees all ablaze and leaves everywhere. Gwyn couldn't stop collecting them." A chuckle rumbled in the dire wolf's chest, recalling their time as pups back in Boreas. How simple and easy those times had been, how taken for granted they were...

"Artorias Carpathius"

It was harder to clearly see all of the fall covered plains with the dark night, but the fireflies seemed to give the land this sort of glow as they walked on. Asheila too gazed from one little thing to the next. The fallen leaves caught on the breeze, the red and yellow trees in the near distance, the musky sweet smell that flowed between them. The statue just south of them seemed to give them a flourishing season with ripe berries and lush grasses, but still living in a fall atmosphere. It was strange at the worst. She couldn't know of the other more drearing statues and lands surrounding them. It all seemed like a blessing from her side.

She turned her head just slightly as she glanced up at him through their walk. Not a harsh expression, but there was a little hint of sorrow in her voice when she commented back, "I'd never seen the plains in the summer." Asheila had been quite the wandering soul in their youth, and observing all their surroundings. She was one of the wonderous ones. It's what led her out of the pack so often, and eventually what brought on her the years that followed. She was quick to learn that lesson of course after it was too late. She hated what she missed in that time, but hate wasn't really in a part of her heart. She never saw what the summer could offer Auster, she missed so many events in her family's lives. She was just thankful for being here for the birth of Artorias' children. And that's all she could do now, is be thankful for having the chance to move on and have a normal life. Just like Artorias she wondered what life could have been like had she not gone so far away from home. She regretted it, but she wanted to forget. A life of always wishing, regretting, a life of revenge, she didn't want any of it.

She smiled a bit as he brought up the falls of The Hallows back in Auster, which was a much more friendly memory maybe not surprisingly but The Hallows had grown into it's roots here at the castle. It was hard to remember much else but not for Ash. Maybe not for any of her family. "Yeah, I remember the falls." Her eyes moved across the grasses in front of her that showed the wide variety of colored leaves in their path, "You'd think the colors of the falls at sunset would have blended in with the leaves. But they stuck out like their own unique things. Especially when the stone changed to that blueish purple color before night." It wasn't a thought she had thought of at all really, but a memory she was happy Artorias could pull up from the back of her mind.

"Ashelia Carpathius"

Thanks to Artorias' enhanced vision courtesy of his sickness from the Long Night, darkness was hardly ever a problem for him any longer. His vision was sharper, like someone had finely tuned his eyeballs to be the best they could be. They helped at night, and where Ash's vision was already becoming limited, Art could see the world around him clearly. The sun had finished sinking over the western sea, and nightfall was claiming the land. Fireflies sprung up from the golden grasses around them, glowing like stars fallen to earth. The plains were practically illuminated with thousands of the lightning bugs! It was strangely beautiful, and had Artorias not developed a natural apprehension towards the insects from prior events, he would have found the scene idyllic.

Asheila mentioned how she had never seen the stars in the summer, and Artorias was reminded of the grim reality that both of his sisters had been taken during the prolonged winter that had struck the lands when they'd first moved to Auster. Bowen had seen the Hallows in the summer since her return, but Ash had not. Artorias turned a tender smile back to combat her mournful expression, leaning closer to offer her a fraternal nuzzle on her cheek. "You will," he reassured her, "because you're home now." Art knew the regrets that his sister carried in her heart for the time they had lost. He didn't blame her for any of it, of course. None of it had been her decision and he had spent gods knew how long trying to find her and Bowen. But just because they'd missed out on their youths didn't mean they needed to sour their futures with remorse. "I'm just glad you're alive and with us, Ash." It was a simple yet deeply earnest statement. Their family was whole again—or at least as whole as it ever could be.

The gentle lapping of ocean waves nearby nearly masked the quiet padding of the wolves' paws while they traversed the autumnal path together in the early evening. Artorias glanced up at the vast sea of stars and cosmos overhead, drinking in the sights of the heavens like a fine work of art. Bringing up memories of the early days of the Hallows seemed to help her, and he exchanged a toothy smile with his sister. "Yeah, it really was beautiful there," he agreed with a nod of his head. "The castle will always be our home to me, but I'll still never forget it. I rode a tortoise up by those pools at the base of the falls. Mom thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen!" The happy memories seemed to do a world of good for Ash, so Art would continue to reminisce as much as she wanted to if it helped her.

"Artorias Carpathius"