Briar rolled a barrel into place after doing some work in the castle's wine cellars, sighing as she stepped back and made sure they were all properly in line. There wasn't a whole of of things to do in the colder months since there was no grapes or berries to be harvested, but she did still need to maintain the wines that were fermenting and make room for more barrels to be started as some were emptied. Of course she was careful to never push herself too hard, but she was just too stubborn to completely stop her work simply because she was pregnant–at least until Gwynevere told her she must. With a finalizing nod approving of her own work, she turned and made her way back up the stairs that led out of the cellar and back up to the pantry and kitchens above. The last thing she wanted to do was do a bit of cleaning down there since there was some sticky places where some wine had spilled.

That task sounded simple enough, but she encountered her first roadblock as she went into the kitchens to retrieve a bucket in order to go gather some water to rinse the floors with. Whoever had used the bucket last had put it away on a fairly high shelf above one of the counters that ran along one wall of the kitchens. Normally that wouldn't be much of an issue since it was reached easily enough by putting her front paws up on the counter and reaching up to the shelf above, but that was slightly more difficult with her rounded belly full of pups. She huffed softly with a little frown. "Who decided to put that up there? Oh right... me," she muttered to herself before beginning to hoist herself up with a bit of effort and began trying to reach up to the shelf with her belly getting in the way of getting as close to the counter as she normally would. It always seemed to be just a hair out of reach no matter what angle she tried to reach from, evading her reaching teeth and paws again and again.

"Briar Carpathius"

That morning, Talyssa had made the unfortunate mistake of oversleeping. In her defense, it was still odd not sharing a room with her parents and siblings. As nice as having her own space was, part of her missed the disturbances of her family’s movement as she lay asleep. If she had heard someone stir or leave, she would have awakened herself. Sleeping alone, she had not adapted to her own internal clock quite yet. So when the unconsciousness finally did subside, her pale gaze flashed open in a start. As dread flooded her chest to her core, Lys immediately rolled out of bed, scrambling to get moving as soon as her paws hit the floor. She rushed out of her her room, raced down the flights of stairs- taking several steps at a time, and outside as quickly as she could manage. She was already late for her training session with her father- she just hoped he hadn’t been waiting too long.

After they were finished, Talyssa felt particularly exhausted, leaving it difficult for her to make a decision as to what to do next. However, the dull rumble in her stomach reminded her that she had skipped breakfast in her mad dash to get to the training rings. So as she made her way back inside- crossing the threshold of Hearthstone and into the grand foyer, Taly made the decision to veer off toward the kitchen to find something to tie herself over with until later that evening. Though, just as soon as she rounded the corner, her attention immediately settled on the over-encumbered frame of her mother as she struggled to reach something on a high shelf. “Mami, can I help you get something?” Talyssa asked as she closed the distance to where her mother stood. She could see the bucket that she assumed to be the intended target- though she wanted to verify before going after it herself.

"Talyssa Carpathius"

Just as she was struggling to reach across the last inch or two that prevented her from getting to the elusive bucket, her ears perked as she heard her daughter's voice behind her, asking if she could help. Briar glanced back over her shoulder at Talyssa with a slightly embarrassed grin, her ears flicking bashfully. Asking for help had never her strong suit, even now when she had every right and reason to do so. But, since her kind daughter had offered, she'd be even more silly to refuse. "Yes, actually, if you don't mind, my darling." She got down from the counter with a little sigh, sitting back on her haunches for a moment to let her over strained hind legs have a moment of rest. "I just need that bucket from the shelf. Thank you, sweetheart." It was so baffling to her that her little girl was already nearly the same height as herself and able to reach these high shelves like this. She could have sworn that just yesterday she was carrying Tally around and teaching her about clouds.

With the bucket retrieved, she leaned in to give her daughter a kiss on the cheek. As she got back to her paws to turn and begin filling up the bucket with water, it dawned on her that this was the first she had seen of her white and tan girl this morning. Briar was, of course, prone to sleeping in herself so she never faulted any of her children when they wanted to get some extra rest, but she had been in the kitchens most of the morning so the fact that she hadn't seen Talyssa until now told her that her daughter had missed her breakfast entirely. "Tally, have you eaten yet? Here, let me make you something!" With her bucket and cleaning at least momentarily forgotten, she turned and started adding wood to the cooking fire to breathe some life back into it and began to move around the space, gathering up some ingredients and tools to do so.

"Briar Carpathius"