The Story of Great Wolf Sif

(Potential Spoilers to those who haven't made it to this point in the game, do take note of the slight warning if you do care for such.)

Darkroot Garden

Silence reigned the area surrounding Artorias' gravesite as a lone undead knight strode slowly past a sea of swords and a small field of flowers.  The knight slowed his approach as he neared one particularly enormous sword in front of the large hunk of stone, his two phantom companions trailing not too far behind him.  The two companions stopped several feet behind the knight as he stepped up to the large sword that was plunged deep into the soil.  One of the phantoms knew what to expect of the situation, but remained silent as this was an experience for him and him alone to bear witness to.  As Knight Solaire had once told them all with the flow of time in Lordran being distorted, they could summon the phantoms of other undead from far off worlds that were similar to theirs, calling upon their sign for assistance when they were visible.

The knight glanced at the sea of swords behind him cautiously before facing the large one before him.  Hesitantly, he outstretched his hand towards the blade.

It was possible that this blade was the very blade once used by Artorias himself long before he passed.  The knight heard brief tales about him from phantoms from other worlds, he had many nicknames:  Sir Artorias, Knight Artorias, Abysswalker Knight Artorias...   The rest were variants of those three names, but his title was famed for he had traversed the abyss without being swallowed by its dark power.  The knight himself had asked the phantoms more about him as to how he was felled, but they told him that he'd soon discover that on his own.  To what they meant of such, he would soon learn the fate of the brave knight.

And so here he was at Artorias' grave.  His destiny as the chosen undead led him here to Darkroot Garden to investigate a rumor of him wielding a ring that allowed him to travel the abyss unscathed, for his path would soon lead him there to go up against a mysterious entity that resides there known as the four kings.  He heard talk of these four kings from other phantoms he met in his travels, but they too didn’t go into detail about the entity. He knew he’d eventually go up against more unspeakable horrors that he already bore witness to, much like succumbing to a mimic more than once due to his slight greed, but fate was often kind to him during his travels and perhaps soon he would come across Solaire once again.

The two phantoms watched the knight's hand barely touch the greatsword, and immediately a shadow was casted over the knight.  Atop Artorias' gravestone was his wolf companion and the guardian of the gravesite, Sif.   The knight took a step back and got into a defensive stance as the wolf blared its teeth, emitting a deep growl before dashing off the gravestone, grabbing the greatsword from the ground with its teeth and dashing behind the knight, who turned to meet Sif behind him as the two locked stances.  The knight hefted his knight shield off his back, wielding it in his left hand and holding in front of him in preparation for an attack.  With his other free arm, the knight loosened his black knight greatsword off his back and let it settle on his shoulder, waiting for Sif to make the first move.

Sif shifted the blade within his mouth, letting the end of the blade point to his left before rearing his head up and emitting a deep howl, signalling that the battle had begun.  The two phantoms that stood behind Sif looked at one another, with the one phantom who had experienced this before looking to to the other who looked rather surprised at the sight of Sif, and nodded his head.   Both phantoms pulled their blades from their sheaths and rushed at Sif, as the knight who had summoned them raised his shield just in time to deflect a powerful blow from the wolf's blade.   The two phantoms rushed beneath Sif and began hacking and slashing at the wolf's underbelly, with the knight taking all the aggro in front and deflecting whatever blows came his way.

The battle raged on for a time, but it was soon coming to a evident close.  The knight was exhausted from all the constant dodging and blocking he was doing.  He was tired, and he was sure that he broke several bones within his left arm throughout the whole ordeal.  He had even ran out of the precious energy that was contained within his Estus Flask, the one thing that would rejuvenate him and help him recover from his wounds and even healed the two phantoms that fought alongside him.  But they too were becoming exhausted and weak, it was only a matter of time before their hold on this world was lost when either they, or him would fall to Sif; they'd be cast back into their respective realms of Lordran.  Victory was close at hand for both parties.

Sif himself was hurt from the wounds that were inflicted upon his legs and underbelly, he was hobbling towards the equally exhausted knight who had dared to invade the sacred ground.  However, he had forgotten to take into account the two phantoms that were still with him, but he sought to end it quickly by going after the summoner of two.  The knight himself was slowly backing away, dragging his greatsword feebly alongside him with his shield hefted weakly in front of him.  He really couldn't take another hit from Sif, not like this, but at the same time it was distressing to see the wolf like this.

There was a fierce determination and fire still flickering within the wolf's eyes as it neared the knight, it only wanted to rest now after this long battle.  It wanted to end it before he himself would die too.

As Sif wound up for a swing on the knight before him, he felt several fierce pains stab at his underbelly once more and more stings slicing against his legs.  And he could take it no more...   With one last breath, Sif dropped the sword into the ground beside him and stood on his hind legs, emitting a howl that struck deeply with the knight before him, before Sif's body, and the sword faded from existence.

The knight witnessed the wolf quickly fall to the ground, and before Sif's body could fade with his soul, the knight spotted a flicker of sadness in the wolf's eyes before his body faded into nothingness.  All's what was left of him was his soul, a bright orange sprite that now flickered in the knight's left hand.   The knight shared a glance at the two phantoms that aided him in this victory; one gave a respective bow towards him and the other waved goodbye before they themselves faded and were sent back to their realms.

Regardless of the victory that had occurred in the garden, the knight himself felt rather saddened at what became of all of this: Sif was only trying to protect the domain, and perhaps the ring that Artorias once had, and he, the chosen undead was treading upon the grave, desecrating the sacred ground of Artorias.  The knight hung his head low and brought the wolf's soul into a small pouch on his backside, storing it for later.  His mood was dampened because of all of this, and right now he just wanted to sit at a bonfire and think, but not before showing his respect to Artorias and Sif.

The knight placed his shield carefully on his back and grabbed a small brown talisman that was attached to his belt.  Channeling his energy and faith, the knight knelt down and clutched the talisman tightly as he channeled a miracle through the talisman: a simple healing one.   He heard his left arm snap as the bones reattached themselves properly within.  The pain was rather mild in comparison to all that he went through already, and as such, a broken arm was nothing more than a scratch to him when it came down to it.  He even felt the cuts that made it through his armor seal up and close in a mere instant.  A mild stinging signaled that the wounds were eventually closed once the miracle was complete.

With his wounds healed and his energy restored through his channeled faith, the knight slowly walked towards Artorias' grave, passing the sea of swords and trekking over the field of flowers once more.  The knight approached the grave and knelt down before the large tablet of stone, bowing his head in respect for a long moment before rising off the ground and looking the whole area over once more.  There was only one proper way he could pay his respect in his eyes.

The knight placed his talisman back onto his belt and attached his sword onto his back once more and detached the small pouch that stored Sif's soul off his waist, feeling around for a certain flask that he had found and had not used as of yet.   After a while, the knight pulled a small golden yellow flask out from his pouch.  It was something he found in Anor Londo, and it was something rather divine.  The smell it gave was something reminiscent to the energy that was contained within his now empty Estus Flask, but possibly ten times better than the undead favorite, and this was the only one of its kind he had found.  It was the only way he could repay his respects to the brave knight and his wolf companion.

The knight reattached his pouch around his waist, and approached the gravestone more closely with the small flask in hand.  Upon his approach, he knelt down onto the ground once more and placed the flask on the first step of stone that was closest to the ground.  Perhaps Artorias and Sif would be pleased with such a simple offering...

The knight smiled softly beneath his helmet as he mused himself with the thought.   And with that, he respectively made his way out towards the entrance of large garden, but not before searching the area at which Sif was defeated.  There he found the fabled ring that Artorias once wore, the very same ring that was rumored to allow him to walk through the abyss unharmed by the void.

The knight held the ring in front of him, looking the small green piece of jewelry over.  His journey was far from coming to an end it seemed...

In a place far from Lordran, and within a different universe altogether, a navy blue alicorn sat atop a balcony in Canterlot amidst the dead of night.   The reason to why she was up here was due to a rather peculiar phenomenon that was occurring with one of her constellations, primarily the lupus.  She was peering through a telescope and was bearing witness to the stars flickering abnormally without her allowing such a thing to happen.  She could admit that it was a nice sight to behold at this time of night, but this was without her consent and it bugged her fiercely.

"Princess Luna, ma'am!" One of her loyal lunar guards approached her from behind as she was peering into a telescope, still focused on the strangeness of one of her constellations.

"Hmm?"  The princess broke her attention away from her telescope and turned to face the guard behind her who bowed in respect in her presence.  "Speak loyal subject, I do not have much time to waste as I have other, more important matters to attend to!"  The princess realized that she was beginning to slip into the Royal Canterlot tone of voice once again and immediately toned herself down to a more reasonable level, "I mean, what brings you here captain...?"  She trailed off as she tried digging through her thoughts, searching for the name of this guard in particular.

"Nightwing, ma'am," the guard finished as he raised his head up from the balcony floor, saluting as he did so.  "The sun is set to rise within the next couple of hours, Princess, and you've yet to move the moon across its projected path."  The guard furthered his statement by pointing his left hoof up into the sky towards the moon which was still sitting along low among the eastern horizon.  Not once had it budged from its original position throughout the night.

Luna became rather aghast and flustered at the new information reaching her, she had indeed forgot to move the moon across the sky throughout the whole night.  "Dear me, so it seems that I did..." Shaking her head, Princess Luna continued, "no matter, I will make up for lost time.  Thank you for reporting this to me captain Nightwing.  You are dismissed."

The captain bowed his head in respect and took off from the balcony, leaving the princess with a rather addled mind.  She spared one last glance at the sky and gazed at the flickering constellation for a sliver of a moment.  Perhaps tomorrow night I can investigate this further.  Right now I need to make up lost time as Celestia will soon be raising the sun, and I think the citizens will take the sign of the moon not moving at all as a bad sign.  She scoffed at the thought, no matter, duties are duties.  And as a princess, I must abide by them.  With that, she turned and left her balcony, entering her room and closing the balcony door behind her.

If she bothered to spare another glance at the constellation, perhaps she would've noticed it flicker brightly for the briefest of moments, as though trying to convey a message of unknown meaning...