Always bringing home strays

"Say, Valen, remember that time Rhys got stuck in a tree?" Huh? He blinked once at her in surprise before it clicked. "Oh! Yes." He cleared his throat. "This is the daughter I told you a bit about, Illie. When Rhys was little," - she was still pretty young, but 'little' didn't quite fit her anymore - "she got it in her head to climb a tree. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. But she did it. She climbed way up into the branches." He snuck a peek at Cascade out of the corner of his eye. "I didn't see her climb it. I was walking the border with my head in the clouds when this loud BANG! almost made me jump out of my skin. There was this rustling sound and then a squeal, and I knew it had to be one of the kids so I went running to see what it was." He grinned, his expression distant as he relived the memory. "And there was Rhys, haaaangin' upside down. Somehow she'd managed to fall in just the right way to get caught in the crook of two really thick limbs. Now, you'd think she'd be scared, right? Not Rhys. She twisted around to look at me and just grinned this shi-" he caught himself and stumbled over a phrase, "this...this huge grin and goes "dad, I'm a bat" like she wasn't hanging upside down by her waist." With an expression of remembered incredulity he shook his head before leaning towards Illie and continuing. "...I didn't know what to do. I couldn't even reach her forepaws. Ended up having to recruit half the pack to get her down."