When a call faded in to wake him from his sleep, calling for Olympus' alpha, it took Hephaestus a long moment to understand the inimical intentions and as it became clear to him his golden hackles slowly rose as he stood. He could see Helios' darker and smaller form darting off somewhere, he'd guess to answer it, followed shortly after by the less-graceful figure of his pregnant aunt Phoebe. Hephaestus hesitated but after a moment followed behind her. Their path took him along a route he'd never gone along before, to a wide plain stained with the scent of blood, and his pelt prickled. Why had they come to this place? It was clearly not a welcoming area. There was something... wrong, there. His steps slowed over the fear-soaked ground but still he arrived as his uncle's voice snarled out into the silence.
He stopped midstep to listen, one molten paw still raised like a bird-dog pointing. What did his mother have to do with this? She wasn't even here anymore. Who was this black-masked woman, and what kids was Helios talking about? He couldn't be talking about... Hephaestus' Ebony siblings? What did this stranger have to do with them?
Confused and unsettled Hephaestus crept forward to sit beside his aunt. He didn't speak, just sat to serve as witness.
