She'd made the journey all the way here with three pups in tow to find that their erstwhile sire wasn't even home!

Bristling and irritated, the small, dark female paced back and forth at the entrance to his den like an angry miniaturized nebula. She'd bustled the three tired pups into the den upon their arrival, both to get them out of her fur with all their incessant whining about how long the trip was and how tired they were and blah blah blah, and to give them a comfortable place to nap out of the chilly mountain air.

She'd been waiting the better part of a day now and Chaos still hadn't showed. His scent in the den was stale, but not so much as to think he'd been gone more than a few days, and all of his stuff he'd accumulated was still there. She thought she'd seen one of his owl buddies watching her from a craggy outcropping several levels further up before flying away, but that had been almost six hours ago and could easily have just been a wild eagle wondering if it could make a meal out of one of her kids.

Good luck with that, she thought with a snort of derision for the hypothetical eagle. Even at just shy of four months old, two of the pups were already getting to be bigger than she was. They clearly got their genetics from their father, with his height and his oddities. Aquila on the other hand didn't have any odd mutations other than the nebulus pelt that was characteristic of her family, and his height was not looking like it would be much more than hers when he was fully grown. She had debated with herself for a long time what should be done about the smallest and quietest of the trio. It wasn't like he really fit in with his two more outgoing, larger, and more unusual siblings. Not that he'd ever complained to her about it, but even she couldn't spend four months with a pup without getting a bit attached to their wellbeing. He just wouldn't do well as a Saxe, and that was that. Short of dropping him off a cliff (which, even in her worst moments she wouldn't actually consider) the only thing for it would be to raise him herself. Arry had disappeared again, and Iskra was clearly not responsible enough to raise a kid (just look at the way her adopted brat had turned out) and she certainly wasn't going to leave an Aeris scion to be raised by someone who wasn't blood. She'd been planning this for a while - all three pups had known of her intentions to give them to their father to raise as Saxes for as long as they'd been out of the den. She just hadn't come to the decision about Aquila until recently, this very trip in fact, when it became obvious that he simply wouldn't be able to keep up with the Saxes.

With a low-voiced growl she continued her grumpy pacing.

ooc: any posting order is fine, no need to wait for a Chaos post

Chaos hurried up the treacherous path to his mountain den. Well, hurried relatively. He might have been a bit of a reckless daredevil but he knew when he was pushing it too far, and sprinting up this dangerous path was definitely tempting fate a little much even for him. There was an easier path - and he certainly hoped the other reckless daredevil Sgili had told him was waiting for him at the den had taken that path - but he'd been coming from the opposite direction that path took and he didn't feel like spending a day circling around the base of the mountain to catch the easier route. No, life had been far too boring since little Leto had left. Not even teasing Celestial's border patrols had turned out to be anything more than a disappointment. Hm, maybe Leto would be up for another incursion there. Or even better, another night of wild sex.

A grin lit up Chaos' features at the thought, and with his mind most definitely not situated in his brain at that moment, it didn't even occur to him as he trotted around the last outcropping to pop up right next to the brightly marked female that she looked, smelled, was somehow very different than the last time he'd seen her. No, he was definitely thinking about other things. Her impatient pacing was undoubtedly just because she wanted him as much as he wanted her, obviously.

"Hey sexy," he purred, eyes slitting in amusement when she jumped at his sudden appearance. "Just couldn't stay away any longer, could you?" Oh, that poor dumb boy, he had no idea...

Leto's long wait came to an abrupt halt when her pacing was interrupted by a familiar imposing form popping out from behind an outcropping. She yelped and scrabbled backwards before she realized it was Chaos, and the resultant embarrassment made his question all the more irritating. She gave him a long, neutral glance before her lips curved up in what would have been, had Chaos been paying attention, a clear warning sign in the form of a dangerous grin. "I brought you a gift." Turning, she moved off toward the cave mouth, trusting he'd follow her as he'd done the night the 'gifts' were conceived. None of the kids had stirred from the den yet to give warning, and he clearly wasn't paying attention to the traces of their scents on the path they'd taken to get there, so she wasn't going to take responsibility for the inevitable gut-check he was about to take. Maybe he should have been more cognizant of his surroundings...

The long journey had been rough for the smallest of the siblings. He had the shortest legs, and was small even for the size he would eventually grow to, so it seemed sometimes he took two steps to every one that Mama and Ares and Lyra took. Every night when they'd stopped he'd fallen immediately into an exhausted sleep, and when they'd made it to this cave he'd fallen asleep without even being able to eat a bite of the pika Mama had caught. After his long nap though, he was beginning to recover with the resiliency typical of all children. A rattle of gravel being kicked at the front of the unfamiliar den woke the smallest of the siblings. He squirmed out from under one of his siblings, and his soft lavender eyes opened to blink sweetly up at his mother and the very-tall stranger who was walking in behind her. "Morning, Mama," he yawned, tongue curling pinkly through the drawn out words.

Her nose twitched. This scent was weird. And it was her dad's? Why was it so weird? IT felt so odd just laying in his den waiting for him to return, but she knew better than to bother her mother when she was in this kind of mood. After the last journey to find their father, their mother had been less than happy. More moving, more hunting, but not normal hunting... hunting for their father. And eventually, here they were. At his den. Waiting for his return.

She sighed heavily, dropping her head onto her paws. She was bored. She didn't like laying around. She had napped fitfully for a few minutes, she guessed, but now she was wide awake. When would their father come? What did he look like, even? Wait - what was that?

Nose twitching almost violently, her head jerked up. She smelled something. It smelled like the den! Except stronger. Her dad? And then voices! Wiggling excitedly, she started trying to pop out of the den, just as Aquila woke up. Grinning at her smaller sibling, she lunged forward to give him an affectionate lick before wiggling out at the same time as him. Except, instead of his sleepy words, she was already a bundle of energy, skipping all around Chaos. Bouncing beside him, under him, everywhere, and she stopped, butt still wriggling, in front of his face. "Are you our dad? Hi! Hello! I'm Lyra!"

Ares had been sleeping quite peacefully in the den mama had brought them to, that is...until Lyra started getting hyped up. He rolled over, trying to get his little butt back to sleep but after several minutes of trying, he just couldn't. Grumbling, the boy sat up and tried to blink the sleep away, a huge yawn overtaking him for a moment. Letting out a huge breath of air, he turned his head to see where the others had gone. Of course he'd be the last one up, especially after all the traveling they did! Sure he was bigger then Aquila, but he still got tired. And why was Lyra so dang excited!?

Stretching his limbs, Ares took his time until each and every part he could stretch was stretched. Then and only then did he make his way out, noting that there was a scent from someone? Upon coming out of the den, he sat next to Aquila and stared up at the guy with the fangs and--hey! He had fangs just like he did! Okay, well...the guys fangs were longer, but Ares' were sort of peeking past his lip already. He was extremely curious now. "Mama he's got fengs like me! Why you have fengs like me? You schpeshal too?" Of course they would be! Fangs were great...sometimes...

His attention caught by the swaying tail in front of him as Leto led the way into his cave, Chaos didn't even notice the pile of puppies there until it was too late. Way too late.

The tiny little face that suddenly yawned up at them and called Leto "Mama" was the first horrifying inkling that something was wrong. Those swirling colors on the little pup's pelt were pure Aeris, but those bright purple eyes... uh oh.

A bundle of colorful energy rocketed around him, and Chaos flinched back at the unexpected noise. Were those... spots under those purple eyes? His heart lurched further when the bundle of noise asked if he was their dad. "Ah..." He glanced helplessly to Leto, and the vindictive grin she sent him back was rather telling.

And then the final blow. A third pup meandered over to the first, this one without those Saxe-purple eyes, a much paler silvery color of blue than any of his family bore. But again, those oh-so-familiar white dots beneath his eyes, and worse... this bulky little pup stared up at him with the same fangs he'd seen in his own reflection his whole life.

Chaos sat very abruptly, feeling very much as though a bison had kicked him in the chest. "Leto?"

Leto couldn't have set Chaos up to be knocked on his ass more perfectly if she had actually planned it. He wasn't paying attention to anything but the thought that he'd be having a fun time - which was exactly what caused this mess - so when Aquila spoke up she saw him jump, glance down at the boy, and then she saw his mismatched eyes widen in a way that was quite satisfactory.

And then Lyra started bouncing around him.

And Ares plopped down next to Aquila.

The stunned, pleading expression the bastard turned on her was absolutely priceless, and Leto took a moment to revel in it. He deserved to have three active pups sprung on him at once, after he'd knocked her up and then vanished, leaving her to raise the little beasts on her own.

"Kids, I want you to meet... your dad."

His brother and sister both followed him, though Lyra took it a step further to frisk around the tall stranger. Their mother's words to them - that this was their father - caused Aquila to come alert, and to turn his attention to study the stranger further. Their mother had never really lied to them before, so he had no reason to think she was now, but now that he was paying attention it was far more obvious. There was Lyra’s coloration, and the eyespots she and Ares both bore. There, the purple eyes she and Aquila bore, and the blue that was Ares’ eyes, albeit much more saturated than Ares’ pale silvery color. There was the shimmery color-changing nature that all three pups bore that their mother didn’t, and more telling of all, the male had long fangs like Ares.

No claws like Lyra though - Aquila checked - but where there was one mutation why not a propensity for another? The male certainly didn’t look pleased to meet them, and Aquila had the sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t known about them. Still, regardless of if their father was pleased or not, Aquila was. He sat up as straight and tall as his small frame could go. “I am pleased to meet you, sir,” he told the male earnestly, lavender eyes wide with intense scrutiny.