Pestilence had felt shock before and this - this must have been shock. She'd long since passed the squirming pup off on Pasketti who looked just as awkward holding an infant as Pesto had. At least the monkey had hands and could keep the thing upright, especially as Pesto's focus was on the coyote carcass Obi had so graciously donated to her to feed the thing. Some part of her wished already that she'd just have left it to the monkey to be culled - after all, if Toxicity felt it too weak to live in Ashen then how the fuck was she going to convince Tyrian to allow her to take it in? The pup complained loudly and frequently and Pestilence found herself glancing back at the struggling monkey with a soft smile. This child was - like it or not - family, her own flesh and blood. And while Pesto had shed her Abraxas name, this pup was not forced to wear it either. It was not fair to blame the little thing, nor could Pesto give up the opportunity to raise the Anti-Abraxas and one day set it back upon the wolves who'd discarded it like garbage. It? No, she. Having a kid around was going to take some getting used to, especially from Pesto who had absolutely zero experience around children. As soon as she crossed back into the border, Pesto's relaxation returned. This was her home, her new family. Her pack would help her through this, right Pasketti shuffled the pup onto his one shoulder and with the other hand unrolled a soft pelt. It was placed upon the ground and the brightly colored pup was placed onto it's plush fur. Pesto then moved to gingerly lay down the carcass before the pup, treating the dead coyote like it was an infant itself. What if throwing it around somehow spoiled the milk within her? Pesto had no fucking clue what she was doing. Thankfully it seemed easy enough to learn, as her monkey companion took it upon himself to nudge the pup towards the corpse. Well the immediate needs were taken care of - now Pesto needed to think long term. Before she could change her mind, she tipped back her head and howled for Tyrian. "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

Tyrian had a lot on his plate at the moment. Fireside nearly being at capacity weighed heavily on his mind more so now than ever since winter was upon them. They had stores and herds aplenty, but what if the winter was particularly hard? What if another natural disaster obliterated some of their hard work? With the pack as full as it was it wouldn't be too hard to undo the careful planning they'd done. By no means was the pack on a knife's edge but with a little nudge in the wrong direction it became a possibility. It was a sobering thought.

He was rolling that problem around in his head when Pestilence's howl rose over the Knolls. Dutifully Tyrian got to his paws and made a beeline for her, but his mind remained on the potential problem that still needed untangling. It felt wrong to caution the other newlywed couple against having a litter of their own when one set had already whelped theirs, but he wasn't sure what else could be done presently. Sparrow had been thinking about starting her own band for awhile now. Maybe he'd encourage her to get that rolling.

"Pestilence? What can-" Tyrian's eyes fell on the brightly colored pup and he jerked back like a startled horse. Well that was...a child. What the fuck had he missed here. He tossed a few confused glances between the dead coyote and the wolf pup before turning his attention back to Pestilence. When his eyes met hers the confusion in them was clear. "I don't even know where to start so how about you take the lead here."

Tyrian was just as shocked as Pestilence expected him to be, and she cast her own glances towards the infant and back to her alpha. Pasketti lifted his hand and threw a gesture at her, beckoning her to speak while he tended to the little one. "This is gonna sound crazy." She began, still struggling to come to turn with the facts herself. "This pup is from Ashen. I have.. an ally there, I guess. A monkey, actually. He helped raise me." Her mouth snapped shut and her brows crunched together, fully expecting the rebuttal of 'well that makes sense, of course you were raised by monkeys!' Pesto sure had been making a name for herself through all the wrong reasons, as far as she was concerned. "Anyways this pup was born and I guess the religious nutcase I call a sister decided she wasn't good enough for the Abraxas name. Sent the pup to it's death. I ran into Obi - the monkey - during the deed, I guess. And.. well.. now we're here." With a heavy sigh she gave a glance down to the pup and frowned. "She's my own flesh and blood, I couldn't leave her to die, Tyrian. Please." "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

Tyrian stiffened when Pestilence mentioned the pup was from Ashen. Immediately his mind was filled with thoughts of thievery and retaliation, and he had to fight to keep an open mind. His efforts to treat Pestilence fairly and give her the benefit of the doubt couldn't completely silence his misgivings so even while he listened in the back of his mind Tyrian continued to try to untangle a suitable course of action to deal with kidnapping. He couldn't help it; it was a possible problem until proven otherwise and as a self-identified problem-solver Tyrian was unable to cast away a scenario until it was thoroughly debunked.

The brief trip down monkey raising lane confused him, as did the pause that accompanied that gem, but in the end there was little more he could besides file it under 'ah, that makes sense' in his head and abandon trying to look too deeply into in this moment. That seemed like the sort of thing he'd tease Alarr about later if his suspicions proved true. From the monkey statement Pestilence finally hit the meat and potatoes part of the story. Tyrian was quiet as he considered this information. "Abraxas?" He knew of those wolves. Valentine had told him a pair of funny stories about that family to instill his son with an understanding for their extremist beliefs and how it pushed them to be unabashedly absurd, and thus potentially dangerous. "I thought you were a Klein."

He pursed his lips and sighed. "I understand why, but you must know you are potentially putting Fireside in a bad spot." Knowing this might take awhile to sort though, Tyrian sat down. "Talk me through this, eh? How do you believe your sister would react if she ever found out about her daughter? Hm, and what is your sister's standing in the pack?" Please let her not be the fucking queen.

Pestilence did not like the way Tyrian jumped on the Abraxas named and grimaced, gritting her teeth. "I am a Klein." She clarified. "I turned my back on that as a child, and later they sought to take the name from me. Jokes on them, I don't want it. I could have done without the attempted murder but, well, my family are nut jobs. They tried to kill me - they think I'm dead now - and, long story short, I'm not an Abraxas anymore and I'll never be again." Pesto sighed, kicking her paw out at the dirt and sparing a glance towards the child. This infant could jeopardize her standing with Fireside, perhaps she was stupid to agree to take it in. "My sister sought to kill her daughter, Tyrian. The child was to be culled. As far as Toxicity is concerned, the child is dead. Ashen's leadership believe in Abraxas but they're not.. fanatics, not like Toxicity, the mother. She's such a slave to the bullshit that if she's condemned this child to death that she'd never in her lifetime lay her claim upon her again. Nobody will ever know, not unless we tell them." Pesto of course never intended to reveal that information, and she knew Obi would never dare either. Deciding to rescue the child would put the monkey in a terrible spot with Toxicity, and Pesto would not put it past her sister to cull their old friend as punishment either. "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

Tyrian took a moment to watch the distant buffalo browse as he tried to digest all that Pestilence had said. He saw no reason to disbelieve her. This was still a sticky situation. That woman might stumble upon the child someday. She may not have wanted it but Tyrian doubted very much that she wouldn't recognize it in an instant. If that happened it would be a problem not just for the child or Pestilence, but for all of Fireside. He frowned, thinking, and then took a deep breath. "Pestilence...you can't guarantee that. There may very well come a day she find out her daughter is alive and takes issue with the pack's involvement." Tyrian nodded to himself, his position solidifying, and turned his gaze to Pestilence. "And if that day comes we will deal with the consequences together. This is your home now." He gestured to the child. "And if she is your family then she is ours as well." ""