He sighed. Gaël was no father, hardly a parental figure at all, but even he could wonder what it was parents taught their children these days. True, he was still a few months away from his first birthday, but for the most part he'd grown up--and was going to continue as such--without parents. Gaël, Heath, and Miriette had become a team of sorts, a fortress; the three had walled themselves off from the rest of the world, learning to know and trust only each other. Somehow, the three of them had turned out all right. He was the strong, silent type, he knew. There were some disturbances beneath the surface, but that was natural. Heath was a bit more sociable, but a bit less amiable. Miriette, well... she was somewhere in-between, he supposed. There was no "problem child" between them, per se, since all three had there own generally equal levels of trouble. At least they'd all developed together. At least all three of them had the same intentions in mind... even if their dead mother had never wanted them to feel such a way.
The little girl had quite the attitude. It wasn't that Gaël wasn't used to it; no, he had plenty of his own and also knew how to handle it after growing up constantly holding back his short-tempered little brother from whatever violent impulses ran through his mind. She was different, though. The ribbon-tailed child reminded him more of a younger Miriette, who in her very youth had been hardly independent and tended to follow her like-minded, more confident brothers around instead of working on her own emotions. Gaël wasn't sure what it was about that concept that disturbed him, but at the pup's words, his turquoise eyes stared apathetically at her a long while. After a brief silence, he shrugged his shoulders somewhat and pushed himself off the well. "Je n'ai pas le temps pour cela," Gaël mumbled beneath his breath, starting away from her without a second thought. He certainly wasn't going to guide a lost puppy home if she was going to backsass him the whole way... but then again, he didn't really care either way.