Her nephew's first mumbled response brought a smile to the woman's face, despite her obvious confusion at the situation. Immediately after, one of the tiny little fluffballs squirmed against her nephew's side, jolting him back to reality. His gentleness with the newborns warmed his aunt's heart, but her smile faded once more to a look of concern as Gideon's explanation left his lips. What the heck was he talking about? What fire, and where?
Bris' bicolored eyes were focused intently on the charcoal Stormbringer pup as he went on. At first they were full of worry, but that deepened into a soulfelt anger as Gideon mentioned actually seeing someone toss the pups into the fire. The very idea railed against all of Bris' instincts, and had she not remember that her nephew was probably confused and looking for justification, the growl Bris felt building in her chest would have made it past her lips. However, given the circumstances, she doused her inner rage to a smoldering ember. She could draw it back out easily enough when Gideon wasn't around.
The younger Stormbringer visibly shrank as he spoke, obviously unsure whether he did the right thing or not. Her anger for the moment placed in the recesses of her mind, Bris gave her nephew an approving smile. She lifted a hand to rub his head fondly as she tried to reassure him. "I'm really proud of you Giddy. You did a very brave thing, rescuing these two. They would have died without you. What about you, are you hurt at all?" The scent of fire lingered more on the pups than it did on the black boy, but it was there nonetheless. He'd probably only suffered a few singed spots like Bris had when fighting the housefires a few months back, but she needed to be sure anyway.
At Gideon's mention of a bag, Bris turned to take a look at it. It was singed, clearly having been touched by fire, but the words written on it were still legible. "Melee Soul, Range Soul." The white woman raised a brow at the words, figuring that they were probably the pups' names. But their last name...whose were they? They had to be related to Conor somehow, but how? Had he unknowingly fathered pups with someone? The thought sent a surprising rush of jealously through Bris veins, and she took a deep breath to think more clearly. Even if he had sired these two, so what? It wasn't like they were mated or anything, Conor was free to do whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted, just as Bris was. Unfortunately, this thought didn't make her feel any better. It also didn't change the fact that, whoever the parents of these tiny little pups were, they were now under the care of Dahlia. Bris let out a small chuckle as she realized what she'd have to do. It seemed highly ironic to her that nearly every Stormbringer female who made a home in the lands of Souls ended up rearing the litter of another before every bearing children of their own.
Table by James!