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Burz had still been exhausted when he woke up following the excitement of transporting his half-cousins from the stronghold to the forest, and his uncle had been willing to let him stay longer and sleep, but the white cub had hauled himself to his feet and dragged his weary a** home. He needed to make sure his dad and sibs had gotten home okay. Not that he knew what he was going to do if they didn't. Mount a rescue mission, he supposed. Even the thought of doing so made him want to collapse in his tracks and give up.

Fortunately that would not prove necessary, since it seemed his da had gotten all of his sibs home without losing any of them. He was talking to Finna when Burz came in, which was an advantage as far as the generally unpleasant youth was concerned. It would give him time to lick the blood off his coat and make himself look a little less like he'd rolled in a recently killed carcass.

"I'm back," he announced before stepping into the shadows so that no one would see the blood on his pelt. Between the fight and Kazul's baby-birthing, he knew he must look a fright, and he didn't want anyone hysterical thinking he'd been hurt.

Klona had been settled towards the mouth of the den, just inside of the broad hole in the knotty flesh of the hollowed tree. The den was quite spacious, as the tree they called home was incredibly thick and wide. She'd been shamelessly eavesdropping on the conversation that Finna was having with their papa.

She was also getting shamelessly upset by one little thing.

"Burz," the pale little lioness began, "welcome home. Klona is so very upset. Finna gets a bird, and it is only fair that Klona have a bird too. Did you see grandpapa fall? I bet grandpapa would have gotten Klona a bird."

Cue endless pouting.

Burz couldn't even begin to remember what all parts of him were bloody and which weren't. He decided just to make himself as small as possible and hope that Klona didn't notice. She seemed pretty upset about Finna getting a bird anyway, so maybe she wouldn't notice at all.

"Good to see you, Klona," he greeted her. She was an odd little lioness, but she was also his sister and like the rest of the men in the family, he would defend her fiercely from people who would be unkind because of the unusual way she spoke.

"A bird, huh? I'm sure Grandpa would have gotten you a bird if he'd known you wanted one." Aesir was usually very good about gift-giving when he remembered that he had grandcubs to gift. "Perhaps I can try to get you a bird instead. Would that be as good?"

If Klona had not been so utterly distressed and mentally destroyed by the fact that her beloved and handsomely strong papa was getting her equally beloved and beautiful little sister a bird, she just might have probably noticed the blood that covered her brother.

But, alas, pouting was serious and difficult work, and not even the offer from Burz to find her a bird could soothe the ravaged bird-wanting beast that clouded her thoughts.

"Klona wishes that grandpapa had not fallen down." It was clear that the dire results of the challenge were lost on Klona, but she had always been something of a simple sort. Oblivious to nearly everything around her.

She shot Finna and her papa a dirty, dirty look before turning her attention back to Burz. She tilted her head to the side as if actually realizing for the first time that her brother was, indeed, covered in blood.

"Burz, you have red on you." Klona frowned. "And you smell."

Burz hadn't been there to see Aesir fall, and he knew that would bother him for the rest of his life, even though he had been doing other important things. He had left following their Odd-uncle and then gotten entangled in a great deal of sneakery and running. He could not remember the last time he'd run so much. Even when he was training with Gaved, he didn't do that much running. Fighting and getting bashed and bruised, yes. Running, not so much.

"I wish he hadn't, too," Burz agreed. His voice was rough now not because he chose to make it so, but because he was deeply upset by the wholeness of everything and doing his best not to show it. He didn't want Klona to get more upset than she already was. "You'll still be safe here in the forest though. And did I tell you? Aunt Kazul had cubs!"

He had decided that the best way to deal with the blood was simply to pretend she hadn't said anything about it and distract her with more interesting news that wasn't unhappy. It didn't occur to him right away that mentioning their half-cousins might cause other difficulties if Klona wanted to go see them right away.

Klona's expression changed slightly when Burz mentioned Kazul's cubs, but only because she was trying to imagine just how many birds they'd need to find to keep everyone happy.

"Where is Aunt Kazul? Papa says to Finna that we are not allowed to go back to the pride. He made Finna promise." Klona sniffled slight, a little disappointed that they'd not be able to go back and visit their friends they'd left behind. Like Stakkar, and Heldig, and even Resi and Nits. Dyre could take a running leap off of the stronghold for all Klona cared, but she would never give voice to such a horrible thought.

"Is Aunt Kazul in the forest? We should bring them here. How many girls did Aunt Kazul have?"

She needed to keep a running tally on birds, after all.

Well, that had worked out nicely, Burz thought. He had no idea that Klona was keeping a mental tally of avian needs, and so assumed that she was asking after Kazul's cubs because she was genuinely interested in the new family members. Maybe that was even the case on some level, though perhaps not the one Burz thought it was.

"Aunt Kazul's in the forest, too. She and her cubs are staying with our Odd-uncle," he answered her.

He was relieved to learn that Finna had been made to promise not to go back to the stronghold. He didn't much care one way or the other about her stupid red-coated friend, but he didn't want his sister to get into trouble because she tried to sneak in and visit her. Sneaking was an activity better left to people like himself, who had a lot of practice at it. He wasn't going to think about why Finna would want to visit the red girl anyway. He'd never understood the appeal of people outside their family.

"I don't think there'd be enough room for all of them here. She had a lot of cubs, and we wouldn't all fit I'm pretty sure." He paused while he tried to remember how many of the cubs had been girls. He had been there to witness their naming, but that seemed like it had been years ago and his memory was fuzzy. "Only two of them were girls, I think."

"That's only three birds," Klona muttered to herself, sending Finna yet another dark look. Three birds was doable - and it was five birds if she counted Ombra and Anette. Humming softly under her breath, Klona rose to her feet and glanced around for Sko. When she didn't see him, she turned her attention back to Burz.

"Sko was here, too, but he must have left. Have you seen him? How far does Odd-uncle live from here? Does aunt Kazul need help with her babies? We should send Finna and her bird that she does not yet have."

Klona narrowed her eyes at Burz.

"You are covered in red, brother Burz. And Klona has mentioned that you are reeking."

She came to a quick, startling realization.

"Are you hurt?!"

Oh Gods, she might faint.

Burz barely managed not to frown as he tried to figure out what Klona was talking about with three birds. She was still thinking about birds? Sometimes he had difficulty figuring out what went on in her brain. In an attempt to allay her concerns he said, "I don't think Kazul's cubs are going to want birds. Only the girls in our litter really need them."

And now the questions. Burz knew from experience that he could pick and choose among them as to which ones he answered, and do so without penalty for the most part, but sometimes there was one question buried in the many that she really wanted, and if he failed to answer that one then there would be massive amounts of pouting.

"Probably Kazul will need help with the babies, but right now they're all sleeping so that can wait. Do you think Finna and her almost-bird would be good helpers to her? I bet if you offered to help, Odd-uncle would get you a better bird that Finna's." He didn't sigh. "You know how far Odd-uncle lives from here. We've been to see him where he lives."

Now he sighed. She was back to the blood, and now she seemed every bit as perturbed by it as he had hoped she wouldn't be. "No. I'm not hurt even a little bit. Just red and stinky. I could really use a bath, huh?"

Klona shrank back when it became clear she'd forgotten where Odd-uncle lived. There was so much to remember - she'd gotten lost many a time in the forest. Klona hadn't been blessed with the keen intelligence that her other siblings had - but she knew when to feel kind of stupid when she forgot something, and now was one of those moments.

"Klona will offer to help," she grumbled softly, "but Klona thinks papa is going to make everyone promise not to go back to the stronghold. Even you and Sko. Everyone."

She sniffled softly.

"Yes, you could use a bath. You are stink and red," she agreed, "but it is good that you have not been hurt. Papa would have been very upset with you."

Burz wondered what he had said to make Klona shrink back, but the fact of the matter was that he wasn't as good at dealing with his sister as some of their other siblings were, and sometimes he just said stupid things that hurt her feelings without realizing it. He felt bad when he did it, but he'd gotten used to the idea and tried not to dwell on it unless she seemed inclined to be miserable for a long time.

"It's good that you'll offer to help. Seven cubs is a lot to look after. That's almost as many as there are of us, and these cubs don't have a da to help out." He wasn't really sure how helpful Klona could be. She wouldn't be his first choice of nursemaids if it was his cubs under discussion, no matter how much he loved her.

"Yeah, well, he might," Burz agreed. If he did, Burz would just have to break his word or promise very carefully so that he could go back to the pride without breaking his word. Neither one quite sat well with him, but he needed to keep an eye on things in the stronghold. "We'll see."

He made himself smile even though he was so tired he mostly wanted to curl up and fall asleep this very minute, even if that meant Klona would draw all over him with berry juice or something. "I'm going to go take a bath and go to sleep now. Okay?"