Blacktail Deer Plateau i shot down the sun with bow and flame

Atticus wagged his tail and bared his teeth playfully at Peregrine's joking insinuation that he wouldn't accept Bones. Perry had a point, though -- maybe Bones didn't want him to daddy her. Maybe she really had only wanted to meet him. On one hand, that idea was sort of a relief to him. He wasn't ready for the burdens and responsibilities that came with parenthood at all. His eyes involuntarily fell back down to the puppies nestled together before him. There was no way he was ready for this right now. Not to mention the fact that he'd be severely disadvantaged because he'd missed the entirety of her childhood and developmental months; he would basically have been skipping the intro and going straight into teenage daughter. Good god.

But on another hand, the idea that she might not want to be near him, might not want him to be an active part of her life...kind of made him sad.

Finding that the close confines of the den were making him uncomfortable and crampy as well, he too stood and stretched, gesturing to Peregrine to step outside the den. To Perry's fair enough?, he grinned and replied lightly, "You're the boss." He understood his brother's reservations and the same priorities that governed Peregrine's decisions also governed his own as well. "I'm sure she already knows not to wander around here without me, but I'll remind her just in case. Next time she comes to visit, I'll call you to come meet her." Away from the puppies, of course. He didn't think badly of Bones at all, but Perry had said it best -- they might be family, but they were strangers.