Heron Lake Plateau not looking for a confession

Owen was examining the freshest layer of snowfall more closely, squinting at the glittering white stuff with a frown of concentration, when sister Phoebe went rocketing behind him. Owen's head snapped up to follow first her ashy tail as it streaked out of sight, then to pivot the other way and look with confusion in the direction from which she'd come. Uh...Pheebs? She was already out of sight. Her brother lifted a paw indecisively as he for one moment considered lighting off after her, but not having seen nor smelled nor heard anything worth running from, with a minute's additional thought he figured this would smack a little too much of abject cowardice. And wasn't Dad always telling him to buck up and not be so afraid of, well, everything? Owen let out a little sigh as he crouched down and padded carefully in the direction from which Phoebe had come shooting in. Besides, Owen figured, sometimes sisters were just like that. Sometimes they were just crazy.

Owen told himself as he cautiously tiptoed up over the small rise between him and the pups' rendezvous site that he would just take a quick sniff, or a tiny peek, at whatever it was and then if circumstances warranted it he could hightail it. But he knew if he ran without checking it out, Quixote or Raven or another of his sisters would doubtless catch him and demand a full report of what he was running from, and right now that was a more intimidating thought than... whatever it was he still wasn't really smelling or hearing or seeing. Owen's brow creased as he stopped and snuffed harder—but today, all the scents were pretty boringly familiar. He cast a quick, suspicious look at the nearest patch of pristine white snow, but the only thing even slightly odd was the stronger and nearer scent of one of the Redhawk adults Owen was less familiar with. It took him a moment to place the name, but after that he felt at least safe enough to go creeping up into view and catch the older male's eye. ...Phox, right? Owen shot a quick look around the clearing before returning puzzled green eyes to the Delta. Heh, you...haven't seen any puppyeating monsters around here, have you? The question was mostly, but not quite entirely, a joke.