Heron Lake Plateau not looking for a confession

Oh! Owen was still getting all his familial relations straight. Obviously. He squinted fuzzily at Phox, though, thinking this was a little extra-odd coming from him... he hadn't been around the whole time like Aunt Towhee had been, after all, and Owen couldn't think why that might have been so. Was there some sort of bad blood between his mom and her brother that Owen didn't know about? Not to mention—But you're not ranked that highly, blurted Owen thoughtlessly. The youngster's eyes widened and he wanted to whack some sense into his own skull as he heard how that'd come out. Whoops. Though 'course you still outrank me, he added hastily, and mentally crossed his paws and hoped that might repair whatever damage he might have just done. Or at least keep Phox here from getting angry; Owen felt like this was exactly the right thing to say to piss off a lot of the adults he knew a little better.

So, uh, yer Towhee's brother too? And, what, X's adopted hatchfather? Mostly Owen's brain and mouth were scrambling for a hasty distraction. He was trying to bring his mental picture of the family tree into better focus, though, as well. Quixote's side of it seemed so scraggly and blank by comparison, sheesh—but even his mother's side still felt like it was pretty motheaten and patchwork, with some big ol' holes through which the sky shown—Owen had the mental image of a sadly bedraggled half-shed autumnal arbor, with a couple of the branches splintered and broken by fall storms too like as not. (And leave it to freakish weirdo Towhee of course to have some random freaking bird somehow perched on one of those tree limbs as well, sheesh! Though Owen still wasn't entirely convinced X wasn't secretly magically some shapeshifty part of her...somehow.)

- ...And you speak ptero too then I'd guess? - he belatedly added. Probably better than Quixote, odds were—Owen hastily tried to wipe the smirk off his face at the thought. With his luck, if Uncle Phox saw it the guy'd probably assume immediately that Owen was laughing at him and his rank or something. Owen just bet it wouldn't take much to wipe that pleased smile off Phox's face and send it swirling down the drain.