Bearclaw Valley your dark splendor

A few tense moments of silence stretched out between them as Evien mulled over how to respond to the challenge presented before him. It felt like he was sitting at a table with two glasses of wine before him, with the assumption that one was poisoned and the other was not. But the truth was that one was laced with nightshade, the other water hemlock. The former would leave him paralyzed, the latter in agonizing pain.

He picked up the glass with the hemlock. 

The boy relaxed his shoulders in defeat, sighing through his nose and affixing green gaze on singular orange. "Promise me you won't hurt them. The girl, the pups. If you don't want them, then I'll take them. Let her nurse them until they're weaned, and then you won't have to worry about them again." It was a bold claim, almost desperate, but he needed to know that these pups would be safe.