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"Cue," Rise acknowledged, turning with interest. Dark never really said very much about her children - his intensifying biological ticking and a keen interest in the concept of parentage and family hadn't revealed much, instead making the sweet girl quite, quite panicky. Nevertheless they seemed to have turned out very capable, much like their mother, and at times, far more self-assured than their mother.

Sometimes he marvelled at how her mother's markings passed on to Cue (sometimes indulgently wondering how his and Grey's, alas, whenever she would come 'round to the thought of having children, might turn out), but his eyes were drawn to the hissing owlcat who'd caught up behind her. "I see - ah Cue, you know how people feel about us pickling pets." Not only did people get rather uncomfortable with that, this one looked rather different, far less sedate than some of the ones he'd seen, it was likely to be quite lean...

"A gift?" Rise returned a broad smile, that of a guileless godfather regarding what seemed to be his blameless god-daughter with good intent - yes, through this feeling of being irrevocably moved, he seemed to tune out the animal throwing itself about viciously. "Cue, I..." he sighed pleasantly over the yowl of a furious owlcat. "Cue, I'm not good with pets, as I'm sure you're aware....but I am very touched indeed."

Rise chuckled at her (what sounded like an) opinionated statement - Cue was evidently the princess of Dark's clutch that he'd met; learn indeed! But her motives were thoroughly good, certainly...and it can't have been easy to find and lead such a lively little creature back to this place. "Still," he said, honestly dubious about how long he'd be able to keep salting thoughts out of his head, "I can't quite imagine myself with a pet pet...And we do so much meat skinning here." He looked down, contemplative, as angry claws raked across stone with a sharp screech. "The cat might..." he struggled to find pet-owner emotions. "...be uncomfortable."

"Salt collection and a series of experiments," he nodded at her, distractedly stacking up some dried corpses that the owlcat had knocked over in its flurry of attacks. "We're just expanding so well now." Rise was terribly excited by everything falling into place, the relentless business of the business. A large part of later development came, of course, from his ridiculously intelligent Grey. "And my lady is out on her nightly investigations, as you know." He allowed himself a moment to be awash with utter adoration, a slightly goofy look upon his face - well, youngsters needed some exposure to this sort of sentimentality now and then...but anyhow. "It would be so strange, wouldn't it Cue, for everyone to come back and find me with an owlcat? Utterly bizarre, even," he said with a kindly smile.

His head turned to regard the mostly-feline being snarling at an offensive rock, and scrutinised it as it bounced back and forth - yes, its raised, furry hackles in the moonlight did invoke a warming sensation in his chest, such a silvery sight brought back childhood fancies (his one fancy) of a young colt. Its terse position while it engaged in a standoff with the rock was also strangely charming. "Cue," he solemnly stated with the tone of a buck breaking down, "it is a pretty creature, with the most astonishing coat, but..."

"Your mother didn't tell me that," he said, almost ruefully - he liked to think that his employees could be very open with him - but these were her children, and of course she might feel more comfortable speaking to the results about the cause. "That's rather interesting, Cue. Did she say why?"

"I see. That does make some sense..." He mulled, contemplative as he watched the owlcat attempt to sink its beak into stone. Rise was hardly fazed by the idea of a clutch - after all, he did watch over an extended family (staff force) of Kimeti, and nowhere else could be more ready with rations for all ages. Surely sweet, helpless foals would be less trouble than what someone like Fade got up to? In other words, Rise was Ready. Rise did not need a pre-parenting course. "...but again, my dear, we do run a rather large business and I look after all of you, so perhaps that sort of training is not quite necessary," he concluded chipperly.