Arete raised her head from where it was tucked into her side, cutting blue eyes slicing a path over toward the tom lingering at the entrance. "Don't just hover around there like a stranger, the others will think you strange." She snarked, though there was a teasing tone in her words. The normally fierce blue of her eyes softening to the soft color of a morning sky. The urge to gesture to their kits, the perfect creations they had made, strong inside her. But it was held off, Arete wanting Daedric to ask after them. So they could boast together, so they could share the pride in their new lives.

"Dull." Arete responded dryly, raising a brow and quirking a corner of her mouth. Amused by Daedric's obvious love towards their younglings, though maybe enchanted was a more fitting word. "They are very poor conversationalist." Versace's ear twitched as if the young tom kit was taking offense, ironically timed in his restless squirming. Turning her blue eyes took in Daedric, casting a look at his posture, her constant concern towards how he was feeling thinly veiled; she knew better than to hover. "Though I suppose since you're here now you can keep me entertained, like the loving thing you are."

"What need do I have to look pretty when I am confined in the den with the kits?" She laughed, tail lazily swaying as she luxuriated under Daedric's grooming. "Unless you think my fur being a little messy makes me unworthy of you." She hummed, brow raising as she teased him, before huffing a sigh with a small little nod. Attention turning back to the mishmash of pelts nestled against her belly. "I also have high hopes for them, but those hopes come with worries as well. I fear having these hopes will cause me to be much like the other mothers in the league. So eager to push my child to new heights I ignore the dangers that come with them; the consequences of them falling from such high heights."

There was something hidden within that statement, the pain of a cat knowing the scorn earned from being in less than perfect condition. And it made Arete's heart ache, made her fear the harsh words her kits might overhear about their father; having heard some of her own. While Arete was not one to defend someone elses honor the urge to speak up had been strong. To snap against those that questions Daedric's ability due to his crippled leg, but she bit her tongue, the tom could fight his own battles. Hopefully her kits would grow to understand that as well. "Well, hopefully Solaris will hold the league steady so they can grow up in relative peace." Another thing that brought her worry, the shifting climate of the league, the unknown directions they could head in.

"The forest, from what I hear, is still poisoned. You know there are still rumors going about that it was do to all the hate an cruelty that is harbored among us. That we poisoned the land and the prey there." She spoke up, finding such a notion curious. A superstitious believe of cats to silly to understand the true nature of things. But it was an amusing enough thought that she liked to share it with others. "Perhaps we can spook the kits with stories of it. Of a territory haunted by old spirits and bitter regrets."

"Don't you already have a trainee?" Arete humming, shifting to try and gain a more comfortable position. All the kits sleeping finally and stopping their insistent kneading at her stomach. "What if they need extra time and are still a trainee when our own younglings are ready. Or what if you're assigned another one? Will you just dump them to train one of your own flesh and blood?" The questions were curious, not accusatory. Truthful the thought of such dedication to his kits pleased Arete, though she had always known Daedric would make a good father.

[ If he ends up training one it should be Versace who will just constantly ask why they can't solve any problem by killing it. ]

"Morals are decided by the teacher. Your morals may very well be different than my own, or the kits, or Solaris. You can teach the importance of having morals but you cannot teach them what their morals should be." She cautioned with a slow blink. Arete thought it was important for their kits to have standards and morals as well, but she knew that by the time they were trainees they would already be rather entrenched in their own notions. Daedric would have more luck trying to teach them right from wrong while they were still younglings. Not that she would say anything, Arete of firm opinion that every cat needed to learn those things on their own from observation. Nurture verse nature came to mind.