The Sunspire Look at last on meadows green
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#1
All Welcome 
Probably forward dated a day or two maybe, exact timeline = *shrug*

One way or another he'd eventually crossed the river.  He'd made a fairly straight path over a low point in the initial ridge of mountains, but eventually turned away from the most straight path that he'd been taking.  Though he maybe didn't know how actual pack's borders worked, the Vale had too many scents for him to feel comfortable going there.  He had a pretty hit and miss time meeting people, and the misses definitely stood out garishly, so maybe it was best he stayed on his own.  That kind of made it hard for him to find a new place to stay, though.  But at least he knew to stay the hell away from the ocean!

He also wasn't interested in climbing to the top of the peak he was currently traversing.  No, Mal kept pretty much to the lowest slopes, somewhat unsure where he'd pop out on the other side of this range.  Hopefully he'd done enough wandering that he'd see something familiar, but stuff looked way different from this angle.  He was pretty sure he was going the right way, but he'd find out.  Either way, the low clouds and fog were hiding more distant landmarks.  It couldn't be far.  Really, it couldn't.  He was getting hungry again and was counting on taking from Elysium to continue his trek, even if his hunting had marginally improved due to necessity.  He still wasn't doing super great at it.  The one thing he was good at was mindlessly walking forever.
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Ooc — Bryndel
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#2
Timelines, schmimelines...! *waves hand with grandiose vagueness*
Not sure typing up posts at this hour is the bestest of ideas but I guess I can always come back and edit things betterer if need be.  :P  Or if I've screwed up random bits of Mal's description here. Uh.

She wasn't quite ready to go all the way back home yet, though she was starting to feel that pull, particularly after Cadeau's words had lodged under her skin like a splinter where they still remained festering and smarting. Talos thought sulkily to herself that it would hardly make a difference whether she did or not, regardless: her family was dwindling down to practically nothing and her so-called pack seemed like it was filling up with strangers whom she didn't know and whom therefore obviously didn't belong. If only she'd had a time machine she would seize upon it and fix everything presto-chango automagically but alas, she did not. Wandering the landscape restlessly and kicking around the patchy snows and muddy new grass everywhere seemed a pretty poor second, but it was the best she could do.

It was a little ways further upmountain that a sudden blur of motion caught her eye and pulled her attention away from the pebble she was moodily kicking along in front of her. She pulled her head up and cautiously sniffed the wind; no one she knew, for sure, particularly when she got a better eyeful of the guy's weird splotchy coat. Talos eyed the other wolf with sidelong suspicion, but it wasn't like she was doing anything particularly interesting or impressive so somewhere in the back of her mind she instinctively reasoned that whether or not he turned out to be as irritating and rude as Cadeau had at least he would doubtless help break up the monotony. Hey! she said. 'Oo're you, and how come yer ou' running 'roun' 'ere? In addition to his bizarre coloring he looked kind of unimpressively scruffy and young and not-particularly-well-fed, not that Talos was really one who should be pointing fingers there; possibly not even that far off from her own age. Talos had somehow managed to gain a pretty bulky frame for her age though despite not the most consistent diet  even if her muscles hadn't really filled out on her large bones yet, so she didn't see why any other young wolf couldn't manage the same.
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#3
He was kind of afraid at what he'd find in Elysium.  He was certain it would turn out to be a bad idea somehow or other.  Maybe they'd try to capture him since they'd been so lax and let him escape in the first place -- it did feel an awful lot like a prison to him, after all.  He just wished that he had better news to deliver -- a solution would have been great, but maybe next time things would line up nicely.

For a brief moment he thought it was uh.  Actually, what was her name again?  That stupid girl that was one of the witches' children.  He honestly hadn't paid attention to the fact that Olive's two pups had wandered off into the great unknown, but Mal had decided to just ignore whoever that was anyway, so hadn't given them more than a peripheral glance.  And wow, this chick talked worse than some of the dumb pups.  Blink.  Like how was that even possible?  At least it wasn't one of them.  Minding my own business, he said, with perfectly clear enunciation that was probably slightly over-emphasized because he was totally smarter than her just by default if she talked like that.  Either way, he had no real desire to deal with that one girl's fatter, darker clone so he ignored her first question and didn't really pause more than a second.  Classy boy, wasn't he?
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Ooc — Bryndel
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#4
Oooo-oooo-oooh, said Talos, voice absolutely dripping with sarcasm. Yeah, she was obviously real impressed. The splotchy boy seemed to first be trying to show her up and then to avoid her—which made it totally a good idea to shove her own dark bulk right into his path and loom up into his face. No avoiding Taloses, you little coward, hah! This was much more interesting than wandering aimlessly about 'minding her own business' after all, and he wasn't going to doom her to immediate boredom again quite that easily. Ri' proud o' yerself, arencha, boy? Jus' wha' bizness coul' be so important thatcha can't even take two secon's t'stop 'n' talk anyway, eh? Talos gave him a sardonic sidelong look, and dragged her silvery eyes up and down the young male's form. You sure don' look like no one who'd be sent off on no actual importan' missions, tha's fer sure.

Talos struck a pose, one massive black paw jutted assertively out before her before replanting itself among the gravel and sand and her tail and head raised high, all the better to look superciliously down her long nose at him. She did take note that the easier trail along the mountainside started to narrow and then drop off on the one side not that far behind her, so that it would only get increasingly difficult for the boy to simply swerve around her... Talos had to fight down a smirk at the thought. She'd been having kind of a crappy day, it was true, but somehow needling this boy and making his day a bit crappier was cheering her up a fair bit. At least thus far.
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#5
Really? What the hell was with these idiots?  Did they just clone themselves and spread everywhere like a damn plague?  He stopped and gave her an icy stare.  He stopped trying to understand her after about a sentence and half -- just not worth the effort.  You can't even talk properly. You should go back to your mommy and have her teach you before you make your family look stupid.  Oh wait, too late.  He was not impressed, and not going to cow to anyone of any size.  Get out of his way or deal with the consequences -- and so far nobody had dared to do the latter.

Here's the thing, though.. Before Mal had left the pack, he'd been afraid of having to deal with the ignorant adults' attempts at punishment.  He'd been more than willing to dish out a proper amount of teeth if he could have tricked the idiot pups into actually doing anything, but they were too soft to even try.  Now?  He didn't have to report to anyone, and really he had nothing to lose and no moral qualms to stop him.
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Ooc — Bryndel
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#6
His cold glare left her unmoved, but his words did needle her in return somewhat. I en't the stupid one 'ere, she asserted in perhaps not the most convincing manner, though she accompanied it with a cautionary raising of her hackles and her nearer lip both. Her brilliant white teeth made for quite the notable striking contrast with her fur, making the latter motion particularly difficult to miss. You en't got no manners! Maybe you'd be th'one what needs t'be taught better!

Talos had never gotten herself into seriously hot water as of yet, despite her frequent habit of pot-calling-kettle-black, and such a notable lack of consequences with teeth only bolstered her sky-high ego and overconfidence more. Besides, this little twig of a brat completely lacked her own girth and muscle; the possibility that he might try to physically bowl her out of his way had crossed young Talos's mind, but she actually found some gleeful mental relishings in such a notion. She'd love to see him try, hah! Scruffy little weird-colored twerp; it was no wonder that he seemed to be all alone...and perhaps almost as unloved as Talos herself felt. This was the notion that caused her to give his face a closer though fleeting, searching second look: was that indeed the case? Could that be the source of this boy's snarking belligerence? It was, after all, the sort of motive Talos herself could empathize with all too well.

Such introspection was painful, though, and like the proverbial pup who'd strayed too close to treacherously thin ice Talos yanked herself back from it. It was as much to keep herself distracted from such thoughts as to taunt her fellow wolf that she forged on with a sassy flip of her coal-black tail. E'en yer coloring's stupid, en't it. What, did some bird poop all o'er you to make yer fur that ugly?! It was a pretty lame and immature insult, on the level with a barely-weaned pup, really, but Talos couldn't think of anything much better (nor of anything that could actually cause such bizarre mottling...seriously, what the hell) and that weirdo's coat really was pretty impossible to ignore as it sat there so brazenly shoving itself into her face and space.
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#7
This girl was not very smart.  His expression hardened, his lips pulling back, fur prickling, about equal to hers.  Riiiight.  Says the one going out of the way to block the path and being a greedy, demanding jerk.  I don't have to deal with you, sorry.  After giving her a frown, he looked past her, figuring he'd just keep going at this point, let this bridge Lauren sit around and rot or whatever it was she was doing.

And then she went and kept going on, interrupting his train of thought just as he was plotting the best way to shove her out of the way and keep going.  He gave her a particularly disappointed look, You're not very good at this, are you?  Like really?  Was that the best she could do?  Mal was even less impressed than he was before.  Before she'd been about level with the Elysium children, now she had managed to somehow crawl beneath them a bit.  Mal felt like he was far more experienced than most at being a cutting little jerk (without cutting off heads).
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Ooc — Bryndel
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#8
Talos rolled her eyes at the spotty boy. An' you en't much good at even th' fake 'pologies, obviously, she said, leveling a seriously unimpressed look at him, trying to dramatically outmatch his own disappointed mien. Any'ow, I was 'ere first. Means I get to claim the path, and you go elsewhere if you don' like it, pptthhhbbbt! Yes, she was blowing him a raspberry now: in her efforts to make sure she was throwing herself enough into the moment to keep herself distracted from her own ominously looming Feelings, she wasn't winning any points for eloquence or maturity, that was for sure.

She flashed her teeth at him again in return, but didn't seem to quite entirely mean it. In fact, if one looked closely one could see a sparkle starting up deep within her eyes: she was actually sorta starting to enjoy this kid, dumb and prickly as he was. Maybe even almost feel a certain kinship of a sort, not that she wanted to look too closely or examine that more deeply... right now, she had trouble fighting back a wicked grin and keeping her tail from curvetting up too high. Srs bzns, this was, after all, right; she'd better not start wagging like some domesticated dog and spoil the whole game. Her coarse-furred black tail did arc itself up in the middle and give the occasional betraying twitch, though: that much she couldn't help. Her paws danced up and then down again, also a bit irrepressible. This reminded her of teasing her brothers somewhat, though it'd been ages since she'd seen any of them, and they'd long wandered off with her parents. She was surprised to discover that she missed them, all of them, and not just the mysteriously missing Viinturuth... though once again, this was not something she wanted to think about overmuch. So she puffed out her broad chest and shoved herself brazenly at the splotchy-furred stranger, not getting close enough to touch him just yet but definitely getting all the more in his way as she let out a loud, disparaging huff that was in truth more than a little teasing in nature. Hah, if he didn't think he had to deal with her he definitely had another think coming! Unless he just turned around and wandered back in the direction he'd come from, like a coward. In which case she supposed she'd better start coming up with some really juicy insults to shout after him right quicklike here as her next order of priority. ...He was kinda right, after all; the bird poo thing had been a pretty sorry excuse for a cutting dig. Not that she'd ever tell him that.

Whur you from, anyway, tha' you don't know no manners anyhow, as belatedly it occurred to her that she hadn't actually gotten a good close sniff of him as of yet and didn't actually know whence he'd traveled...or who might be looking for him. Or ready to avenge him if he went tattling about her picking a fight. Oops? Possibly this could have some unforeseen repercussions down the line, and turn into something quite a bit more than the taunting of a helpess young loner. Talos shrugged this off mentally as well, however; bit late to worry about that now, seeing as she had no intentions whatsoever of backing down and ceding him the path, particularly with him being the most entertaining creature she'd run across in the last three days, at least.
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#9
To Mal she appeared to be particularly dense.  Yeah, of course it was a fake apology.  Though he was a stranger to many things, sarcasm was in his wheelhouse.  She really was just a child from her behavior.  She couldn't speak right, and seemed to have nothing between her ears.  Not impressed.  At all.  She might be big 

His patience was just about threadbare.  He had no fear or desire to back down from someone who couldn't really do anything to punish him long-term (in his eyes at least) and that would probably end badly in one way or another.  In fact, then she made the mistake of pushing forward again, he snapped.  Literally.  Without too much warning -- except the slow raise of the fur along his spine the longer this went on -- he lashed out to try and bite her on the face.  Basically anywhere on the face, because that was probably what was closest to him.  Mal wasn't holding back at all either, he had no reason not to do damage if given the chance to do so.

He was sort of hoping for the equivalent of smacking someone in the face (except potentially with more blood) to sort of stun them enough he could just dodge by and continue on his way.  He needed to get to his sister, dammit.
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Ooc — Bryndel
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#10
She was trying to think of insults, revving herself up mentally to close the distance between them even more and step ever more boldly into his personal space, when the splotchy-furred kid took sudden decisive action of his own. He whipped forward with a flash of teeth before she could do anything more than think about closing the distance further. Her yelp was more one of surprise than of genuine pain, but she fell back nonetheless, landing in an ignominious heap on her rump in the dirt.

Later, maybe it would occur to her to look at her butt and complain that she, too, now seemed to have big brown splotches of dirt on her once pristine and beautiful coat. But for right now she just stared at him with wide, shocked eyes, sitting there thunderstuck dumb in the dirt. Her pink tongue licked instinctively out to clear the small trickle of blood from her now slightly-more-seriously-marred nose (but then, she'd never been half as proud of her schnozz as of her pelt, to be honest). As much as anything, it simply shocked her for her actions to for a change such immediate and drastic consequences. All of a sudden it crossed Talos's mind for the first time that maybe, just maybe, she might be out of her league, here.

But hey. The path was clear now, at least. Finally.
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#11
Now this was a feeling he liked.  She crumpled back at his strike.  Good.  He squared his shoulders and strode past her with all the poise of an actual alpha, curled tail and all, and after a couple of steps he looked away from her and didn't look back.  Now he looked only to the path ahead and he continued on his way.  He'd have plenty to contemplate later once his mission was done, but how it would end up effecting him later was yet to be told.

Mal was done bending to others' will.  Start a new chapter, a new page, whatever.  This one was over.