The Bracken Woods Over rock and under tree

Despite feeling like blah the past few days, Mali had gotten it into his head that everything was somehow the fault of the two women and their pups -- cats and all -- and he just didn't want to stick around and find out what disaster was next.  No, he wasn't going to cooperate, no, he wasn't going to play nice, no, this was not how it was supposed to be and every fantasy that he could make in his mind that included the increasingly blurry phantom of Queenie sounded much better than reality.  Maybe he could find her and bring her back like he'd planned!  Or something.  Just... away from the invaders.  His attitude wasn't changing, if anything it was getting worse.

He kept spending more of his time off away from the others (aside from his sisters, but even they probably spotted the speckled boy less), so his escape would be much easier.  Yet again the growing boy picked a random direction and started off, but with longer legs than last time, he was able to pass the borders and head into the unknown.  The trees increased in quantity and a canopy soon grew above him and things became more ominous as he traveled.  It had yet to hit him that maybe this was a bad idea, but there were definitely starting to be more spiky plants around that he had to delicately step around and the light became more filtered and dark.  Matched his mood pretty well.

He's still too numb to fully process Zamael's departure, so he takes to the woods; the woods where he's done so many terrible things. The woods where he dies in his dreams. He wonders if he could die now — if he could will himself to just combust or something. It's a nice thought, anyway.
He's pulled from his weird death fantasies by a familiar scent; one he finds very out of place. One of Delight's pups — he's not sure which one, but he recognizes the scent well enough. Shit. Panicked, he follows the trail at a faster pace than he'd intended and nearly runs over the pup. Fortunately, he somehow manages a stop before he totally obliterates Delight's only son.
Hey, what are you doing out here? He's too stressed and raw to sound authoritative at all, so he doesn't try, but there's no way he's letting the kid go anywhere.

So far, it was pretty uneventful.  Was that a good or bad thing?  On the one hand, nothing bad had happened, but on the other, it wasn't like he was getting much done on the "finding mom" side of things either.  He was just innocently going about his random way when a noise behind him got him to slow down and look over his shoulder, probably adding to the near-collision.

Mali, of course, didn't see anything wrong with what he was doing -- surely it was just Alarian's fault for whatever happened.  I'm gonna find my mom, duh!  And apparently wasn't going to wait around to discuss it, starting to continue in the same direction he'd been headed.  You know, maybe he could tag along if he was gonna be useful or whatever, but Mali had his mission!  Even if it didn't make sense to anyone outside of his brain.

Of course it doesn't work. The boy answers him as if it's completely obvious what he's doing out here on his own in the middle of the goddamn forest, and just keeps going. Ugh. He doesn't hesitate to follow — the last thing he wants is to lose Delight's son. Okay, well — you can't do that, He calls after him lamely. It doesn't take long to catch up, given he has normal-sized legs and children have ridiculously stubby legs. It's um — too far. You'll get lost. With that, he leans down quickly to hopefully catch him by surprise and lift him by the scruff, hoping he doesn't take any tiny teeth to the face.

Mali was very determined, and to a point pretty tunnel-visioned. He was just gonna keep stomping along on his quest and then he'd be a huge hero and stuff! Easy! Or not.  He was suddenly yanked up off the ground.  No! Lemme go! We gotta find her! Lemme go! he shrieked.  It was probably a volume more appropriate for complaining someone trying to skin him alive.  And Mali wasn't going to go slack immediately, wiggling wildly instead, especially since he was probably towards the upper end sizewise of being carryable at this point. Alarian totally played a dirty trick on him!

He immediately feels guilty, and his grip slackens enough for the flailing boy to slip free. Hey — come on, you know you're not old enough to leave the territory, Actually he's not entirely sure he knows that; he tries not to pay too much attention to Delight's parenting, far from eager to add to their issues. Assuming Mali hasn't bolted at the first opportunity, he adds: Well, not by yourself. Maybe we could search the woods together? Some part of him hopes the boy is naive enough to take the bait, search the forest with him, and hopefully be satisfied that his mother isn't anywhere near when they inevitably don't find her. Maybe he's too used to loss by now, or just too selfish to acknowledge someone else's, because the probable trauma of the whole thing doesn't strike him just yet; there's no dead body, no horrible story, and he can't bring himself to see Queenie as someone to miss anyway, mother or not. To him, she's just another used-to-know — and good riddance, honestly.

As soon as he had his four feet on the ground again, he skittered a couple of yards away with a huff, spinning back around to face Alarian, stick-like tail sticking straight up at this recent betrayal.  Don't care! Someone's gotta find her, so it's gonna be me!  He tipped his head up proudly, thought a moment and added, Guess you can come.  This disaster was entirely under Mali's direction, at least as far as he knew.  He spun on heel and pranced on, regardless of what Alarian was trying to do.