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.