Hushed Willows Let go of the moment that life makes you hold

Or maybe he wasn't alone.  His ears were what alerted him to another's presence -- not a heavy step, but maybe it was someone trying to be stealthy.  After a moment confirming they were still coming after him (and not saying anything), he turned, all ready to spit out some sort of snarky remarks except uh.  There was nobody at eye-level.  That was a kid.

Some part of him wanted to try to Pied Piper the kid away for kicks but let's be honest... What the heck would he do with a pup?  Especially one that was probably hardwired to be soft and useless like all of the children of his year.  Way too much work.  He had no idea whose kid it was either, given how it seemed like Olive and Seabreeze wanted to force their presence onto all the children before Elysium was a thing, he didn't believe it'd be a good measure to check.  They probably murdered someone and abducted themselves a whole litter anyway.  Sounded about their speed.

Anyway after that little bit of staring, Mal said pretty neutrally, What?  Because that was about all he could think of.  Why was the kid even out here?