Broken Boulder Roads go ever ever on

Mali was normally pretty well behaved, followed instructions, and that whole jazz.  Okay, he was a little bit loud but that didn't have anything to do with the amount of trouble he caused, and today he was definitely causing some trouble.  No matter what had been said to him, he'd gotten it into his head that Queenie had totally just gotten lost somewhere and he was just gonna find her and it was totally going to be easy!  This was despite the fact that his experience in the world beyond a few hundred yards beyond the den was pretty limited, but that wasn't gonna stop him!

Thus, at some point when whoever was watching them wasn't paying enough attention to the boy, Mali set off in a random direction of his choice, striding off like he owned the world -- and at a pretty good clip too, as he was out of eyesight as fast as only a young kid can seem to do.  Right now, he was confident and determined, a serious frown etched into his young brow.  Give him ten minutes and he'd maybe be starting to regret his choices.

B)

okeanos' small, idyllic world has suddenly gotten much bigger. his family unit's trek from the mountains has been met largely by silence -- not a sulky silence but a sensitive, careful one: he trusts his mamas implicitly and will follow them wherever they go, the weight of whatever drove them away too big for him to understand. he hopes his mamas feel better here and ibby too and his other siblings even if he doesn't talk to them as much usually 'cause they've been pretty quiet.

exploring out and about on his own is not really his m.o. -- in fact all he wants to do is find mamas' dens but he's lost in a strange new territory and there's no adults around what was he doing!!! oh right, he dropped his gelman somewhere and wanted to find it :( okeanos sniffles but does not cry as he crawls along, his wobbly little face catching sight of a silvery blip. it's not ibis or seamus or eleuthera -- for a moment he thinks maybe it's remi, except remi didn't have big ol spots on her like this puppy does. his sniffling stops momentarily as he boofs a "he-lo?" hopeful that maybe this puppy knows where an adult is.

Doot doot doot.  Off on his mission!  Exciting stuff.  How far was he gonna have to walk?  Uhh.  Huh.  Hmm.  Round about the time he was debating what to do (while still walking in an almost straight line to who knows where), someone woofed at him.  What.  Who the heck was that?  Certainly not familiar, and didn't sound that old.  Mali finally spotted them.

If he'd been told? Well, Mali obviously wasn't paying attention.  This was some intruder and not who he was looking for.  At all.  His expression turned from super srs business to confused, then finally settled on an unusually sour expression for the usually easy going boy.  Whut.  Who're you. You're na supposed to be here.  He sounded pretty accusatory about the whole thing, but given the boy had very limited experience with how packs actually worked, he just assumed everyone just stayed in the same pack forever.  This guy was an intruder!  And this dude existence was totally cramping Mali's style, even if he was supposed to be around -- Mali wanted his mom not some other weirdo stranger pup.

back at sunspire, even the littler puppies had been nice to him and his siblings -- his first impression had been way off, this boy is nothing like remi! okeanos' face falls, expression pinching inward at the display of suspicion against him. "m'oke-a-nos," he says, sniffling slightly, "m'sorry, didn't mean to break no rules, where m'i supposed to be?" for mali had spoken with such authority that okeanos has no choice but to assume he has done something wrong -- oh, this is what he gets for venturing outside without permission!

The fact that he cowed so easily egged Mali on more.  He usually wasn't a bully, but combine him feeling he was so sure he was right with it and well... Here they were.  Except Mali wasn't very good at this either, floundering a moment, ears flicking back a second before pricking forward again.  Uhh.  I dunno.  Wherever ya came from!  Not here!  S'just us, not you!  Whoever the heck this kid was.  Someone totally needed to make him go away so Mali could go back to his proper job of finding his mom.

his placations do not soothe the other boy at all. his ears lay flat against his skull and his tail curls up under his belly, a dramatic sniffle escaping him. "can't," he says, looking down, "my mamas brung me n' my siblin's here. can't go back. m'sorree." it's a rule he has to break and he hopes mali will understand -- he's never really experienced punishment so he does not fear what the other boy might do, but genuinely wants to smooth over their misunderstanding so that they might get along.

This kid just didn't get it!  They had to leave because... Because.  Can!  Go 'way!  He wasn't really going to take no.  They should just vanish!  Go to another pack!  Something!  Don' want you or them.  I want my mom back.  Yours no count!  Whether or not he'd really noted the plural, who knew.  But he was definitely displeased about the whole thing.

He was not going to be replaced by whoever this guy was!  And he wasn't going to have his mom replaced either!  In fact, he should just stomp right off and go back to his search.  If he dallied enough with this loser, someone might come looking for him.  Yeah.  Stomping sounded good.  So there! he shouted, spinning back towards the direction he was originally heading, tail sticking up like a rather scrawny banner.  Yeah, who knew if he was gonna be stopped by anyone.  Mali still had a mission.

waah so sorry for holding up this thread! wanna end it or keep goin? im fine either way!

nothing he says will soothe the spotty child -- okeanos is bewildered and upset, unsure what he can possibly do to fix things. "um, um," he cries, "where your mama? maybe i find her?" surely she's somewhere -- he does not know, of course, anything about them -- oh or maybe she's like okeanos' papa, gone somewhere else. disturbed by this he says, "s'your mama here no more? my papa not here no more, too."

This other kid just totally wasn't getting the message.  He wasn't wanted here, he shouldn't be here because it was just his family and some of those other adults who had been around forever or something.  Intruders!  Invaders!  Trying to replace them!  Trying to interrupt his mission!

And then he had the audacity to suggest he could help things?!  No! That kid was part of the problem!  He spun back around, by then his fur standing on end, No!  Go 'way!  Really, almost anything else that got said would probably just wind him up more.  Mali bared his teeth, shout-snarling as he continued, though whether or not he actually looked threatening was questionable, Don't want you or nothin!  Go 'WAY! he finally screamed with all the volume his lungs could manage, which was a substantial amount.  They were probably the most well-exercised part of his body.