Hushed Willows By streams that never find the sea;

One of the few good things about the territory was that the local plant life was pretty good at providing convenient hiding places.  Mali had been hiding a lot recently, but that was probably better than just running off entirely like he was tempted to do when his sisters were missing. But that didn't change the fact that he wasn't happy here, and there wasn't much he could do about it.

They'd been moved what seemed like halfway across the planet and then the two wolves he hated the most took over.  Why were they even here? Why couldn't his family go somewhere else that didn't have any of them? He still avoided the pups as well.

Yawn. Mali had been napping at the foot of a willow, hidden away from most prying eyes. He'd been awake for maybe ten minutes now and was just hanging out and watching what little he could see of the outside world go by. What a dumb world.

ever since her return, she's avoided literally everyone that wasn't delight or mali and even then she didn't always want to talk to them. solomon and she had gotten separated somewhere along the way and they’d never found her. brilliance hadn’t paid any attention to anything but herself and it cost them all her sister. it took a couple days for her to even feel like doing anything, tired and hunger and nausea all battling against one another but eventually things settle out and it’s not so bad. it’s not great but, whatever.
 
she notes her brother’s scent and follows it, scenting through one willow and out the next until she stumbles right into one where he’s resting. brilliance blinks a few times before shaking it off, acting as if she’d intended to find him under this very willow tree, of course.
 
“hey,” she says, attempting to shrug it off and get a seat closer to the base of the tree.

really, okeanos should just leave the other puppies alone. brilliance and mali have made their feelings on him clear enough. when he was younger it hurt him so -- he's never done anything to them! -- but he's not stupid. they've clearly had it harder than him and his siblings, so he thinks its probably okay that they're a little mean sometimes, even if it's unwarranted. for not even bein' half a year old yet he thinks he's pretty darn grown up about all this stuff, and maybe that's exactly the sort of force mali needs in his life!

it is with this (naive) enthusiasm that he spots aforementioned boy, just a sliver of dappled silver fur against a gnarly willow root. as he watches brilliance too makes her appearance. okeanos, who has yet to lose the baby chub rounding his figure, draws himself up importantly and makes his way toward them, waiting 'til he's nearly on top of the root to bark a greeting. "whatcha doin'?" he asks innocently, his green eyes round and oblivious.

He was glad that he wasn't the only one of his family left here now.  Mali's tail wagged slightly when Brilliance appeared, but he wasn't gonna jump up and pounce her right off the bat.  But if she just wanted to hang out, he was cool with that.

He started speaking pretty quietly, a weird thing for the expert yeller, Hey... When you were out there, did you ever-- and that was where Okeanos interrupted. Mali's head whipped to face him, a very sour expression on his features.  Then back to his sister, his words now louder and matching his new mood, changing what he was going to say, --did you find a place where we can dump annoying dumb babies who don't get a clue?  He was so tired of them -- these kids were like fleas!  They were so coddled that they acted way younger than himself, at least in his eyes, and that made it even worse.

brilliance closes the distance when mali accepts her approach. her own tail waves behind her and her slight form moves to reach out as he starts to talk. her ears cup forward, listening, though she isn’t sure she’s too eager to talk about what happened when she was alone. and without solomon? she can see it in the others they miss her sister, too, because she’s not good enough to make up for the two of them.
 
mali is interrupted by someone else and brilliance turns sharply, staring hard at the other puppy. though he’s not so much a puppy now, bigger and thicker than she, but she holds her guard. when mali oh-so-smoothly transition into a subtle threat, brilliance bursts into laughter, unable to even respond as she does her best to catch her breath, lowering her rump to the ground.

mali's insults never really bother him for long, though he doesn't always get them (he's not dumb, he doesn't think, and while he's a little younger than them its not by that much, and anyway he's bigger'n both of them by now, probably). still, combined with brilliance's laughter it doesn't make him feel too good, and he frowns, taking a step back. but! never fear, he won't be disturbed from his attempts at making any sort of positive connection with them.

"sorry," he tries, his expression still tentatively hopeful, "i didn' mean t'interrupt." not that he has any intention of leaving, but he does settle down against another root, making a sort of gesture as if to say you two can keep talkin', i'll just be hanging out right here with you.

Mali just stared at him for a moment.  Really?  This clueless dude is just gonna sit there like he totally was invited?  Newsflash!  He wasn't!  And apparently he wasn't really aware that he was unwelcome.  Like wow, he was even being kind of clever with his wording but these other pups were so defective they didn't like... get it.  Lame.  Mali frowned, looked to Brillo, to Okeanos, then back to his sister, speaking kind of quiet though it wasn't like he could really say something super secret with the brat so close, ugh! You wanna go or...?  Or should they tell him to scram and hope they didn't get in trouble.  Really, he had zero interest in saying anything around this leak right to the enemy.

brilliance is quiet for a long moment, watching as okeanos makes himself comfortable and mali gets more riled up. her ears slick back and she looks up at him, then over at the other kid. maybe for the best. “okay,” she says quietly and turns to go and follow her brother wherever.