Raven's Watch Over snow by winter sown

Concurrent to Brillo's threads, so probably backdated a day or two?

He'd noticed @Brilliance had wandered off not terribly long after she actually had, and that was enough to make him finally cross the border and flee into the unknown.  Okay, not really flee, but he did run for a few hundred yards while trying to follow her trail just so the creepy as hell adults weren't gonna stalk him again.  Seriously that whole thing was weird and he didn't want to deal with them being dumb again.

Anyway.  He was on the track for a while then lost it under a pile of fresh snow and some recent other animal activity.  It wasn't like he was at all a good tracker, either -- his education was pretty lacking in many things as he'd been mostly educated at the College of Trial and Error.  In the end, Mali ended up going the complete opposite direction.  He did think ahead to try and keep some landmarks in mind so he'd be able to find his way back but at least for now, he'd be quite happy to be lost for a while.  Being lost meant that the dumb baby brigade wasn't going to be on his heels.  He could actually get some time for himself and not feel like the coven was staring him down trying to will him into nonexistence.  Besides, hopefully he'd be stumbling across his sister on the way and then they could just hang out and be awesome.

It was a little bit of a thrill wandering off into the unknown, even if things were a little miserable as far as the weather went -- but hey, he was nice and fluffy by this time of the year so he'd just deal with it and maybe try to find some shelter if he was still out and about when it got dark.  He still wasn't picking up any more scents of his sister (obviously) but this seemed like the logical direction to go in, so he was sure he'd run into her eventually.  At some point he'd crossed a mostly-frozen river, but now he was winding his way in towards the mountain's feet, where there seemed to be a little forested patch rather like willows, but with a different selection of trees.  Discerning that this place wasn't exactly super actively traveled, he found himself a nice somewhat clear patch at the base of a tree, flopping down to relax a bit and enjoy not having someone showing up to scold him over something stupid.

Aries had been travelling frequently in recent times, though his wanderings always trailed back to the forest that never slept, where the leaves stayed green even through the winter chill. He always returned; primarily for Nyx, as it was his duty to protect and defend her... and now, Damien, too. Whoever they brought into the world in the future would be more targets for him to guard - he was their shield, it was his purpose.

The reaper's frosted gaze tipped up toward the grey sky, where a prickly burst of snowflakes gasped from above to shoot down and spray the land beneath; the breath of polar dust scattered over his nape, but Aries cared not to shake them from his fur. A scent had caught in his nostrils, a distant, almost familiar scent... there was only one person it could be, that tempted his legs to drift forward in pursuit - the one he came across was not her, and when his lips parted to taste the air on his tongue, he caught very little trace of what had flooded his senses only moments before.

Glacial eyes watched the youth with a cold stare, hardened like the sharp edge of a knife - ordinarily, he might have teased them, or growled til they fled; perhaps even attempted snapped their neck purely because he could, but he didn't. "Who are you?" Came the disdainful grunt, rumbling from the depths of his throat.

He was just happily relaxing when some grumpy dude showed up to bug him.  What was with adults?  They all seemed to be pretty much jerks, uniformly.  Lily made bad choices, sure, and Delight even was kind of questionable after some of his actions.  And now this dude, whoever he was, proving the world was pretty much full of jerks and morons.  Mali was pretty sure this guy was just one of many who thought he was apparently still a five pound ball of innocent fluff and was annoyed at having to go take him back home.  That was pretty much all he could think of, at least.

And so, the boy frowned and didn't budge an inch from his little spot under the tree, Look, I know my way home, I want to be here, you can just keep going, I'm fine.  Maybe everyone was just as dumb as a box of rocks and somehow he'd missed the class in being brainwashed and stupid.  But heck, as long as that guy stayed as far away as he was, Mali didn't have too much to worry about -- he was still a gangly thing and would likely be able to flee if necessary.  He was alone, sure, but as far as he figured, he had nothing to fear.

A single brow quirked at the disgruntled statement from the boy, and the corners of his mouth twitched with mild amusement - he could remember being like that when he was just as young, frustrated with the ways of the adults; it got him in trouble countless times, but it had never swayed his motives. 

He'd shed the stupidity, though.

"Alright," came the gruff reply, teeth glinting from a half-grin that lasted brief seconds - his intention had never been to return this snowy youth to his homepack... the idea had barely crossed his mind. But perhaps he could use this to his advantage, the reaper mused in silence, silvery ears cupping forward on his crown. "I'll leave you alone forever if you answer two small questions." There -- now he'd get what he wanted, and the boy would be reassured that Aries would never step foot near him again. Or, well... if somehow they ended up running into one another in the future (as unlikely as that may be)... - but he didn't have to know that.

He squinted suspiciously, Oh yeah, I totally believe that'll happen.  The boy had trust issues.  Nobody actually did what they said, especially not adults.  Adults just said whatever they wanted to get their way and didn't care how close it was to reality.  They would manipulate each other and live in their own twisted little worlds.  Even his father wasn't immune.

Mali still wasn't going to move unless he had to.  As long as the guy didn't try anything particularly nasty, the dappled kid wasn't going to do much.  He could sit there and be bored or something if he expected Mali to be swayed by much.  He was jaded from what all had gone on in his life, and this guy was just a reminder.