Once the large bonfire was lit and the festival had begun in earnest, he hung out with his family as they ate, his hazel gaze roaming the crowd as he tried to remember names and put them with faces. He was familiar enough with his mother's branch of their expanded family well enough to recognize that he should know them even if he wasn't close enough to know them all by name. He was certainly more accustomed to being alone or with just his small family group so being in such a large party with so much noise and talking all around him was somehow both fun and too much all at the same time. Eventually he slipped away from his parents and siblings as everyone began to finish up with their meal and began to settle in to just talking among one another and things of that sort, deciding now was as good a time as any to get a little air.

Moving away from the large campfire, Malik began to walk through the plains, making his way down toward the near by stream. The stars were easier to see once he had moved away from the fire and he was able to breathe a contented sigh as he sat at the water's edge and look up toward the moon and stars that cast everything outside of the radius of the fire's warm glow with a cooler, more white light. He did enjoy just how wide open and clear the sky was here. It was something that he had noticed in his other visits to The Hallows and the other various times he had passed through the area. His extended family had certainly settled in a beautiful place, even if he couldn't fully get behind the whole living inside a castle thing. He was his father's son when it came to his love of being out under the open sky and feeling the breeze in his fur.

"Malik of the Sea"

Easy truth that the party had been overwhelming for Saia. She really didn't dislike being around others or even large groups of strangers, but it was drastically different than her life back at home. She had always stuck real close to her mother while her other siblings were out exploring and learning and probably anything normal that young children would do. Saia preferred to learn from her mother in the palace, and keep close and snuggle with her. Those days had been wearing thin for a long time though as she aged. She felt herself maturing in new ways and that instinctual desire to find and learn her own way in life. It was scary at times, but it was in her blood to overcome and find her way.

Seeing the stream that ran through the plains on their way in, she didn't see any issue with getting a breather taking a walk along the shallow banks. A new sense of relief as she drew further away from the crowds and there seemed to be a few other wolves sparsely around out here. She kept her eyes down in the flow of the water as her paws led her further down. She was almost lost in some kind of empty space in her head as she decompressed and prepared herself to go back in with her siblings again. She wouldn't notice the boy that had been sitting ahead admiring the stars and his surroundings until her paw bumped into him in step. Not too roughly luckily, but his sudden presence in her absent mind was surprising. She drew back just a step or two, an expected reaction for anyone bumping into a stranger. "Oh, sorry. I..." She paused for a moment, looking down at the gentle trickle of the stream beside her. She did feel a little embarrassed. She should have been paying more attention. She wouldn't make a huge deal of it though. She would turn, not abruptly, but ready to leave the boy to his own stargazing hoping that he'd forget she had nearly stepped on him.

"Saia Abraxas-Destruction"

Malik's hazel gaze took in the wide expanse of sky above him while the gentle rush of water from the stream filled his ears, smiling gently while his eyes traced the shapes of the stars and followed the patterns they made. Sometimes he wondered what it all meant or if it meant anything at all, but regardless he enjoyed the night sky and the bright moon that allowed them light to see by at night. He was tempted for a moment to sing to the moon the way his father often did, but drawing that much attention from the nearby crowd wasn’t exactly his style.

As wrapped up as he was in his thoughts, Malik completely missed the presence of another wolf until someone was suddenly right beside him and bumping into him lightly. Okay, maybe it wasn’t all that suddenly, but it felt that way with how distracted he was. He blinked with surprise and turned his gaze toward the black and red woman that seemed to embody the stars he was just admiring who somehow seemed equally surprised at his presence. As she apologized, he tried to catch her gaze again with a friendly grin as he replied, “No worries, it’s fine. No harm done.”

The moment was incredibly brief before she began to turn to leave and even though he wasn’t sure why, he quickly added before she could leave, “Wait. Do you want to join me?” This was definitely not one of his various relatives and her scent told him she was from a completely different pack so he didn’t exactly have an excuse for why he’d want to spend time with her, but maybe that was exactly why he was naturally curious about her. “I’m just stargazing. We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

"Malik of the Sea"