Even with the thick furs that made up her bed, sometimes her room in the depths of her family's home was too damp and cool for her liking. Most often, she'd tough out the chill simply out of her own stubbornness, but that night as she lay awake- her mind refusing to slow long enough to break, it didn't take her long to admit defeat. With a quiet grumble to herself, she eventually hauled herself up as silently as she could, trying her best not to disturb anyone. It wasn't out of consideration for any of her relatives, more out of the uncertainty she maintained when it came to exchanging small talk. Her patience ran thin while struggling to explain herself.

In the low lighting, her sterling gaze settled on one of the smaller furs that lay sprawled out on her bed. She moved to grab it, tossing it over her shoulders as she crept her way outside into the humid warmth of the pale moonlight. Things had already begun to cool off in the absence of the summer sun- though the exterior rock still clung to some of the lingering heat. When the wind blew hard enough, there was still a bit of a bite to it, but the outcropping of rock did she intended to lay against did a good job at taking the worst of it. Gently removing the blanket from her back, she smoothed it out over a flat spot just outside the entrance. Satisfied, Mariah circled a time or two before making herself comfortable.

As her attention lingered on the sparkling lake in the distance, watching the subtle glimmer as it mirrored the night sky- the ambiance of the evening did more to instill a sense of peace than any words of comfort could have. The echo of the ocean marked time for the entire island, and while it was doing a somewhat effective job at slowing the pace of her thoughts as they raced through the back of her mind. It just wasn't quite able to halt the procession altogether. Within any luck, she could find her surrender before the sunrise ... but for now, she would wait.

"Mariah Mendacium"

While ordinarily a decent sleeper, Alastor had also had his senses highly trained to alert him to any sort of disturbance in the middle of the night—an unfortunate side effect of living a life where anyone could murder you at any time, especially when your guard was down. So when the subtle sounds of paws moving through the cave in the dead of night was picked up by his keen auds, Alastor's eyes snapped open, Stygian optics virtually invisible in the dark of the den much like his massive form was. He waited for a beat, tensed, waiting to see if that sound was someone sneaking in to try to kill him or his family, or someone sneaking out. When no one emerged from the darkness, Alastor lifted his head an inch and peered about the den, only rising to massive paws once he heard nothing any longer. The gigantic sire wolf made his way to the chamber his pups slept in, noting that only Malico was within. Mariah was absent.

With a concerned frown tugging at his lips, Alastor sniffed the air, catching his youngest daughter's scent fresh in the tunnels and leading outside. Moving surprisingly quiet for as large as he was, the dark brute followed her trail out of the mouth of the den. Where was his pup going to in the middle of the night? Turned out, the answer was even simpler and more surprising than he expected. Emerging out into the moonlight, Alastor spotted his onyx and ruby princess laid out on her blanket atop a rock, gazing out at the midnight forests of their island home. A curious tilt angled the brute's head as he watched her quietly for a moment. Maybe she couldn't sleep with the summer warmth? Maybe she wasn't feeling well? Either way, Alastor plodded over to where she was resting, extending his claws to click against the stone with each step so as not to startle his child.

"Trouble sleeping, little love?" Alastor called out to Mariah once he had come upon her, a gentle smile that was usually so uncharacteristic to the demon wolf gracing his features as he looked at his daughter. Plopping down onto his belly beside the rock, Alastor looked out over their island with her, watching the stars sparkle in the sea and the lake. "What's on your mind, my darling?"

"Alastor Mendacium"

It was quiet for a long time before she noticed something out of place. The clicking of nails against stone alerted her to the approach of someone- not that she was afraid, or even surprised. The sound seemed to resonate near the entrance of her family’s den, so the question was just a matter of who she had managed to wake on the way out. Her inquiring eyes immediately flashed toward the source, softening ever so slightly as she identified her father in time for him to ask if she was having trouble sleeping. “Mmm-hmm” Mariah answered lightly while offering a drowsy, half-sided grin before returning her sterling gaze to the star-lit lake once more. While she might have thought she’d be better off alone, maybe the presence of another could be beneficial. If someone was going to intervene, part of her was glad it had been her dad. Though, when he asked her what it was that was so heavy on her mind, she wasn’t entirely sure of what could be said. Opening up about certain things was far more difficult than she could have ever anticipated.

In the end, she’d allow herself to express the vulnerability she was feeling- as much as she hated doing so. With a deepened sigh, she’d tilt her head to face her father as she spoke. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Daddy.” Mariah admitted, tone layered with uncertainty. It nearly felt like a confession, the way the words rolled off her tongue. But as the brief moment of hesitance settled between them, she felt like she needed to provide more of an explanation. “I feel stagnant- like I’m not accomplishing anything, and it’s the most frustrating thing in the world.” The brief moment of her lowered walls promptly transitioned into outward annoyance. Granted, one could argue that the likelihood of a solution being found in the dead of night was probably slim to none. But logic and emotion didn’t always coincide.

"Mariah Mendacium"