"Why do bad things happen to good people without a reason?" Dwinn latched on a thought that Adlartok had expressed. "My dad's first mate - Aunt Wildfire - died soon after she gave birth to my older siblings. That is not fair," she told, though there was a different side of this medal. Had Wildfire survived, then Dwinn would not be sitting here talking to this old and grizzled man. "I don't believe that she did anything wrong in her life to deserve that. Dad said that she was a very good person. Kind and loving. And yet she died. And then some bear that constantly attacks a pack by the ocean - Sapphique - and causes a lot of harm, it lives. Why do you think is it so?  Wouldn't a Wildfire make much better contribution to the world than one murderous bear?" she asked, though in the inquiry itself stood the answer. There was a lot of shit going on in the world and you could do nothing about it. No one asked your opinion either.

"What do you think - what makes people do evil things?" she wondered next, because that was a logical continuation on topic of war and reasons behind it. 

"I never thought of that. Why would they do such a thing? Allow those, who hurt them back? I would not," Dwin really did not understand the complexity of people's nature, needs and choices they made in life. "But, what if that bad thing is not a person? Aunt Wildfire died of an illness. There have been people that get into accidents or someone takes their life. If a person is struck by lightening... you cannot really stop it, can you? You do not have a choice of whether the lightening will come into your life or not. It is not about letting in, it is about having no say in it. I don't like it," she furrowed her brow, when she said this. The idea the even she was not protected from the evil in this world was disconcerning. There were so many things she wanted to do in life, to achieve and having an event or a person standing in her way, worse - taking her off the track she had decided to take, was annoying.

"So - do you think we should feel sorry not only to the victim, but try to understand the evil-doer to some extent as well?" Dwin said this and felt that probably this was one of the hundred answers that Adlartok had promised she would not like at all. "Though to be honest - if someone attacked  me, I would not really care about their past. I would want to hit them back hard and so that they would never try to do it again," she declared. "I don't think that "not knowing better" is any excuse to being a jerk."

Dwin suppressed a growl, when the older wolf crossed her personal space and touched her. Had it been anyone her age or a sibling, they would have earned not only that but a snap as well. Since this fellow was older and there was a hierarchy that worked between wolves of different walks of life even outside pack borders, she simply drew her ears back and looked away. When he removed his paw, she got to her feet, retreated few steps so that he would not be able to do this again and shook her coat and by doing this - freed herself from the uncomfortable feeling. 

"That is true. You were rude and now I like you less," she replied. "I can also flip your argument - how can you be sure that I not worse than I appear to be?"

It turned out that just because you thought you were the worse thing to meet out here, did not mean that others thought the same way too. Somehow - while the tone of their conversation was still neutral, Dwin felt distrust begin to tingle at her fingertips. She watched the man carefully, while he talked her down, and paid more attention to whom she was actually talking to than before. Seemed that he had exposed her bluff with such an ease, but try as she might she could not figure out, whether this would be the right time to start a retreat, while there was still time for that. 

"Well, as one of my friends said - there must be balance in all things," she smiled at him brightly. "I cannot trade a pair of your mutilated fingers for my severed head," she said. "I like my head very much and where it is now and I think that even you would not be half as bold and tough, if you were missing half of your paw."

Adlartok reassured Dwin that he had no intention of hurting her, but somehow the magic of the conversation had disappeared and she no longer wanted to spend more time in his company. It was getting cold too - standing so long in one place and if she was to sleep tonight in a nice, cosy place instead out in the fields, where the wind raged, it was high time she began to search for it. 

"Well, it was interesting talking to you, Adlartok," she wanted to say "old man" instead, but again they were not on that kind of friendly basis. "Good luck in... whatever endeavours you have in the future! Don't kill people," she grinned, waited for him to say something in return and then took off.