Dwin had had a choice between turning back or going forward.

At the coast there, while feeling enchanted by the ocean and all the people she had met and things she had learned, she had been close to a breaking point too. It seemed that the more miles between her and Brecheliant were, the stronger was the pull to return. If memories of her home had dwindled a little, while she had still romped around the flatlands and wilderness, now they had a tendency to visit in her sleep. Vivid recollections of warm summer days with endless warmth, sunlight and all things great. There were now mornings and afternoons, when Warlord Svenson woke up with wet cheeks and huge sadness in her heart. 

She had made a choice - a difficult one. To move on. With a promise to herself that, when the time was right, there would be no shame to return to her family's nest to recuperate, to bask in love and affection and to tell all about her adventures. With a goal in mind for future, it was easier to cope with today and here she was - had walked along the coast, past a mountain range and entered an entirely different world. At first it had not seemed that different from the one she had left on the other side of the mountain range, but the knowledge of being now very far from her home gave the scenery entirely different set of shades and colours. 

There - she did not have to walk on her own for a very long time. For she spotted someone in the distance and upon coming closer she was glad to see another young wolf. Fully preoccupied - so that Dwin felt it would be rude to interrupt right away. She sat down and watched the other curiously. 

"Name's Dwin," the young Blackthorn introduced herself, when Reverie had stoppe dancing, turned to her and greeted her in a friendly manner. She took it as an encouragement to come closer to have a good look at the first foreign face of these lands. The girl was a beautiful creature, who had some elf-like ethereal qualities. "You looked like an impersonation of a sunlight there," she told. 

"Happen to be familiar with the father Sun and his family, eh?" she asked, playfully tilting her head to the side and waiting to see, if the other would pick up the thread of the game and continue to play along.

Something about the girl made Dwin think about her sister Dee. They did not look similar to one another, but the demeanor felt familiar. Or was it Sylvie - her older sibling? In any case - Reverie embodied all the lovely feminine qualities that Dwin did not care about, though occasionally that inner goddess inside her cracked open an eye and murmured something lazily. 

"Well, that is something new. Are you unique or there are more of you? I think that sunrays rarely play on their own. They have brothers and sisters too," she mused. "But maybe the sun on this side of the mountains act differently than on the other. I come from over there," she waved towards the direction she had come. "And you - in fact - are the first sunlight I have met in quite a long time."

"Why were you separated?" Dwin asked, hoping that this she-wolf was a fellow soul, who had decided to become a grand explorer like her. After meeting Val she had been thinking that having a companion would be better than to travel alone. 

"I left my home few weeks ago, I wanted to see the world and so far it has not disappointed me," she shared, just in case the other felt shy on the first go to tell her story. "I have met a lot of interesting people and beasts that I would neve had, if I had stayed home," she said. 

"Though Brecheliant - that's, how my home is called - literally means an enchanted forest. There is plenty to see there too. In case you ever happen to be in that area," it was an informal invitation to come and visit at some point. 

"Where do you live now? Who are your people?" she asked.

Dwin sensed that there was more to the story than Reverie let on, but did not press on it. Yes, she liked to ask questions a lot, but she never tried to dig for truth, if the person seemed unwilling to share it. At times this did happen by accident, when she got carried away and did not notice beforehand that question was good. Therefore she accepted the tale of the dark island and siblings being the only flickers of light in it. With this narrative - hers about dragon daycares and Big Fish in the lake did not seem unrealistic either. 

"Kvarsheim - and here I thought that only my home had an odd name," Sapphique had sounded very interesting too. "What does it mean - Kva-a-rsheim? What does your current home boast with?"

"Well, living stones sound far more exciting than the good-old-fashioned dead ones," Dwin replied with a smile, feeling as if she had met a kindred soul. Life without a bit of creativity to colour it was not interesting. She had guessed correctly that all of the amazing stories she had heard about notable Blackthorns and Redleafs were distilled and concentrated versions of their lives. It could not be so that every single day of the 5 or 7 or more years they had spent on this Earth had been filled with adventures and epic things. Even in her life the proportion of truly amazing and memorable things happening was diluted by many days of boredom and routine stuff that you could only characterize in one word "normal". 

"What do you think they would tell you, if they were alive?" she suggested. 

"Do you think stones would be like us - capable of lying? Or not telling the whole truth. Or telling from a perspective of a stone," Dwin mused. After all we all tell the stories in such a way that is important to us and we omit the details of, what we do not think are important. "Maybe they would tell you all the history of, how moss is growing on them or how there has once been an anthill nearby and those ants have run up and down the stone. OR... that there are grubs underneath them, tickling their feet," she suggested. "And maybe, if any wolves had ever lived nearby, the stone would not have paid any attention to them," she finished. 

"I nearly agree," Dwin nodded, after hearing, what Reverie had had to say on the topic. "I think that, while lying is morally wrong - at least that's, what my parents say - truth isn't always as interesting or exciting. It could be horrible too," she dwelled on the topic. "Or things rarely are as amazing in real life as in one's imagination. I thought that my travelling would be all crazy adventures like they tell in stories, but it has not been like that. Interesting - certainly, but very different," she said. "I would prefer an improved version of truth any day than the actual one. Unless... unless it was something very, very important. Then it probably is going to be different. Somehow," she sighed. 

"You know, I think that with this is like with the rule of magic. If you have magic powers then almost certainly somewhere someone will have them too," she told. "And just because you decide to do good stuff with them, does not mean the other gifted one will do the same," she said. "Ever wished to have a superpower?"

Dwin was comfortable in claiming that giving boring truth some colours was preferable, because she had not experienced the devastating effect lies told to deceive people or trick something out of them. Therefore had Reverie chosen to vehemently argue and disagree with her take on story-telling, she would have listened with great interest and drawn very different conclusions.

"Flying the way you are now with some fancy fairy dust sprinkled on you or being given wings?" she thought that the latter was practical, because dust could always come to an end and it was more like floating than flying. On the other hand - wings could become a burden too. Hiding properly in the undergrowth... that would a be a disadvantage. 

"I dunno. I like the way I am now, though I would like to be able to teleport. You know - I am here now, then there is a flash and I am over that mountain range in an entirely different place. In an instant," she said.