Dwin's anger at Dee had dwindled after a while. A month was a too long time to feel disappointed and hurt. Yes - she was still not entirely happy with the path that her sister had chosen, but she understood her better. After all - her leaving had not been much different (except she had told everyone that she had been going) - and she would have gone regardless of what any of her siblings had thought at the time. Besides - Aiden had dispersed soon after, Sorana had gone as well. So - in the end - this was the way young people did things.

Spring had come with warmer days and sunnier days and Dwin enjoyed them immensely. When she was not busy searching for food (which consumed most of her free time), she sunbathed, she swam in the lake and explored every corner of the caldera. Turned out that there had been some truth in Eljay's words on things that were still to discovered here (or something along the lines - she was as bad remembering all the details as he was retelling every single story Finley had ever told him). 

Today, for example, she was perched upon a cliff that gave her a perfect view at the clear lake water below and she spent her time either reading the scents that the wind-post brought with it or observing the lake carefully, just in case the big fish were to appear. 

The Big Fish did not grace Dwin with its presence, but someone else did - a wolf. Which - all things considered - was a better option, because you could socialize with them. Without the danger of your conversation partner deciding to have a bite out of you. Of course, there were tales of cannibals in faraway lands, but Dwin was sure that neither Maia, nor Eljay, nor Teya would ever allow any one such to live in Brecheliant. 

"Hi!" she greeted the dark she-wolf cheerfully, when she had closed the distance between the two. The girl cast a quick look at the surface of the water, in case there was something else going on (a kraken maybe?), then back at the packmate. "Have a date with the Man of the Lake?" she asked with a sly smile. 

"You think so?" Dwin asked with an incredulous smile, tilting her head to the side. Because "The Man of The Lake" was something she had just come up with. "Even, if you were to become his seventh wife? With two scorned, two he has beheaded, one dead and one still alive and well?" her description of the man in question sounded very much like the ordeal of Henry VIII and his marriage ordeals that earned him a place in the world history. 

"I do not think that's a good idea," she said with a mischievous grin.

"Why should you die as a miserabely miserable old maid?" Dwin furrowed her brow, not quite understanding the joke and therefore taking Amalia's words seriously. "And why old? Why die at all? Why couldn't you be and remain happy and cheerful and awesome maid instead?" she asked - again at her age the ideas of social role concepts and what was expected from women in the society were quite foreign. "Why die at all?" she finished and fell silent out of respect to her companion so that she had time to gather her thoughts and answer properly. 

"And with Brecheliant having dragons of their own here - I do not think it will be looked upon kindly, if you slay any," she pointed out. Again - serious. The same way people would react if someone had suggested to engage in a bit of "murder spree" in their free time. 

Dwin usually had a good sense of humour, but somehow she had not understood Amalia's jokes at all. She did feel a little pang of shame for reacting the way she had, but she felt better knowing that no offence had been taken. "Well, if they treat girls like that, then those societies are not worth living in," she declared. "And how would shaming a spinster would help finding her mate? I mean, it is not your fault, if no right person comes along? Or there isn't any around. I would rather think that this community should join forces and find the best possible match both for the good of the lady and the country," she shared. 

"So being old is worse than being alive?" Dwin asked. 

"Yeah, I do understand them - I have not found men particularly interesting either," Dwin shrugged. This statement did not mean that she thought of the opposite sex as inferior to her own. What she referred to was the fact that romance in the sense that leads to mateship and kids and living until "death does us apart" was foreign to her. 

"Who cares, what some morons think," was her only remark. Really, why bother with people, who did not agree with you on fundamental things. "What matters is, what you want," she added. "What is that you want?" she asked a very bold question to a person you have just met, but Amalia was free to answer as honestly as she wished.

That last sentence made Dwin frown for a minute, because she remembered Dee and how she had decided to change her life without including her sister in it. That had not felt right and still stung, even if she knew deep down that her decision to travel around wilds during winter had been something similar. Yes - she had made her plans known, but - no - she had never asked any of her siblings, if they had wanted to come along. Or their opinion about the whole deal. To be honest - that little voice of moral goodness and empathy had not been as loud as it was now and Dwin sometimes wished that it gnawed on her conscience less often nowadays. Being good was fine and dandy, when it was easy for you. Not, when it did not align with, what you actually wanted. 

"What did you want, when you were young?" Dwin asked, because certainly the lady before her had once been closer to her age and then things must have been clear cut. For example, Dwin... here she furrowed her brow, because, frankly speaking, small goals such as having lunch and dinner aside, she did not have anything long-term planned or desired. Had she become old in such a short period of time already?

"Where did your brother go?" Dwin asked, wondering, if Amalia had felt the similar sense of loss and betrayal she had, when Dee had set off without a word. Aiden too - but their relationship had been more "we are siblings and that's it" kind of formal and distance had certainly not helped to improve that.

"Didn't it feel awfully lonely to be on your own like that?" an inquiry again drawn from her own experience. "Why did you choose to come here?" plain curiousity. It was obvious to her that Brecheliant was the best place to live in the world, but it was always interesting to hear, what other's found great about her home. 

"Mom is the best person in the world," Dwin agreed with Amalia's assessment. Had she expressed anything less than words of greatness so to say, then she would have met a fierce and rightfully angry opponent, defending her mother's honor. "Dad is just as great - have you spoken with him?" she asked. It was evident that this young Blackthorn loved her parents very much and both were considered gold-medalists in being awesome and great. 

"What about your parents? Didn't they miss you going away?" she inquired next. "Do you have other siblings?"

"What do you mean - expect more of you than you were?" Dwin asked curiously, finding the concept unfamiliar. Maia and Eljay and the rest of the adult crew, who had helped to bring up the new batch of Blackthorns (and it is no small feat, because even half-blood Blackthorns mean a lot of work), had been nothing but encouraging to the kids. Of course - there were certain measures of discipline and lessons in good manners, but in regards of, who the kids were going to become - the sky was the limit. 

"Like grow a wings and turn into a bird? Or become a unicorn?" she chuckled. 

"That's an odd thing to think. You can't be anything else but you," Dwin said with a crooked smile, incredulous that such people even existed, let alone believed such nonsense. "You... if they want you to be any different... they do not truly appreciate you," she said. "Unless you are a jerk," Dwin smiled.

"You were not jerks, were you?"

"Being honest is tricky," Dwin remarked. "You can claim to be a very honest person, but people do not usually like that you are too honest with them or about them. That's, what mom says," and to this matter - she had some experience with this as well. Dwin certainly did not like, when people were lecturing her on, what she should or should not do. Or, what she should or should not be. Of course, with the doting parents she had, she did not hear this often. And probably they were clever about the way they delivered the wish for their offspring to improve. 

"Would you like to go find something to eat?" she asked after a pause, during which she - quite uncharacteristically to herself - could not come up with anything to ask Amalia.