Dwin had not set her foot out out of Brecheliant ever since she had returned with Dee in tow. First she had needed time to recover, second - there was so much to do and help the adult population there, that it left hardly any time to go and discover life outside. However, on a particular summer afternoon she found an unexpected gap of free time in her calendar. Teya's kids were busy learning the ropes of impending adult life and the new batch of potato siblings that Maia and Eljay had brought home were in no need of assistance yet. They were fine to be eating, sleeping, not bothering people and feeling quite content in being cute, but useless. 

Dwin had realized that, while she liked the kids, she did not feel any particular maternal instinct triggered by them. Her interest was in equal doses scientific and amused, but if anyone had asked, whether she wanted something like this too, her anwer would be a firm "no". If asked "why", she would simply shruge and tell that she did not have the feeling of "yes, yes, YES!". This is a brief summary of, what Dwin was thinking, while she walked all the way from caldera to the Bramblepoint and first heard and then caught sight of a man singing his soul out to the sky. Having never heard anyone distort perfectly nice howls in such a way, she sat down, listened and felt both amazed and curious, if by any chance the man had been afflicted by temporary madness. Or a curse in a parallel universe. After all, if the gods could fulfill your wish and turn everything you touched gold, then surely making you sing every time you tried to speak was not impossible either. 

"Oy, siren man," she called out to the stranger to warn him of her approach. "How many fair maidens and men have you lured in your trap and drowned?" she asked, grinning at her own clever joke. 

First, Dwin was not exactly a kid anymore. She was a proud young adult, who thought herself all wise and mighty and powerful, but still had a lot of maturing to do. Second, while she had never had any problems in having conversations with all kinds of people, she read something off about the way the man had addressed her. Dwin furrowed her brow, eyed the fellow suspiciously and then let it go. 

"Nope," Dwin shook her head. "I am not into singing and poetry," she replied, being crap at the first and having never understood, why would people think of the latter as an art form. In her honest opinion, it was a waste of brain energy. "I am into fishing though. Does this method help catching fish better?" because in that case she would/could give it a try. 

"OOOOh, I know an Amalia!" Dwin exclaimed and the fact that Alaric did look a bit similar to her packmate registered later. "She lives at my home in Brecheliant - were you on your way to visit her?" this appeared to be the most logical explanation of him being here, why else than to see his long lost sibling? 

"I can take you there, if you want? Surely, you two have a lot to talk about and she must... will be very happy to see you!" she suggested, jumping to her feet and ready to go any time, if such encouragement was expressed. 

The last line made Dwin frown. It had been months now, since Dee had disappeared and, while the better part of her had accepted that this had been something her sister had needed, the more selfish side still felt hurt. It was like a small wound that she kept picking open and therefore it did not heal properly, but continued to ooze and fester. Time from time she played out imaginary scenarios of them meeting again - and they ranged from tearful reunions to her being angry and shouting and expressing all the anger she felt. But then it occurred to her - what if Dee was dead and gone? And the very idea made her humble again and feel very bad for even having these heretic thoughts. And this cycle continued and continued and continued and Dwin could not quite find a way to get out of it. 

"Okay," she shrugged in response. He did not seem to be very eager to see his sister. "Do you irritate each other often?" she asked out of curiousity. Perhaps, being at odds with a sibling was not an entirely unique perspective. An older man like him should know more about this. 

"Also, when you really, really, really do not want to see their face?" Dwin asked tilting her head to the side in wonder. Because, when fights between siblings had got too heated, Maia and Eljay had employed a tactic of "timeout", making each kid get out of the other's face and cool off elsewhere. This had a huge success rate and the Blackthorn kids would have entered adulthood with some pieces of ears, toes and tails less, had they been forced to sit down, stare at each other and have things resolved. 

"What if you want to see them and at the same time you know you will be very, very, very angry, when you do? You kind of want to, but do not want to at the same time?" Dwin pushed the subject further, curious to hear the man's perspective, but not too optimistic about, whether it would be useful to her. 

Dwin did not understand, whether Alaric's remark about the reflection was his attempt to joke or he had meant it. Still - she chuckled, thinking, but not saying out loud that it was no wonder, he saw himself in Amalia. All black wolves looked like each other. So did white wolves. And only those, who had colours - even greyscales like her - were truly unique. She would probably not be able to tell Alaric apart from Amalia, if they were standing far away. 

"But, what if that anger does not go away. Even after those few minutes? And if that anger spoils every good and great thing you want to do? It just creeps in and does not let you go and you ruminate that thought over and over and over again?" Dwin pressed for a more detailed explanation.

Dwin misheard Alaric - instead of mediation she heard meditation and expression spoke volumes. "I can't stand meditation! That's is such... such annoying nonesense," she exclaimed. A long long time ago a nomad had stopped by at Brecheliant. He had told a great deal about the philosophy and religion of his tribe and had promised to show a technique on, how to become one with oneself or... well, Dwin did not remember all the details. What she remembered vividly was, that the more she was asked to breathe in and out deeply and imagine herself going on a journey in the universe, the more angry and agitated she became, because of, how slow everything had been. And how silly all the man's words had sounded. 

'Nah, that does not work for me. Maybe for some, but not me," she dismissed the topic without going in for further explanation. "Ever had experience that you were promised would be awesome, but it was quite the opposite?"

The chit-chatted all the way to the Brecheliant's borders, where they either met Alaric's sibling or in her absence decided to pay a visit at a different time.