As it is often the case with young adults - they are more wrapped in their own world and self-importance and therefore might miss the tragedies and turmoils in live's of others. While Amalia had gone through a hell of her own, Dwin had begrudgingly accepted that she would never be in the centre of attention again. And she had taken the role of baby-sitter - not her favourite job in the world, but it gave her aging parents at least some sort of respite. 

Time from time she would go on her own adventures, enjoying the aloneness and the chance of doing, what she wanted. Today she was on the way for such outing and, when she spotted Amalia in the distance, she figured she would not mind the company. "Hey!" she greeted, when she was within hearing distance. "Busy today?"

Dwin cringed a little, when Amalia mentioned siblings following her around. She looked quickly over her shoulder to make sure that none was sneaking up on her ninja-style, then turned back to the packmate. "No, not today. They are quite handful and they are toothful as well," she said, having been a chew-toy to those shark-teeth on more than one occasion and, when they attacked in a group, reprimanding them with growls and snaps had been fruitless. Recently she had chosen to run, when she heard the gang in the distance. 

"I just don't understand the appeal of kids," she said truthfully. "I admire my parents for choosing to have me and going through this, but I am cured of the desire to ever have my own," she explained. "So - want to go to the lake?" she suggested visiting Lake Rodney right outside the caldera. "That's pretty damn far from the rendevouz's site."

Well... Dwin had learned that, while she did not hate her siblings and that her indifference to them had decreased with them growing up to a sentient age, "love" may be a bit of a strong word to describe, how she felt. She liked them enough - as one would like zoo animals. It was interesting to observe them, engage with them, but it was also nice to leave them to her parents and get away. 

"What have you been up to lately?" Dwin asked, while they were walking westwards from the caldera. 

"Oooh, that's unfortunate," Dwin gave a sincere half-hearted attempt to feel 100% compassionate, but recently news about lost siblings were not something that would excite her too much. On the contrary. Every instance of losing sight of either Frolic or someone else from the brood, meant that she would have to spend hours to look for that kid and then try to compose herself so that she would not rip that kid to pieces. Or give them a hearty shake. Since adults in comparison to little kids could make their own decisions, them being gone or disappearing - well, that was their problem not Dwin's. 

"Well, in my experience... the lost person will either turn up or they won't. And there is very little I or you could do about it," she said, referring to Dee's disappearance and the somewhat frosty reunion months later. "I am to saying this means your worry is is in any way... useless, but that's how life is. People just go."

Dwin pondered briefly over "they all seem to leave me eventually" part, which so resonated with the time, when she too had felt disappointed by Dee's choice to go and the slightly rocky reunion after that. She had learned this was the wrong way to think about it. People going somewhere else was not meant as a way to insult or hurt you. It was their personal choice and you were either included in it or not. "Thinking like that does not help you at all," she remarked. "They do not leave you, they simply do not include you in their future plans. And therefore you can "not include them in yours" either to have it even," she suggested. This worked for her. 

"We'll see, when we get there. There is always a possibility that we do not get there at all," she grinned. "The woods are dark and dangerous, you know," she added. 

"Mom told me that Aunt Wraen used to say that in order to not be afraid of dark you have to imagine being the very worst thing anyone could meet there. In the woods," Dwin added, but she liked Amalia's suggestion too. It was the same idea, but from a different perspective. 

"So - why dark and not the loveliness of sunlight?" Dwin asked out of the blue.