@Frolic 

Dwin had been awoken because of a strange sound that night and after that - unable to fall asleep again - she slid out of her den, stretched and sighed and cast a glance up at the moon, of which only a thin tiny sliver was visible. It had rained earlier, the air was crisp and smelled of earth, pines and fallen leaves. And it occurred to her that out of all seasons she had experienced during her first year of life, the autumn was probably her favorite. Summer heat and sun had made her sluggish, frustrated and annoyed, however, with the change of the seasons, she felt as if she had changed as well. 

She decided to take a walk. Her first thought was to check on the Big Fish of the caldera - something she had begun doing out of a whim, but what now had become a ritual to her. Then she realized it would be too dark to see anything. So - a walk it would be, until something happened and it turned into an adventure. 

It turned out that Dwin was not the only one, who had had hard time falling asleep. After a while she heard the sound of quick, little footfalls, accompanied by yawning at regular intervals. She did not have to guess, who this was - sometimes you can sense people's aura from a mile away and Frolic - she had to give this to her younger sister (reluctantly though) - had a lot of spirit in small packaging. 

For the most part Dwin had been good at ignoring and staying away from Frolic, but ever since Bronco's funeral she kept a watchful presence, in case any conflict would arise between the kids on, who was to blame for his death. She had called the girl brainless and reckless, and silly, she had been annoyed and frustrated with her short attention span and immunity to any kind of wisdom of the elders, but there was this unwritten rule of loyalty between siblings. Yes, you may feel as if you want to murder them, BUT no one else outside the family is allowed or entitled to touch a hair on that sibling's head. 

"Out to feed a hungry bear?" she asked Frolic, stepping out of the darkness and coming to walk next to her. 

"Having the place served for a feast, I see," Dwin remarked, sitting down and watching Frolic carefully. She did not quite believe that perpetuum mobile of a sister, who had sneaked out and away more times than anyone could count, was now ready to fall asleep. "I had heard legends that Frolic sleeps, but I have never witnessed it," she voiced the thought out loud. 

"Where's the spirit of adventure, mhm?" she teased her gently, though realized that she might come to regret this sentence. Her sister did not need any more encouraging, she had plenty of motivation herself. "Or are you going into an early retirement?" she asked.

"Well, with your record on being grounded, I doubt you will get out of here, even if you are 72 years old. So do not bother about being six or nine months old. Think long term - as in forever," Dwin said with a solemn expression. She was exaggerating, of course, because she knew her parents well. That you will never go out again usually lasted for a few days, a week and a half at most. Things may have changed recently, but she had not followed up, since the discipline of kids was not within her jurisdiction. 

"What is that you want to do?" she asked out of interest, assuming that in this semi-sleeping state Frolic would have enough attention span to keep the conversation on topic for few minutes at least. Dwin lied down on her belly and turned her head to face her sister. 

"Sounds familiar," Dwin said this more to herself than to Frolic. With more time to ruminate on, why she was failing with her younger sister, when it came to disciplinary measures, she had figured out that in a way they were very similar in nature. With the difference that the younger Blackthorn was not yet expected to take any responsibilities save for having enough common sense to stay alive. 

She wondered, what should she tell her, because there was a whole lot and Dwin knew that every one of her arguments (you are too young/people die out there - you have a good chance that this will happen to you too) would be dismissed and not taken seriously. Some - such as - you are not trustworthy - sounded too patronizing even to her, though it was true. 

"Why alone?" she asked. "If you are on your own, when you discover something cool - who will believe you, if they are not there to share the discover it with you?" she challenged her gently.  

"True. But things aren't really that awesome, if your friends are not there to share it with you. My observation," Dwin added, having a feeling that this nugget of wisdom would be dismissed too. 

"Ever heard of two beasts called a Compromise and a Deal?" she asked, knowing well that, if Frolic showed interest, Dwin would live to regret this moment. On the other hand - she felt kind of sorry for the kid. Besides she would be off and gone at some point anyway. When being obedient would have outlived its novelty.

"Well, Compromise Blackthorn was our great-great-great-great grandfather or uncle of sorts. And one day he got caught up in a landslide and found himself almost unharmed, save for his hind-paw that was stuck between rocks. With no help around and no chance to get himself free, he began to weigh out his options - have four legs and have him die there or get rid of that foot and run free. He decided that being a tripod was not that bad of a thing, freed himself, got married five times and spawned tons of Blackthorns to continue to cause havoc in the world," Dwin told the first part of the story. 

"His brother Deal on the other hand got in a similar situation, was more vain and less inclined to lose any part of his astonishingly handsome being and therefore called for all gods young and new. One showed up and made an offer - if Deal was to give him his first-born, he would set the man free. Being a man with a flexible understanding of morals, he shrugged, told - if you can find him, take him, and was set free," she finished and paused, letting the two stories to set in. 

"In both cases Grandpa Com and Granduncle Deal gave up something to gain something," she explained. "Which means that there is no one way to reach your goal. If you give up something now, you may achieve it sooner than, when you are 6 months old finally." 

"Well - it is your choice. A foot or your first-born, though it depends on, who you are making a deal with," Dwin shrugged, wondering, if that god ever found the first-born or Deal, who was an entirely imaginary Blackthorn, had lied about that too and never pro-created, because... well, because he was denied entrance and the parsley beds, where kids were found. For bad behaviour. Things her mind came up with, when it was sleepy. 

"Or a bit of your independence - you will be of age soon enough there anyway," she said, leaving out the part about "with all the inconveniences and boredoms it entails". But at Frolic's age she would have dismissed it too. "I mean, if mom and dad agrees to let you go scouting only in the company of someone else - why not ask around?" she said. "Scouting's important and you can learn a great deal along the way," she explained.

"I went out on my big journey, when I was nine months old and I can say that things would have been more fun, had I prepared more beforehand," she finished.

"Why not with adults?" Dwin asked and immediately realized that there weren't that many left, who could do that. Teya would likely not want to, Amalia was injured and recovering, Sylvie... yeah, she was not a perfect rolemodel for outdoor adventurous life. She did not even list her parents.

"I can take you out - if you promise not to suddenly disappear from my sight and tell, where you want to go before you take off," she said. "In the meanwhile I can hang around in the background and you can pretend to be on your own and independent all you want," she finished thinking that her offer was better than losing a foot or a first-born. 

"Well, if you want to go - I suggest leaving in spring, when its warm and there is food around. I went in winter and I starved pretty quickly. And being constantly cold is not fun either."

Instead of shaking the outstretched paw Dwin leaned forward and snapped jokingly at it - this coincided with Frolic pulling her paw back. "You've lost your figurative paw - just so you know," she warned her and then yawned. It was still not very warm. She side-glanced at her sister, who was ready to doze off in the leaf-pile and could see that in a matter of an hour or two she would probably have to get up and return to the warmth of the puppy-pile and two adults squeezed in the same den like pickles in a jar. 

"Well, there is a story about Dreamstone Blackthorn, the inventor of sleep and dreams..." she began and by the time the story had even reached the end both had fallen asleep.