Dwin would not have even considered turning westwards, had it not been for the very loud frog chorus coming from a swamp. At first she had thought it was just nearby the plains she had been spending time, resting and hunting. But then it turned out that the collective mating song of thousands of horny frog-men could reach unimaginable decibels and travel very far from the source. 

The swamp greeted her with stuffy air, saturated with moisture from the stagnant water. Dwin leaned down to have a sniff at it, scrunched her muzzle in disgust and retreated. Further away puffs and fluffs of green algae interspersed with slimy islands of frog-spawn. For the most part the young Blackthorn was not very picky, when it came to drinking from suspicious sources. But something about the combination of potential food-poisoning and the fact of, where those eggs had come from, made her consider her options. 

She decided then to enjoy the music of the frogs and search for a more suitable watersource in the meanwhile. 

Dwin snapped around, when she heard the familiar coarse voice behind her. "YOU!" she yelled back, tail wagging wildly behind her and her thumping the ground with her forepaws in the excitement of seeing the old hag in person. So much time had passed that she had entirely forgotten their last rather unfriendly encounter. The only regret was that she had been unable to introduce Sylvie to a proper witch, when they had been journeying the coast earlier that year. But just as good hunters never reveal their best hunting grounds, so do old hags never truly tell the other hag, where they dwell. After all only regular people made the mistake of inviting a hag in their home without realizing the consequences. Two hags in one dwelling... that was as good as nuclear annihilation. 

"How have you been, you moth-eaten bombazine?" she asked, when they were within a distance, where they could communicate without shouting. Though - she noted - for some reason her friend was always loud. "Throwing curses around? Is this pond full of your unfortunate late husbands?" she asked, beckoning to the frogs nearby, who, as on command, jumped from the tree root they had been sitting on right in the water and swam away quickly. 

"Just one? I hear thousands," Dwin feigned surprise and cast a glance around. The sound of the frog concerto was so loud and overwhelming, she was sure that there was at least - gazillion? - around them. "Guess, this is a place, where all hags dump their unfaithful, wayward husbands that they have grown bored of," she remarked, thinking of Circe and her knack of turning men into pigs. Now she wondered, had the story ever mentioned, what she did with them afterwards? Her mind went even further than that - if she ate a man-turned-into-pig for dinner, would it still count as cannibalism?

"Well, with a year-long delay I am finally on my soul-searching, life-changing, very educational and important journey around the wilds," she explained in a solemn voice, but soon that oh-so-serious look gave way to a cheerful grin. "So far, I met a fairy-princess and a boy that I threatened to turn into a stick for kids to play with," she told. "And, what do you plan to do with that potion of yours? I don't think you need anything to stay young for eternity. You look just as awful now as you did in your youth - so no need to spoil the effect," she said cheekily. "Otherwise the hag-clan might start rumours that you want to fairy-up yourself and that might damage your reputation in this leg of the woods," she finished. 

"When was the last time?" Dwin tilted her head to the side and furrowed her brow, trying to recall, what their last meeting had been about and could not for the world bring the details back. It was a true shame - here was Towhee, the old hag, who the young wolf was sure had never ever apologized for anything in her life - asking for forgiveness now. She was tempted to tease her about this and mention her own lack of any memories about the incident. But the part about miscarriage sobered her up and her expression turned serious. 

"Well, you did not do anything that would put shame to hag's name," she told her with a soft gaze. She wondered, if she should tell she was sorry for Towhee's loss, but in her mind this old wise bird did not seem as someone, who needed anyone's pity about shit that happened in life. Instead she said: "I am glad that you are okay now and I hope that you will stay that way for years to come. Hags are a rare breed in this world and each and every one of them are unique. A loss of one is felt by all," she smiled at her.

Of course, besides Towhee Dwin had yet to meet another hag, but here - in the swamp, among the chorus of love-crazed frogs it was so easy to imagine that there was a network of them in the world. Salt of the Earth. Keeping world in the balance by adding some pepper here and pinch of sugar there. "You have still generations of kids to scare into obedience. So - don't you go anywhere, promise?" she leaned slightly to bump her shoulder against Towhee's in a friendly and affectionate manner.

"Don't worry - I will come for your corpse, wear your skin as a cape and your bones and teeth as necklace. And... I will speak to your skull and summon you on full-moon nights," Dwin shot Towhee a devilish grin and from her tone alone it was not clear, whether she was joking or not. The swamp probably had some sort of magical aura about it, because for a moment there the idea of desecrating the old hag's grave was not a tabu, but a "mhm... why not? For the fun of it?"

"Adventuring? Yeah... well, no, not really. I enjoyed a long, boring and peaceful winter, because the kids had all grown up and either left the pack or knew to leave me alone," Dwin summed up her life during the bleak, cold and sunless months, where one day had been like the other and it had felt as if that season was never ever going to end. "And I happened to leave just before being roped in another summer of baby-sitting and suffering from sharp teeth and bad manners," she continued. She did not know, if anyone in Brecheliant was planning to have kids (and she did not know that Dee had been pregnant), but she would rather find out and congratulate them later in the year. 

"Kids are simply not my thing," she finished. "I admire you and my mom and any woman, who goes into this willingly, but I never ever want this for myself," she told. "And... don't tell me that I will change my mind one day or that I will meet the one and whatnot," she said half-jokingly, but there was an underlying plea not to play the "I am older and I know better" card. 

"Well, yes. I am close to my mom and dad. I love my sister Dee very much. She is the one in the family, who has made all the right choices in her life and in many ways she is personification of my conscience. Were it not for her, I would be a lot nastier and unlikeable person than I am now," Dwin explained and then burst out laughing. Because Towhee may get an impression that this was not the worst of Dwin she had seen. 

"Lonely? Sometimes. It is part of the deal, but then I have so much to do in my own company. And... part of the reasons to go out in the world is to meet new people, create those connections. After all you probably also started small and collected friends over matter of year, didn't you?" she asked. 

"Well, getting married, settling down, having kids - those right choices that everyone make," Dwin explained, confused by the question, because in her eyes the old hag here had also made the right choices, even if they had not always led to the fairy-tale-like happily-ever-after. "Just the other day - or month, I do not remember - I met a lass, who was very convinced of her path in life. This right path and I could not convince her otherwise. Which... I dunno, I am probably a freak, but I do not mind," she smiled. 

"No. Well - there have been deaths in the pack, but those people were close to others, not me. So - I guess - the experience is not the same," she replied. "I fear though that I might be away and my dad could pass away. He is very old now," she shared. "As much as I want to believe that he will live forever, I have seen death claim far younger people with ease," she added. 

"Does it matter?" Dwin replied with a question of her own, head tilted to the side, looking at Towhee curiously. She had occasionally contemplated her own mortality, but then at her age it seemed so, so far away. She had yet to experience an event that would challenge her perceived invincibility. Death and philosophy around it was for people like Towhee. Those, who were at the end of their earthly journey and were curious about, where it was going to take them next. 

"I don't know really. There might be something and the odds of there being nothing at all are just as high," she shrugged. "So, why waste time thinking about it too much, when it takes away your attention from living right here and now," she concluded. "What about you - where do you wantt o end up after you have passed away?"

"What other philosophical question can be more interesting than discussing, where will you end up after you die?" Dwin began to laugh at Towhee's attempt to change the topic of the conversation, when in reality there was not really any difference. Didn't all big questions in life lead or were in some way related to death? By admitting one's mortality everything else changed. There were things that began to matter more and then there were such that no longer seemed relevant. 

"Why not try to answer impossible questions... such as..." Dwin furrowed her brow, thinking hard and then finally coming up with a... "What is infinity?"

One moment Dwin was talking to Towhee, who she considered to be a bad-tempered, but likeable elder and - yes - there was a hint of superiority in this assesment too. Meaning - she pitied the lass for her old age and the fact that her life was nearing the finish line, while hers had just begun. Then - something happened - and that old, feeble granny darted off like someone had stuck and lit a rocket on her rear. "Wha-?" Dwin managed to exclaim and did not manage to finish, because a handful of mud hit her in the face, silencing her effectively. 

It took a bit of spluttering and wincing and shaking her head to get all of the yucky stuff out, but she managed it finally and after locating the old crone by her loud yelling, she ran quickly in her direction. "What the hell happened?" Dwin asked, wiping any of the remaining mud from her face. 

"Good one!" Dwin burst out laughing, when Towhee managed to twist her earlier super-philosophical inquiry by tying in her fear of snakes. Though she had never been bitten herself, she did not harbour any warm feelings towards them either. Something about a creature, who could move without using its legs was very creepy. If she came across one, she went the other way. 

She then proceeded to shake her head and brush away most of the mud from the face. The process, however, was not 100% perfect and she managed to rub some of it in her nostrils, which caused her to sneeze. Not once, not twice, but many times. "All to your good health, I guess," she told the elder, when her nose was done itching. "Alright then - want to continue with philosophy? Is there any fun thing in your life that you could have done, but did not?" she asked. 

"Then there is at least one thing I have done right in my life," Dwin remarked with a grin, but actually felt surprised about, how different her experience had been. She had wanted to do nothing else but travel, when she had been a kid. But after the first stint had not worked out, she had spent almost a year or so at home. The comfy slippers of a homebody had fit her for a certain period of time. Until she had decided to get back into hiking again. So, she was neither a homebody, nor a traveller, but a mix of both. Kind of, what Towhee was now. 

"Travelling is great and wonderful, but people that matter are probably the most important. At least for me," she shared. "I love being out here, but in part, because I know that at some point I will return home to tell about the experience. Without that... or anyone else... I think I would feel very lost," she said.

"Until we meet again," Dwin agreed, smiling at her fellow hag and feeling absolutely certain that Death was not going to claim this one before her time. Should it come calling, she could easily imagine Towhee telling it to bugger off. Though deep in her heart she knew that every one had the same odds of meeting the tall old dark gal' and it might be that she was seeing her friend for the last time. All the more reasons to make every such time count. 

"I will go to that edge of the world you never dared to go - and will come back to tell you the story of, what it was like," she promised. And few hours later she made good of that promise. She was going to see, what's "West of Westeros".