Bramblepoint Darjeeling Express

There were great days and there were bad days and then there were days like these, when Dwin's mood reflected the weather perfectly. Cloudy, with a hint of rain and dim light all around, making the world appear as if it was wrapped in perpetual twilight. She had hunted and scouted for the better part of the morning and around mid-day she had retired to Lake Rodeny. There she had dug a little hollow in the sand, lied down and had watched fish doing their fish thing in the water. The activity helped to meditate and she often dozed off. 

By late afternoon Dwin felt strong and well-rested enough to explore Bramblepoint. A scent trail of a wild-cat interspersed with one of blood from a fresh kill, piqued the young hunter's interest. With nose to the ground she sniffed her way ahead, stopping occasionally to pick up the rich scent and getting more excited the further she went. A feather here and there told her that this was some sort of a bird. After a while she found an square meter big area, where the feathers were scattered around and in the middle lied the sorry remains of the bird. 

A small snack is still a snack. She thought to herself, picking up the leftover bones and continuing to crunch on them, while she continued her trip. Mid-chew she stopped, lifted her muzzle up and tasted the air. Rutting season had begun for deer and she had caught this scent everywhere. Particularly in the fen, where the most of deer fighting and mating took place. Maia had warned her to steer clear of the deer during this time, because they were simply in not their right mind, ready to fight anyone, whether it was a fellow, testosterone pumped deer or a wolf, who happened to plot, how to cook them. 

The wisdom was to find them and hunt them down after the season had ended. When the losing parties as well as the winning ones were exhausted and the weakest. Out of interest though, Dwin decided to follow this scent in hopes of seeing the contestants and witnessing a fight. The loser would have the honour of becoming the most appreciated dish in Brecheliant. 

Off she went. 

- I am no healer, but is your ear broken?
-  Nah, it's always been like that.  Sometimes it stays up, sometimes it doesn't,  but it works just fine.

One of Wraen's favorite memories about life in Teekon Wilds was her secret hideout, the old willow tree with a broken branch that had offered very convenient ladder for a wolf to climb up and survey the area, invisible to any bypasser. She no longer recalled, how she had found it in the first place, but she knew, how sad it had been to see her old friend break, fall and die.

After a very interesting experience in Donnelaith Wraen had stopped by at the Bramblepoint to see, if by any chance the tree's ghost had continued to live and then she had been overcome by a different memory of a green-eyed, grayscale, friendly young man, who she had brought here. Warning that stealing would be punished by a curse and him playing along. 

- I'm Tam, by the way. What's your name?
- Wraen Renevermind.

How had that joke about Renevermind had started? A name that had simply come into the existence as if it had always been there with the origin story long lost to time. She closed her eyes, furrowed her brow and tried to bring it back, but instead she saw fragments of her first meeting between her and Tambourine. A young fellow with a lazy ear and penchant for travelling and stories. And a very nice person. 

They had not met each other after that for a long time and he had re-appeared in her life at his twilight years. Wraen remembered that she had let her imagination wander about that man then, when she herself had felt invincible and the world waited for her to conquer it. About them meeting again, falling in love, having a family and a couple of Wraenburines running around. And only, when he had made that offer of partnership, had she revisited that scenario of life they never had had. 

Had her answer to his offer been different, if Arcturus had not been in her life? Would they have enjoyed each other's company as good friends and two aging wolves in need of companionship? Now, she would never find out. But standing here and now, right, where the old willow tree - now overgrown by moss and grass and having become home to many other critters, it was nice to relive that precious memory. Two strangers, a chance meeting, hitting it off and having a good time. Not knowing, where fate would take them, but firmly believing that there were only good things ahead of them. 

Then the sound of footfalls nearby drew her out of the memories. She turned to face, who it was. 

Quotes from this thread - https://wolf-rpg.com/showthread.php?tid=24970

So wrapped up in tracking and going through some fragments of her daily life in her mind, Dwin did not notice, when she crossed the invisible border from the real world to the one, where ghosts were possible. The scents around her were still strong, the feeling underfoot solid enough - the dream felt very real. You see - after that pause for a snack, she had dozed off with the music of rutting deer calls in the background. 

Had she paid closer attention, she would notice that the Bramblepoint in her dreams was not as detailed as it would usually be. Sure, when you focused on one certain area, it would clear up. But once you turned your gaze away, the edges became blurred. But since her mind was still busy not only with dreaming, but also solving some other problems, she could not tell the difference. 

Until she came to clearing, near a small creek, where once a proud willow tree had stood and now the only remnants of its former glory was a rotten trunk split in half. "Oh, hello - did not see you there," she told the stranger, who was sitting nearby and was looking straight at her. "I hope I did not disturb you in anything important."

When Wraen's eyes first met Dwin it was like looking at a very young version of her littermate Sarah. The way she carried herself, the stance and the way she looked at her, when she spoke. She noticed the slight frown lines as well, telling her that she was a person, who had viewed the world with caution. Or she simply had a reason to be more frowny than happy, which - in her ghostly opinion - did not fit a young person well. On the other hand - it was never easy to be young and she could safely say that she had become a lot happier and content later in life. So there was a hope that those lines would disappear too.

"No, not at all," she shook her head, smiling, glad to have a company here. "I was visiting an old tree friend of mine," she told the girl, beckoning to the willow. "It was once the quiet, wise old man of this forest. I always liked to imagine that he had once been a wolf - a mage perhaps - turned into a tree either by a curse or by his own free will," she mused, letting the thread of the story form just as effortlessly as it had been, when she had still walked among the living. "Kind of like in the story of the grass plains dragon. Once as a powerful magical creature it had aided kings and warriors in their battles, wishing to change the world. And then... as all aging people do, he had grown disillusioned with the idea, because the people there are hell-bent on making the same mistakes over and over again," she told. 

"Therefore he found his peace here, by becoming a tree. His branches offered home to many birds and a cradles to their offspring, in his shadow, where soft grass grew by the creekbend, crawlers and grazers of the forest found a place to eat and rest. His roots kept the earth from going with the waters during the spring floods. And inside his trunk, hollowed by age and rot, one could hide from the winds and rain," she said. "And one day it gave an opportunity for an earth-crawler climb its branches and see the world from above," she smiled at the memory of the first time going up and the sheer joy of having found this secret place. 

"While mages live longer than the regular wolves, inevitably a day comes, when they have to meet their Maker as well. So - the tree died and fell, freeing the mage's spirit to make the journey towards stars. However, even after him leaving, his shell here still keeps the life going for many smaller critters. And will do so for a very long time to come," she checked in with the girl to see, if she had not grown bored and was still listening to her. "So - in a way, he had changed the world for the better. No matter, how big that world is - even in this small corner every good deed matters." 

The old lady turned out to be quite a talkative one and Dwin, who had been so very keen on tracking, groaned inwardly, when she began to tell about a tree of hers and did not appear to stop any time soon. Out of politeness and sympathy for elderly, she shelved her intended course of activity for a different day, and settled down to listen. Expression composed of both curious and interested, a standard one for all occasions, where there was a chance that she would grow bored or get lost in the details of the story. 

However, a minute or two into the story, Dwin had to admit that the old gal had some skill in the story-weaving. She reminded her of Maia, who had spent time telling them stories of her youth or passing on all of the most important legends, myths, fables and fairy tales that all wolves of Redleaf heritage had to know. Eljay, on the other hand, had reminisced about his happier days in Redhawk caldera and told bits and pieces of his mom's, Dwin's famous grandmother's Finley's life. It had been long since she had sat down to listen and truly enjoy, without having million other thoughts buzzing inside her head and demanding her attention. Dozens of problems that needed to be solved here and now. 

"That's an interesting story," Dwin said, meaning it from all her heart, even though she had missed some parts of it, while her own mind had been working in paralell. "So, have you done that good deed of yours in life?" she asked. 

Wraen was about to answer immediately - that - yes - she had done everything and died with nothing weighing her conscience. It was very likely that, if the two had met in the early days of November, when she had been fresh out of the afterworld, this answer would have been true. Now... she was no longer sure. You grow by having conversations and interacting with other people. She had regained a lot of understanding of, what it felt like being alive again, and with that came the rest of, what burdened the minds of the living. Doubts were the most prominent. Then came questions and curiousity and wondering of all the "what if"s that could have been, but were no longer possible. 

"I guess that I have done an equal amount of good and bad things in my life. I hope that the good were in the majority though," she smiled and shrugged. "There are moments, of which I am not proud at all, but then... without them all the great things would not have had the same sense of... glory, I guess, either. And you can always frame your mistakes as a way of learning, gaining experience. 'cause you may never know everything and you can never be prepared for everything," she said. 

"I cannot single out one though - there have been many," after many loops she finally had returned to the initial subject of the question. "What about you? You seem like a very young person, so my guess is that the all the best is still ahead of you," she finished. 

"That's exactly, what I do," Dwin exclaimed, forgetting to point out as to, what it was. When you made mistakes or got into crappy situations, it made you feel lonely. In a way - that you were the one with the problem, while the rest of the world moved on as if nothing had happened. Even worse - you felt bad, because you thought that your particular problem was unique. Therefore it was calming to find out hear a similar sentiment from a person, who appeared to be much older than her. 

"I believed that - yes - once, but I kind of no longer do," she sighed and shrugged. "I mean, the world did not turn out to be as exciting as I had imagined it to be. I kind of wish I could return to my childhood... really... because I cannot remember a single boring day there, everything was so exciting and new and.. yeah," another sigh. She paused, wondering, if she should be so honest with a stranger, but like many people she had met outside Brecheliant, there was a high likelihood that their paths would never cross again. "Now one day looks like another, I am stuck in a routine, I want to get out, but I no longer believe that this will change much or anything for me," she said. 

Wraen had to smile, because this young girl spoke as if her life was already over. At a time, when it was just beginning. She knew, how she had hated the "when you get older, you will understand" statements at her age. Really all throughout life, but - boy - how difficult it was to suppress the urge and tell her not to worry. That, even if there were bleak periods in one's life, they were followed by exciting times afterwards as well. 

"I think that it may have to do with the fact that as a kid you learn a whole lot more and it happens constantly. When you reach a certain level, there are less new things to add, and thus... it no longer feels the same," she agreed, though her own childhood not felt as a far-away dream. She could remember some bits and pieces, but everything else was shrouded in the mist of forgetfulness. 

"What is that you wanted to do? To achieve?" she asked, wondering, whether dreams of youth nowadays were in any way similar of her own in the past. "I - for example - wanted to be a story-teller. And an adventurer. And maybe a princess a bit too," she smiled. "And I got the first two and the third no longer seemed as appealing as I had imagined," she shared. "I learned more about, how people are."

"Does it really mean that I have learned all there is about life by the age of almost two and the rest of the time will be just dragging out my days until I die?" Dwin asked incredulously, because this future prospect seemed very bleak. Okay, her mom's side of family did not seem to have very long lives, if you take her aunt Wraen, who had finished her life at 5, as a reference. Or Ibis, who had been a cousin of sorts and had perished at the age of 3. But then there was her dad, who was nearing 9, which was just as an incomprehensibly far away age as 90 is to someone, who is 20 in human years. 

Her companion distracted her from this horrifying train of thought by asking another question. Future aspirations. "Yeah, well, I love stories, I have ideas, but I cannot tell one from the beginning to the end. I am not good at remembering facts or story-lines, but I am good at filling in with interesting details," she explained, but this was not exactly, what the stranger had asked her. "A warrior. I have a whole trench system around the old den site, where we lived as kids. But since Bronco died - he was the only one to know the trade - there is no one to train me," she said. "And to be honest - I am no longer sure that it is the path for me either. I mean - being a warrior means making a deal with the death," she said. "I think that this is the only trade out there that encompasses the very real possibility of you dying," she explained. 

"And I am not ready to die yet," even if her life was going to be long and boring. Better that than being dead, right?

The shock and surprise was so vivid on Dwin's face that Wraen could not stop her from laughing merrily about it. This just proved, how very young the girl still was, and reminded of the time, when the ghost too had had similar thoughts. You grow up with one image of your future in mind and then the world takes you on an entirely different trajectory. You get some trips and falls and punches along the way and eventually the path takes you to places you never imagined going and makes you in a person you never thought you would be growing up. 

"Yeah, stories tend to gloss over the darkest aspects of the trade. Worse - they even glorify them," in a way she was sorry that Dwin's ideals about this particular trade had been shattered this early. But maybe seeing a hero actually die and understanding the difference between the fictional passing and the real one had spared Dwin a lot of suffering in the future. Maybe even won her some extra years. "I never learned to fight properly, because - look at me - I am small. A prey does not pick up a fight with a lethal predator," she said. "But - I guess - that in hindsight, learning, how to defend myself could have been useful," she mused. "Although I died from my body failing me and there is yet a warrior to be seen, who conquers age and disease," she smiled sadly.

"Bronco fought like a hero and died like one too. That's, what will be passed on to the next generations, when the legend about him will be created and told," Dwin said, realizing that her uncle's passing had had a more profound effect on her than she had wanted to admit. "And there will be not a peep about him suffering a lot of pain from those cuts the hellcat made or, how the disease took over his body and eventually took him away. No one will speak of the anguish of the widow and the sorrow of the children that he left behind. The emphasis will be about him saving two kids gone astray from a monster and, how heroic it all had been and yada, yada..." she felt anger brewing inside her, as she said this. 

"And no one will really want to know, if there had been a choice for him... knowing, how all of this would end, would he still have wanted to become a hero? Was it worth to lose his whole family and life in order to become... go in the history as a hero?" she had asked a similar question to Teya about loving Bronco too much. Neither great love, nor becoming a hero and saving the world seemed like great options. Boring was safe and better and her father was a living proof of that. He was still alive, while so many others had perished already. "But you do not tell these stories. Because they do not fit the narrative about the good beating evil and living happily ever after," she said.

For a person as young as Dwin, she had a surprisingly deep insight in some aspects of life. Wraen wondered, if even she had been so... what was the word... profound? Somehow she felt that the answer was negative. At the age of one and a half she had still been living with one paw in the fairy tale and dream land. Philosophy and musings had come to her later in life. 

She did not know of all the details about Bronco's death, but it sounded so awfully similar to the way Colt had passed away. The perpetrator was different though, but the manner of dying had been the same. With a pang of guilt she thought of Kiwi, who she had saved without the full knowledge of, what had happened then, and how she had never revealed this to Niamh, who had been searching for the murderer intent on killing her.

Neither to Bronco, with whom her relationship later in life had soured and eventually broken apart. He had been arrogant and stubborn, she had been the same way and that had put an end to a years long friendship. Maybe it was better to keep some truths to yourself, because, what would her former friend do with it? Their friendship would have ended sooner - that was sure - but no one would have benefitted from that. She had always found solace in the fact that Elwood had known the truth, had supported her decision and never spoken a word to anyone, taking that secret to his grave. 

"You tend to think about only one kind of hero. The one that is glorified in myths. But what about those, who do little heroic deeds every day? Being a hero does not mean that you have to endanger your life? The world - in my opinion - stands firmly and safely on the shoulders of every ordinary person, who does their job well. They are all heroes because of that," she countered, curious to see, what Dwin would have to say about this. 

"Yeah, but, who dreams to grow up and be a... I dunno, just hunter, who has no ambitions other than a full belly and a place to sleep before the next time they have to set out," Dwin remarked, not really seeing, what value to the world she had given this summer by helping to raise her younger siblings. It was a thankless and very unappreciated job. And if it was so bad for babysitters, then it must be worse for the moms. Ugh...

"My life is in a standstill now, but I have not given up hope of achieving something worthwhile," she shared, meeting the older wolf's gaze briefly and then turning away to look in the distance. "I just refuse to believe that this - routine - is all there is in my future. If I am not having kids of my own, then I will be stuck looking after the brood of others. Or... be a lone wolf forever, but I don't want that either," she said. 

"Isn't ambition a kind of curse?" she sighed. "I mean, if I did not have any, then I would not be unhappy now," she told. "But then - my dad is kind of like that and still he is not 100% happy. He is very worried of us every time we go out and away from the caldera borders. So... there is not really a way to win this situation, is it?"

"Well, what works for some people, does not work for others," Wraen had nothing better to add, because she understood perfectly, what Dwin talked about. Though during the first year of her life she had believed to be the homebody - the first sort. And had it not been for the first heart-break, she would have never left her home and her life would probably have been very different. For a moment there she pictured that path of life - had Leander returned her feelings. They would become mates and then try to start a family and... it would never happen. Strangely Wraen could easily guess that even this course of life would still end in heart-break and her going off again. Wasn't it strange, how you could not escape your fate? You thought you were in charge, but in reality you were not?

"I think - and I will reveal you this as an old boring person so you are welcome to disregard this unsolicited advice - that most of the time the destination is not in plain sight at all. It takes trying and exploring, finding out, what you like and what is not meant for you. And if up until now you have not found, what you enjoy, this means that you have learned things that certainly aren't made for you. It is a lifelong process, really. Only, when you are old, you are more comfortable in voicing your discontent or saying a confident "No" to things you really do not want to get entangled with," she said.  "I think that rather than thinking too much about, where you should be and what you should be doing... or even worse - comparing yourself to, where other people are at your age - just take it as a kind of a journey. Despite, what you might feel now, your life is not standing still or passing you by. It is happening to you every day. Even now, as we sit here and talk."

"Yeah, but I want that amazing future now," Dwin whined through a smile though, because she knew, how pathetic it sounded. Like an overgrown kid demanding candy from their elderly parents at the store. "I mean, it would not hurt to have a friend my age, who has not achieved anything yet either and just commiserate together and feel better knowing that you are not the only loser on the road. Otherwise, whenever I meet other people and talk to them, I get a feeling... a sense of unfairness that LIFE is happening to them, that there must be something so amazing and I that Fortune has turned its back on me," and just as she said this, put her discontent in words, her spirit began to feel tad bit lighter. 

"Instead - I am sure that Aiden and Jay - my siblings - are having a time of their lives, wherever they are now. And even Dee - she is getting married! I do not want that myself, but even she is moving on with her life. Doing something," she decided that whining just a bit more would not hurt. At least that whine would stay here and not drag its miserable self back home with her. "Having something exciting going on in her life..." she grumbled, then paused to realize that all was not that bleak for her either. "Do you think I should turn to religion? I met a guy, who claimed a god lived inside him and that it gave him visions of future and some other voodoo stuff," she referred to the encounter with Ingram in the desert. "I mean, he definitely had got kicked by a deer or his mom dropped him on his head just few times more than it was necessary. But even he seemed happy. He had a mission!"

"If you do not know yourself, where you want to end up, then it will be very hard to get there anyway," Wraen did not have much to comment on Dwin's lengthy rant. She could only guess that the people she had mentioned were either siblings or good friends. And she could also tell that this girl felt lonely because of that. Come to think of it, her fate had been pretty similar in the beginning. She too had stayed behind to help fend for the younger siblings. With the difference being that up until the moment she could not longer stand to stay in the same pack as her love-interest, she had had no intention to leave. Like ever. 

"It may not seem so, but I believe that the people you named to some extent envy you as well," she pointed out. "Does not make it any easier for you than it is now, but... in other words life does not stay in the same spot, even if it might feel like so. As long as you keep moving, you are alive. So - just keep living and taking as much from it as you possibly can," she suggested. "Out of interest - is there a particular reason, why you are against getting married?" she asked. "Of course, as a yearling finding a mate and settling down might not be among your top priorities, but this is a life goal that most people want to achieve."

Wraen did not tell Dwin anything that she had not thought of and concluded herself at some point. Really, she was not looking for advice, rather needed a person to hear out her grievances and show some sympathy. She would solve them herself eventually without outside interference. Because she realized that the problem was not with the people outside, but within her. Until she found a way to fix it, her discontent mood would continue. Therefore she was glad to have the subject of their conversation steered in a different direction. 

"I... have not seen convincing examples in my life, where this pays off," she replied bluntly. "I mean - Bronco was Teya's second or third mate? And all of that has left her in heartbreak and she is such a mess," she told, but there was deep sympathy for the little Raven, when she mentioned her. "And mom... I know that she loves dad very much, but... she has given up so much to be with him. You listen to her stories of travelling and exploring before family came along and it sounds like such an exciting life. And she has given it all up. I - she rarely ever leaves," she said. "And I look at them, I admire her selflessness, but I know that I do not have it in me. I love my freedom too much."

There was a pause and then she finished with a: "And I do not like kids very much. So, who would in their good mind want to wed a wife, who did not want to have kids and did not want to put up with anything that their mate would bring to the table?" There was a hint of laughter in her voice, as she expressed this. "What about you? Do you have any advice based in life-experience? Any perspectives to change my views in this matter?" she asked. 

"Well, from what I have seen, when you are in a serious relationship, it usually means that you have to give up something in order to gain something better in return. Kind of live investing in a project of sorts. And there are probably two ends of the spectrum: one, where it pays off royally, and the other, where you end up poorer than you began. Of course, a lot of shades and grades in between," Wraen shared her perspective, because during her life she had had to answer to similar questions. 

"But everyone makes their own choices, even if we do not understand them or if it is something we would never ever do ourselves," she added. "So... you may think that your mother has given up an exciting life, but she may think that having you and your siblings and a loving and wholesome relationship with her husband has been a great gain," it felt a little odd to talk about her sister in the third person, but even without introductions Wraen had already guessed that she was talking to one of her nieces. 

"And heartbreak is the price one pays for loving someone. You just do not think about it before you enter a relationship. Or a friendship. I think that it is meant to be enjoyed, while it lasts. And, if you happen to be the one to lose, you endure the pain, when that time comes," she said. "I think that to you - and this is an old person advice and opinion that you are free to dismiss and ignore - it is a bit too early to make such black and white decisions. At least do not stick to them too strictly. You may not know, what life will bring your way or what you will end up liking," she smiled. 

"I do not judge them for making these choices. I just do not see myself doing the same thing," Dwin pointed out, though she was still in the stage, where she was moving away from the firmly held belief of a teenager that old people did not understand anything about life. So, in a way she had an opinion, what she would do in Maia's or Teya's or anyone's situation, but she was tactful enough to only think about it and never speak it out loud. Out of respect for the elders and the growing self-awareness. It no longer felt that good to blame everyone, evil outside forces, conspiracies or just circumstances for problems she herself had created. She could not stand people, who whined, and therefore did not like to see this in herself as well. 

"So, what you are saying, is that I should just go about life and try out things?" Dwin tilted her head to the side as she asked this, considering the idea and liking it. "Even that love stuff?" she spoke of it as if it was a piece of garbage that lied at the side of the road until the day someone came by and saw its true value. "What about you? You never told, what your experience is?" she asked. 

"I cannot tell you anything from my life that will have a profound effect on yours," Wraen laughed at Dwin's demand to give her more proof on, why all the things she had listed and did not hold in high regard were actually worth pursuing. Or at least trying. "Everyone has to live their own and try to do their best at it," she added.

"The first casualty in life is plans - make them and you will fail spectacularly at fulfilling them. But - I think - that you have come to this conclusion yourself already. You had planned for life full of adventures and - instead - got to live through the familial bliss," she smiled. "I planned to live with my parents, get married and have that family and... that dream castle disintegrated in my first year," she revealed. 

"And as the years went by I learned not to plan - a habit that is hard to get rid of - but I let the life happen to me. I experienced a lot of, what I had never even imagined happening," she told. "Therefore - take it from an old wolf and a ghost - live to the fullest and, if you have some loose ends left after death, come back and haunt everyone until all is finished."

"Isn't "being best at it" a matter of perspective? A comparison of sorts?" Dwin asked for the sake of asking, not that she disagreed on this with Wraen. Come to think of it, how did you know for sure that the times you had now were the best... ooh, maybe it depended on, how bad the future treated you. So, according to this logic she might be having the time of her life now without realizing it. Still Dwin was young and did not believe that anything bad could happen to her. She still felt invincible. 

"What happened?" she was genuinely curious about the story, which had thrown the elder's youth off track and thus veered it in an entirely different direction. "And didn't you want to have it later? I mean - there is no shortage of people to have that family with," she suggested, convinced that it was a matter of choosing to do it and not that there was any chance or luck or circumstances involved. And she was right in part, because people get together and have kids for myriad of reasons and mutual affections is just one of them. 

"You are dead?" Dwin furrowed her brow, having not really paid attention to the spirit-like entity before. "Wait - if I am talking to you, does this mean I am dead as well?" 

"It was not that easy... for me at least," Wraen replied, thinking that Dwin probing too much in her personal life was a little rude. But she had no one else but herself to blame for it, because she had started the discussion earlier. Funny, how this one aspect of life, which she thought she had made peace with still hurt even after death. You live happily and not think about it much and then one word, one question or someone saying something just crashes into you and brings you back to the moments, when you have felt the worst. Wraen would be lying, if she denied not feeling a pang of envy and upset, when yet another female friend of hers had told that she was expecting a litter. At moments like these she had congratulated the girl, but also felt the very unpleasant "why you and not me?!".

There was no point in telling Dwin this - she would not understand and did not need to know this either. In the worst case scenario she would probably come up with reasons, why Wraen being unable to have children could have been a very good thing. It was therefore nice to focus on the next thing and it made her laugh. "Well, I am pretty sure that you are alive and well, because I am the one, who is in your dream," she told. "Or rather my dream happened to merge with yours, but the moment you wake up, I will be gone," she said. It had worked like this with Towhee.

This was a relief, because in case Dwin had died without her realizing this, all this talk about goals and ambitions in life would have turned out to be in vain. She shuddered even. While she did not really fear death as such - being afraid of inevitable was pointless in her opinion - she did not wish to be dead. Not yet, while there was still so much she wished to do. 

"I am not sure I understand, how this works," she pointed out, trying to find logic in merging dreams and one being alive and the other dead. Could dead people dream at all? Dreams happened to those, who slept. Did ghosts have to sleep? If not, how did they dream? Or if they did have to sleep - then why? What was the point, when you no longer needed to keep yourself moving and alive?

Dwin felt that her thoughts were rambling and it was growing difficult to put them on the right track. "Are you kind of dream-walking?" she finally asked and as she stirred in her sleep, reaching the end of that brainwave cycle that allows us to see those colourful life-like images, the scenery around them began to dissolve as well.

"I have been here for, what feels like a very long time, but I have no good answer to this either," Wraen smiled. Ironic, really, people liked to come up with stories, where nothing was impossible, yet this also implied that there were no set rules on, how to explain, what was going on. In this aspect, the living world she had come from had been easier to understand, because the line between, what you could do and could not had been clearer. Life in general was easier, when the framework was stable and predictable. 

"Could be. I know for sure that I have been in two people's dreams already," she thought of Towhee and Esma. "And I guess all the living wolves that have interacted with me have been kind of asleep or at least with one foot in my realm. But then - I have also met other people, who I know have been dead, are dead - and I have not the slightest idea, how are meeting actually works," she shrugged. "Turns out that planning for ghosts is even useful activity than it is for the living," she smiled and then looked up as the fabric of Dwin's dream jolted and changed. 

"I guess that our meeting has come to an end," she told, getting to her feet and stretching. 

"Interesting," Dwin remarked, hoping that she would remember the older wolf's words, but knowing that by the time she woke up half of the dream would be gone. And at the end of the day she would have only some fragments of it. Out there she yawned and half opened her eyes, the dreamscape before her disappeared for a second, but was still hanging by a thread, when she closed her eyelids. The surroundings disappeared, but somehow she could still see the details of the she-wolf very well. It was as if she was her own entity in the fading dreamland of Dwin's. 

"It was nice talking to you," she told her. "I feel better, to be honest," she added and fell silent. Their conversation had come to its natural end and she did not really know, what else to ask. Except. "Oh, wait, you never told me your name," she exclaimed and with that the dream was over. She was wide awake in the Bramblepoint. Oddly enough the surroundings reminded her a lot of the place the dream had taken place - she had lied down and napped right next to that old willow tree. But the ghost was nowhere to be seen.