Redhawk Caldera Banterland

@Amalia

Dwin's anger at Dee had dwindled after a while. A month was a too long time to feel disappointed and hurt. Yes - she was still not entirely happy with the path that her sister had chosen, but she understood her better. After all - her leaving had not been much different (except she had told everyone that she had been going) - and she would have gone regardless of what any of her siblings had thought at the time. Besides - Aiden had dispersed soon after, Sorana had gone as well. So - in the end - this was the way young people did things.

Spring had come with warmer days and sunnier days and Dwin enjoyed them immensely. When she was not busy searching for food (which consumed most of her free time), she sunbathed, she swam in the lake and explored every corner of the caldera. Turned out that there had been some truth in Eljay's words on things that were still to discovered here (or something along the lines - she was as bad remembering all the details as he was retelling every single story Finley had ever told him). 

Today, for example, she was perched upon a cliff that gave her a perfect view at the clear lake water below and she spent her time either reading the scents that the wind-post brought with it or observing the lake carefully, just in case the big fish were to appear. 

The wind blew on this day. Spring was in the air. Amalia was caring for her adopted brother/son, she wasn't sure what they were exactly other than adopted family. She would take either really. He was such a sweet boy. And she was glad he had chosen to stay here.

She found an itching to enter the lake and fish today, and she wasn't quite sure what to do with teh nervous energy that encroached upon her. So she alleviated it with a fishing expedition. She noticed the other wolf atop the cliff and lifted a paw in greeting and then went back to watching the water for a fish.

The Big Fish did not grace Dwin with its presence, but someone else did - a wolf. Which - all things considered - was a better option, because you could socialize with them. Without the danger of your conversation partner deciding to have a bite out of you. Of course, there were tales of cannibals in faraway lands, but Dwin was sure that neither Maia, nor Eljay, nor Teya would ever allow any one such to live in Brecheliant. 

"Hi!" she greeted the dark she-wolf cheerfully, when she had closed the distance between the two. The girl cast a quick look at the surface of the water, in case there was something else going on (a kraken maybe?), then back at the packmate. "Have a date with the Man of the Lake?" she asked with a sly smile. 

Amalia didn't know much about the lake itself. Or what fish dwelled beneath it's surface. She'd seen some large behemoth's in her time. And she was always thrilled to hear a new horror story about one, or a sweet story. Any story really.

She heard a voice calling out to her and she raised her head with a smile. HI! I'm Amalia.


Amalia chuckled. Don't I wish. I bet he's absolutely fishtastic.

"You think so?" Dwin asked with an incredulous smile, tilting her head to the side. Because "The Man of The Lake" was something she had just come up with. "Even, if you were to become his seventh wife? With two scorned, two he has beheaded, one dead and one still alive and well?" her description of the man in question sounded very much like the ordeal of Henry VIII and his marriage ordeals that earned him a place in the world history. 

"I do not think that's a good idea," she said with a mischievous grin.

Amalia blinked green eyes to her with a small smile. Amalia had known the girl had probably just come up with this on the fly, Alaric often did silly stuff like this. Bless his heart he had taught her to roll with the punches so to speak.

Amalia put on a heartbroken face. I guess you're right. It's a shame really. Guess i'll just die a miserable, miserly old maid, or you know i could slay dragons in my free time. I guess that works too.

She teased with a gentle smile.

"Why should you die as a miserabely miserable old maid?" Dwin furrowed her brow, not quite understanding the joke and therefore taking Amalia's words seriously. "And why old? Why die at all? Why couldn't you be and remain happy and cheerful and awesome maid instead?" she asked - again at her age the ideas of social role concepts and what was expected from women in the society were quite foreign. "Why die at all?" she finished and fell silent out of respect to her companion so that she had time to gather her thoughts and answer properly. 

"And with Brecheliant having dragons of their own here - I do not think it will be looked upon kindly, if you slay any," she pointed out. Again - serious. The same way people would react if someone had suggested to engage in a bit of "murder spree" in their free time. 

Amalia chuckled. It was a joke. Some societies think that if a woman isn't settled down by a certain age, she is just silly and doesn't wish to get married and they shame them.

Amalia laughed then. Well when my time comes as an old old lady to die rather than be alive, i will do so. Becasue I don't wish to live forever.

A tilt of her head. Well then I'll have to look for the dragons and make sure to make good friends with them.

Dwin usually had a good sense of humour, but somehow she had not understood Amalia's jokes at all. She did feel a little pang of shame for reacting the way she had, but she felt better knowing that no offence had been taken. "Well, if they treat girls like that, then those societies are not worth living in," she declared. "And how would shaming a spinster would help finding her mate? I mean, it is not your fault, if no right person comes along? Or there isn't any around. I would rather think that this community should join forces and find the best possible match both for the good of the lady and the country," she shared. 

"So being old is worse than being alive?" Dwin asked. 

Well Amalia had stepped in it with this one. She didn't understand her humor and she had possibly offended her, but you know what. That wasn't very fair. She shook her head with a small smile.

I agree and I don't know either. I have found though, most women like that. Don't want a mate. They prefer to be single and there's nothing wrong with that either.

She thought of her own predicament. Not even sure if she wanted a family, but she also couldn't get anyone to stay so what was the point of wondering. She had Atreus of course, but that was her best friend.

I don't think so, but some wolves do. Not everyone thinks the way as you or I do and we have to have enough grace to accept that even if we don't agree with it.

"Yeah, I do understand them - I have not found men particularly interesting either," Dwin shrugged. This statement did not mean that she thought of the opposite sex as inferior to her own. What she referred to was the fact that romance in the sense that leads to mateship and kids and living until "death does us apart" was foreign to her. 

"Who cares, what some morons think," was her only remark. Really, why bother with people, who did not agree with you on fundamental things. "What matters is, what you want," she added. "What is that you want?" she asked a very bold question to a person you have just met, but Amalia was free to answer as honestly as she wished.

Amalia could relate. Oh she had crushes. She thought of Lestan, of Reno, of Killdeer. But they had all left in the end. Lestan to go back to the creek, Reno to do lord knows what and Killdeer, well she wasn't sure where he had gone. It was fleeting and she understood sort of why her brother kept himself so guarded when it came to matters of love.

Amalia blinked at the question and then shook her head. I can't answer that, because even I don't know. Right now I am content with my life. I don't want anything more, but that may change. All things change eventually in some way.

That last sentence made Dwin frown for a minute, because she remembered Dee and how she had decided to change her life without including her sister in it. That had not felt right and still stung, even if she knew deep down that her decision to travel around wilds during winter had been something similar. Yes - she had made her plans known, but - no - she had never asked any of her siblings, if they had wanted to come along. Or their opinion about the whole deal. To be honest - that little voice of moral goodness and empathy had not been as loud as it was now and Dwin sometimes wished that it gnawed on her conscience less often nowadays. Being good was fine and dandy, when it was easy for you. Not, when it did not align with, what you actually wanted. 

"What did you want, when you were young?" Dwin asked, because certainly the lady before her had once been closer to her age and then things must have been clear cut. For example, Dwin... here she furrowed her brow, because, frankly speaking, small goals such as having lunch and dinner aside, she did not have anything long-term planned or desired. Had she become old in such a short period of time already?

It seemed that something she had said, had caused teh younger girl a moment of thought. What it was she wasn't sure, and she didn't want to ask. If this daughter of Maia wished to tell her what was on her mind, then by all means she would listen. Otherwise she'd let her to her own thoughts.

She smiled at the question. My brother Alaric and I left when we were young to travel. Then he and I went our separate ways and I've been mostly traveling ever since. I was a lone wolf for quite a while.

"Where did your brother go?" Dwin asked, wondering, if Amalia had felt the similar sense of loss and betrayal she had, when Dee had set off without a word. Aiden too - but their relationship had been more "we are siblings and that's it" kind of formal and distance had certainly not helped to improve that.

"Didn't it feel awfully lonely to be on your own like that?" an inquiry again drawn from her own experience. "Why did you choose to come here?" plain curiousity. It was obvious to her that Brecheliant was the best place to live in the world, but it was always interesting to hear, what other's found great about her home. 

Amalia gave a soft shrug. For a while I didn't know where he went. He went to ply his trade as a healer/bard/storyteller and he did quite well. At least that was my understanding and I always enjoyed listening to the rascal. But he's here in the teekon now. Over in the Moonspear actually.

Amalia had missed him so very much those first few weeks. It had been like a permanent pain had settled into her chest, but she knew in order for them both to grow they needed to separate for a time. Her wombmate, her best friend.

Amalia gave a soft hum. yes it did, but I also knew that in order for the two of us to grow as separate individuals we needed to be apart. We liked different things and wanted to explore different things. And I always had hope we'd see each other again.

Amalia's tail wagged. Maia actually. She was the very first wolf I met when I came here and she was so sweet and so kind and I just wanted to be where she was.

"Mom is the best person in the world," Dwin agreed with Amalia's assessment. Had she expressed anything less than words of greatness so to say, then she would have met a fierce and rightfully angry opponent, defending her mother's honor. "Dad is just as great - have you spoken with him?" she asked. It was evident that this young Blackthorn loved her parents very much and both were considered gold-medalists in being awesome and great. 

"What about your parents? Didn't they miss you going away?" she inquired next. "Do you have other siblings?"

Amalia chuckled. I think i would agree. Maia had been nothing, but sweet as pie since Amalia had met her a year ago now she supposed, or was it less? Goodness she had lost track.

I've only met your father once, but he was just as sweet as your mom. She didn't speak long with Eljay. he seemed to prefer to keep himself to his family and she couldn't blame him. She was a bit of a homebody herself.

They did, but well my parents aren't as kind as yours. They are great wolves, but they always expected much more than Alaric and I could give. And yes I have one other sister Asteria. She was born. Different. She's simple so to speak. She stays with mom and dad.

"What do you mean - expect more of you than you were?" Dwin asked curiously, finding the concept unfamiliar. Maia and Eljay and the rest of the adult crew, who had helped to bring up the new batch of Blackthorns (and it is no small feat, because even half-blood Blackthorns mean a lot of work), had been nothing but encouraging to the kids. Of course - there were certain measures of discipline and lessons in good manners, but in regards of, who the kids were going to become - the sky was the limit. 

"Like grow a wings and turn into a bird? Or become a unicorn?" she chuckled. 

Amalia smiled and shook her head. My brother and I have a sense of wanderlust. We wanted to see and do many things. And our parents wanted us to settle and be still. Not to mention they didn't like that he and I preferred stories to reality. They thought we were airheads and flighty so to speak. Careless. And I suppose in some ways we are. We run full bore into most anything without thinking, but I don't think that's a bad thing. But they did.

Amalia thought on their parents. Their mother, she wasn't so bad. Their father however. He had been the most vocal about his displeasure at how his two children had turned out. He loved them. Of course he did, but he had wanted them to be better. More like him and they just weren't.

"That's an odd thing to think. You can't be anything else but you," Dwin said with a crooked smile, incredulous that such people even existed, let alone believed such nonsense. "You... if they want you to be any different... they do not truly appreciate you," she said. "Unless you are a jerk," Dwin smiled.

"You were not jerks, were you?"

Amalia liked that sentiment. It was true. YOu couldn't be anything else but you and she had tried. Really she had, but she just wasn't built like him. She was built like his ancestors. Like his grandparents and parents.

Amalia laughed outloud at the next part. I certainly hope i'm not. Alaric....well.. Then she laughed again and shook her head. No he really isn't, honest. Wolves think he is though, because he guards himself well. He doesn't usually let you know his inner workings.

"Being honest is tricky," Dwin remarked. "You can claim to be a very honest person, but people do not usually like that you are too honest with them or about them. That's, what mom says," and to this matter - she had some experience with this as well. Dwin certainly did not like, when people were lecturing her on, what she should or should not do. Or, what she should or should not be. Of course, with the doting parents she had, she did not hear this often. And probably they were clever about the way they delivered the wish for their offspring to improve. 

"Would you like to go find something to eat?" she asked after a pause, during which she - quite uncharacteristically to herself - could not come up with anything to ask Amalia.

Maybe you can fade out in your next post? And we can have an updated one later.

okay <3 thank you for the thread

Amalia nodded her head. I agree eith you3 mom. and ahe did sometimes you just didn't need or want to hear it all.

I would love to. she would spend the day with the daughter of her friend and have a good meal. It would be a good day.