Editing Forest Ribbon Trail (section)

== Further Stretches==
According the the Wolf that [[Hazel]] encountered, and the Child that accompanied him, there are meant to be three meetings with the Wolf: an intital terrible encounter, a second encounter of peace and reconciliation, and a third encounter made more terrible by that seed of sympathy. However, nobody ever makes it past the first encounter; while Hazel missed it, and only experienced the second encounter.<ref>“You came in partway.  This is meant to be a moment of respite, to have you let your guard down.  After a first, terrible confrontation with the Wolf, you would venture this far, past difficult challenges and around certain rules, and then you would meet the Wolf a second time, for the respite,” the child instructed me, brightly.  “You could ask him things and come to know him better, and then when it came time for the final meeting, it would be worse for you would feel sorry for him for having known him.”

[...]

“I do not think I could feel sorry for him.”

“You could,” the child told me.  “A few specific words from him would provide a seed for that sympathy to grow, and by the time of a third meeting, it would not only spark a thought where you could feel sorry for him, but you would want him to devour you.”

“I cannot imagine that.”

“You’re right, Hazel,” my Wolf of a husband told me, around bites of raw meat.  The faint crying and shouts in the background went quiet when he spoke, breaking off into choked and muffled whimpers.

I had not known him to ever say those words.

Mouth full, he explained “What the child describes is the way things were meant to be, but it was spoiled.  Nobody makes it this far, and those like you who stumble in here can’t reach the third part without having passed through the first.” - [[100 Years Lost]], excerpt from [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/12/25/spoilers-16-3-100y/ 16.4 Bonus]</ref>