The woren woman moved through the small village to the Landon Shrine that stood in the center of it. The night was cold as she made her way inside, but the candles surrounding the dragon statue seemed to cast an erie warmth through the air around it. The woren knelt, her long brown hair flowing down over her swollen, pregnent belly. She was wearing a white night gown and brown sandles, and her green eyes glowed in the candle light around her.

"Landon," She prayed. "Please send me a guardian to take care of my unborn child in the years to come." She stayed there for a few hours, muttering soft prayers in the candle light while outside a cold wind blew over the quiet village.

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It was early in the morning when the woren woman was awakened by the soft nudge of a human hand.

"Janis..." The man's voice came to her ears. "Janis, you have been out here all night. Come on, let's go home."

Janis turned and grasped the strong hands of her husband as he lifted her to her feet. She hugged her husband tightly.

"Saul..." She sighed. "I'm so worried. All these things that we need to do.. will our daughter be okay?"

"Don't worry about her yet.. she isn't even born. Come on. Let's go home and you can get a better rest then you've had out here on this hard floor." The couple made there way out of the shrine and down a long dirt path through the center of the village.

They reached a small house and made there way inside. Janis headed into another room and layed down on a cot. It wasn't long before she fell asleep. Saul sat down in the living room by a small table and pulled out a piece of paper. It was the blueprint for a house he had been planning to build for his wife and child. They would finally leave this village and live out by themselves in a small cabin in the woods.

Saul stood up and looked into the room where his wife had fallen asleep. He turned and headed out of the front door and followed the main path out of the village.

To the north of the village, large woods stretched out for as far as the eye could see. Beyond these woods were other small towns, as well as places like Simafort and Windia. Saul had been raised in Windia, but came to this small village south of it where he met and married his wife, Janis. He was one of a few humans living in an almost entierly woren village, but now game season had started in Windia, and many Windian poachers had been searching beyond the woods to find this woren village for a chance to get some good furs. Saul had planned to build a place in the woods where he and his family could live away from this threat, but game season was coming soon and he had little time to start.

He made his way through the woods to a small clearing. A stream ran through here, seperating the woods from a little clear spot that was about 50 feet in width, and 70 feet in lenght. It was here Saul was planning to build the cabin and he sat under the shade of a large tree while thinking this out to himself. It was time that he started if he hoped to move his family here soon.

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The years seemed to pass by slowly and soon Janis gave birth to a baby girl. She, of course, was part woren and part human, and looked very much like her mother. However, she had her dad's blue eyes and blonde hair. Janis named her Kate after a close friend of the families. By the time Kate was three, Saul had managed to finally finish the cabin and Kate's family was relocated there. All was good for many years, but when Kate turned seven, a large snowstorm struck during the winter and Kate was lost in the woods alone.

Janis sat staring quietly out the kitchen window as Saul entered the cabin. He closed the door behind him and began brushing off the snow that had collected on him. Janis looked up at him, searching his eyes for any hint that he might have found Kate, but Saul just shoke his head sadly. Janis began crying and placed her hands over her face as Saul went to comfort her.

"I looked everywhere," He whispered. "Maybe she found a place to take up shelter.."

Janis looked up and him and sniffled. "Landon help her, send her a guardian to protect her." She sobbed again and Saul hugged her tightly.

"Come on, Janis. Let's go to sleep. I'll look for her again in the morning." And with that, he blew out the candle beside the window and led his wife off to bed.

e-mail author, talonr@hotmail.com