Tellka opened up her eyes and stared into the empty void around her. She clutched her quarter staff tightly in her left hand and looked around. She spun around quickly and was not at all surprised to find Landon standing behind her.

"Why have you awakened me?" She spat out angrely. "Haven't I already served my time? Or do years just fly by that quickly when you're dead?!"

Landon waited patiently to speak. "Tellka, a mortal has prayed that I send a guardian to watch over her child." He started to explain but Tellka interupted him.

"Oh, I see, so you just kinda drew a name out of the ol' hat and it happened to be me, huh? Well guess what, not interested." Tellka grumbled. Landon just shook his head.

"It's a bit more complicated then that, Tellka. This child, she shares your same soul."

Tellka blinked. "WHAT? WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Tellka flared. "HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!?!?"

Landon sighed. "When you interferred with destiny by fighting Ravyn you also interferred with your own cycle of life. Your next life in this world was to belong to that which you are now supposed to protect, but, since you messed that all up, fate didn't take the time to change itself just for you and now you get to witness your own self grow up in another form."

Tellka blinked. "You mean to tell me that there will be two of me?"

"Not exactly... You will have the same soul, but your spirits will be different."

Tellka shook her head. "You are not making any sense here.. Same soul, different spirit? What the heck?"

"There isn't much time to explain it all. I awoke you for a reason because it is up to you to guard this child, and she needs you now."

"Yea.. right.. great..." Tellka grumbled. "So, where am I supposed to find this... girl."

"I'll send you to where you need to look for her." And with that there was a bright flash of light. Tellka threw her arms over her eyes to keep from being blinded. As she opened her eyes again she could see that the world around her was still bright, but this time it was not from light. She found herself in the middle of a large snowstorm.

Tellka began to shiver uncontrolably. "Hey! Landon.. what's going on here? I'm dead, remember? How can I feel so cold?" She wrapped her arms around herself and sat in the snow.

"To guard this child I have given you certain abilities. You will be able to live in your former body, or you will be able to stay in your spirit form. As you are a spirit, you will only be able to see what is going on around you, and talk to the one you are guarding through telepathy. Other then that, you will have to way of interacting with the world around you. In your bodily form, you will be just like you where when you were alive. You will be able to be hurt, get ill, become fatigued, and anything else. You can also 'die' in this form if your body becomes destroyed, and you will never get it back, but you will continue to live as a spirit."

"Yea, I get it. But now I'm really cold so how do I change back into a spirit?!?!"

"You simply will yourself to and it will happen."

Tellka looked blank for a moment, but with a sigh, she shrugged and concentrated on changing back into her spirit form. She felt the ground seem to float away from under her as her bodily form vanished. "That's better.. Now.. where do I find this girl?"

"I'll give you the directions as you go."

Tellka nodded and started out, following the directions as Landon gave them to her. It wasn't untill long that she came across a small shivering mass of fur, curled up under a large tree.

"That, is Kate-Chan. She is seven years old, and the daughter or Janis and Saul Chan."

"SEVEN YEARS OLD?" Tellka blinked. "If I'm supposed to be her guardian, shouldn't I have been around when she was like.. born or something?"

"She didn't NEED you then."

"Oh, I see, and now that she is about to freeze to death I suddenly appear out of nowhere.." Tellka grumbled and looked down at the little Woren before. She had a natural hate towards other worens, but looking at this child she could almost see herself inside of her. "Now I see what you ment when you said we were the same.."

Tellka waited a moment but there was no reply. "I guess Landon just gave up on talking to me.." She looked around. "No sense in trying to get her back home in this storm.. I'll wait until it passes." She changed herself back to her bodily form and sat down beside Kate, hoping to keep her warm for the time being. "Never.. in my living days.. did I ever expect to be doing this.."

e-mail author, talonr@hotmail.com