Tellka was still standing infront of the fire when a loud cough got her attention. She turned and headed toward the room where it emitted from. She glanced in to find Kate tossing a bit in her bed.

"By Landon.." Tellka muttered under her breath as she stepped into the room. Kate sat up slowly and looked at her as she entered.

"What's wrong?" Tellka muttered.

"I'm scared." Kate sniffed quietly and pulled the covers up around her neck.

Tellka sighed. "Of what."

Kate sniffed and looked up at her with wide, teary eyes. "The kitty wanted to hurt me."

Tellka gave Kate an odd look. "What?"

Kate sniffed again. "It was hunting me and wanted to hurt me.."

"By Landon..." Tellka shook her head. "It was all a dream, go back to sleep." She turned and began leaving the room when a whimpering noise behind her made her stop. She turned and looked back at Kate. She was huddled up with the blankets up to her chin. She was gripping a small, windian doll and shivering. Tellka watched her for a moment, then, with a sigh, she turned and walked back into the room.

She set down her staff and kneeled on the floor, beside Kate's bed. "Alright.." She said, leaning onto the bed. "Tell me about you're dream and maybe you won't be as scared of it."

Kate sniffed again and clutched her little doll tighter. "I was out in the woods, and I was playing bye a stream and.. and.. " she paused again and sniffed. "And there was this noise... " The little woren stopped and started crying again.

Tellka sighed and waited for a moment. 'What the heck and I supposed to do with a crying kid?' After a while, the woren stopped crying and sniffed a bit more. "Go on, there was a noise."

Kate was silent for a long while before she started again. "I thought it was mommy, so I looked up and there was this big kitty, but it was a mean kitty and it wanted to hurt me." She was on the verge of crying once more. Tellka sighed in annoyance.

"What did the kitty look like?"

"It was big, and yellow, and it had stripes and teeth and mean eyes... Mommy told me of kitties like that before.. she said.. she said they was called.. wer tigyrs.. or something."

Tellka nodded. "Yea, were-tigers. What did 'mommy' tell you about them?"

Kate sniffed. "Mommy said if I was bad they'd come and hurt me, so I haf to be good."

Tellka paused and thought about this for a moment. "Have you ever had a dream like this before? With were-tigers?"

The little girl nodded. "Once, when I was bad. Daddy got mad at me and I had a dream about them."

Tellka gave Kate an odd look. "So, you've only dremt about then when you've been bad?"

Kate nodded. "Mommy says that they only come when you're bad. Wer tigyrs don't come to good people because they're scared of them. Mommy says wer tigyrs are bad. That's why people hunt them."

Tellka nodded. "Well, if you only dream about them when you're bad, how come you had this nightmare? Have you done something bad?"

Kate sat quietly for a long while and then burst into tears. "Mommy says they only come to bad people!" Her sobs grew louder. Tellka sighed and watched her for a moment.

"Okay, okay, just stop crying." She shook her head. Kate's sobbing slowly ceased. "Okay.." Tellka sighed. "Why don't you tell me what you did and then maybe the tigers will go away."

Kate looked down at her doll for a long time, her lower lip quivering. She sniffed and rubbed her noise with her hand.

"Come on, Kate, what did you do that was so bad? Did you steal a chocolate bar?" Tellka rolled her eyes. "Maybe you told a little fib. What'd you do?"

Kate sniffed again and looked over at Tellka with watery eyes. "I killed daddy."

e-mail author, talonr@hotmail.com