Authors note: This story -unless noted otherwise- is told from 3rd person view. Just a quick note to let you know... ~cough cough~ yea...

"Ms. Harlow-"

"You're supposed to be watching out for her!"

"Ms. Harlow-"

"I told you she'd get hurt! I said-"

"MS. HARLOW LISTEN!"

Carrie's mouth dropped as she went silent. So far in this argument, Tellka had kept the same, calm attitude, but now she looked furious.

"Listen, just listen. Kate is my responsibility, yes, but like you, I can't see everything that is going to go on in her life." Tellka growled. "Every day she leave this house she takes a chance of getting hurt, but I don't see you going crazy everytime she stubs her toed." Tallk sighed.

"What.." Carrie gave her an odd look. "What is your point?"

Tellka looked up at her, her voice had just returned to its normal calmness again, but her eyes burned with emerald annoyance. "What I mean is, Kate's got to live her life. I'm training her in fighting because it's natural in her blood to participate in things like that. Yes, I know she can get hurt. I think about it everytime I take her down there. That doesn't mean that I'm going to keep her locked away from the entire experience, just because there is a chance she can get hurt. You don't stay inside all day just because you might get sunburned when you step outside. Kate's got to learn about life, its up and downs, and I'm not here to cradle her and keep her from every bump in the road of life." Tellka gave Carrie a testing look. Carrie matched it with one of her own.

She didn't want to keep loosing to this dirty old woren. She didn't belong here, just Kate. She shouldn't be the one watching over Kate, and she didn't understand why Kate acted so loyal to Tellka. Surely, she wouldn't listen to her enough to choose that old woren over her. After all, Carrie and taken Kate in when she needed help. Tellka didn't show up until much later.

Tellka almost sensed Carrie's thoughts in her look. 'How wrong you are, old woman. Just one word and Kate is out with me.' "Is there something you'd like to say? Or is this matter closed?" She growled the words out quietly.

"It's not done yet. I don't want you taking Kate out there ever again! Something worse could have happened to her. When is she supposed to use fighting in her life? She should be learning more important things, like writing, and reading and-"

"She IS learning more important things.." Tellka was beginning to loose it again. It almost wasn't worth arguing this with Carrie. "I've made sure she's begun learning these things. She's enrolled in school, what more do you want? It's not like we can tutor her at the same time! Kate has to have a life of her own!"

"And you think she wants that life to be fighting? Have you ever asked her?"

Tellka's voice lowered dangerously. "Kate and I discuss every decision I give her. Yes, we have talked about this." She muttered under her breath. "And she's going to need those skills more then any Windian could understand."

"And what is she supposed to do for a living?"

"Exactly what she's doing right now!"

Carrie's eyes went wide. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"Of course it's dangerous. LIFE IS DANGEROUS, but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep her from it. I'm giving her as many choices and oppurtunities as I know how to give."

"They're not right."

"They are for her!"

"What makes you think you know what's right for Kate and what isn't?!?" Carrie began narrowing the conversation now, determined to catch the woren. Tellka wasn't buying it.

"I know what she needs because I know her, which is so much more then I could say for you!"

Carrie looked hurt. "I know Kate.. she's lived under my roof for almost a year now.."

"You don't know her until you know every thought that goes thru her mind, every nightmare she has experienced, or every dream she has ever thought up. You don't know anymore about her then she has let you know, and she hasn't let you know that much." Tellka bared her teeth with the last statement. She was really getting tired of this stupid fighting.

Carrie still wasn't settled. "What would she want to keep from me? I've basically adopted her.."

"Is that supposed to make a difference?"

Carrie looked Tellka straight on. "I've taken her in as the daughter I never had. Everything that happens to her is a concern of mine because I want to make sure nothing happens to her! Why should she keep anything from me? All I want is the best for her, like any mother would-"

"Mother?!?" Tellka gave Carrie an amazed look. "You can take her into your house, you can feed her your food. She can read your books and hear your music. But nothing you do is going to make her forget about her family, or her old home." Tellka's eyes narrowed. "And I don't care how long she's stayed in this house, or how many meals you've fed her, or how much advice you have given her, just because you've done all of that does NOT make YOU her MOTHER!" Tellka slammed her fists on the kitchen table and stood up from her seat, almost knocking the chair over. Kate's mother was a delicate subject for Kate, and she knew it. She had loved her mother, and what she remembered of her father, and Kate probably wouldn't want anyone to take her mother's place.

'Like she wouldn't let anyone replace me.. That's why I know she'd listen to me, that's why I know she trusts what I know is good for her..' Tellka wanted to say it outloud, just to settle this darn argument once and for all, but she didn't, she couldn't. Carrie wouldn't understand.

"Call yourself her 'mother' all you want, it won't change your image in anyway to Kate. You can't replace what she lost with one word, and you need to realize that." Tellka glanced around the kitchen for a moment, thoughts racing thru her mind. She wanted to end this now. Her anger was probably upsetting Kate right now. It was so strong, the poor girl could probably feel it in her dreams. Tellka turned back to Carrie. "I'll let you watch over her, I'll let you take her in... but sooner or later, you'll find out for yourself..." Tellka walked over to her staff where she had leaned it against the kitchen counter. She began to head out of the kitchen, but paused and turned back to Carrie. "No matter how hard you try, you can't fill the void that Kate has to fix herself."

Tellka stormed out of the kitchen and straight out of the house, slamming the door behind her. Rage, annoyance, bitterness, they all swam around in her mind. 'I wonder what this is doing to Kate's dreams...' There was only one way to realive herself of these emotions, just one way. Her mind continued to race over the argument she and Carrie just had. Things they said, things she wanted to say, things she didn't. She slung her staff over her back as she walked and grudgingly made her way over to the Coloseum.

'Maybe there's still time to sign up for the next fight...'

e-mail author, talonr@hotmail.com