<Where are you, my very young and pretty?> said the Crone's voice in her head, sounding both frail with age and at the same time powerful with evil. <Show yourself to me.>

     Tala Viddyr had nightmares about the Crone frequently, dreaming that this time the hideous old hag had found her, her eyes glittering with greed and evil, and was even now on her way to work her evil magic on her. This was no dream, though. This time it was real. She was out there somewhere, in some form, searching for her. Tala cowered in her bed, quivering with fear. She pulled the covers up over her head as if that would hide her from sight. The evil presence swept back and forth across the country like a hunting bird of prey, its piercing gaze able to see through the tiles and thatch of cottages to see the people sleeping within. Tala imagined it pausing above every young girl it found. Anyone between the ages of fourteen and twenty. Scrutinising her until the Crone was satisfied she wasn't the girl she was looking for whereupon she would give a cry of frustration and fly on.

     The Kingdom of Meddelvy was big, but not that big. There were only so many towns and villages. There was the big city of Denwell, of course, with its teeming thousands, but the Crone would know her prey wouldn't be there. Her kind, to which both she and Tala belonged, almost always shunned cities. If Tala sensed that the Crone was coming too close she might move there to hide, but she would hate it and she didn't know how long she'd be able to stay before the lifeless gravel roads and the cold stone buildings drove her away again.

     She sensed her friends gathering around her small cottage. Birds on the roof, squirrels on the windowsill. Deer and badgers outside her front door. <Mummy!> they cried. <Why are you scared?> The sympathy turned to confusion as Tala failed to reply. She couldn't reply! If she did the Crone would hear. She was close now. Swooping low over the nearby village of Ellford and the dozen or so cottages that were scattered around the crossroads at its heart. Her friends called out louder to her, confusion turning to fear as they worried that something terrible had happened. She heard paws and claws scrabbling at the door, the mice squeezing under it and pattering across the floor to the bedroom.

     They climbed up the quilted bedsheet and under it until they were nestled against her body, their tiny minds calling out anxiously for her to answer them. The Crone was even closer, though. She sensed whatever had been sent by the old woman, an astral projection perhaps, swooping across the river and into the valley where Tala's cottage lay. Tala forced herself to ignore the increasingly desperate cries of her friends and curled up tighter, wrapping her arms around her head. She put a hand over her mouth as if the Crone would be able to hear if she spoke out loud.

     Whatever it was flew past directly overhead, and Tala heard the Crone's voice again. <Sweet child. Strong. Young. Healthy. Where are you?> Then it was gone, though. Perhaps it hadn't seen the cottage under the pine trees that pressed close around it on all sides. She gasped with relief as the black shadow it was casting over her soul lifted and she allowed her head to peep cautiously out from under the bedsheets. The mice stirred, comforted by her movement, but they were still confused by her silence. <Mummy! Talk to us, mummy. Tell us what's wrong.> Tala stroked their silky-soft fur, trying to give with her fingers the reassurance she couldn't give with her mind's voice.

     She could still sense the Crone moving away, now on the other side of Lake Silvemere and moving up into the mountains but she waited until all trace of her mocking, cackling voice had vanished before replying to her friends. <It's okay. I'm alright. You don't have to worry.> The animals squeaked and yelped with relief and the scrabbling at the door ceased.

     Tala climbed out of her bed, shivering in the cold, night air, and pulled a coat on over her flimsy nightie. The mice scurried happily around her bare feet. Tala then made her way down the squeaky wooden stairs and opened the front door.

     The moon was almost full. A bright, round face staring down from between the silver clouds that surrounded it. It cast a cold, pale light across her small garden, enabling her to clearly see the woodland creatures that had gathered there. There were birds sitting in the trees and two deer poked their noses in through the door, their eyes staring at her in relief. There was a badger there too, though, and the mice, which had followed her down the stairs, ran away squeaking with fear. <The monster! The monster's here! The monster's found us!> The badger ignored them, though, its eyes lovingly fixed on Tala.

     Tala looked back at the retreating mice. She normally tried to keep predators and prey apart around her cottage. She didn't want the herbivores to find out that she was also friends with the predators that ate them. Luckily, the mice didn't seem to be questioning why the badger was there. Tala had gotten away with it, this time.

     She reached out to stroke the deer, then knelt down to tickle the badger under its chin. <I'm all right,> She told them. <You can go back into the woods now. Thank you for caring for me. I love you all.>

     <We love you too, mummy,> sang the birds, singing with their sweet voices. <We love you so much.> They remained where they were, though. It was the middle of the night. They might as well go to sleep where they were.

     The deer turned and walked away into the surrounding trees, but the badger was staring into the house, in the direction the mice had gone. It tried to enter the house but Tala moved her leg to block its way. <No you don't,> she told it. <If you want a midnight snack, go look for it in the forest.>

     <Food,> said the badger, though. <Food in your cave. Hungry.>

     <I don't care. Go find some food somewhere else.>

     The badger looked up at her in confusion, but then it turned and left, disappearing into the darkness. Tala watched it go, its claws clicking on the crazy-pazed path until it reached the grass. Then she closed the door and went into the back room where the mice were cowering under the china cupboard that stood in the corner.

     <You can come out now,> she told them. <It's safe.>

     They emerged cautiously, their noses twitching as they searched the room with their beady black eyes. <Saved us!> they cried joyfully. <Mummy saved us from the monster.>

     <You're safe now,> Tala assured them, reaching her hand down so they could run into her fingers and cuddle there. <The monster can't get you here.>

     <Thank you, mummy! We love you!>

     <And I love you too.>

     She wiggled her fingers to tickle them, then straightened again and went back to the stairs. The tall clock, ticking solemnly in the corner of the room where it was lit by a shaft of moonlight, said that it was less than an hour past midnight. More than half the night still lay ahead, if she could sleep with the Crone still out there, searching for her. This was the closest she had ever come. Surely it was only a matter of time before she found her, and what would happen then, she didn't dare think about.

☆☆☆

     She did manage to get some more sleep, and when she awoke for the second time the events of the night seemed almost like just another nightmare. For a moment she was able to make herself believe that it hasn't been real but then the mice were there again, still thanking her for saving them from the monster. It had been real, then, and she shivered with the knowledge of her close escape.

     The mice sensed her fear and she took a few moments to reassure them before washing her face in the bowl of water she kept beside her bed and getting dressed. She tried to forget the Crone by focusing her mind on the things she had to do that day. All the early morning tasks she had to take care of before she could leave the house and make her way to Ellford where she taught the children of the small village. Something she loved doing and that earmed her the money she needed for her upkeep.

     Then she would spend the afternoon and evening tending to the crops she grew in the field outside her small garden. Maybe she would pull up an onion and some of the carrots for the soup she would make when it grew dark and she returned to her cottage. She liked to eat home grown food whenever possible, but most of her food, a sack of flour and packets of sugar and salt with which she made her own bread, came from Merrin, delivered once a week by Colm, the son of Mikkel the Merchant on his horse drawn cart. She grew her own yeast in a large bottle she kept in her dark clothes cupboard.

     Planning out the day ahead eased her mind and soon she was almost able to forget the events of the night before. By the time she left the house to greet the goats that came wandering in to be milked she was humming as though nothing had happened and the goats greeted her with no idea of the peril that had threatened their human friend. They offered their milk freely and asked for nothing in return, with no idea that it was Tala who kept the wolves from preying on them.

     She took the urn of warm goat milk back to the cottage, left it in the kitchen and changed into her best clothes for her trip into town. It was two miles along the narrow muddy track that led to the road between Ellford and Merrin, and then seven miles to the bridge across the river Ell. She walked the whole way, glad for the warm sunshine that filtered through the trees that lined the road. She had a heavy coat for when it was raining, but the sky was empty of clouds and her nose for the weather told her that it would stay that way until the evening at least. Her nose had never let her down. It wasn't a green witch thing. Her mother, Tabitha, hadn't had it, even through she was as good a witch as there had been been. It was a Tala thing. Something that ordinary people were sometimes born with, which was why she wasn't afraid to tell people about it.

     She held her shoes in her hand, so she could walk through the muddy puddles without getting them dirty. She would wash her feet in the town duck pond when she arrived and then walk into the church hall that doubled as the school with perfectly polished shoes on her feet. Above her the birds chattered to themselves, warning rivals against entering their territory or bawdily calling out for mates. When they saw her they called down greetings which Tala answered happily. She held out her hand and a nuthatch fluttered down to sit on her palm. She pulled a few grains of corn from a pocket with her other hand and the bird gobbled them down gratefully.

     She heard the voices of wolves calling out from a short distance away. They rarely came this close to her cottage. She asked them to stay away and they were generally happy to obey. Something must have happened to draw them in. Probably an elderly or injured animal no longer capable of running away. She felt a moment of sympathy for the poor creature but kept on walking. It was nature's way. The wolves would kill the animal quickly and end its suffering.

     Curious, though, she strained her witch senses to listen to them. <Not long now,> one of them was saying. <It's growing weaker. Soon we can eat.>

     <I'm hungry,> another one said. <Let's kill it now.>

     <Wait,> the first one cautioned, though. <Its long claw will kill you if you go in too soon. Be patient.>

     Tala was instantly alert. Long claw was what the wolves called a knife or a spear. They'd found an injured human. She prepared to raise her green speech to a shout, to warn them away, but stopped. Suppose the Crone's astral presence was still nearby, listening. She didn't dare take the risk. She left the path, therefore, and set off through the trees in the direction from which the voices were coming.

     She hadn't gone far before she came to another road, the one that led to Sweddell; another small town around the same size as Ellford. She set off along it until she saw wolves ahead of her, staring intently at something out of sight in the trees. One of them turned its head to look at her. It bared its teeth in a warning growl.

     She was close enough now to talk without shouting. <Don't you dare growl at me, wolf. Is that you, Limper?>

     It was, she saw as she got closer. The creature had suffered a broken leg when a deer kicked it just as the wolves were about to take it down. Tala had heard it cry out in pain and had brought it back to her cottage on a travois that the other wolves had helped her pull. Despite her best efforts, though, the leg hadn't healed properly and the wolf now walked with a slight limp. The animal doctor in Merrin could have done a better job but she hasn't dared involved him. He would have wanted to know why she cared so much about the wolves that preyed on the farmers' sheep and chickens.

     The wolf's eyes widened as she heard her words. <Mother?>

     <We're outside your territory,> another wolf added, emerging from the trees to face her. <You said we could hunt here.>

     <You've found a human,> Tala said reproachfully. <I've told you not to hunt humans.>

     <It's hurt,> the second wolf replied. It was Torn Ear, she saw. The leader of the pack. <It will die slowly if we don't eat it. It will suffer.>

     <And we're hungry,> Limper added.

     <Then go catch some rabbits,> Tala told them. <You can't kill humans. I've told you that.>

     All the wolves had emerged from the trees now and were lined up across the road, facing her. Six of them. <Let's eat him anyway,> one of them said. <She can't stop us.>

     <We do as mother says,> said Torn Ear, turning to bare his teeth at him. <She has the Eyes that Bite.>

     <Her eyes can't bite all of us,> the third wolf replied, taking a step closer to Tala. It was Black Tooth, she saw. Named after an infected tooth that caused him constant pain. Tala had offered to pull it but the wolf had refused. The pain made him angry and bad rempered. He was young and healthy, though. Ambitious to take over leadership of the pack. <We can all attack together...>

     Tala focused her eyes on the wolf and concentrated. Black Tooth whimpered and staggered back, shaking his head. Tala maintained her gaze for a moment, then released him. She really didn't want to make enemies of the wolves. She felt apprehension growing inside her as she realised the creature was right. If they all attacked together, she couldn't stop them.

     Black Tooth recovered quickly and glared furiously at her, snarling. Tala forced herself to stand firm. If she showed fear, she was finished. She locked eyes with the wolf and stared back, but without the power to cause pain this time. She couldn't use the power alone to stop them. They had to respect her authority.

     Black Tooth took a step forward. <All of us together,> he said. <Attack now!>

     <No,> said Torn Ear, though. <We will leave. Find food elsewhere.>

     Black Tooth turned to face him, still snarling. <Coward!> he accused. <You are not worthy to lead the pack.>

     <Mother is our friend,> Torn Ear told him. <She healed Limper's leg.>

     <Not very well. Limper is still a cripple.>

     <My teeth are still sharp,> Limper told him, snarling back. <If you fight Torn Ear, you fight me as well.>

     Black Tooth snarled back at her, but then he turned away. Still looking unhappy and resentful but submitting, for now at least. Torn Ear was old, though. He would have to step down from leadership one day, and when that day came Black Tooth was certain to be the one to replace him. There could be trouble when that day came, but Tala put the thought aside for the moment. Right now, she had a human to save.

     <We will go,> said Torn Ear. <There are deer to the north. We will hunt there.>

     The wolf bowed to her and Tala nodded back. Then the wolves turned and bounded away. Tala waited until they were out of sight before moving forward to find the injured human.