It wasn't as chilly as it usually was this time of year in Kroz, but cold nontheless, especially for the two passengers riding in a rusty and half-rotten carrage down the bumpy road.  It's surface was littered with stones and choked out with vegitation that should have been cleared away... but the Naochi lands were still in disrepair here and there. A gray skreek pulled her head out of a mass of blankets in the trap of the carrage, stirred awake by her daughter tugging at her sleeve.  Willow blearlily gazed at the kitten, whose dark fur was still largely invisible to her morning stung eyes. "Yes Nene?" "Mamma, I need to make a stop."  The child knotted the skirt of her dress with her hands, plainly showing her urgency. The skreek groaned, she was warm in the blankets and her traveling dress was thin against the chill morning air.  "Can't it wait a little longer?  It's cold out and I've just woken up."  Nene shook her head, biting her lower lip and twisting her legs together. Willow sighed.  "Alright.  I'll stop the driver.  Just let me get my shoes on at least..." The morning was even colder than the Skreek had thought, worstened by the frost that soaked into her shoes and numbed her toes.  Nene has gotten spoiled on having a privy  in the house and was being particularly picky about where she was going to do her business. Willow's teeth chattered noisily.  "Nene, for goodness' sake hurry it up!  Uncle Kiri is expecting us soon and we're both going to catch our death if we waste our time out here for too long." The kitten cringed and nodded.  "Yes mamma."  Her eyes danced around and then  focused on something a short distance away.  "That tree.  Don't look, mamma!" "Alright, alright.  Just make it quick."  The Skreek sat down next to a gnarled oak and hugged her knees agsinst her chest.  She watched as the kitten danced away out of the corner of her eye and then snapped her gaze forward again. She'd been in a foul mood ever since entering Naochi lands, Kiri had been ignoring the much needed repairs on the fringes of his lands and she'd not seen any sign of a guard nearby.  With all the creatures of wild magic coming down from the mountains he should have been doubling his efforts to keep his lands clear and safe. Her husband had been of little help either and had even gone so far as scolding Willow about keeping her nose out of Kiri's business, or at least easing up on him from time to time.  The Skreek growled to herself and glared at the distant outline of a twisted mountain peeking over the treetops.  "What's wrong with me?  The first couple of years were fine... but now nobody seems to care about my work or what I'm trying to do.  Maybe I was better off on the Merriweather." Willow shook her head.  "That's not true," she mumbled to herself.  "And all I'm doing is feeling sorry for myself."  She slowly puffed out a breath, watching it wisp from her nose like smoke and then vanish as the air chilled it.  "I'm in a rut.  Kroz is half a world away from where I want to be, but I'm needed here.  Do I want to run away or am I just starting to feel tied down?" She poked a toe into the layer of half decayed leaves on the forest floor.  "Maybe I'm just afraid."  She let the thought linger in the air as a leaf-worm curled across her foot and slid back into the earth to seek out its breakfast. Minutes began to pass and Willow's ears started to numb.  "Nene?  Are you done yet Nene?"  she impaitently called out. No answer. She began to wonder if the kitten was playing a game and creakily rose form her perch  in front of the tree.  "Nene, you've had plenty of time.  It's time we got back to the carrage and hurried up to uncle Kiri's castle." Worry started to tang her voice, coloring the impaitent tone. Still no reply. Willow sniffed at the air, hoping to catch her daughter's scent but all she could smell was pine sap.  The smell was think enough to make her wonder if someone had lumbered the area for wood, but there were no signs of tree stumps or hints that someone had been hauling freshly cut logs through the forest.  The Skreek flattened her ears against her skull, a catlike expression she had unconciously picked up from her husband.  Something was wrong.  "Nene!" she cried her daughter's name out again and again with no reply.  Willow cursed herself for taking her eyes off the kitten, cursed herself for taking her along at all  on this trip, and cursed herself for agreeing to stop so near the mountains and their magic. A faint tickle of her daughter's scent touched Willow's nose, the kitten had made her toilet not too far from here, and the lady rat was for once grateful at the odor as it managed to tear through the pine smell just enough to give her something to follow. Follow it she did.  The Skreek bolted forward and raced through the forest like a  bloodhound, baying out the kitten's name as she ran.  The trail took her in circles as she focused on it, weaving back and forth  through an acre of forest until she found herself circling an overgrown ring of bushes and trees.  Wilow got on her knees and crawled around the circle, trying to find a way the kitten might have gotten in. Flowers bigger than a person's hand grew in the center of the protected glade and the  grass formed a thick carpet.  There were no stones, no brambles, and the air that wafted out from the glade felt warm.  It seemed almost like a pretty room someone had made to look like a storybook forest clearing. Lying in the center of it all was her daughter.  The kitten was curled up on the grass and had her head resting on a flower as a pillow.  A large leaf served as a blanket to shield her from the cold.  Willow plunged an arm into the opening and tried to grab Nene only to feel the bushes close in and push her hand back out.  She retaliated by grabbing a section of the bush and trying to forcibly uproot it.  Thorny tendrils curled around her hands and slashed at her knuckles, all the while the plants remained firmly in place, forming a wall that she couldn't get through. For a moment the skreek seemed to go half mad, she threw herself at the bush and frantically pulled, clawed, and even tried gnawing at the plants to try and get to her daughter, all the while wailing out the kitten's name.  The effort continued for several minutes until Willow slumped in defeat, her hands and arms bloody from the thorns.  Nene stirred slightly but then soundly fell asleep again. A wind whipped through the treetops -- or seemed to.  Willow noticed that while the treetops moved, she felt no breeze against her skin.  She swallowed.  "Give me my girl." The trees moved again.  "No," they whispered.  The canopy shifted and formed a face,  Two ragged circles and a scythe shaped mouth that sifted the morning sunlight down on the rat. Willow felt no warmth from the light and she pulled herself up.  "She's my daughter, give her back." The trees said again, the face almost seemed to laugh.  "You... her mother?"  "Yes!  This is Kroz, you're rooted in this land so you must know about its people's bloodlines!  She's my girl and I want her back!  You've no right to take her!" "She makes you sad," the trees replied. "That's not true."  Tingles of feeling began to creep back into the skreek's hands, sending needlins of pain up her arms as the flesh began to notice the damage caused to it.  The face shifted into an accusing glare, the mouth barely visible.  "You make her sad." "I'm her mother!  There's times when I have to make her sad."  She ground her teeth.  "This is irrelevant.  You have no right to question my motherhood based on meeting her for just a small amount of time." "Then let me keep her for awhile.  We shall see who makes her happier."  The skreek felt something tear in her hands as she balled them up into tightly curled fists.  "You have no right!" "And what do you plan to do about it, little rat?"  The face grew more features, as though the forest were teaching itself how to act more human.  "The girl makes me feel warm... happy.  I will not give her up." "Then have your own scruddy baby!  You think she'll be happy forever with you?   Away from her family?  Her mother?  Her home?"  She scrubbed tears away from her eyes before they fully formed, smearing her own blood on her cheeks in the process.  "What do I have to do to get her back from you?" "This isn't a storybook, little rat.  There are no magic riddles to solve, no quests to complete, and no tricks you can play that will force me to do your bidding.  The child's laughter reminds me of a time long ago, so long I can't remember it anymore.  I won't give that joy up." Willow sunk to her knees.  "Take me instead, then." The trees laughed.  "You think I want a pitiful thing like you?  Where is your laughter?  Will you play games with me and sing me songs like the girl did?  Give up and go home."  "I taught her those songs!  I showed her how to play those games!"  She clawed at the wet earth around her.  "Please... I'll do anything." "Then leave." The skreek slumped and then pitched herself against the dirt, as though she could force herself through it and join herself at Nene's side.  For a time speech was impossible, the only noise that croaked out from her throat were great bellowing sobs as the rat tore  madly at the earth and pushed herself against the bushes.  The wounds in the ground closed themselves up as quickly as she could tear them out, and the bush cushioned her with thorns. "Leave," the trees repeated. "No,"  Willow whimpered, all the while cursing herself.  She should have warned Nene better against the monsters of the forest, she should have been more watchful, should  have known to be careful here... should have... should have... but didn't. The bush moved, thrusting Willow over on her side in the mud.  She stayed where she had fallen, dirty and bloody.  With nothing else to lash out at, the Skreek's hands curled around her face.  She pulled at her hair and clawed at the skin, mindlessly wailing the kitten's name. Nothing more happened for the longest time, giving coherent thought a chance to creep  back into the skreek's mind.  She pulled herself up and looked down. Her arms had been slashed to ribbons, her clothes were dirty and torn, and her hair was matted with mud and blood. As if sensing her thoughts, the trees rustled again.  "Look at you... no more than an animal." "What do you expect me to do?  I love her."  She sniffled and wiped her nose against a sleeve. "Is that what love is?"  Willow gnashed her teeth.  "Damn you, I care!  I gave birth to her, I sang her to sleep... but it wasn't enough.  If all I can do is cry then that's what I'll do.  I wouldn't expect you to understand.  I don't have the power to control trees or make the grass grow or hack at people with thorns." "If you love her so much, you should be happy... She will never be sad in my care."  The face in the treetops widened, beaming more sunlight down. The skreek frowned and shook a bloody hand at the shafts of light.  "And if she gets sick?  If she needs someone to hug her after a nightmare?  What if she wants someone to blow on her porrige in the morning?  A kiss before she goes out to play?  Will you play dress-up with her?  Have tea parties?  Will you show her how to brush her hair  and tell her stories?  Can you dance with her?" "You made her sad."  The sunlight dimmed. Willow swallowed.  "And you can't make her happy forever.  I'm sorry that I'm not perfect, but I'm still her mother and I know more about her joy than you ever will.  If you seek something to take happiness in then remember the time she made you happy instead of holding her hostage and hoping to squeeze more joy from her later.  She doesn't belong to you and you can be no more a parent to her than a storybook or a toy." The face in the treetops faded away and for awhile all the skreek could hear was the sound of songbirds whistling to themselves and the whispering of a stream deeper in the woods.  "You are her mother," the trees finally relented.  "We conceed." The skreek bit her lip as the bushes parted wide enough for her to walk through.  The  small glade had faded although Nene remained fast sleep.  Willow was at her side in an instant, bundling the kitten up in her arms and burying her face against her dress. sobbing.  Nene squirmed and made a soft squeal of protest before falling asleep again.  She had always slept heavily, and hadn't slept very well during the carrage ride at all, it was no great suprise that she didn't wake up.  Fearing a trap, the Skreek jogged her bundle out.  It all seemed to quick and easy.  Maybe the forest was hoping to catch two victims instead of just one.  she raced back towards the carrage as fast as her legs would carry her. "Wow, you met the dryad?"  The driver clicked his reigns against the backs of the two dromodons.  Willow winced as the ointment bubbled fiercely against one of the wounds on her hands.  "I don't know what it was." "Legend has it that a lonley old man died in these parts once.  I didn't think much of it myself."  He spat over the side.  "I'm sorry, ma'am.  I probably should have warned you but I didn;t think much of it."  "It's alright.  Just get me home.  I think I need a bath and a hot meal."  the skreek pulled Nene into her lap and kissed the kitten's head, prompting another squeal of protest as her sleep was disturbed again. "Thank you," Willow whispered, to no one in particular.