Come Little Children: Book I

There are some dangerous things in these Woods

On the last stretch back to the cottage, Katerina picked up her skirts once more and ran towards the door. At a loss for breath she turned the brass knob and stumbled into the cottage, her breathing still heavy as she was never accostomed to such intense activity. Inhaling, she could smell pastry already baked and ready to cool.

A forlorn Jacquetta thrust open the window and dusted the edge of the window sill. Though, Katerina could be sure it had been cleaned earlier that morning, laying the pie to cool onto the window sill, the smell wafting deep into the woods, Jacquetta turned to her daughter, her dour expression making Katerina cringe.

"Mother, you work yourself excessively."

"I've seen children walking through these woods. I had to make haste. I could not have sat in my rocking chair, awaiting your return."Jacquetta's words were wrapped around a thin artic blanket of ice and although she did not yell Katerina could tell her mother was livid. "Tonight is a full moon Katerina and you will do as you have been taught, just as I had done these years before. Falling in love, heaven's knows you have any idea what it is, is not the answer. Not now."

Katerina was no longer out of breath, instead she blushed and cast her eyes towards the ground, ashamed of what she was going to tell her mother, though she could not prevent herself from saying it. "I think I love him."

Jacquetta's laugh was short and hard, making Katerina blush an even deeper shade of scarlet. "Child, love is for the foolish. The strong fare better."

Katerina glared as hard as she dared towards her mother before turning her attention to the steaming pie, she waved the mist farther out the window, not hoping to attract a bystander quicker this way but rather to distract herself from her mother's words that cut through her like a knife. "I shall speak no more. I will prove myself. I am no fool, Mother."

"We shall see." Jacquetta said, not wholly convinced as she disappeared into garden once more.

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Katerina tried to occupy herself with her sewing to no avail, the cottage had already been tidied and when she proved not to be hungry, she found herself with nothing to do but to wait for her mother's Sight to prove accurate. Leaning against the window sill along with the pie who's steam miraculously continued to waft further and further, Katerina began to hum her song once more but a rustled from the path. From what she could make out, there were three of them.

"That was my foot, Emeline!" An indignant boy's voice wailed. Again, Katerina fanned the pie, hoping to entice the children.

 "T'wasn't me! Alys pushed me into it!" Came a high pitched retort. Katerina let out a laugh that sounded like the tinkling of bells, making it loud enough for the children to hear.

"Arthur? Do you smell that?" Another girl asked, intent on following the scent.

"Follow me." The boy commanded and within the minute the rustling of branches and leaves grew closer and closer until the silhouette of two girls, and a boy who appeared slightly older perhaps by two years than the two girls. All three of their heads had matching chestnut tints making it appearant that they were related.

Both girls' eyes darted towards the cottage, from the garden (as all visitors did)  and then hungrily at the pie before turning back to meet eachother exclaiming, "Pie!" Emmeline and Alys joined hands and ran towards the cottage. Not having much choice in the matter, Arthur followed.

When they arrived, peering up onto the window sill and licking their lips at the sight of the confection, Katerina smiled and with a bob of a curtsey she said, "Children."

"Lady." One said and the twins attempted to imitate her curtsey, though their efforts were in vain as one poorly executed the curtsey and the other falling over in the process. Katerina brought her hands over her mouth and allowed herself to convulse in a bout of giggles. "Precious." She murmured.

"We're terribly hungry." The boy announced.

"Would you three care for a slice?" Not willing to take no for an answer, Katerina bustled off in search of a knife when she returned an amused smile on her lips, she felt faint. "Oh." Katerina sighed, steadying herself my grasping the ledge of the window sill. Her grip had tightened on the knife as a bout of Vertigo was soon upon her, her grip so tight her knuckles turned white. As she held onto the dagger-like object she felt, what her mother had often called and dubbed the Urge.

Jaquetta had forewarned her that this would occur on the eve of the first blood moon after she turned sixteen. It felt so right and yet she knew that she had to fight it. Or try to ignore it until the blood moon was upon them at least. Katerina stabbed the knife into the dough of the confection, bitterly.

"Are you alright?" One of the girls, though Katerina couldn't tell who wondered.

"Why of course, sweeting."

"Thank you kind lady." Arthur murmured, savagely biting into his slice.

"We noticed you had a lovely garden." Alys said, licking her fingers clean. The other girl Emmeline, nibbled onto her slice as if she sensed danger.

 She's shy is all. I should think nothing of it, Katerina thought and quickly pushed her thoughts away before her imagination would begin to wander. When Katerina's mind began to wander, things became graver than they really were.

"Oh yes. I tend to it every day. My mother used to tell me that if I were to sing to my plants at night they would grow faster and more beautifully than ever before. The secret is that you must have a beautiful voice." She told the children as if she was beggining to tell them a riveting story.

"Do you have a beautiful voice?" Emiline asked, speaking for the first time since she had been given the pie.

"I suppose so."

"Sing to us." Arthur commanded, aprubtly.

Katerina let her eyes wonder, keeping her mouth slightly opened to make it seem like she was hesitating though it was quite the contrary she had been in the mood to sing aloud all day but without the proper audience it hadn't felt right. Not until now.

 Choosing a simple Gregorian psalm she had been taught when she had been six years of age she proceeded, "Victimae paschali laudes immolent Christiani. Agnus redemit oves: Christus innocens Patri reconciliavit peccatores. Mors et vita duello."

"You sing beautifully." Alys said when she found her words.

"Thank you. I sing to my garden every evening."

"Do you sing the same song, every evening?" Arthur asked, all too curiously.

"Not always." She smiled as if she was refraining to speak other words. "You shall hear me this evening."

Little did the children know that with those words she had already trapped them into her web of deception.The children nodded, unsure what to make of her statement. Katerina then leaned against the window sill to look up at the sun.

"You'd best be going. We wouldn't want your parents to fret, know would we?"

The children thanked her for her kindesss and obeyed, turning to leave. All except for Emiline.

"Best you be on your way, child. There are some dangerous things in these woods." Katerina told her in a savage hiss so unlike the voice of sickly sweet honey she had recently used.

The little girl gave her one last glare and ran off to catch up with her brother and sister. "Run, dear child run for you shall be mine before the blood moon wanes." Katerina smirked, closing the windows, turning to face her mother.

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Thank you for reading!

xox Giuliana