The crowd in the bar murmured quietly. A thick tension hung over the guests and the bartender was worried. Violence was almost palpable, especially at the large group near the fireplace. One man stood in front of the others, talking hastily.

The bar cat was curled up in the corner of the fireplace, purring lightly. She seemed unfazed of the hassle around her, her ears twitching every now and then in her sleep.

"You shall not allow a sorceress to live." a bald preacher claimed, rising his bible and pointing on it. "For those who defy the name of the LORD we know an old way to make their souls pure again." Little spitwads flew of his mouth during his speech and the first row retreated a bit to avoid getting spit. The man got even more enraged. His white geneva bands vibrated visible.

"FIRE" he screamed. "FIRE is the way to purify a witch. It is within gods will that all witches need to burn. Slowly the fire should consume them from toe to head while they scream for mercy they will never receive. BURN THE WITCHES. Like our ancestors burned the witches of Salem we shall burn them in our days."

The quiet murmuring of the people gathered in front of the fireplace became louder and more fierce. The bald man pointed at one of the women. "Didn't she curse your child with Autism? And didn't the curse even defy the fiercest prayer?" The woman nodded eagerly. "And wasn't it the wicked doing of the witch who made your kid sick when he get his remedies?" The woman nodded even more, she started to cry now. "Yes, YES. My child was a good child until this curse came over him. Then he went Autistic, it all was the curse of the witch. My child was healthy, he was healthy. HE WAS HEALTHY." she sobbed freely now and the bartender saw the satisfied gleam in the eyes of the preacher.

The bartender became even more worried. He really wanted to get rid of this crowd as soon as possible. The preacher came here almost every night, but there was no reason for him to ban him from his bar, as long as he didn't create any mischief. But it seems like he would cross the line today.

One of the men sitting at the bar lifted his head. "Oh come on Maddie. Your kid was born with Autism, there is no "curse". And you tried to bleach the autism out of him with this chlorine bleach you bought in the internet." The man shook his head and took another sip of his beer. Maddie turned around and screeched: "No child of mine has Autism. It HAS to be a curse. There is no other way. BURN THE WITCH. And my son will be healthy again."

She turned again to the crowd and started a chant: "Burn the witch. Burn. Burn. Burn. Burn. Burn her..." the little crowd followed the entrancing chant. Unfortunately that was the moment the cat took to wake up. She lifted her head and stretched. The little animal tried to jump down on the floor, when the preacher took her by the scruff. The cat screamed and struggled to get away from the man, but there was no avail.. "And those animals are the minions of the witches. Shapeshifter and witches are all the same. They are abominations of god. THEY SHALL BURN. LOOK HOW THIS THING IS FIGHTING! Let us purify this little devil." He turned around and aimed with his arm into the fireplace to throw the poor little thing into the burning flames of the fireplace when a sharp noise and a scratch let him stop dead in his tracks.

The bartender held his gun, aiming at the preacher. "David, let the cat go." he ordered. The preacher smiled at him maliciously. "Or else? You can't kill us all?" he said smugly. The bartender didn't bat an eye. "No. But you are the first one to get down. I know how to use this thing. LET THAT CAT GO!" The preacher swallowed heavily and radiated hatred. He flinged the cat in the direction of the bartender, who already awaited such a dick move. The cat slammed into the shelves with the heavy alcohol before falling down on the floor and stayed silent. The bartender looked at the preacher. "Out. Now. And don't ever set a foot into this building ever again, or I will shoot you for trespassing."

The preacher tried to say something, but a sharp shot told him that it would be better to cave in. He shot the bartender a hateful gaze. "When HIS kingdom is coming soon you will be the one suffering in the eternal flames." He nodded to his little sheeples who got up in a daze and followed him obediently. The bartender looked around. "The bar is closed for the remainder of the night." He waved with his gun to the door and the remaining guests hurried to left the bar.

When the last of the guests left the bar, he quickly closed the doors and turned to the still motionless cat. He took a hanky and wrapped the little animal carefully into it. The cat was breathing quietly but it was clear that the preacher really did a number on her. Her deep black fur was covered in blood. "No no no, don't die." The bartender rushed into the kitchen and looked for his First Aid Kit when he heard the kitchen door rattling.

He laid the cat carefully on the counter and secured the hankys around her before he hurried and fetched the gun. He was away only for a few seconds, but when he came back he saw a man standing right besides the animal, the bloody hanky in his hand and wiping carefully at the fur. He looked up and the bartender knew in an instant that he was no enemy. The deep green glowing eyes showed him the Dryad, the healer of the forest. He relaxed a tad bit, before he tensed up again and stepped closed to the little cat.

"Can you save her?" he asked anxiously. The Dryad didn't say anything and his heart sunk. "Please. She is...she is my daughter. Save her." he pleaded. "She is all I have left from my wife." The Dryad looked at him with compassion. "We'll see, but the is badly injured and lost a lot of blood." The bartender looked at him. "Take mine if you need some. I don't care." The Dryad shook his head. "This wouldn't be necessary. And I can see that the blood wouldn't fit anyways. You are human, aren't you?" The bartender nodded. "I was shocked when my wife showed me this shapeshifting thing. But I loved her. And my daughter was so tiny and so gorgeous. How could I reject them?" The stern gaze of the Dryad became softer. "You are a good man. I can't promise anything to you, but I will do whatever I can." he turned to the countertop. "Have you something we can use for transporting her?" he asked. The bartender nodded, hurried to the storage room and fetched a cartonage.

The dryad took a clean cloth and wrapped the cat carefully inside it before placing her into the cartonage. "We need to hurry. Did you ever travel with a supernatural?" The bartender shook his head. "No, never. We were pretty isolated. My wife feared that she would be discovered one day and get killed." He looked at the motionless cat. "Please. I....I do whatever I have to do. Without her my life is empty." tears streamed freely over his cheeks and the Dryad didn't hesitate any longer. He lifted the cartonage carefully and cradled it in his arms, before he took the hand of the bartender. The Dryad looked at the bartender and asked. "I'm Chris, by the way." The other man didn't tear his eyes away from the precious content of the cartonage. "I'm Jay." And with that the Dryad concentrated and they disappeared.

****

David Thoreau, the preacher, fumed on his way back to his home. He almost got his sheeps to help him getting rid of that blasted witch who was staining the town in the eyes of the lord with her sheer presence.

He was so close. David would love to see the flesh melt from the bones of that evil creature, to purify her. He looked forward to the day when he finally would be able to lay a hand on her. He reveled in the thought that he would be able to listen to her screams while the fire cracked around her, the smell of burnt flesh in his nose.

And then his real mission would begin. He would clean this world of all those abomination who seems to pop out of every corner.

The preacher didn't acknowledge his environment, too far gone in his bloodied dreams, he didn't care. He was sure his god would protect him, no matter of the enemy.

Despite that he almost jumped to the high heavens when a hand fell heavily on his shoulder. He whirled around and quickly regained his composure. He couldn't afford to let his posture go, he ruled with his stern and inaccessible Aura. His little group of sheeps stood right in front of him, Maddie, his favorite sheep, right in front of him.

"We are here to fulfill the wishes of the Lord. "You shall not allow a sorceress to live." And we won't. We won't. WE WON'T!" Maddie almost screeched. David patted her shoulder, to calm her down a little bit, checking thoroughly the group gathered behind the woman, whose eyes flickered in an eerie way. He liked what he saw. The group was determined. And enough to get rid of one measly defenseless woman.

He nodded slowly and said: "You are in the light of the Lord. We will burn the witch tonight. Like our ancestors burned the witches. We will see the light of the Lord shining on this abomination. And we will see her burn." With that he turned on his heels. "Follow me. We have the deed of the Lord to do." The group cheered and followed suit and Maddie started to sing "Halleluja". The irony wasn't lost at David, who remembered this song coming from one of those "Shrek"-Movies.

The singing group passed people and when asked where they would go, they said: "We are doing the deed of the Lord. We are sending a witch back to Satan." Some shook their head, others, like a group of half drunken men found this a hilarious joke and followed the group, singing happily with them.

When they passed a gas station, some of the men approached the building and took canister with gas from the fuel pump. When they left without paying, the upset owner ran out of his building, a rifle in his hand. "Stop. NOW. Where do you think you are going?" The crowd went silent and even the happy drunk people felt visible uncomfortable. David thought a brief second and decided that they couldn't afford the delay or he would lose his sheeples. He took some money out of his wad and tossed it to the man. "Take this, you Philister." he claimed and left again. He felt that they had to hurry or the witch would not die tonight.

Finally they reached the neighbourhood of the witch. It was a late evening and most of the lights were already switched off and the houses were dark. The street was eerie. No noise was heard, and the tension was thick. One after another stopped singing. The whole group, now a little crowd, felt visible uncomfortable.

David didn't care. He knew it was too late for all of them to leave now. The preacher knew very well how crowds worked and he knew that they were not able to turn the tables now, even if they realize that he was serious. The dynamic of the almost fifty people who gathered together wouldn't allow anybody to leave now.

Slowly the group approached the house of the witch. The only house in the whole street, which was highly luminated.

****

When a bright light hit his eyes, Jay blinked a bit, before his eyes finally got used to the bright light. He saw the Dryad, no, Chris, standing in front of a beautiful red haired woman. "Carla, this one needs our help. I can't do that alone." he explained. Carla looked at the small bundle and clucked with her tongue. "Awww...poor baby. Hurry, we don't have much time, sweetie." She looked at Jay. "What's her name?" Jay looked at her, anxious. "Kitty." Carla blinked a second. "You didn't, did you?" she looked slightly amused, before she got serious. "What happened to her?" Jay explained briefly the incident which led to her injuries and Carla nodded.

"Chris, look at her life level, I'm fetching all the things we need." Chris didn't say anything, he just laid his hand on the matted fur and closed his eyes. Quietly he said: "Hurry, Carla. It's starting to flicker."

Carla hissed and moved rapidly through her cabinets and closets. Finally she had all ingredients together. She tossed Jay a metal jar with leafs in it. "We need a tea. One handful into the glass can and fill it with boiled water, please?" Jay hesitated for a moment and then hurried to the stove, filling the kettle with water. Silently he pleaded to any god he could remember that they would spare the life of his daughter.

He didn't dare to approach the table again where Dryad and Witch were busy working. After an eternity Carla took a deep breath. "Okay, let's do it. Take my hand." Witch and Dryad took each others hand and a soft green glowing fog emanated from their hands, with red streaks shooting through it like angry red flashes. The little cat was soon covered completely in the green fog and Jay stood there in awe. For the first time since his daughter crashed into the shelf he allowed himself to feel some hope.

The water was boiling and he quickly filled the jar to the brim. A clean and light scent of mint, mixed with sage and other herbs he couldn't name wafted through the room, changing the atmosphere immediately.

The soft green glowing faded away and the red streaks in the fog became more prominent, flashing frantically through the fog. The green fog was exchanged through the red color and soon the fog was red with green flashes in it.

Slowly the fog faded back to the hands, and when the last remnant of the fog disappeared both healers wavered at their places. Carla fell down on her knees, seemingly not able to stand right now. And Chris made it to the next chair before he collapsed. Jay hurried to help Carla back on her feed and led her to a nearby sofa. The witch laid down and closed her eyes.

He then filled two mugs with the tea and put a good amount of sugar in it. He remembered that sugar is a good thing if you worked hard. He handed Chris the mug with the tea when he heard a quiet noise which let his heart jump in joy.

His daughter was purring.

Quickly he passed the mug to Carla and made sure the woman took a few sips before giving into the urge and check on his daughter. The little black cat was looking at him with bright blue eyes, purring and pawing at his nose, clearly wanted to get picked up. He looked at the smiling Dryad. Chris nodded and Jay picked up his daughter happily, tears of joy streaming over his face. "I've got you back. I've got you back...oh thank you, thank you. I've got you back."

He turned around to thank the witch for her help when he stopped dead in his tracks.

For him, clearly visible, he saw a silent crowd gathering in front of the house. The stance of the people was threatening, and the Aura of violence was almost palpable. Jay swallowed and gathered his daughter firmly in his arms. Did Chris and Carla gave him his daughter back just to get killed by those nutcase David Thoreau?

He paled when he saw the first fire blooming up. And he paled even more, when he heard the witch laughing. It was a happy laughter, chiming like little fairy bells through the room and Jay asked himself briefly if Carla had lost it. But whatever concern he had was soon be calmed down when he heard her say:

"Oh my... They do not try to burn a fire witch, don't they?"