The Leopard Lady

I am standing off to the side watching the back of a woman who appears to be doing household tasks. I see her reaching up as if shelving and arranging items but I do not see the items, the shelves or anything else. I see only just the woman as if someone has decided that she is the only thing of importance. The woman is wearing a form fitting garment, stiletto boots and has her sandy red hair done up in a high ponytail. For a moment I think I am looking at Icy in different garb but as I watch the woman move I realize that she is moving with fluid grace and not with Icy's haughty swagger. Her outfit is fawn coloured not midnight black and her long tassel of hair gives me the impression of something meant as a cloak of protection not something reminiscent of the sticky trap of blue-white spider webs which is Icy's. The woman turns to work at another invisible task so I can see her in profile. I notice that her white skin is covered with freckles that match her hair colour but unlike my own riot of freckles, which look like they were splattered over my face and body by an artist gone mad with a paintbrush, hers are rose-shaped leopard spots arranged in a definite pattern. So I begin to think of her as the "Leopard Lady". She then turns faceing me and I look into eyes entirely unlike Icy's ice-blue eyes that reflect only hot hate and cold malice but into emerald green eyes reflecting knowledge, wisdom, gentleness and understanding. The Leopard Lady's face is strangely catlike and the deep, narrow divot under her nose that nearly splits her upper lip in two reinforces the illusion. I am asking myself who is the Leopard Lady when a child's voice screams and then starts crying.

"Emma! Em-ma! Where are you?" calls the crying child's voice.

Time seems to stand still for a moment as I ask, "Her name is Emma?"

A voice speaking in my head replies, "No, it is her title. It is like wise woman, prophetess, healer, teacher and guardian compressed into a single word."

"She sounds like a very important woman," I remark and again The Voice replies, "Yes, she is."

Time resumes and the Leopard Lady replies, "Over here, Stormy-Child," to the child's cry.

I hear the sound of a child's running feet and then I see the "child". But this child is really Stormy with the curvaceous body of a young woman only tiny and just able to get her arms around the Leopard Lady's waist and put her head against her stomach. Stormy-Child looks up into the Leopard Lady's face with tears in her eyes and her makeup a mess all over her face and on her hands from crying and rubbing her eyes. The Leopard Lady stoops down to the woman-child who is Stormy and scoops her up into her arms. Stormy-Child makes an instinctive grab for the Leopard Lady's long tassel of hair and wraps it around herself like a blanket as she sobs into her shoulder.

"What's the matter?" asks the Leopard Lady of the crying woman-child. "I thought you were playing with your little friends."

"I was," replies Stormy-Child through sobs, "but then Bemaybah hit me and Weslah pulled my hair and Steorra called me a mean name."

My mind is supplied with the images of the three children: Bemaybah, a squat blue-skinned Troll child with pudgy fists that she too often uses to enforce her will and to settle arguments, Weslah, a Faerie child with tomboyish cut blue hair and full wings each with a bright green central eye graduating to blue and yellow on the edges, and Steorra, a Witch child and also a Ferret-morph quick and agile with soft fur and enormous brown eyes like stars for which she is named.

"What happened to make them do that?" asks the Leopard Lady.

"Steorra was being mean and wouldn't let me play with her doll," sobs Stormy-Child.

"Well isn't it Steorra's dolly? Did you ask Steorra nicely if you could play with her doll?" questions the Leopard Lady.

"Yes, but she said, 'No!'" protests Stormy-Child.

"Did you hit or hurt Steorra to make her give you her dolly?" asks the Leopard Lady with the great patience of one having mediated many a children's squabble.

"Well, I shocked her to make her let go of the dolly... but I didn't shock her very hard," says Stormy-Child with the look of child who has been caught being naughty.

But instead of punishment the Leopard Lady cups Stormy-Child's chin so she has to look into her emerald green eyes and with a soft but stern voice says, "What have I told you about hurting your friends with lightning, Stormy-Child?"

"That is mean and naughty," mumbles Stormy-Child shyly with a finger in her mouth.

"Yes, it is," confirms the Leopard Lady. "You could have hurt Steorra very badly. Are you sorry now that you shocked poor Steorra?"

"Yes," says Stormy-Child and begins to cry tears of sincere regret.

"And what about Weslah? Did she really pull your hair?" asks the Leopard Lady.

"Yeeees," begins Stormy-Child but when the Leopard Lady frowns at her says, "Noooo, she flyed away."

"She flew away, dear," corrects the Leopard Lady. "Weslah flew away."

"Weslah flew away," repeats Stormy-Child. "But that was mean too and Bemaybah did hit me and Steorra did call me a mean name," she adds defensively then tries to wrap the Leopard Lady's tassel more tightly around her as she buries her face in the Leopard Lady's neck.

"But that happened only after you tried to steal Steorra's doll away from her, right?" asks the Leopard Lady.

"Uh-hun," comes the hair-muffled reply.

I watch the Leopard Lady rock the woman-child in her arms while swaying in small dancing steps and thinking.

"You still have to do something nice for Steorra to make up for trying to steal her doll and to tell and to show her that you are sorry for hurting her," she tells Stormy-Child. "Say, where is that lovely big dolly that Auntie Griffin gave you - the one you said that you were tired of playing with? Perhaps if you brought it to Steorra and said you were sorry, Steorra might let you play with her dolly. And maybe you could bring Weslah that pretty Faerie doll from Sparx that Auntie Bloom gave you and for Bemaybah the magic musical cube from the Harmonic Realm that Auntie Musa gave you. Then you would all have something to play with. Isn't that better than hurting Steorra and stealing her dolly so she calls you a mean name and making Bemaybah hit you and Weslah fly away? You have to show them a good example by being a big girl and playing nicely. Can you do that for me?"

"Uh-hun," replies Stormy-Child while looking into the Leopard Lady's kindly spotted face with her messy, tear-streaked face.

"Now, I will have to do something about that messy face before you go back to play with your friends," says the Leopard Lady.

The Leopard Lady seats the woman-child on a table or ledge that I cannot see so I am given the odd impression that she is sitting on nothing and dangling her feet in the air. A cloth appears in the Leopard Lady's hand and as she cleans the smeared makeup and the tear streaks from Stormy-Child's face, Stormy-Child begins to look more and more like a sweet little girl with an innocent, angelic face, a pretty smile and a pair of bright pale blue eyes rather than like a woman.

"There," says the Leopard Lady as the final smudges of makeup vanish from little hands. "What else can I do for you?"

"Huggies, snugglies and kissy-face," burbles the little girl.

"Sure," laughs the Leopard Lady as she lifts the little girl back into her arms. "Here are some huggies," she says while holding the girl close to her and rocking her. "Here are some snugglies," while rubbing her chin on top of the girl's head. "And also some kissy-face," as she kisses the girl's forehead and cheeks while the girl wraps her little arms around the Leopard Lady's neck and hugs, snuggles and kisses her back. And then with a grin on her face she says, "And here come some ticklelies," and tickles the girl's tummy.

"Nooo, not ticklelies," squeals and laughs the girl in delight as she squirms in the Leopard Lady's arms and tries to push away her spotted hand.

"All right," says the Leopard Lady, setting Stormy-Child on her feet. "I have to work now. Can you go back to playing with your little friends? And remember: Play nicely."

"I will, Emma," laughs Stormy-Child and runs off once more a happy little girl and vanishes as the Leopard Lady resumes her invisible task.

"Who is she?" I ask.

"She's a Witch but she's unlike any Witch who has been before. You do not recognize her?" asks The Voice in my head.

"No," I tell The Voice.

"Perhaps not," responds The Voice. "She has modified her appearance somewhat with magic. Let me remove that so you can see her clearly."

As I watch, her emerald green eyes remain the same but the leopard spots become a riot of blotchy freckles and the divot under her nose becomes normal dissolving the appearance of a cat.

"That's me? But this is all mixed up! I'm only a fourteen year old girl not a woman or a Witch and Stormy's a woman not a child," I exclaim to The Voice.

"It is because what you are looking at is a reflection of your personality and not your chronological or physical self," explains The Voice. "And you are also seeing something of how Stormy sees you and you are seeing Stormy as she truly is inside. But you will come to physically resemble the woman you think of as the 'Leopard Lady' in about six years time."

I am flattered to think that I would become this beautiful, wise and caring woman but it all seems so fantastic. Then it dawns on me to ask, "Who are you?"

"I am the entity you know as 'Cloud Tower'," responds The Voice.