Chapter 4

"Tara, wake up."

For a moment Tara didn't know where she was. Looking up she saw Willow, watching her with a concerned expression. Raising her hand to Willow's face Tara asked, "What's wrong?"

Willow smiled and answered, "You were having a nightmare."

"I was?" Tara tried to remember it but came up blank, "I don't remember."

"Well it doesn't matter now." Wilow kissed Tara gently, before laying back down and wrapping her arms round Tara. Tara was just starting to drift back to sleep when the dream came back to her. She sat up, disturbing Willow, who blinked at her and said sleepily, "Wha?"

"We have to talk to the others."

They all gathered at the Magic Box, early in the morning and Tara recounted her dream to them.

"So you think these Tommyknockers are behind the attacks?" Tara nodded and Giles went on, "Well I have heard of them. They were supposed to have been gnomes who would tap on the supports of mine shafts to warn of cave ins."

"These weren't gnomes." Tara said with a shake of her head, remembering the large brutish creatures from her dream.

"I thought that they were supposed to be aliens?" Xander put in.

"That's only if you live in Maine." Claudia retorted. She closed her eyes and seemed to be think for a while. Opening them again she said, "I've heard a few legends about Tommyknockers, As well the one Giles mentioned there are also stories that they're the spirits of miners who were killed in cave ins. Another is they're a race of tunneling ogres."

"Yes that sounds right."

"So?" Anya asked, "Tara just had a nightmare. She's not the slayer, she doesn't have prophetic dreams." No one noticed Faith flinch at this. "This might have nothing to do with the attacks."

"You don't understand." Tara said, trying to sound more forceful than she felt, "This isn't just about the attacks. Those things are digging something up and it isn't friendly."

"So this means that we need to do research, right?" Willow tried to stop her excitement from being too obvious.

"Yes, I dare say it would be a good idea to research this."

"I think Faith and I should do some training." Claudia said, "After all we don't know how many we're going to be facing."

Faith, who had been worried about having to do research, jumped up and said, "Yes, training, definitely a good idea."

Xander watched Claudia and Faith go into the training room then said, "That Claudia, she's a bit odd."

"Well she does have a rather formal way of speaking but I assume that's due to her upbringing."

"What do you know about her?" Willow asked.

"I spoke to the council and they assured me that while, as Xander said, she is a little odd she isn't evil."

"Wow, even the watchers council think that she's odd." Xander said.

"Yes, I was told that she has some theories that are a little unorthodox, which is why she has always been on the outskirts of the council."

"So how did she end up as Faiths watcher?" Tara asked.

"I guess they thought she'd be best able to control Faith." Giles sounded uncertain about this. The people he'd spoken to had been rather vague on this subject.

"I don't suppose that you saw many vampires in prison." Claudia said as Faith changed into her training clothes.

"You'd be surprised." Faith retorted with a slight smirk.

"I suppose that I would." Claudia moved to stand near the training dummy. "Let's just try some basic moves, so I can get a baseline."

"Whatever you say." Faith answered with a glint in her eyes. Spinning round Faith kicked the dummy in the head. Claudia was forced to dodge out the way as the head went flying into the far wall. Claudia turned to look at the head, then at the headless dummy. Finally she turned to Faith and said, "If you can do that to a vampire then I guess that we needn't bother with a stake. Well let's work with the punching bag."

"Have you ever?"

"Have I ever what?"

"Killed a vampire."

Claudia gazed at the house, nervously as her father rummaged through the boot of the car. "Are you sure this is okay?"

Her father didn't answer her. He just handed her a stake and a torch

"I haven't read anything about this in any of the diaries."

"Are you questioning me?" her father turned to face her, his face flushed with anger.

Claudia took a step back, "No sir." her father was normally okay, but his temper could flare up at the smallest thing.

"You can't be a proper watcher unless you've killed a vampire, in real world conditions. Whatever that fool Travers might say."

Claudia nodded and started towards the door. She reached for the handle then hesitated. "Get in there." Still she hesitated. "I won't have a coward for a daughter." Gathering her courage Claudia went into the house. She had only take a few steps when she heard the door lock. Turning her torch on Claudia shone it round the room. She was in a narrow hallway that was completely unfurnished. The carpet was frayed and so dusty that it was impossible to tell what colour it had once been. There were a couple of door along the hall but they were both both locked. The door at the end was open and led into the kitchen.

There were several cupboards round the room but their doors were whether hanging off their hinges or missing completely. There was a table int he middle and at first Claudia thought it had been painted red. Moving closer she saw that it had been stained red with blood. Noticing a wallet on the floor Claudia bent to pick it up. There was an I.D. in it that said, Meals On Wheels.

"That was so convenient." A cold voice said behind her, "It's a pity they stopped coming after their fourth delivery woman disappeared." Claudia froze, not knowing what to do. All the lessons she had learned had vanished from her mind. "Now turn around so I can get a good look at you." As Claudia turned the vampire actually seemed surprised. "I see someone's gotten to you already, who did that to your face?"

"I walked into a..." Claudia stopped wondering why she was bothering to lie to this thing. "My father."

"He hurts you often, doesn't he?" Claudia nodded, "You hate him, don't you? Want to hurt him back." She nodded again. "Well if you're a a good girl and don't struggle I'll help you to do just that." Claudia nodded and the vampire moved to bite her neck. At the last moment Claudia staked it through the heart. The vampire stepped back, a mixture of shock and betrayal on it's face, before disintegrating.

"Yes." Claudia said after a few moments, "When I was fifteen."

When Faith had finished training Claudia went to help with the research. Faith stayed in the doorway to the training room watching the others. Willow and Tara were both caught up in the books they were reading. Xander had a book propped open in front of him, though it was obvious he wasn't reading it. Deciding that now was a good a time as any Faith went over to him and said "Xan man, can I have a word."

"Um okay." Xander answered a little nervously.

"I meant alone." Faith nodded towards the training room.

"Um okay." Xander repeated. He cast a frightened look at the others but no one seemed d to have noticed what was going on.

Faith went into the training room and Xander followed. As he walked through the door, Faith grabbed him from behind. Before he could react, she had drawn a knife across his throat.

"Well are you going?" Anya asked, waking Xander from his day dream.

"Um okay." Xander walked into the training room with a certain amount of trepidation. He was relieved to see that Faith was sitting a way off on the horse.

"So I understand you didn't like the idea to get me out of prison."

"No, but Faith no offence."

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you." Faith held up her hands and said, "See no weapons. Besides if I wasn't me I wouldn't have liked the idea either."

"But since you are you?"

"Prison was a drag. Anyway as Claudia said, I wasn't helping anyone there."

"you weren't hurting anyone either."

"True. So I guess the question is are you going to give me a chance to prove myself like blondie and red are?"

"I guess that I can do that. But if you..."

"Chill Xander, Red's already read me the riot act and she's a lot more frightening than you are."

"Oh well okay then."

Faith shone her torch round the entrance of the tunnel, "Is this the place?"

Tara moved forward to take a look, "It looks like it." The walls looked the same as in her dream but it was hard to tell for sure since she hadn't seen the entrance.

"Well then let's get going." Faith led the way into the tunnel, followed by Xander and Anya. Willow and Tara came next and Giles and Claudia brought up the rear.

After they'd been going for a while they came to a spot that Tara recognised, "This is the place from my dream."

"So we're almost there."

They kept going and soon heard the sound of digging, along with a strange grunting sound. Then they came into sight of the things making the noise. There were about fifteen of the creatures crowded at the end of the tunnel. They were fervently digging, mindless of their companions. On several occasions one of the creatures either hit one of the others or threw a handful of mud in it's face. The strangest thing was that the slighted creature didn't react to this. As they got closer some of the creatures broke away, but most continued digging. Faith ran forward and began attacking them. Xander quickly followed, hitting them with the axe he was holding. The Tommyknocker swatted him away with it's large, spade like hands. As he picked himself up something occurred to Xander, "I wonder where Spike is? He would have enjoyed this."

"You let Spike help you?" Faith asked after breaking one of the creatures necks.

"It's a long story." Xander answered before turning to block an attack.

One of the Tommyknockers ran past Faith and knocked Willow to the ground. Willow raised her hands to protect her face as it clawed at her. Seeing this Tara quickly cast a spell, intending to knock it away. Instead though, a fireball flew from her hand, incinerating it. The fireball continued on, forcing Faith to dive out of the way, and killed several more of the Tommyknockers. It hit the far wall and exploded.

"Hey, warn a girl, will you!" Faith said.

"I didn't... I..." Tara was looking at her hands as if they had just betrayed her. The Tunnel began to shake and dirt began to fall from the ceiling.

"I suggest that we leave." Giles said. They quickly ran back down the tunnel. Getting out just before it collapsed.

"Well I guess that that took care of that problem." Faith said.

"Quite, though Tara is it wise to be using such powerful dark magics?"

"I didn't... I mean that wasn't supposed to have happened." Tara couldn't understand how the spell had gone so drastically wrong, or where the power had come from to cause so much damage.

Willow went through her drawers and picked out some night clothes. "That was Giles on the phone just now. He and Claudia checked out the tunnel and it seems to have been completely filled in. So we don't have to worry about whatever it is in there getting out. Though we'll have to keep an eye on it to make sure that no one else tries to dig it up." Noticing that Tara hadn't responded to her Willow walked over to Tara and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Not really. I'm really worried about what happened. The spell should have just knocked the thing away from you, not destroyed the whole tunnel."

"So the spell went a little wrong..." Willow wasn't sure what the problem was. Her spells often went wrong and she had always just tried to learn from her mistakes and resolved to try and do better next time.

"That's more than just a little wrong. I mean where did all that power come from? What if I can't control it? I almost killed Faith the last time."

Willow wrapped her arms round Tara, "It's going to be okay. We're going to figure this out."

Tara nodded, though she was still uncertain.

When Tara got to the Magic Box Claudia was explaining to Giles, Faith and Anya, "Well it was definitely those Tommyknockers who were behind the spate of attacks. It seems that some of them were coming up from the tunnel to grab some lunch." Noticing Tara she came over and said, "Can I have a word?"

Tara nodded and followed her to the back of the shop. "I guess that this is about last night."

"Yes. According to Mr Giles you've never done spells of that strength before."

Tara nodded, "That's right. It's pretty scary."

"Yes. I can well imagine. I think I can help. I know someone, he runs a magical school."

"A school for witches?"

"Witches, magicians, anyone who uses magic. Anyway I think that he might be able to help you work out what caused this power boost, and more importantly how to control it."

"Okay, how do I find him."

"Ah that's the tricky part. The school can only be found if you have a special charm." Claudia reached into a pocket and pulled out a necklace. "This will lead you to it and let you in."

Tara took the necklace, "Thanks."

When Willow got home she was obviously excited about something. "Did you talk to the school principle?" Tara asked her. Willow had been going to talk to the principle about advertising her tutoring services.

"Um, no actually. I didn't have to. You see I met up with Billy's mom there and she's looking for someone to tutor her daughter. She remembered me from when I tutored Billy so she's given me the job."

"That is good news." Tara said, smiling she went over to Willow and hugged her.

"It gets better. She said that she's going to mention the fact I'm tutoring to her friends. With any luck I should start getting a lot of offers."

"So when's your first class?"

"It's tonight."

"Oh." Tara tried to hide her disappointment at this. She had hoped that Willow would come with her to see Samuel.

"You're going to see that Samuel guy tonight aren't you?" When Tara nodded she went on, "Well I could always phone them and change it to another night."

"No that's okay. I'll be fine going on my own."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm positive."

Pauline balanced the tray that she was carrying and opened the door to her husbands room, "John, I brought you some dinner."

"Dirty, everything is so dirty." He was wiping at his arms, a confused and disgusted look on his face.

Pauline sighed, he had been like this for six months now. None of the doctors had been able to come up with any explanation for his condition, or any cure. There was a knock at the door and Pauline put the tray down saying, "I'll be back in a little while." Pauline went downstairs and opened the door. She was startled to see two men dressed all in black and with masks hiding their faces. "What..." There was a buzzing sound and she lost consciousness.

The two men quickly ran upstairs. Looking at them John said, "You can't see me, because I'm a cat."

Tara walked down an alleyway, looking about nervously. She didn't like the area that the necklace had brought her to. Tara was beginning to have doubts about this school and she was regretting not having accepted Willow's offer to come with her. The only thing that kept her going was the worry of what would happen if she didn't learn to control her new powers. Suddenly the necklace began flashing. A moment later a doorway appeared floating in mid air. Opening it, Tara stepped through.