Before I go any further with my story I would like to thank the following members: FoxDemonTaki, shippolove844, Ceville, mizar and alcor, Dracaspina, Shu (), helloXlove, LittleWoodstock, Valinor's Twilight, Lunette (), and XiceXcoldXempathyX. You guys have been great with reviews and have kept me going. Also I am not making any money from this.

"Must get out! Must get out!" Canary Rose thought as she flitted frantically around her cage. Her thoughts became more scattered every time she hit the wooden bars. Her human rationality clashed with the panic of her new bird's instincts. Finally her human mind won out. She calmed down and landed on the cage's perch.

"How am I going to get out of here? More importantly how am I going to become human again? She can't mean to keep me like this. My parents said that she wants to use my powers. That must mean that she'll turn me back," she thought as her mind raced. The room she was in looked just like the kitchen at home, er the cottage that she thought was home. She could no longer think of that place as home.

"Huh," she snorted bitterly and thought, "now I'm an orphan and homeless,". She quickly pulled herself out of that trap. She had no time to pity herself now. It was only when Mistress Yaga strode into the room that Rose realized she had been alone the whole time. The gargantuan form of Mistress Yaga approached Canary Rose's cage.

"How are we going to fix this Rose?" Mistress Yaga sighed sarcastically to the cage.

"You must be wondering if I'll change you back," she said, "Well I'm still weighing the options on that. If I don't then I can't use your gift, but I can't be assured that you will cooperate with me if I do,". Rose was surprised at Mistress Yaga's rant. It was unusual for her to talk so much, let alone explain so much. Rose also found herself surprised at being surprised at anything this evening.

"Can you feel what I feel?" Mistress Yaga asked Canary Rose what was obviously a hypothetical question. Mistress Yaga was taunting Rose. Her usual aloof orders were now cruel jests.

"Look at you. You have so much power, and are completely ignorant as to how to use it. You'd die without me you know," Mistress Yaga said matter of factly.

"Of course you don't know. I had to kill your parents. Your gift is deadly, it can be fatal for you. The emotions of others overload your system. If not properly controlled it can lead to psychosis, possibly death. You would also probably kill your own parents at some point," Mistress Yaga continued as she began to move about the room. She was gathering up herbs for some concoction.

"At least that's what happened to the last girl," she said a little more softly.

"Surprised?" Mistress Yaga asked as she turned to Canary Rose's cage. Rose wasn't sure that emotion showed on a bird's face but Mistress Yaga always did know her every thought.

"You're not a unicorn you know," Mistress Yaga grunted, "There are others like you. Not many others I'll grant you. But every generation creates new seers and empaths,". Mistress Yaga threw her now gathered ingredients into her stewpot. (Everybody who came for cures expected her to have a big bubbling cauldron. A stewpot worked just as well and was much cheaper to replace and easier to clean.)

"This will take a while," Mistress Yaga said referring to the potion. An uncharacteristic look of weariness flitted over her face for just barely a second. She sat in her stool by the oven and sighed.

"I'll tell you a story Rose. Maybe by the end of it you'll be a little wiser. Maybe not. Yes I killed your parents, but just like everything else in life, I did it for a reason. I don't know what they said to you in the spirit world but I'm sure its not the complete truth. How could it be? They don't know the history of people like you, what would have ended up being your history," she accused pointing her calloused index finger at Canary Rose.

"Empaths have a hard lot in life. Women empaths have it the worst. I've spent a good deal of time trying to find out why but I still haven't. You all attract people, like flies to a spider web, they come buzzing to you. At first it's a good thing. You're happy and popular. But as you come into your gift and the emotions of others worm their way into your mind, it begins to drive you insane. You'll lose most of the people you love either because they can't stand you or you can't stand their emotions. If they don't abandon you then the intensity of so much emotion drives you insane. You become dangerous to yourself and to society," Mistress Yaga explained.

"How do I know this?," she asked for Rose, "Well a good twenty years before you were born I found another empath like you. A girl. Her parents were delighted to have a special child, that was unlucky otherwise I could have taken her and saved everyone a lot of trouble. So I followed their wishes and tried to be a long distance mentor. She would come to me four times a week for a few hours. She lived in a village with her parents though," Mistress Yaga said. At this point she paused to stir the stewpot and take out a bundle of herbs that had given their all and added a marrow bone.

"I suppose she had a happy childhood," she began again, "but at thirteen her gift manifested itself. It starts earlier for girls than for boys. She was moody. Manic even. Her mother didn't worry too much for the first two years. 'She just hasn't adjusted to her cycles yet,' she would say whenever I would comment on it. I suppose that could be a reason for woman to have more aggressive empathy symptoms. But by the time the girl was sixteen, we could all see that she was coming undone. She would yell out strange things sporadically. She got bald spots because she would pull at her hair all day. One day at around noon her father came running to my home. He was panicked," here she paused in reflection.

"His voice was hoarse from screaming. 'She's been possessed! She's been possessed! Please come and help,' he begged me. We rushed back to the village. The sight that was put before me there frightened me horribly. My little empath was curled up in a ball in a corner of the cabin. She had gouges and cuts all over her face, neck and arms. The bald spots on her head were bigger and bled till blood dripped down past her forehead. Her mother told me, in between sobs, that the girl had been tearing at her own skin and hair. She seemed to relish the physical pain. She was wailing like some mad spirit. Oh it was a haunting sight,".

"I found out that she had been rejected by a boy in the village. He was in love with another girl. When she spoke to him, she could feel his pity for her as well as his love for the other girl. Her own love for him was extremely strong. A side effect of empathy is very concentrated emotion. I took her with me to my cabin. I told her parents that she could not be returned. Upon hearing that, the girl flew into a rage. She screamed like a panther at the thought of being exiled. We fought with her until we were exhausted. I suppose that she felt all of our concern for her and so submitted. And though she was the only empath there, we could all feel the sadness radiating off of her. She was like a corpse on the way back to my cabin. The secluded location of my cabin seemed to calm her down. Now instead of dying because of the sentiments of others, she seemed to be drowning in her own emotions. I worked for weeks trying to come up with a way to strip her of her power. I eventually did find a way, but not in time," the ancient witch finished.

Rose sat on her perch. Mistress Yaga's story had her spellbound. She had practically forgotten that being a canary was a problem for her. While Mistress Yaga spoke the tragedy of her former empath, Rose could think only of that poor girl. She could feel the pain and confusion echoing off Mistress Yaga's story.

"Ah, looks like its time to take this off the heat," Mistress Yaga said as she pulled the bubbling pot off of the fire. Rose watched her set it on the cold fireplace stones.

"You can calm down, I'm going to turn you back as soon as this cools," Mistress Yaga told Rose with a wry smile. Rose fell off of her perch as the house lurched forward. Mistress Yaga's potion sloshed in the pot.

"We must be getting very deep into the old forest.," Mistress Yaga muttered to herself, "Soon we'll be out of this kingdom and able to start over,".