Martyna absorbed this and then slowly nodded solemnly. It was not her place to disagree with her mother and father was not home to speak to about this. 

She looked inside the bowl, her mouth felt parched. She wondered what it was like to eat them… she felt sick. She didn't want to eat a person. 

"They're no longer people," her mother said as if reading her mind. 

Martyna swallowed some saliva uncomfortably and selected one of the three inch tall men and reached down inside the bowl. 

She winced as she felt them beating against her fingers, trying to discourage her, dissuade her… hurt her… whatever to get away from them. 

She reached out and grabbed one, lifting him by his arm. He wriggled like a tiny little fish caught from a stream. 

Her mother nodded and reached in and grabbed a handful of the rest of them and shoved them in a shoulder bag which she planted around her shoulder. 

"The first time is always the hardest," she looked at her mother's eyes and she suddenly saw a softness bleeding into her mother's expression. 

A softness that she rarely saw in her. What was she seeing now? It felt like her mother was suddenly looking at her, no longer as a little girl, but as a woman… with respect… almost as an equal. 

"You're a woman now, daughter… coming of age with our powers is hard. The world does not understand us, never let the world see or hear what we can do… do you understand?"

Martyna nodded. 

"Mother…"

"Yes?" Her mother paused, dangling the wriggling tiny man near her own face. 

"What is Kleine Hexe?" She asked about what the German had called out at her.

Her mother sighed and glanced away.

"Little witch," she replied quietly and bluntly. Martyna gasped and held her free hand to her mouth. She was shocked at this knowledge. 

"Are we?" Martyna asked in horror. The Polish folk tales were true?

Her mother paused, thinking and then looked back at Martyna. 

"Society has many names for our kind, but we live amongst them, we are like them, just… more special…" 

"Mother!" Martyna growled in frustration at the cryptic reply. "Are we witches?"

"We don't follow what they think witches are… no… we don't get our power from Satan… no… but yes… in some kind of form we are witches… I suppose… we cannot explain where the power comes from. We just know it comes from the more negative types of emotions in ourselves… and from others. Particularly from men, only women in our coven seem to have our powers… as far as we know. 

Now be a good girl and eat up your tiny man," her mother chuckled. 

She lifted her tiny man up towards her mouth. Martyna watched in distaste as she saw her mother teasing him. She licked his tiny naked body a few times. 

She said things to him in broken German that seemed to evoke ripples of fear from him. Martyna didn't understand most of what her mother said but whatever it was it wasn't pleasant. 

Then her mother held the tiny wriggling and begging man above her mouth and slowly lowered him down.