Chapter 26 Ivashko
“Ivashko, Ivashko! Where are you?!” cried the voice of his Mother.
“We have come to find you! To rescue you!” cried the voice of his Father.
“Enough!” Ivashko plugged his ears with his fingers while he crouched in his boat. A short distance away he saw a splash and Baba Yaga came to the shore cackling after hours of circling the lake and calling to him near and far. It was her toy. A voice box made from the throat of a werewolf. It could mimic every sound. She never got bored with it even after acquiring new toys.
“Remember the little boy long ago, the boy who cried that a beast ate Elena’s parents? It wasn’t long after that I chose to bond you to this place.”
“I should have known you a betrayer, you ash spurned adder. You fork tongued soul sucking knob kneed…” he began to shout with hate. She only breathed in the insults like a warm steam from a fine cup of cider
“Oh how I adore you! Oh how you thrill me with your sulky sufferings!” she clapped.
“Baba Yaga let me go. Let me go and I will kiss you. Is that not what you want? Have not, you lusted for me all of these years?” It had taken long nights of his stomach churning for him to finally produce this butter from his lips. Days of him rotting upon this lake for him to consider dying little deaths.
“You tease you tramp.” She snarled, “You both jest and beguile and neither very well. Lust, you do not know the meaning of the word.” She lay down next to the water and as she swirled the waters of Lake Visage with her hand her own image began to change. She was lovely, sleek and dark with black hair and full red lips. “To lust you must want, you must need. A face like yours would have the world bearing itself to you like a painted whore never truly needing what would fall into your lap.” She looked up at him batting her lashes.
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“Remember when you thought to leave. Run away from this village and from me whom you suspected of malicious intent. Your thoughts to that pretty young thing creating a new life far from my madness. What you did not understand is long ago I chose you for my own. I desired you with your brown curls and sharp cunning. I saw right away that you could have the power to be worshiped among men and women alike. That you could make a King into a slave if you so wished it. And so by making you my slave I could conquer the world.”
“Never while this will is alive in me shall I give myself to you freely ever again! My offer was repugnant to my ears just as you are to my sight!” Ivashko splashed the lake and her image wavered back to the wrinkled and frayed hag that she was.
“That's my boy.” She smiled her toothless grin. “I know that false imagery does not work on you. That you desire something true and natural and because I…” Her face became even more twisted and ugly as she stood with pain. “I know of true lust and vanity! I who see your weakness reflected in this lake. I will give you what you desire. I will mold to fit your whims so that you will know what it is like to be the whore falling before my feet!”
“I see a snake playing with its food, coiling and recoiling with the intent to devour. I am more than a mouse you try to swallow up within you. I am a mongoose and these teeth have an edge to them that still thirsts to be tried!” The stars faded and so did the witch at his shouts. That was the worst part of it. Crying out and not being heard. Not by her. Not by anyone, his echoes sounding foolish on the wind. His sheltered mind forced to spend another day alone on this unholy, unnatural lake. Where was his Mother? Where was his Father? Did they care? Were they dead? In the end would it matter? Was he to become like all the other mindless monsters she controlled?