Chapter 35 Thundering wrath

Babushka did show up to make her farewells to Hilda and Nina with all the rest while passing out goodies to the children. Her only interaction with Sadko was a tap on his cart and an exclamation of its poor upkeep. Once they were gone she was glad to take the rest of her flock up to her garden. Emilyan, the youngest of the boys, beat her to the top and ran in. Suddenly the bottom of her froze. She could not move forward. She stepped backwards. Her skin crawled with a terrible sensation, as a chubby child’s face poked out from behind one of the orchard trees far before her. It was the face of Emilyan, “Babushka, are you coming?”

“Give me a hand you lazy boy or perhaps you think yourself above old women?!” Babushka snapped. So what if the boy was only seven.

Emilyan looked wounded by her words and obediently went to her side. He let her hold his shoulders while he began to struggle upward even as he moved. Grandmother did not. After just two steps she screamed with disgust.

“Ugh something bars my way!” she wailed. Her face was becoming more ugly and creased. Emilyan was determined to be of assistance and moved behind her to try and push the rest of the way. The agony of this approach was still too much on her. She swung her walking stick at him poking his gut “Stop you maggot away with you!” When she turned upon him his innocent eyes saw not the face of Babushka but the pointy nosed demon Baba Yaga. It was brief, it was horrible and he ran away crying. Baba Yaga dismissed this. Someone was keeping her from her garden. That someone was going to pay.

Inside the garden her set spells had already taken hold and all the other children slept soundly even though outside an ogress was snorting, cursing as she pounded her staff against a wall of air. She was circling the garden as sparks flew from her feet. Once the salt ring glowed and repelled her out even further.

Hansel grinned wide as he watched this upside down. From a distance it appeared she was doing a little dance. He traveled further and further, listening to the mindless prattle of the girls above and the soft breathing of one stow away. He dropped down from the bottom of Sadko’s cart letting it pass over him and then he rolled. Gretel’s scent was near. Soon her head emerged from a tree cavity.

“Any luck finding a dwarf entry?” He surveyed as she began shaking the dirt off of her.

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“This one is old and does his work well. I can’t seem to find anything remotely leading in the direction of the lake.” Gretel sniffed to clear her nose and also her anxiety.

“Well, I have her pre-occupied. Let's find her hata and take a look inside. At the very least we might find something of value to steal.” Hansel offered.

“I’ll try to find it from below.” Gretel’s ear caught the sulking misbehavings far off. She paused just before ducking in “Brother those Grandmother’s knees I hear knocking?”

“She really does strain herself over that garden.” Hansel laughed with his sister.

Using ancient dark words the hag backed farther and farther away until Grandmother was her face again. Her glassy eyes still filled with the mist of another world as she continued to chant, moving her hips quite vulgarly and then slamming her staff into the ground, her knees soon following. The ground thundered and like the tail of a cat a thin cloud spiraled in from the far outer reaches of the sky beyond the woods it circled right above the garden and poured down water.

Baba Yaga sniffed around muttering under her breath with the ground wet scents were stronger. She crawled upon it while opening her hands, palms up, curling and uncurling her fingers like claws. Her hair straggled down like wet yarn. Within Sadko’s barn the dove’s nest began to shake. It circled up and around the bird into a little cage. This cage rolled right out of the barn and into Baba Yaga’s clutches with its captive cooing loudly.

Elena had found Emilyan crying amongst some shoots and had sent him home with his mother. She had just decided to come see what had frightened him watching a fair amount of water come washing down the hill as it melted away everything to mud. This sudden storm made her feel a little queasy and she was distraught that Grandmother had been in so much pain she had frightened a child.

“Babushka are you alright?” she saw a hunched over figure on the ground.

“No!” Grandmother turned on her grunting as she stood. The old woman’s shall was flapping like a flag in the wind. “How dare you! You kept salt in the village!”

Elena was quick to retort feeling slighted immediately. “Why do you carry on so Mother? I have never put any in your food. Besides, for the moment the kitchen is destroyed there is not any.”

“I suppose you could not let it simply waste. I suppose it was a gift from Sadko. Too much of your kindness cost me! No more!” The witch took a step forward into a puddle. It was saturated with salt and burned her ankle. She hissed as the water hissed and Elena dropped back in horror.

For a moment Elena let her sight long ignored take hold. There before her stood a doppelganger of the worst kind. It was then that she remembered that witches detested salt. Not the good witches, who were the first to draw up this magic of purity, the evil ones. The ones in league with darkness, they shared their bodies with demons. This vision before her was twisted and terrible. Elena turned and ran as fast as she could. She turned back to see that Babushka was not following her. Relief hit when she saw she was going to make it into the woods. She ran into them. She ran into Ivan.