Legends (Part 9 - Baba Yaga)

The team of three Amestrian soldiers, which included Warrant Officer Olivier Mira Armstrong, Warrant Officer Tizona, and Second Lieutenant Colada, were in Drachma for a spy mission to find the reason for the heavy smuggling of weapons to Ishval. Due to some mistake, they were detected by the military and were being chased, but fortunately, they encountered Boris, who helped them evade the military dogs and led them to a shelter. Because it was already evening, they decided to stay in an abandoned house at the outskirt of the forest, and for that, they needed some firewood.

Boris offered his help again to gather some woods, but Colada was suspicious of him. So, Colada asked Olivier to go with Boris. And instead of staying in the house which felt like a trap to him, Colada asked Tizona to join him in shadowing Boris.

Boris and Olivier were unaware that they were being followed. They were walking through the pine without talking for a while, but then Boris initiated the conversation by asking a question which was definitely not the way one approaches a young beautiful woman. "Are you married, Ms. Armstrong?" He asked while looking toward Olivier curiously.

"No, and for your information, I am not interested in you, so you better not start something which might make me angry," Olivier replied bluntly.

"Understood," Boris quickly turned away his head, and looked forward.

Boris had always the difficulty with women who didn't ask for money to spend some time. To be specific, he had never been in a relationship. The only women in his life were either courtesans or women who worked with him, none of whom ever triggered the emotions of his heart. So, whenever he saw any women where he thought of starting a simple relation bonded by emotions, he tried but failed for one or other reasons.

After getting rejected in the first few seconds of approaching, Boris decided to keep quiet. Even after reaching the area to collect fire woods, Boris didn't speak a word. Olivier didn't expect Boris to be so gentlemanly, so out of respect, she decided to break the silence. While both of them were picking woods just a few feet away from each other, Olivier asked, "You told us you hate the government, why is that?"

"I will tell you once you start trusting me," Boris replied.

Oliver stopped collecting woods and stood up straight. She looked at Boris, who was still picking woods and said, "You should know that it's foolish to trust someone whom you met just a few moments ago."

"That's correct. And that's why trust is a two-way road. If you don't trust me then I can't trust you," Boris replied calmly while picking the woods.

Olivier understood that he wasn't comfortable in exposing his life yet. So, she resumed her job. While she was picking woods, she saw some claw marks on the trunk of a thick pine tree.

"Hey Boris, can you come over here and tell what kind of animal did this?" Olivier called while looking at the marks curiously.

Boris stopped picking up woods and went to see the claw marks. There was a long claw mark on the tree done with two claws by some animal. The claw marks were very deep inside the tree bark at 5 feet height from the ground, and the bark area surrounding the claw mark was not destroyed. It was as if the marks were carved with two knives pushed deep inside the bark. Boris recognized the mark, because of which beads of sweat started forming on his forehead in that cold weather and he gulped out of fear. He quickly looked at Olivier with his scared eyes and asked, "Are you done collecting woods?"

"Yes," said Olivier.

"Let's go from here then," Boris spoke anxiously and started walking fast with all the woods he collected. Olivier didn't understand, but she walked along. She had to walk fast in order to match up with his speed.

To understand the context properly, she asked while walking, "What happened? Were the claw marks of some dangerous wild animal?"

Right at that moment, they heard the cracking of a dry stem from the back. Both of them stopped and looked back to find the reason. Olivier dropped her woods and pulled out her gun and pointed in the direction from where the sound came. Boris also dropped his woods and pulled out his knife. Within a few moments, Colada and Tizona stepped out of their hidings.

Olivier looked toward her superior with furrowed brows. "Sir?" She said.

Colada and Tizona couldn't shadow Boris anymore, so Colada made an excuse. "We thought of helping you," Colada responded.

Boris was clearly not interested in any explanation at that moment. So, he ignored whatever Colada said and requested anxiously, "Let's get to the house quickly."

Boris then quickly picked up his woods and started walking fast toward the house. But, he was stopped by Colada. "Stop right there," Colada said with authority.

Boris turned around and saw Colada was pointing his gun at him.

"I am having a very hard time in trusting you Boris, why don't you tell us what is your real intention? Why did you help us and why did you take us to that house?" Colada asked.

"It's not safe out here, please let's go to the house first," Boris requested anxiously.

"No one is going anywhere until you tell us the truth. And I promise you, if you take one more step I will definitely blow your brains," Colada glared at Boris.

"Why it isn't safe here?" Tizona asked curiously.

"He has been acting weird after we saw that claw marks on a tree. I think those marks were made by some bear," Olivier informed.

"Is this how you collect bear urine, Boris? By running from them?" Tizona teased.

Sun was on the horizon, and Boris was getting restless. He took a deep breath and exhaled to calm down before giving an explanation.

"Listen…those claw marks were not of some bear. That was something you would never want to face… nobody knows what it is or what all it can do, but it is said that you should never invade its territory, and unfortunately, we are in its territory…We call it Baba Yaga," Boris explained.

Instead of creating an impact, Boris' statement was treated as a joke and everyone burst into laughter.

Tizona commented while laughing, "Man, it looks like you read fairy tales very seriously."

But then suddenly they heard a loud roar echoing in the forest, and everyone instantly stopped laughing. They started looking here and there with their handgun in their hand.

"What was that?" Tizona asked anxiously.

Colada said, "That must be a bear"

Boris got annoyed by their reaction. He looked at them with lowered eyebrows and yelled, "Are you people fucking idiots? Even if that's a bear, are you going to wait here until it shows up and attacks you?"

"Even if it's your imaginary friend Baba Yaga, we are not going anywhere," Colada replied calmly.

The sun was no more on the horizon, now it was moon's time to shine in the sky with stars. As soon as the forest got shrouded in the blanket of darkness with the moon as the only source of light, everyone heard some footsteps crushing the dry branches. They could completely comprehend that something was slowly approaching them. Everyone was looking at the direction from where the noise of cracking branches was coming. In a few moments, the beast was visible. It was a chimera with the head of a wolf and spiral horns like a sheep. Its body was covered with wool, but the limbs had claws, and it had the small tail like a sheep.

When the beast saw them, it stopped and slowly two similar beasts walked out of the shadows from behind and joined it. One of them was a half wolf and half goat, whereas the other one was half wolf and half donkey. The three beasts were glaring at the four humans standing in front of them with bared teeth and saliva dripping from their mouth. The three soldiers pointed their guns at the beasts, and Boris pulled out his knife.

"What the hell are these things?" Tizona spoke while shockingly looking at the creatures. He couldn't believe what he was witnessing.

"Creatures from fairy tales," Boris sounded sarcastic.

After the creatures growled and glared for some time, they ran toward them. Meanwhile, the creatures were approaching them with all the intention of killing them, everyone started shooting at them. But, none of them were able to hit a single creature. Eventually one of Lieutenant Colada's bullet hit the half wolf half donkey beast before it could reach him, and the shot hit right at the center of its head. Meanwhile, the half-wolf half goat beast lunged at Tizona and the other beast lunged at Olivier with open claws and open jaws.

Tizona was out of bullet, but he acted quickly by pulling out his Bayonet knife. He dodged the beast at an inch distance from its claws and pushed his knife inside the beast's skull. On the other side, the beast which lunged on Olivier received a punch from Boris in midair before it could touch Olivier. It fell on the ground, and before it could stand up, Boris pushed his big hunting knife inside its skull. Then he pulled back his knife from the beast's skull, stood up and turned around. Everyone was looking at him.

"Now can we go?" Boris asked politely.

Now that the Amestrian soldiers encountered some creatures which they had never seen before, they had no choice but to believe what Boris had told them.

"Were these what you call Baba Yaga?" Olivier asked.

"These were just the minions. I am sure it must have heard the gunshots. It will be better if we leave this place. Not even the house is safe for us now," Boris replied.

Everyone gulped out of fear. They followed Boris this time and left the place as fast as possible.

After few minutes had passed off their departure, the noise from a creature's footsteps broke the recently achieved silence in that place. The creature was not visible, but its growl was clearly audible. And after few moments, the dead bodies of the beasts killed by the Amestrians and Boris were shredded into pieces within seconds. Soon after that, the creature roared which could be heard from miles.

.........…

Maria and Danny were carefully listening to Boris like some children. But, Boris stopped there and said, "Bedtime story is over. You two should take some rest, I will tell you the rest of the story some other day."

"There are chimeras in Drachma?" Maria's eyes were widened while she asked.

"So you do know what those creatures are called," Boris said.

"Is there by any chance we are in Baba Yaga's territory?" Danny interrupted with a scared face.

"No, Baba Yaga died a long time ago…now sleep and let me sleep," Boris replied and yawned. He then lied on Toby's furry back, using it as a pillow.

Danny and Maria didn't question Boris anymore and went to sleep.