Chapter 23

I wondered why the two people who had been turned to stone were stark naked. They looked to be middle aged and really nondescript. There was nothing remarkable about either of them, except that the man had a strange haircut. Well, I'd find out later, but, right now, I needed to check into the old woman and the child.

I went to the strange little house which looked to be no more than eight feet long on a side. I looked all around the house, but I could find no doors or windows. As I watched, the feet under the house shifted position and started to walk out of the front yard. I shouted to Herlo, "DON'T LET THE HOUSE LEAVE THE YARD! I'LL BE BACK IN A MINUTE!"

Herlo shape shifted into a long band and wrapped himself around the legs so that they couldn't move without tripping. With the house immobilized so that it could not escape, I followed the woman into the house through the chimney. To do that, I had to thin myself way down and elongate to compensate so that there would be no change in mass. I stood beside the house and ducked head first through the chimney.

From the looks of things, I should have only had to travel about 12-14 feet to be completely through the chimney, but such was not actually the case. The chimney seemed to be at least 35 feet long, so I pulled myself through and let my feet lift off the ground. I kind of slithered down the chimney until I found the fireplace at the bottom. I had passed another fireplace farther up, but decided that it was for the second floor, and I really wanted to find the first floor.

I was about half way down the chimney when a fire flashed up through the flue and startled me, but could do me no actual harm. I assumed that it was an automatic defense mechanism and ignored it beyond assuming that the old woman now knew that I was on my way into her house.

The house was amazing. When I finally emerged from the fireplace, I found myself in a very large room, at least 30 feet on a side. What was amazing was that this room that was 30 feet square was inside a house that was only eight feet square. This was powerful magic, and I was completely intrigued.

The woman was standing in the middle of the room, and the child was sitting in a chair at a table just a few feet to her left. The child was eating something rather hungrily, and she looked so famished that I did not want to interfere with her meal.

I said to the woman, "Good day, Madam. Please excuse my rather rude entry into your house, but I could find no other way in, and I needed to talk to you."

She glared at me and stood with her clinched fists on her hips. "How dare you break into my house, and who are you?"

"Madam, I am called Vilkatas. I am here because my family heard a terrible scream of pain and fear a short time ago. We heard it over our mental communication network which we though was sealed off to all but ourselves. When we heard the mental scream, we felt compelled to investigate. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Very well, under those circumstances, I guess that you should hear what little I know. By the way, my name is Baba-Yaga. I am also known by many other names, but that is the one used in this neighborhood. I see that not only are you a magical creature, but you are a proficient user of magic. You are new to me, and I would like to get to know you, but that can wait until later.

"The scream came from this girl, whom I have never seen before today. One of my many skills is that I can read thoughts and the intent behind those thoughts. That, incidentally, is why I am not fighting you. Anyway, the man and woman were preparing to cast a magic spell and were going to sacrifice this little girl as part of the rite of casting the spell. It has been my experience that any spell which requires a human sacrifice is either evil or unnecessary, so I acted to stop them. Unfortunately, they were so far along in the casting process that they were about to kill the girl. The only way I could stop them was to turn them to stone with my withering stare, so that was what I did.

"I never did find out the purpose of the spell, but I could tell that it was evil in nature, so I have no regrets about stopping it in the way I did. Perhaps the girl will know the purpose of the spell, but I would like to let her eat and rest before asking her."

"An excellent idea, Baba-Yaga. I wonder what is the background of the girl. I lead a clan of werewolves, and we would be willing, no, eager, to adopt this girl into our clan. I suspect that she is already a werewolf, because of the way she used the mental communication. One or both of her parents might have been a werewolf, so we would be the logical adopters if her birth parents cannot be found. If she is not a werewolf, but can use the mental communication channel, then she is even more interesting. I feel that it is imperative to identify what she is, if she is not a werewolf. If we adopt her, we can easily convert her into a werewolf, unless she objects."

"Every word you say makes me believe even more strongly that you are an ethical person who is truly and profoundly interested in the welfare of this little girl. Therefore, I will be happy to cooperate with you. Perhaps your family would like to join me for supper while we let the girl rest and digest her quick snack."

"Yes, that would be nice, but we might crowd you too much if we all came into your house. There are 19 of us, including me, so I am not sure that you would have enough room."

"Oh, don't worry about that. The house will expand to accept as many people as I invite in."

"In that case, I accept your kind invitation. Does the house have a door? I don't see one, and not all of my people yet have the extreme shape-shifting ability that I have."

"No problem. There is the door that you can use." I thanked her and went through the door to invite everybody inside. They were all surprised and intrigued by the invitation, and they were eager to see a house that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.

We all trooped into Baba-Yaga's home, including Herlo, whom I had instructed to release the legs. I, too, was surprised, because the house was now even larger than when I had been in it a few minutes earlier. I was going to ask how to do that trick.

We were served a multi-course meal of excellent quality, yet Baba-Yaga never left the table. I never did see who did the serving, but the service was impeccable. We sat and talked a while, exchanging stories of our adventures, while we waited for the girl to wake up; she had been put to bed while I had been collecting my clan.

After an hour or so, Baba-Yaga announced that the girl was awake and ready to join us. About two minutes later, the girl walked into the room. I never did see the door that she had used; I suspect that there never was a door in the normal human physical sense. Anyway, the girl was invited to join us at the table for conversation and general good fellowship. We all introduced ourselves; she was known as Alora.

We spent some time getting to know the girl and letting her know us, then we started asking more pointed questions. "I have no idea of any of the details of the spell those two evil wizards were trying to perform, except that it meant eternal life for them and death for me. They were going to cut out my heart with an iron knife, what ever that is. Oh, please, I can't bear to think about it any more!"

Baba-Yaga said, "Certainly, my dear Alora. Let's go on to other things. Where are your parents? We would like to return you to them."

At this, Alora began to cry. "I don't know my parents. I was stolen from them while I was still an infant, and in all my 13 years, I have never seen them."