* * * * *
For the first five minutes, I did watch the battle most anxiously. For, with each lunge, Svyatogor sought to sever one of the wooden chicken legs beneath the troll hag's house. Each attempt only succeeding in focusing her attention on him. Yet, this is precisely what he sought. For, that left his daughter Skogul free to try and cleave the entire domicile in twain!
Alas! Baba Yaga did magically perceive each and every one of the latter attempts. Thereby, thwarting the Jomsviking giantess, as well.
As a result, I did begin to fear that this three-way deadlock would never be broken. Which is why I finally decided to act, myself.
Slowly I circled round behind the bewitched house. Hoping to sneak beneath its elevated rear wall, while Baba Yaga's attention was monopolized by the two Varangiants. And, fervently praying that she was so distracted, thus, that she did not have power enough to magically perceive my stealthy approach.
Alas! The opposite proved to be true. A fact evinced by the right chicken leg suddenly casting its shadow directly over me!!
"Ilya!!!" screamed Skogul, as she did behold my peril.
Whereupon, she did throw herself belly-first upon the ground. While simultaneously raising her shield so as to place it between myself and the sole of that bewitched wooden leg. Thus leading to a new impasse.
For, each time that the Varangiant shield maiden did try to regain her feet, Baba Yaga did make some arcane gesture with her right hand. Causing the foot of that wooden right leg to once more descend, with renewed (and doubtlessy increasing) pressure upon Skogul's shield. This, in turn, would force the warrior giantess once more on to her stomach. Making the troll hag cackle with glee.
This did prove Baba Yaga's undoing, however. For, so engrossed did she become in her fiendish delight of torturing Skogul, that she forgot about the Varangiant shield maiden's father!
"Thor and Odiiiiiiiiiiiiin!" he did shout, at the top of his lungs, as he swung his gigantic seax--once last time--at the now-vulnerable left wooden leg.
WHOOSH!
CRACK!
"Ahhhhhhh!" screamed Baba Yaga, as her bewitched domicile began to wobble back and forth like a ship on a storm-tossed sea.
Skogul, seeing this loss of balance, was quick to seize the opportunity. Once more, she pushed upward with her shield. And, this time, the house fell backwards! With Baba Yaga screaming even louder, now. That is; till the house did crash to Earth, altogether. Whereupon, Svyatogor did seek to end the battle, by springing forward and aiming his seax for a vetically downward killing stroke.
Alas! We had all of us forgotten the right wooden leg.
The talons of that bewitched chicken foot did lash out at the left side of the elder Varangiant's left boot...and connect.
"Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!" he screamed, falling to one knee.
Whereupon, Skogul did spring back on to her own feet. Her own, equally gigantic seax delivering the final stroke. But, whether or not Baba Yaga screamed one final time, I will never know. For, as soon as the wooden house had been cleaved in twain, it did explode with a fiery thunderclap!
We did wait a few moments, to see if the troll hag would reveal herself to be fireproof. Yet, when we had ascertained that she was not, Skogul turned to her attention to Svyatogor.
"Are you all right, Father?"
"Yes-yes-yes!" he muttered in reply: "Hardly even a flesh wound. Which is why I think _that_ merits more of our attention."
He did point behind me, prompting Skogul and I to turn as one. There, back-lit against the central portion of the semi-circular wall of flames, was the portal to Ovaria's realm. Although, in truth, it did bear a greater resemblance to the _mirage_ of a simple wooden door: shimmering and transparent.
It was then that I withdrew the second of Brother Iosef's gifts: the ash of St. Nicholas. Pouring some of it into the palm of my left hand, I walked up to that portal and, upon reaching point-blank range, threw it.
Once again, there was a thunderous explosion. Yet, miraculously, I was not thrown backward! Merely blinded, for a brief moment, by a flash of white light. When that light had dimmed, I did look--and gasp--in wonder.
There, before me and my two companions (who had now resumed normal size), was a veritable hole in space.
tbc
Giantess World
