Baba Yaga

“Baba Yaga is a very ugly and ancient hag who hides away deep, deep in the enchanted forest. Don’t ask me where, for how would I know such a thing? As if I would want to know where to find such a creature - only a fool would go seeking her out for no good reason! At nights she flies around in a mortar, which she steers using the pestle like a rudder. Her feet are crammed in very tightly, so tight they only just fit. With her broom of silver birch she sweeps away the tracks behind her so she can never been traced. The rest of her stands tall and straight, right up out of the mortar, tilting forwards as she flies. Oh, what a sight she makes! Her wild hair screams out behind her, silver and black and long. Her arms and legs are scrawny and brown, but do not be deceived - her strength is unbeatable. Her long crooked nose and bedraggled garments, her crazy eyes shining yellow in the gloomy, dim moonlight - sharp cat-like slits reflecting any light which penetrates the thick forest canopy, like a flash to blind you. To seek out Baba Yaga is a very dangerous thing to do, but then some people are driven to desperate measures. And sometimes, just sometimes, she provides guidance, although it is such that people rarely care to hear. Those who seek her must be totally pure of spirit and thought. And mostly she will lock people up, enslaving them to do her housework, threatening to eat them, or even their children, unless they complete the impossible tasks she sets them.”
“She lives in a hut which has no windows. There is a door, but it will only show itself if a magical phrase is uttered. And would you really want to go through it? Once you are through it would probably disappear and you would be enslaved inside for good. Baba Yaga herself enters and leaves by the chimney but she is never burnt by her own fire, because she is magical I guess. The hut is raised up high on a set of giant chicken legs, which dance and move the hut around at her command. So she never stays in one part of the forest for long. You never know where you might accidently meet her... take care! There are three riders to be found around about the hut. One is dressed all in brilliant white, and sits upon a white horse with a white harness – he is Day. The second is a red rider, he is the Sun. The third is all in black, and he is Night. The hut is surrounded by a palisade made of human bones. Atop of each pole is a human skull. Well, nearly each pole – there are a few spaces left for potential future victims... ghoulish light seeps out of the empty eye sockets, as if desperately seeking escape...”