Kat Meets Baba Yaga

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, a young girl lived in a tiny village at the edge of the Great Forest. Her name was Kat, and she liked her name. It made her feel stealthy and cunning like the cats she saw in the barnyard hunting mice, and it made her feel lazy and cuddly like those very same cats when they came inside on a winter's night and snuggled in someone's lap by the fire, dozing and dreaming of the days when the mice would be plentiful again.

When she was very young, Kat did not have any work to do, but as soon as she could run swiftly and clinb a tree, she was sent to watch the sheep in the fields. The best grazing was on the slopes above the village that lead up to the dark shadows of the Great Forest, and Kat's mother, Egwene, warned her in no uncertain terms that she was not allowed to go within an arrow's flight of the forest edge. Kat wasn't sure how long an arrow could fly, but she was pretty certain that it was a fairly long way, and she wanted to do the right thing, so she stayed well away from the dark trees.

"Watch out for foxes and wolves," her mother told her. "If you see a fox, use your sling to drive it off. If you see a wolf, run to one of the tall trees in the fields and climb as high as you can. Do not fire a stone at a wolf, it will make it angry and it will try to kill you."

Day in and day out, Kat kept a sharp lookout for foxes and wolves. She practiced with her sling while she guided the sheep from good grass to good grass and kept them away from the Great Forest, as she had ben instructed. She became very good with the sling, often able to bag a rabbit on the run and bring it home for her mother to put it in the stew pot for dinner. And whenever she went to the stream to fetch a bucket of water, she would look for good round pebbles just the right size for her to throw. She had a pocket full of them just the right size and shape to fly a long way and be accurate as well.

Once or twice she saw a fox, and she shooed it away with a well placed stone on its butt from her sling, but in all the long summer days she did not see any wolves.

In autumn the rains came early, everyone said, and Kat was often wet and cold as she wandered across the high pastures making sure the sheep did not go near the dark wood. She had no shoes. No one in her village had shoes, and her feet got very cold walking through the wet grass. She was sitting on a rock one afternoon trying to warm her feet in her hands when she heard a low growl from behind her.

Quick as a flash she jumped up and spun around, putting her best stone in her sling as she did so. The wolf, for of course it was a wolf, was as large as horse -- at least it seemed so to Kat as she stared at it in horror. It had crept out of the Great Forest, silent as a mouse while she wasn't looking until was almost upon her. Only its own fierce nature had betrayed it at the last, making it growl at her in an atempt to scare her into not moving at all.

And she was scared, all right, terrified as she could see the sharp teeth and long claws coming closer and closer. But she was brave as well. Too brave to not fight back and she whirled her sling around her head and fired her best stone straight at great beasts ugly face.

Smack! Right on its long nose she hit it, and the wolf yelped with the pain. A stone from a sling is a very painful thing, enough to kill a rabbit right off, but not a full grown wolf. It snarled and rubbed its bleeding nose with its paws, but it kept its eyes on Kat even as it did so.

Kat loaded another stone from her pocket into her sling, and looked around for a tree she could run to and climb. But the nearest trees were in the Great Forest, where she was not allowed to go.

Whirling her sling around her head, she did something very brave then, she shouted at the wolf and jumped right at it. It saw that sling spinning in her hand and remembered its hurt nose and it danced away from her. And as it did, she ran right past it towards the trees at the edge of the woods.

Quick as a wink the wolf took up the chase, and it was gaining on her as she raced as fast as she could towards the Great Forest. Her breath was like fire in her throat and her heart pounded like a big drum in her chest and she could almost feel the hot breath of the wolf on the back of her heels. She didn't have time to turn and throw another stone. Her only safety was in speed. Yet how slowly she seemed to be moving and behind her she could hear the wolf bounding across the open grass to catch her.

With a sob she threw hereslf on the ground just as the wolf pounced, and the great fierce beast passsed clear over her head with a look of absolute surprise on its face as its jaws snapped shut on nothing, just where it had expected Kat to be. But now she was down, helpless, as it scarmbled to a halt and turned back towards her. Now it stalked her, slowly, knowing she could not escape her fate. It seemed it was laughing at her through its great jaws with their gleaming white teeth, and Kat gathered herself for one last lunge with her little knife.

Just as the final moment seemed upon them, the wolf about to pounce on the girl and eat her, a tall shadowy figure stepped out of the woods behind the wolf. It held a long stick and raised the staff into the air, bringing it down hard and sharp right on top of the wolf's head.

Crack! The wolf sank to the grass without another sound, knocked unconscious with a single blow.

Kat scrambled to her feet, not sure which she was more afraid of the wolf or the tall shadowy figure from the woods.

"Have a care, my child," the figure spoke and Kat realised it was an old woman who faced her. "Are you hurt?"

"No," she managed to say, despite chattering teeth from the scare of being so close to death."

"Good," said the old woman, "but you are foolish to be be so close to these woods. Didn't your mother warn you about the Great Forest?"