The house on chicken feet no longer looked like a grotesque monstrosity.  It tucked its talons underneath the floor and shrank down to a cozy cottage.  The dragon bones and snail shells shrank into the mud walls and were replaced by wooden planks.  Straw grew out of the top of the cottage until it resembled a thatched roof.  A thin chimney protruded out of the roof like a mushroom budding after a long rain.  A flicker of light appeared through the circular windows.  Smoke began to curl out of the chimney.

A short distance away, Yuri and Demyan sat with their backs against a tree, chattering their teeth and shivering against the rough bark.  The dark cloudless sky hung over them and the chilly night air wrapped around them like an icy blanket.

”I wonder if she’ll let us in,” Yuri said, his breath forming a visible cloud in front of his face.

”You want to be inside with that witch?” Demyan hissed.  “Quite frankly, if it weren’t for you insisting on being her servant and staying close by, I would have left in a heartbeat.”

”Where will you go though?  We’re in the middle of a vast wilderness.  We stand a better chance of surviving if we stick together.”

”I don’t see how this is any better than dying.  We can’t go back to our lives now.  Why were you so quick to offer yourself to be her servant anyway?”

”To save our lives, remember?”

”Heh, I think there’s more than that.  Were you bewitched by her beauty?”

Yuri laughed.  “So, you do agree that she is pretty, at least when she’s not laying waste to our unit.”

”If that was the main reason why you bound us to a lifetime of servitude-“

”No!  I mean, I don’t know.  I just had to think of something to keep us alive.  And we are still alive, aren’t we, even if we’re freezing our toes off out here.  Would you rather be rotting into the earth like the rest of our unit?  At least you’re still alive to complain.”

The cottage door creaked open and the two men looked up.  The Golden Enchantress’ silhouette appeared in the doorway.  She stared at them with her piercing golden eyes.

”You two sure bicker a lot,” she remarked.  “I can hear you from inside.”

”Sorry, my lady,” Yuri said, lowering his head.  Demyan glared at him.

”I suppose I should invite you in,” she continued.  “Seeing that you’ve declared yourselves to be my servants, I should make sure you don’t die on me right away.  Humans are quite defenseless against the cold, aren’t they?”

Yuri started to get up, but Demyan grabbed his arm.

”It might be a trap,” Demyan whispered.  “She could just be luring us in so she can kill us.”

”I’m sure she would have done so already if that was her intention,” Yuri whispered back.

The Golden Enchantress giggled.  “I can hear you, you know.  If I wanted you dead now, I actually wouldn’t invite you in.  The frigid air would take care of that for me.”

Yuri shook Demyan’s hand off his arm and proceeded to walk toward the cottage.  Demyan sighed loudly and got up to follow him.

Once they walked through the cottage door, warmth hit them like a pleasant embrace.  Although the cottage looked small from the outside, the interior was cavernous.  Yuri eyed the fire roaring away in the hearth and then cautiously glanced at the Golden Enchantress.

”Yes, you may go warm yourself up by the fire,” she said, seeming to read his mind.

Yuri walked toward the hearth and held his palms out.  He sighed in relief as his frozen fingers regained feeling.  Demyan trailed behind him and did the same.

”Thank you, my lady,” Yuri said as he turned toward her.  He paused when he saw what was near the kitchen area.  An ornate samovar stood at the center of a large wooden table.  In front of it were porcelain teacups and a tray laden with honey cake and ginger cookies.  Yuri hadn’t eaten all day and his mouth began to water.  He started to move toward the table.

Demyan grabbed his arm again.  “It’s definitely a trap!  No way she’d offer us all that food without an ulterior motive.”

“Suit yourself,” the Golden Enchantress said.  “A pity, since I was attempting to be hospitable.  That’s what you humans like, right?”

“You slaughtered our unit!” Demyan shouted.  “You think you can just offer us tea and cookies and we’d be okay with everything?”

“I understand your anguish, but remember, you attacked first,” she said coldly.  “If you truly do not want this, I’ll just take it away.”  She began to wave her hand.

“Wait!” Yuri said.

She looked at him and smirked. “Yes?”

“Where…” Yuri hesitated.  “Where did you get these?  I’ve only seen fancy things like this inside the boyar’s mansion.  Did you live outside the forest before?”

She laughed.  “Young man, I’ve lived in many places over the centuries.  The forest is just my latest home.”

“Centuries?!” Yuri exclaimed.

“Yes.  Your king is not the first one to ask me for an alliance.  Many centuries ago, when dragons still roamed the land and controlled the skies, the human kings asked us mages to help eradicate them.”

“Dragons?” Yuri said in disbelief.

“I told you they were real,” Demyan whispered.

“Back then, the humans also enticed us with promises of riches and power,” she continued.

“Did it happen?” Yuri asked.

“Hm?  The riches and power?  Yes, they did deliver on their promises, at first.  I lived in the capital at the time with the other mages they invited.  We were treated like royalty.  We wore the finest clothes and attended banquets all year round.  All we had to do was use our magic to help the human soldiers slay dragons.”

“How long did it take to slay all the dragons?”

She eyed him.  “Aren’t you an inquisitive one?  Over a century, actually.”  Yuri widened his eyes.  “A century to us mages is like a decade to you humans.  Or maybe even less.  We outlived the original humans who requested our help and ended up aiding their successors.”

“How long do mages live?”

She smiled.  “I’ve heard of thousand-year-old mages, but I’ve yet to encounter them.  Many more of us could have reached that milestone if not for the humans.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, once all the dragons were essentially eliminated, the humans had no need for us mages anymore.  So they began the great mage massacre.”

Yuri’s eyes widened.  “But…I thought mages were powerful.”

“Magic wise yes.  But we get depleted if we use our magic for too long and become vulnerable.  The humans waited until we were physically exhausted from the dragon battles, and then they stabbed us in the back.  Literally.”

Yuri winced.  “Oh…then how did you survive?”

“Sheer luck and a whole lot of stubbornness.  One of my special powers is the ability to absorb energy from living things.  I absorbed energy from every blade of grass, every flower, and every tree in my path.  Sometimes I’d absorb energy from small animals.”  She saw Yuri stare at her.  “What?  Is that any different than you humans hunting for game?”

“I suppose not,” Yuri said, looking downward.  He looked back up at her.  “Is this why you live in the forest?  So you can absorb energy from your surroundings?”

“Yes, to some extent.  Also to avoid humans.”

“I…I’m sorry they…” Yuri paused and began again.  “I’m sorry we betrayed you like that.”

“Heh, thank you for the sentiment I suppose, although you’re not the one who needs to apologize to me.  These things all happened way before your time.  And yet your current king still has the gall to ask me to ally with him.  But given how quickly your soldiers turned on me after I refused, I doubt your king actually cares about the alliance.  He just sees my existence as a threat to his power, and if he can’t have me on his side, then he wants to eliminate that threat as quickly as possible.”

Yuri frowned.  Demyan looked uneasy.

The Golden Enchantress walked over to the table.  She picked up the teapot from the top of the samovar and poured the dark liquid into one of the porcelain teacups.  “Well, I don’t know if you still want any of these, but I’ll leave them out for the time being.”  She took a sip, frowned a bit, and then turned the spigot on the samovar to dispense hot water to dilute the tea.  Taking another sip, she seemed satisfied.  She plucked a thin slice of honey cake from the tray and nibbled.  “It’s not poisoned if that’s what you were worried about.”

Yuri and Demyan looked at each other.

“I still don’t trust her,” Demyan whispered.  “Even if she’s eating it, she could be immune to whatever is in there.”

Yuri gulped.  His stomach was starting to hurt from emptiness.  He turned toward the Golden Enchantress.  “Did you bake these?”

She laughed.  “Bake?  I conjured them up, based on the memories I had of enjoying them when I was in the capital centuries ago.  I don’t actually need to eat to survive like humans do, but it does make life more interesting.”

Cakes made from magic?  Yuri was already tempted to try them because he did not get many opportunities to indulge in sweets, but this new information made them even more enticing.  He reached toward the table.

“Yura, don’t!” Demyan hissed.

Yuri grabbed a slice of honey cake and bit into it.  His mouth exploded with sweetness as the alternating layers of moist cake and buttercream danced on his tongue.  If he could have eaten something like this when he was a child who often went to bed hungry, it would have been so wonderful.  If it truly was poisonous and he was going to die anyway, at least his last moments would be pleasant.

“Yura, I can’t believe you,” Demyan muttered, shaking his head.  “Sold us out for a cake!”

“I’m not dead yet,” Yuri replied in between bites.  “And it’s pretty good.”

Demyan continued shaking his head, even as his stomach growled audibly.

As he finished his slice of cake, Yuri eyed the tray again and made a grab for a ginger cookie.  Demyan was incensed.

“Yura!”

Yuri pretended not to hear him.  Right now, he was enjoying the intertwined aromas of honey, ginger, cinnamon, and sugar.  Nothing else seemed to matter.