Chronicles of 'Team B' - Chapter 37 - Three-headed Death and the Pit of Bones
General Summary
In Vladykino, Misha reconsiders his situation. He is confronted by five volkodlaks (or six, counting Alden, whose allegiances are uncertain. He has helped Misha bargain for a girl's life, and now, the lives of two more people with swords to their throats hang in the balance. God has led him to this place to come to the aid of the Serpent Slayers, and risking everything to have a grudge fight against these wolves seems folly. So Misha retreats with the girl, leaving Alden to his fate.
As he rides away, he learns that her name is Mira, and that she knows where the Serpent Slayers went. Mira guides him along the stream to the cave entrance, where Misha begins to yell for the Serpent Slayers, and soon hears an answer - they are resting on the other side after their ordeal with the flying woman in the ring of fire. Misha attaches a rope to the boulder blocking the entrance, while the Serpent Slayers push from the other side, and eventually, the boulder is moved enough to allow them to emerge.
Misha introduces himself and tells the tale of how he saw them in a vision, and was guided by God to find them. He then tells them what has transpired in the village, and the Serpent Slayers immediately set out to see if anyone can be rescued from the wolves' clutches.
When they return, Vladykino is a devastation. The builders all lie slaughtered in a pile around the main intersection, and the partly restored village has once again been put to the torch. Zorina horse has also been butchered and partly eaten. In the pile of dead, they find one old man who still draws breath. He calls himself Slavomir, and tells them that he is ready to die. He relates the story of how the wolves killed everyone before they left and burnt that village, and how their leader sent a special greeting to Yuri. They ask him to come with them to track down the wolves, but he just begs to be left here to expire. Misha presses to follow the wolves, but Yuri insists that the only way to deal with them is to solve the bigger problem - to awaken the bogatyrs in the cave - which is the reason why they came. Eventually, he wins the argument, and Slavomir, along with Mira, are transported in a cart back to the cave entrance.
After entering, the Serpent Slayers proceed along the central path, the one, they think, leading to their Death. As they begin to see a glow in the cave up ahead, they leave Svetlana behind to tend to Slavomir and Mira, and advance to meet their doom. The cave has two narrow ledges along either side. There is a rickety rope bridge over the huge pit of bones, stretching on into darkness. Walking along the bridge is too precarious, so they advance along the lefthand ledge, with Yuri leading the way, and Zorina bringing up the rear with her bow. Agapia tries to tiptoe in, while Misha calls on God to protect them in the coming ordeal.
The bones beneath rattle and crunch, and a scaly three-headed serpent slithers out from the pit, and takes wing. As Agapia and Zorina, along with Yuri's mount flee in fear, the serpent heads toward Misha and Yuri. Two heads open up their frightful jaws to devour the warriors, while one breathes out a column of flame toward them. The fleeing women recover their wits and return, with Zorina standing near the entrance to the cavern, and peppering the beast with arrows. Misha fights back after the horse beneath him is incinerated, trying to lance the serpent with his boar spear. Where he finds purchase through the dragon's hide, a shaft of light strikes its unholy trunk. After being nearly devoured, Yuri cannot find plant his feet solidly enough on the ledge to pierce the scales with his own spear, and the creature continues to try to bite him in half. Numb from the pain, the cossack tumbles onto the ledge. Meanwhile one head breathes on Zorina at the cave mouth. She responds with another volley of arrows toward its torso. Yuri tries to struggle back to his feet, and the creature breathes on Agapia, who is just summoning a magical weapon to beat it. "God made snakes without legs! Snakes shouldn't have legs!" the girl shouts at the head that just breathed on it, making it recoil. Misha, left alone with two snapping jaws, buries his spear in the dragon again and again, searing it with divine light. The heads try to snap at him, but the radiant light tears through its flesh. it falters, and collapses back into the pit. Zorina ministers to Yuri, still stunned from the pain, and the Serpent Slayers retreat back toward the tunnel to recuperate.
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