The Second Saga: Part One

For Oggin the Ogg and Kajoa the Tosk life had continued much as before throughout the autumn. Kajoa continued to harangue Oggin and Oggin continued to deal with the middens of The Village and do the odd repair job to raise a coin or two.

H’rsh the Boog stayed on with Tookie the Boog for nearly a month in all, before going back to her ramshackle cottage but she didn’t stay long. Her lovely garden was totally ruined and despite Oggin’s assurances, she just didn’t feel safe there anymore, after two restless nights she moved back in with Tookie. The sale of her cottage raised enough coin to pay for an extra bedroom at Tookie’s place, with enough left over to see them well enough.

Nina, The Wolf Woman, as ever the tough, remorseful type had gone back to growing vegetables on her small holding and was once again, doing well.

The Stone Woman had kept her promise and from time to time she would ‘visit’ Oggin, pass on some coin and ‘suggest’ who should receive it and how it should be given, in detail, long, long detail.

Life for The Mammie was as it always was and in all probability, always would be. She continued to shepherd other people’s children and never seemed to notice a thing.

There had been no word of Greedle the Bronze, indeed her former dwelling had been taken over by an itinerant family of basket weavers from Fenland, along with their seven children, four dogs, nine cats and a donkey.

The Hasslesnag had stayed away from Oggin but he suspected it would only be a matter of time.

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Winter came to The Land of Ogg and it came hard. Snow was falling for the tenth day in a row and at this time of year, the temperature never crept much above freezing day or night, for months. The Village always slowed down at this time of the year, people tended to stay indoors quite a lot, only venturing out when necessary, really necessary. Of course, some things still needed to be done and midden grubbing was one of them. The midden was covered at this time of year, usually with a couple of layers of sacking. Oggin had to cover his whiff gas midden too, so as to insulate it, to ensure a reasonable supply of gas. Never the less, even he had to keep a fire going in the cottage almost twenty four hours a day. Kajoa made it plain that as she was responsible for the stove, he could look after the fire.

“...an’ tha’s an’ en’ tae it....” as she said, more than once.

Winter was not without its pleasures obviously, there were many quiet evenings spent reading, listening to the steam radio and just simple conversation. There was also ‘the early night’, although this in turn led to Warm Baby Month, when all those early nights ‘bore fruit’, so to speak.

One other piece of gossip had made the rounds from pub to hearth and back again, apparently the buyer of H’rsh the Boog’s old cottage had shown her face and more importantly, her coin. The cottage had been refurbished and the flower garden mostly removed, replaced by pebbles. Despite the cold weather the tradesmen came and went in something of a procession but for some time all this had been done through various ‘agents’ but now the owner had made herself known. Nitaa the Cutter was from Eastex, a small county in the Southern part of Ogg. In truth, that was just about as much as was known for sure but that didn’t stop the endless speculation. The villagers never let the facts get in the way of a good gossip.

It is Middleday, roughly eleven o’clock in the morning and Oggin has been up for some time already. Kajoa had bellowed at him till got out of bed, as only she could. Apparently he’d agreed to put shelves up to provide more Knick-Knack storage space. The fact that he couldn’t remember any such conversation, ever, was no bar to Kajoa’s urging, or her voice. He’d been working away at the job for quite a while now, fixing a high shelf around the entire sitting room wall, even above the doorway. Kajoa had come in from time to time, to ‘supervise’ and supply mugs of tea but seemed mostly pleased with his efforts. Oggin didn’t know quite how she would get the knick-knacks onto the shelf, as it was over three feet above her head but she hadn’t said anything, so he was disposed to keep his own council.

Just as he was finishing up and putting the wood shavings and off cuts on the fire, there was a loud knock at the front door, a shout came from the kitchen’

“Dain't youse wait fer me tae ans’er tha...”

“Of course not petal....” responded Oggin

As he put down the broom and was making his way to the door the knock came even louder.

“Hold on a minute...I’m coming...” Oggin replied, in a loud voice.

A female voice replied, just as loud.

“Well move yer fuckin’ arse den...i’ss fuckin’ freezin’ ouht ‘ere...!

Oggin opened the door to be greeted by the sight of a short ‘ish, slim woman, wearing a multi-coloured coat with a hood and black boots. Her face was thin and white, despite the cold and her eyes were a piercing bright blue but her pupils were gold.

“I’z you Oggin th’ Ogg...eh?”

“Er...yes...”

“Ri’te....I’m Nitaa da Cutt’er....well iz you gonna let me freeze me tits orf or ya gonna assk me in....?”

“Oh...sorry....come in...the sitting room’s on the right...”

She brushed past Oggin, a bit closer than was actually necessary he thought and he caught a whiff of a very odd but strangely seductive perfume and also, that the hood had two pointed ears on top of it, he pushed the door closed and followed her into the room. The brighter light of the sitting room allowed a better look at this strange visitor, the coat was indeed many colours, many colours of long fur and yes, the hood did have two pointed ears but most startling of all was the tail that hung from the back of it. Long, thick and composed of the same furry elements as the rest of the coat. Oggin at first thought it must have come from some huge creature, as one big skin, ears and all. But something caught the light in the room and with a flash of surprise, he realised that in fact, it had been knitted, knitted from animal hair. Nitaa stopped in the centre of the room and with an almost sensuous shrug of her shoulders, let her coat slip off and caught it behind her back, before tossing it onto the sofa, Oggin thought this was a well rehearsed move. If the coat was unusual, the rest of her outfit was in a different world. The shiny black leather boots were spiked heeled and went all the way up to the top of her thighs. She had on a long sleeved, black, one piece suit, flecked in silver thread and it was skin tight, as her pert bottom obviously showed. When she turned to face Oggin he had to concentrate hard to stop his jaw from dropping. The suit had a gold zip-like fastening running right down the front and disappearing between her thighs, this also managed to further accentuate her somewhat full breasts. Her hair was jet black with a single streak of stark white, swept back, it fell off her shoulders like a cascade of black water. Her bright red lips parted and flashed Oggin a smile that would melt lead. Oggin was, by now, really struggling to say something, anything, but his addled brain just wouldn’t, no, couldn’t, form any intelligible words. Luckily, Kajoa chose that precise moment to poke her head around the door and sort of save the situation.

“Who was it at da dour Hen...” she asked, having not yet seen Nitaa.

Oggin seemed stung into action and standing to one side, stuttered into life.

“Er...Nitaa the Cutter....this is my life partner Kajoa the Tosk......Kajoa....this is Nitaa the Cutter...she’s moved into H’rsh the Boog’s old cottage....”

His voice tailed away into a stone cold silence as the two women eyed each other. Oggin could swear the temperature in the room dropped by ten points and rather unnervingly, he noticed that Nitaa’s formally large golden pupils, seemed to get very narrow.