Bony-Legs is Baba Yaga, the bony-legged. She is a witch who lives in a house on chicken legs deep in forest, flies in a mortar and pestle that she steers with her broom, and features prominently into Slavic folklore and legend. Baba Yaga is usually portrayed as a wicked witch who loves to eat bad children, but she is often sought out by heroes for her wisdom.

This is the most Americanized/anglicized retelling of “Vasilisa the Beautiful” I have ever read. In fact, when I read it as a child growing up in the Midwest, even though the little girl in the story had the odd name Sasha, there was nothing that made me think that Bony-Legs couldn't be living in woods near my house.