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– You speak wisely, – the old woman grinned. She understood little of what Fox said, but she still realized that she was saying something worthwhile. – So what needs to be done?
– It’s very simple, – Fox smiled. – I read in your books that there are spells for summoning ghosts. So, if you summon several ghosts from the swamp and…
– And let them attack the engines! – Baba Yaga jumped up. “Let them scare them away and disperse this entire depot.”
– We could do it that way, – Fox stopped her. – But the engines will quickly figure out what’s what and everything will go back. – Yes, and it’s somehow straightforward. This requires a more sophisticated approach.
– Which one is this? – Baba Yaga did not understand.
– We will perform a ceremony, – explained the Fox. – We’ll call a few spirits of locomotives that are lying in the swamp, we’ll tell them that we wanted to rescue everyone, but we don’t have enough strength.” And we’ll ask them to go to the neighboring depot and call a locomotive named Chu-Chukhin for help.
– And they will tell you that Chu-Chukhin won’t even want to go from us… – croaked the old woman, always doubting everything.
– I don’t exclude that such a possibility exists, – Fox continued meanwhile. “But we will warn them not to mention us in conversation with him.” Because he is a proud locomotive and if they call him to help, he may be offended and not go.
– And when he comes to us, we’ll push him into the oven this time! – Baba Yaga rubbed her hands. For the first time that day she was in a good mood.
– Exactly! – Fox smiled slyly at her.
***
That evening the fire flared up, only the first star appeared in the sky. The sun had not yet completely set and therefore the glow of the fire blocked even the sunlight.
Dry dead wood, marsh grass, charcoal, for which the cat Chernysh was responsible, burned with a bright fire, piled in a certain way in the middle of the clearing. The trees, as soon as they saw the first flames, tried to move their branches further away, and some even moved to the sides.
Baba Yaga fussed around the fire, now throwing something into the fire, now adding multi-colored liquid tinctures and all the time reciting some spells. With these spells, she scared away all the living creatures that lived nearby, the cat Peach hissed and growled loudly, arching his back, and Chernysh, like a smart cat, this time tried to hide somewhere and wait out all this action.
Somewhere closer to midnight, when the fire, although it began to subside somewhat, it seemed that its entire heat had shifted downwards, forming a dense fireball, a strange fog began to creep through the forest. It began right next to the fire, from there it moved towards the swamp, spreading along the sides along the way and there, mixing with the swamp fog, it formed a luminous mass, under which the surface of the swamp began to ripple. At first, easily, with small splashes, the swamp was marked by movement. The entire contents of the swamp began to move – the buried locomotives creaked, their rusty parts crackled, their sides hit and rubbed, the swamp mass, gray and impenetrable, staggered from side to side, and huge waves appeared on its surface, splashing tens of meters into the forest.
The earth shook, the swamp began to boil, the wind rose, forming a tornado just above the surface and breaking trees.
Some trees collapsed into the swamp, where they were immediately swallowed up by the abyss, the rest rushed to run away, like other forest inhabitants.
The trees crowded together as far as they could from the epicenter itself, forming a strip of emptiness around it. And from all this, under the howling of the wind and the trembling of the earth, from the depths of the funnel that formed in the center of the swamp, a train flew up.
The locomotive was not an ordinary one. It was not material, did not have iron sides and its chimney did not smoke. He emerged from the raging Swamp of old steam locomotives, was surprised by what was happening and suddenly realized that he was attracted by the fire that was burning in the forest. He beckons, calls, wants to tell him something.
The engine passed through a tornado that was just gaining strength, trying to take out of the swamp what was there, rushed past the frightened giant trees darting from side to side and sat down a few meters from the fire.
If he were a real locomotive, made of cast iron and steel, his sides would immediately feel the incredible heat emanating from the fireball into which the fire turned. But he was not quite an ordinary locomotive – he was a ghost, the spirit of an old locomotive that had long since died at the bottom of the swamp, and therefore had forgotten what the world was and what rules existed here. In fact, for this world, he was young and naive.
– Why alone? – the old woman and Fox whispered.
– Why do I know, – Fox snapped. – Maybe there’s no one left there at all. – Maybe the swamp is so ancient that…
– Or maybe the fire was lit incorrectly? – the old woman tried to convict the Fox. – Or did you read something wrong in the book?
– What kind of proceedings have they staged here! – suddenly the cat Chernysh appeared out of nowhere. – Then there will be time. We have a steam locomotive. Even if it’s just one. Even better. He will say that one got out, and the rest are sitting there. – he suggested a solution.
– Oh, who do we have here?! – Baba Yaga suddenly transformed. – Who came to us?!
The Ghost locomotive, and it was he, froze, not understanding what to expect from this trio – Peach had singed his tail and was now sitting on the top of a tree, watching all this from there.
– Don’t be afraid of us, little engine, – the old woman said with the greatest kindness and sincerity. – We are your friends!
– Many locomotives are languishing in the swamp, nicknamed the Swamp of Old Locomotives, – added the Fox. – Yes, you know about it yourself. And so we came to help them.
– But we didn’t have enough strength to cope on our own, – purred the cat Chernysh. – This is a difficult matter. Only you have been rescued so far.
– Oh, this is not an easy matter, – Baba Yaga nodded.
– Not easy, not easy! – Peach the cat drawled from somewhere above, having, as always, sensed the ringing, but not understanding what it was about.
– And I… – the Ghost Engine hesitated.
– We need help,” the cat Blackie interrupted him. – We can’t do it alone. – And you can no longer leave. The process has started and if the fire goes out, the cat pointed to the fire. – Then we won’t be able to do anything.
– I’ll help, – the Ghost Engine offered sincerely. – What should be done.
Pushing the cat and Baba Yaga aside, the Fox stepped forward. She moved so gracefully and spoke so slowly that the engine was even confused.
– Here, very close, – said the Fox. – There is an old depot. As old as the steam locomotives that live in the swamp. And now steam locomotives have settled in this very depot. There are several of them, but the main and most important among them is the Chu-Chukhin steam locomotive. He is such an important and significant locomotive that his help alone would be enough for us. – Fox came almost close to the Ghost Engine. – If only he were called here alone, and if he agreed to help the other locomotives, then we would help everyone in an instant!
– I’ll call him! – the Ghost Engine perked up. – I’ll find him right away and tell him…
– Oh, dear! – Baba Yaga stopped him. – You shouldn’t be in such a hurry. – You don’t know at all what this Chu-Chukhin is. This is not exactly a simple locomotive. This is a locomotive that may or may not want to help. Therefore, you need to communicate with him carefully. You need to say it in such a way that he himself wants to help, and so that he considers that this is only his merit.
– That’s why you find him, little engine,” continued the cat Chernysh. – Find it and tell him the following. Yes, remember everything word for word and don’t say anything else, but answer all questions: “You’ll see everything on the spot!” You will tell him the following: “I escaped alone from the Swamp of Old Locomotives. He broke out to tell us that we needed help. We have heard about you in the swamp and know that only you can help us! Help us. You just need to do it now, because soon this opportunity will disappear!”
– Do you remember everything? – Baba Yaga asked.
– All! – the Ghost Steam Locomotive nodded and immediately set off.
He knew approximately where the depot was located. All locomotives in the swamp, no matter what they say about them, at least somehow navigate what is happening around them. And we also heard that Baba Yaga lives on the outskirts of the swamp. But for someone to want to help them and rescue them from the swamp – this was the first time, and this probably discouraged the Ghost Engine. And he rushed to Chu-Chukhin to ask him for help, which, if he had thought carefully, the inhabitants of the Swamp of Old Steam Locomotives might not have needed. They had been in this swamp for decades, they had all gotten used to their environment long ago, and few people were already thinking in the categories that were inherent to them when they were steel giants roaming across endless expanses. It even seemed to them that there was nothing better than a swamp in the world, which is why Baba Yaga, the Fox and the cats were not lucky enough to snatch more locomotives out of the swamp with their magic than they managed. One Ghost Engine, who wanted it, escaped. The rest of the locomotives did not want this. And they didn’t need help at all.
***
The depot lived its own life, despite such a late hour. Most of the locomotives had already gone to the hangar to sleep. Kolobchuk was counting something in his office, spending electricity on lighting, Maslenka the cat was inspecting and repairing locomotives, and those who had not yet gone to bed were still standing there, behind the hangar, talking about something.
Hello, – the Ghost Engine greeted them. -Where can I find Chu-Chukhin’s locomotive?
– There? – someone pointed towards the workshop, not having time to notice that in front of them was a real ghost.
– Thank you, – answered the Ghost Engine and wanted to ask something else, but by that time they had already looked at him and, frightened, ran away in all directions. It’s not every day that an unfamiliar Ghost Steam Engine arrives at the depot and looks for one of its inhabitants.
Maslenka the Cat was sitting with his back to the Ghost Engine and therefore did not see who had approached him. Maslenka was digging into one of the mechanical parts of the locomotive, which was standing in a semi-disassembled state at a repair site, and was of little interest to what was happening around him.
– Good night! – Greeted the Ghost Engine.
– Good, good… – Maslenka answered without turning around.
– Where can I find the Chu-Chukhin locomotive, can you tell me?
– There… – Maslenka pointed in the direction, without taking his head off from what he was doing.
Chu-Chukhin stood on the sidelines, waiting in the wings to undergo technical inspection and admiring the stars.
Good night, locomotive Chu-Chukhin, – the Ghost Engine flew up to him. “The locomotives in the Swamp of Old Locomotives urgently need your help,” he completely forgot about what Baba Yaga, the Fox and the cats taught him. “So far I’m the only one who managed to escape from it, but the rest of my brothers…” he explained confusingly. – If only you would come and help us!
The Chu-Chukhin locomotive was surprised by such a request, and even at such an hour, but he was a very responsive locomotive, and sometimes even naive, immediately believing the one who came:
– Where should I go? What do we have to do? – he asked questions. The Ghost locomotive realized that he had not spoken as he had been taught, but if Chu-Chukhin volunteered to help him, then this no longer mattered much.
– I’ll show you everything there! – answered the Ghost Engine, quite seriously believing what Baba Yaga and the Fox and the cats told him.
– Can I handle it alone? Can someone call for help?
– They told me that there is very little time, – the Ghost Steam Locomotive showed him the way. – We need to hurry. – they left the depot.
They quickly rushed along the old paths, then turned, rolled down the slope towards the forest and entered impenetrable darkness. If for the Ghost all this did not pose any serious difficulties, then Chu-Chukhin was exhausted, trying to keep up with the hurrying Ghost Engine.
– Where to next? – Chu-Chukhin saw nothing in the darkness.
– And then here! – Baba Yaga’s malicious voice suddenly thundered throughout the forest. – Come on, the tree, they picked him up and straight into the hut! – she commanded.
The mighty trees that were already surrounding Chu-Chukhin immediately grabbed him with their branches, pressed him on all sides with small branches and leaves so much that Chu-Chukhin could no longer do anything, although he tried to escape with all his might. His wheels hung in the air, cutting it with their rotation, but in vain – the solid soil disappeared from under the wheels, and he only felt as if in pitch darkness, he was being thrown from branch to branch, each time immediately with smaller branches and leaves entwined from all sides and pass it somewhere forward.
– Gotcha, gotcha! – the old woman laughed. – Finally, our troubles will end! – and her voice, amplified by the roar of the trees and the wind, echoed almost throughout the entire forest around the swamps.
You said that he would help us? – the Ghost Engine was surprised.
– Of course it will help! – the cat Chernysh calmed him down. – This is so necessary. This is an old spell cast. This is all correct. – he purred, trying to continue to keep the Ghost Engine in the dark.
– No, something is wrong here… – the Ghost Engine answered embarrassedly, watching Chu-Chuzhin being thrown from branch to branch towards the hut.
– Let’s fry and melt! – the cat Peach screamed from somewhere above. He was so straightforward and spontaneous that he more than once brought many of Baba Yaga’s undertakings to the brink of failure. Diplomacy, resourcefulness – all this was not his thing. He loved to eat, gossip and express his meaningful opinions, which, otherwise, no one took seriously.
Chu-Chukhin was pushed quite roughly by the trees into the hangar gate that opened in the khatynka, and the gate immediately slammed behind him.
No, something is wrong here, – the Ghost Engine was upset. – Is there something wrong…
Meanwhile, Chu-Chukhin, finding himself in the hut, immediately became bolder:
– Hey, old man, hello!
– Hello! – An old military hangar, disguised as a hut, answered him.
– As they say, – Chu-Chukhin was glad that he had again the opportunity to escape from Baba Yaga in the same way as the first time. – Turn your back to the forest, your front to me, get up and go towards the depot! – he finished.
– I would be glad to help you, – the hangar answered him. “But after the last time, they drove a hundred piles into the ground, hewn from solid tree trunks, and chained me in it with the largest chain they could find. So now I can’t just go somewhere, I can’t move,” the hangar-khatynka explained. – This time it will be necessary to do it without me. – he apologized.
“Eh! – the engine exhaled. “It looks like I’m in trouble,” his mood began to deteriorate. He tried to open the hangar gate through which he got here, but he failed; he tried to jump out of the window, the size of that same gate, but it turned out that it couldn’t be penetrated with a battering ram; he was preparing in case of war.
Chu-Chukhin looked around, walked around the stove, which was already emanating heat, leafed through several books that were scattered on the table and on the floor, inadvertently turned over something from Baba Yaga’s belongings, either her mortar, or a huge bottle with some kind of… then with tincture, but I still couldn’t find a way out.
– Yeah, gotcha! – Baba Yaga appeared in the ceiling opening. How it ended up there and what is located above – it looks like an attic – Chu-Chukhin did not know. Baba Yaga was in no hurry to go down, being out of reach of the engine, and continued:
– Nothing, nothing! – she laughed with the kind of laughter that evil old women who are planning something evil laugh. – Wait just a little. Now the walking oaks will come up, catch you with their branches and push you into the very heat of the oven! – she shared her plans. It looks like this process was once established for her. But she still tried to do without the walking oaks, because they themselves were the old residents of these places and did not really like being disturbed, especially by such a young and restless resident as Baba Yaga. Baba had been living in the swamps for several centuries, which, compared to the millennia of the walking oaks, seemed like a very short period of time.
– Why are oak trees needed? – the engine Chu-Chukhin teased her, although he was not at all amused. “You come down and push me into the oven yourself!”
– Look, how cunning you are! – the face of the ever-dirty Peach appeared in the opening. – So, he thinks that we are all stupid here. – he laughed, like cats laugh – purring.
– Well, okay, since you don’t want to let me down, then I’ll take charge of things here for now, – Chu-Chukhin started driving around the khatynka, knocking over and scattering everything on the way. Every time something fell, a table overturned, or dried leaves, branches and roots scattered to the sides, Chu-Chukhin, as befits a well-mannered engine, apologized, said that he did not want to and that this would not happen again. But after a very short time everything repeated itself.
– Give it up! – Baba Yaga shouted. – Don’t cause a pogrom for me here! – she was indignant, but was in no hurry to go down.
– This is an ill-mannered locomotive, – the cat Peach uttered his next deep thought. – He doesn’t know how to behave at a party. You can’t take someone like that into a decent company!
– But the walking oaks must have arrived! – Baba Yaga shouted from her hiding place in the attic. The walls of the house shook as if someone had hit them from outside.
– Now we will live! – Peach did not let up, anticipating the return of a well-fed life, when he ate to his fill and slept as much as he wanted.
Chu-Chukhin was seriously frightened. To be honest, he didn’t completely believe the old woman when she talked about walking oaks. He still hoped that she was just playing him, but she herself was preparing something completely different. But the noise and shaking of the walls spoke for themselves – something was happening outside.
Baba Yaga rubbed her hands, in anticipation of the door opening and massive branches rushing into the room, grabbing the train and…
– There were steam locomotives running out of the swamp, – Chu-Chukhin didn’t even notice how the cat Peach disappeared and now appeared again, bringing news.
– How did this happen? – she didn’t understand. – Who gave permission? Where did you come from? – she disappeared from the opening.
Chu-Chukhin did not understand what was happening, the branches of the walking oaks were about to burst into the hut, but he still made up his mind and drove up to the huge window. Around the hut, dispersing the surrounding trees with their appearance and dashing behavior, a dozen and a half locomotives were prancing at once. They were all covered in mud, stained with dirt, glowed in all sorts of colors and intended to do something.
– Who are they? – Chu-Chukhin was surprised, forgetting that he was about to be sent to the oven.
Meanwhile, the locomotives walked in a circle around the hut, scattering the frightened trees in all directions. Even the walking oaks that stood aside and looked at it all with surprise, and they were in no hurry to approach.
– U-gu-gu, come out, Baba Yaga! – the locomotives shouted. – Why did you disturb our sleep? Answer!
Baba Yaga, meanwhile, was sitting on the roof and was afraid to even move. She did not expect that her actions would bring to life so many locomotives, and even such aggressive ones.
One of the locomotives drove up to the hangar doors and pushed them open. The doors creaked, but did not give way.
– Come on, open it, old man! – the locomotives howled. – What are you hiding from us?! – they hummed.
Chu-Chukhin still looked out the window and saw how the walking oaks, having stood for a while and discussed something, apparently decided that it was none of their business, and just as leisurely, as always, turned around and left the action, leaving Babu Yaga without the last arguments of strength that she could oppose to the locomotives. She, of course, could still cast a spell, but what was happening so discouraged her that she sat in fear at the very top of the roof and did not know what to do with it all.
The Fox, as was to be expected, immediately disappeared somewhere, Blackie, although he remained faithful to the old woman, also hurried to wait it out in a secluded place and only the stupid Peach jumped on the roof and was glad that there were so many locomotives, and therefore – there will be a lot of new spoons, which they will exchange at the market for milk, sour cream and sausage!
