– 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!
