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Cheerful locomotive Chu-Chukhin and his friends.

Thank you for choosing this book. If you have any questions / comments / suggestions, I will be happy to answer — contact information is at the end of the book. ))

SYNOPSIS. What is this book about

Here is a collection of children’s fairy tales, united by:

— a single terrain on which events unfold;

— common heroes;

— events that, to one degree or another, follow one another and sometimes lead to the next story.

Thus, fairy tales can be considered both individual works and something whole.

Setting: a “fairy-tale” area somewhere in the Poltava region, an area known to be a haven of witches, evil spirits and filled with other attributes of the supernatural. In a forest, cut off on one side by a river, on the other by swamps, and on the north by a ledge of rocks from the rest of the world. Previously, there were military men there who had suffered from the local supernatural, and as soon as they had the opportunity to get out of there, they immediately left these places, leaving all their real estate there. There was also a depot, which over time began to fall into disrepair, like everything else in this forest, until wandering trains settled in it.

In the swamps, in a house abandoned by the military, stylized as a hut on chicken legs, lived an old woman — Baba Yaga, who considered herself an old resident of the forest, who melted spoons and forks from scrap metal, which she fished out abandoned steam locomotives from the swamp, and therefore was hostile to the appearance of steam locomotives. And since she was a vindictive and vindictive person, this enmity began to result in constant skirmishes and intrigues on her part.

A little about each of the fairy tales:

001. Like Baba Yaga, Chu-Chukhina wanted to melt the train into spoons.

Here we meet the two main characters — Baba Yaga and the locomotive Chu-Chukhin, who, having gotten lost in the forest, almost became a victim of an insidious old woman and was not melted down into spoons and forks, but thanks to the ingenuity and help of a hut on chicken legs (a military project abandoned in forest) he manages to escape from history.

002. How the little locomotive Chu-Chukhin saved Kolobchuk.

Kolobchuk is the hero of fairy tales, Kolobok, who now lives in the depot near the trains, but before he came to them, he suffered hardships and persecution from his grandmother and grandfather, who live just beyond the railway bridge across the river, and from the flattering brethren. And only the help of Chu-Chukhin, and the cunning of Kolobchuk himself, allowed him to get out of this mess. In this story, a cunning fox appears, which at the end of the fairy tale ends up in Baba Yaga’s house.

003. The story of the Ghost Engine and how Baba Yaga wanted to get to Chu-Chukhin.

Baba Yaga, already angry at the engines, persuaded by that very Fox, decided to get to Chu-chukhin, as one of the informal authorities in the depot, through witchcraft, calling to life the spirit of the engines from the Swamp of Old Engines. But her idea failed, since the ghost engine turned out to be not evil and took the side of the train.

004. How the engines met Alenka.

The girl Alenka, who was going to visit her grandfather and grandmother (they live across the railway bridge and who made Kolobchuk at one time), decided to take a shortcut and went through the forest and swamps. She met Baba Yaga and, naturally, she lured her to her place. Aleka ran away, hid in the swamps until the Ghost engine accidentally found her and took her to the depot with the engines.

005. How the trains looked for the magic fern at night.

Baba Yaga cast a spell on the engines and the only way they found to remove this spell was the color of the fern. It grew in a remote corner of the forest, in the abode of the Walking Oaks, and bloomed only once a year, just on the next weekend.

The engines performed a ceremony on the river bank and set off. From the other side, Baba Yaga and her cohort moved to the same place. In the clearing they collided. And it is not known how all this would have ended if the forest spirits had not intervened in this matter and kicked everyone out of their monastery. And only Maslenka the Cat, a mechanic at the depot, hid in one of the trees, waited for everything and in the morning brought a fern flower.

006. How the Cat Bayun wanted to help Baba Yaga!

Having complained in a letter to her old bosom friend Kot Bayun, Baba Yaga thereby summoned him to her. The cat assessed the situation and decided to shake off the old days, since he himself was from these places. Having come up with a plan, he decided to lull the locomotives to sleep, enchant them, as he did with the birds in the forest and in the swamp, and direct them towards the swamp, where Baba Yaga would be waiting for them. And everything would have been fine if I hadn’t taken with me two cats — Baba Yaga’s assistants, who ruined the whole event.

As a result, all three ended up in a box, drugged by valerian…

007. How the Chu-Chukhin locomotive helped to look for the scarlet flower.

The story is about how Chu-Chukhin the Engine decided to help an unknown man, whom his household (women) had driven out to the market, to sell his crops and buy gifts there, including a scarlet flower.

008. Conspiracy of the tailed ones.

The cats gathered in a secluded place and Kot Bayun offered them a model in which there would be peace in the forest, and they would be at work, managing this situation. Everyone was happy and happy, if not for the stupid cat Peach (one of Baba Yaga’s cats), who imagined too much of himself and his “star fever” did not allow these plans to come true.

009. History of Oaks-Khodunov.

The little girl Alenka (the granddaughter of the grandmother and children who live behind the iron bridge) went into the forest to pick mushrooms. They tried to dissuade her, but she went anyway. And there, among the abundance of colorful mushrooms, she accidentally met Baba Yaga, running away from her, she wandered into the lost places and was almost eaten by a carnivorous plant, but the Walking Oaks came to the rescue, fighting off and then telling their story, escorting her to a safe place.

010. Witches’ Sabbath and collision with trains.

The climax was the witches’ Sabbath, which took place in the swamps, at which Baba Yaga complained to her friends about the engines and they decided to attack the depot right away. Kot Bayun tried to settle the matter, but was sent on a voyage and therefore the battle took place.

000. Introduction…

In one difficult area that fits exactly between Poltava and Kiev, among swamps, ancient forests and abandoned military installations, wandering trains settled. Their appearance would not have aroused any particular interest in anyone if it were not for the evil old woman who lived in the Swamp of Old Locomotives and ran her business by melting rolling stock into spoons and forks.

Those places stood apart and were not listed on any map. Some attributed this to their witchcraft nature, and others saw it only in the recent stay of the military here, who, as you know, are in no hurry to put their objects on maps. But be that as it may, the military safely left these places, leaving behind all their buildings, a dozen railway crossings, several bridges over rivers and other utensils that were either forgotten or could not be used in the new place. It was in such a military facility, very similar to a hut on chicken legs, that the old woman, who was called Baba Yaga, settled, and who harbored a grudge against the traveling engines.

The engines sometimes interfered in forest or swamp affairs, but more out of ignorance or urgent necessity than for any other reasons, and this infuriated the old woman every time.

And the locals lived across the river. They lived here for a long time, at least they thought so themselves. They lived, but they clearly drew a line where they could enter without fear, and where it was better not to interfere. Therefore, if anyone wandered across the river, he returned from there with gray hair and a mass of fables, from which there were even fewer people willing to visit the forests and swamps.

The forest inhabitants only looked to outsiders as something single, monolithic, but in fact, even within this closed community, which tried not to let outsiders in, a stormy life was in full swing. Baba Yaga, after leaving the military swamps, called herself their successor, which the Walking Oaks, who had lived in these places for thousands of years and therefore considered Baba Yaga to be an alien, openly disagreed with. The forest and water inhabitants did not want change, having become accustomed to the life that had been here for centuries and therefore aggressively perceived any outside interference. The swamp spirits that settled in the local swamps lured passing locomotives with their spells of mechanical magic, and periodic damage and other witchcraft of Baba Yaga were neutralized by the manifestations of the magic of the local flora and fauna. To a large extent, the locomotives were simply lucky…

The histories that are given below just tell about the events that took place in this corner of the Poltava region, not mapped on any map, where, as you know, every second old woman is a witch, and every third cat is Bayun.

001. Like Baba Yaga, Chu-Chukhina wanted to melt the train into spoons

In one dense forest that grows somewhere near Poltava, away from the main roads, there is an old depot. Previously, it was used by the military, but then the military left and left everything as it was, taking only their locomotives and armored trains. But the civilian depots turned out to be unnecessary — they already had enough of their own. So the depot was left empty in the middle of a dense forest, fenced off from the outside world by huge trees, wide rivers and marshy swamps that stretch for tens of kilometers. At first, the depot was empty, but then, crossing three bridges as abandoned as the depot itself, wandering locomotives began to wander into it. Some moved on after spending only a short time at the depot, while others immediately liked the place and stayed to live here, and the depot became their home. But the locomotives were bored just sitting in the hangars; they loved to travel along the rails, accelerate, brake, carry cargo and passengers, and also sound their horn at the stops. Therefore, the locomotives first repaired the military telegraph, sent out telegrams to everyone asking them to send requests for transportation, and when such requests came, they gladly accepted them.

In the mornings, before leaving for business, the locomotives gathered behind the hangar, released steam and smoke into the sky, drank engine oil and told stories. Naturally, Chu-Chukhin was the most cheerful and talkative. Chu-Chukhin that morning celebrated exactly one month since he settled in the depot and treated everyone to the machine oil he had brought from the flight yesterday.

— Good is not enough! — the locomotives praised him.

— You should leave it for the evening, — others hinted that they had prepared a festive dinner.

— I’ll bring more, — Chu-Chukhin answered them and joyfully sent thoughts into the sky. “I’ll take two carloads of firewood and I’ll definitely pick it up on the way back.”

— Aren’t you afraid to ride along unknown paths? — a cat passing by, nicknamed Oil Can, asked him. The cat worked here as a mechanic, wore oiled overalls, checked the bearings of steam locomotives before setting off on a voyage, and lubricated everyone with his oil can, which is why he got his nickname.

— Yes, after the Lost Swamps, the Cemetery of Old Locomotives and Baba Yaga, I’m no longer afraid of anything! — answered Chu-Chukhin.

— Baba Yaga?! — one of the locomotives was surprised. — And who is it?

— How? — now Chu-Chukhin was also surprised. “Didn’t I tell this story?”

It turned out that no, he didn’t tell. And then, a lover of various stories, Chu-Chukhin began.

— This, I tell you, my friends, is a very interesting and educational story. This happened about a month ago, just before I got here. Then I was a traveling locomotive who sleeps on sidings, and when he’s not sleeping, he rolls wherever his eyes look, refueling with whatever comes to hand, and undergoes technical inspections from time to time, which is why I get sick often. And he doesn’t have any mechanics at all.

I was driving that day, it seems, from the direction of Poltava. I had been driving for a long time and it began to seem to me that the road was going somewhere in the wrong direction, somewhere to the side. Then I stopped, looked around, thought a little and went off the rails. The weather was beautiful, the sun warmed my sides, the breeze easily drove back the smoke escaping from the chimney. In this weather it was nice to take a walk in nature. Walk a little, and then get out on the tracks in the right place, stand on them with your wheels and move on.

I didn’t want to waste half the day making a big detour and only reaching the desired point in the evening. Judging by the map, and I always travel with a map, here it was possible to take a shortcut through the forest and in an hour reach the necessary paths, and from there it’s just a stone’s throw towards Kyiv.

From the very first minutes it began to seem to me that something was wrong with my card. I only found out later that the map of these places was drawn up by the military and, of course, they compiled it in such a way as to hide everything that they did not want to show — depots, hangars, warehouses, and military equipment that once stood here, and, Of course, the railroad diagram was also drawn incorrectly. I didn’t know about this and naturally trusted the card, which had already helped me out more than once.

I descended from the embankment, galloped through a shallow swamp, from hummock to hummock, from bush to bush, in one place I even had to wade into the swim. True, it wasn’t deep there, only half the wheel. And having passed the swamp, he got out to the edge of the forest. I somehow didn’t like the forest right away. Thick, gloomy, silent. The old trees immediately closed their crowns over my chimney, and not even a ray of light broke through their foliage. On a fine sunny day it suddenly became dark, damp and uncomfortable. I wanted to turn back, but something wouldn’t let me. I think it was some kind of witchcraft. Probably some kind of magnetic witchcraft that pulls ships aground and lures planes into air pockets.

There was talk about magnetic witchcraft, to which all metal objects, and even more so steam locomotives, were believed to be susceptible, and everyone took it seriously.

“And the further I made my way through the thickets, the more I was drawn forward,” continued Chu-Chukhin. “And the thickets were getting denser, I had already scratched all my sides, hit a tree trunk once or twice, dented the ramp guard, dented the cabin, and even began to limp on a couple of wheels. And when light began to break through behind the dark green foliage, I was happy and ran faster, not even paying attention to the fact that it was squelching under the wheels, and with every meter I began to plunge deeper and deeper into the dirty swampy water.

And then, up to my very axis in the water, I got out of the forest, and there, on one of the hills, an old woman stood and picked berries. I don’t know what kind of berries they were, but there was almost a basket full of them. The old woman was thin, hunched over, with a large nose and hooked long arms, and from under her burgundy scarf a strand of ashy gray hair was sticking out.

The old woman straightened up slightly, looked in my direction and spread her arms:

— Oh, how did you get here, my dear?! — she shouted. — You can’t come here.

— It is forbidden! It is forbidden! — her two cats shouted. One was black as night, the second was probably once white, but he lived for a long time in the forest and in the swamps and therefore got pretty dirty. I somehow didn’t notice the cats right away; they were probably somewhere nearby, behind the hill.

— Why? — I was surprised, blinking my eyes from the bright sun, getting out of the darkness.

— And that’s why! — the old woman pointed forward.

I didn’t immediately make out where she was pointing, but then, when my eyes got used to the sunlight, I saw a terrible picture. If earlier I heard that there is somewhere in the sea where magnetic witchcraft attracts all lost or sunken ships and this place is called the cemetery of lost ships, then I saw something similar here. Only here there was a large endless swamp, overgrown in places with small bushes, covered with mud, marsh grass and something else that grows in swamps, and in the middle of all this lay old, rusty steam locomotives. Most of them went deep under the water and only their roofs protruded to the surface, somewhere locomotive pipes stuck out, right in front of me, about a hundred meters away, only the wheels protruded from the water — the locomotive must have turned over and was lying upside down. There were locomotives of all possible models here, there were a lot of them. They leaned on each other, pressed their sides, noses, and dived under each other. In the distance I even noticed an armored train. His rusty guns were looking in my direction and it was creepy.

— You can’t go there, my dear! — the old woman smiled and offered to go up to her hill. — There is death there. Certain death for any locomotive that gets there. Just recently, in my memory, one just like him stepped into a swamp, but he couldn’t get out. The swamp dragged him away and swallowed him whole.

— How can this be? — I was surprised. — How does this happen?

— I don’t know. — answered the old woman.

— A terrible secret! — the black cat purred.

— Yes, I see, you’re already worn out,’ the old woman shook her head, lisping from time to time. ‘He wandered into lost places, but at least he found us, — Grandma said. — Don’t be afraid of us. We are locals, we have lived here for a long time, we know all the ins and outs. Let’s help someone who is lost.

— We’ll help. — the light cat purred and rubbed against my wheel. — And the wheel is broken!

— Oh! — the old woman perked up. — How is it broken? — ran up to me. — It’s really not good with the wheel. Needs treatment.

— You need to treat, you need to treat. — the cats agreed with her.

— Shall we help the engine? — the old woman asked the cats.

— We’ll help, we’ll help. — they purred and began to wink at her somehow mysteriously.

— Do you understand mechanics? — I became interested too.

— Why not! — the old woman was surprised. — We understand. And we understand a lot of things.

— So you are mechanics! — I burst out. Although the hunched old woman and two cats didn’t really look like mechanics.

— Almost. — the black cat purred. — We are more than mechanics. We have mechanical magic. We repair using the power of spells, decoctions, tinctures, oil mixtures and other technical substances unknown to backward science.

— Wow! — I was surprised. -Where is your hangar?

“It’s not far, my dear,” the old woman entered the conversation. — Here, not far. Just about thirty minutes to walk through the forest and we’ll be there. — she narrowed her eyes.

— What about half an hour, we’ll get there faster. — the black cat picked up, licking his lips for some reason.

— We have everything ready there, — the old woman did not stop talking all the way. — We’ll give you a poultice, change the oil, straighten the metal with tinctures, dissolve the rust and build up the metal in these places. — We understand a lot about these matters. — she whispered.

I’ll say right away that the forest was the same — gloomy, cold, damp and dark. The branches still closed over the pipe, not allowing light to pass down; the underbrush covered the entire space between the tree trunks. We walked along a green tunnel. It even seemed to me that it was as if the trees parted to the sides just for us, opening a passage, but never opening the branches above us.

I listened with half an ear to the old woman, looking around all the time. It seemed to me that from there, from behind the bushes, from behind the tree trunks, from the darkness, someone was watching us. And there were a lot of observers there, several behind each tree. They were all angry and were ready to jump out and attack. Now I understand why the old woman from time to time stopped telling me about her mechanical magic and shushed me towards the forest. She probably calmed those who were sitting there.

The cats walked nearby, proudly raising their tails. One is to my right, the other is to my left.

“But we’re almost there,” the old woman pointed forward. — Here is our hangar — a hut.

Something loomed ahead, occupying the entire passage. It was an ordinary wooden hut. Ordinary but not quite ordinary. An old tree covered with moss in the dampness. The only window had not been washed for a long time, and the roof, made of reeds, had darkened and required replacement. The Khatynka swayed from time to time and from the outside it seemed that it was breathing.

— How will we all fit there? — I was surprised.

— Don’t worry about that, honey! — said the old woman. — Here, look. — and she suddenly whistled. Her whistling immediately made my ears clog, and when she stopped, I couldn’t hear well for some time.

— Hey, wooden one, turn your front to me, your back to the forest! — the old woman shouted. At that moment it seemed to me that I had already heard this phrase somewhere, but I just couldn’t remember where.

The “wooden” trembled, groaned and, to my surprise, began to rise. The Khatynka rose upward, pushing branches to the sides, and then the trees themselves. The trees diverged as if alive, the branches prudently bent to the sides, and those that did not have time simply broke under the pressure of the hut that had begun to move.

— Come on, you wooden one! — shouted the black cat. — Are we going to wait here for you for a year?!

Khatynka rose up on her manipulators, turned there half a turn and just as carefully and slowly sank down. We stood aside and only now did I understand the true size of this building. It was huge, three hangars high and five locomotives wide. While we were standing far away, it seemed to us no more than an ordinary house.

There were no windows on this side, just one door and a large hangar gate. The gates opened and the old woman invited me to enter there

— Here we are at home, — she showed the way. — We have here decoctions, roots, and machine oils infused with fir cones. — And the stove is miraculous.

— Why a stove? — I was surprised. In the middle of the hut, which was the size of a hangar, there was a huge stove, into which the entire locomotive fit and there was still room left. The oven was already heated up and even glowing with heat.

— How could it be otherwise? — the old woman made a surprised face.

— This is to steam your bones. — added the light cat.

— This is to remove the locomotive damage from you. — the dark cat purred.

— So that all the bruises become softer and healing decoctions can straighten them out.

— So that the healing fire will separate the rust from your body, and then we can weld the metal onto you with oil extracts.

And their words sounded so sweet, the stove was so inviting. Well, just like the swamp when I was making my way through the forest. And I was already moving towards the stove, into the warm and pleasant heat, when suddenly the comparison with the obsession in the forest became comparable to what was happening now. This comparison brought me to my senses, something pulled me back and the spell immediately subsided. The warm heat of the stove turned into scorching heat, and I even began to feel how the metal was gradually giving in and was about to begin to melt.

— Hey, hangar, listen to me! — I shouted. — Bake the carcasses quickly. Climb onto the manipulators and get out of here, towards the nearest railway tracks.

And what would you think?! He listened to me. How could it have been otherwise?! One mechanism will understand the other perfectly. He will understand, listen and figure out what is good for the other and what is not.

The hut swayed, the stove doors slammed shut and the ardor and heat began to subside behind them, the old woman and the cats rolled under the wall from the rocking. They rolled around and immediately stopped being kind and polite. They screamed, waved their arms and paws, and the cats squealed. Meanwhile, the hut swayed from side to side as it walked.

The trees clung to her manipulator legs with their paws, stretched their branches-hooks towards the doors, deceived in their expectations, the evil beast and other forest evil spirits jumped below, trying to reach the doors.

And this lasted for half an hour…

— What then? — one of the listeners could not stand it.

— And then the hut on manipulators walked through the entire forest, walked through a couple of swamps, and came out to a branch that led straight here. Here I thanked the Khatyn woman and invited her to leave the forest, but she said that the military had left her here in case of war, disguised her as a dilapidated building, and she must continue to serve faithfully, therefore she could not leave her combat post. I then promised to drop by from time to time — it turns out the military left her a whole warehouse of lubricants — and barely dragging my wheels, I accidentally wandered here — to the depot.

— Wow! — someone was surprised. “Isn’t this where the abandoned railway tracks along the forest arc into the swamps? What happened?”

— I guess that’s it, — Chu-Chukhin nodded. — I’m even sure it’s there. But it’s better not to go there — the places there are really bad. But I saw that old woman quite recently at the market in Poltava.

— And what is she?

— Yes, I sold spoons. Spoons, pots, pans. Everything is metal. Brand new, shiny, very recently made. I later asked people at the market whether she often trades here?! They say — all the time. All these spoons and frying pans are her thing. Counterfeits, of course, look like Chinese ones, but they sell well.

— Was she the one who wanted to melt you down into spoons?! — suddenly someone understood.

— And don’t doubt it. I thought about it a lot later. This happens — she stands by a disastrous swamp, full of magnetic magic, stops the drugged locomotives right at the swamp, takes her to her lair and there she melts and pours spoons in the furnace. So, it turns out, I miraculously dodged,” Chu-Chukhin nodded. — And now I avoid those places. — Well, maybe just drop by from time to time to a disguised hangar under a hut, but that’s all there is to it. I don’t recommend it to you either.

002. How the little locomotive Chu-Chukhin saved Kolobchuk

— Hello, Kolobchuk! — the Chu-Chukhin locomotive trumpeted as Kolobchuk ran past.

Kolobchuk was very busy with something and therefore only nodded to the engine, continuing to explain something to Maslenka the cat as he walked. Maslenka did not agree, constantly purred with displeasure, sometimes even hissed, but some numbers in the papers that Kolobchuk carried in an unfolded form and constantly pointed at them made Maslenka fall silent.

Kolobchuk wore a rumpled white cap with a dark visor, was engaged in office work and accounting at the depot, was constantly frowning and did not let anyone down. At the same time, Kolobchuk remained a classic kolobok — a ball of dough, but very important and solid, which is why he no longer rolled along the road as before, but only bounced up and forward.

— Oh, and Maslyonka will get it today! — someone said.

— What happened then? — asked Chu-Chukhin.

— Yes, Yesterday Maslenka inserted some spare part into our faucet incorrectly. It was twisted and the tap broke.

— Happenes. Business?! — one of the newcomers was surprised that he had not yet fully understood the rules at the depot.

This is the case here, — they explained to him. — This breakdown is unplanned and therefore the expenses are also above the plan, and Kolobchuk really doesn’t like these above-plan expenses! Everything must work for him as written in the plan and break down strictly according to the technical conditions and scheduled repair schedules. That’s why he’s now going to give the bungler Maslenka a problem. Oh he’ll ask!! — the old locomotive Literny shook his head sadly, having worked all his life in government transportation and now, in his old age, he decided to live for his own pleasure in this depot.

— And where did he come from here? — the Newbie did not let up. — Is it really impossible to do without him?

— Well, we somehow managed before, — Chu-Chukhin entered the conversation again. — Only with the advent of Kolobchuk did we have more order. Again, it works better with the telegraph than the Oil Can. And he distributes outfits in a timely manner. So now we have a better situation with spare parts, and with everything else. And I’ll tell you how he came here. I brought him to us! — Chu-Chukhin smiled, remembering how it happened.

— I remember something like that, — old Literny frowned. “Back then you arrived covered in dust and soot, and half of the front end was dented!” — he finally remembered.

— So it was. — Chu-Chukhin agreed.

— But I don’t even remember what else was there. Remind me. — suggested old man Literny.

— Yes, tell me, tell me. — the locomotives moved closer. Riding behind the hangar during the morning or evening rest was a favorite pastime of the depot residents.

— There’s nothing to tell here,” Chu-Chukhin began. — In general, everything was like that.

I was traveling loaded then. If my memory serves me right, I was carrying either pipes or fittings. In a word, something metal for the neighboring metal warehouse. The load was heavy and uncomfortable. I constantly fidgeted in the carriages and every time I had to make extra efforts at turns so as not to tip over.

And the day turned out to be the most beautiful. There is not a single cloud in the sky, the sun is cheerful, warming your sides, the breeze is light and favorable. The railway tracks are clear, not a single oncoming traffic and not a single delay at the stops. Only the load is heavy, but otherwise it’s a pleasure to ride.

I had already left the main road and turned onto our western branch, and there, after three kilometers, I had to turn west again, unload at the base, and return to our branch again.

And somewhere, in this gap, I noticed Kolobchuk. More precisely, not quite his. First the stationmaster’s house appeared. The same houses that used to be numerous on the roads and where the railway workers lived, who watched the switches, monitored the track and other railway communications. For example, behind telegraph poles.

Now there are very few of these houses left, they have been replaced with something else, but we were lucky, we still have a few of them left. And in one of them live an old man and an old woman. They have a granddaughter who comes to them for the summer, a cat Vredina and a dog Bobanka.

I met Kolobchuk at the very height of the story, so I will retell the first part of it from his words.

And so, as described in the cookbook on cooking Kolobchuk, one day the grandfather and grandmother decided to eat. But, as usual, they immediately had nothing. The grandfather recommended that the grandmother place the floor, shake the bags, scrape the bottom of the barrel, and look into the cellar. Yes, he recommended doing all this so threateningly that they immediately found flour, salt, sugar, and something else that is put into the dough in such cases.

They kneaded the dough and made a bun. They preheated the oven and placed it there to bake. Yes, they covered it with a flap. And themselves, and the grandfather, and the grandmother, and the granddaughter, and the cat and dog, sat down on the bench and began to wait. Some time passed, the grandmother even began to doze, when from the other side, from the side of the stove, there was a knock on the damper. They knocked so loudly that after the third time the door jumped to the side, and out of the heat a baked, smiling Kolobchuk jumped out into the light.

— Yeah! — he shouted. — I know what you want to do with me! You want to eat me! Only I’m against it. — he blurted out, and while everyone was confused and didn’t understand what to do, he jumped onto the floor, rolled to a chair, jumped onto the chair, from there onto the table, then onto the windows, and then jumped out through the window and out into the street.

So Kolobchuk jumped out into the street and rolled. But it was not there. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Hare, Wolf, Bear and Fox immediately ran out to meet him. As soon as they saw smoke coming from the chimney and smelled the smell of fresh bread, they immediately realized that koloboks were being cooked and, judging by the cookbook about koloboks, they would definitely keep them away from the old people. That’s why they didn’t wait for him on the path until he ran around them all, deceiving them and laughing, but decided to come to the house themselves and play ahead, so to speak.

Kolobchuk was even confused and therefore lost precious time, because his grandfather and grandmother, their granddaughter Alenka, the cat Vredina and the dog Bobanka were already running out of the house into the street.

— Hold him! — the granny screamed. And her cry became a command for Kolobchuk. He came out of his stupor and, as quickly as he could, pulled away from them along the railway tracks, escaping from pursuit.

— And here I appear, — Chu-Chukhin finally moved on to his part of the story. — As you remember, I was traveling laden then, transporting metal to a metal depot and enjoying the weather, nature and the opportunity to travel. This is where I noticed Kolobchuk. He tried his best to break away from his pursuers, but they, raising clouds of dust, rushed after him. Kolobchuk caught up with me, and I quickly asked:

— What’s happened?

— They wanted to eat… — he explained, breathing heavily.

— Jump in! — I commanded, slowing down next to him.

Kolobchuk jumped in and immediately hid in my cabin, and I began to accelerate as best I could. The pursuers did not immediately understand what had happened and even ran past me, still raising clouds of dust. And when we figured out what was what, Kolobchuk and I were already rolling at full speed and Kolobchuk sang his song to them, how he left his grandmother and left his grandfather…

— And then you brought him here and he became a clerk and accountant here. — Thinking that the story was over, the new engine said.

— And then I brought him here and he became a clerk and accountant here, — Chu-Chukhin agreed. — But that’s later. This is not the whole story yet, and I would say that it is just beginning.

— Yes? — the locomotive was surprised. “Then I won’t interrupt.”

— Kolobchuk and I were glad that we broke away from our pursuers so easily. He introduced himself, I also said that my name was Chu-Chukhin. He told me his story, I told him that I live in an interesting place — in an abandoned depot, and now I am fulfilling an order, transporting cargo to a metal depot. After that I can drop him off with us. He was happy and thanked. And after this conversation we arrived at the metal depot itself.

We spent at least three hours at the base. While all the documents were completed, then the crane was occupied, then they unloaded it, everything was weighed, recorded, and only after that they were put into special stackers — where rolled metal products are stored.

I was nervous — I really don’t like all this red tape, but apparently I couldn’t do without it. As for me, there is nothing better than a tailwind and rails running into the distance, but Kolobchuk really liked it all. He carefully followed everything that was happening, from time to time he even entered into an argument with the receiver, and one day he even jumped to the ground and there he proved and showed something.

Three hours passed, or maybe even four, we were finally unloaded, the cargo transportation order was closed, and we were free to go about our business. Kolobchuk took some documents, said that this was important, and we went.

As I already said, we deviated from the route and now returned to it, drove half a kilometer and reached the path that leads across the western bridge to our depot. We were in no hurry, I even wanted to go for a ride, but Kolobchuk protested, saying that we needed to come to the depot and report. True, there was no one to report to — we lived on our own, but Kolobchuk insisted, and I succumbed to his persuasion.

The bridge, as you know, has long been abandoned, the paint from the truss-fences has long peeled off, and it presents the spectacle of an old rusty giant, still full of strength, but long ago lost its youthful prowess. We approached this bridge, and then an unpleasant surprise awaited us. We stopped…

At the opposite end of the bridge, right on the tracks, lay a huge boulder. So huge that if I tried to do something with it on the fly, I would definitely fly off the rails and roll into the river. The bridge fences made it impossible to get around this boulder from the side. I was taken aback. And first of all, because the Fox, Wolf, and Hare stood near the boulder, and behind us, behind Kolobchuk and me, the Bear and granddaughter Alenka were moving the shooter. So, if I had decided to give up, I would have ended up in a dead end, and I certainly wouldn’t have gotten out of it.

— Give us Kolobchuk! — Granny shouted from somewhere under the bridge.

— Give it back! — shouted the Hare. — He’s ours!

And then I understood everything. While we were unloading at the metal depot, they slowly, sitting on a handcar — there it is, standing at a dead end — made it to the bridge. Somehow they dumped a huge boulder on the way and hid, waiting for us to arrive and, without understanding anything, fall into a trap on the bridge.

— I won’t give you up. — I quietly said to Kolobchuk, who was standing on the ladder and leaning on one of the pegs of the fence.

— You are in vain! — it was clear that Kolobchuk was up to something. He was already a cunning man even then. — We’re locked here. You might still be able to move the boulder, but this takes time and you need to act carefully. And while you do this, they will definitely get in here and all your efforts will be in vain. Therefore, I’d better give up, and you’re here… — and Kolobchuk shouted with all his might. — I give up! I give up!!! — and jumped onto the bridge.

Piteously, limping as only koloboks can limp, rolling from side to side, he rolled towards the stone, rolled up to the Fox herself, and when she bent down to grab him, he immediately jumped up, landed on the bent back of the fox, jumped over her and again, like It’s happened before, he rushed at full speed along the railway tracks.

Naturally, everyone forgot about me, leaving me standing locked in the middle of the bridge. There is a stone in front, translated arrows behind, bridge trusses to the right and left… And then I remembered what Kolobchuk told me, they say, it is possible to move the stone, but it just takes time and you need to be careful. Over time, I seem to be feeling better now, and I don’t need to be careful at all. Therefore, I slowly drove up to the boulder, rested my nose against it and gradually began to move it. The boulder did not immediately move, but I still managed to move it to the side, from where it had a direct path into the river, but then I lost my vigilance — I still wanted to help Kolobchuk — and pressed too hard and sharply on the stone. The stone flew along the slope into the river, but I crumpled badly, as if I had hit a rock while running.

But the job was done, I rushed forward. For the first half a kilometer I saw nothing, and only then, somewhere in the distance, I saw small moving dots and the dust that was raised by them. I picked up the pace and within a minute I caught up with the grandmother, then I passed the grandfather, the granddaughter, the cat and the dog were running together, and the dog seemed to think that this was a game and was constantly getting in the way of Alenka’s granddaughter’s feet. Surprisingly, the last of the animals to run was the Hare. He was not tired, he was just so cowardly that he was afraid to get ahead, fearing even Kolobchuk.

The Wolf and the Bear ran shoulder to shoulder and in front, fifty meters away, Kolobok was running and the Fox was practically following him.

I overtook them all, slowed down near Kolobchuk, and without hesitation he jumped onto my ladder, ran around the bMaslenka, and jumped into the cabin from the other side. Naturally, I immediately closed the cabin, because before I had time to accelerate, the Fox, who was pursuing Kolobchuk, immediately jumped up the steps onto the ramp and rushed in and then chased Kolobchuk.

— How are you there? — I asked him, picking up speed. Meanwhile, the fox tried to break into the cabin, but the rest of the pursuers were already far behind.

— It’s normal, — Kolobchuk answered, breathing intermittently. — I barely escaped.

— Well, then hold on, there’s one last thing left and after that we’ll definitely go to the depot.

Kolobchuk didn’t answer anything, trying to hide more comfortably in a corner, and I kept gaining momentum. He turned near the Dead Forest and rushed towards the Swampy Swamps and the Swamp of Old Steam Locomotives. The fox growled all the time and tried to open the cabin with its paws, clanged its teeth and every minute threatened me with the most terrible punishments. But I didn’t stop and didn’t give up Kolobchuk. He didn’t stop until the very turn near the Swamp of Dead Locomotives, and only then did he brake on all wheels at once. I was dragged about fifty meters, and I almost flew into the forest, but what I wanted happened — the evil Fox could not resist and, when braking, was thrown out by inertia in the direction of travel. She soared above the fir trees, screamed in surprise and disappeared somewhere in the direction of the swamps, flying over the entire forest.

— And Kolobchuk and I safely reached our depot, where he immediately began to restore order, conduct office work and accounting. — Chu-Chukhin finished the story. — And now I’ve taken on the repair service.

— What happened to Fox? — the same Newbie asked. — What with her?

— Yes, everything is fine with her, — Chu-Chukhin waved him off. “She flew over the forest and landed in a swamp. She raised such a cry that even Baba Yaga in her hut heard it. She pulled the Fox out of the swamp and now the Fox lives with her, together in the swamp they create magnetic and mechanical magic. They cook decoctions and fly in mortars under the moon. But they don’t bother us anymore. We taught them a lesson.

003. The story of the Ghost Engine and how Baba Yaga wanted to get to Chu-Chukhin

After Chu-Chukhin slipped away from Baba Yaga, her affairs went very badly. Not a single new engine came into her network. She, however, tried to get metal from the swamp, melt it down and make spoons, but even here she was plagued by failures.

Firstly, the metal was heavy, dirty, all corroded and covered with a rusty coating. The fox seemed to be helping her, but more and more her paw turned out to be sick, or she had a runny nose when she had to climb into the water, or even unknown illnesses occurred, which went away on their own after half an hour. In a word, she was a useless assistant.

And, secondly, even if they managed to catch something and melt it down, the spoons turned out to be all defective, with impurities, with rust, sometimes they even broke and it became more and more difficult to sell them.

That day Baba Yaga returned from the city in a very bad mood. Not only did she not manage to sell anything of what she brought to the market in Poltava, but former buyers came to her and returned everything that she had sold the previous time. Spoons bent, broke, their chipped edges with signs of rust threatened the health of customers.

Baba Yaga heard such things from Poltava customers that she was ready to scatter the entire forest in her path out of anger, and if she had gotten her hands on Chu-Chukhin, then he would have been in trouble.

— How did you go?! — the Fox emerged from behind the warm stove.

— What did you bring? — the stupid cat Peach immediately came running. Little Blackie immediately realized that this was the case, that it was better for him to sit somewhere far away, and quietly slipped out the window.

Baba Yaga cursed very strongly, and when she calmed down a little, the cunning Fox immediately sat down on the bench.

— Eh, our affairs are not honey! — she sighed. “And it seems to me that they need to be corrected.”

— It’s clear to Peach that our affairs are bad! — the old woman snapped. — But how can I fix them?

— Don’t get excited, don’t get excited, — Fox reassured her. — Here a completely different approach is needed. You need to understand the reasons…

— What is there to understand about them?! — Baba Yaga exploded again. Although it has calmed down a little, the inner fire has not completely died out. “It all started with Chu-Chukhin,” she explained. “After he managed to escape, they just sprinkled salt on the road to us for the locomotives.” None of them are coming. No one gives in to persuasion. And the magic of the swamp, it begins to seem to me that it used to pull steam locomotives into itself, began to weaken. The magic of mechanical locomotives does not entice you to climb up to the chimney in swampy places.

— So maybe the solution lies on the surface? — the Fox winked at Baba Yaga.

— How is that?

— It all began with Chu-Chukhin and everything must end with Chu-Chukhin. And if his escape somehow affected the swamp itself, then the swamp should return everything to its place.

— 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!

— Go away! Go away! — Baba Yaga shouted. — I didn’t call you! Get back to your swamp!!

— We won’t leave! — the locomotives blew, circling around the hut. — You are hiding something from us! Open the doors!!! — they demanded and even pushed the house with their sides a couple of times. At the same time, Baba Yaga staggered, but still held on, although it seemed that she was about to fly down.

— Take it! Take it!! — she shouted, fearing that now not only would the hut be smashed to pieces, but she herself would, inadvertently, be rolled into the mud behind the hut.

— Open up! — trumpeted the locomotives, stained with mud and covered with swamp mud.

The door to the hut opened by itself and, without thinking for a long time, Chu-Chukhin jumped out. He immediately rushed into the general whirlwind and, having made a couple more circles, together with everyone else, through the forest, he drove around… No, not towards the swamps. To the depot!!!

***

— Wow, we gave it to the old woman!!! — the locomotives laughed. They were having a lot of fun, but Maslenka was not having fun at all. He washed each locomotive with a hose, removing swamp dirt, cleared away the stuck mud, and lubricated and cleaned all the mechanisms that had certainly picked up dirt in the thicket of the forest and local swamps.

— Next time you rush to save someone, — muttered Maslenka the cat, clearly addressing Chu-chukhin. — At least let the others know. And now everyone has fun, and the poor mechanic has to work tirelessly until the morning, or even the next evening.

— Okay, next time for sure! — Chu-Chukhin answered him. He was very pleased with how everything was resolved, and the disguised performance of the steam locomotives from the depot, pretending to be local inhabitants who had just got out of the swamp, amused him no less than the participants in the action themselves.

— Yes, if you please, — Maslyonka the cat watered Chu-Chukhin with a hose under Kolobchuk’s disapproving sighs. — Otherwise, first the Ghost Engine comes and looks for Chu-Chukhin, and then he flies in with bulging eyes and says that he was deceived and now something bad will happen to Chu-Chukhin. — he kept muttering.

004. How the engines met Alenka

Alena’s grandparents lived in a railway house. That house stood somewhere on the route between Poltava and Kiev, exactly not far from the Enchanted Forest, the Marsh Swamps, the Swamp of Old Steam Locomotives and an abandoned depot. They were separated from this mysterious place by an old railway bridge and a wide river, through which local residents were afraid to cross, fearing those places and their inhabitants.

The house stood right next to the railway tracks, but in order to get to it from Poltava, and it was from there, from Poltava, that Alenka was traveling to visit her grandparents, she had to get off at one of the nameless stops, called “stop number so-and-so,” walk through the field for five kilometers and only after that get off at the desired railway track. And then, along this canvas, we walked for some more time and already there stood the house of my grandparents.

The train that carried Alenka that day traveled according to the schedule and its route. Alenka wondered why the train didn’t turn right next to the dense forest in order to pass not only past her grandparents’ house, but also take a significant shortcut. The fact is that the road she always took was quite a detour.

Surprised by this circumstance once again, Alenka decided to get off just one stop earlier. She took a map with her and judging by it, she only had to walk a couple of kilometers along the railway tracks through the forest, turn left, then cross the very bridge on which Kolobchuk ran away from them at one time, and then to the house of her grandmother and Grandfather is just a stone’s throw away. So, it seemed to her that she would have been with her grandparents much earlier, and it was much more pleasant to walk in the forest shade during the summer heat than to break through the field grasses, which that year grew taller than a man. At least taller than Alenka.

Having made this decision, Alenka jumped off the train at the stop and looked around. She didn’t notice anyone and confidently walked along the already fairly rusty railway line running into the forest. That branch branched off from the main highway and few people traveled along it, except perhaps those strange little trains that had recently settled in the forest, and even then it was unlikely.

Grandfather, who had worked on the railroad for many years, strictly forbade Alenka from even approaching the engines, much less communicating. He was sure that something was not clean here, because, in his opinion, locomotives themselves could not live. Grandfather was upset by the unauthorized rolling of steam locomotives, which violated the strict schedule of movement of rolling stock, to which grandfather was already accustomed. And in general, what fell outside the norms of the railway communication system, he saw as a gross violation of all possible norms and rules.

Grandfather had worked on the railroad for a long time and therefore Alenka obeyed him, at least when it came to trains and locomotives.

— If I meet a wild locomotive, — she promised herself. — I’ll hide in the forest and wait until he passes by.

Meanwhile, the road curved into the forest and after a hundred meters Alenka could not see what was around the bend, what was hidden behind the wide trunks of the local trees.

The road turned now to the right, now to the left, but each time Alenka felt that the road was going down, descending, albeit not significantly, but constantly. The trees became larger, more massive, stood denser, and their color became darker and darker. Their crowns have almost closed over the railway track, forming a green corridor. There was no wind, but the leaves rustled quietly, as if whispering something to Alenka.

Alenka was a brave girl, but she was no longer feeling at ease. She stopped from time to time, adjusted the straps of the backpack that was slung behind her, checked the map, and every time it seemed to her that the map was showing something wrong, that reality was somewhat different from its graphic display. Alenka did not find on the map most of the turns that abounded in the road…

The bushes were already growing not just along the sides of the embankment, but in some places they were climbing out onto the canvas. True, in this case, not the best fate awaited them, because trains still traveled here from time to time, but for Alenka on foot they presented significant problems.