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,
