Invasion

by Dmitrii Mansurov

  And well, the captain could tolerate such antics of the wild forms of local life. After all, they couldn't damage the ship in such a manner. But when the natives drew the swords from their scabbards and began to cut down a tall massive tree, pushing it directly toward the ship, the captain grew restless.

  "Who is scaring whom here?" he asked indignantly, hurriedly sitting down in the pilot's seat and fastening the seat belt around himself. "Vandals!"

  ***

  "Cut it down!" Yaroslav shouted, brandishing his sword in excitement. A few strong blows, and the three hundred-year-old birch bent, hanging over a huge brown stone. The stone roared angrily and suddenly soared into the skies, throwing up a wave of wind that blew away all the dust, leaving a thick, long, hazy trail behind. The princes coughed, the horses backed away anxiously, and the birch finally fell on the road.

  "Flying rocks!" Artem's surprise knew no bounds. "Is that a joke!"

  Yaroslav followed the strange stone with his intense gaze and said, "Maybe it's a beast and not a rock? Like a dragon?"

  "Maybe an evil Kolobok who swallowed Nightingale the Robber? It's too much, don't you think?"

  "After a meeting with Kashchey, I wouldn't dare say as such."

  The princes knew the local area well. They had been in the capital many times before and hunted the wild boars in its woods. And Yaroslav had been friends with Princess Maria since his childhood. Yesterday, he had been planning to officially ask for her hand in marriage, but Kashchey's appearance sent all his plans down the drain.

  There had never been any huge rocks on this road, so the appearance of this obstacle left the princes quite puzzled. Six meters high, it was blocking traffic, and the ground around it was scorched and covered with a layer of grayish ash. Artem jumped off his horse and approached the barrier. He touched it and was surprised to note that the stone was warm, humming strangely, as if a swarm of bumblebees had made it their home.

  Yaroslav took his mace and went to the stone to test its strength. He swung and heard a long howl in response. A red lightning hit his mace, spraying it into a dazzling shower of sparks. The horses reared back while Yaroslav jumped and shielded himself so that the sparks didn't touch his face. Artem shut his eyes tightly, covering himself with his hands. When the silence came and nothing terrible happened, the brothers looked at each other and decided to repeat the attack.

  As soon as the stone disappeared into the clouds, they managed to push the birch to the side of the road. They had to cut almost all the branches off but, in the end, it worked. They couldn't leave such a mess for other travelers to see.

  As a clever proverb said, "If you want to dance, you have to pay the piper," and only now did Artem realize the depth of its meaning. Until he died of old age, his tutor had always liked to repeat another phrase: "For three minutes of fun, we have to pay for years." Sometimes he added that many people understood it only after the above-mentioned years disappeared into eternity. After hearing these words, the head of the guard nodded dejectedly and said a slow, "Yea-a-ah...", though Artem didn't understand why.

  When the last beam was removed, and the branches flew after them, the princes took some time admiring their still-sharp swords, sheathed them, and jumped on their horses. It was time to do the main task, which was saving the princess.

  ***

  It was nearly midnight. The dog, who was dozing in his small cabin, was tossing around and clicking his teeth. He was dreaming about a big sugar bone and his attempts to grab it. But the bone constantly flew away, stopping an inch from his jaws. Finally, it escaped to a distance that didn't allow the dog to reach it just by craning his neck, so he had to get up. The dog marveled at the vividness of this dream. Just in case, the dog wagged his tail and then made a sharp jerk towards the bone. Frustratingly, it was once again quicker. Flying far to the side, it hung at the level of the dog's eyes, slowly rotating around its axis. The dog growled with displeasure.

  The bone stopped and then moved smoothly, making an insulting circle around him. The dog was turning after the brazen bone but didn't risk pouncing, instead waiting for the best moment to attack. However, his patience didn't last long. When the bone made the tenth circle, the dog's control snapped. Making a fraudulent leap, he grabbed the hateful bone and was about to turn in into chips when a huge shadow rose behind his back. The dog felt someone's hard stare and froze in fright.

  The shadow came closer and turned into Baba Yaga, who said in a measured, hypnotic voice, "Face the forest... ugh, damn it to hell... look at me!"

  The dog opened his jaws. The bone fell to the ground.

  "Look at me!" Baba Yaga repeated, simultaneously unhooking the collar from the chain and waving the ball in front of the dog. "Now watch the toy! On the count of three, you will obey me completely!"

  The last one wasn't necessary. The dog was willing to perform any Yaga's request one hundred and fifty percent as it was, anything to be left alone.

  "One!" Yaga counted. "You feel warmth all over your body." With her right hand, she grabbed her head and mumbled, resigned, "I can't believe I'm doing it... Hypnotizing dogs now."

  The hypnotized subject tilted his head to the side in surprise and raised his right ear. Yaga cleared her throat and repeated, "The heat spreads through your body, from head to tail. Your eyes are closing, your eyelids are slowly getting heavier... Two! You're falling asleep. You're getting sleepier and sleepier, you want to sleep for the whole day! And while you're sleeping and dreaming, you'll be doing what I tell you. Attention! My first order is that you will bring an old beast-friend of yours who will decide to play with you into the woods to my house. On the count of three, you'll start waiting for this beast to appear. On my next command, you'll wake up, and you won't remember anything about what happened to you... THREE!"

  The dog twitched in surprise. He thought that Baba Yaga had just held a swinging ball in front of his nose but there was no one here right now. The yard was empty. The dog turned to pick up the bone and stopped halfway.

  'What bone?' he thought, puzzled. 'Why would there be a bone?'

  And there was no Yaga. No sign of her anywhere. It must have been just a nightmare.

  The dog lay down on the mat, yawned, closed his eyes and instantly fell asleep. Immediately after that, his body shuddered, and his eyes snapped open again. Only this time, they glowed green, and a light angry growl was coming from the dog's mouth. Completely under Yaga's influence, the dog began to wait for an old friend who wanted to play with him. There was no one in the yard, and his eyes closed again. To an outsider, it could seem that the dog was sleeping deeply, but it wasn't like that at all. His ears were quivering faintly, picking up on the slightest noise, and he was ready to jump up at any moment to complete the task given to him.

  ***

  The fox clung fiercely to the branch and shook it with all her strength, spilling out the anger that had accumulated in her over the day.

  'This isn't life, this is a curse! I couldn't even catch chickens! How terribly shameful! I'm a red embarrassment, nothing else!' she thought. 'Man up, you weakling, we can't leave food to chance! It won't eat itself! I have to take revenge! I have to punish someone! To bite the dog's tail off. To eat it! To eat the dog!'

  At this very moment, a harmless bush began dreaming of becoming a cactus or a rose to take revenge on the fox. But there was no cure against genetics — except for genetic engineering, of course, but that was still hundreds of years away from being invented! This fact hurt the bush to the roots.

  The abuse of the bush ended unexpectedly. Yaga dashed by at lighting speed, blowing the fox far away. The frightened fox barely managed to suppress the tremors running through her paws. What the hell had just whistled past her?

  "Why is everyone running around?" she growled, shaking. "As if they're in a hurry... And where was she going to anyway?"

  The fox considered it, trying to stop her paws from trembling so much. She did so quickly, but her long tail continued to shake like a leaf. />
  And then it dawned on her, as if lightning struck!

  "Yaga is flying to the village to steal chickens! There’s no other reason for it! What is going on in this world?! I have to go there right now before all the birds get stolen by someone else!"

  Forgetting everything, the fox ran towards the chicken coop.

  ***

  The people who lived in the house opposite of it were asleep. The fox understood this simply by observing that all the lights were off in the windows. But she still didn't understand why people always settled near the chicken coop. Apparently, this was fate: wherever the delicious birds went to live, people inevitably followed and constructed almost unapproachable fences around them. Or maybe people were the servants of the chickens. And at night, as they were sleeping, the dogs stood guard. There was no way in as the chickens were under 24-hour protection. Only a sneak attack would do.

  The fence was nothing, since it was built for the protection from the cattle. Any little thing could easily slip through it, akin to how the water slipped through a sieve. The dog, as usual, would be snoring in his house, but he could wake up from the cries of the rooster. So, she needed to sneak with minimal noise to keep from disturbing him.

  The fox grimaced from yesterday's memories. The tail wasn't hurting any longer, but the wounded self-esteem demanded bloodthirsty revenge. If she was lucky, the fox thought, she could put the remnants of the eaten chicken in front of the dog's house, so that in the morning, the creature would be in some serious trouble. She'd eat to that! Or rather, she'd drink to that. To revenge. To food, mostly, but to revenge as well. So long as the rooster didn't wake up. Otherwise, the bloodthirsty revenge would turn into a particularly sophisticated suicide, and next time, the fox would be able to get into the chicken coop painlessly only in three or four months. During that time, the fox's weight would drop to a full zero, and she would quietly withdraw from this miserable life. She couldn't let that happen. No way.

  The fox jumped over the hedge and crawled across the carrot bed. Then she ducked behind a tree and cast a quick glance at the dog's house. The dog was sleeping recklessly, almost snoring with bliss. Maybe he didn't guard anyone at all, but simply lived in the neighborhood?

  With utmost care, the fox crept towards the henhouse. Yesterday's tunnel was still there when she approached it. Not surprising. Who would have time to fill it if only young human children, Alena and Ivan, were living there? It was impossible to say.

  ***

  The dog's abilities, which were enhanced by Yaga, helped him, so even with his eyes closed, he knew what was happening. The peasants went to bed. Happy crickets were chattering loudly. Alena was trying to make her brother drink some useless stuff she was given by a local healer. The goat, having learned the lesson from his bitter experience, refused to drink any water at all. At least until his sister drank it first. The struggle had made them both tired, so now they were sleeping peacefully. Far, far away, strange things were happening at the old mill, and strange creatures were calling the insomniac miller for conversation. These creatures were very similar to humans, and they were emanating the sense of true death. If not for Yaga's order, the dog wouldn't pretend to be sleeping, he would rush to the miller to help him. The miller always treated him to something tasty when he ran by, and the dog didn't want to lose such a good friend.

  "Your playful beast-friend is about to come!" Yaga's command rang in his head, and the dog obediently tucked his tail between his legs.

  The restless frogs were croaking in the distant swamps. The nervous rooster was walking around the chicken coop, probably fighting an imaginary fox, looking for a way to peck her so painfully that she would leave this place forever.

  Someone's eyes flashed behind the fence for a moment, and the dog became alert. The fact that this was a beast was immediately apparent. The old, red, familiar beast. All the dog had to do now was to figure out if she wanted to play and then send her to Yaga. And the sooner, the better, because the dog really didn't like whatever was happening at the old mill.

  The fox examined the yard carefully. After making sure that there were no strangers and that the locals were deep in their dreams, the fox quietly walked past the dog's house to the chicken coop. The dog opened his eyes slightly, slowly watching how the events developed.

  'She's playing hide and seek!' he guessed. ‘That means she’s the right beast!'

  It was a strange time for games... Although hiding could be done more effectively exactly at night.

  ***

  After looking around, the fox slipped into the tunnel. Everything had to be done very quickly. She had to catch the chicken while the rooster and the dog were sleeping and then quickly retreat. The fox jumped in front of the ruffled chickens and was about to bite the closest one with her teeth when she suddenly saw the menacingly raised comb of the huge rooster right in front of her. She froze in shock.

  "Cock-a—" the cock had no time to finish the battle with an imaginary fox as the real one turned up right in front of him. As soon as he moved, the hen flew in one direction and the fox went in another one. Cock voiced his fury loudly, at the full power of his lungs.

  "Damn you," the fox muttered. "I'm left without food once again!"

  She jumped into the street and saw a dog slumbering just an inch away.

  "I think this has happened to me before. When did he get out of his house?" the fox asked herself, and suddenly, the dog's eyes opened. "Ouch! No, this definitely hasn't happened!"

  The dog's fur stood on end. Shining green eyes without pupils stared at her with wild hatred. It seemed if the fox moved even the tip of her tail, the worries about her food would become a thing of the past along with her life.

  "Calm down, fangy, I got the wrong address!" the fox said.

  The dog growled. The angry rooster jumped in pursuit but froze at the sight of the dog. The battle cry sticking in his throat, changing into a pathetic chicken squawk. The rooster slipped back into the coop, leaving the dog to decide what to do in this situation. He didn't fall asleep until the morning, trembling in fear. It was the first time he didn't let out a sound when the sun rose.

  The dog stepped forward and the fox broke into a run. Yesterday's exhausting jaunt seemed easy to her now, like an unhurried walk in the moonlight. The dog didn't lag behind, and his growl was like an invitation to visit Death. Something like, "Come! We have enough space for one more soul."

  'What kind of monster was pretending to be a mongrel? Where did it come from? What does it want?' the fox wondered feverishly. 'I'm too young to die! I haven't even eaten anything! Why me?'

  "HELP!" the fox screamed, but a terrible laugh was her only response. It sounded like a howl of a whole chorus of savage wolves rather than something coming from a single dog. Those who woke up from the cry for help preferred to fall back asleep as soon as they heard the chilling howl of the pursuer.

  The fox raced through the fallen trees, not seeing the road, while the dog howled a little behind. They flew into the forest together, covering a dozen of miles in their haste, plowing through the thorny bushes, jumping over the woodpile near the royal hunting lodge, running on its roof... With a distant sense of surprise, the fox noted that she could climb the walls no worse than a cockroach, but worst of all, the dog was not far behind still! In a panic, the fox almost ran into a chimney and rolled down it.

  Barely recalling her name from fear, the fox rushed towards the first tree she saw. She already had some experience with it, and so she instantly soared to its top. The trunk tilted under her weight and then sprung, hurling her forward. The dog was seated lower and barely had time to cling to a branch as the tree swayed from side to side. Without a moment's hesitation, the dog unhooked himself from the branch, grabbed the top of a nearby tree, and flew forward as well. The resulting acceleration was enough to ensure that the dog was thrown with the same force that the fox had just experienced.

  The landing was swift. The fox was flying like a proud red bird, so very high
in the sky, but suddenly, the lovely picture was replaced with a rapidly approaching earth. Flying turned out to be interesting, and it was especially interesting to fly with the help of her own tail. Falling, on the other hand…

  The dog was lagging behind now. The fox felt it based on his departing howl. She refused to turn her head to look at the creature and check his location. She was too scared to see THAT kind of dog, particularly as he was still flying. Watching nightmares for a whole year would feel better than that.

  Plopping into the water in the middle of a large river, the fox began to quickly work her paws, running as if she was doing it across the ground. A loud splash behind told her that the dog hadn't managed to repeat her success.

  The fox had time for a short break, but she felt that if she stopped, she wouldn't be able to move again. So, she continued on without slowing down.

  The wolf pack through which the fox had unceremoniously slipped by was left behind with a feeling of great bewilderment. It was replaced by fear and fury, though, when a small wet mongrel with green lights instead of eyes brazenly jumped on their backs and dared to bark at them, spitting obscenities.

  The elderly leader shook his head incredulously, apparently deciding that he'd gone a bit crazy in his senior years. However, similar behavior in half of the wolves in his pack showed that his health was perfectly fine. And if he did experience temporary glitches, it wasn't happening here and now.

  "Follow that little mongrel!" the leader growled fiercely, launching in pursuit. The pack howled in excitement. There was only one way in which the dog could pay for his insults, and that was by offering his soul to God. And the wolves intended to provide fervent support and assistance in this difficult task.