Fairy Tale Fuss. Sergey Pyatenok
franks and smoked sausage. But before I managed to eat a half of the frank, the horrid old man came. He yelled at me and closed in this tower warning that he would turn me into a neckpiece if I tried to escape from this room."
"Didn't you try it?" Masha wondered.
"I'm not ill-minded, and my mind tells me that it's silly and no use," the cat, who obviously valued his skin, told and added, "Besides, he's taken away my boots."
"Here you're wrong!" the girl disagreed. "I will not just sit here. At least, you were punished for a reason, while I'm sitting here for nothing. Besides, nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Masha walked around the room looking for anything, which could help her escape. She looked into the nightstand in the corner of the room, but it was empty. Then Masha examined the table with a pile of books of various width and color, which were of no interest for the girl, who could not read.
Soon the girl understood that there was nothing useful in the place of her imprisonment.
"Will you run with me?" she asked the cat almost with no hope.
"No! I'll be waiting for you here. I think you will return very soon," she heard quite an expected reply.
"All right then, I'll go alone," Masha approached the door and quietly pulled the handle. The door did not open.
"In vain you think they left the door open. I tried, it doesn't open."
"You had a bad try," Masha rebelled and said, "Open Sesame!"
The door went forward with squeaks. To show that she was right, Masha gave a hum to the grey cat, who could not believe his eyes and looked at the disappearing girl in surprise.
Behind the door there was a steep and well-lit stairway. The girl listened if there was anybody below, then went down on the tips of her toes.
At the first floor, Masha saw an empty corridor, which was like all other rooms she had already been in tastelessly decorated with stuffed animals.
She headed that way. Masha did not suspect at all, what the consequences her walk around the castle could have.
Suddenly, she heard shambling steps somewhere afar. That was Koschei, who was returning to his bedroom deep in his thoughts. Masha quickly whisked into the first available door, where, in fact, the wizard's bedroom was. The steps approached and became more and more distinct. Masha could only hide in the wardrobe filled with different clothes. A minute later Koschei entered the same door.
He walked across the room, closed the open vent window, from which whoops of wise eagle owls were heard, and closed the window blinds. Then the old man came to the table with drinks, poured something and took a sip.
He stood at the bed and talked to himself:
"When will this all be over?! I'm so tired of different troubles. But OK, another couple of days and I'll be in another world. There I'll have another life. I'll show them all what real fear is…
Masha watched Koschei in an uncomfortable position through a small hole between the doors. She was so uncomfortable among that large number of clothes left by the old man in a mess that she had to stand almost on one foot. But when that foot went dead so that became a tingle, Masha decided to change the position.
The girl slowly moved the dead foot taking a step back and felt that she stepped in a metal bucket with some liquid. Masha tried to get free at once, but when she lifted her foot, she lost balance.
She began to flounder in the unstable wardrobe trying to grip hand of anything, but all clothes on the hangers easily slipped of their places as soon as the girl touched them.
Koschei stared with fear at the wardrobe, which wiggled wildly and from which strange jingles and clanks were heard.
After all, Masha managed to grip hand of a bathrobe, not for a long time though, as in a moment it slipped off the hanger and fell on the girl covering her up to the hilt. A shelf where Koschei kept homeware also fell on the girl together with the bathrobe. After the shelf, the homeware, which had been collecting dust for years, also dropped down.
Altogether, different jars, flasks, rags, papers, blotters dropped on Masha's head. One jar, and the girl clearly felt it with her head, broke spilling a stinking liquid on the bathrobe.
Unable to stand the nasty smell, and generally to stand on one foot, Masha all wrapped in old rags fell out of the wardrobe right on the old man, who came by. She fell on the floor knocking Koschei off his feet. When he saw a falling monster glowing in the dark, with a metal bucket on the foot, who swung arms-sleeves, he choked and passed out.
When Masha got out of the bathrobe, she saw Koschei lying on the floor with an empty shot glass in his hand. It turned out that the nasty smelling liquid, which spilt on the bathrode, was nothing but a glowing paint, with which Koschei some time ago wanted to paint the walls of his castle.
Masha ran out of the bedroom wasting no time and, hopping to slip off the tightly stuck bucket rushed away from Koschei.
When she reached the end of the corridor, which led further somewhere on the right, she met Gorynych turned into a chicken. Being half asleep, when he saw Masha all in glowing stains and with a buzzing bucket, he took her for a ghost and laid several eggs.
The girl rushed past the frightened chicken without paying any attention to it and kept running. Soon she reached the entrance door, which was closed…
Masha tried to open the door, even with a magic word, but the door did not open. She kicked the door with the foot stuck in the bucket and sat beside. In reply the door told:
"Who is kicking here?"
"Me!" Masha said finally free of the bucket.
"Do you want to exit? Give the password."
"What password?"
"Here is a riddle, the right answer will be the password. It grows everything, it sees everybody and everything, it comes from afar, how is it called?"
"Maybe rain?" the girl nearly whispered in reply dubiously.
"Wrong!" the door told and spit out green powder on Masha.
She felt slack in all her body again, sprawled on the floor and fell asleep.
Here Comes the Three-Headed
So, what happened to Vanya, while Masha was asleep?
When Vanya opened his eyes, he saw large and small villages, green woods and even two snaky rivers far down. Vanya was flying in the sky. He constantly heard some kind of rustle, but the boy was much more excited with the feeling of flying.
"What an interesting dream it is," the boy thought. "I can fly wherever I want or I can just float through the clouds. Surely, this dream is much better than the last one – no odious old man, no fleeing away from a bear, no accidents and fear."
Vanya measured the altitude by sight. For reasons known only to him, the boy thought that it was at least five hundred meters to ground, and if he fell down, he would, probably, be just a smashed stain. Ivan grew a little wary of this thought, but he quickly remembered that it was just a dream and he had nothing to be afraid of.
Suddenly, Vanya felt a sharp push into one direction, then into another. "What's that?" the boy wondered and looked up. Now, the dream was looking so differently that Vanya's heart started beating rapidly just like a small kitten's one and seemed to leap out of his chest.
The boy understood that he was neither flying in the sky, nor even sleeping. Being grabbed with strong claws by his backpack, he was carried somewhere by a huge green Zmey Gorynych. Two of his heads were looking ahead, while the third one was looking after the new hostage.
"So, the accident, the bear, the pit, the tunnel and Koschei all were true, and the wizard really wanted to feed me to Zmey Gorynych," Vanya thought with sinking heart.
Having seen that the boy woke up, the third head greedily licked its lips and made a heartrending roar. The two other heads stared at Ivan at once. The baleful stare of the flying lizard made the boy he was not going to a party with tea and buns.
"What