Дмитрий Мансуров - Invasion

The captain, already wearing a helmet, angrily snapped at the vampire, “You freak!”

Then he turned off the mega-scanner and rushed to rectify the situation. The Moon was right ahead, and if he failed to straighten the ship, it would drive into the Moon in a way that no repair would help to recover from.

The vampire saw how the ghost faded and then vanished entirely.

“Got scared!” he grinned maliciously before running to the broken window. It was a great chance to get into the castle and remain unnoticed by the owner.

The teeth, whose rows had thinned considerably, became the winners, so they chewed the twitching remains of sawdust happily and flew home.

The vampire grabbed the ledges in the wall and began to climb to the broken window. Looking at the flying teeth, he thought with pleasure that something had clearly changed in these places over the last thousands of years. No teeth had existed here before. No, there had only been some persons who had managed to defeat him. And here he was, and here they were not! Ha! This was what living forever meant. His enemies were long in a coffin, and he lived and rejoiced! And not alone but with his great army.

Where were they raging now?

The vampire reached the window and looked down. Forty meters. The height was not for the faint of heart! The window led to a corridor with many doors. Hiding here was ridiculously easy. And then he would wait for the right moment and grab the owner by the throat. And he’d be sure to drink all of his blood, till the last drop, so he wouldn’t become a vampire, too. He didn’t need any competition. This bastard would turn the entire planet upside down in an instance with his stupid tricks.

“I’m the victor!” the vampire shouted and began to tear pieces from the window. “Hold on tight, you big worthless enemy! Your last hour in this world has begun!”

He had to hurry, though. The sun was high, and if the clouds dissipated…

The wings rustled softly. Huge teeth dangled right behind him. The vampire froze and turned.

Slurp.

And silence came…

The captain managed to slow down at a decent distance from the Moon, but there, he hesitated, not knowing where to go. To return to his home planet? Or to continue monitoring people? With their belligerence, they would be able to hold on. But for how long?

They were clearly in need of the interplanetary star army.

The cunning face dived into the foliage and disappeared. The fox, who was running after her, attacked the bush but found no one. Her mood was terrible. The faces had been continuously following her for the last several hours, and with a sly look, they fled whenever the fox tried to catch them.

“Stop making fun of me!” she yelled. “Why don’t you go to hell? I don’t know where it’s located but all the same. The farther into the wilds, the stranger everything becomes! I’m going home, and you do whatever you want! I’m not going to be scared of any crows. Ha! Let her fear instead!”

Someone knocked on the gates demandingly.

Kashchey and Maria were sitting at the table, having dinner. Kashchey had kept his promise and repaired the cooking machine. The quality of food had improved significantly, surprising even the princess who was accustomed to luxurious delights.

Now they were resting. The number of the studied rooms exceeded twenty, and there was still a ton of work ahead. Tens of floors and hundreds ( “Hundreds!” Kashchey thought with horror. “ Good thing I’m immortal!” ) of rooms.

The crow was sitting next to them, leisurely absorbing her favorite meat cutlets. At Maria’s request, Kashchey left the bird in the castle. The first days, the crow was overcome by a cheerful, sometimes hysterical laughter at the memories of the fox and the cheese. Gradually, her laughter ended, and she calmed down. Occasionally, the crow looked at Kashchey, still unable to believe that he wasn’t some nightmarish fiend from the abyss of madness. He was actually quite a normal person. Kashchey decided to use the crow as a scout. He understood bird language now perfectly thanks to his translator. But he didn’t give her any jobs for now, choosing to give her full freedom of actions. He was awfully curious to watch her.

“The vampire again?” Kashchey was stunned. “What a pushy personality!”

Someone screamed outside the gates,

“Kashchey! Come out and fight to death!”

Kashchey looked at Maria in amusement.

“These ones came for you! What shall we do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want to stay in the castle and explore it or do you want to go home and forget about the kidnapping like it was some nightmare?”

“Of course I want to go back! But I want to explore the castle, too.”

Kashchey grinned.

“And how do you imagine that can happen?”

Maria thought about it.

“Kidnap me every day from eight in the morning to four in the evening,” she suggested. “Not counting the weekend.”

“And what will your current and future relatives say to that?” Kashchey asked. “I don’t think they’ll believe you’re coming here purely for research.”

Kashchey raised his hands and formed the horns with them.

“M-m-mu-u-u-u!” he drawled.

Maria wavered. Kashchey was right. But this place was so interesting, so mysterious… How could she just leave that?

“You’re such a villain, Kashchey!” she said grimly.

“That I am,” Kashchey assented. “And as a true villain, I can’t grant all your wishes. Only one. To let you go home. Take this!”

Kashchey pulled the plate with the buttons out of his pocket and handed it to Maria. The buttons were five centimeters long and six millimeters wide. Maria treated the gift in a businesslike way. She didn’t admire it, demanding technical information at first.

“What does it do?”

“With this summoner, you can call me any time. For tea and cake, for example, or for the splitting of taxes. Who knows what will happen?”

“And what else?”

“You can use it if something happens and you can’t handle it on your own. The first button turns the automatic distress signal on and off. The second one switches communication devices on and off, and the third one turns my hologram on. That’s for your enemies.”

“And what exactly happens if I turn it on?”

“It’s like a painting, but it shows me for who I really am.”

Maria shook her head in surprise.

“I don’t remember such a device.”

“I can do something by myself as well, you know! Not to mention that my poor head is filled with so much knowledge that I simply don’t understand where I am going to apply it all. But that’s just lyrics. The action plan is as follows. I tie you up and leave you at the front door, go out to participate in this unequal battle and lose. The princes enter the castle, free you, and you all come home together!”

“Wait, there are four buttons here!” the princess interrupted him.

“Yeah?” Kashchey asked, surprised. “That’s right. Well, I think we’ll use the fourth button for… M-m-m… for example, to say hello to me! Press the button and my sensor will reflect, ‘Hi, Kashchey!’”

“But you’re immortal!” Maria interrupted him again. “How can you lose?”

“I’m not exactly immortal. I mean, I’m immortal, but you can kill me. And then I will be resurrected again, after the unwanted witnesses of my resurrection have left this place. But no word about it to anyone. Let people think that I’m an ordinary long-liver with delusions of grandeur.”

“People have never even heard such words!”