Halankuo was prevented from falling asleep by the sounds of heavy footsteps. The girl opened her eyes and saw in front of her a doll with red hair. Her black shiny eyes looked out the window and did not blink.
"I'm Ikte," the doll introduced herself. "Don't be afraid of me, I'm not human. I am a battle doll. It was I who found you at the station and brought you here, and now I brought you food."
"So this is what battle dolls look like," Halankuo thought. "She reminds me of someone. But I haven't seen fighting dolls before. Why does her appearance seem familiar to me?"
Ikte ran her finger through the air and summoned a tray of food, which moved to the table next to the bed. Halankuo looked at the piece of meat in the package, the pine cone with seeds, and the bottle with green liquid and realized that she was too weak to eat.
"Thank you," Halankuo said. "But I can't eat."
The doll's attention was drawn to the wrench that was lying on the bed next to Halankuo.
"Can you move objects with this wrench?" Ikte asked.
"A little," Halankuo answered. "But now I can't do it at all, because I don't have the strength."
"How does she know what this wrench is used for?" Halankuo thought. "This doll scares me."
"Where did you get this wrench?" Ikte asked.
"From my parents," Halankuo answered. "What's wrong with that?"
"My little brother has the same wrench, only bigger. He can move objects with it. This is our similar ability. But I don't need the wrench. I can move things with my gaze. This is more effective, but puts a lot of strain on the eyes."
The pupils of Ikte's eyes began to emit a purple glow. The wrench rose from the bed and hung in the air.
"I thought only I could move objects," Halankuo thought. "And this doll can do it even without a key."
"Is that girl with metal horns a character that was transferred from the program to the real world?" the doll asked.
"How did she know?" Halankuo was scared. "I only told Tuot about this. Did he really tell someone or write something online?"
"You can see from it that this is not a person, but not a doll either," Ikte said. "She has strange clothes. It looks like a costume for some event."
"How do you know so much about the transferred characters?" Halankuo asked.
"I once created a character in a special program, and then transferred him to the real world. This character had the features of a wild animal and a human. It seemed interesting to me then. In our world, one creature cannot combine the characteristics of different animals. I wanted to create a creature that would have characteristics of a human and a wild animal.
"What was the name of this program?"
"I don't remember anymore. I used my brother's account to create the character. Now I have neither an account nor a character, but, unfortunately, I have a little brother."
Halankuo looked at the doll's face and realized who it resembled. The girl's heartbeat quickened.
"I hope it's just a coincidence," Halankuo thought. "Mom couldn't become a doll."
***
Tuot, Etinnei and Itinit sat at a small low table in the kitchen and ate meat in dough.
"Why did you really come to me?" Tuot addressed his friend.
"Can't I come just like that?" Etinnei asked. "I've never seen you. In the game there was a game character instead of you."
"Somehow I can't believe it," Tuot doubted. "You did too much to find me."
"Uh..." Etinnei scratched her hand behind the arctic fox's ear. "There is one reason. I began to hear voices in my head. At first I thought I was just playing too long. I haven't played for several months, but the voices haven't disappeared. I realized that this was unlikely to be related to the game. Then I began to see a penguin with a horn on its head. I saw this creature everywhere I was. I closed my eyes, but it didn't help. I continued to see him. And then it started talking to me."
"Don't you see him now?" Itinit asked.
"I don't see," Etinnei answered. "The last time I saw him was about a month ago. I want you to help me. I read online that there is a way to extract the creature from the brain. But I don't know who to turn to."
"Are you a character transferred to this world from the program?" Itinit asked.
"Yup," Etinnei answered. "How do you know?"
"It's obvious," Itinit laughed.
Etinnei put the hood on her head so that the arctic fox's ears began to peek out of the holes.
"I thought I looked like a human," the animal girl said. "Don't these ears look like part of a costume?"
"They look like it," Itinit answered. "But only for those who don't know about animal girls."
"Don't worry," Tuot said. "You have cute ears. They are small and fluffy."
Etinnei looked at her friend. For a few moments, the Arctic fox girl tried to understand what the dinosaur said, but then suddenly she understood. The next moment, the girl with a smile on her face fell on the dinosaur, knocked it to the floor and began to lick its face with her tongue.
"Stop doing that!" Tuot shouted. "Don't eat me! I'm inedible!"
Etinnei stopped licking Tuot, and then got off him. The smile disappeared from her face and tears appeared in her eyes.
"Sorry," Etinnei said. "I didn't want to do anything bad to you."
"Nothing," Tuot said. "I was afraid that you might eat me."
"Can I continue to tell you?" Itinit asked.
Tuot and Etinnei agreed.
"It's really possible to extract a creature from your brain," Itinit said. "There is a small, almost uninhabited island off the coast of the continent. One of my friends lives there. He can extract creatures from the brain."
Etinnei smiled, clasped her hands together and closed one eye.
"I can't go there alone," the girl said in a childish voice. "Can you come with me?"
"You came here on your own," Tuot noted. "Why can't you go there?"
"Going to a familiar creature is not scary, but going to a stranger is scary," the eared girl explained.
"You will really need an escort," Itinit said. "If you go to my friend alone, he might do something bad to you. It will be more reliable with us. And getting to this island is not easy. There are no trains going there because there are no towns or villages there. You'll have to travel by ship, and you still need to get it somewhere."
"Do you seriously want to go with her?" Tuot asked. "Are you kidding?"
"It's true," Itinit answered. "I'll go with her. This is serious. If the creature is not removed from her brain, she will go crazy. We don't know how much time we have. That's why we leave tomorrow."
"Itinit wants to go with Etinnei?" Tuot was scared. "What should I do?" I'm scared to travel so far, but I still want to look at these ears and tail."
At this moment the dinosaur became uncomfortable. He didn't want to ask his friends to take him with them.
"I... I... can I come with you?" Tuot asked.
"Of course," Etinnei answered. "I've long wanted to go somewhere with you in the real world. Earlier in the game, we traveled through game locations. And the real world is much larger and more interesting than the game world."
"You've known her for a long time, so you'll keep an eye on her," Itinit said.
Evening came. Itinit went home, and Tuot found himself alone with Etinnei in his room.
"You have your characters from the games on your walls," Etinnei noted.
Tuot was terrified. He let his girlfriend into his room, although he was very afraid of this. The dinosaur could not understand how this happened, because just recently they were sitting in the kitchen.
"It's because of my bad memory," Tuot thought. "I accidentally entered my room and forgot about it. Now Etinnei will know about my preferences and will tell someone in the game."
"I thought you had such characters hanging on your walls," Etinnei said.
"Why did you think that?" the dinosaur asked.
"You play animal girls. It means you like them. I play characters like this too."
Tuot's fear instantly disappeared. The dinosaur was no longer afraid that his hobby would be judged by his playmate.
"Go to your account," Etinnei suggested. "I want to see your girls with ears and tails."
Tuot sat down on the bed. Etinnei followed him.
"You've seen my characters," Tuot answered.
"Not everyone. There are others there that you didn't show me."
Tuot summoned the virtual screen and touched the game icon with his finger. A loading bar with the game logo appeared on the screen, which quickly filled up. It then changed to a character selection screen. In the cells, which looked like vertical coffins, there were five animal girls.
The first character had long black hair, dog ears and a tail. The girl was wearing a sleeveless gray armor dress that reached mid-thigh and black boots that reached her knees. The animal girl held a frying pan in her hand.
The second character looked like a girl with a horn on her forehead and cat ears on the top of her head. Her red hair was braided into two ponytails that reached down to her knees. In each hand the girl held a long fork. The only clothing the character wore was a yellow fur bib and yellow fur shorts.
The third character was a lizard girl with three straight horns on her head, wearing armor with blue scales, and holding a black wire in her hand.
The fourth character was a fox girl with long yellow hair that covered her chest and crotch. The only clothes she wore were stockings, and her weapon was a large spoon.
The fifth character was a black silhouette with the horns of a cow on his head and the tail of a snake. It was clear that it had not yet been completely created.
"Who should I choose?" Tuot asked.
"They're all cute," Etinnei frowned. "Of course, not as much as me, but for a character in the game it will do."
Tuot looked at his friend and remembered the dreams in which there was an arctic fox girl who looked like her.
"I... have to tell you something," the dinosaur said with difficulty.
"That my ears and tail are cute?" Etinnei smiled and closed one eye.
"No."
"Why not cute? I'm not a human..."
"I am not talking about that."
Tuot looked at his friend. She was similar to the arctic fox girl he had dreamed of, but with some differences. Etinnei's hair was black, and peeked out from under her gray-purple hood, although the hood had cutouts for ears. The hood was attached to a fur top of the same color. On the hips are gray-violet fur shorts.
"I dreamed of an arctic fox girl who looked like you," Tuot said. "But she was wearing a winter jacket."
"Like this?" Etinnei asked.
A white-blue ball appeared in the arctic fox girl's hand, from which icy vapors emanated. Etinnei's body turned into a white glowing silhouette, which then disappeared. In front of Tuot was an arctic fox girl with white and yellow hair that peeked out from under her hood, wearing a white-blue jacket and blue fur shorts.
"That's her!" Tuot shouted. "Where did Etinnei go?"
"It's me," Etinnei explained. "I change my appearance when the weather changes or when I use ice skills."
The ball in the Arctic fox girl's hand disappeared. Etinnei returned to her previous state.
"You really look like that arctic fox girl from the dream," Tuot said. "But I'm not sure about that, even after I saw you in those very clothes. Maybe I forgot something and got it wrong? I have a bad memory."
"I've never been to a train station," Etinnei said. "The first thing I remember is that I woke up in a wooden coffin that was floating along the river. There were forests all around with trees with very large leaves, not like the ones that grow here. Then my coffin was washed ashore by the current. I left it and tried for a long time to understand where I was."
"Where is this place located?"
"Now I know that this place was on the Southern Continent. In the area where I found myself, there was not a single civilized creature, only wild animals. I hunted them with the help of the skills that gradually appeared in me. It was warm in that area, so I didn't need to have a house. When it rained, I hid in my coffin and slept there. Then my coffin rotted. It turned out that the tree was rotting from water. I went to the mountains and took refuge in caves there. I don't know how much time has passed, probably a lot. I didn't feel time, and I didn't even know what it was. After all, I haven't changed at all. Then I swiped my finger through the air and discovered the interface. I was able to go online, where I watched videos, pictures, and read texts. For some reason I knew how to read, although I had never studied it. Then I started playing games online. There I met civilized beings."
"Have you communicated with wild animals?"
"It is impossible to speak the same language with them. They don't know how to speak with words. I played with them, cuddled them and fed them. And they fed me."
"What did you feed?"
"Meat and fruit. I don't eat grass. And I eat the rest. For me, even inedible objects are edible."
Etinnei took the pillow that was lying on the bed and smelled it.
"Don't eat this!" Tuot shouted.
"I wasn't going to eat it," the girl answered. "I'm not hungry. I smelled it to understand what it was made of. But I didn't understand. Why do you need this item?"
"People put it under their head and sleep on it."
Etinnei laid down on the bed and put a pillow under her cheek.
"This item is so soft and pleasant to the touch," Etinnei closed her eyes and smiled. "My cheeks like to lie on it. What's its name?"
"Pillow," Tuot answered. "Have you ever seen a pillow?"
"I did not see. In fact, I haven't seen most of the items in this room. But I can guess what they are for."
"Why is that wooden object needed?" Tuot pointed to the closet.
"Looks like the coffin I slept in. It is needed to hide."
"There are clothes stored there that don't fit in the inventory," Tuot smiled. "What is that item at the entrance for?"
The dinosaur pointed to the door. Etinnei sat down on the bed and looked where Tuot was pointing.
"This is an obstacle," Etinnei answered. "It's meant to keep other creatures out of the room. I'm stuck in it."
Tuot opened his mouth and began to shake his head. The dinosaur found it funny. He accidentally poked his claw at a character with black hair and dog ears and started the process of loading the location.
***
A long boat floated slowly along a wide river with high rocky banks covered with mixed forests. In the boat were a man with a carrot nose and a dinosaur with gray feathers and a long tail.
"I can't even believe that I'm free," Kuttanai said.
"I didn't want to free you," the dinosaur said. "But I felt a signal, and it made me do it."
"You did the right thing, Ustumut. I thought that I would never be free. My home was locked down with passwords that were too complex. But you were able to somehow pick them up."
"I have a password database. With its help, passwords are easily selected."
"These passwords acted strangely. They didn't let me leave the house. Other creatures could leave him, but I could not."
"It's because the passwords blocked you."
"Who could have done this?"
"Previously, only a few creatures in the world were capable of this. I don't know how it is now. I slept in some hole for a very long time and woke up from your signal."
The flow of the river accelerated. The rapids were approaching. The dinosaur used the interface to make the boat land on the shore. Kuttanai and his companion got out of the boat and climbed up the rocky slope.
From the slope of the valley there was a view of a wide river with dark blue water, high cliffs and endless mixed forests on the opposite side of the reservoir.
"I remember this place," Kuttanai said. "I stood here and thought about how to help the people close to me. I didn't want to lose them. My little sister was ill. She was suffering and I couldn't come to terms with it. Then I heard a voice. He told me how to make a doll out of a living being. At first I didn't want to do this. But I could not calmly watch the torment of my little sister. I cut her head open and changed her neurons. So she became a doll, stopped getting sick, was able to fly and even heal other creatures. But sometimes I feel like I did something wrong. Previously, she could rejoice, moan in pain, cry, but now she feels nothing. I made her non-living..."