Kyotyoryon opened her eyes from the bright white light.
"Don't shine, you're bad," was the first thing that came out of the mouth of the spirit of metal.
The light disappeared. Kyotyoryon saw a head above her with blue hair reaching to the lower edges of her cheekbones. Her eyes and mouth were closed.
"I saw you on the shore," Kyotyoryon said. "You're not a real head. I'll cut you."
The spirit of metal tried to move her hands to activate the blades made from metal bracelets, but her hands did not obey her. Then Kyotyoryon raised her head a little and saw that she no longer had arms and legs. They lay side by side, separate from the body, on a gray stone surface, nearby stood the doll that Kyotyoryon met on the seashore.
"Why are my arms and legs not with me?" Kyotyoryon thought. "Did they leave me?"
One of the legs moved and then began to move towards its former owner. But she couldn't return. Kyotyoryon was struck by a current discharge, and the spirit of metal was forced to abandon the idea of returning her limbs.
"I took you apart," the doll said. "I want to know who you are and what you are made of."
"Why do you need to know what I'm made of?" Kyotyoryon asked.
"I do different things," Sitihi pointed to the head above the character.
"Your head is bad. Pick me up and let me go!"
"I can't. I don't often come across creatures like you."
"I am the spirit of metal. I'm made from my metal."
This explains why you have so much metal in your body. It consists of metal, filler and covered with human skin. Such creatures do not live in our world. It means someone created you."
The doll thought. Instead of asking the character, she tried to figure it out on her own.
"I don't want to talk about my creator," Kyotyoryon thought. "If she asks me, I can stab her so as not to answer. But now I can't do it."
Luckily for the metal spirit, the doll didn't ask her a question. Instead, she aimed a small wrench at Kyotyoryon's head. The character's neck began to rotate along with his head.
"What are you doing?" Kyotyoryon asked.
"I unscrew my head," Sitihi explained. "I need to take it apart and see what's inside."
Kyotyoryon's torso was engulfed in a white glow, but soon disappeared. The character tried to take on a combat form, but when disassembled it did not activate...
... The spirit of metal felt a crunch somewhere below, and then saw its torso, which was lying on a stone platform.
***
Halankuo stood on the balcony of her old house. From here there was a view of the river valley with steep forested slopes that turned into low flat mountains.
But the girl was not interested in the view from the window. She looked at the virtual screen with "Mausoleum of Nature". On the map that showed the character's location, the red dot was located on the southern coast of the Northern Continent.
Halankuo moved a section of the map closer with her fingers, and it became more detailed. The railway ran close to the coast and ended in the forest near the bay. This is where the red dot was located. There were no settlements or any signs of civilization around, except for the railway, only green forests, mountains and rivers.
"Kyotyoryon is now near South Rail Bay," Halankuo thought. "There used to be a port there. It has long been abandoned because civilized beings have never managed to colonize the Southern Continent, which is on the other side of the sea. I hope she's okay."
***
Unana woke up in her room. A thin blanket with the image of bear cubs covered the girl's entire body, except for the upper half of her chest and head. The first thing the archer noticed was her older brother, who was sitting on the edge of the bed and looking at something on the virtual screen.
"Yueret, you're alive," Unana noted. "I thought that girl with the wrench ate you."
The brother closed the screen with a movement of his hand, and then looked at his sister.
"I see you're fine if you say that," Yueret said. "But now you better think about yourself. When I came home, I found you on the ground near the house. Did you accidentally fall out of the window?"
Unana had to talk about what happened to her and Kimchan. Of course, she hid the fact that she was trying to kill the unfortunate pet.
"Maybe you dreamed about it?" Yueret asked. "Kimchan is an ordinary puppy, and animal girls do not exist. In the real world, unlike in games, there cannot be creatures with traits of different types of animals. Maybe you were playing a game where there was a dog girl, and then you fell asleep and dreamed about it?"
Unana breathed. She realized that convincing her brother would be very difficult.
There was barking. A brown puppy that looked like a bear cub came running into the room and pulled the blanket off Unana. The girl remained naked, but did not react to this.
But Unana reacted to the puppy itself. The little prankster held the edge of the blanket in his teeth and wagged his tail as if nothing had happened.
"You see, Kimchan is an ordinary puppy," Yueret said. "You dreamed it."
"Why did I fall from the roof then?" Unana frowned, puffed out her cheeks and looked at her brother.
"You were just shooting with a bow," Yueret suggested. "Or you decided that you could fly. When I was a kid, I would throw squirrels off the roof and try to figure out whether they could fly or not."
"But I'm not little. I'm big!"
Unana raised her upper body and sat down on the bed. Yueret looked at his sister's chest, which jumped a little, as if trying to prove her owner's words.
"It's still too early for you to get up," Yueret said. "You fell from a great height and hurt yourself a little."
And then Unana felt a sharp pain in her back, after which she lay down on the pillow. The girl's breasts "spread" to the sides, as if showing how bad her owner was.
"You'll have to lie down," Yueret said. "I'll bring you food."
Yueret left the room. Unana looked at the puppy, which was lying on the floor on a blanket, looking at her and wagging his tail.
"Maybe she's an ordinary dog?" the girl thought. "It would be good if it was just a dream. But I'm afraid that's not the case. If this is not a dream, then Yueret is in danger."
"If you don't tell Yueret everything, I'll sell you to the dinosaurs," Unana said. "They eat dogs."
The puppy transformed into an almost human form.
"I can't," Kimchan answered. "We can't let anyone find out... who I really am."
"But I know," Unana objected.
"I... I'm very ashamed of this... I'm sorry... Let's not tell anyone about this. I'll bring you food."
"Where will you get it? Will you steal from the fridge?"
"I will hunt squirrels and birds."
"Then Yueret will know about this meat and ask where it comes from." Besides, I don't know how to cook. I'm the younger sister, so I only eat. Let's do this: you will watch Yueret and tell me what he is doing. You will definitely succeed."
"Okay. I... will watch... your older brother."
"Just do it without him noticing."
Footsteps were heard outside the door. Kimchan heard them and turned back into a puppy.
The door opened. Yueret entered the room, summoned his inventory with a movement of his hand through the air, and pulled out a tray with a clawed piece of meat and a small bottle of green liquid.
"Bear meat?" Unana immediately recognized the delicacy. "Did you hide it in the refrigerator?"
"It was in a secret slot," Yueret explained. "Bear meat is very valuable. It must not be left unattended."
Kimchan also noticed the meat, looked up and began to bark.
"I need to feed the dog," Yueret thought. "I completely forgot about it."
The puppy jumped up to get the meat, but it was not big enough for this. Yueret gave the tray to his sister, who immediately pounced on the food. Then the guy grabbed the puppy by the scruff of the neck and carried him out of the room.
Unana quickly finished her food, patted her belly, and then opened the virtual screen and clicked on the wooden stick icon. Another window appeared on top of the screen, most of which was occupied by empty space with cells.
"Now I know what I'm going to draw," Unana giggled.
After some time, an image appeared on the screen of a girl with dog ears and a tail, similar to Kimchan, who was sitting in the refrigerator and holding one of her legs, separated from her body, in her teeth.
"This is what a real dog girl should look like," Unana smiled. "It's a pity, Yueret, you don't see this."
***
The road of logs led Itinit and his friends to the top of the mountain. It turned out to be not snow-covered, but covered with frost. From here there was a view of a giant basin, covered with dark coniferous forests and surrounded by flat mountains, and a blue-green lake in the center.
"This is a volcano crater," Myuryuri said. "We need to go down."
"The slopes here are too steep," Tuot noted. "I don't want to walk down."
The dinosaur was right. The slopes were not just steep, but almost vertical. Despite this, single crooked coniferous trees and shrubs grew on them.
"I would jump there," Etinnei went to the edge of the cliff. "I wonder if I can walk on this slope. I was able to through the energy bridge."
"This is not an energy bridge," Itinit grabbed the arctic fox girl's sleeve. "If you make one wrong move, you'll fall down and..."
"What?" Etinnei looked thoughtfully at Itinit. "Well, I fall, and what happens?"
"I don't even know what could happen to her," Itinit thought. "But it's better to talk her out of it, just in case."
"There is a cable car for the descent," Myuryuri said. "It is there."
A blue energy arrow appeared in front of the horned mammoth's head, pointing to the edge of the cliff. There stood a small wooden gazebo with a domed roof that ended in a spire with a transparent ball at the end.
"Does it fly?" Tuot asked.
"You'll see now," Itinit turned away to hide his smile.
Myuryuri approached the gazebo. A virtual control panel with several buttons appeared in front of him. The first button on the left was surrounded by a red border.
"He activated the screen without moving," Tuot stopped and froze in surprise. "How is this possible?"
"No way," Itinit explained. "He just can do this."
"This is strange," Tuot looked at his friend.
The conversation was interrupted by the sound of an incoming message near Itinit. The guy stepped aside and opened a virtual screen. The source of the sound turned out to be a letter from Kimchan:
"Creator, the evil girl found out who I was and forced me to keep an eye on my older brother. What should I do?"
"You have to keep an eye on them anyway," Itinit replied. "If you are discovered, turn into a dog and pretend that nothing happened."
"I can't. The girl with the bow threatened to send me to the dinosaurs, and they eat dogs."
Noru approached Itinit and he was forced to close the screen.
"What are you doing over there?" the dog girl asked. "Are you texting with someone?"
"With a friend," Itinit lied. "He lives far away."
"Did you answer him so urgently?" Noru doubted. "Something's wrong here."
Etinnei approached Noru and touched one of her ears with her hand, and thus saved Itinit from answering.
Meanwhile, Tuot watched as the red frame moved on its own to the next button, and then to another, flickering, after which a long text input field appeared in front of the control panel, and below it was a screen with many buttons with different symbols. The red frame also moved independently along these buttons until it activated one of them...
… The virtual screens disappeared. A purple energy aura surrounded the wooden gazebo, after which it rose slightly above the ground. Purple energy filled the ball on the roof, from which a thick energy rope stretched somewhere down.
Noru heard these words and immediately found herself near the gazebo. Itinit and Etinnei followed her. Only Tuot remained standing in place with his mouth open.
Etinnei noticed that her friend was not going to the gazebo, and went up to him.
"You need to go there," the arctic fox girl pointed to the gazebo with her sleeve.
"|I have a very long tail," Tuot said.
"The tail does not interfere with traveling in transport. You yourself said that friendship does not depend on how many ears you have."
These words made Tuot move. The dinosaur looked at its girlfriend. The arctic fox girl looked at him with a cute, dissatisfied face.
"Let's go there," Etinnei again pointed to the gazebo with her sleeve. "If you don't go, I won't go either. I will go on foot."
"With this cute arctic fox girl, I'm even ready to fly, although I don't know how to fly," the thought flashed through Tuot's head.
Inside, the gazebo was the size of half a railway carriage. Two rows of wooden benches stood opposite each other, like in a park. Above them are large rectangular windows.
As soon as Tuot and his girlfriend entered the gazebo, the door, which consisted of boards, closed. The dinosaur turned around to check if its tail was caught, but everything turned out to be fine - the tip of the tail was inside the carriage, and not outside.
Tuot already thought that the hardest part was over, when suddenly the gazebo began to move. From a strong push, the dinosaur fell on its back and saw in front of it the tail of an arctic fox in black summer coloring.
The next moment the tail was replaced by a fragment of a thigh. Tuot instinctively opened his mouth, raised his head, and then tried to bite off a piece of flesh.
"Do you want to eat?" Etinnei's voice came from above.
The tasty-looking meat was replaced by the head of an arctic fox girl in a hood, from under which strands of black hair hung.
"I can ask Minniges to give you ice cream," Etinnei said.
"I don't want to eat," Tuot answered. "I want to get up."
The end of an icicle appeared from Etinnei's sleeve, along which an electric discharge then passed. Tuot remembered what would happen if he was hit by such a weapon, so he did not wait for it to be used and activated a green energy aura.
This helped. The dinosaur was on its feet almost instantly. The icicle disappeared into the sleeve of the arctic fox girl.
Tuot sat down on the bench opposite which Itinit and Noru were sitting. The dinosaur's tail fit completely on the seat, and there was still some room left. Etinnei took advantage of this, sat down near the tail and began to examine the feathers on it.
Why is the water there such a color? – Tuot asked.
"No rivers flow into this lake," Itinit explained. "Only a few streams that flow over the stones. In ordinary lakes, the water is dark due to the fact that rivers bring there a lot of all sorts of impurities."
"I didn't understand anything," Etinnei moved her ears. "The tail has only feathers. There are no impurities."
The gazebo slowly moved forward and down. The windows overlooked the steep rocky slopes of the crater, covered with groups of coniferous trees. Soon the edge of a lake with blue-green water appeared.
Laughter was heard. Etinnei looked away from her tail and turned her head in the direction of the source of the sound.
The laughter came from Itinit. Noru sat nearby and looked at her creator with her mouth slightly open, as if she was growling.
"Why do you find it funny?" Etinnei asked.
"We are talking about the color of the water in the lake," Itinit explained.
"I see," Etinnei wiggled her ears. "My ears just hear themselves, no matter what I'm doing. I can't disable them."
"This is what happens when you have four ears," Tuot thought.
The lake outside the window has become larger. The gazebo had dropped significantly and was now flying at the level of the treetops. From here the slopes of the crater seemed like a real mountain range.
"Are we inside a volcano?" Tuot just realized this now. "It won't explode?"
"This is a water volcano," Itinit explained. "It's crater contains water, not lava."
"Are there such volcanoes?" Tuot was surprised.
"If there are animal girls, then there are water volcanoes."
Noru looked angrily at her creator, showed her teeth and growled like a big wild animal.
"Okay, I won't talk about animal girls," Itinit promised his character.
Noru hid her teeth, smiled and laid her head on the creator's lap. Her tail began to hit the bench.
A wooden palisade appeared through the windows of the gazebo, behind which the blue roof of the building could be seen.
The gazebo stopped near the stockade, after which the gate inside it opened and let this strange type of transport through.