The "metal bird" flew over mountains and plains, rivers and lakes. Almost all the space free of water was occupied by forests. At first these were mixed forests typical of the Yenekit area, but then they were replaced by forests of deciduous trees with small groups of tree ferns. Gradually, the tree ferns became more and more numerous, and finally they almost completely occupied all the space on land.
"Don't worry, Halankuo," Itinit looked at his friend in the back seat. "We've already flown halfway. Now we're over the southern part of the Northern Continent and soon there will be a sea."
"I'm afraid that Taikuron will run away," Halankuo looked down.
"Don't be afraid. If he escapes, I'll get a notification."
The mountains became lower, and now looked more like hills. The rivers that flowed between them, on the contrary, widened.
Halankuo opened the "Mausoleum of Nature" to see the location of the character. The red dot was on the northern coast of the Southern Continent, near a narrow peninsula that jutted out into the sea.
"She's still there," Halankuo calmed down a little. "We should make it in time."
A huge blue space appeared ahead, almost merging with the sky. The mountains gave way to a shore with yellow sand.
"We'll stop here," Itinit said.
"But…" Halankuo objected.
"The "metal bird" is running out of energy. It needs to save it up. The best place to do this is on a sandy beach."
The anxiety inside Halankuo grew. The girl was looking at the red dot on the map, and did not even glance out the window, which offered a view of the coast and mountains in the background.
The girl did not feel something cold touch her cheek. But Itinit noticed, heard a barely noticeable dog groan and turned around.
On the top of the chair sat a brown puppy, similar to a baby bear, touching the girl's cheek with its nose. Itinit turned back to the virtual control panel, which was located below the panoramic window, and smiled.
"It will be funny if Halankuo doesn't find her," Itinit thought. "It was not for nothing that I sent Kimchan to watch those two."
The "metal bird" hung over the shore and began to descend. Kimchan felt that she would soon fall and hid behind the chair. At that moment, Halankuo finally began to perceive something other than the dot on the map.
"How long does this "bird" take to charge?" the girl asked.
"It varies," Itinit answered. "It depends on the sun. If it's a sunny day, then very quickly, but now there are clouds in the sky, so it will take longer. But by the end of the day we should be on another continent."
The "metal bird" landed on the sand and spread its wing-doors. Itinit was the first to get out of the flying machine and looked at the back seat.
Halankuo got up from her chair and carefully stepped onto the sand. The area around her seemed unusual to the girl, a little frightening, but interesting.
Instead of the usual coniferous and deciduous trees, tree ferns with large leaves that fanned out at the top grew on the sand. The tallest of them barely reached half the height of the northern trees, but they seemed no less strange for that.
"Is this a tree fern?" Halankuo pointed at the forest that bordered the shore.
"Yes," Itinit answered. "They grow here because of the warm climate. You've noticed that it's gotten warmer, haven't you?"
At that moment, Halankuo felt hot in her boots and stockings, familiar things that she often forgot about. Soon, these items of clothing were already in the virtual inventory.
"Now I recognize you," Itinit smiled.
"Do I forget to put something on that often?" Halankuo looked at the sand.
"I only saw you in full kit a few times in the summer."
Halankuo turned away and blushed, imagining that people could pay attention to her without her noticing it. Kimchan took advantage of this, leaving the flying machine and disappearing into the forest.
"She's up to something," Itinit noted.
Halankuo tried to think about something else and remembered her character. The girl again opened the map of the "Mausoleum of Nature". The red dot was slowly moving from the coast inland along the river.
"She's going somewhere," Halankuo noted. "We may not make it in time."
"Don't be afraid," Itinit answered. "The screen didn't turn red, which means everything is fine."
"Well... I don't want the screen to turn red again."
"We will find your character, maybe even alive. That is, not alive, but existing, she is not a living being. But what will you do then?"
Halankuo closed the "Mausoleum of Nature", sat down on the sand, and then looked at the water. The noisy sea waves did not surprise the girl, although she saw the sea for the first time. Halankuo looked at the endless body of water as if it were a familiar view from the window, because now she was not interested in anything except her own character.
"I thought about this," Halankuo admitted. "And I decided to tell Kyotyoryon the truth. I don't know if she will understand me. I just want her to know why she came into this world and why she is the way she is."
"Don't you want to return her?"
Halankuo didn't answer. She looked at the waves that rolled one after another onto the sand, but she wasn't thinking about the sea:
"After what I did, I can't want Kyotyoryon back."
Itinit didn't ask anything else. He figured out why Halankuo was silent, because he had also created a character once.
"With the creatures from the "Mausoleum of Nature" everything is very complicated," Itinit said. "This world is not suitable for them. They cannot live here normally. But they don't want to go back either. It seems to me that another world should be created for them."
"How," Halankuo looked at her friend.
"I don't know. I don't even know if it's possible. But the "Mausoleum of Nature" somehow appeared. So, creating a new world is also possible."
Halankuo pulled her legs up to her body then hugged her knees with her hands.
"The world that exists in the "Mausoleum of Nature" is too empty," the girl said. "There's nothing there. It's good to create a character in it, but it's unbearable for the character to exist there."
"That's why Kyotyoryon left you."
"Yes."
Halankuo lowered her head, and her elbows, knees and hair hid her face. Itinit understood that his friend was in a bad way now, but he could not help. The problem seemed insoluble.
"I hope the sun will appear from behind the clouds and charge the "metal bird" faster," Itinit thought, looking at the flying machine. "Right now, this thing is the only thing that can somehow help Halankuo."
The round light on the "head" of the "metal bird" was flickering with a violet glow.
"The eye is already glowing, but not very much," Itinit thought. "But we just got here, and the sun hasn't shown up for long yet."
Itinit looked at the sky. The sun was moving out from behind a cloud, and would soon appear completely from behind it, but a chain of other clouds was moving towards it.
"If this continues, the "metal bird" will not have time to charge before the end of the day," Itinit thought. "It's simply not designed for long flights without charging. And there's nowhere to charge it here. There's no civilization here at all, just its remnants."
Itinit remembered Kimchan, who had fled into the forest. He went behind the back of the flying machine so that Halankuo would not see him, entered the "Mausoleum of Nature" and opened the map.
"What is that dog doing there?" Itinit frowned. "Looks like I'll have to save her. I hope nothing happens to the 'metal bird'."
Itinit peered out from behind the flying machine. Halankuo was still sitting in the same position and did not see what was happening around her.
Itinit made sure that his friend did not see him, quickly walked into the forest and disappeared there. At that moment, the light on the "bird's' head" stopped flickering and now constantly emitted a bright blue glow.
The forest was dense. Under the tree ferns grew ordinary ferns, half the height of a man. Itinit summoned an oblong black object from his inventory, which was then covered in a blue energy aura.
"I never thought I'd need this thing again," Itinit smiled. "It's just a lever from some old robot, the very first models. But now it's a sword."
Energy was released from the lever's aura and took the form of a blade. With this tool, moving through the forest became easier. Soon, Itinit came to a sandy bank of a river with shallows, which looked more like a stream after a heavy rain, and noticed four small stone pillars: two on each bank.
"There used to be a bridge here," Itinit guessed. "Here are signs of civilization, albeit a former one."
Crossing the river turned out to be quite simple. Itinit ran his hand through the water, as a result of which a blue energy platform connected the banks, replacing the missing bridge.
On the other bank, the same fern forest continued, but the terrain began to rise. Itinit opened the map of the "Nature's Mausoleum" again and looked at the red dot on it.
"She's on a mountain not far from here," Itinit noted. "It looks like there's something interesting there."
Making his way up the slope turned out to be a little easier. Itinit noticed a path of gray stones, with severed fern shoots and bushes lying on either side.
"Someone was here recently. The leaves haven't even dried up. But it's unlikely that Kimchan did it. This dog doesn't cut, it burns."
The path led Itinit to the flat top of the mountain, where walls and foundations of buildings were visible among the tree ferns.
"Kimchan must be here somewhere," Itinit thought. "If the ruins weren't so overgrown, I would have found her already."
Itinit swung his "sword" and cut the trunk of a tree fern in front of him. A half-destroyed wall appeared, behind which a cracking sound could be heard.
Itinit ran his finger through the air and made a synchronized movement with the "sword". A few moments later, a round blue energy platform appeared at his feet.
The crackling stopped. Despite this, Itinit stood on the platform, and it raised him above the level of the wall.
The source of the crackling sound was a dog-girl in almost human form, who was stuck in the bushes and trying to get out.
"There you are," Itinit smiled. "Why did you run so far?"
"There," Kimchan pointed to the next wall. "There's something there. I can feel the energy. I tried to get there, but I got stuck."
"Why don't you destroy these bushes with fire?"
"I tried. They don't burn."
Itinit freed the character from the tree "tentacles" with one movement of the "sword". Kimchan took the form of a puppy and ran to the place behind which "there is something".
A few moments later, a thin dog bark was heard from behind the wall. Itinit went to the source of the sound, cut several fern trunks along the way and entered the empty doorway.
Kimchan stood in front of a bush with oval dark green leaves and barked. Itinit realized that there was something behind it.
After another blow from the "sword", the bush fell apart into separate trunks. In front of Itinit and Kimchan stood a small metal coffin with a carved horn on the lid.
"It looks like a vessel from the "Mausoleum of Nature", Itinit guessed.
Kimchan responded with an affirmative bark.
"Maybe I should open it?" Itinit looked at the puppy.
"Au," Kimchan agreed.
Itinit ran his finger over the lid of the coffin, which brought up a small blue virtual screen with two buttons: in the form of a horn turned upwards and a horn turned downwards.
"Open and close," the guy guessed. "This is a vessel for some object. Looks like I didn't study at school for nothing."
Itinit touched his finger to the button with the image of a horn pointing upwards. A field for entering a password appeared in front of the screen, and under it a small translucent keyboard with symbols.
"Do you know the password?" Itinit looked at the pet.
Kimchan ran her paw through the air to "draw" a symbol.
"For some reason, you're smarter in this form," Itinit noted. "I hope the answer is correct."
Itinit clicked on the symbol that Kimchan depicted. The password entry field disappeared, after which the screen dissolved into thin air.
The coffin lid moved to the side. Inside lay a straight, gray metal horn.
"It's an antenna," Itinit guessed. "It's better to take it and give it to Sanachan."
Kimchan didn't answer. Instead, she looked toward the neighboring mountain, and then at her creator.
"Is there someone there?" Itinit understood. "We need to get out of here."
"Au," Kimchan answered shortly.
Itinit transferred the coffin to his inventory, and then walked back the same way.
On the seashore, Halankuo's anxious thoughts let go. The girl finally noticed the waves and sand, although she had been looking at them for a long time.
"So this is what the sea looks like," Halankuo thought. "I've only seen it in games and videos before. I wonder if the water there is actually salty."
The girl approached the water and was immediately "attacked" by a wave that rolled onto her legs.
"The water is warm," Halankuo noted. "It feels like it was heated up. Near Yenekit, even the rivers are much colder."
The girl opened her inventory, took out a glass and filled it with water.
"Don't drink water from the sea," a voice sounded in Halankuo's head. "There are all sorts of animals there..."
"I'll just try it. I want to know if the water is salty or not."
The girl brought the glass to her mouth and touched the water with the tip of her tongue...
... Halankuo saw a lot of stars in front of her. For a moment, the girl realized that she would soon die, but suddenly woke up on the sand:
"I'm alive. I wish I had listened to my mother."
Halankuo rose to her feet, then took a bottle of green liquid from her inventory and took a few sips.
"The juice from the conifer needles saved me," Halankuo sighed. "Now I will always listen to you, mom."
The voice did not answer. Halankuo looked down and saw a glass on the sand, which the waves had washed up on the shore.
"I have to pick it up so that no one would know what I was doing," the girl was frightened.
Halankuo crouched down to pick up the glass, but did not have time. A wave rolled onto the sand and "took" the "prey" with it.
Halankuo had to take a few steps through the water to get the glass back. The girl calmed down a bit, but then she saw a brown puppy on the shore, similar to a bear cub, and screamed in surprise.
The animal disappeared into the forest with a loud bark. Halankuo went out onto the shore, after which she put the glass back into her inventory.
"I didn't know that such furry dogs lived here," the girl thought. "I should ask Itinit about this. Where is he?"
Halankuo didn't have to wait long. A man came out of the forest, very similar to her friend, and the puppy was running next to him.
"You..." Halankuo could barely say anything.
"Yeah," Itinit smiled. "I didn't tell you. This is Kimchan, my pet."
"Do you keep it in your inventory?" Halankuo suggested.
"How did you guess?" Itinit called up the inventory window.
"Pets are kept at home. But you don't have a home. You live in a cafe that your parents left you."
"Well, Kimchan is something like Tuot."
"This animal is strange," Halankuo looked at the puppy. "I don't know any dogs that look like this. Of course, they look different when they're babies, but definitely not like this."
"Is this your character?" Halankuo looked at Itinit.
"She just revealed Kimchan?" Itinit thought in shock. "Unana and her older brother didn't know about it for over a year, even though Kimchan wasn't growing."
Kimchan was also shocked. She looked at the creator, then at the girl and did not understand anything.
"Okay, I don't have to hide this from Halankuo," Itinit decided mentally.
"Yes, Kimchan is my character," Itinit confirmed. "How did you guess?"
"Actually, I had a character myself," Halankuo explained. "I can tell just by appearance that this is a creature from the "Mausoleum of Nature."
"Yes, you can't be fooled."
The conversation was interrupted by the barking of a puppy. Kimchan looked at the forest and tilted her head to the right and then to the left.
"It looks like someone is coming here," Itinit noted. "Kimchan sensed someone's energy."
A cracking sound was heard in the forest. The fern trees that grew on the edge of the shore began to move, and then fell onto the sand.