A thick log floated quickly downstream along a narrow river. Dense forests of tree ferns rose up the slopes of low mountains that surrounded the river on both sides.
"Sis, it looks like we've come to the wrong place," a voice came from the log. "There's a waterfall there. We'll have to turn around."
A hatch opened at the top of the log, and a girl with disheveled black hair stuck her head out:
"There is no waterfall here. You just can't see it from there."
"This thing is new, so I have to check it," the voice from the log answered.
A second hatch opened in the front upper part of the "ship". A similar head emerged from it, but with blue hair and glowing eyes.
"Sis, you were right," a voice came from the log. "Your head can't see anything. Maybe I should take a look too?"
The doll's head dived into the hole, after which another similar head appeared on the roof of the "ship", but without the glowing eyes.
"Mom, how much longer do I have to pretend?" the girl with black hair thought.
"Until you find your character," the voice in the girl's head answered. "Even if you explain to her that you are not her sister, she will think differently. For dolls, appearance is more important than what is inside, because they have almost no feelings. They believe only what they see."
Halankuo dove into the hatch and found herself in a semi-dark wooden "tunnel". Ahead of her was a blue translucent control panel, more like a door lock. Even the interface window seemed like complex professional equipment in comparison.
"Mom, I'm floating inside a log," Halankuo smiled, although she didn't feel any joy. "First I flew in a 'metal bird,' and now I'm in a wooden river car."
"You should thank my little sister," the voice in the girl's head answered. "Sitihi has made great progress in creating boats. When she was a child, she would float sticks on the water and wonder why she couldn't get into them. I used to laugh at her then. I just didn't know you needed big sticks for that."
"You have no idea how big they are."
The river received several tributaries, after which it noticeably widened. The mountains retreated a little from one bank, which was now occupied by thickets of bushes with large leaves.
Halankuo observed the marks on the map of the "Mausoleum of Nature". The blue mark, which showed the location of the creator, moved along a large river. The red mark, which showed the location of the character, on the contrary, was stationary in the mountains, near one of the tributaries downstream.
"Kyotyoryon hid," Halankuo grabbed the edge of her T-shirt with her hand. "Mom, don't you know what's there?"
"How would I know?" the voice answered. "I haven't been to the Southern Continent."
"Somehow I feel like you were there."
"You can't be fooled. You're not Sitihi. Of course, I've been to the Southern Continent, to this crypt, but I can't navigate the terrain. The Southern Continent, that is, this part of it, is too monotonous to figure it out."
"Why is the crypt on this continent and not the North Continent? Is it to hide what's left of the dolls?"
"Yeah. The people of the North Continent were afraid of the dolls. That's why we had to move here."
"What? You lived on the South Continent?"
"Yeah. My parents were so obsessed with dolls that they moved to a place where there was no civilization. They also did this so that none of the children could escape."
Halankuo felt her body weaken. The girl covered the screen with her hand, and then fell on the bottom of the "ship".
"Sorry, I forgot that I shouldn't tell you about this." a voice sounded in the girl's head.
But it was too late. Halankuo couldn't move her arms and legs, and something warm seemed to be spreading inside her. Only her mother's voice eased the suffering a little.
The river gradually became wider, and the current slowed down. The mountains retreated even further – this time on both sides. Sitihi realized that there would be no waterfall, and descended in a purple aura to the bottom of the log, to the control panel.
"Sis, I think there's not enough screen here," the doll noted.
Halankuo heard the voice of the "little sister", but could not answer anything. The girl was just starting to recover from the shock.
"Sis, are you broken?" Sitihi's voice became louder and sounded closer.
Halankuo heard footsteps, and then saw the head of her "little sister" above her.
"Sister, you're not a doll," Sitihi said. "You can't break."
The doll continued to speak, but the sound seemed to be turned off. Halankuo raised her hand and waved it, but felt nothing.
"Mom, you…" Halankuo realized that her mother had taken control of her body again.
The voice did not answer. Halankuo noticed herself rising to her feet and seeing a doll with a weapon-head in her hand. The second weapon, a shovel, was hanging on her back.
Sitihi tilted her head to the side, but did not turn her neck. Halankuo tried to turn away so as not to see the creepy doll-like movements, but she could not even move.
Sitihi pointed with her free hand to the control panel at the front of the "vessel", and then walked there. Halankuo's body followed her.
From a close distance, the control panel resembled a semicircular joystick made of blue translucent energy. Sitihi pressed the oval button on the side, then said something, activated the purple aura and rose up to the hole in the "ceiling".
Halankuo was left to watch as her hand pressed the buttons and, most likely, controlled the "vessel". And although the girl did not hear the words of the "little sister", she guessed that she decided to use her own head instead of the screen, which for some reason was missing, and put her "big sister" to control the log.
"This is like broadcasting a game in real life," Halankuo thought. "Mom, do you realize where you're taking this thing?"
"This is like broadcasting a game in real life," Halankuo thought. "Mom, do you realize where you're taking this thing?"
"No," the voice in the girl's head answered. "But this is a river where nothing else floats. It's safe to swim here, even if you can't see what's in front of you. Strange, isn't it?"
"After everything I've seen, it's not good. Rather, the strange thing is that your sister has another head, which is like yours. Well, you got it. Why doesn't she use it to observe what's happening on the surface?"
"I knew you'd ask that... Sorry, I'm a little busy."
Halankuo's body turned its head up and said something. The conversation continued after several dozen moments.
"It's obvious..." the voice in Halankuo's head answered. "The head she's holding in her hand has a big delay. Of course, any brain has a delay, but this situation is too bad."
"Why is it bad, because of the wireless connection?"
"Your brain is physically attached to your body, but even it has a delay. I'm not even surprised how you know that. But you shouldn't tell Tuot about such things, otherwise he'll get offended."
"Tuot doesn't get offended by anything anymore. But I haven't seen him for a long time, more than a month, probably. I don't remember anymore. Maybe he's already offended."
"He got lost?"
"I don't know."
"Pets need to be looked after; otherwise they'll go for a walk somewhere far away and come back only after several years."
"I just now realized why I should listen to my mother."
"Tuot is really lost? You haven't even written to him?"
"Who would chat on the network with pets? Of course it would be me. I wrote to him, but he was busy."
"I didn't see you writing to Tuot."
"Are you following me? The last time I corresponded with Tuot was over a month ago."
"Write to him. Maybe he was eaten."
Halankuo felt warmth inside again, but she couldn't fall to the floor because she couldn't control her body.
"I certainly hope Tuot is okay. He'd rather eat someone than be eaten, but you better write to him."
An island appeared in the middle of the river, dividing the body of water into two parts. Its rocky shores were densely covered with vegetation, and in the depths a typical fern forest was visible.
Sitihi said something to her "little sister", after which Halankuo's hand pressed the side button and held it for a few moments. The log turned to the right and floated along the island.
The mountains retreated even further, and now they were visible only on the horizon. The current almost stopped, and the "ship" slowed down sharply. The stones gradually gave way to sand, typical of the sea coast.
"Maybe use the map of the "Mausoleum of Nature?" Halankuo suggested. "Then you, I mean I, I mean you, will be able to see where the log is floating." "I haven't been there in a long time. But it's a good idea. I just don't know if I can log in."
"You're using me. It should work."
"To manage an account in the "Mausoleum of Nature", the energy of the account owner is needed."
Halankuo's hand summoned a virtual screen, and then began to search for the icon of the "Mausoleum of Nature".
"The coffin button with the red mark above it," Halankuo prompted. "If you press it, it will open the map right away. You don't have to open the program itself."
"I didn't know that was possible in the "Mausoleum of Nature". I've forgotten what it looks like."
Halankuo's finger landed on the coffin button with the red mark above it, and the "Mausoleum of Nature" map opened.
"I put the map summon button on the main screen because I was worried about the character," Halankuo explained.
The girl wanted to say something else, but soon she had no time for it. The red mark was still in the mountains, near a small river, but this time it periodically disappeared for a moment.
"What's wrong with her?" Halankuo asked.
"As I recall, if a character is in danger of being destroyed, the screen pulses and vibrates," the voice explained. "But now something similar is happening to the mark. Your character may be in danger, but not mortally."
"We need to swim faster. Maybe we can make it."
"This thing can't swim faster. It's moving because of the current, without energy."
"We'll soon be where that river flows into the river we're sailing on. We can't swim against the current there, but we can walk through these forests..."
"Why walk? We can fly with the help of aura."
"Fly? I forgot that I can fly. I haven't gotten used to my new abilities yet."
"It's hard to walk on the Southern Continent. There are no roads here, except for very old and overgrown ones. So floating inside a log, even very slowly, is much better than making your way through the thickets."
"Also, something might bite you in the forest. It's too warm here."
"Yeah. But that's on the northern coast. It's cold in the south, but no living creatures have ever gotten there. There weren't even any photos of those places on the network when I lived there."
The conversation was interrupted by a purple glow. Halankuo turned around and saw Sitihi standing in front of her, who said something and then tilted her own head to the side.
"We've arrived," a voice said in the girl's head. "I'm handing you your body. I hope you'll play the role of the big sister well."
Halankuo heard the sounds of an energetic aura and even felt a slight vibration coming from it. Then the girl moved her hand and realized that she could move at will again.
"I have a feeling that I was the doll, not her," Halankuo concluded.
A faint laugh was heard in response. Halankuo smiled, but Sitihi did not understand it.
"Sis, it's time to get out of here," the doll said. "The river flows in the opposite direction from here."
"Shall we leave the log here?" Halankuo asked.
"It's just a tree trunk. No one will steal it. Even if someone climbs in here, they won't be able to control this thing."
Sitihi walked up to the control panel, pressed the big round button in the center of the joystick, after which it disappeared.
"That's it," the doll turned its head to its "sister", but did not turn its neck. "Now it's a regular tree trunk."
Halankuo activated the purple aura and rose outside, as she could not bear to look at the unnatural position of the doll's head.
The log was stuck in a sandbank at the mouth of a small river. Halankuo landed on the only dry place not covered with vegetation – a sandy island near the shore, and immediately opened the map of the "Mausoleum of Nature".
The red mark on the map was pulsating very close - in the mountains that hung over a wide river valley. From there, the noise of a waterfall could even be heard, which the wind was trying to drown out.
The aura around Halankuo disappeared. The wind immediately lifted her hair, which was left unprotected, and then dropped it right on her face. So for the first time in a month, the girl remembered that she had hair.
"I'm still human," Halankuo brushed strands of hair from her face. "After all these doll heads, I've already forgotten what human hair looks like."
"Me too," a quiet laugh sounded in the girl's head. "Thank you for reminding me."
Halankuo had to turn the other way so that the wind wouldn't bother her. So the girl didn't notice how the doll landed behind her with a weapon-head in one hand and a shovel in the other.
"Sis, why aren't you flying? Are you broken?"
Halankuo recognized the voice of her "little sister," but decided not to turn around because of the wind. The girl summoned a mirror and made sure that the doll was indeed standing behind her.
"I'm just checking where the character is," Halankuo said. "We need to get to the mountains. Can I ask you something?"
… Sitihi and Halankuo rose above the river and quickly reached the mountains. The distance between the marks decreased, and soon they almost united.
At that moment, Halankuo felt anxious and realized that she would not be able to go down before Sitihi.
"She's somewhere here," Halankuo covered the map with a wave of her hand. "Go down."
Sitihi slowly descended to the tops of the tree ferns, then disappeared among their leaves.
"At least this doll won't be cut by Kyotyoryon immediately after landing," Halankuo tried not to think about anything bad.
In fact, the girl was afraid of unexpectedly meeting her character, but she was afraid to even think about it.
Meanwhile, the fern leaves trembled. Halankuo's heart sped up so much, as if it was about to explode.
A few moments later, the leaves parted and the body of a girl with gray hair flew out. Her arms were hanging down, her eyes were closed, and her legs were dangling freely in the air.
"Kyotyoryon just passed out," Halankuo sighed. "That's even better. She won't notice me."
The creator approached the character and made sure that her body was not floating in the air on its own. Soon the doll itself appeared from the forest. She held a wrench in her hand, aimed at the spirit of metal. The other hand, as is traditional, was occupied with the head-weapon, and a shovel was sticking out from behind its back.
"Is this your character?" Sitihi asked.
"Yeah," Halankuo answered. "Didn't you recognize her? I gave you a picture of her."
"She looks very much like the creature in the picture. But she's missing one horn."
"What?"
Halankuo looked at the top of Kyotyoryon's head and noticed something she had not noticed due to her absentmindedness – one of the metal horns was missing.
"I spoke to her, but she did not answer," Sitihi continued. "I opened her eyes, but they didn't glow."
"Kyotyoryon's eyes don't glow," Halankuo explained. "This is not your head, which mine, which the one in your hand."
"Are you sure this is your character? If not, I will return it to where I found her."
"Where did you find her?"
Sitihi moved Kyotyoryon to the forest, to the rocky bank of a narrow river with numerous rapids. On both sides of the river, dense forests with vines and bushes approached, among which even the trunks of tree ferns were lost.
Halankuo lowered herself to the character and carefully looked at the hole in the head, from which the end of the wire was sticking out.
"I knew that something could happen to Kyotyoryon," tears came out of Halankuo's eyes. "Why didn't I find her earlier?"
The doll's hand touched the creator's head.
"Don't cry, sis," Sitihi said. "I know how to fix your character. I've already taken her apart before."