Mausoleum of Nature

The grey, bird-shaped flying machine landed on the rocky bank of a fast-flowing river. Mixed forests grew around, covering the slopes of the surrounding low mountains.

“I haven't been here for a long time,” Itinit thought. “This place has changed a lot. There are no houses here anymore, but the river, the mountains and the forests are still the same.”

The wing-like door of the "metal bird" slid aside. Itinit jumped onto a rock and saw his reflection in the water.

“It’s good that I haven’t changed either,” the guy thought. “When I left here, I looked the same, although a lot of time has passed.”

Soon Itinit noticed another shadow in the water, and then heard the sound of a burning fire. The guy looked up and saw a comet that flew across the river and fell in the neighboring forest.

“I didn't even have to call Kimchan,” Itinit immediately guessed who it was. “It was not for nothing that I gave her the "Comet of Joy."”

Itinit ran his hand across the water. A few moments later, a blue energy platform appeared on the surface of the river, reaching the opposite bank.

“I once crossed the river in this place with its help,” Itinit remembered. “It's good that the river has not widened, otherwise the platform would not have been enough.”

Itinit stepped onto the platform and crossed to the opposite bank. Beyond the rocks, the mixed forest continued. Pointed conifers alternated with deciduous trees with the same crown shape, but with double leaves.

“It's better not to walk under these trees in the fall,” Itinit recalled. “The fruits fall to the ground and stink. I almost died in a forest like that once. It's a good thing they're banned from planting them in cities.”

The forest "rose" up the steep slope of the mountain. Itinit stopped at the foot and sniffed the air.

“There’s smoke in that direction,” the guy thought. “I'm just in time. Just a little more, and the smoke from the comet will clear.”

Itinit followed the smoke trail and found his character in one of the trees. Kimchan was hanging upside down on a thick branch and trying to free herself.

“You're stuck again,” Itinit noted. “I told you not to fly over the forest.”

Kimchan looked at her creator and let out a pitiful dog yelp.

“I... I... didn’t want to,” the dog girl answered. “It just happened. Soon Itinit and Kimchan were sitting on the opposite bank of the river near the flying machine.”

“Tell me,” Itinit began. “Have you managed to find out anything?”

“Yup,” Kimchan answered. “I have collected a lot of information. Now can I go home to my sister?”

“It depends on what information you have collected.”

Kimchan hit the air with her hand, like an animal hitting with a paw. A virtual screen appeared in front of her with many icons of different colors and shapes. The dog girl chose the most inconspicuous of them: an icon in the form of a gray lock.

A second window appeared above the first. It showed a girl with brown shoulder-length hair lying on a bed, hugging a large pillow with her arms. This item covered the middle part of the body, and served as something like clothing, because she, of course, had no clothing on.

“What is this?” Itinit asked.

“I pressed the wrong button,” Kimchan blushed. “I’ll press another one now.”

“No need. Who is she?”

“She is my mistress. She's cute, but she likes to punish.”

“Did she do anything to you?”

Kimchan blushed even more. The dog girl didn't want to tell her creator about how Unana tried to kill her.

“No, she fed me squirrels and bears,” Kimchan answered.

“Don't worry,” Itinit said. “There's no shame in eating bears.”

Kimchan closed the screen with Unana's image and then clicked on the white padlock icon. A screen appeared with an image of a stone coffin in a wooden house.

“It looks like something from a museum,” Itinit noted.

“I found this in an abandoned village,” Kimchan admitted. “There was something made of stone there.”

“Do you have a photo of what was there?”

Kimchan swiped her finger across the screen. The image of the coffin changed to stone fragments on the floor.

“That's all I saw in puppy form,” Kimchan said. “I could have changed into another form to see, but I was afraid I'd be found out.”

“Was there anyone else there?”

“Yup. It was one of my masters.”

Itinit looked at the forest and began to think out loud:

“The coffin is stone, and the house is wooden. It's strange. It looks like it appeared there by accident. I need to go to that village and study it.”

Kimchan pounced on the creator and knocked him face down on the stones.

“You can't go there!” the dog girl shouted.

“Then you’ll have to go to your master and ask him,” Itinit said. “He’s taller than you, which means he saw what was in the coffin.”

Kimchan climbed off Itinit and jumped back.

“It is forbidden!” the dog girl shouted. “Then they’ll reveal me-me-me. Better to go where the coffin is.”

***

Unana finally came to her senses and realized what she had done.

“I didn't know that Kimchan's ability was activated,” the girl thought. “How can I find her now? She could have flown very far away.”

The archer approached the fence and noticed a large hole in it with edges blackened by fire.

“If Kimchan is found, I will not punish her,” Unana decided. “I will forgive her everything, even how she woke me up, even the food she ate from the refrigerator, although no. I will not forgive anyone for the food, not even Yueret.”

Unana stuck her head into the hole and found that it fit completely through it.

“What should you tell Yueret when he notices a hole in the fence?” the archer thought. “I could say that a bear has come, or dolls. He'll believe it. I hope a real bear doesn't come here.”

***

After the hot springs, Tuot felt hungry. Myuryuri took him to the entrance of the cafe and flew away somewhere.

The dinosaur entered the room and found himself in a large hall with several tables. At one of them, Etinnei and Noru were sitting, their heads resting on the table.

Tuot carefully approached Etinnei and saw her face. The arctic fox girl was lying with her mouth open, her tongue hanging out.

“She was poisoned by something,” Tuot decided. “You can't eat in this cafe.”

The dinosaur touched the arctic fox's ear with his hand. In response, Etinnei let out a short, barely noticeable moan.

“She’s alive,” Tuot guessed. “I wonder if I keep touching her ears, will she wake up.”

The dinosaur touched his other ear with his other hand and began to tickle it. Etinnei opened her mouth and let out a long moan, louder than the previous one.

“She won't wake up,” Tuot was displeased. “Maybe I should touch her tail?”

The dinosaur stopped touching her ears and stuck his head under the table to look for her tail. He soon found legs that didn't reach the floor, and behind them, an arctic fox tail.

“Why are you touching her?” Noru's voice was heard. “Do you want to eat her?”

Tuot was startled by the sharp sound and instinctively pulled his head out from under the table.

“I'm trying to wake her up,” the dinosaur explained.

“That's not the way to wake her up,” Noru said. “I'll show you how to do it.”

The dog girl stroked Etinnei on the head and then under the chin. The Arctic fox girl opened her eyes.

“You ate too much,” Noru said. “You can’t sleep in a place like this.”

“Why?” Etinnei yawned. “There’s even room for your head.”

The Arctic fox girl pointed her finger at the table.

“This is a table for eating,” Noru explained. “You can't sleep here, because you'll become food yourself.”

Etinnei looked around and noticed Tuot standing behind her with his jaw dropped.

“It's you,” the Arctic fox girl sighed. “I thought Minniges was trying to get me to eat his ice cream again.”

“It needs to be taken out,” Noru said. “If someone else is living in your head, it keeps you from sleeping.”

“I'm used to it,” Etinnei answered. “And it doesn't interfere with my sleep too much. In fact, I wanted to get rid of it, but I found out that I would lose some of my memories. They are stored in Minniges.”

“Can't you take the memory card out of it and insert it into your brain?” Noru suggested.

“What?” Etinnei was surprised. “What is it?”

“Information is stored there,” Noru said. “Itinit told me.”

“Itinit told me something like that, too,” Tuot recalled. “There is a memory card in the brain of any creature. The most important data about the creature and its memories are there. If the creature dies, its memory card leaves the body.”

“I don't want to forget you,” Etinnei said.

“You can forget a dinosaur, but you have to remember me,” Noru said. “I'm an animal girl.”

Tuot turned away to leave the café.

“Tuot is my playmate,” Etinnei said. “He’s like…”

Tuot paused. He wondered what his friend would say about him.

“Like…,” Etinnei said. “Like a talking animal.”

“Well, at least I’m not a pet, as Halankuo says,” Tuot concluded.

“On the Southern Continent, I met animals with feathers, but they couldn’t speak a language I could understand,” the Arctic fox girl continued. “I tried to teach them to speak their language, but they couldn’t say anything. Not a single word! I wanted to talk to them so much. Maybe that’s why Minniges appeared in my brain. I once imagined something between a penguin and a seal…”

“What?” Noru jumped up and her eyes widened. “Show me it!”

“I can't,” Etinnei looked down and moved her tail. “Only I can see it. It lives in my brain.”

“I know,” Noru said. “But I can look into your brain and see.”

Tuot remembered seeing a penguin with a horn on its forehead when he was fighting Kuttanai. He hadn't paid much attention to the strange creature at the time, as he was thinking about saving his friend.

“I don't want to,” Etinnei replied. “You'll be able to read my thoughts.”

“Are you afraid I'll find out something?” Noru asked.

“I'm afraid you'll read my memories before I see them,” Etinnei replied.

“Don’t be afraid,” Noru patted the Arctic fox girl on the top of her head. “Even if I look at your memories, I won’t tell you anything. I'm just interested in seeing the creature you're talking about. I can't imagine how it can exist in this world.”

“As if one could imagine beast girls in this world,” Tuot thought. “It's a good thing I didn't say that out loud.”

Etinnei twitched her ears and touched her cheeks with her hands.

“If I agree, Minniges will be against it,” said the Arctic fox girl. “He was against being taken out of my brain and said that I might be left without memories. That's why the mushroom spirit said that it was too early for me.”

Noru also moved her ears, and then stroked her tail.

“Do they move their ears when they are thinking about something important?” Tuot mentally suggested.

“Can this creature read your thoughts when it doesn’t appear?” Noru asked.

“I don’t know,” Etinnei replied. “Minniges speaks to me with thoughts. I answer it with thoughts. At that moment it reads them. But when Minniges doesn’t appear, I don’t know if it can do that.”

“If he can read your mind even when he's not there, that's really bad,” Noru said. “He could know everything you're thinking.”

Etinnei felt fear for the first time since she was on the island and met the scary creature with the carrot nose. Then the arctic fox girl could do nothing. She even had to close her eyes to keep from getting worse.

“What’s wrong with you?” Noru asked. “Do you see a creature in your head?”

“No,” Etinnei replied. “It just scares me that someone can read my thoughts at any time.”

“You can ask that creature,” Tuot intervened.

Etinnei looked at her friend. The sight of a large flightless bird with a long tail and a sagging jaw calmed the arctic fox girl. She was no longer so afraid.

“I don't know when Minniges will appear,” Etinnei said. “It comes when he wants to. I can't summon it with the interface.”

“So he knows what happens to you when you can't see it,” Tuot concluded.

“Minniges can read my thoughts whenever she wants?” Etinnei felt afraid again.

“That's why it's best to extract this creature,” Noru said. “I'll talk to Itinit. Maybe he knows how to extract the memory card from that creature so you don't lose your memories.”

Etinnei looked at Nora and smiled. Tears came out of the Arctic fox girl's eyes. The next moment she threw her friend to the floor and began to lick her face.

***

The metal train with the wooden carriage stopped at the fallen trunk of a tree fern. The hatch opened, and the spirit of metal in human form jumped out.

“This tree is bad,” Kyotyoryon thought. “I need to cut it.”

Blades emerged from the metal spirit's ankle bracelets. The character jumped off the train and landed behind the trunk. The next moment, the trunk fell to the ground in three separate pieces.

“The creator gave me good things to cut with,” Kyotyoryon looked at her feet. “It's a pity I couldn't cut off her head with them then. I wanted to see if my metal could cut off the head of a meat creature.”

Kyotyoryon returned to the train, and it was able to continue on its way.

“Maybe I should go back to the creator and cut off her head?” the spirit of metal thought. “I wonder what will happen if I do that. Will she die right away or not?”

But then Kyotyoryon remembered how Halankuo sent her to the “Mausoleum of Nature”. The metal spirit's mood changed dramatically.

“I can’t go to the creator,” Kyotyoryon thought. “If I go back to her to cut off her head, I might not cut off her head. The creator might send me to that place again, but she won’t take me away from there. I’ll stay there forever.”

Kyotyoryon sat in a chair in front of a large panoramic window and watched the train travel through the forest and cut down small trees along the way.

“This is a different railway,” the spirit of metal noted. “When the train came the first time, it was already cutting through all these poles.”

Kyotyoryon closed her eyes, then touched the metal wall of the train with her hand and tried to stop it. But the train kept going.

“It moves by itself,” the spirit of metal guessed. “I cannot order it. But that is wrong. It is my train. It is made of my metal.”

Kyotyoryon opened her eyes and then ran her finger through the air in front of the window. A large virtual control panel of blue energy with many buttons of different shapes opened in front of the character.

“I don’t know what to press,” Kyotyoryon said. “Before, I just imagined it moving, and it moved.”

The spirit of metal pressed the round button at the bottom of the screen. The train slowed down, but continued moving. Then Kyotyoryon began pressing other buttons. When pressed, they became bright, but nothing else happened.

Kyotyoryon stood up from her chair, walked over to the hatch, closed her eyes and extended her hand towards it.

“Hey, open up,” the character's face grimaced. “Hey, please!”

Soon, Kyotyoryon couldn't stand it any longer and opened her eyes. Luke remained closed and didn't even move.

“Why won't you open?” the spirit of metal shouted.

Luke didn't answer. Kyotyoryon turned her gaze to the window. A massive mountain was approaching, covered at the top by a forest of ferns with steep slopes on which bushes grew. At the bottom of the mountain, a dark opening was visible, towards which the train was approaching.

It turned out to be a tunnel. The train entered it, causing darkness inside the locomotive. Kyotyoryon felt threatened, jumped to the window and released a short blade from the bracelet on her hand.

But there was no need to break the window. The train left the tunnel and continued on its way through the fern forest along the high seashore.

The train's speed dropped sharply. The path was again blocked by a fallen tree trunk, but this time a girl in a helmet with black bull horns sticking out of the holes stood on it. She was standing on one leg, which ended in a black fur boot-hoof, and the other leg was bent at the knee.

“I haven’t seen her before,” Kyotyoryon thought. “I wonder what it’s made of.”

The girl looked at the train with glowing eyes and seemed to be pulling it towards her. Soon the distance between the objects was reduced to a step. The girl stretched out her leg, bent at the knee, and stopped the train with her hoof-like boot.