Mausoleum of Nature

The girl with the headphones on her head pushed off from Itinit's palm, did a somersault in the air, and then landed on the path. The purple aura around her disappeared.

Itinit's ability to think returned. He immediately noticed the girl's chest, which was swaying after landing.

"What big ones she has," this was the guy's first thought. "How can she fly with them?"

A small purple bow with an energy bowstring of the same color appeared in the girl's hands. She pointed it at Itinit, after which a white and blue electric arrow appeared there.

"You touched me," the archer said menacingly. "Only my older brother can touch me! You are not my older brother."

"You are right," Itinit replied. "I am not your elder brother."

The archer drew her bowstring.

"I am your uncle," Itinit continued. "My name is Itinit."

The girl opened her mouth, but could not say anything. The bow in her hands disappeared.

“Your name is Unana,” Itinit continued. “You live with your older brother in a neighboring village, which is almost abandoned.”

“Where from...” Unana was finally able to say something.

“I’ve been following you for a long time. Your father asked me to do this.”

Unana fell to her knees. The girl was breathing heavily and looking at Itinit.

“Do you know dad?” Unana asked.

“I knew it once,” Itinit answered. “I haven’t seen him for a long time. He is still my older brother.”

“How is Yueret?”

“Yes.”

Unana stood up. The girl was no longer afraid of this man, as she felt that they had something in common.

"You must be unhappy without your brother," Unana suggested.

"Um...," Itinit answered. "I haven't seen him much. He's much older than me."

Unana looked at her uncle with a sad look. It seemed that she would soon cry.

"How old are you?" the archer asked.

“Twenty-five or twenty-six,” Itinit answered. “I don’t remember exactly.”

“Almost like Yueret. He's twenty-four. You're a little older than him, although you're his uncle. And your memory is bad.”

“Yes, people's memory is not very good these days. There is too much information, and the brain has limited space.”

Soon Itinit and Unana were already sitting on a log that remained from one of the houses. Kimchan was hiding in the bushes in the form of a puppy and spying on them from there.

“Why did dad leave?” Unana asked. “Did he tell you about this?”

“No,” Itinit answered. “He just came to me and told me to look after you and your brother. Then I started watching you.”

“You're lying.”

“No. He didn't tell me anything about it. I myself am trying to find him and understand why he left.”

“And you didn't find anything?”

“Not yet. The world is huge, and there is too much information in it. And although it can be found online, it takes a lot of time.”

“Do you know anything about mom?”

“They most likely left together. That day, your father said that I should take care of you and Yueret, which means your mother was also gone then.”

Unana lowered her head. Tears fell on her chest. Itinit noticed this and stroked the girl's head. Unana noticed this and snuggled up to her uncle.

"That's what Yueret does when I cry," the girl remembered.

Itinit was thinking about something else. He felt something warm and soft, and then noticed a part of her breast that was sticking out from her top.

"She's like a pet," Itinit noted. “She’s so tender.”

Unana took off her headphones and then laid her head on Itinit's lap. Her breasts were no longer pressed against the guy's torso, but instead rested on his hips.

"Pet my head," Unana said. "Yueret always pets me."

Itinit had to do what the girl asked to calm her down. He had told her about her father himself, so he felt guilty about it.

Kimchan watched this scene from behind the bushes and, in surprise, took on an almost human form. The dog girl did not expect this from her creator.

"He used to pet only me and my older sister," Kimchan thought. "But now he's started doing this to a human. This is wrong. She doesn't even have ears on top of her head. I need to go to the creator and tell him about this."

Kimchan moved forward, but then stopped. There was a rustling sound in the leaves, which fortunately Itinit and Unana did not notice.

“I can’t,” the dog girl was trembling with fear. "The creator said that I shouldn't show myself to strangers. And the mistress said the same thing. If I go out, they'll notice me and do something to me."

***

The train was traveling on an energy bridge over a blue-gray sea. The shore of the mainland had already disappeared over the horizon, and the new one had not yet appeared.

Kyotyoryon watched all this from a chair in front of a panoramic window at the head of the train. The spirit of metal was so surprised by the sight of endless water that she could not look anywhere else.

"When will the water run out?" Kyotyoryon waited. "It's not running out. If it doesn't run out, I'll get off the train and cut it."

But she didn't have to leave the train. Soon the outlines of mountains appeared in the distance. Kyotyoryon felt that she wanted to go there and got up from her chair.

“Wait,” Ayika warned. “We haven’t gotten there yet. These are just silhouettes of mountains. It's still a long way to the Southern Continent itself.”

“What is this?” Kyotyoryon pointed at the front window. “Is it angry?”

“No. Continents are not evil or good. It's just land. It's a lot of land. You can walk on it, and under it, too, and through her…”

“I can’t go through the ground.”

“But I can. It's my special ability. My element is earth, so I can fall underground and hide there.”

“And go through the doors? I saw you go through doors.”

“Yeah. These are the same skill. It's called "Dark Exit."

“Is it because it's dark in the ground?”

“Yeah. But my eyes glow, so I can see underground.”

Kyotyoryon frowned and turned away.

“You’re lucky,” the spirit of metal said. “You can go underground, and then come out and strike unnoticed. But I can't do that.”

“You have other abilities,” Ayika said. “You can look at them in your interface. Maybe you'll find something interesting.”

“What is interface? The creator said something about it, but I didn't understand anything.”

“This is the screen that’s yours.”

“Is it mine? Is it made of my metal?”

“No. It is a reflection of the energy that the creature emits.”

“The creator did so,” Kyotyoryon ran her finger through the air.

A virtual screen appeared in front of the spirit of metal in a blue-green frame with many buttons with symbols of different colors on them.

"This is your interface," Ayika explained. "Press that round button in the center.”

“Press the big button?” Kyotyoryon asked.

“Yeah. It says "Skills" on it. Can you read?”

“I can a little. I don't know all the symbols.”

Kyotyoryon touched the largest round button in the middle of the screen with her index finger. Another window of the same size appeared on top of the screen, with many circles. Most of them were gray and dim, but some glowed brightly and had symbols. Between the circles were gray lines that connected the circles into a bird-like shape, with a head at the top, wings on the sides, and a tail at the bottom.

“This is the center of your skills,” Ayika explained. “It looks different for every creature. Yours looks like a bird, and the skills themselves are gray, perhaps because of the connection with metal.”

“I am the spirit of metal,” Kyotyoryon said.

“Yeah. This is also written here, from above. The characters from the “Mausoleum of Nature" are spirits that are created in virtual space from the reflection of the creator's energy, which enters the program and generates a new creature.”

Kyotyoryon, of course, did not understand anything, but she heard the mention of the creator and turned away.

“I don’t want to be something that comes from a creator,” the spirit of metal said.

“This is how the Mausoleum of Nature works,” Ayika explained. “This program can't generate a character from just anything. In order to get a character, a connection between it and its creator is needed. Therefore, a character always inherits part of its creator's abilities, albeit in a distorted form.”

Ayika approached the Kyotyoryon interface and began to examine it carefully.

"All the skills here are related to metal," Ayika noted. "You have weapon creation activated, combat form, “Clutch Claw”, and “Iron Wind Wings."

“Where is this skill?” Kyotyoryon pointed her finger at a dull grey circle that had no markings.

“These skills are not available. They haven't been activated yet. I can't even read their names. It looks like your creator has blocked them.”

“Then unlock them.”

“I can’t.” I don't have access to that account.”

“The creator hid my abilities from me so that I couldn’t cut her,” Kyotyoryon thought.

“If you want to know their name and description, then contact your creator.”

“No!”

… The blade from the Kyotyoryon bracelet appeared near Ayika’s face.

“I will not return to where there is nothing,” the spirit of metal said. “And you will not make me.”

“What persistence,” Ayika thought. “Someone was definitely trying to do something to her.”

Kyotyoryon looked out the front panoramic window. The silhouettes of the mountains were growing larger and more detailed here and there. The outlines of treetops appeared on the slopes. The train slowly rolled along the translucent energy bridge, as if on a rail, and gradually approached another continent.

"Soon?" Kyotyoryon asked. "I can't wait any longer.”

“Be patient a little longer,” Ayika answered. “We’re not going to a neighboring city, but to another continent.”

“It's a long time. This glowing road should have been built in another place.”

“This place has the shortest distance between the continents. Usually, the journey from one coast to another takes a very long time.”

“It's a long time. Why couldn't you fly there?”

“This method doesn't suit me. If I take a flying machine, it will be noticed. And I wanted to leave the Northern Continent unnoticed.”

The mountains grew even larger and began to become massively detailed. Treetops now covered many of the slopes, and the mountains themselves became blue-gray.

"The train is going too slowly," Kyotyoryon decided. “I need to make him go faster.”

The spirit of metal reached her foot to one of the walls. The train sped up.

“Don’t do that,” Ayika warned. “The train could go off the bridge and fall into the sea.”

Kyotyoryon didn’t want to fall into the water, so she moved her foot away from the wall. The train slowed down.

The end of the energy bridge appeared from the front window: on a peninsula, beyond which high mountains were visible. Their distant peaks were covered with white glaciers, and their slopes, with dark green forests.

The peninsula looked like a flat rock, rising high above the water and going far into the sea. From it to the coast led a narrow rocky road, similar to a bridge, but this time stone.

The stone platform was located on the edge of the peninsula, and seemed invisible from afar. The energy bridge ended in an opening right inside the rock.

The train slowed down and then stopped. Ayika walked to the front window, passed through it and found herself on a cliff. Then she turned around and looked at Kyotyoryon, who was sitting in a chair and looking at the fern forests on the coast. At that moment, the energy bridge under the train disappeared and it fell into the sea.

***

Large snowflakes slowly fell on the branches of the coniferous trees and turned them white and dark green. Some of them landed on the ears of the arctic fox girl, which stuck out from the holes in her hood.

Etinnei stood near a wooden bridge over a shallow canyon, at the bottom of which a river flowed that was not yet completely frozen. Ice floes were slowly carried away by the current and sometimes washed up on the narrow banks near the stone walls of the canyon.

Etinnei looked at the opposite end of the bridge, covered in ice. Behind it, a forest with frozen, pointed conifers that resembled statues was visible.

Etinnei took a step towards the bridge. The foot that didn't feel the cold emerged from under the snow, and then stepped on it again, but didn't go in completely, because it bumped into something.

Unfortunately, Etinnei's low sensitivity didn't allow her to understand what she had stepped on. Therefore, the Arctic fox girl took a step with her other foot...

Etinnei saw a gray sky in front of her. Snowflakes fell on the arctic fox girl's face, but didn't melt.

"Why is there a sky there?" Etinnei thought. "Did I fall?"

The arctic fox girl raised her head. Snowflakes fell from her face onto her white-blue jacket. Etinnei saw a small drift of snow in front of her, moving.

"There's something there," an icicle appeared from the arctic fox girl's sleeve. "I need to get out of here before it comes out."

Etinnei rose to her feet, but did not have time to escape. The snowdrift grew higher, and then exploded. The snow “attacked” the animal girl, but was stopped by a shield in the form of a white and blue snowflake, which covered her.

Etinnei looked out from behind the shield and noticed a purple mushroom cap with black horns, which were covered with blue-green lines.

"Is that a mushroom?" the Arctic fox girl became curious. "Is it edible?"

"Don't eat it," Etinnei heard a familiar voice. “You better eat my ice cream.”

The Arctic fox girl turned around and saw her brainmate in the air.

"Don't bother me, Minniges," Etinnei said. "I can decide for myself what to do."

“Ice cream tastes better than a mushroom,” the penguin replied. “It’s made of ice, so it’s better for you than a mushroom that the earth gave birth to. Ice is a part of you. The earth is not your element.”

“I’ve had ice cream before. It’s delicious, even though it’s not real. But now I want to try a mushroom. I’ve never had one.”

“Ice cream fits into your mouth better than a mushroom. It’s even shaped for that, but the mushroom’s cap gets in the way. It won’t fit in your mouth; it’s so big and has horns.”

“I can bite off a piece of it and break off the horns. I don’t have to eat it all.”

“But you don’t even know if it’s edible. What if it’s poisonous? Look at its color. It’s purple. That’s the color of poison.”

Etinnei looked up and saw a grey-purple sky, from which snowflakes were still falling.

"No. This is the color of an overcast sky. Like the one above us now. It is the color of air and pure energy."

Minniges did not answer. Etinnei opened her mouth, swallowed one of the snowflakes, licked her lips, and then looked towards the penguin, but he was no longer there.

"Is something bothering you?" a voice was heard from the side.

Etinnei turned to the source of the voice. Where there was a snowdrift, Sanachan stood in almost human form.

"I don't know what to do," Etinnei admitted. "Minniges tells me one thing, and I want another. My head is all mixed up."

"If only she knew what it was like to have a 'messed up head,'" Sanachan thought. "She only has a character in her head, while I have all the thoughts that exist in the world. They torture my brain every day, especially at night. I can't sleep. But others sleep instead of me."

“Choose what you want,” Sanachan answered. “The character in your brain is not you. It is another creature.”

“Minniges makes me doubt,” Etinnei looked at the snow.

“It looks like you’re not ready to get rid of it. I will not force you. But if you feel bad, fall asleep and I will come to you.”

... Etinnei woke up and saw Noru's face in front of her close-up. The dog girl looked at her friend and licked her lips periodically.

“What are you doing here?” Etinnei asked.

“I’m protecting you from your dinosaur friend,” Noru answered. “I’m still trying to wake you up. You've been sleeping for two days.”

Etinnei tried to get to her feet, but since she was not fully awake, she could only sit up. Around there were walls made of logs, with round windows built into them, and several wooden chairs.

“Two days?” Etinnei became worried. “Why so long?”

“I don’t know,” Noru began to wrap a strand of hair around her finger. “Maybe the mushroom spirit came to you in a dream and made you sleep for so long. That happens to me.”

Etinnei remembered a dream she had recently had.

"Did you have any scary dreams?" Noru leaned towards her friend. "Like an empty fridge or one filled with mushrooms instead of food?"

"No, nothing special," Etinnei replied. "I just talked to the mushroom spirit. Where is Tuot?"

Noru leaned back and then turned away. A small smile appeared on her face.