Mausoleum of Nature

Kimchan brought Unana to the fence, threw her off her back, and then took the form of a puppy.

“I hope this something will not haunt us,” Unana thought. “We have gone far. If the creature Kimchan spoke about comes here, Yueret might guess something. We can’t let Yueret know where we were.”

The puppy barked and ran into the yard. Unana followed him.

Fortunately for the sister, her brother was not at home. The archer came to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator and took a cake from there.

“I need to eat it while Kimchan is looking for Yueret,” Unana thought. “It’s big, but there should be enough room in my tummy.”

The archer put the cake on a low table, sat down on the floor, took a spoon from her inventory and began to eat. Halfway through the cake, she suddenly realized that she had run out of space in her stomach and that food would soon begin to fill her throat.

Unana laid down on the floor and stroked her belly with her hand.

“I couldn’t handle the cake,” the girl thought. “But nothing, I’ll rest and try again.”

Unana did not understand how much time had passed. When the space in her stomach began to free up and the girl was able to sit again, she discovered that there was nothing left of the cake.

“Kimchan,” the archer guessed. “Did she really come back so quickly?”

Unana crawled on her knees along the floor and noticed a brown dog tail peeking out from behind the refrigerator. The girl approached the most important place in the kitchen and noticed her pet in almost human form, sleeping in a ball on the floor.

“If it weren’t for my tummy full of food, I would have forced you to return my cake,” Unana thought. “Although, the two of us are protecting Yueret, she probably deserves her share too.”

***

The train arrived at the station on the lake shore. It was very reminiscent of the end station of the cable carriage, where the gazebo stopped. But instead of coniferous trees, tree ferns grew here.

“This is the place,” Tuot said. “We’ve already been here.”

“We returned to where we were going,” Itinit noted. “This train took us through the virtual landscapes of the Northern continent.”

Near Itinit, the sound of an incoming message was heard. The guy got up from the seat and walked towards the exit of the carriage.

“I have to go,” Itinit said. “Someone is calling me.”

“You can reply to the message here,” Tuot said.

“I can’t answer messages here,” Itinit explained. “The messenger does not work in this space. I will have to leave the residence.”

“Master, take me with you,” Noru looked worriedly at her creator.

Itinit looked at his character, and then turned his gaze to Tuot, who was looking out the window in fear.

“You can’t be with me,” Itinit explained. “You are accompanying this dinosaur and the Arctic fox girl. By the way, where is she?”

“She’s lost,” Noru bowed her head and looked at her tail, which hung over the seat.

“Today I will leave you without meat,” Itinit said. “You'll eat a dinosaur. It's big and tasty, I guess.”

Tuot immediately stopped looking out the window and jumped on the spot.

“Actually, dinosaurs eat dogs, not the other way around,” Noru objected.

“I was joking,” Itinit smiled. “You can't eat this dinosaur. He is my friend. Don't offend him and find the Arctic fox girl. It's time for me to go.”

The doors opened. Itinit exited the carriage onto the platform and found himself in the courtyard in front of the residence.

“Here is a message from Halankuo,” Itinit opened a virtual screen. “Did something happen to her character again?”

But the message said something else. Itinit read it and fell to his knees in surprise.

“Halankuo caught Taikuron,” Itinit was shocked. “What? I and Tuot couldn't catch him, but this girl, who has two skills and a wrench, somehow caught him. Maybe she was joking?”

Itinit's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of another message.

“I will send you Taikuron,” Halankuo wrote.

“No need,” Itinit answered almost instantly. “If transmitted over the network, he will be able to escape. Keep it in the “Mausoleum of Nature”. I’ll come and pick him up myself.”

***

Meanwhile, something strange happened in the carriage. The doors closed and the train went in the opposite direction.

“What's happening?” Tuot asked. “Why is the train going backwards?”

“It’s too early for us to go out,” Noru looked down and stroked her tail with her hand.

The train climbed the side of the crater, which was covered with tree ferns and large blue, green, pink and purple energy mushrooms. Then the rail turned sharply downward, and the train rolled down the slope towards the sea.

Tuot felt anxious. He was traveling on a train that does not actually exist and that is going to an unknown destination. The only thing that calmed the dinosaur a little was a cute dog girl who sat on the opposite row of seats and carefully stroked her own tail.

The train reached the bay and drove across the water. The mountains, covered with forests of tree ferns with dark spots of coniferous trees, moved further and further from the window and visually became smaller.

“Don’t look out the window,” Tuot heard the dog girl’s voice.

The dinosaur turned around and saw Noru, who was sitting in her previous place, but now covering her eyes with her hands.

“Why?” Tuot asked.

“We are forbidden to see where the Island of Energy Mushrooms is located,” answered the dog girl. “This is a secret place. Nobody knows how to get here.”

“But this is an artificial space. This is not a real island.”

“Not real?”

Noru was surrounded by a fiery aura. The dog girl removed her hands from her face, but her eyes remained closed.

“These are the memories of the spirit of mushroom,” Noru explained. “This island is shown as it once was.”

“The trees on it are different.”

“Yup. Previously, this island was located in a different place. It was warmer there, so ferns grew there. But then the island began to drift north, and coniferous trees appeared on it.”

“Is that possible?”

The fiery aura around Noru became larger and brighter, but for some reason it had no effect on the wooden seats.

“You’re a stupid dinosaur,” the dog girl said. “The spirit of the mushrooms has a skill that can move pieces of land.”

“Uh...” Tuot’s jaw dropped.

The island remained far beyond the horizon. The fiery aura around Noru disappeared. The dog girl opened her eyes and saw a dinosaur looking at her with his mouth open.

“He wants to eat me,” Noru was afraid. “The Arctic fox girl said that he doesn’t eat dogs, but suddenly this doesn’t apply to dog spirits like me?”

The dog girl looked at the dinosaur with her eyes bulging in fear, and the dinosaur looked at her with his mouth open in surprise. None of them knew what to do next, so they did nothing.

In this form, Tuot and Noru arrived at the station in the middle of a deciduous forest. The doors opened and a large blue energy mushroom jumped into the carriage. The end of his hat reached the level of Tuot's belly.

The mushroom made several jumps, after which it stood between Tuot and Noru. The dinosaur and the dog girl were distracted from each other and turned their attention to the new passenger.

Inside the translucent mushroom cap was a miniature Arctic fox girl, curled up in a ball. Tuot and Noru immediately recognized her as Etinnei.

The mushroom cap began to sway left and right, and then stretched upward and almost reached the ceiling...

... An explosion occurred. The carriage was filled with blue energy, from which the windows flew out, and then returned to their place intact. Noru and Tuot were carried to the ceiling, and then returned to their original places.

The mushroom was gone, and so was the blue energy. In his place stood a girl in a rubber purple dress from the shoulders to the middle of the thighs, in stockings of the same color and boots. On her head was a large purple hat, from under which strands of blue hair hung.

Above the hat, from which two black horns with blue energy veins protruded, Etinnei’s body “hung”, curled up in a ball and surrounded by a purple aura. The arctic fox girl's eyes were closed, her tail covered the lower part of her face, and in her hands she was holding a purple energy mushroom, which was the source of the aura.

Tuot recovered a little from the shock and stood up from the seat. A short curved sword appeared in one hand, and on the elbow of his other hand a small purple semicircular shield with a black symbol appeared.

“What did you do with Etinnei?” the dinosaur asked.

The girl in the hat looked at Tuot with blue glowing eyes. The dinosaur felt terrified and automatically became covered in a green energy aura.

“Nothing,” the girl answered. “It’s too early for her to extract the character from her brain.”

“You…” Tuot began, but was unable to continue due to fear.

The dinosaur remembered that he had seen this creature somewhere, but did not remember where exactly.

“This is the spirit of mushrooms, Sanachan,” Noru finished. “This is her other form, almost human.”

“Like the characters from the program?” Tuot asked. “I forgot what it’s called...”

“Mausoleum of Nature,” Sanachan continued. “Yes, I'm a character. I saw you somewhere, but I don’t remember where.”

The spirit of mushrooms touched the edge of the hat and pulled it aside, as if it were rubber.

“It seems like it was a dream,” Sanachan said. “But I can’t remember anything else. And I also dreamed about this arctic fox girl.”

At that moment, Tuot remembered where he saw this creature...

... The dinosaur entered the train carriage. A purple hat with two black horns peeked out from behind the wooden seat. Tuot felt both fear and surprise.

“What is this?” a thought flashed through the dinosaur’s head, but immediately dissolved in the brain.

The hat rose slightly above the seat. Now pair of blue glowing eyes were looking at Tuot.

The dinosaur tried to move, but he couldn't. Even the aura did not appear, although usually it would activate automatically.

The hat and eyes hid behind the seat. Tuot already thought that he had imagined it, but then he saw how the edge of a blue rubber dress appeared from the side from behind the seat, along with part of the thigh.

“These are mushrooms with meat,” this thought made the dinosaur wake up...

... Tuot “returned” to the carriage. The spirit of mushrooms sat on the seat in the same position in which she was in the dream. One of her legs, covered by the edge of a blue rubber dress, hung from the seat, and half of her face with a blue glowing eye looked at Tuot. Etinnei was lying on the opposite row of seats next to Noru. The energy mushroom was no longer in her hands.

“I often dream,” the spirit of mushrooms continued. “There are many different places and characters. Sometimes they come in the form of stories, sometimes in the form of pictures. I'm already used to it and watch them like videos.”

“You...” Tuot said. “I saw you in my dream.”

The mushroom girl touched the headdress with her hands from opposite sides. The middle of the hat swelled and caused the horns to move.

“It’s because of my antennas,” the spirit of mushrooms explained. “They transmit these dreams to different creatures in the world.”

“Do these dreams appear in your brain on their own?” Tuot asked.

The mushroom girl let go of her hat and laid her head on the edge of the seat. The middle of the hat returned to its original position and the horns stopped moving.

“I don’t know where they come to me from,” Sanachan answered. “I tried to track it down, but I couldn’t find out much. Maybe you can help me?”

Tuot tried to understand what the mushroom girl said, but could not.

“You’re saying something strange,” the dinosaur admitted. “Strange things are happening here. This is too much for me.”

“So the signal hasn’t reached your brain yet,” Sanachan said. “I’ll have to send it in a dream.”

The train arrived at a station near the lake. This time, instead of tree ferns, there were coniferous trees growing there.

“So your journey has ended,” the spirit of mushrooms looked out the window. “We’ll meet again, dinosaur.”

The spirit's body turned blue and translucent, and then burst. The carriage was filled with blue energy, which pushed all the creatures in it out...

Tuot, Etinnei and Noru found themselves in front of the entrance to the residence. The dinosaur and the dog girl stood on their feet, and the arctic fox girl lay on the black and gray volcanic paving stones.

“Where is the train?” Tuot tried to comprehend what happened.

“What?” Noru looked at the dinosaur in surprise. “There was no train. This is an illusion inside the residence.”

“That's right. But everything was so real there.”

“You need to rest. You can go to the hot springs while you're at the volcano.”

Tuot looked at Noru, who was stroking her own tail due to inactivity, and imagined her and Etinnei chest-deep in water.

“Am I really going to be in the same pool with such cute characters?” the dinosaur couldn’t believe it.

“The hot springs are there,” Noru pointed to the side. “If you don’t find it, you can ask the head in the bubble. And I will take the Arctic fox girl into the house.”

“Won't you come with me?” Tuot was surprised.

“Eh? Why should I go with you?”

The dog girl looked angrily at the dinosaur and showed part of her front teeth.

“Because you are an animal girl,” Tuot answered.

Noru caught fire, after which a fireball appeared above her head, which gradually increased in size.

“No need, he is good,” Etinnei’s voice was heard from behind the dog girl.

Noru turned around and saw the Arctic fox girl, who was kneeling and yawning.

“He said that...” Noru began.

“I heard,” Etinnei joyfully looked at the dog girl and began wagging her tail. “Let’s go to the hot springs together. I want to know how hot they are. If they are too hot, I will cool them down.”

The fire around Noru and the ball disappeared. Noru looked down. Her tail dropped down.

“Sorry,” the dog girl said. “I was wrong. If you think we should go to the hot springs with this dinosaur, I agree. Only he will sit in a cage like a bird.”

“It’s difficult for a bird to sit in a cage,” Etinnei scratched the arctic fox’s ear with her foot. “I don’t know if Tuot can stand it. He's good; he just really likes girls with ears and tails.”

Noru looked at Tuot. The dinosaur trembled with all its limbs, as if it was proving the words of its girlfriend.

“Okay, we’ll go together,” Noru agreed. “I just need to take my master. He will protect me. I wonder where he went.”

Noru opened the virtual screen and wrote a message to Itinit.

“While he answers, I will take you to the hot springs,” the dog girl said.

Noru led Tuot and Etinnei from the wooden “fortress” to the shore of the lake, where the gazebo moored. Now she wasn't there.

“The creator stole the carriage,” Noru noted. “He left somewhere again. I need to catch up with him.”

“Why do you think it’s him?” Etinnei asked. “This house can’t fly wherever it wants?”

But Noru did not hear the Arctic fox girl’s words. She activated her fiery aura and took off like a comet. Tuot and Etinnei were left alone on the shore of the lake.

“How to find hot springs now?” Tuot looked around, but did not find any buildings except those that were behind the palisade.

Etinnei craned her head and sniffed the air in front of her.

“It smells like water here,” the Arctic fox girl noted. “But it is different from ordinary water in rivers and lakes.”

Etinnei came closer to the water and stumbled upon something solid and invisible.

“There’s something here,” the Arctic fox girl said.

“Don’t touch it!” Tuot shouted.

But it was too late. Etinnei stood on all fours and touched an invisible object with her hand.

“It’s soft and moves on its own,” the animal girl said. “But it doesn’t smell.”

The object in Etinnei's hand began to take shape. It turned out to be an energy mushroom with a blue leg and a purple cap, which “grew” on the shore of the lake.

“It's a mushroom!” Etinnei screamed with joy. “It is of different colors. I wonder what it tastes like. I haven’t tried these mushrooms yet, I’ve only touched them.”

“Don’t do this...” Tuot tried to stop his friend, but again he didn’t have time.

Etinnei tilted her head towards the mushroom cap and closed her eyes. The Arctic fox girl's lips met with vibrating energy...

… Etinnei was thrown towards the gate. The mushroom cap changed color from purple to orange.

A stream of steam escaped from the lake, which then dissolved into the air. Bubbles appeared on the surface of the water. The lake was gradually enveloped in a fog of vapor.