Mausoleum of Nature

Tuot stopped in the middle of the street, saw an open door and ran inside the building. The dinosaur found itself inside a cave-like cafe with stone tables, seats, columns and “icicles” on the ceiling.

At one of the tables sat a man wearing a gray jacket with a hood and holding a glass of green liquid in his hand.

Tuot felt scared, but he could not move.

“Don’t be afraid, I don’t eat birds,” the man said.

The man's voice seemed familiar to Tuot. The dinosaur realized that this situation would not end well and tried to leave. But when turning back, he could not stay on his feet and fell to the floor.

“Toot, is that you?” a voice came from the depths of the hall.

“It’s me,” the dinosaur answered. “I don’t need to do anything!”

Tuot rose to his feet and looked at the man who was sitting with his back to him. Apparently, he identified the dinosaur by sound.

“You once took some money from me in a game,” the man said. “And you didn’t return it. For this I wanted to kill you. ”

“This is virtual money,” Tuot objected.

“Yes, but they can be used in the real world. You are my friend, that's why I didn't kill you. ”

Suddenly the fear left Tuot. The dinosaur recalled this man.

“Are you Itinit?” Tuot asked, although he knew the answer to this question.

The man turned around. Tuot saw his face, brown hair that peeked out from under the hood, and was now sure that this was his friend.

“It’s strange that you still remember my name,” Itinit said. “I haven’t been in Yenekit for over a year.”

“When they joke about my memory, for some reason I don’t feel offended,” Tuot thought.

“Do you know what’s happening in the city now?” Itinit asked.

“There’s a penguin with antennas on its head and a doll,” Tuot answered. “And there are no local residents”.

“Do you know why they aren’t there?

“No. I can guess though. Is the penguin with antennas on its head somehow related to their disappearance?”

“Yes. How do you know? ”

“I saw him in the village the day Halankuo’s parents disappeared. Then all the local residents disappeared, except me, Halankuo and a few other people.”

“The penguin with antennas on his head is called Taikuron. You probably won't remember his name, but just know that he has a name.”

“He talks to me as if I’m stupid,” Tuot thought. “But I’m not stupid.”

“Taikuron can extract the data of living beings from their bodies, which causes living beings to disappear,” Itinit continued. “To do this, he takes control of creatures using signals that come from his brain through the antennae on his head. I think the local residents who disappeared will be restored within a month after their memory cards are found.”

“Haven’t they all disappeared?” Tuot asked.

“You and Halankuo, for example, stayed. But there are few of them. These are mainly children, who are usually not affected by the signal due to the fact that their brains are not yet developed. The signal affects different creatures differently. It depends on the level of feelings. When a creature's level of feeling changes dramatically, the signal can take control of it. I have been studying signals that can control creatures for many years. For this I traveled a lot around the world. I recently returned from the coast of the continent”.

“It is far?”

“Yes, it’s very far from here, on the opposite end of the continent. Sorry I haven't written to you for so long. I have lost access to my account. And when I created a new one, I couldn’t find your account on the network.”

Itinit swiped his finger through the air and summoned a virtual map. It depicted two large pieces of land in yellow – one in the northern part of the map, and the other in the southern part. The rest of the map was occupied by water – it was indicated in blue. Water spaces separated small areas of land – islands.

Tuot sat down on a chair on the opposite side of the table to better see the map. Itinit touched a piece of land at the top of the screen; it began to increase in size and soon occupied the entire map.

“This is the Northern continent,” Itinit said. “We live on it. I hope you haven't forgotten this”.

“I remember something like that,” Tuot answered. “Only two civilized species of animals live on the Northern continent – humans and dinosaurs. And there are no people on the Southern Continent because they died out there”.

“You remember something. I already thought that when I return, I will have to teach you from scratch”.

Itinit pressed his finger on the Northern continent. This section of the map has been zoomed in and detailed. Models of mountains, plains, rivers, lakes and cities appeared on it.

“I studied how local robots are made,” Itinit said. “They are not like ours there. Local robots can fly and swim.”

Itinit summoned a virtual screen and showed Tuot a photo of the robots. One robot looked like a cross between a boat and a log; the other looked like a tree with many branches.

“But the purpose of my trip was not only robots,” Itinit continued. “I saw a creature that was transferred from the virtual world to the real world”.

“I saw it too,” Tuot thought. “And now I know that there is nothing good in this.” It can only drag me by the tail.”

“For some reason you weren’t surprised. Shall I show you a photo of this creature?”

An image of a girl with long brown hair appeared on the screen. On the top of her head were dog ears covered in brown fur. The outfit was a sleeveless black fur dress that started in the middle of her large breasts and ended in the middle of her thick hips. There are black fur bracelets on the arms and legs.

Tuot opened his mouth in surprise and accidentally showed the sharp rows of his teeth.

“Do you like her?” Itinit smiled.

Tuot looked out the window and then at the screen.

“No, it’s a different species,” the dinosaur answered. “I'm not like that.”

In fact, in Tuot’s room, almost all the walls were occupied by virtual posters with images of similar girls.

“It’s a mixture of man and dog,” Itinit said. “In our world, the appearance of such creatures is impossible. But in the virtual world this is reality. It sounds strange, of course.”

“Where did you see this creature?” the dinosaur asked.

“She was in the database of the library of one city on the coast of the Northern continent.”

“I thought you saw them live and took these pictures.”

“Unfortunately, I did not see these creatures. These photographs are many years old. Where they were made and by whom are unknown. ”

Itinit touched the model of the city on the bay. The map section was further detailed. A three-dimensional map of the city appeared with streets, blocks and a central square in the middle. Along the shore of the bay there is a strip of land occupied by forest and a port with ships and cranes stationed there. From the north, a gray line – the railway – entered the port from the land side. On this line, on the outskirts of the city, there was a station with a long platform and a large stone station.

“This city is called Tohsonun,” Itinit said. “It is the largest on this coast of the mainland. Even the train station here is made of stone, not wood”.

Tuot opened his mouth again in surprise.

“Are train stations made of stone? “ the dinosaur couldn’t believe it.

“Yes,” Itinit smiled. “There are many amazing things in the world. You can't even imagine how diverse the world is.”

Tuot looked out the window. From there was a view of the places where the dinosaur had walked for many years. A narrow street paved with red- gray stones. The houses on this street had red roofs and colorful walls, near which crooked deciduous trees grew. It was not far from this place to his house. The dinosaur lived in the next block on the same street, only straight, tall coniferous trees grew there. The city consisted of six small blocks, built up with two-story and three-story houses. On its outskirts there was a river that separated residential areas from the railway station. The city was so small that even Tuot remembered every street.

During the time that Tuot spent in this city, he visited its surroundings, and had a rough idea of what this part of the world looks like. But Tuot knew what the rest of the world was like only from pictures and videos on the network. The dinosaur was interested in what cities, rivers, mountains, and forests looked like in other places, and was especially interested in whether animal girls actually lived there.

“How did you get there?” Tuot asked.

“I went by train,” Itinit answered.

“How long does it take to get there?

“A few days.”

“So much?”

“Do you know the size of our continent?”

“No.”

“I don’t know either. But it's very big. It's hard to imagine, but it's true.”

Tuot thought about it. For the first time he wanted to go somewhere. The distant coast of the continent seemed mysterious, but the long road there scared him away.

“Is it possible to get there faster?” Tuot asked.

“It’s possible,” Itinit answered. “In our world there are flying machines. One of these things can fit several people. You can get from here to the coast on it in less than a day. Taking into account additional refueling, of course. A flying machine has a small fuel tank, so they cannot fly such a long distance without replenishing fuel.”

Tuot opened his mouth, but this time with joy. And again he showed his sharp teeth.

“Don’t be happy,” Itinit said. “Flying on such a vehicle is very expensive. And there are none in this city. He's too small. Therefore, we have two options - either by train for about two days with a transfer at one station, or by ship with several transfers. ”

“The ships are very slow,” Tuot said. “And they can make you feel sick. And I can't stand on my feet well.”

“Do you want to go to the coast?”

“I want to, but I doubt that I’ll get there alive.”

“Are you so impressed by the girl with ears and a tail?”

“No!” Tuot’s limbs and head began to tremble. “I do not like them.”

“Even if you like them, I don’t blame you.”

Tuot felt uneasy. The dinosaur looked around and then tried to hide under the table. Itinit got up from the table, looked at the city map and saw a yellow dot on it that was quickly moving along one of the streets.

“It looks like he’s close,” Itinit said.

“Who?” Tuot asked.

“Taikuron,” Itinit answered. “His signal had an effect on you. It's good that you were just scared.”

”Is the door closed?”

”Closed. But that won't help. Taikuron can pass through walls and doors. ”

Tuot looked at the locked front door. He expected to see part of the penguin's body come through the door. The dinosaur's heart was shaking like never before, and this made its limbs tremble more than usual.

... Two metal antennas with transparent balls appeared from the ceiling above the central part of the hall. Itinit noticed this, closed the map and the screen, and then summoned a virtual joystick in the shape of a circle. After pressing several buttons, the area around the table was surrounded by a blue translucent energy barrier. The virtual joystick has disappeared.

A penguin's head appeared from the ceiling. The balls on its antennas turned red.

“What did you do?” Tuot asked from under the table.

“I created a barrier so as not to be exposed to Taikuron’s signal,” Itinit answered. “And so that you don’t be afraid.”

Tuot crawled out from under the table. Taikuron had completely emerged from the ceiling and was now floating in the air. Two blue translucent energy balls with lights inside appeared around Itinit. They flew chaotically around their summoner before leaving the barrier and flying towards Taikuron.

The table standing near Taikuron rose up and covered the creature. But the balls went around the obstacle and headed towards the target.

The penguin looked at one of the balls, and it stopped in the air. The second ball attacked the enemy from behind, but Taikuron was able to dodge. The second ball collided with the first. There was an explosion. Sparks flew in different directions and then disappeared. The hall filled with smoke.

A blue energy ball with a snowflake inside appeared near Itinit, and then flew towards the enemy and disappeared into the smoke...

... The smoke gradually cleared. Taikuron's head, covered with a layer of ice, hung down from the ceiling like antennas.

“He climbed into the ceiling and left only his head outside so that the freezing ball could be aimed at him,” Itinit guessed. “If he climbed all the way into the ceiling, the ball would not see the target and would remain near the ceiling.”

The ice layer was destroyed by lightning that appeared between the Taikuron antennas. Then the penguin climbed out of the ceiling, turned upside down and began to float in the air in the middle of the hall.

“He’s too unbalanced,” Itinit thought. “He avoids even homing skills. What to attack him with?”

A small ball of electricity appeared in front of Taikuron, surrounded by lightning that appeared and disappeared.

“He uses the power of thought to create electric balls,” Itinit turned to Tuot. “Summon the lizard.”

“For what?” the dinosaur could not understand.

“This skill can destroy a barrier. Without it, we will be influenced by its signal. Therefore, you need to prevent him from applying this effect with the help of your lizard.”

“A small purple semicircular shield with a black symbol appeared on one of Tuot's arms, near the elbow.”

Tuot touched the claw on his upper paw to the symbol on the shield. A white luminous silhouette of a creature up to half human height appeared in front of the dinosaur...

... The silhouette turned into a yellow lizard with a short tail, which stood on its hind legs.

Several small electric balls appeared around Taikuron. The lightning around them united into one network and surrounded the summoner.

“I didn’t think I’d see this,” Itinit noted. “He is now using a skill that can extract the data of beings from their bodies. Use the lizard.”

A yellow aura appeared around the lizard, from which waves of yellow energy spread in different directions. The barrier around Itinit and Tuot began to blink, but this did not last long. After a wave of yellow energy from the lizard, the barrier returned to normal.

“A little more and the barrier would have disappeared,” Itinit looked at the barrier wall. “And then we would be left without protection from the signal.”

“I didn’t think that this lizard would be useful to me,” Tuot said. “I once learned this skill by accident, and then forgot about it. It removes negative effects and prevents them from being applied.”

At some distance from the electrical network around Taikuron, clots of lightning began to appear, which gradually turned into balls. Lightning bolts flew from them to the old balls, but then disappeared.

“It looks like he doesn’t have enough energy to expand the electrical network,” Itinit noted. “It looks like he’s spent a lot of energy recently.”

The distant balls again became clots of lightning and then disappeared. The balls on Taikuron's antennas turned purple.

“The color of the light bulbs on his antennas has changed,” Itinit noted. “He is trying to maintain the existing network, so he concentrates energy in his head.”

The lightning between the balls became thinner and gradually disappeared. The lights on Taikuron's antennas turned red, then purple again, but after a few moments they lost color. The electric balls turned into small, barely noticeable clots of lightning, and then disappeared. Taikuron closed his eyes and fell to the floor.

Itinit summoned a virtual screen. The barrier began to blink, and soon disappeared into thin air. Itinit brought his finger to the button with the image of a sphere, but did not have time to press it. Taikuron's body instantly disappeared.

“What?” Itinit was surprised. “He spent the last of his energy teleporting. I wanted to catch him, but he ran away. ”

The lizard stopped generating energy waves and then disappeared.

“He will return?” the dinosaur asked.

“Definitely not in the near future,” Itinit answered. “Taikuron has spent a lot of energy, and to restore it he needs a lot of time, probably more than a month. So don't be afraid. Go home.”

Tuot's limbs were still trembling. But despite this, the dinosaur went outside and looked around.

It was very quiet outside. Tuot walked along the red-gray paving stones to his house, opened the entrance doors and walked up the stone stairs. The door to the apartment was not locked. The dinosaur entered the corridor and saw Halankuo lying face down on the floor.