Mausoleum of Nature

One of the trees tore itself out of the ground by its roots and threw Sitihi aside, saving Ikte's neck. The doll with the weapon in the form of a head had to land and stick a shovel into the ground, and then fall into it.

The wind gradually died down. The torn out trees returned to their place. Ikte sank to the ground and opened her eyes. Sitihi emerged from the ground and tried to strike the neck with the shovel again, but did not have time. The red-haired doll's head turned back very quickly and stopped the blade of the shovel with her gaze.

Sitihi was thrown into the ferns. Ikte's head returned to its original position, after which she began to look for the spirit of metal.

“Why is she nowhere?” Ikte thought. “She was here.”

An arrow whistled. Ikte looked up and noticed several metal darts that were rapidly approaching her. The doll had to deflect them with lightning bolts from her hand.

“She's hiding somewhere,” Ikte guessed. “She's deliberately trying not to show herself so that I don't take control of her.”

A short metal spear flew out of the forest thicket and almost reached the doll's head. Ikte was able to stop it at the last moment.

A purple aura surrounded the doll, and it flew up. In front of her was a view of a large deciduous fern forest and part of the coast.

“This will make it harder for her to attack me,” Ikte thought. “Although she can't be seen from here either, so I won't be able to capture her with my gaze.”

But the doll was wrong. A metal blade appeared next to her and cut off a lock of hair. Ikte looked at it and then threw it towards the sea.

“She can create weapons anywhere,” Ikte guessed. “She doesn't need to see me to do it. It's as if the weapon itself senses where the enemy is and aims at it.”

At this time, the metal train with the wooden carriage had already arrived at the place that Kyotyoryon had indicated. The spirit of metal jumped on it, opened the hatch and tried to get there, but something pulled her in the other direction.

It was a green energy harpoon that attacked from behind the trees. Kyotyoryon tried to cut the harpoon with the blades from the bracelets on her hands, but they simply passed through it.

The harpoon pulled the character off the train, but was then cut off by a blue beam of light. Kyotyoryon noticed a Sitihi with a weapon head, whose eyes and mouth were glowing blue.

“Run away,” the doll suggested. “I’ll deal with him.”

Kyotyoryon looked around. The harpoon had not appeared again.

“You’re not evil,” the spirit of metal looked at Sitihi. “Come with me.”

“I can’t,” the doll answered.

“Why?”

Sitihi tried to say something, but she was interrupted by several energy feathers that flew out from behind the ferns. A blue energy ball emerged from the weapon head's mouth, which soon turned into a round energy barrier. The feathers hit him and disappeared.

“If you stay here, they'll take you,” Sitihi said. “I don't know what they need you for, but you definitely don't want to go there.”

“Yes...” Kyotyoryon looked at the ground, which was covered in sparse grass and moss.

“Then go. It will soon be too late.”

Kyotyoryon suddenly realized that this doll was not as bad as it seemed at first sight. The spirit of metal did not want to part with this creature, with whom she had only recently become well acquainted.

“Why am I being forced to do this?” Kyotyoryon thought. “I cannot decide for myself what to do. I am too weak. I need to become strong to decide. Then I can be with this doll. She is not evil. She is good.”

“I will return to you,” Kyotyoryon promised. “We will meet again.”

Sitihi didn't answer. She didn't think this character's intentions would come true. She didn't even understand why she was trying to protect a creature she had only recently met.

Kyotyoryon jumped onto the roof of the train, lowered her feet into the hatch, and looked at Sitihi once more. The doll stood surrounded by an energy barrier and looked around. At some point, she accidentally met Kyotyoryon's gaze and realized why she was trying to protect her.

“Little sister,” Sitihi thought. “I couldn't protect you that time.”

For the first time since Sitihi became a doll, she felt something. It was a long-forgotten feeling that made a living being afraid and act. The doll's eyes became lifelike, human, for a moment, and even blinked.

But this state did not last long. An energy harpoon flew out from behind the trees, and Sitihi had to cut it again with a beam from the weapon-head's eye. Kyotyoryon hid in the train, after which the hatch cover closed. The train silently went along the only rail deep into the forest.

Sitihi looked around. The forest was silent, as if no one was there. But after a few moments, there was a cracking of branches and someone's footsteps. Sitihi fired two energy beams from her weapon head's eyes.

A heart-rending cry, similar to a bird's, was heard. An armored dinosaur, surrounded by a purple aura, rose above the trees. Sitihi noticed it and fired two more beams, but missed. The dinosaur noticed the attack and sent a clot of wind in response.

Sitihi stuck the shovel into the ground and fell in. A clot of wind reached one of the tree ferns and blew it up along with the surrounding trees.

At this time, Ikte hovered above the forest and tried to see the enemy. Finally, she noticed something moving between the trees and dropped down to the treetops.

The doll flew to where the object was moving. Soon it left the forest and headed along the sandy seashore. The object turned out to be a train with a metal locomotive and a wooden carriage.

Ikte flew towards him, but suddenly felt her strength leaving her. The purple aura around her began to flicker, and would soon disappear.

“Ustumut was right,” Ikte thought. “Even if this is the same metal creature, I no longer have the strength to pursue it.”

The doll closed her eyes and then sank to the ground between the trees, her aura dissolving into thin air.

***

Itinit led Halankuo into the forest, where in the middle of a clearing stood a covered boat with windows, four metal wings on the sides and a long tail.

“This is…” Halankuo froze in surprise. “This is a real metal bird! It's so big.”

“This is the simplest flying machine,” Itinit explained. “They can be bigger.”

“That thing won't fly. It takes too much energy.”

“You can't fool me. You're too good with technology.”

Halankuo blushed and turned away.

“It’s as if ten people looked at me at once,” the girl thought. “It’s good that there’s no one else here except him and me.”

But Itinit paid no attention to his friend. He noticed the voices coming from the flying machine and approached it to hear them better.

“This is not possible.”

“No, that’s not possible. But you can do it this way.”

Itinit looked through the window on the side of the flying machine and saw two dolls with green and purple hair, respectively, standing in front of an open blue virtual lock and trying to enter something into the text field.

“This is transport,” Itinit said. “Animals are not allowed.”

The dolls looked away from the castle and turned their attention to the new creature. They did not notice Halankuo, who was far away from them, having hidden behind the trees shortly before.

“You are an animal, I am Aibi,” the green-haired doll introduced herself.

“I’m Suturu,” the doll with purple hair introduced herself. “We want to open this thing. Does it fly?”

“Yes,” Itinit answered. “But I fly on this thing. Why don't you take the train?”

“I wanted to, but they didn’t let me in,” Suturu answered.

“They didn’t let me in either,” Aibi repeated.

“They told me that beings with colored hair are not allowed on the train,” Suturu continued.

“They also said, 'Maybe you're dolls?'” Aibi finished.

“Aren't you dolls?” Itinit asked. “Only dolls have hair that color.”

“I'm a fighting doll,” Suturu agreed.

“I'm a fighting doll, too, only better than this one,” Aibi said.

“Why are you better?” Itinit asked.

“I'm a newer doll,” Aibi explained. “Suturu is a little older than me.”

“Some stupid dolls I met,” Itinit guessed mentally. “They must have had their brains heavily modified. I wouldn't be surprised if they can't read or write.”

“We want to fly to find one creature,” Suturu said.

“Where?” Itinit asked.

“Up,” Suturu pointed her finger at the sky. “Maybe that creature is flying there, but it’s invisible from here.”

“These are strange dolls,” Itinit thought. ”I should show them to Myuryuri. There's definitely something wrong with them.”

Itinit opened the inventory of the “Mausoleum of Nature”. Next to the cell that contained the Taikuron model, there were several more empty cells.

“There's not much room in this thing,” Itinit said. “You better get in here.”

The dolls looked at each other, and then tilted their heads first one way, then the other.

“I agree,” Suturu said.

“I agree even more than Suturu,” Aibi said.

Two blue translucent energy balls emerged from the cells.

“These balls will fly to you,” Itinit said. “Try to burst them.”

The balls slowly approached the dolls. Suturu was the first to point her finger at one of them and disappeared. A clot of blue energy appeared inside the ball, which soon turned into a smaller copy of the doll's head.

Aibi noticed this and repeated her sister's action. Soon, her smaller copy of the head also appeared inside the ball.

The balls returned to the screen. Next to the cell with the Taikuron model, cells with the models of Suturu and Aibi appeared.

Halankuo, who was hiding behind the trees, approached Itinit.

“What did you do?” the girl asked.

“I moved these dolls to the inventory,” Itinit said. “They're kind of strange. I need to study them.”

“Are you going to do something with them and Taikuron?”

“I'm not going to. But they could be useful to someone.”

Halankuo hesitated to tell her friend about the dolls who were looking for Taikuron. Although these creatures seemed similar to her, she was not sure that they were exactly them.

Itinit unlocked the door with a virtual lock and then opened it. Inside, next to a large black chair, a blue translucent virtual control panel with many buttons and a screen appeared.

“You'll have to wait for me,” Itinit looked at the chair. “I'll be back soon.”

Halankuo hoped that she would be able to fly on this metal bird, but she did not dare tell her friend about it.

“Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to fly this thing,” Itinit said. “I have very important business. Now you can interfere with me. Move away so that you don’t get hit by the wings.”

Halankuo returned to the edge of the clearing and felt a gust of wind. The flying machine flapped its wings and slowly rose above the forest.

“Here it is, the same metal bird that I was striving for,” the girl thought. “I created my character, but I never got to ride it.”

Halankuo looked at the flying machine, which rose upward with each flap of its wings, and her mouth opened in surprise. The girl remembered how, as a child, she tried to ride Tuot. The unfortunate dinosaur almost took off then...

“You don’t want to fly, birdie,” little Halankuo thought. “You're the wrong bird. The right birds fly.”

The girl looked at the frightened dinosaur, which had climbed onto the palisade, and was trying to stay on it.

“You've already climbed the fence,” Halankuo said. “So you can fly. Maybe I should throw you from the second floor or the roof?”

Tuot leaned back and was about to fall, but a green energy aura suddenly surrounded him. The dinosaur jumped to the ground at the last moment and landed on his feet, not on his back.

“What is this?” Halankuo was surprised.

The girl approached the pet and extended her hand to the aura. Halankuo's finger passed through the energy and touched one of the feathers.

“It's transparent,” the girl thought. “I wonder if it's edible.”

Halankuo didn't have time to try it. The aura began to shimmer, and then disappeared...

“How stupid I was,” twenty-year-old Halankuo thought, watching the flying machine in the sky. “I tried to do something that doesn't exist in the world. So I wanted to create a character. Of course, it didn’t look much like a bird, but I did it. I hoped to fly on Kyotyoryon’s back when she gained experience. But I didn’t think of her as a living being, just as I didn’t think of Tuot that way when I was a child. Tuot seemed like a living toy to me then. But I grew up and realized that he was my pet and my friend. I tried to get a non-living toy, so that at least it would be my bird that I could fly on. But I failed again. And now I saw a real non-living bird that doesn’t mind being flown on, but it also flew away from me.”

“If you want to fly, you can summon a purple aura,” a voice sounded in Halankuo's head.

“I can't even summon a normal blue aura. How do I activate a purple one?”

“The way you were able to move objects with your gaze.”

Halankuo opened the interface and entered the tab with skill icons. Among the round gray cells, one stood out, with a black silhouette of a man. Halankuo clicked on it, and the silhouette turned blue. Another cell immediately appeared under it, with the same silhouette, but black. Halankuo clicked on it, but nothing happened.

“You must first master the normal aura,” the voice explained. “The purple aura is formed when pure energy combines with air energy.”

“I don't know how to activate the aura,” Halankuo admitted. “Can it be summoned with the power of thought, like an electrical aura?”

“It activates itself when you are in danger. Then you can summon it with your imagination.”

Halankuo remembered Tuot, who was saved from falling off the fence by an energetic aura.

“Why do different conditions need to be met to master the skills?” Halankuo asked mentally. “Why is it so difficult?”

There was no answer. Halankuo watched the flying machine go, and then left the glade.

***

When Yueret fell asleep, Unana left the house and started looking for Kimchan. The girl was wearing a purple top that hung on her chest, short black shorts with large cutouts on her hips, and in her hands was a bow with a charged white and blue electric arrow.

“Where does this dog go?” Unana thought. Unana thought. “I'll teach it a lesson so it knows it can't show itself to Yueret like that.”

Kimchan was found behind the bushes, near one of the trees. She was sleeping in the form of a dog girl, curled up in a ball, and holding her own tail in her hands.

Unana pointed her bow at her pet and took aim.

“Where should I shoot?” the archer thought. “It doesn't hurt too much to shoot at the legs. It's scary to shoot at the head. And it's too... cruel to shoot at the tail...”

Unana's hands began to tremble. Soon the archer realized that she wouldn't be able to shoot.

The bow with the electric arrow disappeared into thin air. Unana looked at her pet's satisfied face and smiled.

“Maybe I should tickle her?” the girl thought.

Unfortunately for the pet, a place for tickling was quickly found. It was the dog-girl's heels, which were peeking out from under the fur bracelets. Unana quietly approached Kimchan, crouched down and stretched out her hand towards the target...

A plaintive dog groan was heard, but Kimchan did not wake up. Unana giggled, and then began to tickle the middle of her pet's foot.

A long bark was added to the groan. Kimchan stretched her head out, but her eyes remained closed.

“Au-au-uaau...” Kimchan said. “No need, little sister...”

“What?” Unana was surprised. “Does she have a sister?”

For a moment, Unana felt sorry for her pet, but the funny dog ​​moans in her sleep amused the girl and made her move on to something more.

The archer reached her other hand to the dog girl's other foot and began tickling the middle of her foot.

This time, something seemed to switch inside Kimchan. She was almost instantly covered in a fiery aura, and in a vertical position, she flew head first, like a comet.

Unana was no longer laughing. The girl looked at the leaves that were swirling in the air, and her hair and chest swayed along with them, as if expressing the feeling of confusion of their owner.