Halankuo woke up to the sound of water and saw a room with stone walls covered with lianas. Sunlight was coming in from some hole in the ceiling, hidden by the vegetation.
"Mom, where am I?"
"I don't know, but you better get out of here," the voice in the girl's head answered. "It could be dangerous here."
Halankuo noticed that she was lying on something covered with fern leaves and tried to get up, but she couldn't. At that moment, the girl remembered how something similar had already happened to her on the Northern Continent.
"Kyotyoryon cut me again," Halankuo touched her thigh with her hand, but felt nothing. "I've lost a lot of blood, and I can't walk. Mom, I can't leave yet."
"You'll have to rely on my little sister," the voice in her head answered. "She shouldn't abandon you."
As soon as the thought ended, heavy footsteps were heard. A blue-haired doll entered the room, despite the lianas, with a weapon-head in one hand and a shovel in the other.
"Sis, you haven't become like me," Sitihi said. "That's good. Although I don't know what "good" is, but I used to say that."
"Where is Kyotyoryon?" Halankuo asked.
"Someone took her. She cut you, and..."
"Who took her?"
The doll with pink hair took it. It's a healing doll. I came to her to heal you, and she wrote that in exchange she wanted a girl with metal horns.
Halankuo tried to get up, but this time she even had difficulty raising her head.
"You can't walk. In this state, you can only wait for the blood to recover."
"If all of Kyotyoryon's horns are taken away, then she will be broken forever," Halankuo countered mentally.
"Ask Sitihi. She won't refuse her big sister."
***
Kimchan, in puppy form, walked along the way to the kitchen. Suddenly, someone's hand grabbed her by the withers and dragged her to another place.
At first the dog was scared and whined, but then she smelled the cake and realized that it was her owner.
Soon the pet appeared in Unana's room, but already in an almost human form. Kimchan sat on her lap and looked at her owner in surprise.
"Do you know anything about a man named Itinit?" Unana asked.
"No," Kimchan looked at the owner in fear.
"For some reason it seems to me that you know."
"No-o-o... I can't even say such a word."
"You're afraid."
A small purple bow appeared in Unana's hand. Kimchan noticed it and covered her eyes with her hands.
"If you don't want to get an electric shock, you'll have to tell me," Unana turned away.
"I'm forbidden to tell you this," Kimchan sighed.
"Forbidden? So you know something?"
The archer looked at the dog girl, who was watching her owner through her fingers. Kimchan was afraid of being punished, but she did not resist.
"If you don't tell me, I…" Unana pointed her bow at the character.
"What?" Kimchan asked fearfully.
"I'll lock the refrigerator and you won't be able to steal food."
Kimchan pressed herself to the floor and thought:
"The master-creator said that no one should know who I really am. But the owner already found out, and the creator did nothing to me. Maybe nothing will happen to me if I tell the owner about the creator? She is my owner, after all."
"I'll tell you, just don't tell anyone about me," Kimchan folded her hands together and moaned quietly.
"Yueret will ask, but I can lie about something," Unana thought. "He won't believe in the existence of animal girls, even if he sees Kimchan in this form."
Unana resummoned her bow, knelt down, and then scratched Kimchan below her chin. The dog girl stretched her head and let out a short groan.
"If you tell me, I'll give you everything you want," the archer said. "I mean food, of course."
"Okay. I'll tell you. But please don't tell anyone."
Kimchan jumped back to the door and looked at her mistress in fear.
"You're afraid of someone," Unana noted. "Is it that Itinit?"
"Yup," Kimchan answered.
The dog girl ran to the bed and then hid under it.
"What's happened?" Unana walked up to the door. "Is someone coming here?"
"No," Kimchan's head poked out from under the bed. "It's just a habit. I can't stand in front of the door and tell. Someone might eavesdrop."
Unana became interested in what the dog girl would say, so she decided to strengthen the door. The blanket that was on the bed went to cover the gap between the door and the floor, and the large pillow turned into another obstacle.
"I need to block the door," Unana remembered.
The girl had to move the pillow away, then call the door lock and enter the code. Then the pillow was returned to its not quite usual place.
"That's it," Unana smiled. "Now you can tell me."
"Itinit is my creator," Kimchan admitted. "But not only mine. He is also the creator of my big sister. That is, he created both of us."
"Created?"
Unana fell to her knees and looked at the floor. Her breasts almost jumped out of her top, but were held in place by the elastic bands tied tightly behind her back.
"Yup, Itinit created me and my big sister," Kimchan repeated. "What's happened?"
"Is that possible in the real world? I thought that only happened in a game."
"When I appeared, the first thing I saw was my big sister. It was very dark. There were just the two of us. Then we found ourselves in this world, where we met a man who looked like your big brother."
"Was it Itinit?"
"Yup."
"When I saw him, I thought it was Yueret."
Kimchan hid completely under the bed. The dog girl remembered how she had watched her creator and mistress from behind the bushes and felt awkward.
"What's happened?" Unana looked under the bed.
"Nothing," Kimchan rested her chin on the floor. "I just can't talk about it."
"You will have to tell everything you know. It's necessary to find my parents."
"Do you have a creator, too?"
"Yup, even two: dad and mom. This is true for all living beings."
"I only have one creator. But I have a big sister, just like you have a big brother."
Unana stuck her hand under the bed, and it reached Kimchan's nose.
"Come out of here," the archer said. "I won't do anything bad to you."
"You won't even fire an electric arrow?"
"I will not. I cannot shoot arrows at another creature unless it threatens Yueret."
Kimchan licked her owner's finger and then crawled out from under the bed on the opposite side. Unana noticed this, fell onto the bed, then stretched out her hand and felt soft fluffy ears among the stiff hair.
"You're fluffy," the archer said. "Is your big sister like that too?"
"Yup," Kimchan answered. "But you can't do that to her."
"Why?"
"She doesn't like those who hurt animal girls. If you shoot arrows at her, she will hate you."
"To hate another creature over such trifles... You have an evil big sister. Didn't she hurt you?"
"No. Big sis loves me and all the animal girls. But she doesn't love anyone else."
"It's good that your creator sent you and not her. By the way, why does he need to keep an eye on us?"
"Aaah... The creator just said to keep an eye and that's it. Why, I don't know."
Soon the answer was found. Unana remembered the conversation with Itinit in the abandoned village.
"My and Yueret's dad asked him to," Unana rolled over onto her back and stopped touching her pet's ears. "But what made him and mom leave? It's probably something children shouldn't know."
Suddenly, the archer realized something else obvious.
"If Itinit left you here..." Unana said. "Then you know how to find him."
"I don't know where he is," Kimchan admitted. "The creator himself finds me. I can only write to him on the network."
"You can't write to him," Unana thought. "He'll guess."
"Don't tell my creator..." Kimchan groaned. "You promised..."
"Of course I won't," Unana answered. "I didn't even tell Yueret about you. He still thinks you're an ordinary dog."
Kimchan looked at her owner and started wagging her tail. Unana crawled up to her pet and stroked her head. A moment later, the big dog was already lying on the girl and licking her face with a long, wide tongue.
***
The bird-shaped flying machine landed on the sandy bank of a wide river, covered with sparse grassy vegetation. The fern forests here receded far from the water, and the mountains were on the horizon.
"What makes you think Halankuo is here?" Tuot asked in the back seat.
"She wrote to me," Itinit answered. "But that may not help. There are no landmarks in these places."
"How will you find her?"
"I am following the tracks. People used to do that, when there was no such technology."
"Was that ever the case?"
"It was a long time ago. I read about it only recently. I wrote to Halankuo again to make sure whether she was in these parts or not."
The door of the "metal bird" opened. Itinit jumped out onto the sand, followed by his feathered friend.
"We're going there," Itinit pointed to the mountain that was visible on the horizon.
"What?" Tuot was so surprised that he could hardly stand on his feet. "Why did we land so far away?"
"The seashore is even further away. Everything here is overgrown with these sticks. There is nowhere to land."
Tuot activated his aura to keep from falling, but after a few moments he realized it was too much and deactivated it.
Itinit, on the contrary, used aura, but only to fill the hilt with energy and turn it into a "sword".
"Your weapon is new," Tuot noted. "It doesn't even need a blade."
"This thing is homemade," Itinit explained. "My big brother gave it to me when I was a kid. He said it was a toy."
"This thing is strange."
"Yeah, this is a lever that was left over from a robot. They haven't made robots like this for a long time. It's already a museum piece. I played with this lever a little as a child, and then put it in my inventory and forgot about it. But on the Southern Continent, I needed an object that could cut plants to walk through the forests."
Tuot looked at the forest, and soon realized that he would need a weapon to move around there too. The dinosaur summoned his short curved sword and a shield just in case.
"Weapons may not be necessary in combat, but we can't do without them here," Itinit went into the forest.
"I hope we only need swords in these forests," Tuot followed his friend.
"Are you afraid of dolls or wild animals?"
"Uh... If I'm with you, I'm probably afraid of wild animals. Who knows what kind of animals there are here? And I've already fought with the doll, and it's not scary at all."
Itinit stopped, and then looked at his friend. There were only a few steps left to the forest.
"That doll in the dungeon seemed to be giving in," Itinit noted. "She also said she was weak or something. That's suspicious. She doesn't seem like a weak creature. Maybe she just forgot how to battle? Or can't do anything without her robots?"
"She was against us without robots," Tuot stopped in front of his friend. "But these battles were some kind of test battle, like in games."
"That's right. In general, this place is very strange. Who came up with the idea of placing a crypt on this wild continent? It is irrational, even if someone wanted to hide the crypt where no one would find it."
"Maybe someone lived on this continent back then?"
"It seems so. We constantly stumble upon the ruins of some buildings. But it is not a secret. At one time, people tried to colonize the northern coast of the Southern Continent, but then they had to leave even the southern coast of the Northern Continent."
"Why did they leave? Were they attacked by dolls?"
Itinit turned away from his friend, but not to enter the forest. He simply wanted to hide his smile.
"This explains a lot," Itinit continued after a fit of merriment. "But seriously, there was no point in settling the Southern Continent. There is already plenty of space on the Northern Continent. Moreover, it is too warm for people here, even hot. The weather is not very attractive now, is it?"
"I'm okay," Tuot answered.
"It's normal here. But there, in the depths of the continent, it's even warmer. Of course, I have no proof, because most of the Southern Continent has not been explored and there are no photos of those places even on the network. But there is one pattern... "
Itinit approached the nearest tree, raised the "sword" up, and then continued:
"The further south you go, the warmer it gets. If that's true, maybe there's no life at all deep in the continent."
Tuot remembered the lifeless spaces around Munmut, covered occasionally with thorny bushes, and then shuddered.
"Is this like near Munmut?"
No, not like near Munmut. It's much worse there. Most likely, nothing grows there, and instead of rivers there is hot lava and acid.
"At least there was a river in Munmut, and at least something grew. I can't imagine how it is nothing grows at all."
"Yeah, it's creepy. But there is something good. There are no such semblances of trees there either."
Itinit lowered his "sword." The trunk of a nearby tree fern split in two, opening a small passage into the forest.
Tuot looked at the blue mountains that were beyond the forest on the horizon and imagined that behind them was a rocky desert with lava rivers and acid lakes.
"Maybe we shouldn't go there?" Tuot asked.
"Don't be afraid, we definitely won't reach those places," Itinit seemed to read his friend's thoughts. "Besides, these are my guesses. There may be forests beyond the mountains, but of normal trees. It's just that these ferns only grow where it's always damp. Here, near the coast, it rains a lot because of the evaporation of water."
Tuot looked at the cloudy sky and smelled the water that filled the air.
"Here the sky is like ours, but too warm," the dinosaur noted.
"It's because of the sun," Itinit cut off a few fern leaves with his "sword." "Even through the clouds, it heats the air so much. Can you imagine what would happen if the sky were clear?"
Tuot again imagined the rocky desert with rivers of lava, and realized that Itinit's words were not just an assumption.
The forest was not as dense as Itinit thought. There were almost no vines here, as well as bushes, but ordinary ferns grew in huge quantities, which could be cut with a sword blade even without an energy aura.
"Itinit, it seems to me that we are going somewhere wrong," Tuot noted. "There's something wrong with this forest."
"Yeah, it is too similar to an ordinary forest on the Northern Continent," Itinit agreed. "If only we could replace these sticks with normal trees..."
"This forest immediately seemed suspicious to me. In these places there are no trees only where there is water, and here there is a whole bank without trees."
Itinit stopped. The sand under his feet became heavy, and the smell of water intensified.
"There's a swamp there," Itinit guessed. "I didn't think I'd say this, but you're right."
The friends had to return to the river bank, where the flying machine was waiting for them. But now it was not alone. Near the "head" stood a lizard the size of a bear, looking into the window.
"This is what happens when you leave things unattended," Itinit sighed. "I wanted to leave you to guard the 'metal bird,' but I know from experience that you need to be guarded."
"If such a monster came to me, I would..." Tuot looked around. "I'm scared to even think about it."
"There was another option to create a barrier, but it was a shame to waste energy on it."
"Why? This monster is going to do something now."
"No. It won't do anything to the "metal bird". I won't do anything to it either. Let it see what's inside. It's not every day that something like that flies to it."
The lizard, covered in grey scales, reminded Tuot of the yellow and blue-green lizards he had caught before. The dinosaur told his friend about it, and he went to the flying machine.
"What are you doing?" Tuot shouted.
"I'll catch it," Itinit stopped. "Don't be afraid, it will stay alive."
"But you said..."
"I changed my mind," Itinit looked at his friend.
The lizard seemed oblivious to the danger approaching it. A translucent ball of blue energy with an electric clot inside hit the animal's back, covered with a shell, and then burst.