Itinit approached the shelter in the ruins, which was almost completely hidden by vegetation, and heard the sound of water, the sound of that very waterfall.
"I hope I made it. They haven't started yet."
"Master, why did you turn off my sis?" Itinit felt something hot from behind.
Itinit turned around and saw Noru, who was burning and showing her teeth, as if she wanted to pounce on him.
"I'm not finished yet," the dog girl looked down and now resembled a guilty puppy.
"Now is not the time for that. I'll be busy. You don't want to be taken away by a scary man with a carrot instead of a nose, do you?"
"I'll tear off his carrot and then eat it. Of course I'm not afraid of him!"
"Then he can take your friend."
"I'll burn it."
"He's very strong. He also has a doll with pink hair."
Noru looked at her creator in fear, but after a moment she frowned. The fire around her went out.
"Okay, go," the dog girl looked to the side. "But come back. I will still threaten the girl who torments my little sister."
"I think she saw such a formidable big sister and got scared," Itinit said. "She won't do anything bad to Kimchan."
Noru calmed down a bit, fell to the ground under a tree fern, and then began to scratch own dog ear with her foot. Itinit bent the liana with a movement of his hand, which blocked the entrance, and then entered the abandoned building...
Inside, the sound of the water had weakened considerably, so Itinit could hear voices coming from the next room, the front room:
"You must distract the healing doll. It has pink hair. It cannot be destroyed forever, but you must do it sometimes so that it will assemble itself."
"She's very scary."
"Do you want to change?"
A bird-like cry was heard, which then changed to dialogue:
"Don't be afraid, Tuot. You won't be alone. I and my little sister will be with you."
"Do you have a little sister?"
At this point, the conversation interested Itinit. He approached the doorway and peered out from behind it a little...
Near the wall, on a pile of fern leaves, sat Halankuo, next to him stood Tuot and a doll with blue hair holding a shovel. A little further, near the entrance, a doll with long red hair, in a purple aura, "hung" near the ceiling.
"Here is my little sister," Halankuo pointed to the doll with a shovel.
"She looks a lot like you," Tuot looked at the doll. "I just thought all dolls were alike."
At this point in the dialogue, Itinit began to laugh. Despite the fact that he managed to hide behind the wall, the doll with the shovel turned its head in his direction.
"There's someone there," Sitihi said.
"This is probably Itinit," Halankuo rose from the pile of leaves. "He should be here soon."
"Sis, would you mind if your head checked this out?" Sitihi suggested.
"My head..." Halankuo twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "Oh, well...."
In Sitihi's hand, free from the shovel, a head appeared that looked like her own.
"Don't be surprised," the voice in Halankuo's head explained. "She thinks the head that was meant for me is yours."
"I already guessed," the girl answered mentally. "But it still feels strange to me."
"She's a doll. She believes everything she sees."
Sitihi approached the doorway to the next room, and then pointed the head-weapon forward. The eyes of the strange device filled with blue energy, and a rubber tongue came out of its mouth, which then headed behind the wall.
"There's nothing there," Sitihi said. "But there was something there. I saw it myself."
"Because it's already here," a voice came from the entrance hole.
Sitihi turned her head towards the entrance to the shelter. A few moments later, a familiar man with brown hair came out.
"Itinit, I knew it was you," Halankuo looked at the man who entered. "Sorry about my little sister, she's just a doll."
"Is this your sister?" Itinit looked at Sitihi.
Halankuo approached her friend and whispered something in his ear.
"I understand that you want to distract the doll so that it does not interfere with freeing the character?" Itinit asked.
"Yes, because I need Kuttanai," Ikte explained. "I tried to disassemble it before, but I couldn't do it because of his antenna. Now it doesn't have an antenna, so nothing will get in my way."
"You want to go to his hideout, but you don't know what's there," Itinit continued. "You might get trapped."
"Do you have a better idea?" Ikte sank to the floor and then deactivated her aura.
Itinit called up his inventory, and then pulled out a small stone coffin:
"This thing contains an antenna that looks like a carrot. It may or may not fit into Kuttanai's hole. In any case, this is good bait."
"You want to get Kuttanai to come out of hiding and exchange the antenna for the character?" Ikte asked.
"Yeah," Itinit answered. "Even if this plan doesn't work completely, we can lure Kuttanai out of hiding."
"That sounds realistic," Halankuo noted. "It's clear that the plan was invented by a person, not a doll."
"Dolls lack human feelings, so they can't think like humans," Ikte opened her eyes.
At the same moment, Halankuo heard the same phrase in her head.
"Mom, can you read dolls' minds?"
"No, the dolls just think in a very formulaic way," the voice in the girl's head replied. "They don't realize it though."
"I think someone is missing," Tuot looked around.
"Yup, I don't see Etinnei here," Itinit noted. "Have you seen her?"
At the mention of the Arctic fox girl, Noru's head peeked out from behind the doorway. Her hair was already starting to smoke.
"What did you do to my cold almost-sister?" Noru looked angrily first at Tuot, then at Itinit.
"Nothing," Tuot answered. "The last time I saw her... I don't remember when. She was definitely here yesterday."
Ikte closed her eyes. The image of an arctic fox girl and the coffin lid that she gave her appeared in her head. For a moment, the doll thought she knew the character.
"We need to leave here, but it's dangerous to do so without Etinnei," Itinit said. "The animal might get lost."
"I'll go after her," Noru looked at Itinit. "Master, you'll allow me, right?"
"No," Itinit answered.
"Okay," Noru bowed her head, but then abruptly raised it. "Then I'll go."
"You don't know where to look for her..." Itinit began, but...
Of course, it was too late. The guy saw only a flash of fire in front of him, and then turned his gaze to the place where Noru was, but he did not see her.
"It looks like we've lost another ally," Sitihi noted.
"Etinnei is useless against Kuttanai, but Noru could be useful," Itinit opened the map of the "Mausoleum of Nature."
"Her name is Etinnei?" Ikte asked.
"Yup," Tuot answered. "She is the arctic fox girl. Do you know her?"
"No," Ikte answered. "But I think I know something about her. I think she is connected with Kuttanai somehow."
"She's afraid of him," Tuot said. "That man, carrot nose or no carrot nose, he's scary, but for some reason Etinnei is more afraid of him than anyone else. She can't use her skills with him around. She can't even look at him."
"I need to ask Ustumut," Ikte turned to the exit of the shelter. "Stay here. I'll be back soon."
Ikte flew out of the shelter through the entrance hole. Tuot approached Itinit, who was watching the blue dot on the map.
"Can you watch your character?" Tuot guessed.
"When did you become so smart?" Itinit looked at his friend for a moment.
"Halankuo also said something like that, although I didn't notice anything," Tuot admitted.
"You just don't notice how your stats are increasing," Itinit suggested. "But it's better not to think about it now. We need to look for Noru. She's probably flying to the sea. The stupid little animal thinks that Etinnei is somewhere on the shore."
"We can't get distracted now," Halankuo said. "Nothing will happen to your character."
"Noru, of course, is not Kyotyoryon, but she is also naive and inexperienced," Itinit answered. "She has never left one island in the ocean and therefore throws herself at everything new, that is, at everything that surrounds her. I'm afraid she will fall into enemy hands before we do."
"Then you can go after her," Halankuo brushed a strand of hair from her face. "You might meet that very creature and exchange the antenna for Kyotyoryon."
"This plan is the craziest," Itinit closed the screen with the map. "But it is probably the most realistic. It is unlikely that what I said will come true completely. Most likely, something will not go according to plan, and we will have to improvise. It is even more interesting that way."
Tuot recalled the fight with Kuttanai, when everything went wrong. Then only chance helped to defeat a strong opponent.
"I hope I don't have to fight that terrible creature again," Tuot said. "I won't be able to fight him a second time."
"I wouldn't want to fight that doll either, although I'd like to see her again," Itinit turned toward the exit of the shelter. "I like her too much to perceive her as an opponent."
"So Itinit likes dolls and Tuot likes animal girls," Halankuo thought and smiled. "Now I understand why they are friends."
"You have good friends," a voice in her head intervened. "They are interested in something."
"Yup, they are. It's good that they are not interested in me."
Itinit left the shelter, after which he opened the map of the "Mausoleum of Nature" again. The red dot that perfectly matched the color of the fiery dog girl was on the coast and no longer moved. At that moment, Itinit remembered the flying machine that remained somewhere in these forests. "There should be a map in the inventory that shows where the "metal bird" is. But how can I find it?"
While Itinit was trying to remember where that page with the location of the flying machine was, something purple flew past him. The guy felt the vibration, closed the map, and then jumped a few steps to the side….
Something purple turned out to be a doll in an energy aura, which stopped at the entrance to the shelter. Its eyes were closed, and its hands were lowered. An idea appeared in the head of the creator of the dog girls...
... Itinit sank down on the sand next to the sea waves.
"Thank you, doll, I hope it will be quick."
"Your character is nearby," a voice said above Itinit. "I do not see her. Perhaps she is hiding somewhere."
"I even know where."
Itinit looked at the sand that the waves washed over and noticed thick, naked legs sticking out of it and smoking.
"It's definitely Noru," Itinit thought and smiled. "It's a pity that now is not the time to joke."
"Where is she?" Ikte in a purple aura almost landed near Itinit. :I don't see her."
"Here," Itinit pointed to the legs in the sand, which began to move.
"This creature does not look like a dog-girl."
Itinit looked at the doll and smiled, but she didn't understand why he was making a face.
"I can get this creature, but if it attacks you, I will not help you."
"Just get these legs out of the sand."
Ikte focused her gaze on one of the legs, and it began to emerge from the sand. A brown tail followed the leg, and immediately began to beat against the thigh.
"I wonder how she can think, since her head is in the sand," Itinit thought. "Or is it not her brain that gives commands to her tail, but something else? I need to look at her skills. Maybe there's a passive ability that moves her tail."
Itinit opened the "Mausoleum of Nature" to check the character's skills and almost missed the most interesting part. Furry shorts appeared from the sand, followed by a belly without a navel.
"I think I forgot to draw something for her," Itinit guessed. "But a belly button would look very strange. It forms on creatures that are born, but Noru is a character. No one gave birth to her."
The dog girl's body continued to move upward. A brown fur top followed her belly, creating a small cloud of sand in the air. "Now this is a useful thing," Itinit noted.
"It can help in a fight if Noru accidentally falls into water or sand, which is visible right now."
The cloud of sand quickly dispersed, and Itinit saw the very thing that was partially peeking out from the top and moving up and down by inertia.
"I wasn't mistaken after all."
But then it only got more interesting. The head finally broke free from captivity, although it couldn't lift as much sand into the air as the chest together with the fur top.
At first, Itinit thought Noru was "hanging" upside down in the air, holding someone's head in his teeth. The guy closed his eyes and opened them a moment later...
Noru's body was indeed floating upside down in the air, and her teeth were holding the edge of the gray-violet hood along with the fur top.
"Uh..." Itinit's mouth said.
"One of them is gone," Ikte noted.
The doll pulled Noru's body up, and soon pulled out a pair of furry shorts, which had somehow stuck to the top.
"These are Etinnei's clothes," Itinit noted. "Noru knew where to look for this animal, but she missed a little."
Ikte looked down. Noru had landed on the sand, but this time on her feet. The dog girl immediately began shaking her head to get rid of the sand, but it didn't help for long. Her cold friend's hood fell right on the dog's ears and got stuck in them.
"Now you have transport," Ikte turned to Itinit. "I have to go back."
The doll closed her eyes and began to concentrate energy to rise and fly away, but suddenly stepped on something cold.
"What is this thing doing here?" Ikte thought. "Maybe it's an enemy skill? But I don't know any dolls with ice skills."
The doll opened her eyes and saw a coffin covered in snow and ice in front of her.
"This is something familiar..."
Ikte approached the coffin, and soon noticed legs there, similar to those that had stuck out of the sand, only here they were sticking out of the snow. The doll focused her gaze on the piece of ice, and then moved it outside the coffin…
Under a layer of snow and ice was a girl in a white-blue jacket with a hood, from the slits of which white-yellow rounded ears stuck out. Hair of the same color protruded from the hood on the sides and fell on the ice that covered the neck.
"This is the spirit of the arctic fox," a thought appeared in Ikte's head and immediately broke off.
The doll opened her eyes and saw the same arctic fox girl in front of her, who was now sitting on the sand with her legs bent at the knees. Her clothes and hair quickly changed color and shape under the influence of the temperature.
"Are you the arctic fox spirit?" Ikte asked.
"Yup..." the arctic fox girl looked at the doll with fear.
"I didn't recognize you," Ikte continued. "I only remembered you in your winter form, and I forgot that you also had a summer form."
Etinnei opened her mouth and let streams of tears flow from her eyes.
"Do you remember me, creator?" the arctic fox girl asked with a groan.
"I always remembered you, Etinnei," Ikte answered. "But I forgot one of your forms. Recently I fell and broke myself, and lost part of my memory, but now it is gradually returning to me. Maybe I will remember something else."
"Creator..."
Etinnei threw herself at the doll, but was unable to embrace it because of the vibrations from the aura.
"This is not the time for that," Ikte said. "I have to go to Kuttanai so that he can't insert one thing into the hole."
After mentioning this terrible creature, Etinnei jumped a few steps away from her creator, and then looked around, but saw only Noru and Itinit.
"Did you see something?" the dog girl sniffed the air.
"Did you see something?" the dog girl sniffed the air.
"No," Etinnei lowered her head. "Nothing, I just remembered something."
"Is it something scary?" Noru scratched her hair on the top of her head with her hand.
"It's very scary."
"Then let's go to where this scary thing is and destroy it!"
Etinnei looked at her friend with fear, who was about to fly away in a random direction. Fortunately, Itinit's hand stopped her in time, grabbing the disobedient pet's tail.