"What is this?" Unana turned away. "Is this really…?"
"Yeah, it's me," Sogotoh answered. "The blue-white bear girl froze me. But I knew this could happen, so I created a game that could bring me back. The game and the real world share the same space, so what happens in the game appears in the real world."
"Why did she do that?" Yueret asked.
"She didn't want me to summon non-living creatures," Sogotoh answered. "That's what she calls dolls."
"She said something about that," Unana recalled. "Do dolls actually go there?"
"That was before," Sogotoh answered. "These are the dolls that used to be in the crypt. Have you seen Aragas?"
"Is this the doll that called you great lord?" Yueret asked.
"Yeah," Sogotoh looked at the log wall next to the window. "She can't remember my name, so I had to call myself that. I found this doll on the Southern Continent. She was the only sturdy doll. The other dolls wouldn't hold up when I sat on them, but Aragas remained intact."
"Why do you ride on dolls?" Unana asked. "It's strange."
"That's funny," Sogotoh smiled. "It doesn't really make much sense. I needed the dolls for something else."
"Does it have anything to do with the man with the carrot nose?" Yueret asked.
"Yeah," Sogotoh answered. "That scary man was the creator of the dolls. After I locked him out of his house, I wanted to make the dolls human again. I have the ultimate version of the Mausoleum of Nature, just like him. So I flew to the crypt on the Southern Continent. The dolls refused to become human again. So instead of getting rid of the dolls, I ended up getting my doll."
"Now it makes sense," Unana thought and sighed. "I used to think my dad was just crazy. But now I know why he's crazy."
"I had to leave the Southern Continent and go north," Sogotoh continued. "I thought no one would find me here. I founded my game studio. I was finally able to create the game I dreamed of."
"Ears and Tails," Yueret said.
"Yeah," Sogotoh looked out the window. "I used my characters to design the game's characters. Of course, I didn't force them to do the design work. I simply transferred their models, along with their names, into the game."
"Is that possible?" Yueret began to doubt his father's words.
"I have the ultimate version of the Mausoleum of Nature," Sogotoh said, waving his hand in front of him. "Now I'll show you what it can do."
A screen with a black background appeared in front of the sofa, on which the skull of a three-horned dinosaur filled with blue energy was rotating.
"I don't have a screensaver like that," Yueret said. "It's just a regular head, not 3D and without lighting."
"That's the Mausoleum of Nature server," Sogotoh smiled. "Few people know what it looks like, but I have it on my screensaver."
The skull disappeared. A multitude of windows with buttons of varying colors and shapes appeared on a black background.
"I don't understand anything here," Unana walked up to the screen and leaned over a little, as if trying to see something on it.
"Of course you don't understand," Sogotoh pointed his hand at the screen. "This program isn't for children."
One of the cells at the bottom of the screen activated with a blue flash, after which it suddenly enlarged and covered the main screen.
"There's character here," Unana said. "And it's a girl."
"How did you guess?" Sogotoh pointed a finger into the air. "Nothing has appeared here yet."
"It's obvious," Unana sighed. "In your game, almost all the characters are female, and the male characters are kind of scary."
"Yeah," Sogotoh agreed. "Most players like looking at female characters."
A white silhouette with something massive on its head appeared against the black background.
"It's a girl with horns," Unana said. "It's a good thing she's not real."
"She is real," Sogotoh lowered his hand. "But I won't tell you her name."
The silhouette transformed into a sheep girl with curled black horns, sitting on a stone barrel.
"I erased her memory so she'd forget she'd participated in the game's creation," Sogotoh admitted. "I left her in some abandoned village so she wouldn't encounter any creature. Let her live like a real sheep."
"That's cruel," Unana sighed. "You..."
Unana didn't have time to finish her sentence. The floor shook and threw the archer against the wall, but the purple aura saved her again. Yueret, however, was too heavy and simply fell to his knees...
...The earthquake stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Unana immediately began searching for her brother and found him in the same place.
"What was that?" the archer landed to the floor next to Yueret.
"It's something down there. Maybe Timnichan brought someone again."
After these words, Unana's anxiety level rose to near-maximum. The girl rushed through the open doorway and, moments later, found herself at the bottom of the stairs…
...but she couldn't go any further. The sofa, which had previously stood in the very first room, now blocked the passage and obstructed her view.
"Uh…" Unana could only open her mouth in surprise.
The next moment, something grabbed her by the arm and forced her to sit on the floor. Soon, the girl saw her father hiding behind the sofa next to her, and she began to understand something.
"There's something really scary there, if even Dad's afraid," Unana froze on her knees.
"Oh..." the sound of a heavy object falling was heard from behind the sofa.
"It's a woman's voice, but not very human," Unana thought.
"My creator, I remember."
The voice from the room was high-pitched and vibrating, but seemed more "human" than the machine voice of the robot buyer.
Sogotoh closed his eyes. Unana realized this could end badly.
"I remembered my name," the voice continued. "Where are you, my creator? I'm coming to look for you."
The voice gave way to the sound of heavy footsteps, which gradually grew louder.
"This voice doesn't sound like the voice of a dumb lizard," Unana shuddered.
The sound of footsteps faded, but then the sofa began to move.
"My creator, this soft thing won't stop me."
Sogotoh opened his eyes, grabbed his daughter's hand, and summoned a blue energy circle on the steps...
"Oh…" a sigh was heard in the room.
A few moments later, the sofa shattered into several pieces. A stone barrel, with a little sheep girl on its lid, arrived at the stairs.
"Oh..." the rider looked at the stairs, but saw no one there.
…At that moment, Sogotoh and Unana were already on the roof, near a wide stone chimney.
"What was that?" Unana asked.
Her father didn't answer. He was looking at the tops of the coniferous trees, clearly visible from the roof.
"If these are dolls, then Yueret and I..." Unana began.
"No, these aren't dolls," Sogotoh sighed. "This is the end."
"What?"
"I've fought many battles with various creatures, living and not so living. I was even able to block the doll maker, but there's one thing I can't do."
Sogotoh looked at his daughter as if he were seeing her for the last time.
"Sorry. You and Yueret need to get out of here. Timnichan already knows what to do. She'll quickly take you somewhere safe."
"No, I'm not leaving until I know what's going on," Unana frowned.
Sogotoh looked at the stone chimney. The next moment, a girl's head emerged from it. Her horns curled and her eyes closed.
"Oh," the sheep girl sighed, and then opened her eyes.
The creator and the character stared at each other for several dozen moments, but neither dared speak. It seemed they were engaged in some kind of special duel, with their own rules known only to the two of them.
"That's the sheep girl dad showed on screen," Unana thought. "That's his character."
"Imerii," the sheep girl finally said. "My name is Imerii. I am the spirit of the stone sheep. Is that what you called me, creator?"
"I've called many creatures by different names, so I don't remember," Sogotoh bowed his head.
"If you don't remember, I'll help you..." Imerii smiled.
The next moment, the character's mouth was wrapped in a blue energy rope that appeared out of nowhere.
"Great lord, I've found the intruder," a doll in an apron with yellow hair landed on the roof.
Sogotoh looked at the creature before him. The expression on his face changed.
"I know my ass should be flying through the sky," Aragas continued. "But now, great lord, allow me to resist this sheep's mouth."
"Of course," Sogotoh answered. "If you manage to do this, I'll spank you myself."
Aragas leaned toward the sheep girl's head and then whispered:
"Your creator will spank me, like before."
Unana had to watch as the doll's foot descended on the sheep-girl's head, pushing her back into the chimney. The whole thing was accompanied by bleating and groans.
"The main thing is that she can't speak now," Sogotoh smiled.
"Speak..." Unana remembered something. "She can..."
"Yeah, summon that very creature. Not even just one. That's why she needs to speak only her own language."
The bleating and moaning stopped. Aragas lowered her leg into the pipe, and then tried to squeeze through, but her wide hips prevented her from doing so.
"Great lord, may I deal with her?" the doll turned its head towards its creator.
"Timnichan should be there," Sogotoh looked down. "She knows what to do next."
"Do you have instructions for every situation?" Unana asked.
"Yeah, I am a game developer after all," Sogotoh answered. "It's good that this lizard has a good memory. True, I had to sacrifice other characteristics, but that's not important now."
While Sogotoh spoke, the cold lizard spirit stood at the kitchen threshold, tongue hanging out, searching for prey. This proved difficult. The room was filled with numerous cabinets, stoves and wastebaskets. But Timnichan knew where to look.
The lizard girl approached the metal lid covering the fireplace and carefully opened it with her tongue.
"Oh…" yellow eyes with rectangular pupils peeked out from the oven.
"You don't live here," the lizard girl said, tucking her tongue back into her mouth.
Imerii blinked several times, but still couldn't figure out what kind of creature stood before her. Timnichan decided to take advantage of this—her thick blue tongue wrapped around the sheep's horn and pulled it out of its hiding place.
"Oh…" Imerii fell to the floor, breast down.
"How did you get in there?" Timnichan asked after returning her tongue to her mouth. "My creator told me to ask that if you ever came out of the oven."
"I wanted to tell my creator that I remembered my name. And I wanted to say something else, but I hit my head and forgot."
"My creator said you shouldn't tell him that," Timnichan said, kneeling down.
"Why?"
"I don't know. I should also beat you so you forget what you wanted to say."
"But I don't remember what I wanted to say anyway."
"Yeah… My creator didn't say what to do in such a case."
Timnichan looked at the fireplace.
"You hit your head when you fell down the pipe," the lizard girl said. "This could be considered a beating."
"Okay," Imerii rose to her knees. "Then I'll go. I need to find Imeriichen."
"Who is that?"
"This is my pet. I'm in it, tu-du, like a train."
"You won't go to your creator?"
"Not right now. But if I remember what I wanted to say, I will."
Imerii stood on her hoof-like boots and walked toward the kitchen exit. Timnichan remained on the floor, thinking.
"My creator didn't say the stupid sheep had a pet. Is he dumb too? No, that doesn't happen. Only bear cubs are stupid, but my creator is always smart. I just have to look in the instructions."
Timnichan used her tongue to summon a screen with multiple text boxes and stood looking for the necessary instructions. At that moment, Imerii had almost reached the front door and could even have gone outside, but she was distracted by the view from the window, where the lid of a stone barrel protruded from the ground.
The sheep girl approached the window and froze in front of it. She tried to figure out whether it was really her "pet" or if she was imagining it.
At some point, Imerii remembered that the stone barrel could be summoned, and decided to do so. The sheep-girl's hand reached for the wooden floor...
…but was stopped by a thick blue tongue.
At first, Imerii understood nothing. Only when the tongue had seized her arm up to the elbow did the sheep-girl look where this strange formation led and discovered her recent adversary standing at the kitchen threshold.
"She wants to eat me," a single, but truly terrifying thought entered the sheep's head.
Imerii pulled her hand toward herself. The lizard girl lost her footing and flew toward her opponent.
Of course, Timnichan's passive ability worked. An ice mask in the shape of a horned lizard, which acted as a shield but her hoof proved stronger...
Timnichan flew toward the stairs and nearly landed on the second floor. Imerii stood with her leg outstretched and only now realized what she'd done.
"Oh… My creator will punish me. This is his character. I once befriended her tongue... Oh… I befriended her. Her name is Timnichan. She's the spirit of cold lizard, that's why she has such a tongue."
Imerii approached the stairs and looked at her former opponent in fear.
Timnichan lay on the top of the stairs, her tongue trailing down the steps like a ribbon.
"It's big..." the sheep girl sighed. "How does it fit in her mouth?"
Soon, Imerii saw the answer to her question. The lizard's tongue stretched up the steps and gradually disappeared into a large, open mouth that almost completely covered her face.
"Ahh... She just has a big mouth. Now I understand. So, she can yum-yum me? And can Imeriichen too?"
Imerii again remembered the existence of her "pet," though she couldn't remember exactly where it was. The sheep girl knelt down and only after touching the floor with her hand did she remember the stone barrel could be summoned.
... The wooden floor shattered in an instant. Imerii felt something hard lift her almost to the ceiling, and then she landed on it.
"Imeriichen, you're back," Imerii felt the sides of the stone barrel with her thighs. "You're so big."
The sheep girl closed her eyes, smiled, and began making sounds that were half moaning and half bleating. This immediately woke Timnichan, who had been showing almost no signs of life.
"This sheep hasn't yet spoken the word that mustn't be spoken to my creator?" the cold lizard spirit glanced around. "My creator isn't here, so she hasn't spoken yet."
Timnichan rested her tail on the top step to stand up, confirming that it was still there.
"My creator said that if this sheep tells him a word that mustn't be said, I'll lose my tail. If the tail hasn't fallen off, then nothing happened."
"Imeriichen, you're such a boo-boo," Imerii swayed. "Do tu-du like a train, only up."
The stone barrel didn't respond, but the patterns on it grew brighter. The sheep girl sensed this and pressed herself even closer to her vessel.
"Okay, Imeriichen," Imerii opened her eyes. "Let's go to my creator. I remembered what I wanted to tell him."
Timnichan felt the liquid inside her freeze, preventing her from even opening her mouth. The lizard girl could only watch as the stone barrel swayed under the influence of some underground force.
"My tail... will it grow back?"
The barrel bounced off the shattered floor and took off...
...The front of the roof flew off almost instantly. The stone barrel soared into the sky like a comet.
"Dad, why is the barrel flying?" Unana looked up. "That probably doesn't happen. I just imagined it."
"Yeah, I imagined it too," Sogotoh grabbed his daughter's hand and then jumped from the roof.
Five spherical energy barriers appeared above the house. The stone barrel, which soon returned, passed through them as if through thin air and landed directly in front of its creator.
"Oh..." a voice from the barrel said. "Ho..."
"No..." Sogotoh's face twisted in horror.
"Hotukachan," the sheep girl's head emerged from the barrel, smiling and satisfied.