Chapter 55. Horn for the Head

Halankuo sat on the riverbank and looked at her reflection in the water. Long disheveled hair gave the girl a kind of animal look, and only by the absence of ears on the top of her head one could guess that this was not a character from the "Mausoleum of Nature."

"Why doesn't my hair hang straight?" Halankuo pulled a strand of hair with her fingers. "Dolls don't. For some reason, their hair is perfectly styled."

"They need to be brushed," the voice in the girl's head answered. "But dolls' hair does not tangle due to other characteristics."

"If I comb it, it will hurt. So be it. It doesn't bother me anyway. Then I'll just wash my hair, and it will be like before."

"You still haven't learned how to comb your hair."

"When I was a child, you used to brush my hair, and I didn't think much of it. Then I got caught up in programs and the network, and I completely forgot that I had anything on my head. It's a good thing Tuot would sometimes try to put something there, and then I'd brush my hair."

"He wanted to build a nest."

"Yeah. It's his instinct, although his kind doesn't live in trees like birds. It's weird."

A reflection of the doll's head appeared in the water. Halankuo immediately noticed how well her hair was styled and almost regretted not becoming like her. A few moments later, a human scream echoed through the forest.

"Don't scream, sis," Sitihi put her hand on Halankuo's head and tried to stroke it, but instead caused another scream.

Halankuo crawled back a step and felt that she was lying in the water, and her back was resting on something hard. The girl tried to get to her feet, but the current was too fast…

"Sis, you can't swim. You don't have fins. Do you want me to make them for you?"

Halankuo saw Sitihi's head in front of her, leaning over her. The girl again noticed the hair, although blue, hanging neatly.

"In order to make fins, you first need to be taken apart and studied," Sitihi continued. "I don't know where to insert the fins."

"First, fix Kyotyoryon," Halankuo raised her head and realized that she was lying on the shore, and her "little sister" was standing next to her.

"I couldn't. She needs a horn inserted, but I couldn't find the material. The horn you gave me didn't fit."

"It's probably for a different part of the head. We need to find that one."

Halankuo opened the "Nature Mausoleum" and began searching through the numerous cells for a metal horn.

"I can't figure out which one will work," the girl yawned. "They're all the same."

Sitihi looked into the program window, and then pointed at one of the horns:

"This one is different."

"It seems to be the same as the others," Halankuo frowned. "How do you distinguish them?"

"They are different."

"What?"

Sitihi pointed to another slot, and then to another.

"There are several types of horns," the doll explained. "They have different places where they fit. Some horns fit on the head, others on the nose, and others on the forehead."

"Aaah... Now I understand. But how do you know which horn fits on the head?"

"You can remove the horn that remains and look at the place where it is inserted."

"No. Kyotyoryon won't hold up. If she broke without one horn, then without the second she might break forever."

"Then we will have to take the horns out of all the cells and insert them one by one. It'll take..."

Sitihi closed her eyes and mouth, and after a few dozen moments she answered:

"Two days."

"Why so long?"

"The horns are tightly twisted."

Halankuo opened the map of the "Mausoleum of Nature". The red dot was not just next to the blue one, but was combined with it. But this time the girl did not need the map. For some reason, she knew exactly where her character was...

Kyotyoryon sat with her eyes closed by the trunk of a thick fern, away from the river. The area around her had been cleared of excess vegetation, but their remains lay everywhere.

Halankuo approached the character and began to examine the hole on the top of her head.

"How did Kyotyoryon lose her horn? It's really tightly twisted."

Soon Halankuo became convinced that the horn had not fallen out of the character's head by accident, but she could not continue her thoughts any further – heavy footsteps from behind prevented her from doing so.

Halankuo turned around and saw her "little sister" with a shovel in one hand and a wrench in the other. The weapon head in a purple aura was flying over her shoulder.

"Did you get the horn with this wrench?" the doll's wrench appeared in Halankuo's hand.

"Yes, with this thing," Sitihi looked at her wrench. "This horn can't be pulled out by hand. It's only possible with this thing. You have to point it at the horn, and then it comes out on its own."

"Exactly," Halankuo guessed. "Someone pulled it out of her head. Why didn't I think of that right away?"

The girl sat down on a layer of cut fern leaves next to the character and grabbed the surviving horn with her hand. It really didn't get out of his head—he didn't even move.

"I used to think I was the only one with a wrench," Halankuo looked at the object in her hand. "But it turns out there are too many of them. Even this doll has one."

"It's a good thing she can't read minds," a voice in the girl's head intervened.

Halankuo shuddered. She even looked at the doll to make sure it wasn't an electric penguin.

"Don't scare me like that, mom," Halankuo thought. "Better tell me who could pull out my character's horn with a wrench."

"It's definitely one of ours," the voice answered. "Only we and our relatives have such abilities. But the horn doesn't necessarily have to be pulled out with a wrench. It just helps you concentrate. The ability itself is to control objects that have at least a particle of metal."

"Is this one of the dolls?"

"Not necessarily. Dolls have the same abilities as living beings, but they have an easier time concentrating."

"Dolls can't use a wrench?"

"Yeah. They can look at one object more easily because their sense level is too low."

"But why does your sister use it? She's a doll."

"So Sitihi feels something. Sometimes dolls have feelings, even if they don't understand what they are."

Halankuo remembered Sitihi stroking her head and shuddered. The girl felt uneasy because the doll was repeating the actions it had done when it was still human.

***

Yueret entered the kitchen and saw his younger sister sleeping on the floor in her school uniform. There was a plate of bones and an empty glass on the table next to her.

"Unana ate so much again that she fell asleep," Yueret approached his sister and noticed how she was breathing. "And she has lessons at school today. She might not make it."

The brother had a choice: wake up his sister, and then she would be offended, or not wake her up, and then she would miss her first day at school.

"Unana even put on a school uniform. I didn't expect my sister to start dressing like a human. Although Unana didn't really need clothes – after all, she didn't go outside where there were people."

Yueret chose the third option – he went in search of the only creature that could wake up his sister with impunity.

But this creature was nowhere to be found. Kimchan was not in her usual place – near the refrigerator. Then Yueret returned to Unana's room, but found only a pillow lying on the floor and a blanket that served as a bridge to the bed.

"Where is this dog crawling?" Yueret thought and searched the entire house, but he still couldn't find the pet.

The guy went out onto the porch and almost decided to wake up his sister, but suddenly he saw brown animal ears in the window.

"I saw this once. Then Unana said that I imagined it."

Yueret summoned a sword and shield, and then ran out of the house. There was no "bear" outside. The guy sighed calmly, but then noticed a brown tail around the corner of the house, which was at the height of a large dog's head.

Yueret ran behind the house, but did not find any tail there.

"Why do I see so many things today that aren't there? Something's wrong with this place. I need to check if there's anything weird here. That's how I met a doll last time."

Luckily for Yueret, the cold prevented this plan. The guy returned to the house to warm up a little and change into winter clothes. Unana was also sleeping on the floor, and the time on the virtual screen on the ceiling showed that he had to hurry...

A loud dog groan was heard outside the window. Yueret ran around the other side of the house and noticed something strange...

Naked human legs in brown fur bracelets, with a brown dog tail hanging between them, stuck out of the window frame and twitched. The trapped creature tried with all its might to get out, but could not.

"If this is a doll, it is better to cut it before it flies away."

A blue aura surrounded the blade in Yueret's hand. The strange creature felt the vibration and howled like a dog.

"That's how Kimchan howls. But it's not her. Kimchan is just a dog."

Yueret touched the wall with his finger, called up a small menu that looked like a lock, and entered a few symbols. The window opening widened, and the creature fell onto the snow.

"What is this?" Yueret opened his mouth in surprise.

In front of the guy sat a girl with brown hair, from which brown dog ears were peeking out. A dress that looked like wool began just above the middle of her chest and ended in the snow, where her bare legs were hidden.

"Aren't you cold?" Yueret asked.

"No... no... no..." the girl looked at her savior in fear.

"There are no signs of frostbite or anything like that on her skin. She's not shivering either. She really doesn't seem to be cold. She's probably a doll, but she doesn't look dangerous at all. She could be human, though. Unana often dresses inappropriately for the weather, and nothing happens to her."

The girl noticed that Yueret was distracted and tried to run away, but fear didn't even allow her to get to her feet.

"Who sent you?" Yueret asked.

"No-no-nobody..." the dog-girl lowered her head and groaned. "I just got lost."

"And you decided to climb into the house?"

"I... I want to eat."

"All animals love to eat. This girl has dog ears on her head and even a tail at the back. Is she playing animals? It's so cute."

Suddenly, the dog's ears twitched. Yueret began to suspect that something was wrong with this girl, but then he remembered seeing animal ears online that could move.

"I can bring food," Yueret continued. "But you need to hide. My little sister really doesn't like other girls. If she sees you, she'll try to kill you."

Yueret returned to the kitchen. Unana was still sleeping on the floor, but this time on the other side. This fact alarmed the guy.

"You can't open the refrigerator door. Unana might wake up. But how can you get the food out then?"

After some thought, Yueret went to his room, looked at the wall, and then turned around. The door was locked. The guy sighed in relief, and then turned back to the wall.

"Good thing. Even Unana couldn't feel it, although she had been here many times."

Yueret opened the virtual screen, entered the program through the refrigerator icon, after which a blue energy rectangle with a text field inside appeared in the wall.

After entering the password, the rectangle disappeared. The wall moved apart. An ordinary refrigerator door appeared, only reduced to three times smaller.

"I probably bought this fridge as a backup, to have a supply of food in case Unana ate everything. I had to go to the city myself for that, because Unana could intercept the robot buyer."

Inside were black sealed bags of food. Yueret grabbed one of them, then moved it to the inventory and closed the refrigerator.

"I hope Unana hasn't woken up yet. But it's still better to hide the food so that the rustling of the bag doesn't wake her up."

But Yueret worried in vain. Unana was still sleeping on the floor, but this time on her back. Her legs were bent at the knees, and her chest was slowly swaying, indicating that the girl had recently adopted this position.

"Kimchan, don't…" the archer said quietly, and then licked her lips.

Yueret stopped at the entrance to the kitchen, as he was waiting for his sister to wake up. But the archer continued to sleep, although she was quietly moaning. Then Yueret remembered the girl with dog ears and a tail, and ran into the yard…

…and discovered that she was no longer there.

"She didn't wait for me," Yueret fell to his knees and sank a little into the snow. "Hunger is a very scary thing. It can make you eat another creature, even if it's covered in fur and looks inedible. This girl probably just saw a squirrel and chased it. I hope she gets to the station."

Yueret returned home thinking that he would have to wake his sister himself, but he didn't have to. Unana was sitting on the floor, trying to pull the edge of her skirt out of her pet's mouth.

"Kimchan has the same ears as that girl," Yueret remembered. "I hope it's a coincidence. They can't be related."

"If you don't let go..." Unana turned in the other direction and accidentally glanced at the doorway. "Yueret... Aaah... You're just in time. Help me take this animal down. I'm late for school."

"You shouldn't have eaten so much in the morning," Yueret said. "Then you wouldn't have fallen asleep."

"I wanted to eat one piece. Well, or more than one. It just so happened that..."

Unana looked at the table and found an empty food box there.

"I ate the whole sawdust cake..." Unana couldn't believe that was possible. "I also woke up early to get to class, so I didn't get enough sleep."

Yueret turned away so that his sister would not see his laughter. Unana grabbed the puppy's head and pointed it at her brother. Kimchan understood everything, let go of the edge of her skirt and quickly ran out of the kitchen. Yueret only managed to notice something brown running past him.

"These visions appear too often," the guy thought. "Maybe this is some kind of signal? But no, it doesn't work like that. I just work too much, that's why I see all sorts of things. I should be like Unana, just sleep and eat. But if I don't cook, what will Unana eat? She'd rather eat Kimchan than learn how to cook."

Yueret left the kitchen and went to the bathroom. For a moment, he thought he saw a girl with dog ears and a tail sitting there, but it turned out to be a brown fur towel with a picture of bears.

"This is Unana's baby towel. Our parents gave it to her when they still lived here. Stop... Mom and Dad... They existed..."

Suddenly, Yueret realized that he had completely forgotten about his parents, and all this time he had not even tried to find them.

***

The fiery comet flew over mountains covered with dense forests of tree ferns. The sea was left behind and had almost disappeared over the horizon.

A bird-shaped flying machine followed the comet.

"It's a good thing you took me in that thing," Etinnei looked out the front window. "I'd melt on the back of a fiery dog."

"And me," Tuot added. "I doubt that dog girl would take me with her. She doesn't like me."

"That's okay," Itinit smiled. "Your feathers would now be burning so much that you could be launched instead of an arrow."

"That's odd," Tuot noted. "You flew on a dog and you weren't fried."

"Yeah," Itinit agreed. "The fiery aura doesn't burn inside."

The comet approached a high mountain that stood outside the ridge and stood out against the background of other massifs. Most of its flat summit was occupied by a lake with azure water, and its steep slopes were cut by deep ravines hidden under forests.

"Noru decided to show me the lake in the crater of a volcano?" Itinit guessed. "Did it really remind her of a lake on an island?"

The comet began to descend. The "Metal Bird" followed it. The summit became closer, and soon Itinit saw a suitable landing spot on the shore of the lake.

Noru catapulted into the water, and the flying machine carefully landed on the ancient airfield. Only here Itinit noticed that the stone base was suspiciously free of vegetation: only here and there moss and ordinary ferns grew on the stones, and there were no "tree-like" ones at all.

"Don't come out," Itinit said to his friends. "I have a bad feeling about this."

The creator of the dog girls opened the door, jumped onto the stone slab and took a few steps towards the lake to find Noru, but then realized that he could not move.