Chapter 56. Ears, Thank You

There was a clanking sound of metal.

"Here we meet," this thought even made Itinit happy.

The thick chain fell on the guy's neck and began to tighten.

"Please show up," Itinit, despite the paralysis, could speak. "I won't die until I see you live."

The chain continued to tighten, and soon the guy lost the ability to even call for help.

"She is strangling me, although she can shock me. She does not want to cause me suffering."

The chain tightened. Itinit's face turned red and the image before his eyes blurred. The last thing the guy saw was a bright flash of fire, which he took for an electric shock...

But it was a fiery comet. With one sharp movement it broke the chain and disappeared into the bushes behind the stone platform.

Itinit quickly came to his senses and turned around. Near the "metal bird" lay the head of a doll with long pink hair, and arms, legs and parts of the torso were scattered throughout the "airfield".

"I didn't think I'd see her like this, but even so she's beautiful," Itinit's gaze stopped on the hair of his "beloved."

"Hey, master, why aren't you coming?" Noru's voice came from the bushes.

Itinit looked to the side and noticed slightly charred, smoking bushes, from behind which dog ears were peeking out.

"There's something I didn't show you..." Noru stuck her head out of the bush.

"Now is not the time for this," Itinit objected. "A doll attacked me."

Noru looked down and noticed someone's separated hand near her leg.

"I've already defeated her," the dog girl smiled. "She couldn't do anything. I'm a really hot."

"She can fix any creature with her gaze. You were just lucky that she didn't look at you."

Noru kicked the doll's hand, sending it flying toward the lake. Then the dog girl walked up to the creator and put her hands on his shoulders, like a real big dog.

"She won't come again," Noru said. "Let's go there. It's very interesting."

For a few moments, Itinit actually wondered what his character had found, but then he saw the doll's head, staring at the lake with bulging eyes, and changed his mind.

"The doll can assemble itself," Itinit said.

"What? I'll break her again."

"She's very strong. Her brother might be somewhere nearby. Even if you're not afraid of her, you'll definitely be afraid of a man without a nose."

"What?"

Noru opened her mouth, and her ears instinctively twitched.

"We need to run away from here before the doll is assembled," Itinit grabbed the character by the hand and dragged him into the "metal bird."

Etinnei and Tuot were sitting inside, looking out the window in fear.

"Did you see?" Itinit asked.

"Yup," the Arctic fox girl answered. "There..."

Etinnei pointed out the side window. Itinit and Noru looked there and saw the doll's head surrounded by a pink aura.

"She's assembles," Itinit explained. "We need to fly away from here immediately."

The "metal bird" rose into the air. Noru looked down and noticed a multitude of pink lights of different sizes.

"Master, she..." the dog girl pointed down with her hand.

"Yes, she's assembled, but not quickly," Itinit looked out the front window so as not to see the doll's head. "We'll have time to fly away. I hope she will not chase us."

"Why did she attack us?" Noru asked. "Last time this doll was not here. There was no one here at all, only some snakes, but they weren't tasty."

"Why did you even fly there?" Itinit asked.

"I wanted to show you, not tell you," the dog girl answered. "And I want to now. That's why I won't tell you."

"We may never go back there again. That's why tell me."

"I don't want to."

"You promised to tell me when we arrive there," Etinnei said.

"Well..." Noru looked at her friend. "I'll only tell Etinnei. I won't tell the others."

Noru pressed herself close to the Arctic fox girl and almost touched the fur on her ears with her mouth.

"I didn't hear anything," Tuot admitted. "I know," Etinnei looked at her friend. "Even my side ears didn't hear anything."

"Animal girls have very good hearing," Noru stroked the dog's ears with her hands. "Ears, thank you."

Etinnei looked at her friend and also began to stroke own arctic fox ears. Tuot noticed this and called the camera.

"The ears deserve gratitude most of all," Noru continued. "They work even in our sleep, when we are asleep."

"Yup," Etinnei agreed. "Ears, thank you."

"They are also the basis of our identity," Noru continued.

"Ears, thank you," Etinnei continued.

"You forgot about the tail," Itinit intervened.

Noru glared at her creator, showed her bestial grin and began to smoke.

"Sorry, Noru," Itinit opened the mirror with a movement of his hand. "But you can't burn in a flying machine. It's against safety regulations."

"Shut up, master!" Noru shouted. "You are not an animal girl! You can't talk about a tail. You don't have one."

The "metal bird" flew back. Soon the sea appeared on the horizon beyond the mountains, but at the last moment the flying machine changed its trajectory and headed parallel to the coastal mountain range.

"Itinit, we're going the wrong way," Tuot said in fear. "This is..."

"No, this is not a signal," Itinit answered. "I simply changed course to confuse the enemy."

Tuot looked out the rear window, but saw no one there. "No one is chasing us," the dinosaur said.

"This is just a precautionary measure," Itinit explained. "Moreover, this way we will arrive at the right place faster."

"The right place?" Tuot was surprised. "Do you need to go somewhere?"

"Don't you know?" Itinit bowed his head to hide his smile. "Didn't I tell you?"

"No," Tuot answered. "You said you wanted to fly to the Southern Continent. I thought we were just flying there."

Itinit turned to the animal girls. Etinnei was looking out the window, and Noru was lying on her lap with her eyes closed.

"Did you hear what I said about why we are flying to the Southern Continent?" Itinit asked.

"What?" Etinnei looked at the creator of the dog girls.

"I know you heard something," Itinit continued. "Even if you don't want to hear anything, your ears eavesdrop automatically."

"Eeeh..." Etinnei looked at the roof of the flying machine, where for some reason there was another window. "There are edible trees there..."

Itinit turned away, and then remembered what he had said to the Arctic fox girl:

"The forests there are not made of trees, but of ferns. It's a parody of real trees."

"I didn't say they were edible. The characters' brains work too automatically. If the creature forgets something, the brain fills in the missing pieces itself."

The flying machine landed on a rocky surface in the middle of the forest. It was the same roof of the ruined building it had landed on before.

"I found this place," Itinit remembered. "Now I just need to find Halankuo. I hope she hasn't gone far."

The wing-shaped door slid open. Itinit jumped onto the surface and soon realized that too much time had passed, and he summoned a virtual screen.

"I thought I was writing to Halankuo," Itinit clicked on the messenger icon. "And I completely forgot about it."

A messenger window opened. Itinit had a hard time finding the right chat and was surprised to discover that the last message had been sent more than a month ago.

His finger hovered over the text field and was about to enter the first character, but then the creator of the dog girls felt something heavy fall on his shoulder.

"Noru, don't bother me," Itinit jumped back, saw legs and a dog's tail in front of him, which turned over in the air and then landed.

"I did it!" Noru turned around and looked happily at her creator. "I finally did it!"

"It's only because I got distracted," Itinit answered. "It's too bad I'm not a doll."

"You are harder, creator. The dolls are so light."

"But they can recover, but people cannot."

"People are kind of unsuitable. They can't even be burned."

The creator of the dog girls mentally smiled because he didn't want to burn after surviving the encounter with the doll.

"Hey, Itinit, can we come out?" a bird voice came from the "metal bird". "Are there no dolls here?"

Itinit looked around. At first he wanted to joke about Tuot as usual, but then he realized that the situation was too serious and answered negatively.

Etinnei leaned out of the open doorway, sniffed the air, and only then jumped onto the stone surface of the "airfield." Tuot followed her, but for some reason activated his aura to jump.

"Something's wrong," Etinnei looked around. "Something's missing."

"I'm here," Tuot answered.

The arctic fox girl looked at her feathered friend, then moved her ears and tail.

"It's not you," Etinnei said. "And it's not your friend. It's the dog girl."

Only now did Itinit notice that Noru was missing.

"She went to look for dolls?" the creator of the dog girls suggested.

Itinit knew his characters very well, so he could guess almost any of their actions or even continue phrases. But this time, for the first time, he could not explain Noru's absence.

"It's good that I took Kimchan with me, and not Noru. I am more and more convinced of this. This dog is very active. She spent too long on the island. It is not surprising that Noru wants to explore all the places she has not been to. Therefore, until she has visited all the places in the world, she will not calm down."

Itinit opened the map of the "Mausoleum of Nature", and soon discovered a red dot near the ruins on a nearby mountain.

"Why does she always climb into the ruins?" the creator of the dog girls wondered. "Maybe the smell of food is coming from there?"

"He-he..."

Itinit heard breathing sounds nearby, similar to a dog's. He immediately realized that it was not his character, but he still activated his aura.

The source of the sound was Etinnei, who stood with her mouth open near the screen and looked at it with interest.

"This is not for you," Itinit warned.

"I have seen such a thing," Etinnei frowned. "My creator had such a screen. Only there was no map on it."

Itinit opened the tab with characters. The models of Noru and Kimchan in almost human form stood in the neighboring windows and looked sadly at the creator.

"Yup!" Etinnei shouted joyfully. "This is it! Only instead of dog girls there was me."

"You were created in this program," Itinit admitted.

"I thought the creator created me," the joy instantly left the arctic fox girl.

"That's right," Itinit continued. "You were created in this program by your creator."

Etinnei stretched out her hand to the screen with the characters, but nothing happened.

"Only I can control all this," Itinit warned. "You can't."

"I don't want to do those fur girls," Etinnei scratched her hand behind her arctic fox ear. "I wonder how they fit in there."

A bird cry was heard behind the Arctic fox girl. This time the laughter came from Tuot, who was watching his friend near the flying machine. The dinosaur was shaking as if from an electric shock.

"What's happened?" Etinnei turned around and scratched the back of her head. "I didn't do anything."

Tuot tried to answer, but accidentally swallowed his tongue and fell to the floor. Etinnei approached her friend, but again could not understand anything.

"It looks like you managed to make Tuot laugh," Itinit explained. "He's so used to animal girls in games that he can't understand how they can exist in reality. You can't understand the opposite."

"I didn't understand anything," Etinnei admitted. "Can you explain it clearly?"

"I said you can't believe these characters on the screen aren't real."

"I know that. I play the game Tuot plays. There are many animal girls in it. But they are creatures that do not exist in the world. Someone created them. But on your screen are creatures that I know. What did you do with them?"

Itinit sighed and waved his hand to close the "Mausoleum of Nature." But Etinnei was too interested. She snarled and attacked Itinit's hand and bit it with her teeth.

"Stop it, you're not Noru," Itinit said.

But Etinnei did not give up. Itinit raised his other hand to the screen, but instead of moving downwards, he grabbed an icicle covered in electricity.

Soon, Itinit was lying face down on the surface of the "airfield" and shaking from the electric shocks. The icicle he was holding in his hand quickly melted and after a few moments turned into a small piece of ice.

"Talk!" Etinnei shouted.

"It looks like I was defeated by some beast girl from the "Mausoleum of Nature." It's good that Noru doesn't see this. Otherwise she will try to repeat it."

But Itinit was wrong. After the piece of ice turned into water and the current stopped beating the guy, Noru came out of the thickets and saw her friend riding Noru's creator.

"What are you doing with my creator?" the dog girl asked calmly.

"Noru is already here," Itinit sighed. "I wonder what she will do with Etinnei."

Etinnei didn't answer. She was too obsessed with the desire to know the truth. Noru had to come very close and whisper something in her ear.

"Are you out of there yet?" Etinnei looked at her friend.

"What?" Noru wiggled her eyebrows and dog ears at the same time. "I was just walking in the forest."

"I'm trying to find out how you can be inside the screen."

"What are you talking about?"

Etinnei pointed at the screen, which had now moved lower, to the head of the creator of the dog girls.

"Itinit showed this," Noru remembered. "This thing is called something."

"He said something," Etinnei remembered. "But it doesn't matter what the thing is called. Why are you there and here at the same time?"

"Because there is an energy copy of it," a strangled human voice sounded below.

The animal girls looked at Itinit, who had already recovered from the electric shock and was now trying to move.

"They are not made of energy," Etinnei looked at the screen. "Energy is blue or green, and these fur girls look just like this one."

"I'm Noru," the dog girl patted her friend on the head. "And this is my little sister Kimchan. Don't get confused."

"Your clothes are just a little different and the length of your hair is a little different," Etinnei admitted. "So I'll just call you fur girls."

"Noru doesn't even try to beat her," Itinit noted. "It's probably because she's an animal girl too. Noru is very good to creatures like her, because she considers them to be like sisters."

"Maybe you'll let my creator go?" Noru asked. "You found out what you wanted."

"Not really," Etinnei stood up from Itinit, but then lowered one of her legs to the back of his head. "I want to know why these fur girls look so real."

"Because the energy, when it hits the screen, turns into an image," Itinit admitted.

Etinnei began to look closely at the screen, and finally found the evidence. The Arctic fox girl even jumped up in joy, which Itinit took advantage of - he rolled to the side, and then created a barrier in front of himself.

"What's happened?" Noru asked.

"The frame is blue," Etinnei closed one eye. "Now I understand why you are both here and there. Once I was like that too. Then I wanted to ask the creator, but I forgot..."

"Do you have a creator?" Noru leaned forward, and her arms hung down, like a real dog.

Etinnei fell to her knees and began to stare at one point - at a huge leaf of a tree fern.

"My creator," the arctic fox girl said. "I wanted to find her, but I forgot."

"You're lucky," Noru clenched her fist, causing sparks to fly between her fingers. "No one is separating you from your little sister."

"I don't have a little sister. I only have Minniges."

"Uh..."

Noru grabbed her friend by the shoulders and started shaking her.

"Don't give up! Believe in her, and someday she will appear."

***

The waves rolled slowly onto the sandy shore. The mountains here almost reached the sea and ended in a steep rocky ledge. Only here did the endless dark green fern forests give way to rocks covered with bushes.

A crab with a red shell moved slowly from the rocky foot of the mountain towards the water. Suddenly, in its path there appeared a human head, sticking out of the sand, with long red hair and closed eyes.

The crab stopped near the strange object and couldn't decide what to do next. After a while, it decided to touch a lock of hair with its claw...

The head's eyes opened and looked at the crab with purple pupils. The claw reached the lock of hair, but had not yet managed to close...

The crab was carried to the rocky wall of the cliff, but due to its strong shell, it managed to stay intact and hide between the rocks.

A purple aura surrounded the head. The sand in different places on the shore began to move. Arms, legs and a body wrapped in white cloth rose into the air.