Halankuo and Tuot sat down on a bench away from the path that ran through the park.
"What do you want to talk about?" the dinosaur looked at the roofs of the houses that were visible from behind the green coniferous trees.
"I recently found out where dad might be," Halankuo looked at the layer of leaves and conifer needles near the bench.
"What?"
Tuot jumped up on the spot and almost touched his friend with his tail.
"Itinit told me," Halankuo continued to stare at one point. "For some reason he doesn't say everything at once. Maybe he has some kind of plan?"
"No, he's just gradually remembering what someone once told him," Tuot turned his gaze to the treetops.
"It's probably too complicated. I'm sorry you're involved in this."
"But I'm not involved in anything yet."
"Not yet."
"Uh... Do you want me to go with you?"
"No. I'll leave, and you'll look after Kyotyoryon, that is, make sure that she doesn't cut anyone."
"No, it's too difficult. Maybe you'd better take me with you? I'll battle with dolls or some mushrooms."
"You have an assistant."
Tuot looked at the pile of snow and saw Etinnei's head sticking out. Her white-yellow hair was no longer covered by a hood.
"She finally got in there," Tuot's hand summoned the interface, and then reached for the camera icon.
"Tuot, this is serious," Halankuo said.
"Yeah, I'm listening," Tuot looked at his childhood friend, but his hand itself pressed the camera icon.
"Kyotyoryon must not know where I went. If she asks about it, that is, when she asks about it, say that the creator went to the store. That will suffice for now."
"It's fine."
Tuot's head turned to the screen, which already showed a photo of a pile of snow with the head of an arctic fox girl sticking out.
"She's too small," the dinosaur thought. "I need to zoom in."
Halankuo looked at her feathered friend and realized that now was not the time for serious conversations. But there was nowhere to retreat.
"If Kyotyoryon finds out, I'll ask her to rip out all your feathers, and then I'll prepare them with lightning."
"What?" Tuot almost fell and accidentally hid the camera.
"I'll write to you in the chat. If you have any questions, write to me."
"But..." Tuot looked at his friend's face. "Are you going somewhere?"
"Yeah," Halankuo stood up from the bench and looked at the river. "I need to make everything look as natural as possible. So I'm leaving right now."
"But…" Tuot began to realize that he had just been drawn into a very strange matter.
"What?" Halankuo looked at the rooftops. "I hope you won't forget what I told you."
"I'll forget, of course. You said too much."
"This is so that you don't remember and tell everything to Kyotyoryon. She must not know the real reason, so that she doesn't come looking for me. This is very important. I can't take her with me, so I leave her to you and your cute fur friend."
Tuot looked at the river, where the spirit of metal was still trying to break the stones with the blades from her bracelets.
"Okay, Halankuo," the dinosaur said. "But..."
Tuot turned his head to the side, but Halankuo was no longer there. The girl seemed to have dissolved into thin air.
"…you won't mind if we teach her to play?" Tuot finished for some reason.
"Of course, I don't mind! Let's play!"
Tuot looked the other way and saw his game friend standing next to the open screen with a camera.
Etinnei froze in a pose with her hands folded together and her tongue hanging out like a dog. The character's hair was black again, and her clothes were summer clothes.
"Okay," Tuot looked at the river and thought:
"Maybe I should tell Etinnei about what Halankuo asked me to do? But you can't trust the animal girls; they are animals, only talking. Etinnei might accidentally tell Kyotyoryon about this. So I won't tell her anything. It's even easier to deceive Etinnei than Kyotyoryon. I'll probably do that, that is, I won't do anything. Kyotyoryon will see that the fur girl also believes me, and she will believe me more strongly."
But suddenly, something went wrong. Etinnei sat down on the bench, opened the virtual screen, and Tuot was forced to do the same.
"Now I have a cap for the foxy," Etinnei slapped her palm on the top of her head. "Is it cute?"
Tuot saw a fox girl against a black background with long, pointed yellow ears on her head and a large, fluffy tail peeking out from behind her orange fur shorts. The dinosaur immediately shuddered, and he realized he needed to look away, turning his gaze to the character's chest, partially obscured by a yellow fur top.
"Who's cute, fox or hat?" Tuot asked.
"The hat, of course," Etinnei pulled the hood over her ears. "I already know the foxy is cute."
Tuot looked at the character's head and saw a white and yellow fur cap between the ears, resembling a hood, almost blending in with the yellow hair.
"I didn't notice it at first," the dinosaur admitted honestly. "I thought it was part of the hair."
"There are slits for the ears, like mine," Etinnei pointed with the sleeve of her fur top at the character's hat, with two barely noticeable round holes.
"They look similar," Tuot looked at his friend's ears, then at the character on the screen. "Does it hurt you to put the hood on them?"
"Uh..."
Etinnei looked up, as if trying to see behind her head, then grabbed the hood with her hands and pulled it off completely.
"The holes are big and the ears are small," the Arctic fox girl explained. "I haven't noticed whether I have it on for a long time now. It's like hair to me."
"It looks cute," Tuot said, turning away so his friend wouldn't see his open mouth.
"I know. Sometimes I look at a character and see myself as if I'm in another body."
"What's that like?"
"Uh... It's like I'm an ordinary being, without ears and all that."
"Ah..."
"That's why I like playing this fox. It helps me better understand how other beings see me."
"But you have a different brain. You can't think like me, or like Itinit, or Halankuo."
"I don't need this," Etinnei closed her eyes, twitched her ears, and made a sound reminiscent of a grunt. "The main thing is that I can see how I look."
"She's cute not only on the outside, but on the inside too," Tuot turned carefully to face his friend and saw a strand of black hair hanging from under her hood.
The friends were so engrossed in their conversation and gameplay that they didn't notice how it was getting dark. It was only when the daytime screensaver around the characters (a white background), changed to a nighttime one (a black background), that Tuot realized he had missed something important.
"Kyotyoryon…"
Tuot jumped off the bench and turned to the river. The last rays of sun had disappeared behind the mountain, leaving the embankment in semi-darkness.
"What's happened?" Etinnei asked. "You didn't like the barrels? There's a lot of trash there."
Tuot didn't answer. He had no time for the game, even though it had once been the most precious thing in life to him, something worth sacrificing even for a meal.
***
Evening was falling in the abandoned village. The last bright red rays of the sun illuminated the courtyard of the only remaining house.
Unana, wearing a purple fur towel, wearing headphones on her head, sat on the roof and looked at the new, barely noticeable light green leaves of the trees that had appeared only yesterday.
"Spring is so nice," the girl hugged the smoke hole, pressed her cheek against it, and closed her eyes. "Winter was so long, I thought it would never end. Now I don't have to wear all that unnecessary clothing, and Yueret won't say anything against it."
Unana licked the chimney, and then smiled.
"I'm not stuck. Now I'm absolutely sure spring has arrived."
The archer opened her eyes. The sun had set behind the mountain range on the opposite side of the river, hidden by the trees.
"I don't want to go north; it's cold there. I hope I won't have to wear those heavy hooves that Yueret calls winter shoes. They might be boots for cows, but they're definitely not for the little sisters."
Unana's thoughts were interrupted by screams below. The girl immediately realized who was making them and sighed deeply.
"Yueret, you could have waited a little longer until it got dark."
The sigh made her breast rise to her chin, and the towel, held in place only by the delicate balance of the knot and her body, began to fall.
Unana landed in a purple aura, but without her "dress." The towel, however, managed to catch up with its owner, but only managed to fall onto her shoulders and become something like a cloak.
"Bear cubs aren't allowed to walk at night."
Unana shuddered, summoned a bow with a purple energy arrow, and then looked around.
There was no one at the entrance to the house. The girl walked to the edge of the wall and noticed a familiar lizard girl near one of the windows, who was sitting astride a brown-haired guy and smiling stupidly.
"So said the first creator," the voice came from the mouth of this monster.
"No wonder I was so afraid of the other girls," Unana felt the heat and hid behind the wall. "She's already riding him. Then she'll bite his head off, like in the game."
Timnichan closed her eyes and opened her mouth. A thick blue tongue immediately slid out, almost reaching her victim's chest.
"Did your creator also tell you to freeze with your tongue?" Yueret asked.
Timnichan tilted her head up and back slightly, after which her tongue curled back into her mouth.
"No, the first creator didn't say anything like that," the lizard girl continued. "He said to play games to learn about the world. So I played different games, and I saw one scene."
"Is that where the girl with the lizard tail bites off a man's head?" Yueret asked.
"Yup."
Unana, hiding behind the wall, heard this and calmed down a bit. But the next phrase shocked little sister.
"Can I bite your head off and then give it back?"
Unana peered around the corner of the house, aiming her bow with a purple energy arrow, but then saw Yueret, protected by a shield, on which sat the same lizard girl.
"Looks like I'm the one left out here," the little sister rejoiced and hid behind the corner of the house. "Yueret can defend himself if that monster attacks him again."
The heat released the archer, but a new thought appeared in her head.
"I need to get out of here. I can go back to my room or the kitchen and wait for them as if nothing had happened. But where is it better to go: the kitchen or the room?"
While Unana was thinking, heavy footsteps sounded around the corner of the house. The archer was suddenly overcome with fear, and she ran to the porch to hide in time and play the part of a good little sister.
...Yueret entered the house and heard someone chomping in the kitchen.
"Unana is busy with her favorite pastime again. It's a good thing she's not climbing on the roof like last year. The ground is too hard, and Unana is soft."
Yueret approached the doorway and saw his little sister with a fur towel around her neck and breast. The girl was sitting on the floor, greedily devouring a blue and white cake straight from a wooden box on a low table.
"Sis..."
Unana shuddered, almost choking on her piece of cake.
"Ah! Is the cake talking to me? No, cakes only talk in their dreams. It's Yueret's voice. But he never called me that. So it's cake after all?"
"You're eating as if Kimchan is about to return," Yueret continued.
Unana finished the cake, then wiped her mouth with a fur towel and fell onto the wooden floor as if it were a bed.
"Now my tummy will rest, and I'll ask you something," Unana said.
"What? Ask me now."
"I can't."
Unana removed the towel from her stomach and began stroking it with her hand, apparently to empty that insatiable reservoir more quickly. Yueret turned toward the threshold, but before he could take a step toward the kitchen exit, he heard his younger sister moan.
"Don't go... You'll forget..."
"What will I forget?" Yueret turned to the refrigerator.
"What I told you..." Unana said slowly. "My tummy will let me go..."
Yueret summoned a rectangular-oval shield surrounded by a purple aura, then grabbed his sister by the leg and placed her on it.
"Can cake talk?" Unana eyed the shield warily.
"No, you already ate it. How can it talk?"
"I thought it spoke to me through my thoughts."
"It's in your belly, not in your head."
"But I heard it call me 'sis.'"
"You're imagining it. No one calls you that."
Yueret approached his sister from behind, grabbed her by the armpits, and lifted her slightly off the floor. Unana felt a tickle, stopped stroking her belly, and started laughing, but she didn't have the strength to resist.
"You're heavy," Yueret placed his sister on the shield and let go.
"That's because I've grown," Unana stopped laughing and resumed stroking her belly.
"You grow every day, along with your belly."
"It's not my fault it asks for food every day. If it had just a month to rest..."
"Then you'd shrink, and I'd have a cute little sister."
"So, I'm not cute now?"
Yueret looked at his sister. Unana lay on the shield, partially covered by a purple fur towel, trembling with the vibrations of her aura, causing her cheeks to mimic the movements of her breasts.
"You're definitely cuter than that lizard."
"Of course I'm cuter than her. She's artificial, and those things she has are artificial too."
"What things?"
"These things…"
Unana tried to raise her hands to show where these "things" were, but the vibrations and her full belly made it impossible.
"You mean your cheeks?" Yueret asked. "Okay, don't show them. I know they're big."
Unana blushed, but was glad her brother had misunderstood.
"Yes, they're big and real. That's why I'm cuter than she is."
"You're a bear cub," Yueret frowned and puffed out his cheeks to mimic a sleepy bear.
"Uh, don't call me that! The bear cubs are too fat."
"So, you agree to be a bear cub?"
"Uh..." Unana turned away, blushing even more. "That's too cute even for me."
"But you're not a bear cub. Bears emerge from hibernation in the spring, but you sleep every day. You just eat a lot. That's the only thing you have in common."
"It's not me, it's my tummy. Take it to the bed so I don't have to carry it."
Soon Unana was completely on the shield, and it went to the second floor.
Night had fallen. Unana's stomach had managed to cope with the cake and finally allowed her to rise to an upright position.
"Now I can speak," Unana removed the headphones from her head and hung them around her neck. "I think..."
"This lizard will come and say..." Yueret continued.
"...that spring has come to the north," the brother and sister finished their sentence simultaneously.
"Yup," Unana looked out the window. "We'll have to leave. But what if Kimchan comes back?"
"We could move the refrigerator into the wall and install an energy lock."
"Then she'll figure out we hid it and start looking for it, and when she doesn't find it, she'll just blow up the house."
"That's bad," Yueret thought. "I can move the most valuable food to my secret fridge, but I can't tell Unana about this. She's an animal too, and a very voracious one at that."
"Maybe we should just eat everything before we leave?" Unana suggested. "But that's too cruel. Kimchan won't find any food and will go hunting squirrels. She'll burn down the forest, and we'll be left without squirrels or trees."
"Maybe you should just leave the food in the fridge?"
"No!" Unana got out of bed and glared at her brother. "I'm not going to give her food!"
Yueret smiled. A short girl wearing a fur towel and earmuffs around her neck stood before him, looking at him seriously.
"What's wrong?" Unana asked. "Am I funny?"
"A little," Yueret admitted.
Unana tried to turn toward the window, but was stopped by her brother's hand.
"Stop," Yueret said. "Don't move."
"What is it?" Unana looked at her brother in fear.
"The lizard is watching us from the window. We can't let her notice that we've noticed her."
Unana sat up in bed and yawned, then dropped her head onto the pillow and saw something blue on the glass with one eye.
Yueret covered his sister with the blanket, which, as usual, lay on the floor, allowing Unana to observe the "enemy" unnoticed...
...On the other side of the window stood the lizard girl, and the blue something turned out to be her tongue, glued to the glass.