"Uh, here we are," Timnichan came to the cliff above the river.
"Where we are?" Two brown-haired human heads emerged from behind a thick, black-barked coniferous tree.
"We've arrived somewhere. This must be the place."
Unana and Yueret approached the cliff. The river at this point narrowed considerably and resembled a large stream with ice floes flowing through many rapids.
"This is the place where we would become boo-boo..." Timnichan continued. "But you refused. So you'll go another way."
"What?" Yueret asked.
Timnichan waved her hand in front of her and summoned a screen displaying a map of the area. A thin blue line ran through a green background with icons of coniferous trees and ended in mountains with white peaks.
"These mountains are too close here," Yueret noted. "Are you sure the creator gave you the correct map?"
"The first creator couldn't be wrong," Timnichan looked at the map. "You can be wrong because you're the second creators."
"But…" Unana tried to object, but quickly realized it was useless.
Instead, the archer turned her attention to the mountains, which, though closer, hadn't grown any larger.
"Yueret, there's something wrong with these mountains," Unana said, gesturing toward the snow-capped mountain range on the horizon.
"That happens in some games," Yueret explained. "When you walk toward a mountain, it seems close, but then it turns into a silhouette, looking as if it's farther away."
"But we're not in a game," Unana said, approaching a thick, black-barked tree. "If we're going somewhere, that place should get bigger because it's closer."
"That's because you're going there incorrectly," Timnichan explained. "You have to do as the first creator said."
"Why?" Yueret asked. "We won't get there?"
"Yeah," the stupid smile returned to Timnichan's face.
"Why?" Unana and Yueret asked simultaneously.
"Because it's right," Timnichan answered. "If you do everything right, you can get to the right place. That's what the first creator said."
"He also decided don't spend a lot on her brain, since it's already okay," Yueret continued mentally.
"And if we go the wrong way, will we reach the mountains?" Unana asked.
Yueret looked at the white peaks that were visible beyond the trees and soon realized what was wrong here.
"Of course we'll get there," a purple aura appeared around Yueret. "It's just a forest here, and the trees are in the way. The mountains have actually gotten bigger. We just can't see them."
Yueret rose to treetop level. A beam of sunlight, accidentally peeking out from behind a cloud, struck him in the eyes, and he had to block it with his shield.
"Uh…"
Yueret couldn't speak or even think. A view of massive mountains, covered in coniferous forests with light and dark patches, opened up before him.
Snow and ice on the nearly flat peaks flowed down numerous ravines, creating white patterns against the green background.
But Unana didn't see this. She was looking at her brother, who was "handing" motionless in the air with a large rectangular shield over his head, and was already beginning to worry about him.
"Yueret, what's up there?"
Her brother didn't answer. Then Unana decided to check out what was up there herself, but before her aura activated, she noticed something moving beneath her feet...
...The archer instinctively jumped back and summoned her weapon with an electric arrow. A hand with pale skin and long pink nails emerged from the ground.
"Ugh..." Unana felt sick at the sight of such a creature, but she was afraid to turn away.
The hand opened. Unana saw an eyeball with a black pupil that instantly turned purple.
It was too much for her little eighteen-year-old sister. Although Unana had drawn various creatures without arms or legs, she somehow couldn't imagine seeing a single limb sticking out of the ground, especially with an eye.
The archer fell to her knees and bowed her head, bracing herself for the worst, but she didn't forget to release her arrow...
...The electrocuted arm disappeared into the ground. It wasn't a good look for her opponent, either.
Unana felt dizzy and nauseous. She felt as if everything she'd accumulated over the past day would burst from her throat.
"Are you scared, little bear? Don't be afraid, it's gone now."
The dizziness and nausea passed, as if they'd never been there. Unana looked ahead and saw a teddy bear with red eyes in the air, surrounded by a purple aura.
"You again..." Unana turned away. "Thank you."
"I didn't do anything. I'm just a toy."
The bear cub moved into Unana's arms, and she hugged him like a living pet. Unfortunately, this sweet scene was interrupted by the spirit of a cold lizard, which jumped out of nowhere.
"Brown, let's get out of here," Timnichan said. "Someone's following us. We need to escape."
"What?" Unana looked at the lizard girl with a tired gaze, which made her look even more like a bear cub.
"This is a backup way."
Timnichan got up on all fours. Her limbs stopped moving, and her skin turned white, gradually turning to ice.
"Is this the backup way the lizard was talking about?" Unana guessed.
Timnichan turned into an ice sculpture, but only briefly. A few moments later, the defrosting process began: from head to toe.
"It's not even disgusting. Maybe at least there won't be anything weird about this?"
But Unana's hopes were in vain. The thawing process hadn't affected the tail. After the ice left the Timnichans' legs, the frozen tail simply fell off.
"Ahh..." Unana breathed.
But that wasn't all. The frozen tail began to move and ended up between its former owner's legs.
"It's done," Timnichan said. "Now we can go."
"But there's only room for you here," Unana noted.
There really was no more room for passengers on the frozen tail. Timnichan's thighs covered about half the "seat," and the rest was taken up by her butt, previously hidden by her dress and that very tail.
"That's because you're warm, the bear cubs," the lizard girl explained. "If you sit here, the tail will melt."
"But how will we go?" Unana asked. "Have you thought about that?"
"There's no time for that. But it doesn't matter to you. You bear cubs are cute. No one will touch you."
"But..."
"You, brown bear cub, have inner fire, and your brother has inner cold. I only have a tail."
"You'll abandon us? Your creator won't mind?"
"Ahh..."
Timnichan lowered her head. It seemed like it would turn to ice and fall off, but it didn't. Apparently, even her creator had a sense of proportion.
Unana soon realized that she had been abandoned, so she decided to turn to her brother. But up above, above the treetops, Yueret was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is he?" Unana felt something explode inside her.
"Unana!"
Something large flashed past the girl and appeared behind her. The next moment, Unana felt a vibration, which then disappeared.
"Yueret..."
A man in a black fur jacket, pants, and boots sank to the ground in front of Unana. The girl immediately recognized him as her older brother, despite the helmet with its visor that covered the upper half of his face.
"She's hiding somewhere in the ground," Yueret said.
"Who's hiding? Is this a hand?"
"It's a doll. It's missing one arm."
"So the other arm is underground."
"Have you seen it?"
"Yeah..."
"You can tell me later. The main thing now is to run."
Unana looked at Timnichan. The lizard girl suddenly realized the hopelessness of the situation and summoned the control panel, where she copied her vehicle twice.
"I don't know how long my tails will last," Timnichan said. "You're too warm, bear cubs."
But for Yueret and Unana, it didn't matter. They sat down on something they would never have normally dared to do...
... Three frozen lizard tails moved along the surface of the river in a narrow canyon until they reached a small waterfall.
"Now we need to go up, but I don't know how," Timnichan admitted.
Luckily, the "bear cubs" knew. They activated their purple auras and climbed up the cliff overlooking the waterfall.
From here, they had a view of even larger mountains, but that no longer interested the siblings.
"Let's continue while that lizard is gone," Unana said, grabbing her brother's hand.
Yueret turned his attention away from the mountains, which now loomed over the jagged tops of the conifers, and looked at his sister. Unana's expression was as if she'd seen something terrible but was trying to hide it.
"It was..." the archer turned away from the mountains. "It was the hand with an eye. She was holding it in her hand."
"Did she throw it away?"
"I don't know. I couldn't look at it. I felt sick, but Unachan helped me."
"What happened next?"
"Then a stupid lizard came and told to run. She saw that hand, but she didn't do anything. Why isn't she helping us?"
"Uh..." Yueret looked at his sister, not at her face, but at the area below her neck – a spot that stood out even through her fur jacket. "The lizard only does something if its creator commands it. It doesn't do anything without a reason. It's probably like a character in a game who gives out tasks to players."
"Yeah, I know that. It's like we're in some kind of game, only not a game."
"Dad must be up to something."
Unana turned toward the canyon to check if the cold lizard spirit was approaching.
"Are you that afraid of her?" Yueret asked.
Unana didn't answer. She remembered waking up to something cold, and then seeing Timnichan's smiling head in the window.
"I think we should think about the doll now," Yueret looked around. "It seems she is not here."
"The stupid lizard is gone too. It looks like it drowned. Let's move further away from the river. I'm afraid it's hiding somewhere underwater, eavesdropping on us through the steam we can't see."
"This is what the spirit of a wet bed can do," Yueret thought. "Now it makes sense why dad locked her inside the mountain and made her wait for so many years."
The "bear cubs" went deeper into the forest and stopped at a large gray-pink rock jutting out of the ground. The surface here was no longer level, but slowly rose and turned into a mountain slope.
"She can't eavesdrop here," Unana said, turning her back to her brother. "Stand like me so you can spot her."
Yueret found such caution odd, but despite this, he stood with his back to his sister.
"Have you seen the doll?" Unana asked. "What is she like?"
"She has pink hair and clothes made of plants. The dolls have strange costumes, like characters from games."
"Is that the sister of the doll on the roof?"
"Yeah, she was wearing a mask, but for some reason I'm sure that underneath it was the same face as the electric doll, only maybe without the eyes."
Unana shuddered and grabbed her brother's hand, even though her back was turned to him.
"Don't be afraid, she's wearing a mask," Yueret said. "If she frightens you, it'll only be with her..."
Now Unana was truly frightened. She remembered the hand with the eye sticking out of the ground...
...The next moment, the sister turned to her brother and somehow ended up on his neck.
"Unana, you're already heavy," Yueret said. "Get off me."
"I didn't do anything," Unana pressed her hips, partially covered in fur shorts, against her brother's head.
"You're going to crush my head. You don't want your brother to go around without a head, do you?"
"What?"
Unana's body relaxed and slowly began to slide downwards. Her hips released Yueret's head, and he felt relief.
The conversation had to continue while sitting on a layer of tree needles and moss, but still with their backs to each other.
"Did she say anything to you?" Unana asked.
"No. She didn't speak. She didn't even have any holes in her mask. Maybe she has a mouth somewhere else?"
"On her belly..."
Yueret imagined the doll's navel untying and ripping its belly into two jagged pieces. Now her brother felt disgusted.
"Let's check, bear cubs."
Unana and Yueret froze in horror, but then slowly looked up at the trunk of a thick, black-barked tree and saw the antlers protruding from it.
"She'll smile," the brother and sister thought simultaneously.
The "bear cubs" were right. Timnichan's head peeked out from behind a tree, a silly grin on its face.
"If you want to find out if she has a mouth, you can break the mask," the lizard girl suggested. "There'll be a mouth there."
"Your mouth should be somewhere else," Unana frowned.
Timnichan ignored the archer's remark, as if her creator had programmed an algorithm to ignore such expressions. Instead, the lizard girl looked around, and then looked stupidly at the "bear cubs".
"Let's go there," Timnichan gestured toward the mountains. "The pink-haired girl isn't here. Is that your friend, bear cubs?"
Unana and Yueret turned away and looked at the moss under their feet. Of course, after several months of living with this cold creature, they had become accustomed to phrases that evoked shame, but this expression was too much even for them.
"What's wrong?" Timnichan approached Unana and Yueret. "Have you lost her? It's okay. We'll just walk to the mountains. They're close, so you can get there on your own. Maybe you'll meet your friend there."
The last phrase made the "bear cubs" join hands.
"There's a place around here somewhere where you can lie down and warm up," Timnichan continued. "There's a fire there, and there's food. There's also food for people."
These words drastically changed Unana's attitude toward the spirit of cold lizard. The archer looked at the recently hated creature as if it were her beloved pet.
"Unana, we brought food," Yueret reminded her. "And the food in that place is probably very old."
"Food is renewed," Timnichan countered. "That's why it's not old. It's cooked over a fire, which is also renewed."
"Exactly," Unana looked at the moss. "I somehow didn't think about that. Let's take a look. Maybe there's something edible there?"
Timnichan led the "bear cubs" to the beginning of the mountainside. The old coniferous forest gave way to a thicket of young trees, with a small clearing in the middle, where blackened logs lay.
"Is this the place?" Yueret asked.
"Yup," Timnichan answered. "But it's changed. There used to be a house here, a fire burning in the house, and food."
"The house burned down, and the food is gone," Unana sighed.
"I don't think she left on her own," Yueret added.
"That's sad," Unana put her hand to her belly. "Some squirrels probably took it. I can just imagine how they became so big."
"Unana, it was the house that burned down, not the food."
While the brother and sister were talking, Timnichan approached the unburned logs and began examining them. Her attention was drawn to a pile of ash, under which something was clearly hidden.
"Hey, bear cubs, come here!"
For some reason, Yueret and Unana reacted to the nickname and looked at the remains of the house. Timnichan stood on one of the logs and waved, as if she were somewhere far away.
"Don't shout like that," Yueret took a step forward.
"Stop," Unana grabbed her brother's hand. "Look at her other hand. She found something."
The lizard girl was indeed pointing with her unwavering hand at a pile of ash next to the log.
"She wants you to see for yourself," Unana continued. "She's trying to do something freaky again."
Yueret sensed danger and summoned his sword and shield. But Timnichan didn't sense it and continued waving her hand, as if inviting them to swim in the sea.
"There's something lying here," the lizard girl said.
"I see," Yueret answered. "See for yourself."
"But the first creator told me to show the cubs everything new," Timnichan stopped waving and sat down on a log. "Last time, it wasn't here. That's why I'm showing you."
And Timnichan did. Her foot landed on a pile of ash and disappeared into it for a few moments.
Unana felt disgusted again. The archer crouched down, closed one eye, and only cautiously looked at the foolish character with the other…
… Timnichan was tumbling through the air. In place of the pile of ash, a hand protruded, holding an eyeball in its palm.