An inscription consisting of two bear paw prints appeared on the screen inside the arch. Unana quickly guessed it was a password and placed her hands on it.
The vibration intensified. The paw prints activated with a bright green glow, then disappeared. Unana removed her hands from the screen and saw a brown bear's head with empty black eyes in the place of the slots.
"What is this?" Unana jumped back to the water's edge, landing with one foot on the ice floe. "This thing is kind of scary."
"It's so you don't think you've stumbled into a children's game," Unachan's voice explained.
"Am I in a game?"
"Not exactly... It's not a game yet. It's not out yet. But it will be someday."
"I hope this game isn't about Yueret and me?"
"No. It's a story about two bear cubs looking for their mother."
"But I'm looking for Yueret."
"It's one of the quests. The end goal is to find your mother."
A translucent brown bear with red eyes flew up to the arch. The next moment, an aura of pink fire appeared around it, but it disappeared a few moments later.
"What was that?" Unana placed her hand on her head and accidentally felt a small, round ear.
Unachan disappeared. Small lights appeared in the eyes of the bear's head.
"Did you light up its eyes?" Unana asked mentally.
"Bearries need to see," the voice in her head answered. "This bearries, even though it's not real, can't pass you without eyes. You need to give it eyes so it can let you through."
"Where…"
Unachan didn't answer, but there was no need for an answer. The screen inside the arch disappeared along with the head. A white ice crust formed in its place.
"It's like a mirror, only very large," Unana looked at the renewed arch, and then decided to approach it.
"Stop little bear!" Unachan appeared before the archer in an opaque form. "You can't just look at that thing."
"Why? Will something scary happen?"
"Yup, it's very scary. For bears, that's the scariest thing."
"Will my mouth and tummy disappear, and I won't be able to yum-yum?"
"No, that's scarier."
"Will I wake up?"
"Yup, you're a smart bearry."
"But what should I do then?"
"You need to look in the mirror with different eyes, not a bear's. Bear eyes aren't suitable for this."
Unana looked around for suitable creatures, but found only floes of ice washed ashore. They reminded her of the creatures that swam in the cold water and peered out to frighten children.
"I don't even know if I'll be happy if a cold lizard crawls out," Unana thought. "The main thing is that it's not that stupid lizard."
"You can summon the creatures you want to use," Unachan suggested.
Unana no longer worried about meeting that same cold lizard. The little sister opened the skills tab to select the one that suited her, but the brown bear's voice stopped her.
"These creatures must come across the ice or emerge from the water."
"Uh..."
Unana's hopes were not fulfilled. She wanted to summon some animal from the forest, but she knew a wolf or a squirrel would be unlikely to make it here across the ice.
"What can I choose?" Unana looked at the new group of icons shaped like various animal heads. "Fish, crab, jellyfish, and well, that's it..."
"This lake is freshwater lake. There are no jellyfish or crabs here."
"Then I'll choose the fish."
"The fish have weak eyes. They won't see the passage."
"But... only the lizards remain."
"Their eyes are strong, but not bear-like. They'll do."
Something inside Unana seemed to explode. She couldn't stand anymore, so she collapsed onto the snow, this time on her back.
"Don't be afraid, bear cub," Unachan sank onto the girl's breast. "The lizard will simply look in the mirror and then tell you what it saw. But you'll be able to enter where bears aren't allowed and meet the second bear cub. He's waiting for you."
"Exactly," Unana thought. "How could I forget about Yueret? He sits there with his eyes closed and can't wake up! If I'm afraid of lizards, he'll never come back."
Unana rose to her feet in one swift movement, her bear claw landing on the blue cell with the image of a lizard's head.
"I hope it's a different lizard," Unana said, closing her eyes.
The cell activated with a bright glow, after which it turned gray and went on cooldown. But the archer didn't notice this, or what was happening behind her.
Bubbles appeared in the water between two ice floes washed up on the island's shore. At first, there were only a few, but then...
Unana heard the sound of boiling water and became even more frightened. Her fear of the unknown overcame her fear of encountering the horrid lizard. She turned and opened her eyes.
Two straight horns emerged from the bubbling water.
"Why is she here?" Unana frowned. "I thought I'd be lucky."
But the miracle didn't happen. The head of the very lizard Unana had been avoiding so much emerged from the water.
"Oh, brown one," Timnichan said, letting out a puff of water that had been making it hard for her to speak. "Did you call me?"
Unana pointed at the mirror—talking to this creature was downright disgusting. Fortunately, the cold lizard spirit understood what had to be done, and...
...or didn't understand? Timnichan's blue tongue darted out of her mouth and headed for the icy mirror inside the arch.
Unana inhaled heavily, because she would have to talk to this stupid lizard after all.
But it was too late. That same cold tongue reached the mirror and stopped. Several cracks appeared on the white icy surface. It seemed the thing would crumble, but nothing happened. The cracks filled with blue energy, which then turned to ice.
"Aaa..." Timnichan seemed to be trying to say something, but couldn't because of her tongue in her mouth.
"Is she stuck?" Unana looked at the arch with the ice mirror, and then frowned.
"Bear girl cub" was right. The stupid lizard girl really was stuck with her long tongue to the icy surface of the mirror and couldn't get free.
"I'll have to cut you," Unana smiled.
Unfortunately, the archer had completely forgotten that she was no longer an archer, so she was surprised when, instead of a purple arrow, a purple pillow in the shape of a bear's head appeared next to her.
"It's Stupid Bearry,'" Unana sighed again. "No, I don't need you now. Sorry. I'll ride you later. Right now, we need to find Butcher Bearry to cut out this stupid lizard's tongue."
The pillow had disappeared. Unana opened her inventory and began searching for a suitable slot.
"Where's the Butcher Bearry? I saw it."
"How do you know about the Butcher Bearry?" Unachan's voice intervened. "It's hidden."
"I saw it when I was reading the skill names. They're so weird, but understandable. Of course, there are exceptions, like Stupid Bearry."
"Stupid Bear" sounds cute. It's like he has stuffing in his head instead of a brain."
Unana scrolled up the skill slots, but couldn't find 'Butcher Bearry.
"Perhaps Butcher Bearry was hidden on purpose so that Stupid Bearry wouldn't get hurt? Can they be summoned together?"
"It depends on Bear Strength," Unachan's voice answered. "It's a special stat that depends on…"
"…how much yum-yum the bear ate?" Unana interrupted.
"Yup…You figured it out. Too bad there's no Smart Bearry skill. That would have suited you."
Unana closed her eyes and patted her stomach with her hand.
"Uh, I'm a bearry girl. I understand how bearries think when I eat sawdust cake and drink tree needle juice. However, when I stop eating, I realize I won't be a real bearry. I'm just an ordinary little sister."
"Can't you be both a bearry and a little sister?" Unachan asked. "You can eat a lot of food..."
"...which your big brother is preparing for you," Unana continued. "But that's not true. I'm not a bearry. Sure, here I can be whoever I want, but in the real world, you can only be who you were born to be."
Unana opened her eyes. The skills page looked as usual, but now there was a cell with an image of a bear's head with a knife in its teeth.
"Butcher Bearry," Unana said, jumping up.
"Don't press on it. It heard you and came out of the wrong place."
"But it can cut a lizard's tongue."
"If it's the lizard, then press it. It will grow back. But be careful. If he cuts something off the bear, it won't grow back."
Unana brought her finger close to the cell, trying to decide whether to press it or not. Unfortunately, she hadn't taken into account that her nails had grown much longer, so the cell soon activated with a bright blue glow.
A brown bear's head appeared in the air, holding a huge, sword-sized knife in its teeth. Its red eyes, blood dripping onto its cheeks, stared into the distance with black pupils.
"It's kind of scary," Unana regretted her decision. "Unachan, he won't kill me, will he?"
"Give it the order," the voice in his head answered. "But first, you need to feed it. If you don't give it food, it'll use you as food."
Unana realized her mistake even more.
"Is there any way to get it out of here?"
"Only through food," Unachan answered.
"Do I have food?"
"Look in your inventory. The bearries have a special section for this."
Unana quickly found the button with the image of a round red berry. Fortunately, the "inside" wasn't empty. But another problem arose. The cells were filled with so many items that choosing one was extremely difficult.
"I don't know what kind of food Butcher Bearry likes," Unana said, frightened. "What if I give it the wrong food?"
"You're a bearry. You should know what food is best for bearries."
Unana looked at the strange creature in the air, consisting of a bear's head and a knife the size of a sword, and then turned her gaze to the cells.
"It needs something meaty. It's unlikely this bearry like that likes berries. No, that's too obvious. Yueret once said so. Bears are big and scary, but they love berries. I need to choose berries, but ones that it will like."
Unana's gaze settled on a cell with a round red berry, like a button for the food section.
"This is a blood berry. It tastes like meat. I've wanted to try it for a while, but I don't have time. I need to feed the bearry."
The claw descended on the selected cell. Soon, a round red berry the size of a human head appeared above the screen...
"GRRR..."
Unana heard a low, bear-like growl, after which she was doused from head to toe with a red liquid that smelled of iron.
"Is this the berry?"
"Little bear cub, you need to run," Unachan said. "I'll be in your place for a bit. I'm inedible."
Unana couldn't see what was happening around her, but the sound was clear enough. Something large and terrifying was approaching her, leaving no time to think.
The "bear girl" ran away from the bear's growl and soon found herself in the water, which washed away the red liquid.
The bear's growling stopped. Bubbles appeared on the surface of the water, and soon a head wearing a brown cap with round earflaps emerged. The "bear girl" leaned against a nearby ice floe, then exhaled a cloud of steam and opened her eyes.
There was no longer a bear's head on the shore, nor was there a lizard's tongue frozen to the ice inside the arch. Instead, a small brown bear cub sat on the red snow, examining a knife embedded in a nearby snowdrift.
"Is this Butcher Bearry?" Unana thought. "It's not scary at all."
"It ate," the voice in Unana's head explained. "You gave it a command using food. If you give it a certain food, this bearry does something."
"Doesn't it have buttons?"
"The bear isn't a robot. It's alive. Other creatures say it's not alive. But don't believe them! All the bears in the skills tab are alive. You can even befriend them."
This phrase alarmed Unana. Of course, she wanted to be friends with bears, but she preferred not to approach ones like "Butcher Bearry."
"Does it need food to come back?" Unana asked mentally.
"How did you guess? Your head is filled with something inedible."
"That's why I still have hair. If there was something edible in my head, then the hair growing out of it could be eaten too. Then I'd be bald, and that's scary. Besides, Yueret would stop recognizing me and kick me out of the house."
These thoughts made Unana feel better. Her confidence level increased dramatically and she finally decided to approach the island where that very Butcher Bearry was sitting.
The ice floe helped the "brown" one again, as if it had been specially designed for this purpose.
But then a surprise awaited the "bear cub girl." There was something blue lying on the shore, at the edge of the water.
"It's..." Unana shuddered, almost falling into the water at the last moment.
Something blue... turned out to be the lizard girl's tail. Timnichan lay at the water's edge, head down, horns up, which was unusual for her.
"This lizard was somewhere else," Unana looked at the opposite shore of the island. "Did the explosion carry her here?"
Unana stepped on Timnichan's neck to check if it was alive, but in response she heard a light crunching sound with a chomping sound.
"It sounds like snow melting. Maybe I'm standing in the wrong place?"
Unana took a step to the side, after which she was able to examine the spot she had stepped on...
The head, with horns and covered with blue hair, lay separate from the body. Between them lay a blue-green gelatinous mass.
"Ugh," Unana turned away. "She can be ugly even in this state. Dad… if I find you, I'll feed you your character."
"Do you think your dad is still alive?" Unachan asked.
"I don't know. But if he created a character like that, it means he had no plans to live. Maybe he didn't have much time left, so he decided to mock with the kids."
"He couldn't have done that. He loved bear cubs."
"How do you know? You're just a bear cub."
"I don't know. I just get information through the antennas."
"So, I'm not actually talking to Unachan, but someone else?"
"I don't know. But what difference does it make? We're all bearries."
"Yup… The most important thing now is to find Yueret."
While Unana was talking to the almost imaginary bear cub, the situation around her changed slightly. Timnichan's body rose from the snow and began searching for its head. Of course, the "stupid lizard" couldn't see anything, but that didn't stop her body from moving thanks to her passive abilities.
The "Butcher Bearry" had also changed. Instead of a small brown cub, a large bear head "hung" over the island, and a knife, sticking out of the snow, was trying to get out.
"Get the food out, little bear cub," Unachan said. "Otherwise he'll cut off a part of you and eat it."
Unana looked at the bear's head and only now realized the strange and terrifying situation she found herself in.
"That's my skill," the "bear girl" frowned. "How can it cut me?"
"It'll cut you until all that's left is your head and body. That's enough for a bearry to exist."
"It'll be a sad bearry, a bear without paws… I can't imagine that."
Luckily, Unana soon discovered the character's headless body walking toward the knife.
"It seems the food was found," Unana rejoiced. "I won't have to do anything."
"This food isn't suitable for it!" Unachan appeared before its owner. "You can only give orders to this bear with the help of special food."
"Exactly… If it doesn't like this food, then it will cut off my pawies."
Unana opened the screen and began searching through the food cells for the one that would send the "Butcher Bearry" back "home."
"How do I know what each food is for? It's not written down."
"You're a bearry. Bearries can't read. You must understand it without words."
Unana scrolled down the food page and stopped at the last cell. It contained a dish that nearly made the sweet-toothed little sister's tongue fall out of her mouth...
…A knife, more like a sword, burst from the snow and swung toward the unsuspecting, headless body of the lizard girl. But at the last moment, the terrible weapon changed direction and plunged into a large, man-sized, brown cake in the shape of an open tree cone.