"These are the same pillows that were in Unana's room," Yueret thought with alarm. "Where did they come from?"
The doll returned with a wooden tray in its arms.
"You can wait for the great lord here. He will be here soon."
"When will he come?" Yueret asked.
"Soon... He's been gone for over 15 years. So he'll be back soon. Just wait a little while."
"This doll probably talks about dad. But it's best to check."
"Do you know what your master looks like?" Yueret asked.
"He's a great lord," the doll placed the tray on the table. "He has a skill that spanks..."
"I asked what he looked like."
"Like you, only without your little sister."
"It's definitely my dad," Yueret thought now, having no doubts. "It's good that the doll didn't confuse me with him."
Meanwhile, the smell from the food bags began to spread throughout the room, and Unana, of course, couldn't help but notice it. When Yueret stopped thinking, he heard a chomping sound so loud, it sounded like a large wild animal was nearby.
But his little sister was sitting on the couch next to him, devouring the contents of a paper bag with her mouth, hands off.
"Your sister eats like a bear," the doll said. "Can she talk?"
"She shouldn't have said that," Yueret sensed danger approaching.
Luckily, Unana was so busy eating that she didn't hear the words of the doll and her brother.
"Who are you?" Yueret finally decided to ask the most important question.
"I didn't introduce myself," the doll approached the large window. "The great lord would have spanked me, but here you are instead."
"I don't have such a skill," Yueret guessed what the creature was trying to ask. "And I have no intention of learning it."
"Then I'll tell you my name," the doll turned its head toward the sofa. "It consists of several symbols."
The doll moved slightly away from the window, and then with a wave of her hand summoned a screen with a white background. Soon, the same symbols appeared on it: a circle, two lines, and three dots.
"Aragas," Yueret read. "These are simple symbols. Is this what your creator named you?"
"I don't know. I'll have to ask him about it. He'll come soon, and I'll ask."
These words struck Yueret as suspicious. He glanced at the staircase leading to the second floor and noticed a web, like a barrier blocking access to some secret place.
"Is he definitely coming?" Yueret asked. "Maybe we should look for him?"
"If I go looking for the great lord, he'll spank me first and then he'll assemble me," Aragas explained. "So I just wait. That way, I'll only get spanked."
Yueret looked at the doll's buttocks, which had again forgotten to turn its body. Now he was sure why it had required special skill—an ordinary hand simply wouldn't have been able to cope.
"Are you afraid of being beaten?" Yueret asked.
"What's that? I don't understand."
"When you get hit, it hurts."
"I hear something slapping. That sound reminds me of my creator, that is, the great lord."
"She called him her creator?" Yueret fell onto the sofa, and only the backrest with a pillow in the shape of a white and blue bear's head helped him not to hit himself…
"Have you eaten too, Unachan?" Unana lay on "her" brown pillow, her eyes closed, rubbing her belly.
But Yueret wasn't interested in food. He remembered the doll at the station, searching for someone who looked like his father.
"Did dad really make dolls?"
A few moments later, Yueret rose from the sofa and looked at the maid:
"Do you know where your master is?"
"There," Aragas pointed toward the door. "He went that way. I don't know anything else."
Yueret sat down on the sofa again. This time the fall was so hard that it woke Unana, who had almost fallen asleep.
"Brother, are we home?" the girl yawned and slowly opened her eyes.
"Uh..." Yueret look around. "Probably home… Probably..."
Unana turned her head to the side and accidentally noticed a girl with her head turned back.
"AAAH!" the archer jumped off the couch and accidentally summoned a weapon with an electric arrow. "It's a doll! What's she doing here?"
"She lives here," Yueret explained. "Her name is Aragas. She won't attack you."
"Yeah…" Unana lowered her bow. "She's kind of strange. Can she talk?"
"Yes," Aragas turned her body in the "correct" direction. "I'm not a healing doll. They can't talk. But I'm the great lord's battle doll, so I can talk."
"What?"
Yueret had to explain to his sister what he'd recently learned. Unana sat down on the sofa. The bow and arrow vanished into thin air. The girl stared at the empty food bag lying on the table, seemingly unable to believe this was actually happening.
"Yueret, was dad just joking?" Unana asked. "First this lizard, then this doll."
"Uh… I don't know. First we need to find him. But for now, he's nowhere to be found. No one knows where he is."
"Why?" Unana lay down on the brown pillow. "You used to find things that were impossible to find. But now that we've come here, you speak differently."
"The clues dad left me used to help. But now there simply aren't any. Even Aragas doesn't know anything. It's like something's gone wrong."
"Exactly… Maybe I should ask the little bears? They were a gift from mom. Maybe they know something?"
"Do you want to ask the plush bears that question?"
"Yup… They talk only through your thoughts."
Yueret's gaze fell on the bear-shaped pillow he'd recently lain on. This time, he noticed its color, which matched the color of his bear cub, which he hadn't even named.
"That's probably a good idea," Yueret thought. "But it's... in Unana's style. But there's nothing else, so why not give it a try?"
Yueret turned his gaze to the pillow that was peeking out from behind his younger sister's head, and then looked back at his own pillow.
"These... these aren't just pillows," Yueret frowned. "They're the same color as our bear cubs."
Unana stood up from the sofa and looked at her pillow.
"I have a pillow just like that at home. I thought only I have it. What's it doing here?"
"I think it's just a similar pillow. You can buy them at the store. Do you remember where you got it?"
"Uh..." Unana turned away. "I didn't buy it. I've always had it."
"I don't remember when you got it either. Maybe it was left over from your parents?"
Unana closed her eyes. A brown plush bear with red eyes immediately appeared in her mind, its head detached and landing on the sofa next to its paws and body.
"I know!" Unana somehow ended up on the table, and the food bags fell to the floor. "We only have it head. The rest must be somewhere."
"Are you saying we need to collect the bear?" Yueret asked. "That's childish."
"But it will work! These pillows aren't really pillows. They're bearry heads."
"What happens if we collect them all?"
Unana leaned toward her brother, causing her hair to hang over her breast.
"Unachan and your bear will live there," the younger sister whispered.
"Ahh..."
Yueret remembered the blue and white bear's words.
"You didn't give me a name. Without one, I can't wake up."
"Exactly," Yueret grabbed his sister by the shoulders and pulled her toward him, causing her to rest on his hips. "The cub wants to wake up."
"Yup, we just need to find it paws and body."
This phrase alarmed Yueret. His gaze slowly moved from her face to her neck and from there lower.
"Where will we find it paws and body?" Yueret finally felt something heavy pressing on his legs.
"Wait," Unana rolled onto her side and climbed off her brother. "I'll ask Unachan."
The archer closed her eyes. A smile appeared on her face, and her hands extended forward, as if trying to grab someone.
"Unana is thinking about her bearry," Yueret thought. "She's probably hugging it and talking to it like it's a child."
In reality, Unana imagined herself walking through the forest, searching for her bear cub, which was hiding from her.
"Where are you, Unachan? Why are you hiding?"
Something brown with a red eye peeked out from behind a thick coniferous tree.
"Okay, hide," Unana continued. "Just tell me where your paws and body are."
"I have everything, even a name. I'm just a regular plush bear. I don't need anything else."
"But your head is on the couch," Unana looked at the tree, but saw nothing there. "It's the same color as you. What does that mean?"
"I don't know. I'm just a bear cub transmitting signals."
"But that pillow looks like your head, except the eyes don't glow. But... There aren't any there at all."
Unana opened her eyes abruptly and looked around. The brown pillow was lying right next to her.
"Ahh..." the archer opened her mouth wider than she had while eating cake.
"What is it?" Yueret asked.
"Eyes..." Unana stood up from the sofa so her brother could see the pillow. "It doesn't have any."
"Of course they're not, because it's a pillow."
"They have to be. I know. Someone took them so the bear couldn't assemble together."
"You're completely obsessed with bears. Just because the pillow is the same color as your stuffed animal doesn't mean they're related."
There was silence. At that moment, Yueret remembered the color of his unnamed plush bear and compared it to the color of "his" pillow.
"Unana..."
"What?"
"I need to name him," Yueret stood up from the couch, looked at the white and blue pillow, and then picked it up. "Maybe it will tell me something. It definitely will."
Soon, Yueret was sitting on the couch with the screen open and that same cell with the icon of the white and blue bear's head.
"There's a head here too," Yueret sighed. "The relationship is becoming more and more noticeable."
A finger descended on the slot. The same nameless plush bear appeared in the air.
"Unana, do you see him?" Yueret asked.
"What? The bear…"
"Yeah, it's in front of the screen."
Unana sat down on the table and adjusted her headphones.
"There seems to be something here, but I can't figure out what it is," the little sister answered after a short pause. "This is some kind of air silhouette."
"What color is it?"
"It's a little gray or white. It's hard to see. It's like they reduced its transparency. I did something like that when I was drawing it."
"So, these toys aren't fully material. This is..."
And then Yueret realized what was going on.
"Unana, maybe you're right. I'm not sure, but maybe I was wrong not to believe you."
Yueret closed his eyes and hugged the blue-white pillow.
"I was already thinking I'd sleep until next winter," a voice said in the boy's head. "Did you bring me a name?"
"Yeah, you'll like it. I don't know why, but you definitely will."
"Save names like Bun or Cake for your pets."
"No. Your name isn't like that. I'll call you Yuerechen."
"You're just a little bear cub. Okay, I'll be Yuerechen. Just don't change your mind."
"I've definitely decided. Don't worry. I'm Yueret, and you're Yuerechen."
"Okay. Then I can wake up."
Meanwhile, Unana sat on the table, observing the pillow in her brother's hands. This strange object truly did resemble a bear's head, with small round "ears" on the sides at the top and thick "cheeks" in front. And the white and blue coloring only added to the resemblance to a white-and-blue bear, which supposedly lived somewhere far in the north, where it was always cold.
"Maybe it's just a pillow?" Unana puffed out her cheeks. "It just looks like a bear's head. That happens, right? I look like a bear cub too, and Yueret like a bear cub too, but we're not real bearries."
Unana turned her gaze to the second pillow, the brown one. This object already looked more like an ordinary brown bear that lived in the forests and did not seem like such a mythical creature.
"No, something's wrong. This pillow looks too much like Unachan. It can't just look like it."
Unana opened her inventory and saw a slot with an icon of a brown bear's head, which only deepened her doubts.
"Hey, Unachan, are you really not just a toy?" Unana asked silently, hoping the bear would emerge from the screen and answer her.
But there was no answer. The bear cub seemed to be asleep inside the cell.
"So I'll have to wait for Yueret," Unana closed the inventory and lay down on the table.
Unana didn't notice how the pillow in her brother's hands began to change. Faint blue lights appeared in the small eyeholes. Only when the roar of a wild animal echoed in her own head did Unana suddenly sit up...
... And see glowing blue eyes staring straight at her.
Unana tried to scream, but the growling in her head prevented it. The girl lost the ability to speak. Now, instead of her, a voice spoke very much like a bear's.
… Yueret was still sitting on the sofa and hugging the pillow, which now had those same eyes.
The brown pillow was also glowing. Two red lights where the eye sockets should have been formed eyes, very similar to Unachan's.
At that moment, Unana realized she had to run, but she didn't know where. The glowing came from her head, and it was impossible to escape. Only a doll could escape this.
But Unana wasn't bothered by such restrictions. She ran to the door, but couldn't open it because of the password on the lock. Then the youngest of the "bear cubs" began to examine the room and saw a cobweb blocking the entrance to the stairs.
A yellow-haired doll appeared in front of the web. The purple arrow tried to avoid it, but was drawn to a black apron with a purple glowing symbol…
…A bright flash of light illuminated the room for a moment…
The doll's body filled with purple energy, lifting her almost to the ceiling. Now the symbol on her apron glowed even brighter, appearing almost pink.
"You can't go in there," Aragas said.
But Unana didn't hear these words. Another arrow flew at the doll, but it ended the same way as the first.
"The great lord said that only he can be allowed on the second floor," Aragas said, sinking to the floor.
Unana, of course, wasn't deterred. She couldn't stand the growling in her head any longer, so she rushed toward the stairs.
The doll, well-equipped to block attacks, could only watch as a large clot of purple energy flew above her head…
… The cobweb that had blocked the entrance to the second floor now lay on the floor. Aragas stood by the stairs, looking at her with the look characteristic of dolls.
"Now the great lord will spank me on the head," Aragas said, as if something ordinary had happened. "I must write this down in the diary."
Instead of pursuing Unana, the maid walked away from the stairs and headed for the kitchen.
Meanwhile, the youngest of the "bear cubs" noticed that she was standing in a corridor with several old, partially rotten doors. It was noticeably darker here than downstairs. Light came in through two small, round windows at the beginning and end of the room, covered in cobwebs.
Unana pushed one of the doors with her hand, and it opened without any energy lock. The growling in her head subsided sharply, but this barely calmed the girl.
On the floor, among the torn boards, lay an open box with something brown sticking out of it.
At first, Unana returned to the hallway, but soon her curiosity got the better of her. She approached the box and peered inside...
The body of a large, headless plush bear rested its paws on the edge of the box, as if trying to climb out...
Unana finally screamed. But this time, it wasn't a human cry that came from her mouth, but a low, hoarse, genuine bear cry.
"Don't growl, little bear cub," a voice in her head said.
"Unachan, is that you?"
Unana looked around to find her little bear, but instead, she spotted a girl in a brown bear costume standing on the oval window sill.