Unfortunately, the happy scene didn't last long. The air filled with bird calls again.
"Tuot," Itinit released the dog girls and looked at his friend.
The dinosaur stood near the trees at the edge of the forest, using a small shield to draw the enemy's skill toward him.
"Tuot, is there something there?" Itinit looked at the water, but only noticed ripples spreading in different directions.
"Master, there was something there," Noru said. "Can I drain this puddle? It's very small."
"It's a river," Itinit explained. "You can't drain it. New water keeps getting into it."
"My sis will help me," Noru licked Kimchan's cheek and received a "dog-like" response.
"No, don't," Itinit created an empty energy ball in one hand and summoned his inventory with the other. "I know how to catch that monster."
The creator of dog girls took a piece of meat from his inventory and placed it in the ball. However, he didn't take into account that his trap would spring too quickly.
As soon as the meat was inside the ball, a blue tongue emerged from the water and attacked it. The ball let the guest pass, letting him touch the food, but didn't let him back out.
"That's cruel, master," Noru said, smoke billowing from her hair.
"Now all that's left is to get this creature," Itinit moved the ball to the side with a movement of his hand.
The tongue couldn't free itself any longer, so... it fell off. Itinit pulled something resembling a thick blue worm out of the water.
"Where's the lizard?" Itinit realized only a few moments later that he'd only caught the creature's tongue.
"Aw!" Noru pointed. "Wait, master, I'll get it."
A few dozen steps from the fishing spot; a lizard-girl with blue-green hair emerged from the water and slowly crawled into the forest.
For the first time, Itinit didn't stop Noru. The older dog girl burst into flames and rushed toward her unsuspecting victim.
Timnichan managed to crawl to the nearest trees, even partially hiding behind them, so she didn't notice the enormous fireball rolling through the air straight toward her...
The encounter ended quite differently than Noru had expected. Instead of the lizard girl, she crashed into something solid and was thrown into the water...
"Why is it always like this...?" Noru's smoking head emerged from the water.
The dog girl found herself in a small lake, like a large puddle, above the waterfall. Several small rivers flowed into it, flowing down from the mountains on the horizon.
"This puddle can be drained if we try," Noru punched the water, but only managed to create small ripples. "Okay, I'll get to that later. Right now, I need to do… what?"
Noru suddenly realized she'd forgotten why she'd come here. After falling into the water, the dog girl seemed to have lost part of her memories.
"Okay, I'll go see my sis," Noru never forgot about her other half. "She should be here somewhere."
The dog girl climbed ashore, but instead of Kimchan, she saw a girl in a white-blue jacket that resembled a bear suit. Small, almost round ears protruded from holes in the hood, and bracelets with bear heads adorned her white-blue gloves.
Noru's gaze fell on the creature's thick, bare legs, which stood on the ground and did not feel the cold.
"She doesn't even have fur bracelets," the dog girl thought. "She probably doesn't freeze."
"Have you lost so much weight that you can't even talk anymore?" the bear girl approached Noru. "I'm Hotuka, your big sis."
"I don't know you," Noru answered.
"Don't you remember my pawies?"
Hotuka held out her hand and revealed a glove with clawed fingers.
"No, I don't remember," Noru answered. "And I don't remember your ears either."
The bear girl made a face that was first dissatisfied and then angry. The black pads on her glove activated with a white-blue glow...
"Sis!"
A large fireball, reminiscent of a comet, flew toward Hotuka. The bear girl noticed this and redirected her hand toward the new enemy...
A white-blue beam, surrounded by icy vapor, erupted from her glove. The fireball froze in midair and became covered in a layer of ice.
"Hey, make my sis normal!" Noru bared her teeth and smoke began to come out of her.
"She's already normal," Hotuka smiled. "Soon you'll be like her. You'll be the same, like real sis."
The bear girl pointed her other hand at Noru. The pad on her glove activated with a white-blue glow, but the dog girl decided not to wait until she became like her sister...
The freezing beam struck the lake, but Noru was no longer there. At first, Hotuka didn't notice, but then, when she heard the sound of fire, she looked up at the sky.
The fiery comet flew so fast that the bear girl didn't even have time to dodge. Only her passive ability, a capsule-shaped ice barrier, saved her from the explosion.
The comet was knocked aside, but it didn't land or attack again, heading instead for the frozen ice ball, which for some reason was still was in the air.
"Sis!"
Under the impact of the fiery comet, the ice shell shattered, and Kimchan emerged free in the form of a fireball.
Meanwhile, Itinit watched from a hiding place in the forest. He was afraid to engage such a formidable opponent, but Tuot and Unana, standing nearby, were even more afraid.
"Just a little bit more and I would have seen Noruluya," Itinit thought. "But everything could still change. If Kimchan turns into a comet, the bear girl will have a worthy opponent."
But Kimchan decided to do it differently. She flew to the other bank and headed straight for Itinit.
"Why is she flying here?" the creator of the dog girls shuddered. "I didn't hide so the boss would find me."
Fortunately, along the way, the fireball that Kimchan had transformed into flared up to the point of a comet and soon met Noru. The older dog girl was completely reluctant to part with her "little sister"...
... Sparks rained down over the treetops.
"If you see anything now, don't believe it," Itinit warned. "It's not real."
"What will happen there? A new animal girl…" Tuot stared at the white, glowing silhouette, barely able to speak with excitement.
"How did you guess?"
"The dog girls have united."
"I can't get used to the fact that Tuot isn't stupid," Itinit thought and looked at the silhouette, which had already taken on the character's characteristic shape, with ears perched on top of its head and a tail.
"I won't tell anyone," Unana covered her eyes with her hands and turned away.
"There's nothing scary there," Itinit explained. "Noruluya is sweet. She's very similar to Nora, only much smarter."
"Maybe she'll be my friend?" Tuot tried to cover his mouth with his hands, but they were shaking.
"Do you miss your ice animal?" Itinit asked.
"I want to gather all the animal girls," Tuot admitted. "But Etinnei will be the most important of them all."
"They're freaks," Unana looked around. "I need to get away from here, but there's a blue-white bear girl out there. She'll freeze me, and I'll be stuck in a chunk of ice, like dad. Even Yueret won't find me."
Unana suddenly got lucky. Something blue emerged from the depths of the forest and pulled her towards it...
The archer was on the mountainside, on the lizard girl's back. The forest was still all around, but it was low-growing and didn't obstruct her view.
"Sorry, brownie," Timnichan threw Unana onto the moss-covered ground. "I had to go a different way. My creator said if you meet a white-blue bear girl, go through the mountains."
Unana looked back. From the mountainside, a river valley covered in normal forest was clearly visible. A real battle was unfolding there between two strange creatures: a fiery dog girl with long white-yellow hair and two tails, and a white-blue bear girl, surrounded by an aura of icy vapor.
"Come here, brown one," Timnichan said. "We need to make it before the white-blue bear girl defeats the fire dog girl."
"Will she freeze us?" Unana rose from the ground.
"Yup, if she comes here… You'll be like my first creator."
Unana did not argue with the spirit of the cold lizard and agreed to leave. Meanwhile, the battle in the river valley continued.
Noruluya remained in the air in a fiery aura with fireballs surrounding her, sending them one by one at her opponent. Hotuka successfully deflected them with a shield shaped like a large blue and white bear head.
"Hey, stop throwing those things at me!" Hotuka looked angrily at her opponent. "I didn't do anything to you."
"You were bullying my sisters," Noruluya growled. "They were just passing by."
"What sisters? I've never seen anyone like you."
Noruluya held out her hand. A small spark appeared above the bear girl. Hotuka didn't even notice it.
"Where did you hide the brown one?" the bear girl asked.
"Which brown one?" Noruluya tilted her head to the side.
"That's the brown one that was in your place. There were two brown ones. Uh... Why two?"
Hotuka thought for a few moments. During that time, the spark above her head grew, flared, and then exploded.
"That's it," Noruluya released a small cloud of fire from her mouth and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Noru. I'm sorry, Kimchan."
The bear girl's body parts scattered across the river valley. Her arms and legs were caught in the treetops, and her hoodless head fell into the water.
"This is how abandoned toys end up," Itinit thought from his hiding place. "But for some reason it seems to me that this is not the end yet."
The creator of the dog girls was right. The bear girl's head was carried toward the waterfall, but it never fell off the cliff. At the last moment, apparently out of fear, the creature's eyes activated with a bright white-blue glow, after which an aura of icy vapor appeared around its head.
"She's like a doll," Tuot noticed. "But why… I thought animal girls didn't have that."
"It must be a special little animal girl," Itinit suggested. "Her creator initially wanted to make her a doll, but then changed his mind, and the body remained."
"It's the same one..."
"Yeah, the one who created the games? Let's go see him. My dog girl will manage without me. And if she can't, she'll run away."
"You're forgetting someone else."
"Your pet…"
Itinit looked at the bank of the river, frozen by the icy aura, but found only the bear girl's head there, her tongue lolling and her pupil-less, glowing white-blue eyes.
"What's there?" Tuot asked. "Did you find her?"
"It looks like your pet is gone," Itinit turned to his friend, but covered his mouth with his hand. "That's what happens with animals. They get lost, and you can't find them."
"I don't understand."
"I said that where she was, she's no longer there."
"We met her in the game," Tuot looked at the loading screen. "If Etinnei is somewhere else, she can always be found in the game."
"You talk like she's a character in the game."
The loading completed. Tuot entered the chat and wrote a few characters to his friend.
Tuot sent a message. A few moments later, a hoodless, black-haired Arctic fox girl's head peeked out from behind a thick tree trunk.
"I heard everything," Etinnei said. "You said there was a man who made this game."
"Do you want to ask him for something?" Itinit asked.
"Yup," Etinnei licked her lips. "I want to add an arctic fox girl. I have a fox girl, but an arctic fox girl suits me better."
"Then Tuot won't be able to tell you apart."
"Uh," the arctic fox girl twitched her ears. "I'll name her Etinnei the Inedible."
***
Sogotoh entered the house and locked the door behind him.
"Great lord, I've already told the bear cub everything," Aragas appeared near the threshold.
"Okay," Sogotoh approached the window. "They'll be here soon."
"Great lord, they're already here," Aragas said.
Sogotoh looked at the ceiling and saw a doll's head with purple hair and a blue bandage on its nose hanging from a hole.
"It's you, Nyonyokyo," Sogotoh staggered and accidentally bumped into Aragas's apron. "Did you come with your sister?"
"How did you know?" the purple-haired doll closed its eyes.
"If you got into the house, someone helped you. It's someone with a separate eye."
"Yes, my sis is here," Nyonyokyo confirmed. "She's the one with the separate eye. But my sis doesn't talk."
"Were you following us?" Sogotoh asked.
"I didn't do it," Nyonyokyo's body emerged from the hole. "But my sis was watching with her eye, which can move around separately."
Sogotoh began to scan the room, trying to spot that very eye or that very doll, but only discovered the absence of Aragas.
"Great lord, I'm here," a strand of yellow hair emerged from the hole in the wall created by the loose log.
"Why did you climb in there?" Sogotoh asked.
"Great lord, you yourself told me to hide if the dolls from the crypt came."
"Exactly," Sogotoh thought. "I told Aragas that when I brought her here."
"You have my other sis," Nyonyokyo turned her head slightly. "I saw yellow hair."
"It's just yellow hair," Sogotoh lied. "She's not your sister."
"No, only our sis can have yellow hair. Toloruchan and I were born on the same day, and Aragas was born on a different day. But she's still our sis."
"Dolls remember appearances too well," Sogotoh thought and looked at the wall where yellow hair was peeking out. "It won't be that easy to get rid of them. For some reason, I was hoping for that."
Nyonyokyo started to fall headfirst, but soon regained her balance and landed on her feet.
"I'm normal now," the doll moved her head. "I can fight. But if you give me my sis with the yellow hair, I won't hit you."
"You think you can battle me?" Sogotoh's gaze fell on Nyonyokyo's breast. "I am, after all, a great lord, and not just some freak who likes dolls."
"That's why I didn't come alone. My sis is with me."
Sogotoh looked at the hole in the ceiling and saw thick bare legs surrounded by purple energy.
"Now the plants she wears as clothing will appear," Sogotoh thought. "She looks something like this."
Her legs slid lower. The edge of a skirt of large oval leaves appeared, covering her wide hips.
"Now the liana should appear."
Sogotoh was right again. A liana extended upward from the skirt, reaching into the navel and tying something there.
"The last, most important thing remains," Sogotoh sighed and thought. "This is what, without it, I would never remember this doll."
The liana stretched higher and reached two walnut shells, in which the doll's breasts were partially hidden. It then split into several thinner lianas that were attached to her smooth, even pink hair.
"It's a pity that my little brother can't see this miracle," Sogotoh smiled. "By the way, what's his name?"
Unfortunately, Sogotoh couldn't remember his little brother's name. A cracking sound, creeping up behind him, made his legs jump back to the wall.
"Nyonyokyo summons electric birds," Sogotoh saw a shimmering white-and-blue bird circling in his previous spot. "They're not very dangerous if you dodge them. But Nyonyokyo herself..."
A bright flash of lightning flashed past Sogotoh and slashed the side of his armor. The next moment, a blue energy barrier surrounded the man, his passive ability. But the doll seemed to be aware of this and chose not to strike.
"... She's too fast."
Nyonyokyo "hung" in the middle of the room in an electric aura with a sword in one hand and a whip in the other.
"If you don't give me my sis with yellow hair, I'll spank you," the electric doll raised her hand with a whip.
"Actually, I'm the master of spanking," Sogotoh extended his hand with a clot of blue energy.
A giant, translucent energy palm appeared above the barrier.