Itinit smiled. The stone barrel hit the energy dome barrier and exploded.
"Thank you, Noru. It took years of training, but now I can hold my own against wild animals with elemental skills."
By this time, the sheep girl was already lying on her back, looking at the night sky and smiling. Only the barrel's explosion and a chunk of rock partially obscuring her view of the stars made the foolish creature pay attention to her adversary.
"What's that blue thing?"
"It's an energy barrier," Itinit explained. "Haven't you ever seen one?"
"No. I need to test this thing."
The sheep girl "drowned" underground, as if it were sand. Itinit suspected the obvious and began to look at the ground around him.
A few moments later, a girl's head with ram's horns emerged from the ground. Itinit managed to dodge it and soon saw the spirit of the stone sheep before him.
"I missed," the sheep girl looked at the barrier wall and scratched the back of her head.
A long, pointed ear "jumped" out of her thick, tangled hair at the side and drooped like a hare's. Itinit flinched in surprise, but after a few moments he smiled.
"I'm going," the sheep girl looked at the man and began to "sink" into the ground.
"Your ear is sticking out," Itinit said.
"What?"
The stone sheep spirit touched the side of her head and felt the very ear that had somehow been hidden in such thick "wool."
"It's back again," the sheep girl twisted the unruly organ, pressed it into her hair, and then looked sleepily at her opponent. "Did you see that?"
"Uh... no," Itinit lied.
"Then I'm going."
The sheep girl disappeared underground, but soon reappeared beyond the barrier, this time riding a new stone barrel. The creature's eyes glowed yellow, and its mouth stretched into a smile.
"She's going to ride that thing?" Itinit stopped smiling. "Oh well, that happens."
The stone barrel tilted, sank slightly into the ground, and began to tremble along with its rider. Itinit pulled the hilt of an ancient robot from his inventory. It was a weapon that, combined with his aura, acted as his sword, and awaited the attack.
"Elemental skills can't penetrate the energy barrier. But if it doesn't hold, this thing will simply pass through. And it's big. How much ground is in it?"
The barrel carrying the rider rushed toward the enemy. Chunks of ground flew in all directions and disappeared into the darkness. It seemed nothing could stop this strange thing...
...The barrel collided with the wall of the energy barrier and was even thrown back half a step by the vibrations, but then simply passed through and found itself inside the dome.
Itinit managed to dodge. The heavy vehicle's momentum carried it forward, passing through the opposite wall of the barrier and disappearing into the darkness.
"I thought correctly. Maybe I should create another barrier inside this barrier?"
A small, empty ball of energy appeared in the hand free of the orb-lamp. It soon flew upward and transformed into another dome-shaped barrier, this one smaller in diameter.
It was just in time. A stone barrel carrying a foolish and desperate rider emerged from the darkness and crashed into the wall of the first energy barrier. The barrel paused for a few moments, but then passed through the barrier and collided with the wall of the second barrier…
…The air gradually filled with cracking sounds. Itinit stared in amazement at the stone barrel, which was shaking from the vibrations and cracking, visible even in the dim light. But the stone rider was completely oblivious.
"Where will it fall?" Itinit activated a blue energy aura, which then spread to the hilt.
...The stone barrel shattered into many pieces. Itinit even had to deflect some of them with his "sword," as he could no longer create barriers.
"Where is that sheep?" Itinit realized he'd missed the most important thing.
…or didn't miss it? A few moments later, something heavy fell on the guy from above and knocked him to the ground. The glowing ball fell from his hand and vanished. Only the energy aura and the two barriers above him somehow illuminated the surrounding area and allowed him to see the "gift" that had fallen from the darkness.
It was, of course, the same sheep girl. She looked at her opponent with a silly expression, as if asking what had happened. Her long ears had "flown" out of her hair and almost reached her shoulders, creating a comical effect.
"She's heavy," Itinit felt as if he was being crushed not by the rider, but by the stone barrel itself. "But it's worth it for the view."
The view was truly worthy of any observation deck. Her breasts, barely contained within the stone dress, almost covered her head and loomed over the "terrain" like a gigantic mountain. Her hips, like stone columns, extended beyond the clothing and rested on the ground.
"Okay, I don't understand something," the sheep girl seemed to regain her ability to think.
"What?" Itinit asked.
"Did I win or lose?"
"Uh..."
Itinit didn't know what to say. The stone sheep spirit sat on his lap, her thighs wrapped around his torso. The creator of the dog girls felt like he was about to burst, like that barrel.
"Can you get off me?" Itinit said the only thing possible in that situation.
"Okay," the sheep girl moved one of her legs away from her opponent's torso. "I'll leave. But promise me you'll come back, and we'll continue the fight for the memory card."
"I agree, just get off me."
The sheep girl got off her opponent and almost immediately sank knee-deep into the ground. Only then did Itinit realize he'd said the first thing that came to his mind.
"Uh, at least I found out it's definitely a memory card and not something else. I don't want to pick this thing up and then find a head with horns shooting energy beams from its eyes in my house."
Itinit tried to stand, but couldn't because of the pain in his legs. The stone rider had pressed down on them so hard that he felt like they would just fall off.
"I'll have to call Kimchan," Itinit laid down on his back. "But she might fly in with Noru, so it's best not to. Maybe Halankuo and the doll with the head haven't gone far yet?"
Itinit crawled on his elbows toward the path, but soon fell facedown. The energy aura and the barrier vanished.
"Uh... I think I forgot something important."
Itinit blacked out. He didn't notice he was lying in the middle of a road in an abandoned village, didn't see the faint silhouettes of trees and rocks, didn't hear the roar of water coming from the rapids on the river...
…The hot water forced Itinit to open his eyes. The first thing the dog-girls' creator saw were wisps of steam, but very quickly the silhouettes of mountains began to appear within them.
"It's a dream again. I'm already coming here every day. I hope nothing terrible is happening to me in the real world."
Bubbles appeared on the surface of the water. Itinit looked at them carefully and smiled.
"You summon me too often."
Black horns with blue energy veins emerged from the water, followed by a large purple cap.
"It's a signal," a voice answered from beneath the headdress. "I don't choose when I meet you."
"I thought so. It's just that lately the signal has been connecting us more often than usual."
"Do you think someone is directing it to me?"
"I don't know. I don't have antennas."
The cap rose slightly above the water. Itinit noticed the lower part of the mushroom spirit's face beneath it, and the tips of blue hair that almost touched her bare shoulders.
"But I recognized something," Itinit said. "I just don't understand what it is or how it relates to what we're looking for."
Itinit told the spirit of mushrooms what had happened to him that night in the real world.
"What?" Sanachan's hat lifted, and Itinit saw purple eyes looking at him.
"That's all I know."
"You don't know if this is related to what we're looking for, but it is. It's much related."
Sanachan looked at the silhouette of the mountain formed by the steam.
"I think this is something I once knew. I thought so before, but now I think it's only a little while before I'll put these pieces together and remember."
"You don't remember your past at all?" Itinit asked.
"Yup, so much information passed through my brain that it completely erased my memories. I don't even remember the very last thing I had. It's as if all the events had jumbled together and formed a network, like the threads of mushrooms. But that's not surprising. I am a mushroom, after all."
Sanachan's hat rose higher. Itinit noticed the upper part of the breast emerging from the water, but thought of the horned statue.
"You can't write down the events?"
"I knew you'd ask that," Sanachan stuck out the tip of her blue tongue, then bit it and pushed it back into her mouth. "I'm writing it down, but there's too much information. I just can't keep up with it all. What I showed you is just a small part of what's in my head. Sometimes I feel like I'm like a server, the data flowing through it. Is that weird?"
"The spirit of the energy mushrooms with antennas on their heads is asking about something strange."
"Yeah, that happens. I think you're used to it. You are the creator of the dog girls, after all."
"By the way, I wanted to ask you about a certain creature."
"You want to ask about the sheep girl?"
"Yeah, does she really exist, or am I imagining it?"
"Well, if she's a sheep girl, then she does exist. But if you meet me..."
Sanachan rose even higher. Itinit saw half of the spirit's breasts, which were no smaller than those of the healing doll. But in his dream, such things did not interest the guy. He was too eager to know the truth about the three-horned dinosaur's skulls and the statues, so even in his dreams he thought about it...
***
Spring was becoming more noticeable on the Northern Continent. The new needles on the tree outside Unana's room had grown longer overnight. Of course, she didn't notice, as she slept cuddled up to her large pillow. A fur blanket lay rolled up against the wall at the edge of the bed, and headphones with antennas lay carefully on the floor, along with an empty wooden bottle and a package with a picture of a squirrel holding a nut.
"No, it's too cold here," Unana said, putting her foot on the pillow. "I'll go home. It's warm there and there's something to eat."
At this time, Yueret was sitting in his room on the opposite side of the floor, playing a game on the screen in front of him. A fish-shaped boat floated down the river against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and coniferous forests. A girl in a brown and yellow fur dress, with long yellow hair, sat on it, her fox tail and ears flicking.
"If the north looks like it does in this game, it's no wonder you need to be well prepared before going there. Okay, that's enough for now. Then I'll ask Timnichan to explore this location. She knows exactly how to get there. She's the one who gave me this northern expedition simulator."
A break was indeed necessary, but a little earlier than Yueret had planned. A loud, low roar came from the corridor.
"Unana," Yueret said, running out of the room.
... The archer sat on the bed, a pillow in her hands, looking out the window.
"What's there?" Yueret asked.
"There's a tongue there."
"Timnichan's just joking."
"Ahh, now I understand. I completely forgot about her. I thought the cold lizards had woken up and were jumping up to the second floor. Wait. Did you call that lizard by name?"
"Uh…"
Unana glared at her brother, angrily, as she thought, but her drowsiness made it look ridiculous. The chubby girl with disheveled hair and barely open eyes, who used a pillow as clothing, caused Yueret to burst into such a fit of laughter that he had to quickly run out of the room.
Unana, of course, didn't understand this and assumed her brother had gone to that very lizard. It only took a moment for the little sister to fully awaken.
Soon, Unana was in the corridor, headphones on her head and a pillow in her hands, covering her breast and belly.
"Yueret..."
She didn't have to look long for her brother. Yueret was on all fours, his back turned to his sister, and trembling.
"This lizard taught him its habits," Unana squeezed the edges of the pillow with her hands. "Why didn't I lock her in the refrigerator until spring?"
The archer took two steps forward and saw her brother's head with an open mouth, from which the tip of a red tongue was sticking out.
"Yueret... he's gone..." Unana fell to her knees in horror and looked at the gray-brown wooden floor.
"Unana, are you okay?"
"What?"
Before Unana stood her older brother again, his tongue stuffed back in his head, but still kneeling.
"You're normal again," the little sister made a truly angry face.
"I just ate something bad," Yueret lied.
"That lizard tried to poison you. Let's find it and lock it in the fridge until we need it."
"But she will poison our food even more. It's not really her fault. I just ate a toad that happened to be in the package."
"Really?" Unana grimaced. "Are they edible?"
"No. That's why I felt sick."
"This is weird. Yueret's lying to me. He was actually doing something with that lizard. Maybe I should ask her? She's stupid, so she'll answer."
Unana returned to her room and tried to get to the window to see the spirit of cold lizard, but her belly wanted something completely different. In an instant, the restless little sister forgot about her brother and the vile character, threw her pillow on the bed, and, wearing only her headphones, and went to the kitchen to feed her insatiable "monster."
The kitchen was empty. Unana rushed to the refrigerator, grabbed the nearest bag of food, sat down on the floor near the table, and…
…felt the floor had become somehow cold and slippery.
"Yueret probably washed the floor. But why is it so cold?"
The archer wanted to get up to see what she was sitting on, but hunger was stronger. Her hands opened the bag of their own accord and pulled pieces of something red into her mouth…
The bag emptied within a few dozen moments, then went to the table. Unana stroked her stomach, considering lying down for a bit, but suddenly felt the floor shift. Only then did the naive younger sister realize she wasn't sitting on the water left over from the cleaning...
Unana tried to get up, but it was too late. Something cold lifted the girl off the table and dragged her out of the kitchen...
Meanwhile, Yueret returned to his room and continued playing, but he was interrupted by the screams again. This time they were coming from downstairs, but because the house was wooden, they were clearly audible even on the second floor behind a closed door.
"Someone got in here?" was Yueret's first thought. "But Timnichan didn't warn me, even though I asked her to."
Yueret had to stop the game and then roll up the screen with his hand to get it out of the way.
"I hope it's not dolls or that scary creature with the carrot nose," Yueret said, approaching the door.
The screams grew louder, as if they had moved to the second floor, but soon gave way to moans.
A short sword appeared in one hand, and a large rectangular-oval shield appeared on the elbow of Yueret's other arm.
"That's it. Now I can go out."
His hand almost touched the handle of the wooden door, but before it could open...
…The door opened by itself. A small human foot appeared in the opening. Yueret immediately recognized its owner and jumped back a step.
The rest of the leg followed the foot, and then the door opened completely. Yueret saw his younger sister, sitting astride a thick blue tongue that entangled her chest and lower face. The girl couldn't scream, so she moaned.
Yueret tried to think of a way to free his sister without cutting off any body parts, but it wasn't necessary. Tongue released the unfortunate creature and disappeared through the door.
Unana landed on her brother's bed. Timnichan's head appeared from behind the door.
"I came to tell you that we'll be heading north in a few days. We need to dress the brown one in a fur, otherwise she'll freeze."