"Let's do it another time," the bear girl looked around.
"Is there something there?"
"Yup, there are the non-living creatures. They decided to attack us while we were speaking."
"I don't see them," Unana looked up the mountainside, but spotted only snow-covered trees. "Is it because of bear vision?"
Gradually, the sounds grew louder. The crackling of wood was joined by the crunch of snow.
"Are there that many enemies here? Or is it just the bears' hearing that's so good?"
Unana looked at the strange creature before her. The bear girl looked around, her little ears twitching.
"They're trying to surround us. There are too many of them this time. You'll have to run."
"Where…" Unana asked.
"Back where you came from. You didn't just end up here by accident."
Unana looked back and saw a stone arch a few dozen steps away, without its ice mirror.
"That frozen thing was there," the fake brown bear girl pointed at the arch. "It broke when I got here."
The true blue-and-white bear girl looked at the arch. A clot of blue-and-white energy, surrounded by icy vapor, appeared in her hand.
"Take your bearry and go there. He's heavy, but bearries have strong pawies. They can break a deer's spine."
After these words, the bear girl smiled as if proud of the fact that she could break a wild animal's spine. Unana decided not to argue with such a strange creature and went to her brother...
Yueret lay on the ice, eyes closed, not breathing. Unana grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket and tried to drag him. At first, the little sister thought she couldn't move the body, but after a few moments, it seemed to lose its weight...
... The bear girl stood near the arch, her arm outstretched, freezing the space within. A smile appeared on her face.
"Will you stay here?" Unana asked.
"Yup, I live in this world, so I can't go with you. Did you bring your bearry?"
Unana pointed to the man lying next to her with his eyes closed and still not breathing. He seemed dead, but the little sister knew that wasn't true in this world.
"Now it's all over," the bear girl sighed and removed her hand from the space inside the arch.
The ice mirror had restored itself, and now it reflected an alternate reality. There was no blue-white bear girl, no Unana and her brother, no dolls walking along the slopes. Of course, the little bear sister couldn't see them, but she was sure everything was fine on the other side.
"Come here," the bear girl pointed her hand at the mirror, in which there was no longer a clot of cold. "Just don't forget your bear cub; otherwise you won't be able to open it. Only special bearries have the keys to this thing."
"What special bears? Who are these?"
"These are special bearries, bearries like me. There's another bearry on the other side that opened this passage. I haven't seen it, but I know it exists. If it weren't there, anyone would come here. But you're the first bear to come here. Actually, you are the second. This one was the first."
The bear girl pointed a clawed hand at Yueret.
"He came here?" Unana asked.
"It's obvious even to a bear. As you can see, it's just me and the non-living creatures here. I fight them every day. It's so interesting! If it weren't for them, it would be boring here. It's good they never end. The non-living creatures aren't like bears. They grow arms and legs, and even their heads grow back!"
"My brother and I can't do this. We're alive."
The bear girl knelt down and then answered:
"Take care of him. As long as there are two of you, you're real bears, even if someone says you're not. Don't trust others. Trust only yourself. Bearries don't need proof. They're just big."
"Only you're small."
"I'm a special bearry," the bear girl closed her eyes and put her hands to her cheeks. "Even though I'm small, I'm very strong. I've defeated all the non-living creatures. They break easily. It's so much fun! How about we break these creatures together next time you come here?"
"Eh".
Unana looked down and blushed slightly. She wasn't sure there would be a next time.
Meanwhile, the non-living creatures were approaching. They were still invisible, but the sound of footsteps in the snow became noticeably louder.
"It looks like it's time for you to go," the bear girl grabbed Unana's hand. "I'm so happy to meet a bearry, just like me, only brown and another bearry who never said anything. But next time he will. I'm sure of it."
"Yup," Unana glanced at the ice mirror inside the arch, and then turned her gaze to Yueret. "Let's go, my big brother."
Unana took a step toward the mirror. At the same moment, the bear girl released her hand and jumped back. A white-blue elemental aura surrounded her, emitting a chill. At the last moment, Unana felt as if the lake had frozen over because of this strange creature...
…A bright light struck Unana's eyes. The girl didn't know where she was, but she felt her big brother's hand, and that gave her confidence.
"Welcome back," a familiar voice rang in Unana's head.
"Is that you, Unachan? Why were you gone for so long?"
A brown bear cub with red eyes appeared before Unana.
"When you crossed the other side of the mirror, you found yourself in the second bear's world. I couldn't be there."
"But there was a blue-white bear girl," Unana thought. "Is that your big sister?"
"No. The second bearry is my big brother, your brother's bearry."
"But who is that bear girl then?"
Unachan vanished without answering. The bright light gave way to a log wall, floor, and ceiling.
"Am I home?"
Unana looked at her hands and noticed that her nails had grown short again, like a human's.
"I'm not a teddy bear anymore. That means..."
Unana turned around abruptly and saw a large room with a sofa and a small table in the middle.
"I woke up."
A few moments later, the girl recovered from the effects of the dream and remembered her brother. Luckily, she didn't have to look for him for long. Yueret was sitting on the floor behind the sofa, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Brother's like a bearry," Unana thought out loud.
Yueret looked at his little sister. Unana realized she'd said something unnecessary and turned away.
"I had a very strange dream," Yueret said. "Did you say something?"
"No. What did you dream about?"
"The bear girl protected me from the dolls."
"Uh..."
Unana told her brother about what had happened in that strange place.
"It's related to our bear cubs," Yueret guessed. "You became a brown bear girl and found a white-blue bear girl."
"Yup, even my skills changed. Instead of arrow icons, they had bearries."
"It could be related to the signal. Our bear cubs have antennas in their ears. They transmit a signal from somewhere. Maybe these cubs are actually just packaging for the antenna."
"What?"
"An antenna, wrapped in a toy-like package."
"So... Unachan... isn't a creature?"
Unana stood there for a few moments, her mouth wide open and unblinking.
"Yeah, your bear cub is just an antenna with some extra functions," Yueret continued. "And mine is too. They differ only in color and abilities. What exactly, I don't know yet. But if they are different colors, then they have different elements."
"Unachan said he was just a teddy bear transmitting a signal. It wasn't speaking for itself. So someone else was speaking for it?"
"Yeah…"
"That's hard."
"But we have one clue. We can find the signal's source."
"Did dad send you something for that?"
"No. But Itinit explained to me how the signal works. The closer the source, the stronger it is, and the other way around."
"But how do you know where the signal's source is? You don't have a map or anything."
"But there's something else. We're at dad's house now. The doll is proof. By the way, where is it?"
Unana looked around, but did not see any creatures other than her brother.
"She probably hid in another room," the little sister stopped her gaze on one of the walls. "She's waiting for the great lord."
"Then she won't interfere with us. We know where we are, and we know the signal has strengthened enough to transmit an entire memory to us."
"Was it a memory?"
"Yeah... It is, of course, greatly distorted, but the main thing remains unchanged."
There was a pause. Unana tried to mentally question Unachan, but the bear cub didn't answer.
"There was two bear girls: a white-blue bear girl and a brown bear girl," the archer said, raising her finger to her mouth. "But who was you then? You weren't there then."
"Yeah, I wasn't there. But it's a memory. It's highly distorted."
"Then..."
Unana fell to her knees. For a moment, the girl's breath caught.
"Yeah, it was dad," Yueret said.
"So..." Unana looked at the stairs, no longer obscured by cobwebs. "If we find that place with the lake, we'll find dad."
"Or we'll find the bear girl. That's a good idea. But how will we find that very place?"
Unana took her brother by the hand and pulled him toward one of the round windows. From there, a view opened up of a forest wall, partially hidden by fog.
"There's something there," little sister said. "There's fog there, so it must be some kind of pit."
"Could there be a lake there?"
"Yup… We can't see it, but it's definitely there. This is the very place."
Yueret opened the map, but found only a white spot between two mountain ranges with a green background and icons of coniferous trees.
"There are mountains here," Unana let go of her brother's hand and pointed to the ridge on the right. "There were mountains around that lake too. Only here it's summer, and there it was winter."
"We don't have time to wait for winter."
"But the lake is still there. If we find it, we'll definitely find dad, or the bear girl. She knows where dad is."
"The memory could be much distorted," Yueret thought. "Besides, a lot of time has passed. That lake might not be there, but this fog... it couldn't have just formed on an ordinary slope. There's definitely something down there."
"Let's go," Yueret covered the map with one hand and took his sister's hand with the other.
… Unana didn't notice how she found herself standing in front of two wooden columns and that very same forest wall. Light snow was falling from the overcast sky, almost filling the ditch, making it resemble a partially frozen lake.
"Do you even know how to get there?"
"Yeah, I didn't think about that," Yueret looked at the lower branches of the trees, which almost reached the ground. "Let's go back and ask the doll."
Yueret looked at his sister and realized that she was dressed as usual. Instead of a warm jacket, a purple top hugged her breast. Only the fur shorts and boots reminded him what time of year it was.
Unana's jacket lay on the sofa, waiting for its forgetful owner, whose bear-like features were becoming increasingly apparent.
"You forgot this," Yueret pointed at the jacket.
"Take it for you," Unana frowned. "This thing's too tight for me."
"You've just gotten too fat."
Unana ran her hand over her stomach, and then her finger slid into her belly button.
"You want to release the fat through your belly button?" Yueret asked.
"Isn't that possible?"
"No."
"Stop... I'm in this world. How complicated everything is."
Unana sighed and fell onto the sofa. Her top couldn't handle the weight, and her breasts hit the little sister in the face.
"Uh, don't run away," Unana stopped whatever was moving in front of her with her hands. "You're not big enough to live on your own yet. When you're like Yueret, I'll let you go."
"What? Unana is talking to..." Yueret forgot about the doll, the bear girl, and the search for his father for a few moments.
"Uh," Unana finally managed to stop her breast, after which she closed her eyes and smiled.
"You're strong," a voice said near the sofa. "If you were a doll, you'd defeat everyone."
Unana turned to the side, opened her eyes and saw a doll in an apron staring at her breast...
The next moment, the archer was already on the other side of the sofa where her brother was sitting, peering out cautiously.
"Do you know how to get down?" Yueret asked.
"I haven't been out of here for a long time," the doll said, turning her head toward the window. "I don't know what's beyond this forest. It's deliberately made so impenetrable that dolls can't accidentally come here."
"But you did come here somehow."
"The great lord forced me. But no one forced you. He said he'd spank me until my head fell off. But you came here yourself. So you must know how to get out of here."
"Exactly," Yueret thought. "We flew here."
Unana no longer felt threatened, so she stood up to her full height and, of course, stopped the unruly part of her body with her hands.
"Are there any dolls here besides you?" Yueret asked.
"The dolls were here before," Aragas answered. "The great lord was very fond of dolls. I first met him in a crypt on the Southern Continent. There he was choosing a wife, but none of them suited him. He wanted to leave, but it so happened that he chose me. I didn't become his wife because I was weak."
Aragas grabbed her breasts from below with her hands, causing them to almost leave the apron.
"Why are you weak?" Yueret asked.
"No. It's not because of these things that are in front of me. The great lord said his wife should be short. And these things should be larger in proportion to her body size."
"I knew my dad was the freak," Unana said, turning away. "It's a good thing I decided to give him back that stupid lizard."
"Then my sisters began to pursue the great lord," Aragas continued. "So the great lord had to flee to the north of the Northern Continent, where the dolls couldn't reach him."
"But they found him," Yueret suggested.
"Yes. I had to fight them so the great lord would spank me."
"You defeated them?"
"I took them apart and put them in coffins, and then sent them back. But they might come back. They don't remember anything, so they can't find this place, but if they do, I won't do anything."
"There's no great lord here and no one to spank you?"
"Yes," Aragas turned her back. "You can do this instead of the great lord, and then I will fight with the dolls."
As soon as Aragas finished her sentence, an electric arrow flew at her. Since the apron was on the wrong side, the arrow hit her back and electrocuted the doll.
"Why?" Yueret looked at his little sister.
"She..." Unana tilted her head. "She wanted to do something to you."
"Uh, now she won't do anything at all."
Yueret looked at the doll, lying on the floor and writhing from the electric shocks. Its arms and legs twisted, its torso rose and fell, and its head tried to free itself from its neck.
"Let's go," Unana released her weapon, and it vanished into thin air. "The lightning will soon disappear."
"You forgot something," Yueret picked up the jacket and handed it to her sister. "It's cold outside."
But Unana was already on the other side of the door and didn't hear her brother's words. Yueret looked at the doll again and saw its bulging eyes staring straight at him. It seemed they would fly out of their sockets in its head and attack the older "bear cub."
"No, this is too much," Yueret thought and walked around the sofa to the other side. "Dad really is the freak."
***
Noru and Kimchan sat behind a large bush growing near an old, nearly crumbling pavement. It was pitch dark, and only the fiery auras of the dog girls illuminated everything.
"Sis, why are we sitting here?" Kimchan asked.
"Our master told us to hide," Noru answered.
"But for some reason I feel like we're not hiding."
"Why? That thing's right there," Noru waved her hand at the bush in front of her.
"It helps during the day. It's dark now, and we're visible."
"Ahh..."
The dog girls simultaneously went out. It seemed no one would be able to detect them again...
But it was too late. The ground around the bush trembled, after which bright yellow stripes appeared...