Chapter 1. Snow, Ears and Tale

It was winter at the railway station. The old wooden terminal without windows or doors was covered with a thick layer of snow.

On the platform, on a wooden bench, sat a girl in a white-blue fur jacket with a hood, from under which hung several strands of white-yellow hair.

White-yellow fluffy ears with rounded tips peeked out from the holes on the top of the hood, and a tail of the same color peeked out from behind the fur shorts.

A dinosaur covered with blue and white feathers and with a long tail watched the girl from behind a thick coniferous tree that grew on the platform. The train hasn't stopped here for a long time. The railway track was hidden under the snow, from under which protruded the tops of coniferous trees.

"She has such cute ears and a tail," the dinosaur thought. "I would like to add her to my collection of characters."

"Why are you following me? " the girl looked at the dinosaur. "Do you want to eat me"?

The dinosaur paid attention to her legs. They were naked, fat, with short feet.

"There's so much meat in these legs," the dinosaur thought. "They're probably delicious."

"Don't get on the train," the girl said and looked at her legs.

It is snowing. The girl disappeared. In the distance, a rectangular object appeared which approached the platform, shoveled snow and broke young trees in its path. It was a train consisting of a metal locomotive and several wooden cars.

The train stopped in front of the dinosaur, scaring it away. The doors of the carriages automatically opened. Fear quickly gave way to curiosity « the dinosaur became interested in what was inside. He jumped into the carriage, but soon regretted it. What he saw scared and surprised him at the same time...

... The dinosaur woke up and felt something holding him by the tail and trying to throw him out of bed. This creature turned out to be a girl with long, disheveled black hair wearing a gray T shirt that started just below her shoulders and ended just above the middle of her hips.

"It was a dream?" the dinosaur guessed. "I finally met a girl with ears and a tail, and I could be with her, but now I'm home."

The dinosaur felt that he was missing something important.

"Tuot, get up," the girl said.

The dinosaur ran its claw through the air. A blue translucent screen with several buttons appeared in front of him.

"For what?" the dinosaur asked. "It is too early. Halankuo, don't disturb my sleep."

"I finally did it!" the girl shouted joyfully.

"What did you do?"

"You forgot? I told you a long time ago that I'm working on creating my own character. I recently brought it into the real world."

Tuot's gaze settled on the girl's thick thighs.

"Meat," thought the dinosaur. "Why do I see him everywhere?"

"Are you thinking about food again?" Halankuo asked.

"How do you know what I'm thinking?" Tuot opened his mouth in surprise and bulged his eyes.

"You're staring at my legs."

"Sorry. They look tasty."

"There are still pieces of meat in the refrigerator in the kitchen. You can eat."

"I'm not hungry yet. Show the character first. An event like this happens very rarely and I want to see it."

"Come to my room. I'll show you there."

"Why can't it be shown here?"

"Look what's on your walls. The character should not see them."

The walls of the room were almost entirely occupied by virtual posters with images of girls with ears, tails, horns and paws of animals of various species. They were dressed very strangely. One was wearing only stockings, another was wearing a fur bib, the third was wearing metal shorts, and the fourth was wearing a fur jacket with a hood. There were girls without clothes « in this case, their chest and crotch were covered with long hair that hung from their heads.

"These are my favorite characters from games," Tuot thought. "It's a pity that it's impossible to meet them in reality."

The rest of the room looked normal a small wooden table against the wall, a closet in the corner, a small round window.

Tuot was so engrossed in looking at the posters on the walls that he did not notice Halankuo leaving the room.

The dinosaur tried to get off the bed, but could not resist and fell to the floor.

"This is how my morning usually begins," Tuot thought. "I'm not fully awake yet to walk normally."

"Walking normally" in Tuot's mind meant staggering from side to side, but despite this moving forward.

The dinosaur left the room and found himself in a darkened corridor with log walls and several wooden doors, after which he walked to the nearest door and looked at a sign with red glowing symbols.

"This is the wrong door," Tuot thought. "I always confuse it with the door to Halankuo's room, so I had to make these inscriptions on the doors."

The door to Halankuo's room was next down the corridor. Tuot pushed her and found himself in a room with smooth wooden walls. Halankuo sat on the windowsill and looked out the window.

"You came so quickly," the girl said. "I thought you would be lying in bed for a while longer, thinking about girls with ears and tails."

"I hope Halankuo didn't tell anyone about my preferences," Tuot thought. "Among people this may be considered something bad."

Halankuo lowered her legs to get off the windowsill. Tuot noticed this and turned away so as not to think about food again.

The dinosaur knew about the existence of a program in which you can create a character and then transfer it to the real world. Such characters were called transferred. There have been very few cases worldwide of characters being successfully transferred from a program to the real world. After all, this required that the created character be compatible with the real world.

Halankuo ran her finger through the air from top to bottom. A virtual screen appeared in front of the girl, on which there were many icons. Halankuo clicked on the coffin icon. A program window appeared on top of the screen, almost completely covering the previous window.

On the right side of the program window there were many buttons with icons and black symbols on them.

On the left side of the program window there was a character model. She was a girl with long gray hair and two gray metal horns on the top of her head, with metal bracelets on her arms and legs. The lower part of her face was covered by a black metal mask.

"This character has such pretty horns," Tuot thought. "But you can't tell Halankuo about this, otherwise she'll make fun of me again."

"This is a program for creating characters and bringing them into the real world," Halankuo said. "It's called "Mausoleum of Nature".

"There are a lot of buttons," Tuot thought. "Not every living creature will be able to understand such a program.

"I was able to figure it out," Halankuo smiled. "But you can't.

"I have enough games. There is no such complex interface".

"It is specially made so complex that the "Mausoleum of Nature" cannot be used by just anyone. It's a joke. In fact, such a complex interface is needed so that the program can not only create a character, but also prepare it for transfer to the real world. Before a character appears in this world, it must be converted many times and tested for compatibility with our natural system. If the character is incompatible with the laws of nature, he simply will not appear from the program".

Halankuo pressed the circle button. A low glowing silhouette with horns appeared in the middle of the room...

... The glowing silhouette slowly disappeared from bottom to top and revealed parts of the character's body. The short feet materialized first, then the gray metal ankle bracelets.

Tuot looked at the silhouette and could not believe that this was happening in reality and not in the game.

... The lower parts of the legs and knees were completely freed from the glow. Tuot opened his mouth and imagined what the hips would be like. Fortunately for the dinosaur, they were thick, although slightly covered by a gray metal skirt.

... The character's torso was freed from the glow. A gray metal corset appeared which contained the lower part of the chest. The upper part was not covered with anything, which pleased the dinosaur.

"This doesn't exist," thought Tuot. "Perhaps my dream is still going on?"

Tuot opened his mouth, stuck his finger in and bit it. The dinosaur felt pain and then looked at the character.

His body was already completely freed from the glow. Gray hair reached his bare shoulders and then "went" behind his back. There is a gray metal collar around the neck. The lower part of the face is hidden behind a black metal mask. Above her are closed eyes with long eyelashes. Two straight gray metal horns protruded from the top of its head.

"The horns on her head look very cute," Tuot thought. "I wonder what they are made of."

The horned girl opened one eye, and then closed it and turned away from the window. Tuot lowered his head. His gaze settled on the character's thick and almost bare legs.

Tuot imagined one of these legs in front of him on the table. The dinosaur opened his mouth, but realized in time that there might be something wrong here.

"This is Kyotyoryon, the spirit of metal," said Halankuo. « It's inedible.

"It's bad," Tuot thought. "I hope at least her horns turn out to be real."

"The character's body is made mainly of metal," Halankuo continued. "Because of this, she weighs a lot, which is why she had to be made so low."

"Are the horns real?" Tuot asked.

"You can touch it if you're not afraid."

Tuot approached the horned girl, and she felt it. She opened her eyes and released short blades from the bracelets on her arms. Tuot jumped back. His tail pressed against the wall.

"Halankuo, she wants to do something to me!" shouted the dinosaur.

"She can't do anything yet," Halankuo smiled. « Therefore, he won't do anything to you. Don't be afraid of her.

Tuot's limbs trembled with fear. Despite this, a short, curved sword appeared in his hand. The dinosaur tried to hold it, but could not « its fingers unclenched and the weapon fell to the floor.

"Creator, who is this?" Kyotyoryon asked.

"This is my friend and pet," Halankuo explained. "His name is Tuot. He won't do anything bad to you."

"Is he evil?" asked the spirit of metal.

"No," Halankuo smiled. "He's just stupid."

The blades "went" back into the bracelets on the character's hands.

"I'm not stupid," Tuot thought. "Halankuo is trying to make a fool of me in front of a creature that is seeing me for the first time."

"I'm stupid too," Kyotyoryon said. "I still have low intelligence indicators."

"And Tuot has had low intelligence since childhood," Halankuo thought.

Kyotyoryon looked around and noticed a small round window. The spirit of metal tried to approach him, but could not stay on her feet and fell to the floor.

Halankuo approached the character and tried to lift her, but this turned out to be impossible the metal body weighed too much.

"Are you not in pain?" Halankuo asked.

"What do you mean it?" Kyotyoryon rose and knelt down.

"I forgot. You are not a living being. You can't understand it".

"What does "not a living being" mean"?

"Living beings are created by other living beings, not living beings are created artificially. There are several types of inanimate creatures: robots, battle dolls, characters that were transferred to the real world from the program".

"You created me, creator. Therefore I am alive".

A squeak was heard. A small screen with a red frame and an inscription made of red symbols appeared near Halankuo.

"Tuot, I need to go to the kitchen," Halankuo turned to the dinosaur. "Food is being prepared there. Can you stay here with Kyotyoryon? I'll be back soon."

Halankuo left the room too quickly. The dinosaur did not have time to answer.

Tuot began to closely examine Kyotyoryon. Her appearance seemed strange to him, but attractive. He still couldn't believe that this creature was created in the program. The dinosaur approached the spirit of metal and touched one of the horns on her head with its hand.

"Are your horns made of metal?" asked Tuot.

"Yes," Kyotyoryon answered. "I am the spirit of metal. Therefore my horns are made of this stuff. This is good".

Tuot pulled the horn, but it did nothing. The horn remained in place.

"These horns grow from her head," thought Tuot. "In herbivorous living creatures, horns also grow from the head, but they are made of bone. Metal is too artificial a material for this. But her horns are made of metal. It looks like she's not really alive."

Suddenly Tuot felt pain in his arm. The dinosaur looked down and saw Kyotyoryon trying to pull out the feathers attached to his wing.

"Why are you doing this? – asked Tuot.

"I'm trying to pull this thing out of you," the spirit of metal answered. "You're trying to pull the horn out of my head."

Tuot let go of the character's horn. But it was too late – Kyotyoryon pulled out the feather from the dinosaur's wing. Tuot screamed and ran out of the room into the corridor, and then reached the kitchen.

Halankuo stood near a stove with metal rods on which pieces of meat were fried. The girl was wearing only a black apron and a red helmet with a transparent shield on the front. Tuot again paid attention to the girl's hips and stopped feeling the pain. This time they were completely open.

Tuot imagined the lower part of his friend's body, which lay on the table, fried and smelling delicious. The dinosaur felt full, although he had not eaten anything today.

But soon the dinosaur's thoughts were interrupted by pain in the lower part of his body. Tuot realized that he had been grabbed by the tail again.

"Halankuo, something grabbed me by the tail!" Tuot shouted to his friend. "We have a terrible creature!"

Halankuo turned around and then laughed. The dinosaur turned its head back and saw Kyotyoryon standing behind him.

"I'm not scary," Kyotyoryon answered instead of Halankuo.

"Tuot's brain is too small," Halankuo thought. "There are some things he can't understand."

"So you grabbed me by the tail? – asked Tuot.

"Yes," Kyotyoryon answered. "I wanted to touch it to find out what it was made of."

"Release the dinosaur, Kyotyoryon," Halankuo asked. "He's just stupid.

The spirit of metal released Tuota's tail. The dinosaur felt that it was free and took refuge in the corner of the kitchen.

"Stupid, but not evil," Kyotyoryon said. "Creator, I don't want to be inside the program. There is nothing there".

"Nothing at all"? Halankuo was surprised.

Halankuo was interested in how the characters live in the editor, where apart from them there is only black space without any surroundings. But she didn't understand how the characters felt in this space.

Kyotyoryon went to the window and looked out of it. From there there was a view of the town, behind which the blue-green outlines of the mountains could be seen.

Tuot took advantage of the fact that there was no one else in the doorway and ran into the corridor.

"I want to go there," Kyotyoryon pointed out the window with her hand. "I want to know what is there".

"If Kyotyoryon goes out into the town, someone might find out about her," Halankuo thought in fear. "I need to figure out how to stop this."

"There are many dangerous creatures outside the window," Halankuo said. "They can kill you".

"You will protect me".

"I cannot. They are very strong".

"Then why do you live here? You haven't been killed yet".

"I set her intelligence stats too high," Halankuo thought. "She can determine that I'm lying. It's too bad I can't increase Tuot's intelligence stats."

"How does this window open?" asked Kyotyoryon.

"You can't go out through the window. You need to go out the door".

"What happens if you go out through the window?"

"You will fall from a great height and be injured".

"I won't get hurt. I'm made of metal".

Kyotyoryon touched the glass with her palm.

"Solid," the metal spirit thought.

Kyotyoryon raised her leg vertically and then lowered it onto the glass.

Halankuo heard the sound of breaking glass, stopped cooking and immediately ran to the window, but did not have time. All that was left of the window was the window opening, and the glass lay on the floor in the form of fragments.

The girl released lightning from her hand onto the fragments, and they were thrown into the corner of the room, after which she walked up to the window opening and looked down. Kyotyoryon was lying on the paving stones in front of the house with her eyes open and not moving.