"Will you come with me?" Hotuka looked at Sogotoh with such a pitiful expression, as if begging for food.
Sogotoh looked at the snow. He seemed completely oblivious to the bear girl.
"You're coming with me," Hotuka's face grew so menacing, as if she were about to attack her creator.
"What will you do with the great lord?" Aragas shielded Sogotoh with her body. "Will you eat him?"
"No," Hotuka looked at the doll with a fierce, bear-like gaze, but spoke calmly. "I'll simply freeze him. He'll be at home. The non-living creatures won't be able to do anything to him. They'll think he's just ice."
Aragas turned her head to Sogotoh:
"Great lord, do you agree?"
"Of course not," Sogotoh finally answered. "I don't want to be frozen again."
Aragas turned her head to the bear girl and repeated the great lord's words.
"I want to talk to him myself," a clot of white-blue elemental energy appeared in Hotuka's "paw."
"If you talk to him yourself, you'll freeze him," Aragas pulled the end of the energy rope out of the snow and grabbed it with her hand.
"Then... then... Uh... then I'll have to freeze you first. But you're a non-living creature, so I don't feel sorry for you."
The elemental clot in Hotuka's hand turned into a white-blue sphere, surrounded by icy vapor. Aragas noticed this and, with a wave of her hand, created a blue spherical energy barrier around herself and Sogotoh.
Hotuka quickly realized that icy sphere wouldn't pass through the wall of protective energy, so she threw it upward, and contrary to the laws of nature, it simply hung in the air.
"Aragas, down below," Sogotoh looked at the snow beneath his feet.
The doll tilted her head and noticed a round, white-blue spot in the snow, located partially under her foot.
"What is this?" Aragas's head tilted to the side.
Sogotoh grabbed the doll's hand and pulled it toward him. The next moment, the spot in the snow grew darker, and the lower part of Aragas's leg, which had been standing there, became coated in a layer of ice.
"She has a snow freeze," Aragas looked at her opponent through the barrier.
Hotuka sat on her knees, pressing her hand to the snow, where the shadow of a snowflake the size of a real bear's head had been imprinted.
"Great lord, I'm freezing," Aragas noticed how the ice began to spread above her knee. "I'll disassemble myself."
The doll's leg separated from its body and fell into the snow, but it only helped briefly. Hotuka moved her hand forward, and the spot in the snow shifted under Aragas's other leg. The doll had to activate its purple aura to jump and avoid being frozen.
The spot on the snow moved further and soon reached Sogotoh, but was unable to harm him. The great lord stood on a blue energy platform that insulated him from contact with the snow.
Hotuka noticed this and clenched her fist. The snow under Sogotoh rose, went around the obstacle, but then froze and took the shape of two bear figures.
"Those are trap figures," Sogotoh thought. "She's waiting for me to break them so they can freeze me. It's a good thing I still remember the abilities of the white-blue bear girl."
Unfortunately, Aragas didn't know what her creator knew. The doll threw an energy rope over the head of one of the snow figures, causing it to crumble and release a white-blue bolt of cold...
... Aragas's body almost instantly became covered in ice, lost its aura, and collapsed into the snow. The barrier that had surrounded her and her creator also disappeared.
"I told Aragas about the lizard, the sheep girl, and the dolls, but I didn't tell her about the main enemy," Sogotoh looked at Hotuka, who was now smiling happily. "I didn't expect her to appear again or maybe because it is my opponent, and not Aragas's opponent? Aaah... I can't remember anymore."
"Let's go home," Hotuka rose from her knees and extended her "paw" to Sogotoh. "Your ice pillow is already waiting for you."
The great lord tried to answer, but didn't have time. Right in front of him, round petals emerged from the snow. They obscured not only the bear girl but the entire space from Sogotoh's view...
... Hotuka stared at the frozen doll's head sticking out from under the snow, unable to understand where her bearry had gone.
"Hey," the bear girl put her paw to the snow. "Where are you? Come out, we're going home."
Hotuka hoped her bearry would emerge from the snow, but instead she heard a sound like an energy vibration.
"Non-living creatures, you took it..."
Hotuka turned around and saw a gray, bird-shaped flying machine surrounded by a purple aura a few dozen steps away...
"Ahh..." the tip of Hotuka's tongue emerged from her mouth. "What is that?"
The energy around the craft vanished. The wings moved back. Two fireballs flew out from the opening, and then fell into the snow.
"Hey, who are you?" Hotuka pointed her hand at the flying machine.
The snow began to smoke and melt quickly. Soon the heads of two identical brown-haired dog girls appeared from there.
"Master, there's a bear!" one of them cried.
The head of a brown-haired man emerged from the flying machine.
"Uh..." Hotuka scratched her ear with her paw. Her face no longer looked fierce, and her chubby cheeks even made her look pretty.
A man with brown hair and a black fur jacket jumped out of the aircraft, but landed not on the snow, but on a blue energy platform.
"Bearry..." Hotuka lowered her hands. "Why are you here? You were buried in the snow. You have to get out!"
Hotuka sniffed the air, and then her face turned bearishly ferocious.
"You're not a real bearry. You're a non-living creature that took my teddy bear and is pretending to be him."
Hotuka pointed her glowing "paw" at the man. A freezing beam was about to emerge, but a sudden fireball flew past, interrupting the preparation.
"Hey, where did you come from?" Hotuka's expression instantly changed to displeased.
The fireball circled around the enemy, then transformed into a dog girl in a brown fur top and fur shorts. Her thick, nearly bare legs, with smoking fur bracelets, sank into the snow up to her knees.
"You..." Hotuka began to examine the newly arrived creature with curiosity. "You're brown, but not that brown."
"Uh..." the dog girl looked around and finally noticed her creator. "Master! There's a talking bear with a human face!"
"I know," Itinit answered. "That's my brother's character. Try not to burn her."
"But my master, she's so evil. Let me..."
"No, Noru. Not you her... She you…"
Hotuka clenched her glowing "paw" into a fist. The snow Noru stood in hardened around her feet, then formed a block and flew toward the bear girl.
"Sis..."
Noru saw round, white-blue bear ears in front of her and decided to sniff them. The dog girl completely forgot she was looking at a dangerous creature, and ended up with a cold, wet nose poking her cheek.
"I told you so," Itinit sighed.
"I'll save my sis, creator," a burning dog-girl in a brown fur dress jumped onto the platform.
"No, Kimchan, bears are very dangerous. I warned you."
"But my little sis is going to freeze."
Noru's body was indeed steaming, but not from excess heat. The hottest dog girl was enveloped in icy white steam from the snow block she stood in.
"Sorry, Kimchan," Itinit closed his eyes. "I'll create you another sis."
The dog girl looked pitifully at her creator and moaned loudly.
"You don't want a new sis? Fine, I'll have to save your old sis."
Itinit opened his eyes and saw a most strange sight. The white-and-blue bear girl was sniffing Noru's head, which was sticking out of a square block of ice and showing no signs of activity. Her eyes and mouth were closed, and only her ears offered any resistance.
"Kimchan, let's do this another time," Itinit suggested.
The dog girl pounced on her creator from behind and moaned in his ear.
"I just don't want to end up in the fridge," Itinit explained. "It's so powerful it even froze Noru."
Kimchan combed through her creator's hair with her hand, reaching for the human ear, but only managed to open her mouth. The platform moved a few steps to the side and the pet was unable to bite its creator.
Meanwhile, the ice had spread up Noru's neck and reached her chin. The dog girl's ears stopped moving. Only a faint mist emanated from her nose, indicating that Noru was still alive.
"You're not my little sis," Hotuka realized only after sniffing her entire head. "Now I understand why your ears are different, not like mine. Okay, I'll leave you for later."
The bear girl summoned her inventory to place her loot, but she didn't have time. Something large and heavy emerged from under the snow, so heavy that it threw Hotuka and her screen upward.
... The nearly frozen Noru finally broke free of the ice and, in a matter of moments, transformed from a sleepy state into a fiery ball.
... Hotuka landed in the snow without even sinking into it. The bear girl immediately noticed a stone barrel a few steps away, with a ring-shaped snowdrift forming around it.
"You..." Hotuka looked at the barrel, as if trying to figure out what kind of creature it was. "Are you the boss of non-living creatures?"
The bear girl pointed her hand, glowing and emitting icy vapor, at the barrel.
At that moment, Noru landed on the energy platform in front of Itinit in the form of a fireball and assumed her normal form.
"Master, I'm not the hottest dog girl anymore," Noru looked sadly at her creator, and because of this she no longer differed from her "little sister".
"Don't cry, sis, I'll fly to the bear too and become like you," Kimchan licked her "big sister's" cheek.
"You don't have to fly anywhere," Itinit intervened. "Just watch."
Something interesting was indeed happening on the shore. A charge of cold accumulated in Hotuka's "paw" and finally fired, but instead of hitting the barrel, it hit...
... the lid, which landed right in front of the bear girl.
"Huh?" Hotuka twitched her ears.
Etinnei felt something hot behind her, then jumped forward a few steps and turned around. The arctic fox girl's hair almost instantly turned black, and her clothes turned a grayish-purple.
"You..." Etinnei frowned. "Are brown?"
Before the arctic fox girl stood a brown bear girl, surrounded by lights shaped like bear heads.
"You're brown," Etinnei repeated.
A strange, round, frozen object "hung" in the air for a few moments, and then fell into the snow.
"Oh…" a high, groaning voice came from the barrel.
Then black, spiraling horns emerged from the barrel.
"Goat..." A cloud of icy steam erupted from Hotuka's mouth.
"I'm a sheep!" Yellow eyes with rectangular pupils emerged from the barrel.
"Ahh, right, a sheep… Sheep have horns like they're bent, which makes them stupid."
"That's not true!"
The head popped out of the barrel completely, and then continued:
"Sheep are stupid because they're sheep."
"I thought those horns connected to the brain and twisted it."
"That's not true either! Sheep don't have anything twisted."
Imerii moved out of the barrel to free her hands, and then grabbed her head with them…
"Creator, she's going to take her head off now," Kimchan closed her eyes and groaned.
"She won't take it off," Itinit answered. "She's not a doll."
"She's already taking it off," Noru looked at Imerii with bulging eyes.
"That's not her head..." Itinit opened his mouth, but for what was probably the first time, he couldn't close it.
"Those are her horns," Noru continued.
Kimchan opened one eye and looked cautiously at Imerii. The sheep-girl held her black, curled horns above her head.
"They're not real," Hotuka guessed. "So they can't twist your brain."
"I told you so!" Imerii put the horns back in place. "Do you believe me now?"
"Yeah... But I don't understand why sheep are stupid."
"I don't understand it either. I want to know, but no one knows. Only my creator knows. Have you seen him? He looks like that man."
Imerii pointed at Itinit.
"Aaah..." Hotuka jumped in surprise. "Is your creator like him?"
"Yeah," Imerii sighed. "I found him, but he got lost. Now I'm looking for him to find out why sheep are stupid, and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. And you, the blue and white bear girl, Hotuka?"
"It took her a long time to remember," Itinit smiled and thought. "But that's a good thing. She bought herself some time."
"How do you know me?" Hotuka looked at the sheep girl, not too fiercely.
"You were with my creator," Imerii answered. "I saw you with him. You..."
"Shut up!"
Now Hotuka's face became truly ferocious, like a real bear's. A clot of cold began to form in her "paw," but much faster than the first time.
"You were petting my creator's head," Imerii said, somehow completely oblivious to the dangerous beast standing before her.
… A white-blue beam struck the sheep girl in the face and transformed her and the barrel into an ice statue.
"You finally shut up, sheep," Hotuka fell to her knees, closed her eyes and exhaled a cloud of white steam.
...The bear girl didn't notice how cracks appeared on the frozen barrel. At first, they were short and unnoticeable, but after a few moments, they widened, lengthened, and completely encircled the strange object.
"Where's my bearry..." Hotuka yawned and scratched her ear with her "paw."
The cracks spread to the frozen creature inside the barrel, but Hotuka remained unaware. Only when the cracking of the ice became too loud did the bear girl finally open her eyes.
"Eh!" Hotuka raised her "paws" and waved them. "Why don't you want to freeze her? The weather is cold now."
But the ice didn't heed its summoner's words; instead, it began to peel off the barrel in chunks and fall into the snow.
"Eh, don't disappear!" Hotuka extended her hand forward and began to collect the charge for a new shot. "I'll save you!"
Ice vapors appeared around the bear girl's "paw," but this time the cold clot formed too slowly for an ice beam. Meanwhile, the ice had completely fallen off the barrel and was starting to chip away at the character's statue.
"Go!" Hotuka glared at the small ball of cold that was still not powerful enough to fire.
...The ice left the character's hands and began to peel away from her neck. Hotuka realized she wouldn't have time to accumulate a sufficient charge of cold, so she fired what she had...
A thin white-blue beam struck the barrel and covered it in a nearly transparent layer of ice, but it wasn't enough. The charge was so weak that it couldn't spread upward and freeze the most important target.
"Eh! Why aren't you freezing?"
Suddenly, Hotuka remembered her other hand, the one she wasn't using.
"You can definitely do it," the bear girl thrust her other hand forward and soon built up enough charge to fire.
But it was too late. The sheep girl's body completely thawed, after which the thin layer of ice covering the stone barrel crumbled...
"Eh?" Hotuka frowned.
A stone barrel with a horned rider was flying towards the released white-blue beam...
Itinit and his pets were able to observe a very rare scene in nature: a formidable white-blue bear girl flies off into the sea like a small, weak animal, and a sheep girl in her barrel stops in front of the coastal ice floes and waves her hand.
"Master, that's not fair," Noru groaned. "That sheep girl is much dumber than me, but she managed to defeat her."
"I doubt she won," Itinit said. "Let's keep watching."
Of course, Hotuka's head emerged from the water. The white-and-blue bear spirit simply couldn't drown in its almost natural habitat.
"Hey, bearry, let's be friends," Imerii smiled.
"Why?" Hotuka looked at the horned rider in confusion.
"You're powerful!"
Imerii jumped out of the barrel, and then stood with her hoof-like boots on its edge.
"You froze not only me, but Imeriichen as well," the sheep girl continued. "No one could do this, but you did. You are powerful and cool!"
"Well, yes, I'm like that..." Hotuka looked at the water and saw her reflection in it.
"Now I understand why my creator made you his wife and not me."
Hotuka's face changed in an instant. A wild, furious, bestial grin distorted her cute face, making her look more like a real white-blue bear and whose food had been stolen right out of its mouth.