“Even from here it stinks of shit,” Karina said, grimacing at the breeze. “Maybe just ditch it?”

  An overgrown road led to a rotten wooden palisade. The midday sunlight, even from afar, clearly picked out the offensive brown graffiti on the walls. On the road sign, instead of the name of the town, someone's signature flaunted, clearly interrupting several previous ones.

  “Wow,” Belyana giggled. “What have you done with my Karina? Do you think it will dissolve on its own?”

  “I don't know,” she hesitated. “But the place is just ugly.”

  In the middle of the open gates, squatting, was a grubby, stocky, half-naked man. At first glance, it might seem that he was just tired, but in fact he defecated right on the road. Hearing footsteps, he raised his head to see the source of the sound.

  “What the hell are you looking at, herring?” with a taunt, he asked. “Have you never seen a person shitting? Get the fuck out of here.”

  “You actually sat down in the aisle,” Karina answered, ignoring his tone. “You don't want to move?”

  “What the fuck? Come here, whore!” he barked.

  He jumped up, straight with the remains of feces still falling off.

  Karina suddenly vomited. Trembling, and breathing deeply, she sank to the ground.

  There was a short howl, more like a cry from hell. A fox, no smaller than an elephant, jumped out from behind the town gates and simply bit off the rude man’s head. His body, in convulsions, fell into its own excrement, spattering the earth with scarlet blood. With a loud sound, the beast swallowed his head.

  “Frightened the girl,” the fox said, starting to transform into a human.

  She had turned into a tall, muscular woman, with bright orange, thick, knee-length hair. Naked. All her snow-white skin was covered in numerous scars, and in place of her right eye there was a disgusting scar in the shape of an anus rather than a star. The left eye was yellow, with a characteristic narrow animal pupil. Surprise showed on her face when she looked at Belyana.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  Belyana ignored her, instead patting Karina on the head.

  “Maybe I really shouldn’t have dragged you here,” Belyana said to Karina. “Do you feel better?”

  Still breathing heavily, Karina nodded and slowly stood up.

  “There is a domain actually,” Belyana finally answered the woman. “Much more interesting, what did you forget here?”

  “Ahh,” she drawled with understanding, “I thought maybe they found some mushrooms, but they didn’t share with me. I’m pretty sure people have always behaved this way.”

  Having sniffed comically, she walked around Karina from all sides, looking at her like a museum piece.

  “Last time there was more heavenish look,” she finally said. “New soap?”

  “She doesn’t even understand what you mean,” Belyana giggled over the puzzled Karina.

  “Oh, really? Sorry, sorry,” the woman answered feignedly, after which she turned back to Karina. “In that case, you can call me Fox, nice to meet you.”

  “I'm Karina. And why a fox?”

  “Wow, where is all ‘I will burn everything down to the molecules until only the chosen ones remain’?”

  “I told you - Alpha died out a little,” Belyana answered her.

  “Mmm ...” Fox mumbled. “Well, because I'm half-human, half-fox. And anticipating moronic questions, it's none of your business which parent fucked the animal.”

  “I didn’t even intend to ...” Karina answered dumbfounded. “I'm talking about why not by name?”

  “So that this one,” she pointed to Belyan, “And didn’t spoil you until now, ha! Oh well, because I’m Beafoxpowdeterwisdetera.”

  “I see,” Karina replied. “Nice to meet you, Fox.”

  “What do you mean ‘didn’t spoil until now’?” Belyana asked in a feigned offended tone. “Have you seen yourself in the mirror at all? You have a chicken butt instead of an eye!”

  “Ouch.”

  And they moved into a town.

  Everything around the main road was covered in mud and trash. In some places only ashes remained from the houses, in some - on rotten wooden logs, from which most of the houses were built, either cut or gnawed holes were visible.

  The houses that looked most decent were hung with peculiar decorations. Somewhere they were heads strung on a rope, like bagels, somewhere they were simply cut off scalps nailed.

  There were no bystanders. Only occasionally curtains swayed in the windows, through which the inhabitants glanced at the street.

  “And, apparently, this is the answer,” Belyana said with understanding. “Aren't you ashamed at all, to assert yourself at the expense of ordinary people?”

  “Well, I don’t argue that it is a lot of fun here, but they always start themselves,” Fox answered.

  “Yeah, especially the one in the aisle.”

  “Who knows what he would have done with this sweet girl?” Fox pointed to Karina.

  “How about - nothing?” Belyana knocked out from under her a shaky brick of justifications. “With her power, she's the last person to be threatened by anything.”

  “Well, okaaay,” surrendered Fox. “He just already shitted the whole town. At first I wanted to feed him his own feces - I even got a whole barrel, but then I got tired of it.”

  “Did you see it?” Belyana turned to Karina. “And after that you’ll say that I treat people with disdain?”

  “Both of you are terrible,” Karina sighed under their friendly laughter. “It would be better to be alone than to listen to this all the time, but besides you, no one knows where and how to look for broken wizards.”

  “Speaking of loneliness,” Belyana said and looked at Fox. “Shoo! Why did you get involved?”

  “Like hell,” she replied unhappily. “Someone last time evaporated without paying.”

  “And you decided that importunity would help the cause?”

  “Exactly!” Fox laughed. “You have to pay when you promise.”

  “Whatever,” Belyana answered indifferently. “Just do not turn into an animal - you stink in this form, like a dirty dog.”

  A bloody star appeared on Fox's lip - in an attempt to ignore frank childishness, she bit her lip too hard with a fang.

  “And get dressed,” Belyana added. - Doesn’t matter with this garbage dump - it seems that no one cares here, but in other places, at least, they won’t understand.

  “Why not doggy style also?” quipped Fox. “There were still not enough comments about decency from someone who wears clothes until they are rubbed into dust. At the same time, without washing them at all. The last time we met, you smelled like a corpse, I can’t even imagine how Karina can stand it.”

  “Ah, everything is very simple here,” Belyana giggled. “You're the only one this stink was meant for. The harder you breathe - the less you talk.”

  The fox's eye even twitched. However, there was no more sluggish throwing of barbs, because they came to the place. A tent was set up right on the street. At the entrance, closed for some reason by an iron hatch, a bearded man was sitting on a stool and dozing. Next to him, a sign stuck out of the ground, on which there were several large numbers, apparently the prices, and in small print, each number was signed for what exactly.

  “Ah, it’s here,” said the Fox, not particularly surprised, after which she barked at the man. “Wake up dog!”

  “What, who?” he jumped up, not understanding what was happening. “What do you want, redhead?”

  “Open the hatch,” she replied. “Your small business has just been liquidated.”

  “I don’t remember that I closed it,” he answered irritably. “Either pay or get lost.”

  “Have you completely gone nuts already?” Fox asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “It seems you’re the one who’s already fucked up the edge,” he answered, getting up from the stool, and cracking his fingers in his hands.

  Fox sighed in annoyance. He approached her, determined to punish the troublemaker, but he turned out to be almost a head shorter, and against the background of Fox's athletic physique, he looked more like a child. It was more like a lap-dog decided to mark a Rottweiler as its territory.

  He swung to hit her.

  There was a sound like a pop. The Fox shook off from her hand his body, which had lost the upper half. Almost as soon as it fell, a mushroom rain of blood began to fall, accompanied by wet slaps of torn pieces of innards.

  “Further we go, worse it becomes,” Karina only commented, brushing a piece of a kidney from her shoulder. “For some reason I'm not surprised at all.”

  “But I made it clear to them all that they are dealing with a polyanitsa,” Fox sighed again and looked at Belyana. “Well, it looks like you're not fucking with me after all.”

  “You said that like I even know how to lie!” Belyana exclaimed, pretending to be offended.

  Fox just looked at her, tilting her head to the side in disapproval.

  “Polyanitsa?” Karina showed interest after all.

  “Huh, a walking encyclopedia travels with you ...” Fox was surprised, and then laughed. “Although, yep, no matter how hard you push her - she doesn’t gush anything but shit, nothing new.

  Well, actually, I'm a witch. However, instead of cool magic, the sight of which people immediately shit in their pants - I only have unhealthy physical strength, which, however, also makes people shit in their pants. And besides that, even if I really want to, I can’t create a domain, so I just called myself a proud word.”

  “And what's the point exactly?” Belyana asked. “What has changed from this information, besides the fact that we stood and sniffed this garbage a little longer? Open that door already.”

  “You wouldn’t tell anything, even if the Earth fell on the Sun,” Fox answered, rummaging through the pockets of the body lying on the ground.

  “And even more so, what's the point? As if someone could miss such an event.”

  “Okay, here you caught me,” Fox answered annoyed, turning the key in the hatch.”