Original "Tiny Bunny" story.

For english-speaking people, who are struggling to find the original "Tiny Bunny" story by Dmitry Mordas in internet.

Introduction - SPOILER ALERT

I have seen foreigners who ask where you can read the original story.
For those who don't know - the game is based on story written by Dmitry Mordas in 2014.
The game goes far from the plot of the story, but the main concept seems similar. In episode 4 of the game, the main feature of the story is already revealed. However, the story may still spoil one of the possible endings of the game.

I'm not a translator, and I'm not a writer. I'm not great in English. I used Yandex translator and corrected it. Plus thanks to online services with text improving AI.
I also have to cut it in peaces, you cannot do a big texts here.

Some tips

It's actually not "Tiny Bunny". It's "Tiny Hare", both story and the game. Different animals. It might be important in terms of meanings. Because every named beast has an image, persona in folklore.
Another thing regarding the translation: in slavic languages every word has a defined gender. Words-names of animals too (there is different words for males and females, but the context may make some words' gender insignificant, and so the thing's gender undefined), so I wasn't sure about using 'it' to refer them, so I left original pronouns 'he' and 'she', and 'it' if the gender is neutral or unreveiled (for example 'kid' or 'dog'). Doesn't seem to be too important, but nonetheless :/

Part 1

— “Eat quickly, the breakfast will get cold!”
Anton scooped up his porridge and looked at Olya with envy. She had already finished her breakfast and was now crunching cookies so that crumbs were flying across the table. After managing a couple more spoonfuls, he turned his gaze to the window. There, amidst the frosty patterns on the glass, a fox's shaggy head was clearly appearing.
— “Olya, look, a fox!”
— “Where?” – Olya leaped from her chair and ran to the window.
— “Not outside! Look: here's its nose! And here's…”
— “Finish your breakfast!” – Mom said, looking up from the magazine.
— “Yes, yes... I will.”
— "I don't see anything” – Olya said.
— “Eat up, there's not much left!”
Anton obediently took another portion of porridge and pointed at the fox with his mouth full.
— “It doesn't look like a fox at all!"
The boy made a noise that was supposed to mean: "It does!".
— “Nope.”
— “Yes, it is!”
— “Anton!” – Mom put down the magazine and strictly looked at Olga, then at her son.
A little later, after finishing his porridge, Anton tried to find the fox again, but she was gone, went away. There were only patterns on the glass, resembling elongated nettle leaves.
— “And I have an owl on my window!” – Olya said.
— “You with your owl again!” – Father came into the kitchen and began to look in the drawers of the closet. – “Honey, have you seen the car keys?”
— “Really-really! An owl! You believed me yesterday!”
— “I put them in the basket, near the phone. Otherwise, you'll lose them.”
— “Thanks. And there was no owl there.”
— ”There was. Her eyes – big like this!” – Olya gestured with her fingers something apple-sized. – “And they were glowing!”
— “Well, even if it really is an owl. What could she do to you?”
— “I don't know.”
Olya pouted, left, stomping upstairs, and loudly turned on "The Little Mermaid" on the VHS recorder.
Since the first time the owl appeared in her dream, she slept only with parents, and no ploy or coax could force her to sleep in her own room. Anton also did not sleep well. He was tossing and turning, unfamiliar to the huge wooden house, to its creaks, and kept thinking that he would have to go to school soon. He had never been transferred before, but he suspected that it meant nothing good for him. Especially considering his thick glasses.
And last night something strange happened to him. He heard music. Somewhere far away, at the very edge of his perception, a flute was singing.
He got out of bed then and looked out the window. Under the bright moon there were the black edge of the forest and the white, snow-covered field separating the house from it.
There, in the field, someone was dancing. Dark, barely noticeable figures were jumping, rolling in the snow, crawling on all fours. Anton remembered stories about wolves playing under the moon, but these were not wolves. They were getting on their feet, they were taking hands and circling around, stirring up snow whirlwinds, vanishing and reappearing. Suddenly the music ceased. The figures froze and, Anton was sure of it, stared at him.
After closing the curtains, he threw himself into bed, and all night he perceived some kind of bustle under the window, he could hear the flapping of huge wings and the creaking of the window sill. That's why this morning he did not laugh, as before, at Olya and this "owl" of hers.
He had finished his tea and was about to go upstairs to his sister to watch "The Little Mermaid", since Olya was the first to get to the recorder, when the doorbell rang.
Mom went to open the door and Anton peeked into the hallway. He thought maybe his father had forgotten something again, but it was two policemen standing on the threshold. Anton hid and, no matter how hard he listened, could not make out what they were talking about.
— “Tosha!” – Mom called, and he had to come out into the hallway. – “Have you seen this boy?”
The policeman handed over a photo. There was a red-haired boy about eight years old with the carpet on the background. He was smiling widely and holding a striped cat in his arms.
— “No!”
— “I see”, – the policeman sighed and gave his mother some paper. – “If something happens, call us.”
— "What they wanted?" – Anton asked when they left.
— “They were looking for a boy. They said he got lost in the forest.”
Anton didn't want to watch cartoons anymore; after sitting in his room for a while, he put on his jacket.
— “I'm going for a walk!” – he shouted.
— “Just stay away from the forest!”
He walked around the house a couple of times, threw snowballs at the fence, then unlocked the creaky gate in the backyard and went out into the field, which looked like a covered in snow lake with frozen white waves.
There were no footprints in the field, so those figures could not be anything other than a dream. He walked half the way to the forest and stood up, knee-deep in snow, about where he had seen those strange dances yesterday. It was quiet, only the wind was blowing ice dust across the field. Squinting from the sun, Anton noticed something dark nearby. He got closer and saw a knitted mitten.
— “Vo-va!” – a voice came from the forest.
— “Voooooooo — vaaaaaaaaaaa!” – as if the trees themselves were calling someone. The scream rolled across the field and faded into the distance.
— “Vo — va!” – someone picked up somewhere closer now.
Anton turned around and sprinted home, gathering snow in his boots.

Part 2

Soon came the day that Anton dreaded most. School. He had already visited the building before, when they arrived here and his mother brought him to enroll, and later when he received textbooks. It was during holidays then. The corridors were empty, and the two-story building, surrounded by poplars, seemed cozy. But now, looking at the high school students smoking at the entrance, Anton felt it differently.
Next to the schedule a black-and-white sheet printed on a printer was hung:
"Attention! Missing child"
His name was Vova Matyukhin. Fourth grade. In the grainy print, Vova was a deadman with black eyes and mouth.
Anton found the right classroom and waited. Children slowly gathered, then, when the doors opened, they noisily tumbled inside. Among them all a fat red-haired boy stood out with a pimply and red face that strangely resembled a pomegranate. When one boy lingered a little in the doorway, the redhead pushed him inside:
— “Hurry up, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!”
Anton waited until everyone had taken their seats, took a deep breath to calm his pounding heart, and approached the teacher. She looked at him over her glasses:
— “Are you the new student, or what? What's your last name?”
— “P-petrov!”
— “How-how? Speak louder!”
— “Petrov!”
His voice was trembling, but there was nothing he could do about it.
— “Are you sure?” – The teacher buried her nose in the class register. – “There is no one by that name in the list.”
Now she was peering into Anton's face, as if trying to catch some deception.
Anton lowered his eyes and squeezed out:
— “I was told: room 204, Liliya Pavlovna. Group 5-B.”
— "Strange", – the teacher said. – “Okay, wait. I'll be back soon.”
Left alone at the blackboard, he felt the attention of the whole group. Someone whispered something, and quiet laughter rolled through the room.
— “Wipe the board!” – someone shouted. And laughter erupted again.
Anton didn't need to look up to identify who it was.
— “Are you not only blind, but also deaf? Wipe the board, I said!”
Anton blushed and did not know what to do. Finally, the teacher returned:
— “Where should I put you? Sit down at the end of the row next to Semyon.”
— “No way!” – the fat boy chuckled and put the backpack on the next chair, and Anton had to sit even further away, at the very last desk. Next to him, rolls with some posters were sticking out from under the table.
—"Alright then”, – the teacher said. – “Let's begin the lesson. Today's topic: traditions of Russian and world literature in Paustovsky's story "The Thief Cat".”
The fat boy turned to look at the newcomer. His look didn't bode well.
By the fourth lesson, a yellow spit had appeared in Anton's notebook, spreading like an amoeba.
After classes, he purposely stayed longer so as not to go home with everyone. He put his backpack on the window ledge in the hallway and sorted through his textbooks.
— “Hello!” – someone said in his ear.
Anton turned around and saw a girl in a green sweater with a giraffe embroidered on it. She sat at the second desk in class, and several times he caught her looking at him.
— “Hello!” – Anton blushed.
— “You should have punched him.”
— “Whom?”
— “Semyon.”
Anton did not answer and started putting the books back in his bag.
— “Do you live across the river? In the wooden house?”
— “Well, yes.”
— “It must be very scary there... and you have to walk through the forest. I wouldn't be able to do it.”
— “No, it's fine, but what's wrong with the forest?”
The girl hesitated, and then, with a smile, answered:
— “Nothing. And by the way, my name is Polina.”

Part 3

The next week was a real nightmare for Anton. "Oh, I'm sorry!" said Semyon, pushing him on the stairs, so hard that it wasn't far from breaking a neck, or: "I accidentally!", knocking over a glass of kompot on him in the cafeteria. And so every day. Anton did not dare to relax for a second because of this sequence of "accidents". And he realized with horror that this was just the beginning and that it would only get worse if he didn't do anything, but there was nothing he could do. He walked around the school with his eyes glued to the floor and counted the minutes until the end of classes. Only sometimes, catching Polina's gaze on him, he choked with shame and was ready to punch the offender, but nothing, sadly, happened at such moments. Then the determination faded, and everything went on as before.
Anton walked home alone, through the village, and after the river and the bridge, it was the forest. For ten minutes the road snaked through by trees. There were no passersby, only occasional cars drove slowly, fearful of getting stuck in the snow. Anton tried not to linger there, because moving past the white snow on the branches and black trunks was creating a strange illusion: it seemed like someone was wandering through the forest – someone tall, elusive, ready to stretch out like a tree or drop to the ground as a snow pile at any moment, and then, once attention to him weakens, to continue his way along the road.
On Friday evening Anton was working on his homework. He had already completed the most difficult part, and there was only Art left. The task was to portray some fabulous creature. Initially, he wanted to draw a dragon, but the brush reached out to the orange paint by itself, and a fox appeared on the paper. She was standing by the fence on her legs and smiling slyly. When he finished the drawing, Anton stared at it in surprise for a long time, as if he could not understand where it had come from. The longer he looked at her, the more unsettling her smile seemed to him, reminiscent of the smiles of those women from dirty magazines that sometimes lie openly in kiosks, but, at the same time, she was vicious, predatory.
The fox's eyes were red, bloodshot, and looked just like bullet holes, as they are shown in action films. Anton did not recall drawing such eyes. He moved away from the table, and the light of the lamp reflected on the wet paint, making it seem like the fox's gaze was following him. Disgusted, Anton crumpled up the drawing and tossed it in the wastebasket. Then, after recovering a bit, he drew a dragon. And the eyes he made blue.
After finishing his homework, Anton had dinner and went to bed, listening to Olya being coaxed to sleep in her room, and she kept repeating: "There's the owl, the owl". She burst into tears, and eventually the parents gave up.
He was awakened by a bang against the glass. Anton, still not fully awake, got up and stumbled to the window. A silvery moonlight fell into the room through the open curtains. The window suddenly flashed white with another bang. Anton was frightened, it seemed to him that some pale face was pressed against the glass, and he did not realize right away that it was just a snowball. Looking down into the yard, Anton saw a child. Apparently, it was wearing a mask. Its eyes were huge, and some kind of growth was on the place of a mouth. “An owl”, Anton thought. And indeed, now he could see that the guest was dressed in an owl costume.
The bird waved its wing-hand at him.
"Come down."
The costume was made artfully – apparently from real feathers or fur. Anton really wanted to come down to get a better look at it. And what can such a child do to him? Just as he moved away from the window, he noticed that there were other shadows behind the fence. It was impossible to distinguish who they were, but there was no doubt – they were lurking, waiting for him. They were plotting something.
"This must be a hoax”, – Anton thought. – "It's that damned Semyon. If I go out now, they will feed me snow."
The owl's eyes were burning just like a real one's.
"Or worse."
He closed the curtains and lay down on the bed, muttering all the curses he knew, when there was a knock. On the curtains, the moonlight clearly outlined the silhouette of the child. Somehow, it managed to climb to the second floor and was now standing on the windowsill outside.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Anton pulled the blanket over his head. The knocking ceased, but soon he heard the same distant melody he had heard in his strange dream. And it made him want to get up and run around the room, or even better – go outside and run in the snow. He did not notice how he fell asleep, and danced in his dream, holding hands with a huge red-eyed fox.

Part 4

The next morning, on the way to school, Anton heard a scream from the forest.
— “Kaaaatya! Katya!”
"Someone's gone missing again", he thought, looking at the motionless bare trees.
— “Kaaatya!”
In the second class, a woman from the police came to the classroom and asked if anyone had seen Katya Smirnova from group 3-A. She hadn't returned home from school yesterday. Anton tried not to look at the woman and did not raise his eyes from the notebook at all, for some reason he was afraid that he might be accused of something.
During the next break, the girls huddled together around one of the desks and whispered, not paying attention to Anton.
— “Someone called her! Alina told me. Her sister is in the same group with that Katya. She says they went to the forest after school, across the bridge. They thought the snowdrops had already bloomed. And Katya claimed that someone was calling her from behind the trees. They held her, but she broke free and ran away.”
— “It's creepy. Why didn't they follow her?”
— “They were scared. Wouldn't you be scared?”
— “I don't know.”
— “And they also say that there was a strange smell. Like a dog or something... or some other animal.”
Anton was not bothered that day, and although he would never admit it, he liked that general gloomy mood. He felt comfortable looking at the snow-covered street, listening to classmates whispering in the corners, and feeling that he was afraid too. Not alone, but together with everyone.
After classes, Anton, as usual, stayed late, and when he left the school yard, a small black dog bounded toward him. With its head down, it was thrashing its tail on the skinny sides. Anton took out of his backpack a bag with the remains of small tasteless marshmallows, which he had been carrying with him for several days, and tossed a little to the dog. It sniffed, wagged its tail and looked at Anton again with watery eyes.
— “Come on, eat!” – he said. – “I don't have anything else.”
— “He won't eat that.”
Polina came out of the gate.
— "I know", – Anton replied, hoping his voice didn't falter. – “He just seems very hungry.”
The girl took a sandwich out of her backpack and tossed it to the dog. He brushed it off in one gulp and wagged his tail again, begging for more.
— “My dad gives them to me all the time, I can't eat them anymore. Why aren't you going home?”
— “I'll go now.”
— “And we seem to be going the same way for a little.”
— "You haven't walked this road before”, – Anton remarked.
— “I have. I just stay for music lessons a lot. Dad wants me to play the violin. Like Mom.”
While chatting, they passed a stall near which stood Semyon and, resembling predatory animal with crooked yellow teeth, Roma Pyatifan. At school breaks, he almost kept up with his friend, inventing new ways of bullying Anton. Noticing them, Anton shrank all over, but they only silently followed them with a couple of glances.
— “Aren't you afraid to go there?" – Polina asked as they reached the bridge.
It sounded like a continuation of their first conversation. Anton wanted to bravely say that he wasn't, as he did before, but instead answered:
— “A little.”
— “I'm scared too. There's nothing here in the summer. It’s nice and sunny. But now – I don't even know... these trees look like fingers. You stand between them, and they will squeeze and grab you.”
— “I never thought about it.”
— “And also this girl, Katya... they say she was called.”
— “Yes, I heard.”
— “For some reason it seems to me that she was called by them.” – She nodded toward the woods. – "By these trees, and now she's there with them."
— "Kaaaaatya!" – came from somewhere far away.
Hastily saying goodbye, Anton hurried home. He was constantly afraid that someone would call him from the forest.
At home, Olya rushed to him.
— “I saw a fox!”
Goosebumps ran down Anton's back.
— “Then an owl, now a fox!” – Mom shouted from the kitchen.
— “Really, really! So fluffy! She was standing by the fence. On the back legs. She called me, and then Mom came out, and the fox ran away.”
— “There was no fox there.”
— “Stay away from her!” – Anton whispered.
— “What are you doing, Tosha?” – Olya widened her eyes.
— “Stay away, do you hear me?!”
Mom went out into the corridor and looked at Anton in surprise.
— “Well, a fox can bite”, – he was embarrassed. He vaguely recalled children's fairy tales in which foxes snatched children.
— “But it wasn't a real fox, tell him, Olya.”
— “She walked on two legs and wore a dress. But she was real.”
— “See?” – Mom smiled, as if that explained everything.
Anton also forced a smile, but when they were left alone, he whispered to his sister:
— “If you see her again, run.”

Part 5

The next week frosts hit, it reached minus thirty, but classes were not canceled. Everything was the same at school. Semyon and his friends did not let Anton relax, but on several occasions, after school, when there were no music classes, he found moments to walk home alongside Polina. She told him that she lives with her father – her mother had passed away two years prior. Her father worked a lot, sometimes even stayed on night shifts, and Polina stayed at home for an entire days, cooking and cleaning. Anton told her about Olya and how they lived before relocation.
During one of their walks, when they stopped near the bridge and chatted about all sorts of things, Polina unexpectedly asked:
— “Don't you want to visit my place?”
Anton hesitated and said:
— “I still have homework to do.”
— “Oh... well...” – Polina's expression turned sullen. – “See you tomorrow, then. Bye.”
— “Bye.”
He felt utterly foolish, he wanted to catch up with her and shout: "Yes, of course I want to!". Anton couldn't explain to himself why he had answered "no".
Already on the bridge, he looked down. There, on the ice-covered snow, someone trampled two names:
Vova. Katya.
The wind picked up, and the bridge groaned.
Swallowing a lump in his throat, Anton moved on. Yet, at the bend in the road, arrived a moment that he had been afraid of for a long time. He was called.
— “Hey, four-eyed!”
Anton stopped. Dark figures detached themselves from the trees. Semyon and Roma.
— “I heard you're messing with Polinka?” – Semyon asked with a friendly smile. – “The bride and groom? All business?”
— “I'm not…”
The fat boy came closer and without further ado punched Anton in the stomach. Anton bent over, trying to catch his breath.
— “I don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about you, but Roma is offended. He has plans for her. And you…”
Anton struggled to straighten up.
— “Aah, what's the point in talking to you!” – Semyon said and punched Anton in the face. The world around flashed red. Anton fell into the snow, his glasses flew off, and he, almost crying, crawled on his knees, trying to find them by touch.
— “Well, you will not approach her again, understand? I'm asking in a good way, after all.”
Semyon squatted down and put a friendly arm around Anton's shoulders.
— “I understand”, – Anton barely managed to squeeze out through the sobs choking him.
— “Speak up!”
— “Got it!”
— “Well done. Now apologize to Roma.”
— “♥♥♥♥ you!” – Anton yelled, suddenly to himself, tried to get up and swung his fist in a random direction. Someone rammed him in the stomach with a running kick, and the blow was so strong that the boy flew to the side of the road and rolled down the snow into a ravine.
— “This ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insulted us!” – he heard from above.
Anton was sobbing now at the top of his voice, tears blurring his vision. Everything was swimming and spinning.
— "I forgive you for the first time", – the voice continued. – “Stay here. And I'll take your glasses for myself. For moral damage.”
The laughter faded in the distance.
Anton was crying, leaning against a tree, unable to stop until he heard a hoarse breathing right over his ear. The smell of the beast hit his nose. Wet fur. Sweat.
Someone came to him from the forest.
Anton jumped up and blindly tried to climb up to the road, but slid down the hill and fell on his back. The light faded, a hazy black silhouette obscured everything. The boy felt the breath on him – scalding hot, stinking, as if a door of a red-hot stove filled with rotting meat nearby had swung nearby.
He shut his eyes. He lacked the strength to scream or resist. Something wet and slippery brushed against his face. Anton realized that the stranger had licked him.
When he came to himself, the boy realized that he was still lying under the tree. A car passed overhead, but the driver did not notice him – apparently, he was also trying not to look at these trees. Anton got up, climbed out of the ravine and wandered home. He was shivering.
That day, his mother had taken Olya to the city, and, fortunately for Anton, they had not returned yet. First of all, he found an old pair of glasses he hadn't worn since the third grade and examined himself. There was blood in his nose, a bruise had already begun to darken on his stomach, but the parents would not notice this. But how to explain the loss of his glasses?
— “♥♥♥♥♥!” – he said, looking in the mirror. And Anton imagined hitting Semyon in a fat, flabby like a cottage cheese face, how Semyon was falling, and how he sat on his chest, grabbed his hair, pounded his head against the ground until it cracked. And this gave him a strange calmness, as if someone big and strong had promised him swift retribution.
When his mother and Olya returned, Anton was doing his homework as if nothing had happened. About the glasses, he said that he had accidently dropped them from the bridge when he was playing on the way home, silently endured all the reproaches, and after dinner immediately went to bed, confident no one suspected a thing.

Part 6

That night, there was a knock in the window. This time, Anton wasn't afraid – on the contrary, he decided to fight. They can mock him at school, they can follow him on the street, but coming home, looking in the windows... that was crossing a line. Anton was ready to throw the uninvited guest down, right from the second floor, but when he opened the curtain, there was nobody behind the glass, only the glasses were lying on the snow-dusted windowsill.
Anton opened the window, took them and looked out into the yard. Just like last time, the child in an owl costume stood there. It waved its wing.
After wiping his glasses, Anton put them on instead of the old ones, then put on a sweater, crept down the stairs to the first floor, found a jacket in the dark, and ventured outside. His breath was immediately taken away from the cold, and his knees began to trembled under pajama pants.
There was no owl in the backyard, there were no footprints, but the gate leading to the field stood open, and on the snowy plain, in the distance, there were figures. Anton wandered towards them, and as he approached, he realized that they all were wearing masks. An Owl, a Fox, a Bear, some kind of Bird with red cheeks, a Wolf and a black-bearded Goat with long gilded horns.
— “We had to wait a long time for you, Bunny.” – said the Fox. Her voice was drawn out, with a sweet laziness, and did not match her cold gaze at all.
Anton could not figure out how their costumes were arranged, how the masks were attached to their faces, he wasn't even sure if they were children or not. One moment they seemed small, his height, only to stretch higher than any adult the other.
— "Is it actually him?" – asked the Bird, clicking its beak so hard that it could have bitten Anton's hand in one fell swoop.
— “It is Him”, – the Wolf replied. – “I have tasted him.”
The beasts whispered amongst themselves.
— “Who are you?” – Anton asked. He wasn't afraid, even though he was shaking. The shaking was from the cold and also from the strange excitement that gripped him, the anticipation of something incredible.
— "We are the wind”, – the Goat replied. – “Flying here and there, tearing off the leaves.”
The Bear snorted, as if he had just heard a joke.
— “We're friends.” – he said.
— “Do you want to play with us?” – The Fox held out a hand with long black claws to the boy. – “Look!”
The Owl jumped into the air, higher than Anton's height.
— “And you can do that too! Give it a try.”
Anton jumped up and, to his surprise, was almost at the level of the treetops, and then he fell into the snow, but it didn't hurt.
— “I told you! It is him", – the Wolf growled.
The beasts laughed, and the boy stood up and jumped again. This time he managed to land on his feet, he pushed off and jumped again; it seemed that if he tried hard enough, he could fly all the way to the stars, which had suddenly become huge and strangely close.
Anton jumped and jumped again, hoping to touch them, when he realized he was hearing music. When he was on the ground again, he saw that the beasts were tumbling in the snow, jumping, wrestling and dancing, and only one, the Goat, was sitting cross-legged and playing a flute.
From this music, the body moved in the dance by itself, but the feeling of loss of control was surprisingly pleasant. The body wanted to dance and danced, and it was real freedom. He was spinning, and snow, trees, stars and beast faces were spinning with him.
When the music halted, Anton found himself lying in a snow pile under the bright moonlight. Struggling to rise, he noticed that the beasts, except for the Goat, had collapsed into the snow from exhaustion, and silvery clouds of steam rose in the air from their hoarse breathing.
Anton felt empty, as if these jumps and dances had taken something away from him, burned out his very essence, leaving only one thing: the desire to fill this void with something as soon as possible.
— “Well, do you like it?” – the Owl asked.
— “Yes”, – Anton answered faintly.
— “I still want to eat him.” – The Fox crawled up to him and looked straight into his eyes.
— “It's my turn to treat, dear. Leave him alone!” – The Wolf ordered. He got up and staggered towards the forest, and when he returned, he had a bag on his shoulder. Dropping it in the middle of the clearing, he beckoned Anton.
The beasts stood up and whispered excitedly.
— “Let the Bunny taste it first”, – ordered the Wolf.
Someone pushed Anton forward. The boy reached into the bag and pulled out a piece of meat with a thick layer of yellow fat.
Previously, he would have vomited at the sight of such a treat, but not now.
— “Eat”, – the Owl squeaked. – “It is delicious.”
Anton put a piece into his mouth and felt warmth spread through his body. Suddenly, the world changed. He realized that everything around him was really alive. He heard dry grass groaning beneath the snow, saw that trees and stars had faces. The trees grinned and the stars writhed in terror.
— “That's right!” – he said loudly. – “Be afraid! I'll jump up to you and…”
He snapped his teeth.
"This is probably how drunk people feel", – he thought. – “So, probably... ". But the thoughts ceased, giving way to images. He forgot the words. The trees were moving. The snow was bulging and crawling under his feet.
His head was spinning.
The beasts howled and rushed to the bag, they pushed, growled, crept in with their muzzles and ate the meat. Only the Goat did not eat, he still sat cross-legged in the snow and gazed into the distance at the fields that now appeared to be an endless white sea.
— “Why aren't you eating?” – Anton asked, struggling to find words.
— "Why not? We're eating. We’re always eating.”
He turned, and his eyes reflected the silhouettes of the beasts tearing meat.

Part 7

When he awoke to the sound of his alarm clock, Anton groped for his glasses on the nightstand with a habitual gesture. He put them on, then took them off and stared at them in surprise. They were new glasses, the ones Semyon had taken. Lifting up his pajama shirt, he saw there was no bruise that spread out like an ink stain the day before.
He sat on the bed for a long while, trying to figure out which was more real – the whole day yesterday or this strange dream. It seemed like the dream was.
Anton went downstairs and told his surprised mother that he had found the glasses after all. He ate his porridge without any appetite, and as he was about to leave, Olya came down from above, tear-streaked.
— “What happened?” – Mom rushed to her.
— “I had a nightmare.”
— “And what was it about?”
— “I dreamed that Tosha became a monster.”
Mom laughed and hugged her, and Anton zipped up his jacket and, without saying goodbye, leaped outside. He no longer feared traversing the forest.
There was no Semyon during the first class, and the police came at the second. It turned out that he had gone to a friend's house this night to play a console and had not returned. Anton involuntarily ran his palm over the rim of his glasses and caught Roma Pyatifan's frightened stare on him.
Rumors began to creep: they talked about a serial killer, that classes would be canceled and that the police would escort children home in groups, but the lessons continued as usual, and when they ended, Anton went home with Polina.
Along the way, the dog they had previously fed marshmallows and sandwiches approached them. Only some cookies managed to bribe its pleading gaze off.
— “It won't leave us alone now.” – Polina said. – “It lives here, behind the school. They even built a doghouse for it.”
This time, Anton escorted her all the way to her home and, standing at the gate, asked:
— “Do you believe in a serial killer?”
— “I don't know.” – Polina then paused for a while, as if considering whether to tell a thing or not, but finally added: – “I once saw someone under my window. In a mask... sort of like a bird…”
On the way home, Anton paused at the bridge and looked down, expecting another name to appear there, but the snow was clear, and even the old names had vanished.
Now Anton waited from night to night for the arrival of the beasts, and when one night in early February he heard a knock, he opened the window without hesitation.
There was the Owl on the windowsill.
— “It is time!” – she said.
Anton went down to the backyard, and everything happened again. He danced with his new friends, jumped higher and higher, and in the jump he reached out with his hands to the stars, trying to pluck them like ripe apples, and the Goat played the flute.
Anton was having fun, yet deep within he knew that all this was started for the sake of one thing – to awaken hunger.
This time, it was the Bear’s turn, and Anton was no longer shy. He fell to his knees alongside the others and tore meat with his teeth, and when he was full, he lay in the snow that felt warm like a feather bed now.
— “Do you understand now, Bunny?” – Large droplets of blood fell from the Fox's teeth on the snow. – “Do you understand our hunger?”
— ”Yes”,– Anton replied.
— "Why doesn't he have a face yet?" – asked the Red-cheeked Bird.
— ”He will!” – the Goat replied. – "The next night. Oh... I remember that night. It was a wonderful, delightful night, and the treat..." – He licked his flute, and only now Anton noticed that it was a long bone, covered in bloody streaks.
— “Everyone sounds different”, – added the Goat, noticing Anton's stare. – “That's the whole point.”
— “Don't forget about the treat. Next time it is your turn.” – The Bear stroked his excessively swollen belly.
— “A treat?” – Anton asked.
— “Yes!” – The Bear picked up a long bloody piece from the snow, displayed it to Anton and tossed it into his mouth. – “Show us your worth, Bunny. We don't need freeloaders.”
When the beasts left, the wind picked up, sweeping up the remnants of the recent feast. Anton stumbled home. He wanted to curl up right there in the snow and sleep until the next Night, and only with a sheer willpower he forced himself to walk. In the yard, he looked up and saw Olya's face in the window of his room. She pressed herself against the glass and looked like a ghost, with her mouth open in horror.
Anton pressed a finger to his lips. “Shhh!” He felt then that his lips were sticky and still covered with blood. He scooped up a handful of snow, he wiped himself, and when he glanced at the window again, his sister was no longer there.
He entered the house and, without much concealment, went up to his parents' bedroom. Olya was lying between them, feigning asleep. Anton stood in the doorway for a long time, waiting for her to give herself away, but eventually he went to his room and immediately fell asleep.

Part 8

His sister shunned him now. His parents became strangers, and sometimes, looking at the forest, Anton thought how nice it would be to live there. And the snow seemed so soft and warm, and the house was a smelly cage. Only with Polina did he feel good, but he never visited her home. He liked walking with her outside, on the snow. He liked to see the cold wind redden her face. And at home? No. It was different at home.
"Come whenever you want", she had said, but Anton did not dare. He only promised to come a next time.
"Soon everything will change", he thought. "I'm going to have a face soon. Maybe then?"
Anton lived as before, got up by the alarm clock, went to school, ate at lunch, slept at night, but now he comprehended that time moved quite differently. It had nothing to do with the clocks, the sun, or even cycles of the moon. It was alive, it flowed within the blackness between the stars and came when it wanted. Night after night, Anton waited patiently, and one morning, at the winter's end, he sensed the Night’s approach.
When it happened, he was ready to dance, jump on the desks, shout and laugh. His mouth filled with saliva, and neither sandwiches taken from home nor cakes from the cafeteria could satisfy his hunger. The day flew by in oblivion, like an empty, meaningless dream, and only in the evening, lying in bed, did he remember one trifle he had missed.
"A treat."
This time it is his turn to treat.
"Damn, damn, damn!"
Anton darted around the room, as if a bag of meat could be hidden somewhere in it, then he remembered that there were always several kilograms of frozen bones for soup in the refrigerator. He went downstairs and listened: his parents were watching an action film on the second floor, and Olya, presumably, was with them.
Opening the freezer, Anton pulled out the meat, tore the package on it and bit. It was as hard as a piece of wood and just as flavorless. While the piece was thawing in his mouth, the boy looked out the window. It was getting dark.
He spat the meat into the sink. Not that at all. What are the beasts capable of if they didn't get a treat? He recalled how the Bird's huge and sharp beak snapped, resembling scissors used to cut sheets of iron in labor lessons.
And then an idea came to his mind. A disgusting one.
"No!" – he said to himself.
He collected the meat in a bag, put it back in the refrigerator and looked out the window once more.
"No!"
Time was going on.
Anton took a heavy kitchen knife from the drawer and touched the tip.
"No!"
Is there a way out?
He was about to go upstairs, but suddenly decided: grabbed a knife, pulled meat out of the refrigerator again, put on his jacket and went out into the bluish twilight. No one noticed his departure.
Anton walked through the forest, then over the bridge. Cars passed by several times, blinding him with their bright headlights. Finally he came to the school. The dog, as always, was there and met him with a wagging tail.
— “Doggie!” – Anton called out. – “Look what I have.”
He poured the contents of the package onto the snow.
The boy was returning home in complete darkness, with a bag of hot fresh meat in hand. The bag was dripping, but there was nothing Anton could do about it. Perhaps the snow would cover up the traces by morning, and if not, it wouldn't matter. Tonight he will have a face. As he approached the house, he quietly opened the gate so as not to creak, but he was spotted. The front door opened a crack, hitting his eyes with a strip of light, and Olya appeared in the doorway.
Anton grinned.
— “Again you!” – he hissed, and his hand found the knife under his jacket. – “Spying on everything!”
"Jump!" – said the voice of the Fox in his head.
He was about to pull out the knife, but suddenly he saw himself from the side. Through Olya's eyes. Covered in blood, with the bag of meat. A monster. As if for the first time he looked at his terrible burden, remembered the sensation with which the knife hit the bones, and threw the package away in disgust.
"Lord, what am I doing?"
He fell to his knees in the snow, staring at his hands, smeared with black blood.
— "Olya!” – he said. – “I'm not…”
Olya approached him cautiously, as if to a chained beast.
— “Tosha. Don't go out there anymore. Please.”
Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
"I ate raw meat", – Anton thought. – "And killed a dog."
— “I'm not going. I'll never go again”, – he said, fighting sickness.
Together they entered the house, and before his father or mother could catch sight of Anton in his current state, he ditched the jacket with the knife into the pantry and locked himself in the bathroom.
A knock sounded on the door.
— “Are you all right?” – Father asked.
— “Yes, Dad.” – Anton tried to make his voice sound as calm as possible. Looking in the mirror, he realized how lucky he was that no one met him on the way. His face bore splatters of blood.
— “Did you go outside? You know you can't.”
— “I was in the yard. Not for long.”
Anton stepped into the shower. He couldn't believe that he had actually danced outside, that he had devoured meat, that…
He vomited.
Olya spent the rest of the evening in his room, they barely spoke, but they were together for the first time in the last few weeks, and that was enough. She was drawing in an album, and Anton stared at the window with fear, hoping the night would never come.
Eventually, Olya was taken to bed, soon the parents turned off the TV, and the house became quiet, only the floorboards and walls creaked. The house was wooden, and, as Dad used to say, alive.

Part 9

About two o'clock in the morning, there was a knock on the window. Persistent, strong, so that the window frame trembled. Anton rolled off the bed and huddled in a corner with the blanket. The knocking didn't stop. It was astonishing how this sound, which seemed to be carried throughout the whole house, did not wake up the parents. The guest knocked and knocked with the relentlessness of an idiot, and in the end Anton could bear it no longer. He approached the window, pulled back the curtain and almost screamed.
Yes, it was an Owl, but now she had changed, one eye was missing, and there were holes in the mask, if it was a mask, through which pink meat could be seen. The Owl opened its beak.
— “We are waiting for you, Bunny!” — she said.
Anton saw the bare muscles moving under the mask. Looking into the guest's single unblinking eye, he unexpectedly opened the window and let her in.
The Owl leapt off the windowsill, slapped her feet on the floor and began to push Anton to the exit. He descended the stairs, opened the pantry door, retrieved the bloody jacket and, as if under escort, went out into the field where the other beasts awaited him.
They appeared as time-worn toys. The Fox became skinny, half-mangy, the Bear crawled on the ground, dragging his hind legs like a half-crushed beetle, the horns of the Goat were broken off, and the golden sequins scattered.
— “See what has happened to us, Bunny!” – said the Bird, barely moving its beak. – "But it's nothing. We'll leave. But it will be winter, and we shall return.”
— “His face!” – The Wolf growled.
The Goat limped up to Anton and handed him a mask. It depicted a Bunny’s face and was crafted from fur. It was clear that the mask was very old, the nose and whiskers were barely visible, and there was a hole in the cheek, stitched together with thick threads.
— “Try it on!” – the Owl commanded.
Anton lifted the mask to his face, but something in him resisted it. The mask was disgusting. Terrible. It was moving by itself between his fingers.
— "He can't”, – the Fox hissed. – “I told you. Let's eat him and leave.”
— “No! After the treat, he'll put it on!” – The Bear crawled closer to him on its front paws. – “You will, right?”
Anton nodded.
— “Then let's begin”, – the Wolf growled.
The Goat began playing the flute, only it was no longer a melody, just a set of sounds falling like stones from a bucket, and to this semblance of music, the beasts began dancing.
— “Jump!” – said the Fox.
Anton jumped up.
— “More! More! More!”
Anton was jumping, and the beasts were circling around. The Fox fell and rose, her fur shed like needles from a withered Christmas tree, the Owl dragged its wing, the Bear crawled, and a wet dark trail remained behind him in the snow. There was no more ecstasy, just a ridiculous, frightening dance of cripples. It didn't last very long, soon the exhausted beasts fell to the ground. Only Anton and the Goat, who was looking at him with a grin, remained standing.
— "Try putting on your face now", – said the Wolf.
Anton realized that he was still clutching the mask in his hands. He held it up to his face. It seemed to him that there were some creatures crawling between the fibers of the wool, like white worms, which were just waiting to bite into his skin.
— “He can't!” – the Bird squeaked, rising from the snow. – “We shouldn't wait. We need to leave.”
— “The treat first!”
The Fox got up after several unsuccessful attempts. Bones or maybe sticks that she had instead of bones were visible under her torn skin, her jaw hung sideways.
— “Where's the treat, Bunny?”
— "Yes, yes, the treat!” – the others said in unison.
Anton did not answer for a long time, contemplating if they would catch up with him if he ran.
— “I didn't bring anything, I'm sorry.”
The Wolf bared his teeth, the skin on his muzzle burst, and the mouth stretched out with a crunch, became huge. No wolf, no living creature could ever have such a maw.
Terrified, the boy recoiled, tripped over something and fell on his back. He saw the maw above him, obscuring the sky and the stars, the maw that could swallow the whole world if it wanted to.
— “Wait!” – The Goat's voice called out. – “That's not how I remember it all. Be patient a little, my dear.”
The Wolf froze, and there was a long silence, in which the boy heard only the beating of his own heart.
And then there was a voice:
— “Tosha!”
— “Here's a treat!” – said the Goat.
Anton felt the cold was penetrating deep into him, to the very heart, so that he would never be able to warm up again.
— “Olya, run!” – he shouted.
— “Tosha, who are you talking to?”
Anton got up and saw that the beasts were huddled together, and only their eyes and open mouths stuck out. Now it seemed that it was one beast made of bones, teeth and bald skins. This thing was bypassing Anton and approaching Olya.
— “Olya, go away!” – Anton shielded his sister and cried into the darkness: – “Don't touch her!”
— “She's ours, Bunny, you brought her yourself.”
— “Tosha, let's go home, please!”
— “If you don't move away, we'll find another one, and we will eat you, we will eat her, we will enter your house and eat your parents. Step aside. It is your gift. Your payment. A treat.”
Mouths and beaks opened, ready to tear the meat, but at the last moment Anton shouted to them:
— “Wait!”
The beasts halted. Anton’s thoughts were spinning wildly in his head. And suddenly he realized what he needed to say. His gaze fell upon the Goat's head sticking out from the darkness. The Goat nodded, as if he read this thoughts.
— “She's not the treat. She just came here. And the treat... it... it will be later.”
— “When?”
— “Now. Now.”
— “Isn't that the carrion that lies in your yard, Bunny?”
— “No. No. I'll show you.”
— "I told you”, – said the Goat.
Anton turned to Olya, and either there was something in his expression, or she finally saw Them, but she bolted home, screaming. The boy followed her with his gaze, and when the lights flickered on in the windows, he moved towards the forest, followed by the beasts.
Anton walked to the village, dark and dead, found the right house, climbed over the fence and knocked on the door. Polina told him her father often works at night, but even if he is at home, what difference does it make.
It took a long time to knock, but Anton could not find a doorbell. Finally, a rustle was heard on the other side of the door, and then a frightened voice:
— “Who's there?”
It was Polina.
— "It's me", – Anton said, putting on his mask. – “Just as I promised.”

Notes

* The red-cheeked bird is most likely some kind of woodpecker (Picidae), as it is stated to be looking like such in the novel and this is pretty much the only kind of birds which suits the appearance descriptions while being a forest creature and not clear/good bird in mythology.
* The Fox wants to eat Anton insistently. That's the reason she haunts him in the window or on the drawing. She was trying to get close, but then they realised that he is the Hare.
* The Goat-like creature is one of the forms in which the Leshiy (mythological deity, master of forest) appear. Or Satan in christian worldview. You can check some tips below.
* This is not some kind of super-metaphorical horror. These allusions on drug addiction are not "the real meaning" or something like that.
* The costumes don't concern Anton at first, as at the New Year's celebrations (looks like western Christmass) in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine kindergartens and schools are making costumed parties with performances and actings of some about-fabulous stories about Grandfather Frost and other fairy-tale stuff. The kids are not acting, but taking part in it, and also wearing costumes. Usually organizers provide everyone with some simple costume: boys are all bunnies (hares actually), girls are snowflakes. As it's a January in the story, it's not so concerning seeing costumes (not in real life btw).
There is also mythological layer of this. Check below.
* About Bunny/Hare:
In Russia there no such thing as a Bunny in folklore. Only Hare. I don't know what type of persona is a Bunny in english folklore, maybe it's close to Hare and so there is nothing to worry about.
But if not: Hare is coward and loser, but not in a good way. He is embittered because of resentment and takes revenge when there is a chance. Snaps at the helpless ones. He might be a trickster, insolent provoker.
It doesn't seem like it makes much sense for the story, but nonetheless.
* If you played the game, you may find here some fragments of text, similar to such fragments from the game. They're identical in russian text. But I decided not to integrate english translation from the game, and translated it as close as I could to the original.

About author and history of the story

The story was written in a month for the Russian horror story contest "damn dozen" in 2014. The contest has a limit of 40 thousand characters maximum.
But the story is over, completed, it has an "open ending" (it just doesn't have an epilogue actually).

Dmitry Mordas participated in the development of the game in the early stages. Then he left it on the Demo stage for personal reasons. He was replaced by professional horror writer Maxim Kabir. I don't know how it is in English translation, but in Russian parts of the text of these authors differ markedly. Of course, I do not know how it really is, but according to my observations, before meeting with the fox in the second episode, a big part of the text was written by Mordas, as well as some moments after (some parts of Polina route in the fourth episode).
Mordas himself is currently writing a novel based on the story (not the game).

My analysis

According to the story, the Beasts come every winter. They take turns treating each other with human meat. In different situations, Anton sees them in different ways: as shadows of animals, as children in animal costumes, as anthropomorphic monsters and as half-rotted corpses or stuffed animals.
Unlike the game, there is no unreliable narrator in the story. Anton is an ordinary kid. Besides, Polina and Olya saw them. Therefore, Beasts are real mystical creatures.
However, there are hints that these creatures were human. First of all, this is revealed through Anton's fate.
The whole plot tells about turning into one of the Beasts. Anton lives in a house far from the village in the middle of the forest. Accordingly, he and his sister quickly came into the field of view of the Beasts.
He is called a Hare only after his misadventures at school, when he demonstrates his character. Even calling him a Hare, the Beasts can eat him. When Anton defends Olya, they threaten to find another Hare and eat him.
Anton is treated twice. He enters an altered state and joins their celebration. However, he does not become one of them. Even after the second treat, when he starts to feel different, he's still an ordinary kid.
The conversion takes place by putting on a mask of the Beast. Moreover, there are conditions for this. At first, Anton couldn't put on a mask. According to the text, "something in him resisted." Apparently, it's not Olya, whom Anton listened to and wanted to protect. She is just a motive. In fact he can't put it on because he didn't lost his humanity. He didn't take the last step to convert.

My idea is this: in order to put on a mask, and thus turn into a Beast, you must first become a Beast internally. Transcend humanity. The dog was insufficient. Anton was able to put on the mask only near Polina's door.
Despite the absence of an epilogue in the story, there is a climax, and Polina's fate is clear. She was murdered.
So, overstepping humanity is killing other person. Perhaps partly betrayal. When Anton decided to take the Beasts to Polina, a conversion really occurred. This is indicated by the fact that Olya was only then afraid of Anton and ran away. At that moment, the murder was already committed in his mind – because nothing could have saved Polina. The very fact of the upcomming murder was undeniable. Therefore, even before the physical murder, Anton was able to put on his mask.

Mythological references

OK, it's not like author did add this intentionally, but mythological patterns and images are still present in language, in culture, and therefore in this story.
Firstly, Slavic and common european myths come to mind. In Russia, there are also many "forest peoples", who lived in foresty areas and adopted agriculture late. In the game, the action takes place in the taiga, that is, in the northern regions of central Russia, judging by the river name, so there might be some ethnic inspirations from Mari, Karelian, Nenets or Komi peoples' myths. But in the story there is no location anchors. Inspirationally, it must be western Russia, which is foresty area, not so far from the birthplace of Slavs.

In January there is a Orthodox Christmass, but this Christian celebration merged with old pagan celebrations (Sviatki). In the rural areas, it partly looks like western helloween - people can wear costumes and play roles, while going from house to house and ask for treats or money in exchange for poems or other performances.
If you played The Witcher 3, you know that there is The Bold Mountain. In slavic, baltic and german mythology, from late December to the second half of January there are celebrations. There can be other celebrations in different time of year, for example german Walpurgisnacht at late spring, and slavic Maslenitsa at the end of winter. Because of the Christianity, this celebrations are known as celebrations of witches and demons with the Satan. Satan in christian mythology depicted as a goat. They're making human sacrifices, eating children, dancing, flying and so on.

Other layer is from slavic folklore. I mean everyday mythology, without any celebrations. And in this regard, there is a lore about forest and its masters Leshiys ('Les' means forest, and this is sort of adjective meaning '(someone) of forest'). It's interesting here, as Leshiy can be depicted as a goat-like creature. It is known that pagan shepherds, through rituals and sacrifices, make a deal with the forest, and therefore with the Leshiy, so that wild animals do not kill cattle. And so Leshiy is sometimes considered a shepherd of wild animals. And sometimes he has shepherd's attributes - for example, a shepherd's flute.
The Leshiys are also known for stealing children and returning changelings instead - logs in the guise of children. You can find some references to this in the game.
The forest in mythology is considered an other world. So animals there can be humans and humans can be animals. And the snow can fall upwards. This logic of twist is also applying to the food in another world.
There are stories about the treats of the Leshiy. One of them is about man, who ate with a Leshiy disguised as a neighbor. Only after a while did he realize that he was eating cones.
According to beliefs, you can not eat the food of the Leshiy. Leshiy will confuse you, and you'll see yourself in a forest hut, eating ordinary food. But this is a food from other world. This way you will change your state, connect yourself with other world and you will not be able to return home, you will not be able to leave the forest.
By the way you can check german "Erlkönig" (Elven King), it's also about that. Mythological fairies and elves from other european cultures have similar concepts and roles, especially about stealing children and leaving changelings.

Even more ancient beliefs are called totemism. All kinds and tribes had divine beasts, who were considered patrons and ancestors. It's about society of hunters. In this beliefs a boy must undergo an initiation rite to become a man. This is usually a test. The boy must go into the forest and hunt. Usually on a totem animal, by killing which he will receive its power, becoming one with it. You can see some known pattern from fairy tales here - going into the other world, making a deed and returning as other creature, in other state. The boy is dying, the man returns. The problem is always about returning back. In the story there is written that it was hard for Anton to return home after meetings with otherworldly creatures.
You can also find a reference to this rituals in the game (Polina tells about such).
Also in some traditions this neophyte (converted) must treat others.

One more very common thing is magical numbers, three in particular. You can see that there were three meetings of Anton and the Beasts, with the third one being the decisive. There is also such thing in the game: two meetings so far, and no doubts decisive third will be in the last Episode .

Animals also have images and personas in folklore, but in this case it does not really matters, effectively no connections. Which kinda makes sense as this is not animals and not deities. Many of the mentioned evil spirits can shapeshift and change guises. In russian folklore sometimes evil supernatural beings ('nechist' (unclean), 'nezhit' (unliving)) described as not-living-not-dead and having no appearance only guises.

So, in conclusion, I can assume that the Beasts' image is composed mainly of images of mythological fairies (and whatever names the forest spirits, stealing children, may have), with one of them refering strongly to Leshiy. This image is merged with children-eating evil things: witches, bogeymans (only legends know that Babai is imposter and the real slavic bogeyman is Buka). The most interesting addition to this image is that this spirits are "animals" (with reference to pagan and pre-pagan cultures) and at the same time costumed children. First, animalistic thing matters as it makes the "beast is within of every human"-style theme for the plot. Second, as this is guises, costumes and masks, in conjunction with beast-inside thing it makes a reversal of the "face-mask"-dichotomy, where the mask is an actual face. While plot-wise mask is just a mean of conversion. So, it makes an original interesting image with mythological references, which is really cool (I mean sourced (based) originality cool, not just referencing).

The final words

I hope this guide will be helpfull for you. Maybe it can help you somehow in regards to the game.

You can write in comments if you have any questions and additions, or corrections regarding text. I am gradually editing this guide so far.
It became quite a story for me, as I'm writing this from the summer of 2023. First version was quite shameful. I did many corrections since then. In the winter of 2024-2025 I ran the text through the text-improvement AI services. This made the text more artistic finally.
But, of cource, it wasn't easy, AIs helped mostly if not only with artistic words and expressions, as my vocabulary is limited. I argued with myself for a long time back then in terms of how to merge english-understandable expressions and russian-common things. Some original russian words or expressions are very ordinary for the native to russian language and culture, but it's artistic by itself, you know, inside the language. If you translate that you will get the meaning, but not the artistism of such thing, which is not even noticeable by the native speaker. So how to translate? Just a meaning that is most suitable for reading or literal words and expressions which might sound strange but more artistic and close to original, containing some language-secured senses. I chose the latter in most of the cases. But I still want to validate them and question somebody fluent in english in that regard. Write to the comments or elsewhere (I'm not an expert in Steam stuff) if you want to help and can answer some questions.

Thanks for reading and everything.

[Pattywack]

Thank you!

[⚡ and0328 ⚡]

Автору респект за то, что перевёл, хоть и с переводчиком, рассказ Мордаса и расширил охват читателей оригинальной истории "Зайчика". Удачи, mapoch!

Respect to author because he translated, and at least with a translator, the story by Mordas and expanded readers' coverage of original story "Tiny Bunny". Good Luck, mapoch!

[Nightmares Echo]

Thank you so much for doing this! I could only ever find blurry snippets. It was interesting to read this after having played all the chapters and just seeing mentally the games artwork play out and the fill in areas that expand on the story

[ColdWinter]

Будьте здоровы. Я искал эту историю повсюду, и рад видеть не только в реальном тексте, но и в английском. Понимая трудности перевода, я ценю ваши усилия. / Bless you. I have been looking all over for this story, and am glad to see not only in the actual text, but also in English. Realizing the difficulties of translation, I appreciate your efforts.

[PaperDoll]

Thank you for doing this, I'm one of those people who could not find the source material, and this is super helpful of you!