Sophia and the others found a massive cherry blossom forest hidden inside the mountain range, and the blonde got very excited over it. Loving the trees with the pink petals a whole lot, she decided to bring a part of it over to the domain to use it as a start for her very own biome project there.

“My dearest Fen, I think I may have found a slight flaw in your river plans.” The duo was still working on the wolf’s forest when the jaguar suddenly looked at him while helping him fill the riverbed he made with water.

“Oh?” He faced her. “What would that be?”

“You wanted the river because you like the sound of flowing water, right?”

“Yes.” Fen nodded. “I think it’s a very relaxing sound.”

“I agree, but… How’s the river supposed to flow?” She tilted her head while pointing at the water they created with magic so far. “The area is completely flat, and the water's just, well… sitting there. One end of the river needs to be higher than the other, doesn’t it?”

“Ah.” He froze. “I forgot about that part.”

"Yep, it's obvious why you and Sophia get along~." She had to chuckle at his all-too-familiar reaction that reminded her of the blonde.

“Hmm,” The wolf looked around in the area before facing her again. “Any idea how to fix that?”

“Is it even fixable?” Ari scratched her cheek. “We would need to redo the entire area to add a slope. Even then, we'd need a water source that's constantly putting out water, or else the lake would just run dry. How would we do that? Also, what would we do with all the water coming out at the end of the river? There’s the planned lake, but that will also be full eventually.” The more she thought about it, the more issues came to light.

"I like the way how you think so logically." Fen liked their conversation. “A water source wouldn’t be so hard, I guess. I mean, there hasn’t to be a constant flow of water. After all, it would be enough to have it when someone's here, and they could just use their magic to create a source.”

“That’s fair, but that means we couldn’t put any fish in the water because they’d die once the source is gone.”

“I hadn’t thought about that! Fish would be nice! Delicious, too!” The wolf had some questionable priorities. “Yes, that wouldn’t work. Also, I really don’t want to redo everything here to create a slope.”

“That’s true.” The jaguar agreed. “It also wouldn’t solve the problem of the excess water, or you at least would have to constantly make sure nothing is overflowing.”

“Doesn’t sound relaxing at all.” He disliked the idea more and more.

“Exactly.” Ari nodded. “Oh!”

“Oh?” Fen tilted his head after the jaguar suddenly loudly clapped her hands. “Did you come up with something?”

“Maybe!”

“I like the confidence!” He rolled his eyes. “Let me hear it.”

“Instead of an artificial water source, we could make an artificial current. That way, even if we add fish, they’d still be able to survive without us around.

“That sounds a lot more practical.” He agreed with her. “How would we do that, though?”

“That’s an excellent question!” Ari awkwardly scratched her cheek. “Oh!”

“You know, you keep saying that it’s obvious why Sophia and I get along, but you’re not that different in many aspects.” He felt reminded of many of the sudden ideas the blonde got out of nowhere while having the same reaction as the jaguar.

“Y-Yeah, we all kinda rub off on each other…”

"So, what's the idea you have?" He wanted to avoid going into detail there.

“We could make the river loop! Or maybe have both, end and start, connected to the lake. That way, once we make one part move, the entire river water should start flowing in response.”

“That might actually work!” Fen liked the idea. “We need to add a bit more pathing to the riverbed to make it loop into the lake, but that won’t take too long.”

“Great!”

“Let’s get started, then.

Afterward, the duo immediately began rerouting the riverbed so that it started and ended where they planned to make the lake.

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“Speaking of the lake, huh?” The two finished in no time at all and ended up in the lake area around half an hour later. There, Ari looked at their previous project while scratching her cheek. They made a massive oak tree, which seemed to be about 600 to 700 meters tall.

“It’s certainly most fascinating how those plants react to raw magic.” The wolf seemed impressed by the result. “It’s good that we didn't use more of it, too. "A little more, and the rest of the forest definitely would've been affected, as well."

“That’s true.” The jaguar also noticed how close the new tree and the soil around it had come to the forest, even though they had placed the sapling roughly 500 meters away from it. “So, what do we do now?”

“I’d say it’s time for Maya’s favorite afternoon activity!”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in you that way.” Ari turned him down while lightly waving her hand. "After all, Maya's favorite activity at any time is guaranteed to be something horny."

“…” Fen stared at her in absolute silence for what felt like a whole minute. "No." He then shook his head a few times. “Thinking about it now, you might be right, but that’s not what I meant. She also loves to play with fire and burn things down.”

“Ohh!”

“Seriously, and here I praised you for being logical earlier.”

"Come on!" The jaguar started pouting. "When you think about Maya and the things she loves, setting fire to stuff isn't the first that comes to mind!"

“…” He went silent once more. “Again, fair point, but… Let’s just get past that topic, okay?”

“Sure!” Ari nodded. “Alright, burning down such a massive tree sounds fun!”

“Absolutely no one in this group dislikes a good fire, huh?” He liked her reaction. “Do you want to do the honors?” The wolf then gestured at the tree.

“Really?”

“You’re the one who came up with the idea of creating it to convert the white ground into soil, so it’s only fair you get the reward of burning it down.”

“If you say so!” She started smiling. “Okay, let’s give this a try!” Immediately after, she threw a couple of fireballs into the tree’s massive crown, setting it ablaze instantly.

"Seeing a great fire is always such a lovely sight!" Fen looked up as he was watching the tree burn down. “Good job so far! Going from top to bottom first was a good call, too. That way, there's less danger of the crown crashing into the forest when the trunk burns and breaks.”

“That was what I was thinking, too!” Ari was happy he understood her reasoning. “Though, this approach also has some downsides.” She noticed how a ton of debris in the form of burning leaves, sticks, embers, and ash had started raining down as the fire kept consuming more and more of the tree.

“Yeah, a fire like that can get a little dirty on that front.” He nodded. “It’s part of the experience, though. The massive ball of fire that once was the crown of the tree, combined with the embers raining down, is a sight to behold! We should do that more often!”

“Ahaha.” There was nothing else she could say here. “Anyway, let’s finish it!” She then shot a few extra fireballs towards the tree’s trunk to speed up the process a little. Roughly half an hour later, only a few burnt remains of the once massive tree were left.

“That was fun!” Fen’s mood was excellent. “Do you mind if I dig out the roots and create the shape for the lake?”

“Go wild!” Ari smiled at him. “I’m not that into digging, so I have no plans of stealing your fun.”

“Great!” He immediately started digging. Fen was so into it that he didn’t even use magic in the beginning and disappeared underground by just using his paws. Ari watched him for a while, but she eventually decided to clean up the area because her tree inferno had caused quite a bit of rubbish to pile up everywhere.

“Good job!” Around an hour later, the two got together again. “Also, how did you do all that in an hour?!” With big eyes and a slightly agape mouth, she looked at the massive hole with a diameter of seemingly reaching a kilometer while being roughly 150 meters deep in the center before getting shallower the further out it got.

“I got very motivated.” The wolf sounded quite smug while looking at her.

“I can see that!”

"The idea with the tree and the roots was amazing. It turned out to be the perfect size of ground that got converted into soil for the lake!"

“If anything, I might argue that you overdid it ever so slightly. That’s going to be one massive lake!”

“Like I said, I got very motivated while digging~.”

"I mean, it's still okay, but it will take a long while to fill that hole with water.”

“Ah, that’s true.” Judging by his voice, he hadn’t thought about that when he was motivated.

“Also,” Ari then looked up. “I’m not the biggest fan of having the domain’s background lighting up the entire area in that bright white.”

“To be perfectly honest, I think I had too much fun building all this that I forgot to think about things like that…” He paused for a moment. “You are absolutely right, though. Right now, ignoring the part where there’s no water yet, this place is not very nice. Way too bright and not relaxing at all. I don’t think that’s fixable for the time being, though. The domain needs to grow a sky first or whatever for it to work.”

“Mhmh.” The jaguar tilted her head. “I think I might have a solution for that. A temporary one, at least.”

“I’m all ears!”

“How about we make a small island in the middle of the planned lake? There, we'll place a massive tree with a wide canopy that covers the entire lake! That way, we can block out the ugly white. We just need to make sure that some light still gets through.”

“Ohh!” He seemed to like the idea. “That could work! There are some variants of oaks that grew quite wide, too, right?”

“Well, the one I burned down earlier would’ve worked already because it spanned over the whole area. The trunk was too wide, and the roots were way too big, though."

“Yes, there probably would be little space left for the lake, huh?"

“Do you know weeping willows?”

“Willows?” The wolf tilted his head. “Wait, those are the trees where the leaves hang down like garlands, right?”

“Yes, those!” She nodded. “If cultivated right, they can grow really wide and take little trunk space. They’re really pretty, too.”

“Oh, I always found those very fascinating. We could try that! Though, we don’t have any of those right now.”

“That’s true.” The jaguar hung her head. "A weeping cherry would be even better! They naturally grow quite wide, and pink cherry blossoms are amazingly beautiful! Though, just where would we get a cherry blossom tree from? Especially a weeping one.”

“I’m normally not into pink, but cherries are an exception.” He apparently liked them, too. "But, yes, I haven’t seen them in quite a while. I guess it will be easier to get a regular weeping willow.”

“Yeah.”

“I think it’s for the best to put the lake area for a little while longer?” He looked at the huge hole. “At least until we have a final plan.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” Ari agreed. “Alright, how about we head back for the time being?”

“How about another little break before the energetic rest of our group returns?"

“I like that plan better!” The jaguar reacted with a big nod.

Doing just that, the duo returned to the middle of the original forest and got comfortable there for a little bit to brace themselves for the return of the others.

 

 

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