Fen and Ari made even more progress on their forest project and just finished the outline for the planned lake in the area. Unfortunately, thanks to the openness of a lake area, the entire place was bathed in the all-white nothingness of Sophia’s domain. They came up with the idea of growing a tree with a massive canopy over it, and both liked the idea of a weeping willow or cherry, but as they had neither at hand right now, the duo decided to take a break for the time being.

“Finally back home!” Sophia, Aura, Steph, and Chloe arrived back in the domain right in front of the cottage, and the blonde was quite happy to be out of the winter hell.

“You did well~.” The fox smiled at her.

“At least better than the other cats.” Steph didn’t praise her as much.

“Which is quite the feat if we take into account who we’re talking about.” Aura defended the blonde a little.

“And I’ll make sure they’ll never forget about that!” The tiger sounded incredibly smug.

“Anyway, I’m hungry!” Steph decided that it was time to change the topic. “I can smell cooking, so let’s go!”

“That’s the nose of a dog for you, huh?” Sophia seemed impressed. “An excellent idea! Alright, I’ll go collect Fenny and Ari, and we can eat!"

“Mhm?” Aura looked confused. “They aren’t in the cottage?”

“Nope.” She shook her head. “It seems like they’re in the area where I gave Fennyfenny a spot for his biome project. They probably got bored while we were out.”

“Ahh, I see.”

“Okay, let’s meet inside once I got them!”

“Sure!”

----------------

Sophia went to the area where she noticed Fen and Ari to be, thanks to instinctively knowing where everyone was at all times.

“Well, that’s certainly a sort of nostalgic sight.” She appeared right in front of the duo without having made a single sound. Thanks to that, she got a good view of what was happening right now. Fen and Ari had decided to take a break before returning, but that actually meant that they took another nap in the relaxing forest they built. Just as before, the jaguar had leaned against the wolf’s side, and both were fast asleep when the blonde arrived. 

“That reminds me of the early days with Fenny~.” She watched them for a little longer as she was reminded of the time when she just arrived in the world and met the wolf. “It certainly is amazing how easy Ari goes with the flow, too. ALSO!” The tiger let out a small chuckle before looking around some more. “This forest is amazing! So cozy and comfy-looking! I can see why they’re napping! In fact, I’m even more envious now! I guess that’s what they were up to today, huh?”

“…” The two had yet to wake up and notice her presence.

“Alright, wakey-wakey~.” Having had enough of watching them, the blonde hit them with a light gust of wind.

“H-Huh?!” Fen immediately woke up.

“Eh…?” Ari needed a little longer and had to stretch herself and yawn first before noticing the tiger. “A-Ah." Her cheeks turned red once she noticed Sophia had seen her in this situation.

“Someone got comfy, huh?” She smiled at the jaguar after seeing her cute reaction. “Don’t worry, I can’t blame you for it~.” The blonde had no intention to tease her. “It’s my spot, though.” She didn’t appreciate the competition. “I slept like that almost every night before we arrived in the capital last year.”

“I, uhh… I understand why.” Ari lightly nodded. “He’s very soft and comfortable.”

“I am not entirely sure how I should feel about such praise.” Fen wasn’t exactly happy about it.

“You should definitely be happy that two girls want to cling to you and sleep with you, too~.” Sophia gave him a thumbs up.

“That sounds horrible out of context!” The jaguar didn’t like her wording.

“That!” The wolf nodded a few times while looking at her. “Also, we are mutually not interested in each other! What part should make me happy here?”

“Bragging rights to others when you leave out some details~.” The blonde sounded extra cheeky. “It’s technically not a lie when you say that you have a whole group of beautiful girls around you who love to cling to you.”

“You are the absolute worst.” He had nothing else to say to her.

“Yeah.” Ari nodded in agreement.

“Come on, it’s fun~.”

“No.” The duo shook their heads.

“Are you two besties now?!” Sophia was surprised by their unionization.

“Yes.”

“Wow, I didn’t see that one coming.” She seemed happy about it, though. “Well, I can see why you two get along, but that much is nice!”

“It turned out that we have a lot in common and got along quite well while working on my forest.” Fen looked around while sounding rather proud.

“I see! Speaking of, the forest looks great! Good job, you two!” She smiled at them. “I love it! So comfy! None of my stupid all-white default domain, too!”

“Thank you!” They enjoyed her praise.

"You really need to do something against that bright white!" The wolf shook his head. “It’s really bad.

“I’m trying, you know?!” The blonde raised her voice. “That’s the main purpose of the Sophia Tax! I need to raise the concentration of raw ambient magic for that to work!”

“I hope it happens soon.”

"Me, too!" Sophia was looking forward to it the most, after all. "Anyway, how about a tour? I love this place already, and I want to see more~."

“Sure!”

----------------

The duo showed her all the places they created during the day, like the mossy area and the partially watered riverbed, before eventually arriving at the place where they dug out the hole for the planned lake.

“Very impressive for just a day of work! You two really had a good time, huh?”

“Yes!” The two nodded while looking at the tiger.

“Okay, again, I love the forest, but I’m not sure about the lake area.” She scratched her cheek while taking everything in. “I get the idea, but the open roof, especially at the moment, with my white domain, completely ruins the mood.

"We know." They just sighed.

"Got a little over-motivated before realizing, huh?" She took a guess on what happened.

“We don’t want to answer that.”

"Have you thought about covering it with something?” Sophia looked up. “Maybe a massive tree with a wide crown to block out the white.”

“That’s the plan we had." Ari nodded. "The current trees all have too big roots, though. We want to make a small island in the middle to put a tree with a wide crown there. While oaks can have wide crowns, they have wide roots, too. I mean, this hole came to be after we made a massive oak and removed it and the roots underground."

“Wow, looks like you’ve got it figured out already, huh?” The tiger seemed impressed again.

“Yeah~.” The jaguar kept nodding. “Fen and I decided to find a weeping willow and put it there. We both seem to like it, and they have massive crowns."

“That’s the plan.” The wolf agreed with her.

"A weeping willow, huh?" She tilted her head. "Does a weeping cherry work? I'm not sure if pink would work for Fennyfenny, but I'd prefer that over a willow."

“Cherry trees are one of the exceptions when it comes to pink.” He didn’t mind. “I like them.”

“A weeping cherry would be even harder to come by, though!” Ari raised her voice a little.

“Do you want one?” Sophia just smiled at her.

“You have one?!”

“A few hundred, yes.” She tried her hardest not to look smug.

“Why do you have so many of them?!” The jaguar got even louder. “How, too?!”

“While someone decided to stay home, the rest of us braved the cold and found a massive cherry blossom field in the middle of the mountain range. Thousands of cherries! It was one of the most beautiful sceneries I’ve ever seen!”

“Ah.” Ari’s expression turned awkward. She seemed a little envious, too.

“It was amazing!” Sophia had to rub it in. “Anyway, I’m going to create the most amazing cherry blossom biome in my domain, but I can part with a single weeping cherry if you want to. Most of the trees we found were regular cherry blossoms, but there were a good few weeping ones in between, too.”

“Ohh! It would be amazing if we could get one!”

“Yes!” Fen agreed with Ari’s enthusiasm.

“Sure thing~.” She smiled at the energetic duo again. “Not today, though. I first need to sort through the trees I… borrowed! Maybe I’ll also just get you a fresh one instead. ALSO! I’m hungry! Maya’s been preparing dinner, so let’s go and eat! Afterward, I need a hot bath to recover from today’s ordeal!”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Ari liked what she was hearing. “Fen and I also decided to head back before, well…”

"You two took a nice nap?"

“Y-Yeah, that.” She lightly nodded. “We’ve done enough today, so tomorrow is more than fine.”

Once they decided on what to do the following day, the trio took a portal back to the cottage. Luckily, they arrived just in time when Maya, with the help of the princess, finished preparing dinner for the entire group. 

Afterward, the girls, excluding the wolves, went to their hot springs for their usual evening bath together. While bathing, Sophia had a grand time teasing the other cats about her being the most resilient one of the day. Ari had been on the receiving end of especially much flak, thanks to her having been bailed out entirely.

 

 

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