Sophia and the other cats decided to tough it out and see the exploration of the snowy mountain range to the end. Ari still didn’t want to and demanded a reward for having to be cold for so long, but the other three lost to the allure of exploring something new and exciting no one had ever seen before. Having a precedent against Steph and Chloe to rely on for later when they want to visit a hot area was a nice bonus.

“Someone’s having a great time, huh?” The group was finally reunited again, and the blonde rolled her eyes when she spotted the trio having a snowball fight.

“Welcome back, sis!” Steph smiled at her. “Join us!” She then got ready to throw one in the tiger’s direction.

“If one of these nasty cold bombs hits me, I’m going to change the climate of the whole mountain range.” Sophia didn’t feel like joining. “My magic will turn everything here to summer instantly.”

“Why wasn’t that an option earlier?!” Ari seemed to like the plan.

“Shush!”

“Alright!” Not wanting to risk it, the dog-girl threw the snowball at Aura instead. “What brings you here? I was sure you would’ve fled to the cottage in the domain by now.”

“Why wasn’t that an option earlier, either?!” The jaguar repeated herself.

“Why are you whining more than I am?!” Sophia stared back at her. “Being whiny and annoying is my thing!”

“Because I SERIOUSLY hate the cold!” She only got louder. “Reward or not, I still loathe the plan we decided on earlier!”

“Wow.” The blonde almost sounded impressed. “I underestimated how extreme you can be.”

“Plan you decided on?” Steph got interested in that part. “What’s that about?”

“We have good news!” Sophia smiled at her sister.

“We have terrible news!” Ari wasn’t smiling.

“What is it?!” Naturally, Steph had some issues following them.

“Please ignore her, she’s in a bit of a bad mood right now.”

“A bit?!” The jaguar glared at the blonde.

“Anyway,” Sophia decided to also ignore her for the time being. “We aren’t exactly happy about it, but we decided to fully explore the mountain range and not find a way out.”

“Seriously?!” The dog-girl hadn't seen that one coming.

“That’s amazing!” Chloe sounded happy about it.

“Wait, where’s the catch?!” Steph felt like there was something up with her decision.

“We’re here already, and there might be something unknown ahead! The curiosity got the better of me in the end.”

“Curiosity kills the cat, though.” Ari was having a very gloomy day.

“You really are on a run, huh?” Sophia glanced at the jaguar before facing her sister again. “Anna’s also looking forward to seeing an area of the kingdom that hasn’t been fully explored yet. Her princess bone got tickled there.”

“I see!” The dog-girl smiled at her. “So, no catch there?”

“Don't worry about it~.” The blonde smiled back.

“Now I worry!” It obviously had the reverse effect on her.

“They’re totally going to hold this against us when they want to explore a hot area.” Chloe immediately saw through it.

“Ehehe~.” The short tiger only reacted with a cheeky laugh.

“Really? That’s fine by me!” Steph wasn’t bothered by it. “Sure, I'll be complaining the entire time, but I'm not going to miss out on anything worthwhile to explore!”

“Told you so!” Anna sounded rather smug about having her reaction predicted accurately.

“There’s zero tolerance for any funny business, though!” Sophia suddenly got much more serious. “Pushing me into the snow or anything else that makes me feel colder will result in the aforementioned immediate and violate climate change of the entire region.”

“Understood!” The dog-girl gave her a firm nod. “You being clumsy and faceplanting into a pile of snow doesn’t count, though, right?"

“Why would I do that?” The blonde tilted her head.

“Because I know you!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” She didn’t like the implication. “But, yes, if it’s my own fault, I won’t do anything that drastic.”

“She isn’t speaking for everyone, though.” Ari disagreed with her. “I’ll go all out and end everything no matter the reason!”

“I somehow like the dark Ari.” Chloe was a fan of the stark difference in her personality.

"I disagree on this very occasion because of the topic, but in general, I agree because she gets pretty cool when she does that.” Steph nodded a few times.

“Has she always been that bad with the cold?” Maya faced Anna instead. “We all were pretty, uhh… passive during the winter, so I hadn’t paid any attention, but she’s worse than Sophia right now!”

“And that means something!” The blonde herself had to add that part.

“She’s never been good with it, just like basically any feline, but this year somehow was especially bad." The princess shrugged. “I have no clue why, though.”

“This winter was even colder than usual!” The jaguar loudly complained. “Also, almost all feline races have subspecies that have adapted to colder climates and live in those regions. Jaguars are warm climates only, though! My ancestors never gave me any resistance to the cold!”

“Your ancestors have been living in the capital for generations already.” Anna rolled her eyes. “They helped the tigers build it!”

“And we have been suffering ever since!” Ari didn't accept the complaint. “Look up the records! The jaguar and tiger families almost split up back when the capital was founded because we didn't agree with the location's climate!"

“Wow.” The princess had nothing else to say.

“To be fair, I think it takes a little longer than a few generations for a species to fully adapt to a new climate.” Sophia sided with the jaguar.

“Thank you very much!” Ari smiled at the blonde. “Because of that, I CAN’T deal with the cold a second time!”

“You never complained about it so much in the previous years, though?” Anna was a little confused over the level of whining the jaguar was currently on.

“Because of you!” The black-haired girl just stared at her.

“Why me?!” The princess pointed at herself. “I have always been pretty vocal about my dislike of the cold and got close to hibernating more than once!”

“That’s exactly the reason!” She raised her voice a bit more. “I tried to be strong so that not both of us became totally useless during the winter months.”

“Thank you very much for your sacrifice!” Anna was glad that she looked out for her. “Why the change of heart now, though?”

“Because of this group!” She pointed at everyone around her. "No one's trying to keep up an image and is just being themselves. As everyone said, I’m easily influenced, so I got more open, too. I try to preserve regular common sense by keeping everyone lightly in check, but when it comes to holding back personal things, everyone rubbed off on me!”

“You’re welcome~.” Sophia took partial credit for that.

“Yeah, you helped a lot with that.” The jaguar felt the need to put an emphasis on the word help there.

“Hehe.” The blonde enjoyed the slight glare that was accompanied by her reply. “You know, if it’s really that bad with the cold, which is TOTALLY understandable, we don’t all have to go through it.”

“Oh?” Ari’s interest was piqued. “Tell me more, please!”

“Well, it isn’t limited to the cold, either. If someone feels unwell or has decided on a lazy day, it’s not like the entire group has to take a break.” Sophia scratched her cheek. “Whoever feels that way can just relax in the cottage or play around in the other parts of my domain while the rest of the group is out traveling in the regular world. If there’s something interesting, we can still go and collect the ones that stayed behind in the domain. I mean, Fey and Mira also come and go whenever they feel like it.”

“I like the sound of that!” The jaguar was an instant fan.

“That’s actually a great idea!” Steph agreed with her. "Sometimes, we're just walking through the same plain the entire day, and it might be more fun to work on a biome in the domain instead!”

“And if enough opt out of the plains exploration, I can run through it at full speed and get a nice workout!”

“That sounds great!” Steph immediately turned around on her suggestion and sided with her sister instead.

“Yeah, if that happens, I’ll definitely stay in the domain!” Anna hated everything she just heard.

“I’ll definitely keep you company there, too!” Chloe felt the same as the princess.

“It seems like we came up with a decent plan, huh?” Sophia was glad that everyone liked her suggestion. “Even so, while it was my suggestion, and it's true that everyone needs some alone time here and there, I’d still prefer if we do as much as possible together, though. The more, the merrier has become my motto since coming to this world, after all!"

“Absolutely!” Everyone felt the same.

“Great!”

“Alright!” Steph then energetically raised her arm. “For now, let’s explore more of this lovely mountain!”

“Let’s go!” Chloe was a big supporter of the plan.

“Ah.” Ari froze for a moment. “You know what, now that there’s a way out for me, I think I’ll try to finish today together with everyone else.”

“That sure is a massive change of heart after you were that against it just minutes ago.” The dog-girl lightly tilted her head.

“Do you want me here, or do you not?!” She just glared at her.

“Let’s go!” Steph stopped the teasing immediately.

Once all of that was taken care of, everyone continued to explore and travel up the mountain a little further. Still, as the snow piled up more and more the higher they got, progress was slow even for the massively overpowered group they were.