Sophia took her ti getting back to the city after her scary experience of accidentally stopping ti out of all things. Once she made it there, she trotted towards the inn and noticed Fen outside of it. He was lying on a patch of grass next to the building, relaxing in the warming rays of the sun.
"Feeen~!" Seeing the wolf, she walked up to him and buried her face into his furry side, wishing he would turn back to his original size for extra fluff, but he unfortunately couldn't do that in the city.
"Sophia…?"
"I-, I ssed up… very big…" Her voice was muffled while she was speaking into his fur.
"I see." He said nothing more.
Sophia stayed like that for a good ten minutes, slowly getting healed by the fluffiness of Fen's fur after her scary experience. Eventually, Maya showed up at the inn as well and noticed the two.
"Err…" She looked at them, Fen relaxing on the grass with Sophia having her face deeply buried into his side. "Am-, Am I interrupting?" A grave misunderstanding happened.
"You are not." The wolf gave a clear answer.
"I see?" That cat-girl seed confused, and even her tail ford into sothing resembling a question mark. "Soo… What's going on?" She kneeled down next to Sophia and patted her head, checking whether the girl's still alive.
"Actually, I have no idea."
"Ehh?" She got even more puzzled after the wolf's reply.
"Hmm…?" Sophia finally noticed that she wasn't alone with Fen anymore. She lifted her face, and once she saw Maya and her oddly question-mark-shaped tail, a goofy smile appeared on her face. "Just what I needed~."
"What?" She was in dire need of so context. "Seriously?! What's going on here, Sophia?!"
"My magic's… too powerful."
"Yeah." The cat-girl gave a blunt reply, lacking any emotion. "Any other news that, you know, actually is news?"
"So an! I ssed up while thinking of so ways to improve my reaction ti. I don't want to get surprised by an attack like the ones of the griphon again! One thing led to another… and I sohow, uhh, accidentally ended up stopping ti…"
"What kind of crazy thing were you even trying in the first place to accidentally stop… ti… Wait, what?" Maya had only just processed the information and reacted with a blank face.
"You did what?!" Fen reacted much stronger as he shouted while getting up from the grass.
"O-Ouch!" Having leaned onto his body until now, Sophia lost her balance and fell face-first down on the ground.
"Did you seriously just say that you stopped ti, girl?!"
"Yes… As expected, that was sothing I really shouldn't have done, huh?" She had the feeling before that it wasn't sothing she was supposed to do.
"No, it's impossible!" Fen didn't believe her.
"Trust , it isn't… That frighteningly scary experience definitely was no imagination of mine!" She got goosebumps just rembering it.
"Sophia…?" Maya seed worried as she looked at her.
"I accidentally, uhh, launched myself into a tree with earth magic, don't ask." Sophia noticed the what-is-this-girl-even-doing? – kind of expression on her face. "Before the impact, I strongly wished for a tiout with all my might because I didn't want to crash into a massive tree. When I opened my eyes again, everything around had actually been frozen in ti, and not a single thing was moving anymore…"
"T-That does sound scary." She nodded in understanding.
"This wasn't even the terrifying part! I had no idea how to… un-stop ti again! I was panicking like crazy because I thought I would be trapped like that… No matter what I tried, nothing at all worked!"
"Scary!" The cat-girl had a similarly horrified expression.
"Yes! I was so unbelievably happy once I got it working again!"
"No… I've been experinting with ti for hundre-, erm, many years, and I was sure it's impossible!" Fen was in despair for a different reason. "Yet-, Yet, she did it on accident…? T-That can't be!"
"How old is this guy, really?" Sophia muttered to herself as she didn't miss his slip-up.
"Sophia, what exactly did you do?!"
"I don't know. I don't care. I'm never doing it again!" It had left a big scar on her.
"N-No way…" The wolf looked like the world was ending.
"Even if… I really, honestly, have not the slightest clue what I did exactly."
"…" Fen wasn't happy at all. "It can't be helped for now, but I'll get back to you for this!"
"Please don't."
"I get the distinct feeling that Sophia shouldn't be allowed to roam around on her own." Maya felt like it was a bad idea to leave her alone.
"Agreed!" The wolf shared her opinion.
"Hey! Wait! When I was with you, Maya, I still got attacked by a griphon and all!"
"That… is true, but you at least didn't break the world on accident when we were together."
"Uuh…" There was nothing she could say in her defense.
"Okay, with that being settled,"
"Ehh? It's settled already? Well, I actually don't mind not being alone… Okay, go on." On second thought, Sophia didn't hate the idea.
"What is our plan about leaving the city?"
"Hmm, that's a good question."
"Should I start preparing already?"
"I think that would be for the best. I actually want to leave sooner rather than later." Sophia seed like she was ready to continue her travels. "I also want to get away from bars for a while. Fen gets way too talkative when he's drunk, and it's too much work to keep him silent, not to ntion embarrassing if I don't!"
"Nonsense! Alcohol has no effect on !"
"It sure has!" Both girls answered at the sa ti, having witnessed it before.
"…" He didn't, no, couldn't answer anymore.
"Is tomorrow too early for you, Maya?"
"I guess that should work." She didn't seem to have much of a problem with it. "Ah, but you have to tell Chiyo and the group about it. Especially Chiyo."
"Okay?" Sophia didn't understand why she ntioned her twice. "Yeah, I should do that."
"Great. Alright, with that being said, I have to take care of so things as well. See you later then, Sophia, Fen." After that, the cat-girl left the place with a slight wave of her hand.
"Bye." She waved back. "Well, I'll go look for Chiyo and the gang. Better get over with it soon."
"Don't leave the city, or that girl will get angry with you for going on another unsupervised adventure."
"Haha, I get it." Leaving Fen behind, Sophia began to look around for the group. Luckily, it didn't take long to run into them.
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"Sophia?" Chiyo and her two companions were walking along the main road when they spotted each other. "What's up?"
"Ahh, hello there…" She didn't know how to start. "Hmm, I never said goodbye to anyone ever before… How does one… do… Ah." Sophia stopped talking. "I said that out loud, right? I sooo have to get rid of that habit of mine!"
"Y-You're leaving already…?" The cat-girl reacted to it with a sad expression.
"Yeah, I want to see more of the world, so… I also need to get stronger, aning I have to find so ways to train."
"Stronger?!" Rashk unconsciously scread out.
"Yes. Okay, not my raw power, but polish the way I use it."
"Ah, that makes a little more sense. Well, let thank you again for saving our lives during the golem attack. We'll forever be grateful to you for that. It definitely was… an experience knowing you, my common sense will take years to recover, but I'll miss these days." Rashk was the first one to say goodbye out of the group.
"What he said." Masi continued. "Really, thank you very much! You seriously made want to restart as a magician. Next ti we'll et, you're going to be the surprised one!"
"I'm looking forward to that!" She accepted his challenge.
"S-Sophia…?" Chiyo finally addressed her again.
"Yes?"
"Are you… free for a little while now?"
"Yeah, after that disaster earlier, I have nothing planned for the rest of the day."
"Disaster?"
"Forget it… So, what do you want to do, Chiyo?"
"Just walk around a bit… and chat."
"Sure, we can do that, no problem."
"Great… Rashk, Masi, see you later, okay?" She said goodbye to her companions before focusing on Sophia.
"Do your best!"
"Fight!" The two were encouraging her for so reason.
"Hmm?" Sophia tilted her head.
"L-Let's go!"
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Afterward, the two leisurely and side by side walked through the city for a while. As it seed like this would continue, Sophia addressed fidgeting and nervous-looking cat-girl eventually.
"I'm no expert at this whole talking thing, but... didn't you want to chat?"
"A-Ah! Yes…" She froze up for a mont. "Is-, Is Maya really coming with you?"
"Yeah, we talked about leaving earlier, and she's currently getting ready for tomorrow."
"I see… lucky her." Chiyo seed jealous. "Will she be a help to you?"
"Help?" If anything, Sophia had the feeling that she's going to have a lot more stress and ntal fatigue in the future. All of which will be her own fault, though. "Well, she is really strong, that's for sure, and she's a fast learner when it cos to magic. It will definitely be interesting with her around."
"Magic, huh? Yeah, I can't compete with that…"
"Hmm?"
"Do you… D-Do you like… Maya, Sophia…?" Chiyo decided to get to the point.
"W-W-What?!" For her, this ca completely out of the blue. She began to stutter while her face turned red due to the embarrassnt. "W-Where does this co… from?" She wasn't able to deal with that kind of topic yet.
"J-Just… interested…" Chiyo's expression turned dark after seeing her over-the-top reaction. "And…?"
"A-And…? No… I wouldn't say so… Y-Yes, I think she's… c-cute, extrely so, but… You are, too…" Though the levels of cuteness were on a different scale in her opinion, Sophia still told the truth. "A-Ah, uhh, so embarrassing!" She took so damage herself after realizing she blurted it out loud again.
"W-Wha-?! D-Do you really think so…?"
"Y-Yeah…"
"I see, ehehe~." Chiyo's face brightened up, and she smiled shyly. "I'm happy."
"…" She wasn't sure how to react.
"Sophia?"
"Y-Yes…?" She felt very tense for so reason.
"Will you… ever co back to this city?"
"Uh," She thought about it and decided to be honest. "I don't know. Probably, but if I do so, it won't be any ti soon… Sorry."
"I understand… I thought as much already." Chiyo's expression beca lonely again. "Can I make one… just one request with no question asked?
"A-As long as it's not too outrageous."
"I hope it's not…" The cat-girl got closer to Sophia and suddenly, but gingerly wrapped her arms around the other girl's waist. After pulling her closer in a tight hug, Chiyo rested her head on Sophia's shoulder, staying like that for a while.
"H-Huh?!" Panicking, the hugged girl couldn't comprehend what was going on. The drastic increase of hugs she received lately wasn't good for her heart, especially because the previous amount was zero.
"We said no questions, right?"
"Y-Yes…" Even so, tons of them were racing through her head as the cat-girl was silently embracing her. "D-Don't tell , was Fen actually right?! But we barely even know each other?" Mumbling to herself in shock, she rembered the conversation with the drunk wolf, where he implied that Chiyo might have so sort of feelings for her. "Nonono… no way!"
"Thank you…" The cat-girl finally parted from her again and thanked Sophia with a shy expression.
"S-Sure…" Her mind was sowhere else entirely.
"I won't say goodbye… Instead, I'll use see you. Is that okay?" It was a small but significant difference for her.
"Yeah, I like that."
"Great…" Chiyo took two or three steps and faced her again. "Well then, see you, Sophia!" Her smile seed slightly forced, but the cat-girl tried while she waved at her a last ti before being on her way.
"Yes, see you, Chiyo…" She awkwardly waved back before she finally disappeared into the distance. Sophia stared in the direction of her in silence for a while. "T-There's no way! No way that Fen was telling the truth, right? R-Right…?" She couldn't think of it as anything but a misunderstanding. "It makes no sense at all… We barely knew each other, and there was nothing that could've made her i-interested in , w-was there? In the first place… why would she… f-fall for ?" Her previous life still had a big influence on her self-esteem.
She was bewildered about the weird turn of events that her eting with Chiyo was, and Sophia stayed rooted in the sa place. Recovering for a while, it took so ti before she eventually made it back to the inn for her last night in the beastfolk city.
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