Having slept in a bed a last ti for the foreseeable future, Sophia was more or less well-rested. At least as much as a non-morning person can be. Once the girl got ready in the morning, she went together with Fen to the entrance of the beastfolk city where they had spent the last days. There, their new companion, the snow-white-haired cat-girl Maya, was already waiting for the two.
"You're late!" She seed rather impatient. From the looks of it, she was very excited.
"You'll have to get used to that. Sophia isn't one to hurry in the morning…"
"Indeed!" The girl in question showed no motivation to ever change in that regard. "Good morning, Maya."
"Ah, yes, good morning."
"Have you finished your preparations?"
"Yes, I said goodbye to my friends and relatives. I'm all good to go!"
"Good. Okay, it was only a couple of days, but visiting my first city on this… continent was a great experience. We even ended up with an extra I hadn't anticipated."
"Hey!" The extra's expression had turned into a pout, and her slightly puffy tail pointed straight up.
"A loud extra." Fen, too, had to take a jab.
"Ahaha, well enough of that." Sophia changed the topic. "Shall we head out, then?"
"Yes." The other two agreed.
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The group took a last look at the city before leisurely walking away. Maya took a little longer because she was leaving her ho, but she got over it relatively fast. She was too excited for it to make her emotional. They kept a slow pace for a while and eventually found themselves in the middle of a forest when Sophia stopped and looked around.
"By the way, where are we going?"
"W-What?!" Maya reacted imdiately. "Y-You do realize that Fen and I were following you?!"
"Why would you do that?" She looked confused. "I've never been on this, err, continent before. I have no idea where anything is."
"Well, you were walking so full of confidence that I thought you had a plan."
"I don't care where we go in the first place." Fen wasn't any help, either.
"Okay! Ti for a strategy eting!" Sophia was in high spirits.
"I'm tired…" The cat-girl wasn't.
"While we're at it, can we talk about sothing else first?" Fen looked at Sophia. "What do you think? Can I?" He gestured at his still small-sized wolf body.
"Ahh, you want to transform back, huh?"
"Eh? Transform? What?" Maya felt like she missed sothing.
"Sure, go for it."
"Great!" Imdiately after getting the ok, Fen turned back to his original, over two-ter-tall body. "Haa, soo much better!" He did so stretches to get a feel for his body again.
"H-Huh?" The new girl was staring at him with a blank expression.
"Welco back, I guess?"
"What? W-What is going on here?"
"Weeell," Sophia scratched her cheek, thinking about a way to explain. "We thought his real size would, uhh, attract too much attention, and so he decided to turn himself smaller."
"N-No way! That size, form, and power… d-don't tell he's actually-"
"He is Fen." She cut her off. She had a feeling to know where the cat-girl's going and didn't like it. She was still in denial about Fen's alleged real identity.
"No, that's not what I an. Right, even the na Fen… So he really-"
"He. Is. Fen." Sophia was very insistent that he was just that and nothing more.
"B-But," Because she couldn't bear Sophia's piercing stare anymore, she eventually gave up and looked away. "I-If you say so…"
"Yes!"
"What's this about?" The wolf had only rembered this much of his na because it's been a while, so he wasn't sure what the two were talking about.
"Anyway!" The topic was over for Sophia. While she, too, had reached the realms of ridiculousness already, she still didn't want to admit traveling together with a mythical beast just yet. "Any ideas of where we should actually head to?"
"Uhh," Maya needed a mont to accept the situation before going on. "W-What exactly do you want to see on this continent, Sophia? People? Cities? Monster? Landscapes? Ruins? Dungeons? Islands?" She made a couple of suggestions.
"Yes."
"This is not a suitable answer." The cat-girl stared at her, not looking pleased.
"All of it! I want to see all of it!"
"That doesn't make it any easier." She thought of so options. "How about the beastfolk capital? It's really far away, so we can set it as our goal, and along the way, we can visit and look at various things."
"How far are we speaking?"
"I've never been there, but I heard it takes about three months on a carriage, at least."
"Fen, what do you think?"
"Hmm, with just the two of us, we could make it in two or three weeks, but with our newcor, I'm not sure yet. Ah, but we don't have to stick to roads or have to avoid monster spots, so we might not take that much ti regardless."
"No, I an, if you want to go? I planned on a leisurely approach anyway."
"The beastfolk capital, huh? I've been there before in the past, and I'm a bit curious how it developed since then." He seed nostalgic.
"Okay! It's decided then! Let's go to the capital!" Sophia started walking again but stopped after just a few steps and looked around. "So, uhh, which way?"
"Well, with Fenr-, Fen, we should avoid streets if we can, I guess? Let's see… If we keep going west, we'll eventually reach the Forsaken Maze Dungeon. From there, we turn-"
"Forsaken Maze?" Sophia's interest was piqued. "What's that?"
"It's exactly what the na implies. Nobody enters that place because it's a maze that no one ever managed to, or wanted to complete. After all, the place only has sowhat strong monsters and no rewards. Hence, people stopped bothering with it." Maya explained why this dungeon is nad the way it is.
"Sounds fun, let's clear it."
"Ehh, you want to enter that place?"
"Of course!"
"You… did listen to my explanation just now, right? Why would you ever want to go inside?"
"A maze that's never been cleared before; doesn't that sound exciting?"
"If you put it that way… M-Maybe a little bit?" Maya had to admit that it was sowhat intriguing, though not to the point she would suggest going there herself.
"Okay, the first stop's decided!" Sophia didn't care about the details and was simply excited about exploring sothing like a maze for the first ti in her life.
"Girl, you should watch what you tell Sophia if you don't want sothing like this to happen." Fen gave her the first of probably many tips on how to handle the other girl.
"Y-Yeah, I'll keep that in mind."
"Personally, I'm with Sophia, though. It's been a while since I last entered a dungeon. I'm looking forward to it a little."
"Ah, is that so? Well, I could train my magic on the monsters inside, I guess? Whatever, I'm in! Let's go!" Ultimately, the cat-girl had taken a liking to the idea as well.
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The group got moving, but as the dungeon was rather far away, they needed to camp sowhere along the way once evening approached. While getting ready for that, Fen had already organized so at while the girls were in charge of getting whatever they wanted as side dishes because the wolf wasn't interested in any of that.
"I'll get the fire ready, so feel free to prepare everything you want to cook."
"Thanks, Fen."
"Can you cook, Sophia?" Maya curiously looked at all the edible plants and vegetables they had gathered together.
"Nope, not at all." She answered bluntly. "Usually, I simply threw together everything Fen told is edible and hope for the best."
"Okay, step back right now!" She pushed her away from the ingredients. "I'll take care of the cooking from now on!"
"You will?"
"Yeah, I'm fairly confident about my skills."
"Really?! Yay! That's aweso! Thank you very much for that!"
"S-Sure…" Maya had never seen her this happy before. "You really like food, huh?"
"I like to eat good food."
"Is that so? Well, looks like I have to do my best then."
"Great! Ah, do you mind if I leave you alone with that for a bit? I'll go and prepare the bath in the anwhile." Sophia wanted to make the best out of her free ti.
"Not at all, go ahead and prepare... Wait, the what now?!"
"A bath." She repeated herself. "Ah, do you prefer to shower? No problem, I could probably do that as well."
"This… isn't the problem I'm having here!" Maya massaged the bridge of her nose while saying so. "We're in the middle of nowhere, and you're talking about a bath? What are you going to do?"
"A little bit of earth magic, followed by so fire, and topped off with water magic."
"Err, okay…? Whatever, I'll just get tired if I keep getting surprised."
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That being said, Sophia left the camp and searched for a suitable place for the bath and soon found a secluded area protected by bushes and trees where she began working.
"Hmm, should I make it bigger now? We're two now, after all. A-Ah, where did that thought co from?! T-There's no way we're taking one together! Why would we even?! Even if she wanted to, I would die! Like actually dying from sheer embarrassnt! Anyway, not going to happen! Were my d-delusions boosted as well or what?!" With a flushed face, Sophia slapped her cheeks and resud her work. She created an even smaller than usual tub, got it ready for hot water, and made so earthen walls for extra privacy. "Haa, might as well go in now, huh? T-To wash away any impure thoughts or sothing like that… Yeah, let's do that!" Her mind was all over the place and not working properly.
About 20 minutes passed after that before Sophia arrived at the campsite again.
"Ah, welco back." The cat-girl spotted her and left a greeting.
"Yeah, the bath's finished."
"You actually built one… hmm?" She took a better look at Sophia and noticed that her hair was still slightly wet. "Did you already take one, as well?"
"I thought I might as well go while I was at it."
"Ah, yes, that makes sense… So, we aren't going in together then, are we?"
"W-Wha-?!" The girl hadn't seen this one coming, especially after her earlier turmoil. "G-Going together? No, why? D-Do-, Do you want to or… what…?"
"Ahaha, I'm fine either way." Maya laughed, but her tail was showing so sort of more nervous reaction, twitching slightly and impatiently swishing around. "It really is entertaining watching your reactions being all over the place."
"Y-You!" Unfortunately, Sophia hadn't noticed the cat-girl's suspicious tail movent, which indicated that she might be better at dishing out than receiving, and had no coback ready. "A-Anyway, what about you? Also going to take a bath?"
"After dinner, I guess? Cooking over the campfire makes one all slly."
"Ah, I forgot about that."
"Wanna take another one together, after all?"
"So… what's for dinner?" Sophia changed the topic.
"Quite a lot, actually."
The two joined Fen around the fire and got their food ready. Alongside the at, Maya had prepared a salad-like-looking thing, various veggies, and even sothing resembling a sort of stir-fry.
"Wow, I'm soooo glad you ca along now, Maya!"
"Sohow… I can't feel happy about it when you say it like that!"
They continued to bicker during their al until they finished eating. Afterward, Sophia guided the cat-girl to the bath and replaced the old and cold water with fresh, hot one before leaving her on her own.
"Have fun."
"It's an actual bath in the middle of nowhere…" Her common sense had taken yet another significant hit while she was getting ready.
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