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Chapter 143
🕑 Added 2024-09-15 18:11:11 +0000 UTC--
Chapter 143
Mira and Fey were having a relaxing day in the overseer’s domain and spent their time strolling through a beautiful cherry blossom forest the teal fox had created for them. While doing so, they talked about all kinds of things, including a plan to build a new place to stay in Mira’s domain and how they’d like to do that together with Chloe as a family activity. As a matter of course, the couple also flirted a whole lot with each other.
“Woah, it’s so stuffy in here!” After having traveled a whole lot in the regular world, the group decided to take a day off, so Ari and Aura went to take a look at their rainforest project. Arriving there, the jaguar was overwhelmed by the hot and humid air.
“We’re about halfway there~.” Aura sniffed the air. “It’s still way off to the humidity of a real rainforest.”
“Seriously?!” She raised her voice. “Even though I’m all sweaty and wet after just a few minutes of being here?”
“Yes.” The wolf nodded. “In a real one, it feels like someone dumped a bucket of water into your face the moment you enter it and continuously gets more intense the deeper you go in.”
“Ohh, I see!”
“I’m not sure if we can get to that level with magic alone.” Aura looked around while saying so. They were surrounded by kapok trees with massive roots spreading all over the ground, as well as some smaller and more regular jungle-like trees. On top of that, ferns of various sizes had spread everywhere, and the ground was covered in a layer of moss. Visibility was incredibly low, as well. It was extremely dark, and the few dozens of meters they could see were blurred by an intense layer of fog all around them. It was clean, though. There were no dead plants or trees, animals or insects, and other than the moss, the ground had no signs of rotting flora.
“Why not?” Ari tilted her head.
“Animals, insects, bacteria, mushrooms, and much more.” She paused for a moment. “I mentioned it before, but real rainforests are not sterile. They are the exact opposite, in fact. Rot and decay are major and integral parts of it, and the processes related to them also raise the humidity a lot. Not to mention that it makes things even stuffier because of the smell.”
“I think I could do without said smell, but that’s not really an option if I want the full experience of a real rainforest, huh?” The jaguar didn’t seem to be a fan of rotting smells.
“That is indeed the case.” The wolf had bad news for her in that regard. “At the moment, I’m not sure what we can do there, though. We simply don’t have any animals that could live here.”
“True.”
"Insects seem to be doable, though. When I explored the jungle around the cottage in a little more detail, I already saw a bunch of them. Mostly smaller ones like ants, caterpillars, and centipedes. On top of that, many different spiders, as well. It will take quite a while before there’s a big enough concentration of those in our rainforest part.”
“Wait, where did those come from in the first place?” Ari looked confused. “Knowing Sophia and her fear of critters, I highly doubt it’s her doing.”
“My bet is on Mira.” The wolf took a wild guess. “The original patch of jungle the whole area is based on came from her, right? I’m convinced that our dear overseer gave her a whole ecosystem rather than just the flora part.”
“Ohh, that makes a lot of sense!” The jaguar nodded in understanding. “We better get some of them into our rainforest as soon as possible. There's a chance that, once she notices that the jungle is full of life, our Sophia will burn it all down.”
"A chance?” Aura tilted her head.
“I’m an optimist!”
“Since when?”
“Shush!” Ari didn’t appreciate the teasing.
“Ehehe~.”
“How will we be able to get the critters in here, though? I would imagine that carrying isn’t the most viable option.”
“That is true.” The wolf agreed. “Insects and spiders aren’t exactly the most cooperative. If we find one, we might be able to relocate an ant’s nest, though. Not manually, of course, but we could use magic to cocoon it into the earth so the ants can't get to us, and then just place it somewhere here into our rainforest."
“That sounds like a plan." The jaguar liked the idea. "Or, at least, a good start! Maybe luring them could also work? Insects love easy food, right?”
“Who doesn’t?” Aura wasn’t sure if that was a defining trait for insects only.
“Fair point.” She scratched her cheek in return. “Anyway, that doesn’t matter now, does it? I mean, if we leave behind some tracks of food that lead out of the jungle and into our rainforest, insects will surely follow it. If we then put a bigger stash of it somewhere deep inside, they would probably stay and multiply a lot, wouldn’t they?”
“That’s also a great idea.” The wolf nodded. “I would suggest trying to find an ant colony first, though. This will get us a lot of activity with minimal effort. Ants are quite efficient, after all. Also, lots of insects and other small animals prey on them. They might follow after the nest.”
“Sure!” Ari had nothing against it. "You don't, by any chance, have already found a colony, do you?"
“That would be quite helpful, wouldn’t it?”
“Very much so.”
“Well, how hard can it be to find it?” Aura was highly motivated.
And so the two spent the rest of their day roaming through the jungle around the cottage to find an ant colony they could borrow for their project.
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“Fenfen!” Chloe and the male wolf went to their holiday retreat, where the fox got quite excited. “Let’s create a starry night sky here in our valley!"
“It’s definitely worth a try!” He was up to the task. “Have you asked the tigers how they did it?”
“Ah.” Her expression turned awkward. “I knew I forgot something!”
“I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“Ahaha.” Chloe scratched her cheek. "I wonder what the best way to--; Oh, hey, Blu!" She then noticed a particular blue bird joining the two. It then landed on her shoulder and lightly rubbed its head against her cheek.
“Basically, you have no idea, right?” Fen rolled his eyes.
“Pretty much.” She nodded.
“Hmm, do you think it would really be as easy as just making magic literally color the area above us like they said?” Fen looked up. “Knowing Sophia, I’m always certain she’d do something cheap like that to get around it, but still...”
“Blu, what do you think?” Chloe glanced at the bird on her shoulder, but it only tilted its head in confusion. “Ah, right, you don’t know what’s going on, huh? Sophia and Anna said that they colored the sky above their biome with magic, and we're trying to find out exactly how they did it and whether or not there's a secret to it." In response to that, the bird looked up and stared at the all-white ceiling for a while before eventually flapping its wing a couple of times.
“We really need a translator for that bird.” Fen stared at the energetic parakeet for a little while. “It may look goofy, but it definitely knows more,- Hey!” Before he was able to finish his sentence, the wolf was hit by a strong gust of wind, originating from the parakeet, that almost blew him away.
“Don’t call Blu goofy!” The fox-girl lightly glared at him while gently patting the bird’s head at the same time.
"It wasn't meant as an insult.” He tried to defend himself. “I harbor no ill will against it.”
“Good!” Hearing that, Chloe’s expression turned soft again. After all, she also was a big fan of the lively parakeet. “Hmm, but even if we can simply paint the area above us, how could we make sparkly stars? They are essential. We need some lights, after all.”
“Personally, I’d enjoy some northern aurora lights in the sky.” Fen had a different idea. “I mean, some stars would still add value, but those northern lights were about the only thing I liked when being up north in colder climates.”
“OHHHH!” Chloe got very excited in an instant. “We NEED to have northern lights!”
“It seems like I said too much.” Fen regretted making her this excited.
“Blu, what do you think?!” She gently grabbed the bird from her shoulder and placed it on her palm to look at it with sparkling eyes. “You have more magic than all of his combined, so I’m sure you know! Just a nod, and I'm happy!"
Listening to her, Blu kept staring at the fox-girl for a little while before eventually tilting its head while chirping a couple of times. Then, the parakeet turned around on her hand, looked up, flapped its wings once, and took flight. Soon after, it disappeared from sight.
“You glared at me earlier for making the bird upset, and yet you are the one who made it leave.” Fen stared at her.
“Ah.” She had nothing to say in her defense. “I guess I wanted a little too much and scared Blu away, huh?”
“You sure got overenthusiastic.” He nodded. “Anyway, I think adding stars might actually be rather easy. If we paint everything above us black, we could leave behind tiny holes where Sophia’s domain shines through. That way, we’d get small bright spots everywhere that could look like stars.”
"That could work!" Chloe had already recovered from scaring away Blu. “Yeah, I guess it’s best to focus on the sky itself for the time being. That’s the most important part, after all.”
“I mean, seeing how fickle magic is, especially in Sophia’s domain, we could try thinking about the northern light while creating the sky. It might take our desire into consideration.”
“That’s so cute, Fenfen!”
“…”
After agreeing on that, more or less, the duo started to focus on their project and relocated all the magic particles to the ceiling above them while thinking about how they wanted it to look in the hope it would help.
Comments
Martynas Samsonas
Why do I get a feeling blue went away to ask permission from Mira :D
Bast
Thanks for the chapter!
