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Chapter 113
🕑 Added 2024-06-13 16:32:55 +0000 UTC--
Chapter 113
Ari went to visit Aura in her pine forest and was immediately swept away in the pace of the wolf. In the end, the jaguar agreed to help her burn down the entire forest because Aura wanted to remodel it by adding more varying terrain to it as she disliked how flat it was.
“Well, magic sure is good fuel, huh?” After Ari and Aura evacuated to the portal hub to flee from the raging fire, the wolf wasn’t sure what else to say.
“You think so?” The jaguar rolled her eyes while looking at her. “It’s a good thing the fire couldn’t cross through the portal.”
“That’s true!” The wolf nodded. “Not that I know why. Well, Sophia made those things, so it probably has some weird extra features we don’t know about.”
“Like nothing dangerous can cross them?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Fair enough.” Ari could see it being the case, too. “What are we going to do now, though? That fire is probably going to burn for a week or two.”
“You might be right about that. Though, I’d say that we could take a peek at the core, where we started the fire, as soon as tomorrow. Everything that could burn, should’ve burned by then around there.”
“The smoke and ash might still be an issue, though." The jaguar had doubts about safety.
"Nothing a bit of air magic in the form of a massive breeze couldn’t solve.”
“That could indeed work.” She was okay with that solution.
“Is there anything you want to do?” Aura then looked at the jaguar.
“As in?” She tilted her head in return. "A biome?”
“Yes.” The wolf nodded. “You made the jungle around the cottage together with Maya, or rather, you two messed around with it, but are you planning anything else?”
“Mhmm.” Ari scratched her cheek. "I like the jungle a lot, and it already has some characteristics of it, but I'd love an actual full-fledged rainforest. Super dense and with a canopy towering above that blocks all light. The ground level should be super dark, foggy, and moist! Frequent rain, rivers, and lakes!”
“Someone’s beast bits are tickled, huh?”
“My inner jaguar would be very happy to have a place like this.” She just nodded.
"Should we make one?” Aura liked the idea. “It’s not a place I usually yearn for, but it sounds fun!”
“Eh, are you sure?”
“Of course!” She nodded. “We could go on the outskirts of the jungle and get started from there unless you'd prefer to start out fresh in a different place."
“I think it would look even better if it slowly blends into it starting from the jungle!” Ari was warming up to the idea.
“Alright, let’s go!”
“Okay!”
Having decided on their spontaneous new plan, the duo returned to the cottage and used a portal from there that handily led them to the edge of the jungle Maya and the jaguar had grown back when they first started using the domain as their base to mess with Sophia.
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“Oho, I think this would be a nice area to start.” The two arrived on the edge of the jungle, where Aura took a look at their surroundings.
“Yes.” Ari nodded while glancing at the flora around them. The overgrowth and density of the regular jungle had disappeared, and only some larger kapok and a few types of Shorea trees remained together with various kinds of palms and general shrubbery. “Should we ask Sophia for permission first, though?”
“I don't remember you asking her when doing the first add-on to the jungle.”
“Because I was upset back then!”
“I don't see why we should ask her.” Aura tilted her head. “After all, she wants all of us to build as much as possible in her domain. Also, it’s a tropical rainforest. It’s a warm place. Not cold. In conclusion, she’ll love it.”
"A fair conclusion.” The jaguar saw no flaw in her argumentation. “Okay, then let’s give this a try!”
“Let’s go!” The wolf was highly motivated. “You said you want to focus on the rain part of the forest, right? Wet, damp, mossy, rivers, lakes, and of course, near constant rain.”
“YES!” She reacted with a big nod while her tail excitedly swished around in anticipation.
“My, someone’s looking forward to it.” Her voice turned cheeky for a second. "Though, have you ever been to a rainforest to know what they look like?"
“Unfortunately, I haven’t.” Ari hung her head. “I’ve only read about it and saw paintings depicting it. Somehow, it feels like my jaguar bits instinctively know how it looks, though.”
“I mean, technically, you are correct.” The wolf looked right at her. “It’s a lot messier than you think it is, though. Especially the ground layer. It’s nothing but massive roots, dead and rotten plant material, all sorts of goop, and various types of mushrooms. It smells pretty foul, too.”
“It seems like you have some actual experience?” Ari was wondering where her details came from. “Have you been there before?”
"I've lived in a rainforest for a while." She nodded in return.
“That’s awesome!”
“It was definitely interesting.” Aura kept nodding. “Though, most of the life happens in the understory and canopy levels above the forest floor. Only bigger animals that can’t climb trees live on the ground level. And insects. Billions of insects.” A certain blonde tiger, currently being busy with Fey, suddenly shuddered for some reason.
"Ohh!" The jaguar didn't seem to have an issue with that, either. "Insects are fine, and being on trees is fun!"
“Well, I guess you really are made to be in a jungle.”
“Yes!” Ari thought so, too. “I bet Sophia and Anna would love it, too! Some tigers live in jungles, too, right?"
“Anna seems like a girl that would love it there just as much as you do. With Sophia, I have my doubts, though.” Aura knew about her fear of insects, after all.
“Eh, but Sophia is the most tiger-like tiger I know?"
“She’s also terrified about bugs, soo…” She rolled her eyes. “I guess it will be fine as long as it’s artificially created, but if our future rain forest ever gets filled with actual life, I have a bad feeling about it, now that I think about it. Probably rather similar with the jungle around the cottage.”
“Ah.” Ari froze for a second. “Well, not my issue.” Having a rainforest was more important to the jaguar right now.
“That’s the spirit!” Aura liked her reaction.
“How do you design a biome, though?” The jaguar got a little confused when she actually began thinking about their project. For the jungle, Maya and I just dumped our magic into the area, and whatever happened, happened." She scratched her cheek. “Fen’s place was mostly done, as well, when I started helping out there. The river and lake were something he dug out before we filled it with water using magic.”
“That’s a good question.” The wolf didn’t seem to know, either.
“Eh?!” Ari got loud. “You have no idea even though we already burned down your forest?! Shouldn't you have thought about that beforehand?”
“Nah.” She shook her head. “It’s more fun this way.”
“It is?!”
“Yep.”
“I have much to learn.” The usually serious jaguar had difficulties imagining that way of living.
“You sure do.” Naturally, the wolf would happily further corrupt Ari. “From what I’ve seen so far, magic is quite flexible when it comes to us building the biomes here. If we simply imagine our wishes strongly enough, it usually turns out the way we wanted it to.”
"True, magic is pretty lenient, all things considered." The jaguar came to the same conclusion. "Details would probably help to shape the rainforest, though? Like, if we release more magic in certain areas and less in others, instead of evenly spreading it out, I’d guess that those areas would develop differently.”
“Ohh!” Aura nodded. “It might be possible to control the density of the forest that way.”
“The question is if it’s possible to control the free magic to that level? Like, if we release only half of the magic in a certain area to have a less dense area, can we tell magic to stay like that and not equalize with the surrounding magic?”
“Only one way to find out!” The wolf didn’t share her worries.
“I guess so.” She couldn’t argue with that.
“We do have an actual problem, though.”
“Yes?” Ari tilted her head. “What is it?”
"We used up all of our magic earlier when we set fire to my forest. We don't really have any juice left to get started on the rainforest."
“Ah.” She had forgotten about that, as well. “I guess we have to re-schedule, huh?”
“I still have a bit of power left, but…” Aura paused for a moment. “We could start by outlining the overall design? You mentioned wanting a lot of rivers and lakes, right?”
“Yes!” The jaguar reacted with another big nod. “I’d like it to be super tropical and wet!”
“How about we use this massive field over there to lightly draw, with that, I mean dig, some shallow riverbeds with our remaining magic?” She gestured at the never-ending green field the jungle moved into. “That way, we may be able to design the main area and let magic take care of the rest.”
“That’s a great idea!” Ari excitedly clapped her hands. “Though, you have to remember that I’m quite slow, so this might take a while.”
“I have a plan for that!” Saying so, Aura decided to return to her regular, over two-meter-high version in front of the jaguar. "Hop on!"
“You’re the best!”
“I know~.” Her voice was full of smug.
Afterward, Ari climbed on Aura's back, and the two spent the rest of the day planning out the rough shape of the rainforest they wanted to grow.
Comments
Bast
Thanks for the chapter!
