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Chapter 180
🕑 Added 2025-01-18 15:15:46 +0000 UTC--
Chapter 180
Chloe and Fen returned to their holiday retreat because the log cabin was ready. There, they realized they managed to create a night sky complete with northern lights and were quite pleased with their success. Sophia was also baffled by the view and once more pledged to pick up the pace with her own projects because she was falling behind in her domain.
“My dearest Aura, would you fancy to go on a walk with me?” While Chloe, Fen, and Sophia were doing their thing, Ari approached the female wolf.
“Only if you do not be so formal during our walk.” She wasn’t a fan.
“Ahaha.” The jaguar scratched her cheek. “Don’t worry, I’m only like that during events in the castle, but I felt a little playful.”
“Well, we love to be playful around here.” Aura let out a small chuckle. “I assume that our walk should happen in the rainforest we’re working on? Also, it’s less of a walk and more of a checkup to see how it’s looking there?”
“Let’s go!” She just energetically raised her arm.
“Hehe.” Still chuckling, the wolf followed the jaguar to the portal room from where the duo went to their rainforest to see how things had developed there.
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“Woah, it’s so hot here!” Arriving in the rainforest, the jaguar immediately started fanning her face with air. “It has gotten even hotter, too! I didn’t think that was even possible!” Her skin was immediately covered in liquid from the condensation around her. “I’ve taken baths where I got less wet!”
“Yes, we’re getting close to the temperature and humidity of a real rainforest.” Aura nodded a few times.
“That’s still not enough?!”
“Not quite.” She shook her head. “It’s a lot better since the last time we’ve been here, though. The smell of rotting plant matter has gotten stronger, too. The insects also seem hard at work.” The wolf got closer to a mountain of fallen leaves and noticed just how littered it was with ants. Every bush, plant, tree, and the entire ground, too, was filled with life.
“We need to make ABSOLUTELY sure Sophia never comes here!” Ari had a bad feeling while watching the countless flies, larvae, caterpillars, mile- and centipedes, beetles, spiders, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, and many other rather interesting critters around them.
“Yes, it would be the immediate end of this place.” Aura nodded.
“That being said, is it normal that there are that many insects, spiders, and all the other critters?” The jaguar looked around some more. “There’s literally no space without them.”
“The number of insects and the likes truly is overwhelming in the ground layer of rainforests, but this is indeed borderline too much.” Aura’s eyes darted all over the place. “We have some medium-sized predators like spiders, centipedes, and dragonflies, but it might not be enough to keep the insect population in check. We should ask Mira if we could get some friends for Blu. A rainforest also is home to a myriad of birds, which take care of the insects not becoming too much.”
“Ohh!” Ari lightly clapped her hands. “The ecosystem is currently a little one-sided, huh?”
“More than just a little, I would say.”
"Although, what if we get more birds, and they multiply like crazy because they have no predators to regulate them and eat off all the insects?” The jaguar was concerned that it would only shift things instead of solving them.
“Well, some spiders in here will probably get big enough to hunt birds.”
“Sophia definitely can never find out about this place!” She got even more worried.
“Ahaha, quite true.” Aura could still see the issue. “There are also a bunch of reptiles that eat insects and others that eat birds that flourish in rainforests, so we don’t have to bet everything on one species.”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous for Blu?!” The jaguar wasn’t sure about introducing animals that prey on birds. “What if it gets eaten by one of them?!”
“Blu?” The wolf tilted her head. “The blue parakeet with enough magic to destroy all of us with absolute ease? If anything, we’d need to tell it not to eat them.”
“Ah.” She scratched her cheek in response. “Okay, yes, that point goes to you.” Ari hadn’t thought about that.
“In the end, we’ll continue to run into overpopulation issues until we reach the apex predator tier, which likely would be your animal ancestors, but I think we can just work our way up there.” She took a quick glance at the jaguar-girl. “Although, many animals inside a rainforest live in the canopy layer, which currently isn’t the most hospitable place because of Sophia’s bright all-white domain.”
“They wouldn’t be able to sleep like that, huh?” Ari nodded. “It seems like we still have a lot ahead of us to make this rainforest perfect, don’t we?”
“Very much so!” The wolf thought so, too. “We should ask Mira if we can borrow some animals from her and go from there for the time being.”
“Sounds like a plan!” The jaguar smiled at her. “Although, I also still owe you a new pine forest, don’t I”
“After you burned my old one down?” She tilted her head.
“After we burned it down!” Ari lightly shook her head.
“Hehe.” Aura liked her reaction. “True, I wanted to make a new forest after discovering we can make actual terrain in the domain rather than just a flat plane."
“Let me help!” The jaguar got even more excited. “I take partial blame for the fire, after all. Also, you helped me so much with the rainforest, so it’s the very least I can do!”
“Sure~.” She naturally had nothing against it. “Didn't we already agree to do it together, anyway?”
“This group is way too forgetful, myself included, so you never know!”
“Fair enough.” The was little the wolf could say there. “Do you want to start right now?”
“Sure!” Ari nodded. “We can ask Mira about the animals once we’re done!”
Having decided on how to spend their afternoon, the duo relocated to a different place inside the domain to start planning on Aura’s pine forest 2.0.
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“Why does she look so concerned?” While most of the group was having fun with their biome shenanigans, Anna stayed behind in the cottage and joined Steph and Maya in the living room, where she looked at the cat-girl sitting on the sofa next to the dog with a rather complicated expression.
“Tomorrow’s a big day for her.” Steph smiled at the princess.
“Oh?” The tiger tilted her head. “Is something happening.”
“She’s going to meet my parents for the first time.”
“Hmm…?” Anna looked confused for a moment. “Ah, right, they’re also Sophia’s parents! The girlfriend’s going to meet the parents! Nice!”
“Urrgh…” Maya hung her head while letting out a groan.
“Are we nervous~?” The princess felt like teasing her a bit.
“S-Shush!” She didn’t appreciate that.
“If anything, I’m surprised that she hasn’t met them yet. She and Sophia have been dating for the longest here, after all.” Anna then looked at Steph. “Hasn’t Chloe met your parents quite a while ago already? I remember you saying that a little bit ago.”
“Yeah.” The dog-girl nodded. “I dragged Chloe to my old world and made her meet my parents two weeks after we started dating.
“THAT’S THE ISSUE!” Maya suddenly got loud. “When I met Sophia, I was convinced her family was dead because she made it sound like it! Later, when I found out what was really going on, it still was pretty much guaranteed that I would never be able to meet her family because they were in a different world. Fast forward half a year, we suddenly end up in her old world, meet her sister, and return with a pet dog!" She glanced at Steph during the last bit. “There was so much going on at once that the thought of me meeting Sophia’s parents, now that it was possible, never crossed our minds, and things just kept happening afterward that so much time has happened by now that it only got more awkward!"
“Ahh.” The princess scratched her cheek. “I can see why you’ve missed your chance there.”
“All I hear are cheap excuses!” Steph didn’t agree with her. “There’s literally not a single reason for you to be awkward about meeting them! Mom and Dad still aren't fully used to the new Sophia, so the only challenge you will have will be convincing them that you are actually real. You are an amazing girl, and I guarantee they’ll love you.”
“I don’t know them, but I definitely agree with the last part.” Anna also thought that the cat-girl was lovely.
“…” Maya got slightly embarrassed over the praise.
“Though, to be fair, we’re also going to introduce our parents to Maya’s, so it’s a little more special.”
“A lot!” The cat-girl disagreed with her wording. "Just them, or will Fey and Mira also be there?"
“For now, it’s just Maya’s parents.” Steph shook her head. “Sophia and I want our family to relocate to this world. Naturally, we aren’t going to force them, but we want to show them that this place is better. I obviously want them to meet Chloe’s mothers at some point, too, but Maya’s mom and dad are a little, uhh… easier to handle.” She awkwardly scratched her cheek. “They’re likely to overwhelm our parents the least.”
“True, Fey and Mira are quite the personalities.” The princess could follow her logic.
“Imagine being punished for having the most normal parents!” The cat-girl raised her voice again. “Then again, I could earn me point with the family, so I guess I can’t complain too much.”
“Yes, you also are quite the personality, so that’s definitely in your favor.” Anna gave her a slight smirk.
“I’ve deserved that.” She wasn’t even mad at her.
"We hope they get along so that Sophia and my parents have more of a reason to come and visit. Eventually, they might even want to stay here entirely if they come to like the world.”
“My parents are also the most logical choice when it comes to explaining the world.” Maya nodded along before looking at Anna. “Your parents are the king and queen of the country. Ari’s parents are the head maids of the royal castle, and Mira’s the overseer of magic, which is something akin to a goddess in regular terms.” She paused for a second. “It’s not exactly the most unbiased view of the world."
“I can see the issue.” The princess scratched her cheek again. "Wait, are you bringing your parents to the capital, then?" She looked at the dog-girl.
“For now, we’re planning to have everyone meet here.” Steph gestured all around here. "Sophia's domain is a more isolated place, and as long as we don't do a grand tour of our biomes, it's also much less stimulating than the buzz in the capital.”
“Good point.”
"That also means everyone is banned from the cottage tomorrow, though."
“Fair enough.”
Afterward, the girls kept chatting for a good while longer because Anna wanted to know more about the parents of the sisters and how they were planning to convince them about the plan, as well as some logistical issues like them being humans.
