Steph and Chloe decided to stay at home while the rest of the group was exploring the desert. Instead of relaxing, the couple was quite active, though. In fact, they got so enamored with each other that the two didn’t even manage to leave the living room before spending some quality time together while they were home alone.

  “Does anyone know where we are?” While Chloe and Steph were busy with each other, the others were still on their exploration expedition when Maya tilted her head while looking at Sophia.

  “In the desert!” The blonde smiled at her.

  “In a sandstorm, to be more exact," Anna added some extra detail.

  “I hate tigers.” She hung her head in return.

  “Understandable.” Ari couldn’t blame her.

  “Why?!” The striped girls in question didn’t appreciate that.

  "It's obvious that we're in a desert. Inside a sandstorm, to be more specific." The cat-girl gestured all around them while glaring at the duo. The group was still inside the protective bubble the blonde had created with magic while the storm was still heavily going on, increasing visibility from zero to nearly zero because of all the sand and dust in the air.

  “Then why are you asking?” The two feigned ignorance.

  “I want to know where we are in relation to things!” Maya raised her voice a little.

  “Ohh!” The tigers nodded a couple of times.

  “Haa…” She sounded a little tired.

  “Fennyfenny is a couple of hundred meters that way.” Sophia pointed slightly to her left.

  “That’s all I wanted to hear.” The cat-girl’s expression relaxed again.

  “I’m still curious about what he’s doing in the storm all this time.” Anna scratched her cheek. “There isn’t that much to see, is there? Quite literally speaking.”

  “Let’s find out~.” Saying so, the blonde showed her a smug grin. Immediately after, pink and purple artifacts appeared all around them, and they looked just like Sophia's portal. It soon covered their entire vision, and it lasted for around a minute before disappearing again. In fact, a lot disappeared. The storm was gone, and so was lots of the sand around them. The group stood on a small, elevated area while everything around them in a 500-meter radius had formed into a roughly ten- to 15-meter-deep crater. “I wonder if I broke any laws of physics by transporting a storm into my domain. Then again, in a world of magic, those rules are optional anyway, aren’t they?” She simply scratched her cheek while not giving it too much thought. "Look, there he is!" Sophia then pointed at another slight elevation 200 meters in front of them.

  ----------------

  “Oi!” Fen came over to the group and stared at the blonde. "What was that for?! I was having fun with the storm!"

  “How?!” Ari raised her voice. “Our cozy forest is fun, but this?! I’m so glad that Sophia made it disappear.” The jaguar couldn’t agree with him.

  “My interests are many and diverse~.” The male wolf sounded a little cheeky.

  "Well, I'm happy you fell for me, then~." There was even more sass in Aura's voice.

  “Hmm?” He seemed confused for a second. “I was talking about my hobbies, you idiot!”

  “Hehe.”

  “What did you do in the storm?” Anna still wanted to know what he had been up to.

  “I accidentally tunneled my way through the sand right into it and wanted to test something once I noticed where I was. After all, I hadn't seen a proper sandstorm in quite a while.”

  “Oh?” Sophia got interested in his wording. “Please tell me more about that testing of yours.”

  “Please do not tell her.” The jaguar had a bad feeling about it.

  “I tried to control it!” Naturally, Fen was on Sophia’s side and ignored Ari’s plea. “I poured out my magic to see if I can influence the storm with it.”

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  “That explains why the sandstorm grew so massive after it was relatively small when I first noticed it.” The female wolf nodded a few times.

  “It worked?!” Fen sounded excited. “I didn’t see much when I was inside, so I wasn’t sure if anything even changed!”

  “It sure worked!” Ari glared at him. “It was MASSIVE.”

  “Awesome!” The male wolf only got happier. “Unfortunately, I got interrupted from trying more because someone decided to borrow the storm.” He stared at Sophia while saying so.

  “Hehe.” The blonde stuck out her tongue. “Maya wanted to see where we are, Ari wanted to be out of the storm, and Anna wanted to know what you were doing. This was just the quickest way~.”

  “You just wanted to see if you could and get it into your domain!” Fen didn’t believe her.

  “That’s merely a positive side-effect from solving a problem in the most efficient way.”

  “You don’t do that!” That was even less believable to him.

  “What?!” The blonde started pouting. “My ability to solve problems or being efficient?!”

  “Yes!” Fen got louder.

  “Such slander!”

  “I love it when they’re having fun like that~.” Aura just watched them with warm eyes.

  “It’s pretty cute, yes.” Maya, Ari, and Anna nodded along.

  “Anyway, I demand reparation for ruining my fun!” Fen returned to staring at the blonde.

  “Do you want me to make another sandstorm?” She tilted her head in return.

  “That would be a great start!” He liked the idea.

  “Hmm.” The blonde thought about it for a moment. “I kinda don’t want to do it here because I messed with the area enough already. Although, the desert bit I borrowed is not enough for a nice storm. Does it have to be sand?”

  "Not necessarily." He shook his head. "Just a regular storm, as in just wind, would be no fun, though." He was a little picky with his fun.

  “What about, let’s see…” She paused to think for a second. “How do you feel about a fire-based storm over a plain made of ash pilled meter-high on top of each other? A flaming ash tornado would also be on the menu.”

  “I’m listening.” His interest was piqued.

  “Oh, right, I haven’t been there since we started working on Ari’s jungle.” Aura already knew what she meant.

  “That’s right.” The blonde smiled at her. “I’m talking about the never-ending forest fire Ari created in my domain. There are literal mountains of ash around that could be quite interesting to see how it would react in a storm.”

  “That Ari helped to create!” It was a critical distinction for the jaguar.

  "There's no use complaining. I'm never going to let it go." Sophia just smiled at her.

  “…” She looked a little upset for a moment before relaxing again. “I mean, I tease you just as much, if not more, so it's hard to insist here…”

  “Yup~.” The blonde was glad she understood and then looked at Aura. “You wouldn’t mind Fen playing around with it, would you?”

  “Under one condition!” She stared right at her wolf. “Only if we play together!”

  “It would be my pleasure~.” He gladly accepted her demand.

  “By the way, after the borrowed desert bit got mentioned, are there any plans for creating that into a biome already?” Maya wanted to know more about it.

  “I’m open to suggestions~.” Sophia smiled at her.

  “Could I give it a try in turning it into a bigger biome?” The cat-girl tilted her head. “I didn’t overly enjoy the sandstorm, but the desert itself is amazing!

  “Absolutely!” The blonde happily clapped her hands. “I can’t wait to see how it turns out with your lead! It will also be your first very own biome, so I’m looking forward to it all the more!”

  “Please don't expect too much, I just want to play around.”

  “That’s the first and most important role when starting a new biome in my domain!” It was precisely how the blonde wanted it to be.

  “Alright, I’ll try my best~.” The cat-girl’s motivation rose.

  “Yay!”

  “Oh, speaking of playing around.” Fen suddenly hijacked the conversation. “I know I’m not one to talk because I explored the desert in my own way, but was there a reason you all kept walking in circles or a zig-zag pattern at best? I was really confused whenever I used my detection magic to orient myself. I thought we were heading to the city inside the desert? I’ve not once detected you heading in its direction, though.”

  “Ah.” Aura, Anna, and Sophia got a little awkward and looked away while the tigers also scratched their cheeks.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?!” Ari and Maya, the ones responsible for that, got loud instead.

  “If I didn’t know better, as Sophia wasn't leading, it looked like you all got terribly lost, as if Sophia was leading you.”

  “Oi!” The blonde didn’t like that. “I know where the city is, thanks to my detection magic, so there’s no way I would’ve done as bad of a job as our tour guides!” She pointed at Maya and Ari while glaring at Fen.

  “That’s why I was sure you weren’t leading.” He just nodded. “It just looked like you were because there was no sense of direction even hinted at while you lot were traveling.”

  “Fair enough.” There was little she could say there.

  “What are you two even talking about?!”

  “Exactly!” Maya and Ari didn’t like their conversation.

  “We were perfectly using the sun as a guide!” The cat-girl stared at Fen.

  “What she said!” The jaguar nodded along.

  “Which sun were you using to determine the right direction…?” He tilted his head in return.

  “The yellow one!” They pointed at the sun in the sky above them.

  “Weird.” Fen had nothing else to say.

  “Actually, he has a point.” Aura awkwardly looked at the duo. “You two have been getting us lost since the very beginning. In fact, we've been the closest to the city right after having taken the detour to get to Fen inside the storm."

  “N-No way!” Maya couldn’t believe it.

  “Why didn’t anyone say something?!” Neither could Ari.

  “Because it was funny seeing you two being so confidently wrong.” Aura and the tigers had an easy explanation for it.

  “…”

  Afterward, the group took a short break from exploring the desert because Ari and Maya needed a little while to heal their broken egos.

  - Mitch Reitz -

  - abbabababa -

  - Terima -

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