Chloe and Steph were having quite a busy day at home while the rest of the group was exploring the desert. Using the rare chance of being alone, the couple not only had fun in the living room, but they also decided to inaugurate every single room in the cottage in their own horny way. Naturally, this was quite exhausting, so the two ended up being sore and tired at the end of the day.

  “Ohh!” At the same time as Chloe and Steph were exercising at home, Maya got excited about their new findings in the desert as she energetically pointed at a couple of palm trees growing in the middle of a large green patch in the desert. “It’s definitely getting greener!”

  “Yes!” Ari nodded. “That means we’re getting closer to the center of the oasis! The city can’t be far, either!”

  “You’d think so, wouldn’t you~?” Sophia smiled at them.

  “Stop it!” The two had enough of her teasing.

  “Fine.” She gave up.

  “To be fair, you two have gotten us a little off-track.” Aura addressed their tour guides.

  “Huh?!” The two’s eyes grew wide. “No way!”

  “Yes way.” Fen joined the conversation and gestured a bit to the right of the direction they were walking in. “It’s that way.”

  “…” Maya and Ari froze.

  “Seriously, how can one be so bad with directions?” Sophia had reconsidered giving up on the teasing. “Too much?” She then awkwardly scratched her cheek as she noticed how everyone was looking at her while slowly shaking their heads.

  "The desert is a way bigger opponent than I had thought." The jaguar hung her head.

  “Yes, I also underestimated it greatly.” Maya nodded along.

  “Well, at the beginning, you messed up a lot, but having gotten a little lost closer to the oasis is reasonable.” Aura tried to cheer them up. “I mean, being able to read directions isn’t going to help you that much if you don’t know the exact position of the city you’re trying to find. Like, you’re going to miss it if you’re just a few degrees off while traveling.”

  “That is true.” Fen agreed with her. “You really were all over the place in the beginning, though.” He just had to take another jab at them, too.

  “Thank you, Aura.” The two ignored the male wolf and smiled at her.

  “By the way,” While the two were busy with the wolves, Sophia looked at her fellow tiger. “I wanna know more about the city!”

  “Hmm,” Anna scratched her cheek in return. “I’m not sure what else I can add here. As you may have noticed, it’s a little secluded.” She just pointed all around her. “I don’t know much about it other than the part where it exists. Father just mentioned a couple of times just how easy it is to work with them. Like, the castle gets a letter once a year that they’re doing fine, and that's pretty much it.”

  “How mysterious!” The blonde’s excitement rose a little.

  “The king maybe forgot about it, too, though.” Maya joined the conversation. “Iridai isn’t on the list of places he wanted us to visit.”

  “Iridai?” Sophia tilted her head.

  “Ha…” Everyone had the same reaction.

  “Judging by that reply, it’s probably the name of the city, huh?” She took a random guess.

  “Yes.” They nodded.

  “I don’t think Menzor would forget about one of the kingdom’s more notable cities, though.” Ari didn’t think that this was the reason for it not being on the list. “I mean, it’s not like every bigger city of the kingdom is on the list in the first place, right? I’m sure they chose the places in a strategic manner to space out the portals as best and efficient as possible.”

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  “That makes a lot of sense.” The cat-girl nodded. "A city in the middle of the desert is not the most accessible place and a lesser place of interest. In a way, a portal would be the most interesting for them to get easier access to stuff, but they seem to be doing fine, so they might not even be interested.”

  “It’s either that or even father thought there’s just no way we’d end up here, so he simply didn’t bother adding it.” The princess had another possible explanation ready.

  “Ah.” The girls found that to be the much more likely case in the end.

  “I guess we should ask Menzor first before meeting the mayor of the city?” The blonde tilted her head. “In case there’s another reason besides just not believing in how random we are, that is.”

  “True.” Anna nodded.

  “I like it when our tigers are mature and responsible.” Hearing their cautious approach, Ari turned to smile at Maya.

  “Same.” The cat-girl nodded. “It also confuses me greatly, though.”

  “True!” She thought so, too.

  “If I wouldn’t feel the same about them being immature and irresponsible at times, I’d be offended now.” Sophia looked at her fellow tiger.

  “Yes.” The princess came to the same conclusion.

  ----------------

  A little while later, the group continued their journey, and after around 20 minutes, they finally arrived at their destination, the oasis city of Iridai in the middle of the desert.

  “Woah!” Everyone except the wolves had the same reaction when first seeing the city. Just before finding the city, they had to ascend a last dune, which came with the added benefit of them getting a good view of everything in the area.

  The desert had become a lot greener, with patches of grass and palm trees and cacti growing all over the place. The most notable thing was the city in front of them, though. All things considered, it was more of a bigger village with around 200 buildings at best, but being surrounded by nothing but sand as far as the eye could see and then some didn't make it any less impressive. The houses were made from a mix of sandstone bricks and terracotta. They also looked relatively small and cozy, with only a few buildings being on the larger side here and there.

  What really stole the show was the roughly 150-by-200-meter big lake in the very center of the city and the dense vegetation of mostly grass and palm trees around it. More palms and cacti were scattered everywhere between the buildings, too.

  “I wonder what type of beastfolk lives here!” While saying so, Sophia squinted her eyes to try and identify what was going on in the streets of the city. “Oh, I spot some cats! Their ears are a bit wider, and their tails are slightly more bushy! There are some with super long ears with long tuff at the tip, too! Just like a lynx! Everyone’s also super tanned!”

  “I mean, the latter is kinda obvious.” Maya pointed at the glaring sun above them. “Desert cats, huh?” As their resident cat-girl, she naturally got interested in them and also took a better look. “I’m surprised there are so many of them! Being fascinated by the desert makes a lot more sense to me now, though!" She started to understand why she got the urge to create her own desert inside Sophia’s domain.

  "I'm looking forward to seeing what this fascination turns into~." The blonde smiled at her before focusing on the city again. “Who else is there? Oh, I see lots of horny people!”

  “HUH?!” Hearing that, Maya got even more excited and looked in the same direction as Sophia was. “Where?!”

  “Let me correct myself.” She rolled her eyes. “People with horns.”

  “Ohh…” The cat-girl was visibly disappointed.

  “I love how both of you are absolute dorks, just about different topics.” Anna liked their exchange. “And oftentimes about the same topics, too.”

  “You were looking in the same direction as Sophia just now, too.” Ari addressed her tiger.

  “Ah.” The princess awkwardly scratched her cheek in return. “I-I just wanted to see the bighorn-sheep and gazelle beastfolk!” She hastily described some of the people she was seeing.

  “Sure.” The jaguar didn't exactly believe her.

  “The horns are great, though!” Sophia kept surveying the people. “The long and pointy ones of the gazelles seem a bit dangerous, but the long and curly ones of the bighorn sheep are super adorable!”

  “That is true.” Ari nodded. “If my partner had long and pointy horns, I probably would always be a little scared to get poked by it. Especially if you sleep in the same bed.”

  "Maybe there are some protective covers you can stick on them during sleep to prevent accidental injuries?" The blonde tilted her head.

  “Oh, that could work!” The jaguar liked her solution. “That being said, cute as they are, if we are on the topic of sleeping already, it always seems to me that horns would be incredibly hard to deal with. Like, you can only sleep on your back because you can't turn your head to the side as the horns are in the way.”

  “You are right!” The sleep-loving tiger hated that.

  “On the other hand, Chloe has her massive tail that makes her unable to sleep on her back and has to sleep on her side. Or, at least at an angle, at best, if the fluff compresses a little. I guess it's a matter of being used to it? Like, you can’t miss something you never experienced?”

  “Chloe’s tail also comes with the added benefit of being a walking pillow ready to lean against whenever it’s needed.” Sophia didn’t see her tail as a downside.

  “Fair enough.” She just nodded.

  “Should we go to the city already?” Anna had enough of just looking at it from a distance.

  “Okay!” The others agreed with her.

  Afterward, the group descended from the dune they were on and finally made their way toward the city to meet the locals.