Maya and Ari overdid it a little bit and ended up creating a jungle tree over 5 kilometers tall with the help of their magic. The duo also decided to pay Sophia back from now and wreak about three times as much havoc in her domain as the blonde would cause chaos in the regular world. Though, they first need to iron out some details because they didn’t want to harm any of the innocent animals that would start living there.
“Okay, you two are definitely insane.” It had taken them around an hour to navigate through the jungle and return to the cottage when Sophia addressed Maya and Ari.
“Hey!” The duo didn’t like that. "A-Ah...” Still, the two quickly turned silent once they looked in the same direction as the blonde, away from their house and towards the forest.
“I can’t believe they beat me to something that could be called a world tree!” Steph sounded envious while looking at the massive tree in the distance.
“Now I know why it has become so dark!” Chloe was fascinated by the massive crown of the kapok tree that was wider than the entire forest and jungle it towered over. “Wait, are the plants going to be okay? Nothing is getting any light anymore, after all.”
“It’s alright,” Mira smiled at her. “I mean, the artificial light inside the overseer domains can’t be used for photosynthesis, anyway.”
“Doesn’t that just make it worse?! How is that alright?”
“Magic, my love~.”
“I love to use that explanation, but I hate to hear it!” The pink’s feelings on the matter were complicated.
“Magic plants use magic light to grow.” The overseer gave her an easy explanation.
“Okay, fair enough.” She nodded. “Wait, that still means everything under the massive one is doomed. Doubly doomed, even!”
“Don’t worry, it’s doubly fine~.” Mira let out a small chuckle. “Thanks to the new master tree generating and distributing magic, the entire flora around it will soon gain magical properties, as well. Not only that, but they’ll also form a connection with the master tree. As long as it has access to light, it will provide for the rest. On top of this symbiotic relationship, the little light that makes it through Ari and Maya's tree is still enough, as magical plants operate way more efficiently.”
“Ohh!”
“So, bottom line, the bigger the tree, the better it is for everything around?” Steph's eyes started sparkling while she tried to summarize her explanation.
“Ignoring some finer details, yes, you are not wrong.” She could live with that.
“Let’s go!” The dog-girl got very excited very quickly. “I need to find out if there’s a limit on how tall a tree can grow with magic!”
"A brilliant idea!” Chloe liked her plan.
“Not today, though.” Sophia looked at the two. “I’m scared of Maya and Ari when it comes to retaliation, so they can do whatever they want in here, not to mention that I enjoy certain other benefits I get with Maya, but there will be rules for everyone else playing in my domain!”
“Boo!” Steph, Chloe, Fen, and Aura did not like that announcement.
“Very loose rules, okay?!” She got loud. “Why do I always have to be the voice of reason in this group?!”
“Hey!” The jaguar and cat-girl did not agree with her.
“Shut up!” The blonde just pointed at the massive tree in the distance.
“...”
“I want my domain to be pretty, too! Exciting, as well! Admittedly, a contest over who can create the biggest tree sounds fun, but I’m pretty sure the final result would be a massive forest so dense not even a fly would fit between the plants and trees in it. Interesting for about five minutes, but there’s very little long-term appeal!”
Stolen novel; please report.
“But I want to make the biggest tree in existence!” Steph started pouting.
“Don’t worry, you can.” Sophia had no intention of keeping her from it. “Just not here.” She pointed at the jungle again.
“What’s the plan, then?”
“Hmm…” The blonde tilted her head while looking at her little sister. “I want it to be more spread out, so… Oh, how about I give everyone an area they can play with really far apart? The goal then is to connect them only by using magic to grow things!"
“That sounds super fun!” The dog-girl’s mood drastically improved.
“Oh! There will be an additional rule!” Sophia was planning while she was explaining her idea. “Everyone has to do a different biome to participate in the event!"
“Icy tundra!” Steph got even more motivated. "Wait, tundras have no trees…” Too motivated. “Hmm… Taiga! Extra cold boreal forest, here I come! Conifers for days! They grow tall from the get-go! Mine will be the most impressive ones ever!”
“How are you two sisters?” Maya looked at her tiger with a complicated expression. She knew all too well just how much the blonde hated the cold.
“I have no idea.” Sophia simply shook her head. “Anyway, sure, why not?” She then faced Steph again. “You will be placed extra far away from here, though. No need to have hell close!”
“No problem!” She didn’t mind at all.
“Alrighty!” The blonde clapped her hands. “Everyone else, also feel free to make a biome if you like it. The warmer and more colorful it is, the closer to the center of the domain it’s allowed to be~.”
“Ehh, but the best biome is already taken!” Anna pointed at the jungle in the distance.
“Fair point.” The fellow tiger nodded. “Then again, thanks to the two’s massive tree and the canopy towering over everything, it turned into more of a regular rainforest? Once rain becomes a thing, at least. A jungle usually has little in the canopy department going on, but the undergrowth is much thicker. Almost impassable dense even. It's brighter in there, too, because less light gets blocked."
“Ohh!” The princess liked that.
“Mangroves would be great, too!”
“Ohhhh!” Anna was a big fan of that, as well. The two tigers were thinking very alike.
"A good old deciduous forest would be nice, too.” Fen joined the conversation. “Not as dense, and I like the mossy type of underground."
“Mhmm~.” Aura nodded a few times. “Very enticing, but I think I’m more partial towards a needle leaf forest. Imagine the smell inside a forest with thousands of massively overgrown pine trees!”
“…” The male wolf paused for a moment. “I can’t argue with facts.”
“Hehe~.” She liked his response.
“I’m sure these two types of forest would also blend into each other really well!” Sophia, too, liked their ideas. “You two could start next to each other and then build outwards. Or the other way around, and then slowly blending it!”
“You’re having fun, huh?” Mira smiled at the blonde.
"Absolutely!" She smiled back. "I can't wait to see how everything will turn out!"
“Good to hear~.” The overseer liked her enthusiasm. “How are you going to do that, though? Some of these trees are quite easy to get, but good luck getting a hold of mangroves around here. I mean, I actually have some in my domain, they are super cool, after all, and I don’t mind sharing them with you eventually, but that’s not really your goal, isn’t it?”
“I’m in no particular hurry~.” Sophia shrugged. “I still would like to get some help from your domain every now and then, but more for basic materials and plants. If that’s okay, at least.”
“Sure~.”
“For the fancier stuff, I would love to find it myself!” She sounded quite determined. “The ideas of the others seem fairly easy, so we can focus on that. We can get some plants from Ari and Maya’s experiment to make a more traditional jungle. Fens preferred forest type is all around in the area we're in. Steph and Aura also are somewhat similar, lots of needly trees~. Mostly the climate is different, I think? My sister is a lunatic, but Aura’s forest is much more temperate, if I remember right? Pines, spruce, and the like aren’t hard to come by, either. I’m not sure what exactly Chloe wants to do, probably something as freaky as Steph, another colder biome, but I’m surely not going to help with that. Sorry about that, my dear~." She smiled at the pink fox during the last part.
“Understandable.” She wasn’t mad. “I’m not going to help you with anything jungle-related, either. Or something stuffy, humid, and hot, like mangroves. Nu-uh.” Chloe shook her head a few times. “I might join in on Steph adventures because it sounds lovely until I find my own project. I wonder if growing an icy tundra might be possible in other ways.” After all, just like her, the pink fox, too, was an enjoyer of the cold.
“Yeah, you two and your biomes will definitely be placed a couple of thousand kilometers away from the center!" The blonde supported their creativity but just not anywhere near her.
“Sure thing~.” Her little sister didn’t have anything against it. “More space to totally overdo it!”
"A fair tradeoff, I guess.” There was little she could say. “Fey, uhh… do you also want to do something?"
“For now, I don’t think I want to have any joint responsibility in shaping this place.” The full fox didn’t seem to be that enthusiastic about it. “I will check in on Aura’s pine forest a couple of times, though. That indeed sounds rather lovely.”
“You’re welcome to visit anytime~.” The female wolf was happy about the interest in her idea.
Once most of their plans were taken care of, the group finally entered the cottage they had been standing in front of for the last half hour. Everyone, especially Sophia, had gotten properly hungry after a long day.