Maya had a great time cleaning up the area around the cottage inside Sophia’s domain. Being the unhinged girl she is, she decided that the best plan to use in order to let more light shine through the jungle was a generous helping of fire. Afterward, she finished it off with some wind-based magic to let in even more light. Once Sophia managed to clear up her mess, she removed more trees so they had space to breathe around the cottage.
“Not bad.” A few moments after the couple finished gardening, Fen exited the cottage and greeted the two. “It was also nice to see the unhinged cat-girl from the past again. I had a great time watching you from inside.” He looked at Maya while saying so.
“This lunatic is beyond saving, isn’t she?!” Sophia jumped at the chance.
“Yes.” He nodded. “She’s a menace to society.”
“I hate you two so much.” Maya wasn’t happy about this.
“We love you, too.” It had already become a staple exchange Fen was taking part in.
“…”
“In all seriousness, though, I like easygoing Maya.” The wolf looked at the cat-girl again. “It looked like you were enjoying yourself, too. Babysitting our idiot looked more like a job and not enjoyment for you in my eyes.” He then glanced at Sophia.
“She’s not the only idiot I had to babysit.” Maya slowly shook her head while she looked back at Fen.
“I have no excuse.” He wasn’t able to maintain eye contact with her. “Anyway, were you just messing with Sophia, or did you have a change of heart with your babysitter position?”
“Yes.” The cat-girl smiled at him. “A bit of both.”
“Okay?” Fen was slightly confused.
“Messing with Sophia is always a viable answer. No matter the question.”
“I can get behind that.” The wolf nodded a few times.
“Hey!” The blond felt otherwise.
“It has a genuine side, too.” Maya ignored her and continued to look at Fen. “Sophia has a point when she says that babysitting shouldn’t be my job.”
“True.” He agreed. “Also, with Feyanis around us, there’s no need for you, either. She enjoys being that kind of character, after all. Just look at how much fun she has with Steph all the time when she overdoes it. She can handle both idiot sisters, too.”
“Exactly my saying!” Sophia also said the same before.
“Our tiger here also promised that I can punish her when she misbehaves too much. I got a little intrigued by that.”
“Ever the horny cat, huh?” He saw right through her.
“The very one~.” It was common knowledge in their group, so she had no reason to deny it. “So, long story short, I’ll try being more playful again. During adventure times, I mean. I can’t get much more playful otherwise, after all. Oh, and with adventure times, I don’t mean the nightly ones, by the way.”
“I know, idiot…” The wolf only rolled his eyes.
“Anyway, hopefully, I can be less of a party pooper from now on and only intervene if Fey deems it too much. Before that, I’m in with whatever is the plan.”
“My, it seems there lie exciting times ahead." Fen liked her change of heart. “How about we give it a test run?”
“Hmm?” Maya tilted her head.
“Let’s go on a little adventure! Just the three of us. Like in the good old times.”
“OHHH!” Sophia was a big fan of the idea. “Let’s go!”
“Sounds fun.” The cat-girl also was in favor. “What do you suggest?”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Well, we can’t do too much because I don’t want to get yelled at by Steph and Chloe for a day if we don’t tell them about something big, so how about something local?” He then gestured towards the massively overgrown mix between a rainforest and jungle right in front of them. “The very core of it was a gift from Mira, right? Knowing her, there might be a chance she chose this very bit of jungle for a reason. I would not be surprised if there’s, well… a surprise in there.”
“Ohh!” The couple had the same reaction.
“Well then, lead away, my dear!” Fen looked at Maya again.
“Why me?” She hadn’t expected that. “It was your idea.”
“That it may be, but I suggested it for you.”
“I guess that’s fair.” The cat-girl nodded. “Well, it sounds fun, so I might as well~." She warmed up to the idea. “There will be a lot more fire happening during the exploration, though!” She then faced Sophia with a mischievous smile.
“Why?!” The blonde didn’t like the sound of that.
“Just look at it.” Maya pointed at the massively overgrown jungle. “I can’t even see past five meters in there. I’m no expert, but I assume walking in there will be even more complicated than looking through the overgrowth unless we make a path.”
“You want to burn your way through it?!”
“Exactly~.” The cat-girl just smiled at Sophia.
“I’m becoming a fan of the new old Maya.”
“Why fire, though? Look!" Saying so, the tiger raised her hand and shot a massive gust of wind toward the jungle. It had so much power that it carved a perfect circle into the undergrowth and cleared a 100-meter-long path. “See? That works much better!”
“Boo!” The other two apparently didn’t like it.
“WHY?!”
“Fire is more fun!” They were in perfect sync.
“Seriously, why and how have I suddenly become the reasonable one?! I don’t like it!”
“Come on, you’re the biggest pyromaniac I know.” Fen just stared at the blonde.
“I’m a fire enthusiast, okay?!” Sophia didn’t like his word of choice. “I’m just very invested in my domain, okay?! There’s this strong urge of wanting to protect it, too!”
“Another overseer-in-training side effect?”
“Maybe, but I don’t want to know!” The tiger shook her head. “I don’t want to know that I might be turning even more into a candidate!”
“Fair enough.” He nodded a few times. “Still, it’s not like we’ll burn down the entire jungle here. Even if a fire would get out of control for a little while, there’s no way it would deal any serious damage to this vastly overgrown place.”
“Also, Mira said that occasional fires are good for more diverse nutrients and stuff!”
“That, too!” Fen liked Maya’s argument.
“You two are the worst.” Sophia could only sigh.
“We know~.”
“Fine…” She gave up. “I’ll be expecting a massive tribute to the Sophia Tax when we leave my domain again from the two of you!”
“Sure!”
“Alright, let’s burn and go!” The blonde was finally converted.
“Let’s burn!” Maya and Fen were very motivated.
“And go!” Sophia glared at them again.
“Yeah, sure… that, too.” They were a lot less enthusiastic about that part.
“Just go!” The tiger pointed at the jungle while looking at the cat-girl.
"Hehe~." She smiled at her before entering the passage Sophia had created with her wind-based magic while Fen followed right after her.
“My position of the crazy one is in serious danger…” Letting out a small sigh, Sophia then also entered the jungle.
------------------
The trio reached the end of the path in no time, and Maya was already getting ready to create a new one.
“Fen, my dear, do you have a favorite destination in mind?” The cat-girl smiled at him.
“Mhmm,” He looked around for a little while. “I do not.”
"I see." She nodded. "Let's just keep going in the same direction for a while."
“That might be the best course of action for now.” Fen nodded back at her.
“Having fun?” Sophia rolled her eyes while listening to their exchange.
“A lot.”
“Great to hear.” The blonde’s expression clearly showed her mixed feelings on the matter, though.
“Alrighty, let’s go!” Saying so, Maya lifted her arm and pointed it in the direction they wanted to go. Immediately after, a massive ball of fire formed in front of her, and a moment later, she shot it toward the undergrowth blocking their path. The ball quickly turned into a massive column of fire that ate its way through the jungle. Once the cat-girl stopped pouring her magic into it, the flames soon disappeared. The undergrowth had disappeared, as well. Most of the bigger trees in its path were still there, though with their barks slightly charred. It hadn’t dealt absolute damage, but it cleared enough to create a path that could be easily walked along. There were still some embers left, and a few smaller plants continued to burn for a while, but there were absolutely no signs of the fire having spread further than intended, either. It all was contained into the couple-hundred-meter-long path the cat-girl had made.
“That was some great control over the fire intensity, to only burn away the undergrowth without actually destroying the trees.” Fen sounded quite impressed when he looked at the result.
“Thank you very much!” Maya was happy about the praise. “Though, I had hoped for a little less damage to the bark of the trees.”
“Magic always needs a lot of fine-tuning. You can just try again next time." The wolf was well aware of the issue.
“I will!”
"Well, this turned out to be much more wholesome than I had anticipated." Sophia sounded a little relieved. “The damage is also totally alright! If that’s how it is, let’s go!” She finally was really in on the exploration.
“Let’s go!” The other two loved to hear it.
Once all three were looking forward to it, they started walking through Maya’s newly created path to see more of the jungle and maybe find a secret or two.