Maya’s little mishap of almost burning them alive had led to something good. In Sophia’s eyes, at least. Fen took the lead for a while and also changed his approach of traversing the jungle away from fire. Instead, he created a tornado with wind magic and let it lose in order to create a path of its own. Everyone liked this way of doing it, so they decided to use this technique going forward.
“Anyone interested in a fun fact?” While the trio was following Fen’s trail, Sophia addressed the two.
“That really depends on what you define as fun.”
“What he said!” Maya and the wolf had mixed feelings about it.
“I love the confidence you have in me.” The blonde rolled her eyes. “It was just an interesting observation I made, nothing else. Especially nothing that warrants such a reaction!” She started pouting.
“What did the whiny tiger realize?” Fen did not want to entertain her.
“As if I’d tell you with that attitude!” She only pouted more.
“Shall we keep going?” The wolf faced Maya instead.
"A good idea!” She just nodded.
“HEY!” Sophia jumped in front of them. “You know how much I hate being ignored!”
“We do.” They briefly nodded before walking right past the blonde.
“Oi!” Disliking that even more, she literally appeared before the duo again while also glaring at them.
“How did you do that?!” They had no idea how the tiger suddenly appeared before them.
“My domain, my rules!”
“Wait, she can stop time!” Maya remembered something important. “Why are we surprised?”
“True!” Fen nodded. Afterward, as the amazement was gone, the two started walking again.
“Grrr!” The tiger growled at the duo and then clapped her hands. "That will teach them!" She was talking to herself because she suddenly was the only one there.
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“E-Eh?!” Fen and Maya needed a moment to understand what was happening, but they soon were shocked by what happened. The two had gotten separated from Sophia and ended up in a different place somewhere in the jungle. It wasn't in a place they had explored before, either. They ended up in a small and cramped place where they could barely move, thanks to the extremely thick undergrowth. It was impossible to see anything, either, thanks to that and the mostly missing light, which could not pass through the crowns of the trees.
“Where are we…?” The cat-girl was trying her best to orientate herself.
“That’s a good question.” Fen had no answers for her. “It seems like Sophia somehow put us into a different location inside the jungle.”
“This idiot has way too much power in her domain!” The cat-girl didn’t like this explanation.
“Very true.” He nodded. “That’s still an overreaction!”
“Well, we were teasing her a lot.” She scratched her cheek. “You also know just how much she loves being the center of attention. Ignoring her was like the worst thing we could do.”
“I know that she loves nothing more than having all eyes on her, but still!” He raised his voice a little. “In the first place, she’s overreacting all day already! Even for her! Almost basically annoying already! Is something else going on with her?”
“It seems like this domain is doing things with her, so, as she mentioned herself, she’s getting a bit overprotective about it.”
“True, but why would she be so annoying about it? I mean, okay, we also were annoying and overdid it, but… Sophia’s usually much more lax about such things.”
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“Mhmm…” Maya paused for a moment. “Ah, her period should be right around the corner. It’s usually not a big deal for her, that lucky idiot,” Her expression changed for a moment. “Still, every now and then, it affects her, too. So, all that’s happening today, combined with being extra emotional, yeah, that could be it.”
“Really…?” Fen wasn’t sure what to say. “Alright, that explains everything!”
“Hey!” The cat-girl glared at him. “You’re not allowed to say that!”
“Why?!” The wolf raised his voice. “You brought the period thing up!”
“And? Only the ones who get them are allowed to complain and or make jokes about them!”
“So unreasonable!” He shook his head. “Wait, are you also-” Fen wasn’t able to finish his sentence as he suddenly saw a massive ball of fire closing in on him. He barely managed to dodge it by jumping into the undergrowth, but a part of his fur on the side, and some of his tail still got a little singed because he wasn't quite fast enough.
“Were you trying to say something just now?” Maya smiled at him. “I thought I saw something behind you and decided to attack it, but I guess I was wrong~.”
“I AM DEEPLY SORRY!” He was properly panicking.
“For what?” She just tilted her head. “Anyway, should we get going? Let’s try and find our idiot.”
“G-Gladly!” He jumped at the opportunity to drop the topic. “Any idea how to do that, though?” He looked around. “If I concentrate and use the embers of your previous attack as a light source, I can look about ten meters into the jungle because it’s so overgrown. I have no idea where we are, and it seems like Sophia’s further away than I can feel with my detection magic.”
“Ah.” She had forgotten about their situation. “Really, she put us that far away?”
“Well, it’s also not helping that this jungle is overflowing with magic, which heavily interferes with my detection. I might just not be able to see her.”
“Either way, that’s bad, right?”
“Yes.” Fen nodded. “Anyway, good luck getting us back to her.”
“Why me?!” The cat-girl didn’t like his suggestion.
“Whose girlfriend is she? Mine or yours?”
“And who’s the one that raised her?!” Maya threw the responsibility back at him.
“I met her like a month before you did!” He did not accept the blame.
“And how ham did you go with her during that month?!” She had no intention of backing down. “You ruined any chance of her developing a normal common sense! It’s your fault she sticks out everywhere we go! Sure, she loves the attention and can’t get enough of it, but you still share a lot of the responsibility for how she ended up like this! After all, you're the one who met her in her most defining and imprinting period in this world!"
"…" The wolf paused for a moment. "How about this way?" He then gestured to his left, the direction Maya had sent her fireball before.
“Are you just trying to use the easy way out?”
“N-No!” He shook his head. “I have not the slightest idea which direction to take, so this is the only plan I have. Maybe we're lucky, and you instinctively attacked me… err, whatever you saw in a way that leads us back…” He had a hard time convincing himself that his words made sense.
“Yeah, sure, let’s go with that.” Maya just rolled her eyes and began walking in the direction her earlier fireball had eaten its way roughly 200 meters deep into the jungle. She apparently really wanted to make sure to kill whatever she thought tried to attack them. “You better start coming up with a plan B while we walk, though.”
"I will do my best!" Fen ran after her while nodding a few times. He had no intentions of talking back, either.
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The two kept traversing through the jungle for about an hour, mostly by the wolf using wind-based magic, and they were making tremendous progress on reuniting with Sophia.
“We’re lost, aren’t we?” Maya looked around while commenting on the fact that there was still nothing but overgrown plants around them.
“We are so absolutely lost!” Fen reacted with a big nod. “Do you think Sophia had something in mind when she sent us to that specific place? Did she plan something? A hint or the likes?”
“Since when does Sophia plan things?” She just scratched her cheek.
“Ah.” He noticed just how stupid his question was.
"Is there really nothing you can pick up with your detection thingy?"
“The issue is that I pick up too much.” He looked around for a bit. “It works by detecting the internal magic of an individual. Unfortunately, the magic in the air in this jungle is so noticeable that it almost looks like it's one massive individual. If I activate my detection, I feel overwhelmed because the response is too much.”
“I see.” Maya roughly understood his issue. “Can’t you finetune it? Sophia mentioned something about using her detection with a certain baseline so that low-magic stuff won't show up for her.”
“If I would be as talented as the striped idiot, yes, I could do that.” Fen hung his head in response.
“Aren’t you the one who invented that magic in the first place? Come on! Put in some effort!”
“Haa…" He let out a sigh but then still closed his eyes and concentrated for a while. “No… I’m able to notice some slight fluctuations, but that’s all.”
“Fluctuations?” The cat-girl tilted her head.
“Some areas feel like they have a higher concentration of magic than others. It’s faint, though, because it’s hard to notice.”
"Okay!" Her expression changed. "Let's head in the direction with the highest concentration! There's no way we would find Sophia in a direction where there's less magic! No matter how faintly less it is."
“That’s a good point!”
“Depending on where we actually are, it might also be Anna or Ari in the cottage. Their readings should also be much higher than any ambient magic inside the jungle."
“That also would help us a lot to get out of this situation!” Fen was starting to like the plan.
Once they had decided on the best course of action, the two, with new-found motivation, continued to try and find a way out of the jungle.