Sophia and the group visited the biome projects of Steph and Aura, and while the cats weren't personally fans of the dog's freezing winter wonderland, they still could easily admit that it was a very pretty place. It couldn't compete with the female wolf's massive pine forest and the amazing smell in there. While they were at it, the wolves also got tasked to create a volcanic area to make sure Steph’s cold hell wouldn’t spread too much.
“Oho, civilization!” The group was back traveling in the regular world when Sophia spotted a cobblestone road after leaving a forest they had been traversing for a little while.
“We are really close to a city. My detection magic has also noticed it by now. About five thousand people, give or take some." Fen nodded at her. "It's probably the place our princess mentioned and about half an hour away from here.”
“That sounds about right.” Anna nodded. “Sava’s supposed to have that many inhabitants.”
“Let’s go!” Steph got excited over seeing a new city. "Should we get Mira and Fey before we get there?" Currently, the group was traveling without them.
“They said they’re busy for a while, so it’s probably better not to.” Chloe answered her.
“Busy with each other?” Maya tilted her head.
“Curiously enough, I had no intention of asking my parents what they’re up to when they're alone with each other.” The pink fox just stared at her for a while.
“Understandable.”
"Also," Ari rolled her eyes while looking at the two. "I think it's not a bad thing they're not with us. We already have two tigers with us, one of them being the nation's first princess. People will be bewildered enough already, even without the overseer of magic being with us."
"A good point.” Maya nodded. “We’d probably need a week to explain that alone. Sophia’s portal thing not even counted in.”
“Oh, that part’s going to be easy!” The blonde sounded strangely confident for some reason.
“You, out of all people, have a plan?” The jaguar didn’t believe her.
“I absolutely have!” She smiled at her. “An absolutely flawless plan that will spare us the trouble of explaining the plan!”
“…” Ari paused for a moment while she continued to stare at the short tiger. “You’re going to use your portals to bring over Menzor and let him do all the explaining because you can’t be bothered, right?”
“You know me so well!” Sophia was touched. “That’s exactly the plan!”
“Well, I can’t really blame you.” The black-haired girl also thought it was too much of a pain.
“Thank you!”
“Alright, let’s go and see a new city!” Steph wanted to get going.
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For the next half hour, the group walked along the road before eventually arriving at the outskirts of Sava. The city obviously wasn’t nearly as big as the capital, but it was far from small, either. Another big difference was that no walls encircled the city, giving it a pretty open and inviting feel.
“Oh, I think I like places without walls and gates better!” Sophia liked the casual design of the city.
“Yes.” Anna agreed. “The capital is the capital, though. It has to look extra impressive. Not to mention the extra layer of protection. Not necessarily from monsters or enemies, but it prevents shady people from entering freely thanks to the controlled gates.”
“Yeah, that’s a good point.” The blonde nodded. “I still prefer the openness, though.”
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“I do, too.”
“There do seem to be some guards on patrol, though.” As they were getting closer, Ari spotted a group of uniformed dog beastfolk along the path they were following.
“Hmm,” Sophia’s gaze focused on a specific part of the guards. “I don’t think I’ve ever actually used a sword since being here.”
“Ohh!” Steph also stared at the sword dangling on their sides. “That sounds like it would be a ton of fun! I wanna learn how to use a sword!”
“Absolutely!” The sisters already got sidetracked before arriving in the capital.
“Do you want me to teach you a thing or two?” Anna smiled at them. “It’s been a while, but I used to have regular sword training sessions held by the highest-ranking officers. Princess things, you know.”
“Let’s go!” The two were very interested.
“Oh, now that you mention that, while it wasn’t a military officer, I used to have some sword training in the past, too." Maya also joined the conversation.
“Eh?” Sophia hadn't seen that one coming.
“Do you remember Rashk? The lizard man from the adventurer party in my hometown. He used to teach me in the past.”
“Why?” The blonde only got more confused. “You were using magic and being a nuisance to him with it ever since you were little, right?”
“That was exactly the reason~.” The cat-girl’s voice turned cheeky. “He’s been using a sword forever, and he was confident about beating me in a fight using them because I always won when I used my magic. He thought it would be unfair to fight me without any prior training, though, and here we are.”
“And?” Steph tilted her head. “Were you able to learn it?”
“Rashk regretted teaching me quite quickly." She got even more cheeky. "I soon became an absolute menace in both magic and sword fighting to him~.”
“Haha, you’re great!” The dog-girl was a fan of her sister’s girlfriend.
“Ehehe~.”
“Why have you never mentioned that before?” Sophia just looked at her.
“No idea.” The cat-girl shrugged. “I mostly forgot about it myself until Anna mentioned having been trained in the past. Fighting with a sword is nice and all, but in all honestly, magic is SOOO much more fun!”
“I think so, too!” The princess nodded a few times.
“I still wanna give it a try!” The sisters synced up perfectly.
“Sure thing, I’ll add it to the list of things to do in our off time.” Maya smiled at them. “Oh, speaking of things to do, we totally forgot to get started on the glowy bioluminescence forest!”
“Right!” Steph, too, had forgotten about it.
“True!” The same was the case for the older sister. “We even got the swampy area bits to try and create such a biome, but I just put it in a corner of my domain without ever doing anything with it.”
“To be fair, we were quite preoccupied with our already ongoing biomes.” Chloe tried to come up with an excuse.
“True.” Everyone agreed with her.
“And we were even more preoccupied with the hot springs.” Maya, too, had an excuse.
“TRUE!” The girls agreed with that even more.
“So many fun things to do~.” Sophia looked quite happy about the situation they were in.
“Let’s go!” She wasn't alone with that feeling.
“We first have to deal with the city, though.” Ari pointed towards it. “There’s a lot we have to do in Sava, after all.”
“Yeah, let’s go shopping!”
“…” The jaguar just looked at Sophia. “While I do like that idea, that’s not what I meant.”
“I know~.” Smiling at her, the blonde started walking towards the place again.
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After walking for a few minutes more, they arrived at the patrolling guard’s area, and those naturally didn’t fail to notice the interesting composition of the group.
“Greetings to, huh, a tiger? Wait, two of them!” One of the guards started greeting them when he noticed the duo.
“Woah, you’re right!” His colleague had the same reaction.
“It really has been a while since I got that reaction~.” Sophia’s expression turned nostalgic.
“A good day to you.” Anna put on a perfect business smile and turned on her princess mode. “We are indeed of the tiger family. We come from the capital and are currently on a mission father, King Menzor, has sent us.” It wasn’t the reason they were traveling, but his list of places that would be nice to get a portal was why they ended up in the city of Sava, so she wasn't lying. Technically telling the truth really was a specialty of tigers.
"On a mission of His Majesty?!" The first guard got loud.
“Did you say father just now?!” So did the other one. “Wait,” He then took a better look at Anna. “I think I saw you before when I was in the capital.”
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Her smile got even more perfect. "My name is Anna. I am King Menzor's daughter and this nation's first princess."
“No way!” The two guards unionized.
“You better get used to this exchange quick.” Maya awkwardly scratched her cheek while glancing at Steph and Chloe beside her. "This will happen every time we visit a lively place." The cat-girl spoke from experience as she went through that a lot with her blonde tiger on their way to the capital.
Afterward, the model princess kept explaining the situation while the blonde tiger decided to completely stay out of the conversation. Everyone knows that no one loves attention more than her, but while it made her feel nostalgic about her previous travels, this kind of exchange was rather boring and tiring. Because of that, she opted to let Anna take care of it. She was the princess, after all. She had nothing to do with any of it. This was the excuse she tried hard to gaslight herself into the entire time.