While they were out exploring in the regular world, the group spotted a massive mountain range in the distance. At first, Sophia was really excited about that because she had never climbed a tall mountain. Still, after Ari notified her about the part where it was going to be quite cold there, her motivation had lowered significantly. Steph and Chloe only loved the plan even more because of that, though, and the group decided to head towards the mountain anyway.
“Does anyone know how cold the top of a mountain can get?” As they were getting closer to them, Sophia was starting to get a little nervous. They had spent another night in the blonde’s domain right before they reached the beginning of the mountain range.
“Well, cold enough for snow to stick, so…” Ari, too, didn’t sound the happiest about it. “Very, I assume.”
“Oh, no.” The blonde hated to hear it.
“Oh, YES!” Steph and Chloe loved it, though.
“I guess it’s time to pack out my warming magic again to heat up the surroundings. I hoped that I wouldn't have to use it before next winter, but dire times call for extreme measures.”
“Thank you very much!” Maya, Ari, and Anna seemed very grateful about her plan.
“Stupid cats.” Steph rolled her eyes. "Chloe, let's make sure to always be ahead of them to avoid getting caught up in that!"
“Good idea!” The pink fox nodded. “I want to enjoy the nice cold!”
“Let’s go!” Doing as suggested, the dog-girl grabbed Chloe's hand, and the two dashed ahead.
“I’m tired.” Sophia hung her head. “And it’s only morning…”
“Yeah.” The other cats agreed with her. Still, after letting out a few more sighs, they followed after the energetic couple together with the wolves behind them.
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“I-I think I see something white up there…” The group arrived at the foot of the first tree when the blonde noticed something alarming when she looked up.
“The day just keeps getting better and better!” The little sister was way more enthusiastic about the sight.
“Now that we’re a little closer, it's much steeper than I had thought…" Chloe also sounded somewhat uneasy, though for a different reason. “This is going to be challenging, isn’t it? By that, I mean exhausting, right?”
“One of the few good things about this.” The pros and cons list of Sophia and the fox was the exact same, just with the header being swapped.
“Stop whining, you two!” As Steph loved both those aspects, working out and being in a cold area, she couldn’t be happier and had no compassion for the duo. “Also, sis, I’ve spotted some bushes and other vegetation I’d like for my biome project! The higher parts of the mountain work perfectly for the theme I'm going for!"
“Sure, we can borrow some samples.”
“Yay!”
“In fact, I’d like the whole mountain for my domain.” The short tiger scratched her cheek for looking up. “There are no hills whatsoever in my place yet, and I'd love to change that!"
“That sounds soo fun!” Naturally, the dog-girl was a supporter of such a ridiculous suggestion. “Can you portal a whole mountain into your domain?”
“If I should, is the question here. I’m pretty sure it’s just using enough authority to increase the size. Borrowing a mountain seems a bit excessive, no? No one will notice a few missing trees or bushes we borrowed, but a whole mountain is something else. Ignoring even the reactions of possible witnesses, the area here is quite beautiful, so rescuing this mountain would be rather detrimental to the property value.”
“I see.” Steph nodded a few times. “Oh, dearest princess of this nation, how do you feel about liberating this mountain?”
“…” Anna paused for a moment. “You’re talking about stealing it, right?”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“We would never!” The sisters sounded offended.
“Just because you call it borrowing, rescuing, or even liberating, the meaning is all the same! How do you even rescue a mountain?! From what?!”
“Rescue it from its static position it has been in for eons?” Sophia tilted her head. "A mountain has to stretch its legs once in a while!”
“The liberating feeling of being able to move after millions or so of years!”
"What legs?!" Ari raised her voice.
“You two…” Anna had no words. “Does it have to be that mountain?” She pointed at the one right in front of them. “The mountain range around here is pretty well-known, and Father's head would probably explode hearing that a part of it was rescued.” The tall tiger decided to go along with it.
“Aww.” The sisters hung their heads.
“It’s quite an extensive mountain range, though. As far as I know, it isn’t fully mapped, either. The inner parts are supposedly quite hard to traverse, and no one really knows how it looks there. You can liberate one of those mountains if that makes it any better. Well, if we get to them, at least.” The princess found a compromise.
“Let’s go!” More motivated than ever, the sisters energetically raised their arms before starting the ascend of the mountain in front of them. Sophia also had completely forgotten about the cold issue.
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“It really is getting pretty steep, huh…?” The group was leisurely ascending the mountain for around half an hour when Ari started to notice that it was becoming a lot more tiring going up.
“Yes!” Chloe heavily agreed with her. “My body’s not flexible enough for such a climb!”
“Not only that, but it has become noticeably colder, too!” Anna also felt like complaining.
"I mean, I agree with the last thing, but get a grip, you three!" Sophia did not share most of their whining.
“Even that is not worth complaining over!” Steph lightly glared at her sister before focusing on the sluggish trio. “Seriously, we’ve been walking every day for the past month or even more, how are you three still this inflexible?!”
“To be fair,” Ari felt the need to defend herself. “I think walking and running around is good cardio and gives you more stamina, but it doesn’t make you any more flexible!”
“That’s not wrong, but you three don't have any outstanding stamina, either!”
“…” The jaguar had nothing to defend herself with anymore.
“Maybe we should introduce some yoga to our daily routine? That could maybe help.” Steph threw a random idea into the mix.
“Ohh!” The blonde seemed to like the suggestion. “That sounds great!”
“What’s… yoga?” Maya tilted her head.
“Ah.” Sophia noticed that it may haven’t existed in their new world yet. “It’s, uhh… a fancy way of stretching?”
“You just offended every single person in existence that practices yoga ever.” The dog-girl rolled her eyes.
“Do you have a better explanation?”
“…” Steph went silent. “Okay, I also never got into the spiritual side of it, but it also helps you relax. Admittedly, I also was mostly talking about the exercise part.” She scratched her cheek. “It comes with many different poses to stretch and move your body of varying difficulty. It helps a lot in terms of making your body move the way you want it to. It really makes you flexible in all sorts of places when you do it enough~.”
“Kinky implications aside, I fully agree!” Sophia knew what kind of flexibility Steph was talking about there towards the end. “I used to do it all the time in the old world as a warmup for my running or to wind down in the evening!”
“I often joined for the evening sessions!” Steph smiled at her sister.
“I think I loosely remember yoga from my previous run before respawning.” Chloe’s wording for her life on Earth before she died there was rather interesting. “I never got to try it, but it looked quite interesting! I’d love to try it!”
Maya and the royal couple also wanted to try it, so everyone decided to have a yoga lesson together the next time they got the chance. Afterward, they tackled some more of the mountain.
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“Ohhh!” The group continued for another hour and got reasonably high on the mountain. High enough that they had already passed the tree line when Sophia suddenly noticed something new ahead of them. “A cave!” She pointed at an entrance in the side of the mountain leading into it before eventually turning dark enough to hide any detail inside.
“I love caves!” Chloe got very excited over the sighting. “Let’s explore it!”
“B-But!” Steph pointed further up the mountain. “We’re so close to the snowy part already!”
“But there’s a cave!” Sophia and the pink fox unionized.
“Why are you siding with her?!” The dog-girl stared at her girlfriend. “You love snow even more than I do!”
“Because, again, it’s a cave!”
“Urgh,” She hung her head. “I hate it even more that I understand the reasoning! What to do…”
“Cave!” Maya, the royal couple, and the wolves also decided against the snow.
“I guess I can’t fight against the entire group.” Steph gave up. “Though, I think some decisions were also based on not having to climb the mountain any longer and relax their legs a little, rather than the exploring part.”
“…” Chloe, Anna, and Ari awkwardly turned their heads to the side to break eye contact.
“Well, caves are indeed great, so I can’t complain too much.” The dog-girl wasn’t actually upset. “Also, the moment we’re done exploring and out again, to the summit we go!" She had no intention of giving up on that.
“Sure.” Sophia smiled at her. “I dread the snow, and I'm not the slightest bit looking forward to it, but I want to be able to say that I climbed a massive mountain! Not to mention that we'll probably get a good look over which mountain to rescue from there, too.”
“That’s the spirit!” Steph was happy with that reply.
Once they had decided on their next steps, the group got closer to the cave they found to see inside and explore.