Sophia and Blu were exploring the tiger’s new cherry blossom forest to see if there were any interesting secrets hidden there, and there were. At first, she found out that magic had created hundreds of extra floating islands above the forest, and Blu then guided her to a massive ravine, which the blonde decided to climb down and see what was on the bottom.
“Chloe! Anna!” Sophia returned to the cottage and immediately called for the two.
“Yes?” The duo poked their heads out of the living room door a few moments later. “What’s up?”
“Get ready! We’re going on a trip!” She just smiled at them.
“We already are ready to go on a trip.” The pink fox answered her.
“Yes.” The princess nodded. “We were about to head over to Aura's pine forest.”
“That can wait!” The blonde shook her head. “I found something absolutely amazing both of you need to see!” She was extremely excited about her findings in the ravine.
“What happened?” Chloe got curious.
“You have to see it yourself! It's too amazing to describe!" Afterward, she grabbed the hands of the girls and dragged them with her through the portal.
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“WOAH!” Arriving at the bottom of the ravine, Anna and Chloe immediately got loud.
“Quite something, isn’t it?” Sophia sounded extra smug.
“Where are we?” The pink fox looked up but was unable to see anything that would help her orientate because the light from the top was too blinding as it was rather dark around them, too. “It looks like some sort of ravine?”
“I’ve never seen something like that before!” The princess was looking at the walls in front of them with sparkling eyes.
“That’s exactly what it is.” The blonde smiled at Chloe. “It’s a ravine in the middle of my cherry blossom forest! Blu showed it to me~.”
“That’s so cool!” The fox liked the place. “Wait, how did it know about this?” She then stared at the bird on Sophia’s shoulder.
“Because Blu’s amazing!” The short tiger had the same reply as before. The parakeet also flapped its wings a couple of times while nodding.
“You’re lucky you’re so cute!” Chloe got closer to Sophia and patted Blu’s head a couple of times. “Else, you’d be subjected to some serious questioning!” She intensified her stare at the parakeet, who then actually turned its head away.
“By the way, the ravine is not the main reason I brought you two specifically here, you know?” The blonde got back on track. “Do you remember when we learned about the mutation stuff and how we got excited about crystals?” She looked at the fox specifically while saying so. “Anna, after we watched those movies, you also wanted to play with us, right? While Maya and the others were more interested in the glowy mushroom stuff.”
“Yes.” The two nodded.
“Well, it’s not a crystalized forest, but close enough, I guess?” Sophia pointed past the duo and behind the portal they came through.
“Hmm?” Turning around, they then looked in the direction she was pointing at. “W-WHOAH!” Both immediately got loud once they saw what was going on. The bottom of the ravine was more than just a long passage. Hidden from above, it expanded into a massive cave system leading into the rocky sides. More than that, right behind the group was an entrance to a gigantic cave made purely with white, light pink, and purple crystals that used the little light from above to illuminate the whole cave and turned it into a sparkly wonderland. The entire area looked like the insides of an enormous 100-by-100-meter-wide amethyst geode.
“This is quite something, isn’t it?” The blonde was also looking at everything with great interest. After all, she immediately went to get the others before she really had the chance to take it in herself.
“It’s amazing!” Anna and Chloe just nodded in agreement.
“Should we explore the caves and tunnels a little?” Sophia smiled at the duo. "It looks absolutely amazing, and maybe we can even find a hint for our crystalized plants idea to recreate!"
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“Let’s go!” The two liked the idea a lot.
“Exactly the response I wanted to hear!” Energetically raising her fist once more, the short tiger then guided them deeper into the cave while everyone was taking in the sights with their eyes sparkling almost as much as the crystals themselves.
“This sure looks weird.” Once they reached the other end of the smaller cave, the trio entered a roughly three-meter-wide tunnel also made purely out of the same crystals. Just like before, thanks to the crystals reflecting light on a level that almost seemed unnatural, the entire tunnel system was well-lit and extremely sparkly.
“You get used to it.” Sophia gave her a quick thumbs up.
"How do you get used to that?! Also, where did you get the chance to do so in the first place?!" She didn't understand how the blonde got the experience of getting used to it.
“Ah, right, I forgot that you can’t see it.”
“Right!” Chloe nodded a few times.
“Can’t see what?!” The princess raised her voice because she felt left out.
“Raw or ambient magic.” Sophia smiled at her. "The pink and purple color scheme of the crystals, together with the sparkles from the reflections, look a lot like the magic particles Chloe and I can see all the time.”
“Yep.”
“Ohh!” The princess relaxed again after she understood. “Wait, you two’s vision is sparkly and shiny like that all the time?!” She then wildly gestured all around her.
“No.” The pink fox shook her head. “Normally, it’s only a little sparkle here and there unless you release your own magic and increase the amount around you. Well, Mira’s domain’s constantly sparkly, though. Sophia’s domain is getting more like that, too. Especially the cherry blossom forest above. That was quite the sight.”
“You should’ve seen what was going on right before I created the forest.” Sophia looked at Chloe. “It was so sparkly that I literally couldn’t see my hand in front of my eyes. It was actually a little scary even.”
“I would’ve loved to see that!” She only got more interested in it.
“You two really are something else.” Anna wasn’t sure what to say. “Well, as I’m the weakest in the group and can’t see it naturally, I’m quite happy about being able to witness something similarly looking, though!” She looked on the bright side instead.
“I don’t think it has something to do with power.” Chloe shook her head. “I could already see magic before Steph gave me half of her powers. Back then, it was roughly on the level of current you, maybe even below that.”
“Not to mention that Aura can’t see it, either. In theory, she has even more magic than the two of us.”
“Yeah,” The pink fox nodded. “I’m pretty sure, because Steph and Feyfey can also see it, it’s because of our connection to the overseers.”
“That circle’s even more elite!” Anna got loud again.
“Ahaha.” The duo could only chuckle over her lively reactions.
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Afterward, the three followed the crystal tunnel for about half an hour while they had one or seven discussions over where to go whenever there was a fork, and they eventually arrived in yet another cave. While it was around the same size, it was still a little different from the geode-like-looking one from before, though.
“Why are we coming across so many hot springs and thermal baths lately?” Anna lightly rolled her eyes when she noticed the white cave made from limestone and calcite. Inside, there were many pool-like basins filled with slightly steaming and perfectly blue water. They were stacked up next to each other and grew towards the ceiling in a stepped pattern, where they were supplied with a source of fresh hot water that overflowed from pool to pool. The roof itself, contrary to the limestone and calcite walls and pools, was made from the same crystals of the tunnels, giving everything the same sparkly feel as before.
“That’s a good question.” The other tiger shrugged. “Well, I had magic create the forest above, and it knows how much we all love baths, so…" She glanced at Blu on her shoulder towards the end, who nodded and flapped its wings a couple of times in return.
“I’m more interested in the how!” Chloe lightly raised her voice. "Same with the other hot springs inside the forest! We had to literally portal in water from a different world or dimension or whatever, but here, there’s just a natural hot spring! Does that mean there’s even more stuff under us? Something has to be heating up the water, right? Like magma or something like that.”
“You might be overthinking this.” Sophia lightly shook her head while looking at the fox. Coincidentally, Blu was doing the same, too. "Magic can create water. Why wouldn't magic also be able to create hot water out of nothing?”
“Ha.” She paused for a moment. “Fair enough, I guess?” Chloe couldn’t say much there at first. “Wait, how though! Where does the magic to create water come from when no one of us is using or releasing it?”
"Didn't Mira say a good while ago that magic gets generated from enhanced flora?” Anna tilted her head. “This will then automatically get used to further grow the environment as some form of symbiosis. Or something like that, if I remember right. Sophia’s idea for this place was to create something amazing, right? That leaves a lot to the imagination, and it resulted in an amazing underground hot spring. Excess magic generated in the cherry blossom forest above will be used up for the hot water down here.”
“…” Chloe and Sophia just stared at the princess for this absolutely sound explanation. Hearing that, Blu also left the blonde’s shoulder and flew over to Anna. Landing on her shoulder instead, the parakeet then rubbed its head against her cheek. It seemed like her explanation was spot-on.
“Ehehe, aren’t you the cutest~?” The tall tiger happily patted Blu’s head a few times before pointing at the hot spring pools in front of them while glancing at the duo. "Should we go for a dip? I mean, we're here already, and it looks really nice, too.”
“Sure!” There was no hesitation in their reply. As the previous topic was exhausted, the duo liked her alternative suggestion as a change of pace.
Having decided on their next activity, the trio quickly stripped and entered one of the white calcite pools with the perfectly blue thermal water. Even Blu joined them and took its own bath in a tiny divot formed at the edge of the pool the group entered.