Sophia returned from the dead, and they celebrated Ellie's birthday while also giving her their birthday presents. Afterward, the blonde took everyone, including Kira and the little princess, to her domain because she wanted to go exploring with the birthday girl. Once the queen finally, but still very reluctantly, agreed, she immediately started planning their trip.
“Have you ever seen a jungle before?” Sophia and the little princess were still together in front of the cottage where the blonde pointed and the overgrown place in front of them.
“Only in picture books!” She shook her head. “Something in Ellie really wants to see it, though!” Her inner tiger was speaking.
“Ahaha, I get you~.” The blonde lightly patted her head. She was very aware of her inner tiger, after all. “Should we go?” She held out her hand. “Before mom comes back because she changed her mind?”
“Quickly!” Ellie quickly grabbed her hand and dragged the taller tiger towards the jungle.
“That’s the spirit!”
----------------
“It’s so cool!” A few minutes later and already deep in the jungle, Ellie’s eyes were sparkling as she took in the sights around her.
“That’s true.” Sophia agreed with her. “Jungles are great~.”
“Ellie wants to climb a tree!” She was having a great time already.
“Ehh, I’m not so sure about that.” The blonde scratched her cheek while looking at a nearby tree. As they were grown by magic, the massive kapok trees around them were way too tall for a four-year-old to safely climb.
“Please!” The princess turned on her puppy eyes.
“Are you really a tiger?!” She was surprised that her dog levels reached even Steph's.
“Hmm?” She just tilted her head.
“Let’s keep exploring for a little while longer first, okay? Even if we climb trees here, we won't see anything too out of the ordinary.” Sophia tried to buy some time. “Later, I will show you a place that’s really high up, and the view's amazing there! Much better than up the trees here!”
“Okay!” She seemed to be okay with that. “Let’s go!” Squeezing Sophia’s hand, the little tiger then dragged her deeper into the jungle.
“Hehe.” The blonde was happy that she was seemingly having a great time. The duo then followed the path Maya and Fen had burned into the jungle a while ago when they were looking for the heart of the jungle, where they ended up finding Canir’s shrine.
“Where does this go to?” After a little while, Ellie got curious about the path they were following.
“Nowhere important.” She shook her head. After all, the shrine didn’t exist anymore, and it was far from important to her in the first place. “It’s just a nice little path to explore the jungle. It’s really pretty out here, isn’t it?”
“Very!” The princess nodded. “Ellie doesn’t know why, but Ellie loves being in a jungle!”
“It’s because you’re a tiger.” Sophia smiled at her again. “Our ancestors, full tigers, at least many types of them, used to live deep inside jungles.”
“Ohh!”
“Our tiger bits still remember this, and that makes us love the jungle very much. It's the same for me, too." Her tiger bits were very intense, after all.
“Makes sense!”
“Still, as amazing as the jungle is, should we take a look at the other places that are here? Maya and Ari made the jungle, but do you want to see what Chloe and Steph did?”
“Yes!” Ellie got excited about the plan. “Wait!” She then froze, though. “Steph and Chloe… they like the cold… and snow…” She didn’t finish her sentence.
“Yes, they made an icy snow kingdom of stupidity or whatever the name was.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“…” The expression of the little tiger changed into the very opposite of excitement.
“Should we go to the place Fenny and Ari made instead?”
“YES!”
“Ahaha~.” Liking her strong response, Sophia opened another portal, and the two went to visit the regular forest Fen had created with the help of the jaguar.
----------------
“Such a pretty forest!” The princess immediately took a liking to the project Fen and Ari were working on. “Taking a nap here must be nice!”
“Funnily enough, that was exactly why he created the place." She nodded. "To relax and nap."
"A good plan!” Ellie fully supported the wolf.
“Very true.” Sophia thought so, too. “The two were also working on a nice lake with an amazing ch-… ah.” She stopped herself from mentioning the cherry blossom tree, or rather the weeping cherry she had given the duo for their lake. After all, she wanted to surprise her with the sea of cherry blossoms in her massive forest.
“Hmm?” The little tiger tilted her head.
“It’s nothing~.” She just smiled. “Oh! Do you want to see the pine forest Aura made, too?”
“YES!” It seemed like she couldn’t wait. “By the way, what’s a pinee?”
“Ahh, it’s a sort of tree. You know, the one with the needles that smell really nice.”
“Never heard of it!” She shook her head. “Sounds interesting, though! Ellie wants to see it!”
“Sure thing!” Nodding once, Sophia then opened yet another portal for them to step through.
“WAOH!” They arrived on a little hill Aura seemed to have made to overlook the area better, and Ellie immediately got excited again once she saw the never-ending forest of nothing but pine trees all around her. “What a weird tree. So big, too!”
“Aura really went all out with it, huh?” The blonde also sounded impressed. “My favorite part definitely is the smell, though.”
“True!” While agreeing, Ellie went ahead and sniffed the air a couple of times. “Very nice!”
“Right, now that I think about it, there are no needle leaf trees in the capital, right? I don’t think I’ve seen any of them right outside, either. It’s not just the name, but it’s actually the first time seeing this kind of tree, right?”
“Yes!” The princess nodded. “It’s Ellie’s first time not in the capital! It’s amazing!”
“I’m glad you’re having a good time!”
“Yes! Best birthday ever!”
“Awesome! Should we walk around in the pine forest here for a little bit and enjoy the smell for a while longer?”
“Okay!” The princess liked the idea. Then, she grabbed Sophia’s hand again and decided to take the lead while guiding the taller tiger through the forest she’d never seen before.
“This forest is great, isn’t it?” The two were walking around for roughly 15 minutes when the blonde looked at her again. “I think the scent is very calming~.”
“Very!” She nodded. “Though, Ellie noticed something very confusing!”
“What is it?”
“That!” The princess pointed up. “There’s no sky! It’s bright, but no sun! Just white!”
“Ahh!” Sophia saw the issue. “You couldn’t see it in the jungle and Fenny’s forest, but it’s like that everywhere around here.”
“I see!” Ellie kept looking at the sky, or the lack of it. “Why?!”
“An excellent question!” She scratched her cheek. “Hmm… Oh! It’s like paper!”
“Paper…?” The princess got only more confused.
“Yes!” Sophia just smiled. “When you draw something nice and colorful, you also start with a white sheet of paper, right?”
“Right!” She could work with that explanation.
“It’s the same with this place." The blonde continued. "Everything around here is white all over, and we're painting over it by creating colorful nature with magic.”
“Really?”
“Do you want to see how it looked before we created our forest and stuff like that?”
“I can?!” She got excited once again.
“Of course!” Saying so, Sophia opened yet another portal and went through it together with the little tiger.
----------------
“SO BRIGHT!” Arriving at an empty spot of Sophia’s domain, Ellie immediately covered her eyes because she was surprised by just how white it was.
“It really is hard on the eyes, isn’t it?” The blonde couldn’t blame her.
“Yes!” She nodded while still covering her eyes and only stealing some glances here and there. “Ellie doesn’t understand many things yet because she’s young, but does this make sense to adults…?”
“Ahaha!” She had to laugh at this. "No, even though I own this place, it doesn't make any sense to me, either.”
“Good!” The princess looked honestly relieved. "Ellie thought being an adult is even more complicated than she thought!"
“You’ll be fine~.” Sophia patted her head in return. “Though, it is kinda cool in a way, isn’t it? This place, I mean.”
“Mhmm…" She looked around a little bit while trying to get her eyes used to the brightness by blinking a couple of times. “Maybe!”
“Good enough.”
“Can Ellie paint here, too?” Finally being somewhat okay with the environment, the princess looked around at the nothingness while tilting her head.
“Do you mean this area?” She tried to understand what she meant. “Like the forests the others made?”
“Yes!” The little tiger nodded. “Ellie wants to make her own place, too!”
“That would be fun, but you can’t use magic yet, can you?” Sophia looked a little awkward. “You need magic for it…”
“AWW!” She didn’t like that. “Ellie wants to use magic already!”
“Again, I’m sure it will happen soon.” The blonde tried to cheer her up again. "Once it does happen, I'll train you, and then we can make a forest or whatever else you want together here!"
“Promise?”
“Promise!” Sophia smiled at her. “The moment it happens, I’ll be there for you day and night to teach you everything you need to know about magic!”
“YAY!”
“Okay, how about we go to the next place I want to show you for the time being?”
“There’s more?!”
"I was saving the best place for last~." The blonde sounded a little smug. "There's still the thing I’m working on right now!”
“Ohh!”
“Let’s go!” Saying so, Sophia got ready to open yet another portal that led to her cherry blossoms area, the place she was looking forward to showing Ellie since the very beginning.