Chloe went to Fen’s cozy forest to pay him a visit. There, she suggested creating another comfortable place together with the wolf because she wanted to spend time with him. Fen was reluctant at first because the pink fox suggested something involving snow, but a warm fireplace inside a cozy log cabin in the middle of a snowy forest did catch his interest in the end.
“I can’t wait for it to be done!” Chloe and Fen were back in the entrance hall of the cottage inside Sophia’s domain, and the fox was energetically bouncing up and down.
“You sure went all out with it, too.” Fen turned his head to follow the pink swirl zooming around him. “What was that about keeping it small and cozy again?”
“It didn’t end up that big!” She stared back at him. "A small kitchen and a bathroom were necessary! An extra bedroom wouldn’t hurt, either. You’re the one who wanted that extra-large fireplace and bigger living room.”
"That was the sole reason I agreed to your plan in the first place."
“Fair enough.” The fox wasn’t going to tease him. “Should we get started on the forest now?”
“Can we even do that without Sophia?” Fen tilted his head. “She needs to give us a place and a piece of land with saplings to get started. “We could get a pine sapling from Aura, but that’s not really it.”
“Steph’s working on a taiga that would be the perfect basis for our forest. She has exactly the trees we need. The area is so big that she had Sophia place portals all over the place to quickly get from one spot to another there. If we go to the very edge of her biome, we should find a pristine spot with a lot of saplings!”
“That sounds like a plan to me.”
“Let’s go!” Still in high spirits, Chloe guided him to the portal that led to Steph's place, and from there, they took another one to get to the edge of the dog-girl's biome, where everything was left untouched.
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“You could’ve warned me that Steph’s portal hub in her place is inside an ice palace!" There was something the wolf had to complain about once they arrived.
“You wouldn’t have come with me if I did.” The fox-girl just smiled at him.
“…” There was nothing he could say. “Anyway, you were right about this being a good spot.” Fen looked at the area around them. It was a barren taiga on a completely flat terrain with some shrubs here and there, together with some firs, pines, spruces, and larches in varying sizes. Most of them could still be classified as saplings. “We should be able to turn this place into something cozy with ease.”
“Yay!” Chloe was happy he wasn’t upset with her. “Oh, should we add a little river next to the cabin? Rivers are cozy, right?”
“I wouldn’t be against it.” The wolf nodded. “Sophia’s cherry blossom forest is in a hilly area. Do you think we can do something similar? I feel like the most atmospheric would be for the log cabin to be in a little valley enshrouded by a massive mountain range all around it. Together with the river flowing through it.”
“Hmm.” The fox-girl tilted her head. “I really like the idea!” She agreed with him. “Sophia mentioned that it took about 30 times her powers to create that forest, though. Are we able to do that?”
“Maybe not as fast as her, but with both of us together, we almost match her authority, so it shouldn’t be impossible? If I remember right, your regeneration is even faster than hers, too.”
“Good point!” Chloe hadn’t thought about that.
“Also, her cherry forest is massive. If we encircle the entire valley with the mountain range, we only need a couple of kilometers in each direction because you can’t see past the mountains.” Fen added some details.
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“You’re right!” She lightly clapped her hands. “Do you have any idea how we do that, tho,- Oh, hey Blu!” While the fox was tilting her head and wondering how they could put their plan into motion, their favorite bird suddenly appeared out of nowhere and landed on her shoulder before lightly rubbing its head against her cheek.
“That’s a good question.” The wolf ignored the perfect timing of the parakeet’s arrival and focused on Chloe. “I understand how plants grow under the influence of magic, but how it turns into a complete landscape is beyond me.”
“I asked Mira about that because I wasn’t satisfied with what I heard so far.” Chloe smiled at him while petting the bird on her shoulder. “It felt like she was hiding something from me, but it seems like nature and magic are in a symbiotic relationship. Raw environmental magic, so the particles some of us, myself included, can see, apparently can change into base elements and materials. Magic gets absorbed by plants, and they generate new magic in return. The excess magic generated can turn into things beneficial for the plants, like more and better soil. She didn’t want to explain how any of it works, though. Just that it works.” She seemed a little miffed about that. “Blu, you don’t happen to know how that works, right? I mean, you have more magic than any of us combined.” The fox looked to her side, but the parakeet just froze for a moment before tilting its head away from her gaze. “Just kidding~.”
“Mhmm.” Fen thought about it for a moment. "In the end, the how is not that important for it to work, but it is a little odd. Still, the general concept seems sound enough to me. Although, how can we use that for our mountain range idea?” He noticed a flaw. “It’s purely for aesthetic reasons and not beneficial for plants, right?”
“Ah.” Chloe awkwardly scratched her cheek. “We might need to get a little creative there. We could try to get some plants that usually only grow on mountain ranges, like certain types of shrubbery, and hope they come with a mountain once it's fed magic?"
“I wonder if it’s that easy?” The wolf wasn’t sure about her suggestion.
“It doesn’t hurt to try, does it?” She smiled at him again. “Sophia still has that portal to the cherry blossom forest in the valley between the mountain range in the regular world. That area is actually pretty similar to what we’re planning, so if we collect a lot of stuff and place it in the areas we want it to grow into mountains, maybe?” It was a lot of wishful thinking on her end.
“I see two significant issues with that idea.” Fen didn't seem convinced.
“Really?”
“For one, I’d have to go to Steph’s ice palace again. On top of that, our destination would be snowy mountains. I don't even know what I like less.”
“You big baby!” Chloe and Blu were shaking their heads. “Okay, how about this? This lovely bird and I will go and collect the things from the mountain range while you’re going to outline the valley and where the mountain range should be. You’re quite fast, after all.”
“That sounds a lot better.” He was a fan of that.
“Okay, let’s go!” Energetically raising her arm, Chloe, with the parakeet on her shoulder, disappeared through the portal.
“Such an energetic girl.” Letting out a small sigh, though not sounding annoyed in the slightest, Fen also got to work.
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“Can you believe him?” After walking through a couple more portals, Chloe and Blu finally arrived in the original cherry blossom forest they found hidden behind the mountain range in the regular world, where the fox-girl glanced at the bird. "How can a big wolf like him be such a baby?!" In response to that, it just chirped a couple of times as it flew over to a cherry tree and landed on a branch there. “Exactly!” Chloe thought so, too. Not that she understood the parakeet.
“Oh, right, we haven’t told you about our plan, huh?” The fox was still talking with Blu. “Fennyfenny and I want to make the coziest winter-themed forest! We already ordered an amazing cottage for maximum comfy! We want to place it in a valley that’s encircled by a massive mountain range all around! Inside the valley, we want a little river together with a dense taiga-like forest with lots of pines, firs, spruces, and the like! Afterward, I want to coat everything in a nice layer of snow!”
“Doesn’t that sound amazing?!” In response to the hyper girl, the parakeet just nodded. “Right now, we’re going to collect plants that grow on the side of the mountain range in the hope that if we feed them magic inside Sophia's domain, it will also grow a mountain because the plants only grow there. I know it sounds farfetched, but we really want those mountains! Do you think it could work?” Listening to her, Blu paused for a moment and then just tilted its head.
“Yeah, no idea what I was expecting.” Chloe shrugged at the seemingly clueless bird. “Okay, let’s just collect a bunch of plants and see what happens!” Afterward, she began walking over to the mountain on her left.
Having arrived there, the pink fox climbed up it a little and collected all sorts of little plants she recognized being exclusive to only growing there and nowhere else before returning to Fen later on.