Chloe and Fen were trying to find out how they could make their cozy winter theme work. They went ahead and ordered a log cabin from the carpenters in the village where they first met the fox girl. Afterward, while struggling to understand how it really worked, the pink fox went to gather plants that exclusively grew on mountain ranges in the hope it would affect the landscaping in Sophia's domain when they fed them with magic.
“I’m back!” After around two and a half hours, Chloe returned to the area Fen was in and lightly greeted him while carrying a bunch of small plants in her arms. Blu was flying around her while having a little plant in its beak, as well.
“Welcome!” The wolf lightly greeted her. “I just finished marking the outline of the valley, too. We’re right in the middle of an oval with a radius of five to ten kilometers. I felt like a perfect circle would be a little too unnatural. I think it’s way past 500 square kilometers in total. Way more than enough, if you ask me. The circumference I marked had a good 100 kilometers, as well, so I also got a nice workout out of it~."
“Sounds good! That’s plenty big indeed!” She smiled at him. “Wait!” Chloe then looked down at her arms. “I don’t think I have enough plants to mark an outline of 100 kilometers!”
“Hmm, it seems like you have about 20 plants there?”
“25.” Chloe corrected his guess. “26 with the one Blu’s carrying.”
“That should be enough, I think.” Fen tilted his head. “It’s enough for every four kilometers. It sounds like a big distance, but in the grand scheme of things, it should still show the shape we want it to be.”
"That's true." She nodded. "It's not like it must be a perfect oval, either. “WAIT!” Chloe suddenly got loud. “Doesn’t that mean we have to walk the whole 100 kilometers to place the plants?!” She didn’t like the sound of that. “That’s too much for frail little me!”
“Lazy little you, you mean?” Fen looked right at her while shaking his head. Blu then landed on the wolf’s head and did the same before he continued. “There’s nothing frail about you.”
“Fennyfenny, can I get a lift~?” She didn’t even bother protesting his correction because there was nothing she could protest, and she went right to plead with him.
“For someone being raised by that Fey, you sure are spoilt.” The wolf rolled his eyes.
“It’s exactly because I was raised by her~.” Chloe smiled at him. “You’ve been with her in the past, right? So, you should very well know how she is when her dutiful side is on break.”
“That might be true, but still.”
“Please~.” She just looked at him with upturned pleading eyes.
“You’ve been learning how to do that from your puppy girlfriend, huh?” The wolf had no chance against her puppy eyes.
“Yes!”
“Alright, fine.” Fen gave up and transformed into his original form, with his shoulder height being over two and a half meters high.
“Yay!” The pink fox immediately jumped on his back while Blu was still on the wolf’s head from before his transformation. “Let’s go!”
“Do not hurry me when you’re riding on my back.” He didn’t like that.
“Yeah, Feyfey also always gets upset when I do that…” Chloe sounded a little awkward.
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Once everyone was hanging on tight to him, Fen went full speed ahead, and the group reached their destination in just a few minutes.
“Here we are.” The wolf brought them about five kilometers away from the portal and gestured at a small line dug into the ground that stretched in two directions away from the group. “That’s the perimeter of the oval I mentioned.”
“I see!” Chloe, who was still on his back, nodded a couple of times. "I assume you used magic to dig this line?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “I was quite tempted to dig a trench using my paws, but that would've taken too long."
“Understandable.” She saw his reasoning. “Blu, would you like to plant the plant you’re holding first?” The fox looked at the little parakeet sitting between Fen’s ears on his head right in front of her. In response to that, the bird took flight and quickly landed on the line the wolf had created. There, it dug a small hole with its claws before putting the little plant from its beak in it. Once it was done, Blu flew back to Fen’s head. “Good job!” Chloe gave the bird a gentle pat.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“How should we continue from here?” Fen looked at the little plant the parakeet had put in the ground. “We said that putting a plant down every couple of kilometers, but that alone won’t do much, won’t it?”
“True.” The fox thought so, too. “We definitely need to release some of our magic on the plants so that they can grow, hopefully together with a mountain."
“Would that turn into a mountain range, though?” The wolf wasn’t sure about that, either. “It seems like that, if it will work in the first place, would make more smaller mountains, no?”
“Another good point.” Chloe tilted her head while thinking about the dilemma. “Maybe we should slowly release our magic while running around the perimeter of your oval?”
“Hmm, so that we draw the location we want the mountain range to grow with the raw magic? I guess that’s worth a try.” Fen thought it could work. “I’ll rely on you to make sure that we evenly spread the magic, then. While I can roughly feel it, you having the ability to see magic is a lot more reliable.”
“Leave it to me!” The fox-girl was more than happy to help.
“The only question left now is how much magic to use.” The wolf took a short break. “The perimeter is around 100 kilometers so that roughly means we can use 1% of our magic per kilometer. That doesn’t sound enough to grow a mountain, does it?”
“If you put it like that, it does seem like it wouldn’t be enough.” Chloe nodded. “Still, Sophia made that massive forest with about 30 times her powers. It has a couple of hills and cliffs, as well. No actual mountain ranges, but our idea is sooo much smaller.”
“Yes, you might be right.” He didn’t sound too convinced. “Wait, how long do you need to regenerate your authority again?”
“Ever since Steph increased my total authority, it increased by a bit. I’d say it’s about ten minutes from empty to full.”
“THAT’S SO FAST!” He got loud. “I guess that’s being the daughter of the overseer of magic for you, huh?”
“Ehehe~.” Chloe liked his reaction. “Why are you asking?”
“Do you have one of Sophia’s portable portals on you?”
“Yeah!” She nodded before touching the cherry blossom hairpin above her bang. “Actually, I had Sophia enchant this pin with the portal magic so that I always have it on me!”
"Clever!" Fen seemed impressed. "How about you use 10% of your magic per kilometer, and we have a short break every ten kilometers, during which you take a quick trip to the regular world to reset your authority?”
“Oh, that’s a great idea!” The fox liked his plan. “This will be fun!”
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Fen ran alongside his previously created line, and they planted two more of the plants on the way before taking a break to let Chloe’s authority reset.
“It seems like you’re running low?” The wolf noticed how he could barely feel any magic on the fox any longer.
“Yep, I’m about done.” She just nodded before jumping off his back and placing the plants she had in her arms on the ground. Then, Chloe took off the pin from her hair and poured some magic into it. Immediately after, a portal opened in front of her arm where she was holding the pin.
“That sure seems handy.” Fen looked at the spectacle. “Maybe I should ask Sophia to get me one, too.”
“You would look super cute with a flower pin on your head!” The fox was a big fan of the idea.
“I wasn’t necessarily talking about that part.” He rolled his eyes in return.
“Aww!” She looked extremely disappointed. “It would be adorable, though!”
“You do realize that that’s part of the issue, right?” Fen stared at her while slightly moving his head from side to side.
“How about a piercing for one of your ears? That would be cool!” Chloe didn’t want to let go of the idea so soon.
“I’m not so sure about that…” He had some mixed feelings about that.
“I didn’t hear a no! Let’s go!” She got only more excited.
“Please step through the portal and reset your authority.”
“Okay~.” With a slight smirk on her lips, the fox disappeared.
“She’s a dangerous one.” Fen let out a sigh once she was gone, while Blu, who was still on his head, nodded a couple of times. “It’s so easy to get caught in her pace. Just like a certain blonde girl we know.” The wolf then rolled his eyes while the parakeet kept nodding.
"Alright, let's continue!" Precisely ten minutes later, the energetic fox returned and immediately jumped back on Fen’s back before pointing forward over his head.
“What did I say about hurrying me?” He didn’t move an inch in return.
“Ah, right, I’m sorry!” Chloe quickly apologized. “I’m too excited! Should we continue?”
“That sounds better.” The wolf reacted with a slight nod before he started running.
Afterward, they continued along the line the wolf made beforehand while putting a plant in the ground every couple of kilometers as the fox-girl took frequent breaks to reset her authority.
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“Aaaand we’re done!” The trio, Blu included, had spent the last half day planting plants Chloe collected from a mountain range, and they just arrived back at the first plant they started on when the fox-girl happily clapped her hands.
"It took a lot longer than I had thought, but it's finished." Fen nodded along. "Well, it's mostly because I also took a few breaks to regenerate a little of my authority, too.”
“Yeah, we forgot that we also need some magic to grow the forest itself, after all.”
“Should we do that right now?” Fen tilted his head. “I guess it would be best to head back to the center and spread out our remaining authority from there?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” The fox-girl liked the idea, and they moved to the center of the oval where they had planted the plants until now. There, the two released almost all of their remaining authority all around them. “So sparkly~.” Chloe marveled at the raw magic particles she could see all around for a moment before using a little bit of air magic to scatter and evenly distribute them over the entire valley they were trying to create. “That should be it!”
“Phew.” The wolf let out a sigh. “Should we call it a day? This turned out to be more exhausting than I had anticipated.”
“True.” Chloe agreed. “We have to wait for a day or two now to see how it turned out, anyway. I just hope it forms into a nice mountain range together with a forest in the valley like we imagined!”
“That would be nice.”
"Okay, let's go home! Blu, are you coming with us?" She looked at the bird that was still on Fen's head while pointing at the portal next to her. In response to that, the parakeet shook its head before immediately taking flight. Before long, it had disappeared from sight, as well. “I guess someone’s busy, huh?” The pink fox shrugged while watching the bird leave.
Once the two were alone, they stepped through the portal and decided to take it easy for the rest of the day.