Fen and Chloe spent the day working on their wintery holiday home and finished making the outline for the river that is supposed to go through the plateau inside their freshly created mountain range they willed into existence with magic.
“Alright, let’s have a strategy meeting!” Hiding from the others, Steph and Maya used a portal to the capital and sat down in the mansion's living room, where the dog-girl stared at the cat with a most serious expression.
“Sure!” Maya smiled at her. “Wait, about what?”
“The amazing pink cave we found!”
“Ahh.” She nodded. “The tentacles, I got it.”
“The whole Fey situation got us pretty distracted, but we still have to get Sophia and Chloe over there!”
“True.” The cat-girl nodded. “Should we get Ari and Anna, as well?”
“The more the merrier!” Steph was an immediate fan of the suggestion. “Although, as much as I love and adore Ari, I think we should only invite her after we took our girls first. She has a good influence on Sophia, and we absolutely don’t need that for our endeavor.”
“You are good!” Maya seemed impressed.
“I’m learning from the best.” The dog-girl gave her a thumbs up.
“Ari also easily goes with the flow. So, if we get Sophia on our side, she’ll definitely get curious. Especially because I know Anna will be regardless.”
“Perfect! Okay, with that decided, how do we get our girls in there?”
“That’s the question.” Maya scratched her cheek. “Carefully, I guess.”
“Well, duh!” The dog-girl rolled her eyes. “Tricking them isn’t an option, either. They have to agree to it, after all. Forcing them is out of the question.” She shook her head.
"We couldn't even if we wanted to. The two of us combined are still weaker than them.” Maya agreed with her.
“Good point.”
“But, yes, consent is important and key here.” She felt the same as Steph on the matter.
“Maybe a little tricking?” Steph’s expression turned mischievous.
“How so?” The cat-girl tilted her head.
“We can’t make them agree to do it with us, but we can make them go there without knowing why and what’s waiting for them.”
“Why would that help us?”
“If we just tell them that we found a tentacle cave, there’s like zero chance for them to go with us.” Steph shook her head. “Okay, Chloe might be curious because she’s a massive pervert, but what do you think Sophia would do?”
“Ahh, good point!” Maya finally understood her. "She definitely wouldn't come with us."
“That’s why we won’t mention where we’re going!” The dog-girl lightly clapped her hands. “Problem solved!”
“Is it?” The cat-girl had her doubts. “They’ll definitely get suspicious if we just tell them to let’s go somewhere without elaborating on where part.”
“We’re still talking about Sophia and Chloe, you know?” Steph didn't understand her reaction. “Oh my gosh, Maya and I found the most amazing thing ever! You two have to see it immediately! You absolutely won’t believe it until you see it with your own eyes!” She then made a slight pause. “Afterward, both their eyes will be sparkling in anticipation, and they're raring to go. They'll be way too curious and distracted to ask questions.”
“You know what, I tip my imaginary hat to you.” Maya had to give it to her. “You are absolutely correct on that. “They love exploring and seeing interesting things way too much to pass on that. Also, that underground forest near it was genuinely amazing, and we can show that to them first.”
“And then we go like; Oh, what’s that cave over there?” The dog-girl finished her sentence.
“Bam, our win!”
“Exactly!” They couldn’t help but shake hands afterward.
"Now we just have to find the right time when nothing's going on to take them on a trip!" Maya sounded super energetic.
“Which might be a tough thing.”
“Ahaha…” The cat-girl scratched her cheek. “True that.”
“Before that, should we go and take another look at the cave?” Steph tilted her head.
“Horny?”
“Always.” The dog-girl had no idea why she even asked. “That’s not what I meant, though.”
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“What did you mean, then?”
“When we found the cave, we got so excited we immediately left to get our girls. We still need to see how it or they work, don’t we?”
“That is true!” Maya nodded. “Important, too!” She raised her voice a little. “Vital, even. I need to know how those tentacles operate. After all, I’m out if they’re somewhat sentient and do their own thing. They have to be lifeless until I control them with magic. I need to be in charge of them!”
“Why would they be sentient?” Steph looked confused.
“I’ve watched a ton of videos from your old world!”
“We’re talking about porn, right?”
“Absolutely.” The cat-girl nodded. “The tentacles in those movies were definitely sentient.”
“Ahh, I see where you’re coming from.” The dog-girl totally saw those movies, as well.
“Don’t get me wrong, it was super hot, and I enjoyed it a lot."
“You enjoyed it, or yourself?”
“Yes.” Maya smiled at her. “I enjoyed Sophia while watching it, too.”
“Ahaha.”
“Anyway, it was great to watch, but I don’t want to partake in it if the tentacles are doing something to me and or Sophia on their own. I want to use the tentacles to do something to me and or Sophia. That's a crucial distinction for me."
"Mhmm." Steph paused for a moment to think about it. “You want them to be an extension of yourself or a quite elaborate toy and not a separate entity?”
“Exactly!”
“You know what, more than fair!” The dog could follow her logic. “Now that you’ve mentioned it, I feel the same. One of us needs to be in charge and control of the tentacle, or else it wouldn't feel right."
"I'm happy we're on the same page.” She smiled at her partner in crime. “Alright, shall we head over?”
“Let’s go!” Steph energetically raised her arm high in the air.
----------------
The duo returned to the cottage and then took one of the portals to Mira’s domain that the overseer had provided for them. Luckily, they didn’t take the one to the teal fox’s hut, so she and Fey wouldn’t get interrupted.
“You still remember where it was, right?” The two were back in the dense forest inside Mira's domain, where they last explored and ended up finding, or digging into, a massive ravine with its own forest growing on its bottom.
"I thought you remembered?!" The dog-girl raised her voice.
“Now what?”
“N-No way!” Devastated over the turn of events, Steph dramatically fell to her knees.
“I’m kidding, idiot.” She lightly rolled her eyes while smiling at her. “Don’t you remember that we marked our way when we headed back to the portal?” Saying so, she pointed in front of them, where a lone stick was driven into the ground, together with an arrow drawn into the ground below it.
“Right!” The dog-girl instantly jumped back on her feet. “Don’t scare me like that!”
"You sure are cute." Maya liked her reaction.
“I’m Sophia’s little sister, after all!” She gave her a thumbs up.
“Yup, that explains it.” The cat-girl saw no flaw in her logic. “Would be weird if she were the only adorable one in the family.”
“They’re all adorable!”
Having settled that debate, the duo got back on track and followed their markers to reach the ravine where they found the goodies.
"Yeah, we can definitely trick them into coming here!" Having climbed down the ravine, Maya looked around and nodded a couple of times. "This place, with the massive overhang of rocks together with the forest growing here, looks amazing!"
“Absolutely!” Steph thought so, too. “I love the indirect lighting because the sun has to go through the ravine to illuminate anything down here.”
“I won’t even feel bad getting the girls here because they’ll like it!”
“Hehe.” The dog-girl smiled at her. “Shall we head over to the main attraction?” She then pointed at the other side of the small forest, where the tunnel entrance to the cave was.
“Sure!”
----------------
Traversing the forest and entering the tunnel, the duo followed it for a while before eventually arriving in the cave of their desire.
It was a massive cave where the color pink was ever so present. All over the place were hundreds of pink tentacle-shaped vines with a diameter of a couple of centimeters hanging from the ceiling. Rather than something alien, they seemed to be plant-based, though.
The ceiling of the cave was covered in green lichen-like plants, and the tentacles seemed to be its outgrows. They just happened to be pink and wiggly, and their ends or tips were suspiciously shaped like something else.
“Nature knew exactly what they were doing when they made this plant.” Steph lightly rolled her eyes while looking at some of the details of the tentacles.
“I wonder if nature was called Mira in this instance.” The cat-girl wasn’t sure this was a natural plant.
“I can’t argue with that.” She nodded. “It’s looking good, though. They wiggle around a little, probably because of the wind down here, but it doesn’t seem like they have a will of their own.” Saying so, Steph moved closer to the nearest tentacle and gently touched it with one finger. “Oh, it’s slippery!”
“Yeah, there definitely not entirely naturally grown.” Maya was convinced of it now. “Ah, you’re right, they are slippery!” She went ahead and touched one, too. “The tentacle itself is pretty squishy, too. Still firm but not hard at all. It feels just like some of the toys we have!” There was a sense of familiarity that she liked.
“It’s perfect!” The dog-girl felt the same. “How do we control them, though?” She continued to poke the tentacle, but it only wiggled a little more in return.
“I have been playing around with nature magic a little recently.” Maya scratched her cheek. “That could work, I guess.” Saying so, she grabbed one of the tentacles and concentrated for a moment. Then, it began to wiggle way more actively before the lower half of it curled upward. Another second later, it moved towards Steph, and the tip lightly slapped her cheek.
“Oi!” She got loud in return. “Wait, how did you do that?!”
“Hehe.” Maya reacted with a smug smile. “You pour a little bit of your internal magic into it while imagining how you want to move it. I need some more training because it was a lot more awkward than I had imagined, but it’s rather easy!”
“Awesome!” With sparkling eyes, Steph also grabbed a tentacle and did the same as the cat-girl, which also resulted in Maya being slapped with it. “It works!”
“Yep, I deserved that.” She couldn’t blame her.
“Speaking of training~.” Steph’s expression turned cheeky. “Shall we give them a go?”
“…” Maya looked at the wiggling tentacles, including the one in her hand, before facing the excited dog-girl. “Look, it seems like it would be fun, but you’re still the sister of my girlfriend.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.” Steph shook her head. “I wasn’t going to control your tentacles. We’re our own player here. If all of us were here, it maybe would be a little different, but with just the two of us, it would be in the weird territory.” She felt similarly on the topic. “How about we go on opposite ends of the cave? We couldn’t even see each other because of all the tentacles hanging from the ceiling. Dividing the cave with earth magic and making two rooms would be another option. That way, it's no different from our cottage, where we all know what’s going on in the other rooms during the night, too.”
“…” Maya didn't say anything and just looked around in the cave. “Let's go.”
“LET'S GO!”
As the day was still young, there was still lots of exploring in the cave left to be done.