The group got a map of the entire kingdom from the king and studied it to see where they were and what interesting places could be explored. While they were at it, they also gave the directionally challenged tiger, the blonde one, a geography lesson. It went about as expected, but she still managed to find Maya's hometown on the map, to the surprise of many, including herself.
“Let's go!” Having studied the map and decided on a destination, the group got ready on the following day, and that made Steph quite excited. "The art on the map looked like a waterpark with all the lakes and whatnot, so it’s going to be awesome!”
“Do you two know anything about that place?” Sophia looked at the royal couple.
“The area’s called the ‘Great Lakes of Gativa’.” Ari nodded. "The great lakes part should be obvious, and Gativa is the name of the city closest to them."
“I’ve never been there, but it’s a popular sightseeing location.” Anna added some detail. "If I remember correctly, father was a big fan because it generates tons of tax money."
“You love to hear it.” Sophia liked Menzor’s reasoning. “It seems like we got something to look forward to!”
“It’s this way, by the way.” Maya pointed to her right. “It’s south from us, so we have to go that way.”
“You know me so well!” The blonde smiled at her. “I was about to ask in which direction I have to throw the portal stone into!”
“I figured as much.” The cat-girl knew that there was no way she could’ve found out the direction on her own.
“By the way, how do you know how much power and magic you have to use for the stone to travel the distance you want?” Chloe tilted her head. "According to the scale on the map, the place is about 200 kilometers away, and you'd need to throw it twice to stay within your detection range, right? So, how do you meter that?”
“An excellent question!” Sophia scratched her cheek.
“That means she has no idea, either.” Steph knew that reaction from her sister.
“It’s all about feeling!” She raised her voice a little. “Sure, I have no idea how much force or magic I need to throw a stone 100 kilometers away from me! It’s filled to the brim with magic, though. Thanks to that, I can use my detection magic to track it flying through the air!”
“This girl has built-in radar…” The dog-girl couldn’t believe it. “Well, not really, but the result is similar-ish enough.”
“Pretty much~.” Sophia smiled at her. “I should be able to influence it in case I overshoot it. Undershooting, as long as there’s no one to it, isn’t a problem in the first place. Because of that, I’ll take it easy for the time being. I mean, it’s not an issue if we have to take multiple stops in between, isn’t it?”
“Fair enough.” Chloe saw no flaw in her logic.
“Alright!” The blonde looked at the stone in her hand and lightly threw it into the air a couple of times to get a better feeling of it. Afterward, she turned in the direction Maya had pointed in earlier and got ready to throw it. Imitating a baseball player, she then launched the stone into the sky and watched it disappear from view almost instantly.
“So?” Steph got curious about it.
“It’s still flying.” The short tiger shrugged. “I mean, it’s quite some distance, so it can take a minute or some more.”
“Ah, that’s true.”
“Aaaand we have touchdown!” A couple of moments later, Sophia clapped her hands. “It seems like it fell a little short and landed around 50 kilometers away from here.” Saying so, she opened another portal in front of them. “Let’s have a look!” The tiger made the portal see-through, which immediately killed her enthusiasm. “Would you look at that, another green plain~.” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.
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Disappointed or not, the group still stepped through the portal to continue their journey on the other side.
“Let’s explore a little longer before we do the next skip!” Steph wanted to check out whether or not there was anything of interest around.
“Sure.” The others had nothing against the plan.
“By the way, Sophia?” While they were walking through the field, Anna eventually addressed her fellow tiger.
“What’s up?” She looked back at her.
"Back when we decided to go traveling again, you told me that you have a plan on how to pump magic into your domain while walking around here. Have I missed it, or have you forgotten about it?"
“Ah.” Sophia stopped in her tracks. “Thanks for reminding me!” She had definitely forgotten about it already.
“So?” The princess tilted her head.
“Let me show you~.” Smiling at the tall tiger, the blonde moved her tail around so that the tip was near her face. Afterward, she hovered both her hands around it before creating a portal between them, which then swallowed the tip of her tail. Staring at it for a few seconds, Sophia then moved her tail around a little bit to make sure the portal stayed connected to the tip before having it resume its default reverse s-like shape behind her.
“Okay?” Anna looked quite confused as she stared at the pink and purple sphere attached to the end of the blonde’s tail.
“From now on, I’ll use that portal to continuously transport my magic into the domain while regenerating it here at the same time. This way, I’ll stay mobile, don’t have to go back and forth, and also have all my other limbs unoccupied.”
“Ohh, I see!” The tall tiger finally understood. “Too bad it’s useless for me because my regeneration isn’t fast enough.”
“Yeah, that’s unfortunately true.” She nodded. “This is only useful for me, Chloe, and Steph.” She then looked at the duo in question. “Is there any interest in donating to the domain? Of course, you can use all the magic for your own projects. I’m happy as long as the domain grows.”
“Let’s go!” The couple was rather supportive of the idea.
“Awesome!” Enthusiastically clapping her hands, the blonde then created two more portals, which the two then placed into their tails. As the portal needed to have contact with their actual tails and not just the fluff around it, they had to push it in quite a bit, especially Chloe. On the plus side, thanks to that, it wasn’t even visible on them. Compared to Sophia’s tail, which had gotten a little distracting now that it had a sparkly orb attached to it, they looked completely normal.
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Having taken care of that and successfully established a connection to the domain to constantly supply great amounts of magic to it, the group continued walking once more to see if the green plain would lead to anything interesting at all.
“Is there something special about those great lakes?” While they were walking around, Maya tried to kill time and got curious about their destination. “What makes them great, and why are they popular with tourists?"
“An excellent question!” Sophia also wanted to know more about it.
“For one, lake areas are always popular.” Anna took an educated guess.
“I can get behind that.” The blonde had no issues with that explanation. “Those also always were my favorite spots to take a break when we traveled towards the capital.”
“True.” Maya also agreed with her.
“The biggest lake there apparently is so big that you can’t see from one side to another, giving off the feel you're actually at the sea. The beaches are supposedly rather pretty, too. As the actual sea is nowhere close, it's only natural that it became a popular alternative."
“Ohh!” The sisters liked the sound of that.
“Gativa itself, the city near the lakes, is supposed to be quite the attraction, too." Ari added some more detail. "They cashed all in on the water theme, and many canals go through it all over the place. You can actually travel to most places inside the city by small boats, or so I’ve heard.”
“That sounds fun!” Chloe joined the conversation. “Let’s all go on a boat ride together!”
“Do you like boats?” Anna tilted her head.
“No idea!” The pink fox shrugged. "I've never been on one, so I can't say for sure. In my old life, I basically never went outside, and here, while traveling with Fey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.”
“Let's go!” Steph immediately raised her arm.
“Now that you mention it, I’ve never been on a boat, either.” The princess scratched her cheek. "There aren't any places around the capital that have boats, after all.”
“Same.” Ari nodded.
“Not even on a river?! Or going fishing on a pond?!” The dog-girl raised her voice.
“No.” The royal couple shook their heads.
“You two are way more sheltered princesses than I thought you were! Literally, I want to add!” She got even louder after hearing this. "Your childhoods must’ve been so boring!”
“…” They had nothing to say in their defense.
“Do you remember when you caught that massive fish and capsized the boat we were in when you tried to reel it in?” Sophia lightly rolled her eyes while smiling at her sister.
“We should go fishing again!” Steph got even more motivated. “I wanna catch a sea monster!” being in a different world only made her more extreme. “Though, that might be difficult in a lake. I wonder if any big things live in there, too!”
“Ahaha.” The blonde could only chuckle. “Well, I’m not sure about the extent of that, but going fishing again in itself sounds fun.”
“Great!” It was good enough for her. “Fishing trip with everyone!”
Having decided on a plan of what to do once they arrived at their destination, the group picked up the pace for a little bit longer before deciding that it was time for another portal skip as there was nothing of interest around them.