Maya and Sophia were still exploring the underground maze the wolves had been building lately. They ran into a lot of traps and got lost many times and now found an actual maze inside a gigantic cave and decided to clear it. As the couple had the chance to overlook it before entering, the girls managed to perfectly remember the path to effortlessly navigate through it.

"It's this way!"

"No, it's this way!" As confident as the two sounded, they didn't even manage to get past the first fork right behind the entrance. While they were pointing in opposite directions, both were sure about being right.

"We're already one mind, huh?" Maya could only roll her eyes.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" She played along. "But seriously, I'm 100% certain we have to go left!"

"Well, then I'm 200% sure it's right!"

"That's a lot of percents. Especially for someone being wrong."

"I'm twice as sure that you're wrong, though." Maya wasn't going to give in here.

"How about we find out, then?" Sophia had a new idea. "Each of us takes three turns in our paths and see which one looks more promising."

"Finally, something I can agree to. Alright, let's meet here again afterward, okay?"

"Sounds good." Doing as told, Sophia took the left path and walked around three corners while Maya turned right. This was their plan, at least.

"A-Ah." In the end, they didn't need to take three turns. After the tiger went right two times and the cat had to go left two times, as well, the two suddenly stood right in front of each other again. The path after the entrance split up only to immediately lead together again after a few meters. It was utterly irrelevant which way they went first.

"W-Well, this is, uhh..."

"Awkward…?" Maya finished her sentence.

"Y-Yeah..."

"Soo, err, this way?" The cat-girl pointed at the only direction they could go without returning to the entrance.

"Yes, I would choose the same direction now."

The two followed the path for a little bit, but they soon ended up at a four-way intersection.

"It's definitely this way now!" And again, the two managed to point in the exact opposite direction. Maya to her left and Sophia to the right.

"Why?!" For not being in sync at all, they still were in one way or another.

"I guess there's only one thing we can do now, huh?" The cat-girl looked at the third option they had. "Looks like we have to go straight again."

"Nooo~!" Despite their disagreements, the couple was obviously having a lot of fun.

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The two continued to navigate through the maze for around an hour. Somehow, they managed to disagree at every fork or intersection they came across. Finally having enough of that, the couple decided to take turns deciding which way to take. It took them around five minutes to determine who goes first, though.

"Haa... I'm getting a little tired."

"I'm hungry." The couple continued for a while until they reached a bigger corridor where they had to choose between ten different paths to continue. Seeing that, they felt the need for a break. "I kinda lost track of time, but it feels like it's already way past dinner ti- Ah." As if on cue, Sophia's stomach, too, complained right before she finished her sentence.

"Yeah, I think it's already evening."

"Should we head back for today? I don't think we'll finish this maze anytime soon." The tiger glanced at all the options they had in the corridor again.

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"Yep, it'll take a while. I don't even know if we've made any meaningful progress yet. I wouldn't be surprised if they're just messing with us again or we're doing something wrong here."

"That's... definitely a possibility." She nodded. "Alright, let's call it a day and get some food."

"And a bath!" Being underground all day made the cat-girl feel a little yucky.

"Sounds like a plan." Sophia felt the same, and while agreeing to the idea, she let the purplish portal to her extra space appear. Entering it and walking through the all-white corridor, the couple was soon back in the basement of their mansion.

"This still is really freaky..." Maya still wasn't sure how she should feel about this traveling method.

"It definitely is convenient, though."

"Sure is."

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They went back upstairs and noticed that it was already dark outside. Entering the living room, the two then found the wolves peacefully napping on the sheebskin rug in front of the fireplace.

"Looks comfy." Sophia felt like joining them. "Has Fen not slept a night on it yet?"

"He really likes that thing."

"Haha. Alright, food?" The tiger decided to leave them alone for the time being, and the two went to the kitchen together.

"Is it okay to make something simple? I somehow don't feel like doing much work right now."

"Eh? Of course!" There was no way she wouldn't be okay with it. "Is there anything I can help with?"

"Sorry," Maya shook her head. "I believe it would take longer with you helping."

"Urgh..." Not what she wanted to hear. "Not today... but can you try to teach me a little cooking at some point? I wanna be able to help you!"

"Aww, that's sweet. Sure, I'll think about some easy dishes for you."

"Yay!"

"For now, how does, uhh..." The cat-girl looked around in the kitchen. "We have some bacon left, I think. Stir-fried veggies with that?"

"I like the sound of that." She wasn't hard to please.

Maya prepared their late dinner in a flash, and once the two finished eating, the couple went upstairs to have their regular bath together. After freshening up, they went back to the living room.

"Oh, welcome back, you two." This time, the wolves were awake and greeted the couple.

"Finished your nap, Fenny? Lost to the sheebskin rug again, huh?"

"A-Ah." He turned his head away. "It-, It was an accident!"

"Sure~."

"How was the maze?" Aura changed the topic.

"It's impressive." The cat-girl answered for them.

"How far did the two of you come?" The male wolf was glad that they didn't push his love for the rug.

"We went past the darkness trap and the giant boulder. Good job on that one, by the way, it was amazing." Sophia liked that one.

"Hehe." Fen looked proud of himself.

"Afterward, the two of us got stuck at a very obnoxious intersection.

"Oh~?" Aura seemed interested in that. "Which way did you two go?"

"Well, we ended up in a dead-end one way and kept running in circles with the other one."

"So?"

"Yes... Maya and I ended up going straight..."

"Ehehe, I knew you would react like that."

"You made the intersection like that on purpose, didn't you? Well, good job. Maya and I had a few good chuckles with that."

"Glad to hear. I knew I could count on you for my stupid little joke to work out."

"I especially liked how the maze was anything but straight afterward. It was super all over the place and curvy. The corridors almost seemed to look like cooked spaghetti if looked from above."

"Uhhh... that actually wasn't part of the joke anymore, though it worked out perfectly." She glanced at the other wolf while saying so. "Our dear Fenny got super drunk on the evening we worked on that part, and..."

"Ahh..." The couple looked at each other while remembering how they actually mentioned this case being a possibility.

"I wasn't drunk!"

"You totally were." The girls replied at the same time. While the couple wasn't present, they still saw the result.

"Did you make it out of his mess?"

"Yeah, we needed a few tries but eventually found this big all-black hole."

"Good job."

"Once we found out what was going on with it, we discovered that long passageway at the bottom of it." Sophia told them about their findings. "Say, Fen, is the capital built on a volcano?"

"Hmm? What made you think so?" He tilted his head in response.

"That all black hole and the passageway inside looked a little like obsidian or other previously molten volcanic stone."

"Oh, I see what you mean. No, the capital isn't built on a volcano. Well, not that I'm aware of, at least. I was just playing around. I used your fire magic to actually melt the stone. That's how I created the hole and the tunnels. It looked like lava while I was doing it, so the properties of the cooled-down stone might be similar."

"Wow, not bad." The tiger was impressed. "You sure enjoy building the maze, huh? To go that far."

"Yes. I haven't done something like this ever before, and it's really enjoyable."

"Yep, same here." Aura agreed with his view on the matter.

"Glad to hear." Sophia was happy to see them having fun. "You can also see that. Maya and I arrived at the maze, and that thing is amazing!

"You two already made it that far?"

"We totally got lost inside, though. That's why we gave up for today."

"Ahh..." The two awkwardly turned their heads away for some reason.

"What's wrong?" Sophia was confused by their reaction.

"Well... Fen and I were working on it on our own. He started from the entrance while I began at the exit. We've never seen each other, though. I'm not sure if our halves even connect somewhere..."

"Seriously?!" The couple had the same reaction.

"If you don't make it out within a day, I might advise climbing over it."

"..." Sophia and Maya had no reply to that. Suddenly feeling even more tired for some reason, the two then decided to head to bed. They still planned to explore the maze some more on the next day, though.