Sophia was still sick and not feeling well at all. Fen also took a look at her and noticed that she was missing at least 10% of her magic power. It didn't seem to be recovering to her original level, either. Unfortunately, he had no idea what was going on as he had never seen such symptoms before. To make matters even worse, Anna came over and told them that Ari was suffering from something very similar with an anxious expression. The jaguar seemed to be even worse as she apparently had lost her entire magic power.
"Wait, so Ari has the same as I have?" Everyone was still in the couple's bedroom, and Sophia stared at the princess with wide eyes while lying down in the bed.
"You also lost your magic?!"
"Only a part of it, but my other symptoms appear to be the same. I also can barely move because of muscle pain. I feel sluggish and dizzy, and my head's killing me. I have a bit of a fever, too..."
"That is the same!" Anna was confused about the situation. "Except the magic power..."
"Well," Fen looked at the princess. "Our tiger still lost around four times the amount your jaguar ever had."
"Seriously?! Wait, just how overpowered are you, Sophia?!"
"Uhh..." She wasn't sure what to reply.
"No! That's not important!" Anna almost got sidetracked. "I wanted you to help Ari because no one's able to figure out what she has, but if you're suffering from the same... W-What can I do now...?" Despair was written all over her face.
"I'm sorry... What were you hoping me to do, anyway?"
"You can use healing magic, right? With your amount of power, I figured you can brute force whatever Ari has out of her..."
"Ahh... I actually tried that on myself already. It doesn't work at all..."
"N-No way..." Anna looked even more devastated. "B-But what's going to happen to Ari now... The same goes for you, Sophia..."
"I don't know... I do feel a tiny bit better than a while ago. Maybe we really just need a couple of days to get back on our feet?"
"Y-You think so?"
"I hope..."
"Uuh..." The princess didn't like the ambiguity at all.
"I guess Ari can't move at all, right?"
"No, she's as bedridden as you, Sophia, maybe even a little worse..."
"I see. Hmm..." The blonde looked at the two wolves for a moment before shifting her gaze to the cat-girl. "Maya, do you think you can carry me to the castle on your back? I don't think I can walk..." She opted against asking Fen or Aura because riding on them while they're shrunk might look more than a little weird. "I want to see her."
"Why?"
"Yeah, you should really rest!" Maya and the princess weren't a fan of the idea.
"I know... I actually really don't want to leave the bed, either... Just, if the two of us are together, we might remember something? Maybe something did happen yesterday that led to us being, well... like this." She pointed at herself.
"You're right..."
"It might be worth a try." The two reconsidered. "Yeah, I can carry you, no problem. Thanks to you usually burning like a million calories a day, you're super light, after all."
"Thank you. Also, sorry."
"It's fine." Maya didn't mind going along with the blonde's suggestion. "Alright, get outta here, everyone. I'll help Sophia into a change of clothes." She pointed at the door while looking at the group as she said so.
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Roughly 15 minutes passed before Maya, with the tiger, in her usual clothes, on her back, came downstairs and reunited with everyone waiting in the hallway near the entrance.
"Getting carried around's kinda nice~."
"Don't get too used to it."
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"No need to worry, I like running around on my own way too much. I can't wait for the muscle pain to be gone!"
"Thanks for caring about Ari so much..." Anna was really grateful that she was forcing herself to visit the jaguar even though she really wasn't in any condition to do so.
"It's fine. Now that I know about her, I'd worry too much else."
Once everyone was ready, the group made their way towards the royal castle. Fen and Aura also accompanied them because they, too, wanted to find out what exactly was going on.
Arriving at the castle after a while, Anna then guided the group to her room, which confused the couple a bit.
"Why are we here?" Sophia, still on Maya's back, tilted her head.
"Well, we were here when her condition worsened. Because she was having troubles with walking and escorting her through the castle didn't seem like a great idea, either, I offered her to sleep in my bed. That turned out to be a good thing because Ari started shivering like crazy during the night..."
"Aww, you warmed her up while sleeping?" The blonde was touched. "You're adorable, Anna."
"T-Thanks..." She got a little bashful.
"Wait, was I shivering, too, Maya?"
"For about three seconds. Then, I hugged you for the rest of the night."
"Ehehe, you're also adorable!" Sophia rubbed the side of her head against the cat-girl's while saying so. "Thanks~."
"You're welcome." Maya gently returned the nuzzling.
"Anyway," The princess couldn't deal with the couple right now and slowly opened the door to her room before glancing inside. "Ari? Are you awake?"
"Welcome back..." The slightly weak-sounding voice of the jaguar-girl came out of the room. "Yes, I woke up a little while ago."
"That's good. Are you feeling better?"
"Hmm, I'm afraid not... Maybe a tiny bit, at best... Sorry..."
"Why are you apologizing?" Anna didn't understand her. "I've brought Sophia with me, but that's making things only more complicated..." Saying so, Anna finally entered her room and also gestured the couple inside. Fen and Aura decided to wait elsewhere for the time being because they didn't want to crowd a sick girl. Not that they didn't do that earlier already.
"H-Hello..." Slightly awkward, the blonde waved towards Ari in the bed as she was carried in by Maya.
"Sophia...?"
"Being sick really is no fun, isn't it...?"
"Y-You, too?!" Her eyes grew wide. "D-Don't tell me I infected you with whatever I have yesterday..."
"Nah, don't worry. If anything, you got my summer cold because I'm an idiot. Doesn't matter that it's almost fall already or whatever."
"l, uhh, really don't think it's a cold that I have..."
"Me neither. I just wanted to lighten the mood." While admitting so, Sophia got off Maya's back and tried to stay on her own. Unfortunately, she still seemed weak and unsteady. "Say..." She glanced at the huge bed Ari was in, or rather, the free spot beside her.
"You want to lie down, don't you?" The black-haired girl knew what was going on.
"Yes! I'm already super dizzy, but standing makes everything turn in circles..."
"I know that feeling... Sure, I don't mind."
"Thank you!"
"Ehh?!" Anna didn't like this development.
"Shut up, princess." Maya nudged her side with her elbow. "They're sick and just want to get some rest. No need to get jealous."
"Urgh... You might've changed a bit, but you're still the last person I want to hear that from!"
"W-Well, they're also suffering from extreme muscle pain. You can't do anything exciting in bed with that."
"You can trust her on that, Anna." Sophia had made her way to the bed and got comfortable next to Ari while making sure to keep enough distance from the other girl. She wasn't sharing the bed with Maya, so she had no cuddling in mind. "She's an expert on that topic. Last time she had sore muscles, she wanted to go for it way too early again, and-"
"S-Sophia?!" Maya interrupted her. "There's no need to tell that story!"
"Understandable. You embarrassed yourself quite a lot that night~."
"S-Stop already! Is your filter working even less when you're sick?!"
"Oh, that wouldn't be good." Ari was the one who answered before glancing at the blonde next to her in the bed, who was currently busy trying to steal some of her blanket. "I can barely keep up with her normal state of mind..."
"Your bed's pretty comfy, princess." The girl in question paid their conversation no mind.
"Thanks?"
"So, with that taken care of, how about a nap? Coming here was pretty exhausting, even though I was carried."
"Oh, I like that idea." As the jaguar was also pretty sick, she instantly took a liking to the plan.
"We haven't taken care of anything yet!"
"You, too, Ari! Don't go along with her so easily!" Their girls had to keep them in check.
"We're sorry." There wasn't even a hint of remorse in their voices, though.
"In all seriousness, though..." Ari's still weak-sounding voice got a bit less playful. "Is your magic also dried up, Sophia? I can still sense it, though."
"I've only lost a portion of it. It's quite a lot, but it shouldn't bother me too much even if it doesn't come back. I'm feeling too hazy to use any at the moment, though."
"I-I see..."
"Don't worry!" Anna noticed that Ari was uneasy because she lost all of her magic to the sickness. "I'm sure it'll come back once you recover!"
"Do you remember anything that led us to get... sick?" She looked at the blonde tiger lying next to her.
"l, uhh... I was hoping you had an idea about what happened." Sophia replied with the one thing Ari didn't want to hear.
"I'm as clueless as you are... We only baked some cookies together and chatted a lot, didn't we?"
"Don't forget the flirting..."
"Shut up, Anna!" More than one girl retorted to the princess.
"Well, I complained a lot about magic yesterday, so I had the idea it might be angry and wants to punish me."
"Okay, we at least know what isn't going on now." Ari was still fit enough to comment on the blonde's stupidity.
"Yeah, why would it punish you, too?"
"That's exactly what I meant..." The jaguar only rolled her eyes.
The two tried to find out what was going for a while longer, but they couldn't find any reason and only tired themselves out over it. Their condition also slightly worsened, and both decided to take a nap for real. After Anna forbade them to warm each other if they felt chilly, she and Maya left the room to let the duo rest in silence. The cat-girl agreed with the princess this time and told the two to call them if they felt uncomfortable. Embracing each other in a bed, no matter the circumstances, was obviously too much for her, too.