A little over two weeks passed since Maya learned about the shocking fact that she, together with Fen and Sophia, most likely didn't have a finite lifespan due to their overwhelming magical powers. It was a pretty frightening concept to her, but being in it with Sophia helped her accept it. It not being actual immortality, but rather simply not aging, made it much easier to get on terms with as well.
They stayed at the frozen lake for a couple of days, but as it somehow didn't seem to thaw at all, the one responsible for it decided to run away. Afterward, the group continued their journey toward the beastfolk capital for a while. There wasn't much to explore on their way, so a lot of progress was made during that time. This was about to change, though, as the group had just come across some ruins in the middle of nowhere.
"Now, that looks interesting." Sophia was looking at the ruins with sparkling eyes. While there wasn't much left, it still vaguely resembled a fort with some extra buildings around. Even some parts of a protective wall could still be identified.
"Hmm, is it just me, or do these ruins look like they were the result of a massive fight?" Maya pointed at the suspiciously large holes in multiple walls and buildings that didn't look like the product of natural deterioration over time.
"You might be right." Sophia nodded. "It seems like some explosions, or maybe earth magic, did that. What do you think, Fen?"
"..." He didn't answer and seemed to be thinking about something.
"What's wrong?"
"Err, I think I've been here before." The wolf seemed to know the place from the past.
"Did you do this to the fort?" Sophia could only come to this conclusion.
"It's been a long time, but I'm starting to remember things. I used to live in this area for a while, and these pesky humans used this fort to... coordinate attacks against me."
"Ahh..." She could piece together the rest alone.
"Well, coordinated or not, they were still only humans. Destroying the fort was the easiest way to stop those pesky insects coming at me. It took me a whole five minutes or so."
"Fen sure isn't a fan of humans, huh?" Maya noticed how lowly he was talking about them. "Well, not that I don't understand. Nothing good ever comes from them after all."
"Did-, Did they do something to you?" Sophia's aura changed again while her voice turned flat and monotone.
"H-Huh?!" The cat-girl had witnessed this way of speaking from her before and how it almost ended up in genocide. More than once, actually. "Nonono, I was just generally speaking!"
"Oh, okay, I see." Her voice turned back to normal.
"Phew..." She was relieved, having averted yet another crisis. "Do you have a different opinion on them?"
"I haven't met many of them yet, but so far, I almost killed a group of adventurers and destroyed a city of them. So... no, not really."
"Uhh..." Maya glanced at Fen.
"I-I stopped her to my best effort, okay?" He knew why she was looking at him. "She said almost, yes? The city's still there!"
"Good job, thanks for your hard work."
"Yeah."
"But what did they do to you, Sophia? To have such a strong... reaction?"
"Well, the first group of guys wanted to... get a reward from me by using my body... because they thought I wanted them to s-save me in their delusions." She couldn't stay serious when saying it. "Then, some city guards wanted to sell me to a brothel. You know, to earn money to live in their oh-so-beautiful city..."
"Huh?" Maya's face twitched, and her tail stuck up while getting all puffed up in agitation. "They wanted to do what now?" While not to the extent of Sophia, she apparently, too, was capable of talking in a cold and emotionless way that lets shivers run down your spine. "Do you still remember their faces and can identify them? I would like to have a nice long chat with them."
"Sorry, they were guys, so-" She mumbled that part, never having paid close attention to them in the first place, aside from the fact that she couldn't believe her eyes when she first met those sorry excuses of a lifeform. The humans she met in this world were all such a disappointment that she didn't want to remember how they looked. "I mean, no, I usually don't remember low lives."
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"Yeah, that makes sense."
"But, hey, I shattered one of the guy's arms into pieces, and Fen ripped one out of another."
"Oh, I can live with that for the time being." Maya's voice sounded much warmer, and her tail went down again.
"You can be quite something as well, cat." Fen addressed the girl, that clearly seemed to be up to no good until just a moment ago.
"There's a time and place for everything." She wasn't apologetic in the slightest.
"Okay, sure." Fen didn't feel like commenting. If anything, he would agree.
"Anyway, how about we explore those ruins for a bit?" Not entirely understanding the two's conversation, Sophia wanted to get on with it.
"I'm in. We might find something interesting." Maya also seemed up for looking around.
"I'm not sure whether I have left anything intact, though."
"Let's find out!" Sophia walked towards the ruins and entered the fort through one of the holes in its broken walls, followed by the other two. Inside, she found herself standing on the central plaza and spotted something she should've expected but still took the girl by surprise. "S-Skeletons, huh? The unmoving type." She was looking at the boney remains of at least 50 humans scattered around on the plaza.
"Thorough job you did there, big guy." Maya glanced around as well. She was impressed by how it looked like his enemies didn't even have time to react and how basically no stone was still in the place it was supposed to be. Together with the remains of severe burn marks all over the place, it seemed like the wolf had used a bit of power when he raided this place.
"Why, thank you."
"Never mind that," Sophia glanced at the skeletons again. "Don't humans recover their fallen comrades?"
"Do they?"
"I'm not sure." Both, the cat-girl and the wolf didn't know about it.
"Wouldn't their left-behind... families care?"
"At least for us beastfolk, we won't stop until we bring everyone home, no matter how hard it is. Dead or alive doesn't matter."
"That's how it's supposed to be." Fen agreed with her. "I would guess humans aren't that noble."
"Pathetic." Sophia's opinion of them had sunken once more. "I could understand not recovering someone if their location is unknown after they died in the middle of nowhere. You know, inside a jungle or something like that, where it's simply impossible, but these are soldiers who have fallen in a fort..."
"Well, in their defense... Wow, I never thought I would say that." Fen had to take a pause. "I was a tiny bit agitated when I attacked this place. There's a chance they were simply too scared about me attacking again if they ever came near again to recover their lost ones."
"Even so," Sophia didn't like it. "Whatever, it's not my problem." In the end, she didn't want to waste time on something she couldn't do anything about and continued her exploration. She wasn't even sure why it had bothered her so much in the first place. Entering the half-destroyed main building, the girl found some still relatively usable stairs and climbed them.
"Are you looking for anything specific?" Right behind her, the cat-girl asked her.
"Hmm, doesn't this seem like it would be the room of the fort's commander?" She pointed at a rather fancy door that wasn't destroyed. "I wanna see what's in there." Saying so, she pushed against said door, which slowly began to open with loud creaking sounds. "Oh..." Her excitement died down in an instant.
"Well, that's disappointing." Maya had the same expression as Sophia on her face.
"Sure is." They were looking at an almost empty room. There was only a desk with a chair in its middle and some old black and white paper drawings stuck to the walls. "Hmm?" She took a closer look at one of them, and even though most details had faded already, the girl could still make out some of it. "Doesn't it kinda look like Fen?"
"Oh? Yeah, it definitely does." The cat-girl agreed.
"It makes sense because they were here to fight against me." The wolf mustered the picture. "Those guys were neither good at fighting nor at drawing." He wasn't a fan of what he was seeing.
"Ever the critique..." Sophia rolled her eyes. "Oh, there's another one. Looks like a slimmer Fen. Did you gain weight since then... or wait, was there another one of you?" She found another drawing of a slightly different-looking wolf.
"L-Like I said, neither good at fighting nor drawing…" He seemed evasive for some reason.
"I see?" She didn't give his reaction much thought. "Anyway, it looks like this exploration wasn't nearly as interesting as I had hoped... Shall we get going?" She had enough of these dull ruins.
"Yes, let's do that." Fen agreed. "Let's go search for a camp for the day."
"Oh, Sophia, can we get started on earth magic once we find a place?" The cat-girl didn't want to waste any time on her teachings.
"Think you're ready?"
"Absolutely!" Maya seemed confident. "I've spent the last weeks polishing air, fire, and water-related magics. I'm so ready for more!"
"Okay, let's give it a try later."
"Yay!" The cat-girl seemed happy. She had a big smile on her lips, and her tail excitedly swished around. For some reason, she was really looking forward to learning earth-related magic.
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Having decided on a course for the rest of the day, the group left the ruins and searched for a good camping place. Walking around on a green plain for a while, they eventually found a small forest that gave some sense of protection. None of them really need that, but it makes relaxing a lot more comfortable.
"Yeah, this place works. Oh, it even has some food readily available." Sophia looked around and noticed some fruits and plants Maya often uses when preparing the food for the two.
"That makes preparing dinner later on really easy!"
"Good for you." Fen wasn't profiting at all. "Ah, but I already found some food running around, so it's not a problem at all."
"Good for you," Sophia repeated after him. "Ah, I want some, too." Those two were rather similar in a way.
"Sure, sure."
"Thanks. Okay, let's get started on earth magic, Maya."
"Yes! See you later, Fen!" Getting behind Sophia, she placed her hands on her back before she started pushing the girl with great vigor, obviously looking forward to learning a new type of magic.
"Later!" She barely got the chance to say goodbye to the wolf. "C-Calm down a little bit, Maya!" She found her a tad too hyper for her liking.
"Not a chance!"
"Fine..." Sophia gave up and let herself obediently be pushed by the cat-girl to wherever place she had planned to train for the rest of the day. She had no reason to protest, after all. Not to mention that, all things considered, she also found the overly excited side of the cat-girl a little cute in the end.