Chocola woke up. It was still dark, and she was still sleepy. It was too early. A freezing sensation on her left side immediately told her why she woke up.

Vanilla was asleep, slowly and quietly snoring to the right. She felt quite warm, but she was only warming Chocola's right side; the left side was freezing.

The thought of climbing on top of Vanilla and hugging her came to Chocola's mind, but she shook it off. She did not want to wake her sister up. Nevertheless, she carefully moved a tiny bit closer to her sister so that her body would not press against the sleeping bag.

"Chocola, are you cold?" Vanilla sleepily asked. It seemed Chocola's carefulness was not enough.

"I am…"

"Told you to drink a few drops of that dragon potion… Nights here can get pretty cold." Vanilla sighed.

"No!" Chocola refused.

"My mouth is still burning a tiny bit, so, um, how about I kiss you?" Vanilla offered too; there was a bit of smugness in her voice too.

"No!" Chocola refused, this time more firmly. She also opened her eyes in case Vanilla tried something funny.

"Well, there's a wool blanket in the backpack. It should keep you warm. But you will have to go get it." Chocola sighed again and offered an alternative solution.

Chocola shivered strongly enough. The mere thought of climbing out did this to her.

"If I do this for you, you will owe me a favor."

Chocola answered with a sleepy nod. It was dark to see, but Vanilla felt it. Vanilla's sigh confirmed it too. She unzipped her side of the sleeping bag and stood up into the cold air. That cold air made Chocola curl up even tighter.

A few moments later, Vanilla took out a blanket, tucked it in around Chocola's left side, and climbed back into the sleeping bag. Chocola did not hear her zip it back up; she was already asleep.

Chocola woke up the second time. It was cold and damp, and she could see rays of sunlight on the treetops. It was morning. She stretched her hands and looked around. Vanilla was already out of the sleeping bag at the fire, trying to warm up yesterday's pot.

"Omg nice." Chocola thought to herself and quickly jumped out of the sleeping bag. It was cold, and she immediately regretted letting the heat out of the sleeping bag. But what was done was done. Besides, the fire looked comfortable. And she was somewhat hungry, too. Quickly, she found her shoes, fixed up her attire, and went towards the pot.

"Maybe wanna try a drop…" Vanilla teased her, but Chocola shook her head.

They ate; it tasted warm and great. Afterwards, they packed up the sleeping bag, cleaned the place up, put out the fire, and went home.

"Vanilla, I was curious, actually. You seem to be pretty knowledgeable about the magic of this world. And you are using it just casually. Did you perhaps think of becoming a magical catgirl?!" Chocola asked on their way back.

"Magical girl? No, not at all. I never thought about it. You know, I really, really like Vanilla and I want to always be Vanilla." She briefly replied, but the answer did not satisfy her sister.

"But you have used the dragon potion, and you knew about the curses too." Chocola wanted more.

"Well, I guess that does break the character a bit, but have you noticed something? There are no matches in this world. No electricity. No cigarette lighters. How do you think we light up the oven in the bakery?"

Chocola thought to herself. She saw some people smoke, but she never saw a lighter or a match. And she usually woke up rather late, so she did not see who fired up the oven. She did put firewood in a bunch of times, but that was when the fire was already roaring. The nights were long, and there was no chance an ember would survive through the night. Someone had to start the fire. She shook her head.

"This world is different from the world we are trying to roleplay. No matter how much I want to, I will never be a perfect Vanilla simply because the perfect Vanilla did not live in this world. But we can try to get as close as possible." Vanilla paused. "Usually it is me who fires up the oven. I know it is a bit out of character, but you know what would be even worse? Not having a working oven in the bakery."

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"But aren't there non-magical ways to start the fire? What do local people use?" Chocola inquired.

"There's a flint and a knife method, but it takes too long and requires tinder. There's a stone that gets very hot when in water, but it's messy to do it. The potion takes less than a minute, and I continue with my duties. It is the least character breaking simply because it only takes a minute. Oh, and locals? I have no idea! They like to eat outside, which is nice: more clients to meet."

Chocola nodded; she was finally satisfied. They walked home; Chocola went for a shower, and Vanilla went into the kitchen. They changed outfits, and both were ready for duty.

Chocola was calm and collected; her worries have all been forgotten. The camping trip really helped. At least for the time being. Of course, she still wanted to know everything there was to know about magic, but she did not feel in a rush anymore. Vanilla was casual about it, and so should she be.

Besides, she found a way less character breaking way to do it. Instead of being an obsessive compulsive nerd about it, she should simply use her big kitty ears and listen.

—

The time went by quickly this day. Chocola did not think about the library anymore, but somewhere after midday, the library came to her. The librarian fox, to be precise.

She happily served him. He was curious about the food here, but as a 'local' he knew absolutely nothing. Chocola happily explained how the dishes were made and what ingredients they had, but the librarian had no idea what 'flour' was either. Actually, Chocola did not really know how to explain flour either, so she simply suggested that he go for the first thing on the list and then come back the next day for more. Unfortunately, he did not go with the suggestion and simply looked at the menu. For at least five minutes.

Chocola smiled the entire time, but there was more to the wait than just mere silence. It had nothing to do with the fox boy or his indecision. While she stood there, her fluffy ears were overhearing a conversation several tables away. Two men with dragon horns. Nothing special—she was already used to serving all kinds of magical creatures.

She did feel a tiny bit guilty about eavesdropping on their conversation, but it was not like she could close her ears. Well, she actually could, but that would look uncute. She could walk away too, but she did not want to leave the librarian either. The librarian was her perfect excuse.

When they came, Chocola thought they were locals, but their conversation revealed something much more curious:

"Wow, it really feels like the series. I mean, wow."

"Eh, I guess. Still not worth flying here. I mean, we can fly really fast, but it still took us two weeks to get here."

"Worth it. I wanted to see if the rumors were true and turned out to be true."

"Well, at least we got to see the demon continent. Weirdly, it's called that. I haven't seen a single demon. But there is a thing I am still curious about."

"What is it?"

"I mean, what is this place? There's a clear connection between this place and the franchise back in our world."

"That's the point. It's a re-enactment."

"Yes, but think about it. Why would locals re-enact a series from a world they never visited?"

"Are you sure the catgirls here are locals?"

"Well, they sure as hell did not come via our portal. So, uhm, yeah, I think they are locals."

"Huh, indeed."

"Ok, so here's my theory. This place existed here before the series; the author took inspiration and made the series on Earth."

"That's a stupid idea. When did the series start?"

"Dunno, maybe a decade ago."

"And the portal is what? One and a half years? So, right, stupid idea."

"Yeah, but, uhm, what if people did see this world in their dreams? I mean, before we built our end of the portal."

"That's not how the laws of physics work, and you know it."

"Well, you can't exclude the possibility! I mean, we can fly in here."

They went silent after this. The fox boy finally made the choice too. In the end, he seemingly went with a very arbitrary choice anyway: a cheese cake with a cup of cappuchino.

After relaying the order to her sister, Chocola ran around the tables and asked if anyone needed anything. As she secretly expected, the two men did have a question for her.

"Hi Chocola!"

"Wait, how did you know my name?!" She cutely smiled, although there was more to this smile than just acting cute.

"Eh, I don't know how I know. But I do have a question. Do you know what Earth is?"

"A solid ground beneath our feet?" Chocola replied, pretending to be puzzled. The guy seemed to have had so much fun theory crafting a few minutes ago, and she did not want to ruin his immersion. Besides, she did not want to break the character either.

"No, I mean, Earth, the planet."

"Wait, there's life outside this planet?!!?!" She pretended to be clueless, but her right eye betrayed her, and she accidentally winked. Luckily, the boys did not catch it.

"See, I was right! I told you they were locals." He told his friend, smiling with the most prideful smile. Then the guy turned back toward the waitress. "Well, ok, ok, one more question, and we will quadruple the tip!"

Chocola smiled brightly at the quadruple tip idea. The tip itself did not excite her, but these guys were revealing so much, it was astonishing.

"For how long is this business open?" He asked, and it caught her a bit by surprise.

"I actually don't know; I can ask and come back to you." Chocola told the truth; she really did not know the answer. She did not know the lore that well.

"No, no, no need. You've been born a catgirl, right?"

"Nyan!" Chocola confirmed.

"You know she could be lying, right?" The other man interrupted.

"Nonsense. I watched her tail, and it kind of always swayed from side to side. If a catgirl lies, her tail becomes fixed and upright."

Chocola laughed. That was the silliest thing she had heard in a while. The tails did not work like that at all. If he wanted to catch her lying, he should have looked her in the eyes. Nevertheless, despite the brief, cute laugh, she did not want to fight the dragon man.

"One espresso then. Coffee is indeed one thing I really missed." The man finally ordered.

Chocola disappeared into the kitchen and, some time later, returned with a small cup in her hands.

The day continued peacefully. Not before long, Chocola found herself in bed, peacefully falling asleep.