Chloe and Steph were pretty upset that the others had forgotten about them because no one ever came to get them in the evening for the desert visit when it cooled down. On the day after, the couple then decided to start working on their new polar region biome with as much snow, ice, and coldness as possible.

  “Okay, this seriously is a deep lake.” Back in the oasis city, the girls and Doma were still in the middle of the lake and trying to find out how deep it was.

  “Oh, has your magic reached the bottom?” The horned man tilted his head.

  “No, but the stones just passed 1,000 meters.”

  “Wow!” He seemed impressed. “No wonder our rope didn’t do anything!”

  “Wait a moment!” Maya got loud. “Are you telling me that we’re floating over a pitch-black abyss with something in there that is a kilometer deep?!” She didn’t like anything about their situation.

  “An over a kilometer deep abyss.” Anna slightly corrected her. “Sophia said that they haven’t reached the bottom yet, after all.”

  “I hate you.” The cat-girl glared at the princess.

  “You’re getting teased a lot in this group, aren’t you?” Doma felt sorry for Maya.

  “…”

  "Don't worry about it." He tried to comfort her. "I'm sure with some training, you'll able to get back at them eventually."

  “Pfft!” Anna, Ari, and Sophia couldn’t hold back their laughter.

  “I’m just having a bad day or two!” She glared at the horned man. “Normally, I’m the one teasing them!”

  “That’s the spirit!” He smiled at her. “With that attitude, you’ll get to turn it around in no time!”

  “Ohh, one stone just stopped moving!” Before Maya could unintentionally be even more bullied, Sophia suddenly clapped her hands. “It clocked in at around 1,300 meters!”

  “That’s so deep!” Ari’s eyes grew wide before tilting her head. “Wait, one of them?”

  “Yeah, the others are still falling.” The blonde nodded. “It probably got stuck on a ledge or something like that.”

  “I had no idea lakes could be that deep!” Anna was fascinated by it. “I wonder if there’s anything special going on here.”

  “Oh, there’s certainly something special about this lake.” Sophia agreed with her. “I can’t talk about it, though.” She took a quick look at Maya. “Oh, the others just stopped, as well! They’re a little all over the place, but it makes sense that the ground isn’t perfectly flat. We’re talking about somewhere in between 1,500 and 1,600 meters.”

  “THERE’S NO WAY THIS PIT IS THAT DEEP!” Maya really wanted to go home now.

  “I mean, you are right about it being unbelievable, but does it really make a difference in terms of how scary it is?” Ari scratched her cheek. “Like, both 500 and 1,500 meters are scarily deep, so does it matter?”

  “It makes ALL the difference!” The cat-girl raised her voice.

  “You’re really having a bad day, huh? Well, two, but still.” It was all that the jaguar could reply there.

  “Thank you very much for acknowledging it!” She reacted with a wry smile. “Can we go home now?!”

  “Yeah, I think we’re done.” Sophia nodded. “Wait, let me do one more for good measure.” Saying so, the blonde took another stone out of her storage and also threw it into the lake. “We don’t have to wait for it here, though, so I guess we can start heading back to land now.”

  “THANK YOU!”

  “…” Anna watched the sinking stone for a moment while tilting her head as she decided against mentioning the part where it was right above the place where the princess saw the sparkling earlier. After all, Maya was suffering enough already.

  ----------------

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  “I think I’ll hate lakes for the foreseeable future!” Back on land, Maya fell on her knees and buried her arms into the sandy beach to get as much contact with the ground as possible.

  “That scaredy cat of yours is also quite dramatic, huh?” Doma scratched his cheek while watching her.

  “Yeah, but we’re used to it already.” Sophia, Ari, and Anna were on a roll.

  “Once I’m back to form, my revenge will be unlike anything before!” The cat-girl glared at them. “I’ll get Steph to help me, as well, and you all know what it means if the two of us work together!”

  “Is that really a punishment?” Anna looked confused. “It almost sounds like you’re threatening us with a good time as you and Steph together is guaranteed to mean something perverted.”

  “There are plenty of perverted things that can double as a punishment!”

  “OHH!” Hearing that, the tall tiger got extra excited.

  “Ah, I forgot that you’re into that.” Maya hadn't taken the princess's M-tendencies into account.

  “I’m sorry.” Ari suddenly faced Doma with an awkward impression. “It is fully understandable that you think our relationship is the way you imagine it to be.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” He smiled at her. “I still don’t know why you want to hide it. It's not like there's anything morally wrong with it, but being this obvious really isn’t the way to archive it in the first place.”

  “…” The jaguar didn’t have anything to add there.

  “Anyway, thank you very much.” The horned man then looked at Sophia. "Your magic is impressive, and I'm thankful you discovered the depth of our lake. I'm not sure if we ever have any use for that information, but I’m happy to know that our lake is just that special.”

  “You’re very welcome~.” The blonde gave him a thumbs up. “In fact, I’m thankful, too. I love all things that are out of the ordinary. The oasis city alone was already fascinating, but I love this lake! There are so many mysterious things going on in there. It's amazing!"

  “What’s that supposed to mean?!” Maya got loud again.

  “Don’t worry about it~.”

  “I would also be curious about it, though.” Doma scratched his cheek. “I know that one of your girlfriends is scared to hear it, but you're making it sound like it's a big deal, so I'm getting concerned that it might affect the village."

  “It’s fine. There's nothing that would concern you or anyone else around.” She lightly waved her hand. “Also, I like to exaggerate things because it’s fun to mess around, so I’m really not the most reliable person when it comes to stuff like that.”

  “Ah, I see.” He was content with that explanation.

  “Alright, let’s head back to Fenny and Aura.” Sophia had seen enough of the lake area.

  "Best idea I've heard today!" The cat-girl liked the plan.

  “Do you think they, as in Fen, are already alive again?” Anna remembered how drunk the male wolf had gotten last night and how he was completely out of commission in the morning when they left for their exploration trip.

  “I’ve noticed him moving around a little, so it should be fine. He’s still in the tavern, though.”

  ----------------

  Having decided on that, the group left the beach and went back to the tavern to reunite with the wolves there.

  “Oh, welcome back.” Arriving there, they were quickly greeted by Aura. She and Fen were sitting together at a low table while having a lavish early lunch on a feast of meat.

  “Hungover meal?” The blonde raised an eyebrow.

  “For him, yes.” The female wolf lightly gestured at her partner.

  “I am perfectly fine and not hungover whatsoever.” Fen shook his head in return.

  “Yeah, but only because you’ve used enough healing magic for a small village on yourself earlier.” She just stared at him.

  "Am I hungover, or am I not?" He didn't see the issue.

  “Not anymore, no.”

  “Exactly.” His voice turned smug.

  “When he’s right, he’s right.” Anna had to give it to him. “I don’t necessarily think that getting to the point where you need to use healing magic on yourself to cure your hangover is a good thing, but that’s not my decision.”

  “I’m doing just fine, but thanks for the concern.”

  “By the way, what were you all up to?” Aura thought it was time to change the topic and got curious about what the girls and Doma did before returning to the tavern.

  “We went to explore the lake and uncovered its secrets~.” Sophia smiled at her.

  “Ohh!” The female wolf sounded excited. “Does that mean you also found out that the massive source of magic is-,”

  “Shhh~!” The blonde put a finger on her lips to silence her. "On behalf of our scaredy cat, Maya, we've decided not to talk about it.

  “Considering what that is, that’s understandable.” Aura nodded a few times.

  “I HATE ALL OF YOU!” Maya was repeating herself a lot lately.

  “If not that, what other secrets did you uncover, then?” As the female wolf was also a fan of a good tease, she made sure to put an extra emphasis on that while glancing at Maya before continuing. “Was there anything else noteworthy?”

  “It’s 1,600 meters deep!”

  “Really? Wow!” She seemed impressed. “That might very well be the deepest lake I’ve heard of! It explains how this oasis is flourishing on such a level, though. How did you measure its depth? I know we’re talking about you here, but I doubt even you would be able to dive that deep.”

  “I’m not Steph, so I had no desire to try!” She shook her head. “I used some stones enchanted with my magic to track them. That let me feel how far they were away from me.”

  “Ah, that makes sense. Still, such a depth is remarkable!”

  “Yes.” Fen also agreed with her. “It’s unexpected, too. It really doesn’t look like it at all. I would’ve expected that that was on the bottom of the lake and not in the upper third.”

  "If anyone says that with a weird intonation once more, they’ll learn the extent of my wrath!” Maya glared at the wolf.

  “I’d love to see that.” Fen used the exact same pronunciation again.

  “You, me, Sophia’s place, this evening!” She officially challenged him.

  “Sure.” He took the challenge.

  Afterward, as the mood had gotten a little heated, Sophia decided that it was time for a break. Seeing the wolves' lunch, she had also become hungry, so she had multiple reasons for doing so.

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