The group found out that the oasis lake was around 1,600 meters deep, which fascinated everyone except Maya, as she only found it spooky floating over such a deep abyss, and was overjoyed when they were back on solid ground. Unfortunately, she got teased a lot because of that, which ended up with her challenging Fen to a duel because he especially rubbed her the wrong way while doing so.

  “You’re so adorable, Blu!” Chloe and Steph were still planning their polar biome, but the fox was unable to look away from the parakeet in its tiny and adorable green beanie and scarf. In response to that, the bird, who was still on the dog’s shoulder, playfully lifted its right wing to wave at her while happily chirping a couple of times.

  “Yeah, it’s super cute.” Steph also agreed with the sentiment. “I’m still dying to know how Blu got into it, though! Sophia is going to get questioned by me once she’s back! I need to know why she has those clothes for Blu and how she was able to teach a bird how to put it on!” In her eyes, it had to be the work of her sister.

  "Well, Blu is highly intelligent, so putting it on wouldn’t be a challenge, right?” She looked at the bird, who nodded in return. “I mean, it clearly understands our language.”

  "Yes, Blu probably is cleverer than I am, but… Hey!" She glanced over at her shoulder and saw how the bird was nodding even stronger now. “Even so, please tell me how you’d be able to wrap a scarf around your neck with wings!”

  “Magic?” Chloe tilted her head.

  "I HATE HOW THAT'S A VIABLE EXPLANATION FOR EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD!" The dog-girl got loud.

  “Ahaha.” She had to chuckle at her reaction. “At the same time, you also love it, though, don’t you?”

  “It’s the best, yes!” Steph nodded. “I just love to complain!”

  “Obviously, you are the sister of Sophia, after all.” It definitely wasn’t news or a surprise for the fox.

  “Ehehe~.” She liked being grouped with Sophia. “Okay, my dear smug bird,” Steph then glanced at her shoulder again. “As you agreed to being cleverer than I am, how about you prove it?" She was still a little upset about it. “See all this raw magic surrounding us? How about you use that to create a blizzard of unimaginable size and power? I’m sure that for a bird of your standing and prowess, this will be a piece of cake.”

  “Ohh, that sounds fun!” Chloe liked the idea and lightly clapped her hands. “Yes, you can use the magic we amassed and don’t have to use your own. This place should be made with Steph’s and my powers, after all.”

  “Having some creative twists from playful birds would be appreciated, though!”

  “Exactly!” The fox nodded in agreement.

  Having heard that, Blu flapped its wings once before taking flight and disappearing into the pink and purple particles.

  “You know, as expressive as Blu is, did that bird leave again, or are we about to see some-, never mind." Steph didn’t have time to finish her sentence before the pink and purple magic particles around them began moving again.

  They first started to pulsate, which got more violent with each passing second before the particles suddenly got pushed away from the couple in a way that resembled a shockwave from an explosion. Everything in a radius of 500 meters around the two had returned to the original all-white of Sophia’s domain with a dome of violent-looking magic particles swirling in the distance.

  “I wonder what’s going on. Oh?” Looking confused for a second, Chloe tilted her head while looking at her surroundings before she spotted Blu returning to them and landing on her shoulder this time.

  “What did you do?” Steph focused on the bird, who lightly flapped its wings in return. A few moments later, snowflakes began to fall all around them. With each passing second, more and more appeared out of thin air until their entire vision was filled with snowflakes before long.

  “Ohh!” Chloe liked that. “You can never go wrong with snow!”

  “True!” The dog-girl agreed. “I’m not sure if that much will get us closer to a polar biome, though." She scratched her cheek. At that very moment, Blu flapped its wings once more, and their environment quickly changed. The falling snow became much more violent and intense while strong winds formed in the area as well. Soon after, they found themselves in the midst of a massive blizzard. “Ah, never mind.” Steph retreated her earlier criticism.

  “I love blizzards!” The fox was happily spinning in circles with her arms spread out to catch as many snowflakes with them as possible.

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  “It looks very promising!” Steph felt the same. “Although, even I am starting to feel underdressed.” She looked down at herself while gesturing at her clothes. Or rather, in her case, the lack of clothing.

  “Don’t ever mention that you said that when the cats can hear you.” Chloe suddenly turned serious. “We’d never hear the end of it.”

  “You are so right about that!” She vigorously nodded along.

  “You do have a point, though." Saying so, Chloe focused on the outfit of her girlfriend, but she quickly changed her mind and gave all her attention to Steph’s exposed tummy.

  "Oi, my eyes are up here!" As she just had to do it, the dog-girl pointed at her face while doing so.

  “I’ve made my decision.” Sounding extra smug, the fox kept staring at her stomach.

  “Gosh, I love you!”

  “Love you, too~.”

  “Well, I could go for a quick change, but I feel like my old clothes have outlived their use, so I'm not the most motivated to do so." The dog-girl scratched her cheek. “I guess I’ll just use magic to keep myself from getting frostbite.”

  “That sounds like a plan to me!” Chloe gave her a thumbs up. “I’ll probably be doing the same, though I have a little more clothing on me, so I might last slightly longer.”

  “Is that a challenge I’m smelling there?!” Steph got even more excited.

  “Not necessarily, but I’m also not going to stop you, either.”

  “Let’s go!”

  “By the way, how big is this blizzard?” The fox-girl gestured all around her.

  “That’s an excellent question!” Steph was also curious about that and looked at Blu for more info. Pausing for a moment, the parakeet then only reacted with an enthusiastic nod.

  “I guess the answer is yes, huh?” Chloe lightly rolled her eyes.

  “I love this bird!” After all, the dog-girl was a big supporter and fan of the yes reply.

  “Is it snowing everywhere?” The fox tilted her head. “It’s a good start and an ideal base once there are a couple of meters of snow and ice, but a proper polar region needs more than that!”

  “You are so right about that!” Steph shared her concern. “We also need some massive mountains and some desolate rocky areas!”

  “I was more thinking about an entire ocean with a thick layer of ice on it.” Chloe thought that she wasn’t thinking on a big enough scale.

  “Ohh!” The dog-girl clapped her hands. “I didn’t know we’d go this grand this quickly! I’m all for it, though!”

  “Well, the center of the arctic is a frozen ocean with land around it, so that’s a must!”

  “Ahh, antarctica is the opposite, a frozen continent encircled by oceans, so I was thinking icy mountains and rocks first.”

  “As we’ve decided on the superior polar region, the arctic, we have to get a frozen ocean!” The arctic fox was still slightly biased. “Like agreed on before, we’ll be adding the best parts of antarctica, as well, though.”

  “Penguins!”

  “Like penguins, yes~.” Chloe smiled at the excited-looking dog-girl.

  “Yay!”

  “I’m not sure how or where we’ll be able to borrow some penguins, though.” She scratched her cheek. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one since being reborn here.”

  “Don’t tell me there aren’t any around in this world?!” Steph’s eyes grew wide in shock.

  “Well, it’s not like I’ve ever seen one on Earth, either.” The fox shrugged. “Have you?”

  “That’s a good point.” She could follow her logic. “I’ve seen them many times in zoos and in videos, but I guess neither really counts in this world because those aren’t a thing here.”

  “We should ask the wolves or my parents about it. All of them know this world like no one else.” Chloe had an easy solution for their issue.

  “True!” Steph liked the plan. “Do you know if penguins exist, Blu?” She looked at the parakeet, who then left Chloe’s shoulder and flew over to hers to rub its head against the dog-girl’s cheek. “Yeah, I have no idea what that means.”

  “Our dear Blu can be a little cryptic at times.”

  “More like most of the time." Steph had a hard time understanding some of the bird's reactions.

  “That’s not true at all.” The fox shook her head while smiling at the parakeet. “On that note, do we have enough raw magic left to create a frozen ocean?” Immediately after she finished her sentence, Blu began to violently shake its head.

  “Okay, fair enough, that wasn’t cryptic at all.” Steph gave the parakeet on her shoulder a gentle pat on its head. “Though, probably wasn't what you wanted to hear, right?” She then glanced at Chloe.

  “Is it because you already reserved everything for the blizzard?” The fox-girl wanted to know the reason, but Blu just kept shaking its head.

  “Was it never enough to begin with?” The dog tried to make her own guess, which was answered by a nod of the bird.

  "But water uses so little magic, and there was so much of it!”

  “An ocean has quite a bit of water, though.” Steph scratched her cheek while Blu reacted with an even bigger nod. “We can easily fill a big lake with water ourselves, but a lake is literally just a drop in an ocean when compared to it.”

  “I guess that’s fair.” Chloe couldn’t really say much there. "Still, both of us continuously poured out magic in here for weeks, and with our super-fast regeneration, there should’ve been like a 1000 times our power around here!” She couldn’t let go of it just yet. “Not even a small ocean?” She looked at Blu with pleading eyes, who began to move its head in all directions in rhythmic motion as if having a hard time deciding on yes or no.

  “Maybe we should first define the ocean first?” Steph tilted her head. “If we go for something more akin to a sea, things might be more doable, right?” She glanced at Blu on her shoulder, who was still moving its head in multiple directions, but it had begun to look more like a nod after the dog-girl finished her sentence. “Like, it’s cool to have tens of thousands of kilometers of ocean, but when standing in front of it, a few hundred kilometers won't look any different. We could start small and grow it over time. It will immediately look like we want it to, just not as big from the get-go.” She smiled at Chloe while Blu broke into a full nod at the end.

  “That sounds great!”

  Afterward, once they decided on the plan, they got to work together with Blu. Immediately after they found a way to deal with the raging blizzard that was only a couple of meters away and all around them, that is. It made things just a little more complicated, after all.