The group explored Barak's marketplace and bought everything they saw to contribute to Sophia's storage, further enabling her inner hoarder as much as possible. The blonde hoped to find curry powder there because she suddenly started to crave it, but they unfortunately only saw the base ingredients and no ready-to-use mix. She still bought every spicy they could get their hands on, though.

  “Alright, that should be a good start.” While the group was exploring the desert and the adjacent trade city, Chloe and Steph gave it their all on the polar biome they came up with. After having relocated to the edge of the blizzard with the help of Blu’s portal, the couple started to create the beginnings of the frozen sea the two wanted to have.

  “I guess so.” Chloe nodded a few times while looking at Steph next to her. The two were standing on the edge of a massive cliff made of ice, which probably formed due to the blizzard, and were using their magic to create water to fill the bottom of the cliff. Naturally, it was making next to no difference because the water simply dispersed into the vast emptiness of Sophia’s domain. Only when they started using the raw environmental magic all around to also produce water did visible areas of liquid appear that rapidly grew in size.

  “Though, now I wonder.” The dog-girl suddenly tilted her head. “On this side, the water will be blocked by the cliff, and it seems like to go on for quite a while.” She then looked to her right and left and noticed how said cliff seemingly went on forever. “Even so, I doubt it goes all the way around. So, what keeps the water from going on forever without ever getting deeper and instead lightly flooding the entire domain?”

  “Oh, that’s a good point!” The fox now wondered about the same and looked at Blu, who was sitting on Steph’s shoulder. “How does that work?”

  Thinking about it for a moment, the parakeet then flew off the dog’s shoulder and landed on the ground in front of the couple. Then, it spread out its wings once more and began to spin to the spot. While doing so, the bird dug a small crater into the ice below. Afterward, Blu relocated to Chloe's shoulder and rubbed its head against her cheek while pointing at the crater with its whing that then suddenly filled with water.

  "Chloe, translation, please!” The dog-girl had difficulties following Blu.

  “Well, I’m not sure about a translation, but I could try an interpretation.” The fox-girl scratched her other cheek. “I guess Blu’s trying to explain the situation? Do we maybe need to make a divot on the ground to keep the water in place? Like Blu did just now, I mean.”

  “That would take forever!” Steph’s eyes grew wide. “That can’t be it, right!?” She stared at the bird, who promptly shook its head in return.

  “What else could it be, then?” Chloe gave it some more thought. “You know, whenever we make a new biome, the ground of Sophia's domain changes to accompany it. Like, it turns into a thick layer of dirt, snow, or ice even though it was this white whatever before. Maybe it can do the same here? Maybe it can sense what we’re trying to do, and the domain will turn into a seabed here? That way, the water won’t go everywhere.”

  “That almost makes sense!” The dog-girl lightly clapped her hands. “Is that how it is?” She then looked at the parakeet, who energetically nodded in return.

  “Amazing!” Even though she came up with it, the fox-girl was the most surprised. “This domain is so cool!”

  “So true!” Steph felt the same. “This is going to be great! Though, we still need to freeze the sea later, or at least parts of it.”

  “I don’t think that will be too hard.” Chloe wasn’t too concerned about that. "I wouldn't surprised if we can let the blizzard take care of that. If it goes over the water, it should be able to freeze it. If anything, we probably have to watch out it doesn’t freeze it too much.”

  “Magic is the bestest!” The dog-girl had nothing else to say. “The most important thing still has to be taken care of!” She then raised her voice.

  “Hmm?” Chloe tilted her head while Blu did the same on her shoulder.

  “PENGUINS!”

  “Ahh.” The fox-girl lightly clapped her hands while the parakeet nodded a few times. “How about we go to Mira’s place and ask her about them? That way, we'll know for sure if they exist, and it's not like there's much we can do here at the moment, anyway. The ambient magic will take care of the sea, after all.”

  “Let’s go!” She liked the idea.

  Having decided on that, the duo concentrated their magic on the sea for another moment to make sure the ambient magic would do its job once they were gone before Blu generously created another portal for them because they were in the middle of nowhere. With the parakeet still on Chloe’s shoulder, the trio then returned to the cottage before going to Mira’s domain from there.

  ----------------

  “Oho, what brings you here?” Once the trio arrived at Mira's hut in the middle of her domain, they were energetically greeted by the overseer, who opened the door for them.

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  “We’ve come with utmost urgency to learn about the most important detail in existence!” Steph was slightly excited.

  “Oh my, that sounds serious. Did something happen?" Mira tilted her head.

  “Are there penguins in the regular world?!"

  “…” The overseer looked at the dog for a moment. “What?” She was missing a lot of context and got confused. “Alright, let’s head inside and have a seat.” Mira gestured them inside the hut and into the living room to get comfortable there.

  “Feyfey~.” The red fox was also there, and Chloe happily waved at her mother when spotting her.

  “Welcome.” She smiled back at her daughter. “Did something happen?” Fey also was surprised to see them here.

  “We’ve come asking the most important question in existence!” Steph got closer to her.

  “NO!” Her reply was instantaneous. “It’s way too early for you two!” The combination of Chloe visiting her parents together with her girlfriend, who wanted to ask them a serious question, made her alarm bells ring and caused the red fox to panic.

  “Why is it too early for us to know if penguins are real and exist in the regular world?” The dog-girl got confused.

  “E-Eh?” Fey’s face turned red.

  “Eh?” Steph also got confused.

  “Why did you word it like that?!” The red fox slapped her cheeks to regain her posture. “Why penguins?”

  “Because I love penguins!” She smiled at her. “They’re adorable!”

  “I-I see.”

  “Wait, what did you think I was going to ask?” Steph then got curious about that.

  “…” Fey got silent.

  “Ehehe~.” Enjoying her flustered partner for a moment, Mira then decided to help her out. “Yes, there are penguins in the regular world.” She smiled at the dog. “The penguin beastfolk exists, too.”

  “Ohh!” Hearing that, Steph’s excitement rose even more. Luckily, as she was so obsessed with them, she already forgot about Fey’s suspicious behavior. “Although, I think I prefer regular penguins over the beastfolk version. I want a whole flock of them! I want to hug and cuddle one, too! Okay, the latter also wouldn’t be too bad with a cute penguin-girl, but that’s not what I want!”

  “I think there needs to be even more dedication to turn Fey’s response into a yes.” The teal fox wasn’t sure if Steph's love for girls was holding her back for that.

  “Shush!” Fey glared at her.

  “Ehh…?” The dog-girl was still confused.

  “There’s also bad news, though.” Mira just continued with a big smile on her lips. “While penguins exist, they’re not on this continent.” She lightly shook her head. “Their home at the very south bit of the demon continent.”

  “They exist!” Beyond pleased by that, Steph impulsively hugged Chloe next to her because she was so delighted about it.

  “Isn’t that great~?” She was happy for her.

  “You really like them, don’t you?” Fey was impressed by how excited she was.

  “I love them!” Steph reacted with a big nod once she let go of her fox. “They’re one of my favorite animals! After foxes, of course~.” As she was surrounded by a literal family of foxes, she had to add that.

  “That’s some bonus points right there~.” Mira let out a small chuckle. “By the way, the southern end of the demon continent is pretty much on the other side of the world.”

  “I’m just happy they exist at all!” The dog-girl wasn’t too bothered by it. “That just means I have to kick Sophia’s butt a little so that we can hurry up a bit. After all, the plan was to go to the demon continent, anyway.”

  “You all on that demon continent will certainly be interesting~.” The overseer let out a small chuckle.

  “What’s with that intonation?” Chloe raised an eyebrow.

  "I'm not going to spoil the surprise there." She just smiled at her. "It's a fun continent~."

  “Mhhm.” The pink fox had some mixed feelings about that.

  “What are you planning to do with those penguins in the first place?” Mira came back to the topic. “I get cuddling one, but you also said you want to have a whole flock of them?”

  “Chloe and I started working on a big snow and ice biome with a massive partly frozen sea! Just like the polar regions of Earth! I assume it’s the same in the regular world here, too.”

  “Blu’s helping, too!” The pink fox gently patted the head of the parakeet on her shoulder.

  “Are you now?" The overseer stared right at the small bird. Blu then froze momentarily before turning its head away while reacting with a slight nod.

  “Yes!” Chloe nodded much harder. “Blu helped us move the ambient magic particles because we were blind with them around us. Our bestest bird also led us to understand what we were doing better.”

  “Ahh, I see.” The teal fox smiled at the parakeet, who was keeping the promise of not abusing its powers too much and making it too obvious what the bird really was. An impossible dense bundle of pure magic, that is. “I don’t think Sophia’s domain is quite ready for animals yet, though. Most need a working day and night cycle. Penguins also would need food to hunt, and those fish also need sustenance like plankton, kelp, or seaweed. Food is easy, but the day and night cycle is vital for most living beings to survive. The jungle and rainforest parts around the cottage are different because animals native to that area are used to living in the dark undergrowth, but for most others, that’s a hard rule. If the water’s a bit murky, fish should mostly be fine, too, because light usually doesn’t reach that deep, then.”

  “Oh, that’s a good point.” The pink fox lightly clapped her hands. “Their sleep cycles would get messed up, wouldn’t they?”

  “Hold on a moment!” Steph seemed to disagree with that statement. “Polar regions have constant days and nights for months at a time! The closer to the poles, the longer those periods are. Near the very pole, it's almost one-half of the near-permanent night and the other half permanent night. Yeah, the sun wanders during the daytime, but it never goes beneath the horizon for months! This is caused by the tilt of the planet, and because this world also has seasons, it should be the same here!”

  “That is true, yes.” Mira nodded. “The poles are much colder compared to Earth, though. Because of that, animals and plant life mainly exist further away from them. Most animals never experienced more than a couple of weeks of permanent day or night.”

  “Argh, I hadn’t thought about such differences between the worlds.” The dog-girl hung her head. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that the penguins literally live on the other side of the planet from where we are, huh? That gives us enough time to figure out how to give my penguins the perfect living conditions!”

  “That’s the spirit~.” Mira liked her unbreakable enthusiasm.

  Once Steph got all the answers to her most important question and learned that penguins do exist, the four did some good old regular catching up because Fey and Mira had been doing their own little thing lately.

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  - Joseph Parrish -

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