The group left the oasis city and started their travel towards the trade hub called Barak near the edge of the desert. Before entirely leaving, Sophia ensured they could return at any time, though. She hid one of her portals below a small green patch and some palm trees and sealed it with magic. Afterward, she created a second one she’d later link to the trade hub to make the life of the folk in the oasis a little easier.

  "So, do you want to be our tour guides again?" Once she finished her portal business, Sophia looked at Ari and Maya with a slight smirk on her lips.

  “…” The two first looked at each other for a few seconds before both vehemently shook their heads. “No, thanks, we’re good!” They had enough of getting lost in the big box of sand the group was in.

  “Ahaha, you two are great~.” The blonde had to chuckle at them. “Alright, let the best navigator of the group, me, take care of it!”

  “I’m scared!” Anna had a bad feeling about this.

  "Hey!" She glared at her. "Also, don't forget about my detection magic! I don't need to know cardinal directions or be able to tell left and up apart! It doesn’t matter because I can simply follow the stuff I sense~.”

  “How do you know it’s Barak, though?” The princess tilted her head. “The place we want to go to, I mean.”

  “Minor details! Unimportant ones, too!” She didn’t accept her concern. “Also, how many cities do you think are around us here? More specifically, around ten kilometers away in that direction?” She pointed right in front of where they were facing.

  “Okay, fair enough.”

  “Hehe.” Sophia’s expression turned extra smug. “Before that, I need to borrow some more of the green patches around here.” Saying so, the blonde pointed and a couple of palm trees together with some cacti here and there around 100 meters left of them. A moment later, a portal swallowed the area and was gone entirely once it disappeared again. "Ari, we'll use the sand and palm trees as the basis for our island resort!”

  “I can’t wait!” Hearing that, the jaguar also got excited. “This will be such a nice place!”

  “An island resort doesn’t sound half bad.” Fen joined the conversation. “I’d like to reserve a permanent nap spot under a palm tree or two.”

  “Make sure two wolves fit there!” Aura also liked the idea.

  “Sure thing~.” Sophia gave them a thumbs up.

  "Oh, right, we also wanted to make a romantic lagoon to spite them, right?" Maya looked at Anna as she remembered their plan to make their own romantic-sounding place after Sophia and Ari had once more gotten flirty with each other.

  “Absolutely!” The princess reacted with a big nod. “We have to show them!”

  “A lagoon, huh?” Fen thought about it for a second. "I'd like to request a napping spot for wolves there, too." While he didn't care about the girls’ usual stupidity and flirtiness, he wanted to profit from it by getting more nice places to sleep.

  “I support this!” The female wolf agreed with him. “Nice and secluded, but still with a view, please.”

  “So demanding!” Anna stared at her. “Well, that should be arrangeable, though.”

  “Thank you!” Aura was happy about it.

  “Alrighty, with that taken care of, let’s head to the trade place!” Sophia wanted to get going.

  “And find some hints about my brother!” The princess energetically raised her arm high in the air.

  ----------------

  “By the way, how long has it been since your brother left the capital?” About half an hour had passed since they started moving again, and while the group was on top of a roughly ten-meter-high sand dune, Sophia got a little curious about the brother of the taller tiger.

  “Hmmm,” The princess tilted her head. “I’m not entirely sure. It’s definitely been a good while already, though. I’d say it’s been at least four years already.”

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  “It’s getting close to five years this summer," Ari added a little more detail.

  “Woah, that is quite a while!” The blonde seemed surprised. “Wait, how old is your brother?”

  “24.”

  “Nina’s also 24, by the way.” The jaguar smiled at Sophia.

  “Ohh, I see!” Sophia nodded a few times before she looked confused. “Who’s Nina?”

  “My sister.” Ari rolled her eyes. “You really have to do something about your bad name memory."

  “No, it’s the first time I’ve heard that name, too.” Maya defended the poor memory of her girlfriend. “I’m pretty sure it always was just sister during the few times she got mentioned.”

  “Oh, sorry about that.” She quickly apologized to the blonde.

  “I mean, I do have a track record in that regard.” Sophia couldn’t really blame her. “Still, how incredibly rude of you!” It didn’t stop her from doing so anyway, though.

  "Be better with names, and I'll stop being rude." Ari just stared at her.

  “24, huh?” As she had zero intentions of changing, or even the ability to do so, the blonde simply returned to the previous topic. “Well, I somewhat remember that you used your brother as an argument for Menzor to let you go traveling yourself because he left the capital when he was your age, so I guess it makes sense.”

  “Yep!” The princess nodded. “I was even more annoying than Nathan, so father let me go a couple of months earlier than him, though~.”

  "You're probably lucky he didn't kick you out when you were twelve." The jaguar lightly shook her head. “I feel like we can thank Kira for that.”

  “Do you really think I would’ve made it that far without mother?” Anna tilted her head.

  “It was an… optimistic guess.” She scratched her cheek. “Well, jokes aside, you know how to be a proper princess and daughter when you have to, so this was just a little messing around at the end of the day.”

  “Exactly~.”

  “Was it planned for your brother to be away from the capital for five years or longer?” Maya also got curious about it. “Isn’t that an awfully long time for the first prince of the country to not be there?”

  “The country is quite big, too.” Anna had an easy explanation for his long absence. “Nathan also wanted to learn how other mayors rule their cities in depth. There's a chance he's stayed for a month at the same place multiple times.”

  “Not to mention that the prince can’t use portals to take shortcuts, which saved us a lot of time.” Ari didn't think their ways of traveling were comparable, either.

  “That is fair.” The cat-girl nodded. “Our way of traveling is rather special.”

  “That’s putting it very mildly.”

  “Anyway, I don't remember father and Nathan ever agreeing on a time frame.” The princess looked at Maya. “It was more of a it takes however long it takes kind of deal.”

  “That’s my favorite kind of deal!” Sophia liked this way of doing things. “I wonder if your brother found anything interesting to look at during his travels that we should visit, as well!”

  “While it’s not impossible, I doubt it.” Anna shrugged. “Nathan wanted to get to know the kingdom's people rather than places. "Also, his magic was only on my level before you gave me some of yours. That means he has to be way more cautious while exploring and has to avoid many places we walked right through."

  “Ah, right…” The excitement on her face was gone in an instant.

  “Then again, he and his group did end up here.” Ari gestured at the desert around them. “To me, it seems like they’re quite the adventurous group.”

  “That is true!” The princess nodded a few times. “I still can’t wait to see who they are! They seem like a fun bunch. Not to mention that I have to tell them all the embarrassing secrets about Nathan that I know!”

  “You’re such a model sister!” Sophia gave her a thumbs up. “That’s just how it’s supposed to be~.”

  “As a fellow sibling, I’m glad you approve of my way.”

  “Of course!”

  “Luca would disagree with that.” Maya let out a small chuckle as she started smiling.

  “Yeah, because you, out of everyone, definitely didn’t do the same to him.” Sophia stared at her girlfriend.

  “I would never!” The cat-girl started pouting. "Wait, I already told you about the pranks we did to each other, right?"

  “Yup.” She nodded. “That’s why he definitely would disagree here.”

  “Never mind!” Maya immediately stopped pouting.

  “Who’s Luca?” Anna looked confused.

  “I don't think I’ve heard that name before, either.” Ari had the same expression.

  “That would be my brother.” Maya smiled at her. "He's two years older than me."

  “Oh, right!” The jaguar lightly clapped her hands. “You also had an older brother, hadn’t you? I guess it’s the same issue as Nina, huh? We always just called them sister or brother when talking about them.”

  “Pretty much.” The cat-girl nodded again. “Funnily enough, he’s also out there exploring. Just that it's over six years in his case already."

  “And you were surprised over how Nathan was gone for so long?” Anna tilted her head.

  “Well, Luca isn’t the prince of this nation for starters.” Maya stared at her. "Also, in my mother's words, he simply left the nest, so it’s not set in stone that he has any plans to return at all.”

  “Fair enough.”

  "Wait, even if he did, doesn't he currently have nothing to return to, anyway?" Sophia tilted her head. "You are with us, and your parents are still in the capital."

  “Ah.” The cat-girl hadn't thought about that yet. “Well, as long as he doesn’t return before we visit my home and place a portal there, it should be fine!”

  “You just jinxed it.” Everyone stared at her.

  “S-Shush!”

  Once everyone learned a little more about each other’s siblings, the girls put the topic on hold for the time being, and the group eventually continued their travel to the trade hub and to finally get out of the desert again.

  - Seri Tulo -

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