The group finished showing Sari their favorite spots in Sophia's domain, and the little girl seemed to have had a fantastic time because she was in an excellent mood from start to finish. As the other girls also wanted to meet the sisters' parents, they eventually decided to head back to introduce the whole group to Lydia and Pete.

"We're back!" The sisters, all three of them, with Sari still strapped to Sophia's chest, entered the living room of the cottage to greet Maya's parents and their own.

"Why is Sari eating a pinecone?!" Lydia immediately noticed something slightly worrying.

"Ga~!" The little girl in question briefly let go of it to smile at her mother.

"Well, it's her newest treasure, I guess." The tiger scratched her cheek. "When we showed her around, she kept grabbing everything in reach and tried to chomp on it. At one point, she was quicker than I was and… PinePacifier~."

"Pi~!" Sari was having a great time.

"Haa…" Their mother let out a sigh. "I would be upset with you if I wouldn't know how much she loves to nibble on anything she gets her little hands on. She outsmarted me a couple of times already, as well. Still, a pinecone?" She wasn't happy with the specific object her baby daughter was playing with.

"She tried to munch on so many tree and plant parts that Maya even said she'd be a great squirrel or something similar." Sophia let out a small chuckle. "There's no need to worry, though. There shouldn't be anything in this place that could make her sick. The pinecone itself also looked pristine and had no dirt on it."

"That's good." Lydia was relieved to hear that.

"I'm not sure about a squirrel, though." Pete joined the conversation with a small laugh on his end. "Sari has been starting to act more like a puppy lately because they also try to eat everything they find."

"Such slander!" The resident dog-girl, Steph, raised her voice.

"Didn't you also want to try how a pinecone tasted like earlier?" The oldest sister raised an eyebrow as she looked at her.

"…" Steph had no rebuttal there.

"Did you have fun, my dear?" Lydia then got closer to her daughters and lightly booped Sari's nose.

"Fu~!" She gave her a broad smile in return.

"Would you like to give me the pinecone?" Lydia slowly tried to reach it while saying so.

"Na!" Sari rapidly shook her head and moved her arm away from her mother.

"Well, that means she won't let go of it for the next three days." Pete let out a small chuckle. "It's her newest treasure, it seems." He looked used to the situation already.

"Yes…"

"How did the meeting go?" Sophia changed the topic as her eyes wandered between Maya's parents and hers. "Did you all get to know each other better?"

"Absolutely!" Pete nodded. "Eve and Theo are great people, and we're looking forward to meeting them more often!"

"We can only return the compliment." Eve smiled at them.

"That's great!" Steph and Sophia were happy to hear it.

"We also learned a lot about the world you ended up in." Lydia then faced the tiger again.

"Ohh!" She got excited over hearing that. "And?!"

"It's certainly a world."

"One of the worlds of all time." The expressions of her parents' faces turned cheeky.

"…" Sophia didn't appreciate that.

"It definitely sounds like an interesting place." Once she thoroughly enjoyed her reaction, Lydia eventually gave her a more serious reply. "We are not against seeing more of it."

"Yes." Pete nodded. "It seems like a good place worth at least a visit."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Let's go!" Steph also got excited over that.

"Visit, not moving." Her parents stared at the dog-girl.

"One step after another!" She didn't even try to hide it.

"Regardless of that, we also learned a lot about you." Lydia then smirked at her striped daughter.

"Like, a lot, a lot." Pete had the same reaction.

"So did we~." Eve and Theo's smiles were a little gentler as they looked at the tiger.

"A-Ah." Sophia's expression changed as her tail completely froze in place. "A-Anyway, Maya, Chloe!" Diverting the attention, she suddenly yelled towards the hallway."

"Isn't that convenient?" Maya rolled her eyes while joining the others in the living room. They had naturally been listening to their exchange the entire time.

"Always happy to help~." Chloe just happily waved at them.

"Chloe!" Seeing the fluffy pink fox, Lydia and Pete immediately walked up to her and gave her a quick hug.

"I'm happy to see you two, too~." She gladly hugged them back.

"I expect you to cause them to have the same reaction towards you by the end of the week!" Eve stared at her own daughter.

"Ahaha…" The white cat wasn't sure what to say. "I just met them, okay?"

"That's why I said by the end of the week and not today." Eve gave her a thumbs-up.

"By the way, why are you here?" Pete tilted his head once they finished welcoming Chloe and looked at her.

"We thought you all would need a break from getting to know each other, so we brought her along." Sophia was the one who answered her.

"I don't think we needed a break from that." Lydia lightly shook her head while smiling at their new friends. "A break to let all the new information sink in is very appreciated, though."

"That is quite true." Pete felt the same.

"Great!" Sophia clapped her hands. "We thought we'd introduce you to our other friends while you were here already. They were curious to meet you, too. Not just Chloe."

"Ohh!" Her mother seemed to like the plan. "I can't wait to hear more stories about our striped daughter!"

"What we heard from Theo and Eve was already highly interesting, so that will be fun!" Her father felt the same. "More about Steph would be nice, too!"

"A-Ah." Sophia froze for a moment. "It might be wise to reconsider." She then faced the dog-girl with an awkward expression.

"Come in, girls!" She didn't share her worry and just yelled down the hallway.

Afterward, everyone, including the wolves, entered the living room one after another, overcrowding the place just a little bit. Once everyone was there, they went ahead and introduced themselves to the sisters' parents to tell them who they were.

----------------

"Meeting speaking wolves wasn't on my bingo card for life." Once everyone finished introducing themselves, Pete's eyes kept wandering towards Aura and Fen. "How does that even work? I'm incredibly curious! I'm fairly sure wolves don't have vocal cords capable of speech like that. Also, please stop me if I ask anything that is insensitive! I have no idea what is and isn't okay in this situation…"

"That's because we're not regular wolves." Aura faced him. "We share most external features, but internal characteristics differ here and there. It's similar to how your daughters are now, only that our looks are even closer to our ancestors."

"Our group here paints a rather one-sided picture, too." Steph smiled at her father. "The wolves aside, all of us only have tails, ears, and some character traits from our animal side. There are plenty of partly humanoid versions with full body fur or animal-like limbs, among many other things."

"Ohh, that sounds so interesting!" Pete was a fan of this information.

"Our current forms aren't our regular original ones, either." Fen lightly shook his head. "While it's visually speaking similar, I'm originally over two meters tall. So is Aura, we've shrunken ourselves to fit better into things like this cottage."

"Seriously?" The sisters' father got even more interested. "I'd love to see that at some point."

"That can be arranged." The male wolf nodded at him.

"Awesome!"

"We're totally getting dad hooked on this world," Steph smirked at her older sister.

"Hehe."

"And you actually are a real princess?" Lydia was more interested in the tall tiger for the time being.

"Yes." Anna nodded. "I may not look very princess-like, but I am indeed the daughter of King Menzor, king and ruler of the beastfolk kingdom of the regular world outside of this place we're currently in."

"Wow!" Her eyes started sparkling. "That sounds so fancy! It's my first time meeting an actual princess up close. I can almost feel the dignified aura radiating from you!"

"…" The princess got a little embarrassed.

"I'm impressed that a princess is allowed to walk around so freely!" Lydia kept going. "In our world, princesses in stories are often shown as sheltered and not being allowed to roam around as they please."

"Father knows I'd level the castle if he tried to keep me indoors all day." Anna gave her a thumbs-up. "Letting me leave the capital was for his own safety, as well, because I'm a bit of a troublemaker~."

"Oho, I think I prefer this type of princess over the stereotypical ones from our world!"

"I'm happy to hear that." The tall tiger smiled at her.

"I certainly wouldn't mind if you'd hold back every now and then, though." Ari rolled her eyes while staring at the proud-looking princess. "It is an all-too-common trait of the tigers, though." She then let out a sigh while peeking at Sophia.

"It's a curse~." Both tigers perfectly synced up.

"I can see how that misunderstanding formed." Seeing how in tune her striped daughter was with Anna, she recalled the conversation with Maya's parents and how Sophia had been readily accepted as a quasi-member of the royal family.

"Yes, they are quite good at misunderstandings." The jaguar nodded a few times.

"You have NO right to complain about that!" Anna and Maya raised their voices while glaring at Ari.

"…" She went silent and stole a glance at Sophia, who only shrugged in return.

Once the initial excitement had calmed down a little, Lydia and Pete continued to ask them more questions, wanting to get to know their daughters' friends even better.

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