Anna and Maya got together to work on the lagoon they had decided to create a little while ago. Just as Sophia and Ari did for their island, they also used Kel's ocean as a base for their operations, as it was perfect for that. After using a lot of magic and the rescued palm trees from the desert oasis, they were pretty happy with the result and spent the rest of the days relaxing there.

"Okay, now that we've gotten that out of our systems, shall we travel a bit more in the regular world?" The day after the cats worked on their tropical places, Sophia suggested a change of pace when all six girls were in the living room together.

"Let's go!" Steph liked the idea.

"Got what out of your systems?" Chloe looked a little confused as she looked at the girls.

"Don't worry about it." Ari just smiled at her.

"Okay?"

"I smell something saucy!" The dog-girl got even more excited.

"You're going to love it!" Maya smiled at her. "I'm going to tell you about my plan later!" After all, the cat-girl knew that Steph would be in on the idea of a nude-only lagoon.

"I can't wait!"

"Anyway, should we get going?" The blonde wanted to get back on topic. "I want to reach the ocean so we can start walking towards the monster country to get ready for the demon continent!"

"Gladly!" Anna energetically nodded. "The ocean's also the biggest chance to get more information on Nathan's whereabouts!"

"Nathan's her brother." Ari smiled at the confused-looking blonde.

"Thank you!" The girl with the non-existent memory for names was glad about the help.

"I agree with Anna, too. I also would like to see my sister again, so finding Nathan and his group would be amazing!"

"We'll definitely keep an eye out for them!" Sophia smiled at them. "Well, I won't because I have no idea how they look, but you know what I mean~."

"There aren't that many tigers besides us outside the capital, so spotting my brother won't be that difficult." Anna looked at her fellow striped friend.

"Fair enough." The blonde nodded. "It definitely would be nice to meet them, but the chances are pretty slim, so don't get too disappointed if we don't, okay?"

"Of course!"

"By the way, speaking of the demon continent, have we already decided how to actually get there?" Chloe tilted her head. "I mean, we're heading for the monster country because it's the closest, but there's still an ocean in between."

"Excellent question!" Sophia gave her a thumbs-up.

"You have no idea, do you?" The fox-girl knew that reaction.

"I just said excellent question, did I not?" The blonde shrugged. "I mean, I could freeze the ocean, and we could simply walk to the demons, but I feel like that would have some adverse effects on the ecosystem."

"There's also a 0% chance that I'm going to walk on anything frozen for days or even weeks." Ari vigorously shook her head while listening to the crazy tiger.

"A convincing point you make there." Sophia agreed with her. "That might even be more important than the destruction of the ecosystem."

"Very much so!" The jaguar raised her voice a little.

"I hate you cats so much…" Steph already had enough of them before they even started traveling.

Stolen story; please report.

"I guess we could take a boat?" Ari ignored the dog-girl. "Then again, we'd need something bigger to cross an ocean, huh? Not to mention that the water around the demon continent is supposedly littered with monsters! Actually, how about we not go?!" Having remembered that part, she immediately changed her mind on the idea.

"Wait!" Hearing that, Steph managed to get even more excited as her expression changed into a big smile. "We have our own sea-monster friend now! Let's ask Kel if he can help us! Let's arrive on the demon continent with style by riding a water dragon!"

"Hah." The blonde paused for a moment. "I like that!"

"Definitely better than traversing on ice." The jaguar lightly nodded. "He surely would also automatically scare away any other type of monster, so it would be a win-win."

"Oh my gosh, that's such an amazing idea!" Sophia's eyes were sparkling. "I'll immediately ask him when we get back in the evening!"

"Ehehe~." Steph was happy that her sister liked the plan so much. "I wonder if he has been to the demon continent before. Well, he did know about the type of dragons Aura fought, so I guess? There aren't enough dragons on this continent to have this kind of knowledge from here, right?" She looked at Ari and Anna at the end.

"Very much so!" The two agreed with her.

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Once the girls agreed on a way to get to the demon continent, or at least the newest iteration of it, they finally returned to the regular world to get some actual traveling in after having gotten sidetracked a lot.

They arrived at the portal on the corner of the desert, next to the trade city where the cats had last left off, and started walking in the direction of the ocean. Or, sprinting, in the case of Chloe and Steph, because they needed to get as far as possible away from the desert as fast as they could. It was a matter of life or death for them, after all. That's what they said, at least.

"We survived!" After around an hour of sprinting, Steph and Chloe arrived at a small river where the dog-girl smiled at her fox while they were taking a break.

"The running might've been almost as bad as the heat, though…" Looking and sounding rather exhausted, Chloe let out a sigh as she sat on the side of the lake, dangling her legs and feet in the water to cool down.

"There's no way, even for you lazy fox, that a desert at noon is worse than a bit of a run."

"…" Chloe pouted for a moment after being called lazy, but as she had no means of correcting her, she eventually hung her head.

"Haha."

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

"With that, your complaint privileges are fully void from now on." Around 20 minutes later, as the cats had no reason to hurry, the other four reunited with them, and Ari stared at the dog-girl while slowly shaking her head. "Saying you hate us for not wanting to walk on ice while literally running away from being a little warm mere minutes later is the pinnacle of hypocrisy."

"That was more than just a little warm!" Steph tried to defend herself.

"The outskirts of a desert are not worse than a frozen ocean." The jaguar had no intention of letting her go. "Like, it's not even close. Admittedly, we might be winy, but you're no better by any stretch of the imagination."

"…" Steph could only awkwardly scratch her cheek in return.

"She absolutely got you there, and I couldn't be happier about it." Sophia grinned at her sister. "You're just as bad as we are~."

"So is Chloe, of course." Maya glanced at the tired-looking girl dangling her feet in the lake. "For our lazy fox to run away from some heat like this was quite a sight to behold."

"H-Hey!" The girl in question started pouting again.

"Prove me wrong~." The cat-girl stuck out her tongue.

"…"

"Ehehe~." Maya liked her reaction, or the lack thereof. "I'd argue that teasing each other about it is still fine, though. It's fun, after all! Seriously being upset over it won't be accepted anymore, though."

"It never was accepted in the first place!" Even though she was the one being lectured, Steph couldn't let that one slide.

"Don't fret over such small details~." The cat-girl smirked at her.

"Grrr." She didn't appreciate that.

"That's a cute lake." Anna decided to change the topic and got closer to Chloe and the water.

"It's nice and cool, too." The fox-girl let out a small chuckle while lightly kicking her legs that were still submerged in it.

"Ahaha." The princess smiled at her. "It's flowing in the same direction we're headed, too." She followed the flow of the river with her eyes. "Is it possible that this river feeds into the ocean?"

"Rivers often do that, so there's definitely a possibility." Chloe nodded in agreement.

"Wait, that's the direction we're headed?!" Sophia looked at the path of the river. "I thought the ocean's that way?!" The directionally challenged girl then pointed in a completely different direction to her left.

"…" Everyone just stared at her while slowly shaking their heads.

"I hate it here." The blonde got a little embarrassed.

"Should we follow it for a bit and see where it leads us?" Ari also had enough of the previous topic and dropped it, as well. "If it changes direction at some point, we can still return to the correct path."

"Let's go!" Steph liked the suggestion and quickly recovered from the talking she had received just minutes ago.

Having decided on their course of action, Chloe pulled her legs out of the water, dried them, and put on her shoes again before the girls started walking alongside the river to see where it would lead them in their endeavor to reach the ocean.

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