Chapter 133 – Underground lake

Sophia and Maya had finally cleared the maze inside the underground area the wolves built. However, the couple was still super motivated and decided to explore the place some more. After the maze, the two found a path that led them into a long and dark tunnel, which they chose to follow for a while.

"Ohhh!" Once they finally reached the end of it, the couple found themselves in yet another cave. Still, this one had nothing in common with the previous one with the maze. It was a good bit smaller but much more impressive nonetheless, and Maya let out a sound of admiration. "I've never seen so many glowworms at once!" They found the cave with the underground lake the wolves mentioned, but there was something much more eye-catching. The ceiling above the crystal-clear water was filled with an uncountable amount of tiny blue lights illuminating the cave. It almost looked like a starry night sky if not for the many plants and web-like strings hanging from the ceiling. "So pretty!"

"Uhh... T-Those countless blue dots are i-insects...?" Sophia's expression was as far away from admiration as it was possible.

"What else should it be?"

"H-How am I supposed to know?! Glowy cave magic?" The tiger would've liked this explanation much more.

"Nope. Thousands, if not millions of insects."

"I-I see..." Sophia glanced at the ceiling again while a shudder ran down her spine. "W-Woah... T-They're m-massive, too!" As if on cue, some of the glowworms descended from the ceiling, and flew around in the cave. Naturally, they came pretty close to Sophia's face, too, because why wouldn't they. "Uuh..." Her expression changed even more as she squeezed Maya's hand she was holding.

"Don't tell me you're scared of them, too?!" The cat-girl remembered that she wasn't good with any sort of insects and the likes.

"I-I'm not scared!" She didn't sound overly convincing while her ears started to nervously dart all over the place. The tiger's tail also looked all puffed up while it had wrapped itself around her leg. Her inner cat had betrayed her.

"Really now?" Maya only stared at her.

"I-It can't be helped, okay?! She caved in. "It's not like I'm doing that on purpose..."

"But it looks so pretty!" The cat looked at the beautifully illuminated ceiling created by the blue light of the glowworms that was even reflected by the lake's surface.

"I-I want to agree, but right now... I just want to set the entire cave on fire... Literally, I want to add. I have the strong urge to use some fire magic."

"Please don't."

"I'll try..."

"But why? It's not like they can hurt you."

"Basically nothing can hurt me." It didn't help Sophia to calm down.

"F-Fair point." Maya forgot how ridiculous her girlfriend was for a moment.

"I just think bugs are nasty! I don't have to be rational to dislike something..."

"Yeah, why would you start there." Maya didn't think much, if any the tiger does, is based on rationality.

"Urgh..."

"But look at it." The cat-girl pointed at the top part of the cave. "It looks so beautiful, romantic even."

"Uuh..." She glanced at the blue illumination, trying not to be disgusted by ignoring the source of the light. "Y-You might be right. It's fascinating." She still looked scared, though.

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Once Sophia got somewhat used to the glowworms above them, the two got closer to the lake in the middle of the cave.

"The water looks so great! The reflection of the blue light is so beautiful, and it's so clear. You can see all the way to the bottom." Maya was mesmerized by the view.

"Yeah, it's amazing." Sophia, too, liked it. She then remembered something else that often happens when the two are at a lake or the sea. "Wanna go for a swim?"

"I think my swimsuit is in the mansion."

"You don't need that, do you?" The tiger wanted to get back at Maya, who tried the same many times before.

"That's true." Unfortunately, the cat-girl doesn't get flustered that easy most of the time. Instead, she simply took off her vest and threw it at Sophia. She didn't stop there, though. Immediately after, Maya started to unbutton her shirt.

"H-Hold on!" Once Sophia got a good view of the sporty bra beneath and enjoyed it for a couple of seconds, she finally stopped the cat-girl from stripping. "I-I was just kidding! In the first place, it's pretty cold in the cave. I don't even want to know how freezing the water is."

"Aww." With a slight pout, Maya buttoned up her shirt again. "You're no fun."

"W-Why are you so good at this?! I probably would've simply gotten embarrassed and useless again if you asked me..."

"Well, I don't mind undressing in front of you. I did that a ton of times already. Not to mention that we've gone a lot further already. All the way, to be exact. Multiple times, I want to add."

"T-That is true… but still… I really need to get more confident…"

"Also, I had a greater goal in mind."

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Do you actually think I wouldn't make you strip, too?" Maya flashed her a cheeky smile. "Who knows what would've happened afterward, then~."

"A-Ah."

"You might be right, though. The water's guaranteed to be ice cold. Okay, let's save the stripping for when we're back in the mansion. In our bedroom, to be more precise."

"S-Sure..." Either way, Sophia ended up being the embarrassed one. She didn't seem to be against the idea, though. "I really can't win against you, can I?"

"Do you feel like you've lost, though?" Maya playfully nudged her side.

"Uhh..." The tiger thought about what stripping in their bedroom would entail. "N-No."

"I thought as much~." She liked her answer.

Afterward, the two got even closer to the water and sat down on the shore there. While relaxing, they looked around in the cave to take in the sights.

"Soo... we're in a cave below the beastfolk capital after running through a maze made by two oversized, not to mention overpowered wolves. What did you think your life would look like a year ago?" Sophia found their situation very bizarre.

"You forgot to mention being surrounded by millions of glowy insects."

"Stop that!" She only barely managed to blend that out before.

"Ehehe." Maya couldn't help it. "I most likely would still be researching magic on my own and bugging Masi to test it out on him. My life sure made a drastic turn back then. Thanks for that." She sounded pretty happy. "You?"

"I honestly don't even want to think about it." Sophia made a slight grimace. "I'm definitely better off now. No questioning that."

"Absolutely."

The couple continued to chat and cuddle for a while, but even them being all over each other didn't make up for the rather cold climate inside the cave. Its size and the groundwater lake made the temperature drop considerably. As it was slowly becoming uncomfortable, especially because neither of them was dressed enough for the occasion, the two decided to leave. Magic to heat up the area around them would've been an option, but they wanted to explore more, anyway.

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Looking around in the cave for a minute, they soon found the exit at the other side of the lake. It was yet another tunnel that led the couple to whatever the wolves had in store next.

"Hmm..." While the two were navigating through the tunnel after the cave, Sophia looked a little confused.

"What's wrong?"

"This new part of the maze is super weird. We went up for a while, and now it doesn't stop going down. Every time we come across a fork, the elevation seems to change."

"Yeah," Maya nodded. "I even think we're running in circles. It seems like they made the floors all connected with each other through those ramps. Multiple times even, because it feels like we've been in this tunnel before."

"Really? So, we're lost again, huh?"

"Nothing new, is it?"

"Not at all." Sophia agreed. The two probably took every wrong turn possible in the maze.

"This one might be easy to solve, though." The cat-girl apparently had figured it out already. "If we keep going up, we should eventually reach the surface, right?"

"You think so? I kinda doubt this secret maze would lead to the surface somewhere in the capital."

"Ah." She hadn't thought about that.

"Well, it might lead back to our home." The tiger wasn't against the plan. "I have no other ideas, either."

Setting the plan into motion, the couple decided to go up inside the maze whenever it was possible. They kept going for around an hour before the corridors eventually leveled out. It seemed to be far from over, though. As expected, there was no exit in the middle of the capital. Instead, the path they were following simply didn't stop. There were many twists and turns, but the two had to make no decisions anymore as there were no forks and the likes.

"Seriously...?" Maya looked disappointed once, after another half an hour, the path finally did stop.

"A dead-end? Wow, you can do better than that, Fenny." Sophia had a very similar expression, but it soon changed to surprise as she looked towards the ceiling. "Oh?"

"What's wrong?

"We, uhh, ended up in a very interesting place."

"Where?"

"We're right beneath the castle."

"Ehh?!" The cat-girl naturally was shocked. "Wait, how do you know?"

"I'm detecting Ellie, Anna, and all the others above us."

"Okay, I had a lot of fun in the maze, and I really enjoyed it, but I'm going to scold the wolves for that. Tunneling below the royal castle is a little too much."

"Ahaha." Sophia could only laugh. "How about we pay them a visit?"

"Our wolves?"

"No, the tigers."

"Ahh. Wait, how? You don't want to dig a tunnel into the castle, do you?"

"I was more thinking of a faraway corner in the garden. I look out for any people with my detection magic, we get out, and I close up the hole again."

"I always get confused when you have a plan that makes sense..."

"Oh, shut up."

"Ehehe. Sure, why not. We're here already, after all. Well, more or less." Maya agreed to the plan.

"Alright." Sophia concentrated on her detection magic for a while, and once the coast was clear, she quickly created an exit of the maze behind a couple of trees. Once the two were out, the tiger let it disappear again. Walking around in the garden for a while, the couple then looked for some familiar faces to spend a little time with them.

Teanam

For reasons that might be beyond the understanding of most, here's also a version of Maya not wearing her overknees:

(Unless you are even a little into legs. It's pretty easy to understand, then.)

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There also is an earlier concept version with a different angle:

A big thanks to @San_plus_ on Twitter for making this amazing illustration!

Once again, a gigantic THANK YOU to everyone supporting the story on Patreon for making those illustrations possible! This one here especially because I love it sooo much!