Sophia, Ari, and Anna finally met up with Nathan's group, who were naturally a little confused about the sudden sight of the two tigers and a jaguar. At first, they thought they were hallucinating, but once Anna threatened her brother with a fireball to his face, he quickly realized they were real.

  “By the way, I love your hair!” While the siblings were having their reunion, the other three were engaging in small talk, and the puma complimented Sophia. “It’s such a nice light blonde!”

  “Thank you!” Sophia smiled at her. “I was about to say the same, though! The reddish brown is amazing! As well as your white inner hair and the lighter blondish tips!"

  “Hehe~.” She liked the compliment. “The somewhat blonde tips are actually the remains of my winter coat. When it’s cold, I turn mostly blonde and white, while I’m fully reddish and white during summer. The light tips should be fully gone in a few weeks.”

  “That’s so cool!” Sophia nodded a few times. “My hair does something similar, but it stayed lighter colored this year. Not that I’m complaining.” She wasn’t complaining because she did it on purpose, after all. “Oh, that’s why some of the people told us that the prince is traveling with a yellowish blonde puma, huh? You were there when it was winter.”

  “That sounds about right.” She nodded. “Wait, so you girls were following our path while trying to catch up?”

  "Something like that." The blonde didn't feel like going into detail just yet.

  “Speaking of, I didn’t know blonde tigers are a thing.” The cat-boy joined in on the conversation. “Admittedly, I only know Nathan, and now you and his sisters, but I’ve always heard they’re orange?”

  “Yeah, everyone I meet is surprised about that.” Sophia scratched her cheek. “If I remember right, Menzor mentioned that tigers in the past also were a bit lighter, and it somewhat correlates to magic power.” She remembered how the king tried to gaslight himself into explaining how and why Sophia is how she is. “With me being slightly on the stronger side, this kind of blonde probably is the furthest it can go with still being tiger adjacent?”

  “Slightly on the stronger side?!” The two got loud. “Seriously, what are you?!”

  “Just your friendly neighborhood tiger~.”

  “What does that even mean?!” It didn’t exactly help them.

  “We’ll get to that later once the siblings are done.” She glanced at the four before focusing on the puma and cat again. “I really don't feel like explaining everything multiple times.”

  “Fair enough.” While curious, the cat-boy couldn’t blame her. “Still to think I was powerful… Well, my sister already beats me anyway, but you being that much stronger is impressive to say the least.”

  “Does that mean you’re not going to challenge her like you do with every other strong individual?” The puma smirked at him.

  “I’m not that stupid, okay?!” He glared back at her. “Even I know my limits!”

  “Wow, that’s a first.” She couldn’t believe it.

  “Shut up!”

  “Hehe.” Sophia still liked their dynamic. “Still, something feels familiar about you…” She then circled around the black-haired cat-boy to look at him from every angle. "Even more so after the challenge thing just now."

  “Really?” He tilted his head. “As I said earlier, before today, Nathan’s the only tiger I’ve ever met, so I kind of doubt it.”

  “Yeah, I’m positive I haven’t seen you before either, but there is something about you…”

  “Well, I’m not sure what to say.” He scratched his cheek. “By the way, my name is Luca. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Vivianne!” The puma also smiled at her. “But please call me Vivi, though. Everyone does that.”

  “Will do~.” The tiger smiled back at her and the cat-boy. “I’m Sophia, and it’s nice to meet you two, too! WAIT!" She then intensified her stare at the cat-boy. “Did you say Luca just now…?”

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  “Yes…?” He looked rather confused over her reaction.

  “There’s just no way! Absolutely not!” She rapidly shook her head.

  “I’m fairly certain that’s my name, though.” Luca tilted his head.

  “No, that’s not what I meant.” Sophia was trying to find the right words. “Okay, this is a bit of a stretch, but does the name Maya ring a bell for you?”

  “How and why do you know the name of my sister?” He got even more confused.

  “Okay, that’s it! We’re living in a simulation!” The blonde got loud. “Well, actually, with Canir… uhh…” She mumbled those words only to herself.

  “What does that mean?” Naturally, Luca had no idea what she was talking about.

  “That’s not important.” Sophia shook her head. “I now know why you feel familiar, though. Maya, your sister, she isn't here with us right now, but she’s actually a part of our group, too.”

  “That’s just impossible!”

  “Pure white hair and tail? Super strong, at least when not compared to me, loves to fight and using magic? A bit of a menace and slightly dumb at times when it comes to things not related to magic?” She remembered how she didn't even know about tigers back then. “Don't tell her about the last part, though.”

  “Okay, hmm, that does sound like her.” He nodded. “Especially the last part.” He was her brother, after all, and had to go for that. “Wait, if she’s part of your group, where is she now?”

  “She’s currently exploring a different place with some other friends.” Sophia once more didn’t want to go into detail just yet. “We'll meet them later, though."

  “That will certainly be an interesting meeting.” He liked the plan. “Is she doing well?”

  “She sure is~.” The blonde smiled at him again. “She isn’t as much of a musclehead anymore, either.”

  “That sounds highly unlikely.” He couldn’t believe that claim, though.

  “Yeah, it’s fair that this seems unlikely for you.” She couldn’t blame him for that.

  ----------------

  Once Sophia had befriended Vivi and Luca, with the latter turning out to be Maya’s brother, the siblings also completed their reunion.

  “Who are you?” Once she was done with Anna, Nathan quickly focused on the other tiger.

  “I’m Sophia!” She smiled at him.

  “Hmm.” He paused for a moment and noticed her magic. “What are you?”

  “Your friendly neighborhood tiger~.” The blonde used the same introduction as earlier.

  “…” Not knowing what to say, he looked at Anna instead. “She’s not the little sister we now have that you mentioned, right? Her name was Ellie, wasn’t it?”

  “Ellie is four.” The princess shook her head. “Sophia here seems a little older, doesn’t she?”

  “Then, who is she? I don’t remember any blonde tigers, especially none as powerful as she is.”

  “She’s an invaluable and, more importantly, dear friend of mine and the royal family. She is responsible for many advancements to improve the quality of life for the entire beastfolk. According to Father, she’s the most important person for our folk in recent history.”

  “I still have many questions, but that alone is enough for me to express my deepest gratitude.” He gave her a slight bow. “I am Prince Nathan, son of King Menzor, and I thank you very much for your achievements.”

  “Could we not be so formal? That always makes me feel itchy.” Sophia wasn't a fan of how he expressed himself.

  “Gladly.” He seemed to prefer that, too.

  “I’m Nina, by the way.” The golden jaguar joined the conversation. “As you may know already, I’m Ari’s older sister. Thank you for taking care of her.”

  “No.” Sophia shook her head. “She’s really the one taking care of me.”

  “Ahaha.” Nina let out a small chuckle before glancing at Anna and Nathan. “She’s definitely a fellow tiger.”

  “…” The siblings had nothing to say there.

  “I mean, there’s a small difference between Anna and me, but our Ari is still paramount for keeping the group in check.”

  “Your Ari is still waiting for the salary increase, though.” The black-haired jaguar stared back at her.

  “I’d like to apply for that increase, too.” Nina glanced at Nathan for a moment before looking at her sister again. “Wait, why do you make a difference between Anna and Sophia? Ah, because you’re only dating the princess. Right, that makes sense.”

  “Exact- HOW do you know that?!” Ari raised her voice. “I haven’t told you about that yet!”

  "Dearest sister of mine, it was already perfectly obvious that you two are a thing when Nathan and I left almost five years ago.”

  “Yeah.” The prince nodded. “Everyone in the castle except maybe father knew about it.”

  "I hate it here…" The two in question hung their heads in shame.

  “What’s wrong?” Nina tilted her head while looking at the blonde.

  “Those two dense and oblivious idiots only realized and confessed their feelings for each other last year.” Sophia slowly shook her head while looking tired.

  “HOW?!” Nina and Nathan had the same reaction.

  “We don’t want to talk about it!” Anna and Ari glared at their siblings.

  “On another topic, how did you even find us?!” Ignoring the embarrassed couple, Nathan continued to focus on the blonde. “Father never would’ve allowed Anna to leave the capital before finishing school, and even if you took another path than us, you never should've been able to reach us since then."

  “Well, I sure hope you didn’t have any other plans for today~.” Sophia reacted with a cheeky smile. "How about we sit down because this will take a while." She then gestured at the picnic tables where they had been waiting for the group to arrive.

  Afterward, they did just that and got comfortable on the benches. While doing so, Anna and Ari also exchanged introductions with Vivi and Luca because they hadn’t had the chance to do so yet. Ari was also eager to learn more about the puma's relationship with her sister. Still, after the earlier damage she had taken, she needed a little longer to recover and let Sophia do her thing first.

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