<h4>Chapter 239: Princess Carry!</h4>
Kat was about to p her hands together, but considered that, with the position that Minor''s ears were currently upying, such a decision would probably be frowned upon by the aforementioned party.
*Now the temptation to do it anyway is strong.* Ignoring her more childish side, Kat instead spoke her thoughts out loud "Well, now that we''ve thoroughly established we don''t know what we are doing. What are we doing?" asked Kat
Minor let out a chuckle and shuffled herself so that she was now leaning with her left side against Kat so that she could actually speak without silk kimono getting in her way. "Well, we can go wandering then try to backtrack. That''s probably our best bet, especially if we can see our footprints in the snow.
"That way, we can at least confirm a few things in the worst case scenario, and in the best case, this scene works like the rest of them and backtracking will take us to the next one. It might be as simple as, ''to move forward you must first take a step back'' and other such nonsense
"Major was… well, saying she was fond of them would be a lie, Major thought most of it was nonsense, but she did love repeating it to other people. I think some of those people thought she was trying to be clever, but, as the one living in her head, I know it was because she wanted to act cool like mum, who actually has real words of wisdom"
Kat shrugged "I knew some people that were like that at the orphanage"
Kat paled as soon as the words left her mouth. *I don''t think I was supposed to say that. Does this count as talking about my home world? Pretty sure I wasn''t supposed to do that…*
Before Kat could work out what to do Minor gasped and asked "Wait, you grew up in an orphanage? Demons have orphanages?"
*Ah shit… Do I deflect? I mean… I don''t mind telling her aside from the whole ''don''t talk or else'' really… but does it apply here? I don''t think I want to risk it but… maybe I can deflect a bit* "Well, I don''t see why they wouldn''t. Surely you can believe a number of demon parents are irresponsible" said Kat
Minor nodded at this as if she had grasped some universal truth. Kat felt her stomach churning at the thought. *I really dislike misleading her like this. Clearly it''s true else I couldn''t speak the words but I don''t like this any more than just lying to Minor… I''ll have to find a way to get permission from the systemter. Maybe even use a token for it if I have to. I need the other one for maybe making Lily into a wizard but I can spare one for Minor surely.*
Kat shook her head "Anyway, I''m getting distracted. Do you need me to carry you as we walk?" asked Kat
Minor stiffened at this question, and while Kat couldn''t see it Minor had a frown on her face. She was warring with twopeting parts of her mind. One wanted to say she was fully capable of walking by herself, but the other was very pleased with the idea of getting more hugs from Kat and decided being carried around counted.
"Ah… um, I can walk" said Minor with a heavy heart
Kat seemed to notice the discordant tone and asked "Well, sure you can but do you want to?"
Minor bit her lip, and managed to shake her head. "Sure I can carry you then" said Kat standing up and letting Minor sit back into a princess carry.
"Y-you don''t have to if it''s a bother" said Minor
Katughed "Ha, I have super strength and outstanding endurance. If I can''t use that to carry a friend in need then what use am I?" asked Kat
Minor twinged at thatst part, wanting to insist she didn''t need this, but that same part of her mind that argued for the hugs insisted that, while she didn''t physically need this, perhaps she actually did need it more than she let on.
Kat noticed something a little off in Minor''s expression as she started to trudge off through the snow, but chose to leave it for now. Kat''s chosen direction was straight ahead… because when every direction is endless snow and a few trees, every direction is the same.
Once Kat had made her way past a few trees so that if she so decided she could block her vision of the ce they''d been dropped, Kat voiced a question to Minor "So, how long do we walk forward for do you think?"
"Um, maybe just till you can''t see where we dropped in?" asked Minor unsure, still enjoying being carried by Kat.
"Well, about that. I can move so that some trees line up and block said sight, but without going off course, I can see for a rather extreme distance, and that''s before I add any demonic energy to the mix. I''d say we could walk for something like… twenty minutes? Maybe more? Before it gets hard to make out where we started" said Kat
"Hmmm" said Minor "I don''t know what would constitute proper testing in this scenario"
*Well, that really is the question. I could maybe do them all and just fly back? Unless walking is somehow important. I was sorta forced into it all the other times so I''m not sure… *
"Should I fly back? It''d be faster but the walking might be important" said Kat
"Huh, I hadn''t even thought of that. It might be, just as easily as it might not be. It''s hard to say because Major can''t fly, and YOU are the only thing we''ve seen across all the dreams that is capable of flight…
"Well, Grandmother might be able to do something about it, but Major and I haven''t seen her fly, so perhaps it would be more urate to say you are the only thing we know that can fly, and even then Major didn''t know at the time she fell asleep" said Minor
"Huh" said Kat "That might be important"
Minor shrugged. "Ok, well, I''m going to block my view of the starting point and then run back" said Kat
Minor nodded, and Kat got to work. It wasn''t hard, it only required moving to the side and letting a tree fill her vision. Once that was done, Kat looked at her footprints and assured herself that they were in fact still there.
*Welp, let''s do this, without flying? Without flying.* Kat moved herself back onto her long line of footprints. "Minor you might want to move to my back for this one"
Minor frowned but nodded. Kat moved Minor around so that she set in between her wings. It was a little tight of a fit and said wings were being pressed down, but it worked well enough. Kat then looped her tail around Minor just to be safe, and got into a runner''s pose.
Kat took in a breath, and kicked off the ground. Snow exploded from the space Kat just upied as she set off. Her legs cleaved through the snow as if it wasn''t even there shoving it aside and piling up the snow on the edges of her chosen path.
With Kat moving at full speed instead of a walking pace it barely even took a minute to get back to the original clearing. Kat let herself start slowing down once she saw the end of the trail so that she didn''tpletely destroy such a clear area of where exactly she had sat up.
As it was, when Kat slowed down and looked at the area, it was the same as before. It still had the spot marking clearly where she had sat up, and a few remaining footprints that hadn''t been removed in her mad dash.
Carefully, taking it a step at a time and using the previous footprints Kat made her way back to the exact spot she had entered the winter section and… nothing happened. "Well, that''s disappointing" said Kat
Minor let out a heavy breath of air. Kat may have been used to the speeds, but even with the support of Kat''s tail it was hard on her arms. Sure she could just remove the pain, and she did. But it was much worse than sitting in Kat''s arms
"It seems that way. Do we want to try going even further away? How long did you spend wandering in the other two areas" asked Minor
"Oh, quite a while I''m sure. At least half an hour in each case" said Kat
"Hmm, do you think it???s a timing thing maybe?" asked Minor
Kat bit her lip "A timing and then return thing? I guess it could be, but I don''t think so. Or at least, I suspect the Summer one wasn''t though, we have no way to check"
"Back to the drawing board?" asked Minor
"Well, we can still do some more running" said Kat
"Great" said Minor, who instantly brightened when Kat moved her back to her arms.