The Darcoak Woods

Finn, Zoey, Faranne, and Adeline started walking in the Darcoak Woods forest, behind Lilith and Itzel, who were running all over the place, to find any lead, that could take them to Katsumi's sister. And while they wanted to find her soon, they were walking at a fairly normal pace, and most of them were calm, and relaxed, because of the ambience of the forest.

The Darcoak Woods is a large forest, conformed by many different types of trees, mostly very tall dark oak trees, that were so huge, that the wood they would get from just one tree, would be more than enough to rebuild the entire village. The size of most of the trees also created a nice ambience, as even when the forest was dense, you could see a lot on ground level, and it was possible to walk around some pathways, without any problem. The trees also covered most of the light, so it was a little dark in some places, but since the sun was coming out, the leaves allowed a few rays of light to go through, and illuminate the forest, ever so slightly. There were even a couple small areas, that were completely exposed to the sun, which were great for a picnic, if you ignore all of the dangers of the forest. So it could be said that the Darcoak Woods was nice in some parts, but definitely scary most of the time, specially at night.

The forest had different sections, so the groups started walking through the nicest one, an area that has many pathways, and with clear view of the sky, as there were few trees surrounding the paths. So since this area wasn't as dangerous as the others, the group walked calmly, and enjoyed the relaxing environment, that the nice part of the forest had to offer, Finn and Zoey specially, as they looked around, and enjoyed the view, while they held hands, like the lovers they are.

It was very casual too, which surprised Faranne, as she wasn't expecting the couple to be comfortable enough to walk around like a couple already. But it also made her smile, as she got happy to see that they were in a good relationship, and that everyone was going great for them. She smiled along with Adeline, as she also noticed Finn and Zoey holding hands, and looking happy together. Katsumi also noticed them, but she was mostly confused, as she didn't know why they were doing it, so she decided to find out for herself.

"Hey, are you two a couple?" - Katsumi asked with curiosity to Finn and Zoey, who stopped walking, and turned around to face her. Finn was a little nervous to respond, but since he would be too embarrassed to tell the truth, Zoey decided to reply for him.

"Yes we are... we started dating recently but we are already in a nice relationship and I think we are both very happy to be together..." - Zoey replied, with a bright smile, as she hugged Finn's arm tightly, to show all of her love, and affection to him, and to Katsumi ,who giggled at the sight of them being together. Although Finn felt comfortable with holding hands with Zoey, he thought nobody would notice, so he got a little embarrassed when Zoey hugged his arm, and showed off their love to Katsumi, in such a casual way, specially because she was looking up at him, with a very cute expression, that made him chuckle nervous, but appreciating his girlfriend, for being so awesome, and loving at the same time.

Thankfully for Finn, before Zoey got to tell more about their relationship to Katsumi, he was relieved to see they got both distracted by Faranne, who exclaimed something unintelligible to Lilith and Itzel, who ran to another direction, for seemingly no reason. Adeline ran to chase after them, but they were all giggling, so it looked suspicious.

"Hey, Finn, Zoey... Can you check on them and see what they are doing?... I think I will have a little chat with Katsumi while you do that..." - Faranne asked, with a friendly smile, that seemed odd, as she would rarely suggest the idea of separating the group in the forest. But without hesitating too much, Finn and Zoey decided to comply to her order, and follow their friends, while leaving Faranne alone with Katsumi, so she could have the opportunity to have a private talk with her.

Finn and Zoey walked together through the direction their friends had disappeared, but he quickly let go of her hand, so they wouldn't see them as a couple, because even though they were hand holding before, they were not seen by Lilith and Itzel, and they didn't want to reveal them their relationship quite yet. Zoey refused for a moment, to let go of her boyfriend's hand, but after Finn convinced her with a kiss, they walked to one of the nice areas of the forest, that had direct sunlight, and they were surprised to find that Itzel, Lilith and Adeline were having a casual picnic.

"What are you guys doing??" - Finn asked in shock, as he saw his friends sitting on the grass, with a lot of food in front of them. They were already starting to eat, like they weren't in a serious search for a missing foxgirl, who just got lost in a very dangerous forest. He was a little upset that they were wasting time, and not actually searching, but he also found it a little funny that they were eating in the middle of the forest.

"Since you woke us up so early we decided to bring some snacks and food to not run out of energy... This looked like such a good spot for a picnic, so now we are having breakfast!" - Lilith replied, with her usual cheerful, and innocent nature, that always made Finn smile. He really didn't know how to react to the situation, and started to think about what the right thing to do would be, if Faranne was here, and he really thought about it for a long time. But after seeing Lilith eating snacks so enthusiastically, and Adeline trying to stuff a muffin in her mouth, with a nervous expression, as she didn't know if she could eat it or not, Finn felt like they looked too cute for him to ruin the fun.

"Come on Finn... let's eat something, aren't you hungry?" - Zoey asked playfully, which fully convinced Finn, since his girlfriend seemed happy for the picnic idea too, and was pulling his arm for him to join them. He decided to relax, and enjoy a small meal with his friends, even when it felt wrong for Katsumi.

After completely forgetting about the irresponsibility of his actions, Finn started having fun with his friends, as they ate, and laughed on their improvised picnic in the middle of the forest. Since now the sun was almost right above them, the ambience became better for their friendly moment, and they forgot about the dangers of the forest, as they ate on the sunlight, and even Finn and Itzel felt good with being in the forest, and let their fears go away.

Specially Finn, who for a second, got distracted by Adeline finally biting the muffin that she was just holding for a long time. She made a mess on herself when the muffin collapsed in her hand, and around her mouth, with some of it even getting on her breasts, that just now, Finn noticed they were huge for strange reasons. He took a while to think about the reason why an android girl would have such large breasts, they were probably bigger than Faranne, and that was just incredibly impressive, specially for a robot.

But after Finn got caught staring at Adeline's cleavage, he quickly looked away awkwardly to avoid the embarrassment. Thankfully, he didn't get much of a reaction from her, apart from some cute giggling, because Lilith started talking about another thing.

"Hey... I wonder what that Katsumi girl is... she has ears similar to mine but she doesn't really look like a fox..." - Lilith said innocently, as she ate some cookies she had brought to the picnic. Everyone took a while to think about a response, as they couldn't come up with a real answer to her question, since they didn't know, but before they could start guessing, Adeline replied with her useful information.

"From what I've seen... that girl is a kitsune, they are quite rare from what I've heard... they are found in forests like this one but they are usually very far away, like in more exotic biomes..." - Adeline replied, with her friendly smile, before everyone awed, to find out Katsumi's true species, which also made Lilith curious, as she was a monster girl too.

"What about me? What am I??" - Lilith asked with excited curiosity, as she shook Adeline's arm enthusiastically, to get a reply from her.

"Let me see... I think your species is called Nekomimi... you are a catgirl, a mix of a cat and a human... I don't know if your parents were a cat and a human, but I do know that you are a very adorable catgirl..." - Adeline replied, with a big smile, after giggling from Lilith's enthusiastic attitude. She also laughed, when she learned about her species, and purred in content, when Adeline petted her head, just like a cat.

Finn smiled at the interaction between Adeline and Lilith, but even when he felt like he could spend the entire day hanging out, and talking with his friends, he knew he couldn't do it. And as nice as the picnic was, they had to continue with the search for Katsumi's sister, so he decided to do the right thing, like Faranne would do, and stand up, to ask his friends to continue with the search.

"Alright... it was nice, but honestly, I think we should go back to searching... We need to find that poor girl's sister or else we won't get to know her more... I bet you wouldn't like that, so let's go out and search for her sister..." - Finn said, as he stood up, so everyone could hear him. He was finally getting to be a true leader, and his friends were there to support him, and even cheer for him, to show they were willing to continue with the search.

"I wish I could have brought Sandy here with me... she could have helped us a little, I think..." - Itzel said, slightly disappointed at himself, as he thought he wouldn't be able to help that much. But since Lilith was sitting right next to him, she placed her hand on his back, and tried to cheer him up, with her friendly nature.

"Don't worry, we got you, and that's even better... but if we have some trouble searching for her I could always use my cat abilities to quickly find her..." - Lilith said ,with a sweet voice, before turning playful, that got Itzel a little shy, like every time Lilith talked sweetly to him. But after her compliment, he felt more confident than ever to search in the forest.

"We also could use one of my abilities... I could track her sister if she is also a foxgirl, I'm quite accurate with following traces, so if we have trouble I could help too..." - Adeline said, with a cheerful smile, as she also got excited to go search in the forest. Finn got very proud of his friends, for seeing how they were so supportive, and helpful, but he wasn't going to waste any of their time, or energy, and instead take advantage of it, to search for Katsumi's sister, and find her quickly.

"Alright, yeah!!... let's go then... I think I saw two paths back there where we can search for... I say we separate in two groups and that way we are more efficient!!" - Finn exclaimed enthusiastically, to which his friends cheered with him, after hesitating if it was a good idea to separate in the dangerous forest. But now that he knew their friends agreed to the plan, he was left wondering who he could go with, and what path he would choose. He stared at Zoey, to find that she seemed very eager to go with him, but as she was his girlfriend, he knew he could spend time with her later. Besides, he needed someone that was able to track someone down, so he turned his attention to Adeline and Lilith, who looked just as eager as Zoey, although they were going on different paths. So he couldn't choose who he was going to follow, and spent some time thinking about which one of the two he was going to choose...