Sophia and Steph were still showing their parents the beastfolk capital from afar and told them more about it. While doing so, Lydia and Pete wanted to know more about the prerequisites needed to explore it on their own. Magic and looking like a member of the beastfolk were quite some hurdles, but they agreed that they should pretend to be hidden, a tribe of the beastfolk with no visible animal features and only some character traits inherited by their ancestors.

"I can't believe I'm not able to see Dad with floppy ears and a waggy tail today…" Still on the little hill overlooking the capital, Steph was crestfallen by their parents' decision to try out being a hidden while exploring the world before maybe deciding on something else.

"Why do you want me to have floppy ears so much?" Pete didn't understand why she was so obsessed with that.

"No idea." The dog-girl shrugged. "That's the first thing that came to mind because I also went for being partly dog. It just would be really, really, really cute!"

"I see. I don't get it, but I see." He wasn't sure what to reply there.

"It does sound pretty cute." Sophia also looked at her father while nodding a few times. "I can see other things also working, though. I just recommend against stripes of the tiger variety. It comes with some bonuses, after all."

"Don't worry, accidentally becoming nobility is not on my goal list!" He vehemently shook his head.

"Ahh… Maya's parents mentioned that part, huh?" The tiger scratched her cheek. "Anna, the tall orange girl from earlier, is the actual first princess of this nation. Daughter of King Menzor, who rules this place from the castle over there." She pointed at the center of the capital in front of them. "I didn't know when I wanted to become a tiger and accidentally irreversibly changed my body, but every member of the tiger family is nobility by birth. That was quite the shock, believe me. When we arrived in the capital, I immediately ended up being dragged into an audience with the king because I was a tiger no one knew about. I ended up getting along with them and befriended the family, so I'm more or less an honorary princess of the kingdom, I guess?" Sophia tilted her head. "Anyway, let's not focus too much on such small details."

"SMALL DETAILS?!" Her parents disagreed with her assessment of the situation.

"I'll tell you more about it later. Maybe together with Anna, too. She can help explain the tiger part because it's somewhat convoluted."

"Convoluted is a good way to describe you, too." Steph just had to do it.

"I can't argue against that." She only shrugged. "There's something more important we need to talk about first." While saying so, the tiger opened a portal to her storage and effortlessly pulled out two sofas and put them on the ground of the small hill in the middle of nowhere they were on. "I think it's better to sit down for that, though." After suggesting that, she did just that, gesturing for Steph to sit down next to her while urging her parents to use the sofa opposite them.

"Why do you have a pair of sofas in your storage?!" Before following suit, the dog-girl had to get loud first.

"Why not?" Sophia didn't see the issue.

"Fair enough." Not further pestering her, Steph simply plopped down next to her.

"…" Lydia and Pete were, once more, at a loss for words, and silently sat down on the second sofa while looking at their daughters.

"Did we forget about something?" Steph looked at her older sister while wondering why she had gotten so serious all of a sudden.

"We need to tell them about the side effects of magic."

"Hmm…?" The dog-girl paused to think about it for a moment. "Ah."

"I don't like the sound of that." Lydia had a bad feeling about how the conversation was progressing.

"Having magic not only allows you to use it to create water or fire like this." While explaining, Sophia created a small ball of fire and water next to her. "Raw magic being inside you, which allows you to control it, also does things with your body in general. For instance, you're healthier and get sick less often. Even if you do get sick, it will help you heal faster. You feel more energetic and have more stamina. It makes you stronger, too. It does all sorts of things in that ballpark with you. Though, depending on how much you hate your body and do your best to destroy it, stuff like lower back pain can still be an issue."

"That sounds amazing!" Pete didn't understand why Sophia looked so concerned. "What's the issue there?"

"It also affects your age. After all, aging is also a form of getting less healthy and energetic."

"Again, that sounds great!" He still didn't see the issue. "Does that mean you get older or look younger for longer?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Both."

"Ohh!" Lydia really liked the sound of that.

"From what I've heard in the capital, the regular beastfolk getting over 100 years old and still being able to function normally is far from rare. The tiger family, which has a bit more magic than the others, regularly lives to 130 without any regular suffering that is usually accompanied by old age. They also look like they're 30 well up and above their fifties."

"Seriously, that sounds amazing!" Their mother got even more excited.

"This also scales with magic." Sophia only got more awkward. "Elves, you might've heard about them from fantasy books and movies on Earth, they exist in this world. They have a lot more magic than the beastfolk, and they can get thousands of years old while looking like they're adolescents for hundreds of years."

"Huh…?" Lydia and Pete finally understood the relevance of what their daughter was saying and looked flabbergasted.

"Then, there's Steph, Chloe, Aura, Fen, and I, amongst a couple of more people, including Maya." She paused for a moment to prepare them. "We have many times the magic than even the most powerful elves. "We won't age… at all. Like, we'll pretty much always look like we do right now, unless we use magic to alter our looks. We also won't die of old age. With that, I mean, ever."

"…" Their parents completely froze in shock.

"It's true." Steph could only confirm it. "Fen and Aura are actually really old already. Mira, who literally governs magic, confirmed it, as well."

"…" Pete needed a full minute to sort his thoughts. "W-What…?" Maybe two minutes. "Are you trying to tell me that you two got immortal thanks to this magic bullshit?!"

"NO!" Sophia instantly replied to him while vehemently shaking her head. "If I had gotten immortal when arriving in this world, I never would've done it. I also would've gone to war against the person who brought me here and made his entire existence pain and suffering. Most importantly, there's absolutely no way I EVER would've let Steph come to this world and receive as much magic as I have."

"What is it, then?" Her father couldn't follow her.

"Like I already said, magic literally turned us ageless." The tiger scratched her cheek once more. "Magic has such a positive effect on your body that once you're fully physically matured, so roughly around 18 to 22, plus-minus a bit, magic will keep you physically so healthy that it offsets your natural aging with enough of it, or at least slow it significantly down. In some hundred years, there's a high chance Steph and I will still be around and will look the same as we do right now."

"I'm not against a complete image change every couple of decades, though." Steph let out a small chuckle. "If I ever get tired of being a dog, that is." She then paused for a second. "Though, that's rather unlikely right now. Maybe another color scheme?" The middle sister wasn't the slightest bit bothered about her situation.

"What… What is the difference?"

"Well, immortality means you're, well… immortal." Sophia wasn't exactly sure what to say. "It makes it impossible for you to die, no matter what happens. Even after the heat death of the universe, you'd still be alive and floating around in the big nothingness of space. I can't imagine anything more horrifying than that." She shuddered just thinking about it. "Being ageless just means that we don't age. Our body won't perish by natural causes. We essentially no longer have an expiration date. An untreated illness that is worse than our magical healing will still get us. A fall at terminal velocity? Not good. A massive explosion? Goodbye. Someone stronger than us who plans to get rid of us? Uh-oh. Being tired of living for too many centuries? There is an exit."

"Hah…" Pete's brain was more overloaded than ever that day.

"Are you actually serious right now?" Lydia finally finished restarting. "We've heard a lot of crazy and unbelievable, but this is the icing on the mind-break cake you're trying to serve us."

"I have not told a single lie today." The tiger shook her head. "Not once have I skirted around the topic to only technically tell the truth, either."

"Yes." Steph nodded along. "Everything we said is nothing but the truth."

"You two will be eternally healthy and forever in your prime until the literal end of this world? Assuming you treat serious illnesses in time, which apparently isn't a problem with even more magic, and no accidents happening to you?"

"That is pretty much the case." The dog-girl smiled at her. "I know it's hard to understand. I needed a little time, as well, but it's true. You'll understand once you meet Chloe's parents, especially Fey. I don't know how old she is, but I've seen her in pictures and statues together with Mira that are hundreds of years old. She doesn't look a day older than Sophia or me, and you wouldn't second-guess it if Chloe introduced her as her sister instead of mother."

"Wow." Lydia was too overwhelmed to say anything else. "Ridiculousness aside, I think it's something I should be happy about? It means that I have to be a lot less worried about my precious daughters, right? Not that I'm going to, because of all the circumstances surrounding you, but still… A healthy child means a happy parent, and it seems you two can't get any healthier now."

"Exactly!" The sisters gave her mother a thumbs-up in return.

"Are there any downsides?" She still looked concerned. "It literally sounds too good to be true, so it has to come with a cost, right?"

"Well, having as much magic as we do is already too good to be true, soo…" Sophia wasn't sure what to say there. "I don't know about downsides that would affect our bodies or something like that. Mira or Canir would've told us about that by now. Or Fen and Aura, because they've been living for so long already. It could likely be a mental strain to live for so long, especially if your loved ones will die looong before you." She made a short pause before smiling again. "Luckily, most of our friends in our group are already on a level where they have also become ageless. I am planning to, if they want to, share some of my magic with them later on to also push them over the threshold for it, as well, though."

"I see." Lydia's brain was too fried to say much more than that at this point.

"It's alright." Sophia looked right at her mother. "It sounds like something you can't even put into words. I'm also too young to understand its actual meaning, but I honestly don't think it's a bad thing."

"…" She nodded in return.

Sophia decided to hold back with the offer of giving their parents and Sari eventually also enough magic to join their ranks of becoming ageless. After all, it was clearly visible that Lydia and Pete needed some time to let everything sink in.

The family stayed in their spot for a little while longer, but Sophia and Steph eventually brought their parents and Sari back to Earth, as they needed some well-deserved rest before having to consider various things, opportunities, and challenges.

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