Nate knew his parents weren’t stupid. If they hadn’t yet, then soon enough they would begin to put some clues together. The most notable of which were likely the signs he had put outside the dungeon when it first appeared. His parents had told him to keep his secrets to himself, as they understood the need for secrecy.

Hopefully, they stuck with that. He really didn’t want to risk word about what he could do getting out. It would be better if they never mentioned it, period.

By the time they reached the house, they were all starting to yawn. Unloading the car only took a few minutes, as most things were inside Nina’s storage bracelet. Not everything though, as they still had to be seen unloading at least a few items.

From there, it was a quick stop to the garage and the washer machine for the first load and then they all headed to bed.

***

At some point during his extended nap, Aura had come out of his chest and made herself at home in his room. At the moment, she was curled up on his computer chair in front of the window, just watching the outside world.

“How is it? Different from what you imagined?” He asked her with a yawn while stretching.

“I didn’t even know enough to imagine what it would be like. Meeting your parents' last night, and coming across the truck and trailer were eye-opening,” There was the slightest of hesitations when she sent the two names across, and this time they were accompanied by images.

“That’s right, that’s what they are called.” He stopped his stretching and turned to her. “How exactly are you talking to my parents? Are you using this method, or the original one from when we first met?”

“I have been using the original method of my people. Why?”

“No reason, I was just curious, is all. My mom made a few comments about the images she was getting from you that made me wonder.”

Aura nodded. “I thought it would be better if I didn’t appear to have a firm grasp on your language just yet.”

“I appreciate it. My parents are already keeping enough of my secrets as it is. I would rather not add more of them if it can be helped.” He reached out and scratched her behind the ears for a few minutes as they sat in silence and enjoyed the view.

“The second dungeon is going to be a problem.” She said, at last, breaking the peaceful atmosphere.

“For now, once the Dungeon Core finishes researching the project, I have it on the cost of everything should go down. Wait-” Nate’s hand froze mid-scratch. “I didn’t think you could access the other dungeons if you weren’t in them.”

“I can’t if I am inside a dungeon. Or rather, I should say, I can’t except when I am with you. I can access both dungeons through you, similar to a portal, but it also lets me access the administrator functions, which I can’t do inside a portal.”

That was a useful piece of information.

“Having you come out to meet me just keeps getting better,” Nate said in appreciation. “I agree that we will need to keep an eye on the second dungeon. Actually, Samhain is coming up soon. I don’t know what you call it -if anything- but it’s a yearly event wherein the portals begin to act differently.”

Aura bobbed her head. “We do have our own name for it, though it doesn’t translate well. How will it affect the dungeons?”

“No idea. All we can do is prepare the best we can for whatever happens. I think something will happen to the first dungeon around that time, as well.” The countdown timer that had appeared would be done roughly a day and a half before Samhain.

Assuming no more beasts made it through the portal, that is. That was the main reason the timer had continued to shrink as much as it had. With no beasts coming through the portal, the original month-timeline had been cut in half.

Then he would need to make a real decision concerning the portal and what to do with it. Before then, it was pointless to even think about it. He didn’t even know what his options would be outside of closing the portal. Which was something that he didn’t think was a good idea. The entire economy of the city was built around the dimensional zone. If he closed the portal, then that zone would likely vanish at some point.

“Nate!” His mother called out for him. “Can you come down here?”

He followed her voice downstairs and then down into the basement. His parents had rearranged the gym equipment, so they were closer to the wall. It had opened up a path down the middle of the room with a large target at the far end.

“I told you, while we were out there, that you needed to get your speed with the crossbow up. Your aim was already fairly decent, but anytime you tried to speed up too much, your bolts started to drift off target more. Now you have somewhere to practice during the week while we are gone. Make sure you actually use it with your practice bolts, not the hunting bolts. We should have set this up last week; we just didn’t think of it at the time. Sorry.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He shook his head. “It’s fine. This is awesome. It sucks that our house isn’t longer though.”

The archery lane they had created was limited by the length of their side of the duplex.

His father snorted. “Everyone’s a critic when it comes to length.”

Nate’s mouth fell open in shock as his parents started laughing at his reaction.

Aura perked up and tilted her head toward the ceiling. “We have visitors.”

The distant sound of knocking echoed through the house and down to the basement.

“Were we expecting company?” He asked as they all headed for the stairs.

Both of them shook their heads as a second knock came from the front door.

“It’s probably George,” Nate muttered. “Everyone else has the sense to use the doorbell.”

Behind them, Aura’s form flickered and changed. The color of her hair had taken on a more normal rust-colored red, and she now only had one fluffy-looking tail. She wasn’t going to bother hiding while they were at home. That would just get tiring and annoying.

Niall opened the door, and sure enough, George was standing on the front porch. Standing at his side was a woman with dark brown hair that was starting to become streaked with grey. Her face was mostly smooth outside of a few crowfoot wrinkles at the corners of her hazel eyes and around her mouth. Her hand was clasped around the crook of George’s elbow, with his hand resting comfortingly on hers.

“Claire, I presume?” Nate asked, brushing past his parents. “George has told me a little about you, but I thought he said you were childhood sweethearts. He looks positively ancient compared to you.”

A soft laugh met his words as her grip on George’s elbow relaxed a fraction. “He does suffer from old man face, doesn’t he? I need to get him some decent moisturizer.”

His parents invited them inside, and moments later, they were all sitting in the living room talking.

George couldn’t keep his eyes off of Aura, who was lying on the ground next to Nate’s feet.

“When did you get a companion beast?” He asked, at last, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.

“During this trip,” Nate said, as he reached down to pet Aura. “She came to me and before I knew it, the bond had been formed. Which I gather is not the normal method.”

His father laughed. “If all of us had beasts coming to us offering themselves up as companions, then maybe. But no, the usual process is a lot more complicated and involved.”

George stared at Aura and then shifted his gaze to Nate. “Interesting for sure, and it looks like you are making good progress on your core. How about your meditation art? Have you started cultivating it yet?”

Nate shook his and explained the various obstacles he had encountered with the meditation art initially, and how he had started to finally make progress on it. Of course, all of that would be coming to an end the next day when he picked up his new meditation art. The one that was more closely aligned with his actual affinity.

One step forward, two steps back, as it were.

However, now that he had some experience under his belt, it wouldn’t take as long to reach the same place with the new art. At least, that was the hope. Speaking of which, he needed to download all the void meditation arts he could find on the internet later so he could compare them. The bulk of what he had found on the net for the shadow meditation art had been too mangled to be useful. After getting basic ties though, he had been able to sift through and find a few useful nuggets.

Integrating them into the meditation art from the school was another matter entirely. It had shown him that not everything he had found was as useless as he had started to think it was, at least.

After they had all been talking for nearly twenty minutes, George clapped his hands, bringing their attention to him. “We did actually come here tonight for a reason. I know you just got back from an expedition and are likely tired. I wanted you to meet Claire, and I thought I would invite you out to eat. I have benefitted from your hospitality numerous times at this point, and never reciprocated. It is time to fix that glaring omission on my part.”

“What are you talking about? You were helping Nate. There was never any need or obligation to return our hospitality. If anything, we haven’t done enough to repay you.” Nina protested.

“Nonsense, now go grab your coats and we will head out. I apologize in advance that we will need to leave Aura, as I was unaware of her presence when I made the reservations.”

He was being a little pushy, but he was also right. None of them had felt particularly up to cooking anything more extravagant than a frozen burrito or pizza.

Aura followed Nate upstairs and then vanished into his chest while he quickly changed into something more appropriate and grabbed a jacket. A minute later, he was back downstairs and waiting for his parents.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, and I do realize this is a little personal, what have the two of you decided to do?” He asked, motioning to Claire and then to George.

“We are still in the process of deciding,” George told them after a moment of looking into her eyes. “Claire needs to head back to her city and home in a few days. We’ll continue to talk at that point and go from there. All we know for sure is that we are taking things slow right now.”

Claire nodded, taking George’s hand in her own.

Nina and Niall came down the stairs. Both had gone the same route as Nate, and similarly, had changed into something more presentable.

“Alright, shall we follow you?” Niall asked as he helped his wife into her jacket.

“Sure, we are heading toward the old Union railroad station. There is a restaurant that opened within the last couple of months. They specialize in cooking beast meat, and they just keep it coming until you are full. The servers each carry meat from a different species of beast. I was reminded of the place when I was having dinner with Nate the other day. Supposedly, it is an experience and also delicious.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll settle for it being a memorable place to have dinner together.”

“I believe I know the place you are talking about,” Nina told him. “I think I heard a few of the other hunters talking about the place a few weeks ago at the parking lot. It has been getting a lot of attention recently.”

“I’m not surprised.” George waited for them to lock the door before continuing. “Most regulars and normal folk don’t tend to have easy access to beast meat. The benefits it brings them when eaten in an unprocessed state can’t be understated.”