The morning came in hot. The girls left to go to the pond again. They had been doing this the past few mornings. Auna had a headache from everything that happened the day before. She was not looking forwards to the company waking up. She was already missing their calm lives.

Each girl was eating maple candies. Usually, they ate left over stew in the mornings, or berries. However, they didn’t want to wake their guests. After about thirty minutes they had eaten way too many. Both girls were now in the pond splashing each other, Willow and Theodore staying away. Ayda was happily floating in the water making little slime noises.

“Girls?” Jeff smiled as he came walking up with the rest of the adults and Meredith. “We thought you might like some food.” he put down two bowls of stew with berries on a plate. The girls looked at him, each other, then splashed everyone giggling like mad men.

“Girls!” Marybeth scolded, to which she also got splashed again.

“Yes Marybeth?” Auna asked cheekily moving her wings to create more splashes.

“You girls are so not lady like.” Meredith giggled. Auna took water into her mouth and spit it at her. The feisty red head jumped into the pond and tackled Auna giggling the whole time.

“Meredith! Not you too.” Marybeth sighed. “Girls at least eat something?”

“We ate maple candies; they are under the lid in that bowl if you want some.” Auna said as she simply tossed Meredith off her back. The girls were the same age, and nearly the same height both being short for their age.

Meredith did not wait, quickly grabbing a candy before her mother could tell her not to.” She happily popped it into her mouth. “So yummy!”

“Thanks, we made them ourselves! We have maple trees over there.” Ciela pointed to her small orchard.

The adults seemed to understand they would not be able to pull the sugar rushed children of the crater out of the pond. The pond was about 10ft deep at the centre, the edges gradually went from ankle deep to 5ft. They were currently playing in the 3ft area. Auna had made sure to tell Meredith not to go deeper. The 5ft section turn to 10ft very quickly and if one was not prepared, they could be injured.

The bottom of the lake was something Auna had seen due to the clear water. Without a swimming skill she was not a good enough swimmer to reach the bottom. The water flowed in from the bottom though that was easily noticed.

After about an hour the girls got out, with Ayda to eat a proper breakfast. In the sun they dried quickly.

“I’m going to clean our clothes from yesterday would you like me to wash yours as well?” Jeff asked.

“I can wash my own clothes thanks.” Auna said “Also isn’t it odd for you to offer to clean a girls clothes?” Auna had begun enjoying teasing Jeff as he sighed shaking his head.

“I’m basically a warrior butler. When my lady is on the road, I take care of things the maids and butler would normally. I also help with the protection of her. I am not a weird guy AJ please believe me.” Jeff said sighing heavily.

“A warrior butler that wants to wash a strange little girls’ under clothes.” Ciela giggled as she spoke. She too had taken to teasing Jeff.

“Come now girls, Jeff is actually captain of our guards, he really isn’t weird.” Marybeth smiled shaking her head.

“You can do the laundry if you want, I won’t stop you from doing chores.” Auna smiled. “Speaking of chores, Ciela I am heading out. Make sure to get your chores done as well.” Auna kissed Ciela on the forehead and walked towards the door in the house, with Ayda and Theo following.

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“Where are you going?” William asked.

“To hunt, we don’t get much game as most of the monsters are too strong. The animals are also too strong. We do usually get a rabbit or two if I hunt daily. I also look for any plants Ciela might like. I am working on mapping out the area. Oh, and I need to check the clearing for any thrown away kids like us to bring home.” Auna turned to him “Stay here, do not leave the crater I don’t need to go looking for you.”

Auna left them alone. She walked through the door to the clearing. Smiling as she was finally alone. She did a quick check for any new bags. Soon she was walking through the forest. She had a knife, and bow. She had gained the skill archery under noble instead of survivalist. Mr. Voice told her it was most likely due to noble having a higher job level. The gods were merciful at times. She had raised it to high, though that did not mean she was any good. She was decent though as she did spend a lot of time working on it.

Slowly the three of them crept threw the forest. The clearing was no longer in sight, which meant they had to be more careful. Every now and then Ayda would jump down to absorb a plant, or bug it found. Auna still didn’t know what the skill did for real, it seemed like it was a way of eating. The description simply said, “Can absorb anything, if something really yummy is absorb new skill could be gained”. She found herself now checking the slimes skills after every meal it ate. It apparently had not found anything yummy yet.

After two rabbits killed, the sun was in the early afternoon position. Auna began to head back to the crater as it was closer to their position. From there she would jump through the door to check on the clearing. She activated her meditation skill to regain the mana she had used during hunting.

Auna walked through the tunnel closing the entrance after Theo walked through. Three startled men stared at her. “Did you just pop up like an earth rodent?” Jeff said.

“Be careful who you call rodent, after all you are staying in this rodents’ home.” Auna glared. “Before I created the Moon door skill, we had to use basic earth magic to get in and out. I’m just stopping by I have to check the clearing; I’ll start dinner when I’m back.” Auna quickly dropped the rabbits on the butcher table, using magic to free the stone.

She stepped into the clearing.

Hmm she wondered in her head, there were no new children. It had to have been a fluke that her and Ciela were dropped off so close in time to each other. She still felt mournful for the other bags she had not been able to save.

After she came back to the house she went to start butchering the rabbits. She found Jeff had already done so the table empty. She walked outside. Ciela and all of their guests were sitting by the fire. The sun was not yet setting though dinner was ready, again by Jeff.

“Hope you don’t mind.” Jeff said handing her a bowl of bore stew instead of rabbit.

“I don’t, thank you.” Auna accepted the bowl and sat beside Ciela. She noticed Theodore, Willow and Ayda had already been served.

“So, AunaLuna you created a skill?” Marybeth asked. Everyone else seemed to tense a bit.

“Yes, after I did my job Survivalist evolved to Sage Survivalist. The skill is called moon door.” Auna moved closer to Marybeth showing her the status screen, specifically the Moon Door skill.

“I see very interesting.” Marybeth said then changed topic “We would like to head out tomorrow. I am sure my husband is worried about me. Would you guide us?”

“I can take you to the clearing, and then as far as I have gone, but I won’t go further. I have not explored that far into the forest due to my level. I do value my life after all, even if just slightly.” Auna smiled.

“That is more than enough, the clearing must be fairly far from here. It took us about a whole day to get to the clearing. We ran through the night hours. Can we leave before the sun rise?” Marybeth had a good point, just taking them to the clearing was more than most could do. She also would be able to safely guide them halfway to the forest edge.

Auna had mapped out the area and noticed a few landmarks that was in her Monster Forest book as well. She roughly estimated it was halfway to leaving the forest at her and Theos pace. It would be more for humans though. If they left before the sun rise, she could have them to that point before midday. They then should be able to escape the forest by nightfall, or at least the most dangerous parts.

“Is that why dinner is so early compared to yesterday?” Auna asked.

“Yes, so is it a deal?” Marybeth asked.

“Sure, we will leave when the moon is a few hours before setting.” Auna said in a tone of finality.

“That sounds great, will you wake us if we are not up? I have a feeling you will be up more easily than us.” Marybeth smiled as Auna nodded going back to her spot by Ciela to eat.

After dinner everyone took a bath, then headed to bed while the sun was beginning to set. Ayda still did not have any new skills.

Auna slept soundlessly snuggled with Ciela, Ayda, and their wolves.