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The Taboo Child
Chapter 8: Home sweet home

Chapter 8: Home sweet home

“Ciela! Where are you?” Auna smiled as her little farmer came rushing over with blue apples from her garden. They came from a tree sapling Auna had brought home on one of her hunts. They had been in the Great Monster Forest for roughly five months. It was now the 9th month-Sunen, the 20th day to be exact. It was Cielas’ 5th birthday.

“Yes Auna?” Ciela’s filthy from farming, I am going to have to bathe her.

“Happy birthday! You are now 5 years old! Here.” I hand the small girl a sapling.

“Is this a maple tree sapling?” Ciela already knows what it is due to her skills. She gives me a quick hug and runs away with the little tree.

With that done I leave to dress the few rabbits, and small monsters I killed. As I skin and butcher them my thoughts wander. I had spent a lot of time making sure Ciela had learned all the basic magic I could teach her. I also had Ciela use my fruits and vegetables from my chests as seeds. I know we have to live here for a very long time, so we made sure to ration the supplies I originally had.

We even built a one level house using earth magic and supplies from my storage. The house is positioned near our entrance tunnel that’s sealed when not in use. The house is mostly rectangular with one wall slated to follow the crater shape. The triangle part of the house is used as a food storage, seed storage, and a butchering area. We each have a windowless room at the other end of the house in the back. The middle section is used for a kitchen, with a work bench for other projects. Our house is protected from the weather with an earth magic ledge supported with pillars.

More runic stones were added in the crater as time went by. Now we have roughly 40 all around the edges of the ledge, and inner edges. There are a few in the field as well, to ensure no flying beasts would get in. They all worked together, the more there were the stronger their area of coverage was. They were not perfect though; a few monsters did manage to come into the field, though they usually left on their own. That was why they built windowless rooms.

Auna thought about their little home. The crater was now home to a garden in the upper left side across from the pond. It had potatoes, tomatoes, corn, lettuce, and onions. Only the onions and tomatoes had been harvested. Below the garden was the small orchard with blue apple, lemon, pear, and now maple trees. Their house was below that.

Below the pond on the upper left side was a mushroom farm. Ciela had gathered logs, and fungi to grow saying her past self loved fried mushrooms. Below the mushrooms were berry bushes Auna uprooted for them. They had a few training dummies below that near their tunnel.

The big firepit in between the training ground and house in an open space was Aunas’ favourite spot. She enjoyed dancing in the moonlight. Her Moon Dance skill grew to medium. She was not fully sure why, but she felt it was important to learn it. The more she did it the more moves would come to her mind. Ciela said she looked like a spirit as she danced, like she was becoming the moonlight.

Thumbing the crystal on her neck she walked the fresh skins to a rock near the pond. The crystal on her neck hung from a leather braided band. Above the crystal was a hollowed-out piece of meteorite from the crater. Most people called it space rock though.

The crystal itself was a naturally hallowed out mana stone. It was empty when she found it. After having for a while, it now had her purple and deep blue magic inside of it. Everyone had a colour to their magic, usually it was an elemental colour. Hers however was mostly purple which was not one of the main elements. Ciela had a green/yellow mixture to her magic. It was most likely because she was a farmer. She had carved her crystal as close to a circle as possible though there was a sharp bump left. She had tried to file it down but only made it worse. She often found herself running her fingers over it, a reminder of the hours spent trying to carve it.

The mana stones are not rare per say, however ones that can hold human magic are. They usually absorb magic from their environment over time. Once they did this only that magic type would be absorbable again. After Auna had picked up the stone she had noticed Ciela couldn’t use it even after it emptied.

The sharp edge on the one side cut Auna. “Damn it”.

“You really shouldn’t swear” Ciela smiled.

“Sorry, I cut myself. How is the farming going?” Auna laid the skins down nicely.

“How are you handling the voice in your head?”

“I ignore it mostly now; I feel a lot better. Thanks.” Auna continued to poorly ignore the narration.

“Should you check the clearing? Pada will be here soon.” Ciela asked.

“Yeah, I’ll take a quick look I don’t want to get caught in the rain.” Auna smiled at Ciela moving to leave. This world has five seasons, pada was in-between summer and autumn. It was a season of heavy rain, and increased monster activity. The girls would have to stay inside the crater for both months. They did not want to risk the increased monster activity.

AunaLuna arrived at the clearing making sure to walk around each bag to check for new kids. As she finished, she was close to the original little cave from months ago. Hearing voices she hid inside the stone again. It seemed she would have to stay the night here. She did worry about the possibility of another mouth to feed though.

“Here boss! We made it to the clearing.” Auna opened a small opening in her stone cave to watch the young man speak.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s set up camp.” A big older man sat on a rock as the younger three men set camp.

Auna noticed a cage with two small wolves in it. One was a moon wolf the other a sun wolf. Wait, I didn’t know that though. Auna wondered if her inner narrator skill was evolving. Is there more information you can tell me? Auna asked with no answer from her cool and not at all annoying skill. Wow be that way then. Why do they have pups? She wondered to herself.

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“What noble even wants two different pups? Like couldn’t we have just stolen two from the same nest” A different young man with crooked teeth asked.

“Males are moon wolfs; the females are sun wolfs. If we grabbed two from the same nest breeding them would not be profitable. The pups may come out weird. Count Jade wants to breed them apparently. They are endangered so he has to get them from us.” The leader said.

“I thought Count Jade was one of the good guys.” Crooked teeth said.

“Really did you not hear. Count Jades mysterious hidden child died. I bet one of these bags is the poor kid.” The short one said.

“Really? I thought that kid died from an illness. Isn’t that what the registry said?” Crooked teeth asked.

“No, the registry said missing in training exercise, body unrecoverable. Apparently, the story was the child was ill growing up however wanted to go on a training exercise. Then having never been outside wandered off from the group. I heard though the kid was fine. She was born like her brother with a slave job.” The leader spoke.

“Wow if you think about it, we may be bad guys but we aren’t that bad. We just smuggle things, animals, and sometimes people. These nobles are killing their own kids. Ruthless.” Crooked teeth smiled.

“I suppose we aren’t as bad as them. Say leader why does no one expose this place?” The short one asked.

“Roger, would you like to explain?” The final young man was handsome.

“Only nobles know about this place. A few other people connected to nobles know as well. Should a noble or anyone else that knows try to report it they will be taken down. It is unlikely anyone can reveal this place without the rest of the nobles catching on. Once they do catch on, your whole family and sometimes even your connections are eliminated or brought into their fold. So even the nobles who don’t use this place won’t tell.” Roger finished.

“How do you know?” Crooked teeth asked.

“I tried to tell the king about this place. Therefore, we know this place. I was once a baron. My father was given the title. He was soon let into the fold of the nobles due to his charm. When I took over, he told me about this place and how I had to ignore it. I did not want to. I needed to tell the king, to save these children. The other nobles destroyed my family. Only I escaped with my life.” Roger got up then and said, “I’m going to bed”.

“Yes, we all should rest.” The leader said, “No need to stand watch this is a safe zone.”

After a few hours Auna decided to take the pups. She did not want to let her father get them. She knew it was childish to act out in such a way. I am a child though you know. She rolled her eyes as she quietly slides free of her stone cave.

Inching closer to the pups she noticed they were hurt. They were also very small she could easily hold one in her hand. She opened the cage; it was not locked. She removed both pups. She tucked them into her shirt.

“Who’s there?” Rogers’ voice woke everyone up.

Scared Auna looked up at the moon. With four men holding swords towards her the sight of the moon calmed her. She felt the urge to dance, so she did.

“She has the pups! Get her!” the leader yelled.

As he yelled that AunaLuna disintegrated along with the pups. She felt like she had become weightless. She soon realised she was inside the ray of moonlight. She also noticed her mana being drained. Thinking of her home in the crater she felt herself moving over the forest. She eventually appeared near their fire pit. Everything was quiet. She stayed in the moonlight until her mana ran out, at that time she became corporeal again. Good job her narrator told her as she fell asleep.

Earthly Name

A, Jade

Soul Name

AunaLuna

Gender

Female

Species

Human

Fairy

Level

10 (10/61 EXP)

Status Points

Health

16

Mana

20

Physical Strength

13

Mental Strength

12

Intelligence

16

Agility

14

Luck

10

Job

Noble

9

Moon Slave

6

Survivalist

3

Extra Skills

Basic Fire Magic

High-Novice

Basic Earth Magic

High-Novice

Basic Lightening Magic

Low-Novice

Basic Wind Magic

Medium-Novice

Inner Narration

High-Novice

Blessings

Old Friends farewell

The Other World Person

Curses

Taboo child

To Burn

Job tile

Moon Slave

Job description

Born to serve a god that never existed in this world. With no one else left to serve the moon life will be a lonely one.

Skills

Night Vision

High-Beginner

Moon Dance

High -Beginner

Water Magic

Medium-Beginner

Dark Magic

Medium-Beginner

Light Magic

Medium-Beginner

Dimensional Magic

Medium-Beginner

Runic Magic

High-Beginner