Next morning I was woken up from someone petting my head. After a while I opened my eyes and looked up at Milly’s face. My head was resting on her lap. Tilly was sitting cross-legged to my left.

“Morning sleepy-head.” Milly smiled and stopped to pet my head.

“Morning. You may continue.” I yawned and stretched my arms up, playfully tugging at her ash blond straight hair which spilled down just over her shoulders.

“Spoiled brat!” She pulled away my blanket!

“Noooo!” I tried to get my blanket back, but failed.

“Morning Lilly.” Tilly chuckled while covering her mouth with her left hand.

“How long you’ve been awake already?” I decided keeping the lap pillow beat keeping the blanket.

“Half an hour already.” Tilly grinned.

“Awww. It’s too comfortable to get up.” I smiled at Milly.

“Days to sleep in were rare since we came here.” Tilly tilted back, propping herself up on her arms.

“That’s true.” Milly’s purple eyes stared into space.

“We’ve grown a lot, but we’re not exactly tall.” I looked at Tilly.

“Maybe our tits grow a bit more, they’re pert.” She looked down at her chest.

“It’s not that bad while fighting. Caroline has to use cloth wraps around her chest all the the time.” I pulled heels next to my butt.

“They are. They are unusually firm as well as far as I remember.” Milly prodded her chest a few times.

“Caroline and Loraline are adults. It’s been quite some time.” My eyes were glued to Milly’s chest.

“Caroline has quite some bust. Loraline is much slimmer.” Milly covered my eyes with her hands.

“And I’ve never been that fit all my live.” Tilly said.

“We have spent much time working on that. I pulled Milly’s hands from my eyes and kept a hold on her wrists.

“We are turning towards our late teens as well.” Milly looked down at me raising an eyebrow.

“When do we have, you know, our monthly thing?” Tilly looked at Milly curiously.

“We should have that already for a while! Not that I’m complaining. It’s a mess.” Milly looked at Tilly with wide eyes.

“Now that you mention it. Maybe something about our magic?” I looked at Tilly.

“Nothing I know about. We have a mana pool that is rare, but I didn’t read something about that being a thing and no one had mentioned it.” Tilly shook her head while looking at the ceiling.

“The spells we have are quite of the shelves.” Milly pressed her lips together.

“Yeah. Heating, cooling. Just a few degrees. A cleaning spell. Another to comb the hair. Making some light. Drying things faster and engraving things in hard surfaces.” Tilly rattled down the few spells we had learned so far.

“We’ve some powers that are not typical for humans. The hardening of our skin and I think bones. We can feed mana into them but they differ a lot from the the spells in how they actually work.” I looked at Milly.

“I’ve seen few people around who were able to grow claws.” Milly looked hat her hands.

“Our vision is much better. We can see clearly, but without colors in the dark outside. Even in pitch dark places we’re able to see, even if its blurred and only to a certain range. Last but not least we can see magic. That’s not a spell, like the one that is usually used by magicians.” Tilly tilted her head.

“Nothing there which potentially affects our monthly bleeding.” Milly shook her head.

“We’re recovering from wounds fast. While it has clearly affects the body, it shouldn’t have a direct effect on that.” I looked at Milly.

“Maybe some side effect? It’s not a wound.” Milly shook her head.

“It’s peculiar as well that we still look that similar. I can tell you apart with no problem, but most people have quite a problem with it. Caroline slowly gets a grip on it, and she knows us quite well.” I stared into space.

“That’s probably that ritual we did within the summoning itself.” Tilly mused.

“We will learn more over time. We’re not really grown up in a physical way now, even it the society here consider us adults. Maybe we grow even a few centimeters.” Milly grinned at me.

“We’re about one-fifty now I think.” I looked up at Tilly.

“Caroline is about one-seventy and Loraline just over one-sixty. Most men were larger, but not all.” Tilly nodded at me.

“We will grow a bit, maybe even the parts you worry about.” Milly gave Tilly a smug smile. Tilly blushed.

“Perhaps you’ll find magic to ... enhance ... them.” I chuckled at Tilly.

“You’re ... mean!” She scowled at me.

“Let’s get up and get some breakfast.” Milly tilted her head and gave me a stern look.

“There’s a magnet somewhere in your lap. I just can’t move.” I looked back at Milly, blinking.

“Then we have to degauss you!” Tilly got to her feet grinning.

“There is no button for it!” I looked at Tilly sticking out my tongue.

“While pressing your buttons is fun, I’ve something else in mind.” She grabbed my ankles and pulled me from my lap-pillow!

“Now we’re getting ahead.” Milly got up and freed her hands.

“Traitor!” I frowned at Tilly.

We all laughed then and got dressed for the day. Since we would do our workout after breakfast we didn’t bother with something fancy, but took some clothes for changing after tub though.

Caroline and Loraline were already eating as we went downstairs.

“Morning.” we hailed them while descending to the first floor.

“Morning. We’ve made enough for all.” Loraline smiled as she gestured at the already set table.

“Thanks! You’re great!” Milly sat down at the table.

“Morning.” Caroline nodded.

I served myself from the scrambled eggs with bacon and started to dig in.

“This silken cloth they use here actually comes from large local spiders.” Milly was preparing a slice of bread with honey.

“It’s nice cloth. Do you think we can get some for making new clothes?” Loraline had finished her breakfast.

“I think so. It’s not exactly rare. I asked Enleadir about that. We have to cope with the colors the elves favor. They prefer pastel colors.” Milly poured herself another cup of tea.

“That’s okay. We will need some proper clothes for winter at some time. Your selection is quite limited and I won’t mind to have some made from this cloth.” Loraline nodded at Milly.

“These spiders are quite large. About the size of my head.” Milly started to eat her bread.

“I wonder if we can see one, I like spiders.” Tilly smiled.

“Spiders?” Loraline shook her head.

“Maybe I can pet one, if they’re tame enough.” Tilly nodded excitedly back at Loraline.

“As long as they’re not poisonous.” Caroline shrugged.

“They have quite powerful paralytic poison they use to secure the prey which had stumbled in their net. They’re half-tame.” Milly chuckled.

“As long as you don’t try to tame one.” I shot Milly a suspicious look.

“Hmm. Good idea.” Milly gave me creepy smile and winked.

“W-We’re too much traveling for pet spiders.” I shook my head.

“Unfortunately. Maybe I can rent one for a while.” Milly rubbed her chin while giving me a devious smile.

“Are you afraid of spiders Lilly?” Tilly shook her head in disbelieve.

“No. I just don’t like Milly’s face while thinking about acquiring one.” I finished the last scraps of my scrambled eggs.

“Now that I think about it, I’m not trusting her with such a spider.” Tilly nodded at me.

“Hey! I won’t do anything to such cuties!” Milly frowned at us.

“I’m not concerned about the spider Milly.” I glared at her.

“Pff! You’re much too wary.” She gave me a wide, friendly smile an winked.

We did our workout after breakfast, adding some light sparring to the mix. We had to start integrating Loraline into our teamwork. We spent some time relaxing in the tub after all were spent.

Later Milly got some bolts of cloth in different colors. Enleadir had brought a few to choose from. Milly picked some of the bolts and put them in the orange bedroom where she set up things for her sewing projects.

We spent the rest of the month and the next training hard and preparing to leave at some point. We were having fun as well once in a while. Finally it was the evening before The High Suns. The meeting of the council will be tomorrow.

“I wonder what tomorrow will bring.” Milly laid down on our bed.

“Probably nothing.” Tilly sat down to her left.

“They will take their time. We have no influence on the decision save our story.” I yawned and laid down next to Milly.

“Nonetheless it would be nice to have something to expect.” Milly furrowed her brows.

“It’s tricky from their point of view.” I tucked myself in.

“You’re just curious.” Tilly laid down and tucked herself in.

“Who wouldn’t.” Milly shook her head.

“I’m curious as well. Assuming they don’t kill us they have basically two options. Finding a way to block the ring from finding us without killing us. The other option is to let us go making as sure as possible that the place stays a secret.” I looked at Milly.

“There’s obviously no easy choice. I don’t think the council had to be involved in that case.” Milly looked back at me.

“We should enjoy our time here as long as it lasts. We will be back in the wilderness soon enough.” Tilly pointed out.

We were not grown up fully and growing a bit and getting stronger won’t hurt as long as the dangers in the claws stayed the same.

I wondered what our enemies were up to in the time. The leader of the group following us would sent for reinforcements, that would be reasonable. Defeating a part of his men wouldn’t give us an advantage anymore. Maybe his superiors would sent more or better staff. On the other hand maybe the leader wouldn’t want to admit defeat against a bunch of women. No. It was better to assume the situation would be worse. Staying vigilant while being on the move was the only sensible way to go. Information about our enemies plans would be better, but there was no means to acquire it at the moment. Maybe asking the elves for help would be a good idea.

Another chunk of mana disappeared from my pool.

Milly and Tilly were already sleeping.

I closed my eyes. After a while I fell asleep as well.