Children of Dawn

Middle of May
Ashley’s POV
I stood in what was going to be the living room of our house. It was actually quite incredible. Once Jake had gotten back with the stolen supplies Jinxx had gotten all of us right to work on the house. He had planned everything about how and when that house was going to be built, specific plans, right down to the number of nails per board. In less than a month the walls for the bottom floor of our house where up. They included a living room, bathroom, two bedrooms and a kitchen. I stood there looking up at the slowly disappearing sky. It was disappearing as Jake and CC worked above me, laying down what would be the ceiling of the bottom level and the floor of the second level. My job was to be digging out little ruts in the dirt floor of the first level so that we could lay down split logs and make a hardwood floor. Jinxx was gone, he said that he was getting rocks so that we could have a stone bathtub. I was catching my breath and stretching out my shoulders. It wasn’t easy work, but it was coming together and with all four of us working it was coming quickly. Suddenly I shaggy haired head appeared from above the ceiling.
“Whatchya doin, dude?” CC asked grinning.
“Stretching my poor back,” I said smiling back at him.
“Very nice, you know I was wondering. Do you think it’s time for lunch?”
“I don’t know man, but I am hungry. Lunch should be ready by now,” I said.
“Are you sure we don’t want to wait for Jinxx,” Jake called from somewhere above me. CC and I looked at each other for a moment.
“Nah, he can eat whenever he decides to show up,” I said. CC laughed and swung down from the roof.
“What we got for lunch, mama?” He said as he bounded over to me. Jake jumped down from the roof with a smile on his face. They both were starting to get sunburned from working without shade all day.
“We have a stew of duck, seasoned with wild onions and floating in some boiled river water. With a side of wild raspberries and strawberries picked fresh by yours truly, it should be a delicious meal,” I announced with a fake french accent.
We exited the house through the door hole that would hopefully have a door in it at some point. Sitting on the ground not far from the house was our little cook fire. A pot was on top of it boiling happily. We all dished out food for ourselves and sat on the grass eating and watching the fluffy clouds roll by. The food was actually much better than expected and I was enjoying it without a care until we heard heavy footsteps climbing up the embankment that lead to the river. The three of us stopped our chatter and looked up as Jinxx appeared, straining under the weight of a large sack of rocks on his back. He stopped when he saw us, reclining against the house while he worked. He dropped the sack of rocks and looked at us in silence for a moment. I was fully prepared to get yelled at.
“What are you guys doing?” Jinxx said.
“We had to stop and get lunch at some point,” Jake said. Jinxx straightened.
“You didn’t even wait for me?” he said softly. I looked at Jake and CC, they looked back at me.
“Well… we weren’t sure how long it’d be until you came back, but you can join us if you want, it’s still warm,” I said. I hadn’t taken into account that maybe us eating without him might actually make him feel like shit. He hesitated for a brief second and then came and sat down in the grass with the rest of us. Jake handed him a bowl of the stew. There was a moment of silence that was sort of awkward. I don’t know what the rest of the guys were thinking about, but I was thinking about how we’d slowly been excluding Jinxx from the three of us. I felt guilty, I mean he was a bit strange, but we were all each other had and he was one of us. The silence hung in the air like a dense fog. It didn’t take long for CC to think up a joke and with some of his quick wit he had all of us laughing within seconds. So we sat in the grass with the warm springtime sun upon us for a while, and for once it was nice. We were as we are and no one was there to stop us. I kept expecting Jinxx to tell us that it was time to get up and keep working, but he didn’t. Suddenly I noticed that it was starting to get dark I thought that was a little odd, we hadn’t been sitting out for that long. I shivered at a sudden cold breeze as Jinxx looked up to the sky.
“Oh shit!” he exclaimed standing up quickly and looking somewhere over the house.
“What?” I asked turning and looking up. A thick layer of dark gray clouds boiled overhead blocking out the sun.
“We gotta finish the roof before it starts to rain!” Jinxx exclaimed. The rest of us were on our feet and running into the house within seconds. We hauled ourselves up onto the roof as the wind started to pick up. We began frantically nailing boards to the cross beams. Jinxx handed Jake and CC the right sized boards and they carried them to the right places. I scrambled around trying not to fall through the still unfilled holes and nailing down the wood as Jake and CC laid them down. The wind was howling between the branches and the trees clacked against each other like they were ready to fight. Somewhere off in the distance lightning zigzagged from the sky and went straight to the ground. I could see the darker clouds beginning to roll in. Rain began to fall and we still had a few more boards to get into place. The wind whipped through my hair and threatened to drag me off the roof because I was unbalanced on my bad leg. I stumbled, but caught myself.
“Ashley get down now! We can finish it without you,” Jinxx shouted as Jake and CC hauled one of the last logs. I wanted to tell him to shove it but then another gust of wind pushed me backwards. I nodded at him and jumped down from the roof to the ground outside the house. Luckily my leg held out when I landed, leaving me only to stumble a bit before straightening up. I could here the guys up on the roof yelling to each other, but over the wind and the thunder I couldn’t catch any of what they were saying. Suddenly CC lept down from the roof and landed with a thud next to me. Jake and Jinxx landed not more than a second later.
“Everyone in!” Jinxx yelled. Jake grabbed me by my elbow and pulled me in the doorway. Jinxx pulled a string and the tarp that was our door for the time being rolled closed. We all stood there in the dark trying to catch our breath while the storm roared outside, muffled by the walls of the cabin.
“Well, I guess it’s time that mother nature tested to see if we can actually build a house or not,”

Notes

It's officially finals week for me, which is why this chapter is a little bit shorter than mine normally would be. I hope you all enjoyed it, and if anyone payed attention to the time frame in this story you'll know that something big is about to happen with the Sons of Night. Anyway, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Have a good week!