12
Now that the entire Guard was awake and fed. We had the ship stripped down to its bare bones. We were able to do more things.
"All right my boys. We are going to lift the 'Gabriel' and carry it across the rocks. It should be light enough now." Councilman Klaus was telling us. "Vincent, you and some of your men will stay on board. Katey and the children will also." Vincent nodded.
"Then we will float the rest of our cargo to the ship."
The natives stayed on shore watching us. The vampires walked along the river until they were on both sides of the 'Gabriel'. We lifted, pushed and carried the 'Gabriel' over the rocks to deeper waters.
We walked out of the water on to the riverbank. The natives came running to us. I think they thought we had drowned or something. They checked to see if we needed help.
Next they came running with blankets.
"No. No we are fine." They were very insistent.
We held the blankets around us for a few minutes then gave them back. They tried hard for us to keep covered. The only ones who still needed the blankets were the shifters.
The werewolves were able to shake off the cold. We went back down the river to our cargo. We started floating the rafts up to the 'Gabriel'.
It took us a full day to reload the ship. We stayed the night then at first light we started up the river.
Later that day we came to another river heading North. It went closer to the escarpment. Councilman Klaus was very excited.
"This is perfect my dear. I thought for sure we would have to unload again and start walking." He told Councilwoman Cleo.
We sailed North until the river started turning away from our destination. We set the anchor and went ashore.
We left half of the Guard on the 'Gabriel'. The rest of us escorted the Council to the foot of the escarpment. For us it only took a few hours to reach.
Councilman Klaus walked along it until he found an opening. We followed him in.
There was a long narrow corridor of rock that went deep into the escarpment. It opened up into a very large natural chamber. It was at least five times the size of the main training square in London.
"All right the rest of you light your lanterns. I want to see how big this chamber is." We did. "All right. Now I want you to light up the perimeter."
We stood about ten to fifteen feet apart and stood along the wall. We had to spread ourselves out even further to see how big it was.
"This is absolutely perfect." Councilman Klaus cried for joy. "Do any of you notice any openings from this chamber?"
"There is one here Sir." Walter said from thirty feet to the Councilman's right.
"Here too Sir." Barry said further around.
There was at least six openings that went into the escarpment or deeper into the hill.
Councilman Klaus bent down and touched the ground.
"There are a few levels below us." He walked to one side of the chamber and touched the wall. We could see him smiling.
"There is plenty of room to spread ourselves out." He had gone along the rock touching the walls. "My word! It goes on for miles."
We cheered. "We will not have to move for a very long time."
We cheered again.
"Let us go get the others and start moving our things in."
We spent the next few days unloading and taking apart the ship. It was not long before everything including the wood from the ship was in the main chamber.
We had placed lanterns along the ceiling and down the corridors. Councilman Carlos and Antonio explored further into the hill. They found many natural chambers and a large pool of water.
Shaun and Cory went with them. They shifted and followed the underwater passages. They came out into a number of smaller pools.
Cory was in charge of a small group of carpenters. They made doors for all the smaller chambers.
Soon everyone had their own quarters again. On the opposite side of the main chamber. They discovered a large chamber for Katey's kitchen. It had a natural chimney for her oven.
Jules and Benjamin started working on her oven and stoves to her delight. She was anxious to set up her kitchen again.
Everyone brought their crate to their quarters and started setting up their rooms. We were very busy. We took turns guarding the entrances. We had not started patrolling yet.
After all the moving and traveling many of us were anxious to start training again. Once the main chamber was empty of all the crates, we started.
The Council watched us train. They were smiling.
"It feels like home again." We heard Councilman Klaus say.
We all answered. "Yes Sir. It does."
They laughed.
A few days later we started doing patrols. Shaun, Paddy, Cory and Vincent set up a perimeter and sentry posts. They cut down some trees and built log cabins for them.
On one of our patrols that took us along the river, I noticed smoke coming from the top of the hill where we were living.
"We are going to have to build a house up there eventually." The rest of the patrol squad looked where I was looking.
"I see what you mean Kylie." Scott said.
We completed our patrol then returned to the hill.
When we made our reports I mentioned the smoke coming from the top of the hill.
Paddy and Shaun came up to me.
