"You can see the smoke from Katey's kitchen?" Shaun asked.
"Yes I noticed it when we were along the river."
"All right. We will build a log cabin up there for safe measure." Shaun said.
The next day Cory and his crew of carpenters went to work on the top of the hill.
The bricklayers were making my oven and stove today. They used the rocks leftover from Councilman Klaus' trimming. It made our new home very warm and comfortable.
They added a fireplace in our common room.
Our tables and chairs were made out of the wood from the ship. We had brought a small amount of furnishings that fit into our crates. The one thing Paddy wanted to bring was our bed. We took it apart carefully and packed it in a crate.
The mattress was down filled. It was very trying to pack it in the crate. We had to put the crate with the frame on top of it so we could nail it down. Now when we opened the crate it just sprang open.
It was nice to have our bed again.
Shaun and Colleen's quarters was first coming off the main chamber. Ours was last.
We discovered shortly after everyone had their quarters that they were all soundproof.
The Council's were the only ones that had their quarters on the other side of the main chamber and it turns out we all had our own private pool.
I noticed as I walked down the corridor to my quarters one day. The werewolves and shifters families were on the North side of the corridor and the vampire ones were on the South. Paddy and my quarters were at the very end of the corridor. When ever we opened our door we could see right into the main chamber.
Paddy and I were laying in bed after his sleep cycle.
"We are going to have to find another way out of here?" Paddy was saying.
"What do you mean?"
"Say, for instance someone blocked the other end of the corridor. How would we get out?"
"You are right. How would we get out?"
"Let us go for a swim."
We went down to our pool. The water was so clear. You could see the bottom.
Paddy dove in and shifted into an otter. I followed. He went deep into the pool. He was looking for the place the water came from. He found it when we followed the current to the other side of the pool.
He found a passage going towards the river. It was wide enough for us to swim through. Paddy was able to surface and find small air pockets along the way.
The passage came out in the middle of the river near a small island.
"This is perfect. We can keep a boat here if we need too."
We sat on the island watching the sunset. It was a beautiful spring evening.
"It will not be long before there are people settling here. This is truly a beautiful place."
"Yes it is." I snuggled into Paddy.
"We will keep this spot for our selves for a while."
"That sounds like a wonderful idea." I smiled.
We swam back through the passage way into our pool. Paddy then checked to see if there was away to go deeper into the hill.
"The only way you can go in the other direction is if you were a snake." He said when he came back.
"Really?"
He nodded. "That is how big the holes are and there are a lot of holes. I was able to go through everyone's pool right up to the main one."
He grabbed a towel and dried his hair. "One of these days I will have to see if there is a way into the Council's pools."
