Chapter 65 The Recovery

We got to work putting out the fires. Once they were all out, we began cleaning up.

After a while, we took a break to eat and relax. It was a long day. The witches went around healing the injured, we didn’t lose anyone so this was a great victory for us. Everyone was in good spirits and celebrating. We had taken down the Blood King and his armies. I had finally stopped glowing and I didn’t pass out this time. I joined everyone in celebration. They deserved it.

After the celebrating was done for the night, I told everyone to get some sleep, we would finish cleaning up tomorrow. We had another long day ahead of us.

I woke up to the loud sounds of construction. What were they doing out there? I got dressed and went out to see. I found that many of the structures that had caught fire were torn down already and being rebuilt. Why didn’t someone wake me sooner? I found Uncle Ben and Aunt Scarlett at the grills in the park. They were making breakfast for everyone. I got to work helping them.

“Morning, guys. How come nobody woke me up?” I asked.

“We thought you might need some extra sleep.” Scarlett replied. “How did you sleep?”

“I slept okay. I had some weird dreams about fish that made me want to cry, but otherwise, I slept fine.”

“About fish, huh?” Ben asked.

“Yep. In the first dream, Mom took me to pick out some fish for my Christmas presents. But then she took them with her on vacation and they all died because she forgot she had them with her and I got nothing for Christmas. In the second dream, I was with some friends at an arcade. We were playing this one game where you can win coupons for the restaurant down the street. It was a seafood restaurant. I took my coupons there and ordered some fish for my dad, but the fish I wanted was out of stock, so the lady said she would make the lionfish, instead. She said lionfish was a delicacy. I agreed and also ordered some french fries. But when she gave me the fish, it was still frozen. And I never got the french fries.”

“Those are weird dreams.” Ben said.

“I wonder what they mean,” Scarlett said.

“Me, too. Obviously my subconscious is trying to work something out, but what?”

“Who knows,” Scarlett said.

We went back to cooking and were silent for a while. I watched as everyone put the Buildings back together in record time. With so many people working on each one, they were going up fast.

When we got done cooking, we called everyone to breakfast. Everyone ate and made conversation. I walked around thanking everyone for all their hard work. I also congratulated them on yesterday’s victory.

After breakfast people went back to work on making repairs and rebuilding some of the shops and houses. I helped them.

We worked through the rest of the morning and then took another break for lunch. At the rate we were going, all necessary repairs and rebuilds would be done by tomorrow afternoon. This was a good group of allies.

We all worked together to get lunch made. Everyone made a dish to share, like a potluck. It was great. The food was delicious and I got to try some new foods. I would have to ask for the recipes.

I found Mom and Dad making googly eyes at each other. It was a little disgusting to watch so I averted my eyes. Parents can be gross sometimes.

I found Aunt Scarlett, Uncles Ben, Scott, Jason, and Zach sitting in the grass talking. It seemed like a private conversation so I continued walking. I found Aunt Rose sitting with the other council members. I decided to sit with them. We were all just relaxing after our big lunch, letting our food settle before we got back to work. We talked about the future and the goals we had going forward. Then we mostly talked about nothing, just idle chit chat.

After a while, we all went back to work. It had become quite fun, rebuilding. I had never built anything on this scale before. It was exciting to see how my efforts helped others and the feeling of accomplishment when we finished one building and then another. It was also great seeing everyone work together.

By six o’clock, we were done for the day. We gathered around a bonfire and told stories while we waited for dinner to be prepared. The witches were making something that smelled absolutely delicious.

After dinner, we all relaxed by the fire and told more stories of battles past.

As the sun began to set, I went back to the packhouse. I was tired from the day’s work. I took a shower and went to bed.

“EJ, up and at ‘em son,” my dad said cheerfully. “The rest of the pack will be back tonight, so we need to get everything done before then, let’s go!”

I wiped the sleep from my eyes and got up. “Let me get dressed and I’ll be right down.”

“See you at breakfast,” he said as he left my room.

I got dressed and headed downstairs, the sun was barely over the horizon. We ate breakfast and then headed out to finish the rebuilds.

As I nailed the beams together, I sang “Unstoppable” by Sia. “I’m unstoppable, I’m a porsche with no brakes. I’m invincible, yeah, I win every single game. I’m so powerful, I don’t need batteries to play…” A few others joined me. I stopped hammering for a minute and pulled out my phone. I found my ‘unstoppable’ playlist and put it on. A few of us sang along to the songs as we continued to build.

By lunch time, we only had two more buildings to rebuild. We took our lunch break and then got back to work.

The last two buildings were houses. One of them belonged to the Krafts. I knew they were expecting a new baby soon, so as a surprise, we added an extra room to the original blueprints and got to work. Mr. Kraft had lost a leg in a previous battle, so he was with his wife and two other children at the Blue Moon pack.

We got the last two houses done and sent word for our pack members to return. Tonight we would hold a huge celebration to honor those who fought beside us.