Chapter 9: “Building Ashford”
1288 Words
The old Ashford border looked like a graveyard.
Broken stone walls. Fallen trees. Grass growing through cracked paths.
Lina stopped and stared. “This was a Pack?”
“Once,” Kael said. “Five hundred years ago.”
I walked to the center. The staff in my hand pulsed. Warm.
The mark on my neck pulled forward, like it recognized this ground.
“This is it,” I said. “Home.”
Lina set down her pack. “It’s… empty.”
“Not for long,” I said.
Kael walked the perimeter. “Walls are gone. Roof is gone. But the foundation is still here.” He kicked a stone. “Defensible, if we rebuild.”
“Rebuild with what?” Lina asked. “We have three people and one blanket.”
“We have more than that,” I said. I held up the staff.
Kael’s eyes met mine. “You’re going to use it?”
“I have to try,” I said.
The library book said: _“The staff is for building, not breaking.”_
I walked to the center of the ruins. Closed my eyes.
“Please,” I whispered. Not to anyone. Just… to her.
The white wolf.
Warmth spread from my chest to my hands. The staff glowed. Silver light ran down it into the ground.
The earth trembled.
Lina grabbed my arm. “Ella?”
“Stay back,” Kael said, but he didn’t move her.
Vines grew. Fast. Out of the cracks. They wrapped around fallen stones, pulling them up. Stone slid across stone. Walls started to rise.
Not high. Just knee-high. A circle.
Then it stopped.
I dropped to my knees, breathing hard.
“Ella!” Kael was beside me in a second.
“I’m okay,” I said. Sweat on my forehead. “Just… tired.”
Lina’s eyes were huge. “You… you did that?”
“A little,” I said. “The staff did the rest.”
Kael looked at the new wall. Then at me. “That’s Pack magic. Luna magic. It listens to intent.”
“So I can build?”
“You can begin,” he said. “Building takes time. And people.”
Lina touched the stone. “It’s warm.”
“Because it’s yours,” I said. “Ashford’s.”
We spent the day clearing. Not with magic. With hands.
Kael cut wood. Lina gathered stones. I marked where walls should go with the staff.
By sunset, we had a circle of low walls. And the outline of a house.
Lina collapsed on a rock. “I’m so sore.”
“Me too,” I said, laughing.
Kael handed us water. “Good work. Both of you.”
Lina looked at the walls. “It doesn’t look like much.”
“It’s more than we had yesterday,” I said.
She nodded.
That night we slept inside the half-built walls. No roof, but the stars were bright.
I couldn’t sleep.
Kael was on watch. Lina was curled up, finally asleep.
I stood and walked to the center.
The staff was there. Waiting.
“Was that enough?” I asked it.
The first Luna’s voice was faint. _“Enough for today.”_
“Will it get easier?”
_“No,”_ she said. _“But you will get stronger.”_
I smiled in the dark.
“Ella.”
Kael. He came to stand beside me.
“You should rest,” he said.
“I can’t,” I said. “I keep thinking… what if no one comes? What if we build this and it’s just us?”
Kael was quiet. Then: “Then it’s still worth it.”
I looked at him. “Why?”
“Because you were rejected in front of everyone,” he said. “And you chose to build anyway. That’s what a Luna does.”
His words settled in my chest.
“Thank you,” I said. “For staying.”
“I said I would,” he said simply.
We stood there a while. Not talking. Just watching the stars.
The next morning, Lina was gone.
I panicked.
“Lina!” I called.
“Here!” Her voice. From outside the wall.
She came back holding herbs. And two rabbits.
“I… I hunted,” she said, nervous. “I thought… if we’re a Pack, I should help.”
Kael took the rabbits. “You did well.”
Lina’s face lit up. “Really?”
“Really,” I said. “We eat tonight because of you.”
She beamed.
We built a fire pit. Cooked the rabbits. Ate together inside our walls.
It felt… like a Pack.
Small. But real.
In the afternoon, we heard something.
Footsteps.
We froze.
Kael’s knife was out. “Stay behind the wall.”
A figure appeared at the edge of the trees.
A boy. Maybe sixteen. Shirt torn. Arm bleeding.
He saw us. Saw the walls. Saw the staff in my hand.
He didn’t run.
“Are you…” he swallowed. “Are you the Luna?”
I stepped forward. “Who are you?”
“Toren,” he said. “Toren Vay. I was cast out. Two days ago. Wolfless.”
Wolfless again.
Lina came up beside me. “You’re hurt.”
The boy looked down at his arm. “It’s nothing.”
Kael lowered the knife, but didn’t put it away. “Why are you here?”
“I heard,” Toren said. “At the market. A Luna. Building a Pack for the rejected.” He looked at me. “Is it true?”
I looked at him. Scared. Bleeding. Alone.
Just like Lina was.
Just like I was.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s true.”
Toren exhaled. Like he’d been holding his breath.
“Can I… stay?” he asked. “I can work. I can build. I’m strong.”
Lina looked at me.
I looked at Kael.
He nodded once.
“Then stay,” I said. “You’re Ashford now.”
Toren’s knees almost gave out. “Thank you.”
Lina ran to get water and cloth. She wrapped his arm herself.
Four people.
The walls were still low. The house was just lines in dirt.
But we were four.
That night, we ate together again.
Toren told us his story. Cast out for not shifting. Beaten by his brother.
Lina told hers.
I told mine.
Kael didn’t talk about himself. But he listened.
After dinner, I stood in the center.
The staff glowed faintly.
“Today,” I said, “we started Ashford. Tomorrow, we build more.”
“With what?” Toren asked. “We have no tools. No supplies.”
“We have each other,” I said. “And we have this.”
I raised the staff.
Silver light spread out from it. Over the walls. Over the ground.
The earth hummed.
When the light faded, four tools lay in the dirt.
A hammer. A saw. A shovel. An axe.
Toren picked up the hammer. “They’re… real.”
“They are,” I said. “The staff makes what we need. If we ask together.”
Lina picked up the shovel. “It’s warm.”
“Because it’s ours,” I said.
Kael looked at the tools. Then at me. “You’re really doing this.”
“Yes,” I said. “Ashford is rising.”
Above us, the moon rose. Full.
The white wolf howled in my head.
And for the first time, three other voices answered.
Lina. Toren.
And Kael.
Not out loud. In spirit.
Pack.
Four people.
One Pack.
And we were just getting started.
- Writer
