It had been a few days before Shiloh was able to be up and running but the time she had spent recovering she had drawn the plans for some new buildings that she knew needed to be made. As she looked around the village for a good plot of land to start working she watched the others around the village go about their business. She found a stable part of land with what looked like the reminates of a human house already built on it. It had long since been abandoned but it was built with wood and was two stories and as she looked at it she saw that she would have to tear it down to start new.
Shiloh paced around the house and looked at her plans for the new building. She decided to start at the top and work her way down. She walked into the house and walked up the stable stairs to the second floor landing. The roof had caved in in most the rooms and she didn't seen any human contraptions that would stop her from just throwing the decayed wood down from the where she was. She bent and picked up some of the wood, inspecting it and finding it not useable and throwing it towards the back of the house. She continued like this for hours wishing someone would help her so that she could start building faster. She felt she owed the pack her life and was going to make up for it by building houses for them
Shanta had seen a unfamiliar wolf walk into a old human building. She was new herself, 'This wolf could have been here longer than me.' she thought to herself. Noise of wood falling and hitting each other grew loud within a few minutes. Shanta approached the building and looked around. The wood was flying out of the upper part of the house into the back yard. 'She must be clearing it out, probably a Gatlvska.' the reason for the wolf went through her mind. Shanta decided she would go and help the wolf with whatever it was she was doing.
Shanta entered the scraggly, yet stable, building. She found the creaky stairs and went up. Listening carefully, she determined which room the other wolf was in. As she approached the doorway, she knocked lightly and then entered. "What are you doing?" she asked curiously. "Do you want some help?" she looked happy to do anything. Meeting new people was still a bit hard for her, but she was determined to get over it. Her eyes wandered to the ceiling and the rotting wood, she took notice that this was the wood the wolf was throwing out. "Are you new? Or have I just not seen you yet?"
Shiloh stopped what she was doing and turned as she heard a femme came up the stairs asking some questions. Shiloh put down the piece of wood she was about to throw and turned to the femme. She looked surprised to see someone ask if she need help
"Yeah I need help. I am cleaning out this house to make a new one. By the way my name is Shiloh Grant,"she said extending a hand. "Who are you?" she asked going back to what she was doing. She picked up a piece of wood and looking at it and found it too rotted and wet to be used. She chucked the piece of wood down where the others were and continued to work, wondering if this new femme would help her or not. She needed all the help she could get if she was going to make a stable living quarter for the pack. The buildings she saw looking for this place were crude and unstable. She was going to prove that she belonged there even if she was alone and unmated.
When Shiloh extended her hand, Shanta grabbed her forearm, the way she was taught to shake hands. "My name is Shanta Wanagi," she picked up a piece of wood, examined it and tossed the rotted piece out the back window, "You can call me Shanta." Continuing to look for pieces of wood, she picked out a pile of rotted wood that could not be used for building. Her pile grew until she picked it up and tossed it out the window. Once or twice, she got pricked by nails, nothing horrible, just a poke.
"Where are you going to put all the reusable wood?" Shanta asked. She was working on her second pile, finding molded and termite-eaten pieces of wood. The smell of the abandoned building was kind of gross, but nothing she couldn't handle. The must and mold was getting to her nose though. She sneezed rather quietly, rubbing at her nose. She picked up her second pile and threw it out the window as well. Finding some good pieces of wood, she placed them on the side, making another small pile.
Shiloh continued to work, enjoying the light conversation they were having. "I plan on using it to rebuild this house. I know its far from the town center and its a little hard to find wood because of the cold but if you help me ill let you have the bottom floor once its fixed up. I just need a little help to fix this place up. Town hall is awfully crowded." she laughed as they finished cleaning the rotted wood out of the room. It would be nice to have a friend and Shiloh knew the femme was looking past her scars.
"Would you like to live here with me once it is fixed up. There are 3 rooms down stairs and 4 upstairs. I want this one once we are done but all the other rooms are open for anyone." said Shiloh dusting off her hands. She needed a bath soon and she knew that both she and Shanta had made great progress today.
Shanta nodded in understanding, the Town Hall was awfully full. She thought of multiple wolves living in the same home as her. It wouldn't be as private as she liked. Then an idea popped into her head, why keep it as a two story? There was enough wood to make at least six separate houses. It would not be her decision to make, but she might as well suggest it. She would help Shiloh as much as she could. "Thank you for the offer, but I think I want my hut a bit more personal, just me. I would love to stay here until I figure out how to fix my own hut, if that's alright?"
Shanta picked up the final few rotted pieces of wood, she checked them again, and threw them out the window. Her eyes searched the room for good looking pieces of wood, separating them from splintered wood. Finally, Shanta voiced her opinion, "Maybe, instead of repairing this," She made a gesture that included the building. "We could take it apart, completely. Using the wood from this, we could probably do a lot with it. I don't know about you, but I don't think many individuals like to sleep in a home full of others." Her tone was nothing but suggestive, Shiloh would decide.
Shiloh thought about the girls offer about taking it down and using the wood for huts. Wood this time of year was hard to find and taking down this house would give her more then enough wood to make at least five houses. "I think we should take this down. Most of this wood is strong and study and everyone needs their own hut to live in. If you help me take this down I'll make sure your hut is second to go up. I need all the help I can get." said Shiloh looking at the woman.
*The faster I can tear this down the faster I can build huts and fix things around here* thought Shiloh as she begin to take apart the far wall. She really wanted to start building huts but the weather wasn't in her favor yet and the stables needed to be fixed soon. She was going to try her best to make things more inhabitable around here and she wanted to whittle totems for the people she had met already. She had a lot to do and not many helping her. She wanted things to be more cheery and the only way to do that was to make huts as soon as possible.
Shanta held her breath a little as she waited for Shiloh's reply. Her face turned into a grin and she started to help take down the walls. "I'll help as much as I possibly can." She was gentle with the wood, but the nails had rusted so badly that she could pull them down easily. She was working next to Shiloh, but she made her way to the opposite of the other wolf. She tossed her planks, delicately, behind her. Stretching her arm out, she pulled on the remnants of the roof, she preferred not to have a roof fall on her. She checked this wood also, the rotted ones went out the window, the reusable wood went in the pile in the middle of the room. Soon enough, she had removed the whole roof from the room.
As she finished with the roof, she returned to the wall. They had gotten so much done in the last hour or so. She started to pull of wall planks again. She could feel callouses forming on her paws, but that could be easily taken care of. All of a sudden, she stopped working. Shanta took the ties out of her braids, gently shaking the braids out. Bending at the waist, she flipped her head down. She wound all of her hair together and put it into a messy, yet cute, bun. "So when did you join Aniwaya?" Shanta said, an attempt at small talk. Her hands moved again in the pattern that would pull out wood, toss it into a pile, and then repeat.
Shiloh had grown used to the familiar prick of nails and the soft splintering of rotting wood. She threw the good wood into the middle of the room. Shiloh had stopped with Shanta had and watched as she put her hair up in a bun. Shiloh's hair hadn't grown out like Shanta's and she kept hers short when it did grow out except for two thin braids that hung down over her left shoulder. She had her feather saying that she was AniWaya braided into one of them and dark blue beads that said she was a Gatlvska. She was a simple wolf with a small leather belt that held her tools and her pouch where she kept the totem she was working on. She had started to work again when she heard Shanta's question.
"I have only been here a week and I was found dying at the boarders. I had been starving for about two months. What about you? When did you join?" asked Shiloh as she finished the wall she was working on and bending to get the wood from the middle of the room. She wasn't able to grab it all and asked for help. "Hey Shanta would you help me with this?" asked Shiloh softly
Shanta finished with her wall just a few minutes after Shiloh. Two more walls and they would be done with the room. "Oh, that sounds harsh." she commented quietly as Shiloh talked of her starvation. Shanta had always had food, no matter the amount. Her family had usually shared a piece of prey, squirrels, rabbits, mice, elk, deer, you name it. They gave their thanks to their creator and to the animal who's life was taken. Her heart ached terribly at the thought of her family. "A week ago, huh? I must have got here a few days before you."
Her mind wandered to her mother. Her sweet faced, kindhearted mother. The loss of her brother and father had driven her mad. 'I shouldn't have left her!' Shanta yelled at herself. "Originally, I was going to join with my family." as her voice, smooth and melodic, went on in a sort of trance, her hand went to the lotus on her chest. "My parents, my brother, and I traveled here from Maine. My brother went missing shortly after and my father died looking for him. The loss of everyone was too much for my mother, sh-she. . . she ran off a cliff."
The trance was broken when Shiloh asked for her help. Her eyes focused and she shook her head slightly. "Yeah. . . I mean yes, Where is it going?" she said as she grabbed a armful of wood.
Shiloh knew the pain of loss and knew deep down Shanta blamed herself for her mothers death. As they took the wood down stairs and out the door Shiloh thought she should tell her story to Shanta. "I lost my family too. My little brother had accidently started a fire that got out of control way to fast for anyone to really do anything. The only reason I am alive is because I had taken a walk before everyone got up. By the time I got back the fire was out of control but I still tried to save my little brother and sister. My father had tried to hand my sister to me but the fire had gotten too strong for me and as I grabbed Anya my fur caught fire and so did she. I wasn't able to save her from getting burned to the point she wouldn't have survived. I watched my little sister and my family burn while I lived. I wanted to give up and for days I laid next to the ashes of my family. It wasn't until I saw my totem did I get up and start to live and it lead me here. But the scars you see are my constant reminder that I failed my family..." said Shiloh as they laid the wood down.
"But we shouldn't beat ourselves up over the past when we live and have a better future. We lived for a reason. We have a purpose that we must live out. Its what our family would have wanted us to do. Live and better ourselves. Thats why I build things. Its my purpose and I was needed here. Thats why I was brought here. To build and help this pack," she said softly
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Shanta followed the wolf downstairs. Her bundle rested on her right hip, both arms around it. Her story wasn't have as bad as Shiloh's, but either way, they had lost family. She watched each step and listened intently to the story of Shiloh's scars. Her eyes swept across the burns, a scene of the fire playing in her head. Her heart wretched at the thought of her family dieing like that. She had no scars, just the emptiness, the hole she was slowly trying to fill. She had lost her sisters, they weren't strong, but they were siblings. Her brother, oh, her brother, he was her best friend and she couldn't believe he had disappeared. That was the worst part, he could still be alive, still be out there.
"Well enough with the past then! We shall learn from the mistakes and let the errors correct us." Shanta went back to a happy, relaxed wolf. She still felt the sorrow, but she was trying to get over it. Her body went from rigid to a delicate, proper posture. She had a easy grin on her face as she followed Shiloh through the house. Finally, her load was deposited. She thought about the whole thought of having a purpose. She did not yet know her "purpose".
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