Escaping the War (Sequel to Pardoned on the Peak)

Five

June, 1771

The next six months passed by quicker than those who’d left Morgan’s Peak far behind felt like they did, the amount of Snow that surrounded them more than a bit shocking. In fact, not seeing it start to melt till somewhere between the Sabbats of Beltane and Litha–or the Summer Solstice, as many of the humans kent it–was somewhat depressing. None of them disagreed with or contradicted one another when they said it felt like that cold, white shit’d never go away and let them see the slightest amount of green ever again.

        But once it did finally start to melt, they were all able to definitively decide where they wanted to build their permanent cabins at last. It came as no surprise that the Murrays chose a relatively flat spot just up the Hill from a smaller Loch, which was connected to the bigger one by the nearby Creek. However, that was where the biggest Changes between this new settlement and the one they’d left behind in the North Carolina Mountains started.

        Since there wasn’t exactly a placeta build a new version of a Central Tower and its accompanying homestead, the Lifelong Pagans’d suggested an alternative. Instead of calling that fifth tower the Central Tower–or Tùr a’ Mheadhain, to use the Gàidhlig name–it’d be named after what many considered the Fifth Element. That meant it’d be kent as the Spirit Tower–or Tùr Spiorad–and due to the layout they were somewhat forced to use, it was the closest one to the Murrays’ chosen site. At the Northernmost End of the bigger Loch, it was roughly halfway between it and the smaller one in a sorta lowlying spot, which forced them to build it a lil taller than they’d originally planned.

        In more or less the Northeastern corner overlooking that bigger Loch, the tower and homestead that’d belong to Lachlan and Saoirse’d been constructed. According to them, not to mention the latter’s parents, that was where the Element of Water’d be positioned, if it were actually attached to the point of a Pentacle. For that reason–not to mention the obvious Change in Direction–theirs’d been named the Water Tower, or Tùr Uisge this Time around since it wasn’t in the West.

        To the South more or less where the bottom-right point of a Pentacle’d lay was the tower and homestead that’d been established for Jamie and his branch of this family. Even though it coulda been named after the Direction it lay in again, they’d opted to call it the Fire Tower–or Tùr Teine–after the Element he and his ginger wife’d the strongest Control over. Slightly South and West of them was the tower and homestead that’d been constructed for Ahearn and Lachina, which’d been dubbed the Earth Tower, or Tùr na Talmhainn after his strongest Element. Rounding out the homesteads that were accompanied by a guard tower was that of Corbin and Morna, which was more or less in the Northwest corner overlooking the bigger Loch. That was where the Element of Air was said to reside on the points of a Pentacle, and why it’d been named the Air Tower–or Tùr an Adhair–this Time around since it obviously wasn’t in the East.

        Between that quintet of towers and their accompanying homesteads, or slightly outside the somewhat lopsided Circle they made, were those of various other family members. Egan’d chosen a spot fairly closeta the rest of his branch of the family, but not so close that he didn’t have the Independence a young man pushing twenty-six should. Several of Jenny and Big Ian’s children’d chosen spots near their own parents, but not so close that they were all right on top of one another. And that trend continued with the oldest grand-Elvlings of the Elvin matriarch and patriarch, who’d been forced to get Creative with building their cabins since they were literally on the sides of Mountains. They’d been forced further up into the Valley between two Mountain peaks, after all, but with the Creek that fed the Lochs running through there, they weren’t taking any chances.