The Rise

Chapter Two

"Stop it! Don't touch me! Get off!" Andrew shouts as he fights his sleep. I hear him mumbling and tossing in the dark as I groggily sit up to face him in the darkness.
"Andrew," I say, shaking him a little.
"Ow! I don't know where she is, I don't know!" My heart sinks because I know exactly what he is screaming about. I shake him harder.
"Andrew, Andrew, please wake up."
"Wait no, don't touch her! You leave her alone! NO-"
"Andrew!" I say, shaking him again as he sits upright in the bed, shaking and sweating. I can hear his breath as it begins to slow from its heavy, and fast pace.
"Hey, you're alright," I say as he buries his head in his knees. He sits there, letting my rub his back, until he sits up, pulls on a pair of pants over his boxers and walks out the door. I'm wearing my blood-stained shirt as I follow him out the door. The cool air hits are like a gust of wind as I sit next to him on the moonlit cliff.
"I'm sorry for waking you," he says, opening his arms so I can lay in them.
"I don't mind. My dreams are never pretty either but you know that" I say as he kisses my head a couple times.
"They could have had me on the verge of death and I never would have betrayed you," he promises, and I begin to cry. "What's wrong he asks, as I push myself away from him.
"Gosh I cry too much," I say trying to laugh, but instead there is just more tears and an odd choking sound.
"Ella no. Of course, you don't. It also doesn't help that your hormonal," he says, and I nod.
"I'm sorry they hurt you," I tell him, cupping his hands in my face. "You being here is all my fault. It's all me..." but I can't continue, nor do I have to.
"It's not your fault! You didn't know who I was or what I would mean to you. All you did was try to protect the people you love, Ella I don't blame you for anything," he reasons, but I still feel terrible.
"But-" I try to start but he cuts me off.
"No. Stop it. I don't want you looking back to what happened then. I forgive you and I love you now, that is all that matters. Besides," he says, placing my hand on my abdomen dom. "Now it's our future we need to look to." I nod as he kisses me, ignoring the tremor in my lip. Then he picks me up and walks me back into the house where he holds me until we both fall back to sleep.

There's a knock at the door, followed by Frost's voice as I groan and roll out of Andrew's arms.
"I'll get it," he says kissing my head and going to see what Frost wants. I head some mumbling that I don't really care about and then Andrew walks back into the room and pulls the clothes from when he got here off the shelf.
"Where are you going," I croak, opening one eye to see his muscles flex before he puts his shirt on. He notices me doing this and a smile creeps on his face.
"Hunting with the boys. I think you girls might get a head start on the other cabins," he tells me as I sit up. My stomach starts to turn while my headaches. Andrew notices and brings me a bowl to throw up in.
"I hate morning sickness," I say when Andrew comes back from disposing of the bowl with a glass of water. I nod in thanks.
"I know you do, now drink that," he tells me, and I do as he says.
"I want to see you later," I say, rolling onto my stomach to look at him while he changes his pants to a pair of shorts. He smiles a little more. The turning in my stomach has stopped.
"Don't worry, you will. Now put this on and get up," he says, throwing me some pants that I slip on over my underwear, this time as he watches. I use a piece of soft vine to tie my knotted hair with as Andrew grabs two mangos from a bowl, and hands me one. I notice one of the bows and an arrow sheath slung over his shoulder. When we walk outside the air is remarkably warmer than the night before and the sun is seen just over the horizon.
"Okay bye, love you," he says kissing me on the cheek before walking off with Frost to join Ethan, Coby, Jack, and Devin. I make my way down to where the girls are also eating mangos.
"I can't wait till we all get beds. It is going to be so much better than that sand," Emma says, cracking her back.
"Well then we should probably get started," Sophie says, heading towards the water.
"Want me to come with? I can help carry some metal scraps," Adriane offers and Sophie takes it. Since the hovercraft crashed in the water, Sophie is really the only one who had the ability to get it.
"Kate and I will go grab stones since we can pretty much just lift a hundred of them over at a time," I say, and Kate nods in agreement. Jane and Emma are left to dig out the foundations where the floors are going. There are going to be two cabins. One for girls and one or boys. Both will be much larger than mine, but there are also five living there instead of two. By the time Kate and I have finished gathering what seems like two hundred rocks, Jane is done digging out the ground space and Emma is making some wood stoves with the metal Sophie and Adriane brings over. It takes me a matter of minutes to place down all the rocks, which makes me love my levitation power even more.
"Could have used that the other day," Jane growls, and I know she is talking about the floor they built for Andrew and I.
"Well we did say it would be a lot easier with Ella around," Sophie says, smiling at me.
"I'm sure this will be easier too," I say, turning to face the sea and I face my palms upwards and bring them slowly towards the sky. As I do so, clay for our mortar floats out of the water and I turn and drop my fingers into one of the cracks where they rocks lay. In seconds the first floor is complete and within a couple more so is the second.
"I've got this part," Sophie says, pulling the water from inside the clay to make a large water ball as they clay hardens almost instantly. She tosses the ball back into the water, and we look at our progress. The floor is complete and so are the two wood stoves. This time the part that takes a long time is Jane growing enough trees that are big enough to make the walls. Adriane has no problem making axes sharp and strong enough to but through them with one swing so that part's easy. By the time the boys come back sometime, I would assume is around two all of the walls are up, including the inside ones, and all that is left is the roof. The boys managed to find some wild turkeys that apparently were easy kills, so we will have a nice supper tonight. Jane builds the roofs, which takes some time, but she manages, and in the meantime, the rest of us stone a wall so we can put the stoves in, build some shelves, beds, and make Frost add in some dressers, plates, cutlery, glasses and windows. I manage to dig a large enough hole so that the two wells connect and Sophie only has to fill one big some ideas of two small ones. This is so easy without powers. Without them, we would pretty much be screwed.
"Nice job ladies. I love that we have proper beds, not bunk beds," Frost says, nodding in approval. Everything about the houses is the same as mine, but the difference being there is only one big room with lots of single beds instead of the two smaller rooms. Adriane gave everyone a bow with an arrow along with a sword to their fitting that hands over their beds.
"Yeah, yeah, it's great, but where's the food at?" Jane asks, looking to Ethan who is holding a plate of roasted turkey. We eat some more carrots and potatoes with it, and it's a delicious meal altogether. Everyone sits outside to eat while watching the sun go down.
"Andrew?" I ask, stealing one of his potato bites.
"Yes, food thief?" He asks but lets me bite another one of his forks regardless.
"Tag you're it," I smile, standing up and sprinting towards the water. He smiles at me before slapping Frost on the back and running after me. Soon it's all our free for all and everyone is screaming, laughing and running in the moonlight.