Disclaimer: Source and characters belong to Stephenie Meyer except OCs.
Author's Note: "Wolf People" remains my most popular fic to date, but I would appreciate more reviews. This story gets more readers than the others so I would like to know if you like it or not or whatever you think about it. Peace!
Freedom, At Last
Exhausted from moving all of her things in her new apartment in Shoreline, Leah Clearwater lay in her bed and stared at the cracked ceiling for several minutes. Closing her eyes, she listened to the people chattering in the streets—friends exchanging stories, vendors selling their wares, impatient drivers yelling at slow-moving pedestrians … Forks and La Push weren't as busy as Shoreline; this felt like an entirely different world in itself.
Leah had gotten herself a job at a café in Shoreline. It was a small occupation, but it would sustain her while studying in Shoreline Community College for a course in Phlebotomy.
It had taken Leah seven years and all of her determination to control her phasing; she hadn't transformed into a wolf in three years. She felt it was about time she'd start moving on with her real life again. Leah still had her superhuman senses and healing ability. She also hadn't resumed menstruating yet. But she had ceased telepathic contact with her "brothers", and her temperature had cooled to normal human proportions. She let her hair grow past her shoulders. The residue of her powers made it clear that she was not about to resume aging yet, but having her thoughts all to herself again seemed like a good start.
Sam and Jacob had been especially worried; Leah had always been pretty sure of herself, so they couldn't quite trust that she was ready to leave La Push and go on her own. But there was no stopping Leah: she had already been accepted before she had even told them of her plans.
"What, can't nine of you handle vampires without me?" she had quipped after Sam and Jacob attempted to convince her not to go. Later recognizing that he could no longer make her stay, Jacob built Leah a van as a parting gift.
Seth, on the other hand, was supportive as usual. But it was only at breakfast on the day that Leah was leaving that he showed any hint of sadness. "I'm gonna miss you, sis," he had told Leah when he was about to finish his cereal. Leah gave him a hug; it was all she could give him and all he could get after their mother had died in her sleep two years earlier.
Seth had always been more affectionate than Leah was, but he tended to be a tad more reserved when it comes to her; he had never even defended her when everyone in the wolf pack had cast her as the bad guy in the Emily/Sam/Leah drama. But she could let Seth off for that time; he had been too young to understand what it was like to have your heart broken like that. Once again thankful that her mind was no longer accessible to anyone else, Leah reminded herself that apart from living her own life, she really left La Push to no longer see Sam or Emily again. Smirking, she wondered if she should ever return to La Push at all.
This idea put her in a rather good mood. This persisted as she stopped by a café below the apartment and read the March 2010 issue of the National Geographic magazine over iced coffee.
"Hi," said a man no older than twenty-eight years old. At first glance, he looked either Mongolian or even Tibetan. His untidy chin-length hair framed his round face. He had a faint mustache over the corners of his mouth and a small patch of a beard that looked more like a shadow. A camera pouch hung from a sling around his thick neck, which brought attention to his stocky build. He bore a very vague resemblance to Leah's late father, that she thought he must be Native American like herself, rather than Tibetan. "Mind if I sit with you?"
"No, go ahead," said Leah, giving him a friendly smile.
The young man smiled back. Then, he picked up his camera and scanned his recent photos. After Leah sipped from her glass three more times, the young man spoke again: "I've read that issue. A photograph of Inupiat wolf dancers in the back caught my attention."
Curious, Leah checked the back of the magazine to see the Flashback column, featured eight Inuit people, four of whom wearing wolf masks. "Participants in the Inupiat eagle-wolf dance honored slain animals, sending their spirits home to ensure future hunting success.It was a performance so real that it was difficult to believe that they were simply men wearing wolf masks," read Leah. "With masks like that, it's not surprising."
"Have you seen it?" said the young man.
"I've seen enough wolves dancing in La Push," said Leah bitterly.
"Oh, you're a Quileute," said the young man, "the wolf people."
Leah grinned at him. "Was showing me that photo your way of telling me you're Inuit?"
"Yeah—Inupiat, actually," clarified the man. "I'm Reuben Nanuq, but I prefer being called Nanuq." He held out his hand for her.
"Leah Clearwater," said Leah, shaking his hand. "If you're Inuit, how did you get all the way down here in Washington, Nanuq?"
"I've been living alone here in Shoreline for a while now," said Nanuq. "I ran away from our village in Alaska and settled in Seattle for about a few years before moving to Shoreline. I also work here. How about you?"
"I want to get away, that's all. So, to make myself useful, I enrolled in community college."
"You must be really lucky to be able to do that just 'coz you want to."
Leah grimaced slightly upon noticing the persistently bitter tone in Nanuq's voice. Nanuq must have sensed it, too, and he hastily apologized. "Once you make me talk, I just blab away. I momentarily forgot that we've known each other for but a few seconds," he said sheepishly.
"You must be happy to be here," guessed Leah.
"Yeah, you could say that," agreed Nanuq.
"I'm glad to be here, too. I'm glad to meet you," said Leah.
Nanuq rested his chin on his hand and grinned at Leah. "Leah Clearwater, isn't it? What's it like in La Push?"
Leah leaned back thought about it for a moment. Life in La Push had never been unexciting. To some extent, it was even fun. It was only the nearly constant bullying that she'd gotten from the boys that made her stay there unbearable. The only thing that relieved her from it was Jacob's respect for her. Other than that, she didn't have a friend that could at least sympathize with her. Jacob was just one, but most of the time, he was just too busy hanging out with Renesmée to help her get her mind off Sam and Emily.
Smiling, she began, "La Push is near the sea, and that's where I like to go when I want to get away from worries. Sometimes, I'd go at the edge of the cliff and watch birds fly by me. That's where I could relax, where I could just close my eyes and listen to waves crashing against the bottom of the cliff way below me."
"That's beautiful," said Nanuq.
"What's Alaska like?"
"I lived in a village in the Anaktuvuk Pass in the North Slope Borough of Alaska."
"The North Slope … it must be cold up there!"
"Extremely cold," said Nanuq. "It's so cold that so few of us live there. It's beautiful, yeah—the mountains loom over us like bears. Living there is no joke. Let's leave it at that. So I moved here."
"Has life been good to you since?"
"Yes, I could say it has," said Nanuq solemnly. "But your life didn't sound as crappy. Why d'you move out?"
"You'd be surprised." It was Leah's turn to be bitter. But Nanuq didn't ask her about it. Perhaps he thought it was too early to get so personal.
"If you ask me," he said; his face lighting up instantly as he picked up his camera, "nothing makes me happier than capturing a beautiful moment that will never happen again."
Leah couldn't help but smile a little when Nanuq's little speech fueled her mind with images of striking sunsets—each never exactly as beautiful as the next. A sudden bright flash of light startled her. Nanuq was grinning at her. "You're gorgeous," he said.
Leah beamed at the unexpected compliment.