Moonlit

Infinite Impossibilities

1. Nessie's POV

A wild wind brushed my cheeks and jostled my hair as I stood, squinting in to the brush that lined the dense wood. Birds coiled through the trees, chirping shrilly yet harmoniously, and bugs hummed as they gnawed on the leaves of various hues of jade. Life teemed everywhere my dark eyes flittered.

I stood still as a statue in the clearing stiffly for hours, only my eyes shifting. Alone—I couldn't convince anyone to wait in the middle of the forest with me, and I didn't want company. Waiting alone in the woodland had woven itself in to my routine after a few days, and yet I never received what I longed for.

The rustling of leaves nearby snagged my attention like a fishing hook, and I slid in to a defensive crouch, my teeth bared at my invisible predator. Whoever it was disregarded the noise they were making and noisily stalked through the dense afforest. Growling warningly, I took a precautious step forward, prepared for attack.

"Renesmee!" A husky, keyed-up voice called, not at all treacherously.

A voice I recognized immediately.

Seth!

Seth, Seth, Seth, Seth!!

Just as the thought possessed my brain, he broke through the broad trees, pushing aside the moss that loosely clung to the aged bark. He was about a third of an inch taller than I recalled, and his hair was slightly longer, but still in the same short crop. He wore cutoff shorts and a black t-shirt, and his customary smile. His murky eyes, only a shade lighter than black, were colored with desperate ache, aged from a yearning search. Truthfully, he was huge for supposedly being frozen at fifteen, looking closer to twenty than his claimed physical age.

"Seth!" I cried, tears of happiness filling my eyes.

It occurred to me then—why was I just standing like an idiot? In two long strides, we met a few paces short of the middle. He flung his arms open at the same moment I pushed my stride wider to collide with him. His warm arms wrapped around my neck as I blubbered in to his chest, my own arms around his waist.

"S-Seth," I mumbled, weepy. "You're back!"

Seth's smile was evident in his tone, so I didn't have to move to see his expression. "Nessie! I'm…you're…Ness!" He stuttered, laughing. "Don't leave me again, Nessie."

I took a small step away from him, examining his face. "You were the one who left me, if you'll remember. Don't do that to me again, Seth! I missed you more than you know. More than anyone's ever missed anyone."

Seth grabbed my hands. "Maybe...but not more than anyone. I felt like someone ripped out one of my internal organs." He took my left hand, intertwining his fingers with mine, and pressed it to his heart. I felt the distant thud of his heart rhythmically against my palm. A silent correction.

See, there's a catch you need to know about my family. We're vampires. Well, my parents, my paternal adopted grandparents, and paternal aunts and uncles are. I'm half-human on my mother's side, for she was human when I was born. My father changed her directly after my birth.

As a result of my amalgam pedigree, I age fast. Really fast. For example, though I've only walked this Earth for six years, I appear to be a fifteen and my mind is sharper than an adult's.

Seth—my werewolf imprinter—had been down in Oregon to help a Quileute tribe who'd just realized the uncanny powers of their teens. See, the local Quileute boys turn in to shape-shifters when vampires are in town. Namely, my family. The Cullens.

Imprinting is a phenomenon where werewolves (Shape-shifters, to be specific, but werewolf is the preferred and original terminology) find there soul mates randomly. One glance and love stronger than any tie in the world, multiplied by ten thousand, forms. That happened to Seth when I was a newborn.

I know what you're thinking. Probably something like: EW! In love with an infant? Gross! Illegal! But the levels, or types, of love evolved as I aged: First brotherly love, then best-friend love, and when we're the same age (In one short week, on my eighth sixteenth birthday), romantic. Seth wasn't a cradle-robber, or anything.

"Hey, how was Oregon?" I asked abruptly. He'd been down there with Seth, Embry, Leah and Quil to help a tribe with some crime problems, I heard.

Seth sighed. "Okay. We got the situation sorted out pretty quick—I guess they had some trouble with drug dealers, real buff, armed guys. They left town after they got a load of us."

I laughed weakly. "You are pretty scary."

"Hey, what about us, Nessie?!" Someone asked from the brush. Three men and one woman immerged from the brush. Frozen a few years older than Seth, they still seemed older than they stated.

"Quil!" I yelped, jumping forward and assaulting the speaker in a bear-hug. Well, a wolf-hug.

The long-haired boy I was hugging laughed. "Nessie, please tell me you'll never leave Seth again, so then I won't have to listen to his ramblings."

"Does anyone remember he was the one who left me?!" I half-shouted as I went to embrace Jacob, Embry and Leah. "Yeesh."

Embry burst out in to laughter, tears threatening to trickle down his russet cheeks. "I forgot how funny you were. Guess being stuck with Leah for a week kinda rocks the boat, if you catch my drift…"

"Shut up." Leah shot at him. I was surprised—I rarely heard the older sister of Seth speak. She did not hug me.

"Hey, Ness! What's up?" Jacob, the taller, older boy said with a smile as he patted the top of my head, and then literally lifted me off the ground in a tight hug.

I giggled and returned to Seth, who wrapped his arm around my shoulders playfully. There is nothing romantic about the two of us, though legend has it that on my birthday, when we are the same age in every way that counts, those feelings will change.

I smiled at every one in the informal circle—except Leah, who hovered near the trees, who looked suspiciously sulky, I couldn't help but think—and thought to myself: This is where I truly belong.

"I'm so glad you guys are home."

~*~