Bird of Prey.
Chapter One – Meeting
The woods were almost completely silent except for the leaves rustling in the slight breeze. I closed my eyes as I sat perched on a thick branch high in a tree and listened for the sound of hooves snapping twigs and crunching leaves down below.
Only three minutes and fourteen seconds have passed when I heard the unmistakable sound of a deer wandering in the woods alone. I lifted my ready bow and arrow in the direction of the sound and sent the arrow flying toward the animal just as it immerged from the bushes.
I climbed down the tree and walked to the deer and swiftly pulled my arrow from its neck. At least he isn't suffering I thought to myself as I wrapped rope around his four legs and tied them together. I held the rope over my shoulder and started dragging the dead deer behind me toward the cave in which I stored my kills before dividing it up in portions and taking them to the Meeting Grounds.
As I walked toward the small cave that was hidden by trees, I heard and felt a presence around me. I immediately dropped the rope and pulled an arrow from my quiver and placed it into the bow and spun around to see a tall, lanky boy behind me.
He held his hands up in defense with wide green eyes staring back at me. I took in his apparel, nicely fitted jeans, and a collared shirt under a designer sweater. I looked back up to his face and found myself staring a little too much. His face looked as if it was chiseled from an artist. His long nose had a slight bend in it and his lips were the perfect shade of pink-red and perfectly curved. His eye lashes looked long and dark from where I was standing and they made his green eyes look bright and sparkling. His hair was a mess with the ends sticking up in every direction and in an odd colour of bronze.
"Why are you following me?" I didn't lower my bow and kept it aimed right at his chest, knowing if I had to shoot it would pierce his heart and he would be dead almost instantly.
"I..I'm lost and I figured you were heading back toward a main road or something. I'm sorry." He stuttered his words and dropped his hands and took a step forward.
I pulled back more on my arrow and he stopped holding his hands up again. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."
"I'm not afraid of you hurting me. If you have been following me you obviously saw how good I am with a bow. If anyone should be afraid, it's you."
"I'm Edward." The boy blurted out. He put his hands down again and shoved them in his pockets. He turned them inside out to show that there wasn't anything in them, and then kept his hands there.
"What are you doing out here Edward? It's dangerous for someone like you to be wandering around these parts." I lowered my bow, but kept the arrow in place just in case I needed it at a seconds notice.
"I was out for a hike and I got lost." He shrugged his shoulders and looked at his surroundings.
"You don't look like you're dressed for a hike."
"Okay so maybe I wasn't out for a hike. My friends and I heard stories about these woods and we got split up when we were walking around."
I knew the stories he was talking about. They were the stories that hikers come to these woods and a pack of wild savaged hunters kill them for food. Well it isn't true. I know this because I live in these woods, and none of the other hunters are crazy like that. The stories are all made up to stop kids from coming up here and getting into trouble.
"How long have you been following me?"
He looks up at me from under his long dark lashes, and a small grin spreads across his face. "I saw you hit that bird right between the eyes. You're an excellent shot."
I feel my eyes widen a little in surprise. Has he really been following me that long? How did I not sense him sooner? "I kept my distance if that's what you were wondering. When you stopped, I stopped."
"Why did you start following me then? Did you think you were going to witness a gruesome killing of a random hiker and then some ceremonial gathering for a human feast?" I spat out at him and pulled the rope into my hands and kept walking.
"No! I never believed those stories. If they were true, there would have been newspaper articles or even news reports about missing hikers and there hasn't been any since the bear mauling." Edward walks faster and catches up to me and keeps my pace.
I don't speak for a few moments and just keep dragging the deer behind me. It's getting a bit heavy now and I can feel my muscles burning from the weight of it. Edward must notice this as well because he offers to drag it for me. "I don't need your help. I've managed this long on my own and have dragged heavier."
"How long have you lived out here?" Edward doesn't listen to me and pulls the rope from my hands and drags the carcass behind him.
"I've only lived here for a few years. My dad used to take me to the woods every weekend to hunt. He showed me how to use the bow and even how to make them from almost any kind of wood or animal bone." I shrugged and smiled at the memory of my dad taking me out to the woods and practicing my shooting with a paper target he used. As I got older and better, we used moving targets and then soon enough we were using animals.
"How old are you?" Edward slowed his pace and I knew that it was getting harder for him to drag so I took the rope back.
"Sixteen."
"Are you from here?"
"No, I'm originally from Phoenix but after my parents were killed I fled and been on the run since. I usually stay in one spot for a few months, but the others here treat me like family. It's been a long while since I had anything close to family so I stayed longer."
We are both silent as we make our way through the trees to the small creek that is near the cave I stay in.
"How old were you when you started running?" He broke the silence as we started to walk up a slight incline and helped me drag the deer over a fallen log.
"You ask too many questions."
"I've been told that before." He chuckled and followed me to the camouflaged opening of the cave.
"I was twelve. And since I know your next question is going to be 'Why did you run' I'll just say that my parents were known for their killing skills. I think they knew what was coming because the day before they were killed they had told me that they were trained by the Volturi, a big mob family of sorts I guess. Anyway, when my mom got pregnant with me, they fled to Phoenix and attempted to live happily ever after."
Edward was about to ask another question before I held up my hand. "They were the Volturi's best trained hit men, and when they got pregnant with me they disobeyed some law that they had and that's why they fled. They changed their names, even got plastic surgery, but it wasn't enough. They found them and killed them and then they were coming after me."
"How did you get away?" Edward sat on a flat rock and sat forward with his chin in his hand and his elbow resting on his knee.
"The day it happened, my parents were out doing some errands and felt they were being watched. When they got home they sat me down and told me why and who were coming after them and that I needed to get out of there as fast as I could. That's when they told me that the hunting trips dad took me on for fun, and the self-defense my mom taught me were because they knew one day they would be caught and that I needed to know how to protect myself."
"I was home schooled and while it was normal things kids learn in schools, my mom also took the time to teach me how to survive in the wild on my own. She had me study books upon books of what plants and berries can be eaten or not and which ones could be used as medicine. My dad made sure I knew how to properly cook meat on a fire and how to sleep in a tree. They trained me for surviving on my own since I could walk."
Edward was silent as he listened and took all this information in. I could see it all processing in his mind, the wheels turning like the inside of a clock. It was two minutes before he spoke again. "So because your mother got pregnant, they broke some law they had? They were killed for starting a family?"
"That's what my parents told me Edward, it doesn't mean I really believe it. There's something more to the story that they didn't tell me, but I'll never know what that is and I can't afford to lose myself in thought." I picked at the worn leather of my quiver and looked up to Edward's eyes.
"Well if you survived this long, maybe they aren't after you." Edward shrugged his shoulder and sat up and leaned back against the cave wall.
"They know that my parents trained me for whatever it is they ran from. They know that I've been shown how to do everything my parents could do. To them, I'm a deadly weapon they want to get their hands on and either recruit or kill. I have to keep running for as long as I can."
"You know you didn't even tell me your name."
"It's Bella. Since you know just about everything about me and you're a total stranger, why don't you tell me about you?" I untied the deer's legs and pulled out my knife. "If you're squeamish I would suggest turning around or something."
Edward turned a little pale before turning around to face the wall. "Well I'm seventeen, born and raised here in Chicago, Illinois. My dad is a lawyer and my mother is a stay at home mom. I am an only child. I'm captain of my high school's wrestling and track teams. There's not much more to tell really."
"How long have you been wandering the woods before you found me? Maybe I can help you get back home." I began cutting the meat and wrapping it in plastic wrap that I had a hunter buy me the other day. I tried to stay out of the towns as much as possible in case I was being watched or followed.
"I don't know? About an hour or so I guess." I saw Edward peek over his shoulder from the corner of my eye and quickly turn his head back toward the wall.
"Oh, you aren't far from the highway, only about eight miles to the west." I wrapped the last piece of meat on the left side and slid a blue tarp over the body and staked it down on either side. I would divide the rest up tomorrow.
"That's not too far I guess." Edward murmured under his breath.
"Well come on, I'll show you how to get there." I packed my bag with water, crackers and dried fruit and strapped my quiver of arrows to my back and picked up my bow. Edward looked at me funny when he noticed that I was taking my bow with me, "It's for protection. I'm not going to kill you." I rolled my eyes and stalked out of the cave and waited for Edward.
We had walked about two miles when I heard footsteps forty feet to the right. I grabbed Edward's arm and put a finger to my lips to keep him from saying anything and closed my eyes to listen. There were four different steps, meaning one animal or two humans. I opened my eyes again and whispered to Edward to climb the tree and get as high as he could get. He looked at me like I was crazy but started climbing.
I silently climbed up the tree next to it and crouched on a thick branch. Edward glanced over at me and I mouthed to him to keep still and not to make a sound. He nodded his head and looked around under him. I readied my bow and lifted it to general direction in which the footsteps were coming from.
As the footsteps got closer, I knew they were the steps of two humans. Men most likely, from the heaviness of their step I was guessing at least six feet tall, 180-200 pounds each. I heard hushed voices as they walked toward the tree that Edward was stationed in. I watched him to see if these were his friends and when he didn't make any movement to greet them, I knew that they weren't.
One man had a long black trench coat on with dark brown hair and pasty white skin. His companion had on a similar coat but with sandy blond hair and a thick accent as he spoke. "They said she stays in this general area, but there is no sign of her anywhere."
"Maybe they're protecting her and pointed us in the wrong direction." The dark haired man said.
"Demetri, it shouldn't be hard to find a girl in the middle of the woods. Let's go back toward the creek and look around there."
They both looked around once more and headed back the way they came. I knew as soon as they started speaking that they were looking for me, and they almost found me. I sat perched on the branch for a few minutes with my eyes closed listening for their footsteps to fade into the distance. When I was sure they were gone, I called out to Edward.
"You have to get out of here Edward. Keep walking this way and you'll end up on the main highway." I climbed down the tree and waited at the trunk of the one Edward was in as he climbed down.
"That was them wasn't it Bella?" Edward tilted his head in their direction and looked at me with worried eyes.
"I can't be sure Edward, but it's not safe for you here."
"It's not safe for you either Bella! Come with me, you can stay at my house my parents won't care. Just don't stay out here." He grabbed my hand and pleaded with me with his big green eyes.
"Edward I can fend for myself. I've managed this long, I can manage longer. Plus I'll be gone before they even come back here in the morning. It was nice meeting you an all, but you have to go and promise to never tell anyone you ever saw me here okay? It'll be as if I never existed."
He didn't say anything for a minute and just stared at me. He sighed and let go of my hand. "I'm coming with you then."
"No you're not Edward. You have a family and friends here; you're not coming with me. It's too dangerous and you don't know anything about surviving out here like I do. No offence." I turned to walk back toward the cave I stayed in when Edward's arm flew out to stop me.
"Bella I have nothing for me here. My dad can't stand to look at me because I don't want to be a lawyer and work with him at his practice, my friends didn't even bother come looking for me when I got lost and I hate Chicago. I want to come with you. I was planning on bolting anyway." He shrugged his shoulder and looked away from me.
I sighed. It would be nice to have someone with me; it gets pretty lonely while you're on the run. But I can't let Edward throw away his life to come with me. He doesn't even know me! "I'm sorry Edward, but I can't let you come with me." I turned on my heel and started running back to my cave.
"Bella! Look out!" Was the last thing I heard before everything turned to black.
I already have a few chapters written, so let me know how it is and if it's worth continuing :)