New Beginnings
(a Twilight fan-fiction work)
Chapter 1
Jacob wasn't too worried about being in danger. He was traveling quickly through the forest, in wolf form, and few things out here would be a threat to him. Sure, he could run into a clan of vampires, but he almost relished the idea of a fight. It wasn't likely that he would even run into that, anyway. The Cullen clan attracted their share of bad apples who didn't like the fact that they were "vegetarian" and didn't feed on humans. Most other vampires found this amusing, but some were threatened by it. They felt it mocked their very nature.
He was slightly comical in his wolf form on this journey. Since he'd be talking with Carol, he had to manage to bring clothing with him. It was probably the most annoying part of phasing to him, the fact that his clothing - if he had any on - were tore to bits in the process. He kind of wished it was more like what you'd see on TV, where the character's clothing shifted into wolf form with him.
He settled on packing a small backpack with a few pairs of shorts and a shirt or two in it for when he arrived. He carried the backpack in his maul, running through the woods like a bandit carrying off a camper's backpack.
The journey itself was a pleasant one. It was just turning fall and the leaves were shifting colors from a bright green to an array of reds, yellows, and oranges. Jacob particularly liked the trees that turned their leaves all orange. The weather was also more pleasant than expected. It didn't rain, which was almost unexpected in this part of the country, and the sun remained out warming the forest he was transversing.
"Yeah," he thought to himself, "no leaches would be out in this weather. Too much a chance they'll sparkle and give themselves away." He chuckled to himself, which in wolf form sounded like a strangled growl. "Real men don't sparkle," he thought. "But I guess they don't change into wolves either."
The sun was far from setting but he could tell it was early afternoon from where it sat in the sky. He decided to stop and take a break. He was panting from the exertion and didn't even really realize how hard he was running. However, he noticed that it seemed the further he got from Renesmee, the less he felt the sting of rejection.
He was tired from the run, but it had felt exhilarating. Over the past several years he hadn't done as much patrolling of the reservation as he probably should have, in large part to his attachment to Renesmee. Every day he felt like he should be around her; felt like he needed to be around her. Looking back on it, the feelings were quite disquieting, but he was a man obsessed. He was happy. Though it was like Leah had said years ago when they were speaking about imprinting, its artificial happiness. But maybe any happiness is good, right?
He struggled with the thought - about being happy, being in love, imprinting. He didn't have any feelings for Bella anymore. He loved her of course, but now she was a bloodsucker herself, and with Renesmee in the picture he didn't feel anything more for her than brotherly affection.
A peculiar scent caught his attention and brought him out of his thoughts. The scent was odd. It was of the Quileute tribe, a shapeshifter smell even. But there was something else. Almost like a vampire smell. And human. He lept suddenly to his feet, having phased out of his wolf form after finding a small clearing. He saw, at the edge of the clearing, a smallish wolf staring at him. The wolf wasn't threatening at all, but seemed rather curious.
Jacob exhaled. "Woah boy, you're probably confused. I smell a lot like you don't I? I wonder why you smell all crazy, though. You've been trying to hunt down bloodsuckers?" Jacob laughed to himself at the thought of the small wolf chasing a vampire. He let him self relax a bit and settled back down to his makeshift bed for a nap. He wasn't exactly sure he would fall asleep, but he wasn't afraid of his visitor.
After a few minutes the wolf was gone and Jacob did fall into a few hour long slumber.
"Oh shit," he mumbled as he stifled a yawn when he woke up, "I have to get going." It was mid afternoon now and he had hoped to make it to Carol's house by evening. He looked around briefly to check to see if the small wolf had come back. Seeing nothing, he phased into his wolf form, grabbed his bag in his mouth, and continued on his way up north toward where he expected to find her.
The rest of the trip took a little under two hours and was uneventful. Eventually, Jacob reached what he assumed was Carol's little hut before the sun had set. Some distance from the hut he phased back into human form and put on his clothing he brought with him in his bag. He didn't feel it would be appropriate to show up at her door naked.
He was a little nervous, but lumbered up to her door and knocked. After a few minutes an ancient woman answered the door.
"Hello?" she asked, somewhat puzzled at first but understanding once she saw the Quileute features in Jacob's face. Then she stepped back a half pace when she took in his enormous frame.
"Hi. I'm Jacob Black, son of Billy Black." She nodded at the introduction but didn't offer her own back. Jacob stammered, "..uh, my father thought that maybe I could talk to you. Things haven't been going very well and he thinks you might be able to help?"
"How old are you boy?" she asked roughly, creasing her forehead as she stared him down.
"Twenty four," Jacob replied.
"You don't look that old. You look like a child still." Jacob blushed some. Phasing tended to either stop or slow down the aging process. With the Cullens continuing to live near La Push, the pack hadn't lost the phasing ability and didn't seem to be aging.
The old lady nodded once. "Well, come in already. We've a lot to talk about I gather." She immediately turned in toward the inside of the house.
Jacob remained uncomfortable, but followed her in. "Just to make sure, you're Carol right?"
"Yeah. Thats who I am."
Looking around the small abode Jacob could see that Carol certainly didn't live in luxury. The place was small, and cluttered, although not dirty. There was what almost looked like a makeshift kitchen - one that might have been meant as a temporary one but has stuck around for quite a number of years. The living room area held an old lounge chair next to the fire place along with a beat up couch. Both of these didn't match and were probably castoffs recovered by Carol. The fire place itself looked to be nothing more than a crude brick opening with a flue leading out of the house.
"The weather was nice today," Jacob began, thinking of engaging her with small talk.
"The weather is always nice. Whether it rains or is sunny or snows or hails, its the will of our planet and necessary and so nice." Her reply caught him off guard, he wasn't expecting a philosophical approach to his off hand comment.
"Why do you live out here, this far away from the tribe? It took me a day to reach you."
"Did you come by, um, foot?" she asked abruptly. Jacob was not sure how to answer it. It would take a lot longer by foot, he came by paw. But it would be hard to say he came by vehicle when there was none outside when he arrived.
"Something like that," he meekly replied to her question. She nodded in acknowledgement.
"I'm a fast runner and don't exactly have a car anyway." At this Carol grinned broadly, the first smile Jacob had seen her make. The grin creased her face filling her forehead with deep wrinkles.
"When was the first time you phased?" she asked. He was somewhat surprised by her directness. She would know about all of the Quileute legends, of course, but he didn't expect her to be this blunt. Or maybe even to believe them. It had been generations since the last Quileute phased to confront the threat of vampires and she had left the reservation long enough ago not to know about the current resurgence in activity. Of course, she might know about the treaty with the Cullen clan.
"Uh ... when I was 16 I think. How did you know?" He sputtered his response, not sure if he should have denied it or not.
"Well you got here on foot by your own admission. You couldn't have done that just by running. Besides, you smell like the forest." She nodded, knowingly.
Jacob was puzzled by this. Was Carol a shifter? The tribe didn't believe that women could become shifters but then Leah Clearwater did. Carol took note of the expression on his face and answered his unspoken question. "When you get to be my age, boy, you know things. You can tell when something is out of place. Your clothing is cleaner than a long trip on foot through the forrest would have allowed. You must have carried them.
He nodded and decided to be blunt and forthcoming himself. He needed her help after all. "My dad told me you were a healer of some sort before you left the tribe. A medicine woman or something like that?" Jacob felt it was best to bring the conversation back to her.
"Something like that," was all she replied. At this she moved over toward the fireplace and took hold of the pot over it. After filling it with water from a very unsanitary looking sink, she stuck it back over the crackling flames. Next to the fireplace was a wooden bookshelf, with four shelves on it. Each of these were packed tight with bottles and loose plants and other seemingly random objects.
"So why have you come here?" she asked. She was now sprinkling what appeared to be dried herbs into the pot.
Jacob took a deep breath. He supposed he might as well come clean, no sense in beating around the bush any longer. "I've imprinted," he said, "and I need to find a way to get rid of it." With this she dropped the wooden ladle that she had just picked up to stir the pot. It hit the floor making a loud clanging sound.
Turning to him she asked, "why?" It was the first time since their meeting at the door of her hut where Jacob felt he had the upper hand of sorts. At leas the first time where he felt like she didn't already know what he was about to tell her. She was off balance.
"She doesn't love me... at least not in the way I want," he said simply. "I know I'm supposed to be OK with that... but I'm not. I can't deal with it; it's killing me."
Even more lines appeared on Carol's forehead than Jacob thought possible as her brow raised. "She may come around in time boy. Although I'm amazed that you were able to pry yourself away to come see me. The pain must be terrible."
A pained look crossed Jacob's face as he was reminded directly of it. "It is," he replied. "Worse than anything I've ever felt before." A helpless look crossed his face as his eyes widened and brow furrowed. Carol couldn't help but feel sorry for the large boy.
"Did you just meet this girl recently son? How new is the imprinting?"
"I imprinted about 5 years ago on her."
"And you've been living with this pain for that long? That's horrible."
Jacob sucked in his breath. He wasn't looking forward to disclosing all of the details of this, but it was probably naive to believe he could get any type of help, if it even existed, by being vague. "She only rejected me recently. Just a few weeks ago."
"So you were together for several years then?"
"Not exactly. I imprinted on her shortly after her birth."
Carol exclaimed, "Son, she's still a baby! But a toddler, how could she reject you? You shouldn't have romantic feelings for her from the imprinting..." she trailed off looking at him warily.
Jacob sighed, "It's not like that. She has matured, sort of. Faster than a human because she's not really human."
Carol gave a start. "Shifters don't mature that fast."
"This girl...this girl isn't Quileute. She's half human and half vampire." Jacob said rthe last bit of this statement in a whisper, hoping on some level that Carol wouldn't hear.
Carol gave him a blank look at first. Then, a dawn of realization his her. "Oh," was all she said. Jacob had expected a more severe reaction than this one. His whole tribe had legends of the 'cold ones' that each member knew about.
"You don't seem as put off by this as I would have expected."
"You've imprinted. You don't choose that. And you don't choose who."
Jacob took the opening Carol was offering. "My dad thought you might know of some way to reverse the imprinting. He said it was kinda assumed that imprinting was responsible for you and your husband." Jacob knew he was likely entering territory he might want to avoid, but he needed to find out if Carol had any answers for him. The pain in his chest was more dull now since he was further away from Renesmee, but it was still there.
Carol laughed. A loud bawdy laugh. "So that's what they think is it? No, there was no magic to our love. At least no imprinting magic. Bobby had never phased. We didn't even know it was actually possible - it was only tribal legend at the time. The only reason I thought of it with you is because another young man had come to me a while ago, with a different problem, but he had phased."
Jacob was suddenly curious. "Who was that?"
"Ah, son, its nothing so dramatic as you probably think. And nothing interesting. There might be something that can be done about your problem though." With this she managed to completely throw Jacob off of his interest in whoever had come before him.
"Really? How?" he demanded.
"Well, I'm not sure if it works and all, but through my family there is a ritual of sorts that has been passed down. It is said to temper the heart. It might help you. It's at least something to try, I guess." Carol looked down at the cracked hardwood floor sheepishly. "I've only performed it once before, but I think I know it well enough."
A hopeful Jacob asked, "When can we do this? Can you do it now?"
Carol smiled. "Soon. Tomorrow. It is already late and I'm tired."
"Oh," said a crestfallen Jacob.
"I know it's hard son, but you want me at my best for this, I guarantee that."
Jacob was only too glad that there was something that Carol thought she could do. "Tomorrow works. What time do you get up? I can be back whenever it is."
"Early. But where do you think you'll go? Out in the woods I suppose. Come now, I have a spare room here. Not like it is getting any use and I don't think you're going to try to run off with my things, meager as they are. Oh and the room isn't a Hilton mind you, it might not be quite what you're used to staying in."
Jacob grinned. "No ma'am, the Cullens may have fancy things but I don't. Whatever you have will be more than good enough. Although I don't mind sleeping out under the stars either."
"Yeah, well, its going to rain tonight I think, so take shelter where you can get it. Who are these Cullens you speak of?" Apparently she didn't know of the treaty between the tribe and the clan of vampires. Jacob quickly filled Carol in on who the Cullens were and how they fit into his situation. He kept it brief, but gave her an account of the past several years.
Carol then showed Jacob over to the small guest room. It wasn't any bigger than a closet, but Jacob was happy to be out of the impending rain. It wasn't late yet and Carol was making some type of dinner so Jacob decided to go outside for a bit of fresh air while it was still nice.
The sun was starting to set which was the perfect time to run around in the forest and stretch his legs. As a wolf of course. He told Carol he would be back shortly and she just nodded. He left the small house and traveled about a quarter of a mile away from it before he disrobed and phased into his wolf form.
It felt good to be back in his wolf form after spending some time in the cramped house. It wasn't long, he had just felt awkward talking to a complete stranger about imprinting and shifting. In some ways it was liberating not to feel like it was his secret - like he would have around anyone outside of the tribe - but this feeling of freedom was still new to him.
He sprinted through the wooded area taking in all the sweet smells of the forest. A squirel had been there, no doubt looking for any last acorn it could find before the winter set in. The breeze carried the various scents of the forest to Jacob's nose, while at the same time swaying the top most branches of the trees causing a cascade of yellow orange, and red leaves to drift down upon him.
He could smell the coming rain that Carol spoke of. He wondered how she knew. He hadn't seen a TV in her place and imagined there wasn't a cable connection anyway. But she was a wise-woman after all, they had their ways. Maybe a radio broadcast? Maybe she could feel the storm in her bones? He had heard a number of the older tribal women complain about stiffness in their joints when a storm was approaching.
The wondering about her abilities passed from his thoughts, as he felt the wind ruffle his fur. He ran up a small bank near a river, although he didn't jump in. The river had already grown violent, the currents crashing through naturally occurring rocks causing a great swell of foam. It was almost if the river itself was anticipating the coming storm and celebrating the inevitable rush of water that would swell its banks. He turned, and traveled through a pair of large oak trees towering over a side game path like giant sentinels guarding the trail. The path laid out before him was well worn, marked by the passing of an assortment of wildlife. He spun to a stop suddenly as he saw that ahead of him was the small wolf that he had seen earlier in the day.
"I wonder if it followed me the whole way here," Jacob thought to himself. He ran into it several hours run away from this area. As Jacob got closer he could smell the peculiar smell of this wolf. There was the scent of fur and dirt that you would expect on a wild animal. There was also a detectable odor of musk. Usually Jacob would smell this around the tribe men - a sort of sweaty and salty smell. This was even more pronounced after they had been working, such as last summer when they had helped build once of the tribe member's house that had partially collapsed from an overly strong storm.
There was also a slight smell of decay. This wasn't unusual, especially to Jacob. He would often notice this scent in two instances. First, sometimes out in the forest when he would run across an animal that had been dead for a while, he would notice the smell. The second place was when he was around the Cullens. Over the past number of years he had gotten used to the smell, with being around Renesmee and the rest of the Cullens on an almost daily basis.
Jacob's wolfen eyes adjusted to the darkening scene as the sun began setting and the sky was filling with dark clouds. He noticed the wolf in more detail than he had earlier. The fur was somewhat of a reddish brown color, not unlike his own. He hadn't noticed the coloring earlier since the wolf was at the edge of the clearing surrounded by vegetation.
The look on the wolf's face was one of curiosity, Jacob thought, appraising the blank look he saw. "I'm surprised its willing to get this close to me," Jacob spoke thought. "All of the wolves I've seen in the forest have fled from me." He had always assumed it was his scent that kept them at bay.
Jacob moved closer to the smaller wolf to see if it would scamper away. It didn't. It continued to stare at Jacob blankly.
Jacob growled and the smaller wolf's ears perked up for a second and the wolf darted away. Jacob was unnerved by the whole experience. Something wasn't quite right about this wolf. He had been even further north than this and didn't remember any of the packs acting oddly, especially not a lone member.
With a shake of his head he started on his little jaunt around the forest again. It was getting darker and darker by the minute, and he decided to head back to Carol's house. "Might as well get some rest," he thought.
He stopped about a quarter of a mile away from the residence to retrieve his clothing and shift back into human form. By the time he returned to the hut it was completely dark. In the forest, night is much more black than it is in the city, but Jacob's heightened visual senses made it easy to navigate through it.
As he finished pulling on the pair of shorts he brought with him, he was startled by a voice.
"Hi."
Jacob was almost knocked over, literally, by the surprise. His mind had been wondering to what Carol had said earlier. Whoever this was had been able to completely take him by surprise. He looked around, almost frantically and asked, "Who's there?"
"Me," came the voice. He noticed it was coming from more above him. The voice was nonthreatening, meek even, and somewhat musical. He squinted into the trees and eventually saw a smallish human figure nestled in the branches.
"Who are you," Jacob asked. Now that his senses were back at his command, he could smell the mixture of musk, decay and a slight scent of honeysuckle if Jacob was correct. This smelled much like Renesmee. He was on guard, but not worried. If it was a half breed vampire-human, then the creature wouldn't be nearly as strong as a full vampire. Its senses would also be more limited as probably its speed would be. He could easily overpower it if he phased.
The figure slid through the branches and landed softly across the glade from Jacob. Out of the trees Jacob could take in the figure better. It was obviously male, wearing very little clothing, only some loose fitting shorts. Similar in fact to himself although the intruder's were of a khaki cargo style than Jacob's own jean shorts. It was a flash back to the 90s and all those GAP commercials he had seen as a kid while watching the game with his father.
The interloper was shorter than Jacob. Much shorter. This wasn't typically a hard feat given Jacob's 6'5" frame, but this person was closer to five foot, maybe around 5'3" or 5'4". He appeared about 15 or 16 years old, although age is difficult to determine even when you are not in near pitch darkness.
It was hard to tell given the darkness, but his skin appeared fairly dark to Jacob, especially for what he assumed was some type of vampire kin; not too much lighter than even his own. His body was well muscled for his size, very trim and toned. His hair was black, or at least seemed so in the dark.
"I'm Zachary," he finally responded after assessing Jacob's large frame. Zachary didn't appear very threatening. He held no weapons and made no move to get closer to Jacob. "Who are you?"
Jacob pulled on his shirt over his head, trying to keep a watchful eye on this Zachary. He didn't want to give the impression he was afraid of him, but if he let himself loose focus for even a split second that could give this guy all the time he needed to secure an advantage if he were to attack. Half blooded vampires were still vampires, and very much liked human blood. "I'm Jacob Black of the Quileute tribe." He saw no reason to lie, and he wasn't ashamed of who he was.
"You are a spirit warrior then," Zachary asked with curiosity.
"Yeah, I guess. And you're a lea...vampire?" Jacob was about to use the more derogatory word 'leach' but thought better of it. He had become fairly comfortable around the Cullens but was still suspicious of any outside of their clan. Old habits die hard.
"My father is," was all that Zachary replied.
Jacob swiftly looked around trying to bore into the darkness with his vision. He hadn't even considered that there might be others around and that this Zachary could be a distraction. Zachary took notice of Jacob's sudden heightened anxiety.
"He isn't here. I've never met him and I really don't want to. He killed my mother, by making me." There was a pained look that crossed Zachary's otherwise stoic face. Immediately Jacob thought he understood. Full term pregnancies didn't seem to end well. Bella, for all intents and purposes, died during her giving birth to Renesmee. She was 'saved' by being turned into a vampire through Edward Cullen's venom. In hindsight Jacob had mused that it was an ironic way to save someone, though at the time he was conflicted about which he would choose - her death or life in undeath.
"You live in these forests then? Alone?" Jacob had lowered some of his guard. If Zachary was lying, there wasn't any reason for it to be taking this long. He should have been ambushed by now.
Zachary nodded in response to his questions. "My sister lives here and I sometimes go south to the town, to talk with people." And bite them, Jacob added silently. "But I mostly stay in the forest, its safer for me."
"Safer? From what?" There were few things that would put vampires, even half breeds, in danger.
"From our tribe," Zachary responded calmly.
Jacob did a double take. The significance of Zachary using the word our wasn't lost on him. "You're Quileute?" Jacob asked in disbelief.
"Yeah. I'd thought you'd have been able to tell from how I look." Now that Zachary mentioned it, Jacob could see the distinguishing features of Quileute in him. These were watered down by whatever features were mixed with the Quileute genes.
"Well it is dark out," Jacob almost snared, embarrassed that he had been too absorbed in his own thoughts not notice some of the most basic details about a possible opponent. But he hadn't even considered the possibility of Quileute vampire.
"Was your mother or father Quileute? Is your sister? How come I've never heard about you from the elders?" Jacob already knew the answer to the last one. Quileute or not the pack wouldn't have left Zachary survive. In some ways this pulled on Jacob's heart. He's become accustomed to vampires and even though he realized that the Cullens were far from ordinary, he felt empathy for Zachary's story about being alone. Actually, he sympathized with it.
"My mother. I don't know what my father is. And my sister too, although she left the tribe after her husband died. I take care of her now, even though she doesn't really need my help. I guess in reality she takes care of me," Zachary reflected.
Left the tribe after her husband died. These words were familiar to Jacob. "Carol?"
Zachary's gaze, which was searching through the tree tops while he was monetarily lost in thought, flashed back to Jacob. "You know her?"
"Yeah, well, sort of. She's helping me with something." Jacob continued warily, afraid of giving away too much information, "actually she's expecting me back now, so I should probably go."
"Of course. We should return to her."
"Woah buddy, she's just expecting me. There's no 'we' in 'me'." Tiny droplets of rain started sprinkling down on the two of them in the glade.
Zachary shrugged, "a few hours ago she messaged me to come by tonight." He pulled out a cell phone. A Razr it looked like, one from the early 2000s. It was pretty beat up and humorously one of the ones with the pink accents although the color was well worn.
Jacob smirked at the phone, "A little dated isn't it? Did you just find that on the ground somewhere?" Even though he was starting to get wet from the rain, Jacob chuckled.
Quickly stashing his phone in one of his pockets, Zachary glowered. "Carol gave it to me so she could keep in touch more easily. Although its reception is pretty poor out here. Well hot shot, I guess I'll race you back!" And at that Zachary was gone. "So much for being significantly slower than your average vampire," Jacob thought as he started sprinting toward the hut.
Despite himself he grinned. "No fair!" he yelled.
It only took Jacob a few brief minutes to get back to the hut, but Zachary was already there, inside.
"Welcome back slowpoke," he said as he grinned triumphantly.
Carol chuckled at Jacob's annoyed look. "I see you've met Zack. I asked him to visit, we'll need him for tomorrow night's ritual."
Jacob's head swam. "What for?" was all that he could get out. He wanted to ask Carol about Zack, about leaving the tribe, about their mother. About how old they each were. But he supposed those questions would be prying and first and foremost he wanted her help to try to negate the imprinting on Renesmee. This flood of thoughts made his mind flash to the girl he was essentially running away from. his heart fluttered and his chest ached. He felt that familiar empty feeling in the pit of his stomach - the unmistakable sensation that happens when you realize, after rejections, that whether or not you'll be with someone depends on much more than just your own feelings.
"You'll see tomorrow," was all she said. It lost some of its aura ofmystery since it was said in the middle of a yawn.
"Wait you can't just say that!" Jacob gestured at Zack, who was curled up almost into a ball on the couch and already asleep. Even though Jacob knew Renesmee slept sometimes, he still was startled to see this. "What could he possibly have to do with this? I hadn't even met him before a few hours ago."
Carol laughed. "We'll need a bit of his blood. Normally to dispel unrequited love, the ritual calls for some blood from the person who you want to, shall we say, fall out of love with. Normally I just use any human blood if we couldn't get some. You're situation, on the other hand, is much more severe, you've imprinted. I don't really know if it will help, to be honest, but I figure we have our best chance with some of this Renesmee's blood." Carol cut Jacob off as he started to protest. "Assuming that you don't have any with you and since you're probably not willing to go get some, I'll try to use some of Zack's blood instead. Since both of the two are half vampire, I think that gives us our best chance."
Jacob was unsure about this, but then again this wasn't his area of expertise. His chest hurt, a constant dull pain, and he was willing to try whatever to stop it. And this Zachary didn't seem too bad.
"Look at me, I was essentially made to fight vampires, and now they seem to be intertwined into my whole life." Jacob turned his gaze from Zachary over to Carol. "What happened with him?"
A pained look crossed Carol's face and Jacob was afraid he'd gone to far. However, she didn't seem to notice his nervous expression as she stared past him.
"My mother, Sara, was one of the first generation that started to be given biblical names instead of our traditional tribal names. You see, when the school was started by Mr. Smith, he manage to end that tradition in our culture." Carol was clearly saddened by this, and given her traditional roots in medicine and ritual, Jacob wasn't surprised.
"Mr. Smith was the Christian missionary who came to our village," Carol said in way of explanation. Jacob of course knew this but listened politely.
"Anyway, Sara was married to Joseph Clearwater." Jacob recognized the name as the older brother of Leah and Seth's grandfather. "He was a good man and was my father. Tragically, when I was only 7 or 8 years old he died. My mother was distraught and lapsed into depression. She ended up leaving a few years later, leaving me in the care of her brother-in-law."
"When I was 16 she returned, pregnant. The tribe was scandalized, although she didn't seem to care. She wasn't doing well and took a turn for the worst during the end of the pregnancy. She must have come seven or eight months into it because the baby was born soon after she returned."
"I was being trained as a medicine woman at the time, by Ti'ada'li who was skilled in herbs and poultices. My mom insisted that I alone deliver the baby. Ti'ada'li was indignant but respected her wishes. When the day came my mother was in horrible shape. The pregnancy was killing her. She knew this too, and told me the story of what happened before she gave birth."
"She told me that when she left the tribe she traveled north and made her way to the territory of Alaska. I'm not sure what drew her there, but that's where she ended up. It was here that during the dark phase of Alaska's solar cycle, she met a young man who she said she fell in love with. They had a remarkable time together even though he was so much different from the other men she had met in her life, including my father."
"Alaska's dark phase began to change into its light phase - the time of the year when the sun never sets. This man revealed his secret to my mom, that he was a cold one. She said she wasn't even scared, although I find that hard to believe. I guess she might have not wanted to go back to the depression she felt after my father's death."
"She told him she didn't care and wanted to be with him. Apparently that night they were together physically for the first time. At that point I'm not sure what happened, labor began and her strength was fast giving out. I can surmise that she got pregnant and for some reason returned here. Perhaps her lover wanted no part in a child. I'm afraid those reasons are lost to the dustbin of history."
"She made me promise to take care of little Zachary - that was the name she chose. She was certain it was a boy since she didn't have pain like this when she was pregnant with me. I agreed, despite my better judgment. But I was 16, what was I supposed to do?" At this point Carol was looking past Jacob with an emptiness in her eyes, reliving the distant past.
"For a few weeks after Zachary's birth the tribe became very anxious as a whole. There was just something in the air. The men of the tribe were becoming more aggressive. Thanks to my training with Ti'ada'li, my interest in the tribal lore, and my knowledge of what Zachary was, I knew, or at least suspected, that the old magic was awakening in our tribe's blood by his presence. I feared for both his safety and mine and so I left. I told the tribal elders that I was leaving to bring Zachary to his father. I lied and said our mother had given me information to track him down before her death. They blessed my leaving and wished for me to hurry back."
"I didn't know what I was going to do at first. Zachary had developed fast the first few weeks of his life in the tribe but his development seemed to speed up even faster as I traveled north. After a few months of listlessly traveling between towns, performing odd jobs for money to get by, he was already acting like a seven or eight year old child. We never could stay in one place too long since he grew so fast."
"By the time a year had passed he was basically a young teenager. He turned out to be quite capable of looking after himself. Finally, after much discussion and at his prodding, we traveled back south toward the reservation. He had decided that he could stay north of the reservation, far enough as to not awaken the tribe's spirit warriors but close enough that I could come visit. Since my work required an extensive use of herbs and plants, it would be easy to devise excuses to travel in that direction to visit as often as I wanted."
"He built this hut that I live in now and survived easily in the forest here, hunting deer and other game. I would bring books about the arts and sciences from our school and stories about our tribe's legends when I'd visit. Eventually I moved here to live with him after the death of my own husband." Carol sighed, she seemed to be finished with the story. The distant look in her eyes subsided and she blinked a few times. She took in Jacob again with another look, almost as if she had forgotten who he was and was appraising him for the first time.
Jacob's curiosity was mostly placated, but he asked, "So where does Zack stay then, after you moved in?"
"Mostly in the forest, although the room you're staying in tonight is his," she replied.
"Oh," said Jacob, "I can stay on the couch or outside and he can have his bed." Jacob didn't want to impose.
Carol chuckled, "I really don't think he minds." She waved her hand in the direction of Zachary on the couch. "He's already fast asleep. Besides, he doesn't get much interaction with people, so you being here is a rare treat for him."
With that, Jacob yawned. "Goto bed son. I'm tired myself." And with that Carol, swiftly for a woman her age, made her way through the small room to the door that led to her own bedroom.
It was only a few minutes later as Jacob sat there in silence on the couch, digesting all that she had told him and watching Zachary sleep. He yawned. He too was tired, more mentally than anything from the day.
Jacob got up and walked over to where Zack was sleeping soundly. He grabbed the shaw that was draped over the back of the couch and unfolded it over the sleeping body. "Half blood-suckers have to stay warm too I guess," he said quietly. With that he headed over to the room Carol had shown him earlier and plopped down into the bed. It was only as he was falling asleep that he realized that he had forgotten to ask Carol about the strange wolf.
