AN
I do not own twilight or any of the characters, they belong to S. Meyer - the only thing I have is the Barrow Skin Walkers! Reviews welcome! This is my first fan-fic, and there are so many other fabulous writers on here, that I'm already nervous! Please bear with me; I've tried to put a lot of detail in to get you to know the characters, and I'm going on instinct! I did actually look up Barrow, and have tried to be as accurate as possible about the place, area and animals that live there. Our favourite wolves will turn up in a few chapters, and we'll also have some different POV's!
Cris's POV
Corey, Shay and I left together, racing to the border of Barrow. I beat them easily and veered off to gather my clothes and change back. The temperature had dropped further, but it was only a short walk to the house we shared, and my body temperature kept me nice and toasty.
It had been an easy decision for the three of us to get a place together. It was too hard living at home because our whereabouts were often unexplained and attracted unwanted attention. Our families had been happy for us to leave though; I was the responsible one, and they trusted me to keep an eye on the others. That was five years ago and Shay and Corey were now 23, while I was 25.
Jaden was the next in line at 21 and still lived at home. He planned to join us, but we needed to find a bigger place. He was also Shay's cousin, which is why he interfered with Dylan and Alex earlier.
Lee, although the same age as Jaden, had no desire to fly the nest yet. He stayed with his grand-parents who were the only living tribal elders; they understood everything and had guided us when the transformations first happened. Lee was lucky; he didn't have to bare the weight of living a double life. Most of us, had in the end, pushed our families away to ensure their protection and ignorance. It was a horrible thing to break away from the people we loved, but it meant we could do our job. We still saw them, just not often.
I was pleased Lee was staying put. In some ways, all of us living together made sense, but it could raise some questions in the community. Seven men living together, just isn't the way things are done.
Finally, there was Dylan and Alex, who really were the youngsters to us at 19. They still lived with their mother. She was a hard working woman, who raised her sons alone, and they often found it hard to find valid reasons to leave for patrol.
We always made the most of things though and we managed because it was important to us. Although being skin walkers meant we missed out on a normal life, we were proud of our abilities and duty. As compensation, we had a bond that rivalled all others. I had never dreamed I'd have more brothers than just Corey. Family was important to me, so I was delighted that even though I had lost some I also gained some.
I finally reached our run-down shack, 'our work in progress'; it was home to me and the source of our income. The seven of us, needing money, had learnt a trade. As a result, our backyard was now transformed into a carpenters work shop. It was slow to bring in money; however, being so far out of civilisation, there was a short selection of labourers, so we were able to build our business gradually. It just about paid the bills.
As I stalked in the front door, I debated whether to grab some food. I was too tired to eat, so instead decided to get something in the morning. I saw Shay glance at me with concern; in his eyes, missing a meal was unforgivable. Ignoring him, I made it to my room and threw my coat on the floor. I crashed on to my single bed fully dressed.
For a few minutes, I stared at the white ceiling, but soon my eyelids became heavy and drooped. I must have just dropped off, when my hearing picked up Corey. I was so familiar with everything, that I recognised the sound of springs as he lay down on his bed opposite me. He must have heard my breathing change.
"Is it bad that I'm excited?" he whispered.
I thought back to when it all started seven years ago. Local hunters were disappearing, but there were too many reports to be animal attacks. The missing files just kept piling up. I hadn't paid much attention to it back then, but one night I heard a muffled shout out the back of my house.
The pain that had shot through me at that moment was unbearable. I was terrified that I was having a heart attack or something; my heart was beating so hard that I thought it would break out of my chest. After a few seconds, the feelings intensified and I had welcomed the idea of death. I wanted to be numb. I realised my body was convulsing and the heat I gave off was intense. I admit that I cried for my mother, but I was alone and the worst of it was yet to come. I wanted to vomit, as I felt and heard every bone in me crack. Everything was moving within me. I dropped to the floor thrashing and for the briefest moment finally felt the numbness; I think that it was at this point that my spine shifted because my back had been the last part of it. After it was over, I realised that the whole thing had happened in less than a minute.
I lay panting on the floor and was amazed at how quickly I regained my grip on reality; that was when I smelt it, a sweet sickly smell that caused my instincts to take over. I flew out of the house and chased down the back alley, swifter than I thought possible. I didn't understand the scene; there was a red-eyed woman crouched next to a crumpled shape. It dawned on me that it was a person on the floor and I considered at first that she was checking their breathing. Her head was so close to the body that it wasn't until my eyes saw the red trickling down their neck that I realised her mouth was actually attached to an old man.
There was no further delay and the woman was so into her sadistic kill that she didn't notice me. Without realising it, I had leaped and torn off her head. I did it without a second thought and the power that hit me was like nothing on earth; my mind became crazed. My head seemed to be screaming, but my body continued to tear the woman apart with what I found to be my teeth. Once I was done, I stepped back in shock and watched dumbstruck as the limbs started moving. It hit me that there was no blood coming from her wounds. I couldn't take it all in.
What had I done?
What was I?
Worse, what was she?
She wasn't dying; in fact, the body was trying to piece itself together!
It was then that I heard footsteps behind me. In a defensive frenzy, I turned and raised my hands, which were now claws. I scratched at the attacker too panicked to process anything, but to my horror I discovered that it was my brother. Corey fell to the ground immediately holding his cheek.
My stupid brother had of course heard the commotion out back, seen I wasn't home, and come looking for me. I had repaid his loyalty by attacking him. I was freaking out because I still didn't know what I was and so I tried to cry out to Corey. The noise that left my lips was as unnatural to me as my new hands were. I fell down next to him in shock; my animal form helpless to aid him. I tried to nuzzle his hand away. He only flinched and started to shake violently, as crimson liquid poured out from under his fingers; then he shifted! The memory of seeing my brother experience that pain was burnt into me forever, but by the time it had subsided I could finally understand myself. Staring back at me was the innocent brown eyes of my wolf brother. It was all set off, by what we soon learnt was a vampire.
At some point that night, we all came across that crawling body and changed. Corey and I were first, then Shay, Lee, Dylan and Alex together and finally Jaden. As soon as we realised we could hear each other, we worked as a team tearing the vampire apart. It wasn't until Jaden joined us, that he suggested burning it in his dad's bonfire, which worked. The victim had sadly been dead minutes after my arrival, and we panicked. We were still disorientated from phasing and scared, so we stayed together and ran to the crater to hide. We sat for hours, as one by one we talked each other down and phased back. We felt incredibly guilty for leaving the body behind, but had been unable to do anything more for the victim.
The death was reported in the local paper as a murder. The whole city went into panic; along with the other missing people reports, they worried there might be a serial killer on the loose. Fortunately, that was the last death of that kind around here. It's now become an old story whispered to children and gossiped around fires. In fact, local legend now reports that it was likely to be the work of the Seattle Gang. They were a deadly group, who had caused numerous deaths some years before in North America. We of course knew the truth, but it kept suspicion away from us for which we were grateful. Our biggest fear had been that the murder was on mine and Corey's door step.
Following this traumatic night, it didn't take Lee's grandparents long to figure out what had happened. From the minute we phased, our body temperature rose, we became ravenous, and our eating increased tenfold. Our bodies became instantly more toned and we grew into manhood in what felt like overnight. Dylan and Alex stood out the most due to their age. We also kept disappearing, to meet and adjust to our new bodies. As you can imagine, there were many more symptoms that weren't hard to miss if you knew what you were looking for. Finally they managed to pin down Lee and get us all together.
A meeting was held. The Elders explained our ancestry in detail and told the tale of the skin walkers. We learnt that we were protectors of our people from the supernatural and that our genes had been passed down through generations. Finally, as was tradition, we were renamed in Inupiat (our native language) and learnt that we took on the shape of our spirit guides:
I, Cris, was a wolf. My coat was as white as the purest snow and my eyes were a bright blue. I was the tallest, but not the biggest animal; Shay held that title. Being the oldest and first to phase, I assumed the alpha role. As my body grew and aged, I became strong. My skill was my speed, so I was named Suka, which means 'Fast'.
Corey also took the form of a wolf and the position of beta. He was leaner than me and was white with chocolate eyes. His only other distinguishing feature was the black lines across his face. I would never forgive myself for the damage I did to him that night. The accident happened before he phased and the cuts didn't heal or regenerate as they would now. As a result, he was scarred across his face because of me. Nevertheless, he surprised me. While I was ashamed, he was proud to wear the marks like battle wounds and so he was given the name Tupit, for 'Tattoo lines on face'.
Shay, a monstrous polar bear, had always been huge and his phasing had only made him mightier. His paws were gigantic and he could crush the largest boulder without flinching. His size meant he consumed food at a rate of knots, but it never slowed him down. Shay could be just as fast as Tupit over short distances. I admit, I thought a lot of him; he wasn't the sharpest in our group but his loyalty and strength were unyielding. For his simplicity, he was called Nanuq, literally 'Polar Bear'.
Lee took the form of an arctic hare. Hardly fearsome, but his hearing and speed made me look like a snail. He was our best scout. His fur would change colour from brown in the summer to white in the winter, but his ears were tipped with black all year round. He was named Miki, meaning 'Little'. Lee was also the only non predatory member of the group and as if to affirm this, his nature was also the most placid.
The twins on the other hand were a nightmare because they couldn't take anything seriously. In truth, however, I didn't want them to. I felt like they shouldn't have to lose all their innocence; they were barely twelve when they first phased. Dylan was the older by 30 minutes, but Alex had taken a bit more persuasion to come out. Since we had known them, we quickly learnt the physical differences between them. Even though they were identical twins, in my mind, their voices and thoughts were individual.
As arctic foxes, they were well-suited. They were mischievous tricksters, but they could hear things beneath the snow and were good trackers. Don't get me wrong, they had sharp teeth; however, an annoyed Jack Russell isn't exactly terrifying, but it can still hurt and they don't let go. So, Dylan is called Siku, meaning 'Ice' because he's slippery and Alex is called Pakak, the translation being 'the one that gets into everything'. That pretty much sums up their characters, but we wouldn't be us without them, even when they acted like a liability.
Finally there was Jaden, the snowy owl; he was a magnificent bird. That sounds strange coming from a bloke, but as a bird of prey he was both deadly and majestic. He was extremely intelligent, had razor sharp talons, and grey and white feathers. Overall, Jaden was our strategist, with the obvious ability to fly. He was named Pukiq, which means 'smart'. There was always a joke to be had with Jaden. You see the translation of Barrow in my tongue is Ukpeagvik, which means, "the place where we hunt Snowy Owls." It's a somewhat inappropriate place for him to live.
In total, that was the seven of us. Different in shapes and sizes but all built for this landscape and environment. Like I said before, few humans can survive in this place and the same applied to animals. Fortunately, every element of our being was perfectly tuned to take advantage of the cold, snowy land.
Since that first night, we have only had one other encounter with vampires. They were a group in Denali National Park, who had proved to be 'vegetarians'. It was a chance meeting when we were getting to know the state better and pushing our boundaries out. The only reason it hadn't ended badly was because of our compassion. We don't enjoy killing so we were thankful that their eyes stopped us from making a big mistake. Unlike the blood red of the previous demon, they were honey brown. In the one second we had paused to take this in, they made their case. We agreed to let them go their way, providing they shed no blood or caused any human deaths. In exchange, we also agreed to keep each other's identities secret.
I came back to reality and sighed, thinking of how the years had passed, "No Corey, it's to be expected. We haven't had a real task for a long time. Even I get itchy feet."
"Well here's to hoping for some fun then. Night Suka." Corey yawned and turned his back to me.
"Night Tupit." With that I fell into a dreamless sleep.
