Chapter 4 - Discovering
"Would you like to go to hunt?" Alice asked me. I shook my head.
"I really don't want any blood", I assured. It wasn't appealing to me at all.
I'm getting a little bit worried.
I know, Mom. It worries me too, I thought.
Maybe you should try once.
"But Mom…" I said it out loud. Oops. Now everyone was staring at me quizzically.
Try once. You'll never know, if you don't try.
"Fine", I muttered. Damn her.
"Alice", I called. "I think that maybe we could try…"
"Sure!" she answered happily. "When do you want to go?"
"Now, if that's okay."
"Okay! So we're off!" she shouted, even when everyone in this house could hear it even if she just whispered it. Why did she shout? Maybe it's a human habit…
"Alice, Bella! Wait!" Edward rushed to us from his room. "Is it okay if I come with you?"
"Of course it is! Right Bella?" Alice chirped.
"Umm, yeah, it's fine", I murmured.
"Thank you", Edward whispered to me.
Alice took me from my elbow and started leading me out of the door.
"Alice! I can walk by myself," I said to her. She stopped and let go of my arm. Then she turned and smiled a big smile.
"Have you gotten to run yet?" she asked.
"Run? Err, no," I answered. "It's probably not the best idea. I'm, umm, incredibly clumsy." I put my head down from embarrassment.
"Being clumsy is not anymore one of your problems," Edward said.
"What do you mean?" I asked. My clumsiness wasn't something what would just go away by some vampire-transformation. I had always tripped on doorsteps, stairs, and my shoelaces… The list could go on.
"Just run and watch," Alice said.
"Fine," I muttered. "I have you to blame if I fall and break one of my bones." Alice just started to laugh and Edward chuckled a little. Both of their voices sounded so beautiful. Alice's was like tiny tinkle bells in the wind. And Edward's, well, it was perfect in a complete loss of words. Like everything else in him. But also, with this vampire-super-hearing I could hear Jasper and Emmett laughing.
Then I didn't want to listen it anymore, and started to run. Gosh. This was a completely new sensation. The wind blew onto my face and hair and, dear god, it felt awesome. I also didn't trip. Not at once. I pushed my luck just little farther and closed my eyes. Still no tripping or crushing onto a tree. So this was it what they meant. Then I heard footsteps. Two different footsteps. The other pair went faster than the other. I started to hear shouting coming into my direction.
"Bella!"
"Where are you?"
"She surely is fast, even for a newborn. When will she stop surprising us?" I heard Edward murmur quietly, like thinking aloud. What did he mean by surprising? Sure, there was the bloodlust-thing, this speed, I guess. Is there something else?
Dear, I think you need to watch your language. What? Oh yeah, the running. Whoops.
"Mom, please!" I shouted out loud. Another whoops. Suddenly the footsteps came faster to my direction. The bushes started to rustle and Alice and Edward came out.
"There you are! Don't do that again!" Alice said, supposedly angry.
"It wasn't my fault, no one told me I could run that fast without tripping," I defended myself laughing.
"Well, we didn't know. Since you came Edward has been the fastest runner. Looks like he's got some competition," Alice said with a wink. Huh?
Edward then just stared at me and murmured something incoherent.
"Oh, Alice. I have something to say…" I trailed off.
"What is it, Bella?" she asked.
I took a deep breath, and they both stared me quizzically. "I thought that, maybe, if I would become a member of your family," I said quickly
"Oh Bella! Thank you!" Alice ran to me and knocked us both down by hugging me. She hugged me for some time and gave a quick on my cheek.
Edward smiled brightly and mouthed: "Thank you". I just smiled back and nodded, for both of them.
"Okay, let's find you some blood," Alice chirped.
"You mean in here? Are you sure there're humans in here?" I asked. This certainly wasn't a place where would be lots of people. Gosh, I can't understand how someone can drink from humans. Just thought of it makes me shiver.
"God, I hope not," Alice answered.
"Huh? I mean, you drink blood? And you get blood from humans."
"Oh, so they didn't tell you? We don't drink human blood, only animal."
"Yeah, and we consider us as vegetarians," Edward joined the conversation.
Deep wave of relief washed over me. No human blood. I don't have to kill anyone, not that I even could.
"Great!" I started to get excited about this.
"Okay, lesson one," Alice said. "Look into that direction." She pointed to west.
"And?"
"What do you see?" I started to watch and noticed:
"I can see a deer, maybe two. Yeah, two. And there's a lot of trees and there's a little bird's nest and some kind of river…" I trailed off. There were so many things. I l couldn't list them all. Cool, this vampire-vision-thingy.
"Good, what can you hear then?" I closed my eyes and listened.
"No, open your eyes. You can't block one sense to use other one better. It doesn't work like that anymore," Edward assured me.
"Oh, okay," I said and opened my eyes. Now, what do I hear? The wind, bird's singing, deer's running, and… The deer's breathing and it's heart too.
"I hear wind, singing, footsteps, breathing and heart beating of the deer. And I can also hear the bird's breathing… and heartbeats."
"Wow, that's amazing! I can hear only breathing of the bird, not the heartbeats," Alice squealed.
"Okay, then, take a whiff," Edward said. And I whiffed.
"I can smell a lot of things, but the strongest is maybe the blood. It doesn't smell very good, I think, but somehow it's appealing."
"Okay. Now, just give in your instincts."
It was kind of hard. But I took another, bigger whiff and then it hit me on the face. I didn't anymore think, and I just gave my body the control. It led me to the deer's direction and in a blink of an eye, I was there. I quickly hunt down the deer, I didn't even think I could, but I still did it. I snapped its neck for some reason, and sank my teeth from the neck's pulse point. I started to pour the blood down my throat, until I had drained the animal in my hands. It seemed that my thirst had been satisfied.
I heard Alice and Edward running to me, to see how I had done. When they came to me, they both started to smile. Alice started to bounce up and down and clap her hands, too. Edward's smile looked proud, if I saw right. Dummy, of course I see right.
"Wow, Bella! You did so well for your first hunt! You're amazing!" Alice squealed and came to hug me.
"Yeah, Bella, you did pretty well. But I don't think it would be good for you to watch your shirt," Edward said. At the same second, I turned to stare my shirt. Oh god. It was bright red from the deer's blood.
"You'll learn table manners quickly, at your pace," he told me.
"Good, I don't know will I be able to go around with a bloody shirt very much."
I started to get up, Alice standing next to me. Then it took over. Oh god, no. That feeling from my human days. The sickening feeling, something coming up my throat. I quickly stood up and ran to bushes. Everything I drank from the deer, cam out. I was vomiting. It'd happened to me only once and it wasn't a good feeling at all.
"Bella?" Alice asked, worried. I couldn't say anything, just stared at the puke that came out of me. All red. Yuck. And what a stink, ugh. It was maybe the most awful scent I had ever smelled. I tried to stand up, but I suddenly felt weak and dizzy. Then everything went black, and all I heard was a small thud and my name, screamed.
I woke up in a big white room, again. I opened my eyes fast and blinked, the light was a little too bright.
"She's awake," someone said.
"Bella? Can you hear me?" Edward asked.
"Uhhnn…"
"Sweetheart? Are you okay?" Esme asked.
"Yeah, my head just hurts…" I said and put my hand onto my temple, and rubbed it a little. "What happened?"
"You, umm, started vomiting and, well, fainted," Alice said with voice which was laced with worry.
"Oh, I'm sorry to cause you problems. I don't know what got onto me."
"No Bella, it's okay. We are just worried about this," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"Bella, it's just that, we, vampires, don't never, ever vomit nor faint."