Sylvia swung up into the tree as the sun rose. She noticed Caleb and me sitting together watching, but said nothing about it.
"Are you ready?" Sylvia asked. "Do we want to do this now, or later?"
I took a deep breath. "Now. If we wait, we'll just make ourselves more anxious about it and we'll lose focus. I'm ready."
"Again, this has nothing to do with you personally." Sylvia reminded me. "It was a complete coincidence. We all need to be ready. I'm ready. Caleb?"
He nodded. "Let's go. But I suggest we hunt on the way, to make this as easy as possible."
We climbed down. It would have been a little faster and easier to drop, but there were too many branches in the way. We followed our trail from the day before, making a quick detour to hunt a few deer. Soon I recognized where we were.
"This is where we smelled the human yesterday." I warned. "We'll come across the trail soon."
"Let's take turns tracking so we don't become overwhelmed." Caleb suggested. "Those who aren't tracking will stop breathing and will tackle the tracker if necessary. I'll go first."
"Let's walk at a human pace." Sylvia added. "That way we'll be able to stop before we get too close."
I took a deep breath and I heard Sylvia do the same beside me. Caleb started forward, breathing shallowly through his nose. He walked forward cautiously, alert. We followed him for five minutes on what seemed like some sort of trail before he turned to me.
"Your turn. Don't worry, it doesn't burn much because we just had the deer. Do it as long as you can handle it. I'll be back, I just want to get the scent out of my system before I follow you." He sprinted into the trees and returned a minute later. I took a cautious breath, immediately relieved to have my sense of smell back, but also feeling a small burn in my throat at the scent of the human. I could handle it. My head was clear. I walked forward for a few minutes, checking the burn in my throat and my thoughts constantly. I wasn't looking forward to tasting the human yet, I was still afraid. That was good.
"Would it be alright if we went a little faster?" I suggested once I was sure I wasn't trying to hunt. "We don't know how far this human could have gone."
Sylvia nodded, and Caleb made the OK gesture with his hand. I sped up a little, going the pace a human would running. If humans could run this trail, that is. After five more minutes my throat started to burn a little more, and I was thinking about the human in a bad way. I stopped.
"Your turn." I said to Sylvia before sprinting into the woods. I took a couple deep breaths of clean air and cleared my mind before returning. Sylvia started slowly, then we returned to our previous pace. Our turns lasted about five minutes each. Caleb took , and I had just started my second when I spotted something orange in the woods. It was a small one-man tent.
I turned to the others and gestured towards the tent. They nodded- they could see it too. I jerked my head to the woods behind us. We turned to leave, but before we could a man came into view. He was probably in his thirties, he had dark hair and eyes. I quickly turned toward Sylvia and inhaled, so all I could smell was the sweet smell of vampire. I hoped the one breath would be good enough to get us away from here.
The man turned toward us and smiled in a friendly way. "Hello, how are you?"
"Fine, thank you." Sylvia said. Her voice was a little strained from nervousness. "What brings you here? I don't know of any major campsites or hiking trails in this area."
The man shrugged. "I could ask the same of you. I take it you know this area well?"
"Yes, you could say that." Caleb said.
"I'm Clint, by the way." The man continued.
"I'm Caleb." Caleb said. "This is Kristi and Sylvia."
"Hi." I said.
"So where are you from?" Clint asked.
"We're from Seattle. We're camping here as a wilderness survival sort of thing. Why are you here?"
"The same… but I'm a little lost actually. There was a small trail, but I think I've lost it. I didn't want to have to call anyone, though. Could you give directions?"
The wind suddenly blew the the man's scent away from us. We all took grateful breaths of the fresh air.
"Do you have a map?" I asked. The sooner we could get him out of here, the better. It was frightening to think this man was almost literally looking death in the face, and he had no idea.
He walked back to his tent and went inside.
Do we run for it? Caleb mouthed, not breathing in or out.
No. That would be rude. Sylvia replied.
I would have busted up laughing at her reply if the situation wasn't so serious. Even so, I cracked a smile.
Sylvia, you're sweet and awesome, but you have to learn to take a step back and look at the big picture. Would you rather he think us rude, or would you rather put his life at risk? I moved my mouth silently. Sylvia frowned, and then chuckled. I sniggered, accidentally taking a tiny breath. She realized her mistake at the same time. Caleb's smile disappeared and he eyed us warily. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. The fresh human scent burned, but our heads stayed clear. We were not hunting. I took another tiny breath, experimenting. It burned a little more.
Feel free to tackle me if I go too far. I mouthed to Caleb and Sylvia. They nodded, watching tensed as I took a deeper breath. I winced- my throat burned, and the smell was so sweet, promising to heal the burn. I concentrated on not letting Caleb and Sylvia down, and breathed evenly. I gave them a thumbs up and they grinned.
The man came back out of the tent, holding a map. He looked down at it as he stepped toward us- not seeing the muddy spot he stepped in. He slipped, and I stayed frozen, unsure whether to flee or help. He got up off the ground and the smell hit me full force- he was bleeding.
I immediately stopped all air coming into my lungs. My human instincts told me to calm down and take deep breaths, but my vampire brain said Are you crazy? Run for it! My vampire instincts, of course, wanted me to lunge forward and take him. I could do it- Caleb and Sylvia were surprised enough by the turn of events that they wouldn't catch me until it was too late. They might even try to join me. I groaned. I quickly inhaled through my hands over my mouth so most of the smell was masked by vampire.
"Are you okay?" I managed to choke out. Perhaps treating him like a person would help me hold back.
"I'm fine, just scraped my knee. It's not a big deal, I have a first-aid kit in my tent."
I glanced at him warily. Sure enough, there was a small scratch on his knee. No more than a drop or two of blood had come out. I glanced back at Sylvia and Caleb. Neither were breathing, but both were very tense. Sylvia was gripping Caleb's arm in a way that would break the bones in a normal person's arm, and Caleb had his hands clenched into fists at his sides. Both had their eyes averted to keep from seeing the blood and attacking.
The man seemed to notice something was wrong. "Are you alright?" he asked uncertainly. "Honestly, I'm fine."
My head raced for an explanation that might make a little sense. "All three of us faint at the sight and smell of blood." I said. The man raised an eyebrow. "We have sensitive noses. Figures, right?" I tried to look woozy, not ravenous, but I'm not sure if I pulled it off. I didn't really care. I grabbed the closest tree branch to stop myself from going anywhere. The branch snapped.
"I'm sorry, I had no idea." the man apologized. I almost rolled my eyes. He had no need to apologize, he was only inches away from death. He turned back to his tent and I looked away as he bandaged his knee. It blocked the smell just a little, and it hid the sight of it, which helped. I picked up the map he had dropped, which helped to distract me. I examined it, glad that Caleb had shown us exactly how it worked. I recognized a nearby landmark and used it to estimate where we were. I looked closer and saw there was indeed one small trail, small enough not to be noted on most maps.
The man finished and walked to my side. My throat burned. He was less than a foot away from me, examining the map. His throat was right there… I felt the haze of hunting begin to come over me, but I forced it back, thinking of Caleb and Sylvia behind me, watching anxiously and hungrily. I had to make this fast.
"You're about here." I told the man, pointing. "The trail is over here. You need to go that direction-" I pointed into the trees- "For about a mile. Even if you're a little bit off, you should still hit the trail. Once you hit the trail, go right." I gasped, trying to go as fast as possible but still go slow enough for the human to understand. The man checked the map and a look of understanding came across his face.
"Oh, I see. Thank you very much. Will I be able to see you again?"
"No, we wandered pretty far from our campsite. How much longer are you staying?"
Of course we wouldn't return. It was bad enough to risk his life for two days in a row.
"A day at the most." he said. "Maybe I'll leave today. I have to leave soon enough that I don't forget the direction you pointed me in." He said, smiling. He held out his hand and I shook it, concentrating on not breaking any of his fragile bones. He winced a little- I had forgotten our hands were much colder than his.
"Goodbye, Clint." I said, turning back to Caleb and Sylvia. They grinned back and waved at him, and he waved in return. We walked into the trees, and after we had gone fifty feet we broke into a sprint. About a mile away, we stopped, and took deep breaths of fresh air. It was such a relief.
"That was definitely a mistake." I said. Caleb and Sylvia laughed.
"Definitely… but you were amazing, Kristi!" Sylvia exclaimed.
"You actually managed to hold a conversation with a bleeding human… and he was only a foot away from you!" Caleb shook his head in amazement and admiration. "You have some serious control, Kristi."
"Thanks." I said, pleased. "You didn't do bad yourself. How many six-month-old vampires could watch someone else hold a conversation with a bleeding human?"
"Fair point, we were all pretty good. But you were something else." Caleb said.
"Oh, c'mon, I'm sure you could have done it just fine. I just happened to be closest. And you did talk to him earlier before he started bleeding."
"We are pretty amazing." Sylvia agreed.
"Now that we've had this test, we should see Carlisle." I suggested.
Sylvia frowned. "No. We might attack the Bella girl. We should have another test first… maybe in Seattle."
I shook my head. "Wouldn't that be too close to what we used to do? It might bring out the hunting instincts in us."
"So would going near the girl." Caleb interjected. "But she's got really sweet blood. Before trying to handle her, let's check with people who are more likely to have normal blood."
His suggestion made sense. "But what if we come across someone bleeding?"
"We'll be ready for it." Sylvia answered. "It's the only way to find out if we can really do this. I'm sick of this place. Let's move on."
"Okay." I agreed. "Let's do it tomorrow night. We'll spend tomorrow hunting."
A/N: Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed so far. The next chapter is going to be... interesting. (cackles evilly and presses the submit button)
