Hi there, all you people I don't know! :D I'm really sorry for not updating for over a year. I feel terrible. It's just that I had an oddly Twilightish situation going on in my own life (don't worry, no vampires or werewolves, just one of those weird coincidental things that requires the publishing company to put that note in about "any resemblance to people, places, blahblahblah is entirely coincidental, etc etc etc.").

Disclaimer: Don't own it. :D

-It's a massive marmot! It's a big beaver! No, it's a teenage bear-wolf-thing! Wait, what?-

The Cullens' house was quiet, as it always was when there weren't lovelorn humans or ill-tempered vampires present. Jasper sat contemplatively in the rare sunshine on one of the posts connected to the stairs leading down the front steps, skin glittering fitfully in-between the passing of the clouds.

Sometimes, he didn't know which was worse; the bare fact that Sasha had come and was interfering in their lives, or that Alice completely ignored the danger she was putting herself in just by being around the lone vampire. He didn't exactly intend to be a pest, but how many times had he explained to his wife, with no purchase whatsoever, that she was virtually defenseless around Sasha? That most of their family was? Alice couldn't see Sasha's intentions; that was bad enough. Worse, however, was that the only conclusive method of destroying a vampire was to burn it- and Sasha could set a whole house ablaze with the tiniest of mental flexes. It was a blessing she didn't seem to be as vindictive as the other nomads they'd encountered previously; then again, the Cullens hadn't waved Bella under Sasha's nose the second they'd met her, as had accidentally occurred with Victoria, James, and Laurent, and then killed her mate. Thank God for Victoria's passing.

Jasper loved Bella, as a sister and one of the most entertaining humans he'd ever met (he truly was sorry for trying to kill her that fated night), but she could be a burden at times. What a way to incite other vampires' wrath- keeping an easy meal around and not eating it, and worse, not sharing it with visitors! He licked his lips, and immediately scolded himself for it. The instinct had never really left.

"It's all right. I know the feeling," joked Edward, suddenly appearing next to the blonde vampire, golden eyes, as always, unapologetic for listening in on another's inner monologue. "And you know Bella never blamed you for that night… although sometimes I thought she should have. She's really too forgiving."

"I know," sighed Jasper. "I just wonder if the feeling will ever dissipate around her. She's close by often enough. I should be able to curb it by now."

"You haven't spent over a year kissing that smell. I'd think you're resisting just fine," Edward replied with a slight smile. "And I wouldn't worry for Alice so much. You forget that although Alice can't see her, you can control her feelings, and I can read her mind. Between us, Sasha's not such a threat."

"You've read her mind? Can she tell? Are her thoughts… clean?"

"Yes to the first, and no, she doesn't know. It appears her abilities only extend outside of her person, and she's not particularly perceptive of my probing. She's never thinking of violence or murder around any of us, even Bella, which surprises me; I only pick up thoughts of extreme annoyance or outrage. Bella usually smells so good to others of our kind; they don't give rushing her a second thought. I think it must be experience." Edward frowned, staring at a bright butterfly that winged past on the light breeze, and gently snatched it out of the air in the palm of his hand. "Have you ever asked her how old she is?"

Jasper laughed melodiously, sunlight flashing off his golden eyes and bright teeth. "What a question to ask a female! The answer to that, Edward, is no; she hates me quite passionately. The only words I have spoken to her, other than scant greetings, have been those voicing threats or said in self-defense. I have gathered that she must be at least as old as you. The scars she bears resemble mine, and turf wars have been going on since the dawn of our kind. It takes many years to accumulate the amount of scar tissue she has. "

"So, then," Edward said softly, gazing at the delicate creature imprisoned between his bone-white fingers, "is it really so wrong to allow Alice to warm our cold visitor's heart? If she comes to our way of seeing things, and begins to view us with friendship instead of disgust, would she not be an invaluable asset? We would be able to destroy any threat to Bella from a distance, with her abilities."

"You would sacrifice anything for Bella," murmured Jasper, "Even your dignity- even a sister's safety."

Edward's expression contorted for a millisecond in pain Jasper could easily feel, and guilt. With great effort, Jasper nodded, but did not smile. It is all right. If my Alice were as breakable your Bella, I would… sacrifice anything to protect her as well. Even more, perhaps. But the hard truth is that she is less vulnerable, and she is her own person, to put in danger as she pleases. His mouth twisted wryly. I will never imprison her free spirit.

Stone-faced, Edward opened his hand, and the butterfly winged off into the mid-morning light.

Sasha clung lightly to the branch she balanced on, which, even with a vampire's grace and reflexes, was currently rather difficult to be squatting on. The entire tree and most of its neighbors were shaking violently in the midst of the great rumbling of the forest floor about them.

"Alice…"

The owner of the name grinned excitedly, fangs flashing. "Just wait. He'll come out soon."

The quaking of the ground became more and more pronounced, rhythmic, trees waving and branches jolting madly. A sudden rancid smell hit Sasha's nostrils, immediately reminding her of the smell she'd encountered while driving to Seattle some time ago, past the Indian reservation. It was different, though; while the other stench had reminded her strongly of wet dog, this smelled more… musky. Wild, somehow. Alice looked at her calmly, with an encouraging expression. "I promise you'll like him. He's really sweet, and fun to play with." Just then, the cause of all the hullaballoo crashed into the clearing they were surveying- and, although nearly two centuries old, Sasha could not find an appropriate designation for what the hell it was.

"This is Luke! Isn't he adorable?"

The thing was at least fourteen feet tall at the shoulder; covered in thick, black, long fur, it stood on all fours and wagged its ten foot long tail. The paws, attached long, bulky legs, were the size and color of monster truck tires, with formidable claws. The abdomen was reminiscent of a wolf's, but far more muscular and bulky somehow; the head was more bear than wolf-like, with a shorter snout and longer fangs, which flashed as it gave them an oddly dog-like grin, pink tongue lolling out one side of the tyrannosaurus-esque mouth. Its ears, huge and pointed like a husky's, twitched and swiveled as it sniffed at the air with its tapered nose. The eyes were bright, frosty blue, surrounded by white blotches that made the thing look like it had lain out too long in the sun with glasses on.

Sasha barely stopped herself from jumping as… Luke… gave an earsplitting woof that should have blown the leaves off of every other tree in the forest. She hissed, which the creature (who apparently had excellent hearing as well as humongous teeth and claws) winced at and crashed down, covering its nose with its paws. "Alice. Two questions. What the hell is it? And why hasn't someone killed it yet?"

"Don't scare him!" crooned the smaller vampire, flitting over to the monster and stroking his huge forehead with her tiny hands. "He thinks he's been bad if you make that noise!"

Feeling more bemused than shocked at this almost maternal display from Alice, who was the size of a gopher compared to the furry behemoth, Sasha hopped down from the tree, but didn't come any closer. "Going to answer my questions, tiny?"

Alice sighed, and after kissing the tip of Luke's nose noisily, answered.

"He's… well… we don't really know, exactly. His genetics should have produced a smaller, more wolfish looking body, but he was different enough as a human anyway. You know the Indian reservation, down at La Push?"

Sasha wrinkled her nose. "Yes. And he smells just like it… but not as bad, somehow. I've never been closer than passing, but believe me, I've noticed the odor." Alice brightened up at this, as if it made something easier.

"Well, the native Americans down there, the Quileute, are shapeshifters. Their shape of genetic choice seems to be the wolf- so we call them werewolves. They're incredibly smelly, but it's not your fault, is it, Lukey?" The bear-wolf-thing took his paws away from his eyes at this point and blinked at Alice, gigantic tail starting to thump the ground happily.

Sasha rolled her eyes. "Well, if there are such things as vampires, I suppose there must be other fairytales walking around out there somewhere. What I don't understand is why you tolerate them in your territory… although they can't be dangerous, especially to our kind. Haven't you tried to … eat one of them yet? Since that is what you Cullens do?"

Alice looked exasperated. "Sasha, I've explained this to you. The whole reason we only eat animals is because they aren't sentient beings. Killing and eating them isn't murder. Werewolves, however, ARE human, in more than a sense. Their minds are just the same as when they're in human form." But then she frowned a little, and stroked the fur behind one of Luke's enormous ears. "This one, though… he was different from the beginning.

"Luke was born neurologically and physically different from the other Quileute youths. He was quite a lot slower in school- couldn't talk until he was 8 or so. But his size was opposite in growth rate from his mental capacities. He was 8 feet tall and almost 300 pounds by the time he was fourteen." A happy rumbling emanated from the werewolf's throat as Alice continued to scratch his ears, as if he was completely oblivious to the revelation of his difficulties in human life. "When he… phased… for the first time, as most of the other young ones were doing as they hit puberty, it scared the life out of him. He'd always been a gentle giant type, slow but kind, taking life as calmly as he could. And then this happened." Alice sighed. "It was as if his human mind had been chased from his body… after he turned into this, he could never go back. The other werewolves tried to connect with him, as they can through pack telepathy, but they told us all they encountered when they tried to hear his mind was a blank wall."

Sasha stared, fascinated. "So how does he live out here if he was never a wolf before? Does he know how to hunt?"

"A lot of that is pure instinct," Alice laughed, as Luke rolled onto his massive side, and his leg started to twitch. "We just provide him with some occasional playmates that he can't accidentally kill. He did retain some human instincts, too, one of which seems to be loneliness without regular social interaction."

"I still don't understand why you'd do them a favor like that; what are they to you?"

Alice half-smiled mysteriously. "Well… we'd generally like to be on their good side. After all, they are the only other creatures that can destroy vampires." Sasha started at this, but grinned after an instant. Looks like Forks is going to be a hell of a lot more fun than I thought.

"But for Luke, they're too small and breakable. They like to remind us regularly that their genetic reason for being is to kill us, but they're still flesh and blood- they're not as durable as we are. Just the last time we had some trouble with some newborns attacking the area, one of the wolves got the bones on one entire side of his body shattered by one of our kind."

After reminding herself to ask Alice why the Cullens (whom she had less and less respect for as the conversation went on) had allowed not only giant wolves, but newborns into their territory, Sasha surveyed the comical scene of tiny Alice rubbing the huge wolf's tummy enthusiastically, the pixie-like vampire giggling as he occasionally gave her a big, slurping lick with his pink tongue. After standing in amused silence for about ten minutes, she flexed her mind in the direction of the air a few feet above Luke's head.

The wolf froze and fixed its gaze on the tiny flaming butterfly that had just appeared tantalizingly close to his nose. As soon as he stopped wiggling around and wagging his tail, Alice jumped back to the edge of the clearing, apparently wary of any temperamental behavior that might emerge. Then she noticed the golden, fiery insect flitting about that had Luke's attention, and turned to see Sasha with a small smile on her face.

They both laughed as Luke leapt up and did a full flip in the air trying to snap his jaws closed on the gleaming butterfly, which wickedly flew all around the poor werewolf's head as he desperately tried to catch it, looking more confused every time it darted away. The clearing trembled with the force of his playful leaping, and by the time he finally did catch it, Luke was- as they say- dog tired.

"What a good boy!" Alice gushed to Luke, rubbing his belly once more before jumping back and waving goodbye. Seeming to take this as a signal that his playmates were leaving, Luke whined once and then bounded back into the dense foliage, ground shaking less and less with the increasing distance.

Alice then turned to Sasha and grinned hugely, seeming outrageously pleased with herself. "See? Even though he smells appalling, he's the sweetest little thing. And he's never as rude as the others."

"I hardly think he's little, but he is amusing," admitted Sasha, a smile cracking her glacier-white face. This reaction seemed to make Alice even more pleased, if it was possible; the smug expression dropped after a second though, to be replaced by one of embarrassment, and a sheepish grin. "Oops. I almost forgot." Dancing toward the edge of the forest in the direction of the Cullens' house, Alice beckoned to her accompaniment. "I know you won't like this, but Carlisle wanted to talk to you. Please come with me!"

Alice winced Sasha's mouth tightened suspiciously, scarlet eyes taking on an angry cast. "So this was your plan? I quite enjoyed the dog show, but it was completely unnecessary if this was all you wanted," she said in a dangerous tone.

Alice pouted, as if deeply offended. "Oh, come on, Sasha, it's not like we're plotting against you every time we interact with you! We just want to chat." The pout broke into a conspiratorial smile. "And besides…I think you'll be more than interested in this conversation."

"Fine. But if this ends up being another attempt to get me to munch moose, you and your coven can just forget it," Sasha snarled. "I'm through with that. Actually, I don't know why I'm even coming in the first place." But then, with apparent great effort, she gave an exasperated little smile. "But you know, Alice…"

"But?" Alice wheedled smugly.

"Even though the rest of your family makes me want to hurl myself into a brushfire, your kindness…It's not what I'm used to, but I think I could get used to it."

"That a girl! Now come on, Eddie's getting impatient!"

Sheesh, thought Sasha as she followed her new friend through the darkening forest. "That a girl?" She's been spending too much time with that overgrown dog. Speaking of which, why didn't she act surprised about the butterfly? Sasha frowned. She definitely knows something I don't.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. It'd mean a lot to me if you reviewed a teeny bit; it makes me a better author and inflates my ego :P.

By the way, I know that Eclipse takes place Bella's senior year and the battle with the werewolves takes place after her graduation; buuuuuut I am the author and therefore God! HAHAHAHAHA. Just fyi Bella and Eds are in senior year in this story; Sasha enrolled as a junior because she was turned at seventeen. Let's just pretend Eclipse happened Bella's junior year, hmmmm? :)

'Till next time!~