Chapter12 – Legend's.
The week had passed pretty quickly, the leech that was after Bella hadn't returned yet; Jacob had finally made amends with his 'friend' though they had stopped talking for a majority of the week. It was the morning of the day that Billy, my mom, Sam and old Quil planned to spend the night at the Quileute bonfire, where Leah, Quil and I along with the rest of the pack would get to listen to all the old legends and stories.
It was then that Leah came into my room to explain something to me, her eyes were worried, her expression pained, but she was shaking, she was angry- and I didn't know what for.
"Hey Leah, what's up?" I asked, pretending not to notice that she was shaking.
"Stinking, filthy, leeches." She muttered.
I jumped to obvious conclusion. "She's back!" I gasped.
"No, not her, it's a different one."
"What? . . . What do you mean?"
Leah sighed, and then sat down and explained, "So I just got off the phone to Sam, who had just been to see Jacob, who had just got back from Bella's place. Apparently there's been a leech in her room, and none of the Cullen's recognizes the scent, Jacob and that bloodsucker, the one who reads minds-"
"Edward." I told her.
"Yeah, you know I don't care anyway, but yeah, they followed the trail but it came to end of the road, had a car waiting. So now there all hyped up about another vamp in town, but Jacob's worried, whoever it was left Charlie alive, and they were playing with the holes in the physic leeches vision. We don't know what happened yet, or why she didn't see anything but Sam's pretty worked up about it, it's bad enough having the red-headed bloodsucker on our lands after Bella, now we got some leech no one knows in her room. It's not looking good for her."
I didn't know what to say. I was truly baffled.
"Hey, don't worry about it, Kay? Bella's got all the vampires protecting her and a whole pack of wolves, what's the worst that can happen?"
Leah rolled her eyes, "It's not Bella that im worried about."
"Then who?" I wondered.
"You, Seth."
Surprised, I laughed.
"What?" I demanded, "You're seriously worrying about me? It's not me the leech is after."
Leah glared at me, not amused that I was laughing at her, sure this conversation was in no way humorous, but the thought of Leah wasting time worrying about me was pitiful, I had to laugh. She'd do the same if it was the other way around. Though, I did worry about her, too, being the only girl in the pack . . .
"Are you finished!" Leah demanded, annoyed.
"Yeah, go on, spill the beans- why are you worried about me?" I asked.
"Well, you're fifteen, still a kid- and all you seem to want to do is run around as a giant wolf chasing- and killing- dangerous, leeches that are trying to kill the humans of Forks, and probably the reservation, too."
"So what." I complained, "I like doing it, there's fun stuff about it too, like the speed, the freedom, it's not ruining my life or anything so you might as well stop worrying."
"But it is ruining you're life Seth, don't you see. This kind of stuff isn't right, especially for a fifteen year old boy. Do you know Quil imprinted on Emily's niece last night? Yeah; well he did, her names Claire, and she's two. Quil will have to wait for about sixteen years before Claire is the same age as him. What if you imprint on a two year old, you'll have no life, no girlfriends cause there'll only be her and she'll be a baby."
I shrugged, "so what if I do, im sure Quil doesn't mind that much. He'll act like her big brother, or carer, there wont be nothing romantic about it, and he wont want girlfriends cause there will only be her." I reminded her, "we've all seen it in Sam's and Jared's thoughts, it's the way it is. We didn't choose it, it's who we are. In our blood, you know that better than I do, so why all the fuss?"
"I know Seth, but just because it's who we are, it doesn't mean I have to like it."
"No, you don't have to like it, I don't have to like it either, but I do." I told her simply pleading silently with her to understand and stop worrying.
"Fine, you're choice." Leah whispered, but I could see it in her eyes that my words didn't affect her in any way- she'd still be silly and worry herself sick.
~O~
At about seven o'clock my mom, me and Leah were getting ready to go over to the huge cliff top just past the first beach where the bonfire would take place.
"Come on Seth, we've got to help set up!" Mom yelled from the bottom of the stairs, Leah was already dressed and ready in dark blue jeans and a long white sleeved v-necked top which had an extremely pale contrast compared to her dark russet coloured skin and dark brown, almost black bobbed hair.
"Looking good." I complimented her with a laugh; she wasn't in the mood for my playful behaviour.
"Just get in the car." She complained. But my mom patted my shoulder as we walked out the door and gave me a big smile that showed off her glistening white teeth against her dark lips.
"Evening Sue, Leah, Seth." Billy nodded as Paul pushed his wheelchair over the lawn, which made me wonder, why wasn't Jacob pushing his wheelchair?
"Hey Billy, where's Jacob?" I asked, beating Leah to the punch line as she was about to open her mouth.
"Oh, he's gone to pick up Bella from the treaty line; her boyfriend is dropping her off there so she can come to the bonfire." He explained grudgingly.
I ignored the tone of his voice and replied, "Oh, that's good- so they're friends again now, at least."
Paul snorted just as Leah demanded- "what?"
"We all know Jacob thinks of Bella as more than a friend." Paul mocked.
Leah sighed, "I know, poor kid's just shooting at himself again and again, why he doesn't just leave her alone I don't know, it would be a whole lot easier for him when she's gone."
But nothing more was said on the subject as the rest of the Quileute elders started the fire and moved the drift wood logs around it for a bench. Soon after, the food was brought and the rest of the pack started arriving and seated themselves on the benches. Emily brought an extra batch of hot dogs and we were all waiting for Jake- and Bella.
"Hey vampire girl!" Embry called when Bella and Jacob came into view through the forest.
Bella laughed, "Hello Embry." She muttered looking at all of our faces, as Jacob introduced everyone she didn't know.
"Okay, I should not be here." She complained. "I'm like a werewolf party crasher or something."
"Actually," Jacob interrupted in a whisper, "You're a council meeting crasher, but don't worry about it, they all agreed that you should get to here the stories. You're involved in this just as much as we are now. Though, I do admit you are the first outsider."
Bella shook her head, but eventually she shrugged and sat down between me and Jacob.
"Hey Bella." I greeted her.
"Hey, it's good to see you Seth."
"Yeah," I replied, "and hey Jake, I saved you a burger, Paul ate loads already but I managed to save you one." I told him handing him the burger whilst looking at the empty tray, all that was left were hot dogs.
"Thanks kid, that's good of you." he replied.
"Anytime." I muttered.
Suddenly all small and separate conversations stopped and everyone sat up straight, the atmosphere between everyone changed, immediately Billy started talking.
Leah closed her eyes and I leaned in eagerly, Sam twisted in his seat so he was facing in the same direction as Old Quil, Emily got out her notebook and the fire crackled sending another explosion of orange sparks up against the black night.
Billy cleared his throat once more needing no more introductions before he started telling the story in his deep rich voice. "The Quileute's have been a small people from the beginning." Billy said, "and were still small people today, but we have never disappeared, that's because there is magic in our blood, it wasn't always the magic of shape-shifting, -that came later. First we were spirit warriors." Billy's words flowed out like perfectly learned poetry, he knew every word he was about to say before he started it. Emily's pen sprinted across the paper, her face deep in concentration as she kept pace with Billy's words. Billy continued then and I listened deep in thought as he told the story of the spirit warriors, how one day Kaheleha led his spiritual warriors over an island whilst there wife's watched over there body's. "Generations past." Billy continued, "Then came the last Great Spirit chief, Taha Aki. He was known for his wisdom, and as a man of peace. There was one man, however Utlapa, who was not content." He continued to tell the story how in the end Utlapa betrayed the tribe and stole Taha Aki's body, Taha Aki was in his spiritual self when this happened- "He was clever enough to survive." Billy explained. "And one day when he saw a wolf, it was bigger than the average wolf; Taha Aki joined the wolf's spirit in the wolf's body, eventually taking over the wolf. When this happened he was able to take form of a man, and his tribe knew who he was, and that's how for generations, though some have been skipped- our people can turn into the wolf to protect our land. But the wolves are all different; they all reflect the man inside."
"So that's why Sam's all black then." Quil muttered with a laugh, "black heart, and black fur."
"And you're chocolate fur reflects what exactly?" Sam whispered back to him, "How sweet you are?"
Billy ignored their jibes and continued, "And that was the story of the spirit warrior's."
It was Old Quil who spoke now, "This is the story of the third wife's sacrifice." He said, and then told us the story of Taha Aki's third wife, how when the cold one's what we people call vampires, became an enemy of the shape shifters, how when the cold woman killed Taha Aki's two sons and was about to finish him off, the third wife cut her chest with a dagger, the blood was enough to distract the cold woman, and therefore once she was distracted Taha Aki could kill her. He lay in his wolf form next to the third wife for days afterwards not letting anyone near her. After that he ran into the forest and never returned. The Quileute's only turned into wolfs from then on if a cold one came into town and the wolfs would fight them off." Old Quil explained.
"But then a bigger coven came, and your own great-grandfather's prepared to fight them off, but the leader spoke to Ephraim Black as if he were a man, he promised Ephraim that his coven wasn't like other blood drinkers, and his strange yellow eyes proved that, the leader and Ephraim agreed to make the treaty, even though the cold ones would have won the fight as they outnumbered the wolfs. They have stayed true to there side, though there presence does tend to draw other's in."
Everyone was silent after that, looking around the circle everyone's eyes were filled with sadness, Bella was looking around like I was but no one spoke until Quil suddenly spoke, "Burden." He scoffed, "I think it's cool."
I nodded my head in agreement and Billy laughed a long, loud magical laugh.
When he stopped the circle suddenly became a circle of friends again. Someone threw something at Quil and we all laughed when he jumped not expecting it.
We laughed at each other for a while before it was half past eleven and Jacob carried a sleeping Bella over to his car and left, we helped pack everything away and I went home thinking of the third wife who had saved the entire tribe.
AN: long chapter, hope you enjoyed it, sorry if a lot of text is out of the book but I didn't know how else to write the stories, but I didn't want to write the whole thing. Review's would be lovely(: thanks for reading, I'll update as soon as possible.