A/N: So sorry I didn't get a chapter posted yesterday. This one, though not by much, is a little longer than usual. Hopefully, you can forgive me. Jasper tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time to read and review. I appreciate all of your comments.

Forgive my errors, for I am flawed.

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer is the one who makes the money, honey, not me.

BELLA

Sometimes I find beauty in the strangest places, and at the oddest times. But each time I find it, I fall in love with living all over again.

Today I am sitting in the mountains, trees and sky and nature surround me. I'm as still as the stone I'm perched on, and around me the earth is alive.

Scents fill the air, ranging from wildlife to foliage to the snow-capped mountains in the distance. On occasion I can even smell the smog from the city. Even the air I unnecessarily breathe seems alive.

As I enjoy the quiet, the peaceful hum of silence and life, two deer interrupt my solitude.

The male's head dips, his horns nudging the female into the open space not a hundred yards from where I sit. They are oblivious to my presence, and since I want to keep it that way, I hold the last breath in my lungs. It's such a rarity for anything that lives and breathes to near its killer, and I don't fool myself into thinking I'm anything other than that.

This, however, is a special moment.

I watch the pair bounce and run, chasing one way and then back the other. Their noses touch, and the affection they hold for one another is obvious to me. My insides feel warm as I observe the two together, grazing and playing and living and breathing. Loving. It's beautiful.

I frown as they wander off into the trees once more, side by side, neck brushing against neck.

Even in the forest there are pairs, there is life and love. How is it any less of a kill when I take that life? Would I really be more humane if I were to take the life of the male deer? What then of the female? Would she be any less sad than the silver-haired widow whose husband didn't come home three weeks ago?

Sometimes I'm not so sure.