Daughter of Three Suns

Chapter 27

I found out just how much things had changed when I emerged from my new home after first meal. The women and girls of my island were all busy harvesting the bounty of food from our plants and pond when I made my appearance.

At first, it was as if I'd never left. Girls were climbing rubus vines and filling baskets with the ripe berries. Others were picking appa fruit, and still others were searching the kowi vines for dried gourds. Small groups sat stripping the fanio seeds from the reeds and pounding them into meal. Along one rock wall, women were catching fish and preparing the flesh for drying. Talk and laughter filled the inner cavern, basherti swooped and trilled, and high above us, the stretched fabric canopy provided shade from the worst of Daughter Sun's glare.

The air was muggy, thick with scent of water, heat, and growing plants. It smelled like home. It sounded like home, and it felt like home. Everything changed when the nearest group saw me. Their conversation stopped abruptly as they stared. The quiet grew like ripples in a pond, spreading out until the only sound was the soft sighing of the breeze overhead. Even the basherti had hushed their singing.

I knew what they saw when they looked at me. A woman, taller than anyone had ever been before. A woman whose burned skin stretched tight over muscles, and who bore a red metal ring embedded in her chest.

I knew what I saw when I looked at them. Aunties, cousins, friends, family, everyone I had known all my life. There were welcoming smiles on some faces, curiosity on others. There was also aversion and disgust, and pure hatred when my gaze landed on Victoria.

I had no idea what do to or say until Emma saved me by shattering the silence. "Auntie Bella," she called. "We're making more clothes for your baby. Come and help us."

I made my way along the walkway, then settled on the ground next to Rosalie and my nieces. Gradually, the talking and laughing resumed, but it wasn't the same.

Life continued its normal cycles of sleep, wake, work, and eat. I shared most of my meals with my mother, Charles, and Auntie Esme, who was living with them, but slept alone in my own home, in my own bed. Each wake cycle, I helped with the harvesting, the drying, and the storing of food. One by one, my friends came to see me. Many thanked me for bringing our women home, others brought small gifts for my baby. They were all curious, and little by little, I started sharing the story of my journey. There were some, though, who stepped away when I neared, or whispered harsh words when I passed.

Emma became my almost constant companion. Her skills with fabric and thread were unlike anything I had ever seen. One day, she presented me with a new shift. Colorful tassels edged the hem and the armholes. The neckline was cut away to reveal the red circle in my upper chest, and braided trim finished the raw edge. Best of all, it was cut big enough to stretch around my growing belly.

Every wake cycle, it seemed to get bigger. I found it hard to walk, to stand, to sit on the ground to work. Mother and Esme watched me constantly, and I saw more than one worried look pass between them. The healer began visiting to check on me. When it took both Rosalie and Emma to pull me to my feet after sitting on the ground, I was told to go home and rest.

I entered my home to find Emmett standing in the shadowed entrance to my bedroom. I was getting used to seeing him in his man form. He was usually around when I visited Rosalie, and very often, she would leave Eryn with him while she worked, but we hadn't spent any time alone together.

"Emmett?"

"I understand you've been banished to your home because you can't get up and down on your own anymore." His teasing grin took the sting from his words. "So, I made you a surprise." He waved me into my room.

"What is it?" I asked, staring at the strange thing in the middle of the room.

"It's called a chair." He laughed. "You sit in it and don't have to have help getting up."

Cautiously, I lowered myself onto the chair, then slowly leaned against the back of it. "Oh. This is wonderful." I put my feet on the floor and stood, then sat back down again. "Look." I laughed. "I don't need Emma to help me." Emmett chuckled along with me. "Thank you, Emmett. This is wonderful and very thoughtful. Did you have these chairs on your world?"

He nodded, then seated himself on the bed facing me. "We had a lot of useful things that you don't have here."

"Like the weaving and the colors that you taught Emma, and the painting that was on the wall at Irina's home?"

He nodded again. "I want to start making and using more of them when we move to the other island."

"Why didn't you do that here?"

Emmett moved around uncomfortably. "Some of the …" He stopped and sighed. "Bella, sometimes people don't want things to change. Even though it might make their lives easier." He gestured toward the chair I sat in. "They get used to the way things have always been and don't want anything new. In fact, sometimes, they can be cruel when faced with change. I think …" Emmett stopped again. He rubbed his hands over his face, then ran them through his curls. With another deep sigh, he faced me. "I think you may need to think about moving, too."

I nodded to let him know I understood what he was trying to say. "I'll have to wait until this one is born though," I replied, rubbing my belly.

"Well, let's hope for your sake that it's soon," he teased. "We're all worried you're going to split in two." We both chuckled, but then sobered quickly.

"Do you think …" My voice caught as Hope pushed and stretched inside me. "Emma and Eryn both look like you. Do you think she'll look like Edward?"

Emmett grinned. "I think it's a good possibility she will."

"Will you stay awhile and tell me about him? I feel like I never really got a chance to know him that well."

"I'd love to, Bella."

We sat—me in my new chair, Emmett cross-legged on the bed—and we talked. He told me about finding a young Edward wandering the ruined city, scrounging for food and water. How he had befriended him and tried to teach him to survive.

"Edward told me Aro had given them food and water when they were small."

"He did, for a while at least. Then James went through his first shift, and Aro started getting crazier as his health deteriorated. By the time Edward entered puberty, Aro had pretty much abandoned them, and Edward was left on his own."

"I don't understand. What is puberty?"

"It's when your body begins changing from a child to an adult."

"You mean like a Metanora?"

"Yes, in a way, but your change is all at once and—judging by what Rosalie has told me—very painful. On my world, it's a more gradual process. The first shift can be scary though. I was with Edward and helped him during his first."

"What about James? Wasn't he there to help his brother?"

"James?" Emmett snorted. "I never liked him. He was a sneaky little creep and cruel, too. I wasn't surprised that he was the one who betrayed us, and I wasn't that upset when you killed him."

My stomach turned at Emmett's reminder of what I had done. I looked away, swallowing roughly.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I shouldn't have said—"

"No," I interrupted him. "But let's talk about other things. What did Edward like to do?"

"Fly." Emmett laughed. "Once he got used to his bird form, he liked nothing more than to spend all his time in the air. He was so happy to get away from that tower and everyone who lived there. 'Course then, he would be ravenous because flying uses so much energy, and we'd have to hunt."

I smiled at the thought of Edward happily soaring through the sky. "I flew with him for a short time when I first got to your world. We shared his body, and it felt as if it were my own. He wasn't happy about that though. I had always wondered what it would be like to ride the wind. That brief glimpse was wonderful."

I glanced at Emmett to find him frowning at me. "You did what?"

"I flew with him."

"You mean you could read his thoughts, so it felt like you were in the air with him?"

"No, Emmett. I was in his body. The wind was beneath me; the sun on my feathers. My lungs breathed, and I felt them expand. I felt the pull on my muscles when I rose higher. His body was mine. It was amazing."

Emmett shook his head slowly. "I know mates can share thoughts, but I've never heard of such a thing." He smiled at me. "You and Edward must have a special bond."

Then he leaned forward and took my hands. "If I know Edward, he's doing everything he can to get back to you. I still believe you two will be reunited someday."

I stared into the golden eyes of my sister's mate, and saw only truth there. "You think he's still alive?"

"Yes, I do," he whispered with a nod. "Don't give up yet."

I nodded, my throat too clogged to reply. "Tell me more," I finally asked when I could talk again.

Emmett settled into a more comfortable position. "Edward had a lot of pent-up anger inside, mostly against Aro, his mother—when he still believed she had left him, and just life in general, but there was also a funny, silly side about him. One time he …"

From then until the gongs rang for sleep cycle, Emmett entertained me with story after story of my mate and things they had done together. I laughed, cried a little, and forgot my sorrow and uncomfortable body. When he rose to leave, I asked him to come back and tell me more. He promised to return after first meal. Emmett didn't keep that promise however. Sometime later, I woke to pain in my back and abdomen. I knew it was time for Hope to be born.

….

I was present when Rosalie give birth. Neither birth seemed painful, just really uncomfortable. So I was surprised when the pain across my back and stomach became much worse than I expected. Like my sister, I paced back and forth across my small gathering room. When I tired of its four walls, I went outside to the pathway around our center pond.

The chimes for wake cycle had not rung yet; no one was about to see me circle the pool. It was quiet, peaceful, and felt strange to be alone in this normally busy place. On my third circuit, I left the pathway and stepped out onto the entry terrace. The sand beyond glittered in Daughter Sun's glare, and I realized how much I had missed the open desert. Stepping down the entry rocks, I walked out into the heat.

The warmth seemed to help the strong muscle contractions that squeezed my abdomen, or maybe I was distracted by the freedom I felt being outside again. I didn't walk far, just enough to gaze at the dunes around me and breathe in the fresh, dry air. Behind me, Daughter Sun was more than halfway down her long slide below the horizon, and off to my far left, I could see the tiniest sliver of Grandmother Sun's rosy face.

It had been a long time since I'd recited the three blessings or the three prayers. My fingers rubbed the hard ring on my chest, and my lips mumbled the blessing of children. A painful contraction seized my body, and I knew it was time to turn back. "Help me, Grandmother," I whispered.

Her breath had moved while I was outside. I felt it blowing against my back as if urging me to return home. The wake cycle chimes began to ring as I stepped under the terrace overhang. Waiting for me was a white-robed figure. "Alice?" I asked.

My sister said something in return that I didn't hear because a sudden sharp contraction had me crying out in pain. It was only later—much later—that I realized she said she was here for the birth of my children.

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AN: Thank you for reading. Many thanks to Sally for correcting my mistakes.