Chapter 6

Emma

A battle was taking place inside of me. My brain was telling me to be wary and afraid of this new cast of people that had suddenly sprouted into my life. That I was trusting too soon. I was repeating the mistakes of my past by not being more hesitant, that I needed to move on somewhere else. Somewhere where I had no conceived connection with my surrounding, to live alone, but safe.

My heart, on the other hand, was telling me to trust in these people I found myself surrounded by. This feeling within myself of belonging and rightness. A feeling that I had always craved for but never received. I spared a discrete glance to my right at Paul and saw him still studying me with a small grin on his face. I should be scared of the feeling of familiarity I had with this man who I barely knew. It should feel odd that he recognized this bond that I have been feeling over the past ten months. That Paul was acting as if I was in his mind just as much as he had been in mine.

As we walked up on the bonfire I could feel eyes looking at us, as I surveyed the scene I realized that every eye was on us. My cheeks flamed and I veered my path towards Diana, I sensed Paul adjust his direction in step with mine.

Oh shit, Diana.

One look at Diana's confused face and I remembered that she was unaware that I had ever been to La Push before. She had never asked why I chose La Push or If I had even been here before. I had given her some information from my past but I just couldn't bring myself to talk to her about that day. It felt too private; like it was a turning point in my life and I didn't want to share it with anybody. I didn't know how I would explain my actions that day either, so I just didn't bring it up.

The first thing out of Diana's mouth is a question directed at me, "You already know each other?"

How do I explain it to her? She knows about him and I don't think it will take her long to connect the dots about what happened that day. This is not how I was think today would go. Not wanting Diana to freak out and somehow say something I try to think of a way to diffuse the situation.

Before I got a chance to say anything Paul breaks in, "Remember that girl I was talking about last August?" He was stressing certain words as if Diana would remember that story from his very vague explanation. She still looked confused so he pushed on, "The one at the beach," stressing the location, "last August," he repeated.

I was certain there was no way Diana would remember his story from the small amount of information he was giving, but then I saw something change in her eyes. In place of confusion I saw a myriad of emotion cross her features.

First there was realization, her eyebrows shot up and eyes glowed with understanding. That was followed quickly by unadulterated joy. She switched her gaze from Paul's face to mine and I was met with a smile lighting up Diana's whole face, "You're her!" she exclaimed at me. I was shocked and tense up when I was suddenly enveloped in motherly hug by the shorter woman.

I had just started to relax when she pulled back from me to look at my face once again. I saw her eyes searching mine and her face shifted again, from joy to deep grief, her beaming smile faded off her face and was replaced by downturned lips and a crease between her eyes.

"But you…" she began to say, but this time I pulled her into an embrace.

"Please don't saying anything," I whispered into her ear, hoping no one could hear us.

Fear was coming over me. I had no idea what was going on around me, but based on the franticness of everything I was afraid Diana was going to say something. That she would somehow out my secret and I would have to move on to a new town where no one knew me.

Still in her embrace she gave me a squeeze, "Not until you're ready."

I relaxed slightly and we separated, the first person who caught my eye after our exchange was Paul. When I looked at him my stomach gave a little flip, still not use to seeing those familiar eyes in person. I quickly pushed those feelings aside and took in his appearance, he had been graced with a shirt sometime during Diana and I's moment. He had a bewildered look on him, almost as if he had heard the few words Diana and I had shared.

My eyes then passed from Paul's to the rest of the group, almost everyone was looking at me. Most with large smiles gracing their faces, some whispering between each other, and I think I even saw a tear in an older lady's eye.

I feel myself go red under the scrutiny of their gazes and desperately wanted to diffuse the tension. Luckily one of the men, I think his name was Jacob, called for everyone to start eating. That got people moving and their attention off of me, I relaxed slightly.

Diana directed me around getting food and finding a place to sit around the bonfire. After settling Paul joined us. "Can I sit with you?" he asked me. I nodded and he positioned himself on the other side of me, sandwiching me between himself and Diana.

I felt a buzz of energy between us, a tension that I had never felt before. He was so close I could smell him, a scent of cinnamon and something else, that I had begun to associated with the bed I slept in every night. It had a way of putting me at ease. His shoulder was so close to mine that if I leaned just a little to my left we would be in contact. I was very aware of this and had to constantly be cautious to keep my space.

After everyone got settled and had eaten their food an older man, wheelchair bound, moved closer into the circle, a hush fell over everyone. The man looked weathered, his face was donned with deep wrinkles and hair grey. Obvious laugh lines covered his face from years spent happy. Today though, he had a serious expression. He took a moment to look around the circle, to ensure that he had everyone's undivided attention before beginning to speak.

"The Quileute tribe has protected this land and its people for centuries. We have molded and shaped this land and have given back as much as we have taken. The stories of our people live on only in the memories of the tribe elders, who pass it on to you so that our people history may be preserved for years to come. The histories we share are not legends but the stories of our people. These are the stories of how we came to be."

Chills went up my spine and I felt like I was being included on a private event, an outside looking at years of tradition. Different elders then took turns tell stories of the tribe.

The first was a legend of how the tribe reached this area and prospered. Their people were fishermen and shipbuilders. They were a small tribe and when their land was sought out by others, they found it hard to defend themselves. The tribe was able to use spirit magic from the blood of the Quileute to leave their bodies and control the elements and animals around them. They blew fierce winds that drove invading ships away from their coasts. They were able to manipulate animals to do their bidding, since only animals were able to see the men in their spirit forms. Using this magic, the tribesmen were able to drive away invaders and protect their lands.

The second legend told the tale of the transition from spirts to great spirit warriors. It was a beautiful and sad tale of a spirit chief who was betrayed by a tribesman, who took over his body while the real chief was in the spirit world. The pretender ruled over the people of the Quileute tribe shamefully and all the real chief could do was watch from the spirit world. Eventually the real chief found a great wolf and asked if they could share it body, the wolf agreed. The chief then returned to the tribe as the wolf and his tribe was scared, the pretender hid behind the other warriors and this angered the real chief. In his anger he changed from wolf to man, once a man his tribesmen recognized him and killed the pretender. From then on no man was allowed to enter the spirit world. The sons of the chief found that they were able to turn into the great spirit warriors once entering manhood, as did all of their descendants. From then on the great spirit warriors were the protectors of the tribe.

The final story of the night was about the 'cold ones'; strong, beautiful, and unimaginably fast. Two mated cold ones made several appearances; stealing and killing women of the tribe by draining their blood, before leaving without a trace. They nearly wiped out the entirety of the tribe, killing some of the strongest spirit warriors. The warriors were able to kill one of the cold ones, but found that the body had to be burned it order to keep it from coming back to life. Its mate, a beautiful woman, came to get revenge on the tribe. If it wasn't for the sacrifice of the chief's third wife the Quileute tribe would not have survived. Since that day the tribesmen only transform into the wolves when cold ones are around; so that they are able to once again protect the tribe from the evil bloodsuckers.

Thought-out the stories I grew tired from holding my body so ridged and slowly began to move closer and closer to Paul. At some point our arms touched, and I was shocked by the intense awareness I had of the spots are bodies were connected at. I had immediately moved away, but felt that once I was no longer in contact a deep sense of loss. That feeling of loss more than anything had my sliding myself farther away from Paul and closer to Diana. I do not trust myself to be feeling those feelings.

The stories themselves were told so beautifully, I had an actual tear fall when the third wife stabbed herself in the heart in order to distract the cold ones. I was honored to have been allowed to listen and sit in on the intimate legends.

After the final story was completed people started to pick up and get ready to leave. I stood up and stretched out a bit, my body stiff from sitting in one place for too long and let out a small yawn. I wasn't sure how late it was but it felt well past my usual bedtime. I helped Diana clean and collect the thing we had brought, Paul refused to let Diana or I carry anything to her car.

We said our goodbyes to everyone and made our way to the car, Paul was already over there placing things in it. As we approached I decided to be the first one to speak, "It was nice seeing you again, Paul."

He looked at me with a large grin on his face, "Pleasure is all mine," then with a tinge of nervousness he asked "how long are you planning on staying here?"

Good question.

I looked at Diana before responding, "I'm not sure, at least until Diana gets tired of me." Good answer, noncommittal.

He seemed to accept this, Diana then spoke up, "Well, I better be getting Emma home. She looks dead on her feet." I smiled at this, did a little wave and got in the car as Diana and Paul said their goodbyes.

I thought about the stories as Diana drove us back to her house. That's why I wasn't sure if it was my imagination or reality when I heard a wolf howling in the forest next to us.

Authors Note

Sorry for taking so long to update, the end of the semester is winding down and it has been hard to find time to write. I am also in the process of making so rather large decisions as to the path that this story is going to take, which has attributed to some writer's block. Finally, I am so unfamiliar with writing conversations and find it hard to do, which has added on to the difficulty of writing this chapter. I know you don't want to hear my excuses but I thought I'd put the out there. Thanks again to everyone who has favorited/followed! Special thanks to everyone who has reviewed, every notification I get of a new review drives me to write more! Thanks so much again.