Yes, yes, I have better things to update, but oh well. It gets better at the end.

This is the big chapter, when most is finally explained. Believe me, Edward plays a big part in this chapter, so does Bella, and also everyone's favorite werewolf!

Disclaimer: I don't own any Twilight related characters, plots, or books. Those are the property of Stephenie Meyer.

There was a gasp from behind me, and before I knew it, a stranger was behind me, "Miss," his voice was a mixture between a growl and a rushing river, "what are you doing here? Do you know where you are?"

I looked up at him through teary eyes. From what I saw in the waning light in the murky darkness, he was tall, and even though he was bending down beside me, I knew that he would seem like a tree to me. He was also very tan, so dark, as if he had spent most of his life out of the shadow of a cottage. His eyes, however, they caught my attention. Two inky pools, black as the night about to consume us, were staring down at me. I should've been very afraid, but I wasn't.

"Were you the one watching me?" I asked the question that came naturally, the one that I had been wondering earlier, and, for some reason, I found it comforting that this stranger should be the one watching me, protecting me, it seemed.

All these pleasant thoughts and Charlie was dying! I deserved all this guilt that was barraging me if my thoughts could flicker from a dying father to a handsome stranger. What was wrong with me?

My increased tears alarmed the stranger further.

"No, no don't cry, stop crying, I wasn't watching you," he urged me in a panicky voice, and I cried harder, "Wait, someone was watching you? Are you sure?"

I tried to nod.

"This is bad, this is very bad." He whispered the words to himself, probably thinking that the psychopath beside him wasn't listening. I was simply confused, and sad, and guilty, but I wasn't that stupid.

"Why?" He didn't expect me to ask the question. Through my sobbing, he probably was surprised that I managed to make myself heard, I was too.

"The forest is dangerous at this time, anytime, but especially now, it's twilight."

I was still confounded, and he saw my look of befuddlement with increasing relief.

"Well, miss, I am known around these parts as Jacob," he gave me a grin, concealing all his past worries, "mind telling me who you are?" He had to be joking if he thought that I would tell him my name, in a forest, alone, to a stranger. Was I truly the idiot here?

He caught my expression and the grin slid off his face like rainwater from a window, but it was just as quickly replaced by another, "Well your name doesn't matter. But I was serious when I said that the forest is dangerous at this time, so we have to get you home, now don't we?"

I nodded warily; he seemed too friendly compared with my bleak, unhelpful world. Like a ray of sunshine in a storm cloud, it was out of place. But his words were wise, I did need to get home, tend to Charlie, I had already been selfish enough to run off as I did, now I needed to get back to him.

"Good, you agree with me there. Please, miss, just tell me where you live, and I'll carry you."

"Why?" I spoke again, surprising us both again.

"I want to help you. What self-respecting wer—person—would leave a lady out here all alone while it was getting dark? Now did you really think I was that heartless?"

I kept staring at him, willing him to keep going. He sighed at my refusal to answer, "And I need to carry you because it will really be much quicker, and you are truly in no condition to travel."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Here," he scrabbled on the ground below him to find a large rock, "you can hold this, and if you start suspecting me of any ill motives, simply bang me on the head and go on your own merry way." He was grinning again, as if it was all a joke. I clutched the rock, tightly.

"Ok, now, mind telling me where you live?" Yes, I did mind, I minded a lot. Too bad my mouth was a little too fast for my brain.

"Lakson," I blurted out. His smile grew.

"Lakson, good, that's not far from here; I have friends over there. Now, you just don't worry, miss; I'll haveyou over there in twenty minutes, tops." And suddenly, my hands still clenched around the rock, he held me, before throwing me over his shoulder. And off we went. I heard Jacob give a few chuckles at my expense.

I was too dazed by the speed that he had picked me up to notice how lovely and warm his back was, so strong and hard, a rock in my raging sea. My tears that had begun to subside returned, stronger; what was wrong with me?

Edward was almost back to his family. He had almost returned to their loving embrace where he could find solace, knowing that they would be the only ones not to judge him. He heard with joy the falcon's cry and the howl of the white wolf. His sisters were looking for him.

But in his haze of familial love, Edward's mind was still wrapped around that scent, or at least the memory of it. Not just that, either. He wondered about the girl. Would she be all right in the woods alone? He was the most dangerous of the creatures in the forest, but there were still quite a few that would have no qualms about eating such easy prey.

His instincts screamed at him again for letting go such easy prey! He pushed the annoying voice back again. One lapse in a control that had held for centuries, Edward could handle it. But he still worried over the girl. He wondered over his concern for her, too. But, he realized, it was probably just because she had looked so vulnerable, so pitiful in her state of sorrow and of mortality.

But what you wouldn't give for that pitiful gift, right? The instincts mocked him.

It was then that a strong breeze blasted him, with air filled to dripping with two scents.

One was so very intoxicating: the girl. The other, it sent his mind into a mad frenzy: the dog.

Edward stopped in his tracks, his padded feet urging him to turn and run after the two conflicting smells. If there was ever a concerned thought for the girl before, now it was being shown. He couldn't simply let her be in such danger as she was with a werewolf, and he couldn't let her luscious scent leave him either. It was as if her smell was a hook, and he was being reeled in by its disappearance.

It was now past dusk, twilight was coming on, and still Edward ran towards the object of his anxiety. His paws were hitting the ground, the claws scratching and flinging the ground under them. In a corner of his mind, he heard Alice screeching at him, Rosalie was growling at him, and even Emmett was roaring at him. They had no idea what he was doing, or where he was, and they guessed it was probably something that wasn't good, if it kept him from his family. Jasper was the only quiet one, as usual, but this time it was because he could tell, even from their great distance, that he was feeling something…different.

It was twilight now, there was no mistaking the transition in the sky from crimson to mauve, the usurpation of the Sun by the Moon as ruler of the sky, or the change taking place in Edward himself, oh yes, and twilight was upon him.

The change was sudden, as it had always been. Edward still could barely believe that this was him. First, he was a mountain lion, a beautiful, strong, predator, and then, stepping into a clearing of moonlight, the paw became a perfect, white foot, the regal tail was gone, the fur was replaced by perfect, diamond skin. The biggest change was his head, the feeling of the bones and the fangs moving and disappearing, to only be replaced by the same perfect, diamond stone that was his skin, and a face that could make the most hardened crone weep for the beauty. The fur on his head, it had changed into a long shock of a mix between red and brown. He was beautiful.

The mountain lion, running on all fours, had turned into a man, a boy, doing the same. Edward still felt the post-change feelings, nausea, heartache, dizziness, that feeling of alienation with everything, like he had been scooped up from some place very far and dropped in this unfamiliar land. Did that slow him down? Of course not.

He was still growling, a ferocious, animalistic sound that had no right to be coming from human lips. He ran faster now, on two perfectly formed feet, not even noticing the now familiar feeling of the worn, comfortable breeches, or the ordinary, woolen shirt.

The moonlight sent the diamonds of his skin sparkling, almost lighting a pathway for him, not that he even needed it.

Edward was coming closer now; the invading stench of the dog practically burning his nostrils, only to be soothed by the flowery scent of the girl again. He could feel both their heartbeats, his was normal, calm, but the girl's was thumping erratically, so fast that he received the most tantalizing image of her blood rushing to her face, blooming like a wild rose.

The thoughts of the werewolf were rushing into his head.

Get away. Get her away. Get away.

Of course, the werewolf was never exactly the most intelligent of beings, not much in his mind that needed to be learned.

He was almost upon them, when they slowed down.

He saw them now, the girl, almost able to stare back at him from her unwilling perch on his shoulder. A quick blaze of anger went through him at the sight of the werewolf holding her as he was. But they had stopped, and he was putting her down. Thankfully, he seemed to be following the orders that Edward was internally screaming at him to do so gently.

Behind them, Edward saw a village, almost a small town. He had crept past this area before, never knowing—or caring—anything about it. Now, the place seemed to hold a hidden meaning.

He should go, he really should. Why was he here? He should really go. But Edward stayed standing there, not budging.

She was standing on the ground now, swaying dizzily, turning back to the one who had brought her there. Edward, to his amusement, saw her drop a rock subtly behind her back. Good girl.

She was still trying to say whatever she meant to say to the dog, but it was at that precise moment that, through the break in the trees where he saw everything, Edward's eyes locked with hers. The contact was nothing short of electric, and he held it for seconds, until his sanity returned to him, fully this time. He disappeared through the trees, becoming invisible.

The glance itself had lasted barely more than five seconds, but it was an eternity to him, albeit a short one. Even though he was doing the right thing in leaving, Edward couldn't help thinking that the girl had beautiful eyes. Then came the natural thought to follow, he wanted to see those eyes again.

The rumor was spread throughout the leaves and the grass, but the gossiping wind spread it further still. The feeling of change was carried through the air; every part of the forest felt this strange, new enigma.

It was obvious in everything: something was changing.

Something that had never happened before was becoming an entirely new situation.

Something big was about to happen.

Well, yeah, that's it.