Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

I was still shaking as I entered the back door to my home. Closing the door quietly, I leaned against it and slid down its smooth side until I was sitting on the ground with my back against the solid support of the oaken door. I was just so tired…

What I had done was dangerous. There were reasons no one entered those woods. I knew that better than anyone else. There were reasons that that boy—Jacob—had been worried for me. Everyone knew that dark creatures lived in the shelter between the huge trees, creatures that would seize you and never let you leave their grasp. No one knew what exactly happened when someone was found by the forest creatures because those foolish enough to enter the woods almost never returned. I could have died. Then what would have happened to Charlie? Charlie…

I had been gone longer than I had thought when I first barreled out of my small cottage. Charlie had finally fallen asleep when I had run. The cough in his chest had been settling thanks to a mixture that I had made from herbs and medicinal plants. It had been my mother who taught me what plants might soothe a burn or bring down a fever. Ever since she had been taken from us, my tiny store of knowledge had grown some, but in the end, I was useless to anyone. The plants did not always do what my mother had told me they should. I could not cure a cold, stop a plague, or halt death. In the end, I could only help lesson the pain of the stricken, and even that was not always enough.

I was not ready. I could not do it.

I still remembered my mother, but my father was the center of my world. He was my best friend, not a father really, just Charlie. And now he was sick. I could do nothing about it.

I had consulted with many people in our village of Lakson. I talked to the old women who still remembered the secret ways of our ancestors. I talked to the village holy man, who had even come to pray over Charlie and do sacred rituals for him. I had even gone so far to ask help of the nomads that occasionally passed by the forest, not careless enough to go through, but going around, of course.

Everyone said something different. It was a bad cold. It was an infection. It was an imbalance in his spirit. Everyone gave me an answer, but no answer fit. I had been working for two weeks now just trying everything, but nothing worked. My father needed to get well, because, without him, my life would be meaningless.

I did not talk to many people my own age. My closest friend was named Angela, and we both weren't the talking types. The others of my village—Jessica, Mike, Lauren—they didn't understand me.

My father understood me. He was the one that I clung to when I finally comprehended that my mother was dead. He raised me. He loved me. And I was just going to let him die.

All of a sudden, I was angry with myself. I was angry at my weakness and tempestuousness. I was never so careless as I had been today. My father needed me; if he ever found that I had gone into those woods, the pain of lost memories and unfathomable outcomes would surely hurt him more than any sickness. Charlie would live. He had to. I would make sure of it.

I unclenched my jaw and relaxed my fisted hands. The tension that I had never even noticed released me from its clutches and I felt better. For the first time in that entire, horrible day, I felt that there could be some hope. I would make Charlie live, if only by sheer force of will.

He would be ok. He had to be.

Using the door as a support, I stood up and brushed the dirt of my foolish escapades off of my skirts. Quietly, I checked on Charlie. His breathing appeared slightly easier and his forehead was not drenched in sweat like it had been.

He would be ok. Charlie would be fine.

For once without even trying, I felt my lips curve upwards in what had to be a smile, cautious, but a smile.

Charlie would be ok. But he could never know that I had gone into the woods in my darkest moment.

I stepped away from my father, sighing quietly at my foolhardiness. I made sure that the iron latch on our front door was firmly closed, and I readied myself for bed. The crackling of the constant household fire and the moonlight were my only companions. It had gotten very late and, very suddenly, I was very tired.

Just as my head hit the pillow and I almost instantaneously fell into a deep sleep, an image of a face situated between the branches of the trees returned to my mind. It was a face made of the shining moonlight and with glowing eyes. It was a face so fantastical that it must have been a trick of my mind, a collection of shadows, or both. But still…it was the most beautiful face I had ever seen.

Alice was upset. She did not have her brother's gift of reading the thoughts of others, and she certainly didn't have Jasper's ability with emotions, but after living with the same people for hundreds of years now, she was attune to their own feelings about Edward's disappearance.

Rosalie was angry more than sad. She didn't like how Edward's disappearance even slightly took Emmett's attention away from her own charms. She certainly missed her brother, but she wasn't pining for him and worries for his safety. Rose certainly was confident in him to get back to the family in one piece.

Emmett was worried and sad at missing a hunting partner and brother for so long. He, however, slightly less so than his mate, knew that wherever Edward was, he was fine and doing something important—to himself at least.

Jasper was confused. He, more than anyone else, understood that nothing could harm their lost brother, in his animal or human form. He felt his family's conflicting and worried emotions and felt that they were justification for his own apathy. Sometimes it scared Alice in her mate's ability to so utterly detach himself, just another reminder of his past.

Carlisle and Esme, being the parental figures to the band of misfits, were the easiest for Alice to read. They had the standard feelings that any parent would feel for a missing child. But they both understood that anything that got into the path of Edward would more than likely not even be able to scratch him.

But Alice, Alice was upset. The uncertainty of Edward's location was not what was bothering her, but the uncertainty of his future. Having the most confusing and volatile gift of the family, Alice was privy to all the outcomes of any trivial or monumental decision that they made. It's just that the glimpses that she was able to catch of Edward's future were so indiscernible that she felt so worried. It was as if Edward was somewhere in which he was confused or debating choices or terrifyingly and unknowingly happy or all of the above.

Something even more alarming than Edward's rapidly changing futures, however, was the one constant in them: a girl. It was an ordinary girl, a villager from the outside from what Alice could see. Her visions were of Edward as a lion and Edward as a man, changing constantly, but they always held this girl. She couldn't yet tell what part this ordinary girl would play in Edward's future. Her guess was terrible, and led her to become increasingly upset for Edward.

So, to get out some of those feelings, Alice spent most of her days as the rest of her family did, calling out to Edward in languages the he certainly would understand.

Alice winced—as close as any falcon could wince—at picking up Rosalie's high pitched, sliding howl, the noise aimed not at the absent moon, but throughout the forest.

Alice soared higher and higher, catching thermals on her broad, black wings and letting them raise her up and up towards the sun. She could catch the movements of her family searching through the large woods for their absentee brother. Edward had been gone for only a few days, but this was unusual for their most responsible of brothers. They also knew that if Edward either as a lion or as a man did not want to be found, then they would be hard-pressed to search him out.

She was about to dive down, away from the open sky that her heart yearned to continue flying through, when Alice had a vision. It was the clearest thing that she had seen all day, but for the first time it did not involve the girl.

In her mind, Alice saw a large black bird, graceful and jarring in its familiarity—it was still an experience to recognize this animal as herself—locking eyes with a huge tan mountain lion, silent and slender. The two animals were staring with each other as if words exchanged throughout the air between them. They were also in a clearing that Alice instantly identified as very close to her position.

Of course, her brother had heard her silent calls.

Swooping down to the clearing that Edward had decided upon, Alice perched herself on a large, upturned boulder and waited. Sure enough, in seconds the foreseen lion came stalking silently and swiftly into the open space, its amber eyes glowing shades that Alice had never seen before.

Edward! Where have you been? We've been looking for you for days! Do you have any idea what you were doing to us? What you're doing to me? The thoughts from Alice came out readily, easily. She was used to communicating her thoughts like silent words, and was not afraid to let her lion brother know that if she could talk at the moment, she would be screaming.

The lion that stared right into Alice's small, black eyes looked at her, and somehow, the fearsome creature that could probably fit two of Alice's size into its powerful jaws managed to look…sheepish. But then again, Alice had always been able to guilt her brother, as far back as they both could remember, which was a considerable time.

She perched there, waiting for the lion to respond to her in more than a look. It was midday, there was no way that she would be getting intelligible answers out of Edward for a long time. But while she waited, her thoughts unavoidably escaped her. It was really quite unfair that Edward could catch things that were so uncontrollable.

Who is the girl I keep seeing, Edward?

The lion roared. The huge sound was enough to send the entire area around the two creatures to become absolutely silent. And then there was the uproar of sound as every non-Alice bird left the clearing as quickly as their wings could take them. Seconds later, the only two beings left were the jet-black falcon and the auburn, seriously upset mountain lion that was currently pacing on its padded paws in circles, as if it was fighting to both control itself and come up with a solution to an unanswerable problem.

But Alice only had so much patience, and most of it had left her a few days ago when this search for her demented brother had begun.

Is that where you have been this entire time? At the new thought, Edward stopped his pacing for a moment to look back at his sister, and managed to lift his heavy head up and down in what was clearly a nod.

Alice was shocked. Please no, no, no…Edward, what have you done? At any other moment, it would have been comical how the lion tried so hard not to meet eyes with the great bird. But now was not a normal time.

Edward, she had a life! A family! You just took her from all of that! The pact is broken! Edward, Edward, Edward, no, no, no…

At that thought Edward's feline head shot up as his ears flattened down to his head his long, serpentine tail whipped the air back in forth as he started to walk towards Alice in a way that was eerily reminiscent of how his animal stalked its prey. Alice was suddenly very grateful that she had been supplied a form with wings, but she still held her ground. Edward kept walking slowly, almost calmly but yet with entirely too much precision, until his wickedly sharp and bared fangs were inches from Alice's eyes. Large amber eyes locked onto black ones as the great lion swung his head, shaking away the accusation.

Alice was relieved now—her brother had not committed the crime that she had quickly assumed he had—but now…what?

Then who is she, Edward? And what happened?

At that, Edward turned away and started to lope away from his sister, back into the shelter of the tree canopy. At that point, Alice was exhausted and sick of dealing with her temperamental brother. She knew something had occurred, but as he had no way of telling her now and she was almost weak with her relief, she let him go, but only with a final, well thought warning.

Be careful! Come back in three days or we are finding you, Edward!

Her visions could be wrong, right? Alice didn't know. It wasn't an exact science or prophesy that she had, but still…

There was a first time for everything.

And she flew away to go tell her family that their lion brother was safe. They could stop looking…for now.

So...how was it?

Questions? Comments? Concerns?