Authors Note: I want to apologise for the delay in an update in this story. I got extremely carried away with both 'The Challenge' and 'Incase I Die', both of which got a huge response and for that I felt I had to keep giving more to the readers. (It really does help to review, you know) Unfortuntely, that meant the slip up of another, and it just so happened it was this one. Sorry! But here is the next chapter. It took me a long time to get inspiration to write this, but eventually, it came :)
I hope you enjoy it, and it was worth the wait.
It had been a whole week since I'd properly seen Nessie but, somehow, I'd managed to persuade Edward and Bella to let Nessie come camping with me. Amazing, I know, but it was a one night stop over somewhere in Canada.
"As long as you take a cell phone and look after her." Bella had said, worried that Alice wouldn't be able to see either of us nor would Edward be able to hear once we were so far away; it was quite a distance to Canada.
"Sure, sure." I'd answered; of course I'd look after her!
So here I was, standing in the living area of the room I had mixed feelings about, waiting as Edward and Bella put a spare pair of socks in the side of her rucksack, and checking that they'd packed underwear and a hairbrush.
"Oh, Bella, please!" I complained, knowing full well they knew they'd packed everything Nessie needed! As if they could forget... I didn't know why they were delaying us leaving, but I was getting increasingly annoyed as they ate away into my time with Nessie, dragging on about things that really were not important. How many pairs of socks could a vamp child need?
"You said she doesn't need a tent, or sleeping bag?" Edward checked, for the third time.
"Nope, I got a tent, and she can share my sleeping bag." I said with a cheeky wink, which made Edward growl protectively. "Chill, 'pops. I'll just keep her warm, safe and happy."
"Mommy, can I go now?" Nessie whined, and reluctantly, Bella nodded her head.
"Give me a big kiss, and remember, if you want to come home, just tell Jacob and he'll bring you straight back, won't you Jacob?" Bella said, her eyes narrowing so I quickly nodded my head. Edward was the over-protective one, but it was Bella that scared me. It was rare when she doubted my trust, but when she did... It could get very scary. I knew what she was like.
"Yeah, bring her home; keep her safe, warm, happy, ten toes, ten fingers... Didn't I say this already?" I rolled my eyes, holding my hand out to Nessie who glided over to me with her bronze curls in pig tails, sturdy sweat pants and tiny hiking boots that would probably be too small for my little finger.
"Ready?" I asked, and she nodded her head as her gorgeous brown eyes enlarged with excitement. "Let's go." I took the small rucksack off her own back and carried it in my left hand, Nessie holding my right, and we walked towards the door.
"Ja-" Bella began.
"Phone, keep safe, warm, happy. Stop worrying!" I demanded, before walking out of the door, pulling Nessie quickly from the house of rules and order and neatness and everything else that was perfect.
"Where are we going, Jake?" Nessie asked as I tugged her arm gently in the familiar direction of my house, with the same sized trees and the scented path that we'd created for ourselves. It meant that travelling to and from both of our houses was just as comforting as being with each other. Well, nearly.
"Because we need to get the tent and sleeping bag that Mom and Dad were so worried about." I smiled, rolling my eyes at their over protectiveness.
"Oh, okay." She agreed, and we picked up our pace, moving with more speed through the tunnel of trees.
For the majority of the way, we raced, and I won. I always tried to balance the times I let her win, and actually winning myself. I didn't want Nessie to be one of those bratty children who always won. Sometimes, she's even surprise me and win without me even letting her.
"Are you taking your car, Jake?" Nessie asked as we neared my house, the grey smoke rising from the chimney. I raised my eyebrows and she giggled at her silliness.
"You don't want to run?" I questioned, but she quickly shook her head, assuring me. "Okay, phew!" I faked relief, pulling her up into my arms, and walking out into the garage. I swung the blue tent bag over my shoulder as the poles and pegs clanged together in a trashy way. Next, I pushed the sleeping bag into a water proof rucksack that had never been emptied, a packet of nuts, a tin of processed meat and two bananas, just in case Nessie wanted human food.
A pair of spare shorts later, we running towards Canada and with every step I felt free. I had Nessie, and really, that was all that I'd ever need in life. Every essential in life meant nothing without Nessie, placing my every need on her shoulders. I wondered what it'd be like to be imprinted on, having the destiny and future placed in front of you. I guess, I understand why Edward wanted to keep it all quiet. Oh well, too late now!
"Jacob, how long until we get there?" Nessie asked her voice steady but bored. Stopping still, my feet skidded in the muddied ground and I turned to face her.
"Oh Renesmee Cullen, do you happen to be… bored?" I said dramatically, my voice sounding upper class and my words properly pronounced. She smiled guiltily before shaking her head, biting her lip in the way that Bella does.
"Okay, then, so what would you like to do?"
"Something fun." She said with a mischievous grin smothered over her face.
"That's kinda obvious, Ness – like what?" I asked, and she pressed her warm palm against my face. I saw us making a den out of twigs and sticks, building up a cove for us to sit under.
"A den, Ness, really?" I questioned as she withdrew her hand with an extremely manipulative pout. "Okay, okay. A den. Let's just get there first, okay?" She nodded a victory smile on her adorable flushing face.
Rolling my eyes as she began jumping with a new pumping of joy, we sprinted quickly all the way to the forest clearing I'd checked out mid-week. The trees were compactly woven together like a patchwork quilt, leaving a small patch of exposed grass in the middle. During my visit, I'd removed all loose twigs, made sure that the scents surrounding the area were 'Nessie-friendly' and double-checked that it would be okay for her. The trees were tall, the grass worn, but the sun was shining as we stepped into the un-shaded area, allowing her skin to glow and her beauty to heighten beyond all measures.
"A den, Jake." Nessie demanded, her forehead furrowed with her small, petite hands on her hips.
"All right, keep your hair on!" I huffed, dropping the bags from my shoulders as they landed in a heap at my feet with a small thud. With the tent poles poking out of the top of the bag, I wondered how long it would take me to assembly it. I'd never been camping - with a tent - on my own before, and I was curious as to how much help Nessie would be.
"Can we put the tent up first?" I asked, the roles reversed as she took over as leader, a natural position for her to be in with her bossy, manipulative nature – but I'd have her no other way.
"A den first." She sighed. "Then the tent." She paused for a moment, and I watched as she sceptically observed the place I'd brought her to. "Actually, Jake, we don't need a tent." She said matter-of-factly in a voice belonging to a thirty-year old woman.
"Excuse me?" I said, shocked.
"We don't need a tent." She repeated. "We'll either sleep in the den, or under the stars." I was about to protest, the words on the very tip of my tongue, when the corners of her lips curved into a smooth smile, causing the words to melt away like butter.
"Fine." I agreed, quickly looking around to see if anyone had witnessed my debate with a look-alike ten-year-old, and losing!
She whipped off her jacket quickly, allowing her movements to be less restricted, and she slipped off her shoes too. The toes that poked beneath the bottom of her sweat pants were so tiny, they looked unreal. Maybe it was because my own were so huge.
"Jake, come on!" She whined, and I, too, took off my boots and then my top. She had seen me top-less before on many occasions, and it didn't bother anyone, except maybe Edward, but he wasn't there.
"Aren't little girls your age supposed to want to build castles or something?" I asked as we walked a few metres into the trees, the pile of bags still visible.
"You're the one that brought me camping." She answered smartly, the smile evident in her voice, and I sighed when I knew it was Edward and his quick-witted answers that were rubbing off on her.
"Just get the twigs." I laughed, picking up the larger sized branches from the floor. I did not know how big she expected it to be – probably the size of a house knowing Nessie.
"Ness, you want a tree trunk?" I called to her. I could see her through the line of trees, but I could smell her more. The sweetness that radiated off her was strong, but it was mixed in with excitement, fun and nature.
"Okay." She replied, and I saw the movement of her shoulders as she shrugged. Yanking down the nearest tree, the bark fell to the floor with a shaking of the earth and a noisy symphony of rustling and birds squawking.
"Got it." I called, stripping the leaves from the branches and shredding the wood into thin log like cylinders for easy transport and building. I carried the remains of the tree to the seemingly decreasing in size patch of land to where Nessie was sitting on the grass, tugging at the blades and twisting them around her fingers to make green rings.
"Come on, Nessie. You asked to build a den, so we at least gotta finish it!" I rolled my eyes. Typical Nessie to get bored after a while.
"I know, Jakey, I was just thinking." She said with a sigh, as if she expected me to know. This girl got older and older every day. Well, that bit was obvious. But the changes were too obvious. I noticed her language and mannerisms age even quicker than she was physically. Her hair lengthened, sure, and so did her body. But on top of all that, her mind widened, her thoughts expanded. She was developing too quickly. It was my nature to want her to grow so I could love her in the way Sam loved Emily. But for her sake, and my own, I wanted her to stay little and to enjoy life from a young person's perspective. As some old wise person once said, childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.
The building of the den was extremely frustrating. Nessie's effort was minimal, and I had to encourage her to finish the job despite the fact I wanted nothing more than to chuck the chunks of wood back into the mass of trees and scream out my impatience.
Eventually, when long, thin strips of woods had been stacked vertically in a rectangular shape, and attached at the top with mud, coated with grass in case it rained, I sighed and looked up at the sky. It was still quite sunny, but the bright yellow was turning into an orangey red, proof that, soon, the sun would set.
"Told you we didn't need a tent." Nessie said smugly from the inside where she could stand easily. I, however, would have had to crawl in, sit with a hunched neck or lie down with my feet poking out of the entrance. But I did not dampen her mood. Instead, I nodded happily and muttered under my breath that a tent would have been easier to put up.
"You want to sleep under this?" I asked, looking at it and analysing the chances of it crashing down on us in the night. Not that it'd hurt either of us. That was, of course, until Edward found out and killed me.
"Yeah." She said, plopping down on the grass, her feet underneath her.
"Okay." I sighed. "Spread this out, and put these rocks in the corners." I requested, handing her the prone tent and four rocks so that we had something dry to lie on.
Taking it from me, she did as I said, and then I handed her the sleeping bag which she unravelled from the compacted bag I'd given it her in and lay it down. She put the rocks in the corner, like instructed, and moved out so she was sitting on the grass. If I'd been camping with Bella… well Bella doesn't camp. We'd still be at home.
Nessie began plucking the grass again; only this time she did so with a large grin and wide eyes. It made me ponder what she had been thinking about the previous time.
"Nessie, what were you thinking about earlier?" I asked, sitting beside her on the grass, my bare skin basking in the setting sun.
"I was just thinking about your promises." She answered, shocking me completely.
"My promises?"
"Yeah, like the imprinting. But you promised to always be my friend too." She looked up from the grass, and smiled a little, her lips gently curving warmly. Her pale skin was glowing tenderly as if she had light coming from her inside instead of reflecting it. I didn't say anything in response. What could you say to an answer like that?
"So, I was wondering…" She trailed off, but I was just relieved that she'd broken the silence I was too scared to break. "Can we make bracelets?" She asked, her young girl-like nature finally breaking through the maturing sturdy girl she often was.
"I already made you a bracelet, Nessie." I said, linking the words 'promise' and 'bracelet' together to produce the wolf charm that hung from her wrist.
"I know. That was a promise bracelet, right?" She checked and I nodded. "Well these can be friendship bracelets. And I can give you one back."
I nodded with a crooked smile, trying to stop my heart from fluttering too quickly at the love she gave me. I watched as she plucked the longest piece of grass she could find and tied it to another long one of similar size, knotting the blade in equal one centimetre intervals to create a pattern. I was impressed, but I knew we could go one step further.
"Nessie, hold on." I smiled, leaning over to the rucksack that I'd packed. I knew what I was looking for was in here purely because I'd never unpacked the backpack. I'd used it a lot when I was still human, before my transformation, and I fumbled around in the bottom of the bag before pulling out my knife. It had tribal carvings on the handle and a jagged blade.
"Want to make some real bracelets?" I teased, looking at her attempt in her hands. She scowled, much like Bella did, but then nodded eagerly. It only once crossed my mind how much trouble I'd be in if Edward found out I'd given Nessie a knife to play with. It had been pushed to one side so quickly with the excuse it couldn't hurt her.
Getting up, I plodded over to the nearest tree before reaching up and ripping a chunk out of its trunk. I walked back over to Nessie, the knife in one hand, the wood in the other.
"Watch." I said, gently carving at the wood with the knife, and eventually, three little rounded chunks fell from the block. I smoothed them over my running them along the sharp edge of the blade, before I held out my open palm for Nessie to inspect. Her slender pale fingers picked one up.
"Wow, Jake, where did you learn that?" she asked, amazed.
"Tribal stuff." I laughed. "Except usually there's a fire and stories and food too." Her eyes widened with glee, and I saw, through her own eyes, her representation on how the evenings happened. I made a mental not to take her some time. Before, I'd worried about her age.
"Can I go sometime?" She asked, seemingly a little disgruntled that she was only hearing about them now.
"Sure." I agreed as I continued to carve away at the wood, other small chunks dropping off so I could shape them in a minute. But then I had an idea. "How about we have our own?" I asked, but Nessie's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she cocked her head to one side like a puppy. "Let's have our own tribal fun."
"But I'm not a wolf." She said, disheartened.
"But I am. And you're my friend." I said, getting up again, and walking over to some of the discarded bits of wood from earlier that had been left at the very edge of our 'area'. I scooped them up in my arms, dumped them by our den, and scraped the grass off a smallish circle patch before moving the logs to the shaved mud.
"Can you find me some stones?" I asked and Nessie ran off with a quick nod of her head. Two minutes later, she returned taking a small pile of varied sized stones from her pocket and handing them to me. We lay them in a circle around the unlit fire and then I finally picked up two similar sized sticks, rubbing them together in the traditional way. Suddenly, a small spark erupted from the friction I'd applied and the fire spread to the pile, lighting Nessie's face with amazement.
"Now all we need is stories." Nessie smiled, and I rolled my eyes. Picking up the knife so I could continue to create the small beads from which we could make our friendship bracelets, I started to talk.
I told her about the first time I'd transformed after going to the cinema with her mom. I told her about the time I'd been to my first ever tribal meeting and where the ashes from the fire had hypnotised me and the atmosphere had enchanted me. I didn't tell her about the real stories told at the tribal meetings but promised she would find out when she went to a real one for herself. I feared I would not tell the story correctly.
I continued to talk until the orange sky had faded to black; our only light source the fire beside me. I continued to talk until Nessie's heavy breathing distracted me, and I gazed upon her sleeping self, bronze curls having fallen out of the hair band and sprawled across her back. She lay with such innocence that I did not move her, in fear of waking her. Instead, I placed myself between her and the burning fire, sure that the night would not bring rain, and wrapped my arms around her.
I fell asleep looking up at the moon in the starless sky, mesmerised by the way it was the light upon a black canvas. I fell asleep with my arms around the girl who had brought light into my own dark starless night.
***
The morning came all too quickly, as I awoke to the sound of Nessie stirring. A small yawn escaped her mouth and I wondered whether I could feign sleep for a few more moments. That was until she prodded me in the ribs with her finger.
"Ouch!" I cried and she sat there, lips pouted, eyes wide, all innocent.
"Jake, we never slept in the den." She observed and I nodded. Her hair was messy with bits of grass in. The fire beside me had run its course and died, ash remaining in its place.
"We fell asleep." I said a little white lie that she did not pick upon.
"If we leave it here, do you reckon it will stay like that?" She said, her head tilting towards the pile organised twigs, which were still in a rather sturdy position. The night must have been calm.
"Maybe, Nessie, but I can't promise anything." I shrugged, wiping the sleep from my eyes with the back of my hand. Instantly, my stomach growled and I reached for the bag in which I'd packed emergency foods.
"Want some?" I offered, holding up the packet of salted nuts which tasted past their cell by date. Nessie's face scrunched up in disgust, her tongue being stuck out as she shuddered from the strong, brackish odour.
"Did you not finish the bracelets?" Nessie asked, pointing with her miniature fingers at the forgotten knife and shaped beads that I'd carved. I shook my head and scooted over to them, tipping the contents of the bag into my mouth before chewing noisily and returning the knife to my hand.
The carvings pressed into my palm. Even without the heightened sense of touch, I would have remembered what they were; there was five triangles joined together with a single thin line. It symbolised family: my dad, my mom, my two sisters and I. It had been years since I'd felt the knife's wood in my hand, or that I'd acknowledged the symbol we'd often seen. It had been so long since my mother's death.
"Jake? Jake!" Nessie demanded impatiently. I hadn't realised she'd been talking to me.
"Yeah?"
"Are we going to finish them?" She exspareated, her eyes rolling in a typical Nessie fashion. I laughed heartedly at her mature side before nodding.
"You want a go?" I asked, passing her the knife that looked way to big for her hand. But her half-blood-sucker strength allowed her to hold it with ease. For a moment, she sat, open mouthed and rigid at the privilege of being allowed to hold it. "Do something with it then, Ness." I encouraged and she began cutting at the edge of the ever-decreasing in size wood block.
We sat in silence until she cut three pieces, where I moved behind her, taking her hands in mine and directing the knife as she smoothed over the edges and rounded the wood into a bead. Nessie beamed with pride.
"Look what I've done!" She enthused, fingering the beads, running her small fingertips over the soft edges. "How do we string them together?"
"With string." I laughed, as Nessie eyed me funnily. Eventually, she giggled too adding a musical heaven-like quality to what, before, was a big boom. Because we didn't have any string with us, I promised we would finish them when we returned.
Again, my stomach growled, not fully satisfied by the measly packet of nuts that I had assumed would be substantial. For once, I'd only thought about feeding Nessie.
"You hungry, Jake?" She asked, flopping back on the grass and hitching up her t-shirt so her belly was on show. The luminous sun was peeking through a hole in the clouds, making peculiar shapes shadows on the ground.
"A bit." I smiled. Suddenly, she jumped up and held out her hand. "Quickly." She said, collecting the beads and putting them in the smaller pocket of the backpack and placing the knife carefully at the bottom. She pulled her shoes on and I slowly stood up.
"What we doing, Ness?" I asked suspiciously, pulling on my own shoes.
"We're going hunting." She smiled with a wide mischievous grin. "You're hungry and so am I." Turning on her heel to run, she noticed the den that we'd made. She paused and slowly turned to look at it. "It's okay. We can always build another." She said as if I was the one who would be upset if the weather or surrounding animals destroyed it.
I quickly pushed the tent into its bag and the sleeping bag into my rucksack, and took off after Nessie with quick, broad strides. She hunted quickly and easily, messing herself even more after sleeping on the grass where small green stains had crept onto her shirt.
The more she hunted, the more she laughed and the greater sense of achievement flooded me. Nessie was laughing which meant Nessie was having fun. With the promise of a tribe evening hanging in the air, I knew that sometime soon we'd have another time just as fun and thrilling as this one.
I really hope you liked this chapter. I really did. I thought it was sweet with the right about of 'sensitive' subjects mentioned.
Please review with your thoughts and comments. All feedback welcome - it really does encourage me. Any ideas? Let me know :)
Thanks for reading x