Ali

Jesse's POV:

Okay, so Jonah. You can look after the new guys with Jamie. Claud the Forks border and Jesse, the Makkah border. Keep your focus, we know there are cold ones around now.

As soon as his last word came out, I ran full tilt towards Makkah. I blocked any thoughts of the legends, though at the back of my mind cogs were turning and I thanked fate that Toqua would send me to Makkah.

When I got there, I stuck on the border, not daring to cross. There was a thick barrier stopping me and I didn't dare break it. The burden of hundreds of years of treaties was weighing me down to the spot.

So this is how it's going to be, huh? I wouldn't have the nerve to take one step towards the legends. The truth is, I knew the consequence of breaking the rules. Exile.

It was getting boring, sitting on the ground, helpless as a puppy. I made a little compromise with myself, as I sat contemplating. If I didn't cross the border, I could get up and run along it and do my job.

So I did. It didn't take long to get all the way round. Then I got bored. I went back down the invisible line to the beach.

There I sat and watched the coast. It was a pleasant day, not too hot, not too cold. It wasn't even raining!

There I thought. There I procrastinated about doing my duty. To be honest, I didn't give a damn about patrolling, I for one had not smelt a vampire's arrival or coming. It's just a waste of time. What I really want to be doing is looking for my imprint.

I got up and trotted up the beach for a bit, stretching out my muscles. I didn't go far because I knew that right round the corner, was where most people came to relax and on a day like today there was bound to be someone there. So I sat down again and sort of dozed off.

I woke to the little giggles of someone behind the rock pools. There was a dip there that I used to love when I was a kid. I used to play there all the time, It was the best place to go rock pooling because it was big enough to trap bigger fish and sea life when the tide goes out. I used to catch them and put them in a box and take them home to my dad when my mum was out because I knew he loved rock pooling too. My mum was always out but when she wasn't, she'd tell me to put them back where I found them straight away or I wouldn't get any dinner. Once I got so angry that I thought about eating the fish I'd caught anyway.

I looked around the edge of the cliff precipice to see a little quileute girl playing in my favourite pool. She looked so cute sitting there with her toes in the water, squirming when a fish bit her. She giggled and my heart filled up to the brim with happiness.

I phased back and put some shorts on to say hello to her. Maybe she'd lost her mummy. She didn't look like she needed her mummy, she was having lots of fun.

"Hi there, are you here with someone?" I asked her politely. She looked to be about five.

"I'm with Lin Lin. My mummy says not to talk to strangers, sorry." She said in her sweet chirping voice. As soon as she had turned her head towards me, I felt my heart pull.

My whole world shattered as I realised how lost I had been before. All I could see was her. It was like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time. I was definitely blind before. She had definitely lightened my world. I suddenly felt light and warm and bright and confident. I didn't feel like anything was weighing me down anymore. Not my mum, or the village or the Alfa, just this little girl, who was the other half of my heart. My soul mate, my imprint, my -ugh! What is this?! She's seven!

Am I now a pedophile?! What's wrong with me?! This must be something else, not imprinting! It can't be!

And then I remembered one particular legend that Emily had spoken of. Quil & Claire. A partnership, never broken with so much as distance, lies or age. A bond so tight because the instinct was to protect. At only two years old, little Makkah Claire Young, was imprinted upon by a Quileute boy named Quil Ateara. A story, only told through whispers. The mere thought of finding your love so early on in your life would bring shame to the village.

Yet now I understood. I couldn't help but feel devoted into protecting this child. I felt no romance. Not that kind of love. More like familiarity. She was quite like me. She had soft black hair cut short with a fringe. She loved to play in the same pool as I did when I was her age. She even had this warm and comfortable air about her, even though she was inches away from a gawking stranger.

Which brought me back to the paddling girl in front of me.

" I don't have to be a stranger. If we talk, I could be your friend instead," I pleaded her.

"Nope. My mummy will get angry." She got up and ran away confidently to another pool. I got up and followed her. I couldn't help it.

"Okay. If you won't talk to me, I'll talk to you. My name is Jesse. I'm Quileute." I waited for her response. She kept quiet. So I continued, " I love rock pooling, I used to come down here when I was your age-"

"I'm Ali. I'm from Makkah and I'm six years old." She was from Makkah?

"Well it's very nice to meet you Ali." I held out my hand. She stared at it for a while, then gently shook my thumb. Her touch sent electric sparks running through my blood and it tingled. She giggled feeling it too. I couldn't help but laugh with her. Ali. Her name is Ali. My imprint.

"All right Ali. Where is your friend Lin Lin? Did you lose her?"

"No, she's over there," she said, pointing to the sea. A jolt of horror hit me as I realised that I couldn't see anyone there.

" No she isn't, I can't see anyone. Where is she?" At that moment, a little head bobbed up above the water. She seemed to be fine and also around the same age as Ali.

"Thank goodness she's okay."

"Of course she's okay, she swims all the time." Ali walked a step and fell down from the rock pool into another about two meters down. I swiftly caught her before she hit the ground and my soul shattered.

"What are you doing? Put me down now!" I put her down quickly. For a six year old, she had a voice. Or maybe it was just the freaky imprinting.

"You were going to fall and hurt yourself!"

"No, I was going to jump and land in that rock pool! What do you think I am? A baby? My mum is always like that. She doesn't believe that I can look after my self. Just because I'm young, she doesn't trust me. Well if we all thought like her, we'd be working in offices in the city 9 to 5. I don't ever want to be like that..."

It was then, when she droned on with her little speech, that my respect for not only her, but all little girls and boys her age, grew considerably. She had an easy care free way of convincing people into believing the way she believes. I knew I had found a free spirit. A drifter.

And her friend seemed to be one too as I watched her jump off a high rock in the sea and disappear with no hesitance. Who was looking out for them?

"Well did you come here on your own?"

"No, my mum dropped me off."

"Are you sure? I really don't think she would just leave you."

"She didn't, we left."

"What?! You ran away from her?"

"Yeah, what's the big deal?"

"I'll have to take you back myself. Err... your mum is gonna be so mad. Where did you last see her?!" She stared at me like I was mad.

"I'm not going back," she stated confidently, that I actually believed her.

"Fine, I'll look after you."

"I'm not a baby, I can look after myself." With that, she ran head first into the sea and disappeared under the deep ocean waves. I sighed. Clearing my head for a moment, it suddenly came to me that I had just solved all my worrying problems. I had finally imprinted! Now to get to know her...