AN - Alright so the first chapter set it up but didn't explain everything that great but don't worry flashback that will ensure in following chapters should explain everything, Alright this chapter has a lot of explaining, no real action just needed you to understand the girls background. And apologies for those that don't understand my humour

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyers Characters apologies for not putting that in the First Chapter

Chapter 2 - Batavia

BPOV

Carlisle was curious, he just seemed like that kind of guy

so he took us back to his mansion and offered us accommodation for a few days until we could freshen ourselves up.

He also asked us not to hunt while we were in the immediate area as they had a place in the local community. I started giggling which received a sharp look from Jasper and Edward caused me to silence myself

His request had confused me slightly, I had no idea why our eating habits should disturb the local community, he was the human blood- sucking monster wasn't he, why would our temptation towards the local fish and seal population affect them in such a way.

I shrugged caring not to argue at this hour, while I was not tired I was exhausted and perhaps slightly curious of the 4 men we had met.

When we arrived we were given the opportunity to shower and freshen up, however we had left most of our possessions at our small home back in the Kimberley, one of the desert areas of Northwest Australia, so we had little to freshen up with

At our home there we had a farmstead, a 300 acre lot bordering the ocean with direct access to the cliffs, I loved that cliff face, that so many times we had scaled in just seconds.

We went down stairs in our modest attire and waited for the verdict. Rose and I were still somewhat on guard but Alice seemed quite at home, already showing me images of what she planned to redecorate.

I sighed at turned to sit in the living room; we had just begun to relax, when the boys, led by Carlisle sat down at the table and looked at us for an explanation.

Rosalie and Alice looked at me and I sighed, of course I would have to explain us, to these random people, I growled at Alice, subtly in my way letting her know that I did not approve of the situation she had gotten us into. I sighed loudly, time to start I suppose

"Esme is my mother" I started going with the blatantly obvious to start the story, good job Bella I scolded myself. "Anyway Rosalie is my oldest sister, she was 19 at the time of her transformation, Alice is my middle sister she was 18 and I Bella are the youngest being 17 at the time."



I looked around, none of the boys seemed surprised, well if you already know why Am I telling you this story I thought to myself, I looked up and saw Carlisle appear generally interested so I continued

"When we were humans we were travelling on a vessel called the Batavia that travelled from Holland to India and on to Asia as part of a trading mission to get spices for the Dutch East Indian Trading company, we accompanied our father on the trip, however the voyage did not go as planned and human error meant that we were shipwrecked on the Island chain now known as the Abrolos Islands, A few days sail from Australia. At that time it was the year 1628."

I peeked up, so far so good; no one seemed to be overly anxious at the news

"I don't know whether you would have heard of the shipwreck but soon after the shipwreck there was a mutiny and a huge massacre that took place after woods. Unfortunately while that is published in all popular historical texts, I'm afraid today's archaeologists did not seem to take into account that one of the shipmates was indeed a stow away vampire, who upon realising he was shipwrecked decided to massacre the unsuspecting survivors."

I looked down at my knees and ran my hands through my hair trying to dislodge the stressful emotions that were radiating from my being.

"We were among the first he took, I doubt if he didn't find something more attractive he would of drained us completely, by the time any of us awoke we were the sole survivors on the island, we saw the vampire that changed us once more but he decided to swim to the mainland, we thought he was crazy, we didn't think any human could do that"

"We thought we were hallucinating at first" Alice chirped in "Since our skin glowed and I was having hallucinations of some sort and then Bella would have them when she touched me it was weird"

"We sat on the beach for days, we couldn't eat anything, we tried fruits and the such but we couldn't, we thought we were lethargic from a disease, we just wanted to be rescued, but then Mom came across this whale like thing that had beached itself" Rose said "It was injured, there was a pike like thing sticking out of its stomach from the shipwreck, when we saw it we smelled the blood and we lost control and attacked it"

I smiled Rosalie had never liked that we had to kill to eat.

I did a quick survey of the room, Carlisle was thoughtful, while Emmett, well he seemed to have that look where he was trying to imagine what that would have been like, eating a whale.

I thought about it and thought he must have some amazing imagination and giggled.

EmPOV

I listened to the girls with interest; I have to admit though I was more interested in looking at Rose then finding out where they came from

A few points in Bella's story did manage to catch my thought cycle though

"...1628" hmm now that's 100, 200, 300, 388 yrs wow,



Rosalie giggled and then I looked up to see my hands flicked up holding three fingers up and holding onto the fourth,

"Counting on your fingers again Emmett" Whispered Jasper scoffing back laugh

I gave him the evil stare, too embarrassed to give him the royal salute

I sank back down into the chair replaying the scene before over and over again in my head when I heard...

"Attacked a Whale" Hmm a wonder what whale would taste like, I've never really had an appetite for sea creatures now I wonder how the blood would taste being all salty from all that salt water they drink, and those dimensions now that's got to be 4 no maybe 5 bears in weight...but he was injured

EPOV

I sniggered suddenly hearing Emmett size up the whale in his mind, only Emmett, sex and food, is that all Emmett ever thought about?, I was suddenly sure that every male stereotype ever created was a direct result of my dear Emmett

I turned around to see that Bella was staring at me, whoops they must have heard me; I quickly threw up my hands in defence, the universal symbol for I'm sorry and don't get your knickers in a twist, she stared for a second as if she was about to give me some smart ass retort but she seemed to rethink it before long she resettled continued their story

"We lived on the islands for about 60 years or so but by that time it was getting dangerous because merchant vessels had began to explore and we didn't want to be near humans, we had figured it out what we were by then after all, so we swam for it and reached the mainland, this was a little before the 1700s, well we think, we didn't exactly keep exact count for years"

I was listening politely but suddenly another pocket of Alice's thoughts surged through me and I was overwhelmed by a quick succession of images that covered the 300 years they were stuck in the middle of Australia. I tried to push them back; I didn't exactly like her infomercials it was like watching the shopping channel when nothing else was on.

She pushed her thoughts hard drowning out everyone else's and I finally accepted it, scowling at her abuse of my ability

I definitely need to learn how to control that little pixie I thought to myself, I released my mind to her and story flooded through

She glided over it, I could tell, she certainly was a very bubbly, active person, her mind kept jumping, but basically it had shown that they continued to eat sea creatures and had refused to eat humans even though they did occasionally lust for the taste, they said that they eventually integrated into society as station owners of the cliff front property, every 20 years or so, they would change their look and move their bank accounts and business ventures to different small towns while still remaining in the same area



Fair enough I thought, they seem decent enough, but that still doesn't explain why they came here, Alice seemed to hear me as she began searching through her memories, like she was flicking through a book before she suddenly opened up to a vision she had received only weeks ago

She then showed me her vision, well part of it, she cut it in the middle by singing "going to the chapel" in the middle, sneaky little pixie I thought, one thing was clear though, her mother and my father were sitting arm in arm, snuggling on our back porch in what could only be considered a couples posing

I grinned wildly, "Not going to happen," Alice smiled, taking up the challenge, she thought she knew better

AN:

So we know why their eyes are blue, but what about Esme and Carlisle, how are the boys and the girls going to act... more soon

Much apologies for lots and lots of explaining in this chapter

Big thanks to my first reviewers, who gave me such kind words and propelled me to continue the story