Chapter 8: To The Temple

We started hiking as soon as possible in order to get to the Ice Rose Temple. The pack groaned about the hard hike ahead before we had even started.

The cold seemed to warm up slightly as the sun rose above the mountain but the glare was blinding on the white snow. I wished I had brought my sunnies.

By midday the tip of the mountain was visible. I had given up climbing and was being carried in the sled pulled by the pack. Jake had joined his fellow wolves in wolf form and helped pulled. That speed things up a lot. I knew at the speed the pack was moving. We would reach the temple before dark.

Around four o'clock I began to see faded shadows everywhere that had to object of cause. And they moved from place to place.

I was getting major freaked out. The pack didn't even blink and eye. Stupid wolves.

The shadows seemed uninterested, almost unaware of us. They passed around us easily and silently as if neither were there.

As we closed in to the temple, I got a sudden and angry head ache.

'Argh…' I mumbled.

And then I felt it. A cool touch on my skin. I jumped and looked around but the shadows had come no closer or shown any more interest than they were already showing.

The cool touch slid down my spine like a cold chill and I shuddered. The pack was so preoccupied with running up the dangerous slope they forgot about me.

Then it felt as if Edward was sitting with me but he wasn't. I was getting freaked.

I felt a massive jolt as the sled hit something in the snow and the pack stopped. Jake walked back towards the sled and I climbed out too.

I approached the front of the sled with Jake and he lowered his massive head and began sniffing the ground. I knelt in the snow and looked too. Stairs! We were almost there.

The Pack sensed Jake's renewed energy and began barking and howling excitedly.

I climbed into the sled knowing that if I didn't get in it now, I would be left behind.

The Pack took off with renewed energy and gusto and before long, the temple doors loomed before us.

The shadows suddenly seemed interested in us.

'Yeah sure Carlisle,' I muttered, 'They really cant see us. Ah no way. We're just so invisible'.

Jake howled softly and looked at me in confusion. I shook my head, 'Don't worry'.

I slowly climbed out of the sled and began walking to the large entrance of the Ice Temple. Icicles about a metre long hung from the ceiling and there was the occasional drip, drip, drip of water onto ice.

As I walked in, the shadows followed me in but kept their distance as if they were afraid but curious. I heard a small howl behind me and the padding of claws on the icy tiled floor.

I turned. Jake stood there in wolf with a weird expression on his face.

'What Jake?' I asked.

He whined then ran outside again.

'Chicken,' I muttered.

'No…just unable to communicate,' I heard Jake say behind me.

I turned back around to face my best friend, 'Um…sorry. I didn't know'.

He shrugged as he pulled on a thick parka, 'Hmmm. They are following you'. He nodded to the shadows, which had crept a little closer.

'Yeah I know. It's really weird,' I breathed out heavily, creating a foggy cloud, 'Carlisle told me that they only see and react to vampires, but they're reacting to me too'.

'Cause you smell like a vampire,' Jake said bluntly.

'What?' I looked up at him.

'You are around vampires so much that the smell sticks. It's faint now but it's there. You always have that linger,' Jake explained with a shrug.

'Oh. You don't think they'll attack me, do you?' I asked, darting my eyes across each shadow that were close enough to grab me.

'No you still smell human, so they're probably just confused,' Jake shrugged but still move closer to protect me.

I looked past the menacing shadows to the icy room around me. It looked like everything was made of ice. The walls, the statues of weird ancient Chinese people and engraved decorations and pillars.

The room we were in was cavernous, with a weird echo that crept me out.