I want to take a moment to thank RIMR_ and H2B for their support. I would also like to thank those of you that are reading this! Anyone who has left a review… You are like one of Emily sketches (truer to my life than you will ever know…)!

A/N: Twilight and its characters are owned by Stephanie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended with the posting of this story.

A/N: I have tried to be true to S.M.'s characters, to the Native American people, and to myself. I have spent a lot of time with North East Native Americans. I have not spent time with any from the North West. So all information I give about Native's reflect that fact (though I have been doing research). Feed back would be great!

A/N: The prayer used in this chapter was found on line at .

A/N: reviews are always welcome – they help know if I am doing justice to these 3 wonderful characters…

Chapter 5

Emily's POV, The same day;

I have been so excited to come here. I have never been to La Push before. My cousin, Leah lives here. She and I are close. I am closer to her than I am my sister. I met her when I was 10 and she was 9. I wish I was more like her. She is amazing – a runner, a hunter, outgoing and beautiful. I am a shy, plain bookworm. I love her brother, Seth. Every summer he spends a month at my house and I love watching him and my brothers together. I feel like he is my brother too.

I know this party is Leah's doing. She wants me to go to school. I want to stay home. I think I would like to teach on my reservation. I love school and I could teach at the elementary school. I know I could challenge the education test and pass it so that I wouldn't have to go away. Maybe Leah will go with me when I go to the city for that exam. I don't like to go alone. Come to think of it I do not like big crowds either.

Uncle Harry and Aunt Sue tell me they have invited a lot of people my age. Later there will be stories from the counsel. I can not wait for that! I love the tribal stories of my people and I look forward to hearing Leah's. Maybe I will write them down and make a book of them for Leah. It is so hard to find gifts her, I usually give her sketches.

I enjoy sketching; I can write out the stories and add some illustrations in too. That would be a good graduation present for her. She graduates soon too. I am sure she will be offered a scholarship somewhere. I am not so sure she will take it. (sigh) She is in love with a boy named Sam, I doubt she will go away to school. She told me about Sam's mother, I should have gone to her funeral. I felt funny about going, even though she was a fellow Makah tribe member. I know Leah plans to marry Sam. She has loved him a long time. I love the story the way Aunt Sue tells it…

THAT'S IT! That will be the first story in the book I make Leah.

"Emily"

"Yes, Aunt? What can I do to help you?"

"Will you bring this to your mother? She said she would make the fry-bread out by the pig roaster" Aunt Sue hands me a big bowl of dough. I bring it to my mother. Then I wander to a deer path not far from my mother. I walk a little ways down the path and pull out my sketch book and pencil.

Looking around I see the natural beauty of La Push reservation. In the distance I can hear the surf against the cliffs. Closing my eyes I can smell the salt tang of the ocean along with the flowers, earth, and trees. I open my eyes and look down. There is a large paw print in the Dirt here. The main circle is almost as big as my hand. That is a large animal. Looking closer I see the slight indentations from the claws. This is not a bear print; it looks more like a wolf. Do wolves get this big?? As I look I am reminded of the daily Prayer of the Wolf that I read somewhere, "I call to those who went before me for guidance to travel this days path I ask those who are yet to come what this holds for me Of Wolf and Man is what I seek I ask for the Wolf to be at one with the Man and for the Man to walk beside the Wolf I offer this prayer to the Spirits above and humbly ask for their divine help to live my life to the fullest and bring honor to myself and my people."

I pray for guidance. I know they are protectors of my cousin's tribe. I should bring the food offering here later before the feast truly begins. Wolf will guide my choice, I am positive. I have always been drawn to wolves. Wolves are teachers to my people. However, if there is a wolf in these parts and it is this close to the houses, it won't be safe for the little ones to be outside alone. I will sketch the footprint life size and give it to Uncle Harry. I start to sketch;

I love the crisp new paper with no marks on it yet. I always have my charcoal pencils with me. I tear a small ribbon off so that I have enough charcoal to use the broadside of the pencil if I need to.

The first stroke is always the most important. That movement decides the rest of the picture. You can't erase charcoal. You can smudge it, but never erase its mark on the paper entirely.

The first mark flows easily into each successive mark. It is easy to get lost in the soft scratching noise of the pencil on the paper. I love how easy it is to use shadows to add dimension. My fingers exert varying pressure on the pencil, or the paper to shape what I see in my head. I love to create animals on paper – the fur or feathers need so much detail to appear real. The black, white and varying shades of gray cause the drawing to take on a life of its own.

The rounded odd shaped triangle of the base of the footpad takes shape first then each of the 4 ovals making up the toe pads and finally the 4 arrow shaped toe nails. After the footpad is complete my pencil continues, each minute stroke is a piece of fur.

The fur goes strait up the nose flaring off over each eye. Forming the expressive eyebrows. I fill in ear piece of fur, filling in the forehead, then the checks. Varying the pressure on each fur stroke I am able to show the muzzle is slightly softer. His lips lift up in the slightest of smiles. The center of the mouth open just enough that if this picture was in color you would see the hint of the pink tongue laughing. The nose is the darkest part of the wolf. Deep and shiny. His eyes are full of life, love for his pack, and rimmed in black eye shadow.

The ears shape themselves, turning towards what the wolf is looking at. I stop and look at the drawing. The intelligence of this wolf is astounding. Sometimes I surprise myself with what I can draw.

Brother wolf must be letting me know my choice to teach is the right one. He is leaving me a message with the paw print. I spend the next hour here sketching, dreaming, and remembering.

The first summer I met Leah and Seth, Aunt Sue had brought them to our reservation to visit her sister, my mother. Uncle Harry was only staying a short time. He is on the La Push tribal counsel and must get back. Seth is full of life and laughter. My brothers take to him right away and they go off to swim in the river. I am preparing the smoke house for a bear my father had caught.

"Did you help hunt the bear?" I look at Leah in surprise. That is a man's job.

"N –no. Do you hunt?"

"Oh Yes! Sam and I are a team. I help to feed everyone in the village."

"Do you LIKE to hunt?" This seemed like the right question to ask, but now I am not sure.

"Oh, yes! I am not as good of a tracker as Sam is, but I do OK. I am good with a bow and arrow. I like fishing too. Sam and I sit together and wait for the salmon go fill the nets or we may fish for trout in the river." Leah looks me up and down. I don't like that. "Cousin, tomorrow I will take you fishing. You will like it."

Oh, Leah I do not think my father would like that. Besides I promised mother I would help her with the laundry."

Leah laughs – it is so musical and I want to laugh with her, though I think she is laughing at me. "Leave it to me!" She walks away. I follow her and hear the conversation.

"Daddy! Please tell aunt that I want to take Emily fishing. She has never been and I can tell she would be good at it. She is very patient."

"Leah, This is not our decision."

"But she has never been! What if she needs to care for herself? I can not let my cousin starve!"

It turns out our mother's were listening. Aunt Sue offers her opinion, "Jen, weren't you just telling me you worry that Emily spends too much time around here? This is perfect. Leah is more than capable of teaching this to Emily. The girls will have so much fun. AND maybe they will rub off on each other.'

And so it was decided that we would spend the next day fishing. I snuck my sketch pad and pencils along, just incase.

We laughed so much that day discovering how different we were while we both wanted to be good wives and members of the tribe. I did not have a knack for fishing but Leah did not care. In total there were 20 fish when we returned home. I only caught one, wouldn't touch the bait or the fish while it was alive. I was so impressed with how quickly Leah gutted the fish.

For dinner we had lake trout for dinner – it was the best I have ever had. Aunt Sue tells us the story of Leah disappearing. I see Leah roll her eyes when Aunt Sue tells us how precious each child is.

Leah left with her dad after a week. Aunt Sue and Seth stayed for a month. That became our summer pattern. Each summer Leah would try to teach me a hunting skill. We learn from a grandmother in my tribe that wolves have often taught my people. Leah tells of the wolves in her tribe's history but it sounds like a pretend story.

Wolves have always drawn me. Each year when my tribe Medicine Man uses the Medicine cards with me, there is a wolf in the layout. He says I will always walk with the wolves, the teachers. When I am 15 Leah and I talk about my dream to teach, like the wolf. She is excited for me. She thinks I will be a perfect teacher.

Leah has always tried to make me stronger than I am. She taught me to feed myself, so now I can hunt small game (like rabbits) and fish. My mother and grandmother taught me how to cook, weave and do other traditional things. But it was Leah who taught me to go after what I want. I want to be like Leah.

Seth finds me as I sit thinking and drawing. He lopes over and sits next to me, he is at the awkward gangly stage. He sits next to me and looks at me sketches.

"Wolves are not usually black, Em."

"This isn't a black wolf, Seth. It is gray." I look again at the sketch. I had meant to make it gray. It is black. And big. Oh, well. "Who sent you looking for me?"

"No one. I came to tell you I am going to my friend Jacob's. He is fixing his Dad's old truck so Charlie can give it to his daughter who's moving into town. Did I tell you Jacob is going to let me help?" The last 2 years I kept hearing about Jacob. Almost as much as I hear about Sam. I hope I get to meet these two boys that I feel I already know.

"There's a Charlie here on the Res? I don't recall Leah talking about a Charlie."

"No. Charlie is the Forks police chief and good friends with Dad and Uncle Billy. He grew up around here, but not on the res."

I stand up and reach for Seth. We hug briefly. "Be safe, Kid. OK?"

We walk back to the house.

"Emily, are you going away to school?"

"I don't think so. I belong on the reservation. I think I will teach. What do you think?"

"You will be awesome! I remember you teaching me prayers in Cheyenne and Lakota! You always made the boring stuff fun. I am glad you will not be going away. It's already bad enough your reservation is an hour away!"

Seth's enthusiasm is always at 100. He never does anything with only half a heart. "Seth, please don't ever change."

"What do you mean? I won't stay this young forever. I have to grow up!"

"I know that. I am talking about your soul, Seth. It is so pure. You are full of light like the sun. I do not want that to ever change."

"OK," Seth says this in a 'you are cracked so I will be nice to the weirdo' voice.

We both laugh at the same time. He hugs me again and runs off to join a boy who must be Jacob.

I go to join my Father by the fire, later the men will build it up more, so that everyone can enjoy the warmth it offers when the sun goes down. Soon there will be drumming. I hope the circle Leah sings with play a song tonight. I have never heard them before.

I her Leah's voice, look up, and the Earth stops moving…