AuthorsNote: Wow, like seriously, sorry it took so long. But its summmmer! I've been busy livin' it up with my frannds. I'll try and pump next chapter out faster, even though your rare reviews aren't giving me much inspiration
Enjoy.
Chapter9
(Carlisle)
The sun hung low to the western horizon as I was led over the cascading hills of an unknown island, by powerfully built, baldheaded strangers. My family trailed hesitantly behind me.
The smell was piercing, stabbing deeper with every step I took, but it was nothing we couldn't handle.
I returned a smile to the cynical glances shot at me from the hairless horde surrounding me, alert to every alien eye on us. But I kept my eyes straight in front of me, refusing to acknowledge their stares. I wasn't sure of the situation we were in, and I needed to stay strong, for the sake of my family.
We rounded the top of the last valley, and I gave my eyes a minute to appreciate what lay before me.
The greenest grass I have ever seen, blanketed the terrain with precision, recessing only to give space for the few ponds and rivers running wildly about separate colonies of pallid tents. Outside each tent, a fire blazed. The lack of trees was made up for by the hundreds of bushes, blooming sporadically around the landscape, highlighted sporadically with dazzling spots of flowers. In the center of all the tents, stood the largest pavilion of all, creating a blemish of russet, out of the sea of white. Gigantic mountains of boulders were peaked in the distance, accentuated almost artistically by the beautifully bulbous blushing clouds that set the backdrop of this surprisingly modest campsite.
More hairless mutants stood by their fires, came out of their tents, looked up from the streams, to watch us saunter toward them.
As I walked nearer, I was able to see a massive inferno, blazing behind the brown gazebo in the center of the camp. The heat radiating from it held one of the foulest stenches I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing. I looked closer, around the tent, to see what was being scorched. I opened my mouth to inquire what was being burnt, but Emmet beat me to the punch.
"Christ!" Emmet shouted, covering his nose. "What the fuck are you guys cooking over there!?"
The odor was waved toward me as the colony whipped around in synchronization. Their sharp, black eyes shot to Emmett's, enraged.
The largest man, the obvious leader, glided past me towards Emmet, as we instinctively stepped back. The muscles in the strangers back flexed flawlessly with fury, his broad shoulders obviously shaken.
Each of our lips pulled back against our teeth. Rosalie's roar from the depth of her chest was more dominant than the rest of ours. Emmet looked like a lawn gnome compared to the towering strength of the fiend that stood before him. Their eyes locked and glowered, Emmett's watch narrowed in an attempt to be courageous, a chiseled line forming over the top of his brow.
Edward broke the throbbing silence.
"He meant no harm, he just didn't know. I assure you sir, it won't happen again."
The monstrous eyes didn't leave Emmett's as he snarled.
"On this island, we are people of faith." His voice was gruff, packed with wrath. "Your language is entirely intolerable young man. We will not stand for that." For the first time I'm sure, we all noticed his heavy Irish inflection.
His naked scalp glistened in the sun while he stepped closer, and that's when I first noticed the absence of his eyebrows. I glanced above the eyes of the pack behind him, sweltering to Emmet, and noticed that none of them had eyebrows either. I snapped back to my son when I heard the petulant, husked voice again.
"Do I make myself copiously clear lad?" As he spoke, even with rage, it was hard note to appreciate the splendor that was his accent.
Emmet opened his mouth to reply, obviously insulted, and lifted his arms in defense while he stepped back from ogre affronting him.
"Crystal." Edward interjected, before Emmet could get himself in deeper.
"Brilliant." He replied, with brute force and a smile.
The outlandish male leader subsequently turned to me snidely with valor, looking me directly in the eyes. My confident smirk remained integral.
"I assume you're the chief of this fleet, eh solider?" He asked.
"I wouldn't exactly put it that way, but, yes, in a sense, I suppose I am." I replied, hesitant and a little discomfited to have de-ranked the rest of my family.
"Tremendous. Now, I have detected that your mate on the end there," He paused, to glance at Seth, like I feared he would have.
"Smells just a little differently that the rest of you," The man faced his palms toward us, as if to surrender.
"No worries captain, we know exactly what he is, and we are absolutely fascinated with his background," The man put is hands back to his sides and walked toward Seth, to put his arm around his tensed shoulders, and suddenly, I couldn't hear the steady beat of Seth's usual, ragged breathing.
"I would love to have a few of my right hand men ask this young lad a few separate questions in another wing of town while I talk with your family. That is, if that's alright with him." The man paused for an answer when we all looked to Seth. His body stiffened and his lips shut tight into a thin line of angst, hiding the fact that he was grinding his teeth together like sticks trying to create an ember.
"I don't mind," Seth stated confidently, doing a wonderful job not making it obvious that his hammering heart was erratic with apprehension.
"Brilliant lad, marvelous! Ok, listen here." He turned Seth around, pointing him his directions.
"Walk past the church, that's the brown tent yonder. And walk into the second tent to the left, a man named Corbin will be waiting for you inside." The man clapped Seth's back strongly, sending him off, taking one intrepid glance at us before doing as he was instructed.
All of the other shaved Martians dispersed in different directions while we ambled toward our destination, besides the leader, and his assumed mate.
We strode past the brown tent, the repulsively reeking fire, and most of the strangers without Seth, before we finally slipped inside one of the larger white marquees.
Once inside, we positioned ourselves around a wooden, stained round table. The tent ceiling looked higher from the inside, so the room was surprisingly spacious, but empty, aside from the round table and a few book cases bordering each of the plain walls.
We stared at the strangers in front of us, taking them in.
The man wore all black, his turtle neck reaching just below the curve of his chin. His scalp was as perfectly sculpted, akin to the thin line of his lips. His muscular arm reached across the table to chastely seize the tanned hand of his mate.
Her expression was just as deadpanned. She too, dressed in dark colors. The line of her grey blouse accentuated the contour of her choler bone, her muscles still noticeable through the sleeve of her chemise. Though completely hairless, the woman was absolutely beautiful. Her eyes were also charcoal, accentuated by thick lashes. Her mouth bent into a pout, alluring her cheek bones to a pleasant curve. I noticed foremost, her lack of eye contact.
After a few moments of nothing but the sound a ticking watch, to my surprise, a smooth voice came from an angle I wasn't expecting. I looked to the woman sitting perpendicular from me.
"This is my husband, Clinton Kane McCarthy," While she introduced him, he looked up and nodded at us, soldierly.
"And I'm Mary Madeline McCarthy," She giggled.
"It's been ages I've heard our full names, out loud, eh. We typically just go by Kane and Maddie." Her voiced was also laced with a delightfully thick Irish accent.
My whole family, besides Emmet, was smiling tranquilly at the friendly tone, going up and down in all the right places.
"First off, Kane," I nodded at him, than looked to Maddie.
"Maddie" I gave her a polite, smiling bob, and then continued on.
"We would like to thank you sincerely, for allowing us to visit. We are very interested in your way of life and we want you to recognize that we are only here with the best of intentions." I laughed a little to myself, just at the sheer idiocy of where I was sitting right now.
"It was a total surprise when we found out you even existed." I put down my hands after my speech, realizing I had been using them to much for emphasis.
I proceeded to introduce my family by the couple.
After everybody knew each others name, Maddie's smooth Irish tenor started flowing again.
"Carlisle, you and your family are absolutely gorgeous." I could tell she shifted her eyes to Rosalie's glowing faultlessness,
"We are delighted to have you here, and almost as eager as you are to learn about your way of life. Vegetarian vampires are absolutely foreign to us. It's amazing the things you have done to preserve your morals." She hauled a sigh.
"It's very admirable." A lovely smile spread across her features, complementing her angular flaccid. The serene of her voice was soothing.
"Thank you, very much." I answered, pausing. "But I was wondering…"
Maddie interrupted before I could finish my thought.
"Of course, I'm sure you have tons of questions for us, we most defiantly do for you." She giggled, carefree. "Go ahead. Were open books."
I thought for a second, worthlessly. I already knew exactly what I was going to ask. But again, I was too slow.
"What were you burning back there?" Bella asked, calm as always. There was nothing that could intimidate that girl.
"Well, Bella. We were burning hair. Our hair." Maddie stated flatly.
Bella just snickered, most likely to disguise her prying.
"May I ask, why?"
It was Kane who answered this time, his tone no less forthcoming than his wife's.
"As you can see, we shave from head to toe, only because it's our hair that makes us so pungent." He paused.
"As you know, the Volturi thinks they have eliminated us from the face of this earth, and we are doing our very best to make sure that they don't catch our scent in a place that would cause us problems. By shaving ourselves, we eliminate the risk of shedding on a run, and leading those heathens right to their target. We don't want the hair to sit around, catching wind. It's too thick to donate, and burying it would leave behind evidence of our existence, so, we burn it."
"Why are the Volturi after you anyways?" Emmet asked.
"Well, aside from the fact that we are innate adversaries," Kane answered.
"They seem to think that we are purely these menacing, carnivores' monsters, out to slay everything they have worked for. To be candid, in our 804 years as a society, we have never really sat down and discussed our hatred for one another." He chuckled.
"Well, you guys have got to have at least 80 to 100 people living here. You outnumber the Volturi by a few dozen. Tactically, they should be trying to flee you. Right? " Jasper inquired.
"I suppose. But I guess they have always seemed like the bigger brother to our kind. I wouldn't want to question Mother Nature."
Kane and his wife answered our queries with ease. Each taking turns to answer within their personal areas of expertise.
By the end of the interrogation, this is what I deduced…
These wolves are absolute superior beings. They refer to themselves as 'the fleet' and are like family to each other. They have been fleeing the Volturi as drifters for at least 800 years, when their fleet came together as a whole. Each individual wolf having their own story, their own past, but deciding to allocate it with a group of creatures that shared their same fate. They have all resided on this island in Finland for a good 160 years.
The fleet works surprisingly as a sort of communalist circumstance. Taking only what the land will provide for them and making the most out of it. No money or bartering systems are considered necessary with the type of life they chose to live. Their output on life was not to revolve around a dollar, but to be independent from it.
I also gathered throughout the conversation, the fleets' focal objective. Merely, to live a happy existence, free from any type of negative infliction. The only thing they want out of life is to be able to be liberally content together as a community, not having to pick up and leave everything behind when the Volturi is on their way. I admired that, probably more than anything. To live free from purpose, but, for being just, happy. They were simplistic, it was fascinating.
Regardless of the positive outlook they had on vitality in the light of day, they still couldn't help but be pessimistic.
According to Kane and Maddie, purebred wolves have a massive problem with being manic-depressive. They can't help but have fits of uninhibited depression, caused by a huge chemical imbalance in their brain that lost its equilibrium when their transformation took place.
The depression is spun even more out of control by wolves' inevitable hatred for themselves, for not having control over their actions during the night.
The instant the moon hits the horizon, every night; these people turn into rampant, animalistic monsters, and they loath themselves for it, for the fact that they have absolutely no control. The moon has forcefully reserved to right to swallow these people whole, into the darkness of the night sky, and will continue to do so, everyday, for the rest of their eternity.
We listened to both Kane and Maddies horror stories with our utmost concentration.
They talked about the misery they went through themselves, the endless nights of agony, alone in the woods, looking for a vice for their rage. They told us about the mornings that would follow, overflowing with regret, about whatever they vented their frustration out on the night before. They described in detail the things they had seen other wolves do to themselves, to their families, to complete strangers. All because they hated what had become of them. These nights were unstoppable they said, no matter how happy they were while they were human, the night would always be waiting for them, lonely and fuming. Nothing would stop the night from consuming their willpower, no amount of determination would keep them from become the monsters they were vehemently made into. That was bluntly obvious. It was achingly painful to witness, achingly painful to see that magnitude of remorse in another pair of eyes, and not be able to take away the anguish.
I looked to my left, and to my right, taking in my idyllic family, and for once in my 362 years of vamparistic experience, thought to myself, how lucky I was to be what I am. How lucky I was to be able to control myself. How lucky I was to be able to lie down at night next to my wife and know, that I have nothing to regret.
I couldn't bear to imagine living any other way.
***
By the time Kane and Maddie had finished teaching us, there was a dull haze of light still illuminating the tent. The moon would be replacing the descending sun momentarily.
"I truly think you guys ought to be getting back to the coast; the rest of the fleet has requested that your family spend the nights off of the island." Maddie sighed, and then continued. "Our kind is just a tad stronger than yours, and even though a bite wouldn't change your state, it would be easier to avoid confrontation. The fleet is rather self-conscious when they transform."
"Not a problem. It was wonderful to meet you; we will be back first thing in the morning, right?" Esme added charmingly, floating up from the table with more grace than the rest of us.
Maddie smiled and embraced her with smoldering arms.
"Of course, we have so much to still discuss."
My attention was sidetracked by Kane's robust handshake.
"Now, mate. You guys are going to need to really scurry out of here, we have a solid silver, 40 foot blockade that comes up when the moon does, and once it goes up, it doesn't come down until the mornin'. "
"We will be fine, until tomorrow my friend."
I gave his hand another firm shake before exiting the tent and running at inhuman speeds with my family back to the shoreline.
It wasn't until we were halfway through the rough current of the ocean between the island and the coast, that I first noticed the absence of Seth's steady, beating heart.
Edward and I stopped swimming immediately, everybody else followed.
"Seth!" Bella chirped after a few moments of silence, swimming back in the direction of the island with alacrity. We all were by her side in seconds, the freezing water tearing around us as we slashed the ocean in half with our fervid strokes of concern.
I suppose we didn't know why we were swimming back. The moonlight above us now glistened like diamonds across the wild waves. We already knew what was waiting for us back at the island, a 40 foot, solid silver blockade.
Sure as the glowing moon above us, the barricade greeted us from the water, reflecting light off of the silver it was made of.
As if on cue, wolves howled in ripples from the inside of the blockade, filling the atmosphere, making our fears for Seth's wellbeing tangible.
We didn't know what to expect, we didn't know what to think, what to do. So we bellowed for him, calling his name all at once, trying to scream above the wails of the militant animals inside Seth's temporary prison. We called for him, over and over and over. Only to be answered by another yowl from a monster dog. There was no way getting over that wall. So we turned around, defeated, and did the only thing we knew to do.
We swam back to the coast, and listened to the sounds coming from the island.
Breaking trees and falling rocks were the most predominant, apart from the constant drown of howls in the distance. Growls came from all different directions, always followed by an obvious collision of ardent dogs. After a clash you would hear the defected yelp of a wounded animal, until it would eventually fall silent. The rivers were constantly being splashed across, the bushes rustled. The one thing we didn't hear out of the war zone that was the island was Seth. That disturbed us more than anything.
Alice sat curled into a ball in Jaspers lap, trying desperately to break the impenetrable mental barrier that the wolves put up for her. She sobbed dryly as she pushed for a vice to see into the future, to see what would come of Seth in the morning.
Bella and Esme tried to comfort Alice with their calmer fits of vexed cries, while Edward and I stood in the water, discussing the possibilities.
"He is half-human Carlisle, if those wolves are as rampant and Kane and Maddie described, Seth being bitten and changed is unavoidable." Edward groaned through clenched teeth.
"How could we have been so irresponsible, to just forget him, forget that he wasn't with us. This is our burden. After everything Seth has done for this family, this is what he gets in return. We are liable Carlisle, this is on us."
"We aren't sure of anything right now Edward. Please, just don't be so cynical. He is half-human, half-wolf. He may not be able to change, regardless if he is bitten or not." I replied, wincing at the grind of a pulverized carcass.
"Don't be ridiculous. You know very well that Seth," He paused, closing his eyes with vigor. "Wont be Seth in the morning. You know very well, that the reason Renesmee wasn't able to come was that she was half-human. You researched the fact that if she was bitten, she would change. You know what is about to happen to Seth, so don't try and sugarcoat it. We need to be ready for what Seth is about to go through, because this is on us. "
I couldn't respond, he was more than right. It was inevitable. Seth wouldn't be Seth by tomorrow. And it was our fault. A pulsating vibrate came from the pocket of Edwards pants, his phone. I walked away as he hurled his phone into the waves in frustration.
All we could do now, was wait.
AuthorsNote: Hope you liked it! I don't think this was my best chapter, but whatevss.
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The more reviews, the faster the chapters come out? Ya?
Haha.
Lovesies.
-Steph