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Chapter 172

The New Chief

Jake

The drums and the strange singsong were so fast that at any moment I expected something like a redemptive explosion. It didn't come, instead Nanuk jumped jerkily to his feet, and everything was silent.

"Nanuk. Eighth of his blood. Chief of the Pequawket tribe," Amarok said loud and clear, prompting the Native Americans to trade silence for general applause.

We also clapped along.

I expected the new chief to do something dignified or ceremonial. Maybe raise a fist in the air demonstratively, make an invigorating inaugural speech or something. Instead, his hands clapped to his face. Not very dignified! All the funnier for it. Looked like he didn't want to acknowledge all this turmoil now.

The Native Americans next to us also found this very amusing.

"Guess they totally blindsided Nanuk with that one," laughed a middle-aged woman to our left.

"Look at this proud Native American who will lead us from now on!" a man to our right said with amusement.

"What's he thinking?" asked Becky quietly, turning to Dad, who was smirking behind us.

"He wants to get out of here! As fast as possible!" he laughed in reply.

"Didn't he know that?", I asked.

"No. Because of the fact that Amarok is honored by everyone here, Nanuk is relatively young, and no one but them knows the truth of their legends, he assumed that they wouldn't make it all official. Especially since they couldn't plausibly explain why it wouldn't be his father who would become the next chief," Dad explained.

"Well, we can be glad that it happened without all this hoopla and rather implicitly with us!", I murmured to Leah, who nodded vigorously.

The amusement slowly subsided and Nanuk walked towards his now assigned place. The large leather cushion on the little pedestal. More sullen than exalted, he sat down cross-legged on it. A new dance around the fire began.

Seemed to be a different one than before.

My eyes slid to Kate, on whom one talked insistently just now. Apparently she had wanted to get up, but they pulled her back to the floor to some extent. She looked as if she had been alienated and also cast a nasty look at Leah.

Questioningly, I looked at Dad.

'What was going on?'

"She wanted to sit on the cushion next to him, but that seat isn't meant for her," Dad said, which made me involuntarily look at Leah.

Among the Pequawket, you do not become a chief until you imprint on your counterpart. Thus, the cushion is for Leah?

"They're not married," Dad added, however, after nodding barely noticeably at my thoughts.

I wonder if Marcus had the same thoughts as I had.

The dance ended and Nanuk now stood on his personal throne with a truly sublime and proud head. He had probably used the last few minutes to familiarize himself with his new position.

"We have very special guests among us today!", Nanuk began to say solemnly, when Akai also jumped up and ran in our direction.

Oh ... damn! A hot unpleasant shiver ran over my neck. I kind of felt like escaping, but Akai was already in front of me.

I swallowed dryly.

Leah and I involuntarily took each other by the hand as we approached Nanuk with Akai at our backs.

He didn't make a face and mainly looked my little sis in the eye.

With a look that would please neither Kate nor Marcus.

When we reached the platform, Akai whispered to us to stand with our backs to Nanuk so that 'the people' would see us.

"Jake and Leah Black!" sounded Nanuk, putting a hand on each of our shoulders. He spoke over our heads. "They originate from the Quileute, who have their village far from here on the other side of the continent. Through their visit to us, we are establishing a bond between our communities. A fraternization that shall endure through the generations. So we welcome you to our land as friends!" announced Nanuk and the crowd made that typical Native American "Wohwohwoh" sound.

I saw that Ced was also trying his hand at it and kept hitting his hand in front of his mouth. It looked funny.

"Leah and Jake have already done great deeds as part of the Quileute. As a sign that we appreciate these as well, let us honor them in our own way!"

My head immediately flew in his direction, as did Leah's.

"What does that mean?" asked Leah in a whisper as the drums started up again.

A different rhythm than before.

Nanuk shrugged his shoulders in feigned ignorance, but smirked.

"Turn to me," he quietly instructed us, stepping down from his low platform and rearing up in front of me.

Akai stood with us and handed Nanuk something.

Feathers! Hey ...! We got feathers!

I recognized a small hodgepodge of feathers that Nanuk took from him. A long one in black and white, such as few of them wore.

An eagle feather. An award for heroic deeds, as I had learned in the meantime. One almost as long red-colored, which meant that I had contracted a very serious wound in the fight. In addition some small dark feathers, which served rather the decoration. Mom had those on her buzzard feather, too, because one alone looked pretty lonely. On my ... thing ... there were also more colored ones, quite short. Each color stood for something different. Honesty, a lot of hunger, good nature, courage. There was also a color for an unseemly number to put someone's foot in its mouth, but it wasn't on mine. Tom probably had two of them. The headdress was held together by a leather strap that was braided a bit into my hair.

When Nanuk had done this quite expertly and quite quickly on me, I couldn't help to feel a little proud myself.

Nanuk took the remaining bundle of feathers, which contained about the same as mine. In her headdress, however, sat additionally a peacock feather, whose meaning I had also learned in the course of the afternoon. It was worn by very few. Shanti, for example, had one. Or Akai's girlfriend Phoebe, who looked really charming with her untypical blond hair, which she owed to her non-Native American father. Just as it was with Becky's blue eyes, which somehow did not fit, but somehow made the overall picture seem magical. The peacock feather meant 'Bewitching Beauty'.

Since Leah's hair wasn't ultrashort, Nanuk was able to weave it in without any problems.

But he had taken his time with it, as I quite noticed. Also how their gazes met in the process. And how long he still had his hand on her shoulder.

A chuckle around us distracted me.

Did I actually feel proud with my headdress, which showed me here now as a brave warrior? Or ..., I thought, ... whether it was perhaps rather silly. Whether we simply looked silly with it.

But the chuckling had another reason, as I realized chuckling to myself.

Ced quickly crawled over to us, sat down between his siblings and looked demonstratively invitingly towards Nanuk.

Laughing, Nanuk squatted down to him.

"Well, little man. Have you earned any feathers yet?" he asked my brother.

Ced looked up at Leah and me, then nodded firmly and put his fingers to Nanuk's face. Nanuk's gaze blurred a little bit, so I looked questioningly at Dad.

He obviously listened and then laughed.

"In that case!" said Nanuk, nodding to Akai, who disappeared for a moment.

"What did he show you?" asked Leah in a whisper as we crouched down to join them.

"If you get feathers, he should get one too. Because you are siblings. Otherwise I would get into trouble with him, and he would sic the wolves on me!" Nanuk answered quietly.

We laughed until Akai came back. With a new bundle, but with only the little gray ones and some colorful ones hanging on.

No heroic deed feathers.

The three of us were allowed to join Nanuk on his platform, with him holding Ced on his lap, while there was another dance around the fire.

A dance of honor for the honored, as Nanuk said. After that, however, the ceremonial part was ended by Nanuk saying something in a strange language.

Immediately, general chatter began, normal music babbled in the background, children ran through the area again, some seemed to want to leave the tent.

Nanuk accompanied us back to our family, squatted between us and handed Ced over to Mom.

"They sure surprised you with that one," Dad stated with amusement.

"Oh, yes. They all knew it, but no one thought it necessary to tell me," Nanuk complained, offended. "Thank goodness we live in a time when that rank is more decoration than really vital to us Native Americans!"

"So what happens now?" Mom inquired.

"Basically nothing anymore. This gathering takes place every evening on the weekends and virtually ends the day. Depending on the time of year, when it just gets dark. If the chief is not being changed or people are being honored, as they are today, there are just some of these dances that take place. All the food and beverages of the village are brought in, people sit together and chat and the evening ends comfortably. Some people leave for home after this. Especially those with younger children. But some stay here for the weekends. My grandparents, for example. They often come here on Friday afternoon and stay until Sunday evening ... You too can come back anytime you feel like it. Whether we are here or not. The house is always open when anyone is here and those who don't go to work anymore are usually here during the week. You know the rules now, and you all have the first pieces of your own clothing," Nanuk explained, straightening the stone on Leah's new necklace with gentle fingers.

A little gesture that he had done better to leave.

Inspired by the fleeting touch, Leah looked directly at him.

Nanuk's fingers slid lovingly along her throat and along her jawbone.

I cleared my throat and sat up straight, bumping Leah 'quite by accident' in the process.

Immediately, the two looked elsewhere and Nanuk withdrew his hand.

Chaske and Susan sat down with us, as did Akai and Phoebe, while Nanuk joined his friends. They first examined in detail his magnificent breastplate, which marked him as the head of the tribe.

We were brought the duck that Dad had successfully hunted and was now beautifully golden brown. Many other things also wandered in bowls in turn through the tent.

Mmm … was delicious.

Ced crawled happily between all of us back and forth. He showed me in between what he had experienced today.

Strange food, funny costumes, he had gotten his bottle in a room in the house. He unmistakably loved it here. So did I. I was sure I would probably spend a few afternoons here with Becky, unless something was planned with our friends.

"And you do not have to study!" dad quietly interjected into my thoughts.

Sure. Study. How could I have forgotten?!

Both with us and we were always sitting somewhere else. So at some point Leah and I found ourselves with Amarok and Shanti.

Amarok was very enthusiastic about Billy Black, with Shanti complaining that they had spent hours on the phone with each other.

We also sat together with Nova, Amarok's sister. She asked a lot about how Leah, as a girl, dealt with the wolf inside her and pondered whether she might have become one herself if there had been larger groups of blood drinkers back then.

Two boys of maybe seven or eight years old excitedly asked us what we had done to get our feathers.

Finn and Mato, the friends from the local wolf brothers, saved us from an answer. One of the boys was probably Mato's little brother and he reprimanded them for being too curious and thus tempting us to arrogance. A very bad quality for brave warriors, which they surely wanted to become themselves.

The two of them, buddy-buddy'ing an arm around our shoulders, pulled us outside. On the way, they also nodded to us Becky and Marcus.

We walked halfway back the camp and to the edge of the forest. There was a little covered area under which a group was gathered.

Now that I saw the faces, I also realized that I had hardly seen anyone under the tent for quite some time who would have somehow fit in with us in terms of age. The young people were all here. At their own little campfire and with their own music.

Modern music. Eleven people. We were four, Finn, Mato and Yoki and two more couples, whom I had also seen several times today.

"I don't remember marshmallows in the Native American legends!", I commented as I watched them sizzle over the fire.

"Then I guess you didn't pay enough attention in history!", Yoki gave me to understand, who just stuffed one into her mouth with pleasure.

"And here comes the firewater, too," Akai noted, holding two six-packs.

Phoebe, Kate, and Nanuk joined in with two more six-packs each.

"You're already here," Nanuk noted with delight.

Apparently he had wanted to bring us here anyway.

"And when exactly did Native Americans start brewing beer?" asked Leah.

"And with making aluminum cans?" continued Becky.

Both with raised eyebrows and arms folded in front of their chests.

"Um ... that's got to be around ..."

"I think around ..."

"Spoils of war!" clarified Nanuk, thrusting a can into the hands of the two.

With that, Becky and Leah were appeased, and our own little party began.

However, I limited myself to just one beer, after all, I still had to drive.

Phoebe didn't drink either. She simply didn't like alcohol. Also of the other two couples, someone stayed sober.

We gabbed, we danced, some smoked. Even Nanuk smoked. That surprised me somehow. So you could really let the day end comfortably. As the alcohol level rose, even the two freshly imprinted ones became pretty relaxed. Even Kate and Marcus looked more relaxed when they had Leah and Nanuk in their own arms now.

It was just past nine o'clock when I got a text from Dad.

They would be going home.

Nanuk and Akai accompanied Leah and me back to the big tent. Since we had come here together, we didn't want to let them go home without a word, even if we wanted to stay.

We smirked as we returned to the tent.

Ced lay nestled against Mom's torso, sleeping. And Mom snuggled into Dad's arms and slept. Despite the rather loud background noise.

Leah took our brother, who opened his eyes once briefly and immediately settled down into Leah's warm arms. I held Mom for a moment so Dad could get up. She mumbled something about burning feathers to me half asleep.

"I can't wait to hear what she tells me tonight," Dad said with a soft smile as he lifted Mom up in his arms.

I asked for a detailed report at breakfast.

Would certainly be fun.

Nanuk's family accompanied us forward to the building.

"We still have to change," Dad brought up.

"Leave your clothes on and you'll have a reason to come back," Amarok said good-naturedly.

"I already told them they're welcome anytime," Nanuk remarked, and his mom gave him a praising look.

One that only mothers are capable of.

"I made little Ced's suit just for him anyway," Shanti said, gently stroking over his head again.

Dad thanked him sincerely for that. Also for the interesting day and that they had behaved so openly and amicably towards him. That was not a matter of course, considering that he was an enemy.

"Our children tied the bond, which makes us practically relatives. There's no place for terms like enemies," Chaske said.

Leah and Nanuk exchanged a sparkling look at these words that probably didn't escape either of us.

Fortunately, neither Kate nor Marcus was present at the moment. I really didn't envy the two of them for their situation, but still had a pretty good imagination of what the two of them were going through at the moment. I imagined how I would be if I were imprinted on Abigail right now. Abigail wouldn't want me because she was actually into women. I wouldn't want to give Becky away because I loved her. And not getting along well with Abi was almost impossible. Even if you had been together with her before and had broken up. If that inevitable attraction of imprinting was still involved ... Nah, I really didn't want to experience that!

"Plus, we witnessed for ourselves today what your family means to you," Susan added.

I didn't even want to think about how our parents had bad-mouthed us poor kids and how many embarrassments had been brought to light.

I got Ced and Dad's stuff, Leah got Mom's, and we took everything to the car.

"So when can we expect you guys?" asked Dad, once Mom was safely strapped into the passenger seat and Ced in his infant carrier.

Neither Leah nor I had an answer to that.

"Just call me if you want to go home ... I can be here in a good fifteen minutes to pick you and the car up," Dad smiled at us.

It was clear that he noticed the alcohol on us.

"Thanks, Dad!", I said and hugged my dad.

Leah did the same as I did, and we walked back as the Jaguar slowly drove across the street.

Some people came toward us, who probably wanted to leave, including some who had been with us young people. The place emptied altogether, so that we stood on our little private party afterwards just the eight of us.

All wolf siblings together with our beloveds.

We were all buzzed, but far from completely drunk. So I was engrossed in a very serious conversation with Akai about fur care, while our girls were moving stimulatingly to the music near the fire, still holding marshmallows over the fire and chatting with the other four.

I got down so well with Akai and Phoebe. How do you say it? We were on the same wavelength! But it was no wonder. He was seventeen like me, saw his majority within reach, was a senior, played basketball, though not on the school team, loved his Phoebe ... Basically, that was me, just a little smaller and less massive, but that would change very quickly. He was already a little bigger and more muscular now than last Saturday when we first met. But he was much more balanced than I was. He saw everything with much more humor and generally unbiased, no matter what was happening. Only one thing really bothered him. Not being allowed to tell Phoebe about the wolf inside him. She noticed his physical changes, of course, and also there seemed to be secrets lately, which is why she asked a lot. Slowly he ran out of excuses.

Suddenly Leah cried out.

"No!" could still be heard as she flailed wildly, slumped to the ground with her back against a pole, and forcefully lifted Marcus off her so that he staggered back.

In an instant, Nanuk had jumped up, pushed Marcus roughly to the side so that he landed on the ground, and knelt next to Leah. He had simply left Kate standing there.

"Leah?" asked Nanuk gently, putting his hands to her cheeks.

It took two more seconds before Leah's strange squeal could be identified as laughter. Another two seconds until Leah and Nanuk drowned in each other's gaze.

"Leah!", I wanted to save my little sis from this.

"Nanuk?" asked Kate with obvious annoyance.

"Do you think I would do anything to her!", Marcus was also quite pissed.

None of us were paid attention to.

This was apparently too much for Marcus and he walked up to Nanuk.

I was too far away to stop him.

Marcus yanked Nanuk by the collar to seemingly pull him up or away from Leah, but it backfired. He saw himself lying on his stomach on the ground due to a clever counterattack by Nanuk.

This is exactly what I had expected. Nanuk was a wolf who defended his purpose in life. Even the best Sudoku fighter wouldn't stand a chance. Taekwondo. Why couldn't I remember that?

"Nanuk! It was nothing. He was just tickling me," Leah finally resolved, casually nudging Nanuk aside as if he were a toddler.

That really made me smirk.

The young men now both had to bob up from the ground and got help both from their girls. Both took a deep breath and knocked the dirt off their clothes.

"I'm sorry, Marcus!", Nanuk stepped towards him and held out his hand as an apology. "Really!" he affirmed after Marcus didn't respond.

"Seriously. Do you think I could ever hurt Leah?", Marcus took his hand, but he couldn't resist asking him about it.

For a long moment, they looked into each other's eyes before Nanuk responded.

"No," he then said with conviction.

The two of them pulled back a bit together.

I could still hear Nanuk trying to explain that it was pure instinct and had nothing to do with him personally. He probably would have pushed me or his own brother aside.

Kate and Leah looked after the two.

Kate exhaled in frustration.

"I'm sorry, Kate," Leah murmured, and also the two of them began strolling together through the darkness.

So we were left four by the fire and since that left us with nothing else to do, we took Becky and Phoebe into our arms.

Each, of course, his own girlfriend.

"What exactly is going on between Nanuk and Leah?" asked Phoebe.

"That's ... not so easy to explain ... What would you guess?", Akai evaded a direct answer.

"All I know is that sparks are definitely flying between them. And most violently!"

"Yes, but the problem is that neither Nanuk nor Leah want those sparks," I said.

"Kate and my dear brother have been together for over five years. He doesn't want to throw that away. Besides, he loves Kate and wants to marry her," Akai added.

Phoebe's parents were on their way home, so she said goodbye to them briefly. In the process, the three of us were then able to speak more openly.

We decided, if Leah and Nanuk would agree, to accompany them to their meetings. So that no cozy togetherness could develop. As long as they both stuck to their plan to fight the imprinting, they could not get too close.

I was in favor of this plan, of course. Nanuk was very nice, but he was not Marcus. I could imagine him as a good friend of my family, but not as part of them. Besides, I also liked Kate by now and Nanuk would break this one's heart.

Akai had told us that Kate was actually pretty easygoing and had only been going a little crazy and overreacting since Leah. It was only last Saturday that the arguments between her and Nanuk had started.

The only question was whose hearts would be broken the most? The idea of not having Becky by my side almost destroyed my own heart. In this respect, I thought Nanuk and Leah were much stronger than me, that they resisted so much and did not perish.

It was midnight when I texted Dad, but he would need a moment.

We went into the big tent, but there was not much going on here.

Maybe three or four families, including Nanuk's.

Phoebe said this was the 'hard core' group who usually spent all the weekends here unless there were other appointments. Their parents were also usually there.

We said goodbye and politely thanked for the invitation. We promised to come again.

Then, in the locker room, I stood in front of the mirror and thought about how to get my war feathers out of my hair without breaking them.

Nanuk explained it to me. It was just a knot that I had to untie so that I could pull it out of the strand unharmed.

Tricky, but it worked.

The brothers also changed, they also wanted to go home. The visitors' clothes came back to the long coat rack. Nanuk and Akai hung their clothes on a hanger and put a cover around them.

We could choose whether we also wanted to leave the things, which were given to us so far, so carefully packed here or take them with us.

I had been given a loincloth with my initials branded on it, in addition to my feathers. Marcus had been given a belt. We would leave them here.

As we gradually stepped out in front of the house in normal clothes, Dad wasn't here yet.

Akai and Phoebe were dallying. Better said, they smooched inside the building.

Nanuk leaned against the railing and lit a cigarette. They would wait for Edward with us.

"Actually, we could also run home," I considered. We weren't really drunk, after all, but I still didn't want to drive. "Then Dad wouldn't have to leave again, and I can get the car tomorrow," I added.

"And then how would Marcus and Becky get home?", Kate asked me as if she was teasing me for forgetting.

"On our backs. As usual," I answered charmingly, though.

I started laughing when Kate looked at us one by one, downright horrified, and Marcus and Becky nodded at that in agreement.

"But ..." she began. She looked around, but Phoebe was still very busy. "... aren't you afraid of the ... wolves?"

"Why should we? They don't bite us," Becky asked with a smirk and snuggled into my arms.

"Even though they're wolves, they're still themselves," Marcus said, who was leaning against the railing behind Leah, his fingers intertwined with hers.

"We ride on them and ruffle through their fur. It's really fun to run through the woods with them. A sense of freedom, as fast as they can be," added Becky.

"I told you there was no reason to be afraid of us. We won't eat you up," Nanuk chuckled to his Kate.

"And Nanuk and Akai are also much smaller than us. I would call that rather cute!", I interjected and jumped directly one step to the side, when Nanuk wanted to box me against the shoulder.

Kate peeked ... something between startled and amused.

"The homes of Bella, Edward, and Edward's family are almost ten miles apart. Between them, we usually commute back and forth on their backs. It would take us almost half an hour by car, but only a couple of minutes on foot," added Becky, when Kate had recovered from this little scare that we were even bigger than the Latham brothers.

The thought did not seem to let her go at all.

"How tall are you guys?" she asked with big eyes.

"Emmett measured us once. Shoulder height I have five foot ten inches," Leah replied, chuckling.

Kate swallowed.

"Six feet one inch," I said dryly.

Kate swallowed again.

"Did he use a yardstick or something?" asked Nanuk, amused.

"That is not called yardstick!" we heard a delicate girl's voice approaching behind us, but she seemed a little offended.

Phoebe and Akai had finished smooching for the time being.

"Excuse me! I meant a tape measure, of course," Nanuk corrected himself and made an implied bow in her direction.

I peeked confusedly.

"Phoebe's uncle is a craftsman and taught her the correct terms. She is therefore a little allergic to amateurish expressions," he explained to us immediately.

"You should see them sometime when someone says turnscrew instead of screwdriver," Akai interjected.

Phoebe immediately stood there with her arms crossed sullenly in front of her chest, scowling.

We laughed, though, and Phoebe was soothingly kissed when Dad showed up.

"Now where did he come from on foot?" asked Phoebe in amazement.

"My sister drove me here and let me out a little way down the road," Dad explained with casual confidence.

Yeah, sure!

"Didn't you see the headlights?" he asked afterward.

Phoebe, who was the only one who didn't know anything about wolves and vampires, seemed to remember that she had been busy with Akai's lips right before his appearance.

"Give me the keys!" demanded Phoebe of Nanuk, who had Kate by the hand.

He handed them to her, who then bubbly said goodbye to us.

Akai followed that example, and they walked up to a silver Volvo ...

Silver Volvo. I had heard that somewhere before, hadn't I?

"And don't shift the whole seat for me again!" grumbled Nanuk after her.

"You know me!" she yelled back.

"Yeah just!", Nanuk muttered to himself and rolled his eyes.

Becky and I also got this over with fairly easily.

Good night, it was nice to be with you, sleep well, until next time, ready.

Only the remaining four didn't quite know what to say. They faced each other with a certain amount of embarrassment when I handed Dad my keys and warned him not to make any scratches in the paintwork.

Then I saw in the corner of my eye as I held the door open for Becky that Leah and Nanuk were hugging tightly. I could still hear the two of them, too, but probably not the humans.

"When?" asked Nanuk in a whisper.

"I'll call you tomorrow," Leah replied, and they broke away from each other with difficulty.

They both promptly took a hand from Kate and Marcus and headed for their assigned cars.

Leah didn't say a word the entire ride while she looked out the window and the rest of us gabbed with Dad.

Wait and keep calm, I thought to myself. Leah and Nanuk had been together practically all day. She probably still had to process that. Tomorrow she would be herself again.

How wrong one could be ...

Thanks for reading!