Chapter 11 – First Hunt
As soon as Renée and Phil's breath evened out, I sat up. I assumed that hunting for the first time could be messy so I changed into one of my old sweaters and torn jeans. I slid open the window. Even after all these months, it did not creak a bit.
Climbing onto the windowsill noiselessly, I debated whether to directly jump down or use the tree. After a moment, determining that the tree would be the safer option, I bent my knees and sprang, neatly catching the branch of the tree. I wrapped my other arm around its thick trunk and slowly slid down to the ground.
Glancing around myself one more, I start running at my full speed (which was now over thrice as fast as an average human's) towards the forest, crossing the treeline within seconds. My hair flew behind me. I felt as if all my worries, my despair were being stripped off me, leaving free and weightless. I let out a whoop of joy.
I could finally understand why Edward never hit the trees when he ran – a question that had always been a mystery to me. It was a peculiar sensation, the balance between speed and clarity. For, while I ran over, under, and through the thick jade maze at a speed which should have reduced everything to a blur, I could plainly see every twig of even the smallest shrubs and trees I passed.
It was an exhilarating sensation, for lack of a better word.
I ran for over an hour and then stopped and sniffed the air around me. There were no human scents anywhere.
I tried to remember what he had said about hunting. I could still recall his voice as clearly as if it were only yesterday.
"When we hunt, we give ourselves over to our senses… govern less with our minds. Especially our sense of smell."
Give ourselves over to our senses… the phrase echoed in my mind. What did it mean?
I slowly let myself relax and closed my eyes, let my senses expand to their maximum limit. I could hear everything, smell everything.
Even at this time at night, in the dead of the winter, the forest wasn't quiet. The beautiful wet smell of snow reached my nose. The rustling of the leaves, small rodents scampering in the cold in search of shelter, the low crunch of snow under my feet. Everything. But I knew I needed something more.
With my senses still expanded, I opened my eyes and continued running. I was much faster than an average human. I heard a low sound increasing. It was the loud rhythmic thudding of heavy hearts, pumping of thick blood.
Automatically, my body turned towards the source of the mouth-watering smell. And I sped off.
A couple of minutes later I saw, sleeping on the thick snow of mid-winter, a herd of elks. They were overall twenty in number.
I acted instinctually.
My body sank into a low crouch as I silently circled them, finding the best place to attack from. I shifted my weight to the balls of my feet and then lunged.
It was as if I was doing this my whole life. My arms encircled the body of two elks and I pinned them to the ground. The rest of the herd was woken by the sound of their struggle and ran to save their lives. The ones I had captured pitifully resisted against my strength but I ignored it. My teeth unerringly sought one of their throats and my jaws locked around the precise point where the flow of heat was concentrated. My teeth cut through its skin as effortlessly as biting into a fleshy fruit.
The flavour was strong and earthy, the blood hot and wet and it soothed the ragged burning thirst as I drank in a rush. The elk's struggles grew feebler, and its screams chocked off with a gurgle. The warmth of blood radiated throughout my whole body.
Without hesitating, I let go of the first elk and sank my teeth into the second's throat just as easily. Within seconds, I was done and completely sated.
The burning subsided for the first time in over a week.
I released the beast and stood up to survey the damage I had done. My clothes were splattered with blood, my sweater was torn from my left shoulder.
Instinctually, again, I started digging in a pit in the cold, hard ground to dispose the animals. After fifteen minutes, I decided that it was deep enough. I lifted the two of them and threw them unceremoniously into the pit. They felt very light. Within minutes, the pit was covered with soil again.
I looked at the sky, trying to find out what time it was. The moon was peeking from behind a cloud. It was over half-way across the sky. Dawn would come in a few hours.
I needed to return home.
Returning was much easier than finding a hunting ground. I simply followed my scent back to my house, climbed up the tree and swung myself back into my bedroom.
I sniffed deeply. Renée and Phil's scent didn't bother me anymore.
I quickly changed, throwing the blood-stained clothes into a dark corner of the attic. I would dispose of them later.
I checked the time. 3:42 am.
There was enough time for me to have a couple of hours' sleep before I needed to wake up.
It was Christmas tomorrow. I waited to see how it would turn out.
All right, everyone, next chapter's up! How was this one? Did you like Bella's first hunting experience alone? She is, of course, much more intelligent than a regular human so it wasn't difficult for her to figure out what to do.
Do review on it and tell me how you felt about the chapter. I'll be waiting!
Next chapter will be posted this weekend.~Supernatural159