Waxing Gibbous

Fourth Wife's Sacrifice (A)

"That is how the magic came to us, but it is not the end of the story..."

He looked at Old Quil Ateara, who shifted in his chair, straightening his frail shoulders, the last Wolf of his pack. Billy took a drink from a bottle of water and wiped his forehead. Emily's pen never hesitated as she scribbled furiously on the paper.

"That was the story of the spirit warriors," Old Quil began in a thin tenor voice. "This is the story of the fourth wife's sacrifice."

The atmosphere turned somber, and everyone looked down in respect.

"Many years after Taha Aki gave up his spirit wolf, when he was an old man, trouble began in the north, with the Makah's. Several young women of their tribe had disappeared, and they blamed it on the neighboring wolves, who they feared and mistrusted. The wolf-men could still read each other's thoughts while in their wolf forms, just like their ancestors had while in their spirit forms. They knew that none of their number was to blame. Taha Aki tried to pacify the Makah chief, but there was too much fear. Taha Aki did not want to have a war on his hands. He was no longer a warrior to lead his people. He charged his oldest wolf-son, Taha Wi, with finding the true culprit before hostilities began. Taha Wi led the five other wolves in his pack on a search through the mountains, looking for any evidence of the missing Makah's. They came across something they had never encountered before - a strange, sweet scent in the forest that burned their noses to the point of pain."

Bella shrank a little getting closer to Jacobs side. Everyone here could tell where this was going.

"They did not know what creature would leave such a scent, but they followed it," Old Quil continued. His quavering voice did not have the majesty of Billy's, but it had a strange, fierce edge of urgency about it.

"They found faint traces of human scent, and human blood, along the trail. They were sure this was the enemy they were searching for. The journey took them so far north that, they discovered another tribe, the Amarok. Taha Wi sent half the pack, the younger ones, back to the harbor to report to Taha Aki. While he and the other pack searched for the enemy. Taha Wi and his two brothers did not return."

"The younger brothers searched for their elders, but found only silence." It was common belief that the sons died, even the Amarok had died. They were young and not as skilled, they never planned to find a vampire or anything, so they were vastly unprepared."

"Taha Aki mourned for his sons. He wished to avenge his sons' death, but he was old. He went to the Makah chief in his mourning clothes and told him everything that had happened. The Makah chief believed his grief, and tensions ended between the tribes."

"A year later, two Makah maidens disappeared from their homes on the same night. The Makah's called on the Quileute wolves at once, who found the same sweet stink all through the Makah village. The wolves went on the hunt again. Only one came back. He was Yurok Uta, the oldest son of Taka Aki's fourth wife, and the youngest in the pack. He came back with an Amarok wolf, Diakos"

This wasn't the first time the Amarok joined the Quileute's though, Taha Aki's fourth wife was an Amarok. She settled with the Quileutes as she got older. Diakos was related somehow but I wasn't sure how.

"- a wolf younger than Yurok, they brought something with them that had never been seen in all the days of the Quileutes - a strange, cold, stony corpse that he carried in pieces. All who were of Taha Aki's blood, even those who had never been wolves, could smell the piercing smell of the dead creature. This was the enemy of the Makah's."

I glanced over to Bella to see her so interested in the story. Her face was focused and serious. Though I worried what she would take away from this.