A Century Alone (A Twilight Fanfiction)

Unexpected

Plunging through the dark woods of the Olympic Peninsula was wet and muddy. My sneakered feet were soon plastered with mud and filth from the forest floor. My hair was windblown, and I was splattered with droplets of rain.

The rain, wetting down my light blouse, could never have dampened my high spirits. It was exhilarating, running at top speed through the trees and undergrowth, inhaling the fresh smell of greenery and rich earth. I laughed delightedly as I swung myself up on a tree limb and flew from tree to tree, twenty feet of the ground.

Quickly scaling a towering oak tree, I gazed in wonder at my unreal surroundings. I could see the outline of the Olympic Range stretching up to meet with the gray-blue skyline. A light layer of mist surrounded the mountains and gave them a foggy, bluish glow.  I spotted a slight clearing nearby my precarious perch, so I leaped-no, I flew- into the clear air towards it.

I neatly touched the ground, as lightly and as gracefully as one of the pearly drops of rain dripping from the sky. I surveyed the clearing suspiciously. Something was,... off about this place. My eagle vision swept the clearing and my attentive ears strained, but I neither saw nor heard anything abnormal. That was when I sniffed the air apprehensively. How odd.

I followed my nose, and my instinct, to a patch ordinary, water sodden grass, a few feet from the forest wall. I leaned in, and inhaled deeply.

Sunlight. Honey. Lilac. How strange that those distinguished scents clung desperately to this insignificant patch of grass. I searched around, and found that it was not merely this patch of grass, but it was a trail. Shrugging slightly, I trusted my nose and walked off into the forest, following a pleasantly scented, invisible path.

       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The trail lead me back into the deep woods, winding and circling, as if it was looking for something. Stopping abruptly at a wide creek, I searched around for the sunlight smelling trail. Ah, the creek. I glanced at the creek briefly, and leaped across in a flash, doing a rather fun somersault on the way over. I picked up where the trail had left off, and hurried on.

As I ran, I wondered why I had instinctually wanted to follow this pleasant scent. It was impulsive, like it was something that I had done all the time, and was habitual. The smell itself wasn't appealing like blood, it just had a certain pull. The smell grew stronger and stronger, and soon it was the only thing that I could fill my lungs with.

I peered cautiously through the trees and I saw the sliver outline of a car. My body grew rigid, and my eyes trailed across the shiny sliver Volvo, to the white surface of painted wood siding. A huge, monstrous house, in the middle of the forest, rose out of the forest as I hesitantly approached.

It was timeless, modern, and beautiful all at the same time. This was great architecture. It was also a great way to be seen. And questioned. I turned on my heel quickly and sprinted flat out back the way I had come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was following a herd of deer when I noticed that had ten minutes until school began. Cursing myself for my procrastination with hunting, I ran back towards my parked car. I hadn't gotten a single meal in.

Dang that time consuming sunlight smell. If I hadn't spent so much time on that, I would have gotten a couple deer. I thought about skipping school again, but I had already missed half of the day yesterday, and didn't want to make a habit of missing school. Driving back to the hotel at top speed, I rushed in the room, washed off my mud streaked skin, and quickly dressed.

 Faded skinny jeans, a dark green sweater, and a brown leather jacket were pulled on with haste. I looked in the mirror, and realized that since I hadn't hunted, my eyes were still coal black. They were so dark, I could barely discern pupil form iris.