Falling To The Sun | B. Swan + E. Cullen

soixante-huit

The new range of prey that was now spread out around them was the highlight of the trip so far. It was a different kind of hunt, a different kind of thrill that left them fulfilled and satisfied to the point of a free, clear mind.

Surrounded by such wonderful sounds, by such bright and clear sounds of nature and animals with light that filtered in through the tall, tall canopies that were alluring, striking in the intensity of their colour, the green a glowing roof over their heads. 

The trees were different, stretching and bending in ways that they didn't back home with vines that were thick and bundled close together. It was as if they had stepped into a nature documentary destined to see only the best.

It was the highlight of the trip, the only bright side so far since the Ticuna had nothing to tell them, or rather, were not willing to tell them anything. 

When they had arrived three days after leaving Forks, Roman had taken to hiding far out of sight. She hadn't gotten the chance to feed as fully as she wanted, and what's more, the small, condensed focused bit of their scent in the fresh air tainted the area -- the smell of human blood carrying deep into the soil, marking their land clearly as their own. Somehow it had been worse than the many flights they had taken and the airports. 

Alice and Jasper had taken Romulus down to the village. It was away from the Brazilian towns and centers that they had cut through on their way there. This was only one spot that the Ticuna had taken residence within the expanse of the rainforest and the easiest for them to reach. It did them little good when an hour later they had returned with the same legend retold to them. 

There was nothing more that they were either willing to say or could say, the extent of their true knowledge unknown without Edward to listen in on their thoughts. 

It was only another reason to miss her husband even more. He would have been far more useful here than she would have been. 

But he was needed at home to gather their witnesses, to gather their forces that were willing to defend their family. He would be a sturdy, calming presence at Bella's side, helping her to think clearly, to focus. Roman had always been more independent of her emotions, had always felt like there were two parts herself -- with and without, solo and united. She needed comfort and reassurance just as much as they did, needed that certainty to soothe her discomforts and doubts, but it was as if she could adapt herself to fit the moment. If Bella needed her, if Edward needed her, she was there, stable, but if all was fine, all was well, and she felt it safe to let herself sink into the depths of her mind, falling to the darkness that surrounded a girl lost in the woods, she could let herself be comforted and assuaged, vulnerable and weak. 

It was better for her to view the world this way when she could, decide which moments were meant to be drowned in emotion and which were meant to be times where she set them to the side in the box of important, urgent things to sort through later when she had the chance. 

Thinking that the new variety in animals was a bright point to the misfortunate setback they had come upon -- one that had been expected but hoped against anyway -- when Alice returned to her muttering about the importance of heading deeper into the wilderness. 

Now would have been a perfect time for those instincts to kick in, that I can find whatever I put my mind to sense. 

The plan for what came next was meant to be pretty straightforward. When that resource ran dry they would pick apart the possibilities that Roman had painstakingly worked over all those long hours of the night. They were meant to have all the time in the world to follow those leads, though, now, with time-pressed as it was, they didn't have time for her possibles and maybes.