Winters Moon

The Cave

     We had been walking for about an hour when we finally came across a cave. I stopped at the entrance not wanting to go any further. The scent was so strong i was sure whatever it is it was in there. I grabbed Emmett's arm not wanting him to go in and said "we should go get Carlisle."

"Carlisle is most likely still at work Rosalie. Plus, if we check this out now we'd have more to tell them. Anyway, whatever it is it's hurt."

"We don't know what could be in there" I told him. He was already walking backwards towards the cave with a smile on his face before I could even get the full sentence out of my mouth. All I could do was shake my head at him and follow him inside.

     For humans I imagined it would seem pretty dark at first and other than the scent we was following all I could smell was dampness of Earth. I was actually surprised at how big the cave really was. It had a large opening in the entrance with stalactites coming down from the ceiling. There was two separate paths across from the entrance that looked to lead in two different directions. We could see a faint glow of light coming from the path to the right and on the ground were shoe impressions.

    Emmett kneel down to the ground to get a closer look as I thought to myself "Well it is human and not just one but two of them." I wanted to ask him if he thought they could be women because the the size of the prints left were small. Not wanting to alert whoever it was I just kept quiet. Emmett motion me to follow and then put his finger to his mouth indicating for me to be silent. We entered the path to the right and it was just large enough for one person at a time. Emmett was in front of me but I could see over his shoulder that the path lead to another opening in the cave.

    As soon as we entered we were hit by such a strong force that it blasted us against the cave wall to our left. Emmett and I both hit the wall hard crushing it inward before landing on the muddy ground. "What the hell was that?" Emmett said as we both looked up to see what it was. To our surprise there stood an elderly woman with her right hand raised as if she was telling us to stop. She had long wavy black hair pulled back in a ponytail with bits of gray starting to show. She had many wrinkles around her brown eyes and her skin looked tan as if it has spent many years in the sun. She was short, slim and her body looked to be fragile.

     Behind the old woman stood a girl also with long wavy black hair, brown eyes, short, and slim. She looked to be 16 or 17 years old but she had a pale complexion compared to the older woman. Other than being dirty she was very pretty. Both of them had on clothes that were torn and dirty. You could tell they had been out here for quite some time.

(A/N: these are pictures of new characters and how i imagine them to look like.)

    Emmett stood up slowly and raised his arms in surrender.

"We won't hurt you."

"The hell we won't. She is gonna pay. Look. At. My. Clothes." I said as I too stood up. My clothes were covered in mud so I did not feel like raising my hands as Emmett was. I chose a more defensive stance. After all I was not sure how this fragile old woman and a little girl manage to surprise us and knock us down but I wasn't going to trust them so easily.

     Sensing my anger the girl steps out from behind the older woman and yells

"Don't come any closer. We know what you are." She raised her left hand, palm up as flames suddenly engulfed it. Emmett and I both steped back in surprise.

     Suddenly I was full of questions. Who are these people? What are these people? I looked closer at them. I could hear their hearts beating. Their skin had a pinkish hue from the blood running in their veins. They looked human as far as I could tell. The only difference is their scent smells worse then Jacob's and they have gifts of their own. "Please don't mind Rosalie she's mean to everyone" said Emmett as he steps in front of me. As if to shield me from the flames.

"If you don't want any harm to come to you and your mate then I suggest you leave now" the girl replied.

"Wait, we could help you. We could ahh... Get you something to eat, clean clothes, and a shower. If you know what we are then you can obviously tell we don't feed on humans. We mean you no harm I swear. This is our territory and we don't normally run across many people" Emmett explains.

I spoke up quickly "Emmett! We don't know who they are or better yet,what they are, for that matter."

    I turn to look back at them and noticed that they where staring at our eyes. At that moment I knew she was telling the truth, they know what we are. The old lady started to waived her hands around quickly and I realize she was speaking in sign language. Neither Emmett or I knew sign language but recognized it from the times Carlisle used it.

"Are you sure grandma?" The girl asked the older woman. The flames disappeared as suddenly as they appeared when she lowered her hand.

"Do you swear you mean us no harm?" she asked us. Thats when I realized she was speaking in a Romanian accent. I know this because I recognize it from my travels. As a vampire we've had to move around a lot so humans don't become suspicious and begin to notice we don't age.

    I relaxed just a bit and asked "Do you promise not to harm us in return?"

"Yes, grandma said she believes you. To be honest, I don't, but I trust my grandmother" she replied.

" Fair enough, but who are you first than maybe we will be willing to help you."

"My name is Silviana Munteanu and this is my grandmother Antonia."

"What are you?" I asked  "clearly your more then just human."

"We are what some may call gypsies."

"Oh man, really? That's so cool." Emmett finally chimed in.

"So your like witches?" I asked

"Yes" She replied.

"Look we just want to help. If you are comfortable enough, you are welcome at our home. Esme is a great cook. Carlisle is a doctor and can help with the cut on your grandmother's hand. I'm sure our sister Alice has some clothes you could wear." Emmett offered her.

     Silviana looked at her grandmother for an answer. Antonia waived her hands around in response and thats when I realized the old woman could read lips.

"We'll come with you. We've been out here for a week now. Thanks to my grandmother's knowledge in plants we been able to survive off of what she's been able to forage." Silviana told us.

"Awesome, the others will be excited to meet you both" Emmett replied. Thats when I looked around the cave room. Other than the fire burning, they didn't have much in the way of belongings. Just the few herbs they were eating laying in the corner of the room and a bag that the old woman was carrying.

"Follow us it's kinda far but Rosalie and i will help you along the way." Emmett assured her.