Secrets of the Wild

Soundtracks: of North Forks: "The Calling" by Zack Hemsey

"Distress

From the past or from my weakness

I can take you through the darkness

I can help you let it go."

Healing: "Even When We're Fire; Cello Version" by Lo Fang.

Chapter Twenty Five

Her heart pounded in her chest, feelings of anxiety flowing through her veins. The Great Horn sounded and the King was ushered back into the safety of the castle by his Knights. Bella felt as though she'd been saved by the mysterious arrows and she exhaled in relief. The king was back in the castle and Andreas was dead and gone. Frightened commoners fled the square back into their homes as Iron Knights flooded into it, swords and shields in their hands. They waited for the next arrows to come, but they did not.

Women pulled their frightened children out of harm's way and men shielded their wives. The common people fled to their homes, boarding up the doors and windows. There was silence in the square as everyone listened and watched for the next sign. Men were preparing to climb up their wall to fight the attackers. All of the guards on watch were dead, or so they presumed. Whoever was up there had either held them hostage or slit their throats and taken over their positions. The Forksians had a horrid feeling in their stomach because they knew that they only had 3 guardians on the wall that night because they'd completely undermined outside forces and their boldness to attack from the North end.

Bella's heart nearly pounded out of her chest because of the horrid silence. Had her mysterious rescuers vanished? Everyone quieted, thinking that the ambush had taken its toll. Women peeked out from a crack in their boarded windows and children peeked from behind their skirts. The men were uneasy, watching and listening for some kind of movement. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye she saw something fall from the North Wall. Someone screamed "there!" and everyone's eyes fell upon the body of an Iron Knight, throat slit and head scalped, a practice commonly seen in the wild. Bella gasped.

The wild.

The body fell to the ground with a thud. And then all Hell broke loose.

A multitude of arrows were sent down from all sides of the North wall—the wildmen had infiltrated the system and overthrown the guards working the night watch on the wall. The common people that hadn't been able to make it to their homes in time were screaming as arrows rained down upon them like a storm. Knights were barking out orders in a panicked fashion. They were planning to climb the walls and take down the wildmen archers. They could do nothing there on the ground, with all of their weapons being on the wall. Everyone had seemingly forgotten about her, which she was thankful for. She looked down to her right side and saw Andreas's body, covered in blood. He was sprawled up on the pedestal next to her, his blood staining onto the hay that had surrounded her stake. The arrow protruding from his throat was glistening crimson in the moonlight. How the roles were reversed now, she thought.

The Iron Knights rushed to the tunnels that led up to the northern wall but were immediately bombarded by cannon fire. Everyone was astonished. Bella closed her eyes as bloody pieces of men were sprayed outwards into the square. She looked up towards the wall, where she could see movement. They were keeping low, avoiding the Iron Archers. She presumed that the wildmen moved the cannons posted on the wall and directed to the entryway tunnel that led from the square to the wall. From both sides she heard the cannon fire, which decimated the men who dared to enter it.

It was a brilliant plan.

The northern part of Forks Kingdom was where the castle was as well as all of the little towers surrounding it. It was protected by a gate, which Edward had put in place to secure the northern, wealthy half, from the southern, poorer half. The south, in the past, had undergone more attacks from the wildmen. Those who couldn't afford to move North with their families stayed behind, in poverty and in fear. That wall was better guarded and had a stronger watch. No one thought the wildmen would have the audacity to climb the northern wall and attack it so they lowered the number of men patrolling on the watch and instead, increased the men patrolling the king's castle.

Bella could still hear the horn sounding in the distance, warning the southern, eastern and western halves of Forks of an attack. They were going to come to aid the northern half and destroy the wildmen once and for all—or so they thought. But the axles of the gate began to turn and the gate was quickly closing, therefore blocking all escape and entry of the southern, eastern and western troops. The Knights rushed to stop the closing of the gates, but it was hopeless. Bella, from where she stood on the stake, found it all so comical as she stood watching the Knights hopelessly run around in search of a solution. And she was amazed by the depth of these plans, so brilliantly executed that they must have thought for some time about this, eagerly studying the maps that she'd drawn for them.

The Knights rushed to stop the closing of the gate but had no luck. They were forced to the middle of the square with the common people, forming a circle around the innocent. Bella looked upon the scene before. There was blood and suffering and crying. There was fear and anger and resentment. She breathed out quickly, her breath curling into the air like white smoke. The blood from her mouth was drying on her face and she could feel the numbing pain in her jaw.

She struggled against her bindings but the rope painfully cut into her fragile skin. Her heart pounded in her chest like a hammer as she anxiously awaited what was to come. Her eyes caught one young knight, whose fierce blue eyes stared dangerously at her with strong emotion. She watched as those eyes gazed upon the torch lying dormant next to Andreas' dead body.

She saw him look back up at her. Bella knew what he was going to do before he even did it. "Don't," she pleaded. But it was too late. The young knight dropped his sword and made a mad dash for the torch. "No," she whispered at first. She had hoped he wouldn't get there on time. But the young man with the fierce blue eyes held the torch in his hand. She heard a whizzing sound and blood spattered all over her torn nightdress. The arrow, sent from the wild, hit the young man in the right arm—the arm that held the torch. At first he dropped it, falling to his knees in agony. "Please," Bella murmured. "Do not do this."

Those eyes met hers.

"Burn, witch." With his left hand he threw the torch. And as he threw it, the second arrow struck him right through the neck…just like Andreas. The torch hit the hay and set it madly alight. Bella could instantly feel the heat. It hadn't touched her yet, but it was an intense infernal halo around her that was preparing to engulf her whole. And she wasn't ready to die. The wildmen were here, they were going to save her. She couldn't die!

She screamed out, struggling furiously against her bindings in a feeble attempt to escape. Through the flames she could see arrows falling down upon the crowd and an infiltration of wildmen climbing down from the wall, swords in hand, preparing to fight. She felt blinded by it all, terrified of what would happen to her. She could hear the fighting and the terrible screaming during the slaughter.

Bella nearly fainted when she felt an arrow strike the rope, dangerously lingering close to her wrists. The arrow severed the rope and freed her hands from those bindings, releasing her from the stake. She turned around to see a man in black bear fur, a black cloth covering the entirety of his head—all except his eyes. Everything was too hazy for her to recognize him. He opened his arms to her.

"You have to jump," he yelled to her frantically. He looked to his side, making sure that his back was covered. "Hurry!"

And she nodded. She knew that much and the fire was spreading quickly. In one quick leap of faith, she bounded out from the middle of the stake with mere milliseconds before the flames would have reached her and set her alight. She felt a terrible burning pain on her calves as she flew through the air, eventually landing in his arms. And she looked down. The bottom of her nightgown was on fire with the flames licking up her legs. He acted faster than she did; he suffocated the flames before they could spread any further, but it was too late. Her skin was crackling and bubbling and bleeding and she felt sick to her stomach.

She could no longer stand. He brought her into his arms, wincing when she screamed from the pain. "Forgive me," he whispered brokenly. He turned and ran. She felt too weak to hold on.

"Where are we going?" she asked him weakly, blood dripping from her mouth. Her arms swung at her sides and her head limply tilted backwards towards the night sky. The sound of fire and death could be heard in the background.

"Home," the mystery man replied. "We're going home."

She felt relief wash over her body like a wave crashing on the shore. From that point on, she could no longer will herself to keep her eyes open.

0o0o0o0o

She woke in a rush of fear, inhaling loudly as her eyelids peeled back in horror. She felt a burning pain on her legs, the pain intensifying with every second that she laid awake. Where was she? She cried out in fear and pain, taking in her surroundings. She pushed herself up against the wall with her forearms, her hair sticking to her forehead and falling into her eyes. She was inside of a cave; she recognized that much. It was dark and wet, but warm nonetheless. She heard movement behind her. It was that same cloaked man.

Everything that was foggy before suddenly became clear. He shed his coat and hung the torch on the wall. She watched him with interest as he slowly unraveled the black cloth that shielded his face from her eyes. And she knew those eyes. She knew that face all too well. "Oh God. Jacob!" She leaned towards him, wanting to be close to him, wanting to be held in his arms, to feel safe finally.

He rushed to her side quickly. "Do not move," he instructed. "Do not move, my love. I am here." And he pulled her close. She sobbed into his chest, pulling him close and holding onto her tightly.

"I was so afraid," she sobbed, her hands and body shaking from the trauma that had been inflicted upon her. "I was so afraid to die."

He pulled back and cradled her face in his hands. "Well you did not die," he whispered soothingly to her. "You are here, right now, with me. You are safe."

She began to recognize the cave. "We are in La Push?"

He settled himself on the wet rock beneath his feet. "Not yet. I stopped here as the others returned. You needed attention," he explained, nodding towards her bandaged legs. "Badly." She hadn't even realized that her legs were wrapped carefully in white bandage that was quickly being stained red. "I knew we would be safe here."

He pulled a white cloth from his pocket and dipped it into the pool of water next to him. He touched it to her mouth, wiping away the dried blood. She winced and pulled away from him. She moved her legs and whimpered almost immediately. Her hands trembled as she ran her fingers softly over the bandages. Even the softest touch sent her nerves plunging into hellfire pain. She tried to fight the tears that threatened to spill from the corners of her eyes, but he saw them despite her efforts. Jacob's face crumbled and he couldn't hold back his defeated sob. "Forgive me," he pleaded with her. "I should have protected you from this, but I could not. I was too weak."

She looked into his eyes, deep and full of sorrow. She saw how his black brow wrinkled, the way his beautiful face contorted in sadness. She lifted her hand and smoothed the furrow of his brow with her touch. He sighed, leaning into her soft touch. "You did the right thing," she whispered, running her fingers through his soft, ebony hair. "You had to let me go. There was no other way."

"I was weak," he growled between his teeth, angry tears now falling on his cheeks. "Forced to my knees, into submission before my tribe. I let them take you from me because I was weak."

"Stop that," she growled at him. "Stop blaming yourself, Jacob. We were outnumbered. You are the Alpha of the Quileute tribe and you were forced to do what was best for your people. If you hadn't done what you did…if I hadn't surrendered wholly, our people would be dead. Our children. Everyone. You know as well as I that the Forksians would have shown no mercy to us. We're savages, the dirt on the bottom of their shoes."

He was shaking, trying to fight the swirling emotions in his mind and in his heart.

"I know," she murmured brokenly. "I know you weren't able to save them." His face fell immediately and he immediately turned his eyes away from her and onto the shadow lit floor of the cave. "But you saved me. I'm here…I'm alive because of you. You've saved me twice, Jacob Black. And I can never repay you with anything but love. I have nothing if not for you."

She looked back down to her legs, rendered completely useless. She couldn't hardly feel sensation in them, for the sensation was taken over by pain. She fingered the edge of the bandages and lifted it slightly. "Do not look, lerato la ka," Jacob whispered. "It will only cause you more pain."

She breathed out slowly, pulling her fingers away from the bandages. She noticed some red leaking onto her bandages. Bella disregarded it carefully. "How did you do it?" she asked him, looking up at him through her lashes.

He glanced up at her under the curtain of his sleek black hair, brown eyes glittering in the firelight. "After your surrender, the falcons reached the other tribes. The pact that we had made in this very cave here…it saved you. They rallied to our side and helped us climb the wall and infiltrate the system, leading to your successful recapture."

She shook her head in sheer disbelief. "How did you get out alive?" she asked him. She must have fallen unconscious after her rescue, since she remembered nothing of the perilous journey home.

"We remembered the castle layouts you'd drawn for us," Jacob explained. There was an underground tunnel we used to escape."

"But how did you all escape through that very tunnel, with all those eyes watching?" Bella murmured. "The Southern troops must have been marching…"

"Oh, they were." Jacob replied sullenly. He avoided her gaze as he dipped his fingers into the warm spring water trickling past the rock that he was sitting upon.

Bella breathed out slowly, inching her leg back towards him carefully. She was shaking. "And everyone…everyone is well?"

Jacob stayed silent for a moment and she watched him run the water over his calloused fingertips before dipping them a little lower, letting the pristine water run over the open wounds on his palm. "No," he finally said after a few moments. "I lost one of my best men in that battle."

Bella bit her lip and wondered if she dared to ask. "…Who?"

"Collin," he began. Her heart ached for poor Zaphira.

She began to shake. "How?"

"Bella," he chided softly.

"He died for me," she whispered sternly. "Tell me how."

Jacob sighed. "He defended the exit tunnel so the men and I could transport you safely out of Forks and complete the mission," he replied quietly.

Bella's eyes watered instantly and she began to cry. "God, this is all my fault! All this death…because of me." She covered her face with her hands, smearing the wetness of her tears over her cheeks. "Sometimes I wish I never came here. None of this death would have ever happened if I would have just…" Her lips trembled as she remembered how Paul reached towards his little son's crumpled body in his last moments.

"Those people love you," Jacob replied quietly. "After your sehlabelo, when you showed them that you would die for them, they decided that they would do the same for you. I forced no one to come with me, Bella. They all came and fought on their own free will. Collin…came and fought on his free will."

He finished with the water, bringing his hand out and letting the steamy air slowly dry out his cuts. He sat looking at her legs, wrapped in cloth from her ankles to her knees. She sniffed, wiping at her eyes. He noticed her obvious distress and turned to her slowly.

"I don't think you understand," he whispered back to her gently. "This war was a long time coming. The wildmen are tired of being trampled by those iron bastards. Not anymore, we said. You, the Babban Uwar, have given us the strength to rise up and fight them."

"Revenge," she whispered slowly, in realization. "For the Massacre."

"For all of the innocents slaughtered and wronged by those palefaced monsters over the years," Jacob agreed. "For Melitta and Tiger Lily. For you."

Bella's heart beat in her chest as she remembered her own children. "Jacob," she whispered, eyes widening in the firelight. "The…the babies."

"They are well," he replied, placing his hand over her own in reassurance. "Emina and Rae have taken good care of them in your absence."

She held his hand in her own, pulling him closer to her. She missed him so much and now that she was reunited with him again, she felt safe. She rested her forehead against his own. "I'll never let anyone take you, ever again." Jacob promised her. He stared into her eyes, breathing out slowly. She hadn't been touched by him in so long and she desired for it. Slowly, he pressed his lips to hers.

Passion swirled in the pit of her stomach as she leaned into him, lacing her fingers into his soft ebony hair. Their lips moved together as they tasted one another, a familiar taste that they both hadn't enjoyed in forever—or so it felt like. She pulled back in a gasp, burying her face into his shoulder. "I love you," she whispered. "I love you so much, Jacob Black."

"And I you, lerato la ka," he replied, taking her into his arms. He was careful to cradle her gently, not to disturb her injured legs.

"I don't ever want to leave you again," she whispered.

"Don't worry," he told her. "We're together now and nothing will be able to separate us ever again."

0o0o0o0o

"Be quiet, now. I just got them all to sleep."

Bella sat in the middle of the tent on Emina's rug, her bandaged legs sprawled out in front of her. Her mouth fell open slightly as she saw the four little cradles, sleeping bundles nestled inside of them. Her little copper skinned babies, her sweet little girls and boys. Aria and Nakota, Dani and Luca. All she wanted to do was hold them. Her eyes felt heavy with tears as she turned to Emina.

The two women embraced and Bella sobbed into Emina's shoulder. "Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you for being there for my children when I could not."

Emina exhaled slowly, stepping back from Bella. She placed her hands on Bella's cheeks, smiling in earnest. "I will always be there for you," she whispered. "Just like I was there for Jacob in his greatest time of need…losing Melitta and Tiger Lily nearly ruined him and the tribe suffered for it. When you came, it changed him. And if we would have lost you last night, I…I don't know what would have happened to us. You give us all so much hope, Bella. Hope that there will be a better tomorrow."

Emina sat down next to Bella, overlooking the cradles and the fire. "You call me Babban Uwar," she replied. "But I am but a mere mortal woman." She gestured to her legs. " I would have died on that stake if it weren't for the love and dedication of these people."

"Everything in the prophecy leads to you," Emina said. "It wasn't just a coincidence that a paleface woman comes to us in the coldest winter month, marries our Alpha and gives birth to four children…two boys and two girls, just like Itzalle said. And you came and brought the rains…spring is upon us now, slowly but surely. You will lead us to victory over the white men of Forks. And…I don't think Jacob ever told you this…but Itzalle predicted a great sacrifice. A sehlabelo. One's life given to save many. And that's what you did, Bella."

Outside, a loud grumble of thunder rippled across the sky, vibrating the earth. She could hear the rain as it fell upon the ground, drenching everything in its path. Quietly, she stuck her finger into Nakota's cradle, pulling the blanket a little tighter over her sweet baby's body. She felt safe. She was reunited with her babies, her Jacob and her family there in La Push.

"What do we do now?" she whispered.

The flames crackled in the hearth and light flickered off of the animal skin walls of the tent. "He didn't tell you," Emina murmured back hesitantly. "…did he?"

Bella's heart sped up faster as she glanced over towards the older woman. She felt her lips begin to quiver. "Tell me what?" she awaited an answer but the woman stalled, which only deepened her agony. "Emina."

The woman chewed her lip. "The rains have come, Bella. They wash away sin and let us begin anew. We will return to La Push in the mountains in a few days time…but not yet."

Bella breathed out slowly. "And what is the reason for this waiting?"

"War," Emina said.

Bella felt her heart plummet to the earth. She felt light headed and dizzy and confused. "But why?" she asked the woman. "I thought we were safe."

"We are never safe as long as that monster reigns over that Kingdom," Emina explained, inching closer to Bella on the carpet. She kept her voice low, careful not wake the children. "Jacob knew they'd retaliate and strike back against the wild if you were saved. That's why the other tribes have agreed to stand behind Jacob. We will wait for them to come to us so we can fight them on our territory, where we know the terrain."

Bella sniffed, breathing in slowly. "You're right," she agreed. "I should have known that Edward will come. After what happened in North Forks, he'll want revenge for his humiliation."

"That is precisely why Jacob does this," Emina explained. "It is for the people. We will not run this time. We will stand our ground and fight—we refuse to be trampled by the Iron Kingdom from this day forth. There are many secrets of the wild that give us advantages over them and I believe in my heart that we have a fighting chance against our oppressors. We could finish them once and for all."

She found herself nodding at Emina's words as she watched over her babies as they slept. She knew that all that Emina was telling her was true. Jacob had made the right choice. Bella had made the right choice.

"This has been a long time coming," Emina told her, standing up and walking to the exit of her tent. "Prepare yourself, Alpha Prima. When war comes, it will come fast and it will come strong. You may be frightened and tired and unsure of yourself. Even if the outcome looks grim and you start to stop believing, remember one thing: Jacob will fight for you until his dying breath. If you only choose to believe in one thing, believe in that."

Bella watched with widened eyes as the older woman exited the tent, leaving her alone with her babies.