Chapter 2: Amazon
This time, we would try something different.
Instead of living among people in some rainy, cloudy, sunless place; we chose
to visit an Amazon vampire coven we had heard about. This, at least according
to some nomads, might be able to help us know how my growth would be in the future,
if we could do anything about it or if I would die someday. I always ignored
this thought and locked it in a drawer in the back of my mind. This question
has tortured me these five years I’ve lived, and believe me, it isn’t easy to
ignore.
My dad’s small black car was filled with silence. It usually was when we
traveled. I was sitting on the white leather back seat, leaned against the
window and I watched the street passing before my eyes, images of the world
outside coming and going. I could see mountains with some snow on top,
reminding me so much of the French Alps; of the house made of stone, which we
owned there.
Happy memories flooded my brain. Snowball fights with dad, building snowmen
with mom, skiing… It was so nice there, that is until summer came. It was so
sunny during the summer there and we had to leave to avoid being exposed. I
kept looking outside the window. I saw a lake with crystal clear, blue water
and many pine trees surrounding it, reminding me of the vacation house we were
living in, in Canada… It wasn’t ours. We just went to stay there.
No one really knew the actual owners, so they didn’t suspect us for living
there and we managed to stay for about three months. Actually, we had lived
many times in houses we didn’t own, when the real owners weren’t there. The
only homes we actually owned were the little wooden house in Alaska, the one in
the French Alps and my grandma’s house in Texas.
My dad was humming a song I hadn’t heard before and my mom was playing with her
hair. She had this habit since she was human and strangely she was doing this
even after the change, without any effort.
“Eshe, are you hungry? Do you want us to stop and get you something to eat? Mom
stopped twirling her hair and turned to look at me and smile as dad asked me if
I was hungry.
“No dad, I’m okay. I went hunting last weekend and I don’t need anything yet.”
I said. Why did he ask so often? He did that, but I never knew why. He’s
so overprotective sometimes.
We kept silent for the rest of the day and I fell asleep during the night. My
father never tired and kept driving. He continued driving for the next two days
when he finally convinced me to stop by an Italian restaurant and eat some
pasta. In the meantime, my parents were out hunting and then they came back to
pick me up with the car.
While driving, they said something about the deer they had, that it tasted
weird… Well, I guess South American animals are different. We made a last stop
in a super market to get some chips and cookies for me, despite my mom’s
lecture about how unhealthy they are. Sweets were one of my weaknesses when it
came to eating human food. We were reaching our destination and I had become
very anxious but finally fell asleep after midnight.
When I woke up, we were in a jungle, on a barely-there, pot hole filled, grass
covered dirt road. Path would be a more appropriate word. The thick brush made
driving further in the forest impossible for our little car. We would have to
continue on foot.
“Morning.” I said while opening my eyes and looking at my parents. The bright
sunlight danced on their skin causing them to sparkle like diamonds.
My mom smiled warmly at me and gave me some cereal. Unlike my parents, as I
said before, I eat human food as well as animal blood and love the sweet stuff.
After finishing breakfast, I decided to change my look a little. I lightened my
dark red hair to a golden bronze and added a little curl. My eyes darkened to a
rich brown. I don’t know why, I didn’t even like brown eyes much. I just felt
like it today. Maybe the barrage of green around me made me yearn for something
darker.
We started running through the rainforest. I could feel the moist heat wrapping
around me like a blanket. It’s a good thing I wore shorts and a t-shirt. The
t-shirt was clinging to me from the humidity. We followed a path near the
river; I almost hit on many branches full of big leaves and colorful flowers
from the trees surrounding us and tripped once on the roots that was covering
the ground. We continued going deeper and deeper into the woods. I ran as fast
as I could, but still fell behind. Being only half-vampire, speed was not one
of my gifts.
The forest was full of new and fragrant smells; wet wood, exotic flowers, half
dead leaves and unseen water flowing just under the moist dirt beneath us. I
sensed many different animal scents. Monkeys, okapis and other little mammals
like possums (I recognized the scent cause I had seen them again when mom and
dad took me to a zoo in France) and some reptiles on the ground; parrots and other
exotic birds in the air or sitting on the trees, as well as crocodiles,
alligators and some fish (most of them were piranhas) swimming in the river.
Suddenly, I caught a scent different from the others. I knew that scent. A
vampire was near us. We cautiously followed its scent, maybe it was one of the
vampires we were looking for. Just as we reached the river’s edge, we saw her.
She was a tall woman with long arms and legs and long black hair reaching down
to the middle of her back. She wore strange clothes that looked like they were
made of animal skins. Her look was definitely wild, wilder than any other
vampire’s I had met in my life. She was breathtaking to say the least.
She turned and stared at us. Her stance was aggressive as she caught our scents.
I saw her eyes soften as her eyes fell upon me.
“Renesmee?” She asked in heavily accented English.
“I’m sorry, but who are you talking to?” My mom asked kindly. We all knew that
being kind and careful with what you say went a long way in distilling any
trouble with MOST vampires.
Her look turned almost apologetic.
“Oh, I thought this girl was someone I knew. But now that I look again; I can
see that she’s a little too short to be her.” She replied with a sweet laugh
that filled the air.
Hey, I am short…we can all see that…you don’t have to say it too! I
snorted as this was the first thought that I had after she spoke. I always get
annoyed when others criticized my height.
“Um…well…maybe you can help us. We are looking for a coven living around here.
Some nomads told us about them. We are looking for someone named Zafrina.” My
dad said as he stepped between us and her protectively.
“I am Zafrina. What do you want with me?” she asked a little defensively.
“Could we go somewhere to sit first? Eshe is going to get tired soon. We’ve had
a long trip through the jungle.” my mother asked calmly.
“Indeed. Let me get you to my hut.” she said nodding and relaxing her stance.
We ran behind her, crossing the jungle quickly. I tried to stay focused on
where they were going and catch up with them, something hard when I always
thought of a nice place to sit and rest. It is really exhausting running with
vampires. We stopped running (of course I was last) when we reached a small
clearing with a hut standing next to an extremely tall tree. She motioned us
into the hut. It was wooden with beautifully carved, intricate handmade
furniture that seemed very old. There was a small room, which must be the
living room. On the left from the door there was a sofa and two armchairs and a
small, rickety table. Judging by the age, it seemed a miracle that it was
standing, considering the how long ago it was built. My parents elegantly sat
on two handmade chairs on the other side of the room and I collapsed onto a…
let’s say “loveseat” next to them.
“Now tell me…why are you looking for me?” Zafrina said as she leaned against
the South wall of the house.
“It’s complicated. We need some help. You are our only hope according to what
we have heard from others of our kind.” My mom whispered as if she was afraid
she would not be able to help us.
“I’m listening. Tell me, and if I can, I will help.” Zafrina answered, curious
to hear what we had to say.
“This is our daughter, Eshe.” My dad explained. He pointed at me and gave
Zafrina a nervous smile. “She’s our biological daughter, but when we had her, I
was a vampire and her mother wasn’t. She’s neither human nor vampire, and her
growth rate is very quick-”
Zafrina raised her hand to stop him. “Don’t go on. I understand. So, another vampire-human
hybrid? I was almost sure when I saw you. I recognized the scent. I’ve met
other children like you. You aren’t one of a kind. There are more like you.
Most of them live here in the Amazon. Four, all together, as far as I know.
Another one lives in New York State, which is the one I confused you with,
Renesmee. I met her when she was only three months old. I felt her parents’
agony. Their uncertainty of her future. No one knew how long she would live or
how she would develop.”
We all shivered at the thought, but thankfully she didn’t stop and continued to
explain.
“She never died. She is a healthy six year old girl. Still growing, but like
everyone of your kind, she has enough vampire genes to stop growing in the
seventh year. She will become an immortal, like vampires at that point. You,
Eshe, will be fully mature in two years and will look like an eighteen year old
for the rest of your existence.”
I was so relieved to hear that, I wanted to run to her and hug her but I kept
my control except for the huge grin that now crossed my face.
“May I ask dear Eshe, are you venomous?” Zafrina inquired.
“No, I’m not.” I choked out while grabbing the arm of the loveseat to stay in
my seat and not start jumping around the room up and down.
“Hmm, all the females of your kind don’t seem to be, but we don’t know if it is
a random thing.” Zafrina said excitedly. “Your appearance is unusual too. You
don’t look like your parents at all.” She stated as she continued to observe
me.
“Well, it’s not how I really am.” I replied. I closed my eyes and let my hair
take its normal wavy form and return to its odd reddish color. My eyes
brightened until they were sky blue again. “I can change my appearance at will.
It’s my power.” I said. I waited for her response.
She looked shocked at first (like everybody does), but then she spoke in a calm
tone. “Well, this explains a lot. You looked very much like Renesmee before.
But now, not at all. Let me get you a picture of her.” She said. She got up and
in a matter of seconds she was back with a postcard in her hands. I examined
the girl in the picture and could see why Zafrina thought I was her. She was a
little younger than I am now; looked like she was around twelve. She had long
bronze hair with big curls and chocolate brown eyes. Her face also looked a
little like mine. There was something written in the back of it but I
considered it rude to read. I gave Zafrina the postcard and she put it back in
its place.
She asked me a lot of questions about my life, development and powers. She
thought my extra ability was really interesting and wondered how I had this
talent since neither my dad nor my mom were gifted that we knew of. I thought
it simply was this way, so I never had wondered about that myself. I got really
excited though when she said there may be other possible ways to use my powers
and promised me she would help me practice and learn to use my talent in other
ways too! She also introduced us to the other members of her tribe, Kachiri and
Senna. They were just passing by and Zafrina called them in, but they said “hi”
and then left like they were in a hurry. Time seemed to slow and after a while,
I fell asleep in the same “loveseat” I had collapsed into some hours ago.
My dreams and reality mingled together as I felt my dad’s cold hands picking me
up and placing me gently on a bed in the next room. I heard my parents softly
talking.
“It’s really a miracle! Our baby is going to be fine!” My mom cried excitedly.
“Our Eshe. Her name means Immortal, and she definitely is one.” I heard my
dad’s voice fading away while I sank deeper into my dream full of colorful
scenes of the jungle that so protectively surrounded me and my family.
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