Waxing Gibbous

Bonfires (A)

Now that it was dark, we were getting ready to start the legends. The fire crackled, settling lower toward the sand. Sparks blew up in a sudden puff of brilliant orange against the black sky. I had heard them a hundred times, but it was a first for Leah, Seth and Quil as well as some of the imprints. Emily was the only imprint that had heard them, Kim and Lia were first timers, and Bella.

Billy was here, his wheelchair stationed at what seemed the natural head of the circle. Beside him on a folding lawn chair, looking quite brittle, was Quil's ancient, white-haired grandfather, Old Quil. Sue Clearwater, widow of Harry, had a chair on his other side; her two children, Leah, and Seth, were also there, sitting on the ground like the rest of us. I was sitting next to Leah, right in front of an empty chair. It was supposed to be for me, my father.

"It's getting late," Bella murmured to Jacob.

"Don't start that yet," Jacob whispered back - though certainly half the group here had hearing sensitive enough to hear them anyway, if I could so could the others. "The best part is coming."

"What's the best part? You swallowing an entire cow whole?"

Jacob chuckled his low, throaty laugh. "No. That's the finale. We didn't meet just to eat through a week's worth of food. This is technically a council meeting. It's Quil's first time, and he hasn't heard the stories yet. Well, he's heard them, but this will be the first time he knows they're true. That tends to make a guy pay closer attention. Kim and Seth and Leah are all first-timers, too."

"Stories?"

Jacob scooted back beside Bella, where she rested against a low ridge of rock. He put his arm over her shoulder and spoke even lower into her ear.

"The histories we always thought were legends," he said. "The stories of how we came to be. The first is the story of the spirit warriors."

It was almost as if Jacob's whisper was the introduction. The atmosphere changed abruptly around the low-burning fire. Paul and Embry sat up straighter. Jared nudged Kim and then pulled her gently upright.

Emily produced a spiral-bound notebook and a pen, looking exactly like a student set for an important lecture. Sam twisted just slightly beside her - so that he was facing the same direction as Old Quil, who was on his other side. I straightened and turned towards Billy.

Billy cleared his throat, and, with no more introduction than his son's whisper, began telling the story in his rich, deep voice. The words poured out with precision, as if he knew them by heart, but also with feeling and a subtle rhythm. Like poetry performed by its author.

"The Quileutes have been a small people from the beginning," Billy said. "And we are a small people still, but we have never disappeared. This is because there has always been magic in our blood."

Emily's pen sprinted across the sheets of paper as she tried to keep up with him.

"It happened long ago that Q'waeti' journeyed all over the land setting the people aright and instructing the people that would come in the future how they should act. One day Q'waeti' reached the Quileute land. There were no people here, only two wolves. Then Q'waeti' transformed the wolves into people. Then he instructed the people saying: 'You Quileute shall be brave, because you come from wolves,' said Q'waeti' 'In every manner you shall be strong.' After many decades the descendants of the wolves discovered they could enter the spirit realm, where everything was as it was before Q'waeti' righted everything.

In the beginning, the tribe settled in this harbor and became skilled ship builders and fishermen. But the tribe was small, and the harbor was rich in fish. There were others who coveted our land, and we were too small to hold it. A larger tribe moved against us, and we took to our ships to escape them. Kaheleha was not the first spirit warrior, but we do not remember the stories that came before his. Kaheleha was the first great Spirit Chief in our known history. In this emergency, Kaheleha used the magic to defend our land. The stories tell us that they could blow fierce winds into their enemy's camps; they could make a great screaming in the wind that terrified their foes. The stories also tell us that the animals could see the spirit warriors and understand them; the animals would do their bidding."