Prologue

Prologue:


Isabella Marie Swan, Bella, had just laid her head down to take a nap when she heard the shouts. Her little sister, Alice stirred next to her as the wagon jerked to a halt. Bella sat up and cocked her head in curiosity.

Alice rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and mumbled, “Bella? What’s going on?”

Bella shrugged. “I dunno Alice. Wait here while I go see.”

Her sister frowned. “But momma and poppa said not to get out of the wagon!”

Bella waved her little sister back as she crawled to the wagon flap. Only a year older than Alice who was nine, ten year old Bella Swan was nearly the exact opposite of her younger sister. Her father had always joked that they were two sides of the same coin.

After all, Bella was the outspoken, curious one while Alice was the quiet, docile one. Mahogany-haired Bella was always right there with her older brother Emmett, getting into all kinds of scrapes and messes while dark-haired Alice tended to hang around her mother’s skirts.

In fact, it was obvious that while Bella looked like their mother and Alice looked like their father, their personalities were certainly the opposite. Bella’s personality was like her father’s and Alice’s was like their mother’s. Despite the fact that Bella was a little rough around the edges, neither her father nor twelve year old Emmett chastised Bella for not being a proper little girl. Even her mother didn’t seem to mind that Bella was more of a tomboy than anything else.

As Bella reached for the wagon flap, Emmett scrambled into the back and pushed her back into the wagon. The girls saw the worried look on his face.

“Emmett? What’s going on?” asked Bella.

Emmett’s eyes went wide as he whispered to his sister. “Injuns!”

Bella’s eyes mirrored his own. “Really?” she whispered back.

Emmett nodded as he glanced at Alice, while lowering his voice towards Bella. “Mom and pop say for us to stay here until they’re gone.”

Alice frowned at their whispering. “What’s going on?”

Bella shook her head. “Nothing Alice, let’s go back to sleep okay?”

She made her way back to her blankets to settle in again, hoping her little sister would follow. However, Alice looked from Bella to Emmett and back again before putting her hands on her hips.

“Nuh uh! Something’s going on and you are gonna tell me or I’m gonna scream!”

Emmett hastily shook his head as he moved to his sister’s side. “No Alice, no. You can’t, okay? Mom and pop said to get some sleep. We’re not to make any noise at all or we’re gonna be whipped. Please Alice, let’s try to go back to sleep.”

Luckily for him, an unconscious part of his little sister seemed to understand the urgency in his voice. With a hesitant nod, she lay back down in her blankets and closed her eyes. However, the moment Bella and Emmett tried to join her, they all heard the ruckus coming from outside of the wagon.

All three of them sat up instantly and looked around the wagon as the sounds increased. Suddenly a gunshot rang out making all three of them jump.

“Emmett? I want momma! Where’s momma?” squealed Alice.

Bella moved to her side and wrapped her arms around her. “It’s okay Alice. Everything’s going to be okay.”

As she rocked her little sister in her arms, Emmett crawled to the flaps and peeked out. His eyes went wide as he stared at the chaos around them. All of the wagons in the caravan they’d been traveling West with had all been arranged in a circle, while all the adults who knew how to defend were positioned in places between the wagons. They were now shooting at the Indians who were circling the caravan.

Emmett could see his mother’s feet sticking out from underneath the wagon where she was shooting her rifle at the Indians. Renee was almost as good at using a rifle as their father Charlie was. Charlie crouched not too far from his wife, using a wheel as cover while he shot his own rifle at the savages.

Still while the adults tried to keep the Indians from breeching the circle of wagons, it seemed as if they weren’t that strong. Emmett watched as the Indians, some of whom were on horseback, notched arrow after arrow and let them fly at the adults. Some hit their targets as bodies began to fall to the ground, others lodged themselves in wood or canvas.

Then an arrow covered in flames flew through the air and lodged itself into a canvas covered wagon. Screams instantly started as those inside desperately scrambled out of the wagon trying to escape the rapidly spreading flames.

Charlie turned to look when the screaming started and immediately yelled at his wife. “Renee! Get the children out of the wagon! Now!”

Renee didn’t hesitate to scramble out from under the wagon to the flap where Emmett was still looking out of. As she grabbed him, she spoke to her children in a hurried voice.

“Emmett get under the wagon. Bella, Alice come quickly.”

Alice didn’t hesitate to launch herself into her mother’s arms while Bella followed at a more sedate pace. Still, Renee quickly got all three of them huddled under the wagon before she and Charlie positioned themselves around them.

“Put your heads down and cover your faces,” ordered their father as he continued to follow the savages with his rifle.

The three of them obeyed his order, ducking their heads down to the ground and covering their faces with their arms. All they could hear were the strange shouts and yells of the Indians and sound of guns and screams from the people they traveled with.

“Charlie, we can’t stay here,” came Renee’s frightened voice.

“I know that, but where can we go? There’s no cover around as far as I can see.”

Just then more screams rent the air. Only this time the screams sounded younger. Renee and Charlie turned to see what was going on.

“Oh my God! Charlie the children! They’re taking the children!” came Renee’s frightened voice.

Charlie hissed, “Renee! Don’t frighten ours!”

Emmett lifted his head to see that the Indians had breeched several other areas and were now snatching up several of the unguarded children before riding off with them. He watched in horror as another Indian with an axe leaped on one of the already injured men and buried the axe in the back of his neck.

Just then, he heard his mother cry out and turned to see her on her knees with an arrow buried in her chest. Blood bubbled out of her open mouth as a look of surprise covered her face. She stared at Charlie as he looked at her in horror.

“Renee!” he yelled, before moving closer to her while trying to keep an eye on the Indians.

“Mom!” cried Emmett as he scrambled towards her.

Just before he reached her, she fell onto her side. Her wide, unseeing eyes stared at nothing at all.

“No! No mom! No!” screamed Emmett as he shook his mother’s dead body.

Charlie grabbed Emmett and pushed him towards the girls. “Go make sure they don’t look!”

As Emmett scrambled back to his sisters, Charlie bent over Renee and gently closed her eyes. Lowering his head until his forehead touched hers, he whispered in a tear-filled voice to her.

“May God keep you until we meet again, my love.”

He pressed a tender kiss against her lips before turning away from her, determined to protect their children. As he moved closer to the edge of the wagon, he could hear the girls sniffling in fear while Emmett tried to calm them down.

Gritting his teeth, he refilled his rifle and took aim. Two Indians went down one after another. Ignoring the burning wagons and screams of the children who had been taken, Charlie continued to shoot any savage who dared to come close to his wagon and family.

Unfortunately, they began coming at him from all sides since they were able to sneak through the destroyed wagons too. He was in the process of reloading his rifle when an arrow lodged itself into the back of his shoulder. Dropping his gun, he whirled around only to have another arrow lodge itself in his right side.

When the third arrow whizzed through the air, Emmett looked up in time to see it lodge itself in his father’s arm.

“Oh my God! Pop!” he yelled.

Instinctively, Emmett left the girls to scramble to his father’s side. Grabbing Charlie’s rifle, he finished loading it and began shooting at the savages who tried to come closer.

As Emmett shot at the Indians, Bella crawled to her father who was now laying on his back staring at the sky. She leaned over him trying to hold back her sobs.

“Daddy? Daddy, please don’t die! Please!”

Charlie turned his head slightly to look at his daughter. He smiled through his pain. “My Bells…”

Bella turned to Emmett in a panic. “He’s still alive! What do I do?”

Emmett shifted until he was next to his father. “Pop, tell Bella how to help you. I’ll keep the savages away.”

Charlie slowly shook his head once. “It’s too late for me, Emmett. Promise me you’ll take care of your sisters, son. It’s up to you to protect them now.”

“No daddy!” Bella whined as she shook her father.

Charlie lifted a hand to cup her cheek. “Help Emmett, Bells. Help him with Alice, she’s going to need the both of you.”

Bella sniffled as she covered his hand with hers. “Oh daddy…”

“My Bells, I love…” Bella watched as his eyes closed just before his hand slid limply from hers to plop against the ground.

Her eyes filled with tears as she stared through her blurry vision at her father. “Em…” she whispered through her tears. “Emmett, he’s gone.”

Emmett stopped shooting long enough to look down at his father. He could see that Bella wasn’t kidding. Charlie had lost too much blood, dying from the arrow wounds on his body. Realizing it was just him and his two sisters now, he lifted the rifle and began shooting wildly.

Tears ran down his face as he took his fear and frustration out on whatever got in the way of the rifle. Unfortunately the bullets ran out and he had to reload again. This time he didn’t have enough time before the Indians reached them.

Several of them reached in and began dragging the children out from under the wagon. Bella began kicking and struggling, trying to get away from her captors. Just as Emmett was about to launch himself at Bella’s captors, he heard Alice’s bloodcurdling scream.

Turning around, he saw her being carried away from them. She had been thrown over one of the savage’s shoulders and was reaching out her little arms towards Emmett. A look of terror gripped her face as tears ran down her cheeks.

“Emmett! Help me, Emmett! Big brother help!”

Emmett scrambled out from under the wagon, running to Alice since he was certain she needed him more than Bella did. Just as he got to his feet, a horse came charging towards him and the Indian bent over and scooped him up before draping him over the front of the saddle.

As Emmett tried to get up, he was hit on the back of his head. The last thing he saw was the complete and utter decimation of every single wagon in the caravan and the bloody, blackened bodies that littered the area around them.

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Bella glanced at her sister who sat next to her trembling and staring at nothing at all. For the last two days Alice had been in that state of shock, only coming out of it long enough to scream when an Indian got too close to her. All the Indian had been trying to do was give her some food and water, but Alice wouldn’t stop screaming.

So the Indian would hand Bella the food and water, making gestures that he wanted her to feed it to Alice. Bella would take care of her sister before taking her own nourishment, then she was allowed to see to Emmett who was still unconscious.

Moving closer to her sister, Bella tried to talk to her. “Ali? Can you hear me Alice?”

Alice continued to tremble and look blankly at nothing.

Bella sighed. “Come on Alice, you have to talk to me. It’s Bells. I miss you!”

A moan from the other side of her made her turn in time to see Emmett clutching the back of his head while trying to sit up.

She reached over and helped him to a sitting position. “Careful. You have a lump.”

Emmett groaned as he squinted and looked around the camp. “Where are we?”

Bella shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ve been traveling for two days.”

His eyes widened. “I’ve been out two days?”

“Almost.”

“I wonder where they’re taking us?”

“Emmett? I can’t get Alice to talk. Something’s wrong with her.”

He rubbed his head once more as he glanced over at Alice and frowned. “Ali? What’s wrong?”

When she still didn’t respond, Emmett tried to move closer to her, but his bonds prevented him from moving too much. With a helpless sigh, he sat back down and looked around the camp once more.

Most of the other children who’d been traveling with them were huddled in groups around the campsite just like the three of them were. Emmett also noticed that some the Indians were walking from group to group. But that wasn’t what really stood out. What Emmett really noticed was that there seemed to be many more of the savages than there had been the day of the ambush.

He frowned. “Something’s going on.”

Bella gave him a curious stare. “What do you mean?”

Before he could answer, a group of Indians approached them. Bella and Emmett stared up at them as two of the Indians began gesturing towards them while the others appeared to be looking at them closely. They began to murmur among themselves for a while before one of the men nodded.

The two Indians who had been gesturing approached Emmett and undid his bonds from the spike in the ground. Using the bonds to lead him, they jerked him towards the group. Emmett began to struggle, trying to get back to his sisters.

“Let go of me, you heathen! Let go!” he roared.

His yells caught Alice’s attention and when she realized her brother was being taken away from her, she began to cry hysterically. Bella immediately wrapped her arms around her sister trying to quiet her.

“Let go!” Emmett yelled as he continued to struggle, but he knew he was losing because he was getting farther and farther away from his sisters.

Looking back at them with defeat in his eyes, he caught Bella’s worried look. “Take care of Alice, Bella. Remember what our pops said!”

Bella nodded as she held Alice tighter and watched her brother disappear into the crowd. She knew that would be the last time they would ever see each other again.

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Bella could hear voices coming closer. Opening her eyes she glanced up to see a group of Indians walking towards her and her sister. Quickly sitting up, she glared at them. Daring them to separate her and Alice. One of them came to stand in front of her, kneeling down he held out a hand to her.

“Come,” he said, in halting English. “You come.”

Bella shook her head as she shifted closer to Alice. “I’m not leaving my sister!”

The Indian looked at the still sleeping Alice lying next to Bella. He turned back to her and gave her a sad smile before speaking in his broken English. “You come.”

She looked away from him when one of the others came up and leaned over to whisper into the ear of the one who was kneeling. His English was better, but heavily accented. “Taganila come.”

The one kneeling frowned and spoke to him in their language. They continued to converse in their language for a few more moments. When they finished, the one who had spoken the better English looked at Bella.

“What is your name?”

Bella stared at him.

“We not harm you little one. Tell us your name.”

“Is…Isabella Marie Swan,” she stated, with her chin in the air.

The Indian nodded. “You come with us.”

Her eyes went wide. “Where are you taking me?”

“To our home.”

“And my sister too?” she asked, as she gestured to Alice.

He shook his head. “No, she stay with Danasga. You stay with Quedeyona now.”

Bella shook her head as she tried to scramble away from them. “No! I will not leave my little sister! I promised my daddy! I won’t leave her!”

The Indian sighed. “I sorry little one, but it is done.”

The Indian that had been kneeling stood up, then bent over to swoop Bella up into his arms. As the English-speaking one unfastened her bonds from the ground, Bella struggled to get away.

“No! You can’t take me! You can’t!”

Her shrieks woke up Alice who realized what was happening. As the Indians walked away with a struggling Bella, Alice began to scream and wail loudly.

Bella looked back at her little sister and raised her voice so she could hear. “Alice! Don’t cry! It’s going to be okay! You just have to be brave, okay? Be brave, Alice!”

“Bel-l-l-l-l-a!”

Bella would remember the look of fear in her sister’s eyes and her desperate screams for years afterwards. She was still dreaming of those things four days later when she had finally arrived at the Quedeyona tribe, her new home. There she was to become a slave for the Indian who had first knelt down in front of her, his wife, their two sons, and infant daughter.