Vie for a Lie

“What am I supposed to wear to a bonfire?” I murmured, looking through my closet later the next day. My eyebrows furrowed as I sifted through my clothes, trying to find something suitable. It wasn’t as though I was supposed to dress fancy, but I still wanted to impress Sam’s pack.

With a sigh, I decided to just wear frayed jean shorts, a lace black tank top, and combat boots. Perhaps not the best impression I could give, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel good in similar outfits. It just felt…me.

From downstairs, I heard Henry calling my name. Right – we were already almost late ten minutes ago, when Henry called my name the first time. An uneasy grin covering my face, I rushed down the stairs and grabbed a small tan messenger bag off the counter. Throwing my phone and other necessities inside, I grabbed the car keys and pushed past Henry to get outside. He followed and threw himself into the passenger seat, grumbling about being late. I decided to ignore it, rather than get into another petty argument.

Honestly, I had been against the choice of the car. But with the wind tossing my hair, I couldn’t deny that it wasn’t an amazing experience. Sure, now it was all messed up, but it was definitely worth the fussing later. Glancing at Henry and seeing the toothy grin on his face, it was easy to see he enjoyed the ride as well.

“You should let me drive on the way back,” Henry told me over the loud wail of the wind.

Laughing, I shook my head. “Absolutely not! Last time I let you drive, we nearly died when you drove us through the guard rail of that cliff.” That reckless day definitely had my heart skipping beats; I’d never been more scared for Henry’s life.

I stared at me for a moment, before turning his head back towards the road. “Aw, alright.”

A short five minutes later, I pulled into the beach that Sam had given us the directions to. It was already pretty dark; the sun was setting, leaving the sky a variety of dark pinks, purples, and blues.

“Let’s put up the top.” I told Henry, starting to close it up. “I don’t want any hooligans thinking they’ll get a free car.”

Henry laughed. “Hooligans?”

“Yes, Henry! Hooligans.”

He didn’t say anything more, so after locking the car, we headed towards the water to find the bonfire Sam talked about. All it took was walking over a hill before we saw the fire off to the right. We headed their way, and no one seemed to notice until we were able to hear their conversation clearly. It was Sam who acknowledged us first, getting up from the makeshift he’d made out of a sand dune.

“Arianne, Henry, I was starting to wonder if you’d ever come.”

“Sorry, it’s hard getting places on time when you’re living with a girl like Arianne.”

I glared at Henry. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He only grinned in response.

Sam motioned for me to sit beside him on the sand dune. I turned to pull Henry along, only to find he had already started making friends with some of the boys. Shrugging it off, I sat beside Sam and waved hello to Emily, who sat on the other side of him.

For a while, everyone just talked and joked around. I sat silently, listening to bits of each conversation -- there was nothing different about it; the bonfire was pretty much a social event for the Quileute teens and young adults. Every once in a while, someone would say something to me and I’d join in a conversation for a while. However, I was perfectly fine sitting and observing – I hadn’t been around a pack in a long while, it was interesting to see how they interacted with each other.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Sam stood up. He was able to quiet everyone down. One by one, he had everyone introduce themselves. I had to hold back a snicker at the elementary introduction. After that was sorted out, the stories began. People took turns telling parts of Quileute history. It was obvious that this was something they loved to tell; they were natural storytellers.

One part of their story made me curious. They talked of the beginning, of their pack’s spirit warriors who could leave their bodies and do what seemed like impossible feats otherwise.

“Can you do that?” I interrupted, leaning forward.

“Do what?”

“Astral projection, leave your bodies, possession, anything like that. Can anyone still do it?”

I couldn’t remember the name of who’d been telling the story. He, however, looked very confused. He looked around, then back at me. “Um…no. No one has been able to do that for a long time.”

I smirked. “That’s a shame. It’s something you should be able to do, if your ancestors were able. You could certainly unlock that ability, I’m sure, if you tried hard enough.”

Another man, Paul, spoke up. “Do you know how?”

“Nope,” I shook my head. “Ask Henry, he’s an expert.”

Every one turned to Henry. He glared at me for letting it be known, but I only smiled back at him. Henry didn’t like to brag about it – but I thought it was pretty damn cool. Sure, it left his body completely defenseless and he was exhausted when he came back, but it was definitely a useful ability. Shape-shifters naturally had extra abilities, anyways; the Quileute tribe just happened to have lost theirs over time of not using it.

Eventually they stopped bombarding Henry with questions and the storytelling began once again. Their history was interesting, I had to admit. It was more interesting than a lot of legends I’d heard.

“Arianne, what about your pack?” A younger boy asked. “Do you know their history?”

I frowned. “I don’t have a pack, darling. They’ve been dead for over two hundred years.”

That would certainly leave them wondering. How would they interpret that? Would they think I had been born packless? Or perhaps would they guess I was older than two hundred years? Both were true.

“Oh.” He mumbled. “Well, do you know their history?”

I had to smile at his quick recovery. “Let’s see…I don’t remember it very well, and it isn’t nearly as interesting as yours.”

“I think, in the beginning, we were actually wolves, living in Western Europe. Keep in mind – this is a long, long time ago. Earlier than any recorded history, I’m sure. This is actually where it gets tricky, where the story splits in two. No one really knows which is true, if any.”

“The first story says that, one day, a wolf was hunting when he came upon a maiden lying alone in a field of flowers. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. So he approached her and, long story short, they fell in love. They spent nearly every day together, teaching the other things. The maiden was as wolf-like as a human could be, and the wolf was as human-like as a wolf could be. I’ll spare you the details of what happened later, but basically they had a baby. That baby was the first shape-shifter of my pack. Once the other wolves learned what happened, they yearned to do the same…it’s actually kind of gruesome from then on, so I won’t say any more. I’m sure you can guess what happened, though.”

I glanced around, looking to see what everyone thought. They actually seemed pretty interested; their faces probably mirrored mine while listening to their stories.

“The other story is more peculiar. It talks of a young witch that lived alone in a dark forest. She was very lonely; the only company she had was a mean, old cat. The witch was very powerful for her age, probably due to the large library of spell books she hid away beneath her house…”

“Wait a second,” Someone interrupted. “Witches exist? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Giggling, I shrugged. “I don’t think they do anymore. They were hunted down by humans because they were a bit too…flamboyant with their powers. That’s why we still live. The humans don’t know.”

“I did meet a witch, once. She wasn’t too friendly; she was obsessed with herself and very selfish. The witch did tell me that there weren’t many of her kind left in the world. They were trying to find a place to find, last I heard. I haven’t seen a witch since then, so I’ll assume they’re gone or just very good at hiding. I’m glad – I can’t imagine a world with witches running around without a care in the world about who sees them. It would not be a good place to live.”

Nearly everyone had a look of awe on their face. Those who didn’t still looked pretty interested, which made me happy. I never considered myself a good storyteller, but I suppose the idea behind their stories was enough to entrance. With a smile, I continued.

“Anyways, the witch searched through her books for a spell that could find her a loyal friend. She didn’t find anything at first. One day as she was out searching for herbs, she came across a lone wolf. They stared at each other, both terrified of the other. Then she remembered something she had seen in an ancient book of hers; a transmutation spell. She crouched down and motioned for the wolf to come with her. The witch had to be very patient…the wolf was a very fleeting creature; it could run off at any moment. However, he started to trust the witch and followed her home. There, she fed it some deer meat and tried bonding with the animal. He was very thankful for the meat, and decided to see what else she had for him. She came back moments later with her book and began to chant and throw things at the wolf. He became angry, but found that he was unable to move. The meat, he realized, had been drugged.”

“He fell asleep after that. And when he woke up, he was lying on a blanket on the floor, human. I’m sure you all could imagine the surprise that came with that…he went a little crazy and nearly killed the witch, but she managed to calm him down. I’ll save you the boring details, but eventually he realized he could change between a human and a wolf. He went back to his pack and told them what happened. They all wanted to be like him, so they went to the witch and convinced her to change them as well. She did…and the rest is just lots of sex until they were killed by human hunters a while back.”

I let out a breath, happy to have gotten the story out. It was a lot longer than I made it out to be, but there wasn’t much point in telling them every minor detail.

“Uh…wow.” I heard someone say on the other side of the bonfire.

“That’s…amazing. So what was the witch’s name?”

I had to think about it. “Nimue, I think.”

“Which story do you believe?”

I grinned. “I don’t know. I certainly like the witch one better; it’s not so much about bestiality.”

“Hey Henry, what about you?”

Well, shit.

Henry glanced at the sand and shrugged. “Everyone in my family was a shifter. We didn’t tell stories about it, because we always had been.”

No one questioned him any further, thank goodness. I didn’t want him to have to tell everyone that his family was dead – he always got broken up about it when the topic came up.

The bonfire party was starting to die down. It was pretty late already, and people had been casually leaving for the past hour. I had been about to do the same when another person came along and stared at me.

“Jacob,” Sam said, “It’s nice of you to finally join us.”

“Who is she?” Jacob snapped.

I rolled my eyes. “Well, hello to you too! I’m Arianne.”

His eyes narrowed considerably and his hands formed fists. Shaking his head, Jacob growled out, “No. You have to leave.”

Standing up, I stared at him with bewilderment. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’ve heard about you already. You’re going to hurt people!” Jacob hissed. “Leave.” He pointed towards the road.

“What—I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jacob!”

“Alice told me everything,” Jacob snarled, “Stop trying to protect yourself.”

“I don’t even know Alice, how would she know anything about me?” I asked frantically, getting worried. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about, please, tell me.”

Jacob shook his head once more and ran off. I turned to Sam, who looked just as confused as I was.

“Sam—I don’t know what he’s talking about. I won’t be hurting anyone, I swear.”

He gave me a tired smile. “Yeah, I believe you. I’m sure there’s something else going on. You just go home. I’ll try to figure it out.”