Friend Of The Dead

The Legend Of The Quileutes

Unedited

I adjusted myself and faced the ocean. I waited for the person to appear, and when they did, I found out that it was Quil who walking towards me. He smiled when he saw me and sat down heavily.

"Hey, I noticed you were gone, why aren't you with the others?"

I shrugged.

"Not good with too many people. Why are you here?"

"Needed some space, Paul was irritating me." I chuckled at his words and he smiled back. It was silent between us, a comfortable one with the sound of the ocean waves as a background.

"So-so, what do you think of Bella's boyfriend?" he hesitantly asked me and now I figured, he came to interrogate me, not for space.

"I don't know him well enough to think anything of him," I muttered in a low voice, keeping my eyes trained on the deep water. Not true of course, I know that he is not human.

"Don't you think he's a little—you know, weird?"

"Yeah, he kind of is." He nodded his head and I could almost see in his mind that he concluded I'm blind to whatever is really going on. I had a thought that he knew, that this group of boys were more than just a gang, and the tattoo meant more.

Another silence hung over us; this time it was me who broke it.

"Tell me a story, Quil." He looked at me, confused. "What kind of stories?"

"I don't know, tell me something your parents always told you and you could never forget it," I said as I sat up and looked at him expectantly, a smile grazing my lips and waiting for his answer. He hesitated, obviously there was something preventing him from telling whatever story his parents told him at bedtime. Either that or his parents never read to him. At last, he took a deep breath and said with a nervous face;

"Have you ever been told of the Quileute legend?" I frowned at this, a thoughtful expression becoming my face at the strange name and story I've never been told of. I shook my head no and he sighed before lifting his head up and starting by telling me the story in a low voice.

"Do you want me to tell you the short version or the long one?"

"The long one," I said almost instantly. Something told me I will be hearing something very interesting in a few seconds.

"Well. . .The Quileute people settled onto the Quileute Indian Reservation after signing the Treaty of Quinault River of 1855, later reauthorized as the treaty of Olympia in 1856, with the United States of America. The reservation was located near the southwest corner of Clallam County, Washington at the mouth of the Quileute River on the Pacific coast. The reservation's main population centre is the community of La Push, Washington, aka, here. Like many other Northwest Coast groups, in pre-Colonial times the Quileute relied on fishing from local rivers and the Pacific Ocean for food and built plank houses to protect themselves from the harsh, wet winters west of the Cascade Mountains. The Quileute tribe settled in La Push and became efficient fishermen and shipbuilders. As time passed, other peoples coveted their land and moved against them for it." He stopped and cleared his throat uncomfortably. The way he'd memorized the dates and his way of words told me tales of a smart nerd behind the hominoid arms and curly hair.

"The tribe was small and could not defend themselves, so they took their ships and left the land. At sea, Kaheleha used the magic in their blood to defend it, since of course, as it turns out; they have magic in their blood. Anyway, he was the first Spirit Chief in Quileute history. He and all the men left the ships in spirit only, using the original power of Quileute Astral Projection, leaving their bodies behind under the care of the women. Though they could not physically hurt the enemy, the warriors had other ways."