Midnight- A Twilight Fan-fiction

Miakoda

After we had all ate, we gathered in the living room. Story time at Nana and grandpa's house was a tradition.
Matt, Nina, and Roshawn squeezed  themselves onto the love seat. I sat cuddled on the ground with Joey -who had fallen asleep on my lap-and Sol, using Blaze as a pillow.
We all were facing my Nana, who was burning an unknown type of herb in the fireplace. She lead us in song, a song we all knew, in our native Quilute language.
The Quilute language almost died off, they introduced the language class back into schools when I was younger, but family knew it better than most of the tribe members, because my Nana was so
adamant about us speaking it fluently from a young age.
After we had finished the song my Nana turned around to face us.
"I am going to tell a story I don't think any of you have heard yet. My mother told it to me, and I want to pass it down now to you.
This is the forgotten story about Miakoda.
Cheveyo was the chief of the tribe, which was lead by him and his second wife, Miakoda. The couple was powerful, the best leadership the Quilutes has ever seen. Everyone in the tribe love and respected them.
As you know, our people are known to be descendant from wolves. Our name, Quilute, in our native language is pronounced "kwo'liyot", which comes from our name for wolves which is "kwoli".
It had been two decades since the need for our ancestors to transform into wolves, until a cold one came passing through La Push.
This time only three people went through the transformation. Of course Cheveyo, the alpha, a young tribe male, and Miakoda, the only known female wolf in Quilute existence."
Nana's story was interrupted by Uncle Roshawn's snickering. We all looked at him, shocked. No one ever interrupted my grandma's stories.
Nana glared at Roshawn,"I'm sorry, I missed the joke."
Uncle Roshawn rolled his eyes,"Really, Mom? Every story says that only males have the ability to transform."
"That's because this is the forgotten story of Miakoda. Not the remembered story of Miakoda, otherwise everyone else would know about her too."
Aunt Nina scoffed,"Is it really that important, it's just fairytales."
"Right..." My Nana said,"Now for the rest of my story, with no more interruptions." She gave Roshawn a dirty look,"Where was I?... oh, right.
Everyone couldn't believe their eyes at the sight of Miakoda, the chief's wife, becoming a beast before their eyes. This transformation, however, only benefited the tribe. Now Cheveyo and Miakoda could share each other's thoughts while in wolf form, making them stronger as a couple, and as Alphas.
After many victories together, came one huge loss. Cheveyo was murdered at the hands of another wolf in the tribe, who was jealous of Cheveyo because of his power and beautiful wife.
As many Native Traditions go, if a woman's husband dies, the woman is to re-marry so she can be taken care of. Miakoda refused to take another husband, because she was heartbroken from the loss of her husband, Cheveyo, her soulmate. They had a special bond, one only know to very few people throughout our history. She refused to be suppressed by traditional ties, because she was anything but traditional.
When Cheveyo died, he left Miakoda with the son from his first wife.
Miakoda raised her lost husband's son, Honiahaka, as her own, by herself, never needing the help of anyone else. We believe it was her who paved the way for other women to be independent."
Nana ended and smiled at all of us.
We sat in silence for a second.
"That's it, the whole story?" Uncle Matt broke the silence.
Nana shook her head,"Of course not, but we've already lost half the crowd."
I looked up to see that Uncle Roshawn had fallen asleep, along with Aunt Nina, and Joey was still passed out.
No wonder it was so quiet.
Uncle Matt was able to carry Joey to the car, but had to wake Aunt Nina so she could walk.
Sol rode home with me. Sol was quiet if she didn't know you, and even in our family she doesn't pipe up too much, but one on one you can't get her to shut up.
I love being with Sol alone, she is so goofy and hilarious, there is never a dull moment.
Once we got home, Aunt Nina was waiting for us in the kitchen.
"What's up?" I asked, knowing she was tired, and surprised she hadn't gone straight to bed. I got a knot in my stomach.
"I know it's late, but your Uncle and I really need to talk to you both.
"Uh, ok. Where is Unlce Matt?" Sol wondered.
"He's just putting Joey into bed, he'll be down in a minute. We can go wait in the living room."
Sol and I shot each other nervous glances before following Aunt Nina into the sitting room.
Nina took one of the two grey armchairs, Sol and I sat together on the love seat across. No one said anything until Uncle Matt came and sat in the chair next to his wife."We have a big news,"He smiled at us.
I cocked an eyebrow.
"The last 12 years, you know, I've ran your dad's Marketing business- oh I mean your business"- Matt stopped to chuckle.
"I've ran your business from Port Angeles, which has worked out fine. In the last few years we've been doing extremely well and have been growing like crazy, you may have not noticed since its been a while since any of you have worked with me, but I promise that your wallets have noticed." He shot us a smile and held up his right hand, rubbing his fingers together to signify money.
Nina grabbed Matt's hand to stop him, she gave him a look.
"Oh sorry. Anyway, it's become impossible as the CEO to run the business from here when most of our business is done 19 hours away."
The room was very silent when my Uncle finished speaking.
Then Matt screamed,"We're going to Vegas, baby!"
My jaw dropped and I stared at each person with wide eyes in disbelief; my sister's expression mirroring mine.
Now I frowned.
Vegas was so far away. We have all lived in La Push our whole lives. I have so many good friends here that I have grown up with my whole life. We lived in the most beautiful house in La Push--and probably all of Washington State -- I was born here. All of our ancestors have lived on this land, centuries before Christopher Columbus "founded" America. I had planned on living here my whole life too. It was my heritage, my Native American culture.
I liked visiting the city, but I wasn't a "big city girl."
There is no way I would leave.
Before anyone could give any objections, Aunt Nina continued,"Of course we know that Sol is now an adult and capable of making her own decisions..."
'Oh great!' I thought to myself,' she can do what they want but I don't get a choice?' I folded my arms, I hate feeling like I have no control.
"-Sol,"Nina said,"obviously you can do whatever your heart desires, but know that you are more than welcome to come with us. Luna-,"she turned to me.
"I'm not leaving." I said. Not in a rude, sassy way, but in a matter of fact way. There was no room for negotiation in my voice.
Nina chucked. She knew from raising me how stubborn and sure I was once I've decided on something.
"And you don't have to, honey,"my Aunt smiled.
At that I allowed a small triumphant grin to spread across my face.
"However-" my aunt started.
I rolled my eyes. There is always a catch.
"If Sol decides not to stay here, you are going to get checked up on regularly but Grandma and Roshawn."
"This big house all to herself? No, I think Luna would be way too lonely here, she better go live in the 3 bedroom home with Nana, Uncle Roshawn and Paul. She could share a room with Nana!" Sol says bursting into laughter.
"Hell no! That's not going to happen. I love Nana and everything, but I'd just kick Paul out of his room, he's barley ever there anyways."
"Maybe you might actually see our dear cousin every once and a while if you did live with them." Sol said darkly.
I snorted. Sol had a point.
"Why do you guys have to move to Vegas to run the business," Sol wondered,"Can't you just hire someone to run it for you in Vegas, and you could take care of stuff from here?"
Uncle Matt andAuntNina exchanged a glance. This was one of the few times I had ever seen my Uncle look serious.
Aunt Nina let out a deep breath,"Your uncle and I have been thinking a lot about this the last couple of months since the opportunity arose. We decided it would be best for Joey to move somewhere different, somewhere that doesn't remind him of his mom, so it will be easier."
"What happens when Danica comes back and her whole family isn't here?," I demanded.
"It's been hard on us, I can't imagine how hard it is for Joey. He asks me every day where his mommy is, and it breaks my heart." My aunt Nina teared up,"And it's been so long since she disappeared..."
"What are you saying?" I looked back and forth between my guardians,"You don't think she's coming back?"
"We aren't saying that at all," Uncle Matt said softly,"It's been a long time, we thought she would have shown up by now. It's just for the time being-"
"For the time being you're giving up. You want Joey to forget about his mother." I got up,"She's coming back, we're going to find her soon!" The sinking feeling in my stomach made a comeback. It frustrated me so much that I slammed my fists into the couch I sat on and got up, my hands stung.
"Lunetta, we haven't given up!" My aunt tried to say, but her face betrayed her.
I half ran upstairs to my room, where Blaze was waiting for me.
I threw my arms around him while a few angry tears spilt over.
I hate that I cried when I got angry.
Angry was an understatement, more like I was pissed.
Pissed that we haven't found my sister. Pissed that I felt like everyone but me has given up.
Pissed that I had no answers.
Pissed that no matter how hard I tried to shake it, I still had that horrible gut feeling that I wasn't going to see my sister again.
In my anger I had forgotten to close my bedroom door, my Uncle Matt was standing in the doorframe.
"Can I come in?" He started to walk over to my bed without waiting for an answer.
"Do I have a choice?" I chuckled, wiping the tears off from under my eyes.
Uncle Matt smiled,"Not really." He sat down and wrapped his arms around me, resting his chin on the top of my head. I felt like I was a kid again then he held me like this.
We sat in silence for a couple minutes, which is shocking because neither of us are usually at a loss for words.
My uncle gave me a tight squeeze before speaking,"I know this is a lot of information for you, Lulu. And I know that everyone's emotions have been running high the last few months..."
He paused like he was expecting me to say something. When I didn't, he kept talking,"You're a very strong and independent young woman, Luna. You're so good at concealing your emotions, sometimes your aunt and I forget to think that things get to you. You have more responsibility and more on your mind that any other sixteen year old in the world...What are your thoughts on us moving away from La Push?"
I stayed quiet for a while and then sighed,"I know that it makes most sense for you to move, especially with the business. It will be really good for Joey too, I think. I get sad anytime he asks about him Danica,"I admitted. I could see sadness in my uncle's eyes. I knew that him and Aunt Nina were thinking about what was best for my nephew.
My uncle smiled at me,"Are you going to be okay here by yourself?" He asked.
I rolled my eyes at him,"You might need to leave Joey here to take care of me."
We both laughed.
"But seriously," Matt paused,"I know that you've been taking everything with Danica really hard. I don't want to leave you here after so much change and have you feeling like you're alone. Maybe we should have your Nana move in here with you." Uncle Matt said with a straight face. If I didn't know him so well I would think that he was being serious.
"No way in hell," I laughed. I love my Nana, but I love the idea of living by myself, without direct adult supervision, a whole lot better.
I narrowed my eyes at my uncle,"How did you convince Aunt Nina to let me live her without an adult?" My Aunt is the most protective person I know. When I go to Seattle by myself she is calling my phone non stop to make sure I'm not having sex with Will. She's paranoid that I'm going to get pregnant at a young age like Danica. The difference between me and Danica is I know what a condom is, apparently she didn't.
Uncle Matt laughed at my skeptical look. My uncle, on the other hand, will catch me sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night, laugh, and tell me "make sure you use protection, and don't mix darks and lights!"
He still remembers what its like to be a teenager.
"It took a little convincing, but I used the sympathy card as much as possible. I told her that you've already gone through so much change, you shouldn't be forced to leave your town, school, and home you were born in. Nina really wanted Nana to move in with you. Your Nana refused though. She wanted to stay in the house that she lived in with your grandpa. She told Aunt Nina that she would do frequent check-up on you and the house and make sure you aren't ditching school."
I laughed,"Aunt Nina doesn't even realize I cut classes at least once a week."
Uncle Matt grinned,"I left that part out! But did mention to her that I think you are very responsible because you own your own business and never get into trouble-"
"You mean never get caught?" I smirked.
"It's a good thing I talked to her and not you because you aren't making a very good case for yourself, girl."
Uncle Matt and I laughed together.
I was going to miss him more than words can say.