Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you 

Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, 
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, 
Must ask permission to know it and be known. 
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, 
I have made this place around you, 
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here. 
No two trees are the same to Raven. 
No two branches are the same to Wren. 
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you, 
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows 
Where you are. You must let it find you. 

(David Wagoner)

Chapter One: Perfect

I couldn’t believe it had already been a year. I still wasn’t used to not sleeping. There was nothing to indicate the passing of yet another day. In some way, days had ceased to exist. They blended together with the nights, giving me a new and unique perspective on life. Well, perhaps life was the wrong word. My life had ended, but my new existence had just begun. I now had the gift to experience the whole world through different eyes. Better, more perceptive eyes. The eyes of a vampire! Nothing could interrupt the serenity of my unending happiness.  Before me was an eternity of bliss with the one I had given my heart and life to. Edward Cullen, my husband. How ironic that I had to lose my life to truly find it. I now had a husband and a daughter who I loved more than anything in this world, and even my perfectly ordinary father had found a place in this new, fantastic life. My best friend Jacob Black, who I feared to have forever lost after my transformation into his natural enemy, had not only accepted my change, but inadvertently secured permanent peace between his Quileute tribe and my family of vegetarian vampires. He was forever bound to my daughter, Renesmee, through a connection that was hard to explain and impossible to break. While I was shocked beyond belief that he had imprinted on her in the beginning, I now realized that she could not have found a soul mate better suited for her. Jacob had one of the biggest hearts of anyone I knew and the ability to transform into a wolf by will; I knew that he would be able to keep her save. A tremendously important trait, if one was to consider who her mother was. If she had inherited even the slightest part of my mysterious ability to attract trouble like a magnet, she needed someone to protect her. Not that she was unable to defend herself by any means. She had grown much in the past year, and so did her skill to hunt and fight. It was impossible for her not to pick up some moves, growing up among vampires and wolves. Her hunting techniques nearly rivaled those of her father. Though considering Alice’s cautionary words, no protection might be good enough. The Volturi would not stand still, knowing someone was able to challenge them. They left, but there was no doubt in her mind that we had not yet seen the last of them. She could see it as clear as day; they would return someday. Stronger than ever before! It was not over yet, and sometimes I wondered if it ever would be. It did not matter right now, though. We would deal with it, when we had to. They were still bound to the laws they pretended to represent and without a natural end looming over them, they were in no hurry. One thing was certain, though. As much as I detested the Volturi and their misuse of power to “collect” the most gifted vampires, a world without them would be much more frightening. A world in which there were no consequences for breaking established laws would be devastating. Most vampires were not as friendly towards humans as our clan. Most vampires were nomads, feeding on humans and only restraining their hunger, so that their existence was never exposed. If the Volturi, the judges and executioners of the vampire world, were taken out of the equation, there would be chaos. It would be open season for the hunt of humans. I just wished I would never see the day, on which the power shifted into even more unscrupulous hands. I was unwilling to let my happiness be distracted by the gloomy thoughts in my head and focused on the perfection of the present. I sighed, still unable to believe might luck. Overwhelming love flooded my whole body as I silently watched my husband, just a few inches away from me.