The Destined Protector (The Chronicles of Mistar - Book 1)

Seven · · · Tapalla (.3)

Tapalla, Monta, and Dirken stopped short when they came to the intersection. To their left was the road through the woods. In the distance, Tapalla could see a billow of smoke along the trail. She gulped and turned to the right.

The road along the right was by the cliff. In about a quarter of an inta were houses. The first house they had seen along the road. That house was where the neighborhood stopped and the road became the path to the next city. It was a road of trade and travelers that was barely ever used.

They took the road along the cliff and they walked in silence to the beat of their footfalls. Tapalla huffed under her breath as she listened for Monta voice. She assumed that he was going to say something sooner or later, but he never did. Tapalla bit her lip and kept placing one foot in front of the other. Her arms were getting tired and she needed a break.

Tapalla gasped as she said, "Can we have a break please?"

"Yes," Monta grunted. "Set him down carefully."

After Tapalla helped Monta sit Dirken down, she took her own place on the ground. Her coral skirt almost restricted her legs from sitting cross-legged, but she made it work. The beautiful color was covered in dirt and grass stains from her time in the tunnel and when they got out of the hole.

Monta sat down next to her and took her hand. She rubbed his thumb and glanced over at their supposed leader. He almost looked dead, but Tapalla knew he had a heartbeat. It was one of the only things she had heard as they walked.

"Do you think he will survive?" Tapalla asked Monta giving him a slide glance.

Monta shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, but thanks for keeping me sane. I was seriously thinking about leaving him back there but changed my mind. Like I said, you keep me sane. Without out you, I'd already be in a mental institution. If that happened, I bet Ray and Ralli would team up to get me out." Tapalla watched Monta laugh just thinking about it.

Tapalla chuckled too, but what he said made her kinda uneasy.

"Hopefully that wouldn't happen."

Monta nodded his head. "Of course it wouldn't it, but I'm not saying it's impossible."

Tapalla rubbed her shoulders from a nasty breeze that blew over the cliff edge.

"Are you cold?" Monta asked wrapping his arms around her.

Tapalla nodded as she said, "Yeah. I am. This is my Solstice jacket, but right now it feels more like Winter."

"Do you want mine?" he asked about to take his off.

Rejecting his offer, Tapalla said, "No thank you. Then you'll be cold and I'll ask you if you want your coat back. You'll probably try to be the tough guy and say no, but I'll persistent and give it back to you anyway. Then the whole cycle starts over again. It seems to cheesy for me, so I'd rather just stick with the jacket I have."

Monta seemed taken back as both of his eyebrows lifted making Tapalla laugh even more. "So were cheesy now?"

Tapalla rolled her eyes. "That's all you got out of my rant, Charmer?"

One of Monta's eyebrows dropped leaving his left eyebrow up. "Yes, but what else should I have listened to? I zoned out at the words no thank you and started to actually listen at the word cheesy. Understand?"

Tapalla bit her lip and nodded. "I think so, but I'm not repeating myself again."

"I know," Monta moaned as he looked to the city in the distance. "Sometimes, like right now, you're stubborn, independent, and shutdown. Other times you are crazy, energetic, moody, happy, and both realistic and unrealistic."

This time it was Tapalla's eyebrow that popped up. "How does that last part work?" she asked.

Monta shrugged his shoulders again. "I don't know," he said. "I just know that it somehow makes sense."

"Uhuh," she said trying to sound annoyed.

"Oh shut up," he scoffed.

A sly smile appeared on Tapalla face. "Now I'm going to do what your sister does and copy you," she said. "Oh shut up."