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

Fifteen · · · Tapalla (.3)

Sitting in one of the many guest bedrooms, Tapalla remembered the smell of the stew. Underneath her covers, it made her smile, though the feelings at the dinner table were horrid. Monta was angry at her and Payfil daughters kept arguing. The only good feelings at the table were the smiles passed between Chaka and Ray, even though he was still burdened by the fact that the parents he thought he had weren't his real ones.

After they had dinner, Chaka went to go see her mother as Ray tailed her, following her every step through the house. Tapalla and Monta followed Jastka to Dirken's room, though they didn't talk since he was sleeping. In her dreams, Tapalla remembered Dirken's sleeping face, calm and motionless. When Dirken wouldn't wake up, they left his room and made their way to the guest bedrooms. At that point, Jastka left them with two rooms across the large hallway. Tapalla lingered at the door waiting for Monta to say goodnight, but the words never came. Instead, he slipped inside his room leaving Tapalla alone in the hallway.

Inside her room, Tapalla undressed and found and silk nightgown in the walk-in closet along with a pair of pajamas as if a boy was going to sleep in the room instead of a girl. She used the bathroom, turned off the lights, and then slipped into the enormous bad that sat in the middle of the room. Its alpon covers were warm and they reminded Tapalla of Monta. Tapalla sneered at the thought and pushed it out of her mind. She then focused on sleeping, squeezing her eyes shut even harder than before.

Just as she was about to drift off to sleep, Tapalla thought she heard the door creak open so he sat up, blinking her eyes. It had all of a sudden become bright as if the lights had turned on. When her eyes had adjusted, Tapalla found herself sitting on the ground in a clear pasture, a strange tree in the distance with what looked like a fence growing out of its side.

Dried blood clung to the grass, smearing onto her hands and dress becoming not so dry due to the dew drops. As soon as she saw red stains on her hands, Tapalla jumped up and ran to the only thing she saw, the gnarled tree. Tapalla ran up the hill, tripping over her now red spotted dress. Tears were streaming down her face. She wanted to get the blood away. When she ran into the tree she looked around the valley searching for a pool of water to clean her dress and her hands, but there was none in sight. Tapalla kept crying as she listened to wind rustle the leaves if the tree. She was dreaming. At least she hoped she was dreaming.

Tapalla knew she was dreaming, but it didn't feel like it. To her, it felt real. Too real to be a dream. She jumped when laughter pierced the air and took steps away for the tree searching for the person who had laughed.

"Up here, Tapa," a girl's voice said in the tree. The girl jumped down to reveal herself. Tapalla found a young girl, who looked about fifteen, with her skin dark brown and flushed a constant red with her eyes gray like the beginning of a rainstorm. Her smile was contagious, but Tapalla was too distraught to even try to smile. The girl wore formal clothes so she almost looked like a princess. Castan, no doubt, from the planet Pezda.

"How do you know my name?" Tapalla asked stepping away from the girl and into the trunk of the tree.

The girl only rolled her eyes as she said, "You'll figure that out in the future, Tapa, but I'm here to warn you."

"Just get it over with," Tapalla growled, urgent to get out of her crazy dream, but also scared out of her mind.

"I will then," the girl started to say as she walked around the tree, "but first, isn't this tree just so nice? I thought I'd bring you to place of the topic of our conversation."

"The tree?"

"No," the girl laughed now in front of Tapalla again. It didn't take long for the girl to walk around the tree's trunk. "You left where I wanted to talk." She pointed back down the hill where pools of blood had been spilled.

A match lit inside of Tapalla's brain, almost making her feel stupid. It was the place in May's vision where she saw Monta, a Pent boy, and a Castan girl. It made Tapalla wonder if the girl standing in front of her was the one in May's vision. Tapalla's skin then turned cold when she imagined the blood on her clothes as Monta's. She so desperately wanted it not to be.

"I wanted to talk down there, the place where you know the possible future," the girl continued. "It's not so bad when you get over the smell of death and iron." At those words, Tapalla watched the girl smile even wider and made Tapalla gulp in fear. This girl was crazy. Tapalla wanted her dream to end.

"Why?" Tapalla asked. "Do you like the smell of iron?" she said too scared to say the word death.

The girl laughed again making Tapalla's skin crawl. "No, not at all, but I will admit that it does give me a little high."

"You're a lunatic!" Tapalla blurted as she dug her fingernails into the bark.

"Your right, Tapa," the girl agreed. "I always have been and I always will be. Maybe it's because my parents locked me away as baby and kept me hidden, or the fact that my sister knew I was alive but did nothing to stop my torture, or maybe it was you," she growled, her voice turning as hard as iron compared to her soft, fluttery voice from only a few moments ago.

Surprised, Tapalla's hands flew to her mouth to stop herself from gasping. "Why me?" she asked taking away her hands. "I don't even know you!"

The girl eyed her as she said, "Yes you do, just not yet, but you will. I promise you that, Tapa. Yes, I promise you that." The more she talked, the more her voice seemed to dissipate as if it was an echo.

"What is your warning then?" Tapalla asked through gritted teeth.

"It's about your lover," the girl whispered.

The only person Tapalla could think of was Monta and clear, blue eyes.

"Or Charmer, I should say," the girl added. "Fitting title."

Tapalla then growled, "Just tell me."

The girl bit her lip and replied, "Fine! I will. Here it is: don't tell him about his future. Don't listen to May. If you tell him, that future will become true and Monta will die, but he will beg you to tell him, so you can't. I already told you the consequences if you do."

Tapalla snapped her mouth shut as the girl's form started to turn to smoke. Just as she was about to disappear, leaving Tapalla alone, the girl winked startling Tapalla.

"See ya in the future!" the girl called and then she was gone.

Tapalla was now alone with the dark tree and she didn't like it. She wanted to leave and run away, but it was a dream so where would she go, so she decided to stay put. Maybe if I fall asleep here, she thought. If I do, I might wake up back home.

She tried falling asleep but kept finding herself staring at the pools of blood. They gave her the creeps, but she couldn't stop imagining that the blood was Monta's. It made her think of that crazy girl's words if they were true. If Tapalla told Monta him his future like May wanted he would die, but Tapalla didn't know if she could trust her words. Tapalla decided to put it off and start thinking of sleep. Finally, she did. Tapalla's eyelids fell and breathing became softer as she drifted to sleep on the trunk of the tree, determined that it was just some crazy dream and not real.