The Sentinels (Book One)

Chapter 17

By the time they finished setting up the tent and eating a small dinner, night had fallen and the sky was completely black. Nella was grateful that they had stopped when they did, or they would have had to set up in the dark with just the lamp for light. They would have been vulnerable and unprepared if something came out of the forest, although she doubted anything would come out this far. She thought of the cougar that had followed them in the forest and shivered. Not here, please not here. There's nowhere to run to.

They all sat in the dust around the fire, in their normal spots. Tai and Nella side by side, with Jax across from them on the other side of the fire. Tai held a warm can of canned pork, eating slower as his small stomach filled. Jax sat quiet too, his eyes staring into the flames as he twisted a stick into the sand. After a moment, he pulled out the wooden wolf and began to chip away with his knife.

Nella looked up from the figure to Jax. "When do you think it will be finished?" She asked curiously, trying to make conversation. She observed all the etched marks of fur.

"Don't know," he replied flatly.

Nella tried to ignore the sting and looked away frustratedly.

Jax looked up and must have read her face, because he waited until she looked back at him. He locked eyes with her for a moment, then said, "but it doesn't really matter, does it? Time? Time is irrelivant in a place like this. There is nowhere to be at a specific time and no matter where the sun is we are still doing the same thing. And even if I did finish this useless fidget anytime soon, it would only mean I'd have nothing to ease my mind with once again."

Nella processed his words and nodded her head, understanding every word. It was like speaking her own mind, the part she tried to shut out because it was so bleak. "I guess you're right," she said as she looked back into the fire.

Jax didn't say anything else, just chipped away for a little while longer until he put it away to put more sticks in the fire.

Tai watched them both and finished his food, then set the can down on the ground. He looked up at Nella, and once again she thought she saw the fogginess in his eyes, although the shadows from the fire disturbed it. "Nella, I'm tired," he said, yawning. "I wanna go to bed now."

Nella smiled and gently stroked his hair, his sleepy eyes fluttering as he rested his head on her shoulder. "Okay, we'll get you tucked in," she replied softly.

Knowing he was already too sleepy, she picked the boy up and carried him to their tent. Jax looked up from the fire and watched as they disapeared inside.

"Do we have to walk that long again tomorrow?" Tai said desperately with a small whine in his voice. Nella placed him down on the floor tarp and covered him in his wool blanket.

"We should, because we'll get where we need to be sooner, but if you really don't feel up to it, we can stop."

Tai snuggled up in his blanket to get comfortable and blinked his brown eyes up at her in the dark. The only light was the faint orange glow of the fire through the tarp. "But I thought Jax was in charge, and he won't let us."

Nella stiffened. "What? No, Jax isn't 'in charge,' nobody is. We are just traveling together because we are going to the same place. And we don't have to listen to anything he says."

"But it kind of feels like we have to listen. He was mean today and I didn't like him today," he squeaked.

Nella looked down at him sympathetically and rested a hand on his cheek. "Did you prefer when it was just the two of us?"

"No, I liked when there were four of us."

She felt her chest ache and she ignored it. "I did too. But do you not want Jax with us anymore?" She avoided the subject of their parents.