Solus by Talis Jones

Author:Talis Jones [Jones, Talis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781797560366
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-06-24T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

21

The soft covering of snow is nothing compared to what we'd get in Sanctuary but even so it makes our progress slow and my navigation uncertain.

“Are we almost there?” I ask in the stillness of winter. There's something comforting and peaceful here, away from people, surrounded by ice and silence and a cold so crisp you want to curl up and sleep but the dawn light glints against the crystals in such a way that even your breath softens so as not to shatter the scene.

“Where we snagged your ass easy as a rabbit in springtime?”

“You mean my ass that just escaped imprisonment and torture?”

“Whatever,” she snorts with no sympathy. “Yeah we're in the area.” Halting her horse she points off to the left. “The Corral you came from has to be the one over that way. Do you remember what direction you came from when they brought you there?”

“I was in the mountains but further south, I think.”

“You think?”

I smirk. “I know. I was just trying to practice a bit of polite humility.”

“Yeah right,” she rolls her eyes. “So long as we take turns keeping watch we should be alright stopping here for a rest. Sound good?”

“Are you really asking?”

“Nope. You get first watch.” And with that she slides out of her saddle with a thick sleeping bag and passes out quicker than I'd ever think possible.

With my shotgun in my hands I swing to the ground and brush aside some of the powdery snow to uncover a patch of grass for the horses to graze. They don't seem particularly impressed. Resting against a tree I perch on some of its taller roots that aren't quite so damp and tune my ears to even the smallest of sounds that carries across the frozen forest. My eyes drift towards the girl sleeping across from me and with her face blank of warpaint along with the soft snore that whistles through her nose I realize that this might be the softest she'll ever look.

“What are you staring at?” she grumbles sleepily.

“You remind me of someone I used to know, sis.”

“I'm not your sister.”

“Yeah, well, I'm pretending you are.”

“You're a weirdo.”

I give a short huff of laughter. “Everything about my life makes me weird.”

For a moment silence settles once again and I think she's fallen back asleep.

“Who do I remind you of?” she asks annoyed, either because I never told her or at her own curiosity.

“My mom,” I answer, a small smile sad upon my face.

“Let me guess, she wasn't really your mom.”

“No, I guess not.” I look off to the sun rising in the distance, red as blood. “She hated when I called her that.”

“I know the feeling.”

“She got used to it,” I lie just to tease her.

“Well I won't. Family is blood,” Mara mumbles. “Blood first. Family first.”

“Maybe where you come from that's how it is, but not for me. I find family where I can, piecing a picture together one journey at a time.”

“Well pick people who like you,” she groans, turning to lay on her other side.

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