The Hidden Orphan (The Chronicles of Mistar - Book 2)

Two · · · Jadon

Chapona, Lotna

"REST YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER," Jadon Mackel whispered to himself. When Tapalla and Jadon were young, it's what he used to say to her when she was afraid. Now they were the words Jadon used when he needed comfort, to know that Tapalla was okay. He saw the news. The C.S. screen showed him very clearly and it wasn't a pretty picture.

Tapalla Monae was a tough girl. He had to trust in that. As kids, she got scared easily, but that doesn't mean she backed down from a fight. Instead, she punched her way through any problem.

At the time, Jadon was so naive that he thought they would get married one day. Him and Tapalla. Tapalla and him. How stupid he was. He couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that Tapalla was a princess and that someday her father would choose the rightful suitor for her to marry and become king. Jadon always knew it wasn't him. It never was and never will be. Still, Jadon hoped he would see her again. If not now, maybe when they were old and wrinkly.

At ten births, a few days after they shared a marvelous birthday party, Tapalla had to leave. Her parents came in the night and stole her away. Jadon barely knew what was going on. All he knew was that Tapalla was the target and she needed to get away. Only then, Jadon didn't it was going to be the last time he saw her. If he knew, he would have admitted his feelings towards her that he thought they could be more than friends.

Now, Jadon sat in one of the many piccoula trees that surrounded Chapona's Clearing where all of Lotna's biggest sunset parties took place. Jadon found it a few days after Tapalla left, wishing he could show her his new hideout. The piccoula tree he found, after he started calling it his Wishing Tree, grew tall like all the others, but was hollow inside, letting little critters and plants grow within its bark. Vines covered the interior of the Wishing Tree, strong enough to hold Jadon's weight at ten births. Now he was eighteen and the vines had grown even stronger.

At the top of the Wishing Tree, Jadon found dark branches smothered in lime green leaves that were as long as his forearm. On piccoula trees, their branches grew close together creating what looked like a cocoon. It was dangerous harvesting wood from piccoula trees since workers weren't able to tie a rope from one of the tree's limbs to hang down and actually cut the other branches and the trees were tall for any machine to lift the workers up and cut the branches.

Since the inside of the tree was hollow and still standing, Jadon always thought of himself as the first person to actually get inside a piccoula tree. At age fifteen, Jadon wanted to sit in his Wishing Tree and watch the sunset parties from above, but he never could because the tree's branches always blocked his way. So he hauled a saw of his own to the top of the tree and spent a whole week cutting an uneven hole where he could dangle his feet over the edge and watch as the fell down over the horizon, letting Glisten Sea sparkle.

Ever since he found his secret Wishing Tree, Jadon never told anyone about it except for his mother and only his mother for safety reasons. He only called it his Wishing Tree because it's where he went to when he needed to think. In the end, he always ended up wishing that Tapalla was sitting next to him snuggled up next to him like they used to do when they were kids. Jadon's wish was never granted, but that didn't matter. He always felt like Tapalla was tugging at his soul, making him come find her instead of coming back to Lotna.

The day before, after a sunset party, Jadon had watched the C.S. with his parents only to figure out that Tapalla was Gazar. After she left, nobody told him where she went and why, but now he knew. Somewhere in Lotna, news had leaked that Tapalla was on Gazar and people started to flood to the planet in search of their lost princess, the king, and queen too. Only Tapalla's uncle and the king's brother, Prince Cole, knew where they went to. Jadon begged his parents to take him Gazar but they wouldn't let him go. He stormed out of his house and spent the night in his Wishing Tree.