Harmonizer's Evolution (Balancer's Soul cycle) (52 page)

Connor lifted
a single finger like an explanation point. “Keep in mind I will reimburse you completely, but” He took a deep breath. “I’ll need to slaughter all your cattle.”

David’s faded blue eyes widened. “
All
of them? Why?”

“Because there isn’t a market or slaughterhouse
around here with that much meat i
n
stock
and it will take too long to harvest vegetables from local farms
. You know how much we need to eat and
your
farm is the only place with a supply that large and readily available.
Sorono and I cannot wait for our power to rise on their own because it will take too long.
Please, we really don’t have too much time.”

Connor’s grand
father measured her
husband’s word. He sighed saying “Alright, go ahead, but I’ll wait for that reimbursement.” Then David smiled.
Connor smiled back and then he looked at
the
experienced
mothers and who they carried. He walked forward
and placed a hand on each of their
tiny
heads. At the feel of his touch their eyes fluttered open and they simultaneously squealed
delightfully
and yelled
“Daddy!”

“Yes,
Daddy’s
home.” He said softly. “Listen, the two of you are going on a little trip with your grandmas. I will be back very soon and I want to know what you’ve learned or done since I’ve been gone. Mommy and I are going together so I’d like for you to be on your best behavior. Then if you are good, I brought home a present for you to try.”

After he bent down and kissed both of their heads
,
they both giggled.

Connor proudly walked up to Sarah
with a calm smile. He raised his left hand in offering. “I’ll need your help. Care to join me?”

“I
’m not going to let you out of
sight
,
after so
being away from me for so
long.” Sarah
smiled and took his hand with
her
own.
As they
started rising
she
heard Mark say “Alright, follow me
everyone
.”

He and the others
w
alked slowly into the woods as they
flew over them.

Since it wasn’t e
ven seven in the morning yet, they
flew to the May’s Ranch. Rhoda did have some neighbors, but they were all asleep at this hour
and far enough away that
they
would be unrecognizable from the distance
. If Connor had to slaughter so many cattle for food, he would need the
cover of the early morning
darkness.
She
then began to w
onder
how they would be transported.

Once they
spotted the ranch
they
descended and landed in the middle of the field. Many of the cows were already awake and grazing together in the back
corner
of the property.

Connor smiled and stated “This makes things easier.”
They
walked together toward
s the animals and some spotted them
. Connor raised a hand for
Sarah
to stop when the bovines began retreating
further
away from them
.

“How do you want to do this, my Knight?”

He smiled lovingly down at her
. “I’m going to make this painless for them. All that I’m going to do is forcibly enter their minds and then I’ll need your help tossing them into a pile.”
She
nodded in his understanding.

He
looked at the cattle and
she
saw
his eyes begin to concentrate. She
looked
over when a soft thud rang in her
ears. One of the steers
dropped lifelessly on the ground while all of the others had gone motionless. Then they began falling flatly like someone cut the strings of a puppet. Once they were all down did Connor’s concentration finally relax.

“Where do you want this pile?” He pointed to where most of them
had fallen
closely together.

As they
began wa
lking slowly
she
grabbed the fore
leg of the cow closest to
her
and effortlessly threw it over one hundred feet to the start of the pile. As he threw his
,
Connor began telling
her
e every
thing that he had seen and
d
one
.

After about ten minutes of hearing
the
recollections he threw the final cow on the pile
. He stopped speaking and when she
felt his sickening emotion and
saw his
expression
,
she
ran over to his side
. He
began
looking
pale, green and sick to his stomach.
He’s never looked so upset like this before.
Sarah
put both of
her
hand
s
to the sides of his face and he slowly met
her
eyes.
“Connor, what is the matter? You look
horrible.” He pointed behind her
to the cattle pile that contained
the
seventy two heads of cattle. And then he explained how he saw the piles of cooked and rotting human remains and how these deformed Keepers ate them like
they
are about to do with the cattle. “That’s… That is just sickening. Connor, show me what you saw back on that island.”

His hazel eyes flared and bore into
her
very soul. The way he spoke sent
a dangerous and cold chill up her
spine. “Sarah, I’ll
never
allow you to see that
memory
. There is nothing that you can do that will let me show you. That horror should never be seen or viewed again. What you heard is mere child’s play to the images in my mind. Promise that you’ll
never ask this of me ever again.”

Her
mate had seen something so gruesome
and grotesque
that
it
should be better off forgotten. Unfortunately he might never forget this incident in a million years.
She
nodded while saying “You have my word. I’ll not ask nor trick you into seeing what you’ve seen.”

She
turned around to the pile and looked at it. “You’ve done enough for the day. I’ll transport them if you can tell me why we need to rush.”

“Fair enough.” He said evenly

After
she
made a net of Pressure, the cattle
lifted as one into the air. She
flew by the net while Connor flew at
her
side
, but
they
were moving extremely slowly
. The sun had finally lifted just above the treetops. After a few seconds Connor began explaining what Sorono had uncovered. His explanations were so precise that one could swear that he was the one to find out this enormous conspiracy.
Her
jaw continued opening wider for each event that he described and then he explained Ranvan’s plan.

Once he finished, neither of
them spoke. They
were both equally stunned.

They
made
the
ir
way to the train
ing grounds and the first sign they
saw was a large column of black and gray smoke. The clos
er they
got
,
the more they
saw. A
large bonfire
sat in the center of the rocky clearing
and the flames were so intense that everyone
had to stay a ways back. Since they
took
their
time, everyone showed up
and relaxed
.

Everyone stood in a ring of silence until Sorono turned
when he sensed them
.
He looked cleaner and less beaten, but his robe
remained
in the same condition.
No one smil
ed
. Everyone must have heard the details from Mark on their way here. He now looked like his human self. Then
they
moved closer and landed.

As Sarah
released the hold of the cattle
she
began
focusing on the expressions o
f
two certain individuals and compare
d
them to everyone else.

Veronica, Shannon and Kara looked at all the meat hungrily. David wasn’t too thrilled about losing one of his main sources of income. Rhoda,
Jillian and Jack
looked casual. Jenny wasn’t paying to
o
much attention as she held
the inquisitive
Darrel. Pearl looked at the pile questioningly while being held in
Jillian’s
arms.

And then there were Sorono and Mark.

The two of them
, she glanced at particularly,
looked at the pile almost like Connor did.
Mark’s silver eyes were wide and his jaw muscled were twitching continually.
She’d
never seen a Keeper go green, but that was what his
scaly
expression could be translated into.
So it really was that horrifying
?

She
realized
Connor was in
her
mind when he nodded and walked forward.
His nod answered her
internal question, wholly.
His tone
turned
calm and even “It isn’t difficult to tell that you all understand what we will soon face. We have a lot of work ahead of us and we need to bolster ourselves.” He turned to Sorono and Veronica. “Go ahead and get these cleaned and cooked. While the meat is cooking, we can start throwing
some
ideas around.”

Soon there were five cows
laid out
on the fire
while Connor held both of their
children
.
He listened intently on what they were taught. He
became
pleased on how well they learned
and retained
.

Then Connor pulled out two black
ish
, wrinkled
seeds after handing Darrel over to
his mommy
. He held the
seeds
up for them to see. He said “I know how much you like the taste of chocolate.” He was right. They both like the taste of chocolate pudding because they d
id
n’t have teeth to chew
on hard
candy
yet
. “These are where chocolate comes from.
Would you like to taste raw chocolate?”
They said yes together and
were in for a surprise.

Her
husband crus
hed one seed
,
bare handed
,
and gave each of them a small
powdery
taste. The smile they had on
,
vanished quickly. Both of their faces went red as they tasted the bitter
and raw
chocolate. Everyone laughed when Pearl finally said
“That isn’t very funny, Daddy!
That was gross!
”
Then everyone finally began laughing.

While the
meat
cooked properly
,
they
began forming ideas together. Everyone pitched in, but most of the logical ones came from either Sorono or
her
mate.
They
weren’t preparing a counterstrike
yet
,
they
needed to find a place to
gather
and support large numbers
.

By the time Sorono ate fifty nine cows, Connor ate twelve and Mark ate
half of
one
,
did they
finally
find a
reasonable
solution. Everyone would meet here.
This field is large enough to contain a large number and there are many hotels less than an hour away and some motels and apartments
lay
closer
in town
.