Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (15 page)

“DAMN! THAT WAS AN AVALANCHE!” Jack yelled from
the
right arm.

Just below
their
feet
slid
a rolling
wall of snow, rock
s
, tree
s
and earth came barreling down the slope of the mountain
that
they
were all running up. The wall of the avalanche was at least ten to twelve feet high.
T
rees
effortlessly began
breaking under the stress of the onslaught
,
adding their limbs to the tumbling slide.

Connor
grew
worried
where the girls were and altered
his
left leg
,
just a little forward to turn
around. He
scanned
the
surroundings and finally found them about a hundred yards away and about five stories above ground level.
He
adjusted Mark to fit more comfortably and eased some of the pressure from Jack’s ribcage.
Connor
angled
his
feet slightly behind to fly towards the girls. And Sarah had the
same idea and came closer to their
direction and dropped her altitude down to
their
level. She still held the arms
of Jillian and Kara in her vice-
like grip. Both of the girls were
dangling
by their arms
,
shocked by what just happened. Sarah held them both easily in the air
and
her fac
ial
e
xpression
remained
neutral.
Everyone’s cloaks were all open and flapping in the wind
,
like flags
.
Even with both Jack and the heavy Mark in
his
arms
, it was still easy as breathing to fly.

When they
flew closer
Connor
asked all the girls “Are you all alright?”

“I’m ok, Brother.” His
sister sighed loudly. “Man… that was a close one!”

She had no idea.

“I too am fine, Connor.” Jillian said
,
finally easing the shocked look from her face. “Thank you for the heads up or else we would have r
un
directly into it.”

“Connor?” Sarah said in her silky voice and everyone became calm and quiet. “How did you know that was about to happen?”

He
sighed with relief that everyone was ok. “I had a very bad feeling that something was about to happen
, it isn’t easy to explain
. I’m just glad we were able to avoid it.”
He
looked down at the devastation left from the avalanche. Trees were uprooted, stripped, broken and all together
ruined. The snow
mixed with rocks and dirt
and made it immensely more dangerous
. The
movement had finally stopped. He
scanned the ground and somethi
ng
began
nagging in the back of his
mind.
He
looked back up at Sarah and said “I think
it’s safe to touch back down.” then
entered her mind.
“I think
there
might be a problem
about all this
.”
Her green eyes flared with alarm and scanned the ground.
“I will explain to everyone when we touch down.”
She looked back up and nodded
,
barely.

As they
were dropping towards the ground Mark turned his head and sat his silver eyes on
his friend
. His voice was calm. “That was some quick thinking. I was in an avalanche once before and let me tell you
,
I never want to wind up buried again. If it wasn’t for my physical strength
,
the
snow’s
pressure would have completely
immobilized
me.
” He smiled and showed
off
his perfectly white teeth. “Thank you for not making me relive that
frightening
experience
again.”

Connor
i
s about fifteen feet from the gr
ound as he
said “You would have done the exact same thing for me if our positions were reversed, Bud.”

He snickered. “You’re right about that.”

Sarah reached the ground first and as Jillian and Kara touched the ground she released her hold. Then she easily touched the ground
and stopped her power output. Connor
touched the ground then released the two men on the
solid earth
. He
looked at both Jillian and Kara as they rubbed their wrists from where Sarah firmly held them. The ground and surrounding air were both completely silent.

Sarah walked up and wrapped her arms gently around
her husband
.
He
kissed the top of her head. She then finally pulled away and said evenly “You said something about this not being right.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked and he had his arm over Jillian’s shoulder. His azure eyes were wide and looked very worried. “What isn’t right?”

Sarah s
pun and pressed her back into Connor’s
torso as
he
began
speaking
. “That avalanche shouldn’t have happened without a cause.
Trust me, something is wrong, but I cannot explain
it
…
I don’t believe in coincidences.
” He
looked up at the darkening sky
of building clouds
. “The new snow hasn’t fallen yet. And the slide happened just as we were on our way to the meeting. I
simply
don’t believe that this avalanche was a coincidence.” Everyone looked at everyone else
with worry
. “I can tell that it wasn’t tripped on purpose because I didn’t feel any malice. I only felt danger.”
He
pointedly asked “What if someone else is buried under the snow?”

“You think that someone would be out here? This is the middle of nowhere.” This coming from a quiet Jillian.

Connor
cryptically asked “Then why are we out here?”

Her jaw
dropped once she realized what he
meant.

“What do you think we
should do?” Mark asked beside his mate
. Her head rested on his
shoulder
, but her gaze remained on her brother
.

Connor
checked the
ruined surroundings while develop
ing
a plan. He
looked back at him. “We’ll all search for two hours and if we don’t fi
nd anything we will continue.” Connor
looked sharply in his silver eyes. “I will need both you and my sister to become wolves and
help us with your extreme sense
of smell. Mark you will split up with Jillian and Jack and Kara will travel with Sarah and
me
. We Balancers will survey the area with our sonar and you
’ll
use your nose to see if you find anything out of the ordinary.”
He
looked at everyone
; even Sarah as she tilted her head back to see
him
.
“Time is not our friend right now. I know this is an odd request to search for someone that might not exist, but wouldn’t you feel better knowing that you made sure there wasn’t someone in trouble.”

In answer Mark and Kara’s pupils began to glow
almost as
i
f
of
one mind
. They shrugged off their backpacks as they began their transformation. Bones all over their body began breaking and reforming. Both of their statures began growing. They kicked off their boots and they didn’t have any socks.
T
heir toenails began to shape into
versatile
claws. Their hands became
more like
claws and even their arms began to grow
and lengthen
slightly.
Then both of their necks thickened.
Both of their fac
ial features
began breaking and their mouth and nose began lengthening to become a muzzle. Then their hair started growing finely over their faces and the hair on their head grew down their neck
, but this time they didn’t fuse their hair to become armor. Mark’s fur
appeared
jet black
while
Kara’s
i
s sandy blonde. Their rounded ears changed shape to become pointed. Then their chests became barreled. The shirt’s they wore were now tighter, but didn’t rip.

They finished their transformations practically at the same time, but Kara was the first to speak. She opened her muzzle and showed her menacing new teeth. Her voice
turned
animalistic, but still held an air of femininity. “Let’s get to it, Brother!” She grinned as she dropped to her forelegs with a gentle crunch from the snow.
Connor
also
noticed
her long sandy blonde tail
protruding
out of the back of her cloak.

He
grabbed
his
sister’s bag
and Jack grabbed Mark’s. Connor
said to Mark as he had just dropped to all fours “We’ll all meet back here in two hours. If you find anything contact me
.” His massive head nodded once and followed Sarah’s parents. As he followed he kept his nose to the ground
, already on the job
.

Sarah, Kara and Connor
started
the
search about where the avalanche originated. The ground and terrain were barren and
gave away
that this place didn’t have any
trees originally. This place
i
s prime avalanche territory.
They
split into a loose net between the three of
them
.
E
ach
person
took about fifty yards between each other
to cover a larger search area
. Both Sarah and
Connor
used sonar
more specifically
to detect anything under
foot, but such focus reduced the overall range to a hundred yards at most
. Kara scurried along the snow sniffing both the air and the ground in her search. Her silver slit eyes were focused on
the
task.

R
apid sonar pulses
were used
every twenty yards
or so
t
o look under ground. The colored images
his
brain
usually
received
from eyesight
were
only
in
black and white.
It became possible to see
through the different layers of snow. An avalanche starts by snow piling on light
er
snow then on heavy snow. The avalanche occurs when the softer layered snow can no longer hold the weight of the snow above it and gravity pulls the snow at an angle causing a slide. Below the snow lies the rock and stone of the mountain.

They
were about to call it quits because an hour and a half passed without any luck.
Connor
decided to take one last look with sonar
for good measure
. Benea
th the
shifted
snow
laid
something…
b
ig
.
He
had a hard time
determining the shape because he
had never seen anything like it before.
I
t wasn’t moving
either
.
He
looked inside
it
and saw a heart beating, but it was as large as
a person’s
head
and
pumped
very
slowly
.
If not for the movement of the heart his sonar
wouldn’t have discerned whatever it is from the ground.
There was also something solid
and
close to it and lucky for them
it was buried in only fifteen feet of snow.

Connor
yelled “Sarah! Kara! I found something!”