Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (16 page)

Suddenly
sounds of both
swift and heavy run
ning approached
. Her cloak billowed o
ut as she ran on all fours in his
direction. At the same time she arrived so did Sarah and her
expression
questioning. Sarah asked “What did you find?”

“Le
t’s find out.” He
said quickly.

He
took a few steps forward to where
he
was close
r
to it.
Power came forth again
and in
his
mind
he
opened a hole in the snow that
lay
right
in front
o
f
himself
. Liquid
is
perfect
to
remove snow
and
his
instinct to focus
the
power
to bring forth the reality
came effortlessly
.
He
held
both
hands over the ground and felt the cool f
lowing sensation trickle down his
arms. Instantly a hole appear
ed
in the sno
w and it descended down to what
ever it was. Kara
cautiously
stepped closer to watch the hole being made
open before het
and
Sarah stood
on the other side as she too
pe
e
k
ed
below
.

When Connor
reached the ground
,
after removing all of the snow
and revealed whatever it i
s
,
Sarah exclaimed “It’s a Keeper!”

Relaxed and Frightened

“This is a Keeper
!
?
” Connor
asked in full astonishment
,
pointing down the hole that
finished opening per his
command
.
Sarah’s
worried green eyes looked at
her mate
as she nodded in
upmost
seriousness.
This was an unfor
eseen event that would change his
life
yet
again.

Back when Jillian and Sarah told
him
about the keepers, they said
he
would reference them closer to dragons.

In
his
mind
he
pictured dragons with long sinuous necks and huge wings to fly. A dragon with spikes and horns
covering its entire scaly body,
w
ith four talon covered feet and a thick rudder-like tail
.
Connor
felt
so very wrong
in his
initial
assumptions
of a dragon
.

In the large hole
he
created
i
s what a real Keeper looked like. The
actual
Keeper
lay
completely
oblivious to the world
and
teetered
on the
razor’s
edge of life
and
death
. It
s still body caused some panic within himself until he witnessed
it finally take a
small
breath
of fresh air
and its heart
began
be
a
t
ing somewhat more regularly, but too slow for his tastes
. The K
eeper was laying on its back with its legs and arms bent in painful pos
itions. The creature was huge. He
guessed that this Keeper would stand at least ten feet tall and weigh approximately
three
thousand pounds
or more
.
F
rom the Keeper’s massive back legs
revealed
that it could be
both
bipedal or a quadruped if it so chose.
The arms and legs resembled the joints of a human
, proportionally
.
He
guessed that they might move somewhat like
humans
.
The
only thing
Connor
had correct in
the
original
assumptions were that the
skin of the Keeper
i
s
actually
made up of
scales
, but
were
smooth
and glossy black.
A
dirty white robe
covered the large creature and
wrapped around
its body and at
its
waist shone
an ornate belt made of linked
gold and encrusted with red rubie
s. It had three clawed fingers and a thumb on each hand. Each claw was also jet black and curved. Its feet had three claws per foot as well, but they weren’t as long as their finger counterparts. I
ts
inside ankles
revealed
two sharp dewclaws
on either foot
that looked remarkably similar to a Vilociraptor’s trademark claw
. The
soles
of its feet were scaled and flat and somewhat resembled
humanoid
.
The breast of the Ke
eper
seemed
somewhat barreled and Connor
knew that it had a large lung capacity.
Upon
closer
inspection
he
guessed the Keeper
to be
female because of
its subtle
cur
ves, but
also
noticed that she did
n’t have breasts like a human woman.
Another indication that it was a she
lay in
the way her muscles looked
and
showed
that they were relatively subtle
compared to a normal male’s bulky
, corded
muscles.
A
black, sleek, thin whip-like tail
remained
laying between its legs.
Finally
he
looked at her head. The neck of the
K
eeper was as thick
, if not thicker
than
a bull’s, but is smooth
and sleek
and n
ot bunched up
in muscle
. The head of the K
eeper was as large as
Connor’s
torso. Both eyes were closed, but
he
could tell that they were centered forward
on the skull
; the mark of a predator.
With the eyes pointed forward it gives the
creature
a better judge of distance to its prey. Her forehead is sloped back unli
ke
a
human
’s
high ridged foreheads. She
has a short rounded muzzle. It looked like half of an alligator’s mouth. Its leathery lips covered its teeth so
he
couldn’t tell what they looked like. Its nose had two holes about an inch apart.

It looked like one
still
a
rm was reaching for something. Connor
looked
in that direction
and
discovered
an oval sha
ped object. It was as wide as his
arms held out
into a circle and as tall as his
hip. It was pure white and
he
knew what it was. “She w
as trying to protect her egg!” he
said
aloud to
himself and to his
companions
.

Connor
immedia
tely jumped down the hole,
worried for both
lives
. Knowing that the Keeper
i
s alive for the moment,
he
checked out the egg
first
.
He
used Sonar to penetrate its hard and thick shell.

Sarah yelled down the hole from the surface “What is it?”

He cut the flow of
power and looked up at her
and
his
sister peering down at the scene with worried eyes
. “It is a Keeper’s egg
!
It is still alive because I can see
the little guy’s heart beating!
” He
looked at the Keeper and she
proved to be in worse shape closer up
.
Mud and snow covered most of her body.
He
cautiously touched her skin and
found
it
to be
as cold as the ice that covered her.
“We need to get
the
both of them to some shelter! It’s going to snow again in a few hours
and I know they won’t be able to survive it
!” Sarah then looked into the sky and knew
he
wasn
’t lying because the clouds had
become thicker and darker
in the past hour
. “I’m going to call in some reinforcements.”

Connor
sent
his
thoughts in the general direction of the others.
F
inding
the three familiar minds a few seconds later
was all too easy. He
entered everyone’s mind
simultaneously
.
“Mark! Jillian! Jack! Can you all hear me?”

“Connor, did you find something?”
Jillian asked calmly.

“Yes, I found a Keeper!”
Suddenly each of their minds became blank except for the two who
remained above himself
.
“Listen, the Keeper and her egg were trapped under the avalanche. She is in some bad shape from this ordeal.
Mark, I need both you and Kara to become a Fwen and search for
a
shelter big enough to hold everyone.
Searching the sky will make the task easier.
Jillian, I need for you and Jack to
get over here and
give us a hand. Look north of your position and find us.
Follow this!
”
He
cut the link
and
focused on making a flame from the
heat of the
surrounding area.
He
finally made
an orange and red fireball in his
right hand and threw it up the shaft and into the sky. I
t would be impossible to miss the flame. Bo
th Sarah and
his
sister step
ped
back to look down.
His
sister’s eyes were glowing and her shirt and cloak were
now
missing. She was wearing her leather top and
Connor
knew she needed to be rid of them for her to grow her wings. Once her wings were complete a plume of snow
gave knowledge that
she was searching
the
immediate
area
for
shelter
from above
.

Connor
needed to find a way to bring
them all
to the surface.
He
focused
his
mind on the ground below
his feet. Using Terra, he
brought both the Keeper and the egg to the surface
without effort
. It
felt more
like
riding an elevator of
frigid
stone and earth.

Once they
arrived above the snow Sarah checked on the unconscious Keeper.
Connor
looked above the tree line and saw two large flying figures searching
in a circular pattern
. He grabbed his
sister’s
tossed
shirt and cloak and stuffed them in her bag.

About ten seconds later two figures
could be seen
swiftly running in
their
direction. Once Jillian and Jack arrived they knew
he
wasn’t making
up
a story.
They
had to decide how
they
were going to carry both of them
to safety
. About two minutes later a large shadow
began
descending in
their
direction.