Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (17 page)

Mark landed on the snow with all fours.
His glorious wings finally were tucked
into his sides as he approached
.
He glanced at the Keeper, but only for a moment. In his deep and animalistic voice he
explained
“We found a cave to the southeast and it will be large enough
to accommodate each of us
. Kara checked it out
already
and said there weren’t any hibernating bears inside.”

“That’s good
enough for me. Lead the way.” Connor
said to
his
best friend.

Connor
walked around to the Keeper’s head.
He
put
his
arms under her back and made it to where her
large
head
rested
on
his
left shoulder. I
t was all t
o
o easy to lift her top half
, but to keep any injuries from worsening her entire body had to be carried
. Jack grabbed her tail and laid it over her abdomen. He put his arms under her bottom and lifted. Sarah grabbed both of the legs and soon the Keeper was
hoisted
off the
frigid
ground. Jillian
took
charge of the egg and cradled it gently
, keeping pace
with the mother in the case she awoke
.

Connor
started walking backwards as
he
followed the
sounds from the
steps Mark
created
in the snow.
He
could tell that
Mark
remained
walking on all fours
by sound alone
.
They
carried the Keeper slowly so as to
not
further injuries
.
The snow was just strong enough for
them
to all carry the weight without sinking too deep
ly
in the snow.

About ten or so minutes later Kara’s voice
howled
in the distance and it sounded like she was still in wolf form. “Honey! Over here!”

“We’ll be there in a minu
te. Did you find us
some
firewood?” H
is voice
also
still thick with wolf.

“Sure did. I found enough to last us all night and then some.”
A minute later
sounds from his shoes
change
d
from cr
unching snow to exposed stone. He
stole a g
lance over
his
right shoulder while
keeping the Keeper’s head steady.

The cave
opened in a rock face
at least ten feet tall and
he
couldn’t see how deep it
went
. It also had a wide mouth for an entrance. The
outside
wall was plastered with snow, but the inside of th
e dark cave didn’t have any
. He
stepped inside the cave first since
he
led
the unconscious female
. On the ground to
the
left were bundles of lumber
, hastily gathered
.
S
ome of the thicker bra
nches were freshly broken and
a
glanc
e to
a
nearby
tree
,
closest to the cave
,
revealed
several broken branches. The walls
of the cave
were either dark brown or light grey and the floor was littered with small stones or small boulders.
From the clean smell, no animals live inside, for the moment.

When there
was good enough
place
Connor
gently laid the massive Keeper on the ground. Both Jack and Sarah
eased their ends down
as
gently. He
noticed that she was still
unconscious and her heart kept beating.
She was still fighting for survival
and for her egg that has yet to hatch
.

Immediately Connor
issued everyone some orders. “Jack, get a fire started in here because warming up the Keeper will be
only
ha
lf
the problem. It’s going to snow
soon
. Mark, dig in my bag for the space blankets and
get
yours
out
as well. We need to keep the inside of this cave warm. Kara
,
I want you to try and use your body heat and keep the egg warm
until the fire is stable
.
We cannot risk putting the un-hatched creature through much more shock from temperature changes.
Jillian, we will need water and can I ask you to build a snow wall at the mouth of the cave when things get settled. Sarah
,
I will need you to go with her and give her a hand. I will stay here and clean her up.
Her
injuries
could be extensive
and it would be best to correct the problems while she
oblivious
.”

Everyone started with their tasks. Mark shifted back to normal and quickly put his
silver
shirt back on. He grabbed all of the space bags from
the
packs
and gently opened the thin metal covers. Jack had to use his power over fire
to ignite the
semi-wet logs. Connor
tossed him
Tool and he chopped up the remaining tender
to get the best yield in the fire
. Kara
cradled
the egg. She sat on the ground
,
still transformed
with her golden fur still loose
.
Sh
e
tenderly
held the egg close to her chest with her legs crossed to avoid the egg from touching the cold cave floor. Jillian and Sarah came in holding
enormous
snowballs in each hand. Connor
had them melt the snowball into a water ball
by holding it over the fire and not a drop escaped their control
. The balls became a tenth of their size, but i
t was a good enough to start with
.

Jack rummaged in his pack and pulled out a set of metal cooking bowls. The girls dropped the water
in them
and went
to collect
some more.
Connor
ripped a small piece of cloth from
his
white cloak
,
dipped the rag
in the
warmed
water
and started cleaning the Keeper.
First to be washed was her face
, then her arms and legs
came next
.
She breathed only through her nose
and it
remained a constant
slow and deep
rhythm
. She had small cuts between her smooth scales, but they were already healing
quickly
.
He
finally got up the nerve and unclasped her golden belt
to
open up her robe.
Her chest was as flat
as her abdomen and spotless so he
didn’t have to clean for injuries. Her scales were just as imp
ressive as she was as a whole. He
redressed her robe and clasped her belt back to its original position.

S
i
nce her robe
became
so dirty
and wet,
he
decided that she should look decent
upon waking
. Connor
used
both
Terra
and Liquid
to pull away
every particle
of dirt, sand
, water
and mud from her r
obe. It looked brand new after he
finished. Her robe was pure white
silk
and
it
had red trim around the neck and the sleeveless openings a
round her arms. Sarah touched his
shoulder and whispered in
his
ear “You did a great job, Connor. She looks much better
now
.
All we can do is wait.
”

Close to a
n hour later Jillian made a wall of snow
,
covering the mouth of the cave
when the storm began
. She left an opening at the top to allow the smoke to escape
, but the frigid wind wouldn’t harm anything or anyone tonight
. With Mark’s help
,
the two friends
pressed the space blankets on the snow wall.
The blankets reflect almost all radiation and that includes heat.
The room’s temperature instantly began to rise. When finished
,
Mark sat beside the fire with Kara as she still held the egg
, but she was now looking human
and had her pink shirt back on
. Jillian sat with
J
ack and munched on her power bar
and watched the fire
to pass the time. Sarah sat beside the
still sleeping giant.
He
walked over and sat beside her.

She
rested her head on his
shoulder
and
spoke very quietly. “Do you think that she will be alright?”

Looking at the face of the Keeper
he
said “I believe that she will.
She’s a mother and that means she is a fighter.
”

Sarah and
Connor
simply
sat there and watched her chest rise and fall.
He
felt her
scaly
skin
often
and knew she was
finally beginning to warm up. Connor moved his
position
over
to the cave wall
for some minor comfort
.
He
propped
his
back and Sarah took t
he opportunity to sit between his
legs and lay her back against
his
warm
chest.
He
was amazed at what a Keeper really looks like.

About two hours later t
he Keeper’s breathing changed. Connor
said to everyone “I think she is waking up!”

All of them
stood up and walked over to her
, but kept
their
distance
. Her throat rumbled
like a groan
and her tail twitched. A minute l
ater Connor
saw her eyes
slowly
crack
open
. Her eyes are
a
golden
yellow
and about the size of a grapefruit. Also her pupil
s
had a
catlike
slit in them just like when Changer transform
s
. She opened her mouth for a moment then snapped them shut, but not before
he
got a good look at them. All of her front teeth wer
e as long as his
thumb
,
curved
back slightly
like canines
and serrated
. Her back teeth
were somewhat flat and
were designed for chewing. Putting those two together
he
assumed
that she was an omnivore like
humans are
, but the teeth could shatter bone like a tortilla chip
. She then slowly sat up and tried to clear her head by shaking it slowly
from side to side
.
Even w
ith her sitting on her rear she was
still
as tall as he
. A few seconds later her eyes widened in shock
when she remembered
recent events
. A frantic rumbling escaped her thr
oat as she looked directly at them
.

Suddenly Connor
felt a mind just a
lmost a
s powerful as
Sarah’s trying to gain access. He
allowed it, but only enough to listen
to the voice
.
“Where am I?”
Her mental voice was somewhat sluggish and actually very feminine.