Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (30 page)

He
walked to the front door
,
stopped
and
turned to look back at her and
altered his to
seem calm and comforting
. “Liz?”
She hesitantly looked back in his direction
. “Forgive me for being rash, but I hope that one day we could get to know each other as people and not just what our species separates
and dictates
us as.” Connor
opened the door and stepped out.

He
walked by
him
self through the quiet and almost barren
level.
A lone
Changer
remained
sitting on a bench
,
reading a thick book that was on the path
Connor
took. He was wearing only a pair of solid leather shorts.
He
passed
the reader
and he only glanced up.
A
male and female Keeper enter
ed
the bath house while walking on all fours. That was about it. The cavern
remained
well l
it this early as it was before
they
originally
got some sleep.

Checking for the actual time,
he
made it over to the Keeper’s lodge and
read
it
to be
ten till seven. He
turned around and walked back to
the
lodge
at a casual pace
.
He
opened the door and Liz finally had some
flushed
color in her dark cheeks. Her voice strain
ed
to be pleasant. “Back so soon?”

He
smiled. “Yes. I had to go over to the Keeper’s lodge to see what time
it was.
I
t is difficult to tell time without the sun as my guide.
”

“Why didn’t you just ask?” She pulled her white sleeve up to reveal a wristwatch. “Next time just ask
me instead of making
such
a long trip
.”

He
nodded
.
“Thank you for that.” S
he smiled, but looked embarrassed.

Connor
walked down the hall and into
his room. He
left the light off and lai
d down on the top of the bed,
still fully clothed. Her snoring stopped as she ro
lled over and looked at
him
,
barely awake
and conscious
. “Good morning, Princess. Did you get a good night’s sleep?”

She gave him
a wicked smile as she suddenly became awake
. “After last night
’
s workout
,
I would say so.”

He
couldn’t stop
him
self from laughing a few times. She closed her eyes as she yawned and stretched. Sarah slowly sat up and brought the top of the sheet to cover her top. Her emerald green eyes still makes
his
knees go weak
when she looks longingly at
him. Her eyes were his
hea
rt, her voice i
s
his breath, her body is touch and her mind remained
the reason for
his whole
life.
Connor
couldn’t res
train
him
self from using
his
hand to cradle the back of her head.
He
gently brought her
lips
closer and into a passionate kiss
, which she didn’t resist
. She dropped her sheet and wrapped her fing
ers through his
hair and kissed back
passionately
.
They
kissed for several more minutes than usual and didn’t complain.

When
they
finally separated she asked “How long do we have until our breakfast date?”

“Less than an hour.”

She slipped out of bed with a fluid move
that she’s had centuries to practice
, perfect
and master
. She put on her panties and bra. She then slipped h
er chainmail over her head and he
was proud of
him
self for making it fit
to
her
form
so perfectly. Sarah couldn’t hide a tremor
that went
through her body when the cold metal touched her warm
and fair
skin. She easily slid her hair out from under the mail and grabbed
the
armguards.

Connor
slid out of bed
as well
and started armoring up
. He
took
his
shirt off and quickly slid on the chilled metal over
his
bare
torso. It warmed up
completely
as
he
tightened
the last strap of the armguard
s
.
The
shirt
went
back on just after tightening the other armguard
securely
.
He
pulled
his
pant
s
leg up and slid on both metal
greaves
.
The
final piece of equipment
to finalize his appearance
was T
ool a
s
he
slid the meta
l shaft into the belt on
his
right
hip.

He
turned to see Sarah finished dressing as well, but she
began
brushing out her
waist-length,
luscious brown
hair. She was wearing a solid black sleeved shirt with matching pants. Her boots were p
roperly
laced. Finally on each hip hung Fangs still sheathed in their metal home. She put her brush down in front of the mirror
which hung
above the dresser. She said “You need to wake
up
Mark and Kara and I’ll take care of my parents.

They
left
their
room
soon after
,
fully prepared
for anything
. After
Connor
locked
their
room door
,
they
walked one door down
the hall
and Sarah kept walking.
He
knocked on Mark’s door twice and waited
for a response
.

T
he door unlock
ed
and open
ed
up half way. Mark only wore a bed sheet that wrapped around his waist. He took his hand off the door to rub the sleep from his eyes, but the other remained on
the
sheet. “Connor…? What is it?”
H
is
silver
eyes
glanced
down at
his
left hip where
Tool rested. He became instantly alert
and scanned up and down the hall
. “Is there trouble?”

“Nothing like that. Stop making your
eyes glow… thank you.” His expression
finally cooled. “Listen. We have less than an hour to get ready. I invited Veronica to breakfast
with us
and she was looking forward to it. Get dressed so we can go get some more to eat.”

Mark sighed and smiled weakly. “Ok, that’s a relief…
I thought someone was trying something already
…
That’s
truly
a relief.
I’ll go
ahead and
get Kara u
p.
We’ll be out in a few minutes.
” He shut the door.

At a
bout that same time Sarah walke
d up to
him
with a small smile touching
her
rosy
lips. “Mother answered the door and she is waking Father up
at
this moment.”

It took about five minutes until the
y all
finally came out from their rooms
for the beginning of the day’s events
. Mark and K
ara were wearing their leathers while
Jillian and Jack wore their same clothes from yesterday. Jack wore
a
blue
t-shirt
whereas Jillian wore red.
Jack had Haunt
hanging from his shoulder and Jillian had her two sided dagger strapped to her right hip.

The six of
them
walked down the hall
together
. As
they
passed the front desk Liz spoke up and sounded cheerful
, but
Connor
could hear her strain
to break old customs
. “Have a good day everyone.”
He
turned so she could see
his
smile of approval
and she meekly returned it
.

The others greeted her back in kind.

When
they
reached the central pillar Mark said “That was
really
strange.
As lo
ng as I have been here Liz
has never sounded so…
pleasant
. She
either looks angry or bored out of her mind.
I wonder what happened?”

“I did.”
Connor
said
,
looking at him
from
over
his
shoulder. “This morning she about chew
e
d my head off until we had a nice and
short
discussion.”

“In other words
,” Sarah said lightly to gain his
attention. “she threatened you and your look
alone
froze her pulse instantly. You scared the life from her and she caught tiny glimpse of how dangerous you really are.”

“Yep! That sounds like Brother to me.” Kara chirped and skipped up to Sarah’s side. “Hey Sarah? How’s my niece coming along?”

“SHHH!!!” Sarah
clamped a hand over Kara’s loud mouth. “Kara, I’m keeping it a secret until later.”
Kara mumbled since Sarah still had a hand over her mouth
.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”

They
all started stepping down the stairs and Kara could finally speak. She decided to an
noy Jillian and she didn’t mind
since they were more like sisters
anyway
.
Sarah an
d Connor
were getting pounded from both sides of
the
family.

They
made it
down
about fifteen minutes before
they
were supposed to. There were already more people down here for breakfast than were here for supper.
There wasn’t any music except for all the chattering that came from the people.
Connor
looked through all the Keepers eyes that were in the room. There were so many colors
; red
s
, blue, brown, purple, white and every color in between
individualized the great creatures
. And none
had the exact shade that
belonged to
Veronica.

She wasn’t here
yet
so
they
all sat by the closest table to the stairs and waited
for the arrival of the
eldest companion
.

Sarah
swung
her
legs back and forth over the empty space between the bench and the ground
to keep from becoming more impatient
.
She
grabbed Connor
’
s hand and he looked at
her
and smiled softly.
She still
felt well rested and relatively excited about having
a
first
meal
with a Keeper
of untold secrets
.
She
ha
s
only heard
fragments of
rare stories about Keepers sharing their company with
that of the younger species
.
She
ha
d
never
actually
seen it
done
her
self
before, but those
stories are very old.