Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (31 page)

About five minutes
before it was eight
a large black shadow
began
winding down the steps. When the shadow got off on this level golden eyes
began
scanning the room and stopped
up
on
their
group.
Veronica
continued
wearing her white robe
with
the
ruby
and gold belt. The egg
she carried everywhere
remained
wrapped and held in the bend of her left arm.
It was Veronica
without a doubt
and she walked right up to
them
,
wearing a tight lipped smile on her leathery lips.
Sarah
felt the touch of her
strong
mind as she wanted to communicate with
everyone
.
A Keeper
’
s vocal cords cannot alter into human language so they all use telepathy
to speak
.
“Good morning, Hatchlings. Did you all sleep comfortably?”

Connor dropped to the ground and didn’t even make a sound as he landed.
Even though he weigh
s two hundred and forty pounds
s
he
couldn’t believe he didn’t made a single
audible
sound
without using his abilities and she could sense when he does
.
Sarah
followed and landed
as well
, but
she
still
made a quiet landing.
They
closed the distance to
the newest companion
and
from
behind
,
Sarah
heard two heavy landings and two lighter ones. Connor offered his right hand saying “We all rested well. And you, Veronica?”

She knew what to do from first meeting Kara. She bent forward and extended her right clawed hand. Connor wrapped his hand over two of her fingers and shook it twice.
“I cannot complain, Connor.”
She raised herself back up and looked behind her shoulder.
“I hope you do not mind, but I also invited my son Firon and his mate
Clarein to join our breakfast meal. Is that alright with you?”

Sarah
spoke up to the ten foot tall Keeper. “That will be perfect. They are all welcome to join.”
Veronica’s
gold eyes looked to
her
and smile
d
slightly widen
er
to reveal only the points of her teeth.

Connor suddenly looked up and
Sarah
followed his line of sight.
T
wo
more
Keepers
kept
winding their way down the
enormous
staircase.
They
quietly waited for them to arrive. The first to get off the walkway was Firon. He looked as big and strong as he did last night. His white robe and silver belt was as contrasting as possible
to his black scales
. There was a gold chain necklace holding the Guard pendant. Two crossed swords over a golden shield
i
s their symbol
. The pendant hung down to the center of his sternum. His y
ellow eyes immediately looked over
all of
them
. Be
side
him
walked
his mate Clarein. She looked exactly like Veronica
,
with the same height and build.
Calrein’s eyes were amethyst purple and her robe was dark brown, sleeveless and her belt matched Firon’s as it wrapped around her waist. Her arms weren’t half as thick as Firon’s, but they were far from weak.

Firon waited for his mate to be
directly at
his side and then they all walked over to
them,
on their back legs. They both moved perfectly together. Their tail’s moved back and forth with the same motion of each step. They were completely synchronized.
Sarah
felt a new mind entering. The female bowed saying
“Honored mother, we are here.”
Her mental voice was soft yet crisp.

Veronica bowed back.
“Welcome Clar
ein. These are the companions I spoke of last night.”
Her hand waved over
their
heads.
“They are the ones who invited us to
share
a pleasant morning meal
together
.”

Suddenly Connor walked away from
the
group and walked straight up to the pair
, without fear
. He bowed politely and said “Good morning, Firon. It is good to meet you
once
again.” Connor raised his hand.

The yellow eyes of Firon blinked down at
Sarah’s
mate.
“What are you doing, Hatchling?”

“It is a greeting.”
Veronica answered her son’s question.
“They shake hands or in our case claws. It is just a harmless
gesture
of greeting and good faith.”

“This is
an
odd
greeting
, but very well.”
Firon reached down and the two males shook hands.

Connor then walked up to
Firon’s
mate and the two carefully watched him. “Hello Clarein. My name is Connor.
I
t is a pleasure to meet you
as well
. Are you hungry
this morning
?”

“Famished.”
She smiled down at him. They
too
shook hands.

Connor then turn
ed back to them all
. “You heard the lady. Let
’
s go and get something to eat.”
and
started walking to Sarah
and
they
took each other’s hand and walked towards the cafeteria line.
They
were fifth
to wait
in line and there were two mated Balancers and one Changer ahead of
them
.
Sarah
turned to see
her parents behind them
and they both just smiled at
her
. Behind them
i
s Mark, Kara and Veronica. Firon and Clarein took the rear. It felt li
ke her
world
became
so diverse
lately
yet
felt
stable. It was the o
ddest feeling that
also
seemed
so natural
.

Kara look
ed
up at Veronica. “Hey Veronica!” The giant
’
s golden eyes looked down at her. “Have you c
o
me up with a name for your child yet?”

“Yes I have. I am trying to hatch a female, but it could always turn out to be male
despite my best efforts
. I have came up with Shannon for a girl or Daniel for a boy.
Human names have a pleasant sound to me.
What do you think?”

Kara grinned. “They are both good names.”

It was finally
their
turn in line.
They
all bowed to Elder Adela.
Her
falsely
young f
eatures
softened. “Good morning to all of you. We received a shipment of milk and coffee beans a few hours ago. We also have freshly squeezed orange juice. What would you like to eat everyone?”

Sarah
said “I’ll have scrambled eggs, a platter of sausage links, buttered toast, pancakes covered in maple syrup, apples and a glass of orange juice. I think that should do it for me, Elder.”

She smiled and looked at Connor. “I’ll have
the same.”

The elder walked back into the kitchen and delivered
the
orders
to the staff
. She walked back out and grabbed two mugs and filled them both with the liquid citrus. She handed
them
each a pla
stic mug and Sarah
took a
testing
sip. It had
freshly squeezed
orange pulp
,
which is
the way she
like it. About three minutes later the elder walked back into the kitchen and brought out two huge tray’s of food. She easily balanced the trays on each hand as she slid them onto the counter. “Here is your order, you two.” It was a mouthwatering spread. The eggs were piled into a
six inch
mound, the sausages were stacked, the loaf of bread was all toasted and smeared with butter,
there
stood
two large stacks of pancakes soaked in syrup and lastly were ten green apples.

Connor handed
over
his drink a
s
he
picked up both large
trays of food. He looked over her
shoulder and said “We will meet all of you over where we sat last night.”

“We will join
up with
you shortly.”
Veronica
replied.

Sarah
followed Connor and glanced back one last time.
She
saw Elder Adela wearing a confused expression as she looked between Veronica and
them
.

Sarah’s
parents showed up at
their
back table first with a tray of eggs, toast and sausage links.
They took the opposite side of
the
table so they could look at
them with ease
.
Sarah
could smell the coffee
aroma
that came from across the table.
Mark and Kara joined and had sausage, pancakes
, a flank of salted pork
and two large muffins. Veronica
soon after
brought a large tra
y with three fully cooked pigs resting on top
. They were
complete pigs minus the innards
and cooked to perfection.
Veronica sat between
Sarah
and Kara. Clarein also had the same order as
Veronica as
she sat
. Firon had a large
,
single cooked
bull
that was missing
only
its head.
They both sat across the table
,
with
Sarah’s
parents.

“Now that everyone is here, let’s get started.”
Jack
announced
,
breaking the
awkward
silence.

After Sarah
took
the
fifth bite of
her
plate of eggs
she heard a loud crunch. She
looked up to Veronica
a
s
she
had half of the pig in her mouth.
Veronica
bit down again with her massive and powerful jaws and the other half of the pig was torn away. To
the
right
she
heard Connor say “That is an
interesting
way to eat.”
Veronica
turned her gold eyes to him as she chewed
the pig, bones and all,
with her leathery lips closed.
She chewed slowly and in an exaggerated manner.
Her head moved forward as she swallowed
and her meal made its final descent
.

“How do you mean
interesting
?”
A
ttention turned to Clarein and her purple eyes.
“Are you being disrespectful
to an Honored M
other
?”
H
er eyes darkened slightly and a low rumble escaped her throat.

Uh oh.
Sarah
thought.

“I meant no disrespect. It is just an interesting way that your species eats.” He took a sip of his drink. “I have never
witnessed
a reptile chew up their food
before
, but the way you jerk your head to swallow reminds me of an Monitor lizard
. I have only
ever
seen reptiles rip apart their prey and swallow the chunks whole. It is a huge advantage because you expend less energy digesting your food if you chew it
up
first
. If you didn’t
,
you would be more lethargic while you digested the solid pieces
like that of snakes.
” He smiled at her. “I think it is just fascinating.”