Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (48 page)

Sarah
laughed. “Hardly… I used to cut hair in the late eighteen hundreds. You’re just lucky to have a woman
of
many talents.”

“That I am.” He
sat the mirror down in her awaiting hand and stood up.

They
both slid on old clothes and brought along
a fresh set. After the bath they
returned to
the
cabin and sat
their
things down.
After they
both slid on
the
armor and weapons
they
left
their
room to go wake the others.

Connor
knocked on Mark’s door twice. A second later
he
heard Kara’s chirpy
and hyperactive
voice from behind the door. “Who…is…it?”

“Your brother. Are you both about ready to go?”

She opened the door
,
wearing her usual leather pants and chest covering. Her hair was brushed straight and came to her shoulder blades. Her silver eyes were energetic as usual
,
which is where she
got the title of being like a Jack Rustle Terrier. Her belly was flat and her arms were subtle yet muscular. You would never guess that she weighs over three hundred pounds.
“Morning
,
Brother! I’m ready
to go out
for some fun.”

Mark walked up behind her
,
wearing only his leather pants. His chest is quite hairy, but his back isn’t. His chest is a perfect muscular copy of
Connor’s
, but proportional
to
his smaller frame
. His short, spiky, black hair glistened in the light of their room. He is as tall as
a normal
person and weighs four hundred and fifty pounds. He balled up his fist as he said “Good morning, Connor.”

Connor
balled up
his own
fist as well and
they
punched them together, but as
their
usual greeting. “Ready to beat te
am
Rampage?”

“Can’t wait!” Connor
turned to see Jillian saying it with a bright smile
and a twinkle in her golden eyes
. “By the way, did you find a way to allow us sm
all people to use their bats?” S
he was wearing a bright red shirt and brown pants along with her hiking shoes
. She also had the dagger
on her belt.
He
made the
dagger the
first time
he
manipulated
a
metal cube into that
very
dagger. Sarah made its sheath from a similar cube of metal.

J
ack
appeared,
walking b
ehind both Jillian and Sarah.
Haunt hung in a new position. There was a thick rop
e wrapped around the handle of the club and
the head
as well.
T
he rope crossed over his chest
. The handle was hanging behind his left shoulder so he could easily grab it with his right hand. He wore a blue short sleeved shirt and similar bottoms to Jillian.

“Sarah, will you give me a hand again?”
Connor
asked politely.

“Of course.” She said with a smile and walked with
him to the
room.

They
managed to get the oversized bat out of
the
room
without breaking anything
again
and
pulled it
into the hall
. Jillian bounded up to
them
first.
He
moved
over
so she could grip it and since she had the smallest hands
in the group
,
she needed to try
it out
first. Her fing
ers easily grasped the bat and Connor
let go. She was able to hold the bat straight in the hallway, but if she was human she wouldn’t have even been able to lift the handle up
properly
. She
seemed
pleased as were everyone else
who took their turn holding the bat.

“I’m starving over here.” Sarah said with an annoyed smile. “The others are probably waiting for us as we stand here.”

Enough said. They walked down the hallway and he
saw the lodge manager
reading a thick book behind the front desk
. “Hey Liz!”

She looked
up
at Connor
and the others. “Good morning
,
everyone.”

Kara walked up to her and said “Are you going to come to our game at noon? Some hotshot Keeper named Xaon said to bring everyone they could to the game.
Wanna come watch us play?
”

Liz’s jaw dropped and she said “So the rumors
are
true! You guys are what everyone’s
been
buzzing about. I have never seen such gossip
spread so quickly
or
feel the
excitement in
all who speak of it
. And I
’ve
never seen the Keepers
looking forward to something like this with so much enthusiasm.
Of course I’ll be there and rooting for all of you.
”

“Thank you, Liz” Kara leaned forward and hugged the now stunned manager.
“We need all the support you can give.
”

They
exited the lodge and realized Liz wasn’t being facetious. The second level
truly
was buzzing with people and Keepers so early this morning. It wasn’t crowded, but that was only because not everyone has yet to arrive to this meeting yet.
Usually at this time everyone was just beginning to wake up, but today it seemed like everyone was already awake
and lively
.
Some people from yesterday
’
s game remembered Connor
and watched
them
as
they
continued along o
n
the
way.

He
carried and
held the bat over
his
shoulder
,
follow
ing
everyone down to the cafeteria.

Sarah was right about Veronica, Clarein and Firon waiting on
them
, but
they
weren’t
overly
late. The
giants
stood and walked over to
them
. As they did
,
Connor
glanced
around the cafeteria. The room was almost a quarter full with everyone eating and having a great time. It has
been the largest turnout since they
arrived here. Clarein was the first to speak.
“It seems like everyone is talking about you guys this morning. That is all anyone wants to talk about. I’ve never seen our three races agree on something with such passion in all my years.”

“I told you that sticking with all these hatchlings
would be worth it. Didn’t I, Clarein?”
Veronica smiled and then turned to look
at Connor
.
“I am ready for the game. Are you?”

“I will be once I get some food in me.”
Sarah said playfully.

This was going to be an exciting day for sure.

Veronica’s smile grew, but t
hen she noticed the bat
resting
on
Connor’s shoulder. He
handed it to her after she handed her egg to a
very
grateful Clarein. She was careful to only hold the head to the bat as she studied its new
handle
shape.
He
felt her summoning her power
and then
felt her mind shift
ing
so that only
they
were talking in privacy.
“Did you do this
, Connor
? It has your energy written all over it, Connor.”

He
instantly understood when she said
that
it had
his
signature.
The question was more of a statement. Connor
focused power to
his
eyes and looked at the bat. The bat was
enveloped
in a dark blue aura and he
realized
too late
that
his
energy left
behind
an invisible fingerprint of what
he
had done
. He
couldn’t lie to her so
he
thought
“Yes, Veronica I did it. You must swear
to
Never
repeat or think
to anyone
about what I’m going to
share with
you unless I give you
expressed
permission. Do you understand?”

“I do.”
Her gold eyes said she would take this secret to her grave.

Sarah
gently
enter
ed
his
mind
, but s
he didn’t say anything
because she knew Veronica and he
are talking
privately
and
they
didn’t want to reveal
all
their
secrets
all at once.
“Veronica, I have the ability to manipulate all of the elements. Liquid, Fire, Pressure, Terra and even Metal
and they
are all within my grasp to manipulate.”
Her
gold
eyes widened and her tail stopped swaying
to become stone still
.
“We cannot let anyone know about this. As far as you know I can only use Liquid and Sarah can only use Fire.”

She swallowed thickly and looked at an impassive Sarah
, she did well seeming oblivious
.
“I can understand why you
want this as a secret. I will never tell another soul.
You have my word.
”
She lifted the bat and continued studying it. Her mind shifted
again
and returned to everyone. Her tone became casual
,
like
their
conversation never took place.
“This is a unique design. It has been modified so you can hold it and this beam supports the stress given from the weight and velocity of the swing
s
. It is an ingenious concept.”

“Thank you. Connor thought it up and ha
d a friend manipulate it to his exact
specifications.” Sarah said evenly and the on
ly two persons to believe her i
s Clarein and Firon.
She has become more adept at leaving out certain details, but not actually lying either.

Veronica handed it back and he
grabbed it by the handle.
They
all ate breakfast together at
the
usual table away from everyone
, but Ben and Amber joined in once they awoke
. Firon said he was off
from work
today and was coming
out
to watch the game. Connor
could tell he was excited to see how his mo
ther
played
ball
for the first time
.
They
all silently went over
the strategy and Veronica and Connor
went over the hand signs again. She memorized everything
he
taught her yesterday.
Pretending
to hold an invisible
baseball, Veronica
held her claws up and changed the positioning of her fingers to the shape of the different pitches.

It was almost eleven when
they
wra
pped up breakfast
,
even though they
finished eating
nearly
three hours ago. Veronica allowed Clarein and Firon to head up first and Clarein was allowed to hold
the valuable
egg until
the game ended. The seven of them
remained
and continued going over as much
strategy
as
they
could. Everyone had questions
and they were mostly answered by either Connor
, Mark or Jack
since
they
knew most about sports
.
During th
at
time the cafeteria became less and less populated
and
Connor
knew that they were heading up to get a seat at the stadium
.