by Lee Morgan
“Yes, well you made my sleep so much more relaxing.” Sarah’s face turned red. He walked up and kissed her forehead. Her stillness melted as Connor pulled her into his chest. “Who was on the phone?”
Her stunning green eyes looked up from his exposed chest. “That was just Kara. She said to tell you hello and she’ll see us in a few hours out at the field. She made an appointment with the eye doctor for early this morning. Kara also wanted to thank you for offering the choice to stay with us last night.”
“She chose the right way.” he said, brushing his mind lovingly with hers.
“The right way?” Sarah might have seen over three hundred winters, but her eyes are still so innocent.
Connor took a step back, releasing the hold on his wife. She let go of his waistline with regret. Before he answered her he walked around the dining room table and entered the kitchen area. Opening the now fully stocked kitchen he continued the conversation aloud. “Yes, the right way. I gave my sister a test and she passed. I told her ‘Come and stay with us for a few days.’ She basically said ‘No.’ My test was if she would still do to everything I asked after becoming what she is. The pain she underwent had to have an everlasting effect. Before she always took my side, but now she needs to take Mark’s. He was the reason she did this and only right that they work things out together. I’m just glad she is finally starting to live her own life. That’s the way life should always be.” Rummaging in the pantry, he pulled out two boxes of cereal. Pouring the entire boxes into two large bowls he continued. “Right now, Kara is slowly learning what it’s like being with someone you fiercely love and someone who loves you in return. As an immortal you know how a choice will be with you for all your days.” Sarah smiled as she tucked a strand of hair behind an ear. “Plus, I know Mark to be a good man. He’ll show her the ropes better than I ever could. After all, he’s the eldest out of everyone I’ve ever met. He will guide her as you have been guiding me.” Connor handed Sarah her bowl of cereal as he finished pouring the milk.
Sarah took five spoon full’s before speaking. “Connor, I haven’t been guiding you all that much. It’s like you instinctively know how to do just about anything. You can do things that should be physically impossible.” She took a few more scoops to let her imagination roam.
“Is that how you see it? You haven’t been guided me?” She nodded hesitantly. Sarah sat down at the dining table as she ate and listened. “The day Mathew tried hurting you the first time; you stopped me from killing him. At graduation, when Mr. V. took you hostage, I wanted to kill him, but not in front of you. I could have ripped his head off in front of everyone and wouldn’t have cared, but you would and that held me from doing it. The thing is, I’m like a loaded gun, ready to take out my target without a second thought. You are the one who controls my trigger. Your eyes that day told me not to kill him and I heeded your wish. Sarah, you are my guiding balance.” She tilted her head as she chewed a mouthful of cereal. He forced himself to continue and not start laughing at her. “I wanted to kill your threat, but you didn’t. Being an avid outdoorsman I’ve come to an understanding that not many know. All living things are creatures and that includes humans, but if there is danger to my mate I’ll kill them as if they were cattle. But my rage has always been restrained until we became one. It has become all too easy to think about these things… I want to keep all harm from you, at any cost, but your grace kept me from going overboard. Everything that we have between us is perfectly balanced.” Sarah smiled at him as she chewed.
Connor ate all of the rest of his cereal and drank the remaining milk straight from the bowl. When the dishes were finished, Sarah said as she turned off the faucet “I would like to try something.”
He leaned back in his wooden chair to look at her. “What would that be?”
She dried her hands and sat across the table from him. When Sarah’s emerald eyes locked on his he knew that look. Her eyes were pleadingly saying ‘Let this work.’ Sarah finally said “Mother said it was possible to enter another’s mind and see what they see, but she could never accomplish it. She said only a few Balancers have ever accomplished such a monumental feat with success. But apparently Keepers do it all the time.”
“I remember vaguely because I was trying to stay awake. So what do you want to attempt?” He leaned back into the backrest.
“Let me see how far I can go into your mind.” Sarah said quickly because she started becoming anxious.
He thought about it, then nodded.
Connor felt her mind reaching for his. He took down all of his mental barriers, allowing her full access. Her mind had the feeling of a slow moving current that was not only refreshing, but all encompassing. The more she immersed herself within his mind, the more of her mind mixed with his.
Something didn’t feel right.
Then he figured out how to make it work perfectly.
“Sarah, wait.” He said normally and instantly her mind began retracting from his. She waited patiently until he could find the right words. “When you push your consciousness into mine, you’re only in my mind. We have been only able to communicate while we entered the other’s mind. We have to reach together or else it won’t work.” Sarah nodded in understanding and her focus became completely concentrated on him. “I think we should each enter our minds simultaneously. Ok, now let’s do this together, slowly.”
On three they tried entering each other’s mind. As Connor projected his mind into Sarah’s, he felt her mental touch just as he felt the familiar touch of her thoughts. At the same time he pushed further in, so did Sarah with the exact same amount of force. It felt like two streams going in opposite directions and lasted for well over a minute. Then the feeling and the pressure changed dramatically and suddenly. When they were as deep into the others mind as they could manage, the straining of opposing forces ceased. Now the two opposite streams of individual thoughts became a slow moving whirlpool. Their minds began circling each other. It wasn’t just him or her anymore, but them. Connor felt like himself and someone else at the same time.
“Connor, this feels so…” It was Sarah’s voice, but it felt as if it were his lips were the ones that parted and moved.
He saw his eyes going wide, from her exact position. He could see Sarah sitting before him yet he could see himself from where she sat. Connor couldn’t control her movements, but as she gingerly raised her arm, it felt like it was also his that moved. He moved his left hand and Sarah’s eyes looked at the hand from his perspective and also her own. He saw the tattoo that was seared on his chest from Sarah’s eyes and it really did look good from her perspective. Everything they did would be felt by the other as if they were the one who did it. There was also one more thing; with their mind within each other, Connor wasn’t focusing to stay connected with her. It was as if his telepathy found a hold within Sarah and latched on to it. A miniscule amount of power, nearly nonexistent, was used to stay connected, but it was as easy to sustain as breathing.
He spoke aloud. “Sarah, how do you feel?”
Sarah instantly started to giggle. It was almost like he did it too. “This is definitely a new experience.” She blinked and for a single moment and Connor only saw from his perspective.
“Looks like we have a new special trait.” At the same time he spoke with his mind, he heard himself again in Sarah’s mind. It was weird hearing your own thoughts from another’s mind. It is like an echo in an empty hall.
“I think,” Sarah’s eyes went wide for a moment as she experienced what he just did. “we should keep this to ourselves for now.” She spoke the rest of her thoughts aloud. “Now let’s go back to normal.”
Pulling his mind back became easier now that he knew the feeling of the whirlpool. Pulling the hold from his princess’s mind was easy. The moment the contact disengaged, the whirlpool feeling stopped. It felt good to be back within your own mind. It wasn’t as disorienting.
“Connor, how did you think to do that?” Sarah smiled at the success
ful test.
“Somewhere deep inside me said that we were trying to do it the wrong way. You pushing alone, without me doing anything wouldn’t accomplish anything. I just knew it somehow. There would need to be a trick. Suddenly it dawned on me how it should work. We needed to balance each other. You know, like working with two halves of an object and then put them together.” He couldn’t come up with a better analogy at the moment.
“It was really something else wasn’t it? Didn’t it feel weird breathing both as yourself and me?” Sarah shot him a shy smile.
They started laughing and explaining what it felt like to be each other.
Connor put on his sleeveless black shirt and hiking boots before leaving home. By the time they made it to the rocky clearing it was about noon and quite warm out.
A pillar of black smoke could be easily spotted a few minutes before they came into the clearing. Looking for the source of the smoke behind the cover of forest, Connor spotted a shimmering form in front of a roaring bonfire.
Sarah tightened her grip on his hand as they walked slowly towards the shimmering figure. “About time you kids showed up.” The shimmering form walked towards them and turned out to be Sarah’s father. Jack was shirtless and wore only shorts and boots. His moonlight, shoulder length hair flowed behind him as he walked.
Connor said “Jack, don’t you think the smoke will give away our position?”
He had a boyish grin spread across his face as he disregarded the question. “Son, you need to try out your experiment you mentioned yesterday.”
Remembering the diner conversation, he looked down at his beautiful mate as she had that hint of a successful smile on from the earlier experiment. A moment later she removed her hand and walked with him to the blazing inferno.
Jack stood by Connor’s side as Sarah positioned herself to his other. Connor focused, keeping his eyes open, over his left forearm. In his mind’s eye he called upon the element Fire and pictured a circular fire shield that spun just above the skin of his forearm. Calling his energy to accomplish the task and using instinct to direct the flow; a rotating flame shield appeared. The shield showed it had grown larger since the first time he demonstrated its unique capabilities.
The shield spun faster than normal because of the surrounding heat. Connor twisted his arm and directed the shield towards the flames. The shield spun even faster as it absorbed even more of the radiating temperature. Taking a step closer to the inferno Connor pushed the shield directly into the flames. The rotating speed became a blur, even to him, as the flames were sucked in. The more heat the shield absorbed, the more energy flowed into him. New strength grew and fortified his system.
Just before extinguishing the flames, Connor stepped back. The rotation started slowing down again as soon as he walked away.
As the fire began burning back to life, Jack’s grin broadened. “It works, just like you imagined. It does give us a supplement if we ever run out of food. If something terrible happens I can absorb flames and transfer energy to Jillian. We’d still need water to drink, but that’s her department. If push came to shove and we needed to hide from humanity we could survive anywhere…” Jack finally said with confidence.
“That it does, Jack.” Connor cut the flow of power to the shield and it disappeared. “It will work for us if there is ever a need.”
When the flames were roaring again, Sarah made her own rotating shield. Even the size of her shield became larger in diameter. Before it revealed itself to be the size of a small Targe, but now it had grown to the size of her torso. When Sarah completely extinguished the flames she came back to their side.
Just then Connor faintly heard two distinctive sets of sounds coming from the forest. Sarah stood behind him. He whispered “Jack, come stand next to me. I hear someone in the woods. And look casual.” He did as requested.
Soon he was relieved when they all heard “Brother! Were here!” The three of them sighed in relief knowing only one person who calls Connor by that name.
Soon Mark walked into view, hand in hand with Kara, with a true smile written over his face. It looked as if all the centuries of pain he’s been bottling up had been released and the burden vanished. He looked truly happy for once. Since it was sweltering in the sunlight and the fire, the Balancer’s walked over to them since they were nearer a comfortable and shady spot.
Sitting down with Sarah, Mark and his little hyperactive sister, Connor wiped the beaded sweat from his forehead. Jack said he had to do something and went home not long after. He wasn’t as cheerful without Jillian present, but that was understandable. Mark wore his usual silver attire as Kara remained in pink. They weren’t ready for sparring, that much was for sure. This day would be designated simply for a gathering.
Kara started her day with “Brother, I weighed myself on the scale Mark has in his bathroom. I used to weigh one hundred and ten pounds, but this morning I weigh one forty seven. In only a course of a day, I gained thirty seven pounds. I’m such a pig. When we go home I have even more to eat, yea!”
Sarah tried not to laugh, but failed miserably. After everyone settled down Connor asked “How did your appointment go?” It took a moment for her to understand where he was leading the conversation.
She tucked some of her loose sandy blonde hair behind her ear. “It went ok. I’ll be getting the lenses in a few days.” She smiled at Mark passionately for only a moment before returning her attention to the others. “Oh Mark has a surprise for me. Before we came here, he pulled into a specialty tailor establishment and had the woman inside measure me. Mark didn’t tell me what he was getting, but he told the seamstress. Just what are you having her make for me?” Her silver eyes narrowed on her new lifelong mate.
Mark cast his new mate a playful smile. “Something that you’ll need, and soon I’d imagine.” Her smile became only half enthused.
Sarah changed the subject and the mood of the party. “Kara, since I didn’t get a chance yesterday, would you like to gain some battle experience with me?”
Kara’s energy came back in full force. “Of course… Just give me a moment first, ok?” Kara’s eyes suddenly began glowing.
Bones began snapping in her legs as Kara kicked off her shoes. Her legs became slightly longer than usual and her toenails slightly curved into opaque claws. She didn’t however make her hair grow to become armor like Connor thought. She must not be capable of that yet. Her fingernails also became dangerously sharp opaque claws. Kara now stood at least four inches taller than she did before.
Sarah stood and asked “Can I have Tool?”
Kara asked “Why?” as Connor handed his mate the weapon by its handle.
Sarah gave Kara an obvious look. “Kara, you are going to fight me with claws. I need to have some kind of weapon as well.”
“But you have your powers.”
“I’m not going to use them. It will be too easy to win if I used my abilities.” Sarah kept looking sternly at his fuming sister as she entered his mind. “She needs to control her emotions. She’ll see that her rage only blinds her movements.”
“Give a good show for us, Princess.” She smiled as the two women walked into the imaginary arena.
Mark scooted beside Connor. “What was that about? Is Sarah trying to piss her off? Even a new Changer is deadly, but they are more temperamental since the virus is still fresh on their mind…”
Watching the women begin their match, he sighed. “Mark, you know exactly how my sister is. She has very few boundaries and none of them are about patience. Kara needs to learn some restraint if she is to survive in her new world. Look there.” He pointed as Kara lunged at Sarah and his mate jumped back, making his sister hit the ground. “Kara needs to plan ahead or else she can’t recover as quickly … See how Sarah landed a weak blow to my sister’s hand. That hand would now be a liability even with her accelerated regeneration… in a battle with another immortal she’d already be dead.” Connor finally looked at him. “You of all people should know that y
ou need both head and heart to win a fight, but to survive you need one true thing, clarity. If you’re in a blind rage you’re as good as dead. In your nine hundred years of life, I bet that you have seen your share of battles that ended fatally because one side didn’t think ahead.”
Mark nodded. “I have and you’re right about needing focus. My question is, why did Sarah do that?”
“Because, Kara learns quicker by acting rather than understanding complex explanations.” At that Mark smirked and Connor saw him shaking as he tried to not laugh. He didn’t disagree though.
Kara came back to her feet, throwing dust and debris in her violent movement. With a face of frustration and rage, she lunged at Sarah again. Sarah stepped forward, in her direction. At the last moment, she fainted to the right and ducked as Kara’s claws raked over her head. As Kara began passing her side Sarah hooked her left ankle with Kara’s right, tripping the new Changer face first into the hard ground.
Come on Kara. You can do better than this… Sarah turned around to watch Kara slowly turn on her back. She was completely filthy from falling into the ground time and time again. Hopefully now she’d learn this day’s lesson. Kara lay on her back as she started breathing heavily. Her eyes were closed and Kara finally starting to understand the reason for today’s challenge. That’s better…
A minute passed and her breathing evened out. She finally sat up and opened her silver eyes. Kara took another deep breath and released it. She finally found calmness. “I’m ready to try again, Sarah.”
“Good. Now, brush yourself off and let’s try it one more time.”
Now standing tall, Kara prepared herself. Her clawed hands dropped close to her sides and her feet were spread out perfectly. Kara’s body leaned forward as her eyes never left the sight of the opposition. Sarah knew she was about to strike when her clawed feet dug into the rocky soil.