by Lee Morgan
Sarah finally sat down at the table and grinned at him in a way that said ‘I win.’ The hotdogs were finished first and after pouring the boiling water into the sink, he gave equal helpings of four for each platter. When the eggs were finally cooked and fluffy, he divided the remaining food between the plates.
They didn’t have time to talk as Connor sat down. They ate as quickly as possible without looking like starved animals. Once he finished eating first, Sarah told him to take a quick shower and he did. When Connor came out of the room wearing the new black hiking pants, she went in next without a word. He walked into the kitchen and cleaned all of the dishes and put them away. He double checked the pantry and refrigerator and saw that both were completely empty. First thing was to extinguish the flame in the fireplace. When it finally was, he added a sealing plate to the underside of the chimney so that wouldn’t allow any animals to make a residence of the cabin while they were away for the next few months.
Connor turned around just as Sarah walked into their bedroom with a pure white towel wrapped around her middle and hair. He followed happily.
By the time he stepped into the room Sarah already had on her bra and panties on. She smiled sweetly as she saw him from the corner of her eye. She reached in her drawer and pulled out some long black stocking that came up to her upper thigh and slid them on one at a time, with a fluid grace. Then Connor almost laughed as she picked up her gifts from the top of her dresser and set them on the bed. Sarah shivered at the touch of the cold metal. She sat on the edge of the bed and started attiring by applying the greaves first. She slid them on as easily as the stockings. As she tightened the three straps to the backside of her leg he decided to put on his armor as well.
Opening the first drawer of the dresser, he gazed down at his personal armor. Connor started the process by pulling the chainmail out and sliding that over his exposed torso. The metal was rather cold, but his body heat warmed the links up quite quickly. He adjusted the mail to be tucked down into his pants. When it felt comfortable, each of his arms were threaded through the armguards and then each strap easily tightened into its proper place. The leather belt slid through each ring in his pants. Grabbing the greaves from the dresser, he sat on his side of the bed and slid each one onto the proper leg. After they were strapped comfortably Connor slid on the new hiking boots and strapped them up accurately.
He stood and looked back in his wife’s direction as she didn’t realize she gawked at him like a juicy steak to a hungry dog. She was standing next to the edge of bed wearing everything except her shirt, her black pants fit her perfectly and covered her leggings. All of her armor had been secured to her person, including Fangs which hung from each hip. She had already slid on her chainmail and had her hair already pulled out from underneath it.
“What are you staring at?” Connor asked, but already knew.
It took nearly forever for her to come back to reality.
Her jaw snapped shut and her face flared as she walked back over to her closet. She grabbed her heavy long sleeve shirt and slid it on. She turned back and smirked. “What are you staring at?”
He laughed softly and slid his shirt on as well.
They made the bed and took one last look at the bedroom making sure it was all set. He closed the door after her. In the living room as he asked “Ready for your cloak?”
“Yes.” He walked over to the living room where he sat the four snow white cloaks on the sofa, grabbed one of the smaller ones and walked up to Sarah as she turned her back. She kept her hair down as Connor wrapped the string around her porcelain neck; just tight enough to hold the cloak securely around her body and not risk it leaving her.
“Pack?” He asked and she nodded. He grabbed her backpack and she opened the front of her cloak as she slipped her arms through the straps. When she had it situated he clicked the clasp of her straps between her breasts. They decided not to wrap the abdominal strap for certain reasons.
She grabbed the ends of her cloak and it encased her entire body, except for her head, but she didn’t throw the hood up. “How do I look?” Sarah pirouetted on the tip of her left foot and the ends of the cloak flared out like a long dress.
Connor smiled because she had the beauty of a living fairy tale princess. “Like a woman ready for an adventure.”
He grabbed his large cloak and pack and put them both on unassisted. He pulled the ends of the cloak together in the front. He asked her the same question she asked, without spinning, and she said “Like a man prepared for a journey.”
“I just have one last thing I have to do before we leave.” She nodded.
Connor walked into the power room and pushed the cloak over his shoulders to free up his hands. Every car battery needed to be unclasped and made sure that they were all secure on their platform of steel and corrosion resistant concrete. Satisfied, he came out and shut the door.
Sarah saw him exiting the room and started walking to the front door with the two remaining cloaks thrown over her right shoulder. Before opening the door she opened the desk and grabbed Tool and the other dagger. She turned and tossed the larger weapon in his direction and he easily caught it by its metal handle and slid it into a loop on his left hip. Connor remembered Sarah saying last night that she was returning her mother’s the dagger back so he didn’t bring that subject up again.
Connor grabbed the two full trash bags as he followed his mate out the front door of the quiet cottage.
She locked the door behind him and started walking toward the tree line. She stopped and when Connor looked back she said in a weak voice “This will be the longest we’ve ever been away from our home.”
He sat the bags down and walked up to her before he sat a single hand on her shoulder. She slowly turned her face up to meet his. She had on a somewhat sad expression and her emotional climate matched. “Princess, this is just a house.” Her jaw dropped as he spoke evenly. “A place of shelter can never be a substitute for a real home. When I’m with you, I am home. I’ve never told you this, but growing up, I’ve always felt like I didn’t belong to anyone or anything. I was always lonely because I didn’t know why people treated me differently; especially at school. You remember how and what they did to me,” She nodded cautiously because she felt afraid of how her voice might fail her at this moment. “Imagine that going on for well over thirteen years without pause.” Her jaw snapped shut and her attention welded onto him. “When I met Mark, he eased that suffering, but he could never really erase that lingering feeling that gripped my chest.” He looked back at the cottage. “That all changed when I saw you for the first time. That feeling completely disappeared when I found you out in the woods and we first started falling in love. And when we became mates and became bonded,” Connor looked back into her green eyes as they had finally softened into a hopeful smile. “I knew where I finally belonged.”
She finally spoke in her soft and velvety voice as she turned and placed her hand over his left breast. “You’re right, Connor. I’m sorry for saying something so petty.”
He gently touched the back of her hand with his palm. “It’s not petty. I know why you feel this way.” She became confused at such wording. “Just as you have become my home,” He raised his right hand to the cottage. “I have given you your first one. Am I right?”
Connor released her hand as she looked back at the cottage and mulled over what had just been said. She finally turned back to him. “You know, you’re absolutely right. I’ve also never felt attached to anything in particular. I basically went through all the motions over the long years. It became so stale and boring until we met.” She had a smile of understanding. She looked into the early morning sky and realized it was beginning to get close to seven. “They might be waiting on us.”
He agreed and picked up the garbage as they left their first home.
They came out of the woods soon after and Connor saw that Mark and Kara were standing over in Jillian’s driveway. The large green truck looked a shade darker si
nce the sun wasn’t completely up yet. Two more figures were clearly standing by his sister and Mark. Connor didn’t hear them talking and from their body language the four of them looked highly tense.
He leaned down and whispered in Sarah’s ear. “Something’s up with them. I’m going to put this in the trash bins over at my Mom’s. Go check it out and I’ll be there very shortly.”
She looked at the situation and her expression became serious. “I’m on it.”
They separated and he quickly threw the garbage bag into the tin trash cans that sat off to the outside wall of the garage. The other garbage bag in his other hand was filled with recyclable items. Connor has always hated wasting things and he became in the habit of reusing a lot of items. What couldn’t be used for a new purpose went into the recycle and wouldn’t make the landfill situation any worse because he’s lazy.
He started the journey back across the street.
Walking up the Branderson driveway Connor heard them talking normally, but could feel the sharp steel laced underneath. They all hushed as Kara said surely “Brother will settle this once and for all.”
As he walked up to the tense group from between the two vehicles Sarah separated from the pack, shaking her head. “What’s the problem?” He asked evenly, wanting to feel prepared for what is to come.
Sarah stood beside Connor with her cloak covering her entire body and spoke to him, but casually looked at the group. “My parents are worried if they come with us, we’ll just be asking for trouble.” She sighed after glancing at the Changers.
Jack spoke up in a relaxed tone, but was anything but casual. “I’m afraid that if they come with us, their kind will see us as weak and they will eliminate the competition. I don’t want to fight for my life if I can avoid it.”
Jack stood next to Jillian and both had their backs to their house. Behind them were their backpacks filled; especially Jillian’s. To the side of Jack’s pack rested Haunt. Haunt is a solid club of iron that weighs at least forty pounds. They were both wearing the same outfit. They each had brown hiking boots and Connor could tell by the treads that they were as new as what strapped to his large feet. They both wore thick brown pants and heavy, dark red shirts. They also had open brown parkas which is how he knew that their shirts were red. Jack’s Icelandic silver hair was tied in a simple string and his azure eyes were filled with a smoldering fire that was about to ignite everything around him. Jillian’s almost black hair had also been pulled into a similar style and her golden eyes were quietly watching all of this calmly.
Mark no longer leaned up against the grill of his jeep as he said “That’s what I’ve been trying to explain to you, young ones.” Connor could tell by Mark’s cold tone that he was pulling his age card. Also by his tone he wasn’t happy about being treated like a child who didn’t know his own race’s rules. “Connor has found a loophole in our law that can benefit us!”
Kara rested a calming hand on her mate’s shoulder. When he looked at her he was as shocked by her blazing silver eyes as her brother was. Her voice remained calm and soothing despite her fiery gaze. “Honey, you’re not helping our case. Let Brother explain it to him like he did with us. He has a way with words.”
The two Changers also wore similar attire. Both Connor’s sister and best friend had on their snow white cloaks behind their shoulders that they bought yesterday. They wore their new hiking boots. They each were wearing their leather pants that they always bring with them when they train or transform. Finally Mark wore his usual silver shirt while Kara stuck with the usual bright pink. Their backpacks laid by the green truck’s wheel and looked identical, but Connor didn’t see his sister’s quiver of arrows with her like one would expect from a pro archer.
Connor’s gaze turned back to Jack when he asked in a hesitant voice “What loophole could there be?”
Words had to be chosen carefully if this were to work properly.
Connor looked down at Sarah as she shifted the cloaks in the inside of her forearm. He took a deep breath to say “Jack, Changer’s don’t usually associate with Balancers. What if they didn’t follow Balancers?”
His eyes began smoldering anger again and a hint of danger lingered beneath the words “What do you think the four of us are, Connor?”
Jillian touched his forearm and said softly “Let the boy finish before you jump the gun, My Love.” His anger immediately dissipated when he looked down into her calm golden eyes. She looked back and nodded for Connor to continue.
Getting back to the theory, “The two of you are true Balancers.” Jack’s blue-green eyes returned to his son-in-law’s. “What if we meet a Keeper who knows exactly what we are? Sarah and I have abilities that no one here can explain with one hundred percent accuracy. We are all making up theories to try and understand why we are so unique. The explanations are just hypothesis and not true facts. There must be someone with definitive proof that can explain things clearly. What if we find out from them that Sarah and I are no longer Balancer’s, but something more?” Both Jack’s and Jillian’s jaws dropped in total astonishment. “In some deep place inside you two know that we are no longer your average, run of the mill Balancer’s anymore.
“Back to the loophole, for all we know, we are neutral territory.” He gently rested a hand on his mate’s shoulder. “The two of you can say that you’re following us and since we already had Changers in our party you just decided on having some company on such a long journey. The law couldn’t fault you for that.”
As Jack pondered and processed what had been said, Sarah walked up to Jillian and changed topics. “Mother, I have some gifts for the two of you.”
“Really?” Jillian said in a drawn out way. She held out both of her hands in waiting. Sarah opened the front of her cloak and handed her mother the smaller cloak and the larger one went to Jack; he smiled in gratitude, but Connor could still tell that wasn’t finished still deciding. “It’s beautiful, Sarah.” Jillian then threw her cloak over her back and tied it to her throat.
“Mother?” Jillian stopped admiring her cloak to look back at her daughter. “You may have this back as well.”
Sarah pulled the metal dagger and sheathe from her pocket and placed it into Jillian’s hands. “But… What do I need this for? Don’t you need it?”
Sarah peeked at Connor and sent him a quick wink. “No I do not, Mother. Connor made me something better.”
“Like what?” Jillian asked with a sly smile.
Sarah instantly withdrew Fangs in a flash. She held both blades the way Connor taught her, with the blades pointing away from the thumb. Jack might have taught her about properly balanced blades, but neglected teaching her how to fight with knives. Sarah took an instant mock battle position. She had her back right leg planted and bent while she shifted her left foot forward. Sarah had her left elbow bent out to the side while her right elbow tucked itself against her ribs. Her right Fang was close to her right cheek while the other blade was stuck out somewhat further. It was a slight variation to a boxer’s stance. And just as swiftly, she slid Fangs back into their homes. “Connor designed these daggers specifically for me. He also designed armor for protection.”
Jack finally spoke. “Armor?” Sarah grinned. For some reason she wanted to show off her new gifts. First she lifted her right pant leg, to reveal her glistening greaves. Next she slid her left sleeve back to show off her armguards and finally she lifted her shirt high enough to reveal the chainmail. Jack now had on his cloak as he stepped forward to get a closer look at her mail. “I’ve never seen such exquisite craftsmanship… Who made this?”
Jack looked up as she said “Didn’t you hear what I said, Father. Connor. Made. It!”
Jack looked over at his son. Connor grabbed the bottom of his shirt and showed him the mail clad abdominals. “Since we control Metal, it would be a good idea to keep some on hand.”
“That’s wise.” Jillian said with honesty.
Suddenly Kara stepped closer to get a look at the intricate
chain mail. Connor saw from the corner of his eye that Sarah covered hers back up. In a curious voice his little sister asked “Can I test its durability?”
“What do you have in mind?” He asked but already had an idea of her motives.
“This.” Kara stood up straight and her pupils began to glow. He looked down to see the fingernails in her right hand become claws. “I’ll be gentle.” She said as her pupils stopped glowing. The problem lay in the fact that his sister doesn’t know the meaning of gentle, but he allowed her to try.
First, she brought forward her sharp clawed index finger and ran it along his belly. Then her strength increased and the metal started clicking as her razor sharpened nail touched the links. She looked up and smiled dangerously. Connor knew what she was going to do just a moment before she reacted. He took a measured step back, to get his flesh out of her territory, but allowed the metal to remain. Less than a quarter of an inch separated such distance. She reached back and swung her claws at his middle and raked them with her inhuman speed and strength. The metal shifted for just a moment and then it returned to normal.
With the arc of her swing came to an end he stepped back in. She looked at her handiwork. “You did a perfect job as usual, Brother. Not even a single scratch on any link.”
“What? You actually had doubts that I would make something inferior?” The look on her face said she did. He had to calm his voice down. “Would you think that I would jeopardize my welfare?... Sarah’s?...Or you’re your unborn niece’s? Kara look at me… I’m not mad at you… Don’t worry about trying your test. I made the mail designed to resist piercing and slashing attacks. I used my axe as a test and it didn’t do any damage.”
“Really?” She asked back to her chipper voice. He simply nodded.
