Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle) (80 page)

At the training field Kara wore her leather gear and finished turning int
o a
wolf. The first time she grew her wings, she messed up. The wings
she made
were too long and skinny to be strong enough to achieve lift. It didn’t stop her from trying
to pump them into action
.
It looked like she was trying to fly with
long,
wet noodles.
She reabsorbed her wings back into her body after she shed her
frayed
sandy
blonde
feathers. On her sixth try Mark said “That’s perfect. Nice form of the Fwen transformation.
The proportions are proper for you.
”

Kara stretched her
new and glorious sandy blonde
wings and caressed them with her clawed hands. Her wingspan was as proportional to her body just as it was to Mark
’s version
. Even though her wings weren’t as long
,
she flapped them one time and lifted
herself
ten feet off the ground. She shrieked as she fell and together
,
Connor and Mark caught her before she could hurt the ground.
It brought back
the memories of the first time Sarah
tried flying and Kara’
s reactions were similar, but she didn’t remained frightened nearly as long
.

Connor and Sarah
each grabbed
a
hand and
together,
using
their
ability’s over Pressure
, they
brought her high into the sky for her first flying lesson.
Kara was
just as
frightened as Sarah was when she
fell, but
Kara
steeled herself and wanted to try again so she didn’t look weak in front of her mate.
Mark turned
into a Fwen
as well
and flew alongside
the guiding Balancers
. She started b
eating her wings as they
released
their
grip on her
clawed
hands. She tumbled in the air until she spread her wings as far as they would go.
It was then that Sarah
saw she had somewhere between an eighteen to a twenty foot wingspan.
She finally figured how to level out properly
and tried sticking to an idea
.
She was terrified to flap her wings and
start falling again so
she decided that gliding was a good start.

Sarah on the other hand
decided that she needed more incentive
to learn quicker
.
Sarah flew around to Kara
face
and
g
rabb
ed
her hands
as
she
pointed
her
feet at an angle between the ground and Kara’s level
ed
body. Sarah increased the force t
hrough
her
legs and brough
t Kara higher in the air. When she
released
her claws at a decent altitude Sarah
forced her to learn banking to one side or another by tucking in one wing or flapping with the other.

It took her
close to
a month to learn how to fly properly
.
Kara
mastered liftoff first, but she always h
ated landings.
Once she tripped and tumbled over forty yards and snapped a sapling in half.
Kara
came out
unharmed of course.
During that
month
of learning to fly
,
Mark, Connor and
Sarah
taught her aerial acrobatics and
special
combat maneuvers.
It gave a whole new meaning to a dogfight.
She did very well
and learned quickly
.

Then
school restarted started for Sarah
again
in August. She
was still able to teach senior history at the high school. It felt good to have something to occupy your time when you don’t have much to do
during the weekdays. This time she
was able to meet every faculty member
that works at the school. When she
first arrived at this town there were only three m
onths left of the semester and Sarah
coul
dn’t get a chance to introduce her
self.
Now
she
’
s
made some new coll
eagues
.

During the week
days
Connor would spend most of the day either in his workshop
,
inside the cottage
,
or he would work outside
making the house winter worthy
.
Some days he would even bring home lumber
he found in the forest
to reinforce the house, make firewood or mak
e
something in secret
.
One day
Sarah
felt him using his energy
,
she
opened the door and
asked
her
mate “
What are you making in there?”

He smiled from the desk he
sat
at
,
holding nails and changing their structure into screws. “I’m just keeping a promise.”
He said simply.

Three days later
,
he
slung
a massive bag over his left shoulder that was filled with wood and other things
as he exited his workshop
. While
Jillian
was away
for the weekend
,
doing
her things
as a wedding planner
,
Connor brought the bag
over
to Jack
’s house
. He brought the sack from
their
home, through the woods and dropped
it onto the front porch. Jack
opened the door
,
looking suspiciously at the heaping bag. “What’s in there?”

“Let me inside and I’ll show you.”
Connor smiled and then
his f
ather
-in-law allowed him and Sarah
inside.
It was tedious work trying to fit such a large bag through the front door of
her
parent
’
s home
, but working together
they
managed
to squeeze it through and not break anything
.

Connor opened the bag and
her f
ather started laughing
approvingly
. Soon after a good lau
gh, Jack
allowed Connor to get to work.

The next morning someone knocked on
their
front door
;
hastily and continually. Sarah
walked into the living room as Connor opened the front door.
Her m
other leapt through the entryway and hugged
Sarah’s
mate with motherly love
and affection
. “Connor
,
thank you for making
such an exquisite
a bed frame for me.
It’s perfect.
”

When Connor showed everyone
the
cottage
he made for himself and Sarah
,
for the first time
,
Jillian
wanted a
custom made bed
frame
,
like the one she saw in
their bedroom. Sarah’s
mate said he would
make one
for
Jillian
and he always strived to ke
ep his promises.
He
built his
mother
-in-law
a handcrafted four poster bed
with an intricate design of waves and fire dancing around each other
. For the headboard
,
Connor amused himself. On one side was the large symbol of Fire and on the other
he engraved
a teardrop which represented Liquid.
Jack
laughed once he saw the headboard
for the first time
and smacked
his son-in-law
on his back in a playful
style
.
Connor liked making ironic jokes.

Later on, Connor worked on the house before the first
heavy
snowfall in November. Connor reinforced the roof and made the point of the roof somewhat sharper before he sealed every miniscule crack
and crevice
.
By the time he was done
she’
d bet
their
home
became
hermetically sealed.
He
even
c
h
opped enough fire
wood to line the backside of the
cottage
and was as tall as he was
. He cut a little too much wood and gave what
they
had leftover to his mom and
her
parents
for their fireplaces
.
They didn’t turn down his offer because they needed it too.

When the first
of the
snowfall
rolled through
the state
, Connor
surprised
Sarah
as he
brought home a bicycle frame from the junkyard and a large bag
slung over his shoulder
. It didn’t have any tires, but it still had foot petals
, chain
and gears that didn’t have much rust.
She
just had to ask
in a half amused tone
“Just what are you planning to do with that?”

He smiled as he
gently
sat the frame down
on the hardwood floor. As he adjusted the pack on his shoulder he answered
the
question. “Pretty soon the river that runs along the side of the house
is going to freeze solid.
Making another wheel isn’t easy when I can prevent the one we already have from deteriorating too quickly.
I’ll need to take the waterwheel down before it too freezes with the water.
Without the water wheel, we lo
se our main source of electricity. I saw this the other day.” He put his right hand on the
bike
frame. “This will supplement the energy we
’ll
require
until the stream thaws
.” He brought the pack around and pulled out a small generator. “I have six of these small
electrical
generators
and when I hook all of them to the batteries, we’ll be s
et for the winter.” He smiled her
favorite
, private
smile and
she
caved.

He hooked the bicycle frame and generators together with a long bike chain
inside the power room
. Then
he attached the wires from the generators and plugged them into the
six electric sockets that feed
directly
into the batteries.

He was right about the stream freezing over. Luckily he pulled the pins of the axle off and pulled the waterwheel out of the water just the day before.

The school is
out
now
for winter break
due to winter storms
and
she’s
been
stuck
home for two days. Connor left
early
this morning to see
her f
ather’s garage
for the first time
. He
seemed
so excited to go into the city
and see what kinds of gadgets
her f
ather has made. He also wanted to see where his truck was built.

Sarah
continued looking into the fire as
she
laid across the sofa with
her
head on the
plush armrest. She
adjusted the
thick
blanket and started thinking
yet
again
, but this time on herself
.