Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle) (89 page)

As they
were
firmly
hidden
with
in the trees,
their pace quickened. Sarah
ran directly behind Connor
because she
drafted behind him so as to keep m
ost of the freezing wind from
biting
her
face
and
they
easily avoided every branch and twig. The thing
i
s,
she
wasn’t running at
even a quarter of
her
full speed.
She glanced behind and saw her
parents struggling to keep up with
their set pace
.
Sarah
now knew why Conno
r wasn’t hurrying like usual. They were slowing to allow her
parents to keep up.

The four of
them
were running atop the
fresh
snow that could be well over fou
r feet deep and they
didn’t even leave a single solid footprint
that could be tracked
.
Connor
vigilantly continued
looking directly ahead and didn’t seem to need to look around his surroundings.
They
easily jumped over wide
, frozen
creeks
and
frigid streams. Then when Connor saw a landmark he
immediately
tu
rned
to the left
without slowing
.
What was odd was that they
were running alongside a deep ravine.

Connor finally stopped at about the forty five minute mark and turned around.
The ground below
i
s
all
hard packed snow
and
cold gray
stone
.
As Sarah
turned around
she saw her
parent
’
s
in a new way
. The two of them were panting heavily and sweating profusely as they dropped to their hands and knees.
They were exhausted.
It was strange because neither Connor nor
Sarah
were even slightly short of breath nor
broke a
single bead of
sweat.
Jack
leaned back on his heels with his eyes closed as he
continued
trying to catch his breath.
Jillian
meanwhile stayed in the same position.

Jillian
finally slowed her breathing and stated “The two of you are nuts!”

“You’re just now figuring that out?”
Jack
said in mild humor as he slowly got to his feet.

As
Jack helped Jillian
to her feet
Sarah
explained as politely as
she
could. “We were actually going slow
;
just for you
to keep up
. If we were running normally, we would have already made two complete
round trips.” They stared at her
dumbfounded.
It was the truth, but they still couldn’t believe
it
.

Connor rested a warm palm on her
right shoulder and his forearm behind
her
head.
She
looked up at him as he stood tall and proud to
her
left. “Tha
t’s enough
,
P
rincess.” He turned his eyes
towards the
exhausted parents. “We’re here!”

Sarah
looked around. There were some evergreen trees to
the west
and a sheer
ravine
drop off
to
the east
. There was nothing else
remotely out of the ordinary
. The
drop in the ravine
was
as at least one hundred feet deep
and completely vertical.
T
he greatest rock climbers
in the world
wouldn’t
even try to attempt
repelling down
something so menacing and unforgiving
.
The othe
r side
lay
at least one hundred
feet across and it to
o was a sheer drop. Down below showed freezing water, flowing in the ravine.
Sarah
knew
beyond doubt
that the water would be frigid.
There wasn’t anything here except the colors of white, grey, brown or evergreen.

She
asked
her
mate because
her parents were as confused as she
was “Connor, where is
…
here?”

He smiled wickedly. “This is where I made all of the preparations for your birthday
party
.” His grin widened as Sarah
felt him bringing his power forth
. He took his hand off her
shoulder and walked up to
her
parents without releasing his power yet. “Your bags, please.”
T
hey instantly took off their packs and handed them over into each of his awaiting hands.

Connor then took a step back
from her
parents
then took off
backwards and dropped down into the ravine
,
doing a back flip
.
The loose snow blew in every direction
at the same time
as he released his energy
. When the snow cleared
,
Sarah
looked down into the ravine
to see her
mate at the middle of the rock face
,
just hovering in midair. He
stared
at the
stone
wall before him. Suddenly small rocks
began
trembling and
falling by
themselves down towards the water
. Then
she
saw and understood what Connor was doing. A huge boulder that was stuck in the wall
began
getting forced out. With one mighty blast of power, Connor used his ability over
Terra to rip the stone from the cliff and keep it floating in the air
,
just as he
continued doing so
.
She
then saw Connor throw
ing
their
three packs where the boulder
vacated
and
they
disappear
ed
somewhere within
the cliff
.

As Connor ascended
in
their
direction
, with graceful precision, so too did the massive boulder. The moment Connor lightly touched the
snow, the boulder made a loud
thud
;
as it too landed. Her
mate and
the boulder landed about ten
yards away from them
just to be sure of
their
safety,
she
assume
d
.

The three of
them
looked at each other before looking back at Connor. He quickly walked up to
her
and
her
confu
sed parents. “Your present is
waiting below
.” He pointed over his shoulder with his left thumb. “Jillian,
you and Jack are going to go along
with me.” His hazel eyes turned back on
Sarah
. “Since it is your birthday, you have first honors. I made it
,
so don’t be afraid.”
The moment his lips touched her
forehead
her
apprehension dissolved.

He smiled as he stepped back.
Oh well. Let’s see what he did for me.

Sarah
called
her
power for
th and directed the energy to her
legs. Using
the control over Pressure
she launched her
self
a few inches
into the air.
Once clear of the ground
she
eased the power to her
legs to descend down
along the cliff and stopped as she
came to where Connor pulled the boulder from the
ravine
. She
became
dumbfounded when
she
saw a
dark
tunnel.

She
flew closer and cut
the
flow of energy as
she
touched the floor o
f the dark tunnel. I
t was deep and at the end of the tunnel
waited
a faint orange glow
that seemed welcoming
. The tunnel itself was a perfect cylinder and tall enough for both
her f
ather and
her
husband to walk
in
with plenty of h
ead clearance. Her
heart was
already
racing in anticipation as
she
took
the
first step
deeper
into the tunnel.
She
grabbed
the
three bags and brought them
inside
. Sarah counted twenty two steps as she
came closer to the
strange,
flickering orange glow.
The tunnel was
much
warmer compared to the outside.

Sarah
gasped
and dropped the bags
when she
came upon Connor’s
Present
.

The tunnel billowed into a beautiful dome. In the center of the dome
’
s floor
lay
a small campfire
that lit up the area
and gave off the perfect amount of heat
and woody aroma
.
T
wo sleeping bags lay to either side of the flames
, but far enough away to not worry about catching afire
.
The ground was
made of
solid
, even surfaced
stone, but the present he made covered the walls and roof of the dome. The dome walls were melted into
solid
glass that resembled
millions
upon millions
of
diamonds. The
soft
light from the flame
s
danced off of each glass jewel
,
making the room twinkle
and shimmer
like the stars
. It was one of the most beautiful
and unique
things
she’s
ever seen in
her entire
life.
Sarah
couldn’t help
herself as she
touch
ed
the wall and found that it was smooth
and not rough like stone
.
T
ears escape
d
of their own accord
down
her
cheeks as
she
stepped away from the wall.
She
looked up and saw a hole in the ceiling which allowed the smoke to exit the room.
T
hree
more
fist sized holes
lined
the walls
,
in three separate locations. She
decided
she
wanted
to know what they were for so she
sent
out a single wave of
sonar. The three holes lead to th
r
e
e
different
outside
locations.
Sarah
put
her
hand over a hole
that was at her
waist line
and felt a
cool
breeze coming in and knew that they were for ventilation.

It was truly a masterpiece
for a present
.

Connor has outdone himself
once
again.