Read Balancer's Soul for Free Online

stopped.
    Suddenly he realized a few things after only
a few yards. With a quick glance over his shoulder he realized that
none could have witnesses how her trail she left behind altered so
dramatically. Her strides became too far apart for her legs to be
running normally, especially for a girl her size. She was also
barely leaving a trail unlike your average person. Then he noticed
a seriously big problem. She ran off barefooted, “Not Good!” he
said to himself and quickened his pace instead of admiring her
running technique.
    He started sprinting beside her unique
tracks and thought “Nope, she is defiantly
no amateur. No wonder why I had a suspicion about how she walked
earlier in class.” He smiled to himself, ready to take
on her challenge.
    Sarah didn’t stick to game trails like
average people; she cut through brush that would make weaker people
cringe, and without barely disturbing the foliage. She ran on top
of rocks and tree roots instead of dirt and grass, limiting her
impact while trying to hide her trail from any who would follow.
Connor knew it was her because the rocks were pressed down into the
dirt by something approximately Sarah’s weight, making the soil
rise slightly up the sides of the small objects that were traversed
upon. She avoided tree branches that would snap and reveal her
presence. She clearly was an expert on avoiding being found, that
is for certain.
    Connor stopped suddenly when he found a
perfect casting of her right footprint in the dirt after several
miles of searching. It was pressed deep and most of the pressure of
her foot had been placed over the ball instead of the heel. Her
footprint announced that she had jumped, and powerfully at that. Looking forward, he noticed a
thicket of dense ferns and saw that not one stem or leaf had been
recently disturbed in weeks. Nearby tree limbs also remained mostly
undisturbed, but some smaller twigs were snapped, all pointing in
the same direction. She proved to be very good at avoiding a normal
tracker, but normal wasn’t applied to Connor. He followed the
trajectory that her foot pointed for her jump. He found where she
landed on both feet. She had jumped well over fifteen feet,
heavily, and easily cleared the thicket without much of trace.
Those broken twigs also told that she had jumped that high as
well.
    Darkness grew until becoming pitch
black because the fat clouds were still building and the clouds
began hiding the full moon, plunging the night even darker. “Little does Sara know I can track during a new
moon as well as well as I can during the daylight hours.” Connor’s eyesight and hearing had always been sharp and acute
and his mom always said his genes were the best.
    He began running again, following her the
faint trail of footprints the rest of the way as safely in the
darkness as he dared. Rushing would only serve to harm the rescue
and she didn’t allow herself to be found, even after that
impressive jump.
     
    After thirty more minutes of solid running
and tracking, he felt that same comforting sensation on the back of
his neck again. Connor’s instinct told him Sarah was nearby.
    A faint orange glow in the trees broke
the curtain of darkness just a few moments later, confirming his
instinct right once again. He knew that she had a fire
going. “Thank goodness you’re ok
Sarah.” He finally stepped closer to the fire and to
Sarah, very quietly so as to be absolutely certain.
     
     
     
     
     
Fire and Water
     
    “I can’t believe I’ve gotten myself
lost before scouting out the landscape.” Sarah silently rebuked
herself while staring into the small crackling fire. “Well at least Conner’s safe from Father for now…
It’s so dark now that no one will ever be able to find me out here and I still can’t see
the stars to know which direction to go. Have the clouds
thickened?” She sighed and grumbled in personal
embarrassment once again. Sarah sat cross-legged in front of the
small fire while letting its