betaed

The next morning, Jim was the first one to get up. That is, the first after Dan, who was already up, dressed and gone. After a hearty breakfast, the three men decided to do a little more fishing.

        As they were getting ready to head out for some more fishing, Simon turned to Blair and asked what had been bothering him since the night before, but was too tired to ask, "Blair, last night, you asked the twins about doing your diss on them instead of Jim?"

        "Yeah, what about it?" Blair asked, not sure that he wanted to know what the question was.

        "Well, you told them that it would be too dangerous for Jim because of his military background. But wouldn't it be just as easy for some secret Government lab to come along and spirit them away to some deep dark dungeon of a lab for the rest of their lives?" Simon asked as they were getting their gear together.

        "OK," Blair began, "for starters, these ladies grew up in a small town that knew what they were capable of. So, if anything happened to them, the whole town would be up in arms over anything to do with these ladies.

        "Second, because of these gifts and how intricately woven into the town that the twins are, if something happened and they disappeared, or were thought to be dead, the town would go directly to the Government and raise enough noise that it would get them national if not international attention. And the government could not easily get rid of a whole town.

        Third, part of this county is a Native American Indian Reservation. As in Sacred Ground? As in spirits wondering around? The next time you see the Twins, open your eyes like Jamie taught you to see he Dragons. Is this making any sense to you at all?" Blair asked a confused looking Simon.

        Simon opened his mouth to answer when a car pulled into the driveway and the twins got out.

        "OK, Simon," Blair interrupted when he saw the twins getting out of the car, "close your eyes, take a deep breath, then open them, and tell me what you see."

        Simon did as he was told. He closed his eyes, took a couple of deep breaths and then opened his eyes. When he did, his breath caught in his throat. On either side of he twins was a Native American Indian warrior brave. Both had bows, arrows, and knives.

        Jim, wondering what was going on, came in between Blair and Simon. Putting a hand on each shoulder, he used the link he had with his Guide to see what they were looking at. Seeing the braves, he smiled and looked around to see another set surrounding the three of them.

        "Simon, if you think that that is interesting, look behind you."

        Simon and Blair both looked around to see three Chopec warriors smiling at him. Each warrior had a dragon on their shoulder. Smiling back, he closed his eyes and muttered to himself, "I know this is real cause Jamie is not one to lie, but this is really getting stranger and stranger."

        Jim patted Simon on the back as said, "You'll get used to it Simon, just give it time"

        By that time, the twins had made it over to them. "Sorry to barge in like this, but with everything that we got talking about yesterday, we never got around to getting your statements," Catherine said with a smile.

        "No, I guess we didn't," Jim replied, then added, "Do you mind if we work on catching dinner while we do the statements?"

        "Sure, no problem," Elaine answered, as she took Simon by the arm and led him about twenty yards further around the lake. They sat down on another log that was there, and as Simon started to put out his line, Elaine began asking the questions that she needed for their report. Catherine did the same with Jim as Blair settled down to start to catch his share of their dinner.

        After finishing with the statements, the four of them returned to where they had left Blair. With Jim as his anchor, Blair answered the questions that were asked of him.

        An hour later they had finished with the statements as well as catching their limit in the fish department. Blair made a suggestion that he hoped would be taken well.

        Looking over at Simon, he said, "Simon, would you do us a great favor?" Jim smiled as he knew what it was that was going to be asked of their Chief.

        "Sure Blair, if I can," Simon answered. Of course, he surprised himself calling Blair by his first name.

        After Blair recovered from the shock of being called by his first name, he continued, "Would you join Jim and I in a meditation exercise we were planning to do before we leave here tonight?"

        Caught off-guard, Simon answered hesitantly, "Uh...sure...I guess so." He'd never meditated before in his life. Meditation had not been part of his lifestyle. Too new-age.

        "Great," Blair answered as he jumped up to get things together.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

        Blair had the circle set up and everything was ready by the time that the sun went down. He had told Simon about the need to thank the dragons for their help and protection by casting circle and thanking them ritually.

        After completing their meditation, Blair cast the circle and called the dragons. After thanking them for their help and support in their daily lives and the knowledge that they impart, Blair again went through the ritual to close the circle.

        With the knowledge that the dragons had given them, they again sat down to meditate and let the spirits help them understand what knowledge that they had received. Simon had taken in everything that he had witnessed and again remembered what Jamie had said about discounting what he saw, and let the thoughts and images flow though his mind.

        At one point, he found himself in the jungle along with Jim, Blair, their animal spirits, the dragons and the Indian Incacha, that he had seen down in Mexico when they went after Alex Barnes. Incacha told them that they had a lot of learning to do. That they would be very busy in the near future. He said that they should not fret and worry or stress out, but to just relax, go with the flow and enjoy the experience while he could because they would sorely be tested in the future.

        Looking directly at Simon, Incacha said, "You are learning well, Chief. You will be of great help to your Sentinel and Guide in the future. The spirits are proud of you, and hope that you will continue to grow in both knowledge and power in the future. The Great City needs more people like you and the rest of the members of your tribe." Then looking at Jim and Blair as well, he said, "The spirits hope that in the future, that you could bring the rest of your tribe to join in the meditation, as we would like to meet them and tell them how much we appreciate their help in keeping the Sentinel and Guide safe."

        With that said, Simon, Jim and Blair came back into themselves. It was almost midnight and they felt like they had just awakened from a long sound nights sleep.

        Putting out the fire and getting the rest of their things together, they got everything in the truck that they had had out for their meditation and locked up the cabin.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

        It was 12:30 A.M. before they had left the cabin. By the time they pulled into Cascade, it was 5 A.M. Heading to the loft, they unloaded their supplies and helped Simon to load his stuff into his car. The fish, for the time being, were put into Jim's deep freeze that he had in the basement for just such an occasion.

        "Hey Simon, since it's so late, why not come on up and we'll cook breakfast and then we can head down to the station after that?" Jim asked.

        "Sure Jim, sounds good to me. I don't think that I could go to sleep right now if my life depended on it."

        "Don't I hear that," Blair threw in as he was hauling some of the equipment that they didn't keep in the basement.

        Getting to the loft door, they found a note from the contractors from across the hall in the apartment that was being renovated that told them that they would be replacing all of the water pipes that ran through the loft and that it would take like a month to get all of the work done.

          After getting inside and putting everything away and getting breakfast started, Jim made the suggestion that he had had in the back of his mind all weekend.