Secret of the Caretakers

I hate Carl

Ch – 8

“That was creepy! I wonder how Rosa put up with it…” Carl muttered.

“You are welcome, Carl!” I said darkly.

We had just landed outside the marshes surrounding the CCs and sort of at the starting point of the map that Guru Zen gave us. To anyone who has never teleported, it could be quite unnerving for the first time. But I have never seen a bigger loser than Carl, there was no need to make that comment about Rosa. She never complained about anything. Carl and I were about to enter into a stare-fest when Sheba gushed, “I loved it!”

We both turned slowly towards her. She was standing in a patch of sunlight, glowing like a fairy and was smiling at me.

“In your face, Carl” I thought.

“Why are you glowing like a lamp?” Carl asked Sheba. Of course, he wasn’t aware of her powers.

She gave him an odd look before explaining her power. Carl maintained an impassive expression but I could sense that he was impressed too. Sheba did have an interesting power and the fact that she was not very high-headed about it, made her all the more likeable. Oh no! Here I go again. I have to distract myself from this sudden Sheba-infatuation. I extract the route map from my backpack and start examining it. Landmarks that I have never heard of and regions which are bound to be as confusing as this map were riddled all over the parchment. Great! May be my confusion and pathetic hopelessness at reading a map was evident on my face, Carl promptly snatched the map away from me. For once, I wasn’t as annoyed as I should have been.

He squinted at the map as well and Sheba looked over his shoulder to get a glimpse too.

“I am familiar with these regions and can navigate us up-till here. But beyond that, even I have never ventured.” Carl said pointing at one-third of the route, stretching ahead from our starting point.

“I have been to some parts in this region and recognize some of the landmarks, so maybe we won’t have a hard time figuring this area out.” Sheba supplied, pointing at the next half of the route. There were still last 100 miles or so, with which none of us were familiar and they directly bordered the Wolves’ territory. Both Carl and Sheba eyed me expectantly but I figured it was time to admit that I have never been in the outside world and won’t be much help in tracking.

“I don’t know that area either…” I said lamely, when suddenly it struck me.

“Remember what Guru Zen told us before leaving? The elders have connections in that area. May be we can reach out to them for help when we get there?” I proposed.

“That does make sense!” Sheba admitted.

Carl just grunted, which meant he had no objections with the idea at least. What a grouch! I don’t know what Rosa saw in this guy.

As we all had different methods of travelling fast and only one of us had knowledge of the area, we decided that Carl will lead the way. He has super strength and super speed due to hyper-growth and activity of muscles. The oxidation of his muscles let him recover his strength almost on a continual basis making him fit for long term physical activities. Therefore, he can track the way up to the next landmark on the map and we would follow him. It is not ideal but it seems like the fastest way to travel, without attracting much attention.

Our first landmark, the “Phoenix tower”, belonged to a cult of pyro-technicians who worked in coalition with the Caretaker Clan. There were a couple of gifted ones at the CCs who could handle fire quite excellently and had exoskeleton like skins which were resilient to fire. They were recruited by these phoenix people and managed all the dormant and active volcanoes in the world, if they wanted to. There was no absolute accession into a particular profession for us gifted ones, we were free to choose our destiny. But somehow, working with your own kind always made you less comfortable about yourself and more confident about your work. Teleports like me got into multiple vocations designed around escape strategies. Since there was so much choice, I was bound to be confused! Rosa always said its better that I can choose to be what I want to do with my powers and didn’t have it all sorted out for me. I think she detested the narrow scope of her power sometimes.