Chasing Fate (Sentinel & Guide)

Chapter 44

[[Unedited]]

Officer Tang, the park ranger nodded, "Depends on the age of the scene. It's winter so we've had some light snow here and there. Nothing more than a dusting, but at this elevation we have had a couple freezes. The bears shouldn't be out and this far south this time of year but we're going to keep cautious. These coordinates you've got lead right to a prohibited cliffside about 5 miles in. Pretty much completely isolated. Last time we went this way was to clear a squatter, that would be about five months ago, to give you a time window." 

The entire time Officer Tang spoke, he was staring directly at Fate, his eyes wide. Jack pulled her imperceptibly closer and let that streak of possession rage for just a moment. His neutral listening face did not waver but the two sentinels snapped their eyes properly to Jack. 

This was far more controlled than his outburst at the airport. Jack quieted his rage after seeing the sentinels stop flaring their nostrils and widening their eyes at Fate. He was a pretty easy going guy, and the Hammond clan was one of the most lenient, but that didn't mean he would let any sentinel within sniffing distance of his very new guide. 

"Alright. Tang we'll have you lead us in then we'll start at the exact coordinates and radius outward as far as we can. Santos you keep an eye on the ground, look for any disturbances that aren't squirrel holes. Let's calibrate." 

The two sentinels nodded and went over to Anton, who was waiting with barely concealed amusement on the chastised sentinels. The three leaned their heads into the closed circle. To an unfamiliar watcher it would appear as though they were praying as Anton placed a hand on each sentinel's shoulder and began murmuring. 

Jack turned to Fate with a smile, grasping her hand and bringing it to his upper arm. She immediately understood when he took off his jacket and rolled his sleeve, exposing the collection of tattoos that climbed from his elbow over his shoulder. On the outer edge was a single stylized equalizer crowned with "Break the knob off!" in big bold letters. The equalizer was labelled from 0 near his elbow and 10 towards his shoulder. 

Fate laughed. It was pretty ingenious. The tattoo blended with his other random collection of items, musical and otherwise. She remembered seeing it on all of his fighting posters, but now up close it was most definitely the oldest one in this area. 

Fate wrapped her hand around in a comfortable position and placed her thumb over the halfway mark. Jack's skin was prickly with goosebumps. Fate assumed it was the cold. It was far warmer here than Bent Valley, but it was most definitely not spring. 

"Alright, Tell me what your touch is at right now?" 

"Seven." 

Fate nodded then leaned her head in towards him. Jack felt his mind clearing and focusing solely on her as she lowered the mental walls she'd had up and in place for almost a week now. Everything else fell away as Jack leaned his head in to touch foreheads with her. 

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Calibrating was a straightforward process. Guides would lower their barriers so that the sentinel could empathize with their senses. Whatever level the guide's senses were at became the reference point, the guide, for the sentinel and they could adjust from there at will. 

Since she was his bondmate, all he needed to do was read her to set his own senses to those of a "normal" person. She also read him and understood what he was really capable of.  

Her perfect vision and hearing was about a 4 on the scale of his capabilities.  She settled her thumb over that area on his bicep. Touch was his weakest skill, as attested by the fact that he could stand getting tattoos in the first place. This would be the one that she used to ground him.  

"Alright, let's set hearing down to 2," she used slight pressure with her thumb from the four to the two on his arm. Jack obeyed without thinking, his hearing becoming a little fuzzier than was average. 

He could still understand Fate however as she took his sense of smell, sight, and taste all down to two, leaving only touch. He wanted to focus in on the touch now, feel the lines of her fingerprints on his skin, but the vage sound of her voice was more enticing. At two out of ten, he was in the same awareness as a person who had just woken up. 

"Alright let's take sight up slowly," Fate's thumb pressed in that same gentle way up to the eight and Jack's vision cleared with it. At this level he could make out the shape of every leaf on every nearby tree, and the precise colors of every pebble in the drive. More improtantly he could see the folds in Fate's lips as she spoke again.
 
"Let's move hearing up to five," her thumb tapped along and he could hear Anton murmuring at the other sentinels, but not hear Fate's heartbeat. In a moment of distress he grabbed her hand and wrapped it more solidly around his arm, trapping it beneath his shoulder. Touch was still wide open for him, so he could feel her heartbeat beneath the thin skin of her wrist. 

Fate let him set that baseline without protest. She could not put her shields back up until they were done with this investigation, so instead she thought the calm meditative mantras she'd been taught as a teenager. Any emotional spikes from her could cause the same in Jack. 

They were now perfectly calibrated. 

Jack understood now why bonded pairs never really needed to calibrate with each other. Anton and the two sentinels were still working when he pulled away from Fate. He refocused his sense of touch so that the brisk forty-five degree weather bothered him less. 

Fate, who had spent the past few years facing the harsh winters of the northeast, wasn't even wearing a jacket, just a long-sleeved shirt. She knew better than to protest as he very pointedly tossed her his fleece pullover. 

By the time she was all wrapped up, Anton finished calibrating the two sentinels.  They boarded on the ATVs and began the short drive out.