Disclaimer: NOT MINE! All belong to the genius Tamora Pierce
Fourteen-year-old Briar Moss snuck up into Sandry's room. After making sure it was empty, he quietly crept in. It was the afternoon break time, and he was pretty sure that the girls were on the roof while Lark and Rosethorn were downstairs. He quickly went to her sewing/weaving basket and shuffled through it. Smiling triumphantly, he lifted a needle and went back out of the room. Now was the tricky part.
He tip-toed down the stairs, watching out for Lark and Rosethorn. Seeing no one, he shuffled outside. He carefully looked around and up, making sure he wasn't being watched. Quickly, he stepped over to Rosethorn's workroom. He stepped in and headed for the labeled bottles. He glanced through them before grabbing three.
Placing the bottles on the table, he unscrewed the first one. Double checking that it was what he thought it was, he slowly dipped the stolen needle into the dye. Using his left hand first, he meticulously drew a picture of a leaf and vine on his hand and in the web between his thumb and forefinger. Changing the needle to the other hand and dipping it again, he did the same to his left. Wiping the needle to get all the green dye off, he screwed the top back onto the bottle.
Unscrewing the next one, he again dipped the needle into the dye and drew on his hand. This time, a red flower in the middle of blooming appeared on his right hand. Cleaning the needle and dipping it in the third dye, a blue flower was drawn on his left. Careful of the wet dye still on his hands, he screwed the bottle tops back on and replaced the dyes where he found them. Creeping back into the house, he hurried back upstairs. Just as he was putting the needle back where he found it, Sandry stepped into the room.
"Briar? What are you doing in my room? And my mage kit?" Briar spun around with a curse at being caught. Sandry stood there with her hands on her hips, an unhappy look on her face. "Well?"
"Nothing." Briar stood fully up so he could look down at her instead of the other way.
"If it was nothing, then you wouldn't be in here. Now what were you doing in my mage kit?" Wait, her mage kit? That means her needles were probably magicked...
Briar looked down at his newly tattooed hands and winced. Sandry followed his gaze and her eyes widened. "Briar, what did you do?" The vines were moving sluggishly, and there were more than two flowers on his hands. Well, at least the thief Xs were no longer visible. Really, they weren't even there at all. It seems the vines made them disappear. Well, at least he got what he wanted done... it just had a slightly different result than what he planned.
The End
Written: May 28, 2007
Revised: June 20, 2009