One World, No Coincidences
Nighttime came quickly after that. Slowly, about fourteen criminals came into the cabin and Briar greeted them each by their name and gestured them to the floor. That, with the seven in his group were twenty one.
When they were all there, sitting on the floor in a wide circle, Briar looked at each of them. "I know ye all know me. I'm Roach. And you? Yer still alive. Every third day we'll meet 'ere and-- I'm not sure." he smiled sheepishly. "Tell e'ryone yer names."
"Uber." Uber volunteered, once again, his voice was slow and cynical, as though everything that he saw here was odd and strange, and it was his job to analyse it all. Drojan cocked his head to the side as though asking why. "I stole vases. Three. At the same shop." he said bravely. One snorted. Briar's head turned to the snorter, and gestured for him to say next.
"Jerico, and I stole a whole bunch of jewlery from a really nice shop, then I stole some jewelery from another shop, and then I was caught robbing some old bag's house." he said proudly. Hanging from his ear was a golden ring that swung about as he moved his head.
"What's that?" asking Drojan, pointing at the very ring that was looped into Jerico's ear. Jerico's cheeky grin faded.
"Enihar the pirate gave it ter me, when I was just a young'n." he whispered soberly. Everyone froze in fear. The very name of Enihar was enough to make grown men quiver in fear and hide under their bedsheets. He was terrored, evil, horrible. They had heard what he had done to captives, and his sister Pauha? She was even worse. She had absolutely no mercy for anyone on the seas, or on land. Lately the attacks had gotten worse and worse, the pirates had begun to band together under Pauha's reign.
Everyone was ready to introduce after that. Nothing could be as bad as the last fellow, and the one after them was surely worse. "So what are we going to do now?" asked a tall, gangly girl with chubby cheeks.
"Just... talk, I guess." said Briar, lying back.
The door creaked open slowly as a boy who looked a little older than Briar with blue eyes and blonde hair stormed in. "Sorry I'm late, Dart old pal. I heard about it and I came, but I was stuck getting something done by Mr. Grouch."
"Leather straps?" said Dart, nodding knowingly.
"Yep. He decided to hit it on my arm to see if it worked well enough." He said baring his arm for all to see, three slashes dribbling with blood upon it. Dart shivered.
"Come 'ere." he said gesturing to the boy. The boy sat down next to him and put out his arm while Dart stripped some of the boy's clothing to make bandages. The boy looked up to see all that were in the room staring at him.
"Ullo. I'm Edmundo. Ed, like." he said cheerfully. Briar frowned. He hadn't invited him here. He had seen him, but there had been something he hadn't liked about him, so he had decided not to invite him.
...
And he kinda felt a bit jealous. Not that he would admit that to himself, mind you, but he didn't like how much attention Dart was paying to him. Dart was HIS friend. It was strange... He didn't feel this way towards any other of his friends, who were all just as friendly with Dart, maybe more, than he was. Briar decided that he had a pretty good judge of character, and this guy was not to be trusted.
He would have to watch this guy.
Briar concentrated with all his might onto that small block of wood. The wood felt so nice in his hands, alive, in a way. He knew that was impossible, because this wood had been torn from it's roots, but he could feel this sprinkle of life coming from it. What if he could make it live again? It'd be lovely with roots in the ground, leaves twinkling around and the sun coming down through the leaves, making soft patterns on the ground.
Screams burst out from the people around him.Briar glanced up. His little block of wood wasn't a little block of wood anymore... it was... a tree! How had he done that? How could he have possible done that. He hadn't even noticed standing up, but he stepped towards the tree, his hand out. He stroked gently, and could almost feel the tree shiver under him.
"Roach... Roach?" whispered Fleetfoot quietly. He turned his head. She looked nearly frightened to death, but he couldn't for the life of him tell why.
"What is it?" he asked.
"You're glowing." she cried, choking back sobs. Briar looked at his hands calmly, he wasn't glowing.
"I don't feel like I am." he whispered.
"There's a big glowing circle around you!" she whimpered. "No one can touch you! Get rid of it!" she sobbed, tears streaming down her face, and dribbling down her shirt in tears.
Briar was scared. Why was she scared of him? He wasn't scary! Not to her! He had never done anything to her, or in front of her.
"Stop it!" she cried. He would have-, if he knew what it was he was doing. What could he do? He opened his mind for anything that he might possibly just pop into his head. He closed his eyes and grabbed a leaf from the tree, asking the tree to give it up for him, the tree willingly obliged. He curled it around and held it out before him and sucked all his magical energy into it.
Then he ate it.
He collapsed in exhaustion. Fleetfoot ran up to him, beckoning to Dart and the other to come close, it was safe now. He rested his head on her knees.
-What have I done? I know it was something big... I am going to get into so much trouble now. What had just happened? I remembered something vague about Fleetfoot crying... why had she been crying? I wished she hadn't been. She is such a delicate, frail person, it hurts a guy to see her cry.-
"He has magic you say?" asked a man fixing an iron clamp around his arm. "Good thing we have some of these left from when those idiot rookie pirates left all their stuff here, even with all their mage holding gear and stuff.
-Huh? Magic? He didn't have magic! Why were they saying that he did?-
"This'll stop any maic he has from being used, so he can go back to normal. I'd throw away that key if I were you. I mean, what if the rotten thief were to find it and do something terrible with it? He might turn the walls into a mass of broken timber."
"Shush, you idiot! What if he heard you!" growled a man. The first one whimpered nervously.
-What liars. They were spewing lies from their mouths. I couldn't do anything like that, if he could, I would have done it already.-
"Well, he'll be fine now. All he needs is a little bit of sleep, that was a big magic he just worked. Lets just hope he doesn't do it more often, the more he does it, the easier it will be for him." said the cowardly man.
-Easier? If I do it more, it'll be easier?- a wandering voice within his head spoke up with curiousity. -I couldn't if I wanted to, I didn't do anything, I can't do anything! I am a normal,average every day thief! I steal for food, and water and anything else. Besides, I can't do anything that a mage can. I never saw little pictures in the fire. I never see the future or anything. I just like plants. That's not special! It's the average kind of thing. I'm not the only person in the world who likes plants, I mean, bags like plants. They've got them all over the place. They're just fooling themselves. I don't have magic.-
"Lets just hope his magic doesn't escape him. This only stops him from performing it." said the cowardly man with a quiver in his voice.
"Oh stop blubbering you baffoon!" growled the guard menacingly. The coward whimpered. "How can we stop it from escaping him?"
"We can't, not in any way that I know of."
"You're useless." grumbled the guard. "Leave."
Briar heard the soft footsteps of the doctor leaving the building, or the room, or wherever he was. The guard sighed deafeatedly. "1 month and a half to go." he whispered. "Just a month and a half to go."
--------------------------------
Author's Note: Sorry I haven't updated in so long. -.-' I've been playing the Sims2. It's so awesome. Then once I was done updating I had to go to sleep, leaving absolutely zero time for writing. And the homework! It's EVERYWHERE! It's horrible! Seventh grade is EVIL! But fun. Sometimes. In a way. You know? 8th grade is so close but so far. sigh yeah.
So, Read and review! Thankies! XD