Briar walked across the slate roof, looking over at the familiar land before him, when he heard some rustling behind him.

"Tris! I didn't even notice you were there!" He said.

"Well you don't seem to be noticing a lot of things these days, do you Briar? With Sandry taking up all your time...." she said, voice angry, and also sad. It had been a month since Briar had first gotten home, and he and Sandry were as they put it "In Love" and even if she was now on work in Sotat, they still wrote to each other, and Briar would send her magiked messages. Tris thought she was going to throw up.

"Whoa, calm down coppercurls!" He said chuckling, and then his voice faded when she turned around to reveal her distressed face. "I mean, are we that bad?" Tris nodded, and then said, "I never figured you and Sandry for the lovey-dovey type. But I guess we all change." She said, as she ran her fingers through a feather she was holding.

"No...I think we're all still the same in the very middle of us Tris. I think that somehow we still have part of our 10 year old selves in our 18 year old bodies."

"So are you saying that you've loved Sandry since you were 10?" she said, voice straining, and fingers almost breaking the feather in half.

"Tris? Are you ok? I mean I've had love for her, and Daja, and Lark, and Rosethorn...and you, since I first got here. It starts in friendship. But I guess you wouldn't know that since you've never been in love!" he said, getting angrier.

"If that's what your stubborn head wants to think Briar Moss, then fine! But...Buut..." she said, sputtering, and then sobbing. Briar, seeing this was something far more important than what the argument seemed to be about, Tris wasn't usually like this. So he sat down, and wrapped his arms around her, rocking her gently. "Tris, you can tell me what's wrong. But you know I can't help it if I love Sand-" She slid out of his arms, and stood back up, wiping the tears off her face. "I'll see you later Briar...I have to go meet Niko somewhere..." Briar was still sitting down, and he just nodded, a little confused, and in need of some answers. So he headed to Daja.

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Daja was pounding metal on an anvil when he came in. "BRIAR? IS THAT YOU?" she yelled over the sound of her pounding. "Yes" he said, mindtouching her.

"Ok, just let me finish this, it'll take just a few more seconds" she mind-touched back, then turned around after the promised few seconds. "So what's happened that makes you come here in the middle of the day. It's too hot outside for you to walk this far 'just to talk'". She said, motioning for him to sit next to her.

"Actually, you'd be surprised at the heat that was up in the Emelan Mountains..." But then caught himself, Daja didn't really feel heat. She worked with it, and she molded it, so it didn't hurt her in the same way.

"I knew you'd remember!" she said, laughing.

"You..You heard that? But those were my thoughts!" Briar said, startled.

"You were...projecting them I guess. It's not like I can go into your mind at extract thoughts. But if you project them, then I can hear them. But that's not the point, why did you come here to see me?"

"Daja?! Do i need a REASON to come and talk to one of my best friends?" he said, laughter in his voice.
"Come on kaq, i KNOW you have a reason." she said, chuckling as well.

"Well...I do actually. It's Tris. She seems...I don't know the word for it, but it's not good. I mean she's getting all emotional with me, and she cried today just after i mentioned Sandry and me..." he said, trying to explain his problem.

"Oh Gods...I ought to hit you over the head with my staff. Are you really that stupid Briar?"

When he didn't say anything, she turned around, and started hammering again. Briar took that as a dismissal.

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TO BE CONTINUED...