A/N: Yay! We got ten reviews! So here's the third chapter. Also um, can people get married at Winding Circle, even if they're dedicates? Oh yeah, and this book takes place somewhere in between the Circle of Magic books and Circle Opens.
Rosethorn kneeled down in her garden and began pulling up weeds, why did it seem as if her garden got the most weeds? Probably because they liked her garden, it was the best one in all of Winding Circle and she was a plant mage, plants ought to be attracted to her, or maybe plant mages, the stray thought popped into her head.
After pulling up all the weeds she could find, she tossed off her work gloves and went into the hose.
"Briar! Come here! We're watering the plants!" She shouted through Discipline Cottage.
Briar seemed to almost materialize in front of her. He waved a dark colored cloak in front of her, a gleeful smile on his face, "Look what I found! In the attic, it was just sitting there!"
Rosethorn raised her eyebrows, "Put that back immediately! That's is Lark's old invisibility cloak, she made it, now put it back!"
His face had a weird thoughtful expression on it, "If Lark made it, and Sandry is a thread mage as well…"
"Absolutely not! I forbid you to ask her to make a invisibility cloak for you to go sneaking around in it!" She told him sternly, "Now come on, we've watering to do."
Briar heaved a relieved sigh, "Thank goodness, I was sure you would say weeding!"
Lark came in holding a bundle of old clothes. Seeing what Briar was holding she quickly dumped the clothes on the table and grabbed the cloak from Briar.
"My old invisibility cloak!" she held it up happily, "I've been looking for this for ages! I'm sorry, but I really need this Briar, I'll have Sandry make a new one for you."
Rosethorn opened her mouth, then closed it in defeat, "Well come on Briar, lets do that watering, grab those watering cans right there!"
Briar grabbed them and followed Rosethorn outside.
She turned on the pump and he held the watering cans beneath it while they filled up.
She turned it off and took one of the watering cans and headed toward the farthest corner of the garden. Briar took the other one and headed for the opposite side.
***
Daja sniffed at the smell coming from the large pot in the middle of the table. It smelled delicious. She looked questioningly at Rosethorn, who had made it.
"Chicken Noodle Soup. My favorite," Rosethorn said and started dishing it out.
Briar lifted a spoonful to his lips and tasted it. He licked the spoon clean, "This is YUMMY!"
Rosethorn raised an eyebrow at her student.
"Street slang for, very good food," Briar said in between mouthfuls.
"How any times do I have to tell you NOT to speak with your mouth full AND NOT to use street slang?!" Rosethorn told the boy.
"Um.."
Crane burst in, and looked around at everyone eating their soup. No one said anything.
"What are you doing here?" Rosethorn demanded, "and why don't you ever knock?"
"I, er, uh," it seemed to Crane that these days Rosethorn had a way of making him feel stupid.
"Well?" Rosethorn asked, hands on her hips, an arguing spark in her eyes.
"I came to talk about the flower, of course," Crane said stiffly, regaining his composure.
"Can't you see we're eating dinner?" Rosethorn asked, "Come back later."
"Oh no! Crane, would you like join us?" Lark asked politely.
Crane opened his mouth to say 'No Thank you' but instead the words, "Yes, thank you very much," slipped out.
He sat down in an empty chair, which happened to be next to Rosethorn, who was glaring at Lark. Rosethorn humphed.
"Temper, temper," Crane said softly.
Rosethorn whirled around to face him, "What did you say?"
"I said, have you discovered anything new about the flower?" Crane said quickly.
"No, you didn't, I heard you say something very different," for some odd reason it seemed to Briar, Tris, Daja, and Sandry that Rosethorn wasn't actually angry at him. They remained silent.
Lark was beginning to think maybe she shouldn't have invited Crane to dinner.
"I'm not hungry anymore," Rosethorn said and stood up, pushing her bowl away as she strode to her workroom.
"You didn't answer my question!" Crane said and followed her.
There was lots of shouting coming from the workroom, things that sounded like, "Weeding! You were weeding?!" and "Of course! I don't suppose YOU'VE taken care of YOUR garden lately?" and "Uh.." and some words that later Rosethorn made Briar promise never to repeat. The shouting softened until it just became a low murmur.
"Well," Lark said, "they stopped arguing."
They continued eating the soup.
Suddenly there was no sound at all coming from the workroom. Sandry paused and looked at the door. They all listened quietly. Silence. More silence.
"Well, it's finally happened," Briar, announced, "she's killed him!"
Tris rolled her eyes, "Oh gosh Briar! They're probably just," she paused, "probably just…looking at the flower or something!"
Sandry nodded like she didn't quite believe Tris. Still there was no noise from the room.
Then the door creaked open. Crane walked out, and stopped as he noticed everyone staring at him. A faint blush crept up his face, before he stormed out of the room.
"Well, he's not dead," Daja said.
***
"Maybe they like arguing," Tris suggested from on top of roof. It was the next day and the sky was clear blue with not a cloud to be seen. Rosethorn was still in her workroom, she hadn't come out yet, Lark had brought her some breakfast and reported that Rosethorn was not dead either; she had been studying the flower and had fallen asleep.
"Like arguing? How can they like arguing?" Sandry said in disbelief while leaning against the chimney.
"Well you have to admit Rosethorn did look, well.." Daja trailed off not finding the right word.
"Happy?" Briar supplied.
"Yeah, while they were arguing," Daja said.
"Huh." Sandry's face told a different story, "So if they like arguing, that means?"
"They like each other!" Briar said quickly, before realizing what he had said.
"Like each other? They hate each other!" Sandry reminded them.
"Yes, but they argue because they hate each other, but if they like arguing then, this is too confusing," Tris said shaking her head.
"Well actually come to think of it," Briar said, "There was that one time when I got back from a little hike when we went to find the pollinator and Crane and Rosethorn were looking at each other with the oddest expressions."
"Are you suggesting, what I think you're suggesting?" Daja asked.
"No," Briar said, "What are you thinking I'm suggesting?"
"Uh, nothing, nothing at all," Daja said quickly.
Tris snorted, "You think he's suggesting that maybe, they were like, well, you know."
"Okay, now you guys are going way too far!" Sandry said, "Maybe they like each other as in friends, but what you're saying, is completely and totally absurd!"
"Let's just drop the subject," Briar suggested.
"Good idea," Tris said.
***
Crane was in his workroom searching for herbal remedies that the flower might give. He'd tried crushing the leaves and making teas and broths and soups and an assortment of other things.
He opened a book on herbal remedies and began flipping through it until he came to a page where it read about a flower in which was burned. The smoke was soothing to the lungs.
"Hmm," Crane said thoughtfully. He took a match and lit one of the flowers on fire, he winced at doing this, but learning what the flower could do could turn out to be very useful in the future, and there were still thousands of them left.
Slowly the room began filling with smoke. He put out the fire and let the smoke drift around. It had a strange poisonous smell. He coughed a little bit then started stumbling to the window to open it and let the smoke out.
The smoke started to leave but he was already on the floor coughs wracking his whole body…
***
Rosethorn was frustrated and confused. She and Crane had always hated each other, but now, this, Crane had kissed her, twice. To her amazement she found that she didn't actually mind, rather, she liked it.
Rosethorn slammed the book closed. Her mind would just not let her concentrate. She needed to talk to Crane, that's what. She walked out of her workshop and out of Discipline Cottage. Tris was sitting on the front steps.
"Where are you going?" Tris asked, looking up from her book.
"I'm going over to Crane's workroom to," her mind said kiss him and she quickly said, "talk to him," before her mind let her speak those two unthinkable words.
Tris watched Rosethorn's retreating back. The woman, who was usually composed and sure of herself seemed, nervous, and unsure. At the moment Tris dismissed it and buried herself back in her book.
Rosethorn meanwhile, suddenly found herself in front of Crane's workroom, knocking on his door. No one answered. Hmm, that's strange, I was sure he would be here, Rosethorn thought, disappointed. She considered walking away, but then again, what if he just decided not to answer? Or even worse what if he didn't want to talk to her? She really thought she should go back to her own workroom, but her mind had other ideas.
No! Don't go away! You really want to see Crane, his deep brown eyes, his pitch black hair, to have him hold you to… Rosethorn quickly shook her head to clear her mind of such absurd, but true, her mind insisted, thoughts.
She pushed open the door to Crane's workroom.
***
Lark was weaving. Daja had just come back from the blacksmith and was talking with Briar, who was trying to get his Shakkan to put out a few more leaves. Tris was, of course, reading her book and Sandry was watching Lark weave.
The door creaked open. Rosethorn stood there, her eyes wide open and dazed, tears streaming down her face.
"Crane," she said softly, " He, he's dead."
A/N: To be continued, until, that is, we have 15 reviews…
Oh yes, and please answer this question:
Can dedicates get married? Just wondering, 'cause no one really makes it clear…