Disclaimer: The word disclaimer should state it all

Not Where I Belong

Chapter Two

From last time:

With that being said, all the bystanders raced for cover and shelter in their cabins to avoid the rain. Roach leaned his head against the pole and let the tears come knowing that no one would be able to distinguish the tears from the rain. But even with the rain pounding all around him, Roach lost consciousness as he slipped into a black oblivion.

"Briar... Briar..." a voice echoed on the winds outside a lone camp where a pole stood in the center of the encampment with a boy no more than eleven years old was hanging from by his wrists.

The boy attached to the pole raised his head very slightly and croaked out in a harsh whisper, "Briar?"

"Do not worry Briar, help will come for you," the wind sang in his ears. And then everything was still. Not even the dust stirred on the ground.

"Briar?" the boy rasped again, "I must be delirious. Now I'm hearing things. People are gonna think I'm crazy. 'Sides my name's Roach." A searing pain that ran up the course of the boy's back painfully reminded him of what had happened the night before. He had been whipped and then left out in the rain in the middle of a storm. And he was terribly cold although he would never say that.

A gruff voice from the other side of the camp brought him back to the present. "Go get the boy off the pole. Tell me if he's alive." Roach heard small pitter patting of footsteps run up to him.

"Kid, you alive?"

Briar/Roach let out a groan and then gave a wince when the kid below him yelled back loudly, "He's alive Mister Sir!" Then in a much quieter voice he continued, "now hold still I'll have you down in a jiffy." Roach's 'rescuer' was a bit taller than his own five feet and gently tugged Roach off the pole. Roach landed on the hard pack ground on his back.

Roach let out another groan of pain when he landed, his torn up skin was still very sensitive after his beating the night before. "My name's Ratter, what's yours Kid?"

Roach opened his mouth to say his name, but decided against it and instead said in a hoarse voice barely above a whisper, "Briar."

"Briar, huh? That's a weird name. Anyways, I better get you fixed up. You start work today, ya know." Ratter helped Briar stand up and walked him to a different cabin that had 'Office' stenciled at the tope. "Here's where the adults live. We'll just go in and get you some bandages and the like."

The two boys walked into the dimly lit building and Ratter snuck into a backroom. "We aren't supposed to be in here, but we don't need you dying now, do we?" In the room was a huge cabinet along with shelves on one whole side of the wall, that held absolutely nothing.

"What are the shelves for?" questioned Briar as Ratter opened the cabinet and started pulling out bandages and salve.

"I have no idea. Mister Sir wanted them built for who knows what. That was a year ago, or so I've been told. The kid I learned it from died last month."

"We're in Mister Sir's house?" squeaked Briar. "What if we get caught?" We'll both get in trouble."

"No one will get in trouble if you just stay quiet and let me fix you. The old geezer will never miss a few wraps. Unless he sees you wearing them that is."

"Then I guess you can't fix me up, he ruined my shirt last night. And I don't think he would take to good if I suddenly showed up wearing one."

"You got that right, just let me put these back. I can at least cut those ropes off you. You are gonna need your hands out here Briar." A bell rang in the distance. "Oh darn! Come on. Time for breakfast. And if we're late we don't get any even if it isn't at all good we still need to eat."

The two newfound friends raced to the mess hall and made it in just as the doors were about to be closed. Briar's back was killing him and he felt like he was going to collapse in the middle of the room. Thankfully, Ratter saw that and caught Briar around the middle as he started to pitch forward towards the ground.

Briar let out a small hiss of pain, but Ratter said quietly under his breath, "better a little more pain than to end up flat on your face here." He gave a knowing glance to Briar and helped him to a seat. I'll go get breakfast, you stay here and rest.

Ratter brought back two bowls of a very thin gruel that did not look at all appeasing to Briar. "They expect us to eat that?" he said with a look of disbelief around the room as everyone dug into the murky looking soup.

"That's it Briar. Either eat it or you ain't get nothing. If you want to starve, don't eat. Of course, we are all gonna die in the end anyway. But as for me, I want to live as long as possible. Maybe even get out of here someday."

Mister Sir stood up from his table and breakfast which looked much more appealing than everyone else's meager meal. "All right boys! Time to get to work! Out you go!" Boys climbed off the benches that they were sitting on and headed towards the door.

"What exactly do we do?" questioned Briar as himself and Ratter were pulled along with the crowd towards the mine entrance.

"Simple. Since you're still new, all you have to do for now is go around under there and get the full buckets of metals and then give them to whoever is at the lift. Then they bring them to the surface."

Boys were climbing into the mining shaft and were being lowered into the inky blackness below. "Ratter? Don't we get lights or something?"

"What? Scared of the dark Briar? Naw, there are a few lanterns down there. But still watch your step. It is dangerous. We don't want any cave-ins, if you know what I mean."

Briar nodded and then stepped onto the lift and was lowered down into the earth all the while feeling the same feeling he had felt back in Hajra when he was told he was going to the mines. Fear. The lift hit the ground with a clank as the gears started to rotate in the opposite direction to bring it back to the surface.

"Ratter!," barked a boy who was clearly in charge. "You are working in the new area we started yesterday. Grab a few kids and get moving." Ratter nodded and grabbed Briar by his arm and started dragging him through the twisting tunnels. Along the way, he tapped boys on the shoulder and gestured for them to come with him.

Briar was led to a small area that was filled with coal and soot from all of the walls. His lungs felt constricted like he could barely breathe. Briar, for the first few minutes just stood aside and let the more experienced kids get to work. After about five minutes a basket of something he couldn't quite see was shoved into his hands. He was instructed to bring that to the lift. The chunks would get sorted out in another area by experienced adults.

Briar did as he was told, and the work carried on for another grueling 6 hours. Then there was a small break for water and some more of the gruel and then back to work again. Sometime in the later afternoon, but it could be evening, no light was visible save for the few lanterns that lined the walls, a loud rumbling was heard.

Work immediately stopped as everyone looked for the source of the noise. It was coming from the area where Briar and his crew were working. "Cave-in!" someone screamed, "Get out!" Pandemonium quickly ensued as boys raced for the exit. Briar at the moment was currently in the middle of a coughing fit that had been happening all day.

The rumble grew louder and chunks of the ceiling started to fall in. Everyone was above ground, save for one who was still making his way to the exit. And then with a shuddering creak and groan, the support beams gave out tumbling the mine in on itself. The last thing Briar remembered was getting hit on the head with a large rock from the ceiling and then blackness.

Rosethorn was out and about in her little wagon from the temple, for she was distributing wares around the city of Emelan and Sotat. She was going down a little dirt road that was quite hard to travel on due to the ruts in the road made from countless caravans traveling over the same area.

She was heading back to Winding Circle so that she could go start weeding in her garden and just relax in the earth and soil when she felt a lone tree branch extend its leaves and wrap them around her arm in a very tight grip.

"Can I help you?" she asked wondering what would cause a tree to just grab her.

"Briar needs you, Rosethorn. Go to the mining camp 10 miles west of here. Take this road and turn left at the fork. Hurry. He does not have much time."

"Briar? Who is Briar? I have never heard of him."

"You know of him Dedicate Rosethorn. You secretly worry about him when you think others are not watching. You are his only hope. Please, for his sake and others, save him." The tree then let go and went back to its normal position as though no conversation had just happened.

Rosethorn thought for a minute. She was starting to appreciate the three girls that stayed at Discipline, Sandry, Tris, and Daja. And of course she cared about her best friend Lark. And Niko too even though he had been stupid to miss the trial... The trial. The boy the tree was talking about must be the plant mage that Niko had been told to get. The boy, Briar as the tree had called him, was in the mines? That was no place for a plant mage. No live greenery meant wilting, and wilting meant dying...

She spurred the horse and wagon down the road all in quick attempts to reach her apprentice before the worst kind of fate happened to him, death.

Briar awoke gasping for air along with a gigantic migraine. There were also no lights seeing as they had all gone out in the collapse in the mine. 'My first day working and I'm gonna die, typical,' the boy thought to himself. He could barely breathe the air was being compressed in his lungs. He was going to die. If it wasn't of suffocation it would be from lack of food and water eventually. But the more he thought about it, the more he knew that it was going to be of suffocation. He couldn't get any air into his lungs and felt much like a fish out of water.

He didn't know what was wrong with him. Surely, a normal person would at least be able to breathe right? Another coughing fit wracked his thin frame, stirring the dust around him. He would die at the age of eleven years in a mining cave-in.

Rosethorn and wagon arrived at the camp in a flurry of dust to discover people running around, many covered in soot from head to toe. She knew without even really knowing, that a cave-in had just happened and her student was trapped beneath it all.

She literally jumped off her seat and ran to the only adult that looked to be in the premises. "Excuse me," she said loudly, "did everyone get out?"

The man turned sharply to stare at the small stocky woman in a green habit who was shouting at him. "From what I have heard all of them got out safely. Or at-" he was cut off as a soot covered youth ran up to them.

He spoke directly to Rosethorn knowing that Mister Sir wouldn't care if one kid, especially the one who annoyed him, was dead. "Briar is still down there Miss! You have to help him!"

The woman stared at the coal covered boy as if dumbstruck. The tree had been telling the truth. There was a Briar and he desperately needed her help. "Briar?" she said uncertainly, "are you sure?"

"Positive Dedicate. I can't find him anywhere and he was in the middle of one of his famous coughing fits when it started. I thought he was ahead of me, honest."

The dedicate paled considerably and then said to her informer, "take me to where he is. I am not about to lose him again when I am this close."

Ratter gave her a puzzled look and then started running to where the mine tunnel had been not even an hour ago. Mister Sir watched them go and then quickly followed. He personally hoped that the boy was already dead.

Ratter stopped at the mine and then walked over to where he thought was close to where he had been working. "About here Miss," he said, "this is where we were working earlier."

Rosethorn quickly reached into her habit and pulled out a few packets that contained seeds of flowers that would bloom anywhere if she helped to feed it energy. She opened the packets and scattered the seeds on top of the dull brown ground. And then she sent her power into them. The seeds immediately began to sprout and grow long stalks and set down roots.

"Go," she told her creations, "find him. Make sure he is alive."

Briar felt suddenly cooler and more refreshed than he had been since he had left Hajra. 'Maybe I'm dying and everything is just going to the way I like it.' But when something twined around his arm, he knew he wasn't dreaming.

A root had wrapped itself around his arm and was asking if he was okay. "I'll be fine as long as you stay," Briar replied before going into another coughing fit. The root sent a tremor to it's other parts and in turn they sent a message up to Rosethorn.

"He lives," the plants cried, "but he is fading, unless we hurry we shall lose him."

Rosethorn turned to all the boys who were watching her. "Bring shovels. He is alive, we have to get him out of here. In her mind she talked through the plants to get to the boy. "Do not worry Briar, I'm going to get you out."

Briar sat up with a start. "Who are you?" he questioned, "and how are we talking?"

"My name is Dedicate Rosethorn. We are talking through the plants. How are you doing?"

"Want the honest truth? Not good at all. I'm having trouble breathing." Briar answered and then broke into another coughing fit that carried through the roots.

"Just hang on Briar. We're going to get you out of there, just hang on. Stay with me." Boys arrived with shovels and started to carefully dig around the plants. Shovel full after shovel full of dirt was tossed away growing into a huge pile.

All of a sudden, Rosethorn felt the mental link between herself and Briar shut down. That meant that he had fallen unconscious. But she had the feeling it was more than that. And when the plants started to weep to her she knew. He had stopped breathing. Which meant they were losing him. Briar was going to die.

Author's Notes:

Is that a cliffy or not? You tell me!

Thank you for reviewing! I shall respond to all of you in just a moment! Tell your friends about this story, and if you like Rurouni Kenshin be sure to check out my other story! If you could all press that little purple button that says Submit Review, I would be really happy!

I forgot to mention in the last chapter, so I will mention it now. IcyPanther gave me the idea of sending Briar to the mines. Thankies Icy!

Well, that's about it! So just stick around comments and I hope to see you all next chapter!

Reviewer's Comments:

Icypanther: I think it is off to a good start as well! Sorry about that! You have been given credit above! Rosethorn is in the process, we just have to hope Briar doesn't die first.

Landlord's Black-eyed Dau: Thankies very much! That is one of the nicest compliments I have ever received! Good luck with your own story! Hope everyone likes it! Hope to see you next chapter!

PsychoLioness13: Glad you like the idea! Yes, there is much more to come, even though I seem to be moving a bit faster than what I had planned. I really hope to see you next chapter!!

Emma Lee: Sorry you are confused, but very glad that you like it! Here is your next new chapter!!

Drama Queens rule: Thankies very much! I love your story! Please update it soon!!