Mandi woke up before dawn the next morning. She rubbed her eyes, and absently wondered why she wasn't in her bed, back at home.

Then, it all came flooding back to her. Her eyes grew wide, and she sat up. Brittany was resting with her head in Fern's lap. She was sleeping on both her's, and Fern's sleeping bags, which obviously made more cushioning between her and the floor.

Robin was tossing and turnning in his, his face was white, and was sweating. His mouth twitched every once in a while, and he moaned Tyler's name.

David and Gillian shared the double sleeping bag, and were cuddled next to eachother. They each had a look of motherly/fatherly worry on their faces.

And, Roland... wait a second, where was Roland? Mandi crawled out of her own sleeping bag, and made her way around the cave, but he was no where to be found. Finally, she stepped out, where he could be seen, watching the sun, as it just began to rise.

"What're you doing up so early?" he asked in his I-couldn't-care-less voice, not turning around.

"Rock solid ground isn't the most comfortable of beds. Brittany has it lucky, she gets twice the padding the rest of us get. I reckon, she probably doesn't even know it, since she wasn't laying on it last night, when she went to bed." Mandi knew she was talking a lot, but she couldn't help herself. Talking alot was what she did when she got nervous.

"Interesting."

Mandi shrugged, and went up to stand beside him. "Not really. Words say alot, but they really hardly ever mean anything."

"True, true."

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. Mandi wanted to fill the void with talk, but everytime she tried, he would just watch the sunrise, ignoring her.

"Are you mad at me, or something?" she asked, finally, having enough of his silent treatment. He gave her a slight look of surprise. "I mean, you've barely spoken a word to me since that day at the pool. If I've done something, please tell me!"

Roland shook his head, still not looking at her. He closed his bright purple eyes. "You don't know anything." he grumbled.

"I know, that you've been giving me the cold shoulder ever since we started this journey! I wanna know why!"

"Go back to bed." the look on his face signaled that it was the end of the conversation, though he stll didn't look at her.

Mandi growled, and stormed back into the cave. She wasn't gonna go to bed, though. To hell with him! She wasn't going to do what he told her to do! She was her own person, and she wasn't going to what some snobby boy told her to do!

Brittany was sitting up, as she stomped in. She looked surprised at the blonde, for being up so early, but didn't say anything. Instead, she allowed Mandi to grab her wrist, and yank her back out of the cave, where she dragged her out of Roland's hearing distance.

"I want some answers from you." she hissed.

Brittany smiled, obviously knowing what Mandi meant, and nodded.

~NWNWNWNWNW~

Roland waited a few seconds before following the two blondes. They had gone a few yards back down the mountain, where he knew that Mandi had been certain he could not hear. He hid behind a pile of boulders as they talked.

"Remember when we were at Dairy Queen, and you had asked if when Roland pulled me out of the pool, I had felt a shock?" Mandi asked.

"How could I forget?" Brittany's tone was dripping with sarcasm.

"Not now, Super Sarcasm. Why did you ask that?"

Roland picked a few things out of his nails, as he listened. This was getting interesting, he knew that Brittany was Fern's soulmate, but he hadn't had known that she knew about what happened with the soulmate principle. He wanted to see if she got anything right.

"Well, I guess you'll figure it out, anyway, huh?" Brittany was saying. "Well, in the Night World, there's this... belief, that everyone has the perfect someone out there for them. That, in the end, destiny will bring them together, no matter how much they hate eachother, they will end up together in the end. This is called the soulmate principle."

"Aaaand...?" clearly, the dumb blonde human wasn't getting what the other slightly less dumb blonde human was trying to get at.

"And well, for those of the Night World who have found their soulmate-don't get me wrong, very few have actually found theirs, so it may not happen to everybody-feel a shock when they touch them." Brittany sounded as if she were an actress reciting the same lines over and over, again.

"And you thought that me and Roland were soulmates." this time it was Mandi's voice that was dripping with sarcasm.

Silence followed.

"Oh, no." Mandi's voice was panicked, this time. "Brittany, you've got to be kidding me, right? I mean, it can't be him." silence followed. "But, you didn't even know he was a Night person when you asked! You hadn't met him, yet!"

"When you've been around them long enough, you can tell, just by a glance at them. His eyes say enough that he is."

"Wadda'ya mean?"

"His eyes are purple, or haven't you noticed?"

"Well, yes, of course I've noticed, but how does that show that he's a Night person?" Mandi sounded confused.

"Purple eyes, and blonde hair, is the sign of a Harman. The... witch leaders, if you may. They're highly famous for they're unique eyes."

~NWNWNWNWNW~

Mandi stared at her friend in shock. How had she been able to ruin her life so quickly? Oh, well... it's a trait Brittany had, no doubt about it.

"Come." Brittany said, standing up. "The others are probably up. We best be getting back, now. We have a long journey ahead of us, if we are to get to Tyler."

Mandi nodded, and they both headed back up the hill.