Chapter 2

Saundry

1, 2, 3, 4, 5,... "Ouch! BRIAR!!" I sensed him stumbling, then...

"What do you want?!" he practically shouted through our mind link. "I almost dropped my Shakkan you know!" His miniature ancient tree, which he stole from Dedicate Crane four years ago stored an enourmous amount of energy in which he can take, if he ever needed it. As a green mage, he hates it if anything bad happened to any plants, especially his Shakkan. Even if it had nothing to do with Rosethorn's - our foster mother and his teacher - warnings of 'hanging him by his toes in the well' if any harm came to her plants. His voice in my head reminded me of forests, and green things.

"Hey! Keep it down!" Tris and Daja both said at once. "I almost dropped some copper on my foot!." Daja exclaimed. Daja's link felt and smelled like the salty warm metal. She was probably with Frostpine, practicing her smith magic, which allows her to mold metals. Her magic also allows her to tap into the power deep underground, the lava like a warm bath to her, she can never be burned. In the beginning she was hesitant to start an apprentiship with Frostpine, the only other residential smith mage in winding circle, because of her Trader background; but she gradually got used to the idea. She still mourns for Third ship Kusubo, even after four years with her telltale red bandanna she wears around her forearm.

"I almost made a windstorm go off towards the inland!" Tris fumed. I could taste the electricity through my link to hers. The one thing people learn quickly when they meet my foster sister is, never make Tris angry. Although she would never harm you, on purpose that is, the electricity sparking through her hair, and the wind lashing through a totally sealed room would frighten anyone. Our teacher, Niko, started her meditations earlier than my other foster siblings and I because of the dangers an untrained weather mage can do.

Just last year our teachers, decided that because our magic was so strong, they decided that we had enough control over our magic, and wanted us to swear by the mage rules as soon as possible. So all four of my siblings and I have managed an almost impossible feat, we were the first 13-year-old 'kids' as Briar would say, to have gotten our mage medallions.

"Sorry!" I said, "But I think whatever Briar was doing with his Shakkan pinched me!"

"Briar!" Tris said, I could imagine her glare towards our foster brother.

Briar was a little squeamish to answer her, but finally said, "I wanted to see if i could spin my Shakkan's magic, so I used the link between Sandry and me to try it out." The thing about our mind link though, was that it was created when we first arrived at Discipline, a cottage at Winding Circle Temple run by Rosethorn and Lark. When an earthquake hit, we were trapped underground, and I wove our magics together so we could help eachother out. Long story short, we could now speak to eachother in our minds, and our magic had some characteristic from the others.

"Well, you could have given me some WARNING you know." I said haughtily. "I was trying to meditate here, and you disrupted me!"

"Sandry calm dow - " Daja began but was interrupted by something Frostpine had to say. "Frostpine told us we have to meet at the hub."

"Alrights" and "Why's" were said all around, and we made our way to the building at the center of Winding Circle, known as 'the hub'.

Briar

I told Rosethorn that Frostpine wanted me and the girls to meet up at the hub, but she was too busy with her herbs to do anything more than a nod. I noticed her pause for a minute, but said nothing about it. Better to not bother Rosethorn when she's trying to work with her plants, she can get nasty if I talk more than work. I quickly washed my hands and feet of the dirt, slipped on the shoes I've finally gotten used to, and headed towards the big building. As I made my way towards the hub, I was wondering why we needed to meet there and the girls were trying to figure out the same thing.

While I was in a discussion with them, some boys from my old dorm bumped into me, and said, "Oh, you're still here?" he sneered. I never really liked him. I tried to ignore him and kept on walking. "Hey!" he shouted, "I'm talking to you thief! Where you going? To steal some more?" His cronies snickered at the obviously stupid remark. They obviously have been in some sort of cave for the past four years. I heard him running towards me, and put a hand on my shoulder. I quickly took a knife hidden in my sleeves and pointed it at him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I said, calmly.

"Briar! Don't you dare hurt him!" Sandry said through our mind link.

"I won't really hurt him. Unless he makes the first hit of course." I said back.

The boy who had his hand on my shoulder only smirked. "Yeah? I'm not afraid of that little knife of yours thief, try anything, and we'll see who's in trouble."

I shrugged, put away my knife, and walked away. I felt a mental sigh come from Sandry, and a little bit of disappointment from Daja. Tris chose to ignore it.

"Yeah! That's right! Run along, you coward!" The boy shouted, his cronies snickered at their leaders stupid taunt. I let out a sigh, turned around and ordered a tree nearby to grab them and keep them there for an hour. "Hey!" they all shouted. "What is going on?!" I smirked and continued on my way.

"I thought you said you wouldn't do anything." Sandry chatised.

"I said I wouldn't hurt them." I replied.

"You also said you wouldn't unless they made the first hit." she rebuked.

"They did, they called me a 'coward' that's a hit on my pride." My chest puffed up a little at this.

She frowned, or well, mentally frowned, "Very mature Briar."

Daja snorted, or what felt like a snort, "When has Briar Moss ever been mature?"

I snorted at the comment, and said, "You should expect this of me by now Sandry."

she replied, "Yes, I know, but their's still no harm in being a little optimistic."

I laughed, "Then, don't hold your breath, because I won't be mature anytime soon." I came up to the hub's door, and pushed the heavy old wooden doors.

Tris

I chose to ignore my foster siblings banter, it was always the same. Sandrilene fa Toren or Sandry as she likes to be called, is royal on both sides of her family. As a noble born, she acts peculiar, her cornflower eyes, and golden hair, would fool anyone who didn't know any better that she was a little innocent lamb. When they treat her this way, they're in for a whole other story. She once became so furious at a noble for insisting that she leave a room with the excuse that 'what we have to discuss is too much for a young and sweet little flower such as yourself.' The next thing he knew his clothes went flying everywhere, and wrapped him so tight into a cacoon, no one could get him out. She later reversed her stitch witch magic, when he had properly apologized. This involved a lot of begging with is face on the ground because of his predicament, he couldn't even get up. Another thing unusual about her, are her foster siblings, including myself. We would never have, under normal circumstances have formed a bond as close as ours. A street rat, a noble, a trader, and a merchant. Not a typical matchup, but we'd never allow anyone to harm any one of us. Sandry's campaign to force Briar to leave his immature ways has continued for over four years now, and the only way to knock any bad habits out of him, is if Rosethorn told him to.

I focused on the book in front of me. Academic magic is so... boring. But, at least they aren't feared, like I am. They can practice their magic practically everywhere, and they're welcomed with open arms. With me, places either shun me, and my own family thought I was possessed because the seer couldn't find a drop of magic in me. He was wrong. I once thought that they should go to him and get a refund because I do have magic, ambient magic, but then I remembered all the horrors they put me through. I never want to see them again.

As I approached the Hub, I asked Daja whether Frostpine had given her any clues as to why they would call on us. She replied no.

"Hey Coppercurls." Briar said, "Hurry up! I wanna know what's going on, and Moonstream won't tell us nothing until you get here!"

"That's DEDICATE Moonstream Briar." I replied. "I'm hurrying as fast as I can! Do you know how far the harbor is?! Nevermind, I'm here already."

As soon as I thought that, the doors burst open, and Briar was grinning his signature grin, cocky. "Hey Coppercurls, glad you finally made it."

"Be quiet thief boy." I said curtly, grinning so he knew I was only joking. I stepped past him into Dedicate Moonstreams office. Everyone was already there, Sandry, Daja, and Moonstream. Briar shut the doors behind us as I continued farther into the room.

Dedicate Moonstream cleared her throat and with a clear voice that sounded like water, said, "Now that we are all here, let me explain why we're here."

"Finally." Briar said, I didn't have to look at him to know he rolled his eyes.

"Well," Moonstream began, "I wanted to try an experiment, since your magics are all woven together." she looked uneasily at us. "Of course, you don't have to, if you do not wish to." she hesitated. "But it would be much appreciated if you would agree."

I heard Daja's voice in my head, "In other words, she won't be very happy with us if we refuse this little experiment." although the harsh words, Daja seemed amused, "But I do want to know what we can do that they would want to experiment."

"I agree." Briar said.

"Well," I began, "It does sound interesting." I'll probably learn more about magic. I thought to myself.

"I'm not so sure though..." Sandry hesitated.

"Oh come on countess! Don't be such a coward." Briar taunted

"Hmph!" I could feel Sandry going into her 'countess mode' as Briar liked to call it. "Fine I'll do it!." she relented

"Yes!" Briar cheered!

At the same time we all said, "We accept."

Daja

We all patiently, not counting Briar.

Moonstream cleared her throat and began. "We - "

"We?" Tris asked.

The door suddenly opened, and our teachers, Lark, Rosethorn, Niko, and Frostpine, came in. The heavy doors shut, and Niko said, "Yes, we."

"Oh." Was all I said.

We quieted down, and Moonstream began again. "Well, we would like to experiment with your magic a little. What would happen if you all combined your magic at once, at the same time? Now, their is a risk, but we will be here to make sure that you don't go out of control."

"Wait, WHAT?!" Sandry screamed.

"OUCH!" we all screamed back through our mind links to her.

"Sorry, but, when Briar tried using some of my magic. No, pulling my magic, it HURT." she flinched.

"But we'll have our teachers with us this time." Tris reasoned.

"I don't know..." she hesitated.

"We'll all be here with you Sandry don't worry." I said. It took a long while to convice Sandry, but, she finally agreed, on one condition.

"We have to hold on to the circle." she said. Their was a chorus of fines comming from Briar, Tris, and I. We told our teachers our condition, and they quickly agreed, saying since the circle was the thing that originally combined our magics together, it would probably make it easier for us to try the experiment. "Hopefully it will be less painful as well." Sandry hoped.

We all stood within a circle created by our teachers and Dedicate Moonstream. Each of our palms resting against the little bumps which held apart of ourselves. We took deep breaths, and from behind me, outside of the circle, I heard Frostpine whisper, "Are you ready?" This was repeated by all the teachers to their students, we all said yes.

Moonstream cleared her throat, closed her eyes, and said, "Let's begin."

We began concentrating our magics, and pulling some from eachothers. A pinching, and shouts of "Ouch." was all around us. It suddenly felt like we were spinning, Dedicate Moonstream's office began to disappear and turn black. I heard Sandry wimper, we all tried to reassure her in our different ways. It calmed her down a little bit. We finally stopped spinning, and cold air came rushing towards us, a sense of free falling, but we did not know what was going on. I continued trying to pull energy from the earth, as did Briar. Tris was calling to the winds, and Sandry wove our magic, controlling it. We hit the ground. The grass was wet, and we suddenly realized, we were no longer in Emelan or Winding Circle.

Love it? Hate it? Please Rate! If you're a Gallagher girl fan, they'll make their appearance soon enough!!! And yes, I did manage to update because I was bored, and it's the weekend. The last weekend before I have to study my butt off. -_-" Well, cya guys next time I update!