triangularity | Into the Wood

Into the Wood

Thinking about his latest conversation with Daja, Briar returned to the workroom to put away his tools. Trowels and pruning shears taken care of, he paused before opening a drawer to stow the twine, eyes darting quickly to either side and a small tendril of his magic reaching for the cords that held his wrist knives in place. He could release them immediately now.

Two rings sat in the center of worktable. One yellow, one green, they were polished to a mirror-bright shine and made of a substance the former thief couldn't identify but presumed to be stone of some sort. "Tris," he called out, "Has Evvy been by?"

The rings were humming slightly with magic, and Briar called up his magical vision for a moment to see the silver shine on them. "Who taught her that?" Briar wondered. It certainly hadn't been him. Briar snorted. "Well of course she's picking up new things. She'll have proper teachers now. I could take care of the basics, but she's better off with a stone mage."

Still having received no answer from Tris, Briar shrugged. Either she'd gone out while he was in the garden or his sister was so engrossed in a book she hadn't heard. Really, who but Evvy would come in and leave Briar rocks?

Reluctant to admit to his student that he didn't recognize the spellwork she'd done on the rings, Briar leaned in closer, wondering if they were a gift or a prank. Evvy wouldn't leave anything really harmful without at least a warning, though, so Briar reached down and picked up first the green one. Nothing happened. Noticing with a grin that his left hand tattoo was blooming a brilliant yellow that day, he put the yellow ring on the hand it matched.

Next thing he knew, Briar experienced a brief flash of confusion followed by the realization that he was absolutely not in his workroom. In fact, he felt almost as if he were underwater. But he couldn't be. Briar wasn't gasping for air, and it didn't feel wet. He didn't have long to consider other possibilities, as he felt himself propelled upward, toward a green light. If it were water, toward the light is exactly where he'd want to go, so Briar didn't fight the force. He ended up on hands and knees just at the edge of a pool of water, still dry.

Briar barely noticed the lack of sopping wet clothes, though, eyes widening in wonder and fingers pressing into the lush green grass and down into the soil underneath. Briar's head was reeling, surrounded by more green life than he'd ever felt before. It stretched as far as his senses did, and he rolled onto his back, looking up at foliage that filtered bright strong sunlight into a warm green light that also filled the entire space. He saw not a single break in the leaves, and the trees were almost dizzyingly healthy. Every bit of green in the forest was thriving. This was not a normal forest. No wood on earth felt like this. But then, Briar had no idea what that ring had done. Maybe Evvy didn't leave it. The forest was too organized and well-arranged to be the domain of the Green Man. Maybe if the Green Man and Mila of the Grain managed a forest together, the perfect harmony of their natures could make it. Briar's magic sank into the ground, intertwining with the roots of the trees. He let it travel up their trunks, out the branches and into the leaves, before settling back to him on the ground. If he were a tree, he thought he wouldn't mind sinking his own roots in right here. The evenly spaced pools would feed his roots, and his roots and branches would weave their way between all the others, the foliage cover solid but thin enough that every bit of the forest still got sunlight. His leaves would too.

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Briar just took the initial slowness to respond as surprise, aware of some gap in their experience levels but not having any idea it was Ashley's first kiss. She more than made up for it afterward, and the initial impulsive kiss turned into something a little more. Briar brought the hand not resting at her waist upward, threading his fingers through Ashley's hair.

"That's good to hear," he informed Ashley as he matched the strength in her embrace. "I figured I didn't have to apologize for it, not after you kissed me back, but..." Briar shrugged and grinned. "I didn't know I was the stuff wishes were made of," he added with a smirk, keeping the mood light even while realizing what he'd just done.

Sure, Briar had flirted with Ashley ever since they met. But the kiss meant complications and conversations; Briar knew better than to lead a girl on. He'd never been less than honest with anyone he was involved with. Ashley was not the casual flirting type, though, and even had she been, there was much more than flirtation between them. Briar had been there for Ashley in a closer sense than he had for almost anyone outside his surrogate family.

He hadn't quite figured out what he had to offer Ashley. Besides kissing and friendship, of course. Those he'd be happy to share, if she didn't mind. Anything more?

It was still a mess inside Briar's head. His time in Taxon hadn't been enough to clean it up. Briar still hesitated to let anyone in, but at least Ashley couldn't actually read his mind as his sisters would if he'd allow it. And he'd seen Ashley at her worst, so it hardly seemed fair to put up walls on his own end.

Those were dilemmas to face another time. For now, it was enough that she was alive and here, wherever 'here' might be, and she'd kissed him back.

Ashley's heart was still racing, adrenaline at what they'd just done -- at the sight of him again after so long -- still coursing through her. For the moment, she was content to hold him and imagine a little longer.

Never in her life had she imagined she would ever be with anyone, let alone kiss them, and that had always been fine with her. She'd never needed anyone else, not while she had her mother and Henry and the Big Guy. And then Will, when he had joined the crew. Time spent in Taxon had started to shift that opinion. Briar had shifted it. Ashley still considered herself extremely independent, capable and willing to deal with things by herself or with her family, but this was... Briar was different. He'd helped her through her issues with her powers, helped her deal with what it meant to use them, comforted her after that horrible glitch. He'd done a lot for her. What she didn't understand was why.

But she wasn't going to complain. Ashley had always had a decent opinion of herself. She knew she was worth having as a friend and ally because she was good at her job. She was nice, strong, capable when it counted. What she didn't quite understand was why Briar was interested in her. In a romantic sense. Assuming the kiss meant as much. Romantic relationships weren't something Ashley had a lot of experience with.

"I thought you were gone," she answered, finally pulling away and giving Briar a playful shove. Teasing was her way of getting over something awkward like this, something she didn't otherwise know how to navigate. "I'd say 'Maybe I'm dreaming now,' but it's way too cliche. And I still need to figure out where exactly we are. I've never seen anything like this."

Changing the subject might hold off the inevitable conversation just a little longer. It was just like Ashley: avoid personal feelings and keep to the mission. Or focus on the task at hand. Her mother had pretty much drilled that into her head at an early age.

Briar liked capable girls. Certainly everyone he loved and respected could take care of herself in most situations: his sisters, Lark and Rosethorn, Evvy. Every weakness Ashley had shown came from a place Briar could understand, and they had only served to build upon and reinforce his initial good impression.

"That's because I was," he replied glibly, pausing to survey their surroundings warily in acceptance of the changed subject. Beautiful they might be, but Briar still disliked being whisked away to parts unknown without so much as a 'by your leave.' He sounded even more sincere than he meant to when he added, "Sorry for leaving without you."

After studying the forest, Briar continued, "I was home," emphasis on the word leading into his next point. "This isn't one of Taxon's usual glitches. What were you doing just before?" And then, a small rush of alarm as he realized, "Wait, which pools did we come from?" Accompanying the question, Briar turned away from Ashley and back toward where he'd entered the wood. "It might be important. They all look the same, and it would be so easy to forget."

Edited 2012-11-30 19:50 (UTC)

"You weren't the first or last," Ashley answered easily, as though having people disappear on her was the most natural thing in the world. Sadly, it had become normal to her daily life in Taxon. Part of her hated that and part had come to accept it. Wondering and being angry no longer helped. She'd stopped being angry and had started channeling that anger into productivity: finding a way out. At least if she or someone else could find a way to go home willingly, they would be stripping the aliens of that control over their lives.

"I was in my little apartment in Taxon," Ashley continued thoughtfully, frowning and pointing at the pool she'd come from. "That one." She hadn't gone very far from hers at least and so she knew which one it was. Long ago, her mother had drilled into her different ways of surviving. Taking in her surroundings and making mental notes as to where she was, where she'd been, and where she was going had saved her life more times than Ashley cared to count.

"I'll be able to remember mine." With luck, she could remember Briar's as well, once he pointed it out. It might just take a little more effort.

He nodded, providing more detail so they could look for similarities. "I was in my workshop. Put this," and here Briar held up his hand, with its subtly moving flower tattoos and bright yellow ring, "on, thinking my student had left it for me. She's a stone mage."

Briar raised an eyebrow at Ashley's claim. "You're positive?" She wouldn't need to remember his, though, as Briar looked down at his clothes, said, "Sandry won't be happy about being asked to mend this," and used a tendril of power to unstitch the cuff from his sleeve as well as the seam along the cuff. The cuff flew to the tree above Briar's pool, wrapped around the lowest branch, and the seam stitched itself up, neatly sewing the bit of fabric around the bough.

He grinned, explaining, "It was cotton. My sister's a stitch witch, and her magic's bound close enough to mine that I can do a little bit of weaving and sewing just as long as I stick to plant fibers. Silk or wool won't work for me."

Ashley nodded firmly at his question. "Mom taught me to track Abnormals when I was little. I've been doing it since before I can really remember. It's why I was tracking the unicorns when they were let loose." And it was why she wasn't too upset about finding herself in a weird unknown place. Whatever happened, exploring was something she enjoyed and she knew she'd be able to get them back here if she had to.

She watched Briar tie the severed cuff around the branch with his magic, impressed in spite of herself. Every time she thought she knew what he could do, he turned around and surprised her. At least his magic was useful. Her abilities... well, she still had issues with them.

"Cool," she murmured, watching the cuff after it was tied up there. "I've never known anyone with abilities like yours or hers. We definitely don't have Abnormals that can control stitches."

"It's just that everything looks alike here." Briar was frowning, though quite impressed by Ashley's powers of perception. He'd trust her, believing that there was truth behind her words. "The trees don't have the differences you'd see in a normal forest. They're too uniform, and it's very strange not being able to see or feel the distinctions."

A broad grin broke out across his face again at her response. Sure, Briar had been showing off a little, but Ashley's quiet wonder always made it worth his while.

"So," and Briar hesitated, not wanting to break the spell set by the green wood in which they found themselves. He knew that the peace that had settled around him was fragile, built up by the presence of all this green life and someone he thought he'd lost. They had appeared so suddenly, and the everything could break just as fast. "What now?"

Briar had a home to get back to at some point, but he could afford to stay with Ashley for awhile. He wondered if she would be able to come with him when and if he left. Could all the pools here lead to different places? Before Taxon he might not have believed. Now, Briar was much more willing to be openminded.

"I can always teleport us right back here," Ashley offered with a shrug, as though using her abilities wasn't something that set her teeth on edge. She was getting better about dealing with them, but some days she still had issues with them, with what they represented. If she used them for a good reason, she hoped she might one day feel okay with even thinking about them at all.

His grin brought a smile from her, glad she could make them both happy and distract them from anything worrisome about being here.

"I dunno. We could hang out here, explore the forest more..." She glanced down at the pools of water. "Or we could check one of those out."

She didn't really care what they did. Just having this time with Briar was more than enough for her. Being alive to see it was enough for her.

He raised his eyebrows. This time it was Briar's turn to be impressed. He had a general idea of her abilities, but he had never actually been aware that she could move other people along with her when she vanished and reappeared. With this added into the reservations Ashley had about her power, Briar was certainly surprised by the offer.

He was also curious, though. Curious about the way her power worked and about the pools in the wood. "As far as I can see or feel, the forest stays the same. Exploration might not be too interesting." He smirked, gesturing grandly at Ashley. "The company more than makes up for that, of course, if you'd prefer it."

If one pool leads to Taxon, and one pool leads to Summersea, where could all the others lead? It might be reckless of him, but Briar leaned toward finding out at some point.

It had its limitations, of course, but she knew generally what they were. That was mostly due to having watched and felt her daddy dearest use it. Not the best of introductions, but one she couldn't quite help. Regardless, the offer was open to Briar should they need it.

"It'll have to be on foot," she told him with a glance through the trees. "I can't teleport where I haven't been before." Or, well, she could, but the chances they would re-materialize inside a tree or something equally unpleasant was quite high. Ashley would rather avoid that. "I mean, I can but I don't think either of us wants to risk what would happen."

She was thinking along the same lines, wondering if one would lead to the Sanctuary, to home. If that were true... She glanced at one of the unfamiliar ones. It was so tempting; she wanted so desperately to see her mother again, but she had no idea what would happen.

And that was half the fun.

In spite of how glad he was to see Ashley coming to terms with her power, Briar never expected her to use it unnecessarily. Ashley mentioned it without hesitation and offered to use it on both of them. She'd come a long way since she told him that her power could never mean anything good. Tris felt the same once, and he knew that Ashley's growth would be every bit as striking as his sister's was. Briar credited Ashley's own strength for the changes he saw in her, but he was proud he had helped her find it.

His idea of exploration didn't include teleporting in the first place. Briar shrugged, grinning. "My feet work fine," he informed Ashley cheekily. "Yours?"

He watched as her gaze shifted toward one of the pools. Reaching for Ashley's hand, Briar took it and squeezed lightly. Then he said softly, "Pick one."

Briar was curious too, after all.

A lot of that was because she was pointedly ignoring the implications of using her powers in the first place, but that was a little detail she didn't feel like going into at the moment.

"Never better," Ashley answered with a grin to match. For a moment, she cast her gaze around the pools of water, turning a few times to determine which would be the most interesting. Once she'd chosen, she wrapped her fingers around his hand a little more fully and pointed. "Let's try that one first."

She glanced at him once more before she started walking for that little pool. How one of these things could lead to a separate world was a mystery to her, but she liked mysteries. This would just be one big adventure and she liked that just fine.

"Glad to hear it. It might be hard to go exploring if one of us had to carry the other one." He squeezed her hand, willingly following Ashley toward the pool she'd chosen.

Briar spent enough time traveling that he's more used to road than home lately. He doesn't think it will hurt to spend a little more time on the road, as long as he makes it back before his sisters start to worry too much.

"On the count of three?"

Ashley just laughed at that, glad to hear Briar's amazing sense of humor again. It was nice that they could tease each other, even after having been separated for a while like this.

She nods at his question, preparing herself. "On three. One... two... three!"

And in she jumped. It felt a lot like it had the first time, which was nice. At least she knew what to expect. Once they'd reappeared somewhere else and stepped out of the pool, she glanced around. The first thing she noticed was the forest.

"...Those are some impressive trees."

And that was an understatement.

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Into the Wood

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