Chapter 1: Good Day, Or Bad Day?

Alice ran through the forest, her long hair fluttering behind her. Twigs and branches slapped across her face, but she kept running. Her legs pumped below her, and her breathing was staggered. Her body was sore and aching, almost collapsing from exhaustion, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins would not allow her to slow down. She needed to get away.

From somewhere behind her she heard the stomping of hooves, and she cursed silently. How long would these guys trail her? All she did was steal some food and the townspeople freak out. They did NOT need to call the police, despite her repeat offenses. It wasn't like she was going to stay there very long anyways; she had planned to move on to another city after another day. As she heard multiple hoof beats come in from other sides of the forest, she knew she would have to make a break for it. Spotting a small stream in the corner of her eye, she changed her pathway quickly, following the source of water. After about another 20 minutes of mad dashing, she spotted the edges of a roaring river. This would do.

Not letting herself second guess her rash decision, Alice jumped into the rapid waters of the bank. She quickly grabbed onto a random piece of wood before allowing her body to be taken into the violent current of the river. That was one problem gone: they could no longer track her. She looked back towards the trees to make sure that they could not track her, and promptly noticed how fast she was being swept away. In a panic she realized that she had just jumped into a freaking river during the middle of rainy season. The police were the least of her worries: now she needed to find a way out of these man-eating waters.

The girl panted from exhaustion on the banks of the marsh. Twigs and leaves littered her once clean long, black hair. Alice sighed, before deciding that wasn't a good choice due to her lack of oxygen and took another huge gulp of air so that her lugs would not panic. After resting for a bit she sat up and began the tedious task of picking twigs and such out of her hair. Today had been a bad day. First of all, she lost her stolen goods to the river, second of all, she was in who knows where, thirdly, her hair was ruined! How had this started again? Oh right. It had been early this morning when her stomach had decided that she needed to steal something (her stomach was like her brain nowadays). She had quickly descended on the bakery, tiptoeing to and fro before grabbing two loaves of bread and some cheese. She didn't take the cakes despite their delicious voices calling her. She wasn't a bad person, just starving.

She wasn't going to take what she didn't need.

Of COURSE it was just her luck that she totally forgot that bakers got up early in the morning, and when she was caught with a piece of bread sticking out of her mouth, they had tried to catch her. It didn't help that she had forgotten to cover up because of the early morning. When they saw her, they had yelled devil, freak, evil. She would have expected this treatment anywhere else, but she had heard that Amestris was a fairly civilized and modern country. She guessed that every country had its ignorants.

That's how the frenzy had started; obviously they would want to find and kill the devil worshipper that she OBVIOUSLY was, because of some scar on her arm. At least she had not forgotten her clothes, or else she might have found herself being called evil and hurtful slurs again.

As her hair dried she put on the rest of her clothes, and decided to find out where she was. She had 'floated' (more like struggled) down the river for a couple hours before being pushed off into a shallow marsh. She made sure that her hair was covering her left eye before walking through the dense greenery around her. She was sure that she was still in Amestris, since she didn't know of any small rivers that connected Amestris to any other countries. Everywhere she looked birds sang and squirrels chattered. It was obviously a beautiful area. As she got deeper into the shrubbery however, she noticed that trees began to grow in wider number, and that forever greens dotted the distance. It seemed that this wasn't some rural area after all: she would be trudging in here for days. With only today morning's bread to satisfy her, she continued hiking into the deep forest. It was not unusual for her to go days without eating, but exerting physical energy while starving herself did not go well with her stomach. She was right.

Today was really a bad day.

DAY THREE, she wrote with a stick in the dirt of the forest. She laughed a bit at the dramatic-ness of her shaky hand, but soon realized that she would look crazy if anyone was there. Which there wasn't. Tugging her hair, she stood up again, ready to keep traveling. She had deduced that the mountains in that she had seen earlier when she climbed up into a tree was the Amestrian Range, and promptly realized that they were in the northern direction. She had come from some smaller area close to Dublith, so she was pretty close to Central. All she had to do was head north.

Central was the closest city she knew of, and so she had decided to head there despite their uptight military background. She realized that she could not steal any food there, so she had to get some small job. That would surely waste her time but she could not help it.

She had to eat.

Alice huffed a bit at the grumbling in stomach, telling it to shut up before grouchily walking towards the mountains. It would at least take another day to reach Central.

Oh sweet road! She had FINALLY come across a public road after she had awkwardly stumbled out of the forest a few hours before. Her spirit high, she skipped down the path. Perhaps today would be a good day.

She took up the tedious task of walking along the stone path, hopping onto different stones like a pattern. She admired the small plants that had pushed their way through the stones, and chuckled a bit at her childishness. She could rarely just enjoy a day. Usually everything was blurred and marred with survival, travel, and a heavy mindset which she could not afford to lose. However, as the lovely clouds shaded her from the scorching sun and the road pathway aided her sore feet, she felt better and less likely to die. She continued hopping along the road, only stopping every few hours for water, before heading back along the way to her destination.

Alice arrived in Central with an empty stomach, but a good demeanor. Day had turned to night by the time she had reached the large city, but she had managed. Collapsing next to some wall that belonged to a store, she promptly fell asleep against the hard concrete. Today was a good day.

Alice woke up to the sound of yelling.

Blood.

Fire.

Their empty evil eyes.

Snapping out of her panic, she realized that she was no longer there. She was in central, she quickly remembered, and calmed a bit, her heartbeat no longer beating like crazy. As soon as she relaxed, though, more sounds of yelling came to her ears. Quickly standing up, her head swooned a bit, and she had to steady herself on the wall. As more loud noises reached her ears she decided to abandon the wall and began to run towards the explosions.

Was someone hurt?

She had to help them.

As she ran along the stone streets in the darkness of the night, the yelling got louder and more confusing. What were they yelling about? Turning into an alley, her eyes widened as she saw a large, burly man running towards her. She lunged out of the way, rolling across the pavement before landing in a crouch. The man debated walking towards her, but was pummeled into the wall by a boy with golden hair. The boys eyes met hers, and her heart skipped a beat. His golden eyes pierced hers, and his long, golden hair seemed to flow behind him. He was incredibly handsome. And he was looking right at her.

Yes, today was a very good day.

Edward, distracted by the odd girl that had come out of nowhere, did not seem to notice Scar until the man had practically tackled him. Alice panicked internally when she saw the handsome young boy attacked. Acting on instinct, she clapped her hands, sending a wave of electricity and fire towards the tall man. Both Edward and Scar were surprised by the young girl, and now that she had used alchemy they were interested. Edward's eyes widened when he realized that the girl had not used a circle of any kind. There was only one explanation for that.

As Scar recovered from the pain he puled himself onto his feet. Alice was shocked. How could he have recovered from her attacks so easily?

Alice continued sending explosions and shocks towards the man, trying to control her alchemy.

Crap, I don't have my scythe out, I need it to channel my power or else I'll pass out!

As he threw punches at her, she dodged them expertly despite her weary demeanor.

I just woke up after 5 days without food and I have to deal with this?

Caught up in her thoughts she did not notice Scar punch her. She flew into a wall, her head smashing into the hard rock. Her vision blurred.

No! I can't pass out now!

As her eyelids grew heavy she noticed a red liquid spilling from her face.

Blood.

She chuckled a bit, remembering how freaked out she would have been when she was little. Nowadays, blood did not effect her at all. She had seen so much of it, too much of it. When she heard gunshots in the distance, her brain involuntarily shuttered. In the last moments of her consciousness, she realized that gunshots were good. They were signaling the military. Relieved that she wold not die, she finally let her eyes fall.

She was enveloped in darkness.