A project I started last night. It's originated from my ideas of an FMA "Little Red Riding Hood", and some other concepts I came up with. And so, I present you this Parental EdxRoy fic, where Ed is the older of the two for once. Here we go. :)

Started Writing: July 5th, 2011

Started Typing: July 6th, 2011

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The Man In The Red Cloak And His Wolfchild

A FullMetal Alchemist Fanfic

Chapter One

By Chibi Allen Walker The Awsome

"Now, you be careful out in that there woods, Edward! You hear me, young man?" Momma hollered over to me, as I was leaving the garden path to the road in the woods.

"Why, Momma? What manner of hearsay catch ya this time?" I bark back, clutching the whicker basket she had given me tightly.

Momma straightened her nice calico apron and replied, "They say that a wolfmans' a'livin in the woods, waiting for some innocent soul like yours to come along the path, and snatch ya right off and take ya to his den and rip ya to pieces!"

"You know that there ain't no such things as darn wolf-whatever you're snapping on about! If trees made of pure gold don't exsist, then nither do they!" I adjust my black bandana on my neck, and continue, "I tell you, Momma, to stop hanging around those cynics! They'll turn you to the point where you'll never even leave the house! I tell ya! Now I be going on my merry way now! I'll send in a telegraph from Granny's, allright? That'll prove ya!"

I now regret those words. Because I'm lost. And I keep seeing puppy-sized pawprints next to footprints in this almost endless forest. It's getting dark now, and I'm becoming afraid. I've never been in the woods past dark before in the seventeen years I've lived.

As I settle down in the midist of the forest, I feel as if I should be flogged. I should be back at the house, having supper with Alphonse and Momma! I'm such a cocky fool...

Crack. CRACK!

I jump at the sudden noise. Was Momma right? I sure hope not.

CRACK!

I hear it again, but voices follow.

"Keep back, Fuery! He's dangerous! I'll handle em'!"

"But boss, he hasen't even tried to hurt us yet. And he doesn't look like the wolf we want, anyways."

"Fine, then let's head back to the village and report our findings, which is absolutely nothing."

Then I hear the pounding of horse's hooves as the men rode off.

So there was a wolf? At the very least?

I choose to stay in the woods since it would be next to impossible to find my way out in such darkness. I hope that noone tries to snatch me and Momma's basket. If something took that there basket, I'd be in so much trouble! It had something very special to my Granny, that Momma had borrowed and forgotton to return. So I was to bring it to Granny. If I didn't give it to her, and came home, Momma would be cirtain to give me twenty lashes. And that wasen't a bit of fun at all. I woudn't be able to sit for weeks on end.

I rest my tired body against a tree trunk, and wished for my clean white and red nightgown. It was much more comfortable to sleep in than tight jeans and a buttoned brown blouse covered by a bloodred cloak. Oh so much more so...I sigh as I close my eyes to greet sleep.

"Edward! Why don't you like Granny's cherry pie as much as Momma's?" Al asks me.

I am five and a half and he is four in this dream.

"Cause, Momma puts more sugar in hers, and she always puts a dash of love in it, she tells me!" I say, clapping my hands together.

Al nods, and asks me to race him to Granny's house, because we are all the way in the beginning of Granny's cornfield. So I say yes, and we start, but go in the wrong direction, and get lost.

I soon lose sight of Alphonse, and I fall and scratch my elbow. I start to cry, yelling out his name.

"Hello?" an unfamiler voice jerks me awake.

It's not even sunrise, and there's a little boy at my feet...WAIT! A little boy?

"Who are you? You're too young to be alone in the forest!" I say, putting him in my lap.

"I'm Roy. I'm two years old, I think. I live here, alone." the little boys says simply, with a small stutter.

He has long black hair, and hard onyx eyes. And he's completely naked, right to the bone.

"Well, Roy. If you say you live here, then what happened to your Momma and Papa?"

"I donno. They must've left me here. I must've not been wanted..." Roy shrugged, and leans into my belly.

"Okay, then why don't I keep ya? I'm sure my Momma wouldn't mind a single bit, and when ya get to being old enough, you'll be able to help me out on my family's farm."

But the little lad had fallen asleep in my lap. I sigh a contented sigh and reached into my basket, and pull out a piece of worn cloth large enough to produce a makeshift pair of trousers for him. I manage to find a pin-like object on the ground, and stake it through the knot I made at the back of them. And he didn't wake up the entire time. I had expected him to, seeing as he was brought up by Mother Nature herself. But my bringing up was much, much different from his anyways. One thing though, he really needed to get his long hair cut. It didn't look a bit good on him atall. If I could get out of the woods, I would cut it myself.

I bit my lip and looked for traces of the sunrise, so I could follow it east to the next village, hopefully Granny's village. When I saw a silver of it, I begin to walk in the direction it was traveling, carrying both baby and basket through the woods.

It wasen't long but an hour or so of walking before I reached my original pathway again, and saw a man driving a cart filled with furs of all sorts of animals.

"Hello! Mister!" I hollered, waving my empty hand around.

He saw me, and halted his young horses. He then asked me what I needed.

"Um, I need to get to Tubasken Village, please, sir! I have to return something improtant to my Granny!" I say, coming closer.

"Well, hop on in, fella! That's where I was headed, anyways! And who might you be? I'm Ling, by the way."

"I'm Edward, and this little one here is Roy. Are you one of those foreigners from Xing?" I ask, seeing the Xingese facial features in him.

"Yes, siree! I've been here for well over a year, hunting and selling the furs of the animals I catch! Would you like some fur for free?"

"Ah, no thank you, Mister Ling. I have plenty of furs at home for a million winters."

Me and Ling make small talk and such until we reached the village, and it was already high noon.

"Well, fella, if you need a ride home, I'll be here till dusk! Just come to the General Store, I'll be there selling furs!" Ling says, hopping off the cart to help me off.

I thank him and feel merry, because I had made it to the village, alive, and Granny's thing was still safe as well!

"Papa..." I suddenly hear Roy mumble, feeling his tiny hands clutch my blouse tight.

"Oh, Roy...The name's Edward." I whisper softly to him, and begin to hum to him as I trot to Granny's small cabin up the way.

As I pass houses and cabins, the people who are outside wave or holler to me, to show that they remember me. When I get to the house that belongs to Constable Havoc, he yells for me to have a bottle of liquor with him, but I insist that I would rather have water, for I was too young to have a drink and that he should've known already. He laughs and says that he was just joking with me, and lets me go on up the road.

It wasen't too long until Granny's cabin was in sight, and I felt like I needed to run, but I knew better because I was holding Roy, and that might make him uncomfortable. So I start to walk faster, but maintianing a non-jogging pace.

I got to Granny's cabin, and thank god, she was outside her cabin, tending to her flowers with Winry, a girl who had runaway from home and found Granny. She's been living here ever since.

"Granny! It's me! Edward!" I yell, opening the fence and walking over to her.

She looks up and sees me with her old blue eyes, and smiles tenderly to me.

"Well, I thought you'd be here yesturday. What happened? You're never late."

I sigh and adjust Roy in my arms, and explain about how I got lost and found Roy, and how Ling had taken me to the village. Once I finished, Granny told me to come inside so she could get some proper clothes for Roy, and get him a bath also. I wondered if Roy would take the bath well, unlike I did when I was his age.

I went inside, and sat in a rocker-chair, waiting for her to come back with the steel bathtub that had only been used by me and Alphonse.

During the wait, Roy woke up, and when I told him what had happened and what was about to happen, he just shivered, digging into my chest.

"Are you scared of having a bath?" I ask gently, rubbing his back to soothe him.

He nodded and looked up at me, face sad. I removed my hand from his back to his hair, where I pushed his matted hair behind his ears.

"There's no need to be, ya know," I begin, moving my hand slowly through his hair, "I take baths all the time, and you won't get hurt, unless you get soap in your eyes. Please try not to worry too much. Would you do that for me?"

Then we heard a load Clank!, and we saw that Granny had gotten the tub out. She had also brought the both of us a change of clothes for when we finished up.

"Allright, Edward, Roy, time to bathe! And yes, you're taking one with him too, Ed, you're absolutely filthy!" Granny said, bringing the hose to fill the tub up.

Once that was completed, she left the room, shutting the door behind her, leaving just me and Roy in the room. I grab the soap, towels, brush, and comb needed for said bath, and undressed myself and Roy.

I felt quite embrassed to be displying my naked seventeen year-old body to a two year-old, but I had to anyways. Roy didn't seem to mind one bit as I got in the tub with him. He actually enjoyed my company. The only parts he didn't like were getting soap in his eyes and when I got the tangles out of his hair. He tried to help comb my hair, but decided that it was too high up to get it all done.

When we finished, Roy almost didn't want to come out, but I got him to, anyways. I toweled off first, and quickly got Roy toweled off. I asked him if he knew how to use a proper bathroom, and he said he didn't know what I was talking about, so I took it as a "no". I pinned a cloth diaper to him, and getting clothes on him afterwords. I let him wonder around the room as I put on my own clothes.

"Hey Roy, come over here for a second!" I say, waiting for him to come over.

He looked slightly uncomfortable in the clothes, but came over to me. I sat him on a stool and grabbed a pair of hair clippers.

"Roy, I'm going to trim your hair. Do you mind me doing this?" I ask, moving his hair to where I could to it.

"I don't care. I just want to sleep..." he yawned, obviously exhausted by the bath we had.

"Okay, Roy, once I'm done, you can have as long as you want after this to sleep, but we will have to leave at five of the clock to get home."

He fought to stay awake as I shortened his hair to a resonable length, and I put him on the loveseat before I swept the hair collected on the floor.

By then, Granny came back to empty the bathtub, and I told her that I had brought the thing she wanted back. She took it out, and it was a glass egg. I had seen it sitting on a table in Momma's room, but I didn't know it belonged to Granny all this time!

When she left once more, I sat on the loveseat next to Roy, and rubbed his back as he explored dreamland. I wonder if he's ever been treated like anactual child before, or have people treated him like an animal his whole life?

(To Be Continued...)