Hatashijou: Prologue
Disclaimer: I don't own Amestris or Fullmetal Alchemist! They belong to Arakawa-san.
A/N: This story be a little experiment... and we shall see where it goes. XD
Dawn broke over the eastern horizon, chasing away the shadows and gloom of the past night. The sun, shimmering in a reddish gold hue far beyond of the edge of the dense forest, illuminated the path before the faded black automobile, giving its driver a sure and steady trail to follow into the further green abyss of the trees. Too long and too dark had been the night. On multiple occasions, the driver had nearly been certain he'd lost his way. But now, with the deception of darkness slowly but surely departing until the next night, both driver and passenger could be certain of their course.
Reilly Caidrew glanced down at the address and directions given to her by her superior officer three days ago. It couldn't be too far, now.
The directions had been simple: travel two days' worth north of Northern City, until she came across an old forest. From there, she would follow the winding path until it finally led to her to her destination. It couldn't be that hard, could it? And yet, who had any idea that a path leading to a civilian's house could be so bloody deceptive. It probably had once been a hunter's trail, at least originally, but now the buried path was little more than a gap between the dense walls of towering pines and spruces – with emphasis on the buried aspect of it.
Reilly sighed, looking out the window of the automobile. This had been one heck of a mission, no doubt about that. Oh yes, at first it had seemed exciting, taking a road trip to the far reaches of the North to meet an old friend on behalf of her country, but after many long days and nights of travel, it was more than slightly beginning to wear on her. Why, just yesterday, she had accidentally dozed off during her night watch behind the wheel; it was sheer luck that she hadn't permanently wrapped herself and her chauffeur around a thick trunk! But, long journey or not, at least her driver (and passenger, on the rare occasions that he relinquished control of the wheel) Warrant Officer Aubrey had been a pleasant enough companion. He never once complained about the lack of sleep – and no lack of mishaps – that he endured, though Reilly did suspect that it had something to do with the generous additional paychecks he would receive for this.
Reilly glanced down once more at the packet she held clutched in her hands.
Jack Riley.
Those were the only two words inscribed on the outside of the thick envelope. Above it, in the upper left corner, was the President's seal.
Jack… her friend of old, the aspiring alchemist she'd met at the Fair those years past, the one who she'd always been teased with because of their lack of height. She could still hear the ringing taunts of the children outside of Central, pulling mocking grins at the two shorter kids. Hey, who's smaller - Riley or Reilly? I don't know, it's hard to tell, I can barely see them beneath those blades of grass there! … Hey, I wonder if the name Riley is jinxed? Anyone who's named it turns out a chibi! Poor, poor chibi-chan…
Reilly grimaced. At least she'd been better at controlling her temper; it'd taken quite a bit of distracting to keep Jack from pounding those kids down to the depths of the earth. But now, that had been almost ten years ago… and without any real means of communicating with her friend, Jack probably would've forgotten all about her. At the very least, Reilly knew all too well how much could change in that amount of time. She sighed, hoping that at least some kind of friendly reunion could come out of this business transaction.
Reilly shoved the envelope back into her bag and leaned back in the seat, staring out the window of the automobile once more. Well, whatever Jack was up to now, the military was apparently quite interested. What exactly Jack could do that would warrant a letter from the President, Reilly had no clue, though she had considered using alchemy to temporarily change the envelope to a transparent substance. Her lips twitched against a smile. Yes, she had gotten quite bored over the course of the trip, and that transparent material idea in addition to many other insane schemes had more than once tried to root themselves in her will, as if daring her to try them just to see if she could pull it off. For example, she'd considered changing the styles of Aubrey's hair to something more exotic while he was sleeping in the backseat, but she hadn't wanted to take her eyes off the road for that long. Another source of entertainment could have been to change the color of the car to one that would perfectly match the green light streaming down from above, so that the automobile would appear invisible along the road. Heh, that sure would've given Jack some scare, to hear an automobile coming but not be able to see it! However, entertaining as the thought may have been, Reilly had a bit more self-control than that.
Besides, in a few hours, it wouldn't matter anymore. She would deliver the message, say hello to Jack, and be done with this long, boring, seemingly worthless assignment. Whatever she had done to earn this penance would be forgotten, and it would be back to her normal life with the military, back to long days and longer nights, back to her constant research that would, somehow, supposedly make a difference in the world.
Just a few more hours… that relatively short amount of time, compared to the rest of Caidrew's existence on this earth, had never seemed to stretch out so long.