Panting I blinked some rain out of my eyes before I peeked around the edge of the small stone wall I was crouched behind, jerking back when bullets pinged of the stone right next to my head. "Shit." Glancing to the side I saw Mustang slumped next to me, missing one of his gloves and listing slightly to one side in his current barley conscious state. "Shit, shit, shit." Groaning I pounded my fist against my head hoping to jar loose an idea, preferably something other than the emergency protocol. Drawing a blank, I cursed my missing automail hand, the kidnappers here apparently had some sense as taking out my alchemy had been the first thing they had done, leaving me semi-incapacitated. I couldn't even take the time to draw a circle, everything was wet with rain so it wouldn't take.
Mustang was a complication, one I could really do without right now. He and a team of MP's had mounted a rescue party and they had all been slaughtered, Mustang had come out of it with bullet wounds to his shoulder and his leg both on the left side, they didn't look too bad, the shoulder wound barely a graze. However he had also taken a blow to the head not long ago and didn't look like he was going to stay conscious much longer. He really managed to time his rescue particularly terribly as just as he had breached the outer perimeter it had started to pour with rain, quickly drenching everything, making his ignition gloves completely useless. That left me rescuing his arse as well as my own, while also trying not to get shot, with no alchemy. All in all it was looking to be as close to an emergency as I had ever come before, which was worrying as that only really left one option for our escape.
Mentally saying 'screw it', I leaned forwards slightly as I focused on the deep pulsing warmth buried inside my chest, pushing the warmth outwards I watched the world distort slightly and then my view point shifted higher. There was a brief stunned silence and as I turned, I saw all the kidnapers gawking at me. Flashing them a grin full of razor sharp teeth, I sucked in a deep breath and then released a huge swarth of bright orange/red flames. Some part of me felt bad for this but as a dragon instincts were very close to the surface and the need to be safe and keep my secret was strong enough to temporarily suppress my aversion to killing.
The screams were short lived and when silence had once again fallen, I peered down at Mustang. I briefly met wide astonished coal coloured eyes before they slid shut and Mustang finally succumbed to unconsciousness fully. Growling a quiet curse, I carefully scooped up the limp form of the Colonel with one huge gold scaled hand, minding my claws didn't graze his fragile human skin. Making one last scan to ensure I had got every last kidnapper and that none would be left to either report my current form or repeat the atrocities conducted here, I nodded my satisfaction and with a rustle of leather wings took to the sky. Circling the already burning building, I released a few more blasts of fire, just to be sure of its destruction what with the barley there drizzle the rain had become, before I tilted my wings and glided away from the smouldering pile of ruble.
Riding the thermals, so I didn't need to flap too much, helped significantly in lengthening the distance I was able to place between myself and the place where I had been held captive. So when, long after the sun had set and the moon had taken its place, my eye lids drooped for the third time in as many minutes and I felt my left wing twitch involuntarily, I decided to call it a day and starting searching for somewhere to land. A few tortuous minuets later and I was able to direct myself towards the protruding ledge of a large cave, situated three quarters of the way up a huge sheer cliff face.
Groaning I allowed my wings to relax, not even bothering to fold them properly, just letting the tension drain from my body. Carefully limping forwards while maintaining a carefully light grip on the Colonel, I made my way towards the back of the cave. Lowering myself to the ground, I gently shifted Mustang off my hand and onto the ground. Briefly concentrating I allowed the transformation to drop and after shrugging out of my signature red coat and my black under coat, I put the large red coat to one side and using my one hand and my teeth started ripping up the black one to wrap the bleeding wounds on the Colonel's shoulder and leg.
It took a while to try and bandage wounds one handed but I did my best, and as soon as the Colonel was no longer in danger of gaining an infection or bleeding out from his leg wound, I dropped my red coat over him and then made my over to the mouth of the cave. Leaning out I called up the transformation again and dropped from my perch, not really flying but sort of gracefully falling to the ground in a controlled manner. Not wanting to wast time, I swung my tail at a nearby tree and slashed at the felled giant till I had a decent pile of fire wood. Gathering the wood up in my arms, I stretched my aching wings and began struggling my way back up to the cave.
Almost collapsing in the mouth of the cave, I dropped my cargo and with limbs that grew steadily heavier with every second that passed, I managed to push a small section away and closer to the Colonel. Puffing out a pathetic little flame, I set the slightly damp wood to burning, satisfied for the moment I allowed my eyes to shut and finally relaxed, before promptly passing out, images of screaming and burning men dancing behind my eyelids.
xxx
"Shit!"
Blinking my eyes open, I searched for the source of the voice that had woken me and found the Colonel gawking at me from across the fire. Letting out a low grumble I dropped my head back down and closed my eyes again, I had not had enough sleep to deal with that yet.
Several moments passed and I was just on the edge of falling asleep again when I heard Mustang shout, "FULLMETAL!"
Internally grouching about idiot Colonels that couldn't just let a tired reptile sleep, I lifted my head and found the Colonel gripping my red coat and looking around frantically. Blinking some of the sleep from my eyes I found myself suddenly facing an angry Roy Mustang. "Beast, what happened to Fullmetal?"
Huh? Did he just...he did! I was distinctly miffed at his use of the word 'beast', however on the plus side he didn't seem to remember seeing me transform. Mentally sighing in relief at having not blown my secret, I decided to ignore his use of derogatory language just this once, as he was injured and apparently concerned for my human form.
I cocked my head to one side, trying to gauge how badly his wounds were bothering him. I could see the tension in his frame even from across the twisting flames of the camp fire. He was clutching his shoulder and hadn't made an attempt to stand up yet, and from the normally smug and egotistical man that was as good as a declaration of extreme pain. He needed rest and food, and while I couldn't force him to rest I could see about getting the pair of us something to eat. It also ment I could conveniently ignore his question.
Slowly manoeuvring my feet and legs under myself, I tested my weight on them and found them shakier than I would have liked, but better than they were hours before. Rising to a slightly crouched position, as my full height would hit the ceiling, I watched as Mustang flinched back, looking almost like a frightened child as he clutched at my coat. Frowning at that analogy, I turned and padded quietly over to the mouth of the cave. Peering out briefly I made sure there was no one was around or watching the cave before launching from my spot and unfurling my wings, gliding for a few moments just above the tree tops I listened for sounds indicating prey.
A few faint rustles caught my attention and I banked sharply towards the sound, tracking it through the woods for several minutes till a large heard of deer appeared in a clearing around a small river. Tucking my wings I dropped like a rock and with three swift movements I had one deer clamped in my teeth, one pinned under my left forepaw and had another one speared on the end of my tail. Taking a moment to crunch up the deer currently in my mouth, I ran a forked tongue over my jaws to catch any stray blood after my snack. Satiated for a moment I turned and collected the third dead deer in my other foreleg and then reared back launched myself back into the sky.
Navigating quickly back to the cave I found Roy stood at the very edge of the ledge, braced against the wall, looking a more than a bit green. Frowning I flapped my wings slowly, treading air in front of the cave, concerned about dislodging the Colonel from his precarious position if I got too close. Shifting the deer into one hand, I used my newly freed hand to gesture for the Colonel to back up. After another long second of watching me, he shuffled back a little looking more than a little strained. Rolling my eyes slightly I reached for the stubborn man and carefully scooped him up again, only now he was conscious and protesting.
"Hey! Put me down right this second! Did you hear me? I said, put me down!"
Mentally grinning at the sheer embarrassment I could hear in the Colonel's voice, I carried him all the way back to his side of the fire, having to use my wings as substitute legs as both my forelegs were busy, and then very gently lowered him back to the ground. Once he was situated I placed one of the deer next to him and then retreated some to chew on my own secondary snack.
I had long finished my deer and yet the Colonel had yet to touch his, frowning I inched closer, trying to figure out what was wrong with the deer I had caught him.
"...stupid reptile think I'm going to do with a whole raw deer, I don't have any tools for skinning or cleaning it and how am I going to cook it without a spit..."
Mentally rolling my eyes, I snatched the dead deer up and with a few deft movements skinned and sliced the deer into smaller chunks. Stabbing one with a claw, I opened my mouth and called up my flames. Not breathing the deadly fire on the animal but rather holding it close to the blisteringly hot fire, allowing the heat to cook the meat instead of charcoaling it instantly, which likely would have been the result of direct contact with my fire.
Once the meat was cooked I held it out to the astonished looking Colonel, when he didn't immediately take it, I waved it back and forth a little in front of him. Finally seeming to get the message, he reached out and carefully grabbed hold of the large chunk of meat. It was rather comical, the large hind leg was fairly big in comparison the man himself, easily the same size as his torso and he likely wouldn't even be able to eat all of it. Eyeing the rest of the deer I contemplated stealing it to help actually fill me up completely, but I figured it was only polite to wait and see if the Colonel could eat more.
After a few minutes of watching the Colonel eat I grew bored, very bored, which was never a good thing really, but I was too tired to actually go and do anything and my scales had started to itch earlier. Sighing I lifted my wing and scratched idly at my side, it was coming up on that time when I was supposed to moult my 'baby' scales and get new harder scales, my 'adult' scales.
From what I vaguely remember my bastard father telling me, a dragons first moult happened when a young dragon reached its full adult size, usually around puberty and would mark a significant growth period for my human form as well, which I was sooooooo looking forwards to. After the fist moult, scales would only be replaced if they got damaged, otherwise they remained the same. To be perfectly honest I had been expecting it for a while, but my dragon form had just continued to grow bigger and bigger. Al, despite his lack of a human body, had still been able to transform even if we didn't really understand why or how he was able to and he had already had his first moult, having reached full size around the length of three cars end to end, and yet I had long since surpassed that. I estimated myself to be somewhere around ten cars from nose to tail. Although I'd lied and told Al I was about half that and that I had had my moult.
A faint 'ping' had me turning and spotting a single glinting gold scale resting on the floor, it was about the size of a human fist. A size which was large for first moult scales, but then some of my scales reached the same size as Roy's chest, so it was small for me.
An odd noise had me turning to see Mustang eyeing the scale, mentally shrugging I lifted the scale carefully between two claws and offered it to him. He seemed surprised but accepted it anyway, and as soon as his skin came into contact with the scale I felt a strange thrum run through my body. Ignoring the odd feeling I continued to itch random spots, soon gaining a collection of large gold coloured scales. The scales where completely fire proof but not very hard, similar to stiff leather in malleability and in the protection it offered from sharp pointy things. Keeping half an eye on Mustang I watched him examine the small scale he held it with a look of deep fascination, bending it slightly and then tapping it. Rolling my eyes at his obsession I was momentarily surprised when he started talking, Mustang wasn't usually one for idle chit chat, although it abated when I realised he was just asking questions about my scales.
"Hey what is this made of? Why is it bendy? This doesn't seem like it would provide much protection from anything sharp, why is it so soft?" So on and so on the questions went, I was just about ready to crush him into the ground just to get him to be quiet when he finally seemed to realise I wasn't going to answer any of his questions and huffed "Can you even talk? Or are you just some dumb beast?"
Snarling I shot to my feet, the small spines on my back scraping the rocky ceiling and causing the cave to suddenly feel very small. Hissing, I mentally raged at the injustice of being unable to actually speak in this form. Of course dragon's had their own language but Mustang wouldn't be able to understand it, and that pissed me off. I was not some dumb beast, I had let it go the first time because he was scared, hurt and displaying concern for my human form, but now he was just insulting me because I wouldn't answer his stupid questions. Not to mention I was still sleepy earlier, now I was awake, still hungry, achy and tired not to mention my scales where itching all over now. The itch had developed from a small tickle to a burning sensation all over, that was steadily driving me up the wall. So yes I was a bit irritable right now, and when you are a tiny human faced with an enormous irritable dragon it would be wise to shut up and be quiet.
Roy Mustang was clearly not the most intelligent human around as instead of shutting up and being quiet, he scuttled back and snapped his right hand. Brilliant red flames raced forwards and caressed against my scales, warming them pleasantly and causing the itching to abate for a moment. Pausing for a second I considered what just happened, clicking my teeth together I peered down at the still shocked form of Mustang and leaned in very close.
I didn't know why his flames had soothed the itch, but it had and now I had to figure out a way to get him to do it again. Nudging him with my nose, I grunted and bobbed my head slightly, trying to convey that I wanted him to repeat his actions. From his blank look, I'm going to assume he wasn't getting the message. Growling I snapped my teeth at him and he jerked back, reacting instinctively and snapping his fingers. Delighted with the hot flames dancing on my itchy scales I let out a happy little roar, twisting so the flames could get at my back and wings.
All too soon the wonderful heat was gone and replaced with the familiar itchiness, groaning I shifted around trying to get to this one spot right between my wings that was driving me nuts. "What on earth are you doing?"
Blinking I peeked at the Colonel and to my embarrassment found him almost breathless with laughter, braced against the wall and clutching his wounded shoulder as he shook with suppressed laughter. Hissing at the amused Colonel, I was never more relieved scales didn't show blushes than I was right then. Gods how did Al deal with this level of itching, it was maddening I was almost ready to start rolling on my back just to try and get the scales between my wings.
Raking my claws down my sides, I felt a measure of relief as a dozen or so more scales clattered to the floor. I was going for the scales on my chest when the panicked shouts reached me. Pausing I frowned at where Mustang was shouting from, he looked more than a little concerned. It took a moment for me to process and then I realised what this must look like to the Colonel, who had no knowledge of dragons. It probably looked like I was trying to hurt myself. Now how to explain to him that I was fine, when he wouldn't be able to understand a word that came out of my mouth.
Yeah this was going to be fun. Not.
Thinking for a moment I reached down and lifted the small human into the air, holding him close to my chest as I reached up and prised one of the larger chest scales off, revealing the brand new gleaming gold scale beneath. I repeated this action a few times and it must have finally clicked when I heard Mustang mutter "oh you're moulting, like a lizard, I guess that makes sense." The was a longer pause and then he said "the old scales itch don't they? You look like you want to rip your own skin off, so it must be bothering you..."
Nodding morosely, I gestured vaguely at my back and shuddered in an exaggerated fashion.
"Hey so you do understand me?!"
Rolling my eyes heavenwards as I set the Colonel back on the ground, I was more than a little irritated that that was all he took from my response, but then he was a selfish bastard so really what did I expect.
"If you can understand me why haven't you answered any of my questions?"
Snorting I shot him an unimpressed stare, then opened my mouth flashing sharp fangs and a forked tongue, before silently asking him if it looked like I could give verbal answers.
Apparently he was better at translating expression than I gave him credit for, especially considering I was a dragon, and who had experience reading dragon facial expressions these days? As he flushed and nodded "yeah I guess you weren't built for human speech. Maybe if I ask yes and no questions...?"
Nodding my head, I conceded that was a good idea and then at least we could communicate to some degree.
"Okay, do you know what happened to Fullmetal?"
Tilting my head I played dumb, having not been introduced to people in this form it would be suspicious if I knew names I should have no way of knowing, hence the fake confusion.
"Ugh! Blond, male, about this tall..." I was miffed with the Colonel for only raising his arm to about chest high when indicating my height, "and he normally wears that coat." At the end he pointed at where my red coat was resting near the fire.
Making humming noise in the back of my throat I nodded my head, indicating I knew who he was referring to.
"Is he...is he okay?"
Nodding again, I was surprised by the strong relief that washed over his face as some of the tension drained from his shoulders.
"Do you know where he is?"
Another nod.
"Can you take me to him?"
This time I shook my head, after all I was already here, there was nowhere to go.
"What! Why?"
Lifting my wings slightly I let them droop against my back again.
"Your wings are tired?"
I was aiming for the motion to resemble more of a shrug, but tired wings worked well as an excuse so I just nodded my head.
"Of all the..."
Narrowing my eyes, I felt like if he had finished that sentence I would have been inclined to BBQ the man, so was somewhat pleased he had the common sense not to.
"Can you at least tell me if he's close by? And how far we are from Central?"
Nodding my head I held my hands close together, showing we were very close to both.
"Well thats good at least." Sighing and running his uninjured hand through his hair, he huffed "the pipsqueak will probably have beaten us back, and will be sat in my office, more than likely in my chair, with some smart-ass remark about me being late as usual, or slacking off..."
Choking on a laugh, that came out as more of a strange slightly strangled growling noise, I had to duck my head when he turned to me with a questioning look on his face. The pipsqueak comment was irritating, but with my moult I would hopefully be getting a growth spurt and then he wouldn't be able to call me short any more. That had been one of the things that I had worried about the most, as far as giving myself away to Al had been concerned. I thought he would realise I had lied when I didn't shoot up any after I claimed to have had my moult, but I guess as he was stuck in the armour and therefor his body didn't grow, he must have forgotten.
Slinking over to the chopped up remains of the left over deer I gestured to it while making a questioning whining sound, trying to ask if he wanted any more of it. Apparently the Colonel was full as he immediately waved his hands back and forth.
"Oh no its all yours, I am so full I could explode!"
Nodding my head I snapped up the rest of the meat, enjoying how I now felt pleasantly full. Pointing one long talon at the Colonel, then the spot where my now dry red coat was laid out by the fire, I tilted my head and closed my eyes for a long second. Opening them again I peered questioningly at the Colonel, hopefully he would understand.
"Are you...Are you telling me to go to bed?!"
Grinning impishly I was pleased he caught that and nodded smugly.
Sighing dramatically he started limping his way towards the coat muttering under his breath, "...can't believe it...being ordered around by an over grown lizard of all things...being told to go to bed at my age...who does he think he is..."
Huffing another laugh I curled up and closed my eyes, content to try and get a few more hours sleep before I flew the Colonel the rest of the way back to Central.
xxx
Flying swiftly towards the growing speck on the horizon, which was slowly starting to resemble a city, I pondered how I was going to drop the Colonel off without anyone seeing me and freaking out. At the moment my best option would be to drop him off next to the woodland road and then detour around the city, shift back into human form and then come in from a different angle.
It wasn't the best plan but it was all I could think of without risking leaving the Colonel somewhere unsafe or potentially being seen, neither of which were ideal. So when I spotted the woodland road I carefully descended from the sky, while keeping an eye out for any travellers.
Landing heavily I gently set the Colonel down, making sure he was okay and wasn't missing anything important limb wise. Rounding on me as soon as his feet touched the ground he said "hey why are you leaving me here?!" Then slightly quieter he mumbled "what is it with large winged creatures and only taking people part of the way to their goal?!"
Rolling my eyes heavenwards, I pointed at the city in the distance. Then I tapped a talon on the scales around my eyes, then made a more expansive gesture at all of myself, before finally making some cowering motions.
"Oh yeah, I suppose if they did see you they might react negatively." Sighing he turned and started limping towards the city. Waving a negligent hand over his shoulder he called "thanks for the ride."
Blowing a ring of smoke after the ungrateful Colonel's retreating back, I lifted my wings and pumped them hard to lift myself into the sky once again.
xxx
Breathing slightly heavily I flopped down into the soft leather chair behind the Colonel's desk, never more glad that everyone had been out of the office for lunch, it wouldn't have made a good surprise otherwise.
Of course there were some people I chose not to try and surprise, like Al and Winry, that was just asking for a lecture and a wrench to the head. So I had phoned them as soon as I managed to sneak into Central and get to a phone booth, for whatever reason pocket change didn't rate high on kidnappers list of things to confiscate.
I made sure to tell both of them I was fine and back in Central. Although I was shouted at for a long time by Winry when I told her I was going to need another new Automail arm, then she passed the phone to Al while she went and started packing things to bring to Central. Al Lectured me on being more careful and then told me how happy he was that I was safe again.
After a few more pleasantries I had hung up and then made a quick anonymous call about the Colonel needing a lift, before making my way to Central command. Once there I grabbed a change of clothes from my locker in the gym and had a nice long hot shower before finally dressing and stealthily infiltrating Mustangs office.
Leaning back I kicked my feet up on his desk and waited patiently, I figured he would be done charming his way out of the hospital by now. Sure enough after a few minutes I could hear the Colonel's voice from the other side of the door, "...really lieutenant I'm fine I just need to check something in my office..."
The door swung open and I felt a shit eating grin slip onto my face as Mustang appeared in the doorway. "You're late."
"I was delayed. By a dragon."
Smirking I replied "really? I always knew you were a princess at heart, all that delegating work and not doing any yourself."
"You little shit! Get out of my chair."
"Whatever you say your highness." Swallowing my laughter at the Colonel's inarticulate growling, I stood up and slipped around the desk, choosing to flop heavily onto one of the couches instead.
"Edward! You're back! Have you been to the hospital to get your injuries seen to?"
Smiling at the Lieutenant, who was loitering in the doorway I replied "ha what injuries? I am perfectly fine. I'm not the one thats useless in the rain after all."
"Fullmetal..." The warning tone was completely lost on me as I had no fear of the Colonel, I was fire proof after all.
"Edward..." Wincing slightly I ducked my head and muttered a quite apology, I was significantly less bullet proof in this form. Not to mention the Lieutenant was a woman, those strange and mysterious creatures were beyond terrifying, Winry and Teacher were other examples of this fact of life.
"Oh so you listen to her?!"
Rolling my eyes I chose to ignore the Colonels words and instead asked "so how did you get back to the city then?"
"I told you, there was a dragon!"
"Sir..." The Lieutenant sounded exasperated so this was obviously not the first time he talked about 'the dragon' in seriousness.
"Yeah right, dragons don't exist."
The frustrated scowl on his face lifted slightly and he pulled a gleaming plate of gold from his pocket, about the size of a fist and smooth with a slight curve to it the object appeared to be an extremely oversized reptile scale. A very familiar scale. Oops.
"Here is proof! A scale from the dragon that saved me."
Snorting I put on a false expression of doubt and said "just looks like shaped gold to me."
"Well it isn't!"
Rolling my eyes I decided to change the subject, "should you really be walking around on that leg?"
"How did you know about my leg?!"
"I was there Colonel. I was the one to drag your sorry ass to some cover, so you didn't get even more bullet holes in you when you took that bit of flying rubble to the back of your head. Remember?"
"Oh."
"Yeah 'oh'."
"Then you must have seen the dragon it was there too."
"Would you quit it with the dragon thing!"
"What dragon thing?"
"AL!"
"Brother, I'm so happy you're okay!"
"How did you get here so fast?"
"I left as soon as you called, the train ride just seemed to fly by."
Ah he had shifted and flown, if a train ride 'flew by' it was code for one of us flying in our dragon form. "Well as you can see Al I am all in one piece, mostly, and unharmed except for my arm..."
"Yes I heard you destroyed another of my beautiful works of art, Ed." The comment was accompanied by a flying wrench, which I didn't bother to duck. Avoiding the first wrench just ment she would throw more till she hit me and she wouldn't start fixing my automail till she hit me, so it was just easier to let her hit me the first time.
Groaning as I laid on the floor where I had fallen from the sofa, I just waited for someone else to say something, I was too tired to think too much right now. I just wanted a long nap and maybe some food, but definitely sleep first.
"Oh well would you look at that, now your head is bleeding Fullmetal. I guess now you can come with me back to the hospital so you can get that checked out."
Sighing I didn't bother to protest, just flopped my flesh arm over my face. "Whatever, I'm too tired for this shit."
"Wow brother really must be tired if he isn't putting up a fight about going to the hospital."
"That just has me even more concerned for his mental health, maybe I shouldn't hit him so much with that wrench...nah I'm sure he'll be fine."
Rolling my eyes I dragged myself to my feet and stomped towards the door, "you lot coming or what? My arm isn't going to fix itself..."
Winry was the first to move, closely followed by Al with Mustang and Hawkeye bringing up the rear.
xxx