Chapter 1

A Girl Called Melissa

"Al! Al! Good grief, where did he get off to now?"

Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, sighed in annoyance, gloved hands in fists on his hips, one foot tapping impatiently. "How hard could it be to find a seven-foot tall suit of armor in a meadow?" he muttered.

Actually, they were in the middle of a forest, but there was very little undergrowth and the trees were spaced apart from each other, giving the woods a garden-like feeling. But even with the trees, Alphonse Elric, Edward's younger brother, should have been easy to spot.

"Over here, brother!" came the slightly muffled voice of a young boy. A metal arm seemed to pop up out of the ground a slight distance away, waving.

"Don't tell me you sank again," fumed Ed, marching over to the arm. "We're not in the desert; we're in the woods, for crying out loud! If I have to—Yaaaaaaah!"

"Careful, Ed," said Al, deadpan, looking down at a tangled heap of red robes and black boots at the base of the small, sheer hummock. "There's a slight drop."

A mop of bright blond hair and blazing golden eyes emerged from the pile, a furious expression contorting Ed's now-beet-red face. "You could have warned me—Ah, forget it. What're you up to over here?"

Al pointed. "Look."

Ed's gaze followed the direction of the metal finger, and stared. They were high on a grassy ridge, and down below in the center of a wide meadow was a large, white building. It was simplistic, but in an aesthetic and graceful kind of way. Slender columns held aloft ceilings over broad porches and paved patios. Wide windows, many of which were open to the warm spring air and framed with curtains, let light flow inside, dispelling any feelings of claustrophobia. Carefully tended flower and vegetable gardens and hedge rows dotted the landscape. In many spots there were small, ornamental ponds or tiny gardens of colored stones arranged in swirling, abstract patterns. A feeling of cleanliness and peace surrounded the building, giving it an almost holy feel. And, moving in and out of doorways, along the stone paths of the gardens, sitting on the patios, or looking out of the windows were the tiny figures of children.

"Wha-what is this place?" Ed asked, awestruck at this peaceful scene.

"That's why I called you over here," said Al. "I thought that you might know."

"Are you boys lost?"

Ed nearly leapt off the ridge in fright; Al just barely caught him by the nape of his robe and jerked him back. As soon as his feet were firmly on the ground, Ed whirled around, ready to give the intruder a piece of his mind.

"WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING?!" he roared. "SNEAKING UP LIKE THAT, WE COULD HAVE BEEN—"

Suddenly, Ed got a good look at who he was yelling at and froze in the middle of his tirade.

It was a girl, about his age, sitting in a shining wheelchair. Her skin was very pale, making her wide, deep blue eyes stand out even more. Long, reddish hair hung down her back, her bangs framing her thin face. She was wearing a simple pale blue dress with long sleeves and thin matching slippers on her feet. Her head was cocked slightly to one side, like an inquisitive bird, and she didn't seem to be afraid of Al or of Ed's outburst. She was also strikingly pretty. Ed felt like sinking into the ground.

"Uh, hi," he said lamely. "Sorry about, er, yelling, you just…you just…"

"Scared you witless and forced you to assert your bravery and total control over the situation by biting the head off the perpetrator?" the girl inquired, a wicked grin flitting across her face.

"Yeah, something like that," Ed replied, his face still beet-red with embarrassment.

She laughed, a light, trilling sound. "That's alright, I really shouldn't have come up unannounced like that. I'm Melissa Byron, by the way."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Byron," said Al. "I'm Alphonse Elric, Ed's younger brother."

"And I'm Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist," said Ed, regaining some of his poise with his title.

Melissa blinked. "Fullmetal? But shouldn't…oh, I get it. It's because you're stubborn, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so…Hey, you're the first person I think we've met who hasn't mixed up me and Al!" said Ed, feeling pleased.

"You get that a lot, huh?" Melissa said, nodding in sympathy. "And I'm just Melissa," she added to Al. "No need to be real formal here."

"Ok," said Al, inclining his helmet. "Melissa, can you tell us about that building down there? Neither Ed nor I have ever heard of anything like it out in these woods."

Her green eyes glowed with pleasure. "That's the Mission House," she said in a soft, admiring voice.

"What's a mission house?" Al asked.

"It's a place for orphans with disabilities, handicaps, and terminal illness," Melissa said. "For people like me who don't have anyone else, yet need some kind of basic care, especially medical treatments. The Mission House takes in kids like us from orphanages, foster homes, the streets…wherever they can find us. I think we have about two hundred people living here, and that doesn't include the Caretakers."

"Caretakers? Are they the ones who look after you?" asked Ed.

Melissa nodded. "Yes, they take care of us, give us lessons, clean up, tend the grounds, give medical treatments, and make sure everything runs smoothly. I don't know how many there are, we tend to get new ones a lot, some kind of rotation schedule, I think. But they are always very helpful and kind."

Ed blinked. He'd never heard of such a place before. "Who pays for all this?"

The girl was still for a moment, a slight frown on concentration on her face. Ed had the feeling that she was rifling through the pages of her memory for an answer. "I'm honestly not sure," she said finally, "though I think most of it is from private donations. I've never seen anyone from the state come here for inspections or anything like that." Her curious gaze slid to the Alchemist sign on Al's arm. "You two are the first state people I've ever seen."

Suddenly Ed's stomach gave an embarrassing reminder that it had not been fed in a while. Melissa grinned again as Ed's face began to match his coat once again.

"Are you two hungry?" she asked. "There's plenty of food at the Mission House; it's almost dinnertime, and we don't get to entertain guests very often. Would you like to join us?"

"We don't want to be any trouble…" Al began.

Another gentle smile lit her face. "It's no trouble at all. You can be my guests!"

"Thanks, we'd be delighted," said Ed, regaining his poise once more. "Lead on, Lady Byron."

Melissa deftly turned her shining wheelchair and smoothly rolled into the woods, Edward and Al following close behind her, the Mission House behind them gleaming with colors of fire in the rays of the setting sun.