E: Welcome to Ink . Inc's second story, this time written solely by me, Elaine/smart one. :D Here's the full list of genres, I stuck it under "General" because there were so many: Humour, general, action/adventure, family, angst, drama, tragedy,...is there a mythology catagory? I forget. I suppose this could be considered sort of like a western, even though it's actually Eastern, and there are no cattle... Rated T for violence in later chapters. I don't think there will be any swearing, except in a fictional language of my own creation. So you won't understand it anyway. There might be some AlxOC in later chapters, but it's still iffy. I never set pairings in stone. Except that this will most certainly not contain any EdxOC pairings, unless you count friendship.
Sorry about the late author's notes, by the way. Either I forgot to save them or the site deleted them. It was most likely my fault, I guess... -sigh- Anyway, here's the story, read, review and enjoy! ...No, wait, read, enjoy, THEN review. Whatever.
UPDATE: December 23/08--Whoops, forgot all about my disclaimer. Ahem... I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, nor any of its related characters, logos and other such factors. These are the property of Hiromu Arakawa and probably a few other people. I do own portions of the plot of this story, and the original characters within it are MINE, understand? There, now I'm legally safe.
AND...I have prepared... a full-length summary. Does this excite you? ...Well, it should. HERE IT BE: Our story begins in chapter 63 of the manga, except that, for reasons currently unknown to the Elric brothers, Mei Chan/May Chang is now on her way back to Xing, thus eliminating their best hope for learning Rendanshu. The only thing they can do is head to Xing themselves, crossing the vast and dangerous desert, which is something they can't do alone. They enlist the (somewhat expensive) help of a large group of experienced guides called Los Peinahklaht, based upon an ancient order of desert nomads. The two guides they hire are a pair of thoroughly non-ancient teenaged sisters who seem nice, and ordinary enough considering their rather unusual occupation, but below the surface they're hiding something. On the long journey they tell stories to pass the time, most of them thrilling tales of danger and adventure. But the sisters begin to let secrets slip, and soon Edward and Alphonse find themselves caught in the middle of a fight that goes back much further than their own. They are trapped in the midst of a strange culture, a hostile environment and a web of secrets too dangerous to ignore. (Ooh, exciting!)
Moonlight streamed through a small window onto the form of a sleeping girl. Her eyebrows pulled together and a tiny whimper escaped her lips as she rolled over. The dream-- the only nightmare she ever got --had come again.
They were all such familiar sounds. The distant laughter of small children. The sound of a skipping rope hitting the sidewalk again and again. Creaking chains of a swing-set. She remembered, all too clearly, the wind in her face as she pumped her legs back and forth, propelling herself higher and higher, and the numb, sickening horror when they abruptly ceased to obey her commands. Outside of the dream her body jolted violently, as it did in the memory she relived in her mind. In the dream she seemed to fall in slow motion, which left time for all the other sounds that completed her nightmare-- Empty bottles smashing, a baby wailing, angry, drunken shouting mixed with tears, a dull thump and a long, high scream. The girl woke up to the sound of her own sharp gasp- her dream had ended as she slammed into the ground.
Some children are plagued by nightmares of monsters, of horrors that exist only in the infinite depths of unconscious imagination... but Capella was haunted only by her own past. There was no waking, really, from her nightmare, because the memories were all too real.
""""
"In the entire library. You're sure there was nothing?"
"Yep," Ed sighed wearily. "They have the catalogues for all the other libraries in the area too, and all the major ones in Amestris... But there's not a single book about Rendanshu."
Alphonse had almost expected this. Nothing was ever that easy anymore. "But then... what can we do? If the girl with the black-and-white cat is on her way back to Xing already..."
"Then we'll have to follow her, won't we?" Edward replied, raising his arms in exasperation. The Elric brothers had spent an entire day at the National Central Library, searching through shelves and catalogues for any information they could find on Xingese alchemy. Their search had unearthed precisely nothing, and Ed seemed to be about to reduce the vast collection of useless information to ashes, letting it share the same fate as the First Branch.
"Follow-- All the way back to Xing?? But- but-" Al could see so many problems with this plan that all he could do was stutter.
Ed's voice raised to an alarming volume for someone inside a library. "I know! But do you honestly have any better ideas?!"
We now pause as Alphonse weighs his options-- or lack thereof.
"Well... no." Al admitted. "But how are we supposed to get there?"
Ed didn't respond immediately, but instead walked swiftly away through the rows of towering bookshelves. He returned carrying a large roll of paper, evidently a map. He spread the map out across a nearby table and motioned for his brother to come and look. It was a map of the continent, and was detailed enough that it took up the entire table.
"Okay, so regardless of what route we take, first we'll have to take a train back to the eastern border." Edward dragged his finger across the map from the center of Amestris towards the country's edge. Alphonse nodded, so he continued, "But from there, we'll have to either find a way to cross the desert safely or take the sea route."
"The sea route..." Al echoed, "If we did that, then we'd have to head south first, not east-" he traced a path on the map with his finger, "-and that means passing through Aerugo. That would be way too dangerous, we'd never get across the border."
Edward sort of deflated a bit. "Crap, you're right. I forgot about the south border war..." He paused to examine the map again. "Then... I guess we could sort of follow the edge of the desert towards the ocean, but that section is actually really wide. So it would be a really long trip just to get to the ocean, just so that we can take an even longer trip all the way around the continent."
Alphonse was a little bit frightened by how tired and weak his brother looked all of a sudden. "I don't think that long of a trip would do us any good. By the time we arrived in Xing, the hommunculi would probably have won already. I think crossing the desert is the best option we have, brother."
"For you, yeah. But you can't feel the heat like I can." Ed had begun his sentence moderately calm and had ended it bordering on rage. "The desert sun heats up my auto-mail like a stove burner! Not to mention the heat from the exhaust. And if my joints overheat I'll probably get really sick, and where will that put us?!"
They were running out of options. "Well... Maybe we can ask Winry about it. There's probably some way she can alter your auto-mail to divert the heat." Al suggested.
"Ugh... Then we have to head all the way back to Rush Valley." Ed groaned. "Alright. It's the only thing we can do right now." He began rolling up the map. "We should probably call her to let her know we're coming."
Alphonse was sure now, as they both stood and headed towards the library's exit, that something was wrong with his brother. Under normal circumstances there was no way he would think to phone Winry before showing up.
--
"So... basically what you need is air-conditioned auto-mail?" There was a note of exasperation mixed with Winry's generally dazed tone that was clearly evident even through the rather static-y pay-phone connection. "And you want me to design, build and install it within a week?"
"Well...yeah," suddenly Ed's request seemed silly.
Then she completely surprised him. "Well then, you're in luck."
"...What?"
"I said: You're in luck. I've been working on a similar design for ages, and I think it's just about perfect now."
Edward hadn't expected that. He'd been rather skeptical of the whole plan from the beginning, and was only really following it because he had no other options. "Are you serious?"
"Yes," Winry replied simply.
"So you'll be able to finish the design, put it all together and have it ready to install in a week?"
She paused for a moment to consider before answering. "I think so, but you'll have to come out here first so that I can check for measurements and things, and I need to be sure that I'll be able to incorporate the cooling design feature into your old arm and leg, because if it won't fit then I'll have to reconstruct them completely, and that could take a lot more time."
"But you'll definitely be able to do it?"
"Uh-huh."
Ed sighed with relief. "Great. Thanks. You're a lifesaver, Winry."
The conversation generally wound down; travel arrangements were made, reminders were given and goodbyes were said. Upon hanging up Edward sighed again, and leaned against the wall of the phone booth.
"Can Winry design the desert auto-mail, brother?" Al asked, looking down at Ed as he walked out of the booth.
"Somehow, she already has."
"Wha...?"
Edward explained to his brother as they walked back to the hotel. Tomorrow they would take the earliest train to Rush Valley, and hopefully be able to head east within the week. This plan still was leaving a few things up to chance-- it would work out only if the desert auto-mail mechanisms would fit into Ed's current prosthetics, and if they could find a guide or some other way to safely cross the Eastern desert.
But it was still, after all, the best hope they had.
--
Four days later, Edward's arm and leg were completely equipped for the scorching desert sun. Winry's design was fairly straightforward according to her- it looked pretty complicated to the Elric brothers -and the actual installation took her about an afternoon, after two days of crafting and assembling the various parts of the cooling devices. This fourth and final day she had spent dragging Edward to see various other engineers so that they could check her design. No flaws were spotted by even Dominic, although he dismissed it as an overly heavy and frivolous attachment- but Winry had not expected him to be outwardly impressed, so she ignored his criticism.
It was late in the afternoon when Ed was finally released from being examined by mechanics all over the city, and he found Alphonse waiting back at the small inn that they had been staying at, scanning the "D" section of the East Area phone book.
Ed realized quickly what his brother was looking for, but he asked anyway.
Al's reply was not immediate. He turned a few pages quickly before answering. "I was checking just in case there were any guide agencies listed, for the--"
"--desert crossing. That's what I thought you were doing. " Edward cut his brother off. "Do you really think that's the sort of thing they list in phone books? I mean, it can't be much of a thriving industry..."
"Actually..." Alphonse began, "There's an entry listed right here." He turned the heavy book to show Ed, pointing with his hollow iron finger to a small ad, close to the bottom of the page, barely visible between several larger and more colourful advertisements that surrounded it. Ed could barely believe their luck as he read the faintly inked words:
DESERT CROSSING
Travel to foreign eastern coun-
tries, send deliveries, retrieve lost
items. Experienced guides and re-
liable equipment, safe journeys.
Los Peinahklaht
Order of the Desert
North-East Amestrian Camp
He ripped out the page containing the ad.
"Ed!" His brother protested. "I got this from the library!"
"Whoops..." Edward hastily shoved the page back into the thick book and clapped his hands together, preparing to transmute. Alphonse protested again. "Big brother, if you transmute it you'll ruin all the words and the page will be useless."
"So I might as well just keep it then?" Ed replied hesitantly, pulling the page out again.
Alphonse sighed. "Sure, but you're paying the library fine."
The brothers laughed before looking at the address on the advertisement. Lahkaneihah. A bizarre name for a town.
Ed tried to pronounce the word. "Lah-ka-nay-hah?" He had heard of the town somewhere, but he wasn't sure where. Al corrected him. "You're not supposed to pronounce the second H. It's Lah-ka-nay-ah."
"How do you know?" Edward asked.
"I'm not sure," Al replied. "I know I've heard of that town from somewhere..."
Later they located Lahkaneihah on a map. It was in the mid-northern East area, a long way from Mount Briggs and right on the eastern border of the country. It seemed to be a medium-sized town. They would leave the next day, not knowing exactly what they would find upon stepping off the train.
--
At around four o'clock the next day, the Elric brothers stumbled out of the train station and into the bright glare of the desert sun. Observing his surroundings, Alphonse was suddenly reminded of the last town on the eastern border they had visited. Youswell had been nearly deserted. By contrast, Lahkaneihah seemed to be a major tourist attraction. The main street swarmed with activity, the wide cobblestoned path was lined with thriving shops, and there were smiling people everywhere he looked. This would have made him smile, too, except that he couldn't. Al noticed that not too many people were staring at him. They were all too busy shopping and chattering away to stop and stare at a big suit of armour.
Ed was clutching the page he had ripped out of the phone book, as well as a small map. They were headed towards the easternmost edge of town, where the ad told them that they would find the North-Eastern camp of Los Peinahklaht. They turned down a long and well-paved side street, which slowly began to degrade into a dusty gravel path. As the two brothers walked along it, neat rows of houses and crowded shops soon thinned, giving way to barren, rocky terrain, and the horizon rippled with sand dunes. At the end of the road was a small plaza of run-down buildings, concrete warehouses with weeds poking out from underneath the foundations.
Four of the buildings seemed to be workshops, and by reading the signs Alphonse could see that they belonged to artists, carpenters, potters and, apparently, a theatre troupe. The owners of the fifth and final building had decorated the plain concrete with a large and richly coloured mural, depicting what seemed to be various stories. There were images of a girl, bound to a rock in the middle of a vast ocean, while a woman stood on a rocky cliff above her laughing. At the bottom of the cliff was a young man, swimming against the churning waters to rescue the girl. There was a scene depicting a woman standing on a battlefield atop a heap of vanquished enemies, clutching some sort of small harp-like instrument in her hands. Some of the scenes did not show people, only landscapes or animals, such as a vibrant sunrise and a lone goat. There was one image, however, that stood out to Alphonse, and he was sure that his brother would recognize it too.
Several small pictures told the story of a man who was imprisoned on a small island. Desperate for escape, he carefully built himself a pair of wings out of wax and feathers, and took flight from his prison. At first it seemed that the man had achieved glorious freedom, and he had gained the power of flight. Taking advantage of his newfound power, he became arrogant and vain. Higher and higher he soared, thinking that nobody could ever stop him. But he flew too close to the sun, and as he drew near his wings began to melt. He fell into the sea and drowned...
"This is..." Ed began, staring at the mural. Then his eyes moved higher on the old building. "This is the place!"
Alphonse looked up to where his brother had. Sure enough, there was a sign above the door that read, quite plainly, Los Peinahklaht . But below it were two words in a language he had never seen before: Ceiyo-Cheiidah.
He was about to point them out to Edward, but no sooner had he looked in his brother's direction than Ed opened the door and stepped inside.
Not the longest chapter ever, I know, but what do you people think? I can handle all manner of criticism as long as it's constructive. If it sucks, go ahead and say so, as long as you tell me why. Well, I hope you enjoyed it, and please review!!
-Elaine/smart one