Meigetsu Kukyou!!
明月苦境
Chapter 1
"I'll see you tomorrow, Hawkeye." waved Havok, already halfway out the door, and ready for a good Friday night of drinking and partying. He had chosen to ignore that it was only Thursday.
"Ah, wait!" faltered Fuery, an impatient Havok waiting beside him. "Are you sure you won't come, Lieutenant?" he asked sincerely.
"I'm sorry, Kain, but I have plans for tonight already. Besides, I need to catch up on the Colonel's paperwork." she said, turning down the invitation with equal politeness.
"Alright then, good night." Kain waved, following Havok out the door, an honest wish in his throat that he could be so dedicated as the Lieutenant was. Or, that he could have a person to be so dedicated to, as did the Lieutenant.
--
Riza started her walk home as usual. A walk, because, despite the city air, she preferred it. The city streets basked in the sunlight of dusk was an enveloping and emotionally striking sight, emanating everything from solitude to romance. Or in this case, the two together. Behind her tightly sealed lips her teeth were clenched tightly in a rage, or perhaps, a fire, it being about a matter concerning the Colonel.
A flicker. Did one move in too close and breathe onto this flame? No…
A shadow had moved quickly, erratically, through the trees in the park across the street from her. Why had it startled her so much that her heart had skipped a beat?
Was it the silhouette of a man? Her… my, had she been so quickly tempted? To put that word beside the other?
But still. Her eyes could not avert. She calmly, silently, (for there were no words in this) crossed the street at a normal pace. Yet, it seemed to be an eternity of steps.
--
This blazing orange sun was already retreating beneath the line of the horizon. The light still remaining was fierce and striking; the shade, blue, mellow, and cold. A salient complement. The trees were dulled in shadow; their leaves cast a shade like a thousand fluttering butterflies apart from this world. This was not an image one wanted cast in one's stomach.
Riza shivered, the undesirable feeling prancing around in her gut and working its way into her esophagus, leaving a fowl taste on the back of her tongue. Only a smell of wind in the air.
--
She looked around to see where he had gone… whoever 'he' was. Why she had been so quick to conclude it was Mustang was beyond her. Still she continued to look. There was too suspicious a feeling roaming about for her to possibly ignore.
This was a city park… but weren't the trees strangely thick? Too close and hard to get through in places…
--
It was quickly getting darker outside. The orange hues were swiftly being replaced by the blue of night. Still, no one. Still, no reason to turn back. Still an unnerving feeling she could not ignore.
The trees here seemed more like they ought to be in a park… but, wasn't it awfully large for a city park? It was closer to a clearing surrounded by many packed together trees. Not far away there was a large, gray boulder jutting out from the ground.
The sun took its last glance at Central City before hiding underneath the blanket of the horizon, ready for the slumber of night.
--
She wanted to call out. Was anyone there? Had it all been in her imagination? No, but it couldn't be. But still, she shouldn't stay here, in some clearing in the park in the ever later getting evening.
As soon as a sound was ready to come off her tongue, a sound, like a loud crash, came from somewhere away about twenty feet ahead of her and slightly to the right. What was that? She tried to yell, but her mouth, her voice, nothing, nothing at all could move; she was frozen, completely paralyzed. Just what, what was happening?
Another loud noise. This one sounded like a loud, very loud, violent, tear, intertwined with a deep misshapen scream and a disturbing bloody gurgling sound, all at once. Why couldn't she run, to see what it was? Or why couldn't she run away? Why, oh why couldn't she do anything? Anything at all?
She desperately tried to make a sound – any sound at all – a moan, a scream, a whisper, yet all it did was make her choke on her own suffocating, motionless voice.
The third time! This noise was even more wretched. It was something between a childish yelp and a ghostly cry, followed by the abiding sound of a body writhing in pain. What was happening behind the trees, not so far ahead of her?
Finally, a cracking, snapping noise, like two bones shifting together into place. Was this it? Was it over? Could she…?
She tried to move. Her eyes were watering; she had not even managed to blink in that time, she was so transfixed in her place. Finally, she pulled her eyelids shut, closed, very, very tightly.
--
What was that? She needed to gather herself, to contemplate what had happened…
--
She opened her eyes.
--
How had she, with her eyes only shut and the rest of her still, not heard this taking place before her? Not even felt a shift in the air?
The quaking hand of a beshriveled man resembling something of a corpse no farther than ten inches before her face.
--
He fell over, apparently dead.
What was this? What was going on? She found herself now suddenly trembling, shaking violently, and she was suddenly very sick.
Here she was – a hardened woman who had seen war, participated in war, and fought in war, but this? Absolutely terrifying.
--
A whimper came from behind the trees.
She suddenly stood up, instinctively, and ran, past the man, laying dead in the moonlight, and clamored behind the trees.
--
It was a wolf, lying behind the large stone amongst the trees. A wolf? Did it kill the man? No… the man, although resembling a corpse, was virtually unscathed. And the wolf? She recognized this feeling immediately; as the wolf lay there, frozen, completely paralyzed, unable to escape this terror.
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--- AUTHOR'S NOTE---
The title "Meigetsu Kukyou!!" means "Full Moon Crisis!!".
Sorry, the story seems pretty serious right now! I think it probably will end up to be kind of a serious story for me, but don't worry, there will definitely be some comedy and some romance later on.
The rating right now is for violence. I don't know exactly how well that violence suits this rating, since it's (kind of?) metaphorically described, but I figured it best to stay on the safe side of things. Sorry that it's such a high rating. Oh, wait… there's brief nudity too. Indescript nudity, but I guess it's still nudity. I suppose it suits the rating after all.
Anyway… I hope you'll enjoy this! If you didn't like this chapter, please won't you stick it out and read on at least until chapter 4?
In any case, please leave me a review! But remember, if you want to flame me, I only hope that you're Colonel Mustang ♥ He's the one and only Flame Alchemist, after all