Chapter 1: Memories
AN: Anytime someone refers to wrath as an almond boy, or coconut boy or chestnut boy its because his armor is essentially an egg-shaped piece of wood with holes in it and in reference to his very pale complexion.
Birth is a fascinating thing, everyone who's sees it either finds it beautiful or disgusting or both but almost none find it forgettable. Yet despite this, almost no one remembers their own birth, when I finally remembered how I came into the world I too found it to be unforgettable for better or worse.I know she does not have long, but I've lived long enough to know that for most good deeds aren't enough to grant anyone a proper remembrance (unlike those Elrics who claimed they didn't even want the spotlight despite their incredible accomplishments which would not have been possible without me! Those ungrateful high horse riding-
I was startled out of my dictating by a yell from Winry ''Wrath you dummy, you are not really going to put that crap in your biography are you?!''
I growl back '' It's not my fault Alphonse let the both of them get mythologized, he'd let almost anyone publish any crap about them so how is this any different?!''
She gives me one of those simultaneous heart wrenching and annoyingly earnest frowns before continuing ''Because you knew them wrath, you knew neither of them to be glory hounds...they just felt it wasn't worth upsetting anyone by harassing any publisher who may have...embellished a little bit.'''
I grumble back
''Fiiine but what would you suggest?''
She sighs and a slight smile not quite reaching her eyes forms on her lips.
''Why not just say that this is a true firsthand account?''
I nod.
Thus I am memorializing myself on the printed page. Let us start from the beginning.
The first memories of mine are stolen and I ought to disown them, yet they cling to me. A warm pair of hands, cold stone, a mother who abandoned me to the gate smothering freezing, shadow hands, near darkness being alone in a crowd. In a sense, I became one of those...beings and was free to wander around the blood-strewn darkness for at least a decade. My first clue as to where I was, who and what I was came in a flash of light. Now I should clarify from inside the gate I had seen many streams of light before, what I later learned was the energy from t where which fed the alchemy in the world I escaped into, which shocked me as I expected to enter the other world.
Upon first digesting information from a Chinese landscape architect I was astonished by my lack of prior knowledge and began fighting any other inhabitants of that dark realm for access to the flashes when people on mirror earth died an American kid taught me how to build shelter and English, an old German teacher taught me his language and gave me knowledge of wilderness survival, oddly enough he had a passion for the outdoors as much as the In.
A Swiss mountain-climber taught me lots of useful odds and ends...this went on for years until I learned enough to think I could survive in almost any environment, that when I started following the sources to Amestrian alchemists getting glimpses of their operations from beyond the gate.
That's when it happened, the Elrics shoved themselves into my lives. It was the first time I had actually seen, on a living face, a look of such terror or one of such determination, but by then I surmised that the only way to open the gate and escape was through alchemy. Thus I made the worst mistake of my entire life. It seemed simple enough, the gate was going to take a chunk of flesh anyway I might as well take some non-vital and useful parts before the other gate kids made it worse. I needed an alchemists touch more than the kid anyway or so I thought. I should have just taken his brother's body as a new vessel after I saw how quickly Edward whipped up a new one, but no, I was tooo dumb to try that one.
Exiting the gate upon realizing how to tap into a crude form of alchemy was physically very easy, but that same gate always demanded a toll, I had known this for practically all of my existence from being so thoroughly in touch with that fantastically terrible and bizarre environment.
I had a once in a lifetime chance to chose that toll...and thus I lost almost all my memories. Entering Yock island and leaving behind the gate was at the time the easiest sacrifice I had ever made, give up a few useless memories like all your time in the gate, London, Vienna, the united states, the only stolen memories I needed were those on how to keep a young boy body like mine alive, finding fruit, breeding fish finding shelter and of course language even if for almost two years or so I estimate after leaving the gate I had no one to talk to except for the feral macaws on the island. They were less talkative than the later regained memories from the American kid suggested. Outside of the gate, I knew I would need food, thus my first task was making some tools for fishing and reaching the native fruits of the island.
Even with an intuitive grasp of circle-less alchemy took me more than a few tries to turn large branches into spears and hooks. After half a days walk I came to the coast of the island, where I made my first attempts at spearfishing which if I was only a human boy would have failed many times over but with my superior reflexes and strength I... I still messed up rendering many fishes into chunks of watery gore before I could take a single nibble. Of course, it also took me a few more tries to do any of this without bonding said tools to my own arms, which was a minor annoyance. I got the hang of it eventually though and by the end of the day, I was feeling bloated.
Of course, I knew I could be more sustainable but first I would need to build a fish pond and to do that I needed to find suitably deep ground. This began my thorough examination of the island. Its center was occupied by a large rocky protrusion. somewhere between a small mountain and a large hill, the soil was rocky and shallow though, the forested portions were much more amenable to my task. Within another week after some trial and error in turning my hands into stony spades, I had a dug a large enough to fit a whole school of fish It was then that I realized filling it would be its own problem. To add in some variety for the next week I spent time harvesting the local collecting enough guavas, strawberries and a small blueish plumb like fruit native to this world to make at least four barrels of fruit wine I felt I could , by the next day, I found that the islands native rodent population had gotten to about half of them.
I was furious but I acknowledged it as a mistake on my part. I dried the rest of the fruit and stored in alchemically made stone boxes which were a bit heavy even for me, before putting these upon the highest earthen pillars I could build. I swore if I caught any thieves up their again I would adorn the pillars with their minuscule skulls.
Winry made a noise like a straining water pipe interrupting my flow of speech: ''Wrath Harnet Curtis?'' A deep look of concern crossed her face...she almost never called me by my full name except when something greatly bothered her ''I just can't help it anymore, why didn't you tell me about the mirror world until now? You knew I knew about it when Edward returned! Did you think I never wanted to know more?''
Casting my face down and trying to keep my pained scowl as close to neutral as I could I responded
''I thought earlier that you would either hate me...or call me a liar, later it was just too painful to have to constantly wonder if yet again I was hurting people whenever I tried to help...like always.''
A painful silence reigned for the next few moments before for the good of all in the room being dispatched by the compassion of an old Amestrian woman.
Winry chided' 'That's not true and you ought to know it by now! If it wasn't for you I don't know how we could have kept up with demand after the move.''
I merely nodded and returned to the topic of the island
It was only later that I discovered that my building skills were nowhere near good enough to keep these pillars from becoming piles of mud when it rained.
I spent the next day figuring out for myself how to make wooden buckets and afterward hauling water to my large scale but admittedly crude fish pond. This took a few days to fill and by the end of the process, I was out of edible fruit.
Now I obviously had to return to foraging this time though I just turned my left foot into stone and kicked the trees fairly hard. This was a fantastically efficient method for gathering large quantities of sub-tropical fruit but a terrible means of ensuring any type of quality. Almost a quarter of the fruit of the fruit I got in this manner was horribly bruised if not outright smashed and nasty.
Now capturing and transferring live fish to the pond was an entirely different kind of ordeal. While I had swum short distances before entering the depths of lake Kauroy was at first a terrifying prospect luckily, I could hold my breath for quite some time. Unfortunately, that time was significantly reduced by the effort I had to spend capturing pregnant fish and filling my shoreline buckets with slippery buggers was a pain and all for some future reward, it began trying on my patience such that after I had three fish in the pond a new plan hit me like a lightning
bolt.
What if I left yock island? My ''brilliant'' plan was simply to swim across the lake and scout the perimeter of the forest on the other side.
It seemed so simple until it nearly bit me in the buttocks after letting my hair dry I went further inland and picked up a few interesting rocks before I had my first encounter with the beast, later I would recognize it as a chimera I just finished climbing over a short ridge when I saw below me a hulking beast at least five feet tall at the shoulder and perhaps a bit more than six feet in length. The chimera was powerfully muscled and its coat was a patchwork of colors with black hair across the shoulders stretching down on straps across its almost columnar limbs its tail as well as parts of its face were covered in orange fur but the majority of its frame was covered in a sometimes soiled but clearly once snow white pelt.
It was then that the animal turned to face me and its head became visible it had a long, whiskered and somewhat tapered snout with a slightly under-hanging yet powerful jaw. Its mouth was covered by thick dark flexible looking lips with the very ends of massive canines protruding lightly from its corners. Those same lips curled into something approaching a grin revealing those teeth in their entirety among many more vicious looking chompers. Its ears were hairless and oddly manlike with the exception of their ability to rotate towards me. It was then that it stood up and looked me in the eye its eyes were round, orange and full of intelligence, it then began to race forward towards me and I was about to run until I heard something approaching a laugh exit those dreadful lips.
I was suddenly enraged. All creatures I had met until now had fled before me or snapped at me before retreating none had the arrogance to challenge my head on and laugh about it. It stopped laughing when my thrown rock struck it between its eyes. Then I fled as fast as I could back to the lake for even I realized I was outmatched. A few seconds after I entered the lake I heard a large splash behind and swam as fast as I could the chimera followed me almost halfway across the lake before giving up in frustration. I was exhausted and terrified for a time I just lay on the beach huddled in a ball until the pain from the sun slowly searing my skin and the hunger in my belly forced me to move. I went back to gathering fruit for a while. A few months later, late one night I heard the beasts distinctive roar followed by a sound I would later Identify as gunshots, my conclusion was that someone had dispatched the monster. My routine normalized after a few days of hiding.
However I was not quite done exploring Yock island, soon I discovered a series of caves with entrances beginning on the northern coast of the island that reached almost to its I found pools of water and some 0
dry spaces and lots of quartz crystals a few rotten planks of Wood surrounding what appeared to have been a pickaxes head let me know that someone had visited once long ago.
At any rate, things continued on like this until the Elric brothers returned to the island. It was to be the first dose of excitement I was to have in months. By that time I had started sleeping in my own artificial tree hollows and first noticed something was off when I smelled fish that I had not cooked. At that point, I had been struggling to find any more fresh fruit and my dried stocks were depleting I had begun considering trying to build traps like those I had found on the island earlier. To be frank, I was starved, so I figured I'd take a few, leave and maybe apologize latter with some dried fruit.
At that very moment, Alphonse Elric appeared. When I first met the walking suit of armor I nearly jumped into the air. Fortunately so did he. I had scooted back almost into the forest when he called out to me in an accusatory tone'' You're naked! '' I called back ''I'm sorry!'' out prepared to bolt if he took a step closer.
The metallic boy responded ''please just stay there we don't m..mean any harm! I'll be back with some clothes!'' I was willing to wait for both because my curiosity was peaked and because I was sure I could turn the tin can into scrap metal if he tried anything funny. I asked ''Who is we? I only see one metal man and what do you mean by naked?'' as he turned walking in the other direction he called back ''I have a brother, I'm sure he could help! Also naked means you have no extra covering your skin'' he then rapidly trotted away, I tried calling back ''I don't need help'' but he was already gone.
Seeing as how this naked thing did not sound good I quickly scampered off to the nearest tree and transmuted one of its large branches into a wooden shell that left only my eyes mouth and limbs exposed.I hoped this was what the fellow wanted.
Given the metal person's lack of objection earlier I returned to consuming the fish in front of me working from the tails upwards I got through all but the last fish when the ferrous biped returned with his shorter brother in tow. The two of them were carrying some brown fibrous robes with them. The animated Armour once more began to speak '' See brother that s...the boy'' he seemed confused by my new appearance, the shorter one shot him a puzzled look before pulling himself closer and loudly whispering"Al, I thought you said he was naked? "
Before either of them could get another word In I excitedly shouted' 'Wow your just like me! 'I as I pointed to the shorter human.
He rubbed his head as if in pain ''Kid what are you on about?'' ''Well your the only person here that would talk to me while also having a soft mouth and teeth and not trying to eat me, and your made of flesh unlike this al fellow...oh and I'm sorry I ate your fish but I promise I'll make it up to you I-'' The blond kid held his hands up in mock surrender ''Easy kid how about you slow down and answer some questions for us?'' said the kid . Alphonse quickly added ''Like whats your name, where did you get that costume and where are you from?''
I backed away a few steps feeling overwhelmed, luckily the two newcomers seemed to be aware of my discomfort and did not attempt to force me closer.
Their questions were Indeed puzzling'' One, I do not know, Two I made it, three I also don't know here on this island I think ..I could get you some dried fruit to make up for the fish though. Or I could take you to the fish pond''I quickly added in imitation ''What are your names?''
The elder brother jumped at the chance to introduce himself ''I am Edward Elric, The Fullmetal Alchemist!'' his brother continued the introductions; ''And I am Alphonse Elric, also an alchemist, as well as Edwards brother'' Alphonse finished somewhat awkwardly.
This, of course, led to more questions from me:
''If you two are brothers how come you look so different, and what is an alchemist?''
Alphonse in a bid to expedite things replied ''that's a long story but we can tell you about alchemy on the way okay?'' I smiled widely excited to finally make friends and learn about the world I found myself in and replied with a cheerful ''Okay then''. As we walked together towards my food store Alphonse explained ''an alchemist is someone who practices alchemy, and(correctly assuming I also was ignorant of alchemy) alchemy is the science of deconstructing and reconstructing matter using energy from tectonic movements or your body'' over the next half an our Alphonse, with some occasional jokes and interjections from his brother explained what the meant by energy and tectonic movements. Eventually, as we round a hill to reach the fruit towers I recalled my original second question. ''Wait but still how are you, two brothers?''
After A few seconds of silence passed Edward stopped walking and grabbed Al's arm ''We ought to stop yanking almond boys chain and explain ourselves if he's stuck with us long enough he's bound to find out sooner or later.''
Alphonse reluctantly agreed and Edward called out to me '' hey kid, stop! We'll answer your question'' I turn around and run back to him almost tripping over my mismatched feet. ''That second question you asked is of a very personal nature, we'll tell you but only if you promise to keep it private.''
I nod my head vigorously grinning like a giddy dolphin. Edward continues'' I am serious, bad men could hurt you or us if you don't!'' The grin dropped like a boulder off a cliff. ''I understand'' I reply.''We look different because Alphonse lost his body in an alchemical accident...'' I look shocked and more burning questions nearly bubble into my mouth but I held my tongue not wanting to offend my new associates that I hoped would soon be my friends. As luck good or ill would have it I did not need to ask my related questions because Alphonse decided to do so in my stead. ''...an accident that happened because we tried to resurrect our mother.'' Edward turned to him and sternly said ''Al don't you think that was excessive?'' Before an argument could break out I responded ''It is a bit excessive, I probably shouldn't know more for your sake's, I don't want to hurt anyone'' I stifle tears and trudge ahead silently.
Finally, we reached the pillars.
For once Winry politely interrupted at a general lull in the action. ''Excuse me, but wrath I never heard of that chimera and Ed and Al were in the region so why had they never mentioned
it to me?'' I quickly responded probably because they never saw it and did not believe me when I told them about it, besides the region near Dante place was fairly remote, not many people lived there and the ones that did were not much prone to gossip''
I was about to lean back into my chair when Winry tossed
another question my way. ''What about the military then If they got involved like you think why wouldn't there be any internal chatter about the incident? '' I tossed my head back consumed by uproarious laughter for almost a minute. Winry looked at me with wide confused eyes as if she saw me transmute my face into a tulip. Wiping away tears and with a slight chuckle still upon my throat I replied'' You really think Bradley would have tolerated anyone leaking out that one of their laboratories lost track of a powerful and maybe even intelligent chimera like that, and that it was roaming around the countryside for days or even longer?'' Quickly answering my own rhetorical question, I continued ''I don't think so.'' Catching me by surprise Winry shot back with ''well what about the present administration then?'' This time I only chuckled, ''If you think the present administration is any better you've clearly never put in even a single Amestrian Information Request.'' I lean over to her conspiratorially and whisper ''the official line is that nonvoluntary chimeric research is now illegal and all involved in conducting such were arrested and prosecuted in the late 20's.'' Winry continued to protest ''It has been 40 years though, surely something should have come up by now?'' I smile and respond ''Exactly it has been 40 years, and nothing has come up because they cleaned thoroughly as soon as they found it.'' With a sigh Winry let the topic drop and I continued my discussion of that first day with the Elrics.
The brothers looked around clearly confused: ''I don't see any fruit here '' ed huffed, ''what are these towers?'' Alphonse questioned.
''Your both being silly our meals are up there'' I replied. I then leaped upon one of the towers shifted into it slightly, and quickly shuffled up all 13 feet of compacted earth and stone. When I looked down I noticed that Edward was slack-jawed and Alphonse had stopped talking and being as naive as I was at the time I chalked this up to a combination of hunger and astonishment at my speed and athleticism. So I decided to feed them, or that was the intent anyway. I grabbed the first stone storage box and chucked it into the second on the opposite tower the second box fell to the gravelly ground bellow but the first ricocheted off it and flew towards Alphonse at an angle.
At that moment I realized a few crucial things A. Alphonse was at looking at Edward, B this meant Al did not see the box coming and C. I was too far away to prevent the stone box from actually hitting him. I cried out ''Look out Alphonse'' which gave him just enough time tool clap his hand together and form an alchemical ear shield. Said shied cracked and began to crumble as it absorbed the momentum of the stone box. The response from his brother was swift. ''Hey coconut kid what on earth were you trying to do?!'' yelled Edward. ''I'm sorry I was just trying to get our lunches down!'' I quickly leaped to the third tower and this time grabbed the box with only one hand before sinking into the side of the tower slightly.
I did not feel the need to grab the last box, there being more than enough in the three boxes to feed me and Edward even if I would likely still want a bit more afterwards. It was then that I noticed the brothers had moved further back and appeared to be whispering among themselves, I frowned thinking maybe they might have wanted to leave after I nearly hit Alphonse with the stone box. The two brothers strode up to me almost as soon as they noticed me staring. Edward growled ''Hey chestnut brat, while I'm sure that what just happened was an accident, it better not happen again if you don't want to be ditched on this island understand?'!' I nodded and dry gulped almost taking a step back before Alphonse put a restraining glove on the elder Elrics shoulder and gave him a knowing look.
Fullmetal inhaled deeply before continuing ''Also, we've decided we can't keep calling you kid all the time, even if you don't remember your name, Alphonse had a few Ideas as well as a few questions of his own that he feels we deserve for how transparent we've been with you.'' I frowned at the notion of being bothered by more questions for which I lacked any answers.
Alphonse jumped in with ''How about Ramses or Reginald or Fyrsil?'' With my youthful ignorance and lack of any humility, I said ''Sure Ramses is fine but for short, you can call me Ram'' this brought a smile back to my face to my face which was quickly wiped off when Alphonse continued. ''Alright Ramses brother and I were wondering where are your parents, and where did you learn to perform alchemy like that?''
I sighed ''It must have been sometime before I came to this island but I don't remember anything from when I was smaller I promise, I want to but there's almost nothing there one day I woke up here alone and naked and I didn't even know who I was I was and I still don't!'' I had begun shouting without realizing it somehow I can remember what parents are but not who mine were or even what they looked like. Alphonse attempted to be comforting ''I'm sorry if it helps I barely remember my father'' Edward proceeded to snap at both of us ''That jerk is no father of mine, and quit it with the pity fest we came here to eat, not to mope, right?''
I walked around quietly and opened the boxes wincing when I realized Alphonse could not eat. We sat quietly for a while before I opened the conversation up myself by asking ''so how did you two make it to the island, the lake around here is huge and there are dangerous beasts in the forest'' this produced a round of cacophonous laughter for both of the Elrics but Al was the first to explain their amusement with Edward still struggling to suppress his amusement. ''There are no any beasts here fiercer than teacher, she could make a tiger run with its tail between its legs. We came by boat obviously'' Edward was perceptive enough to notice that I was still confused and so decided to demonstrate rather poorly for me what a boat was by constructing a model of one out of the stony gravel surrounding us.
When I asked how a such a heavy thing like that could float he explained that real boats were not really made of stone. ''So how do you make one of them move?'' ''People move the small ones with oars'' explained Edward and the big ones are pushed with paddle wheels and sails, you shouldn't worry about big ships though because Amestris is a landlocked country'' expounded Alphonse. What followed was a lengthy discussion of geography and basic entry politics for the region, as well as all of us discovering that the sun was setting and that we were all fairly thirsty. So we all walked to the nearest stretch of coastline to set up camp and collect water.
Naturally, along the way, I asked ''So Alphonse your hollow right? why don't you just use your body to collect water?'' Edward looks at me with such surprise that I wondered If I had somehow asked why Edward couldn't fly before responding with ''Al could die like that his soul is bonded to his armour with a blood seal'' I scarcely knew what to say in response so I sat back down and watched as Edward then started a fire with some sticks and a flint struck against his arm, meanwhile Alphonse went off to gather firewood.
After Edward and I created the fire I brought over some buckets and we began gathering water. It was then when we were in close proximity that Edward saw the scar on my arm, or rather his commandeered arm. Shock spread over his face and he reached out to touch my bicep with his automail I flinch from the cold and he asks in a stilted whisper as if most of the air had left his lungs: ''Ram how did you get that scar?'' Touched by what I viewed at the time as his sympathy ''I am glad you are so concerned Edward but I really don't know how it happened, it was there when I woke up on the island, for all I know maybe my parents abused me or I fell on some sharp rocks-'' Edward cut me off with ''I think I know how you got that scar Ramses that spot is right where a fox bit my arm!''
I was shocked and confused by the implied accusation, I took a step back and tripped on a rock embedded in the silt falling backwards with a shout, despite being relativity shallow water at the time I was even shorter than Edward and my wooden shell was cumbersome and rapidly filling with water I tried righting myself flailing my limbs while screaming I must have splashed Edward in the face because he seemed unable to respond. Next thing I heard was the of sound logs dropping on the sand and the creak of metal against metal, I saw Alphonse before passing out.
When I next woke I felt warm and dry and did not open my eyes for a few minutes finding the dull red of the back of my eyelids comforting enough in combination with the crackle of the campfire. Then I heard the brothers talking among themselves. ''Whatever else he may be he's still a harmless child Ed! He even helped feed you while we've been here...'' spoke the voice of Alphonse.
''Helped us? He nearly smashed you yesterday with a boulder, besides he's a homunculus and none of them have ever helped After he tripped I was a flash of red from his right foot, I thought he had cut himself but when I looked at it it was the mark of the ouroboros.'' Alphonse growled back ''What happened before was an accident I'm sure..and maybe he's different from them?'' Edward shot back ''Or maybe it's some sort of trick to-'' At this point I had had enough I sat up suddenly(the brown robes Alphonse put me in made this fairly easy) and cried out (causing Edward to jump a bit)''look I'm sorry, maybe I'm different than you, a homunucufus
or however you say it but I never meant to hurt or trick any of you, besides Al is different from you too more so than me-''
This apparently touched some sort of nerve with Edward: ''Do not bring Al into this! '' Alphonse himself tried to step in with a reproachful utterance of ''''Brother?'' but Edward was a steam-train of fear and indignation at this point ''If you really mean us no harm prove it! He snarled. '' by this point, I had stood up and I nearly sobbed ''I'll do anything to prove it to you!'' Edward pressed on: ''Anything huh? Why don't you tie yourself to a tree and then we'll talk!'' I nodded and actually began converting my robe into rope when Alphonse intervened. ''Both of you stop! Ramses I believe you but you don't have to do everything Edward says, and brother you're right to be cautious but this...boy hasn't done anything to us at all, you should give him a chance!''
Edward breathed in deeply although his expression failed to soften entirely, he replies ''Fine but if you leave one scratch on my brother I'll hit you so hard you'll learn about the stratosphere!'' I nod pretty vigorously and position myself behind Alphonse though not at a distance from which I could easily reach out and touch him. Edward returned to the campfire and curled up, although he was clearly not asleep. Alphonse turned and seemed about to join him when I whispered: Hey Al, the fires getting low maybe we could collect a few more logs?'' Clearly not completely understanding he whispered back ''but dawn is only a few hours away?
Suddenly it seemed to dawn on him when he more loudly proclaimed''Yeah I suppose we could use some more firewood'' after we had walked far enough that I was certain we were out of earshot of Edward I congratulated the metal giant at my side:''Thank you for standing up for me Alphonse I knew someone like you would understand what I was going through. Anyways, brought you out here not because I hate your brother but because I don't want to alarm him with my abilities. Alphonse objected ''but Ram he has already seen all of your abilities he won't be anymore freaked out I'm sure'' I am fairly confident that I proved him wrong by melding most of myself into a tree in order to bend it (me )over in order to reach and chop down its branches with the sharpened fingers on my left hand. I will admit it was a bit difficult to un-fuse and I promptly vomited as a result of my stomach literally snapping back into place. '
'Are you alright?'' asked al, I quickly reassured him ''I'll be fine, it's just I am not used to doing that intentionally on such a large scale. Thus we returned to camp with an excessive load of firewood or so it seemed at the time.
After all the commotion I was exhausted and I slept poorly. My dreams were invaded with Images of chimeras and Edward and An Edward faced chimera chasing me across the island screaming at me ''Let me take back my limbs you homuonculus thief !'' while Alphonse pelted me with logs screaming ''you hurt my brother, I'll stick you inside me forever!'' thankfully the dream ended as I leaped over a cliff to escape them.
I woke up screaming not long after sunset. Edward merely moaned ''Keep it down I'm not ready to get up yet.'' I looked around and noticed that Alphonse was missing. ''Where did Al go?'' I wondered aloud. Edward mumbled back ''He's probably out foraging for us...do you even need to eat?'' ''I think so...I know a great spot, I ought to show it to him, I'll be back soon!'' and with that, I leaped off into the canopy. I scoured almost all the forest before realizing that Alphonse was probably on the coast fishing. Almost another hour passed before I found him spearfishing in the shallows up to his waist in water...his catch had clearly been meagre or else he would have been on his way back by now.
I called down to him from the trees ''Hey, I know a better spot!". He jumped around startled and called back ''Ram? Where are you?'' I would be lying if said I didn't enjoy confounding him at least a little bit. After a few more confused seconds passed I leaped down from the trees ''Here I am Alphonse!'' He replied with ''Thanks Rameses but honestly, we won't need to worry about this much longer.'' I look at him In a very perplexed manner and ask, ''Well why not?'' ''Because teacher, I mean you could probably call her Izumi should be back soon she might have a temper but she rarely stays mad for more than a day'' after giving him a strange look he picked up on my confusion and continued''Oh yeah about that we are here...on what amounts to a punishment detail" said Alphonse as he awkwardly rubbed his collar. We began our march towards my fish pond along the way I asked ''So whats this Izumi like when she's not mad?'' Alphonse was quiet for a few moments while he thought it over he put on a fairly cheerful tone when he responded''Oh, well she's a very kind woman but she can be stern, she always has good advice to give and I'm sure she'd be willing to help you until you get your memories back''
I could already smell the fish and I knew we were getting close still I slowed my pace to listen to the sounds of the forest and to listen to the soft slap of my calloused but bare feet and the clinking crunch Alphonse sabatons against the forest floor. I had prepared myself enough mentally for my next question to part my lips ''What about my status as a humonculus?'' Alphonse began moving as though his joints had rusted over: ''we don't have to tell her Immediately...I'm sure she'd be accepting...with time,'' Alphonse replied although his tone sounded anything but assured. Eventually we crested the ridge and I turned my back not wanting to watch the necessary depredation of my fish stock. I put enough effort into that I may as well have called it a hobby but not letting my friends starve took priority.
Later I was to learn that around this time Izumi would suffer from a particularly bad episode of vomiting that day and had decided to blame it upon the stress the Elrics had recently place upon her, needless to say when asked the brothers thought this was an unfair accusation.
Eventually, we returned to camp to find Edward busy at work improving accommodations with some lean-tos and alchemically made blankets apparently giving up the self-imposed-prohibition on alchemy. ''Took you long enough'' he muttered ''While you two were out fishing or whatever I made us camp and found as a whole tubs worth of wild strawberries!'' I sigh replying with ''Yeah that great but we really ought to make our camp more visible from afar so Izumi can find us faster...maybe with more fires. ''I think it would be better if we used smaller torches, to cover more ground'' Alphonse chimed in.
Edward nodded ''Yeah that's a fine plan you two, but Ram, can I talk to you...in private ?'' This request caught me so off guard that it felt as though my heart skipped a beat. ''S-sure Edward!'' I stuttered out as though I was a shivering sea-dog about to leap into an orcas jaws on its captain's request.
We sauntered down the beach until we were well out of Alphonse hearing range, well by Edwards estimation at any rate. I was prepared to be yelled at for my private excursions with his brother or perhaps asked for some embarrassing advice but what escaped from Edwards throat managed to once again through my reasoning off balance: ''I misjudged you Ramses, I apologize, with your talents you could have left this island at any time but you stayed and helped us even after the way I treated you.''
I paused for a few moments before settling in for a pout''Well what Am I supposed to do now?!'' flabbergasted Edward mouthed a flat ''what'' before I continued ''If you are not mad at me anymore what am I supposed to fret about? I lightly admonished before giving a hearty wink to show I was nowhere near serious. Edward shrugged not especially amused but not willing to put up even more of a fuss and make himself look like a fool, which was probably also why he apologized to me privately. As we began walking back to camp apparently an idea captured his fancy.
With a deft tap on my shoulder, Edward whispered slyly ''If you're really looking for something to do how about turning our camp into proper living quarters. I jumped away from him before snapping out ''Look ed I appreciate the goodwill but I've never built anything much besides food stores when its dry I slept in the open when it was wet I slept in a cave,I- I'm no better at this than you are!'
Edward clearly looking to avoid an argument responded ''Look fine just maintain what we have today, Alphonse and I can handle-...wait did you say this island has caves?'' I blinked not sure why he was so surprised before he quickly clarified the matter for me '' I was on this island for a month before how come I didn't notice any of these caves myself?'' I thought about this for a moment before explaining that the caves were relatively hidden and that it took me a while to locate them myself. We then returned to the camp where Edward cheerfully began cheerfully informing his brother: ''Hey Al, Ramses claims to have found some caves I say we do some spelunking!''
''You can't be serious Ed, what if I don't fit and what about the torches if we are in a cave how will teacher find us?''
I quickly attempt to reassure Alphonse ''When you two finish exploring I promise I'll light all the signal fires you could ever want and worst case scenario if you don't fit we could disassemble you, Alphonse.'' Edward promptly shoved me in the ribs and I added in quickly'' But it shouldn't come to
that.'' As we made our way around the coast towards the cave's mouth Edward complained ''my ports ache'' ''we had best hurry then'' I suggested. I beg to notice the drop in temperature and as we approached the cave utterance I gathered up some logs and moss to craft some torches from. Just as we entered the cave the first drops of rain began to fall and the steadily strengthening breeze drew up deeper into the cave.
''This is hardly a cave at all, with less than 5 chambers this place makes me feeling tall'' Edward facepalmed at his own gaffe before quickly continuing on'' there is barely anything in here but at least most of it is dry ' Edward finished. ''I guess I am stuck here ''sighed Alphonse.
''That is not true, we are here with you until this storm ends, I promise'' I said. ''That's fine and all but they're hardly anything we can do here in the meantime'' While I light and set down a few more torches I ''We could always tell stories to pass the time, I suggest you go first Edward since I don't have much to tell unless you want to hear about the forest beast that stalked the outside of the lake' ''but Ram this part of dublith is pretty safe, no-ones seen bears here in over fifty years'' shot back Alphonse.
''I bet he's making the whole thing up' ''Am not! Do you want to hear the story or not ?!'' They both nodded their heads and before long both had learned of my encounter with the beast of Kauroy forest.
Next it was Edwards turn to entertain me and so he began by recounting the time he and his brother had spent in a town known as Reole or Lior depending on who you asked ''Six months ago my brother and I were sent to this town in the east to investigate its strange going ons, we had heard that this fellow known as father cornello was performing rather miraculous acts there and while they were hardly miraculous by the standard definition of the word they were indeed unusual...'' and so he droned on conveniently brushing over the involvement of the homunculi and the philosophers stone like it was not especially important to the tale being told. I nodded along to tired to especially object.
''Alphonse do you have any stories to share with us I said through a yawn making it sound as if I said ''soories'' Alphonse replied '' I know a tale that I am sure few besides my brother will know, the tale of the blind alchemist. Once about a year ago early in our journey we heard a rumor of a man who had successfully performed human transmutation but had lost his eyes in the process, so we met with the fine gentleman called Jude and he seemed like a fine man and indeed a talented alchemist but his revived daughter was even quieter than you ram, and it turned out that she wasn't his real daughter at all because the girl he made barely moved at all and had pink hair completely unlike the girl we knew, but it turned out that Jude really thought he was successful because he couldn't see that the girl was a fake.''
Afterwards, we all settled in for the rest of the day and night, although that story made me feel deeply uneasy I wondered if not only was I different like Alphonse was but whether I was supposed to be someone else and this life was a fraud...what if that was why I could not remember anything.
When I dreamt It was of leaving the island and seeing the world with my new companions as I had slowly come to think of them. Of visiting cities which appeared in my young mind as giant pillars of rock with living spaces carved into them and riding over waters teeming with colorful fish some of which possessed Edwards head on a massive metal ship powered by a big wheel that spun so fast that a trail of mist wafted behind in the vessel's wake. I awoke to an echoing shouting, someone was calling out '' Edward, Alphonse?'' repeatedly as I forced my limbs which felt like they were made out of wet cement to move
I noticed that the younger brother had already left the cave and as Edward and I exited the cave I stopped in my tracks as though paralyzed, I felt the cool misty breeze pass through my raven hair, felt the moist sand between my toes and the smell of petrichor on my nose. I would never forget the moment when I first really met Izumi Curtis. The brothers had failed utterly to describe the deep layers of caring exude by this woman or the sadness in her eyes. I could hear the animated armour explain the situation to her but I could barely feel my feet shuffling forward ''and so we found this lost boy on the island and thought maybe you could look after him for a little while he awkwardly ramble on until shed carefully pulled him into an embrace that she sadly must have known the boy could not feel before Edward rushed up to her and spoke on my stunned behalf ''Teacher please Ramses may be a strange by but he has a good heart and at least a little sense-''
She cut him off although not too harshly ''Edward whoever this child is I'm not going harm him or abandon him for being himself'. I was by then only ten feet away but afraid to take another step closer, maybe it was my memories of the fierce tales the brothers circulated about this woman, maybe it was because she was almost twice as tall as me, or maybe it was just the look of both surprise and familiarity that briefly crossed her face when she looked at me but for that brief moment I was paralyzed. Reassuringly Izumi called ''Come on I have room for you too'' all my prior doubts were for a time washed away, I ran to her as fast as a startled roadrunner and embraced her belly just above the waist, nearly knocking her off balance although all she said was ''your a strong kid'' with small delicate smile as her hand caressed my ebony locks. Behind me, I could hear the approach of more figures but overtaken by the bliss of finally finding trust and comfort I did no care.
-This my first story, please try to gentle although harsh criticism as long as it is constructive criticism will be taken into account. Reviews would be greatly appreciated. Anyone who made it through this train-wreck has my greatest thanks.