Author's Notes: And here is my contribution to FMA Day! I really enjoyed writing this, one because I don't think I've written from Winry's point of view before, but hers and Riza's relationship is so damn important to me. This is a missing scene from "talents of the souls" and also a reinterpretation of one of my favorite FMAB scenes. Notes on daemons at the end. Happy October 3rd!

Disclaimer: I don't FMA or His Dark Materials.

free in her wildness

With the arrival of the two soldiers and their daemons, Basil had started to cling closer to Winry. He'd developed a habit of hanging by or on her ever since he'd settled when they found out the news about her parents' deaths, but it was notably more so whenever those huge lion and wolf daemons came about. Granny Pinako's daemon, Dimitry, was fairly big, being a leopard and all, but he was small for his species. She used to think he was the biggest daemon in the world, her parents having such small and tame daemons, but now she knew that she'd been silly.

The world was so much bigger than she could ever dream; Winry could see that whenever she looked at the soldiers' daemons.

Though Winry would never admit to such a thing, the lion daemon scared her the most. The man who it belonged to was cold and imposing but with one of the sharpest gazes she had ever seen. Anyone with something as massive and wild as a lion daemon had to be intimidating and the Colonel proved to be as such. Every time the lion walked into the room, Basil would rush into her arms and climb onto her shoulders, his tail wrapped loosely around her neck as he hid partially under her hair. All that lion would do was arch one of her eyebrows and then look away.

The female soldier's daemon was also surprising and large. Winry knew that women could have big daemons, seeing as how Dimitry was almost as tall as Granny, but she hadn't expected a big wolf daemon for the small, blonde-haired Lieutenant. Unlike the Colonel's distant daemon though, the wolf was attentive and almost gentle. He had been formal at first, padding in right behind the Colonel and sticking close to his human, but once the Colonel and his daemon were out of the room, he would relax and actually pay attention to them.

Winry kind of thought that the wolf was trying to act like a dog daemon, but there was no hiding what he was with those massive paws and powerful jaw and that long scar on his face.

Glancing back at the door, Winry could only wonder what the Colonel was talking about with Granny and Ed. Well, he wasn't really talking to Ed, but only because Ed wasn't talking. He'd been so…

Winry closed her eyes, trying to block out the memory of suit of armor carrying a bloodied and broken Ed in his arms. His Alethea trailed behind weakly, her nose and little paws covered in Ed's blood, looking like an animal that Winry had never seen her transform into before. Granny had pulled them inside, the shock of Al's voice coming out of that armor startling them into action, but it was only when Basil had swung his head around and peered outside the window had they all frozen and Winry felt like she was falling.

"Where's Anima?"

Basil tugged on her hair. Stop thinking about that.

It was so hard though. When she opened her eyes, Basil was sitting in her lap and gazing up at her. Winry tried to smile and softly pet him down his back until he nuzzled into her stomach, one hand still holding onto a length of her hair.

"I've never seen a monkey daemon before," Lieutenant Hawkeye's wolf daemon said, peering curiously at them. He had his head cocked like Den would sometimes do, his ears perked up, and soft look about his face. But Winry still could only see a wolf.

"And I've never seen a wolf daemon before either," Basil said boldly, sitting up straight and looking right back. He was trying to act like he wasn't afraid, but Winry could feel fear beating steadily in his heart. As kind as this daemon was trying to be, Winry couldn't see past the danger. Basil wasn't like one of those tame daemons that most people in Resembool had - she had always liked that about him from the day he settled - but Basil had never been wild. She looked at those gleaming teeth and wondered if he'd ever hurt another daemon.

The wolf barked out a laugh, sounding genuinely amused. The laughter sounded out of place here with all that had happened in the past few days. "I haven't seen one either." He looked up at his human. "Wonder what that says about us, hm?" Hawkeye smiled at him fondly and scratched him behind the ears. The wolf leaned into her touch, such a normal interaction between a human and their daemon. It appeared as if the days' events had taken their toll on even them. Basil couldn't even be in the same room as Ed or Al without getting aggitated and she hadn't seen Dimitry so tired since Granny had told Winry about her parents.

"You're going to take them away, aren't you?" Winry asked without away from her hands holding onto Basil.

Hawkeye glanced over in surprise. "Why do you say that?"

"That's what the military does," Winry said, gripping onto Basil tighter, like Hawkeye's boss might decide to take him too. "They take away the people you love."

That was what they did to her mom and dad. When the Ishval War called, they answered and went away to help save people. They didn't have to do that, but the military had asked it of them. And then they had told her parents to stop trying to save everyone. Anyone that wanted to not help people couldn't be good. Would they try to change Ed too? He was good - so good that he'd risked his life to save his little brother - and Winry was afraid of what the military might do to him.

"You're going to take Ed away and force him to join the military." Winry buried her face in Basil's soft fur and let him tug on her hair again. She noticed years ago that he did that whenever he was upset and so she'd started to grow her hair out longer to make it easier for him. "I hate the military."

"You know, I used to think the same thing," Hawkeye mused.

This time it was Winry's turn to jerk her head and stare in shock. "You did?"

Hawkeye nodded her head as the wolf lied his head in her lap. She threaded her fingers through his fur and tugged gently on his ears like Basil did with Winry's hair, but the wolf seemed to like it, pushing his head further into Hawkeye's hands. "I thought for sure the military was going to take away the person I loved."

"And did they?" Basil asked - no, demanded. He needed to know just as much as her. Everything with Alethea and Anima had shaken him. Alethea kept popping up in random places of the house without Ed and it was strange and not right, but she wouldn't talk with Basil either. And Anima was gone. Winry didn't know if she could handle it if Ed was taken away too. She felt like all the people she cared about were slowly disappearing from her life and one day she'd wake up and be the only one left.

Instead of Hawkeye answering, her daemon did instead, his voice a low, sad rumble, "No, he chose to leave."

His words hurt Winry more than she anticipated. Maybe it had to do with the Lieutenant's daemon speaking directly to her when most daemons didn't do that. Or maybe it was that Winry suddenly began to have doubts about the future. What if Ed chose to leave too? What would she do then? Would she even try to stop him? She didn't think that she could. Once Ed made his mind up about something, he gave it his all and he didn't look back. And as depressed and broken as he seemed, Winry knew the lengths Ed would go to for Al.

"The Colonel will not force Ed to do something that he doesn't want to do," Hawkeye continued, an understanding look on her face. "The State Alchemist Program can offer Edward a chance to rebuild his life, but ultimately it is his choice."

Right now, despite the uniform and short haircut, Hawkeye didn't look like a soldier. She looked like a woman that Winry could've ran into in town and admired from afar. But this was a woman who had served in Ishval where her parents had been, but instead of dying like them, she had killed people. What had possessed such a kind woman to join the military or had it always been in her, lurking like a wolf in the shadows, even before her daemon settled? Was it in Ed and Alethea too? Was it in her and Basil?

Winry knew in her heart that if the military offered a sliver of a chance to bring Anima back and return Al to his body, Ed would join it in a heartbeat, but she feared that it might ask too much of him. She saw a shadow of something haunted in the wolf's eyes as he looked up at Hawkeye and knew that, despite surviving the war and staying in the military, it had taken much from them as well.

"What changed your mind about the military?" Winry asked. "Why did you become a soldier?"

Hawkeye actually smiled as she gazed down at her daemon and he gazed back at her. "That's easy. I joined because there's someone I have to protect."

Watching the two of them, Winry could see that no matter what they had gone through, they did not regret their decision to join the military. They had made their bed and had to lie in it and they did so without complaint. It reminded her of Ed in a lot of ways. Her answer was so simple. The military was about protecting people. Sometimes Winry forgot about that. Doctors weren't the only people that saved lives. Maybe Ed would be able to do good if he joined the State Alchemist Program.

But there were so many other steps he would have to take before he could even consider that. Automail surgery was no joke. Basil tilted his head in thought. If anyone could get through what Ed would have to do, it would be Ed. If he ever faultered, Alethea would be there to push him. She missed Anima too much to give up. Winry thought that was why Alethea sometimes went off on her own and wandered around the house. Being around Ed and Al reminded her of what was missing and she could maybe pretend that Anima was still there if she was alone.

Winry hugged Basil tightly. She never wanted to be alone. It was terrifying and unheard of. What had Ed and Al done? Why hadn't Alethea or Anima try to stop them? She took a deep breath and opened her arms so that Basil could slide down her leg and hop towards the wolf daemon. The wolf eyed the little capuchin monkey with one golden eye before pulling away from Hawkeye. Though so much larger and stronger, the wolf was gentle as could be as Basil reached up to touch his wet nose.

And then the wolf licked Basil and seemed to grin cheekily as Basil sputtered. He leapt at the wolf, latching onto his snout and climbing until he was sitting on the back of the wolf's neck. Winry gasped at his bold action, prepared to jump and snatch Basil away if the other daemon was mad, but then the wolf laughed again. It still sounded unnatural, but Winry welcomed the sound this time. She was afraid that it would be a long time before laughter was heard in this home.

"I haven't heard him laugh in a while," Hawkeye said quietly as she watched the two daemons. The wolf lied down on the ground and rolled onto his side while Basil hopped on and around him. "Your daemon settled young, didn't he?"

"Yes, we were…" Winry bit her lip. She had never really talked about the night Basil settled. It had felt like a cold shiver running down her spine, a splash of water and then she was no longer the innocent, little girl she used to be. She hadn't gone to see Ed and Al for a few days, unable to face her friends and let them see her grief, but even more, she had been afraid of what they would say when Basil couldn't shift with Alethea and Anima to fly in the sky. She had almost been ashamed, like she hadn't been strong enough to not change when faced with her parents' deaths.

But mostly she had been devastated that her parents would never be able to see what her Basil settled as. They'd never get to watch her grow up.

"Mine settled late," Hawkeye said, continuing as if Winry hadn't trailed off. "He was stubborn."

"It wasn't the right time," her daemon replied from the ground as he allowed Basil to examine his paws.

"What's his name?" Winry blurted out before she could think about it. She clamped a hand over her mouth. Daemons' names were very important and special. Sometimes, daemons refused to give their names to other people and only told other daemons, like it was a carefully guarded secret. Granny had told her that asking was typically considered rude, but she didn't like refering to daemons as the animals that they looked like. She liked names. It made them more real. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"Wojciech," the wolf daemon answered, making Winry blink rapidly. The daemon spoke directly to her, his eyes lighting up.

Her monkey daemon tugged on Wojciech's ears. "I'm Basil."

When Hawkeye smiled, Winry slowly took her hand away from her mouth. Truth be told, not only had she never seen a wolf daemon before, but she'd never met a female soldier either and her hate of the military had been won out slowly by her curiosity. She thought of what Lieutenant Hawkeye had said - about joining the military in order to protect someone - and it reminded her of what wolves were also known for. Protecting the pack. And then she knew.

Whatever Ed's decision was, Winry and Basil would be there for him. Because they were good at helping people and that was what she wanted to do.