Gold sun painted it's way around trees and houses. Two small shadows danced across a field, adding new depth to the beautiful scene.
A long series of grassy hills ate at the countryside, finally giving way to the few homes spotted across the small town to just large banks of grass and meadow.
The shadows came to a halt atop a lush, green hill.
A young blonde boy sat by a smaller auburn-haired child, They watched the sky's watercolor dance of shades of pink, red, yellow, copper, gold, and orange until the sun was nearly out of sight and the gold sky had started to fade into a light-purple background.
This was about the time that the blonde had decided to pipe up.
"Hey, Al," he asked, his voice holding the warmth that only a child's voice seemed to hold.
The auburn-haired boy looked up from the ground. "Hmm?"
"I wonder what we're going to be like when we're older." the blonde said this almost as if he were reading it from a script in his mind.
The smaller boy shrugged. "Don't know." he answered. He was still at a fairly young age, so his lips formed around the word yet it was still somewhat stunted.
The blonde gazed at the sky. "I wonder if we're going to be like the strong warriors that travel around the world and save places. Do you think like we're gonna' be like the people from our books?"
This shifted the younger boy's imagination. "Hmm..." he murmured, trying to picture such a scene. After a moment he stopped and looked back to the blonde worriedly. "Yeah, but, we don't have powers like them."
"They don't have powers, Al," the blonde said with a grin, "they have alchemy. And dad's office is full of those sorts of books!" he exclaimed, raising his arms up to give more emphasis on his father's large collection of alchemy books and journals.
Al awed the blonde's enthusiasm. "But Ed, how are we going to learn that stuff? Mom doesn't even understand it." he sighed with a frown.
Ed's grin widened. "We'll amaze this whole town! I bet none of them can, so when we learn it, we can make things and sell them for kajillions of money! And then Mom won't be sad anymore!!" his eyes burned with fire. He stood up and scanned the field. "In no time, Al, this place will be full of the magical places that are in our books! We'll call it Elrictopia!!" visions of giant zoo's and candy stores filled his mind's eye. He imagined square devices from the future made of steel that had black screens where you could see another person's face on it. It could play music and you could even hear the other person on it! It would be an amazing sight and would cost three-hundred dollars just to get in!
All Al saw was work.
So the two boys ran back through the fields in time to arrive to their driveway before it got too dark to see.
Out of the eye of the dark pierced a yellow square of light high in the dark. It turned on, then off, then on, then off, and so on until they made their way to the door of a two-story home and through it.
They didn't even take the time to greet their mother; they ran straight through the halls and to their father's study.
Ed grabbed the first and thickest book he could reach and pried it open. Thick, dusty pages lay inside the red leather cover. Ed leaned down and peered at the words. It read:
It is a taboo for one to commit human transmutation. Many have tried, and failed. No scientist on earth has surpassed the clamps of death that this taboo holds. Many believe to attain a transmutation circle that, in fact, will surpass this taboo, would have to be the creations of a God.
In further studies, we come to the ancient and majestic philosopher's stone. We know of it's existence, but no scientist has ever come close to successfully making an effective one without the loss of their life. Thus we come to a conclusion that whatever made this stone must have removed it from this earth because it feared the power it held and the knowledge we could gain.
Ed stopped scanning the page after this, for he had become frustrated with his lack of knowledge of the words. He could understand few things about this. One of them would be it is a and for one and human alright; he could barely read them but he knew what they meant. He came to a conclusion that the one or two words he couldn't read probably didn't matter, and he had to figure out what it was that he could read meant. He put his finger on the first word; it. 'It' had to mean something to do with alchemy, because this was an alchemy book, right? So if 'it' meant alchemy, then 'is a' surely would be linked. The one word he didn't understand didn't make him understand the sentence anymore. Alchemy is a... what?
"Tah-boo. Tahboo." he tried his best to sound out the word.
Wait... That word 'boo'. Scarey monsters and ghosts said the word 'boo'. So 'boo' had to mean scarey. And the beginning.. 'tah'. Maybe it meant 'thing'. Ed was sure he had read backwards words before, and this was an alchemy book, and alchemy was such a strange thing that most didn't understand it. So all of this just had to make sense.
He read off what he had deciphered so far.
"Alchemy is a scarey thing." he said.
Al glanced over at him. "What?" he asked.
"That's what this book says." Ed looked up.
Al's eyes widened. "Well, if it's scarey, maybe we shouldn't do it."
"Come on. It's just a book, Al."
"So? If that big book says it's scarey, and scarey means bad because Mommy has told us so before, than alchemy is bad." Al felt pretty good about his explanation and gave a huff of victory. He set down a thinner blue book that had been in his hands on the floor and scooted over to Ed.
Ed fixed a glare on his baby brother. "Nuh-huh, Al! You're just a big baby!"
"Am not!" Al screamed.
"Are too!" Ed yelled back, setting his book down.
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!" Ed's yell was the loudest, and stopped the war momentarily. He was older, thus quick(er)-witted, so his comeback was faster. "I wish that we were never brothers! I wish I had never met you!" Ed screeched, pounding his fists on the wooden floor.
Just seconds after Ed's tantrum, something fast and white swept across the sky just over the Elric's home.
Trisha, their mother, then ripped the door open and came in. "Boys!" she hollared at them/
Both winced in unison at the sharp scold from their mother.
"I just came in here to tell you that there was a shooting star outside, but you're in here throwing fits!" she yelled.
Both looked down sheepishly.
Trisha sighed and put a hand to her temples. "Well, now that everything is over, go get ready for bed."
Both boys walked out of the dim-lit study and readied themselves for bed. Ed stared at Al oddly when he began to hum to himself.
"Al? What are you singing?"
"Hmm-diddle-a, diddle-a, diddle-a, diddle-a, hmm-diddle-diddle..." he hummed on.
They both went on changing into their pajamas and crawled into their separate beds.
Al looked over at Ed.
Ed looked over at Al.
Both wanted to ask if the wish really was going to come true, because everybody they have ever talked to has had their wish come true. Now, upon hearing that, they loved the thought of a wish coming true, but all they had ever thought about was good wishes. Not bad ones.
Ed quietly slipped out of his bed and tip-toed over to Al's. He sipped under the covers and both brothers lay side-by-side like this for the rest of the night.
Sleep never came to the children.
Until the early hours of the night.