In the course of two months, this story has gotten... eighteen views. ._.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but that still sucks a little.
Anyway, it took me a while to get started on this chapter, but here it is.
When I first started this story, I had planed to just have it be a sort of slice of life type thing, but while working on this chapter something that looked like a plot started to form, so...yay?
And if you thought the whole story would be told from Ed's point of view, think again~
Edit: Welp, it looks like either FFN screwed up or I deleted something I didn't mean to. I had to re-add some text. Sorry about that! :/
The summit of Mount Snowpeak was usually rather quiet and peaceful, especially at this time of day when the sun was just starting to set. But he should have known that even Mount Snowpeak wouldn't be safe from the chaos that Edward Elric always seemed to attract.
At the sound of screaming, Gluttony looked up and sighed when he saw his friend being chased by a large bird known as a Snow Runner.
I warned him not to get too close…
Dagger already in hand, the non-human stood up to rescue his friend. Snow Runners weren't the most dangerous things on the summit, but getting attacked by one could still hurt a lot depending on how aggravated they were.
By this time Ed had slipped and fell face-first into the snow. He quickly tried to get up and run, but the Snow Runner, being the swift animal it was, was quickly catching up. Seeing that the teen had no hope of getting up in time, Gluttony moved at a speed that was surprising for someone of his size and skillfully slashed at the large bird with his dagger. It gave a cry of pain and surprise and shifted its attention from Ed to its new opponent.
Gluttony waited to see what it would do, and hoped it would just run away. He was prepared to keep fighting it if he had to, but he didn't want to kill it. Then again, there was that part of him that did want to kill it. After all, as much as he hated it, he had been made for killing. And this bird was much smaller than past things he had–
No, he wasn't about to give in to his more animal-like side. Not now. Not in front of Ed.
Fortunately, he didn't have to. It seemed that, unlike Ed, the Snow Runner knew how to pick its battles carefully. It stared for a moment before walking away with a look of annoyance.
The two friends sighed, both relieved to have things settled so easily.
"Well, that could have been worse," Ed said, having sat up. "I mean, it could have gone better, too, but..."
The only way it could have possibly gone better would be if he had left the Snow Runner alone in the first place.
Wordlessly, Gluttony took his friend by the arm and dragged him back the fire where their dinner was cooking. The teen protested being dragged like that, but did nothing to fight it.
"You'd better stay over here for now so you don't get into trouble again."
"I won't get into trouble," Ed muttered, looking offended. "I'm not a little kid anymore, you know."
"If you say so, Chibi."
Ed went into one his rants about not being small, and Gluttony just smiled. Maybe it wasn't nice to do, but it was fun to tease Ed about his height.
The teen suddenly went quiet as he realized their little campsite wasn't that far the edge of the summit. He ran over and said, "Hey, you can kind of see the town from here!"
So he had finally noticed the view the mountain had to offer. It took him long enough.
"If you look out far enough you can see the desert, too."
"Oh, yeah, you're right. And there's the Elderwood!"
By now the fish that had been cooking in the fire looked done, so the non-human carefully removed them by the sticks they had skewered through them and join Ed by the mountain's edge.
"Here. It's really hot."
"Oh, thanks."
They both sat there for a while, taking in the view and eating. The sight of everything below them only seemed to get better as the sun sank lower. Lights started appearing in the towns and cities, looking like large groups of fireflies.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Gluttony asked quietly.
"No. I've never even been this high up before." Ed took a bite out of his fish then asked, "So, what kind of fish is this, anyway? You showed me how to catch it, but you didn't tell me what kind it is."
Actually, that was a good question. Truth be told, Gluttony didn't know very much about fish from outside Castele.
"Well, to be honest...I have no idea."
Ed laughed. "Don't you think that's something you should know?"
"Not really. No matter how you look at it, fish is fish."
"Alright, point taken."
Quickly finishing his food, Ed began to amuse himself by making snowballs and trying to throw them at a tree well over twenty feet away. His aim was way off, but it didn't bother him.
"I've heard that a Napdragon lives up here," he said, watching a snowball fall a few feet short of the tree. "Is it true?"
"Yeah. I can even show you its nest."
"Awesome." Ed threw another snowball, this time sending it just past his target. "Ugh, I didn't know my aim was this bad."
"You know you'll never hit it from here, right?"
The boy grinned teasingly. "You think you can do better?"
"I didn't say that..."
"Ha! I'm sure you were thinking it." He threw another snowball, dead set on hitting the tree.
It looked like the snowball would meet its target this time until a Snow Runner appeared out of nothing and walked in front of the tree just in time to be hit by the snowball. It gave a shrill cry of surprise and quickly fled, most likely fearful of getting hit again.
The two friends had been stunned while watching all of this happen, but now that the Snow Runner was gone and they knew it wasn't going to attack them out of anger, they laughed. All of the tension that had build up the moment they realized just where that snowball was going melted away as they expressed their amusement over the bird's reaction.
"I think," Ed said as he started to calm down," that's enough snowball throwing for tonight."
Gluttony couldn't have agreed more.
There was a Snow Leopard near by; Gluttony could smell it. Looking around, he didn't see it, and he couldn't hear it, so he decided it wasn't worth worrying about. Sighing, he turned his attention back to the slowly drying fire and threw a few sticks into it.
Ed had gone to sleep over an hour ago, leaving his friend alone with his thoughts.
They were the same thoughts he had had every night since he came to live down in Castele. He thought about his family back home, wondering when he would have time to go see them again. And he thought–no–he worried about his sister. He hadn't seen her or even heard from her in a really long time. She was the reason he even left home. He had to find her.
He was getting close, though; now he knew she was in Castele. He knew because when he saw Ed the other day...her scent was on him. Ed had unknowing found his sister. She was out there somewhere.
"I'll find you," he promised in a whisper. "And Ed can help."
He look at said boy and noticed he was shivering a little. It would be no surprise if he had underestimated just how cold nights on the mountain could be and didn't dress warmly enough. Mount Snowpeak was the only place in Reveria that got this cold.
Taking pity on him, Gluttony took off his jacket and lay it over the boy like a blanket. It seemed to help, and he would be fine without it for a while.
The sound of feet crunching in the snow made him look up. The leopard was there, and it was walking uncomfortably close to them, ready to attack. Unlike Snow Runners, Snow Leopards were known to attack without reason.
He wouldn't allow for the leopard to hurt his only friend, though. He had to lure it away somehow. But then what? It would probably just come back.
Kill it.
Gluttony frowned slightly. His animal-like instincts were waking up again, and they were still bitter about letting the Snow Runner get away. He didn't listen to them then, and he wasn't going to now.
Go on, you know you want to.
No, he didn't want to. There had to be another way...
Face it; you know you have to protect him, and this is the only way. It's what you were made to do, after all.
True, protecting people was his true purpose in life. It was what he was made to do. It was what all of them were made to do. And killing anything that threatened to harm people was the only way he knew how to protect them.
Alright, so he would do this to protect his friend. But Ed couldn't know...
"Hey, are you awake, Chibi?"
There was no reply. Good, if he had nothing to say to that then there was no doubt about if the teen was really asleep or not. Now he could take care of the leopard without worry.
"Here, kitty, kitty," he whispered while slowly walking around the fire to get its attention.
It worked. The Snow Leopard looked at him and decided moving prey was more interesting. It crept towards him, growling threateningly.
Now that he had its attention, it was time to lure it away to somewhere more private. He kept walking slowly, taking care not to let the leopard get too close, until he was a good way away from the campsite. Then he ran as fast as he could, and he heard the leopard running behind him. So far the plan was working.
He soon ran into an open space clear of trees and other animals, and knew this would be the perfect place to do what had to be done. He stopped and quickly turned around as the Snow Leopard, who wasn't far behind, pounced towards him. He wasn't afraid, though; he had let his instincts take over for the time being. He wouldn't be fighting like a human.
He would be fighting like an animal.
It was easy enough to avoid being jumped on by stepping aside, which resulted in the leopard landing in a snowdrift. It growled angrily as it started to stand up, but Gluttony was unfazed as he gave a growl of his own and hurried to pin down the leopard before it could fully stand up. He wanted to finish this as soon as possible.
The Snow Leopard growled and struggled to get up, but he wouldn't let it. It had thought it was the hunter, but now it was about to learn it had been the hunted all along.
"I'm sorry," he said before putting his jaw around the leopard's neck and biting down.
It cried out with pain, but he only bit down harder until he tasted blood. He would have been lying to himself if he said he didn't enjoy it. He had almost forgotten how good it was...
The animal continued to cry out loudly, and his human side was pleading with him to stop, but there was no backing out now. Now that his animal side had a hold on him, it wouldn't let go so easily. Not while he was getting his first taste of blood in years.
It didn't take much longer for the leopard to grow quiet as it bled to death. When it stopped moving altogether, Gluttony relaxed his grip on its neck and sighed. That part was done. He wasn't finished with the leopard, though.
He had done his job of protecting Ed from getting hurt by the Snow Leopard, but now he had to protect him from the truth of what his friend was really capable of. There was nothing living on the mountain that could have, or would have, killed leaving only one wound like this. If it had gotten in a fight with another animal, it would have smaller wounds all over it.
He had to get rid of the body. And he would do it the same way he always did, to make sure no one ever found it.
He lowered his head again and resumed chewing on the leopard's neck. It seemed as good a place to start as any.
He always did this; as soon as he finished killing something he would eat it. It wasn't good for him, and it really wasn't good for his stomach. It wasn't even something he wanted to do. It was just something he felt like he had to. It was like some sort of eating disorder that had control over him in a way he couldn't say no to what it told him to do.
He hated it.
Father hadn't meant for him to be like this, though; it was never part of the plan. His hunger for blood had formed on its own, and it made him imperfect in Father's eyes but it was okay. Father had loved him anyway.
It took a little while, but soon the leopard was nothing more than a puddle of blood in the snow that would be easy enough to hide. Easier than hiding a whole body, anyway. But it would have to wait, because Gluttony had started vomiting almost as soon as he had finished eating.
Life was funny sometimes; while his animal-like side may have given him a liking for blood and raw meat, but his human-like stomach wasn't as fond of it. So at times like this, it dealt with everything in the best way it knew how; and that was to get rid of what it didn't consider to be food.
It seemed to Gluttony that he was more violently ill than usual this time, but then again it had been quite some time since he last killed and ate an animal like this. Maybe he had just forgotten how sick he really got. When all was said and done, though, he felt a little better. And he noticed for the first time it had started to snow. Good, that would help to hide everything in a natural way.
He got up from his knees with a groan. He had a really bad stomach ache now and just wanted to lie down for a while, but there was a bit of work that had to be done before he could go back to the campsite and rest. The sooner he cleaned up the better.
Burying the blood-stained snow as well as the newly added puddle of vomit under fresh snow was the easy part. The hard part would cleaning himself off, which he absolutely had to do before he went back. On the off chance that Ed was wake, there would be no way to explain all the blood in a way that wouldn't scare him. But fortunately, it wouldn't have to come to that because there was snow everywhere. And snow was more or less really cold water.
Roughly half an hour later, Gluttony was wet and cold, but at least he no longer looked like he had been rolling around the scene of a murder. The snow hadn't done as well of a job on his shirt as it had on his hands and face, but it was a dark colored shirt so the blood stains didn't show that much anyway. Or maybe they did and it was just to dark to see them now. He would just have to hope luck was on his side this time.
As he made his way back to the campsite, stopping once to be sick again, he wonder what he would say if Ed was awake. There were probably countless excuses he could make, but not many of them were very good. The best thing he could think of was to tell half of the truth: there was a Snow Leopard and he chased it away. That seemed believable enough.
But all of the worrying and thinking up excuses had been in vain; Edward was still sound asleep.
The fire was dying again, and offered little warmth as Gluttony crawled into his sleeping bag. He didn't bother to bring it back to life, though. Since he was going to sleep now it would be safer to just let it die for the night. And as cold as he was, he didn't take his jacket back. He didn't want to risk waking Ed up.
Watching the dying embers with sleepy eyes, Gluttony knew he in for a rough day tomorrow. He knew from past experiences he wasn't going to feel very good in the morning, and there so many things on Mount Snowpeak he had promised to show Ed before they went home.
Tomorrow is going to be...interesting.
"You're home early," Alphonse said, sounding surprised. "I didn't think you'd be back until some time in the evening."
"Well, there was...an unexpected chance of plans," Ed explained as he sat down at the kitchen table across from Al, who was eating lunch. He didn't feel like talking, but he set his thoughts aside so he could focus on the conversation.
Noticing there was a troubled look on his older brother's face, Al asked, "Is everything okay, Brother?"
"Yeah, it's nothing."
"You seem uneasy about something. Does it have to do with why you came home early?"
Ed sighed. He really didn't want to talk about this now, but he knew Al wouldn't give up until he found out what was wrong. It wasn't that the younger Elric was nosy; he just cared about his older brother and wanted to know when something was wrong. Ed knew he was the same way when Alphonse seemed worried about something.
"It's just... We came back earlier than we planed because Gluttony wasn't feeling good this morning. I'm just a little worried about him, that's all."
Al tilted his head, looking curious. "Really? Is he okay?"
"I think so. His stomach was a little upset, but he said he would be fine."
"Then why are you worried?"
"Well, this happened out of the blue. He was fine last night, but this morning he wasn't."
"Hmm, that is weird," Al said with a nod. "I can understand why you're concerned, but if he says he'll be fine, then I think you should believe him. It might not be something to worry about, anyway."
"Yeah, maybe you're right."
Finishing up his meal, Al stood up and cleared away his dishes to the sink to be washed.
"I'm going back to the library to do some more work," he said. "Do you want to come with me?"
Ed shook his head. "No, I think I'll stay here and get some rest. I'm a little bit tired."
"Oh, alright. I'll see you later then!"
Alphonse left, leaving his older brother to try and sort out his thoughts.
Ed had so many things running through his head as he tried to make sense of what he had seen the night before. But from the moment he had woken up in the middle of the night to when he finally went back to sleep nothing had made any sense.
Sitting at the kitchen table, he still clearly remember what happened. He remembered being woken up by an owl in a near by tree, and realizing Gluttony wasn't there. When Ed noticed he had his friend's jacket draped over him like a blanket, with his dagger in the right-hand pocket, he started to worry. Even to his half asleep mind, it didn't make sense that Gluttony would go somewhere without his jacket on or his dagger. Something weird was going on, so Ed set out to find him and figure out what was up.
Now he wished he hadn't.
To be honest, it didn't really come as a surprise that Gluttony could kill an animal with his bare hands, or rather, with his jaw. Ed never thought he would see something like that happening, but it didn't surprise him. No, the real shock came from watching his friend begin to eat said animal after it was dead.
Gluttony wasn't a human, and Ed knew that. But most of time he acted like a human so it was easy to forget, making the whole thing seem that much more shocking.
No longer half asleep and too terrified to think straight, Ed had quietly gone back to the campsite and eventually came to the conclusion the best thing he could do was pretend he had never woken up and not ask questions.
"Now what?" Ed asked himself. "I can't just pretend it never happened, but how can I ask questions when I don't think I was supposed to know about this?"
As he got up to lie down on the couch in the living room, Ed realized he didn't want to ask questions because he was afraid of how this could change his friendship with Gluttony. As it was, things were already different, although the feeling was one-sided. If he knew that Ed knew...would that make things even weirder?
Well...that happened. ^^;
Dawn~
