Chapter one
The First day of the Exams
Alright here we are, the first day of the State Alchemist exam and I sat outside of the building waiting to be let in to take the exam. My brown hair was flowing in the cold breeze and my back jacket barely kept me warm. At this point in my life I did still love Edward and Alphonse despite the fact I didn't have any memories of them.
The only way I knew them was by my golden locket my father gave me shortly before he abandoned me in a small town called Xenotime, which is a very poor town now that the gold mine ran dry.
I opened my eyes for a few seconds before seeing a blonde haired amber color eyes boy and they were the features of my older brother.
"Edward!?" I called and he paused to search for who called him so I approached him "What are you doing here?" I asked
"Excuse me but who are you?" He asked.
"Oh right." I replied taking off my locket and handed it to him. "I'm the girl in that photograph there." I added as he took the locket and looked at it.
"Mom, Al, Dad and me." He gasped in shock. " Are you Elle?" He asked me.
"Yep. Long time no see brother and I mean that literally." I said and he hugged me tightly, to tightly for a normal human grip but I let it pass as a very well worked out soon to be teenager. "I missed you too." I laughed once he let me go. "Did you, Mom and Al move out here?"
"Didn't you and Dad get our letters?" Edward asked.
"Letters? I haven't lived with Dad honestly. He abandoned me in a poor village five years ago. Why what happened?"
"Mom got a fatal disease and hid it until Al and I found her passed out on the kitchen floor and she died a month later." Ed said and I gasped now.
"She's dead?" I whispered. "Did you bury her?"
"Of course! What else is there?" Edward asked handing me back my locket.
"Cremation." I replied clutching my locket to my chest.
"Oh. I'm not familiar with that." Edward said.
" It's when you burn the body and keep the ashes in a box surrounded by photos of that person. It happens in my new town all the time. I live in Xenotime." I added.
"Oh I get it now. I won't do that to someone's body especially mom's body." Edward answered.
"True. I was just wondering. So were you adopted?"
"No, Al and I live alone."
"Where is he?" I asked looking around for someone who looked like the other boy in the photo even though he was an infant and I heard a voice echo behind me. I turned around slowly to see a huge seven-foot suit of armor behind me and I screamed before calming myself down. "Where'd that come from?"
"Elle, that's Alphonse." Edward said.
"Yeah okay and I'm the Fuehrer!" I said scarcasticly "No way in hell Alphonse is seven feet tall." I said in disbelief.
"Brother who's this?" Alphonse asked disproving my point.
"Elle Elizabeth Elric." I said bowing. "You're older sister. I'm Edward's younger twin sister."
"Then you live with Dad?"
"Nope. He abandoned me years ago. I lived with a family in Xenotime who can't have children. I'm a blessing to them. they saved me during my darkest days too." I answered.
"Do you hear from him at least?" Alphonse asked hopefully.
"Sorry but no. not since the day he left me behind." I answered as a bell rang and the door opened and a man wearing an eye patch and a uniform stood inside the door.
"Who's that?" A man asked another.
"I am Furher King Bradley!" The man shouted. "I proudly welcome all you young Alchemists to our annual state alchemist exam. This exam might as well be the hardest exam you'll ever have to take in your life. The exam is split into three separate days. (I don't know the exam but in the anime it took a couple of days therefore I'm guessing three.) Today will be the written part of the exam." He explained
"You'll have four hours to answer 1,500 questions today. Tommrow you will be questioned and given a physical to determine your physical status. We can't have weak soliders can we? Then finally is the field test. If you don't make it don't be discouraged because you can try again next year. Now…please follow me to the testing room." He added.
Everyone followed him into a huge meeting room and everyone sat down in the chairs and a soldier handed out a huge book which was filled with the questions and the book was the size of a five subject notebook.
When we got the okay I opened the huge book and I saw the first question.
What is the first law of Eqvillant Exchange?
I decided to look through the book and was looking for any mulitiple choice questions but I didn't find any and discovered the whole exam was a short answer exam and ther was also a three page minium essay.
This was totally mental for someone like Edward, Alphonse and myself who are either eleven or twelve, soon to be thirteen years old in a few days for Edward and myself.
Anyways, I decided to write the essay first thinking it was the major point factor in the exam and to save yourself the pain of following the long and gruesome exam I have to take I wont tell you the questions I had to answer either because they might break your brain because I'm sure as hell lost about ten to fifteen points off my IQ per hours as I continued through the exam.
Finally, four hours passed and we were all dead weights pretty much as we walked outside where a little girl and a dog was waiting for someone.
"Big broders!" the girl said leading the dog over to us. " How'd it go?"
"I didn't finish and my wrist feels like spagetti." Edward moaned.
"I got through it but next comes the interview."
"Wait…big brothers?" I asked quietly but either Al heard me or he remembered I was there.
"Oh! While we are taking the exam we're staying with a State Alchemist. We live with the Sewing Life Alchemist and his daughter Nina, who's the girl. She thinks we're her big brothers." Alphonse added. "Nina this is our sister Elle. Elle, Nina and Alexander."
"Oh hello there Elle." Nina said. " Say hello Alexander." Nina cooed and Alexander barked at me. " So did you do big sister?"
"Huh!? Oh, um…I think I did okay. I barely finished but I'm exahausted." I said.
"Where are you staying Big Sister?" Alphonse asked.
"Some place I can camp legally." I replied. "I like sleeping on grass.
"Eww. Sis, why don't you come stay at Mr. Tucker's house with us. I doubt he'll mind." Alphonse asked.
"I can't possibly impose on the household." I added turning around. "See you later guys." I called and I waved at them as I left the premises and headed out of town and I heard Al's armor clank behind me sometime later.
"Sister please wait!" Alphonse called and I waited for him to catch up. " Sis please stay with Mr. Tucker's family. It's going to be really cold so I don't want you to get pheunomia or hypothermia. We lost mother and father we don't want to lose you either." Alphonse told me. "Brother would've chased after you but Mr. Tucker want him to bring Nina home."
"Fine but only if Mr. Tucker agrees with putting me up while the exam is going on." I sighed in defeat leading Alphonse back into town and then he led me to Tucker's and my curiosity got the better of me. "Alphonse?"
"Hmm?"
"Why do you wear that suit of armor?" I asked. "I'm sure that you're a handsome boy just like Edward's becoming. I'd bet that Ed would become quite the ladies man." I replied laughing.
"Do you remember a girl named Winry Rockbell? She didn't live that far away from us." Alphonse asked.
"No, Dad and I left shortly after you were born. You were one at the most. Honestly if I didn't have the family portait in my locket I might not remember who you were at all." I replied sadly. "It's a sad thing actually." I added as it started to pour. "And so is this."
"Come on let's hurry to Mr. Tucker's!" Al shouted as we ran through the rain and by the time we arrived I was soaked. "Mr. Tucker are you here?"
"In the dining room Al!" Edward called back and we headed inside the dining room and my hair was dripping with rain water.
"Elle it's called using your hood." Ed laughed.
"My hood's fake Edward." I responded.
"Oh. Mr. Tucker this is my twin sister Elle." Edward replied.
"Pleased to meet you." Tucker replied approaching me and shook my hand.
"Like wise. I just wish it were under better conditions. I already met your daughter and dog. You have a beautiful daughter Sir."
"Thank you. please join us for dinner." Tucker replied and I took off my jacket and Tucker put it on a coat rack and Al came back with a towel and I quickly towel dried my hair and Tucker brought me a plate and a glass of water.
"I assumed you hate milk like Edward." Tucker added.
"Please don't assume things it's unalchemist like." I said.
"Unalchemist like?" Ed laughed.
"Shut up just because you have a bigger vocabulary doesn't mean your don't make up words pipsqueak."
"Uh-oh." Alphonse sighed.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT THEY CAN'T BE SEEN WITH A MICROSOPIC MICROSOPE AT IT'S FULLEST!" Ed asked punching me with what seemed like metal in my face and I fell out of the chair hitting my head.
"Elle!" I heard Alphonse call and he ran to me but I passed out before he got there.