Author's Note: Mwhahaha! I am damn sexy with writing, but I feel slightly ashamed. No one realized who the gray eyed man is. I thought it was fairly easy. I almost didn't want to put his name in this chapter, but oh well. I got two to three more characters that have no names in this one. Hopefully someone might get it right, otherwise I will feel really bad. Thank you everyone who commented. I love criticism and reviews. It seriously makes my day. I don't really have a song for this one, but if you have something with a bunch of people singing in one large chorus, I'd say play that near the end of the chapter. Really gets you in the mood. Sorry for any mistakes. All writing and beta-ing is mine. I write these when I have time which is rare so they're normally typed quickly. I might take on a beta later on. I'm not for sure yet. Anyway, review! The more reviews the faster the updates.


Chapter 2

Song of the Screaming

His horse jumped over a small wooden fence that divided the great expanse of land from the small cattle field. He had long since out maneuvered the military and escaped their tent city. The horses was still running at full speed and panting for breaths. He slowed the beast and turned to look over his shoulder. Nothing was in sight, yet he could feel eyes on him. A shiver ran down his spine. Something wasn't right.

Pulling his hood tighter, he tugged the reins and moved the horse to face the way he came. Nothing but empty land as far as the eye could see, so what was this frightful feeling? He swung his head from side to side. Then he looked under the horse. He rode in a few small circles. There was nothing.

A chuckling caught his attention. "Sorry, Russ, I was just curious to see where you had gone." The voice came from the shadows of his cloak; soft and comforting.

"You just about scared the living daylights out of me." Russell grinned. "Maybe I shouldn't return home, because I'm worried someone might follow me."

A soft growl came from the shadow nearest to his ear. "Turn that horse home now!"

Russell laughed and did as the shadow commanded. He relaxed into a small trot across the cattle field. "So how long have you been watching?"

The shadow stirred. "Since Winry and Fletcher came back without you. Whatever were you thinking running straight into a military camp like that?" The voice hissed.

Russell bowed his head from embarrassment. "Actually, I didn't know the camp was there behind the hill."

The shadow's laugh echoed in the confines of the cloak. "Moron! By the way, Dapple got back here just fine. You're going to owe Granny a new cart though." The voice sighed, "Let's just hope that the military won't remember our horses. Otherwise, I don't think the horses will like being painted flamboyant colours. I'll remember to do yours bright pink." The laughter erupted again.

Russell rolled his eyes, but chuckled. He saw the small little farm house up the way. Jumping over the stone wall onto the path, he heard an air shuddering explosion behind him. Quickly flipping around, he looked over to the plume of smoke now drifting in the sky.

"That's not good." The voice whispered.

The smoke rose right over part of the military camp. It was a large explosion, but no sign of fire or large scale damage appeared. The sudden flare of coloured light from the camp gave away what caused it: Alchemy. Strong fire or chemical explosive based alchemy. Whoever was creating that type of explosion was defiantly not happy.

"They will probably ride into town tomorrow morning; tomorrow afternoon at the latest." Russell watched as another smoke plume arose.

"Right on time then. The festival will be taking place." The voice seemed to nod with approval. "Get home, dinner is almost done."

Russell nodded and headed home once more.


The dawn rose leaving rosy coloured streaks across the horizon. Pink tinted everything as creatures started to stir. Birds begun to sing their lovely songs, rabbits dashed across the wide expanse, cows mooed their morning wake up calls, and the sound for a rifle crackled in the still morning air…

Hawkeye successfully shot breakfast.

Two burly looking men sprinted across the prairie to grab their freshly killed breakfast. Lugging back a good 200 pound deer between them, Hawkeye raised her rifle again, scouting the land for food. That's when she saw them through her scope. Crawling on their bellies were two young boys no more than six. They were slowly approaching the camp. Not taking her sights off them, she clicked on her safety. "Colonel Williams, we got two small bogeys coming in from our three o'clock."

A white haired man with bright, lively green eyes sat down next to her staring through a pair of binoculars. "Must be the local welcome wagon curious to see the fireworks, eh Lieutenant?" He smiled. "Let's give them a show." He ducked back behind him and pulled out a small flare gun. Loading a cartridge, he aimed into the sky. "You think they'll like green?"

Hawkeye smiled back. "I'm sure they won't care."

With a chuckle, Williams fired the flare into the sky. With a bang, a bright green explosion formed slowly drifting to the ground. Through her scope, she watched the boys stop and with mouths wide open, she could guess they were oh-ing and ah-ing. Williams nodded to her and to a nearby female gunner to carefully approach the two boys. Crawling in the tall grass for cover, both women easily snuck up behind the two boys. Giving a shared smile, the two women sprang from the grass and tickled the unknowing boys.

"We suwwender!" The oldest boy squealed out.

The two women got up and gently picked up the boys heading back to the camp. The boys, too curious to be frightened, looked on with awe. They're playmates would never believe them.

"Wow, Jimmy! Looka dat! It's huge!" The older red haired boy said.

"Look, bruda! They got ponies too!" The littler red head giggle enthusiastically.

Setting the boys on the ground, Williams came up to kneel in front of them. "So what are two brave men like you doing out coming after little old us?" He patted their heads.

"We wanted to see the Indians!" The older male said, smiling the entire time.

"We heard dat they'd get us wif dem bow and awwows!" Jimmy pretended to shoot a bow at Williams, who feigned getting shot in the heart with a dramatic sigh. Williams having two boys and a granddaughter knew personally how to handle children.

"Now listen here you two, I'm not an Indian. I'm a cowboy!" Williams and some of the soldiers who came to see what the action was laughed. "You two rowdy bunch need to be careful where you go snooping off to. Won't your mother worry?"

"Ahh Jimmy and me gets into twouble all the time. Oh, and I'm Timothy!" Tim smiled, showing that his front baby teeth were missing.

"How old are you two?" Williams grinned.

"Jimmy there is fouw and I'm six and a half!" Tim proclaimed proudly.

"Nah uh! I'm fouw and a half too!" Jimmy scowled at his brother, holding up four fingers.

Before anything else could be said, a light bay coloured mare followed by a black Clydesdale rushed from over the hills across the prairie.

"Uh oh. Looks like momma finally noticed we was gone." Jimmy said, pouting some. "We was suppose to help with the festival stuff."

The two horses stopped a good fifteen meters away from the soldiers. Two cloaked people sat on the back, letting their gazes run over the armed men. One Hawkeye instantly recognized from the day before. Williams stood up waving the two figures over. Slowly, the two horses trotted over the final distance to stand before the men. Both figures on horseback were easily over six feet tall and would loom over anyone.

The figure with the brown cloak from the previous day dismounted his horse and strode over to Williams. "I'm sorry about this, sir. These boys didn't make trouble, did they? We all saw the flare." He pushed away his hood letting his fierce gray eyes bore into the soldier.

Williams smiled, "No, sonny. They were just curious to see the 'Indians'." He chuckled.

"That's good. These two always did have one hell of an imagination. Alright, McAllens, your momma sent us after you. Say goodbye cause we have to go."

Hawkeye said her goodbyes, but that wasn't what had her attention. The other figure still on horseback had not removed his black hood from his cloak. She could feel his penetrating gaze on her, boring into her soul. It was nerve racking. She gave a final smile to the boys as they were lifted up onto the horses. She gasped though as the two boys gave their apologies to the men who had to come retrieve them.

"We' sowwy, Wussell and Al." It couldn't be. Her mind was reeling as the two horses sprinted back to the town. That's when it came. A dark, foreboding feeling rushed over her. She instantly looked around her. Nothing was out of the ordinary. She started to slowly creep back to the tent maze with her rifle strung over her shoulder. No matter where she went she could feel eyes on her; a strong penetrating gaze that never wavered on her, seeping into her thoughts and soul. She decided to take a detour instead. Maybe one of the others would realize something is wrong too.

Carefully slinging the gun to her other shoulders, she pushed into the tent. With a quick salute, she laid her gun down and took a seat at the edge of the cot.

"I heard a flare go off." Roy's gruff voice sheltered much pain. His gaze shifted in the tent. "Something is watching." Suddenly the shadows seemed to move, escaping the tent. He narrowed his eyes.

"It followed me since those two men arrived." Hawkeye looked around. "It's gone now."

"Two guys?" Roy's eyes flickered over.

"Two men name Russell and Al…"


The streets were decorated in strings of bright coloured flags. Music filled the streets. People danced and cheered. Food and small trinkets lined carts along the streets. Children ran between people, playing with new toys. Fireworks blasted in the middle of roads causing small dust storms. Old men sat around chess boards and chattered about their youthful days. Women sat and knit or attended to their festival foods.

Shadows moved silently down the alley ways and on top of roofs, watching the eastern horizon. It was just past eight in the morning and with all the activity in the city, the military was surely coming to move at any moment. Everyone in town knew the plan. They just had to wait until the perfect moment.

Fletcher was currently spinning Winry in circles as they danced to the loud music playing from a band. Drums killed out the sound of the squeals of the children as another cracker bomb popped in the street. Bright blue light shown from little flash bombs tossed into the air. Confetti fell from the sky like snow. Everything was good.

"What do you think?" Russell silently stood beside a six foot four man with dirty blond hair ruffled up.

"Looks fun down there, too bad we're stuck up here." The man grinned.

Russ snorted. "I didn't mean that."

"Hey, can't help wanting to play down there too." He nudged the man in the ribs; his bright grayish blue eyes smiling cheerfully at Russell before turning back to scanning the crowded streets below.

"You just want to dance with Winry!" Russell baited before getting a slight slap on the shoulder.

"You just want to dance with HIM!" The other man replied childishly, knowing the older man's weakness.

Russell's cheeks tinted before he scuffed the other man's head. "Hush and watch for the military."

"How long do you suppose they'll be?" Blue eyes narrowed.

Russell shrugged, lifting his gunmetal eyes across the people in the street then to the alleys looking for something, but not finding it. "Who can tell, they have always been slow."

The two stood in silence. Every so often, a sign from another patrolling man would indicate that there was nothing out of the ordinary. The people hiding in the shadows of the alleys relayed the same. Everything was going as normal. It made the hair on Russell's neck stand on end. He wasn't impatient. He just didn't like dangerous situations to drag out. For now they just had to sit and wait.


The military had packed their tents. Dressed in their formal parade uniforms, they slowly marched to stand hidden behind a top hill. They had sent spies in to recover information early the past two days. The town of Resembool was having a festival. Not just any festival though. They were having a special festival for alchemy. This was the perfect time to storm into the town and capture any alchemist performing his alchemy without ARC identification. The previous night they had chimera creating alchemists make them a batch of very unique dogs: ones that could smell the use of alchemy on someone within the past three days.

Hildebrand smiled to himself. How easy it is to kill the flock of sheep as they herded together.

The whistle pierced the air in the partying town. Show time was about to start. The town's people cheered and formed large circles that spun. The patrols on the roofs and in the alleys took up innocuous positions along Center Street. People clapped and the drums beat louder as the military moved over the hills from the prairies like a flood of blue waves.

Their boots thumped a beat of their own, but was miraculously in sync with the beat of the drums. The marching grew louder as they neared and the earth shook with all the vibrations or the marching soldiers and the boisterous town. Two mighty forces were ready to collide; the Amestris military and the highly intelligent people of Resembool.

People passed out small pouches amongst the crowd, who quickly hid them in pockets and under hats. Children ran around innocently hiding more of the pouches under carts and behind boxes. The people pretended that nothing was happening and that the military was nowhere near them.

The sky was bright with small puffs of clouds painting the perfect scenery. A slight breeze that blew in from the north kept it the right temperature, keeping even the dancing people perfectly comfortable. Shouts and cheers were blasted into the air as the military breached the entrance of Central Street. Dragging many of the bleary and confused soldiers into their dancing circles, the people continued to sing on chorus songs of joy and alchemy. Eyes watched the men in blue carefully without them realizing as they were slowly sucked further into town.

As another chorus was sung to the heavens, violins screamed their tunes, causing one haunting melody. The song would shrivel even the most blood stained men from uneasiness. The drums stopped and the violins ended as the final chorus was sung only with voices, both civilians and soldiers alike.

A crimson shadow lurked in the darkness of the alleys, unnoticed by everyone…


I am the queen of cliff hangers!

By the way, 'light bay' has black stockings (from the knee to the hoof), tail, and mane while their main coat is a very light brown. A Clydesdale is an extremely hard working horse that works best in extremely cold climates and their hooves are hidden by locks of hair. So if you can imagine the horses you'd see on Budweiser commercials.