Eli stood beside his horse Attila, drinking from his canteen as the beast happily enjoyed the few space of shade that he had underneath the station tent, waiting for the next chariot customer came along.

He's coming now, buddy, and he's gonna be in for a hell of a surprise. Just as he finished that trail of thought, Eli glimpsed a small red-clad figure emerging from the crowd in a hurried stride. What did I tell you? He chuckled to himself as the young alchemist walked up to him, catching his breath. The boy steadied himself and stuffed his gloved hand into his pocket and took out a small sack that jingled as he raised it into the air in front of him.

"I would - like - a chariot ride to the next - city - " the boy barely managed to say through his panting.

This is going to be fun
, Eli thought to himself in amusement. "Looking a little windswept there, aren't we, Edward?" Eli said to the kid, who reacted just as Eli had predicted: he was dumbfounded.

"H-how do you know my name?" he asked, his eyes widening in confusion. Eli simply roared with laughter, and replied to him.

"Oh, we may have met on possibly more than one occasion, but I know you pretty well, little alchemist!" He clapped his hand on Edward's back and the boy's knees buckled.

"Ow, watch it!" Edward protested, massaging his tender spot. "What can you possibly mean by 'pretty well,' sir - I haven't ever seen you in my life!"

"Don't worry about it, you'll probably recognize me pretty soon and I can assure you that you have met me. Though I may have looked a little different at the time, I'm not particularly sure..." Eli faked a straining of memory before blurting out his next phrase.

"So you need to get to the next city, am I correct?" Edward nodded, still in a confused state.

"Then, forget paying - we're buddies, so I'll give you a ride as a freebie!" He then grabbed Edward's arm and sat him into the chariot, the young alchemist protesting all the while.

"What the hell! You can't whisk people like that! Can't you show some manners?" Eli tugged at Attila's reins as the beast reared into a run on the dirt road that winded to the right of the station.

"Eddie, from what I've seen, you and manners have a little restraining order set in motion!" Eli called back to the boy atop the crackling of the hooves. This was followed by a loud, "Huuuh?" from Edward, and then silence. Eli figured that this was a good time to make conversation with Ed, at least so that he would calm down.

"So, what brings you to the country of Xerxes, Eddie boy?" Eli called to him again. At that moment they were riding on a road that traveled amongst sand dunes. A squelching noise came from behind Eli in the chariot, which told him that Edward had become sick, which was normal enough. The boy was clearly not used to wheels riding on hard gravel. Eli looked back, concerned, as Edward emerged from the side of the chariot, his face now assuming a pale green hue.

"Ugh - you wouldn't believe me if I told you - urp!" He disappeared again as his body convulsed. Ooh, this isn't looking good, Eli thought, taking in air through his teeth.

"You'd better come up with a solution for that sickness of yours soon; this is going to be a seven-hour ride!"

"Whaat?" Edward screamed in desperation. Should I give him a hint? Eli pondered, shaking his head in disappointment.

"You're an alchemist, aren't you, kid?" he called back, receiving a snort in return.

"Yeah, and your point?" Edward retorted.

Eli put his hand to his face in annoyance. "Then do something useful that will stop you from getting sick! Use your brain!"

"Use - urp - my brain? I can barely think clearly at this moment! Can you at least stop the chariot for a second?"

Eli did as the boy told him, and tugged at Attila's reins. "Whoa, boy." The horse neighed, skidding its hooves to a halt. When the chariot was steady enough, Edward emerged from it, swaying slightly to the side and holding the side of it to balance himself. Eli watched as the kid studied the ground on which he stood.

"This road..." Edward muttered. Eli smiled with satisfaction as the kid clapped his hands together and then touched the ground. The sand and rocks on the road then started to melt into a clear, transparent path of glass. Edward clearly made his estimation based on the length of the trip that Eli had told him, for the glass had stretched on for quite a distance as he gazed out into the horizon.

Edward climbed back into the chariot, sighing in relief in his small seat. "Remind me to transmute that gravel back to normal when we get there!" he called to the driver.
Eli sat into his seat and whipped Attila into resumed action with his reins, managing a nod at the young alchemist. The glass proved to be effective on a very high scale as the now-smooth roll of the wheels calmed Edward down.

"You claim to know me," his voice sounded again from behind the driver's seat, "yet I don't even know what your name is."

"For now, you can address me as Eli. It's more of a sobriquet since I seem to go by different names everywhere, even though I still remain nameless..."

A low silence hung over both of them, and pretty soon a checkpoint was visible not far from where they were. Eli pulled on the reins once again beside the small booth as the man beneath it emerged, covered head-to-foot in linen cloth with a face covered in gold facial hair.

"Provisions?" he asked Eli. The driver nodded and revealed a small jingling sack from his pocket, presumably given to him by his last customer. He then exchanged it for a three-pound parcel wrapped in brown paper, which Eli gave to Edward in the back. The linen-clad man disappeared into his booth.

"Don't consume these all at once. We need them to last the rest of our five hours," Eli told Ed. The alchemist unwrapped the parcel curiously, seeing what kind of chow they had for the rest of their journey. Fish and dried fruit. He looks relieved, Eli mused to himself. The man at the checkpoint returned to face Eli, handing him two canteens that gushed with liquid at each movement. Edward's mouth began to water at the sight of them and he grasped the one nearest to him hungrily. Taking a long gulp of the water inside it, he then restrained himself, remembering the distance that they had yet to cover. All that he could do at this point was lie back and try to relax.

"The boy's an odd one," the man at the booth whispered to Eli, eying Edward suspiciously.

"No kidding," Eli replied with a chuckle. "I can hear you, you know!" came the outburst from Ed.

"Was it he who transmuted the sand on the road into glass?" asked the man.

"Yeah, the bumps on the road made him sick." Eli turned to find himself being glared at by Ed. He then simply returned the glare with a wink, to which Ed reacted by looking away furiously.

"Odd as the boy might be, he sure is quick-witted. This glass will make travel for others more efficient," the man remarked. Eli merely shrugged.

"Well, we'd better get going. Long road ahead of us," he concluded to the linen-clad man.

"I wish you the utmost luck," the latter replied. Eli nodded and then tugged on the reins for the last time. Attila reared himself forward at a healthy sprint towards the horizon which was now touched with hues of a blood-orange sunset over the dunes. The smoothness in the glass was as the linen-clad geezer said: a wonder to Ed's comforts as he nodded his head to an awkwardly-positioned sleep.