A/N: Whoo! No more flames! -does a little dance- Hee, well I'm obviously very happy. I can update in peace! Thank god, too... -gives offering to the Yaoi Gawd- (hee, inside joke). Anyway! I am updating now and some new twists are beginning to slide in.
Summary: You people should know it by now.
Pairings: Roy/Ed, Al/Martel (others upon request)
Warnings: Shounen-ai/yaoi, language/swearing, blood/gore, violence, and awkward moments
Key:
'Blah' – Thoughts
"Blah" – Talking
Recommended listening: Nishra's Dance by Red and Gold
Metal Heart
Chapter Seven
"I've been meaning to ask you something, Ed."
The silence that had hung over the two individuals walking around large hedges was abruptly broken with that sentence from Roy and a snort from Mancer. The blonde teenager stroked the horse's mane before he turned his attention to the king, who was wearing both his trademark smirk and a curious look shining in his coal eyes.
"What is it?" Ed asked, keeping his tone even, but a slight hint of annoyance slipped through.
Roy lifted his hand and motioned to the side of Edward's head. The teenager turned to look at his side, but there was nothing unusual. Even more annoyed, the teenager looked back up. "What?!"
Roy nodded to the blonde teenager. "Your ear."
Ed blinked a moment, raising an eyebrow, before it clicked in his hand and his left hand unconsciously went up to his ear, touching the ruby that was struck through his skin and pinned on the opposite side.
"What about it?" he asked, his finger hiding it for a moment before he put his hand back down. His eyebrow still raised, he gave the king a weird look, as if he were suddenly sprouting three heads. Why notice such a thing?
"Why do you wear it?" Roy asked. Roy knew that everyone had the freedom to do whatever they wanted to their bodies—to an extent, anyway—but seeing things such as an ear-piercing on a boy as young as Ed was rather odd, especially from the looks of him.
The boy was deeply tanned, as if he had walked through the deserts of Zigeune, his eyes a deep gold bullion—a color not normally seen in the eyes of people around the central or eastern lands. His hair was also long; normally, a boy would not extend it lower than their ears. Ed's hair traveled all the way down to his middle back, tied into a thick, tight braid. His side bangs were spiked, looking sharp compared to Roy's frontal bangs, which while curved, held little to no spike to them.
So perhaps asking that question was rather stupid and he was probably going to get taunted by the teenager and get snappy remarks, but Roy was curious. While curiosity killed the cat, the suspense always brought it back. Roy was that cat. And he was going to get an answer.
Ed frowned. That was a weird question. While he was not in his own land, he still had his own land rights due to his status and morals. His eyebrow fell and he began thinking to himself. "It's a long story, actually," he said, trying to divert the conversation. Roy, however, was not that easy to distract.
"With how big this maze is, we should have plenty of time," Roy pressed, using the situation to his advantage.
Ed's eyes narrowed and his lips curled into what Roy would assume to be a pout, but by the thoughtful look, he knew it wasn't. From all that Roy had observed, Ed pouting would be the day that Roy slipped into a miniskirt, jumped on his throne, and did the Can-Can. After a moment of silence, Roy opened his mouth to continue to press the question, but Ed beat him to it.
"Long story short, my brother gave it to me," was the somewhat quiet reply. "He has the other one." The voice was hesitant, as if saying the wrong thing would reveal too much. Roy knew that tone quite well.
"Where did you get them? If I'm not mistaken, that's a ruby, is it not? If so, they're rare," Roy prompted, raising his eyebrow.
This was true. Rubies were only ever found in the mines of Trementon and even if one did go about to the city and find one, they were downright expensive. Moreover, the mines had recently had a decrease in rubies, so the prices had gone even higher. On top of it all, it was risky. Trementon was a dangerous place and rumor had it that they lately had joined forces with Rmeth, one of the cities in the lands of Zukon. Their alliance threatened the peace of the rest of Kantrae.
Ed shrugged. "We transmuted them."
Now that was interesting.
"With what?" Roy's face had formed a slightly befuddled look, something Ed would have paid to see, but didn't really care about that at the moment. The teenager shrugged again.
"Not much," he replied. "Just the basic earthly materials back home. The four basic elements we used were chromium, aluminum, hydrogen, and oxygen. Two molecules of aluminum combined with three oxygen molecules and chromium. Just add a bit of hydrogen and you can make any stone. It's simple, really."
The teenager suddenly shut his mouth when he realized he had babbled off another formula absentmindedly. Curse his habit.
Roy was impressed. It was as if the boy had the table of elements all memorized in his head. Most alchemists couldn't do that. Added onto the fact that Ed had explained water and fire compounds to Hughes back at the palace as if he did it everyday.
"You do realize that it can be brought up as a criminal cause as extreme as changing lead into gold, don't you?" Roy asked. Was the teenager as reckless as we thought?
Ed frowned and he got an angry look in his eyes. "You do realize you're being a pest, don't you?" The boy sighed. "But yeah, I know that. But what people don't know doesn't hurt them. Besides, it's not that uncommon."
"Where are you from anyway, Ed?"
"Fuchsland," was the short, simple reply.
Ah, that would explain it. Fuchsland was far west, southwest of the lands of Drache and northwest of Fumee, which was south of Tierra. In retrospect, Tsuki-kage, Roy's lands, were just one hundred seventy miles east of Tierra. By following it backwards, Roy mentally drew a map of where Fuchsland was.
Fuchsland, from what he had heard, was a small little country–like place. There were no big, tall buildings that scrapped the sky with their daggers or palaces upon which a king sat. The place was as rural as one could get, with small cottages and large, open fields. Some of the best automail mechanics were down in Fuchsland. Roy wondered why he had not derived a conclusion when he had seen Ed and his impressive automail.
Roy blinked, mentally stopping that. Had he just complimented Ed's automail? Giving his head a swift shake, he turned to look at the hedges instead of at the teenager anymore. Ok, so he had complimented Ed. Alternatively, to put his mind at ease, he had complimented whoever had given Ed a full-metal prosthetic arm and leg. Knowing that, Roy felt a little more relieved. He couldn't get his mind caught up in this now.
"Something's not right."
Roy broke off from his train of thought and turned to look at Ed. The teenager had on a serious look, as he always did, but this time, his brow was furrowed in concentration and his eyes seemed to have gotten much darker. The gold was now more of a brown than anything and the young body was extremely tense.
Suddenly, the teenager turned around, as if he had heard something. Before Roy could blink, the young alchemist was thrown backwards by something too fast for his eyes and the alchemist slammed into the hedges, the thorns from a rosebush sticking themselves into Ed's legs. The boy cringed, letting out a loud "dammit!" and removed himself from the bushes, just as something slammed into them, slicing through them, leaving a gaping hole, disappearing through another hedge. The wind whistled through the hole, giving off an eerie feel.
Mancer had reared and raised its legs, frightened by the sudden presence and suddenly galloped off, jumping through the hole. Ed reached out to grab the reins, but the horse was too fast for him. It was on the other side of the hole and galloping away down one of the many paths of Spiraalvormg Bos. Roy held a firm grip on Shadow's reins as the horse almost followed Mancer, and the king took in a deep breath to calm his nerves. As soon as Ed had been hit, Roy's immediate reaction had been to snap his fingers, sending off a small bomb around whatever had attacked, but it was gone. At least, for now. Roy knew he couldn't be on edge the entire time they were there.
Ed was grumbling to himself off to the side, something about horses being stupid, as he used his automail hand to remove the thorns stuck in his left leg. The one on his right leg hadn't even pierced his clothing. Ed let out a huff and glanced towards the hole, moving to stand beside Roy. "You could've helped, you know."
"You want to be charcoal?" Roy asked, raising an eyebrow. The boy didn't answer, just kept staring at the hole, as if trying to figure something. Roy frowned. "What was that?"
"I don't know," Ed replied, moving to re-adjust his cloak.
A moment of silence passed before Roy turned back to Ed. "How in the world were you able to hear it coming?"
Ed gave the king a stupid look. "How do you think? The wind's moving southeast from the northwest area. I heard a loud rustle coming from the east area, louder than normal. And then there was that displacement of air behind us, so I knew there was something nearby."
"I didn't hear anything." 'Or feel anything for that matter...'
"You're just getting old," Ed remarked.
"Very funny, shrimp."
"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO SMALL YOU COULDN'T EVEN SEE WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS?!"
"I didn't say that," Roy dismissed the subject with a wave of his hand while Ed fumed, glaring fiery daggers at the hole made by God-only-knew-what. "In any case, Ed, we need to get out of here and fast."
"You think I don't know that?" Ed asked, annoyed. It wasn't just the fact he had been attacked or the king taunting him about his height that he was annoyed. It was also the fact that Mancer had decided to be a chicken rather than a good steed and run off. Now only God knew where the animal was.
"We should keep moving," Roy said. "And quickly. We might find Mancer later on."
"Yeah, whatever," Ed turned his head the other way as his arms fell under his cloak again, hiding his body in one sweep of cloth. They were walking for another silent moment before Ed suddenly turned his head to the side, down another path. "We might no have to."
Roy gave Ed a weird look before he followed the teenager down the new path. When they turned the corner, they both shrank back in shock, bringing hands to their noses as the smell of blood ensnared their senses, forcing them to keep moving forward. They turned another corner to the left, then to the right. Then they stopped, shocked.
The great mustang of brown and black, whose mane rippled in the wind, and whose speed was great, now lay against the hedge, black eyes open wide, but unseeing. Its mane was stuck to its back with red liquid that was pouring out of its slit throat and stomach. If one changed angle perspective, he would see all the organs no longer functioning within the animal's body. The fact was proven unnecessary in the next few seconds, because it was then that Roy saw that the organs had been slit, one at a time, and were falling out of the animal's gut.
Roy was used to the stench of blood, but when he glanced to see Ed's expression, he suddenly forgot about the horse and grew worried. Ed's eyes were wide in shock and horror; the boy's body was shaking slightly, but the golden teen didn't seem to notice. His pupils dilated from dull to emotional and back again, as if he were slipping in and out of a coma state and his legs took his body a hesitant step back.
"Ed?" Roy hesitantly touched the boy's shoulder and the flinch was answer enough. The boy had never seen such a gruesome killing, especially of a once-proud animal, it seemed.
"Ed?" Roy tried again.
Eyes suddenly focusing, Ed pushed the hand off his shoulder and turned away from the sight. "I'm fine. We have to keep moving. We could be next."
Of course, the military act of supremacy again; Ed didn't like being caught unawares, it seemed. Roy tilted his head to get a good look at the teen's face and he saw that Ed's eyes were widened again, shock running through them, even as the teenager tried to mentally make it go away. Roy reached out from behind, but Ed took a step forward, creating distance without knowing it as the teenager straightened, heading off in the opposite direction. Roy let out a sigh and tugged Shadow's reins. The horse followed obediently, not glancing back at the mess that had once been his companion.
They walked once again in silence. It was extremely quiet between them; not even the wind could be heard. It seemed to have died down a while ago. Roy kept glancing to Ed, but the boy was lost in his own thoughts, all the while looking around and tensing at each corner. Finally, Roy couldn't stand the silence any more. He had to break it.
"You're scared, aren't you?" Ok, so probably not the best thing to ask after that in order to shatter the quietness, but Roy couldn't help himself.
Angry golden eyes turned on him and Edward shook his head quickly. "No, I'm not. I'm just not comfortable in this place."
"No one ever is," Roy commented, immediately diverting the conversation to casual talk. Or rather, what would be considered casual due to what they had just seen and experienced. He cast a quick glance to the teenager, who turned his head away, not making eye contact.
Ed finally sighed. "You're not one to believe in rumors, are you?"
"No, I'm not," Roy replied, raising an eyebrow. "I rely on fact, not fiction."
"Well, so do I, but what hit me will probably fall under the fiction category," Ed admitted, shoving his hands into his pockets under the cloak. "That is, if my eyes didn't fail me."
"What are you talking about?"
Ed granted the king a side-ways glance. "Are you going to open your mind to the possibility or brush it off like another ghost story?"
"Depends. What did you see?"
"A symbol."
"Symbol of what?"
Ed was silent for a moment. His eyes spoke the words he could not, expressing his thinking on the matter, trying to figure out something he didn't have enough evidence to prove. Shadow whinnied a little and Roy calmed the animal with a stroke across the creature's neck.
"The Ouroboros."
"The snake devouring its own tail?" Roy asked for clarification.
Ed nodded. Roy frowned. "And what does that mean?"
The teenager whirled around and gave the king an 'are-you-an-idiot?' look. "Don't you know anything about alchemy or the world in general?"
"What are you suggesting?" Roy asked, coal eyes narrowing.
Ed slammed his left fist into his right hand in anger, giving the black-haired man a look that clearly said he should know something about it.
"I can't believe you don't know! Of all the people I saw in your country, I expected at least you to know!" Ed's eyes were narrowed again and he was downright pissed. He shook his head a few times. "It's eternity, it's never-ending... you don't know this?!"
"Ed?" Roy's eyes met the golden ones of the alchemist and then he saw it, without Ed having to speak.
"Dammit, Roy, it's the symbol of the Homunculi!"
Translator
Trementon – Sword (made-up)
Rmeth – Acid (made-up)
Zukon – Arrow (made-up)
Kantrae – World (made-up)
Fuchsland – Fox Land/Land of Foxes (German)
Drache – Dragon (German)
Fumee – Flame (French)
Tierra – Earth (Spanish)
Tsuki-kage – Moon Shadow (Japanese)
Spiraalvormg Bos – Spiral Forest (Dutch)
