Chapter 7:
Taken
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A blue-eyed phantom far before
Is laughing, leaping toward the sun:
Like lead I chase it evermore,
I pant and run.
-poem 'Fata Morgana' (A Mirage) by Christina Rossetti.
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Homunculus' sharp senses twitched. Humans. No, not human…demons. They were foul, evil. He could smell them; rotting flesh. Feel them. The air grew icy and pricked its skin, although Edward seemed oblivious. They were coming their way, almost undetectable by sound, but he could just barely catch the sliding of their cloaks across the grass. He did not move; it was best to let the hostiles think they had the upper hand before they struck. He stiffened all the muscles in every inch of his well-built frame ready for combat, and gripped Edward's arm tightly, giving the boy a meaningful look that said: Keep silent, danger. Naturally, the homunculus had never fought before, but somehow the knowledge of fighting styles and techniques used in hand-to-hand melee long since faded in the depths of time flooded into the creature's brain like a long-lost memory.
He was ready.
The homunculus smelled the pungent odour of potions masking a faint layer of dried blood hanging sour in the cold air, and knew they were close.
They were upon the pair in a second, blotting out the light with their bodies and becoming one terrifying black mass. Edward didn't have time to gasp. The homunculus instantly threw himself and the boy sideways, rolled, and turned sharply to view their attackers. The black shadows shifted again, and suddenly they surrounded him, evil red eyes glowing.
The adolescent moved into an attack of his own. Leaping into a handstand and, focusing all its weight onto its hands, propelled his body into a spinning whirl, outstretched legs smashing into each foe in a whirl of dynamic, crushing blows. Vaulting itself into the air, it twisted itself upright and instantly scanned his environment, saw three enemies staggering to their feet, and proceeded to alight hard upon the earth, lunge, and deliver crippling strikes to the stragglers' vital points in a few raging, whirling seconds.
Finally, what remained of their attackers collapsed to the ground in a crumpled heap on the grass.
The homunculus stood up, having hardly broken a sweat. But its face was etched with a troubled frown.
It turned to the cowering boy and knelt beside him.
'Are you injured?' it asked while inspecting Edward's arms legs, head and upper body for damage.
Edward looked up at the elder with huge, frightened amber eyes.
'Homunculus…what...'
The homunculus returned the boy's gaze, his eyes reassuring.
'I don't know, but we must—'
A dash of darkness shot upwards and smashed into his back. The creature's eyes grew wide with shock, coughing out blood as it felt a thousand cracking needles sizzle and pry every vein, artery, bone and muscle in its entire body and pull it to shreds, jabbing its core—the Philosophers Stone—with steel fingers. Pain burned at the front of its forehead and its vision blurred. Its brain, in retaliation to this sudden and catastrophic breach, told the creature's body to shut down. The creature automatically complied, its last struggling thoughts being only:
This is...my...fault...
The beaten homunculus crashed to the ground beside his friend, his body wracked with twitching spasms.
Edward screamed, utterly helpless in the face of this horror.
'HOMUNCULUS!'
'You will come with ussss, boy!' hissed the one who had attacked his friend, in a voice so foul, icy and dread that the boy was all at once overwhelmed with convulsions, his mind blown to pieces like a shattered mirror. 'The pathetic monster cannot protect you now…'
The attackers had inexplicably recovered and now surrounded them like sinister dark phantoms. The moon was blotted out by a sudden wave of black cloud, and all light dimmed.
The shadows laughed cruelly, a sound that made the trees shudder and the earth tremble.
'You cannot escape!' they cackled. 'We are alchemists, and we will eliminate you both. However,' Their bodies shivered with mirth, pupiless red eyes blazing with hunger, 'first we must wring the secrets of the Philosophers Stone out of you!'
Suddenly Edward's fear evaporated and was replaced by such a passionate fury it was as if his whole body was engulfed in flames. All this terror, pain, torture, hunting and capturing a wonderful creature, his friend, for a stone! A stone! A damned STONE!
The boy lunged at the attackers with a wild shriek of rage. A clawed hand drove into his temple like a lump of lead, and suddenly the air was sucked out from his body, and Edward was plunged into a cold and merciless void of darkness.
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