~Chapter 11~

Date: 12/7/2018

Special thanks to: Beloved Daughter, alightintheshadows, Baraayas, and GunsAndMagic

Guest: so simple a review and yet so sweet. Here you go! You have a good day too! :)

A/N: Apologies for the wait. Life happens. Hopefully updates will be a little faster since busy season is dying down at work, but we all know how good I am with that.

Roy was instantly escorted out of the tent, although it was only at the consideration of one little Ishvalan. Tyesha followed them nervously, but Ed didn't seem to mind. She never strayed too close to Roy, but also never let Ed even close to out of her sight. None of the other Ishvalans tried to stop Ed from dragging Roy out or Tyesha from following, even though it would have been in their best interests to keep the closest of eyes on him.

If that was trust, it was highly undeserved; carelessness, at the poorest of times; or perhaps they thought Tyesha and Ed would be enough to stop him, which would be insane if he wasn't and so… highly lucky that he was.

News must have gone out that Ed was returned—and with a visitor—because once he stepped into what must have been the common area, he was swamped with smiling faces and fast Ishvalan words. Roy caught glimpses of words—words like 'happy' and 'back' and 'worried'—but for the most part could tell what was actually going on just by the smiling faces of Ed and his countrymen. Roy stepped back so they wouldn't feel threatened, and Ed could enjoy his people in peace.

Then, after a moment, Ed whipped his hand out toward Roy and said in Amestrian, "and this is my friend Roy! He helped me!"

The commons fell into a nervous hush. It was clear that they had known Roy was there but had been avoiding him for the sake of peace. But now, Ed had drawn attention to him in a way that they hadn't been too pleased with. Ed was clearly delighted with him… but the rest of them wanted to bury him in the sand.

"That's… nice, Ed," said one of the men who wore his hair long. They were at least being polite and not expressing their desire to see him dead upon introduction, and Ed seemed far too happy to be home to actually pay attention to the tension in the air.

"Say hello," Ed commanded, this time of Roy. He puffed out one cheek, looking like he absolutely meant his command and would not take no for an answer.

Roy sighed, then lifted his fist to his chin and bowed his head the way Ed had showed him a few days ago. "Hello," he said politely. A few of the men sneered, one woman scoffed in a way that told Roy he had done something wrong in his greet. "I am Roy, I'm Ed's friend."

"I'm sure you are," spat another woman, hooking her arm around a boy probably twice as tall as Ed and nervously steering him away.

Ed made a face and looked up to Roy, then turned to the other Ishvalans as if waiting for them to respond in kind.

One of the men, a man who carried suspiciously similar features to Tyesha, looked Roy up and down. When Ed turned bright eyes up to him, one healing, he gave in and breathed out a sigh, gesturing back to Roy. Roy saw his mistake from before was probably a simple one; he hadn't brought his head low enough; everything else looked to be in order.

"Greetings, Amestrian Roy," said the man, "I am Jilahah, brother of Ed's mother. You helped Ed. We're pleased that he's home."

"I did," Roy agreed, surprised Jilahah was willing to strike up conversation with him. "There were a couple rough patches, but all in all it was an easy trip."

"Ah," said Jilahah, his face morphing with discomfort. Ahh, no—he hadn't wanted to strike up conversation at all. But with Ed smiling at him the way that he was, it was quickly becoming clear that he just didn't want to upset Ed by being impolite.

That was far better treatment than he should be getting, but Roy wouldn't spit at good fortune. Instead, he tugged at Ed's hand so that the man wouldn't feel so uncomfortable, and said, "speaking of brothers, you said something about having one?"

"Al!" Ed chirped, nodding hugely. He bowed his head and touched his fist to his chin, then moved it in Jilahah's direction, then said, "thank you, Boba Jilah! We're going to go see Al now!"

Roy copied the movement, so Jilahah copied them and turned away, tension falling from his shoulders almost instantly. Then, in a matter of moments, Ed was tugging on his hand hard to get him moving. Roy didn't dare mention that they were in a new place and Ed should probably figure out just where Al was, but Ed seemed much too determined to care.

A noise came from behind them, and Tyesha went from following them to rounding in front of them. She shot a glare at Roy, then crouched before her son and said softly, "Ed, my son, what are you thinking?"

"I told Roy all about Al, Mama," Ed said simply, shrugging little shoulders. "He wants to meet him! It's okay."

"Ed, Roy's an Amestrian," Tyesha reminded nervously. "A dangerous man."

"And I'm Ishvalan!" Ed chirped, as if it was simple as that. "And so are you, and Elder Sonra, and Elder Jihora, and Al, and everybody else here! It's okay, Mama. He's good."

Tyesha lifted a sneer toward Roy's face, looking at him like she knew far more than she was letting on and certainly more than Ed did.

Roy gulped and turned away from her for a second, then he looked her right in the eyes and said, "you already told me that if I took even one step out of line, I would suffer a fate worse than death." Well, she hadn't said all that, but he was good at reading between the lines. "I don't plan to step out even a single toe."

Tyesha's throat tightened, quickly getting nervous, then she glanced down to her son. After a moment of contemplation, she said, "fine. But you'll want to come this way."

Ed grinned up at her, then took her hand and let himself be dragged along while he dragged along Roy. Roy shot a grateful look at the back of Tyesha's head that she didn't feel and allowed himself to follow the small family.

The short walk went along like that. They met with a few more Askians, Roy greeted them and, apparently not wanting to disappoint Ed, they shot him icy greetings back. Ed didn't notice the tension, just seemed pleased as punch that no one was spitting curses.

Finally, they reached a large tent where a few people seemed to have their stuff gathered. This seemed to be some sort of a communal tent. Tyesha nodded at the front flaps, so Ed pushed himself through quietly.

It was dark inside, lit only by a few candles. When Roy peeked a glance, he noticed a few children scattered about in the sand, sleeping their troubles away. Something about this all felt very gentle—Roy could only assume this was some sort of daycare.

And when he glanced up, he spied a woman looking at him with eyes wide with fear. Her hands were cupped around the shoulders of two more children who, though they did not recognize him, did realize that his skin was lighter and his hair was darker—he was surely different from them, and for many Ishvalans, different was bad.

She didn't even appear to notice the two Ishvalans beside him, eyes only for him and his waist, where a gun was likely to be hidden away. He lifted his hands a little to show he had no weapons, but didn't know how else he was meant to reassure her. Even if he said that he wasn't there to hurt them, she had children to protect, and why would she believe him?

"Myma Lana!" Ed chirped before she or he could say a word. The woman's eyes, as well as his, were torn to the little boy who shone up at her the brightest of smiles. "I'm back!"

"Ed!" Tyesha hissed, her voice low for the children napping around her. One near the back stirred, but no one else even seemed to notice.

"Myma Lana, you won't even believe where I've been," Ed said, hopping over to her. "I went to Amestris!"

Roy snorted and relaxed his shoulders, crossing his arms over his chest. Beside him, Tyesha sighed and rolled her eyes. "Ed, you've been in Amestris," he said softly.

"Whatever." Ed peered all over the place and finally looked back up to Myma Lana, big eyes bright. "Myma, have you seen Al anywhere?"

Lana appeared to be in some sort of confused standstill. Her eyes darted between the danger of Roy's presence, the elation of Ed's, and the utterly calm disbelief of Tyesha. Finally, she looked up at Tyesha and asked in a very hushed voice three Ishvalan words that Roy could understand. "Anet te amestirkhan?" Loosely: you see the Amestrian?

"Na," Tyesha agreed, her voice low. She said a few more words that Roy didn't catch, then turned to Roy and, with a slightly put off tone, she said, "Amestrian Roy, this is Lana. She takes care of the children around here when her mother Charisa cannot and the rest of us are busy in the town, so the kids call her Myma. Lana, this is Ed's friend. Na, he's Amestrian."

"Amestirkhan…" the young woman said under her breath. She seemed no more at ease than earlier, but Roy couldn't really blame her.

So, a little nervously, he signed at her the greeting Ed had taught him and spoke a few of the Ishvalan words he knew: "Salo, anat—atana kalay'e te Ishvala."

Tyesha, Ed, and Lana all looked to him. Ed's jaw was practically touching the floor, while Lana seemed a little more put at ease and Tyesha was awestruck.

"I didn't know you could speak Ishvalan!" Almost instantly, Ed started babbling in Ishvalan as if he had had a thousands things he could only say in his native tongue.

"Ah, Ed, only a—I only know a few words. One of my good friends was Ishvalan," Roy hushed him, going a little red himself. He glanced to the two ladies, who seemed to be considering him, then one another.

Lana turned back to him and closed the greeting, saying, "Salo, anaatana te kala'e Ishvala" in return. Loosely translated, it said "hello, I hope Ishvala brings peace", apparently a standard greeting among the villages. She seemed far more at ease now—though still a little nervous, she didn't seem to think her death was imminent. She spoke to Tyesha, then turned around to fetch one of the children napping.

Tyesha glanced back toward Roy, watching the children around her. "Not many Amestrians speak Ishvalan," she commented softly.

"I don't really either. I think I just exhausted most of my vocabulary. My friend Heathcliff taught me some words and traditions, and then Ed taught me a few more on the way here."

"Hmm," Tyesha said. "I don't know a Heathcliff. Must be from a different village. Still, there aren't many Amestrians who would try to learn. Especially not from an Ishvalan—what, a soldier? Or from a five-year-old."

"—Nearly six!"

Roy barked a laugh and immediately bit it back, hoping he didn't just wake up any of the kids. Tyesha rolled her eyes again and glanced down to her son, who was practically bouncing down at her feet. Her eyes were soft with affection, the emotion a swift change from the curiosity and dislike when they had been on Roy.

"He's been—ah, saying so the whole walk."

"He's been saying so for two months now," Tyesha agreed gently. "Seems to think that with all the stunts he's been pulling, he's going to have a sixth birthday."

Ed's jaw again smacked the sand beneath him, looking up between Roy and his mother. Then he harrumphed mightily and crossed his little arms, calling for Myma Lana.

Lana came to him cradling a smaller boy who blinked sleep from his eyes. His hair was fairly neat, with gentle bangs like a hawk's wing falling over his right eye. He was dressed in a shawl the color of the sand around him and white shorts. Roy wouldn't have even realized who this was had Ed's eyes not lit up upon seeing the child blinking awake.

"Al!"

The boy blinked scarletty eyes wide awake upon hearing his name. He peeked all around, smiled a gap toothed smile at his mother, passed confused eyes over Roy, before he finally glanced down to the source of the noise that had awoken him. He took a few extra moments to comprehend just what he was seeing, before he rubbed at one eye like he couldn't believe it and sat up further in Lana's arms.

"B-b-brother…?"

"It's me, Al!" Ed chirped.

Immediately was Al wiggling in Lana's arms, begging to be put down. Lana set him on his feet and, as soon as his toes were touching the ground, Al launched into Ed's arms and threw his arms around his neck. "Ed…!"

Ed laughed a little and patted Al's back, especially when Al's shoulders started jerking with restrained tears. "Al, it's okay, it's okay."

"We d-didn't think you were coming back…! I was so scared, brother, I was so scared!" Al buried his face into Ed's sandy shawl and wept violently, fingertips digging into his skin so hard indents were bound to be left afterward.

Roy smiled a little, behind them. From the way Ed had launched into his mother's arms, to the way Al was clinging to Ed, this was all making this whole trip worth it. For all the tearing apart of families, for all the killing that Roy had been doing in these past several months, he had reunited one desperately frightened family. He had filled one hole.

This was why he had joined the military. To protect the children who couldn't protect themselves. To save people who needed help, who no one had been able to.

Tyesha shared a glance with him and cocked a brow at his smile. When he noticed her looking, he fought it back down—it was probably a little creepy to see a young Amestrian smiling down at her crying children. When he glanced back at her, she averted her eyes.

After a small amount of time, Al seemed to finish crying and stepped back from his brother. He smiled a huge gap-toothed smile at Ed, then quietly asked, "h-how did you get here though? The Amestrian stole you!"

"Yeah, he did. And he was mean. He brought me to this big awful camp and tied me all up, and him and some of his pals kicked me and hit me. But I made a friend, too, and then he had some nice friends. He helped me sleep and got me food and water, and then, when I thought the cockroach man was going to kill me, my friend came and punched everyone in the face!"

Roy grinned to himself. Cockroach man. Hughes had regularly referred to Kimblee as insect-like in nature, but god if Roy didn't hope that cockroach man stuck. The man was vile like them, and those horrible antennae on his head? Not unlike an insect's.

"And then, when I thought i was gonna die of heat, my new friend came and got me water and unlocked me, and then he and me walked all the way across the desert to get home."

Al sniffled quietly and wiped at his cheeks, "i'm glad you're home, brother."

"Yeah. Me too."

Al glanced up past Ed, first to his mother and then to Roy. He finally seemed to notice that Roy's hair was black and his skin was pale. He gulped, but he was probably the first Ishvalan all day that did not immediately recoil upon realizing he was not Ishvalan.

"...Friend…?" Al asked of Ed, glancing at Roy.

"Yeah, his name is Roy. He helped me get home! It was just him and me for three whole days."

Al stepped away from Ed, never looking away from Roy. He slowly approached the Amestrian, reaching out a hand to touch his white suncoat. Then, even though Roy thought for sure his ducts had dried by now, tears filled the boy's crimson eyes and he launched forward and latched onto Roy's legs.

Roy turned slightly panicking eyes to look at Tyesha. Tyesha, eyes wide, looked terrified. Her arms were extended slightly towards Al, looking like she wanted to pluck Al right from Roy and drag her sons away from him, which seemed more than fair. Al had to look like he was offering himself to go in Ed's place to the base, so soon after Ed returned. Though Roy had no intentions of separating this child from his mother at all, panic rarely lent itself to rational thinking.

"Th-thank you…" Al sobbed into Roy's knees. "Y-you brought b-brother home. I d-didn't think that I'd see him e-ever agaaaaaiiiiiin…"

"Well…" Roy said, nervously lowering his hands to muss up Al's white locks. "W-well of course I brought him home. I'm not a total monster."

Not true.

He ignored the feeling of Tyesha and Lana's eyes on his back, ignored the way that they stared at him and judged his answer. They, of course, thought differently, but Al had no reason to fear him; at least, it would do him no good to tell him that he should be afraid.

Al sobbed a little laugh, smiling into his knees when Roy crouched a little lower and tugged him into his shoulder awkwardly. "Thank you…"

Roy glanced nervous eyes now up to Tyesha, who looked ready to pounce and protect, and Lana, who was reaching to Ed to tug him close, farther away from the Amestrian. "You know," he said softly, partially to Tyesha but mostly to Al. "I've heard a lot about you from Ed. You're really important to him."

Al sniffed and peeked up out of Roy's shoulder, looking to him with interests piqued.

"Oh yeah. You were practically what kept him going all this time. Lucky he had you or he might not have made it!" Not the entire truth, but it wouldn't be the first time Roy stretched the truth for something minor.

Al laughed again and wiped his eyes. Very quietly, he said, "I like you. You're nice."

Not sure about that one. At least, many of his grade school classmates may beg to differ; most had thought him too quiet and stuck up. "I like you too," he said instead. "But why don't you go talk to your mom; she looks like she's gonna have a heart attack."

Al stepped out of his arms and looked up to his mother. He wiped his face on his shawl and went to her, burying his face in her dress to mumble "morning Mama."

"Good morning, my moon," Tyesha said softly, scooping Al into her arms and turning him artfully away from Roy. Roy smirked to himself, glancing down toward the other boy half in Lana's arms. Ed smiled at him hugely but didn't say anything. "Did you nap well?"

"Yes, Mama. Myma Charisa read to us the Maqada and I think I dreamed about Iqoda."

Iqoda. That was a name Roy didn't know. He assumed it was a story from the Maqada, one of the Ishvalan holy books, but it hadn't enough significance for Heathcliff to even mention the name.

Still, the way that a lazy smile drifted over Tyesha's soft face made him think that the story itself was a good one.

"What a wonderful thing to dream of. If not for your Papa, I think we'd have named you Iqoda," Tyesha said, eyes so soft. Al laughed, and Roy wasn't sure if it was meant to be a joke, so he forced back a smile at the cheerful little noise.

"Is Myma Charisa still here?" Ed asked his brother quietly, then directed the question to Lana in Ishvalan when Al didn't answer. Lana said something, then nervously released him and wandered down a hallway, probably off to find Myma Charisa. Ed dug into the pocket of his shawl and turned a big grin up to Roy.

Only a few moments later, Lana returned with another woman on her arm, who walked along with a slight limp in her left leg. She wore a chaste dress to her calves, the color of the sea, with a white shawl over her shoulders. She spoke in Ishvalan to Lana, then stepped around the napping children and crouched before Ed.

"Well if it isn't a brave little boy returned from the dead."

"I didn't die, Myma Charisa," said Ed with a laugh. "Ishvala didn't want me to yet."

"She has got big things in store for you," the woman agreed with a smile.

"Uh huh," Ed said. He laughed when she pulled him into a brief hug, then he took her hand and tugged her over to Roy. She stumbled a little—with her limp, rising seemed to be a challenge—but made it to him without consequence.

"Sa—"

"Myma," Ed interrupted Roy's greeting, pulling a scrap of paper out of his pocket. "This is my friend Roy. He helped me get all the way home from Amestris. He—found this. It's yours?" He extended the paper, and when Ed flipped it up, Roy recognized the photograph he had found the other day. He had nearly forgotten that, but Ed had mentioned something about a neighbor, now that he thought about it.

Charisa took the photograph, looking it over quietly. It didn't take more than a few seconds for her to gasp, grief flying through crimson eyes, and brush her fingers along the faces of the Ishvalans inside.

"You must have gone to Mama's house," Charisa mumbled. "Mine—we had to leave it behind. When we left Askia. I never thought I'd see it again. I thought… that it was gone for good. Shalat… nuhnkt…" She lowered her face to the photo and touched it to her forehead, stewing in reverence for a short while. They watched her—Lana, Tyesha, and Roy—each feeling her grief and mourning. Roy was under the impression she was the sole survivor of her family.

After a moment, she lifted her head and gave Ed her best smile. "Shunaraa jumilaar, Ed. Shunaraa."

"Not me," Ed mumbled, although the way his chest puffed out said he was soaking up the praise like a sponge. "Roy."

Charisa lifted her eyes to him, looking him over. She didn't look afraid—not even in the slightest. Roy thought she was one of the first not to. Instead, a little smile wandered over her face, sad and grieving though it was. She reached out a hand and, much to his surprise, cupped his cheek. The last time anyone had done that was when he had returned home to his aunt to inform her he was being shipped out to Ishval. This felt eerily similar—although when Aunt Chris had done it, she had instantly lifted her hand to gently smack his cheek and told him that she expected him over for supper in a few months so he wasn't allowed to die.

"Shunaraa jumilaar, Roy," she said. Her voice spilled over with all the sincerity in it—like she appreciated this thing he had done above all the terrible things he had done previous. "For the boy and the photo. Shunaraa jumilaar."

And Roy, who guessed at the phrase but didn't know how he was meant to respond, simply stammered out "y-you're welcome. Ed thought we should keep it for you though."

Charisa smiled and shook her head, mumbling "mutadaeo," under her breath. She turned to Lana, and they shared a short conversation, then she hobbled out of the tent, apparently with something in mind.

Roy watched her go, chest tight. He hadn't expected a single second of what had happened there.

Ed looked up to him, then quietly said, "she's going to the temple to pray for their safe ascent to Ishvala."

Roy just nodded, lifting a hand to rest on Ed's messy hair. All of that had been very… bizarre. But it and the child at his hip reminded him why he had wanted to join the military, to do good for this world. For the most part he had utterly failed, he had brought so much pain and death on this world and especially this people, but every little bit of good he could do was a tiny step in the right direction.

Tyesha finally made a wordless noise, gaining their attention, and said, "let's let the children rest. Lana said some of your friends are outside, yet, Ed, should we go see them?"

Ed's eyes lit up like a flame, nodding his head aggressively. "Roy, watch us play toqar! So you can play with us next!" He seized Roy's hand and dragged him out of the tent, calling "bye, Myma Lana!" over his shoulder. Tyesha scooped Al up into her arms and followed, more than a little nervous. Roy didn't feel her eyes leave his back until long after Ed found his friends and released him.

Toqar, Roy decided, had no rules, or if it did, they were never agreed upon by any of the players and certainly were never written down. At least the players seemed to be having a good time, but that was all that Roy could make sense of it.

Roy determined at some point that hitting the toq—the ball—against the tents at certain times gave an amount of points determinable possibly by passersby. At one point he thought that the number of points was determined by how the ball was hit, or with which part of the body, but that theory was quickly chased out. He figured it was a game for the players anyway.

All of whom seemed to be under ten, so Roy had no intentions of joining them—even if he was welcome.

So instead, he watched the game unfold, listened to the laughter of little boys and girls chasing their worries away by chasing after a red rubber ball, and tried to ignore the presence hovering just behind him.

Tyesha had hardly turned her gaze from him for more than a minute at a time. Roy didn't blame her. She didn't believe her son that Roy was a good Amestrian and would not hurt them, but Roy thought that if she did believe him, with so little proof, that would be rather stupid on her part. He didn't mind being the subject of scrutiny considering all that he had done to the people of this land. More adults had gathered behind him and were openly sneering, saying nasty words in Ishvalan that he could somewhat translate, before wandering off to perform whatever duties they may have had.

One of the kids whooped in her play and kicked the ball. If not for a well placed dodge, Roy thought that Al may have lost his head. Tyesha didn't seem to worried about it, but that didn't stop Roy from nearly rising to check on the boy.

"You act so noble."

Roy turned his head to look up to her instead. Tyesha's crimson eyes bored into his own, leaving no room for excuses, only truth. Instead, he turned his eyes to the sand. "I don't… know what you mean."

"You brought my son back," Tyesha said at length. "You speak Ishvalan—disjointed and jaunty though it is—and you use our communicates. You pretend you're so respectful, you act as if you want to help us—but as soon as we let you go, you'll turn around and murder us all."

"I don't—"

"Do you think we don't know who you are?" Tyesha spat. She kept her voice low so the children wouldn't hear them sharing a conversation. "Do you think we're so foolish? No. We see it in your eyes, Flame Alchemist. Your eyes do not tell the story of a good person."

Roy turned his face further from her, self-loathing churning in his belly. He deserved everything she was about to say, every sharp reprimand. He deserved far worse than that.

"Not even a word," Tyesha snapped. She dug the toes of one foot into the sand and kicked some up—not necessarily at him, but not necessarily not at him. "And what of my son?"

Ed laughed and dove for the ball, hoisting it into the air triumphantly, only to be caught by the ankles and knocked to the ground. He got a mouthful of sand, but bravely spat it all out and went back to his game, adult conversation far from his mind.

"What of him?"

"Does he know?" Tyesha demanded sharply. "About you? About what you are, what you've done? Flame?"

Roy closed his eyes and lowered his head further to the sand. "...No. I never told him."

"And why not? You had plenty of time; five days wandering in the desert like that."

He didn't correct her, didn't tell her how long it took him to decide that an abused child had had enough. "It never came up."

"Never came up?" Tyesha barked a humorless laugh and lifted her eyes away in disbelief. Shame radiated off of Roy in waves. "It never came up that the man my five-year-old Ishvalan child traveled with is the same man who has killed hundreds of his own people?! That never came up?"

"N—" Roy swallowed saliva in the hopes of wetting his dry throat, which was doing a spectacular job of getting worse in the desert heat. "No. I—I couldn't."

"Don't you think he deserves to know that? He likes you already, you know. Ishvala only knows why. You're going to hurt him a lot worse when he finds out the truth."

"I… I know."

"You just don't care, do you? You Amestrians, you don't care who you hurt. It's always the same." Tyesha turned her head to the side and bunched up her nose, sounding so incredibly unamused that she didn't know what she was meant to do with it all.

"I needed him to trust me," Roy said, so low that he didn't even know if she could hear him. Didn't really know if he wanted her to hear him.

Tyesha took a few extra seconds to respond. After a few moments, she turned her head back to face him and watched him. "...What?"

"He was afraid." Roy recalled the day that they stood looking down on Hubard, when Ed had asked if he thought the Flame Alchemist was there. "Of the Flame Alchemist. Of me. I didn't want him to be… so I told him that the Flame Alchemist was far away."

Tyesha's eyes narrowed a little, but she said nothing.

"If I told him, I think he'd have run. I really do. And if he had… we wouldn't have made it here. I know that for sure. I know it wasn't right, I know it was cowardly, but if we were to get here, he couldn't be afraid of me. I needed his trust more than anything else."

"And why do you want to get here so badly?" Tyesha asked, disbelief miscoloring her tone. "You said he belonged home, but it can't be as simple as that."

"Maybe it is," Roy said, tossing her a bland smile. When she simply flattened her expression and gave him an expectant look, he said, "none of it was right."

"None of what?"

"What they were doing!" Roy said, sitting up fully and looking up to the sun. He could feel his cheeks burning a little; he was sure to get a sunburn if he ever got home. "To him! To all of you. I joined the military to help people goddammit, not kill a bunch of innocent civilians!"

Tyesha took a hard step back, looking him up and down as if perceiving his threat level.

Roy quickly lowered his head and sobered his voice. The kids had stopped playing, watching him. When he didn't move after a while, they went back to their game, a few steps farther away from him.

"So why didn't you stop?"

Roy didn't say that he, in every way he was the youngest State Alchemist in history, in every way he had blown the record for the exposition portion of the exam out of the water, he had not thought that an option. He was a dog, so doing as his master asked was no question.

Tyesha fell silent for a moment, hearing an answer though he didn't honestly provide one. Then she took a few steps forward and fell to her knees in the sand so they were right beside one another. "If you don't tell him, I will," she warned to start. It was half a threat, and half… it sounded almost as if she was apologetic.

Roy grunted nervously, eyeing her. Waiting.

Then, after a moment of anxious silence, she lowered her head to look to the sand and said "still, thank you."

To his credit, Roy's jaw didn't fall into the sand, although it was getting close.

"Th-thank you," Tyesha said, her voice shaky. "I don't know what else to say, but thank you. You brought my baby back to me. I didn't think that I'd ever see him again. That Kimblee man is not a good man, either, in many degrees worse I think, and I thought for certain they would kill him. But you brought him back to me. I know this wasn't easy for you. I know you didn't do it of the Amestrians' approval. But you did it anyway, and I can't thank you enough for that. Almost… almost every single person here is going to hate you, for what you've done. And I do, too. I… hate you, for everything you've done to my people. But still… thank you, anyway."

Roy's heart clenched, looking her up and down. She didn't lift her eyes to him. She didn't say a word more. And Roy wasn't really sure how he was supposed to respond. He stayed still for a moment, stayed silent. Then, he took a deep breath and scootched over in the sand, until they were shoulder to shoulder.

"He is okay. You would have been proud of how brave he was. He never backed down. I don't know how your people do things, but if he were mine, I'd have been very proud." He was very proud, but that was something to keep to himself.

Tyesha nodded, a ghost of a smile crossing her face when she glanced up to him. Her red eyes sparkled, lighting up in a way Roy was certain he'd only seen one another time when he'd made Heathcliff laugh so hard he snorted water from his nose in the academy.

His breath caught for a second and he quickly averted his eyes. She wasn't supposed to look like that, and certainly not at him.

Before Roy could think to respond, though, there was a rush of commotion, and hurried footsteps behind them. The two of them spun their heads around to watch as a group of burly looking men darted from the general direction of Aishoa, towards Askia's square. Roy and Tyesha split a nervous look. Tyesha rose to her feet and followed. If Roy had been anymore welcome in this community than he was, he would have to.

So instead, he waited.

There was another group that came in just a few moments later, this time from the opposite side of Aishoa. They seemed even more rushed—even more burly, too. These must have been guards of some sort, so what would have them so spooked?

Roy was afraid to find out.

Sure enough, Tyesha soon returned with her eyes on the children. Fear was lit up in them, casting her face in shadows. "There are Amestrians!" she gasped, coming to a stop behind Roy, in and amongst the group of nervous adults who were gathering since Roy was now sans babysitter. "Near the sanctuary, and by Optomolus' Dune. We haven't heard anything from the Southern Guard, but the Elders fear that they may be coming from that way too."

The Ishvalans all looked particularly alarmed. Roy wasn't sure where either of those places were, but he trained his face to be alarmed like they were—only half false. How far were those places from Aishoa? How long would it take the Amestrians to arrive?

"Where?"

Tyesha started when he spoke and glanced his way. She didn't take the time to look affronted, instead waving her hand in two general directions, east and north. "About twenty miles either way. They're close. But they've… they've stopped. The scouts think they set up camp out there."

"They're going to attack," Roy said, quietly enough that no one else seemed to hear. He vaguely remembered a plan, on the general's desk when he stole a map of the area to bring Ed home. Four companies of soldiers stationed in the four cardinal directions of the target would come together as a swarm—trap them in and outnumber them.

And now that he thought about it, he did remember the name 'Aishoa' on that plan. Aishoa, and the people of Askia, was the next target of Amestris' merciless crusade.

Come noon tomorrow, Aishoa was sure to fall.

If you have any questions on Ishvalan translations, let me know :) it's mostly Arabic-inspired, but like "Arabic put into Google Translate" inspired.

I hope you enjoyed, and please don't forget to review! If I remember, account reviews will be answered via PM.

All my love