This one took me a little longer than usual, because there are too many different ideas to try and sort out which are the most important, hehe. Oh well, we'll figure it out. I always do, and Addict always does, so hopefully we don't end up confusing each other in the process, though the confusion is half the fun. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.
Er… Why do I always get stuck dong the stupid disclaimers?! We don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, cry me a river, build me a bridge and GET OVER IT!
I wasn't exactly sure where to find this Casimir, since no one had bothered to explain anything to me, assuming that I knew everything there was to know about being a pixie. Thankfully though, I had a pretty good guess as to where to look, considering that he was a river spirit, and I definitely knew where the river was.
I didn't have time to learn the code to get back up into Adomadren, so I had made sure to quickly ask Anselm if he would still be there when I came back so as to let me back in, which he figured he probably would, and then I ran off in the direction of the river. Maybe being a pixie, I should've just used pixie dust and flown there to save time, but I honestly didn't know how to get myself to make it at will yet, so it didn't seem wise to try that.
I finally arrived at the river, but there didn't seem to be anyone waiting for my arrival, which was slightly disappointing. I shrugged and let out a sigh, and then began walking along the riverbank. No one was coming into my field of vision as of yet. Maybe I had to call him. "C-Casimir?" I called, "This is Alphonse Elric...er, Anselm...whatever you people call me." I chuckled self-consciously at my ineptitude in the ways of fay, and then regained my composure and continued. "I was told you wanted to meet with me earlier, but something came up with my brother, so I'm a little late."
Without any further warning, a wall of water suddenly shot up from out of the river, grabbed me, and swept me down into it. I struggled for breath, but it was a futile effort, since the little bit of air I had carried with me was escaping into the water around me and I couldn't surface. Was he trying to drown me? Had I made him that angry simply by arriving a little bit late? Did the fay think like that?
"Calm down, young one, and let go of the air. The water is your element," a voice boomed out of seemingly nowhere. I started to panic. I wasn't sure exactly what the voice meant by that statement, but if I were to expel the remaining air from my lungs, wouldn't I drown? Still, this force that was holding me under the surface of the water wasn't letting me rise up to take another breath, and at that rate, I was going to drown anyway. The air in my lungs was making me quite uncomfortable as it was, so if I was destined to die here, it would be so much easier to just let out the rest of the air and die sooner rather than later.
My strength of will charged through me like fire through my veins. I couldn't fight against the pressure holding me down, but I didn't have to be miserable down here either. I closed my eyes and exhaled the last of my air and awaited the inevitable. I was sure that my lungs were soon going to either start crying out in pain for air, or I would just black out. I hoped it would be the second one of the two. It sounded the least miserable.
Time seemed to stretch on endlessly. How long was it going to take for my body to have a reaction to a lack of air? I opened my eyes to check on what was taking so long, and found to my amazement that I still didn't feel any ill feelings towards not having air to breathe. I knew that I was not human, but I thought that I still needed air to survive. Now I was beginning to wonder if that was the case. There was always one way to find out.
I carefully opened my mouth as though about to take a breath, and water instantly rushed in, tempting me to choke, but I refused to let it do so. My chest expanded the way it always did to take in air, only there was no air around, only water, and yet I felt no pain. My chest contracted again to expel my unnecessary breath, and I breathed the extra water out. I couldn't believe it, I was actually breathing water!
"Congratulations, young one, you have successfully learned to let go."
I jerked my head around, trying to find the source of the voice this time, but was unable to identify anyone around me. Or maybe that was precisely it...around me. While it was clearly one entity speaking to me, it sounded like the voice was coming from every direction at once. This being had probably taken the form of the water surrounding me.
Almost as soon as I'd noticed that, however, the water in front of me began swirling and a blue, humanoid shape began to appear. He looked at me, a gentle smile on his face, as his light, wavy, blue hair was gently swaying in the currents. "I am Casimir," he said, "I called you here because I wanted to test your character before the Fee Council tonight, as you are under my element. You have a very open mind, willing to accept new things that were previously inconceivable. You should do well."
"Um," I began, not quite sure how to phrase the question on my mind, but it had been bothering me ever since I had first heard of it, and I had to know, "I thought that pixies were an earth spirit. Why am I the fay of water?"
I saw the laughter reach Casimir's eyes at the sound of my question. It was probably so obvious to the rest of the fay that asking it made me look totally naïve, but I still had to know. "As a Changeling in the mortal realm," Casimir said, "You are undoubtedly familiar with the mortals' calendar system, are you not?"
"Yes," I said, and emphasized my answer with a nod.
"Then," Casimir continued, "You are familiar with their system of applying certain attributes to people depending on when they come into existence?"
It took me a moment to sort that thought out, since he wasn't using the most common sense words he could have been using, but I finally understood what he was trying to ask, and I repeated it back to him in the form of a question. "Are you talking about the personality traits assigned to people by their zodiac signs?"
"Precisely," said Casimir, "We of the fay have a system that compares with their system, though it is not identical. When you first come into existence here, whether your kind is of earth, water, fire, or air, the individual will have an affinity with a particular element as well. Sometimes it will be synonymous with their family's element, and sometimes it will not be."
"And in my case," I said, pointing to my chest, "I was born into an earth family, but individually, I am in tune with the element of water?"
Casimir smiled again. "I think you understand."
"But," I said, quickly putting up my hand to object to the newly implanted knowledge, even though it did make a lot of sense, "I was born in late September. That would make me a Libra, and that's the element of air."
Casimir chuckled patiently and shook his head as if I was a very slow student, which I probably was. "Your changeling counterpart was born in the mortal realm with mortal time and the mortal calendar. You, however, were born in the fay realm, and many things are different here, including the element you are associated with."
I had to admit, even though everything he had said made perfect sense, I was still very confused. There were so many new things to grasp and so many old ideas that I was just expected to let go of that my brain was getting frazzled. I had grown up thinking that I was born on September 29, 1900. If I wasn't born then, when was I born?
Casimir seemed to be able to read the expression on my face, and he decided to try and explain the situation to me again, since I wasn't understanding. "Time doesn't pass here in the same way it does in the mortal realm. Time, as you know it, doesn't even exist here in the same way. A day spent here may be but one second in the realm of mortals, or it may be an entire lifetime. Our realms follow different rules when it comes to the passage of Time, and so the moment when your first moment of consciousness corresponded with that of the mortal realm is irrelevant, since our worlds are separate and distinct."
I hung my head. Now he was attacking the concept of Time that I had grown to accept in my lifetime. No wonder I was so confused. I didn't know how to imagine things without the same concept of Time I had been accustomed to. It seemed that they had some sort of semblance of Time in this realm, since days and nights still persisted, but it was clear that I didn't understand exactly how that concept worked. I was just going to have to push it to the back of my mind for the time being before I got a headache, since I was not going to be able to understand it all at once, that much was clear.
"You learn well for having never known any of this before," Casimir said, bringing me out of my thoughts. I nodded, not caring to respond verbally anymore. He didn't seem to mind. "I will represent your case for you tonight at the Fee Council if you so desire. You have a good heart, a vibrant curiosity, and a very open mind, all of which are qualities embodied by those worthy to call themselves 'fay'."
"Um...okay," I said, not really sure what he was talking about this time, but I didn't think it would hurt to allow him to do what he wanted to do in the first place. He seemed to really care what I was thinking and feeling and respected me for asking questions rather than teasing me for not knowing.
Casimir smiled again and said, "I will see you at the Fee Council," and then the water swirled and his humanoid form disappeared. The pressure that had been holding me down suddenly changed and came from underneath me, pushing me up to the surface and laying me gently on the bank of the river before sweeping itself back into the river.
I sat up and rubbed my head, trying to readjust to being on land again. Water trickled out of my mouth as though I was drooling, but I couldn't help it. It had to come out in order for air to circulate through my body again, and that was apparently the best way for it to do so. Before long, the water was completely out, and I finally took my first breath of air again. It felt good and refreshing, though I finally realized that breathing didn't seem to be a necessity for me anymore, it was merely a habit. I was a nature spirit, not a mortal being, and so I didn't require air to survive, but it helped me to feel more at home to breathe air, so I did.
As soon as I had readjusted to my situation, I went back to the clearing to find Anselm so that he would get the dryad to let me up into the city so I could check on Brother. The Colonel was still there. He and Anselm seemed to be bickering with each other, or something like that. I wasn't sure how long they had been at it with each other, but both of their faces seemed to be quite red, so it didn't seem like it would be a good idea to interfere.
Fortunately, Anselm looked up at that moment and saw me standing there, nodded in my direction and then turned and glared at the Colonel. I felt shivers run down my spine. That boy who was supposed to be me in a way was acting too much like my brother for comfort. Maybe real Elrics acted more like that than like me, with the exception of Mom. But she was a girl, so she was immune to the Elric curse. I smiled at the thought. Those poor Elric boys, they always grew up to be competitive idiots. I placed my hand over my mouth to try and keep myself from laughing, because I knew that Anselm wouldn't appreciate it if he knew what I was laughing at.
Finally he turned away from the still very red Colonel and marched right up to the tree. He wiggled his fingers in the particular way to get the ladder to drop and then he spun around and marched right back to the Colonel. I looked first at the ladder and then at him, wondering if I should be doing something about the situation, knowing how I'd always had to pull my brother off of people. Still, I wanted to see how my brother was doing, and I figured that the Colonel ought to be able to take care of himself, just so long as he didn't eat anything.
I scurried up the ladder and then ran as fast as I could in the direction where I intuited the hospital to be. I'd never been there, and no one had told me where it was, but I just knew where to go, just as I had when I had found Brother at the food court.
Since I knew and trusted my senses a bit more than I had the last time I had used them, I found the hospital in just a matter of minutes. Mom was standing outside of it, as though guarding the place. The building appeared surprisingly small for what I would have thought a hospital should be, but I was guessing that that was because the fay rarely ever got sick or injured, and didn't often need the hospital. I hoped that they knew enough about humans to help Brother, because I certainly knew that he was going to be utilizing their services from time to time, as reckless as he was.
"Mom," I said, stopping in front of her and staring at her with a combination of concern for my brother and awe at seeing her again. I wanted to ask her so much, but I didn't have the time at present. That would have to wait until later. "How is Brother?"
"He's asleep now," she said, "He'll be alright when he wakes up. You shouldn't disturb him right now though, he needs his rest."
"Uh, yeah," I said, trying not to sound argumentative, though I really wanted to see him, just to make sure he was all right. "Would it be fine if I just took a look at him as long as I didn't wake him?"
Mom sighed and her shoulders slumped somewhat. I guessed that she had given in to my request. She never had been able to say no to me very easily. "Alright, sweetie, but make sure that you don't wake him up, okay?"
"I won't," I reiterated. Then she stepped aside, and I pushed the door open and went in.
The room was mostly dark, but it was light by a faint light from within somewhere, which I thought might be potentially disturbing to one's sleep, so its presence confused me. I scanned the room for the source, and almost fainted when I discovered it. Brother was sound asleep, but he wasn't in his bed as would be expected. I knew that human beings were prone to sleepwalking at times, but I'd never heard of anything like this. Not only was his skin emitting the glow that was illuminating the room, but he was hovering a couple feet above his bed, completely unaware of what was going on, judging by the serene expression on his face.
I slowly inched back towards the door. If I awoke him, there would be trouble. That would be quite a start for him to wake up in midair, especially if he fell as a result. As soon as I got out of the door, I turned to Mom again. "What's going on with Brother in there?" I asked.
"What do you mean, sweetie?" she asked.
I made her look for herself, and she seemed just as alarmed as I had been. Apparently I was right, and this wasn't normal behavior for patients in the realm of fay. She grabbed my hand. "Come on," she said, "Something needs to be done. Let's go and find the doctor."
I didn't dare argue.
Hum dee dum dee hum… I know what's going on. Though that's partly because agent asked me if I would be open to the idea before she decided to write it in. Now, you guys leave some reviews for us, mmkay?
