Golden Scales Chapter 21
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.
o.O.0.O.o
I woke up to the sensation of falling. Being half-asleep and groggy as I was, I didn't quite register that sensation until I had plummeted roughly three quarters of the way down the waterfall. I snapped out of my daze just in time to be shocked awake by the impact of the water at the bottom of the falls.
For a brief moment, my now panic-filled form spun around every which way with the turbulence of the water. The water twirled me quickly enough to give me an unpleasant bout of nausea. When I finally broke free of the turbulent currents, I wrapped my arms around myself and bent over to heave. But that was all that happened: just heaving. No vomit came up. Simply because my stomach contained nothing food-related to offer.
I groaned miserably and sank to the bottom of the river. There I waited for my agony to subside whilst I glanced around to take in my newest environment.
To my immediate surprise, I was no longer in a river. Not even close. The water stretched on in all directions for as far as my eyes could see; and I saw no end. The farther I looked on, the darker and deeper the water seemed to become. Huge rock formations disrupted the smooth flow of the sandy, plant-riddled floor. Fish species I had not yet seen until now swam past in groups. Some of the smaller fish in larger groups bravely investigated my long, now glowing hair. I stifled a girlish giggle as their tiny forms tickled each sensitive strand.
Despite my being lost, a large grin stretched my lips upward and, unknown to me, showed off my sharp shark-like teeth. I felt another bout of ridiculous euphoria overwhelm me as the group of tiny fish swirled fearlessly around me. I began experiencing new and potent emotions, flooding me with strange but welcomed thrill. Even though it was clearly a lake, I couldn't help but thrive in this spacious, sea-like enclosure.
A few minutes later, the large group of tiny fish moved on, leaving me alone to investigate my surroundings. I glanced up and noticed a distorted, shimmering silver light above the surface. The moon, I figured. It was night. Meaning safe to look around without drunkard hunters milling about.
Slowly, I came down from my happiness high. As my mindset descended to earth, I ascended to the surface of the lake. My head broke the surface, and I used my webbed hand to push a few locks of glowing hair out of my eyes. Immediately upon blinking and opening my inner eyelids, I scanned the area and registered the deep mountain-ringed valley I found myself in. I also noted that something about this place struck me as familiar. I frowned, but shoved the thought aside for the moment.
My eyes continued to swipe over the mountain range, but stopped when they spotted lights in the distance. Static lights, likely belonging to a small settlement just through the woods. A human settlement.
I contemplated my options carefully. I could swipe a map from one of the fishing shacks on the east side of the lake before dawn. But how would I get in? The doors were probably locked. Even if I was miraculously strong enough to break the lock, I wouldn't be able to reach it anyhow. I could wait for day until a human unlocked the door, but then I'd have to run the risk of getting spotted. Neither way sounded good.
I frowned in disappointment. If only I had legs. Two thirds of my problems thus far came from my rueful inability to get around on land. That and my inability to navigate on my own. One would figure a siren might have some sort of magical, built-in compass, right? Wrong. Like any other animal, I possessed little to no special qualities. In fact, the only reason I'd made it this long was because the witches had been taking care of me since my awakening. Now that they were gone, I had no assistance, no way of knowing where I was, and no company.
Yet another reason I needed to find them. They were my lifeline out here in the open air.
An expression of intense resolution robbed my face of my previous frown. I needed a map, and fast. I didn't care if it took me all night. I'd find a way into that fishing shack without legs.
Nodding to myself, I flicked my tailfin and headed for the east side of the lake.
o.O.0.O.o
Lust found herself at the entrance of a lively town. As she watched the humans dance and frolic around inside their fenced borders, the homunculus wore a faded smile. She thought it quite cute that humans went out of their way to celebrate the moon's alignment with the sun. Lust celebrated as well, but not with silly dances and beaded necklaces. For her, a smile was enough.
Her treasonous happiness would've cost her her head had Father seen her just then, but she didn't care. Her time in the lighthouse tower gave her more than enough time to mull over her options. Options that she'd never possessed until recently. Envy's offer tempted the Great Temptress. After so long of thinking it over, she concluded that she'd rather be exhumed from this world and freed than serve Father as a perpetual slave.
All she needed was an opening. Some act of defiance to Father that would signal to Envy her agreement to his terms. And now that the solstice had arrived, it was too late for Father to break his ties with Truth using the Moon Stone. They'd have to wait for another celestial alignment— the winter solstice. Which gave Lust plenty of time to commit this act of defiance.
It also gave the siren plenty of time to heal, although he didn't know it yet. Likely, he still expected attacks from them. This brought Lust to her latest revelation as she formulated her act of defiance: she'd tell him. He had not yet seen her, and therefore she could simply walk up to him and offer her knowledge. It sounded swell and dandy in her mind, but she knew nothing could be that simple. She'd have to get past Greed's bodyguard without raising alarm first.
Lust sighed and shuffled her feet. Her heels dug small indentations in the dirt she stood upon. She leaned against the fence with crossed arms, aiming to look irreproachable. It failed.
"Excuse me, miss," a voice said, "Would you care for a dance?"
Lust looked up to see a young man –maybe twenty– smiling and offering his hand. He had stunning blue eyes and an endearingly disheveled mop of black hair. He wore festival garb: colorful trousers, a white tunic, and a tulle scarf wrapped diagonally around his chest. She blinked despite herself.
At first, she moved to sneer and slap the lower creature's hand away. That's the kind of behavior that Father expected of her. Father had pounded into their heads that humans were a despicable race that they ought not sink low enough to interact with. But Lust quickly stopped herself. Lust herself had no quarrels with humankind. Her filthy crimes against the animals were only to keep up appearances and please Father. Like Envy, she grew rather jealous of them. They were, in her opinion, adorable. She yearned to find happiness in the strangest of places just as they did.
Lust raised her gaze and fixated her focus on the human's earnest and cheerful expression. She smiled slightly. In her own way, Lust committed an act of defiance. A defiance that combatted her former self. The self that Father had worked so hard to sculpt. Father's perfect cast of Lust crumbled away as she took the young man's offered hand. A genuine smile spread across her lips as she said in a for once unstressed tone:
"Certainly."
o.O.0.O.o
At this point, Martel would rather give up the charade than watch the siren struggle for one more second. It was bad enough when Martel couldn't get a wink of shut-eye because of that stupid river current. But this? This was just sad. She observed miserably as her charge tried again and again to open that damned door.
This had been going on for hours.
The snake chimera slunk a little lower into her bough. She leaned her head against the tree trunk, closed her eyes, and sighed. It wasn't like her charge was going anywhere. If she'd learned anything about this siren since Greed assigned her bodyguard-duty, it was that he was insufferably stubborn. Even as she laid there in her tree, she could hear his not-so-silent grunts, growls, and frustrated yells echoing off the earthen walls of the valley. With each double-toned shriek of effort, the unsettled birds either fluttered their wings or cawed.
She felt sympathy for those birds. She too would love nothing more at that moment than for those noises to stop. Martel grew quite exhausted of this creature's undying determination. She often asked herself if his need for sleep would eventually force him to relent. So far, it looked unlikely.
Martel relaxed into the tree and listened to the siren's noise for two more hours. Finally, as she watched the siren reluctantly retreat back into the lake at dawn, her shoulders dropped in relief.
Then she made a rash, but necessary decision. She leapt down from her perch and trotted across the shore to the fishing shack. Once there, she broke the lock and slipped inside. She swiped the nearest map off the table inside and took it back to her perch, carefully shutting the door behind her as she went. She resolved to bury the map in the sand by the door just before dusk that next evening.
o.O.0.O.o
I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. They slid over the surrounding area skeptically, scanning for the being that surely left the map there for me. Someone had definitely spotted me last night, but I couldn't make heads or tails of their species. The footprints left behind in the sand offered no clear clue. They were just circles, as if a hoofed animal trampled through. Or perhaps a human walking on their toes.
Either way, it was obvious the map had been fetched for me. I shrugged. If it was some kind of trap, I always had my freaky electric-eel powers. I lifted my shaky webbed hand and dislodged the parchment from the sand. My ear-fins flicked to and fro, listening for movement. I heard none.
After a moment or two, I sighed and opened the map. I spread it out on the sand and orientated it according to the compass provided in the upper right-hand corner. I happily scanned the layout. Almost straight away, I recognized the lake that I currently occupied. Smack dead in the center of the map. How convenient.
I also recognized another familiar landmark: railroad tracks. It was then that it dawned on me. Of course! This place looked familiar because I'd seen it before. Back when I was on the first train with the witches. I remembered seeing a winged girl nesting in a tree, and a family of deer crossing a nearby stream.
I quickly shoved this aside as I focused on the issue at hand. I scanned every labeled city dot for Resembool. My eyes lit up when I found it. A smile spread across my face. I wasn't too far off from it, either. A week's journey if I took the southbound river. And I'd only have to cross through one city on the way: Dublith.
However, there was one element of the map that I didn't quite understand. I did not blame the mapmakers, or accuse them of error, but I didn't quite get how the witches could've taken me from that particular location. Resting out in what appeared to be barren farmland and forest, Resembool possessed no large bodies of water. Nor was it located anywhere near the sea. It resided right there in Amestris; the country surrounded by land. Only one, measly little river cut through the small settlement.
Part of me wondered if Aliss had given me the wrong name. Or that perhaps I'd found a different Resembool. Either way, it made no sense to me.
Nonetheless, it was my only lead. I knew I should be counting myself lucky that someone was kind enough to fetch even the map for me. And lucky that Aliss coughed up a specific name. I rolled up the map and took it with me. I glanced around one last time before slithering back into the lake.