Hello y'all!

For this OS, I focused on a character I already wrote about in the first OS of this collection. It's about exile, home, and finding peace in another country.

Theme: Eden

Characters: Maria Ross, Fu, the Armstrongs

Rating: K+

Genre: General

Enjoy!

From one Eden to another

"Mister Fu, tell me, what's Xing like?" Maria Ross squeezed the reins of her horse. Her heart was clenching in her chest as the group left Xerxes' ruins, as they rode away from Amestris, her country, that she'd decided to serve the day she'd entered the military.

The old man, who rode a few meters behind her, answered, his voice full of eagerness. "It's a country steeped in a rich culture and the people are hardworking and honest. I'm certain you'll feel at home there."

Would that replace the country where she'd grown up? Where all her family, her friends, her colleagues lived? Many were thinking she was dead, burned alive by Colonel Mustang, and many others were thinking she was Brigadier General Hughes' murderer. But that was where her life had been for the last twenty-four years. She hoped Xing would be a beautiful place, but leaving Amestris was heartbreaking. Tears began to flow on her cheeks.

"So I can expect to find a paradise on the other side of this desert?"

She couldn't hide her feeling, and the sadness she felt as she left her home, disgrace upon her, won over the relief she could have to find a safe place in a welcoming kingdom, where no one would know her, would see her as the murderer that she wasn't.

Fu warned her that the next steps of the trip would be hard, and that water was a precious resource. Maria stopped crying a few minutes later, leaving her relieved and tired. The few weeks she'd spent in the ruins had allowed her to rest for a time and examine her situation. Talking with Edward, Major Armstrong and Second Lieutenant Breda had given her some hope. She wanted to believe that she could be useful to Colonel Mustang at some point.

The journey was exhausting. Hot days replaced freezing nights, and the group found oases to refill their stock of water only every two or three days, so they were forced to save it. But the guides knew their way in a desert where all dunes looked the same.

Two weeks later, sand was replaced by stones, then stones began to be covered by vegetation, and when they rode through the first forest, Maria admired everything. The plants didn't look like anything she knew, but she'd missed green and trees so much she felt tears flowing again on her cheeks. At last she was there, she was safe. She knew Mustang had made a deal with Fu so she would be welcomed as an esteemed guest and wouldn't have to worry about her life in Xing for the next months or years.

"Welcome to Xing!" Fu said when they arrived in the first village.

The differences were flagrant. Building, clothes, tools, nothing was like what she knew. She didn't see any electric wires, and the only lights in the streets were wooden or paper lanterns. She got surprised glances from a few people who saw her and wondered how shocked they would have been if she were blond. She knew Xing was isolated from its neighbors from the West, especially Amestris, and that only a handful of people knew about other countries' culture and inhabitants. Maria herself when she was young had learned through school propaganda, that Creta and Drachma people could be cruel. But here it was her look that shocked, and she could see it in the surprised glances she received.

During her journey to the capital of clan Yao the landscapes could change one day from another, and she felt like the country changed too. They crossed an agricultural plain where farmers were working in the rice fields, hills covered by red and yellow forests where the trees had the vivid colors of autumn, narrow canyons under the rain, and finally followed a lazy river bordered by flowers fields and trees with branches falling on the ground.

At each stop in inns, Maria discovered new Xingese dishes, and new ways to cook. Rice was the main dish, but the side plates were various. The former Lieutenant learned about new vegetables and new ways to cook meat so she decided to write down everything she could to tell Amestrians what they'd missed all this time. Xing was a rich kingdom, and even if droughts and floods had destroyed some regions and left people without anything more than what they were wearing Maria knew that trade relationships would benefit both countries.

Maria spent fall and winter in the Yao Clan's residence and learned xingese – with difficulties. But she was quickly integrated into the family of the Clan's head, who taught her a lot about their culture. She felt welcomed, and only a few people had been hostile to her, because her honored guest status protected her. She didn't stray a lot outside the city, where she got lost a few times in the beginning of her stay. Despite her escort, she wanted to discover the hidden paths, see how people lived, and know her way in the city. She tried to keep her hands and mind busy, because when she wasn't doing anything, her thoughts would without fail turn to the West. What was happening in Amestris? What had the Elrics discovered? How were Major Armstrong and Sergeant Brosh managing?

In the beginning of February, she got the opportunity to have some news from her country and decided to do something to help the people there.

While she was strolling in the market with the daughter of the Clan's head, she bumped into a girl with her head covered with a veil. It was the sign she was of a good family. Maria apologized in xingese, but the delicate voice who answered spoke in amestrian. Surprised, Maria lowered her eyes and crossed with blue eyes she'd only seen in one other person. Major Armstrong had spoken lengths about his little sister, and Maria had believed she would be able to recognize her if she saw her in the streets. But she'd never imagined crossing her path thousands of miles from their own homes.

The young girl opened her eyes wide. "Aren't you Maria Ross? My brother told us we would find you in this city, but I didn't think it would be so fast!" She exclaimed enthusiastically.

Maria stayed silent and could only nod before Catherine Elle Armstrong took her hand and led her to her parents, who were surpassing the crowd by a few feet. Two hours later, thanks to a letter from her former commanding officer, and some precisions from the former General Armstrong, she knew what had happened in Central and the North of Amestris, and the plans that some officers wanted to set up on a certain day in spring.

What if some help came from the East? What if thanks to the relations she'd made in the last few months she could take action? Bring a material support to all protagonists? And then return on the field unannounced?

Then, Maria allowed herself to dream and plan that day when she could at last walk on the ground of the country where she was born, that Eden from which she'd been chased away.