Of Fire and Alchemy

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA.

Warnings: Later Roy/Ed, Havoc/Fury, Restored!Al/Winry, Alternate Universe

> > > > >

Chapter 2

Amestris was surrounded by a high wall, almost thirty feet in height. The roadway ended in a locked iron gate fringed by precariously watchful guards. Mustang watched with hawk eyes, observing quietly the serene forest around him. He knew it was stupid to try and attack them or sneak through the gate with a disguise on. Nothing could hide his features well enough. Black hair and black eyes may have been common enough, but shockingly sharp eyes were rare for a farmer. Mustang did not know why, but there had been such a bounty placed on his head that even the most peaceful of priests would not resist hunting him down. Everyone knew who he was. Everyone knew all about him.

So why didn't he?

Oddly enough, Mustang could recall only fragments of memories before the fire. He knew the basic facts; what everything was and what his name was, but any events he tried to call up were blurry and incomplete. Mustang found, to his surprise, he couldn't even recall his mother's face or his father's, in fact. He remembered a head of blond hair, and another of black. Wasn't his father enlisted in the military? Or was he a merchant? No… it was his mother that was a merchant, right?

Mustang sighed and rubbed the tips of his gloved fingers to his temples. And another thing: what the hell was the pattern on the back of his gloves mean? He had never seen them before, and though, he admitted, it was a surprisingly unique and attractive pattern, it was at the same time somewhat eerie. They reminded him of something, but he just couldn't figure out what. His memories were too messed up, too scrambled to be anything of worth. Yet he couldn't let go of them, afraid that he'd forget absolutely everything if he did. Confusing memories were better than having no memories at all.

Mustang suddenly had an idea. He waited until the guards were switched, and, in that moment of looser security, shimmied up a tree (dodging all arrows) and jumped over the wall. He crash landed on the other side, groaning a bit as his left ankle twisted from under him and he fell to the ground. But a minute later, despite the pain, he was up and running again.

The guards behind him gave a shout of protest, then the gate was opened and they filed in. Mustang hadn't stop running, his feet bruised and sore and his ankle throbbing. As he came to a large stream, the guards catching up, he did not go over the bridge and instead jumped in the water, swimming downstream with the swift current. The guards could only shout and wave their swords, their capture being too far for them to do anything.

Out of nowhere an arrow whistled through the air and embedded itself into the back of Mustang's right shoulder.

He screamed, inhaled water instead, and choked. The current pulled him under and though he struggled and kicked, it did nothing and Mustang soon sank to the bottom in a swirl of reddened water.

> > > > >

Edward fiddled with the metal collar around his neck, trying to break free of its hold. It annoyed him to a great extent, hanging heavy around his neck. And it was also because of the confounded collar that he was blocked from his alchemy. Not only that, but it chafed against his neck and shoulder, leaving painful scrape and rub marks wherever it was. Al had told him the only reason it scraped against him was because he moved around so much, and if he stayed still it wouldn't hurt anymore. Ed had taken this to heart for a while, seeing that Al had no problems with the collar, but restlessness soon overtook him and he forgot Al's advice. Elves weren't supposed to be locked up, damn it! They were supposed to be living in the woods, where there was a lot of open space. It wasn't claustrophobia, but it was unnatural. And boring!

Al had been talking to Roy for a while now, and Ed dearly hoped his younger brother wasn't giving away too much about them. Not that he wasn't listening. Of course not. He was just not caring. Stupid nosy human; who did he think he was? Didn't he know the elves were greater than him? Didn't he know he shouldn't be meddling in their affairs? Didn't he?!

Al suddenly stopped talking and Ed looked up from his musings. The gray-eyed elf had a look of shock, or confusion on his face.

"What?" He asked, staring with disbelief at Roy. The human ceaselessly surprised him!

"You heard me. I said, teach me alchemy."

Ed leapt up at that, ignoring the collar chafing his neck. How dare he? Alchemy was the ancient science reserved for the elves and ONLY the elves. How dare he even REQUEST to try and learn it? Both Al and Roy went silent at his reaction, the latter watching him carefully.

"You- How dare- Stupid hum-" Ed stuttered, his fury exceeding his speech. "You're toying with us. You know we're not allowed, NOT GOING to teach you alchemy and you still dare to ask something like that?!"

Al had backed into a corner far away from his brother. Ed was scary when he was mad. He was like a rabid tiger, only wilder. Out of instinct, Ed clapped and was about to turn the cage into a sword… preferably a very sharp sword when the collar hummed, glowed, and sent bolts of mind-numbing pain throughout his body. Ed spilled onto the floor, twitching with pain in a disturbing sort of fashion.

"Damn it!" Ed screamed in Elvish, struggling to stand back up. He shook his head clear of the black around the edges and raised his head defiantly to still glare at Roy. Al, alarmed, helped his brother up, supporting the golden-eyed one and mumbling something.

"Did you forget we can't use alchemy? Try that next time and you could be killed!"

"He dared to ASK about alchemy, Al! He's just an impudent human. Why are you even telling him this much?"

"If I don't, who will? I know you sure won't. And then we'd never get out of here. It was the only smart thing to do, Brother. And anyhow, I'm not telling him that much!"

Edward had no answer. Instead, he pushed away from his brother and sat in a corner of the cage, sulking and occasionally shooting a lethal glare at Roy. Stupid, insignificant, impudent human…

Said human was watching Edward carefully. There was something about this elf that he found extraordinarily… familiar. It wasn't the hair or the personality… perhaps it was the attitude? Or… Roy thought harder. Was it his eyes? Even for an elf, golden eyes were rare. But it wasn't just the color or the shape. There was something behind the eyes that flickered now and then. Something that wasn't exactly angry but not full of angst either. It was bitterer with maybe a small flit of regret now and then. Like dark sadness that makes your soul cry, not your eyes.

Roy waved the feeling off. He was being too psychological for even his own tastes. He was probably just seeing things, too. This was the first time he had ever seen Edward. How could he be familiar?

Roy firmly decided that he was getting sleep this night, no matter how much Ed screamed.

Al had stopped talking, staring at a fixated place behind Roy. The human took notice of this and quickly turned his head, jumping out of the way just in time to avoid a craftsman's hammer from crushing his skull in. Al leapt back into the cage, wincing as the hammer bounced off the bars with a resonating whine. The sound echoed in his sensitive ears and blocked out any other possible sound, including Ed's howl of auditory pain.

Roy in turn had smacked himself against his desk and was now rubbing his very bruised back. He frowned and turned again to the doorway facing the culprit who had thrown it.

Mistress Winry.

Roy hastily made himself presentable, standing up and straightening his shirt. He almost stuttered, but was cut off as a group of other young ladies hurried down the corridor and immediately tramped him. The other girls now fussed over Winry, who was desperately trying to escape the crowd. Roy weakly protested, his head smugly squished between his floor and some silk shoes, and Ed and Al were left to wonder what the hell was going on.

"Miss Winry, you mustn't leave us behind!"

"Miss Winry, you are utterly not presentable! Please do not leave first before consulting us!"

"Miss Winry, please don't throw things at other people! And don't steal from the craftsman, as a side-note!"

"Miss Winry! Are you visiting a man while wearing a working dress? Shame on you!"

"Miss Winry, you're not allowed to wear those shoes outside the castle! Please, wear these instead!"

It took the entire group ten minutes to notice that Winry was gone and was currently running as fast as she could through the garden in a desperate attempt to escape.

The mass of feminine bodies surged and was gone as quickly as it came.

Roy grunted and slowly sat up, glaring after them and rubbing his right cheek where the imprint of a shoe was clearly seen. He stood up and locked the door as a precaution, turning his attention back on the elves. Al was looking quizzically out the window into the garden where the unwanted entourage chased, as one, after a single fleeing figure that jumped a hedge and disappeared into the marketplace and was seen no more. Ed rubbed his ears where the high pitched squealing of the group still echoed, frowning as the sudden silence caused an unpleasant ringing. He shook his head but only managed to cause the blood to rush to it. This put Ed in an even worse mood than before.

"Who was she?" Al asked, now turning his attention to Roy.

"Mistress Winry, princess of Amestris and heir to the throne of the land." Roy replied somewhat sourly, still massaging his sore cheek.

"Heh, seems like a spoiled brat to me! Who does she think she is, showing up uninvited and with a group of THOSE people?" Ed snarled, still trying to clear his head of the insistent ringing. "And she throws a boulder of a hammer and manages to damage our hearing! What a bitch…"

Roy could only shrug.

"Think what you like, Edward. But be thankful you aren't a citizen of the land and I'm not a tattletale or else you'd be executed for treason. And I'd suspect that it'd be a painful death because the archers would keep missing. You're such a small target, after all."

Ed bristled. The human… he addressed him directly! And at the same time managed to insult him! Stupid bastard! Didn't he know his place?! Edward lost his temper again and launched himself at the bars, clawing at Roy from between the bars. He wasn't swift enough, however, and, instead of scratching him across the chest, Ed only managed to rip a bit of the shirt's right shoulder.

The small bit of the shirt fell away to reveal an obvious and gruesome scar. It was only visible for a moment, however, before Roy grimaced and threw a light cloak on, successfully covering it up. It couldn't be forgotten, though. Scars of that caliber were not common at all. There were no medical practices the humans knew that could treat a wound that big. He should have died. Roy should have died, if not from blood loss then from infection. But the portion of pale flesh stood out against Roy's well-tanned body and, from the looks of it, had been very painfully attained.

Like, Ed thought, as if an arrow had punctured him there…

> > > > >

AN: Review responses:

FmaLover No, there's no Roy/Ed now. There will be later. And Roy's not going to keep Ed and Al caged up forever! That'd be… horrible! And inhumane! And… (goes off to ramble about the consequences of keeping elves in cages)

MorurisuShirubi Well, I'm drawing the elf stuff from mythology and stories. But the language and the customs I'm thinking off the top of my head. If you really love elves you can find a lot of info on them by typing "elves" in google. ; But you've probably already done that…

Nicholas Perle: House elves, eh? Interesting… (Is actually quite scared by the prospect of Ed and Al being house elves) But it wasn't exactly the image I had in mind. I was thinking more of the forest elf type, you know? With the tunics and the pointed ears and the… never mind. I'm rambling again.

To EVERYBODY who reviewed:

Thank you for reviewing! You made an authoress very happy! Whee! (dances)

To any other people reading this:

Thank you for reading this story and all my ramblings. It makes me happy that I can entertain people. Now… Equivalent trade? (puppy dog eyes)