A/N: Hello again! Wow. Chapter four already. I feel like singing… but I won't because you would all probably cover your ears in fright. (I got sick recentlythus my voice tends to crack at the moment) Anyway, I hope you all like this chapter.
4-Front Lines
Five days after the Major's first (and only) visit, the doctors deemed me well enough to return to active duty. I sighed as I lay down in the women's tent. My arm was fully operational, however stiff the actions might be. I was glad that I was able to walk around again without a nurse hanging off my arm. It was just in time, as well. I was given transfer orders along with Roy Mustang, Jean Havoc, and other soldiers. We were to go to a major battle being held to the North of our current position. I said my goodbyes to the other women, some of whom I had been friendly with. Not friends, really. This war was too dangerous for friends. Jennifer and I gave each other goodbye insults and glares as I exited the tent.
When we arrived at the battle site, the soldiers immediately rushed us into the commanding officer's tent before we could be shot by the enemy. The CO was a large, dark-skinned man who was bald, yet sported a black moustache so pointy that it seemed as if a person could be impaled on it. He was the Colonel Brasque Gran, the Iron Blood Alchemist. He issued us our orders and sent us on our way.
I was to go immediately into battle. I shouldered my new rifle and shoved a recently acquired pistol into its holster before heading off to be a good little sniper by the front. My ears were soon ringing from the loud bursts of gunfire and the calls of men around me as I crawled through the trenches. As I reached the Northern edge of the front lines, I crouched behind small dunes as I looked for a suitable area to shoot from. My eyes rested on a tall dune overlooking the front and part of the Ishbalan city. I scurried up to the top of the dune, set up my rifle and picked off the people who looked the most important or heavily armed.
When the Major entered the battlefield, he came up on the more Southern edge of the front line. I noticed that a few of the Ishbalans had started heading in his direction and picked them off, but I had to reload and couldn't get them all. As I was loading new bullets into the rifle, my eyes flitted from the battle, to the gun and back up to the battle; ever watching as the men I had missed worked their way closer to the Major. This was the first time I had ever actually seen Mustang use his flames. He just stretched out his arm and -with the subtle brush of one finger against another- ended those men's lives. I smiled inwardly, 'He can take care of himself, Hawkeye. Just worry about the Ishbalans who look important for now.' I thought as I pointed the rifle at another target.
After a few days of battle, the alchemists were summoned to Colonel Gran's tent. They were each given some sort of item that increased alchemical reactions as far as any of the troops knew. We watched as the alchemists receded back into their tent, a small wooden box clutched tightly in the hands of one of them. None of them returned from the tent for hours. Knowing that they were all scientists, I thought that they were probably poking and prodding whatever it was that had been given to them. I smiled within at the thought of Mustang holding something in a gloved hand and poking it with a long stick. (A/N: Try it. It's actually an amusing scene… at least it is at three in the morning… The red blob in his hand and a fairly long stick. Pokepokepoke. Hehehe)
The next day, the soldiers were told to escort the alchemists onto the battlefield. This included the snipers. I had my pistol at the ready, as it would do me more good than the rifle while in such close quarters with the enemy. I made sure that I was only a one or two steps behind Major Mustang. I had made a promise to myself that since he saved my life, I owed him. I had taken it upon myself to make sure that no harm came to him.
I scanned the surrounding area for any suspicious P's or O's (persons or objects). There was nothing too conspicuous. 'But then again,' I thought, 'It's the things that aren't conspicuous that are the most dangerous.' Undeterred, I kept my pistol at the ready. An eerie silence had settled over the reddish-brown sand where the bodies of the enemy fallen littered the land. Once again, there was a foreboding tension that made the soldiers fidget like jumpy horses. Mustang's eyes momentarily flitted over to me as he heard my gun safety click off.
"I don't like this, sir. It's too quiet," I said softly. He shook his head.
"I don't like this either, Lieutenant. It's like they up and left."
"This could be good. On the other hand, though, it could be…" I let my words hang. Our eyes connected as realization crept into our minds.
"An ambush," we whispered.
"Should I give the order, sir?" I asked, keeping my cool demeanour as my mind was racing.
"Let's wait a bit before… wait. What was that?" Mustang asked after seeing a shape skirt between dunes. He already knew what it was. The Major retracted his last statement and called out the order to retreat. Out of nowhere, Ishbalans started running over dunes, shooting at us while we tried to shoot at them. I aimed and shot, never missing a target, never paying attention to who it was.
"Major!" I yelled as I noticed him out of the corner of my eye at the head of the fray, a definite target for anyone on the enemy side. He slipped a ring onto one of his fingers and winced as he snapped those fingers together. An explosion the size and intensity of which I had never seen before erupted out of nowhere and engulfed the enemy, burning them into oblivion. Their shrieks of pain lasted perhaps only a second or two at most before they abruptly stopped. Blackened bone that hit the burned sand and white ash drifting off on the breeze like snow was all that remained of the force that had tried to ambush us.
Mustang just… stared. He stared at the contradiction of snow in the desert and the cleansed bones of the enemy. All the troops stared at him. At the feeling of all those eyes on his large back, his face hardened and he turned on his heel, heading back to camp. I jogged after him.
"Sir?" I called. All of the soldiers ahead of him were silent in their awe and cleared a path for him. As I drew even to him, I noticed that he held no expression on his face. There was only a blank void.
"Lieutenant?" he said coldly. I winced inwardly. The tone of his voice screamed 'back off'. So I did. I just stopped in my tracks and watched as he made his way back to the tents. I hoped to any god that would listen that he wasn't going to do anything stupid. Because, the only thing I couldn't protect him from was himself.
A/N: Right. I know, it's a shorter chapter. Overall, a bit of a departure from my norm. Meh. Once again, I beg for reviews!