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Disclaimer: I do not own FMA. However, I do claim my character Shia Pendragon, and any other affiliated characters and places.
Chapter 2: Icy Hold
The river was flowing fast, Ed wasn't having an easy time staying above the waters surface with the factors of his automail limbs and the fact that the rapids were getting worse. His body was already going numb from the cold water. Several times he'd tried performing alchemy, but it failed each time being as he couldn't connect both hands without either sinking down to far or hitting some form of debris. He'd long given up on alchemy and was trying to survive right now. He could feel his body trying to just give up and sink, but he wasn't ready.
"I'm not ready to die…I haven't restored Al to his body…I CAN'T DIE!" He shouted out of frustration, he'd been going downstream for about 3 hours now. The rapids growing less and less, the water growing colder and colder, deeper and deeper. Ed was tired, he felt like he couldn't go on anymore, like he could keep fighting the current. He began to sink, with his last fading moments of consciousness he saw the light of the outer world from below the water's surface, the cold seeping into his very soul, the sound of the water moving around him like a constant rhythm, as he faded still the rhythm changed for a brief moment then resumed. Something disrupted natures flow…the thought began to fade as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Shia had heard the explosion, but had not known what it was until the river began yielding some clues, metal that was twisted the occasional dead body in which she pulled out of the river. She'd been watching for the past hour by the side, pulling a body when she saw one until she saw the one live being all day from her watching. She saw him slip under and shrugged off the heavy fur coat and dived in after the blonde. The cold water stung but she ignored it, her ideas all on rescuing the one person that was living. She pulled him from the bottom and swam to the side of the shore and pulled him up. She looked at him, he wasn't breathing now. He couldn't be dead, not yet. She wouldn't allow him to die it just wasn't in her nature to let someone die. She took a breath in and began mouth to mouth, moments later coughing began as the boy began to breathe again. She sighed with a deep relief and studied him carefully, he didn't look like a native from this area, he looked like all the rest of the people she'd pulled from the river. His eyes opened slightly, she looked closer at him seeing if he would wake up, but that was a failure as he slipped back into unconsciousness. She wrapped him in her coat and took a carved whistle and blew, the shrill cry echoed all the way around the area, even to the ears of the military upstream.
"What was that?" Al asked looking up.
"That sounded like a call from help from one of the cultures out here, these people live in small villages and are heavily interested in Alchemic research, but they usually stay out of dealings with the military. Any contact we've gotten from them is very limited and once every 6 years they let one of their people take the military's alchemy test. They usually have very high scores and advance fairly quickly. They communicate across long distances using whistles that each has their own special tone that is set for them by their village elders. They are very dark skinned usually have equally dark hair and oddly enough, green eyes. They are willing to trade with the cities around in the northern areas but seldom live close to them or move into them. Only those that join the military live in the cities and they are quiet. "Luke explained.
"How do you know all this?" Armstrong inquired of the officer.
"I've had a few dealings with them involving trades and my grandmother was part of that culture…"he explained quietly.
"We may want to check with the nearest villages, they may have recovered some bodies and may have seen something." Luke suggested. Roy nodded and Al felt like they may have a lead to what happened and where his brother may be.
The trek to the nearest village was short but yielded no results, most of them had been closer to the cities, trading with the local merchants and older residents hadn't seen anything but had heard what they described as a terrible thunder. Al had asked about his brother to any that he could, they all shook their heads telling him that they had seen nothing.
"Surely you must have seen or heard something?" Al asked, nearly begging one of the older residents.
"Child, listen…if I had seen your brother, alive or dead, we would have pulled him out of the river. But we can tell you this, search farther downstream, it is a 3 day travel to the spot where the river is fed by a small tributary, but from that spot follow the tributary to the village…asks for the girl they call Winter's Dragon. She will have answers…she may already be trying to find you. She is special as some would call it… but she will have answers." the older woman said patting the armored soul's hand. Al thought hard on this and relayed the info to Mustang; he sighed and shook his head.
"I highly doubt that a village that far from the river would know anything…we have to keep searching near the river." He said shaking his head still.
"Then I will go by myself…if this 'Winter's Dragon' has answers, then I want to find her." Al said firmly and walked off.
"What was that all about sir?" Liza asked her superior.
"Nothing more than a dead end search… but he is insistent that this 'Winter's Dragon' will know the answer to where FullMetal is, then let him go. We have to keep on a more logical search." Roy said placing his hat on his head and began directing the search team to move out.
Al walked and walked his mind wandering around what this woman said. How would this girl know what he was looking for? What made her special? All of that floated around in his mind until he just walked and let his mind drift. In the time in which he was drifting in thought, a voice began sounding in his mind. It was female, but not his mother's voice. The voice spoke to him softly and got gradually louder until he could completely understand what was being said or sung rather.
"The river takes, the river gives. It brings to us him whose soul is here."
The song repeated over and over and over until he tripped over a root and hit the frozen ground hard and as abruptly as the ground met his metal body the song stopped.
"What's going on…"He wondered out loud, got up and continued walking as the skies darkened and the wind began to blow bringing snow all around him. He couldn't see and finally just sat down behind a rock, waiting for the storm to leave.