Chapter 5
I like Ice and Rocks
Ivan gently massaged the very large raw bump on his forehead. The girl was sleeping on the bed, her chest rising and falling gently as she slumbered.
"Wow..she really tuckered herself out when she was beating my up for the 15th time." Ivan murmured to himself, getting up and stretching his aching limbs. He opened up a rusty window, the browned joints creaking as he shoved it open all the way. He looked over at the country side, the rolling green hills, the small houses and gardens that doted the outskirts of Central. Birds flited by singing harmonious tunes. All was well in the world, a rainbow slowly crept across the lush hills and a rabbit hopped a few feet, nibbling on a piece of grass. A deer flicked in the meadow, and the rabbit was harpooned by its head into a tree by a thick arrow.
"Bloody nature." Ivan murmured grumpily, pulling the arrow, and the bunny, back up with a long string of rope.
"Dinners ready!" He said happily, waving the animal and walking back inside, the corpse in one hand, a crossbow in the other.
"You know...with that stunt you really won Greenpiece over." Muttered Lilium, sitting up in the bed.
"Whose whatsee now? I don't touch vegetables..." Ivan said nonchallantly, throwing the rabbit into the fireplace, "should be done soon."
"Yah..bout that..you might wanna..you know, start a fire in the fireplace so you can actually cook something."
"What..oh yea.." Ivan said abstractly, turning back to his work, holding two large knives and now sporting a white apron which had, in nice, red letters 'kill the cook'. "he picked the rabbit up again, and set to work chopping and mincing the meat.
"I have seen some strange people in my life, but none so much as you...where do you come from?" Lilium said, getting herself comfortable on the bed as Ivan was working with a box of matches, and was having a hell of a hard time with them.
"Me..oh, the Brig Mountain Range"
"People live up their? Its all just ice and rocks."
" I like ice and rocks." Ivan said, turning around, holding a bone cleaver in his hand and giving her a stare.
"Y..yeah..nuthin wrong with me, just, that's all that is up their? Never seen people."
"That's cause the government doesn't want people to know bout the military camps up their. My family was trained alchemists in..oh god..camp ACF-5356346..give or take a few digits..." He said, scratching his head with the flat end of the cleaver.
"Trained alchemists? What did they do their?"
"What we did best..work with ice and rocks..."
"Ice and rocks?"
"It was a code word for Alchemic Catalysts. Ice for the lesser ones, and rocks for the superior ones..my parents worked with rocks."
"You mean..."
"Yep..it was a rockin job for em." Ivan snickered to himself and flipped the pan full of rabbit meat.
"You know what I mean!"
"Yea..we did work on the philosophers stone...went pretty well too..my parents always had a flare for workin on it." He said, his tone losing its rather flamboyent air, "right up until they came..."
"Who?"
"They."
"And that is..."
"How should I know? 'They' is a general term..I verb I think...maybe a pronoun."
"You know what I mean!"
"Yea..they was a bandit team..killed everybody their, stole all the catalysts..tried to steal my parents work..."
"Did they."
"No..they killed my parents though."
"Im sorry."
"No your not."
"Your right."
"Thanks." Ivan said, turning back to work in silence, his arm flipping the pan every second or so.
After a long silence, lilium looked up.
"What's wrong with your arm?" She asked, pointing to His right arm, which had a layer of gauze all over it.
"It was just an accident."
"Oh..."
"Yeah...'oh' is right."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Yeah...'what' is right."
"Idiot!"
The next morning, Lilium slept soundly as Ivan slept in a pool of his own blood, the frying pan with a face shaped dent resting close to the body.