"How is she?" Mustang asked.

"It's already been a twelve days, but she still hasn't woken up," Marcoh responded. "I'm guessing that she fell down the cliff." Marcoh buried his head in his hands. "I should've forbid her from going."

"You know she would've just found a way to disobey. She's not a puppet, remember?"

"Don't worry, Crystal Alchemist," Armstrong said. "That child is very strong. I could see it in her eyes. She's tough, so don't worry about her."

"Everyone keeps saying that she's strong, but she's not some hardened soldier!" Marcoh exclaimed. "She's just a little girl."

"Just because she's a kid doesn't mean she's weak."

"Mr. Marcoh, what do I do with this elixir?" a voice asked.

Marcoh's eyes widened. "Kirina!"

Armstrong and Mustang stared at the little girl. Her arms were quivering from the weight of the bowl. She had a thick, white bandage on her head, but she didn't look at all weak. Kirina was grinning like a child eager to learn.

"How did you make this?" Marcoh asked. "What are you even doing out of bed?"

"I did say I was going to do this," Kirina said with a bright smile. "It took me a while, because I was sleepy, but I did it."

Armstrong looked at the elixir. "How did you do this?"

"Huh? Oh, hello, Mr. Armstrong. To make this, I boiled some water and put the crystals in that water. Using alchemy, I made sure that all the toxins and poisons escaped from the crystals so only pure minerals were left behind to form 100 phosphorous and sulfur elixir. After all, it's important to extract the toxins from sulfur because it is very poisonous. Still, a sulfur elixir must never be taken internally because there's still a chance that the toxins weren't removed properly."

"Amazing. How did you know what to do?" Mustang asked.

"I watched Mr. Marcoh perform this ritual with other crystals when he was taking care of me."

"And you're saying you can already control the alchemic effect within your body?"

"I guess so."

Marcoh smiled at her and patted her head. "Rest up. I'll take care of the rest."

"Well, okay, but the next time you're sick, I want you to take care of yourself. Got that, mister?" Kirina scolded, wagging her finger.

Marcoh chuckled. "Yes, I understand. Tomorrow, if you're feeling better, we can start your training."

"You mean if we're feeling better. Get some rest, too. You look tired."

"Okay."

Kirina left the bowl on the stoop and went back inside.

I'm sooooooooooo not a creative person and I have no one to blame for but myself (Bad, Rioko. Bad.)

You could say that it was a down-right miracle that Kirina did survive. Remember she's only a kid. She's five years old and instead of being in kindergarten with a loving family and a cozy house, she's in a war-zone with only Marcoh, Mustang, and Armstrong. Above all, she's a little weak in body. However, she's stubborn. Kirina may turn out to be either like Ed or like Marcoh. Or maybe even both. I haven't decided yet. (I haven't decided a lot of things).

I think people also forget that Ed and Al are only kids. When you watch Fullmetal Alchemist, it's possible to forget exactly how old Ed and Al are. They're teens, still kids. Some of you will probably say, "I'm no kid. I'm all grown up!" I've been there because I'm also a kid (I'm about Al's age). But you gotta remember that there are limits to what you can do precisely because you're kids. And whenever I see this show, I get sad because so many people forget that Ed and Al are only kids, including themselves.