HEIR TO THE FLAME

CHAPTER 32:

Roy bounced up and down in his seat next to Locke, looking at him, then Ed, then Al, impatiently. "When are we going to get there, Edo?" he asked. "We need to hurry up and get there to Dub-thingie."

"Dublith," Ed corrected, "And keep your pants on, the train's going to take a while."

"But I can't take a while," Roy wailed. "Daddy's hurt and he needs Gramma!" Al tried to reassure him as best he could.

"It's okay, we'll be there in a little bit, it won't take that long at all!"

"But Aru! Edo just said it would take a long tiiiiiiiiiiiime..."

"I'm sure it won't take as long as Edo said."

"Aw, okay..."

"At any rate, we can't change the speed of the train so we might as well be patient, right?" Locke said, leaning back in his seat and lowering his chin onto his chest. "Might as well get some shut eye."

"But... rrrgh. Okay..." Roy crossed his arms over his chest and pouted and the train rattled on south to Dublith.

Once at Dublith...

"GAH! Where could Gramma BE? This place is too big! Grrrr... Edo... where should we start?" Ed shrugged and gestured to the houses.

"No idea, but we could ask... Teacher." Al gulped and shivered and Locke looked at the two of them like they were crazy. He cleared his throat and raised a nervous hand.

"Uhhh... guys... could we possibly hold that off as long as humanly possible...?" The Elric brothers nodded as one and scurried off as far away from the cluster of houses as they could. Roy gritted his teeth again and ground them together, irritated.

"What are you so scared of? This is stupid, we should be looking for Gramma!"

Ed sighed. "Correction, squirt, you're looking for your gramma. But I guess... we have to see Teacher anyway." Roy frowned and muttered under his breath, shooting nasty looks at Ed.

Meanwhile at Jean's house...

"I'm here! Now where is everyone? Hellooooo?" Ilia called through the doorway. "Anyone here? Hello?" Riza dragged herself from Roy's bedside and to the door, but when she saw who it was, she fairly flew to it, seized her mother-in-law's arm, and dragged her to the bedside. Ilia shrieked and Roy groaned, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. He was in pain, and now he had to deal with the pain in his ears.

Ugh, an alltogether pathetic chapter, I know. My creative spring seems to have dried up since about a week before End of Course testing, and man that testing really killed me. Let's see... the Royai spring is pretty much dead, but I'll revive it with some work. What a pathetic chapter... but I'm really feeling uncreative now.

In related news, I am currently starting the very first Anime/Manga club to ever grace the halls of my high school, which is a big achievement, and a close group of friends and I are currently in the plotting stages of a manga. So far, we're calling ourselves Double Helix, so if we actually get published, well... good for us. I'm drawing... all of it. Well, everything minus background and dragon, and I'm coming up with the plot line as well, which may be where all my remaining creativity is going to. Oie.

I'm dog-tired, phew. I'll have to get it together, and rest assured I will and very soon. I think I'm actually going to wrap up this story much sooner than I intended originally, but that may change, so...

Other related news. I've got a new...er... fic up that mainly on Roy, it's fantasy/action/adventure, which is my home field, so check it out if you feel like it. It's called Lost Legacy. And for any Naruto fans that exist in my reviewers, I've got a KakashiXOC fic up that's romance/humor up called The White Fang. So see that if you want to.

I'll try harder with the next chapter, and hopefully it will be back up to its standard 2000+ words.

Till next time

-T A