A/N: Thanks to all of you who review! I really appreciate it. This chapter is a bit short, and gets strange, but after thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that FMA on its own is a rather strange story so its ok if my fanfic is strage too. Yay to my amazing reasoning skills, ha. Thanks to bluepen113 for reading it over!
Disclaimer:I don't own FMA
I'll Leave the Door Open
Ch. 3 Pyre Ignition
Only when Winry had safely lurched through her apartment door and successfully lock it did she breathe safely again. Her nerves were still on edge, but thankfully, the short walk to her apartment had been uneventful. Well, besides the puffs of smoke that would emanate from her bag from time to time.
Winry's apartment was a small two bedroom flat located in the convenient area of downtown Central. It had a nice kitchen, two bathrooms, living room, and an office, which she opted to turn into a workroom. It was perfect for her, and though she was sometimes homesick for the simple country life she had left behind, Winry couldn't help but feel proud of how far she had come.
Roy of course had a hand in getting her this nice apartment for her, and not only was it in a good area, but her good friend, Sciezska lived right next door. The two had always gotten along, and had remained good friends through the years. She often wondered if Roy had put them together on purpose or if it was a fluke, but either way, it made things a lot easier for Winry to get used to this busy military life.
After hearing the audible click that signaled her door was locked, Winry slumped against the door, her eyes closed in exhaustion, and allowed her body to slide down to the floor. Finally, she released her death grip upon her bag, and if fell over off her shoulder, causing the occupant inside to rattle in protest.
When she felt a tentative wet nose against her cheek, Winry lazily reached out to stroke soft fur.
"Hey Den," she mumbled, giving her dog a scratch behind the ears.
Cracking an eye, she saw Den's large head move to inspect the bag lying at her side. He was quite old now, and much slower than he had been, but he was still the ever lovable curious dog he had always been.
Sniffing the bag cautiously, he whined and backed up when something inside it moved. Winry patted Den comfortingly as he stood on edge, not sure if he should protect his master or make a run for it.
A slender neck poked out of the bag, and ruby eyes looked curiously at the dog from an upside down position. Den then lowered his nose to sniff the strange creature, but just then the dragon let out a metallic squawk, and that sent Den scattering.
Winry sighed. Den would be hiding in the closet all night, the poor dog. He wasn't the bravest creature out there, that was for sure. The dragon removed itself fully from the bag and looked up at Winry expectantly, its head cocked to the side.
"Don't worry, he'll come out eventually. He's even frightened of his own bark sometimes," she told it, chuckling to herself as she collected her things and stood.
The dragon rumbled in response, then went about looking around the room.
Winry, hoping the dragon would be alright by itself for a moment, went to her room to change. She paused by the other bedroom door, on her way, and hesitantly opened it.
Her eyes dulled sadly seeing the room empty.
The bed was neatly made, and the desk was clear of any lose parchments. All the books were properly placed in the bookshelf, and the blinds were drawn, leaving the only light source streaming in from the doorway where Winry stood.
He hadn't come back yet.
Winry felt the familiar sense of worry clench in her stomach and she tried to shake it off. If something had happened to him, she would have been told. With one final look around, she closed the door and headed for her room to change.
When she reemerged, dressed in lose pajamas, she looked into the living room to find the dragon gone. Panic hit her for a brief moment, before the clatter of silverware came from the kitchen.
"Hey! Not the silverware!"
Hastily, she grabbed what was left of a fork from the dragon's clutches. It had been bit in half entirely.
"This is NOT for you to eat," Winry scolded, waving the fork for effect. "Silverware is expensive, and I don't want to have to buy more, got it? If you have to eat something, eat things that haven't already been made into something useful, understand?"
Winry was seriously doubting her sanity as she carried out this conversation, but when the dragon meekly bobbed its head, she felt her eyes bug out.
"Umm..right, well, I'll see what I have for you to eat. My scraps are in my workroom."
The dragon, hearing this, eagerly clamored to her shoulder, where it perched comfortably, sending warm air dancing across her cheek. Winry still couldn't get over how the metal hide of the dragon was actually warm, not cold like she would expect.
After digging around her cluttered workroom, Winry found a good amount of metal scraps she didn't need, and the dragon helped itself to everything, from iron rods, to copper wire, to tinfoil. By the time it had eaten it's full, there were tendrils of copper colors veining its wings and splotches of different colored metal across its hide.
Tracing a copper colored vein, Winry pondered this. It looked like it absorbed metal somehow.
Deciding to do a little research, the blonde took out a few books she had and flipped through the pages, looking for anything that resembled metal being alive. She knew it was fruitless; she had read and reread most of these books numerous times and had never come across anything even close to this, but she wanted to try anyways.
The closest thing she found to living metal was the story of a man who was burned alive. Assumed dead during a war, body collectors had heaped him up with the rest of the bodies onto a burning pyre. They had placed coins over his eyes, which had something to do with burial at the time, and set the pyre to burn. The metal over his eyes had begun to melt, and the pain made the man wake and yell for help. They were able to save the man, but the metal had melted and attached to his skin, blinding him.
Winry shivered at the thought, but it was an interesting story none-the-less. Looking down, she saw the dragon looking under her arm at the page she had been reading. It was eyeing a picture of a large pyre of wood burning, sending the flames licking towards the heavens.
"The fire is large because of chemicals they put on the pyre so it burns hotter. This makes it burn quicker and the flame larger. It enhances the fire." Winry read outloud from the caption under the picture. "It says it was called a pyre because of the ancient word pyr, which means fire."
The dragon bobbed its head, and with its claws opened a book lying on the ground and flipped through it, careful not to rip the pages. Winry recognized that book as one Roy had given her after she accepted a job at the military. After awhile, it seemed to find something interesting for it pointed one little claw at a picture.
This one was of the state alchemists pocket watch, and showed step by step how to put one together, and the special properties it had. It had the special design of the creature clawing the air, and told how this specific circle helped enhance an alchemist's powers.
"It's a special watch given to state certified alchemist's," Winry explained, outlining the watch with a finger. "The design helps to amplify alchemy, or so I'm told."
The dragon nodded again, then pointed to the previous picture of the pyre, then at the watch, and looked up at her expectantly.
Winry furrowed her brow in confusion, not sure of what it wanted. The dragon merely repeated the process and then pressed its nose to her knee.
"Are you telling me they are connected?" Winry tried, scratching her head.
It nodded, and then pointed to a word.
"Enhances…" Winry read aloud. Her eyes widened in understanding. "They are the same, the pyre enhances a fire and the watch enhances alchemy, right?"
The dragon whistled, which Winry took as a good sign. Now the dragon pointed to itself and then scrambled into Winry's lap. So now the dragon could read? It sure learned fast! But what did it mean?
Winry petted it fondly for a second, thinking.
"You will enhance me," she whispered in awe and fear both, gently cradling the creature in her arms.
Suddenly, the depth of the situation hit her. She had done something no one had ever been able to accomplish, and she was a mere mechanic from a small town. She had wanted nothing more than to do the work she loved and to be able to help people, even if it was just by making automail. Sure, she still harbored the hope of finding something out about Edward, but at least she was set with a job, and a place to live, as well as people she could call friends. With just those things, her life had basically been complete, all except for that last lost piece of the puzzle, but even without that one piece, you could still see the final picture. Well, most of it anyways.
And now what?
Honestly, Winry had no idea what would result from this, and that terrified her. Not knowing the future scared her. In one second, everything she had worked so hard for could be taken away from her.
She trembled, in spite of herself, and decided it was time for bed. Her thoughts were still raging as she lay her head against her soft pillow hoping sleep would come to her fast. The dragon curled up next to her, its body acting like a furnace to keep her warm and Winry stroked it gently, causing it to produce the purring sound once again.
It was times like these, when she was most fearful, that she thought of Edward with the most desperation. If he were here, would he know what to do?
In all honesty, he probably wouldn't know, but he would have figured something out, she was sure. Ed was good at this type of thing. He would formulate plans, and slowly tick them off one by one till he was left with the correct choice, even if it was the most dangerous one. His mind was all science.
She herself was more of a 'rule by your heart' kind of girl. She could get really technical about automail of course, so she was a bit of a science person, but only in her range of expertise. All she could go on right now was what her heart and gut said.
She needed a science mind, she decided. She needed help, and it was up to her to get it. The hard part wasn't going to be finding someone to help her, for she already knew exactly she should got to, but it would be getting up the courage to do it and face the consequences.
"Good or bad, I need to be ready for whatever may come. We've got to help each other now," Winry whispered into the darkness, her blue eyes closing.
"Add fuel to my courage so I can stay strong. Enhance me and be my strength. Be my… Pyre…"
A whistle, a wisp of smoke, and all was quiet.
A/N: After getting some reviewers who wanted to know when Ed and Al were coming into the story, I decided to make the next chapter about Ed. I hadn't orginally inteded to have this chapter next, but it works out alright to have it here.
Don't forget to review!
Next chapter: Images in the Smoke- Edward has a strange dream. What could it mean? Is it even a dream or something more?
-Miss Soupy