The Island of Narid
Chapter Six: The Mystery Surrounding Bloch and the Return
I know things can get rather repetitive but bear with me please. --;
Still don't own FMA…
Rose and Hierra slowly and silently walked back to camp, fully drenched through. The rainfall heightened to its peak and it got colder than ever. When they returned, Rose became hesitant on entering. There was not nearly enough room for Hierra inside and they would make things cold and wet, disturbing many.
Hierra looked inside and then she shouted out, pointing a small finger at the sleeping Alphonse. Rose quickly knelt in front of the child and put a finger to her lips, silencing her cries.
Rose remembered the day before, when Al's foot was freed by someone with her own skin color. Looking at Hierra, she realized he must have seen the girl.
"…Rose?" A sleepy voice came from within the shack—Hierra's scream must have woken someone.
Hierra hid behind Rose, clutching her dress like the pink-haired girl had been an older sister.
Edward groggily sat up and stared at the silhouette of the two of them with blurry eyes still clouded by sleep. Then he saw the small girl holding fearfully to Rose. "Who is that?"
Hierra cowered, hiding her face. Rose gently put her hands upon Hierra's shoulders and urged her forward, but the child refused to move and was about to scream. Rose released her immediately, afraid she might wake more. She backed away from the shack, hoping Ed would just fall back into the ruse of sleep.
Ed stood up then, and carefully made his way across to them when abruptly he stopped. His mouth dropped open in a kind of unbelievable shock and he quivered. Rose winced—he was looking at her mistake by her bedside: the drawing she made of the symbol on her neck.
"Rose?" He began softly. "Did you do this?"
Rose leapt into the shack in a fit of panic, leaving Hierra for a moment, and smothered the symbol in the sand hastily. She looked up at Ed, who eyed her with reproach, and shook her head violently until she heard Hierra begin to cry.
Rose spun around and ran back outside, kneeling and wrapping her arms about the girl in attempt to quiet her. Then, afraid, for the girl kept crying, Rose hoisted the child into her arms and ran from the shack, stopping only when she was sure no one could hear her.
Edward followed her, ignoring the rain. When he found Rose she was seated on the rock that overlooked the ocean, still holding the weeping child.
"What's going on?"
Rose met his eyes for a moment before faltering and ripping her gaze aside. She shuddered, knowing he was still staring at her, took her arms from Hierra, and stood to face him. The cloth around her neck came off easily; the light fabric was already torn from the rain.
Edward flinched. The rain washed away the fresh blood from her skin and he saw the mark. He tried to say something, but his voice came out hoarse and inaudible. Rose in front of him didn't know how to show him what she yearned to tell—the sand was far too washed to etch a sentence in. She came to him with an expression wrought in hopelessness and begged for his understanding. Hierra was still crying.
"You didn't do that to yourself, did you, Rose?" Ed eventually choked out.
Rose shook her head sternly. She pointed to her neck, then the ground, spreading her arms out broadly and repeating the gesture until she found a reaction on his face.
"Homunculi? …Here?" His voice was no more than a muted whisper. At her nod, he cursed and turned away from her.
Rose backed up toward Hierra and wrapped her arms about the child, stroking her thick, soaked hair. They both shivered, chilled and wet. Eventually the small sobs grew quieter, until, at last, they ceased.
"So who is she?" Edward murmured after a long moment of silence.
Rose broke away from the girl and put a finger gently on Hierra's chest and then gesturing towards Ed. She opened her mouth, mimicking the child's name.
Her movement finally came across. "Tushté Hierra."
"What?" Ed bent to look at her. Rose moved aside a bit, but not enough to frighten the girl.
"Hierra." Wiping her eyes she repeated, "Hierra."
"You are Hierra?" When she gave him an expression of perplexion he pointed to her and said, "Hierra?"
She nodded.
He glanced to Rose quickly before pointing to himself. "Edward. Ed." Then to the pink-banged girl shivering on the side, "Rose."
"Rawse?" Hierra attempted in thick accent. A smile touched her face and she lunged toward the older girl, "Rawse!"
Rose nodded, smiling gently. But try as she might, she couldn't hide her shudders from the cold.
Edward stood up. "Come on, we've got to go back. You shouldn't be in the rain."
Hierra suddenly ran forward to Ed and wrapped her arms around him, but she couldn't remember his name and so an inaudible coo came from her mouth.
Edward laughed lightly, "Ed."
"Ed!" She cried, happily. She showed no discomfort from the rain. "Ed! Ed cör Rawse!"
Rose tenderly pried Hierra from Ed and took her hand. Together they all made way back to the shack, just as a string of white light flashed brilliantly in the sky and a great thunder followed.
When they neared camp, Ed crawled into the old plane and ran back into the small space in the shed. Under his arm he carried two thick towels. Looking around him he realized what limited space there was—only his and Rose's spots were clear and dry.
After wrapping a towel about her shivering body and one around Hierra, Rose swept the child into her arms and stepped inside. She sat upon her blanket and placed the dark girl onto her lap, sacrificing some comfort for Hierra. Because she was soaked through she found herself unable to cease shivering. Hierra seemed impervious to the weather and simply sat content, slowly growing drowsy.
There was maybe a half-hour's time before Hierra was sleeping across Rose's chest and Ed spoke again, partway still in reverie.
"Homunculi…" He breathed, "You sure they're here, Rose?" When he looked up at her he found her bent and leaning against the shack's wall, eyes closed in slumber behind a curtain of her dark hair. But still she shivered, faintly. And every once and a while her expression would fall sour and she looked as if in pain.
Having no intention to wake her, Edward wrapped his own damp self into a blanket and lay down. Sleep would not soothe him though; his thoughts were too troubled. Not only were they trapped on this isolated island, but the Sins had found their way here as well—and had already found Rose.
"Homunculi, Ed?" Roy said skeptically.
"Why the heck would I lie about this?" Edward roared. "Did you see the mark on her neck?" He waved an arm toward the shack, where inside Rose and Hierra were still asleep, weary from the night before.
Riza Hawkeye had been silent, but now she broke in calmly between the two, "I had conversed with Rose a few weeks past and I was able to understand that yes, she was indeed marked with their symbol, but when I described the monsters she gave no response. She only wrote that there was more than one."
"What's wrong over there?" Maria Ross called from her post. Their arguments woke her. Despite Ed's glare clearly warning her to stay out, Maria came to them.
When she realized Ed wasn't going to say anything, Hawkeye turned to Maria. "The wound on Rose's neck is the mark of the homunculi. I assume you are well aware of who they are?" At Maria's nod she continued, "Ed claims Rose told him that those creatures are here on the island."
Ed mumbled something angrily; however, no one noticed, for Maria Ross's face pulled tight, paling, and her breath grew strained. Then collecting her nerves, she glanced sidelong to the sleeping Bloch before facing Ed, Roy, and Hawkeye again.
"During the first couple of weeks—I saw them." Her eyes darkened, "They had said something—I hadn't told you earlier, but—"
Ed was by now fuming; Roy sternly thrust and arm out in front of his chest to make sure the boy would not lose his wits and scream foolishly.
"…but I was worried upon your reaction—and if the children would find out." Another pulse of rage washed over Edward's face, yet he said nothing.
"What did they say, do you remember?" Hawkeye inquired.
"They had said mutterings of a conversation I couldn't hear, at first. However, I heard the next sentence: 'to find the Philosopher's Stone, we need Bloch.'"
Everyone looked startled. There was an awkward air of silence after her voice stopped. They all gazed at the shack, where Bloch lay. He was perfectly lucid now—most of the poisons from the experimental plants had died away, leaving only a mild sickness.
"Maria, we'll take shifts on watching him. Anything even slightly suspicious will be thoroughly examined. They'll be no chances." Roy ordered at last.
Maria sighed, obviously relieved.
"I don't know why they want him, but I do know they will not get him."
"So why did they mark Rose?" Riza suddenly asked. It seemed she had been deep in thought for a while. "If the one they need is Bloch?"
Roy eyed the shack again. "I'm not sure. But we all should keep an eye out for her as well."
"And the child? What of her?"
Ed broke into the conversation again. "I told you, she wandered here and Rose took her in."
"Yes, but who is she? She looks like a girl from Lior, but that's not possible."
Edward shrugged. "She can't speak English—but I'm pretty sure her name is Hierra. Other than that, I know nothing. There was nothing unusual about her."
"Even so, we should pay attention to what she does. Don't let her go off with Rose alone, okay?"
Ed nodded.
"Ed!" A sharp, cheerful voice broke through the dark solemnity of their talk. Hierra, still clothed in the damp kirtle from before, raced toward them and clung to Edward, smiling. "Takanë, Ed!"
"Hey, Hierra." Ed said, distracted.
Roy couldn't help but feel a faint grin tug at the corners of his mouth. "Well she's pretty taken to you."
Edward's one free arm waved indifferently, "Ah, I was just there and she's very clingy."
"Ed hana by-ni! Ed cör Rawse!" Hierra chimed again before she saw, a small distance away, Alphonse, lovingly stroking a lounging cream-colored kitten. The girl gasped, releasing Ed suddenly and running for Al. When she reached him she stood as tall as her young body permitted.
"Ana'ha!"
Al looked up before kneeling in front of Hierra. He laughed lightly. "Oh, hello. You must be the child Rose came back with last night, huh?"
Hierra pointed to his foot and grinned from ear to ear in pride. Then she skipped a tad sprightly in the cool early morning air. "Hierra."
Before Al could question, Ed walked over and said, "It's her name: Hierra." He bent down a little to her height, put an arm across her shoulder, and pointed to his brother. "Al."
"Awl—Ahl…" She fumbled with the unfamiliar vowel. Eventually the sound rolled off her lips and she squealed with joy, reciting the brothers' names. She still held Edward's arm.
From a couple paces away, they heard the fair giggle of Winry, who eyed them. She pushed a shock of blonde hair away from her eyes and said teasingly, "You're acting so fatherly, Ed. You're so adorable!"
The golden-eyed boy felt an unwanted rose tint blush his cheeks and he turned to Al abruptly, trying to cover up his own uneasiness. "Hey, Al, didn't your foot get freed by a girl like Rose?"
Al gasped, realizing. His gaze fell to the young Hierra, who had one hand clasped around Edward's arm and the other tentatively reaching toward Kitty. She giggled when the cat leapt up and brushed her soft fingers with the wet tip of her nose. Hierra's blue eyes were lit in euphoria.
"I think—I think it was her, Ed. The girl."
"Hierra."
Winry smiled, watching the two and the small girl between them who played with Kit in the warm sands. Hierra was so much like Rose, in appearance, at least. The dark, thick hair, and even their skin tone matched in the same hue. It seemed eerily and impossibly coincidental.
"Rose, you're up! How are you?" Maria greeted.
Hierra's head whipped up alertly at the first word and she sped forward on her tiny legs to the drowsy violet-eyed girl who stepped slowly out of the shelter. Rose caught Hierra with one arm; the other palm was across her head.
"Rawse nana vishmo!"
"Rose, are you all right?" Maria's voice heightened in concern.
Rose nodded, smiling and taking her arm down, though inside she knew the rain hadn't been very good for her. She hadn't hardly been anywhere but her desert city, and there it barely ever even sprinkled. She wasn't used to the cold, the dampness. Rose ignored the other "good-morning" greetings and searched the beach for Winry. When their eyes met, Rose waved her hand, and Winry stood up, understanding.
"Hey." Winry said cheerfully, as always.
Rose gave a slight smile in return before kneeling in front of Hierra. She pointed to Ed, then, and waited till the girl ran back to him in the sands. Rose and Winry went behind the shack, where they were unseen.
There, Rose took from a pocket in her cream dress something small. Her fingers opened, revealing to Winry the pulsing blue stone, cool and smooth.
"Is that Hierra's?" Winry questioned. Rose nodded and at once Winry knew what Rose planned to do. Whispering now, she said, "Tonight, after dark."
Rose took in a large, quivering breath and inclined her head once more.
Shallow water caressed their ankles as they stood in the dark, save for the dim moonlight partway hidden by clouds, and the foreign glow of the millions of cyan stones that lined the walls above, and to both sides.
They stepped in.
Well there you go, much sooner than the time it took last update.
And I love my plushy. Squee:D
Here's a gift to all of the cough like 5 cough readers that ...well read this: COOKIES. Take your pick; I got chocolate chip, peanut butter, sugar, and caramel/cocoanut. :D