REVIEW TIME!!

Alicia: Congratulations, Reviewer Number One! And thanks. Hopefully you'll be kept interested this time too!

Butt Monkey 'O Doom: Nice name, Rae. Thanks! You should like this chapter, since Los Peinahklaht are introduced. As for pairings... just wait and see!

Manga Girl number 6: I like my chapters to be twice as long as this, so use your MSIP wisely! Okay, I'll do my best.

Ian Guenette: Thanks, Ian!

Elaine: Alright, welcome two chapter two, at long last! By now you may have figured out that my chapter updates are not very regular. ...Okay, they're not very regular at all. But I have this whole thing planned out, so please stick with it if you've enjoyed it so far!! If it's truly dead, I'll say so. But it's not.

In this chapter I get to introduce my main characters. You'll be seeing a lot of them if you keep reading, so I hope they're well-recieved. Enjoy!

Edward blinked. The room he had entered was small, dim and dusty. Light from a lone window was filtered through a dull, brownish curtain, giving everything the appearance of a sepia photograph.

Alphonse stepped into the room behind him, barely wedging his hulking metal frame through the door. Apart from the two brothers, the room appeared to be empty of customers- and employees, for that matter. Ed and Al looked around, confused. The interior walls were plain concrete, as was the rather sandy floor. On the left was a door- no, it wasn't really a door. It was a rectangular, unfinished archway with a frayed and faded reddish curtain. Nailed crookedly above it was a wooden sign which read "Employees Only". Straight ahead, close to the back wall of the room, was a tall wooden counter. It bore another sign:

LOS PEINAHKLAHT
PLEASE RING FOR SERVICE
Vendaht.

Again, a strange word Alphonse had never heard before. He was about to mention it to Edward, but his brother turned away and strode towards the apparently unmanned counter, upon which sat two things- three if you're picky. A rather unembellished inkwell with a bedraggled feather pen, and a small, very shiny dinner bell. With half a glance at the sign on the counter, Ed reached out- with his right hand- and tapped the bell.

There are a few factors that caused what happened next. Firstly, Lahkaneihah had a very warm climate, and because of this Ed had removed the gloves he usually wore. Secondly, the bell was designed to be louder and more sensitive, so that it could be heard from the back rooms of the building. Thirdly, Edward, without realizing that second fact, had used his ungloved auto-mail hand to ring the bell- and he did so with slightly more enthusiasm than necessary. These factors, when combined, produced an abnormally loud dinging noise.

Now as if the situation was not awkward enough, the Elric brothers also did not realize that there was, in fact, an employee behind the desk. Not a conscious employee, but an employee just the same. And so the bell's dinging was immediately followed by an odd yelp, a loud squawk, a rattling crash and a thud. The startled and bewildered brothers quickly rounded to the other side of the counter, where they were met with an odd sight.

A young teenage girl, no older than thirteen or fourteen, was sprawled on the concrete floor, her heaps of violently orange hair tangled and messy. She picked herself slowly up off of an overturned chair, cursing in mixed languages under her breath.

"Agh... Friggin' senekethetchkeihn ai los stupid bell, should just sharah... #%$&*+ moronic invention..." The girl carried on mumbling to herself in irritation, with words that had a similar rhythm to the ones on the sign, as she dusted herself off and replaced the chair to its upright position. Rubbing her eyes, she sat down and gave the little room a sleepy once-over, and in doing so, nearly fell out of her chair again. Evidently she had not realized that there was anyone else in the room-or so one would infer given the way she yelped in surprise again, upon laying her eyes on Edward and Alphonse. Then she ducked under the counter for a moment. Ed and Al glanced at each other and then at the counter, still very bewildered. The girl resurfaced, however, in a matter of seconds, with some sort of bandana on her head. It was a faded maroon colour, which clashed magnificently with her hair. From the front it resembled the bandana that Winry sometimes wore, but it was much longer at the back. Then she burst forth into more professional, slightly accented speech.

"Welcome to Los Peinahklaht North-East Amestrian Camp, my name is Andromeda. You rang?"

"Um... yes..." Ed responded sheepishly.

"Then how may I help you?"

"Well, we, uh... need to get to Xing."

At this point Andromeda gave a rehearsed-looking, customer-service-type smile, and led the Elric brothers towards the "Employees Only" doorway. "Alright then, follow me. First we'll need to look at some maps to select a route, and then we'll discuss rates." They followed her through the frayed curtain and down a narrow hallway, whose concrete walls were dotted with a few other "doors". Andromeda paused at the third archway on the right, poked her head through the curtain- this one was blue, but equally frayed and faded- and called, "Capella! Customers!"

Immediately the sound of approaching footsteps issued from behind the curtain, and the young woman who was apparently Capella pulled it aside. She wore a kind of navy-blue, hooded overdress, similar in function to a cloak but slightly different in design, mostly in the fact that it had actual sleeves. Her face was much softer and calmer than Andromeda's, and her hair was chin-length and light brown. The term "young woman" is used loosely here, as Capella was, admittedly, only a few years older (and a few centimeters taller) than Edward. But there was a definite air of maturity around her as she fell into step next to Andromeda and led their customers back up the hall again, to the first door on the right, marked "Consultation Room" and separated with a sand-dulled white curtain. Andromeda swept the curtain back and showed them into a tiny, square room, just over two meters wide. Alphonse, upon sitting down, was wedged tightly between the wall and the tiny table. Ed, being considerably smaller than his brother, had a fair amount of room and was comfortable enough- but he was the only one. Sitting opposite them, Capella and Andromeda were absolutely squished against a tall set of shelves, containing rolls and rolls of maps. They appeared to be accustomed to the confined space, however, as they were still able to conjure up a pair of identical customer-service smiles.

As Andromeda freed herself from her chair (with some difficulty) to select a few maps, Capella got down to business and began interviewing her customers.

"Heading to Xing, are you?" The brothers nodded. Her voice was slow, calm, and had a slightly stronger accent than Andromeda's. "What is it that draws you there? The culture, the food, the history...?"

"Well..." Al began uncertainly, looking to his brother, who obliged in handling the explanation, "We're interested in Rendanshu--Xingese alchemy."

"Ah... alchemists," She responded, with a sincere and knowing smile. "I should have recognized you two before. You are the- the Elric brothers, am I correct?" They nodded again. "So then-" She looked directly at Al, "You must be Edward Elric, the Fullmetal-" she broke off upon seeing Ed's look of outrage.

"I'm Edward. The Fullmetal Alchemist. Me. Not him. This," A vein throbbed in his temple as he pointed to Al, "Is my younger brother, Alphonse."

Capella raised her eyebrows slightly, but otherwise didn't seem too surprised. "Whoops. My mistake. Allow me to apologize- for that, and," she cast a glance at Andromeda, who was still rifling through the stacks of maps- "In advance, for my sister's clumsiness. It's due to strike any minute now."

"Hey!" Andromeda protested, spinning around abruptly. Unfortunately, in doing so she immediately proved Capella's prediction correct. The shelves which held the maps were not fastened with bolts, but merely sat on small wooden dowels, which fit into small niches in the underside of each shelf. As she spun around, Andromeda had a hand on one large map scroll, which she raised a bit too high when she moved. It collided with the shelf above it, lifting and dislocating it from the dowels. The shelf slid off the wall with an ominous scraping sound, and twenty maps-- all rolled around bars of metal-- crashed to the floor.

The girl barely had time to scramble out of the way. "Shenekeht!" She cursed loudly, wincing as each map hit the concrete.

"Andromeda!" Capella scolded her sister. "There's no need to be so rude around customers. I told you not to use that word."

She just shrugged, returning to her hands and knees to pick up the maps, shaking off dust and checking titles. "It's not like they even know it's rude." Andromeda turned to the Elric brothers. "You two have no idea what I just said, right?"

"...Not specifically," Ed supplied.

"But you can tell that it's not polite, can't you?" Capella persisted. "There are certain things anyone can comprehend in speech just from tone and context."

"Okay, so it did sound kind of rude, but she has a point. " Ed responded. "It's not really offensive to us, because we don't even know what it means..."

"What language was that, anyway?" Alphonse asked, finally able to voice his question.

Capella sighed. "...Do you like long, rambling stories?"

Before either could answer, Andromeda cut in. "You'd better, 'cause I can't find the friggin' continental map."

Edward and Alphonse glanced at each other, shrugged, and then Ed spoke for them both. "Explain away."

"Alright," Capella began, "Los Peinahklaht is based upon an ancient order of disciplined warriors who lived in harmony with the desert, defending their sacred land from enemies, studying the mysteries of the Old Star Legends-"

"-And generally setting an unhealthy amount of store by tradition alone." Andromeda interrupted.

"Sharah. As I was saying, the governing principal of this order was basically to learn from anyone they could, from all walks of life. They shared the skills of their allies and copied the strengths of their enemies. Everything was combined-- weaponry, martial arts, cuisine, traditions-- and the language. The result was a very diverse-"

"-and freaky-"

"-Not freaky cultural group that spoke a kind of patchwork language, borrowing words from just about everywhere. There was, however, an indigenous culture in the desert to begin with, the Lahkhnaians, descendants of an ethnic group that was exiled from what would later become Cselkcess over a thousand years ago. They were the 'founding members' of Los Peinahklaht, and that is the language- or the root of the language- that we speak today.

"It's a spoken language only, Lahkhnaian, not written. So after centuries without any documentation, much of the language has been lost. It was likely never complete, as it was merely a dialect of Cselkcess, but not many words are left now, so we mix it in with our native tongues, mostly Amestrian, Ishbalan and Xingese."

There was a loud whack as Andromeda sat up suddenly.

"Ow! My head!" She shook her fist at the shelf she had collided with, releasing a long stream of curses in a mixture of Amestrian, Lahkhnaian and several other languages Ed and Al could only guess at.

Edward couldn't help but snicker. "Careful, we can understand you now!"

"Ha, ha." Andromeda stood up, rubbing her head. "Whatever, I just thought of something."

"Mark the calendar, this doesn't happen often." Capella said dryly.

"Sharah! Listen to me. You guys don't have to go all the way to Xing to learn Rendanshu. If you go to Myahno Idenah- the Central Oasis Camp- you can cut your travel distance in half. That's where Lyra is posted right now- she's Xingese, and she just so happens to be Los Peinahklaht's resident alchemist."

Ed looked overjoyed... but Al wasn't convinced. "But... will she be willing to teach us?"

Andromeda glanced to her sister for the answer. Capella thought for a moment, then said, "Well, Myahno Idenah isn't so busy this time of year, and I'm sure that she would be willing to help you."

"If you paid her, yeah."

"Mm-hmm."

Edward fished around in his pocket and produced a small notebook. He flipped a few pages before pausing and reading something. "Well, I still have a bit of money left in my annual research grant account... How much is all this going to cost?"

Capella looked back towards her sister. "If you can't find the continental map, just get out the desert map."

She smirked in response. "You mean the Lahkhnaian map?"

"No, the other one."

"The route map?"

"That too, but the other one..."

Andromeda's smirk widened. "Say it." Capella winced as though she'd been stung.

"You know I can't pronounce it!"

"Would you rather come over here and get it yourself?"

At first it had looked to Alphonse that the two girls were just joking around- typical sibling stuff, which he well understood- but Capella seemed to be getting really upset.

"Fine, the ph- the phy- physio...-"

"Physiographical map?" Al provided. He didn't understand why it was so hard for her to say the word, but he didn't like seeing her struggle with it when it was obviously bothering her so much.

"Yes, that." She looked relieved.

Her sister frowned as she set the heavy map scrolls down on the table with a thump. "You're going to have to learn to say it eventually." She squeezed back into her chair, squished right against the wall, and spread out the route map across the table. "Anyhow, let's figure out where you're headed, and then we'll see how much it's gonna cost."

Still not so long, but it's mostly character development, I guess...? Anyway, I hope you liked it, and please review!

-Elaine of