THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO AUSTIN, my number-one fan, haha... and Rachel, too, because she's awesome like that.
Two updates in one month! Halleluiah!
Review reply:
Terrence Adam Lemaister: Thanks a million, Austin! As you can see, I've dedicated chapter four to you and Rae... AUGH NO DON'T POKE ME! I'M INNOCENT! IT WASN'T MY FAULT! Here's the much-anticipated-by-you-and-you-alone fourth chapter! Enjoy!
Why didn't anybody else review? I know for a fact that 13 people read (or at least clicked on) the third chapter this month, six Americans, six Canadians and one Australian. And yet only one of the Canadians decided to leave a review... Sorry, I know I'm being whiny. I'm glad that people are at least reading this at all! Hopefully this time I'll get some feedback, though... Enjoy it, Americans, Canadians, Australian and anybody else who may stumble upon my story!
"So when they finally arrived in the south, and opened up the delicate cargo..." came Capella's voice over the sand-muffled sound of hooves and turning wheels, "...there was nothing in the crates but sand!"
Edward and Alphonse, who had been listening eagerly to the story for the last fifteen minutes, laughed along with with her at the ending. The caravan had been traveling for about an hour and a half, and the town of Lahkaneihah was merely a distant blur of colour on the western horizon, only just visible over the vast expanse of sand that already lay behind them.
There was something in the way Capella told a story- and Al couldn't quite put his finger on it- that made it impossible not to pay attention. You just had to listen. She was a very skilled storyteller, and knew exactly how to phrase even the simplest anecdote to draw gasps, laughter and tears from her audience. Even Andromeda, who told the Elric brothers she had heard all the stories countless times before, was still kept interested. She also was a storyteller, and although she wasn't so good at the more dramatic bits, Andromeda could make anyone laugh. Of course, at this time she had already fallen asleep in her makeshift chair.
"She's been quite listless all week," Her sister explained from the driver's seat. "She tends to take it in shifts... She'll be an over-energetic, hyperactive lunatic for a while, and then run out of steam and nap frequently until she starts up again."
"Sounds a lot like you, Ed!" Alphonse said, chuckling.
"Who're you calling a lunatic?!" he responded, his temper flaring.
There was a clunk as Andromeda jolted awake and landed on the rough wooden floor. "Somebody talking to me?" she asked brightly, her formerly drooping, navy-coloured eyes now wide open and almost an electric blue.
"See what I mean?" Capella sighed as her younger sister sprang to her feet, whirled in a little circle and bounded to the front of the wagon, and began to pester her.
"Can I drive now?"
"No, not yet."
"When?"
"Hmm..." she paused to adjust the harness, tightening it to correct one of the straying camels. "Once we reach the second Cheraidah, then I'll hand over the reins."
"But that's, like, two hours away!"
"Exactly. Why don't you go ride Perseus, if you have so much energy?"
"I think I will." She scampered to the back of the caravan again, which was now moving quite quickly, and jumped down between the reins that attached the other animals to the wagon. Without a second's hesitation she ducked under the reins, not even fazed by the thundering camel hooves that were less than a foot away from her, and dashed past the two camels, where she thrust her arms around the neck of the absurd-looking llama and hoisted herself onto its back. The animals did not slow down, not even for a second. Andromeda untied the ropes harnessing Perseus to the camels, and she dug her heels into his sides, steering him without reins and increasing in speed. The Elric brothers watched as Andromeda, her reddish bandana flying behind her and her orange hair blowing in all directions, rode the llama in a wide circle around the fast-moving caravan.
"They're fast," Al said, as the girl circled again, whooping with laughter. "...What's that she's yelling?"
"Tseih." Capella explained, without turing around. "It's the sound that tells the animals to speed up."
"Tseih?"
"Tseih," They all felt the caravan suddenly speed up. Capella tightened the reins again. "No, not you! That wasn't what I..."
But Andromeda, still circling, had seen her increase in speed, and she coaxed Perseus to slow down, so that they were neck and neck with the enourmous wagon. She leaned towards the driver's end and shouted to her sister, "You'll be sorry you didn't hand over the reins, Capella!" She dug her heels into the llama's furry sides again, and as it galloped past she turned and yelled, "You're too slow! Race you to the first Cheraidah!"
And Capella, instead of speeding up or even ignoring the challenge and continuing on, stopped the camels and the wagon lurched to a halt.
"Aw, you're not going to--" Ed started to say, but she had already darted past him and jumped down from the back of the wagon. She was unhitching the two extra camels. "...race?" In seconds she had led the camels to the front of the wagon, and hitched them to the front in a triangular, streamlined formation. She clambered back up into the driver's position over the six camels, and shouted, in a voice louder than they would have expected from someone of her size and demeanor, "TSEIH!"
They sped up again instantly, especially the extra camels, who seemed glad to be at the front instead of following along behind.
"But you're still not going to be able to catch up to her," Edward yelled over the sound of thundering hooves. "We're carrying too much weight."
"You don't know my sister," Capella yelled back. "She will run Perseus into exhaustion before the camels have even worked up a sweat!"
And sure enough, as the caravan rumbled along at high speed, Andromeda came into view again, the llama barely cantering. It wasn't that, however, that made Ed's jaw drop and Alphonse to lean over so far to get a better view that his head fell off.
It was a lake, an immense body of water, splayed across the sand and edged with what looked, from a distance, to be thick, green grass. It made no sense to the brothers whatsoever... How could there be a lake a hundred kilometers into the desert, with no rain, river or spring feeding it? And more alarmingly, why wasn't Capella slowing down, or steering the wagon around it? Andromeda was lagging behind them now, but Al glanced out the back and saw that she too was still riding determinedly straight towards the water.
"Uh... Capella?" Al said uncertainly, but his voice must have been lost against the noise of the caravan, because she didn't respond. "Capella?"
"CAPELLA!" Ed yelled, but she merely waved airily without turning around. She's not listening... Is she crazy? Are WE crazy?
They watched her progress towards the lake from the rear opening of the wagon rather than turn around to look at it themselves... it was just too strange, too unreal, too directly in front of them...
The caravan shuddered to a gradual halt. Edward and Alphonse turned in spite of themselves-- they had heard the distinct sounds of sand under the wheels, there was sand behind them, and the caravan had not swerved. There was nothing in front of the camels, now staring benignly across the landscape, but the endless sea of sand dunes.
"What the..." Ed faltered, as he saw that Capella, along with Andromeda, who had now caught up and was dismounting from Perseus, were both laughing at his reaction. "What?!"
"It's a mirage, you dolt!" Andromeda said, still laughing. "That's what Cheraidah means!"
--
It was not until several hours later that, after the animals had been returned to their normal positions, they had encountered another similar mirage, and Andromeda had finally gotten her turn to drive, that the caravan stopped again. The blistering heat of the day had gradually lessened, although it had still not dropped to a level the Elric brothers would normally have found tolerable. As it was late fall, Capella had told them, the temperature would only reach about 42 degrees celsius in the daytime ("ONLY fourty-two degrees?!"), and though this might seem quite warm to them, it was relatively wimpy compared to the height of summer, and that they would still feel the contrast at night when it dropped down to thirty degrees. They hadn't believed her at first, but now, as they followed Capella's lead, jumping down from the back of the halted caravan, a much less dangerous endeavour now that the camels weren't moving, Ed, at least, discovered that she was right.
The wind was vicious outside, not quite raising the sand but causing it to drift across the dunes, slowly changing their shape, and Edward could almost feel a chill in the air. Alphonse, however, was indifferent to the temperature changes, as he couldn't feel them at all. He could tell that Andromeda, who was around at the front of the wagon unhitching the animals again, was staring at him curiously. He turned to look at her and she jerked her head in the opposite direction and resumed picking away at a particularly resilient knot in the camels' reins. Al sighed inwardly... he was used to this. To divert his attention, he turned to Capella.
"How come we're stopping here?"
"Several reasons," she explained, looking at him out of the corner of her eye as she untied the knots holding a barrel of water to the wagon's side. "One, the animals are more tired than they should be at this point, because somebody," (she raised her voice slightly and glanced pointedly in her sister's direction) "overran them today. Two," she continued, now lifting the heavy water-barrel from the wagon to the ground, "For you and your brother, this has been your first day spent in the desert..."
"...Which is a cause for celebration!" Andromeda finished her sister's sentence. She had unhitched the animals from the caravan and had instead stuck a large stake into the sand, to which they were now tethered. Now she was carrying a wooden crate marked 'food'. "...Of course, around here all that means is that we serve dinner early and play some music. But there's not a whole lot else to do."
She began unloading the crate, which contained various small glass bottles, wooden boxes and metal cans, whose unknown contents rattled as they were stacked. She pulled out a large blue tablecloth, which she then spread over the sand. Capella was now kindling a fire nearby using wood that must have been brought with them, as there were no trees in sight. Andromeda took out a small wooden bowl, and then began filling it with various ingredients, and called to Edward as she worked.
"Hey, Ed, inside the compartment in the caravan floor- see, there's a latch- there are drums, and I think a violin... could you get them out?"
"Sure," he replied, glad for something to do. He got to his feet again and opened the compartment, and in doing so quickly stifled a gasp; directly inside was a vast assortment of weapons- swords, long knives, what looked like a pair of hand-tridents, a tangle of thin chains, and at least ten different guns. The sisters had said that the desert was dangerous... but this seemed extreme to Edward, it wasn't right. It was downright alarming.
Alphonse, who hadn't been paying attention to his brother, saw Capella give her sister a very sharp look as she told her, "Rai, rai loreih, Andromeda, petrek lost amenoreihaht ai--" But she saw that Edward had come back with the instruments, not looking as though he had noticed anything unusual. She switched seamlessly back to accented English, "Oh, you've brought my violin, Edward!" she said, holding out a long-fingered hand, into which Ed passed the worn leather violin case. "Vendaht, thank you."
Backing a few steps away from the now brightly burning fire, Capella opened the case and took out a sleek black violin and bow. Holding it against her chin, she played two long notes that were strong against the desert's silence, and then began to play faster, striking the instrument's strings with her eyes gently closed, drawing the upbeat song from memory. Andromeda, who was now stirring whatever was in the bowl vigorously, started drumming the fingers of her free hand on the side of the bowl in time to the music, with a complicated and skillful rhythm.
Ed was waiting for a convenient moment to tell Al what he had found inside the compartment, but he could see that now was not the time. That, and the song Capella was playing was extremely catchy. Alphonse had gone to stand next to Capella to listen, and was moving in time to the song so that his clanking armour blended in with the violin. Ed glanced down at his feet and realized his toe was tapping. Involuntary toe-tapping?! In order to distract himself from his brother and his disobedient foot, he looked over at Andromeda again, who kept looking longingly at the tall bongo drums next to her as she worked.
"What're you making?" He asked her.
"Huh?" She said, looking up at him. "Oh, this is dmeihken," she explained, tilting the bowl so that Edward could see. It looked like pale brown, lumpy dough filled with chunks of meat and some other things that were probably dried berries, although they could easily have been something far more sinister. "It's a traditional Lahkhnaian dish. Really nutritious."
"I bet," Ed said, and his doubts about the food must have shown in his face, because Andromeda added, "It actually tastes good, too. That's why we only eat it on special occasions... Most desert meals are pretty nasty by comparison."
Edward was somehow not reassured. She took no notice, because she then stood up and drove two metal stakes, each about a meter high, into the sand on either side of the fire. Then she took from the wooden crate a large, rectangular baking sheet, onto which she spread a few droplets of cooking oil before setting it precariously atop the stakes. Before long, little circles of dough were sizzling on the makeshift stove, and he had to admit that the smell wafting off them was quite enticing. Now that she was finished doing the cooking, Andromeda was finally able to return to the tall bongo drums, and she dragged them over to where Capella was still playing and Alphonse was still half-dancing, in order to join in the song. Ed was left alone, standing by the blazing fire.
He half wanted to join them, his brother and the two sisters- but his mind kept returning to the image of all those weapons, stuffed conveniently out of sight underneath the caravan... He was feeling stupid now, for blindly trusting these strangers, and apprehensive about whether they were really intending to hurt him and Al. Not scared- if he could walk away from Scar, from Greed, from Envy and Gluttony, he could definitely handle two teenaged girls, one of whom looked younger than him. But still... Ed remembered the way they had switched to speaking their own language to talk in front of him, the word Andromeda wasn't supposed to say and the one Capella couldn't pronounce, the persistent aura they projected that they knew something more than they were letting on...
"Big brother!" came a voice, and Ed was jolted out from his silent thoughts as Alphonse called to him. "Come over here and listen!"
He forced a grin onto his face and walked over to the three others, the only human beings for miles around-- the source of the only sound aside from the wind-- to the music, which Edward knew he would just have to face.
Thanks a kazillion for reading! Now REVIEW, please. Please. I humbly request that you provide helpful feedback, whether you liked this chapter or not...
Does the story seem to be meandering around too slowly to you? I have a nasty feeling that it's incredibly slow-paced and boring. Hopefully it isn't.
Yours truly in authorliness and stuff,
Elaine/smart one :)