Review reply- Melissa: Yeah, the "shocking truth" is coming up next! Thanks, I've been working hard to develop them. -phew- I'm glad, I keep thinking that I'm the only one who doesn't mind when it's not one epic battle after another... Thanks for reviewing! :)
E: Alright, guys, here's chapter five! I'm really sorry this took so long to finish- major writer's block on my part. But now it's done, with 2,735 words of pure story, not including these notes. Enjoy!
They were all sitting now, eating the dmeihken fried over the fire. Ed still hadn't mentioned anything about the weapons... He had been a lot hungrier than he'd realized, and eating provided ample distraction from his suspicions. An even bigger distraction, however, soon arose in the form of a sudden, high-pitched scream.
Ed looked up immediately and got hurriedly to his feet. "What's going-" he glanced to Andromeda, who was looking around for the source of the noise just as he was, and then to Capella, who was standing with Alphonse, both of them with their backs turned. Ed and Andromeda dashed over to the source of the noise.
It turned out, however, to be Alphonse that had screamed.
There was a thick black snake- some sort of cobra- rearing in front of him, hissing and staring up at him with beady black eyes. Al was backing slowly away, having evidently forgotten that the snake's bared fangs could not hurt him. Capella stepped impatiently in front of him. "Calm down, Alphonse. It is only a snake," She calmly picked up her violin bow from the ground, pointing it at the snake. The Elric brothers watched, bewildered, as she waved the bow back and forth, slowly and rhythmically- and the snake followed its motion, swaying from side to side, never taking its eyes off the instrument. "That's right," She said softly, directing her voice to the transfixed creature, "just follow..."
Blam.
Ed and Al jumped, and Capella nearly dropped the bow as she shot a disapproving look at her sister, who casually blew the smoke from the revolver she was holding. The snake had fallen to the ground, its head now reduced to a small puddle of blood, guts and scales, with the bullet lying some distance away in the sand. Alphonse cringed as the tail twitched before falling limp again.
"Andromeda, you didn't have to kill it!" Capella said, exasperated. "You're so excessive..."
"Well, I hate snakes," she replied, a self-justifying note in her voice. "And you didn't have to go all 'look at me, I'm a creepy snake charmer'. "
Al was still looking at the snake, as though expecting it to suddenly reanimate, but Ed was staring at the gun in Andromeda's hand.
"You..." he looked suspicious.
"What?" she answered, eyebrows raised.
"You put a bullet through that thing's head- while it was swaying- from that far away?"
"That's what you saw, isn't it?"
"Well..."
Andromeda sighed, rolling her eyes. "This is about all those weapons, isn't it?"
Alphonse looked over suddenly. "All what weapons?" Ed ignored him.
"Yeah," he said, looking her in the eye. "Why is it that you need about fifty different weapons-"
"What are you talking about, big brother?!"
"-to kill snakes?" Ed continued, still ignoring Al. "There's something you're not telling us."
She looked nervous now. Capella came up beside her, still holding the violin bow, which was slightly spattered with snake blood. "That's true," Capella said, in her calm and reasoning voice. "But it's nowhere near as sinister as you seem to think. Come," she led the three others to the wagon's hatch again, and opened it.
"While it is true that we have many enemies in the desert," she continued, "that is not the reason for our carrying around so many arms." Ed and Al stared into the compartment. Al gasped, his empty eyes taking in the swords, knives, guns, tridents, explosives, spears... But his brother just looked back at Capella.
"Okay, so what is the reason?" he was getting impatient.
"She's getting to that," Andromeda said, annoyed.
"Yes," Capella went on. "As I was saying, Los Peinahklaht consists of more people than just my sister and I."
"Yeah, there's, like... nine of us?"
"Eight. You're still counting..." she fell silent, and the sisters exchanged darkly significant glances that further confused Ed and Al. "...Yes, eight. Each member is situated at a different camp around the desert and the borders right now, and we all travel in between them fairly regularly. Each of us also-" She glanced down at her younger sister again, this time with a small smirk on her face. "-each of us over the age of fifteen also has what is called a Thekkehn Raiikah, or weapons specialty. It's different for each person."
Capella reached into the compartment and pulled out the pair of hand-tridents. "These," she said, holding them up, "are Vega's."
"She's the one in charge," Andromeda supplied. "and she's pretty..." her eyes lingered over the tridents. "...scary. Only when she's mad, though."
Capella gestured towards the many guns inside the compartment. "Most of these," she explained, "belong to Aquila, who specializes in guns."
"Okay," Ed nodded warily. "So you keep everyone's weapons in here all the time?"
"Yeah." Andromeda climbed up onto the edge of the wagon again. "They used to move the weapons from place to place, but apparently people would forget to bring their own stuff, so Vega might get stuck using Cassiopeia's explosives instead of the tridents, which could cause a lot of damage."
"That makes sense." Al agreed, although inside it still made him a bit nervous. Ed, on the other hand, was quicker to let go of his suspicions, and hurried back over to the fire where he had left his unfinished food. Ed's appetite always has had a lot of control over him... he thought, deciding that it was probably okay anyway, and they all gathered around the fire again.
"So," Ed said, between large bites of food, "there are six other people in your, uh... company?"
"We're more of an 'order', or, like, a 'league' or something." Andromeda corrected from over by the covered wagon, where she was digging around in the compartment.
Capella rolled her eyes. "Yes. Currently, Vega is the leader of our Order. She uses hand-tridents, as we showed you, and is also an alchemist. It was her who taught me, actually."
"You're an alchemist too?" Alphonse said, surprised.
She smiled ruefully. "I am, but not a very good one." She leaned down and drew a transmutation circle in the sand with her finger, very slowly and deliberately, and then placed her hands delicately on top of it. There was a flash of light, and a plain glass birdbath rose from the desert floor, slightly etched with transmutation marks. It was slightly rougher and nowhere near as detailed as something either of the Elric brothers could have made, but it did prove that Capella was an alchemist.
"Hmm," Ed said, inspecting the birdbath. "Not bad, not bad!"
She looked back at her creation. "But of course, a state alchemist could do better, could you not?"
He grinned, clapped his hands together and slammed them onto the sand. Another flash of light, and an enormous, gaudily decorated glass fountain rose from the sand, towering over them and pouring sand from several places. It was heavily decorated with entwining snakes, in typical Edward-style. Ed couldn't help but look smug as Capella stared up at the fountain impressedly, and Andromeda turned to look, dropping her armful of weapons and musical instruments. "Whoa," she said, and then resumed her search inside the compartment.
The glass fountains cast translucent shadows as they talked, Andromeda finally returning to the fireside with an armful of more drums. "Cassiopeia is second in charge," Capella continued calmly. "She was born into a Lahkhnaian family in one of our desert camps, and back then they lived a very traditional life, apparently. Her knowledge of explosives, then, came mostly from Xingese travellers. She's at Myahno Idenah right now, I believe, so you may see her when we arrive, unless she chooses to return home to the southeastern farms to see her family."
"Xingese travellers?" Al repeated, thinking of Ling and Ranfan.
"Oh, yes," she replied. "Los Peinahklaht assist people from the Eastern lands to cross the desert as well, and we also serve as a trading company, a link between the borders separated by Nesethai- er... nature, by all this sand. We get many customers from Xing, especially recently."
"Hey," Ed said suddenly, "You weren't the ones who helped a Xingese girl- what was her name? 'May' or something like that- to come to Amestris?"
Capella and Andromeda glanced at each other, thinking. "Uhh..." Andromeda tightened the knot on the back of her bandanna. "What was her last name?"
"Chang." Al supplied hopefully.
"Nah, I don't think so. She must've gone with another order."
Well, there goes another lead. Ed thought, groaning inwardly.
Andromeda kept talking. "The only Xingese girl we really know personally is Lyra- the one who you guys are going to meet. Apart from Rendanshu she also uses spears and kunai- you know, those little knives?" She sat for a minute, looked at the Elric brothers, then apparently lost interest and began playing the drums. She was good, they noticed... Her hands blurred with the speed of their motions, rolling her fingers across the skins, slapping them with her palms, pounding with the heels of her hands. For awhile they sat and listened.
"So..." Al said eventually, and she slowed the rhythm down to a basic, repetitive tapping so she could hear. "Is your weapons' specialty alchemy too, Capella?"
Capella looked anxious when she heard him, although Al couldn't imagine why. She bit her lip uneasily before answering. "Y-... Yes, I suppose..." Then she changed the subject. "Andromeda's almost fifteen, which means soon she'll have to choose hers. Right, An?"
Her sister stopped drumming and slid down the side of the tall drum back to the sandy ground with a sigh. "Yep. And I still don't have a clue what it's gonna be."
--
About an hour later the desert sky was ablaze with colour, and the grey, glowing splotch on the horizon that was Amestris- barely visible now over the vast expanse of sand that set it apart- was dimmed and silhouetted by the sinking sun behind it
"The city does not compare."
All heads turned to Capella, who was watching the sky dreamily. They all had been sitting quietly, staring in awe at the sunset.
"That's true," Ed agreed. "There isn't even this much sky to be seen in Central, with all the buildings..."
"And the smog," said Al quietly.
"In the desert there is nothing to obscure the horizon, and the wide sky serves as shelter enough, stretching on and on before us just beyond our grasp." Capella went on, her hazel-green eyes focusing on the fading red sun rather than the city.
Her sister smiled, and added, "The entire world rests beneath the same sky, but here it lies closer to us, and closer we stand to it. Solitude is not isolation, nor is emptiness the same as vacancy. If nothing else, the stars are over us always."
There was silence for a moment, broken by Ed.
"You didn't just make that up, did you?" His question was met by laughter.
"We can't fool you, can we?" Capella said. "You're right. It's an old Lahknaian teaching."
"But it's true," Andromeda said, turning to look up at the stars appearing above them. "The Song of the Sky, as translated by Cassiopeia."
Alphonse looked at the stars too. "I think it's true too..." He said under his breath. Emptiness is not the same as vacancy. Andromeda's words- though not originally her own- kept repeating in his head. Ed, however, heard Capella's words- stretching on and on before us just beyond our grasp. They echoed in his mind as they had for the past four years, stronger now as though glad to be defined.
Soon the sky was completely dark and the only light was from the fire and the stars. "There are just... so many stars," Edward said to no one in particular as he rolled up his jacket and leaned back on it to use as a pillow. Capella brought them proper bedrolls a few moments later, and was surprised to see that Andromeda was still awake. She was talking quietly to Alphonse, pointing up at the constellations.
"See that?" she said, dots of light reflecting in her wide blue eyes. "That's the Andromeda Galaxy."
"You have your own galaxy?" Al laughed. "Impressive,"
She laughed too. "Officially they named me after it, but I'd rather think of it the other way around. Some days, when it feels like I've got nothing at all compared to city kids, I just think... 'Well, I bet none of them have their own galaxy." Then she stared at the sand. "...Sorry, I guess that's kind of a stupid thing to say..."
Just then, Alphonse really wished he could smile at her. "No, it isn't," he said. "Besides, I'm not from the city either, but you've got all kinds of stuff we didn't have in Resembool."
"Resembool? Is that where you're from?"
"Yeah, my brother and I were born there."
"I've been there!" she said excitedly. "We stopped there on the way to Central once. That was the furthest west we've ever taken a caravan."
"Really?" Al replied. "So what did you think of it there?"
"Oh, it was nice," she said, grinning. "Lots of animals, not much traffic. Central was great, but there were way too many cars. And all the smog made it so hard to breathe!"
The two of them talked for a long time, uninterrupted by either of their siblings. Capella was sitting by the fire, tending it carefully, and Edward was still lying down, staring up at the stars. They were familiar to him- he used to sit with Al and Winry sometimes and watch for shooting stars. He picked out the few constellations that he knew... The Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Orion... It wasn't much. Astronomy had never been his thing. What good were the stars when they were so far away? The only one that really mattered to him was the Sun, because it was close enough to bring life to the planet. Ed preferred things that weren't so distant, so enigmatic that you couldn't figure them out if you tried. Alchemy was down-to-earth, proven science. The elements could be combined and altered according to certain rules, and it was a skill that could be developed. But somebody had to test those rules in order to define them, he thought suddenly. These had been his thoughts long ago, when he himself had sought to test the boundaries of alchemy. Someone else had made the same mistakes before, and had warned him against it... but he had needed to be sure, believing that he was different, that he alone had the guts and the skill to make it work.
He thought back to sitting on the Rockbells' back porch with Winry and Alphonse. He had never spotted any shooting stars himself. It was always Winry who saw them first, Alphonse who saw where she was pointing right away, and then finally him, Edward, who always caught a glimpse of the distant meteorite just as it faded away.
And Edward thought again of The Song of the Sky as he relived his mistakes as he did whenever there was nothing to distract him.
...Stretching on and on before us, just beyond our grasp.
E: There! I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner. Was that one interesting enough? Did you guys notice the subtle AlxOC hintage? I'm testing that whole thing out to see if it works or not. Please review and tell me what you think. It's the only way I'll ever learn! Ha ha... Thanks for reading,
-Elaine/smart one