Disclaimer: I don't own FMA
Edit 1/20/14: Changed the ending thanks to what fangirl2013 pointed out.
Chapter One
When I woke up and opened my eyes, I nearly passed out again as I was hit with excruciating pain in my right shoulder and thigh. What on Earth just happened...? Then I remembered: The Gate. The toll. Watching as my right arm and leg faded to nothingness in the white void just outside of the Gate.
"Kat? Res? You guys alright?" I called softly.
"Nnnhhhgggn," was the only response I got. I struggled into a sitting position, and looked around again. We were in a forest clearing, and it was slowly getting darker, signifying the approach of nightfall. Fortunately, it was fairly warm, and the sky was clear and cloudless.
I saw Kat near the side of the clearing, about ten or so feet away from me, seemingly lacking her left arm. Res was farther away from me, on the opposite side of the small clearing, and had been the one to respond somewhat to my call.
"Res?" I called again. This time, my dark-haired friend's eyes opened and she sat up, clutching her right shoulder.
"Hawk? What happened?"
"It's me. And what happened? Four words: We attempted Human Transmutation."
"H-how?! It was just an array!"
"It was a Human Transmutation array, remember? We agreed on it before researching and drawing it."
"Still..."
"Res, stop it. Stop that train of thought. This whole thing was my fault: My idea to pretend we were Alchemists, my idea to draw a Human Transmutation array. Don't try to blame yourself."
"But Hawk-"
"I said to stop it! Stop blaming yourself! I'm the one you should be angry with! I'm the one who got my best friends hurt!"
"Hawk, you're the one who needs to stop. Let's just put that aside and get some medical help," someone said. Res and I snapped our attention to Kat, who was sitting up, watching us.
"Come on, Hawk, Res, we need to get to a hospital or something!" Kat said forcefully, breaking the tension.
Res nodded, and stood, but I hesitated. "Shouldn't we do something about the wounds?" I asked. "We could bleed to death if we don't find a doctor tonight."
"You have a point," Res said. "But what can we use?"
I pulled a tiny pocketknife from my pocket. "I dunno why, but this ended up in my pocket when we were getting everything set up." I flipped it open, and carefully cut several long strips from the ends of my pant legs.
Res took the knife and did the same thing, and Kat followed suit.
"We'll just wrap them as best we can for now, since we're not doctors."
After ten long minutes of struggling, we had crude bandages binding the places where we had lost limbs. I was already a little dizzy from blood loss, which was not surprising, but a little worrisome.
"Kat, you go on ahead. I'll help Hawk," Res said as she helped me stand shakily. "I think I can see lights through the trees."
"Alright," she said. She turned and vanished into the shadows of the trees.
We moved as quickly through the forest as I could manage, which admittedly wasn't very fast. Fortunately, it wasn't long before we emerged from the forest, with lights visible a ways off.
We made our way down from the treeline, slowly approaching the lights of the town. I stumbled on the incline, causing Res and I to fall.
When we finally reached the town, I was surprisingly exhausted from the effort of 'walking' with only one leg.
We found Kat waiting for us at the edge of the road that lead into the town sitting on a large rock, panting.
"Find anywhere?" Res asked.
Kat shrugged. "From what I can tell, this is Remembool, but we're on the opposite side of the town from the Automail shop."
"Should we keep going?" I asked quietly. I had sat down heavily on one of the rocks, exhausted.
"Can you keep going?" Res asked. I shrugged. "If I have to, then yes."
"If we keep going, we should probably go around the town, not through it, since we're rather conspicuous," Kat pointed out.
"Are you sure that you're only nine?" Res asked. "Since when did nine-year-olds use words like 'conspicuous'?"
"That's beside the point."
"Let's just find somewhere to rest," Res said. "Hawk looks like she's going to drop at any moment."
"Yeah," Kat agreed. "We can look for the Rckbells' place in the morning."
We chose to rest by the rocks where we found Kat, and I lay down on the grass behind the one where my friends sat, and was soon asleep.
The funniest part about writing this chapter: "Hawk, you're the one that needs to stop. Let's just put that aside and get some medical help." Why? When I was reading this to the real-life Kat, she was thinking exactly this, and interrupted to tell me that.
Please let me know what you think of the story!