Okay, finally got up another chapter! Whoopee! Hehe...um...yeah, anyway, heh...hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own FuLlMeTaL aLcHeMiSt! Hey, capitalizing every other letter makes it cooler, right? That's what all these teens these days seem to think. I honestly don't know where they get their ideas of what is and isn't cool, heh. Hmm...maybe the harder you make something to read, the cooler it is. Yeah, that must be it.
A girl slowly walked through the woods, a basket of clothes propped up under her right arm, resting against her hip. She frequently came out this way to wash her clothes in the river, since the heavy current made it all the easier. Living in a log cabin wasn't exactly what one would call luxurious, what with having no electricity or running water, but it was the way she had lived for the past few years since her father had disappeared, and she couldn't bring herself to complain about it.
She stopped for a second to rub her eyes with her free hand and try to stifle a yawn, consoling herself by saying that this was the last chore she had to do today, and then she could go home and turn in early. She could already hear the sound of the water cascading over the cliff from here, so she knew that she was close. Might as well get it over with.
The girl made her way to the edge of the river, and found a place that was a bit of distance from the waterfall, so that she could stay safe. She began to take the laundry out of the basket and spread it out on the shore, when she chanced to glance up. Just a few yards downstream from her, she caught a glimpse of a figure resting on the shore. That was odd; no one ever came this way. Overcome by curiosity, she stood up, leaving her clothes behind, and made her way to the still form by the river.
When she'd gotten within five feet of the figure, she stopped, paralyzed by confusion, and just stared. What the heck was that thing? Part of her mind kept telling her it was a person and the other part kept telling her it was a fish, though she couldn't bring herself to subscribe to either side, since neither one seemed to be able to make sense of the information her eyes were transmitting to her brain. After all, the part that was a person seemed to cut off at the waist on this figure, and then the rest seemed to be a fish.
The girl gulped for a second and continued to stare. This figure sort of reminded her of all those fairytales she'd heard as a child about mermaids and such…but mermaids didn't really exist…did they? Even if they did, what would they be doing in a river…by a waterfall, no less? It just didn't make sense.
A moan coming from the figure brought her back to reality. She still couldn't seem to rationalize the situation in her head, but she wasn't about ready to wait for her logic to catch up with her heart, and in the mean time let this being perish. It was obvious enough that they needed help. Logic would just have to take the back burner for now.
She knelt down next to the figure on the ground, the riverside mud beginning to soak into her skirt. Sigh. Now she'd have another piece of clothing to clean…but that wasn't important right now. She placed her hand on the figure's forehead. It was still warm, so that was a good sign…though when she pulled her hand away, she found that there were traces of blood on her hand. That wasn't a good sign. It indicated some head injury…which, if this being had just come over the waterfall, was to be expected.
The figure was lying on their stomach, so the girl carefully stood up and flipped them over onto their back so that she could get a good look at them. There was a lot of mud covering the front side of this being, but it didn't matter. She was still able to examine them well enough.
When she saw the chest on the figure, she couldn't help but blush a bit. The chest was flat, indicating that this being was male. She had previously thought that, judging by the long hair and all, that perhaps it was female, therefore, a mermaid. Apparently that wasn't the case, and this was…well…a merman. She blushed even harder, but quickly shook her head to rid herself of these emotions. She didn't have time for this. This…boy…whatever he was, needed help right now.
She sighed to herself. "Well, mister, whoever you are, I guess I'm stuck with caring for you for awhile." Even though she was halfway trying to act annoyed at the prospect, she smiled through it. It had been awhile since she'd had anyone as a guest at her house, so she found herself actually a bit excited about having someone over…even if they were a…merman.
When Edward woke up, he found himself in an old porcelain bathtub. The shock of the sudden change in surroundings triggered a slight headache, so he put his hand to his forehead only to discover that his head had been bandaged. He slowly lowered his hand in a movement of confusion, and cautiously glanced around the room.
He seemed to be in some sort of old fashioned kitchen or something, or at least near one, since he could see an old wood stove nearby. The walls themselves were made out of logs, which clued him into the fact that he seemed to be in some sort of log cabin, which would explain the very old fashioned things to be found here, everything running on fire or manual labor.
Ed placed his hand in the water in the tub he was in. This bathtub must have been pretty expensive, unless it had been passed down through the family for generations. Further, there was no running water, so whoever had brought him here must have gone through so much work to fill it, especially since the water was still warm. Being winter, the water from the river definitely wasn't warm. It was freezing, actually, but his body seemed capable of handling it, somehow.
Edward heard a door slam and he jumped. He nervously craned his neck around, trying to catch a glimpse of the source of the noise before they saw that he was awake, but whatever it was, it was out of his field of vision. He slumped back into the tub. There was really nothing he could do but just lie there and wait to see what would happen to him. It wasn't like he could just drag himself across the floor to escape whatever it was, unless he wanted to get severely injured.
He tensed as he heard very heavy and spread apart footsteps approaching the room he was occupying. Someone was in here, and they were going to see that he was awake soon. Should he fake his still being asleep? Maybe that would be safer, until he knew just who it was that had taken him in. He closed his eyes, leaving them open at just little slits so that he could see who came in to see him, and waited.
The girl from before pushed open the door to the room Edward was in and laboriously walked in, carrying a full washtub of hot water. She set it down in front of the bathtub, stood up and sighed, and then knelt down in front of Edward, who was still trying very hard to not reveal that he was awake.
The girl placed her hand on Edward's forehead, as if trying to feel his temperature through the bandages. "So, how are you feeling now?" Naturally, she got no response, so she just removed her hand, and then gently tipped Edward's head forward, so that she could untie the knots that were holding the bandages to Edward's head. "I need to replace these bandages, okay? I'll do my best to be gentle." Still no response from Edward, though that was to be expected.
The girl untied the bandage and began unwinding it from around Edward's head, when Edward winced involuntarily from the pain. The girl smirked. "You've been awake all this time, haven't you?" Edward's eyes closed tightly, and he tensed in response. The girl placed her hand on Ed's face and turned it so that he would be looking into hers if he had his eyes open. "You don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not going to hurt you; I'm trying to help you. Please trust me."
Trust. That wasn't something Edward had much of for anyone, especially someone that he had just met, but there really wasn't anything that he could do about the situation. He couldn't run away from this girl if she were to try and hurt him, after all. He supposed he'd have to trust her that far…but she still didn't need to know any more about him than she absolutely needed to in order to take care of him.
Edward slowly opened his eyes and looked into the girl's face. She smiled. "So, you DO understand what I'm saying. I was starting to wonder if you even spoke the same language. What language do you merpeople speak, anyway?"
At that comment, Edward sat up abruptly and stared into the girl's face. "I'm not a merman! There is no such thing!" Suddenly realizing that he'd just revealed that he could speak, he clamped his mouth shut, as if hoping that that would help the girl to forget that he had done so.
The girl herself had jumped back; a bit startled at his response, but recovered quickly, and came forward to him again. The corner of her mouth twitched as if teasing at a smile, and she said, "Um…sorry…what are you then?" Edward's mouth opened automatically to respond to her question, but then realized that he really didn't have an answer for her, so he closed it again and shrugged.
"I…somehow took on this form recently…I barely know anything about myself, or my people." The girl nodded in response and continued to unwrap the bandage from Edward's forehead, him jumping a couple times when she'd had to remove a part of the bandage that had dried on blood that was clinging to his skin. That hurt a bit, but he managed to bear with it. This was nothing like auto-mail installation.
The girl finally got the bandage off of Edward's forehead, and proceeded to take out a clean cloth, apply some sort of chemical to it, and begin wiping off Edward's forehead with it. Edward jumped as soon as he felt it. The girl rolled her eyes, and said, "Hold still! I know it stings a bit, but you'll get an infection if this area isn't cleaned before we put another bandage on it." Edward returned her words with a glare, but held still and let her do the service to him.
Finally, she got the new bandage wrapped around his head, and was tying it off as she said, "There, that's better, isn't it?"
Edward placed his hand on the bandage to feel it, and then nodded his head slightly. "Yes, it's much better…Thanks."
The girl smiled, and then went and picked up the now slightly cooled washtub of water. "You'd better watch out, this water's still a little warm." Without further warning, she hauled it up on her own strength, and poured the entire thing into the bathtub, Edward having to quickly duck out of the way of the stream of water to keep from getting scorched by it…not like it would've caused any real damage, since it wasn't THAT hot, but it still wouldn't have felt that great.
The girl set the washtub back down on the floor, and turned it upside down so that she could sit on it. Edward once again sat up straight in the bathtub and looked at her, thanking her for the hard work she was putting forth for his sake. True, he had the tendency to forget his manners once in awhile, but not when it was so glaring about how much someone was actually doing for him.
Edward cleared his throat. He didn't want to continue to refer to this person as "the girl", so he thought he'd better ask her for a name, though he realized that that would most likely trigger her to ask the same question of him. He couldn't really see any way around that, but it couldn't really do any harm to let her know that his first name was Edward, could it? "Um…" he began, "…Could I have your name? I don't really want to keep referring to you ask 'the girl' or something."
At this, the girl laughed and nearly fell off of her washtub seat. When she regained control of herself, she crossed her arms and plainly said, "I'll tell you my name if you tell me yours."
Ed rolled his eyes. It was just as he had suspected. "Fine," he said, "My name is Edward, now tell me yours."
The girl snickered at his slightly irritated/bossy response, and then replied, "Sylvia. Nice to meet you, Edward." She stuck out her hand and took Edward's wet hand in hers, and shook it without warning. Edward was a little taken aback by her sudden gesture, but nodded in response. Sylvia chuckled and then spun around and began walking out of the room, sending last comments on her way out.
"I'm going to turn in now, okay? I'm a little tired. If you need anything, just yell. I'm in the next room." Without another look back, she walked out of the room, and slammed the door behind her.
Edward leaned back in the tub, and shook his head. Here he had left Rizenbul without warning, and was now stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a strange girl that he knew nothing about. If only he had stayed long enough for Al and Winry to find him in the lake, maybe things would've turned out better. No, he couldn't think like that, he'd HAD to start journeying towards the ocean…but maybe he should've planned things out a little better. He could've used some of Al's wisdom right then. Al. He missed Al. And Winry. And Auntie. Heck, he could almost say he missed that smug-faced Colonel, but he wasn't about to admit that, even to himself.
"I just hope things work out soon. Al, Winry, Auntie, I hope that I get to see you all again." He began to let himself slide down in the tub so that his head was starting to go underwater. As he did so, he muttered, "And screw you, Colonel," and then went completely under.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed that. Please leave me some reviews, so that I can update, hehe. Take care, and have a nice day. Hope to see you around again soon!