The Furies of Paradise
By Shadow
Chapter 1: Metal Sound
Me: Oh crap, I forgot to put a disclaimer in my prologue.
Ed: Nice one Shadow, you really messed up this time!
Me: Shut up you runt, or I'll write you out of the story! Don't you wanna get back to Central and see Winry?
Ed: I'M NOT SMALL!
Al: Brother stop it!
Me: Anyway, the point of all that was to say I don't own FMA. I do however have all the episodes on my iPod.
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It was odd.
Having help from a human that is. The wolfess and the young girl had successfully made it out of the forest and into a small refuge.
She was offered many things: water, stale bread, and whatever else they could find in their tents.
Apparently, these people were hiding out here to escape the Nazi's, something this wolfess knew little of; not that she couldn't pick up things around town, but she had managed to avoid being captured by the Swastika wearing humans.
Another human, this one looking much like the teenage girl who had helped her, offered her some dried meat. It was tempting. The wolfess had not eaten in days, but unlike her pack leader, who always tried to relate to humans, this young wolfess wanted nothing to do with them, and at every offer of nourishment, she turned it down, her pride once again getting the better of her.
The woman walked away, and the wolfess grunted. She would leave the moment her wounds were healed.
The young girl from earlier came up to her. The wolfess looked down from the heavens and stared blankly in her direction. She didn't feel like talking, but her curiosity was bugging her.
"Why did you decide to help me?" she said, "I figure if you were going to eat me you would've by now."
The girl looked taken aback by the question, but she merely closed her eyes in a half smile and laughed.
"Wolf or not," she started, "you needed help, and in times like these, everyone has been needing help."
The wolfess wasn't convinced. She wanted to leave, badly, but she knew she wouldn't get very far with her injured leg.
"Why are you camping here?" the wolfess asked just as the girl was leaving after having realized that the wolf didn't want to talk. She stopped and turned around, "does she know anything? I suppose not, she is an animal…"
"We're hiding from them," she started, "The Nazis. They have some crazy idea for a new world order without us. We're just some stragglers that managed to get away. Most of us are Roma."
"Roma?" the wolfess repeated, "does that mean you aren't people or something?"
The girl cringed, but realized that this animal had no knowledge of how hurtful such a comment could be to her people, so she continued, "No, in fact, it means human in our language."
After that there was a long pause. Neither the girl nor the wolfess spoke. They both seemed to be contemplating what to say next.
The wolfess finally decided she had had enough and stood up from the tree stump she was on and proceeded to move away from the young woman.
"Wait," she called out, "I don't know your name yet…"
The wolfess stopped, her human form whipping around, "I'll tell you, but you have to promise you will not tell anyone that I am a wolf, do you hear me human?"
She nodded in response. The wolfess seemed to have a stare down with her. Her blue eyes melting into her own, reading her thoughts, her emotions, feelings. She almost shuttered but thankfully, did not. Finally the wolf looked away from her, appearing as a human once more. It had only been for a few brief seconds, but the girl could have sworn she was looking at her wolf form as they had a stare down. She shook her head a bit but looked up as the wolf spoke.
"Luna," she said, "It means 'moon' or something like that to you humans. My mother thought it was a good name for me. I'll never know why. The moon has never been something I strive for like other wolves."
The girl said nothing, wondering what on earth the wolf meant by that, but before she was able to ask two figures walked into the camp.
"Noa!" one of them yelled. The wolfess, now known as Luna, heard the clanking of metal on earth.
"Odd," Luna thought, "When did humans start wearing metal?"
The concept of prosthetic limbs or automail was something quite foreign to Luna, so for once, she did decide to take interest in this particular human.
To her surprise, the human whom she was talking to turned around to greet the two figures.
"So I guess your name is Noa then."
Luna crossed her arms. Why did she care about these humans anyway? It made no difference to her. They all would end up trying to kill her one way or another.
"Brother, calm down!" Alphonse said, "Its just a book, we can't even read it yet!"
"But it has transmutation circles on it Al! We have to figure out what this book is! Goddamn it! The only part of the book we can read is the title!"
Noa walked up to the two brothers and gently took the book from Ed's hands. After studying it for a few moments she concluded that the book was written in Russian.
"What?" Ed and Al said simultaneously. Alphonse had no idea where Russia was, and Ed knew there was no way he would go walking up to that frozen wasteland.
"Oh that's just great! We find this book called the 'Lunar Tome' and it's completely—"
And with that Luna was up. She knew that name anywhere. From every story her pack had told her.
In moments she snatched the book clear out of Ed's hands.
"Useless?" Ed finished, surprised that someone totally new to him had taken a book strait from his hands.
"Hey, give that back!" he said as he tried to snatch it like a little kid.
Luna merely turned away from Ed who continued to try, and fail, at getting his book back. Luna stared at it with a blank expression.
This book. This book meant…paradise.
"The Book of the Moon," she said quietly. At this Ed stopped his thrashing from Al's grip, now listening attentively.
Luna stared at it for a few extra moments, her eyes darting over the material inside the book. The pictures were recognizable from the stories her packmates had told her. Slowly she scanned each page, her fingers moving over the drawings of wolves and the door to paradise.
And a gate.
Luna's eyes widened, and for a moment she could swear she was standing in front of the gate. One sole eye staring back at her, begging her to come foreword, but she never got the chance to take a step.
"Give me my book!" Ed yelled finally able to snatch it away from the wolfess's eyes.
Luna whipped around, and would have snarled and bit him, but she knew if she broke her human form she would be shot.
Her father had once told her, 'What's the use of pride if you're dead?'
And as much as it hurt her pride, she decided glaring at the young man was quite enough. Her father was right, as usual.
"So, uh…Noa, whose your new friend?" Alphonse asked politely while Ed defensively held his book.
"Oh right! Ed, Al, this is Luna. She was shot in her leg out there. Sorry I lost you guys, but where in the world did you two run off? I started to worry!" Noa scolded.
Ed grunted and replied; "We saw a cart with food in it. It was all stolen from other camps nearby, and with the Nazis so close to us we'll probably have to move away from here soon."
Al grimaced, "Things don't seem to be getting better. You should be careful Noa. The Roma people are one of their targets."
Luna finally couldn't take it anymore so she asked the question that had been bugging her since the two brothers had appeared, "Why do you have a metal leg? When did people start wearing metal?"
At first Ed looked disturbed by the question, but then realizing that Luna had never heard of a prosthetic limb, let alone automail, he sweatdropped. His brother had a similar reaction.
"Are you serious?" Ed said as he recovered, "You've never heard of a prosthetic limb?"
Luna wasn't entertained, "I don't get out much," she commented.
Ed laughed at her, only to be answered with a swift punch to the head.
"What the hell was that for?!" Ed yelled as he looked up from the floor, clutching his head in pain.
"You were laughing at me?" Luna shrugged and then proceeded to walk away. Unfortunately the bullet wound in her leg prevented her from going very far before she fell down.
"Goddamn it!" she said to herself. Al immediately walked over to support her, but she shooed him away, "Get away! I'm able to walk by myself!"
Al shook his head and continued to help her up. Under his breath he whispered, "You know about that book?"
Luna stopped and looked up at him. He was a tall young man. He looked to be about 16 or 17 years old and had his hair tied up in a ponytail much like his brother, only his hair had a darker tint to it.
"What do you care?" She spat and continued to walk away. Al sighed and let her go. He turned back to his brother, who currently was talking to Noa. Al shrugged and decided to follow Luna.
He needed to know, for both his and his brother's sake.
"Luna!" he called after her, "Wait up!"
Luna pretended not to hear him as she continued to trudge deeper into the forest, leaning against trees for support.
"Just go away so I can revert back to my wolf form. Please," She thought bitterly.
"Hey wait! I have a question!" Al said as he caught up to her. One of the many reasons he was thankful to have his body back was that he could run without clanking metal all the time. Sure he didn't have endless energy, but it felt good to be able to push himself.
"What?" Luna asked, panting. Persistent brat.
"How did you know about Ed's automail—I mean prosthetic leg?" he asked, correcting himself partway.
Al mentally slapped himself. He needed to get used to the language of this world, but even after a few months he still couldn't revert to their way of speaking.
"You mean his metal leg right?" she asked, "I've never heard of that before. Is it something new?"
Al shook his head. It wasn't really a new piece of technology.
"Oh, well…" she said a bit awkwardly, "Damn, maybe Toboe had a point when he said humans were worth getting to know."
"I heard it while he was walking," she concluded, "One of his feat hit the ground differently, and I could hear the clanking of metal. It was only slightly, but I caught it."
Al's eyes widened, "Really? You can hear things that well? That's amazing!"
Luna shrugged, but she could feel a slight amount of heat run to her face. Now that was odd.
"Why, is it so weird that I can hear well?" she asked while looking away to hide her light blush. It could have easily been mistaken for her being tired, (she was running around on a barely functional leg) but never once had any human admired her like this. It was all very new.
In fact this whole day had brought up new things for Luna, "The Gods must hate me," she thought as she awaited Al's answer.
"No, I guess its not that odd, but the only other person I know who would be able to hear Brother's automail would be…"
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"Winry!" a voice shouted.
The said person looked up and turned around from the piece of automail she was working on.
"Oh, hi Shezka!" Winry replied, slightly surprised, but nonetheless happy to see her friend, "What brings you to my shop?"
Winry was 18 now, and decided a few months ago to open a shop in Central. Being out in the country only got them so much business. Here she could make more of a profit, although getting her name out there was proving more difficult than she expected.
So far she only had one regular customer, which kept food on the table, but wasn't enough to sustain herself for long.
"I was just walking around and I realized I was close by. How's business?" Shezka asked, but she knew the answer.
Still, Winry decided to be optimistic, "Same as usual," She started, "But the regular who comes here says he'll spread the word about my automail, and I've had a few other people stop by for one-time visits, so I guess you could say its improving."
Shezka nodded with a sad smile on her face. It was too bad. Winry put her heart into making these prosthetics for people. Shezka heard a small sigh escape Winry, and noted that she was working on a complicated piece of automail.
"That's a complicated looking one," Shezka said as she walked up to Winry, "Whose it for?"
Winry smiled, "Do I really need to answer that one for you Shezka?"
Winry decided to close up for the day. No one was going to come, and she wanted to go out and do something in Central, "Hey Shezka, what are you doing tonight?"
"Oh, nothing really Winry, just reading."
They both laughed and decided to take a walk. After going over their relatively dull lives as of late, Winry asked what kind of books Shezka had got her nose into this time.
Shezka's eyes seemed to burn with excitement as she started to recite books to Winry with such passion that it could be compared to Major Armstrong's outbursts.
"And then there was this one book that was in the Central Library. I'd never seen it before. It was called 'The Lunar Tome'. It was very strange, mostly because it didn't have much to do with Alchemy…"
Winry couldn't help but be slightly interested, "'The Lunar Tome' eh?" she wondered allowed, "Why would a book having nothing to do with Alchemy be in the library?"
"I know right?" Shezka said, "And it was so odd. The way it was written I mean. It was talking about a place called 'Rakuen' or Paradise."
Winry lifted her head to the clouds, "Paradise huh?"
She thought about the concept. It was familiar, yet so far out of reach, "I know about that place. It was there, back home, before Ed and Al's mom died."
Shezka placed a hand on Winry's shoulder. Everyone had been effected by Ed's reappearance and disappearance, (along with Alphonse this time) but Winry was taking it the hardest.
"I'd do anything to have them both back. Really, I would. Life just seems kinda…empty."
Shezka could say nothing to her friend. All she could offer was her presence and comfort to Winry.
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A/N: well, what do you guys think? Are the character's too OOC? Is Luna a good OC for you? She acts a lot like Kiba only more Naïve.
Anyway, here's Ch. 1. hope you all enjoyed this installment. You did enjoy it? Well how about you write that on a review? No, you hated it? How about you write that on a review as well? Reviews just help me keep my writing good!
--Shadow OUT.