Hiya!
I got another chapter, yay!
I am currently experiencing writers block with the story 'Return'. I will try to write a chapter but may take awhile.
(Downs a whole can of Sprite) Enjoy!
Heavenly Brothers
Ch. 2 Teacher
They had been on the train almost all day, the brothers were getting stiff. The sun was setting in the west. They had ridden the train all yesterday too. The brothers didn't know that this town was so far away. The scenery of the country flashed by outside of the window, trees, houses, and field raced by as Ed watched. After what felt like forever the train started to slow down. The Elrics sat up as the conductor of the train announced that the stop was Dublith. Ed and Al hadn't eaten since breakfast so they were happy that they were finally there.
They followed there new teacher while looking around. Dublith was bigger than Resembool but it was still considered a small town. The roads were like a city's and the buildings were taller.
Sig looked back at the two blond kids gapping at the town. He smiled and nudged his wife. She looked over at him and he pointed behind them. She looked back at the boys too and giggled. The boys were to busy taking in the town to notice the adults smiling at them.
"Here we are boys, home sweet home!" Izumi said snapping their daze.
They stood in front of a meat shop. The Elrics had expected a huge laboratory because of how good Izumi was. Ed and Al looked confused but followed the two people inside. They were greeted by meat everywhere. There was meat in fringes behind the counter and either side of the room, hanging from the ceiling, and baking in a rotisserie.
"Welcome back you two." A man said from behind the counter. "How was your trip?" He then looked behind the two adults to see the two kids that came in with them.
"Who is this, Izumi? Where did you pick these little ones at?"
"I AM NOT SHORT."
Every one looked at the angry ten year old in surprise accept his brother. Al just looked embarrassed at Ed outburst.
"Ed doesn't like to be called short" he explained as Ed just glared at the man.
"Oh well that's too bad considering he is short." Izumi said with a wave of the hand beginning to walk to the door behind the counter.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" Ed would have jumped on her if Al hadn't held him back. "Let go of me Al!"
Just then Izumi turned around with lightning speed and grabbed Ed and flipped him into the wall behind the counter. If the man behind it hadn't ducked Ed would have crashed into him.
"Is that any way to talk to you teacher?" She was waving her finger at the upside down Ed.
"Teacher? I thought you didn't take on apprentices?" The man said while watching the boy side ever-so-slightly down be for falling down completely.
"Well Mason, I've decided to make an acceptation." Izumi said going into the house part of the shop.
"Owwww, did you really have to do that?" Ed was rubbing his head while trying to get up.
As Izumi passed him she knocked him down again with a low roundabout to his legs. Ed came crashing down again. Al ran to his brother's side.
"I think you should shut up now, brother." Al said helping him up.
"Your brother is wise. You should listen to him." The man identified as Mason said. "He is you bigger brother right?"
Ed was about to yell again but saw Izumi watching him from the door way. He bit back his response and looked down so his eyes were covered by his bangs shading them. Instead Al answered.
"Ahhh, no… Ed is actually a year older than me." He gave a nervous laugh and looked sideways at his brother making sure he wasn't going to attack.
"Oh! My bad… sorry." Mason said.
There was an awkward silence after that, Al kept an eye on his brother. Then Sig broke the silence.
"Weren't you boy's hungry? You were complaining on the train."
"Oh yah!" both boys said at once, Ed looking up.
"Well we better give them a big meal since it's the last they will probably have in a while." Izumi said with a sparkle in her eye.
"What!" The Elrics felt their stomachs drop.
"Better go start it, shouldn't we dear?" She asked Sig like she didn't hear them.
"Sure, what should we make?"
"How bout stake? That is always good."
"Ok," he turned grabbing five stakes out to the fridge to the left of him. Then he walked into the house part of the shop through the door behind the counter. They followed only after Mason put a hand on each of their backs and pushed. As soon as Mason's hands left the boys' backs his skin started to tingle of a moment then stopped. He looked at his hand then shrugged it off following them through the door.
After waiting awhile the food was finally done. The Elrics thanked the Curtsies and started eating. They introduced themselves to Mason and he introduced himself. He was an employee here at the Curtis' meat shop and stayed for dinner quite often. As the boys ate they answered most of Mason's questions. Izumi and Sig asked a few questions also but most of their questions were answered on the train. When it got to questions about their parents the brothers grew quiet and stopped eating. Mason looked confused and Izumi answered for them.
"They don't have parents."
"Oh, sorry about that." He offered an apology.
Ed and Al just sat there, lost in memories of their mom. They snapped out of it and started eating again. Izumi and Sig gave each other a concerned look then kept eating.
After the meal Sig showed the brothers the spare room. It only had one bed but that didn't matter, they had shared a bed at home a lot. Whenever one of them had a nightmare or if they just wanted to talk under the covers.
They fell asleep relatively fast with their backs facing each other.
Ed was awaken when he fell out of bed. Actually he was more like pushed.
"Ow, Al, why did you push me off?" he rubbed his eyes but opened them when he heard wings flapping.
Al had grown his wings in his sleep, that's what pushed Ed out of the bed. This happened to each of them when they had a really bad dream. One time Ed had actually flown out of the window during a bad dream about scientists taking him away from his brother and mom. This was when she was still alive. Ed had taken off and Al had chased him down after waking up to him jumping out the window and flying away.
Al's pure white wings bat up and down as he struggled with the sheet wrapped around him. His wings were really loud so Ed had to wake him up before some one comes in and sees them.
"Al, Alphonse!" he said in a loud whisper, shaking his brother's shoulder. He didn't wake up so he went to plan C because plain B was yelling loudly into his ear.
Ed put one of his hands over Al's mouth and pinched Al's nose with the other hand. Al struggled agents his brother but finally woke up.
"Ahhh! Oh Ed," Al had bolted upright and started to talk loudly.
"Shhh," he put a hand back over Al's mouth and looked over his shoulder to the door. "We're at Dublith remember? Be quiet." He lowered his hand then pointed at Al's wings, "Put those away. They might come in to see what all the noise was."
Al looked over his shoulder at his wings. He turned back to Ed and nodded. Ed watched as his wings were sucked back into his back, it took just seconds for them to retract. Just as the last feathers disappeared there was a knock at the door. Sig's head popped in.
"Sorry, Al had a bad dream so he was being loud." Ed smiled and rubbed the back of his head.
Sig nodded and left, closing the door behind him. Ed turned back to Al.
"That was close, wasn't it?"
"Yah, I'm sorry brother. I almost got us shipped off to the closest zoo didn't I?"
"It's not your fault, Al. You were having a nightmare and we know what that dose."
"Lets go back to sleep. Ok?"
"Sure Al, goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Ed got back into bed and they fell back asleep.
The sun started to come in trough the window waking the brothers. They stretched and yawned.
"Teacher said we were going to start the provisional training today right?" Al asked with a big smile on his face.
"Yah and we're going to ace it so we can stay and train longer!" Ed looked at his brother his golden eyes filled with confidence.
Al smiled even wider and they both left the room. The house was quiet and no one was in the kitchen or bathrooms. Ed and Al guessed that their teacher wasn't up yet so they went outside. It was beginning to look like a beautiful day. The brothers took a breath of the fresh morning air. They thought about taking a walk but voted agents it; it was an unfamiliar town so they could get lost. So they just lied on the grass watching the clouds float by. Each cloud was splashed with color from the rising sun.
"There you boys are. I was looking for you." They turned to see their teacher standing by the door.
"We got up and no one was awake so we came outside." Al said, he had a way to make anything sound innocent.
"You got up before me, that's impressive." Teacher said with a smile.
Ed and Al didn't know her long but that smile gave them the creeps.
"You two can join me with my morning sparing practice. I have a dummy out in the back, follow me." She went around the side of the house to the back yard. Ed and Al followed her, both having a bad feeling.
"Ok, have either of you ever spared with any one?" both brothers shook their heads. "Well then I'll give you some basic lessons."
After her 'basic lessons' the boys felt like jelly. The sun hadn't moved at all from when they started. They were both covered in burses. They lay on their backs as Izumi towered over them.
"You can go inside; I'll finish my sparing with the dummy. My husband should be getting breakfast done any minute."
The Elrics slowly got up and went inside. As they stumbled into the kitchen, they smelled bacon and eggs. Sig was standing at the stove and looked over his shoulder at the boys. He smiled at seeing all the burses on their skin and chuckled knowing she went easy on them.
Teacher came in a little while later brushing off her hands. Ed and Al were already eating and Sig just sat down with a plate. She grabbed herself some breakfast and sat down. She looked over at the boys and noticed that the burses seemed to shrink from the size they were a while ago.
"After breakfast we will start the training to see if you are worthy to be my students." Izumi said after shrugging off the burses.
"Really?" Al asked as Ed continued to stuff his face.
A little while later they were in a boat sailing in a lake outside of Dublith. Mason was rowing. Both of them where leaning out side of the boat splashing the water. Soon Ed and Al noticed they were sailing to an island in the middle of the water. When they reached the island Teacher told them to get out of the boat and onto the shore of the island.
"Here take this." She threw something it to Ed's hands.
"A knife?" Ed asked after he cheeked what it was.
"This is an uninhabited island, after all. No electricity, no wells, no house to shelter you from the rain, and no wild animals…at least, probably not." Both boys looked at her.
A smile came to her face, it was the same one from earlier, "For one month, you two are to survive by yourselves on this island." They stared at her disbelievingly. "Oh, and during that time, the use of alchemy is prohibited."
Both boys started to panic.
"WHAT IS THIS?" They both yelled at the sky.
"I'll come to pick you up in one month." She was walking back to the boat and waving.
"J-just a sec!" Ed said desperately.
Izumi stopped and looked over her shoulder. "One is all, all is one."
Getting into the boat she turned around to the stunned boys.
"If you don't find the answer in one month," she said sitting down, "then I'm sending you back to Resembool." She explained. "See ya!" Then boat took off at abnormal speeds.
The boys were left looking out at the lake. Once they got their senses back they looked at each other.
"What do we do now?" Al asked.
"I think I read a book somewhere saying the first thing to do is make shelter." Ed replied thinking.
"Ok then, let's go find a spot." Al turned around and looked at the forest behind them.
They walked into the brush and started searching for a good spot to make a shelter. After a half and hour they found a clearing that looked alright. They started by putting a bunch of leaves in the center of the clearing for nights that it was nice out. This took most of the day so by the time they got it done it was late. Ed flopped down next to his little brother resighting what their teacher had said.
"One is all, all is one… awww, why couldn't she have given us more to go off of?"
"One is all, all is one. What could that mean?" Al asked Ed.
"Is it a riddle? I don't get it at all." Ed said frustrated.
"But unless we give her an answer in a month, we won't get any real training." Al reminded him.
"Aw, fuck! How is this supposed to be alchemy training?" Ed yelled sitting up. "She probably fucking tricked us!" Right then his stomach gave a loud growl and he fell back onto the ground.
"Let's sleep." He said exhausted.
"How about we get up early tomorrow and find some food?" Al said sounding just as exhausted as Ed.
"Mm-hmm" that was all that was heard from Ed.
Weeeeeeeeeee, sugar rush!
Dying Heart Alchemist