February 6th, 1974 Cont'd

Fire light flickered off the black rock walls, and the stark white sand that covered the floor in dramatic contrast. Alphonse was grateful that there had indeed been plenty of drift wood to light for fires. The kids had been put to work gathering it all up and getting those started, and had worked eagerly, glad for the distraction of something to do that was productive and kept their minds off the danger they were all in. Then they had sat around the fires and chatted for a while. Al hadn't taken much part unless asked a question, but conversations had quickly shifted –the ones he could hear- from their present predicament to anything else but that, as they tried to think about other things.

That was fine with Al, his own thoughts were also somewhere else at the same time they were very immediately on the present, as if he could think about two things at once. Which, after all this time, he could.

They kept the fires stoked enough that they burned warm, though he let the light die and kept the embers burning as one by one the exhausted high-schoolers drifted off to sleep on the sand, finally mostly dry and warm. Hunger was a lost feeling to them, for the moment. At least, Al hadn't heard one complaint about it; something he would never have thought likely from ten teens.

As they dropped off, and Arrus and Paoulo settled into silence, Al felt no need to start conversation. Instead, he watched the water as it crawled slowly, inexorably towards them up the narrow stretch of tunnel that had been their final ascent.

In the light it appeared a flickering, reflective surface on top of blackness, almost like tar, or crude oil in the dark, sometimes filled with little flickers as a flame guttered. Inch by inch, moving very little this far removed from the thundering waves, which were only a dull pounding in the distance now, the water crawled towards them.

It didn't matter that there was a distinct water line, and it was more than ten yards from where the kids slept on the sands. There was always a first time for anything, and the last thing Al wanted to fall asleep and miss was the tide coming in at a new, record high. He desperately hoped that line was merely its highest; because they were there, with nowhere else to go.

And yet, somehow, Al didn't feel panicked by that idea. He had been in tight situations before. In this case, he was fairly certain that, given the tiny air shaft sucking the smoke from the fires up and away, he might be able to use alchemy to create a tunnel up, or back down to the ship via a different route. He wished he knew the cliffs better, but if it was take the risk or drown, he was fairly certain everyone there would rather try and get out.

Perhaps ironically, he felt more worry for Elicia, and wondered how the dig site had fared. Plenty of it had the possibility of being flooded with an unusual high tide, or bad tidal waves such as the storm outside was likely producing along that stretch of beach. Had everyone gotten off the beach in time? Was the camp all right in this storm? Elicia and the other kids who were there might be safe and warm, or huddling in emergency tents trying to hold down canvas, for all he knew.

He refused to entertain the fearful notions in his head that something could have actually happened to Elicia while he was gone. That way lay fear and potential temporary insanity.

The hour continued to grow later. Al's watch had stopped working thanks to all the salt water, so he could only use the tide itself as his time marker, knowing how long it took to come in and go out again. The day turned to evening, and moved into night, with nothing to do but wait, and hope… and wait some more.

Winry tucked her feet up under her, sitting cross-legged on the couch in her warm house robe, a cup of hot tea in hand as she settled in on the couch to read one of her favorite auto-mail magazines. The newest issue had arrived in the mail just that afternoon, and she would have started earlier if she hadn't been working on a new wrist joint for Ed. The current one had started having minor catching issues and sticking in the cold weather, no matter how it was oiled, and it was simply time to replace it. Fortunately, Winry didn't have to fully remove the arm for that procedure, and it had been done just before dinner without any complications.

Given Ed was sacked out snoozing in the recliner, Winry was pretty sure he hadn't suffered much. His griping during the procedure had been routine boredom more than anything else. He still didn't like to sit still while she worked on him.

Winry had just flipped to the article on page thirty-nine about new experimental plastics supposedly strong enough to make good light auto-mail casings –she wasn't sure she believed any of the gung-ho mechanics going that way, but she wasn't foolish enough not to read it- when the phone rang.

Winry contemplated ignoring the phone, but it rang four times, then five… and just kept ringing.

She glanced over at Ed, who grunted, twitched, and remained unconscious.

With a sigh, Winry stood up and went to the phone on the little phone table. Who would be calling at this hour? She hoped something wasn't wrong with one of the kids over at Aldon's. "Hello?"

"Winry?" the voice came through distant and tinny, as long-distance calls always sounded to Resembool. But it was clearly Elicia. "I'm so glad you're still up. Sorry to call so late."

"Elicia?" Winry hadn't been expecting a call from Creta! Or with that tone of worry in her voice. She felt a knot form in her stomach. Only a very few things worried Elicia. "Is something wrong?"

There was a pause, then "Yes," and the entire story came pouring out, about the scuba diving trips, and Al's group going out first today, and the storm coming up, and the ship being out of contact. "And the worst of it has passed," she came to the end after several minutes, "But there's still no sign of them! Not even a distress signal. And Al and Minxia both out there! I haven't called Will and Ren yet. I don't want to tell them their little girl is missing in a storm. But I had to talk to someone!"

Alphonse and Minxia… Winry swallowed, but managed to keep her own voice calm as she spoke into the phone. "Of course you did. It's not like Al to be out of contact, not if he can contact you. But I'm sure he's okay," she spoke softly, hoping not to wake Ed up. The last thing he'd want to hear was that his brother had gotten himself lost at sea somewhere. "If the storm is that bad, it wouldn't be that hard to knock out communication signals, especially not out on the ocean like that. And it's Al. They couldn't be safer than with an alchemist on board. Especially not that one. And he'd never let anything happen to Minxia. By that logic, they should both be fine right?"

On the other end of the line, Elicia chuckled weakly. "That's cheerful. I'm not sure how right that is, but I think I'd like to believe in it anyway. Al's amazing. Thanks, Winry. I needed that."

"I'm glad you called," Winry replied. "Let me know if you don't hear anything in the morning all right? I bet they come back full of themselves from some exciting adventure though. Just you wait and see." She squashed her own worries as she focused on reassuring dear friend. Surely Al really could handle a little storm and keep a boat together, couldn't he?

"I will," Elicia promised. "I need to get off now. The coast guard could call any time and say they've found something."

"Of course. Talk to you soon," Winry replied as the line went quiet. She hung up the phone and went back to the couch, though her interest in her magazine article had been replaced by far greater concerns.

Apparently the discussion had awoken Ed. He looked up at her as she sat back down, drowsiness giving way to concern on his face. "Something up?"

"Oh not much," Winry sighed. "It just looks like for once your brother is more trouble than you are."

February 7th, 1974

Stiff. Salty… parts of her were chilled through, but the pillow was warm.

Pillow?

Minxia blinked grit out of her eyes and opened them to the dim glow of fire embers and dark and shadow, even though it felt as though enough hours had passed that it should be morning. At least, that's what her internal clock said.

Glancing sideways she discovered her pillow… Thrakos' shoulder. Abruptly, she sat up, and glanced around, hoping her Grandpa hadn't noticed.

It took several seconds for her to realize that no one else was awake at the moment, not even her grandfather, who was leaning against a short, thick log that had washed up in here years ago, legs out in front of him, head lolling on his chest and arms crossed. It looked slightly odd in a wet suit, but Minxia noted he didn't snore.

Curious, Minxia looked down towards the water, which had been climbing, but seemed to have stopped before she drifted off. Now, it was definitely lower. She peered far down into the tunnel and could just see the movement of water several feet down.

:Nnn…:

She twitched and looked over her shoulder as Thrakos rolled up against her leg, still clearly unconscious. Minxia couldn't help smiling at the lock of hair stuck to his face with dried ocean water and sand. She resisted the urge to wipe it off.

After another minute, Thrakos stirred, and looked up at her, and smiled. :Morning.:

:I think so,: Minxia replied. :The water's going down.: Which made her feel better, even though she had no idea how much longer it would take to fully recede. How were they going to get back out of the cave though? She could hear almost nothing in the silence, save dripping water and the distant sound of surf. It wasn't nearly as hard or loud as the night before which meant, she hoped, that the storm had passed.

:Good.: Thrakos sat up, rubbed sand and lock of hair alike from his face, and got the sand out of his hair by ruffling it violently with his hands till it was nothing but a black mop… an oddly attractive black mop. :I can't wait to get out of here. I'm starved.: As if to accentuate the point, his stomach made an odd whirring noise.

:Me too,: Minxia admitted, looking over to where Angelique had fallen asleep nearby. She looked cold.

It wasn't long before the others started to awaken as well, and Minxia felt an unreasonable –she felt- twinge of annoyance at not having more of a quiet moment with Thrakos. This was hardly the time to worry about romance! No matter how good looking and close to you a boy was, emotionally or physically.

Grandpa Al and the two Cretan men awoke soon after, and stoked the fires, until the cave was once again reasonably warm. Minxia began to feel less clammy by the time hungry, cramped, and still worried teens crowded around.

:So what are we going to do?: Angelique asked as they all looked down at the slowly receding water. :We can't get through that!:

Alphonse surprised even Minxia by smiling, a fairly relaxed and confident smile. :We're going to make our own way out,: he replied. :Back to the beach is our best bet. It's too high up I think to head for the top of the cliffs from here. But we can get out without destabilizing everything.:

:But how?: Angelique asked again.

:With alchemy,: Al replied. :And this one's a pretty common trick here in Creta.: He clapped his hands together and knelt to the ground. :Watch the water.:

Slowly a small wall of air seemed to appear, shimmering half-visible before them. At least, that was how it looked to Minxia. She wondered if her classmates even really understood what she was seeing as the little wall pushed down into the water, and began to push it back and out towards the exit thanks to the application of force.

It was alchemy that kept it from spilling or leaking out anywhere.

:Think you can do that?: Al turned suddenly and asked her.

Minxia almost fell over. :Me?: She hadn't even thought about it, though she felt immediately stupid for blurting the word out as she considered how logical that was, and it really wasn't a horribly difficult transmutation. At least not in concept. It was the execution that worried her. :Sure,: she replied, not willing to say no in front of everyone. Besides, she was pretty sure she could actually do this.

Her grandfather beamed at her, then nodded and his face became focused. :All right then. We need to push the water out ahead of us until we get back out to the beach.:

:What if the high tide still has the beach flooded?: Paoulo asked, and there was a general mumble of agreed wondering from the students.

:I'll handle that until we can get back on ship,: Al assured them.

Minxia didn't think anyone else was really reassured, though they had seen Al blowing up rocks yesterday. This was very different.

Still, she couldn't back out now. Minxia stepped up next to her grandfather and picked up a scrap of charred wood from the fire. It was the only thing she could find to draw a transmutation circle. :Okay. Let's do this.:

Minxia followed his direction in drawing the circle she would need for this, which came with reassurance that it would be fine, and that once they started, they would move in stages, so that she could draw new circles as they moved further beyond the range of the one she was using. Unfortunately, working with water, some of the more distant alchemy techniques more common in Xing would not be of much use here.

She watched with a twinge of envy as her Grandfather clapped his hands together and then laid them on the rock beside him. She knew what it had cost him to have that ability, but it would have been awfully convenient right now.

The air in front of them both began to waver slightly, the way air sometimes did along a road on a warm day, though not for the same reasons. Minxia added her own strength to the wall and it took a form, solidified, and moved forward and down into the tunnel below, it's edges matching perfectly to the walls, though it hesitated where it met the resistance of the water.

"Okay… now we push," Al commented softly.

Minxia nodded; all her concentration on holding the energy flowing and completing the transmutation. They pushed harder, and the water began to move.

It was a long, slow, arduous, and exhausting process. Inch by inch, foot by foot, they pushed the water down ahead of them. Even though the tide was going out, it wasn't moving as quickly, however, as they could push it.

Despite the weather and wet, Minxia was sweating before they had gone twenty feet. It took them four times as long to get down the caves towards the entrance as it had to climb up them, edging slowly all the way, and Al holding the wall in place whenever Minxia had to reposition and redraw her circles. But he never suggested he just do it himself.

Minxia tried not to think about the amazed looks of her classmates the couple of times she glanced their way. It wasn't like she had never done alchemy in front of them. It just hadn't been anything big, or that their lives relied on. As they moved forward, and pushed harder against the shove of the ocean, the more dangerous it was if the wall collapsed.

Not that she said anything about it. It was better if they didn't think about it.

Finally, when she was literally shaking from exhaustion and thought they might not make it, they broke out into the lower part of the cave, where the water was already lower than the ceiling now, and they could slosh out to shore in water that only came up to their knees when the waves came in.

Minxia almost collapsed… but her wobble was caught by a strong pair of arms on her back, and she looked up to see Thrakos grinning at her with a look that also held just a touch of awe.
:Nice work, Minx,: he grinned.

:I had no idea…: Arrus commented, though he was speaking to Al. :I have to say I'm impressed. Now let's see what kind of shape the boat's in.:

The boat turned out quickly to be evidently more of a problem. The anchor was lodged well and solidly between the rocks, thank goodness, but there were several small holes in the hull, and water in the boat. More detailed clambering over the ship also revealed that the radio system was fried from being soaked in salt water.

Minxia wasn't sure what to make of her grandfather, except that he was beginning to seem superhuman. For one thing, he wasn't even sweating. For another, at the announcement that the radio wasn't working and the sight of the holes in the ship, he just nodded, clapped his hands together again, and went to work.

In short order the ship was fixed, emptied of water, and floating buoyantly once more. The radio looked brand new.

:Radios are something of a specialty of mine,: Al replied enigmatically when asked. :They're easy.:

:And ships?: Paoulo asked.

:I've worked with more difficult materials. Let's see about getting back now, shall we?:

It hadn't taken him more than half an hour to fix the boat. During that time, Minxia had gotten her wind back, and studiously ignored the look on Angelique's face as Thrakos practically hovered over her.
Arrus went for the radio as the students all clambered back on board, and Paoulo hauled up the anchor. :Hello, Travelerto base camp. Come in Base Camp. Do you read me?:

Elicia was fairly certain that ten cups of coffee was more than a reasonable number, but having not slept all night, she suspected that it was the only thing keeping her away outside of her fears for Al and Minxia. There hadn't been a word all night. Nothing as the storm howled, and battered, and eventually receded into a long, slow, soaking rain.

Dawn came late thanks to the thick layer of clouds that lay over the ocean and shoreline like a blanket, and fog rolled in until mid-morning, when the sun finally peaked through and burned it off.

Elicia did not eat, though she made sure the students did, fielding questions with patience and a calm she did not feel. She didn't think any of them really believed the statement that everything was all right, but they nodded and pretended along with her. No one wanted to consider that ten of their classmates and their teacher might actually be dead, lost at sea in the middle of a field trip.

The irony was not at all lost on Elicia, who was beginning to think that sending Alphonse looking for homunculi might have been safer.

It was not a productive morning. While the archaeologists worked on getting the dig site back in general working order, Elicia remained in the main building, waiting by the radio with the radio operator for any message from the ship, or from the coast guard out looking for the ship. She paused by the table of artifacts that were recently labeled. The alchemy note tablets that Minxia had helped unearth were there. Al had told her that, on further reading, they contained mostly what he jokingly called 'household' alchemy. Transmutations to help keep things from spoiling, or to un-spoil food that was a bit ripe but not lost to inedibility. There was even a very primitive transmutation to make outer-garments water-proof.

Elicia wondered if Al might have used it out there, to keep dry.

Most of the students volunteered to help with the clean-up efforts, for which she was grateful. They were distracted and busy that way.

It was almost time for the midday lunch break when static erupted over the radio, and Elicia jumped, having slipped into a light doze.

She ignored the smirk on the radio operator's face as he picked up the receiver. :This is Base Camp, Traveler. We read you! Copy.:

More static. :Reef point,: came through clearly. :Ship damaged…. Repairs complete.:

:Anyone injured?: the tech asked in return.

:Only minor cuts,: came back the reply, and relief flooded Elicia like warm bath water after a dunk in the sea. :Elric's quite the repairman.:

Alphonse! Elicia resisted the urge to shout at the radio. The signal was bad enough as it was.

:Any idea what time you'll be back?: the tech asked.

:An hour, maybe two,: came the reply. :Got to maneuver… rocks.:

:Understood, Traveler. Safe seas. Over and out.: He sat back, then smiled at Elicia. :Looks like you all got lucky.:

:Not luck,: Elicia found herself smiling for the first time since the night before. :They've got Al.:

Alphonse had never been happier to be off a boat than as he followed the students down the gang plank onto the battered dock at Malathos, and moved through the crowd into Elicia's waiting arms. Her kiss did more to erase his bone-deep weariness and the stress of the past twenty-four hours than any night of sleep or cup of coffee would have.

He ignored the laughs and couple of whistles from his male students. They were probably jealous. Though Al did not prolong the embrace. That would do for later.

:You just had to do something crazy on a routine trip didn't you?: Elicia accused, though her tone was light with relief.

:Naturally,: Al replied, smiling in relief at finding her safe on land. He had worried constantly, but had put it aside in favor of survival. Now, safe on land, the dangers no longer felt like they had been all that dangerous. A fallacy, Al knew, but one he could live with. He'd certainly done it enough times. Somehow, defying death over and over again tended to make a guy less prone to fearing for his life. :Had to give the kids a bit of a thrill.:

:Gee thanks, Mr. Elric,: Thrakos piped up with a snarky quip. :We could never have gone through life without that fabulous educational experience.:

:You're welcome,: Al replied, shooting the boy a knowing look. He'd have had to have been blind not to notice him snuggling up to Minxia in the cave, or on the ride back. He wasn't all over her exactly, but his face gave him away, and his gestures, and the fact he hadn't moved more than five feet from her since they left the dock originally. Friends… right.

Thrakos looked briefly embarrassed, but then the look was gone again, and he shrugged. Minxia's face, however, had that tell-tale flush to it that told Al his barb had not missed.

:Something I should know about?: Elicia asked, confused.

:Later,: Al promised. He wasn't going to start telling her about his granddaughter's little romance in front of the rest of the students. He had far more pressing concerns. :Right now, I just want to get everyone clean, dry, and fed.:

Elicia nodded, and slid an arm through his as they all crowded back off the dock, the adventurers regaling the rest of their classmates with the harrowing tale, though it already sounded more like a grand adventure in retelling.

Al chuckled. Some things never changed.