"A girl with a weird cat?" Myra gave a skeptical look as she looked at the picture Ed had drawn of the so-called 'cat'.
"Actually it looks more like this." Al said, showing her a more realistic drawing of the 'cat'.
"Hmm... Didn't those two show up back when we were fighting Gluttony? They helped Scar escape."
"True, but we need the girl to teach us about alkahestry, Eastern Alchemy, the alchemy they use in Xing. It can give us a way to defeat the homunculi." Al explained.
"I see." she said in thought, staring at the picture in front of her.
"Well, let's go find the little brat." Ed said, walking by the two as he grabbed his drawing.
They spent the next few hours going around town and asking people if they had seen a little girl with the cat.
"Have you by any chance seen this cat around, Miss?" Myra asked a woman who seemed to be only a few years older than her, holding up a drawing of the cat Al had drawn for her.
After taking a closer look of the drawing the woman replied, "No, I'm sorry." she shook her head before going about her business.
Myra heard a sigh from behind her and she turned to see Edward standing with his back hunched over in exasperation. Al was standing a few metres away talking to someone else, his own drawing of the cat in hand. She was about to say something to Ed, but then he suddenly sprung back up from his hunched position. A new set of determination in his eyes. Myra giggled.
"What's so funny?" he asked, turning to face her.
"Oh, nothing." she said, not being able to hide the smile on her face.
Ed soon turned his attention to an elderly woman who was walking by, holding up his poorly drawn picture for her.
Myra spotted another person to ask as well, and headed over to them.
"So you're looking for that cat?" a voice asked from behind her.
Myra spun around and came face to face with a male who seemed about her age. He had light brown hair and brown eyes that gazed upon her as he pointed to the picture in her hands.
"Yeah, do you know anything about it or the little girl who's travelling with it?" Myra asked hopefully.
"Perhaps," he talked smoothly. "Maybe we could talk about it while I take a very pretty young lady, such as yourself, out to dinner tonight?"
Myra opened her mouth to politely reject the boy, but someone else beat her too it.
"She's not interested." Ed said bluntly, now standing in between Myra and the boy, coming from seemingly out of nowhere. "Don't you have something better to do than hitting on random girls?" he took a step closer to the boy, eyes narrowed.
"Sorry, shorty, but I was talking to her." The boy tried to wave Ed off.
"'SHORTY'?!" Ed tried to launch himself at the boy, but Myra held him back, not wanting to create any more of a scene to the people who seemed to stare as they walked by.
"Uh, right. Well, sorry, I didn't realize you had such a... protective younger brother." The boy said dismissively. And with that, he left.
"Stupid kid thinks he can hit on other people's sister like that..." Ed began his incoherent mumbling as Myra smiled kindly at him. "I'm not that short!"
"I could've handled that one myself, you know."
"Like I was going to let you." Ed stubbornly said, crossing his arms pouting and facing the other direction.
The smile remained on her face as she patted his head, "Well thank you anyway, Ed."
Al soon joined them, also coming up with no such luck in finding who they were looking for. Eventually, they decided to split up to cover more ground.
"I'll take the east side of town, you two can take the west." Myra said.
"Okay." Al agreed.
"Let's meet back at the hotel afterwards." Ed said to which Myra nodded.
Several times they thought they might've found them but alas, they came up empty-handed.
"Man, this sucks." Myra complained as she slumped onto her hotel bed.
"We can't give up yet." Al said determined.
"Yeah, you're right." Ed agreed. "We should go to the library to research anything we can on alkahestry."
"Shouldn't we try searching again tomorrow?" Myra asked.
"We talked to Colonel Mustang already. He said he's going to ask around for us."
"Well, then I guess it is better we leave it to the Colonel." Myra said, knowing personally never to doubt Mustang.
"Sister?" Al suddenly asked.
"Yeah, Al?" she looked up at him.
"After the incident at the fifth laboratory, didn't you and the other Cloaked Alchemists go after Barry the Chopper?"
"Yeah...?" she responded, wondering where he was going with this.
A lightbulb went off in Ed's head. "Oh right! You guys were pretty famous for your skills and Barry's... Barry. So, did he escape from you guys or something cause Lieutenant Hawkeye caught him a while back."
"Ohh, that's what you mean. Well, while we were chasing Barry something more important came up and we lost track of him... which is kind of embarrassing for us." Myra rubbed the back of her neck nervously.
Ed began to laugh. "Ed c'mon don't laugh!" Ed's laughter became contagious and Al couldn't help but start giggling too. "Awe Al, not you too!" Myra pouted, which only made the two boys laugh harder.
Ed stared intently at the open book he had in his hand. Eventually he gave up and shut the book closed. "It's no good. Why doesn't this place have any good books on Eastern alchemy?" he said to himself, carrying a bunch of books under his arms to a shelf.
"Maybe I'll visit Xing and study there instead..."
"But there's no way you'll be able to cross the desert with automail." Myra said walking up to him, a pile of books of her own in her hands.
Ed sighed, "Yeah, you're right."
A shadow suddenly loomed over the two. Ed dropped his books and fell on the floor, startled. Myra, also startled, dropped her books as well, but remained standing.
Just above the bookshelf, Major Armstrong's head stuck out as sparkles seemed to glow around him. "There you are, Edward Elric." he said.
"M-Major! What are you doing here?!" Ed stuttered.
"Shh! You have to be quiet in the library." The Major said.
"Nice to see you again, Major." Myra spoke up from the side.
"Well, if it isn't Myra Elric! Long time to see—" he glanced at Ed then back at Myra.
"Don't worry Major," Myra said quickly before he could start panicking. "My brothers found out."
Armstrong looked around before he replied to make sure no one was around to listen in on their conversation, "I hear that the Cloaked Alchemists disbanded. You've been with the Elric brothers ever since?" He whispered to her.
"Pretty much, yeah."
Armstrong began anime crying. "Oh that's wonderful! Being reunited with your brothers!" Myra smiled but sweat-dropped at the Major's usual antics. "Edward! You have no idea how hard it was to keep this a secret from you!"
"It was under Fuhrer Bradley's orders so it's okay, Major. Anyways, why are you here?" Ed asked trying to get to the point.
Armstrong leaned in so only the two Elrics could hear him. "I heard you're after a girl from Xing who carries around a black and white cat."
"Yeah. Wait, how did you know that?" Ed gave a skeptical look.
"I heard from Colonel Mustang. I'm here today on the Colonel's orders." This caught Ed's attention. "Apparently, she's headed north. According to a witness, she was in East City and was headed north from there."
A wide grin grew on his face as determination entered his gold orbs. "Okay! If we know that much, it's safe to give it a try. Thanks a lot, Major. Tell the Colonel I said thanks too."
Before the Major left, he gave a letter to Ed explaining that it's a letter of introduction to give to Major General Armstrong, his older sister at the Northern Headquarters. And with the letter in Ed's pocket, the Major left to complete another task.
Myra helped Ed pick up the books they had dropped at the time of the Major's arrival. "I'll buy the train tickets." Myra volunteered.
"Right. And I'll get Al." Ed nodded, before they parted ways.