Hagane no Renkinjutsushi - Volume 4 - Chapter 1

UNDER THE FARAWAY SKY

EDWARD DREAMED he was home again.

Familiar sights surrounded him: The hill covered with swaying green grass. Sheep clustered in bunches, grazing. And in the middle of the sheep with their soft, white wool, a shepherd playing the flute. Farmers swinging their hoes, tilling the fields. Old women picking fruit in the orchards. Children racing each other home from school, a gang of dogs yapping and barking at their heels.

One of the dogs broke away from the pack, running up the hill to where Edward stood and sniffing at his feet. 

… Den.

The dog rubbed his leg. Edward gave it a pat on the head.

Winry’s dog. He was a perfect black except for his nose, belly, and the tips of his feet, which were all untarnished white. Edward had helped raise him since he was a pup. Hand resting on the dog’s warm head, Edward turned back to the view.

Resembool … 

Edward squinted his eyes as he looked out across the town. The wind, the sky, the trees, the people—all was gentle and calm.

Here, there was none of the refinement of the city. News from the outside world traveled slowly if at all, and every day passed without incident. You could walk down the street alone, and sooner or later, a grown-up would say hi, or a kid your age would invite you to join in on a game. It was a warm town, where people cared for each other.

Edward spotted a boy running down the road and called out to him.

Except he had no voice.

Huh? Why can’t I speak?

Forgetting for a moment he was dreaming, Edward went to rub his throat when he realized he was holding a torch in his right hand. His hand, firmly grasping the torch, was of shiny automail. Below it, his automail left leg shone dully in the torch’s reflected light. Edward knew what he had to do.

I have to get out of here. I can’t sit here looking at this village. I’ve made up my mind.

Beneath the blue sky, Resembool looked as peaceful as always. He turned around to see his childhood home, the house where he and his brother had grown up. There were the perennials his mom had planted, growing by the front door. On the wall to the side, he saw footprints left from a jumping contest with a friend years ago. A little tin horse lay on its side in the living room. It had been one of the first things he and Al had made with their alchemy. The scribbling on the edge of the kitchen table, however, was young Winry’s work.

Edward set fire to them all and watched the house burn.

The fire was hungry. It consumed everything: the picture books he had read over and over again, photographs still in their frames, the wooden swings in the garden—all his memories, burning.

Edward muttered to himself, the heat of the flames on his face. “No going back.”

In the dream, Edward heard himself speak. His eyes opened.

BRIGHT SUNLIGHT streamed onto his face. “Nnngh … ” Edward squinted and sat up.

The afternoon sun spilled in through the window by the bed. Edward reached out his arm to shut the curtain. He poured a cup of water from a flask on the small bedside table and took a swig. “I’m wiped out,” he said to no one, falling back onto sheets damp with sweat.

With the curtain closed, the room was dim and growing cooler, which only made Edward’s cheek feel hotter. Blond hair stuck to his sweaty forehead. Edward rolled over, wiping golden strands away with his hand.

He knew his weariness and the heat he felt trapped in his body wasn’t on account of the sun.

“Unnnh … ” Edward groaned, coughed twice into his hand, and glared at the ceiling. Several days before, Edward had been out in the rain and caught a cold.

If his brother, Alphonse, hadn’t noticed he was running a temperature the night before and arranged for their stay in this village, he would probably be out lying by the side of some road somewhere dying. At least that’s how it felt to Edward.

Luckily, Alphonse had found someone who could offer them a place to stay—an empty house whose owner was out of town for a while—and procured blankets and a bed. As soon as the bed was made, he had pushed Edward into it despite his brother’s protestations.

“You’ve been running yourself ragged, and now it’s caught up to you,” he had said. “You’d better rest now, or all those corners you’ve been cutting to get this far will come back and take their revenge!”

“Exhausted … ” Edward looked back up at the ceiling. He was alone, with only a small kitchen, the bed, a table, and a chair to keep him company while Alphonse went out looking for a doctor.

A breeze ruffled the curtains and brushed across his cheek.

“It’s been almost a year,” Edward whispered suddenly. It had been a year since they had left Resembool. Of course he was exhausted, and dreaming of home.

When they had left, he had been twelve. Now Edward was thirteen. His blond hair, braided in the back, had grown longer, and his golden eyes had a world-weary look to them. Still, no matter how much he had changed inside, on the outside he was still a boy, and the endless hard trekking across the countryside took its toll—both mental and physical.

Yet he had to keep going. He had to get his and Alphonse’s bodies back.

Their intent hadn’t been evil, that was certain, but they had broken one of the most sacred alchemical taboos. They had thought human transmutation was the only way they could see their mother again after her death. But, right or wrong, the alchemy had failed. The brothers didn’t get their mother back, and in exchange for their foolishness, Edward lost his left leg and Alphonse, his entire body. Fearing he would lose the only family he had left, Edward performed one more act of alchemy. Though it cost him his right arm, he managed at last to attach his brother’s soul to a suit of armor.

Now, Edward’s right arm and left leg were no longer flesh but automail, and Alphonse was a voice and a personality attached to a giant suit of bronze armor so large and menacing that it was hard to believe he was the younger of the two by a year.

Many people would have considered themselves lucky and called it quits there, but not Edward and Alphonse. They wanted their old bodies back.

Edward became a state alchemist. The funding he would have at his disposal and his newfound access to information would make it easier to track down a way they might recover their bodies. What did it matter if people called him the army’s lapdog? Alphonse joined him, and they had never looked back.

But their year on the road had been tough. Out here, weariness built up in hours and days. Edward’s body had been waiting for an excuse to give out.

“No way am I sleeping away the whole day here,” Edward muttered, trying to sit up again. His limbs felt like they were made of concrete.

“Darn it, time’s a-wasting!” Edward snapped, angry at his body’s betrayal. How could he be forced to sit in one place now, when his objective was so clear? Edward angrily kicked the covers off the bed.

“Hey, I thought I told you to take it easy,” Alphonse cried. He had only just opened the door and spied his brother moaning on the bed, the covers in loose piles on the floor. “Your blanket fell off.” He picked up the blankets and tucked his brother back in, seeming for all the world like the older of the two. His armor suit was scary to behold, but the personality it held was that of a caring, gentle-natured boy.

Edward, on the other hand, was a fighter. He preferred moving and acting to sitting and thinking. Just like when he became a state alchemist at an unprecedented young age, once he decided something, he moved.

“Al, let’s get out of here.”

“Huh?”

“Look, I’m fine. I want to get over those mountains and into a larger town. Maybe we’ll find a lead on the Philosopher’s Stone.”

The Philosopher’s Stone—this legendary artifact, fabled to possess the power to amplify the effects of alchemy—had been the sole focus of their wanderings. Without something that could circumvent the fundamental law of alchemy—the conservation of mass known as equivalent exchange—human transmutation was impossible. If anything held the key to breaking that law, it was the Philosopher’s Stone that would make it possible.

But the stone, their one hope in the world, was little more than a myth. No one alive had ever held it. Its very existence was uncertain. It wasn’t easy finding clues, either. Edward and Alphonse had ridden train after train, visiting large towns, occasionally tromping across mountains into the wilderness, looking for any scrap of information about the stone’s whereabouts or method of manufacture that they could find. But they had made a decision to not stop until they had searched right up to the ends of the earth, and so they had to keep moving. Any untrodden land, any unvisited town held potential … but Alphonse wouldn’t let Edward out of bed.

“You’ve still got a fever. We can’t leave now.” Alphonse poured the rest of the water in the flask into a wash basin and soaked the towel hanging on its edge. “I found a doctor and asked him to visit. You sleep till he comes, ’kay?”

“You … found a doctor?” Edward made a sour face. Edward had been sure Alphonse’s search for a hospital would be in vain this far from a big city. In fact, he had been counting on it. If a doctor came to check him, there would be no way to hide his fever. He might really be forced to sit here until it broke, and that could take days. For Edward, who wanted only to leave as soon as possible, a doctor was his worst fear.

Alphonse could see right through him. “You’re getting a checkup, and that’s that. I’ve never seen you with a fever this high. I’ve been worried. I mean, what if you’re really sick?”

Edward frowned and fell silent, suddenly feeling guilty for making his brother worry. Alphonse gently placed the wet towel on his forehead. “When I described your symptoms to the doctor, he said it was probably just a cold, but you should wait till you’re better before leaving again. I think we got lucky, really. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find anyone out here. Apparently, he’s the only doctor in the area—he was so busy, he couldn’t come himself, but he said he’d send his assistant along with some medicine.”

“Great,” Edward replied, seeing potential for compromise. “Then, once I’ve got my checkup and medicine, let’s head out. Fine?”

“Not fine. Not a chance!”

“But I can’t lie around here sleeping!” Edward kicked off the covers once again. “I’ll sleep on the train! What if some clue slips away while we’re here, loafing around?! See? I’m fine, really!”

“Your mouth is fine, sure. I’m not so sure about the rest of you.”

“It’s just a little fever,” Edward said, starting to sit up. “I mean … nngh!”

Alphonse jabbed a thermometer under his tongue. “Sit still. The doctor wanted me to take your temperature. And this isn’t our thermometer, so don’t break it.”

On any other day, Edward would have been quick enough to dodge the thermometer, but his fever had slowed him down considerably. Alphonse was forcing him back down onto the bed when they heard a young man’s voice calling from outside.

“Here for the checkup! Is this where the patient is?”

“Sounds like the assistant’s come.”

Alphonse stood up immediately. Behind him, Edward muttered under his breath “Great. I’ll just pretend I’m better for the doc, and we can skedaddle out of here … ” He was grateful for Alphonse’s concern, but he had more important things to do than “take it easy.”

Edward pulled the thermometer out of his mouth and glanced at it. Ninety-nine already. If he left it in there, it would go over one hundred for sure. Edward quickly sloshed the remaining water from his cup into his mouth, and slipped the thermometer back below his tongue.

Ninety-nine is good. Don’t want it to be too low or they’ll suspect something. Edward grinned just as Alphonse turned. “Hey, what’s the thermometer … ”

“Take a look.” Edward casually took the thermometer out of his mouth, and put it on the table.

“Good timing. We can show it to the doctor now.” Alphonse turned back around to the door. “If he’s actually coming.” He cupped a hand to his mouth and called out the door, “Are you still there?”

“Sorry! Coming in now! Sorry to keep you … urk?”

Alphonse staggered back, his mind processing several things at once. First, the doctor had been an older, gentle fellow with a warm demeanor, and he had expected something similar from his assistant. It was clear from the assistant’s voice that he was much younger. Alphonse just hadn’t expected someone so young … or so familiar looking.

The boy who stood in their doorway wore glasses on his freckled face and carried a bag of doctor’s instruments under his arm. His hair was short and wavy brown, and his eyes were a rusty green. He wore cream-colored knee-length pants, and his skinny arms protruded from a black shirt. He looked like a boy who had just been out playing in the mountains.

The boy looked up at Alphonse in shock—though his expression wasn’t the usual surprise at seeing a walking, talking suit of armor. Alphonse, too, stood speechless.

“Is something wrong?” Edward called out from his bed, seeing Alphonse frozen by the door. Then he looked past him and yelped.

The three boys’ eyes met, and after a pause, they all shouted at once.

“Pitt!”

“Edward and Alphonse!”

“It is you, isn’t it!”

Pitt Renbak was the Elric brothers’ friend from Resembool. He had never worn glasses, but his fearless smile and eyes were exactly the same as they remembered.

“Wow! Long time, no see! What are you doing out here?” Pitt asked with a smile as he ran to Edward’s bedside.

“I was just about to ask you!” Edward said, ignoring his body’s protests as he sat up and got out of bed.

Back in Resembool, Edward and Pitt had been inseparable. No matter what was up, one was always with the other, and hardly a day passed when they didn’t talk. There were similarities beyond their shared hometown. Edward had lost his father when he was young, and Pitt’s father was gone most of the year for his work. The only difference was that Pitt admired his father, a traveling physician, while Edward hated his.

Lack of a father had made them similar in another way too: both boys had grown up in part supporting their mothers, which gave them independence and courage beyond that of their peers. Pitt and Edward were the natural leaders of the town children. Yet, all the same, they were still boys. Independence and courage easily turned into headstrong recklessness, and the two had hurt themselves badly time and again, making secret forts in trees or getting stuck in muddy streams. In the end, they generally provided their mothers with more trouble than help.

“When was the last time I saw you? Has it already been a year?”

“Since we left Resembool, I guess.”

“I was wondering what happened to you.”

“Same here.”

Edward and Pitt grinned and faced one another.

“Really … ”

Suddenly, the boys’ hands shot into the air. Each put their fingers together, making a flat surface with their palms, and lowered their hands slowly until each rested on the other’s head. The two boys’ eyes opened wide.

“I won!” they shouted at the same time, then a second later, glared at each other.

“No way! I totally won. I’m way taller than you.”

“Excuse me? What are you talking about? I’m clearly taller.”

Edward took his hand away from Pitt’s forehead, brought it to his own head, and slid it back. His hand passed over Pitt’s head without even touching his hair. “See? Way taller. Phew. And here I’d spent the whole year worrying about it.”

With a flourish Edward lowered his hand.

Now Pitt’s hand shot through the air, clearing Edward’s head. “See that? Proof. Don’t try to fool me.”

“Eh? Right. You stood on your toes. Why don’t you just admit the truth: you’re shorter than I am.”

“Why don’t you just admit the fact that you’re the village runt?”

Alphonse sighed as the two of them took turns swiping their hands over each other’s head. Edward had clearly forgotten about his fever, and Pitt had completely forgotten that he’d come to check on Edward’s health.

“Some things never change,” Alphonse sighed.

As they had found out on many occasions, being similar didn’t necessarily mean that Edward and Pitt always got along. Because they were always the top two kids in the village, they constantly competed for the number-one spot. Test scores, track time, arm wrestling, even how fast they could eat their food … everything was an open competition, and never more so than when the subject of their height was on the line. The two had squared off for as long as Alphonse could remember, and a satisfactory conclusion had never been reached.

“Look, it’s a fact. You’re shorter than I am.”

“Look who’s talking! And it just so happens, I’m in the middle of a growth spurt right now. I’ve been shooting up for the last year.”

“You’ve had a growth spurt? I’ve had a growth spurt! I’m taller. Look, if you won’t take my word for it, let’s ask Alphonse.”

“Okay, Al, measure time!”

Edward and Pitt stood back-to-back. Alphonse shook his head gravely. “I’ve measured you two a hundred times. It’s no good. You won’t believe me.”

No matter how scientifically accurate his measurements were, if Alphonse said Edward were taller, Pitt would be furious, and if he said Pitt were taller, Edward would make him do it again. Alphonse shrugged and picked Pitt’s bag up from the floor. A stethoscope and other doctor’s instruments peeked out of the open bag top.

“Is measuring your height really that important right now?” Alphonse asked their old friend.

“I’m surprised you’re a doctor’s assistant already, Pitt. Er, you came here to check up on my brother, right? Maybe you should just go ahead and have a look … ”

“Is it really important?!” The two glared at Alphonse, scowls on their faces. “Of course it’s important! Isn’t it, Pitt?”

“You know it, Edward!”

“Now they agree,” Alphonse said, shaking his head and wondering how to break the stalemate.

Pitt suddenly pulled his back away from Edward. “Fine, fine.”

Setting his glasses straight on his nose, Pitt opened his bag, took out his instruments, and pushed Edward back onto the bed. “Okay, checkup time. Open up.”

Suddenly the doctor’s assistant again, Pitt pulled out a wooden tongue depressor and a small mirror on an extender and knelt down beside the bed.

“Look who’s the professional now. You’re really working at that clinic? I figured you’d still be bossing around the kids back in Resembool … ngak!”

Pitt thrust the tongue depressor mercilessly into Edward’s mouth.

“Likewise. Here I was, thinking everything was business as usual when I hear you’d run off after becoming a state alchemist. I figured you’d gotten sick of the army already and headed home. Didn’t expect to find you out here catching colds.”

Edward’s pithy comeback was lost in a loud gagging as Pitt gleefully jammed more instruments into his mouth.

Edward’s automail surgery and rehabilitation had happened back at home, so people from Resembool knew about his arm and leg and Alphonse’s suit of armor. But no one knew the real reason for their accident, and no one knew that there wasn’t any Alphonse inside that suit. Some might’ve had inklings of the truth, but no one pressed for details, and Edward and his brother had never openly discussed the matter.

Even their young friend Pitt realized that some things were better left unasked, and although he had visited Edward frequently during his recovery, Pitt had never probed deeper. Nor did he ever learn the real reason why Edward had gone off to become a state alchemist at such a young age.

“Oooh, your throat’s pretty swollen. I’m surprised you’re even able to eat,” Pitt said, jerking the tongue depressor around in Edward’s mouth violently as he peered down his throat. Edward protested. “Eeeh! An’t ou o hat any entler?!”

“I’m afraid this is as gentle as it gets. Okay, back next! Gotta listen to your lungs.”

Edward felt rough hands grab his shoulders and flip him over. A metal stethoscope pressed against his back.

“Hey! That’s cold! So … why are you a doctor’s assistant out here anyway? Wait, your dad didn’t open up a clinic in this town, did he?”

“My dad, settle down? Not a chance. He’s still wandering the countryside, as always.”

“So you came here to study by yourself? Wow, Pitt,” said Alphonse, sounding honestly impressed. “And they’re trusting you to make house calls already. Pretty impressive, huh, Edward?”

Edward had trouble sharing his younger brother’s enthusiasm. Pitt, like him, was only thirteen years old. But now Edward was a state alchemist, and Pitt was out here learning a trade. Even their friend Winry was an automail technician in training, helping Pinako back home. Edward couldn’t shake the feeling that they were all a bit young to be so … so responsible.

“You’re still thirteen, right?” Edward said with a wry smile. “I mean, I feel a little nervous letting you check me out.”

Edward and Pitt had been fighting since before they could even talk. When Edward thought of Pitt, he pictured the wild boy running down the street, not the stethoscope-wearing apprentice physician standing in front of them. When Pitt grabbed his shoulder a few moments before, he had been half afraid that his old friend was going to take advantage of his fever to get him in a wrestling lock.

“Actually … I’m fourteen,” came his friend’s voice from above him. He heard Pitt snort triumphantly. “Birthday was last week.”

Even though he was facing downward, Edward had no trouble imagining Pitt’s smile. “Darn! I can’t believe it’s that time of year already … ”

The two delighted in competing at everything, but the one thing in which there was no contest was their ages. Even though they were only apart by a few months, for those few months after Pitt’s birthday and before his, Edward was a year younger, and Pitt loved nothing more than to rub it in. It was tradition. Edward half hoped that Pitt had forgotten after they’d missed each other’s birthdays the year before.

No such luck.

Edward looked up. Pitt was grinning down at him. “Grow up, would ya?” he said, like he had said every year Edward could remember.

Edward gnashed his teeth together and was about to say something when Alphonse cut him off.

“Say, Pitt, how long do you think it will take my brother to recover?”

Pitt removed the stethoscope from his ears. “Well, he should really stay in bed for another two days. This cold’s been going around, and it has a way of coming back when you least expect it.”

“What?!” Edward protested loudly. “Two more days? No! Look, I’m better already.”

Even though his arms felt heavy, Edward refused to show any sign of weakness. Truth be told, seeing his old friend had picked up his spirits considerably. Hopefully, Edward thought, Pitt would mistake that for an improvement in his health. After all, he’s only an assistant doctor. I can fool him! Edward sat up in bed, swinging his arms around to show how good he was feeling. “See? I’m ready to leave right now!”

“I can’t believe you’re still saying that,” Alphonse said with a look of entreaty at Pitt. “What do you think?”

“What was your temperature?” their friend asked, reaching out a hand toward Edward as he cleaned up his instruments. “You took your temperature, right? If it was under a hundred, fine, you can leave.”

“Well would you look at that!” Edward said, triumphantly brandishing the thermometer and placing it in Pitt’s hand. “Ninety-nine on the dot! Thanks, Doc!”

Pitt finished packing his small bag and stared at the thermometer with a steady eye before placing it on the table. Then he sighed.

“What? Ack!”

Pitt slapped a hand across Edward’s forehead, pushing him back down into the bed.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?”

“You do have a fever. You can fool the thermometer, but you can’t fool me! Aha!” Pitt picked up the cup from the bedside table. Only a few drops of water remained in the bottom. “You put water in your mouth!”

Pitt slammed the cup down on the desk. A few droplets of water jumped out onto Edward’s indignant scowl. He wiped them off. “Oh, yeah? You have proof? Show me proof!”

“There was water on the thermometer! And you were the one who taught me this trick in the first place, Ed!”

“Oh … Did I?” Now that he mentioned it, it did sound like the kind of discovery he’d have shared with Pitt back in the day.

Pitt put away the thermometer and thrust an accusing finger at his friend. “I know all your tricks, buddy. Listen, come to the clinic tomorrow and have the doctor give you a look-over. You’re not leaving this village until you’re better.”

Edward didn’t take well to orders. “Says who? What gives you the authority?!”

“I’m your doctor. The first person who saw you here was me. That makes me your primary-care physician. I’m the one responsible for keeping you healthy,” Pitt proclaimed, setting a packet of medicine down on the bedside table. “Drink this, and stay in bed. This cold can be rough. A lot of people in town have been laid up in bed with it. In fact, I recommend that once your fever goes down, you go back to Resembool a while for some rest.”

“I’m not going home over a cold.”

Pitt smiled at his friend. “It won’t be that bad. Why, you could have Winry look after you.”

Winry was an automail technician in training, the granddaughter of famed automail technician Pinako Rockbell, who had crafted both Edward’s arm and leg. Edward and Winry had hung out a lot when they were kids, because their parents had been friends, and Pitt always liked to make fun of them.

“Have her take care of me? She’ll take care of me all right. I’d never walk again!”

“Oh, did I touch a sore spot?”

“Grrr … !”

Before Edward, growling at him from the bed, could pounce, Pitt picked up his doctor’s bag and turned toward the door. “Later!”

“Oh … thanks!” Alphonse said, following him to the door. “I’ve never seen him with a fever that high. I was really worried. Thanks for coming to check on him.”

Behind his brother, Edward glowered daggers at Pitt. Pitt glanced back at him and gave Alphonse a slap on the shoulder. “I’m afraid there’s no cure for your brother,” he whispered.

“What? What do you mean?” For a moment, Alphonse was afraid that their friend had seen something worse than just a cold when he looked in Edward’s mouth.

Pitt nodded gravely. “See, the problem is, I don’t have any medicine for idiocy.”

“I heard that!” Edward cried, making to leap out of bed, but Pitt stuck out his tongue and sped off.

“Wait up!”

“Ed!” Alphonse grabbed Edward by the collar as he made for the door and dragged him back to bed. “You have to get your rest!”

Edward slumped back into the bed, the fight gone out of him. “I feel worse than I did when he got here.”

“It’s your own fault for running around. Your fever will just get worse!” Alphonse spread out the blanket bunched up by his brother’s feet and tucked him in. “What a surprise. I never expected to run into our old friends out here. Pitt’s as sour-mouthed as ever, but I think he gave you a good checkup. He seems more mature now. So stop playing pranks and help him help you get better, okay?”

“Bah.” Edward frowned, wiping the sweat off his forehead and stared up at the ceiling. “Surprising that he wants to be a doctor.”

Pitt’s father wasn’t a surgeon or one of those kind of doctors. Rather, he traveled the land, gathering information about medicinal herbs, searching for new plants in the hinterlands, and handing out medicine in towns that didn’t have a doctor of their own. Edward had never seen him personally, but he knew that people back home respected him greatly.

He also knew that Pitt respected him too, but he’d never heard him say he wanted to be a doctor. Yet, here he was, well on the way to becoming one.

Edward tried to match the Pitt he had just seen with the year-old image in his head and soon gave up. Edward felt the passing of time more than ever. “I suppose things are bound to change when you’re away so long.”

Edward put his arm over his forehead and closed his eyes.

Alphonse was right—his fever had gone up. He could feel the heat trapped inside his body. Only the automail against his forehead was cool.

That alone hadn’t changed.

IT WAS ALREADY late morning when Edward jumped out of bed. He had made up his mind to go to the clinic, if only to avert Pitt’s wrath. Though it ate at him to admit it, his friend was right. His fever had gone down a lot thanks to the medicine, and he figured that the quickest way out of this was to go to the clinic, get some stronger medicine, and get well as soon as possible.

As he opened the door, the sunlight reflecting off a nearby river caught his eye. Their borrowed house bordered a field some distance away from town, with a view over sloping pastures dotted with humble homes, a single large river running through the middle.

Edward looked around to find Alphonse by the side of the house, washing his clothes for him.

“Hey, Al, I’m off to the clinic. Which way is it?”

Alphonse turned to look at him, his hands still in the bucket of soapy water. “Huh? Didn’t Pitt say for you to drop in after lunch?”

“Look, I’m not waiting around in this town any longer than I have to … and, gee, you didn’t have to wash my clothes for me, Al … ”

Alphonse laughed brightly. “The doc said you need your rest, and I don’t want you out here getting all wet and catching another cold.” Alphonse stood, hung his brother’s clothes on pegs set under the eaves of the house, and joined Edward. “The clinic’s thataway. Just across the river,” he said, pointing down a narrow path that ran between two plots of pasture.

The two walked down the path, glancing at the few houses they could see in the distance.

“Pretty rural, huh?” It had been night when they first arrived, and with his high fever, Edward hadn’t taken proper stock of their surroundings. A look at the abandoned farmhouses here and there and the generous amounts of pasture land offered all the proof he needed that they were officially in the countryside.

“This used to be a booming place with a productive coal mine, but it’s been closed for some time now,” Alphonse said, pointing off toward some low rocky hills to the side of the village. Edward spotted a cavelike opening in the hills—most likely the entrance to the mines. Even from this distance, he could clearly see the boards blocking the mouth of the mine. From the look of it, they had been there for quite some time. Grass grew thick over the boards and the walls of the mine entrance.

Apparently, the local economy had shifted to agriculture. The few people they saw were out working in their fields, cutting hay, or tending sheep. One farmer stood up as they passed, noticed Alphonse, and waved to them. “Ahoy, there! Off to the clinic?”

“Ah, that’s the fellow who’s lending us our house.” Alphonse waved back. “Hello! We might have to borrow the house a little longer. I hope that’s all right?”

“Oh, fine by me. The owner’s off living with relatives in another town to find work. Won’t be back for some time.”

“Thank you!”

“Rest well, now!”

“Thanks!”

The man waved again, then went back to swinging his hoe.

“People have been moving away from the countryside here—and not just miners, either. There’s only the one doctor,” Alphonse said, looking across the river to the far bank. “The clinic here is the last in the area.”

They came to a place where a bridge crossed the slow-flowing river. On the other side, they saw a low wooden structure. This was the clinic where Pitt worked.

“That the place? Surprising that Pitt would come all the way out here to become an apprentice … ”

“Yeah, I know. I wonder how long he’s been at it.”

“Well, he didn’t say anything when we last saw him a year ago. Maybe this is a recent development for him?”

Edward stepped onto the bridge. A breeze coming across the pastures ruffled his hair. “What are you going to do while I’m getting my checkup, Al?”

“Oh, I’ll just wait here until you’re done,” his brother replied, attempting—poorly—to hide the concern in his voice.

Edward shrugged. “My fever’s down. I’ll be fine. And you’ve been watching over me all this time. You should go take a look around. If this is the only clinic, there’s no telling how crowded it will be. I could be a while.”

Alphonse’s lack of a real body meant he could never tire, but he could still get bored, and looking after his sick brother couldn’t have been all that exciting.

“Okay, well, if you take too long, I’ll just head home myself. No lying to the doctor and saying you’re feeling better when you aren’t, now!”

“Would I do a thing like that?”

“You did yesterday! Why do you think I’ve been watching over you like a hawk?” Alphonse replied with a laugh.

Edward grinned and rapped him on the shoulder with an automail fist. He knew his brother teased him to hide how worried he was, and Edward appreciated it. He waved and then turned toward the clinic.

IN FRONT OF THE SMALL BUILDING hung a sign that read “Dr. Norm’s Health Clinic.” A small garden grew there, where bushes and flowering plants Edward had never seen swayed gently in the breeze. From the slight medicinal smell that drifted on the wind, he surmised they were herbs and strongly scented flowers, the kind used to make potpourri. Edward gave a sidelong glance at the patch as he opened the double doors to the clinic.

He had expected it to be crowded, but only five people were sitting on the bench in the waiting room when he walked in. One had bandages on his arm, but all the others were coughing, and their faces looked feverish—victims of the same cold that Edward had caught. Edward cut across the waiting room, stopping before the counter at the front.

The space behind the counter served as both reception desk and apothecary. It was cluttered with various bottles, all filled with strange powders and liquids. Behind it stood Pitt. He paced around busily, a pharmaceutical guide in hand, opening bottles to take out medicine, measuring small piles of powder on a scale, checking a list of ingredients, and stuffing the finished product into a bag.

Pitt carried the bag out through the door next to the counter into the waiting room, where he handed it to a young woman who looked dressed for the road.

She probably came from a nearby village, thought Edward.

“Your symptoms haven’t changed from last week, so I’ve given you another week’s worth of the same medicine. Come back next week, and the doctor will see how you’re doing.”

Edward sat in stunned silence. He couldn’t believe his ears. The only one in Resembool with a fouler mouth and quicker temper than Edward was Pitt, and here he was, being polite. His friend glanced to the side and noticed Edward, sitting with his mouth open. “Oh, it’s you. Didn’t I tell you to come in the afternoon?”

“When did you get all polite?!”

“Huh? Oh, that … ” For a moment, Pitt looked embarrassed, but soon remembered himself and returned Edward’s glare. “What about you, army man? Didn’t they drill any manners into you?”

“Me?” Edward shook his head. “Never.”

Edward couldn’t recall minding his words once, whether he was speaking to a superior or hanging out in the barracks.

“You serious? What ever happened to military polish?” Pitt stared at Edward a moment longer before returning behind his counter. “Though … I guess it is you we’re talking about.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Edward growled, knowing exactly what it was supposed to mean.

“Doc’s out making house calls. He should be back soon. Why don’t you sit and wait,” Pitt suggested, turning back to the phials of medicine. He carefully poured powder from one into a bowl and began to grind the powder with a small stick.

Apparently, the people in the waiting room were waiting not for a checkup but for medicine. Pitt prepared their prescriptions one at a time, carefully explaining what was inside each packet to each patient. He spoke loudly to an elderly man who was hard of hearing, and held the door for a mother carrying a small child.

Edward stared from the bench at Pitt’s almost gentlemanly manner. It was a side of his friend he had never seen in Resembool. “Wow,” he muttered under his breath. Everyone had received their medicine and left, leaving him alone in the waiting room.

“What’s that?” Pitt asked while cleaning up the bottles behind the counter.

“Don’t you do any checkups? You came all the way out to see me yesterday. Seems like you could’ve given those people their checkups now and saved the doctor a bit of work.”

“Oh, I don’t normally do those. I only went to see you because the doctor was so busy yesterday, and from the symptoms Alphonse described, we were pretty sure it was this bug that’s been going around. You still had to come in here for your real checkup, remember?”

“Well, after all that talk about being my primary-care physician yesterday … ”

“To tell the truth, I wish I could be, but … ” Pitt trailed off mid-sentence.

Edward looked up to see his friend staring at him from behind the counter, a smile playing on his lips. “Anyway, isn’t your primary physician Winry? I wouldn’t want to step on her turf.”

“That’s about enough of that!”

“Oh? But I’ve got so much more where that came from … ”

Edward shot up, kicking the bench with his heel as he launched toward the counter. Pitt leaned toward him, fists raised, when the door to the clinic banged open. A woman walked in, carrying a boy of about five years in her arms.

“Doctor!”

“Ah, Ms. Rymar … ” Pitt backed away from the counter, hastily lowering his fists.

“It’s Danny—he won’t stop coughing! Where’s Dr. Norm? Doctor!” the woman shouted, pushing past Edward to run to the counter.

“There’s no need to panic, ma’am,” Pitt said calmly. “I’m sorry, but the doctor is currently out on a house call.”

“Then bring me some of the medicine from before! You still have some back there, don’t you?”

“I’m afraid I’m not allowed to fill new prescriptions.”

“But my son!”

As if on cue, the young boy in her arms began to cough and moan. Pitt opened the door and led the two into the examination room. “You can rest here on the bed until the doctor comes,” Edward heard him say. “I’ll boil some water—the steam should help ease his symptoms temporarily.”

“I don’t want to ease them, I want to stop them!” the mother cried, waving a hand wildly as she spoke. The back of her hand struck the side of Pitt’s face, knocking his glasses to the floor. “It’s worthless talking to you! Call the doctor now!”

“He should be back anytime now, ma’am. Let’s just do what we can until then,” Pitt said, keeping his eyes locked on her. He didn’t even glance at his fallen glasses. Edward could tell he was choosing his words carefully to avoid further agitating the woman.

“You’re just an assistant! What do you know!” she continued relentlessly.

“Well, the doctor told me that steam works best when Danny’s symptoms get bad. You know that, Ms. Rymar.”

“Of course, of course,” she said, frowning. “I just don’t feel comfortable without Dr. Norm here!” In her arms, the boy’s cough seemed to be getting worse.

“Hey … ” Edward said in a low voice. “If you want to help out your kid, how about letting the doctor’s assistant do his job? If the doctor showed him what to do, what’s the problem trusting him to do it?”

Edward and Pitt spent much of their youth glowering at one another from either side of a pair of raised fists, but when one of them was in trouble, they had a way of helping each other out. Pitt didn’t seem to appreciate the gesture this time.

“Quiet, Edward. This doesn’t involve you,” his friend said sharply.

“Sure, it doesn’t involve me,” Edward said, surprised at the response. Then he whispered in Pitt’s ear, “I was just wondering when you were going to stop taking crap from this lady.”

For a moment, Pitt seemed to waver. Then he reached down and picked up his glasses, and glared through them at Edward. “Just leave me alone, okay?”

“Hey, you can do what you like. I’m just worried about the kid,” Edward retorted, not very convincingly.

The sound of the clinic door opening broke the tension. “What’s all this? Is something the matter?” In came a man in a white physician’s smock, a black leather bag in one hand.

“Dr. Norm!” The woman ran over to him. “My son’s having another attack!”

“Ah, so that was the coughing I heard. Don’t worry, I’ll take a look at him right now. Come along inside.”

So this is Pitt’s mentor, Dr. Norm, thought Edward. The doctor calmly looked at the boy in the woman’s arms. He opened the door to the examination room, showing the mother and child inside, then turned back around to smile wryly at Edward and Pitt in the waiting room. “Well now, I don’t know what those glances you two were giving each other were about, but I won’t have any fighting in here. Pitt, go boil some water … and you’d better get more of that medicine from the cabinets in back.”

“Uh, yes, Dr. Norm.” Pitt retreated toward a door in the back of the examination room, and Dr. Norm smiled gently at Edward. “And you must be Edward. Pitt told me about you. I’ll see you as soon as I’m done with Danny here.”

A short while later, the mother walked back into the waiting room, her son Danny now walking by her side.

“Take care. The next time he has an attack, try to stay calm and boil some water. Okay?” Dr. Norm opened the door to the clinic and showed the woman out.

“That boy, is he going to be okay?” Edward asked, in the now-silent waiting room. From the child’s heavy coughing and the woman’s panic, he feared the boy might have a serious condition.

“Oh, it’s nothing too bad. He’s not sick, per se. He was just born with weak lungs. As long as you stay calm and do the right thing, he’s fine, but his mother gets so worried she wants to stuff him full of medicine. Not that I don’t understand, but I try to avoid prescribing too much of the stronger kinds … ” Dr. Norm said with a frown, waving Edward into the examination room. “You’re up next. Thanks for waiting.”

Inside, Edward saw Pitt picking up a bowl of steaming water from the corner of the room. He shot a look back at his friend, and Pitt returned the glare through steamed glasses.

“Looks like I can’t leave you two alone for a moment, can I,” Dr. Norm said with a chuckle. He pulled a sheet of paper out of a small desk and handed it to Pitt. “It’s going to rain soon, and I want you to fetch the herbs on this list before then.”

“Yes, Dr. Norm.”

Pitt stood there for a moment, as though he were going to say something, but then thought better of it and left the room. Just before he disappeared through the door, he turned and stuck his tongue out at Edward.

Edward stuck his tongue out back at him, his smile abruptly becoming a look of surprise when Dr. Norm slapped a cold stethoscope on his chest. “Okay, enough funny faces. Now hold your breath. I’m going to listen to your lungs.”

Alone with the doctor in the examination room, Edward held his breath and looked at Pitt’s new mentor.

Dr. Norm was an older man. He already had several white hairs on his head. He seemed lively enough, though, and he would certainly have to be as the only doctor in these parts.

“Breathe out slowly, there. Once more. I heard you had a fever. How high did it get?”

“It was just over a hundred yesterday. I’m not sure how high it was before we got to town.”

“Well, that boy in the armor said that when you came in, you could barely think straight. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were over 105. Still, you’ve made a lot of improvement. Must have a good constitution. Probably don’t catch too many colds, am I right?”

“Well, not too often.”

“It’s good to be healthy,” Dr. Norm said, nodding his head and peering inside Edward’s mouth. “Ah, yes, this swelling is a fairly common symptom. You still have a fever, too. I’ll give you some antibacterial mouthwash. You need to get plenty of rest.”

“So … I still have to stay in bed?” Edward asked.

“You look like a lad in a hurry to get out of town,” Dr. Norm laughed, making the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepen into valleys. “I won’t hold you against your will, but do yourself a favor and wait until the fever is gone.” Dr. Norm smiled gently and began measuring out medicine.

“How long has Pitt been here, anyway?” Edward asked. He had thought his friend’s move was a recent thing, but Pitt seemed so different. The boy that had seen Edward and Alphonse off from Resembool had been just a kid. There were still traces of the old Pitt left, to be sure, but he seemed so much more settled now, and seeing him be polite to customers blew Edward’s mind. Part of him wondered how Pitt had managed to make it happen.

“Well, let’s see, Pitt got here about a year ago,” Dr. Norm replied, pouring various substances out of bottles.

“A year ago?” That meant Pitt had left town right after they had.

“He just showed up one day, asking me to make him an apprentice. Sure, I needed the help, but we are so out of the way here. I didn’t see the point in his wasting away his youth in the middle of nowhere, so I advised him to head for a larger town with a proper hospital, but he was adamant.”

“Why?”

“Apparently, his father is a traveling doctor who specializes in herbal medicine. It tends to be a great deal cheaper than the processed stuff.”

“Yeah, I’d heard that.”

“Of course, some diseases can’t be cured with herbal remedies, but they are great for prevention and general wellness. And expensive drugs with nasty side effects are more trouble than they’re worth for people short on money or with weak constitutions. Sounds like those are the sorts of people your friend most wants to help. That’s why he chose to study out here—we have lots of medicinal herbs here, you see. Before now, we used mostly processed drugs at the clinic, but since Pitt came, our herbal remedies have really grown. It’s helped to keep down costs, too.”

Edward nodded, processing this new information about his friend.

“Of course, he is just an apprentice, and I try not to ask too much of him. I never let him touch the dangerous stuff or the really strong medicines. He’s done well for himself, though. It’s not an easy life out here, but he’s making the best of it.”

Dr. Norm put the medicine in a small bag and turned around, pointing at a bruise on Edward’s arm. “Looks like you’ve been through quite a lot, too. You’ve got more cuts and scrapes than skin, my boy.”

Edward’s arms and legs were covered with scratches and bruises—signs of the tough journey.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just leave them, and they get better after a while.”

“That’s for a doctor to decide, Edward. Let me see now,” Dr. Norm demanded gently, but firmly. “Some of these might benefit from a poultice or a little salve.”

Edward meekly submitted to an examination, thinking Dr. Norm was awfully nice for an overworked doctor with an entire village to take care of. Even if he weren’t the only doctor in town, his warm bedside manner would guarantee his clinic never lacked for patients.

Dr. Norm finished checking all of his scratches and bruises, put on a few bandages, and rubbed on a little salve before grinning at Edward. “You and Pitt are a lot alike.”

“Huh?”

“Do you know why you caught this cold?” Edward looked up at the unexpected question and found himself staring into Dr. Norm’s gentle eyes.

“You say you’re usually healthy, but you’ve got a cold be-cause you’re exhausted. I don’t mean you just got tired, I mean your days and days on the road have all added up … and wiped you out. You should relax a bit. Take it easy.” Dr. Norm gave Edward a light tap on the shoulder.

It was already afternoon when Edward left the clinic. He walked out of the waiting room, filled with people waiting for afternoon checkups, and went outside to find that the weather had turned for the worse as the doctor had warned. The sun that sparkled so brightly on the river that morning now seemed completely shrouded in clouds.

Walking across the bridge, Edward caught the conversation of some local kids playing on the riverbank.

“Looks like it’s gonna rain. We should get home.”

“Yeah, I didn’t bring an umbrella.”

“I gotta go to Cassie’s house and give her this grasshopper.”

“Mom says I can have a donut when I get home!”

“No way, I wish we had donuts!”

The boys clambered up from the riverbank, boxes and nets for catching insects clutched in their hands, and found their way along the path.

Edward stopped at the highest point of the bowlike bridge. From there, he could see the whole town. He stood there a while, watching the boys run off home. They ran straight, without a glance back.

He saw Pitt in the distance. Pitt was kneeling by the side of the road, picking herbs. Alphonse was standing next to him. He must’ve gone to help after he got tired of waiting for Edward to finish with his checkup.

Edward started walking toward the two, breathing a light sigh. He and Alphonse weren’t that different in age from the kids who’d been playing on the riverbank. If they hadn’t left on this journey, they would be running home to eat donuts too when the skies looked like rain. Their quest had driven them so far from home, to this unknown land.

Edward was determined—they both were—but their jour-ney had been harder than he could have imagined.

The first night out of Resembool, they had tried to stay in a hotel in a large town and been told that “no children without guardians are permitted to stay.” Alphonse’s appearance frightened both children and adults alike. No one believed him when he told them Alphonse was his brother, and the two were called liars almost daily. Once, when he tried to show his silver watch to preempt the usual comments, someone tried to rob them.

Everywhere they went, they were held back by what they were: children. Children traveling alone weren’t allowed to stay in hotels. Children had no reason to travel alone, so they had to be lying. Even if he was a state alchemist, he was a child. He was seen as weak—an easy target.

Unlike back in Resembool, protected by the adults around them, Edward had learned for himself the hard way how cruel the world could be to a twelve-year-old.

Still he kept walking forward, in part out of an obligation to protect his brother. He had to. His brother looked bizarre and was the constant target of suspicion or, at best, inquisitive glances. He had chosen to join Edward on his journey even though he was still only eleven years old.

One other thing kept Edward’s feet moving forward: he knew he couldn’t go back.

Edward gripped his own shoulder with his automail hand. He knew why Dr. Norm had tapped him on the shoulder. Loosen up, he was trying to say.

If only I could.

They were searching for something that might not even be real, and the road ahead of them was dark, yet he had to keep moving. They had no place to go home to. That’s why he had burned the house where they grew up: So they wouldn’t have a reason to look back over their shoulders. So they couldn’t give up.

His silver watch marked the passage of time during this self-imposed exile. It wouldn’t stop for injuries or colds. Edward took his hand off his shoulder and looked at the cold steel of his palm. “How can this loosen up?”

It was hard, knowing what he wanted, yet knowing it was still so far away. His hand and leg were still automail, and his brother was still a walking suit of armor.

And here was his friend, a comrade in arms from Resembool, in this faraway land, walking steadily toward his own future. Gone were the gang of friends, playing, running in circles. Now they walked in a straight line, toward a clear goal.

“It’s been a year already, and we’re not any closer … ”

Knowing what Pitt had been up to, seeing him act all adult-like, Edward felt himself being left behind. It bothered him more than he cared to admit.

Edward scowled up at the clouds hanging low over his head, then gritted his teeth and looked down at the road ahead.

A SHORT WHILE before Edward left the clinic, when the blue sky still peeked through the clouds, Alphonse played with some local kids on the riverbank. He looked up when he heard someone calling his name.

“Hey, Alphonse.”

Pitt stood on top of the bridge, carrying a large basket in his hand.

“Hey there, Pitt.”

Pitt looked down at Alphonse, half buried in the long reeds growing beside the river. The other kids hunkered beneath the bridge, their insect cages and nets in hand, parting the grass as they searched for their quarry.

“What’cha up to?”

“Waiting for Edward. Thought I’d help catch a few bugs to pass the time.” Alphonse stood on his tiptoes and held up a small cage with a bright green grasshopper inside. It was particularly large. “Check it out. I caught it myself.”

Next to him, the kids showed off their cages.

“Yours is the biggest after all, Alphonse. Mine’s tiny,” one boy said.

“Well, you told me where the best place to look was.”

“Yeah, but it’s hard to catch the big ones. They’re clever.”

The other kids nodded in agreement.

“Really?” Alphonse said, pointing to one of the boy’s cages. “I think that butterfly you caught is prettier.”

They all lifted their cages, comparing their catches and laughing.

They seemed like old friends, but it hadn’t been this way from the start. Just a little while before, Alphonse had been standing on top of the bridge, waiting for his brother while the children played below, neither saying a word to the other.

Alphonse knew what they thought: other kids took one look at him and assumed he was an adult, and a stranger in town to boot. It was always difficult for him. He wanted to talk to kids his own age but found it impossible to start conversations if the kids were scared of him. He had tried various tactics in the past, but when he tried too hard to be friendly and calm their fears, it only made him seem more adult and defeated the purpose.

Still, though he looked a bit menacing on the outside, inside Alphonse remained only a twelve-year-old boy. As much as he tried to watch himself, he couldn’t help chiming in when one of the boys on the riverbank caught a giant grasshopper.

“Cool!”

It turned out that was all it took to break the ice. One of the kids had invited him to come down, lending him a bug net and a cage. And so, Alphonse found himself playing with children his own age for the first time in recent memory while he waited for his brother.

“He’ll be in there a little while longer,” Pitt called down from the bridge. “Dr. Norm wasn’t satisfied just checking out that cold—he’s giving him the full rundown.”

“Really? Good!” Alphonse said happily. Edward never went to the hospital when he could avoid it, even when he was hurt badly. As soon as he recovered from one altercation, he just went and got hurt again. Any opportunity for his brother to get a checkup was a good thing in Alphonse’s eyes.

“Where are you off to, Pitt?”

“Doc wants me to fetch some medicinal herbs. They grow all over the village, so I just kind of make my rounds and pick what I can find.”

“Can I help?” Alphonse offered. As long as they didn’t stray too far, Edward would find him when he came out of the clinic.

“What about your bug hunt?”

“Oh, it’s fine. Besides, I owe you for making that house call for us.” Alphonse turned to the other kids. “I gotta go, guys.”

“What? Leaving already?”

“Yeah, sorry. Let’s hang out again, okay?” Alphonse apologized, and then began to look around. “I got this cage and net from Cassie … have you seen her?”

One of the boys pointed off toward town. “Cassie left for home already. It’s her birthday tomorrow, and they’re going on a shopping trip to the next town over. She’s probably getting ready for the trip. I’ll take her stuff, if you want.”

“Thanks. Hey, give this grasshopper to her, would you?” Alphonse handed the boy his cage and net and walked up to the road to join Pitt. “Bye now!”

“See ya!”

“Yep, later!”

Alphonse waved back at them as he and Pitt marched back toward town. “Say, Pitt, do you know a girl named Cassie? I’ve never seen a girl who likes insects as much as her.”

“Yeah … ” Pitt stooped to examine some herbs growing by the side of the road.

“And I thought Winry was the only girl who wasn’t afraid of bugs,” Alphonse said with a laugh. “Remember when you and Edward threw all those pill bugs? And Winry … ”

“Of all the things to remember.” Pitt growled, casting a stare at Alphonse while his hands busily yanked some grasses up from the ground.

School had just started back up after vacation. One afternoon, Edward and Pitt skipped sweeping duty, and all the girls in class were yelling at them to clean up the room. In retrospect, the two boys were clearly in the wrong, but, at the time, it seemed more important that they fulfill their sacred role as school troublemakers. Their sworn mission was to get the girls riled up about something. Things had been too quiet, so they “forgot” to sweep. The girls yelled at them, so they plotted their revenge. This time, it involved them gathering up two heaping handfuls of pill bugs and, heedless of Alphonse’s cries to stop, throwing them into the classroom.

The plan was a brilliant success. The girls who didn’t scream outright skipped straight to crying. “Don’t be such crybabies!” they shouted, clapping each other on the back.

Winry stood up to their attack, though—and launched a counterstrike of her own. After going around picking up all the pill bugs off the schoolroom floor, she snuck up behind the two as they stood atop the highest hill in town, basking in victory’s warm glow, and crammed every last bug down their shirts.

Now, Edward and Pitt liked bugs, but there were limits. The two spent the better part of fifteen minutes running down the street, howling and squirming to reach the wriggling pill bugs in their shirts, pants, and shoes.

“I’ll never forget the sound of you two screaming. I don’t think anyone in town will … ”

“That was a long time ago,” Pitt scowled, shaking his head. He thrust his finger toward some yellow flowers growing in an open plot of land. “Hey, look. If you’re really along to help out, why don’t you pick those herbs … the ones way over there?”

Alphonse went to pick the herbs, still talking. He didn’t often have the chance to reminisce about home with someone other than his brother. “You and Ed fought a lot, but when it came to scheming up some wild plan, you were always in lockstep. Our leaders to the end.”

They may have been mean to the girls at school, but the antagonism was mutual. When it came to the younger kids, Edward and Pitt served as protectors, upholding schoolyard justice and fending off bullies. They were leaders, making up new games for everyone to play, though by the time everyone else starting playing them, they had already thought of something new to do. Alphonse remembered being envious of them. They always stayed one step ahead of everyone else.

“You ever play with those kids by the river? When you’re not working, I mean.”

Pitt shook his head. “I’m not a kid anymore, Alphonse. I don’t have time to play.”

“Really … I guess you must be pretty busy, what with the clinic and your studies and all,” Alphonse said with a smile in his voice. Inside, he felt strangely lonely. Pitt wasn’t much older than he was—only fourteen. He expected Pitt to be up to his old antics with the kids here, just like it had been in Resembool. Still, he couldn’t help but be impressed at how much progress Pitt had made toward a career.

Alphonse threw some herbs into Pitt’s basket and pointed at his friend’s glasses. “I bet your eyes went bad from studying too hard. It’s funny—they make you look different—more grown up.”

“Well, you haven’t changed a bit,” Pitt said with a wry smile, looking up at Alphonse. He pushed his glasses back up onto his nose. “You always were good at making friends.”

Indeed, back in Resembool, Alphonse had always been the one to break the ice whenever a new kid came to town. Things had been different on the road, however. He shook his head. “Not too long ago, I might’ve told you you were wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

Alphonse nodded. “Look at me. When we’re out on the road, people say all kinds of things to me. They tell me how scary-looking I am. No one believes I’m only twelve—especially not kids my own age. I can’t change how I look, of course, so I’ve always tried to change how I act. But back by the river, I realized I’ve been doing things the wrong way. When I talked to those kids just now, everything was fine. They let me play with them, and we had a good time. I just spoke to them like a normal kid.

“It made me realize that when things went bad in the past, it was partly my fault. I started to expect people to be scared, and I would say something a little odd or act a little nervous … and of course that just leads to an odd, nervous sort of conversation. I guess the trick is not to worry so much,” Alphonse said, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders. Playing with kids his own age after such a long time finally made him realize what a burden loneliness could be. “I’m sure it’s been the same with you, Pitt, but leaving Resembool and meeting all these strangers … I’ve learned a lot. But it hasn’t all been fun, either.”

“Yeah, I know,” Pitt said, quietly. He knew all too well what it was like to leave your home and try to make it in the wide world. Suddenly, he turned and slapped Alphonse on the back. “You know, I’m impressed. I never thought of you as anything other than Edward’s little brother, but you’ve really grown.”

“Heh, thanks,” Alphonse said with a chuckle. The way Pitt slapped his back reminded him of Edward. “You know, I really owe it all to Ed, though. Whenever I lose my way, he’s there to pat me on the back and point me in the right direction. It keeps me going. I know it’s been hard for him too, but he hasn’t complained once since he left Resembool. Not a single time … ”

Alphonse looked off into the distance at an abandoned house on the far side of the field in which they stood. “He’s so much more together than when we were in Resembool, it almost makes me worry more. Of course, he’s still a little headstrong and reckless. That hasn’t changed.”

Pitt had been walking along looking for herbs, his face toward the ground, but now he looked up. “You haven’t been back to Resembool?”

“No.”

“Not even once?”

Alphonse chuckled. “Nope. I’m always trying to get him to go back sometime to see how Pinako and Winry are doing, but Ed shakes his head and says we should keep going until we’ve done what we set out to do. Still, it’d be nice if we could drop by someday when we’re in the area. How about you, Pitt? You go back sometimes?”

“Well, no,” Pitt mumbled, frowning slightly.

“What’s wrong?” Alphonse cast a curious look downward and caught Pitt glaring back up at him.

“Don’t peer down at me like that.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“You always were taller than me. It’s annoying.” Pitt looked away, pouting his lips.

“Not again! You and Ed worry about that way too much, really.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re tall! For us, it’s a serious problem, no … ” Pitt chuckled. “Well, maybe it’s more of a serious problem for Edward than it is for me.”

“Come on, you’re not that far apart, if at all … ” Alphonse began when Pitt reached up and grabbed his neck and began shaking him.

“Hah! It’s clear that I am the taller one! Anyone can see that!”

“Well, we’ve never been able to measure it properly … ”

“Okay, you want proper? How about I mark my height on your armor now, and then we’ll trick Edward into marking his. Compare the marks, and presto! Not even Edward will be able to deny the truth then!”

“Hey, no scribbling on my armor, please.”

“It’s not scribbling. This is a serious scientific inquiry! Look, I promise I’ll wipe it off later. Come on, please! I want to prove, once and for all, that Edward’s the runt, not me.” Pitt grinned, and beneath the rapidly darkening cloudy sky, he produced a ruler and pen from his shirt pocket.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea … ” Alphonse said, trying to dodge to one side, when they heard footsteps approaching from the distance. From the sound of it, whoever the footsteps belonged to was coming fast.

“Who’re you calling a runt?!”

“Ack, Edward!”

“Hey, Ed!”

Alphonse and Pitt looked up to see the Fullmetal Alchemist bearing down on them, his face a livid shade of red. “I heard you!”

Like Alphonse, Edward had been doing some thinking of his own about their year on the road. Wanting a little more time alone, he didn’t run up to his brother and Pitt when he spotted them in the distance. Instead, he took his time, walking along behind them slowly. He was getting closer and was just about to call out to them when a chance wind carried a single word down the road to his ears: “runt.”

Ed broke into a full-out charge, straight toward Pitt. “Hrrah!” He ran without slowing until the last minute, when he kicked at the ground and flew through the air at his target, his knee bent before him. It was an attack with which Pitt was intimately familiar. He was ready.

“Flying kick this!” he shouted, tossing his basket of herbs to one side and crossing his arms in front of him to block Edward’s foot. “Same pattern of attack, every time!” He caught Edward’s knee expertly in his hands and chuckled. They had fought so many times in the past, they knew each other’s style down to the last move.

But Edward, still in midair, his knee caught between Pitt’s hands, had a victorious grin on his face. “Oh, yeah? Well, you always use the same pattern of defense!” Edward’s hand arced out and came down on Pitt’s forehead. “Take that!”

There was a satisfying slap.

“Ouch!” Pitt wailed, rubbing his forehead. Edward dropped lightly to the ground. His slap had been hard enough to leave a red blotch and make Pitt’s eyes water. “Grr … Nice! A two-part attack!”

“You like?” Edward laughed, instantly forgetting his brooding concern about his lack of progress over the year. “Okay, runt of Resembool! Let’s have a confession, right here, right now. Al can be the witness!”

“Um, I didn’t sign up for this.” Alphonse sighed, warily eyeing his brother standing victoriously before Pitt, who still cradled his head in his hands. He took a step back. In any other situation, now would be the time for Alphonse to intervene, but he knew instinctively that once the word runt was in play, his best move was to disengage and let them at it. As if to confirm this, Pitt pulled his hand off his forehead and immediately balled it into a fist, and the battle was rejoined.

“You’re the runt, Edward!”

“Dream on, Pitt!”

“Just admit it, already, Ed-runt!”

“You admit it, Pitt-shrimp!”

So they shouted back and forth, each one looking for an opening in the other’s defenses. When Pitt swung a punch, Edward blocked it. When Edward tried to sweep Pitt’s feet out from underneath him, Pitt deftly stomped on his toes.

Still, even though they knew each other’s moves, it was not an even match. Though it had only been a year, Edward’s time in the military had paid off. He was the stronger and better fighter of the two, and Pitt sensed it. Pitt drew back, putting distance between them, and took up a defensive stance. “You been training?” he called out. “Well, so have I. Here, I’ll show you!” Stooping down, Pitt tore a small bush of berries up from the grass at his feet and threw it toward Edward.

“Oh, now you’re throwing weeds?” Edward sneered, dodging to the side. Some of the berries broke off the bush and scattered across his legs.

“Huh?” As the berries hit him, they began to swell. “Ow, ow, ow!” The next instant, the berries exploded with a sound like firecrackers, splattering their hard thorny skins over his legs and arms.

“See that? All it takes is a little jolt, and they pop … and you can brew them to make a great tea for a sore throat! It’s a new strain, just developed! Take that!” Pitt snatched up another handful of the berries and threw them at his now-cowering opponent.

The berries hurt more than he could believe. Edward ducked and dodged, yelling, “That stings! If you’re going to use your herbs on me, I’ll use my alchemy!”

“What?!” A look of panic came into Pitt’s eyes. Since Resembool, even the threat of alchemy had usually been enough to bring a fight to an abrupt end. Possessing an alchemical power strong enough to earn a teenager the title of state alchemist made it clear even to an amateur’s eyes that he was out of his league.

“Hey, no fair!” Pitt protested. “I thought alchemy was to help the masses! Well, I’m one of the masses!”

“Hah, nice try!”

“Yipes! No, wait … ”

Standing a short distance from the furious battle, Alphonse sighed. Edward and Pitt, patient and doctor, had completely forgotten everything but their fight. “I guess I should just let them get it out of their systems,” Alphonse muttered, picking up the basket that Pitt had thrown aside. He resumed walking, looking for the herbs Pitt had taught him to find.

When he next looked up, he found he was standing near the entrance to the old coal mine. His eyes fell on a large boulder about ten feet high, sitting directly in front of the entrance to the path that led down into the mineshaft. A rail emerged from the middle of the boulder going toward the mine. That rail must be for a mining cart of some sort.

But now, most of the rail had been ripped up. Rust caked on what few parts remained. Large boards had been placed in an “X” over the entrance to the mine, and the inside was too dim to clearly see. Where miners’ feet once tread, now thick green grass grew, covering everything. Several different kinds of flowers swayed gently in the breeze.

Thinking that some of them might be the medicinal herbs he was looking for, Alphonse stepped toward the mine. He began to move the flowers aside with his hand when he heard a pleasant voice in front of him.

“Oh! Alphonse!”

Alphonse looked up to see a young girl emerge from the old mine entrance—the same young girl he had been catching bugs with beneath the bridge.

“Cassie!”

She worked her way out from between the boards. She looked every part the quintessential tomboy, with wavy blond hair cut short and a boy’s shirt and trousers.

“ … Cassie?!”

Pitt, who still wrestled with Edward a short distance away, saw Cassie, and his expression changed in an instant.

She looked past Alphonse and spotted him. “Pitt!”

Seeing Cassie break into a run, Pitt hastily extricated himself from Edward’s grasp. “Sorry, gotta take a rain check on this one! If she catches me, I’ll never get rid of her.” He bolted down the hill.

“Huh? Hey!” Edward called after him. “If you chicken out now, that’s as good as admitting you’re the runt!”

“Fat chance! I’ll prove it beyond a doubt—next time, you just wait!”

Edward, furious, stood waving his fist in the air at the rapidly receding Pitt. “What’s with him … Hey!” Something impacted with Edward’s back, just above his waist. He looked around.

“Hey, where’s Pitt?! Where’d he go?” Cassie asked, pulling on Edward’s shirt. She looked around, but Pitt was already out of sight.

“Uh, Pitt left. Did you need something from him?”

“Yes! He has to make me medicine!”

“Medicine?”

Alphonse walked up beside Edward. “Hey, Cassie. Thanks for letting me borrow your net and stuff back at the bridge.” Alphonse looked back at the boards covering the mine entrance. “What are you doing out here? I thought you had to get ready for some trip tomorrow?”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to go,” she said.

“Huh?”

“Danny had another one of his coughing fits. Mom took him to Dr. Norm’s right away, but she gets all worried. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I did kinda want a birthday present, though … ”

“Danny? I think I just saw him down at the clinic. Is he your brother?”

Cassie nodded.

“The clinic? What, is he sick?”

Edward shook his head. “The doctor said it’s a condition he was born with. He gave him some medicine though. If that stops his coughing, won’t you be able to go tomorrow?”

Cassie shook her head. “No, no way. When Danny gets bad, Dad and Mom barely go out for a week. We had to cancel a picnic just the other month. I tell them we can still go out if we bring the medicine with us, but they don’t think so.”

“Hmm,” Edward thought, recalling his conversation with Dr. Norm. “Yeah, he did say that Danny’s medicine was pretty strong stuff.” So strong that Pitt wasn’t allowed to hand it out, and Dr. Norm avoided using it when he could. It was probably expensive too—not the kind of medicine you just threw in a bag for a day trip. Suddenly, it occurred to Edward why Cassie was looking for Pitt. “So you want Pitt to make you something with his herbs?”

“Yeah. I’ve heard him talking about herbal remedies before, how they’re good for curing all sorts of things, even coughs like Danny’s. If we had some herbs to use, that’d be way cheaper than the medicine from the clinic, and we could maybe even use them on a trip … ”

If he wasn’t seriously ill, then a natural, more gentle cure did sound better than the processed medicine his mother always gave him. But one thing troubled Edward: if there were a medicinal herb that could help Danny, why wouldn’t Pitt prepare it for her?

“Lately, he runs away as soon as he sees me. It’s not nice,” Cassie said, looking angry.

“That’s funny.” Edward scratched his head. “I thought Pitt’s whole reason for being here was to make herbal medicine.” Hadn’t the doctor said that Pitt saw the value in cheaper alternatives to pharmaceuticals, with gentler effects? Wasn’t he learning about herbs for the very purpose of helping the weak and the poor? There must be some reason he would refuse to make medicine for Danny, other than simply not wanting to.

“I’m sure he’s not being mean on purpose,” Alphonse said, consoling the girl. “Maybe they’re just aren’t any of those good herbs for coughs around here.” He glanced again toward the mine entrance. “Anyway, Cassie … isn’t it dangerous here? I mean, is it really safe to go in that mine?” Though the entrance to the mine had maintained its shape, sections were beginning to crumble.

Edward agreed. “If there were a cave-in, you’d be in a lot of danger. Don’t they tell the people in town to stay away?” That was surely the reason for the boards.

Cassie blushed. “Well, yeah, but … ” she began, pouting her lips. “But this is my secret hideout.”

“Hideout?”

She sighed. “It’s just no fun being at home all the time. Just today, I tried to show Mom the grasshopper I caught, but she was too busy taking care of Danny to pay any attention to me. When I catch a big stag beetle, or get some pretty beads, or find a weird shaped rock, it’s always the same. Dad and Mom never look at my things. That’s why I hide all my best stuff here. No one’s going to look at it anyway. And … ” Suddenly the strength went out of Cassie’s voice and she began to tremble. “And Mom and Dad only love Danny anyway. That’s why I made a secret place just for me. This is my real house! I want to live here forever!” Cassie choked back a sob.

Cassie knew they had to take care of her weak younger brother. That’s why she hounded Pitt to make her medicine for Dan. But the broken promise to go buy a birthday present, combined with Pitt running away again, was too much to take. Talking to Edward and Alphonse brought everything she had been holding inside to the surface.

The brothers exchanged glances.

They were thinking the same thing. Cassie seemed like such a lively girl, happy to run around catching insects with the boys, and yet she came all the way up here to hide. How unwanted she must feel to make this abandoned mine her home.

“Cassie … ” Alphonse gently rubbed Cassie’s head. Her shoulders heaved with each sobbing breath.

Alphonse knew he had to say something. Whenever it came to consoling someone, Edward was terrible. He would either push them away or go on the offensive.

But it was Edward who spoke first.

“Don’t cry.” His voice was quiet. “I’m sure your Mom and Dad, and your family, love you very much. You should go home. Look, we’ll even walk you there,” Edward said, reaching out to take the little girl’s hand.

But Cassie angrily brushed him away. “No, I don’t want to go home. I’m going to live here!” With each of Cassie’s sobs, a tear rolled down her cheek and fell on the ground, making a little wet spot. Soon the circle of spots widened until they were surrounded by them.

“Hey, it’s raining,” Alphonse looked up at the sky. The swollen clouds hung low, and large droplets of rain had begun to fall.

“Right,” said Edward, “you better get home, Cassie. What would happen if Danny got all better tomorrow, and you couldn’t go because you caught a cold in the rain!”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Dad and Mom wouldn’t even notice if I didn’t come home. They’re only worried about Danny.”

Edward looked down at her, then he dropped to one knee to bring his eyes level with hers. “Cassie, when you come home after playing outside, is the door locked? Is there no dinner waiting for you?” He put his hand on her little head and stared into teary eyes. “No, there’s food, and the door is open. That’s because your Dad and Mom are waiting for you. That’s where you belong, okay?”

Large tears streamed from Cassie’s big eyes. She looked down at the ground, but Edward could sense a reaction in her to his words.

Cassie looked back. “You don’t think they forgot about me? They don’t hate me?”

“Of course they don’t. Even when Danny’s not doing well, and they’re worried about him, they wouldn’t forget you.”

“Really?”

“Really. How about this: you go home, and when you go inside, say ‘Hi, I’m home!’ real loud. I bet they’ll say hi back. If they didn’t like you or they’d forgotten you, they wouldn’t say anything.”

Edward grabbed Cassie’s hand again. This time she didn’t push him away.

By the time they reached the Rymar household at the edge of town, the rain came down in hard, punishing sheets. Under the sheet of gray clouds, everything seemed dark and lifeless, save for the light streaming from the windows of the house.

Cassie let go of Edward’s and Alphonse’s hands, and looked up at them. “Thanks,” she said. Her eyes were dry.

“Later,” Edward said, giving her another pat on the head. Cassie smiled faintly and ran toward her house.

Edward knew it must take a lot of effort to overcome feeling lonely in your own home, but if anybody had the energy to do it, Cassie did.

As they watched, she bounded up the front steps, opened the front door, and went inside.

“Hi, I’m home!”

ONCE THE RAIN started falling, it didn’t stop. It grew harder and harder throughout the afternoon and well into the night.

Alphonse sat outside the door to their borrowed house, watching the rain splash into puddles for a while. “It’s really coming down out there,” he announced as he stepped back into the room. “If it’s raining like this tomorrow, we won’t be able to leave no matter how good you feel.”

“Says you. I don’t care if there’s a flood out there, we’re leaving,” Edward declared from the bed. “That medicine Dr. Norm gave me worked like a charm. I’m not staying in this town any longer.”

Even after the drenching on the way back from Cassie’s house, Edward’s cold seemed none the worse for wear. He did seem to be getting better. “I think we should head farther west next. There was a big town out that way, wasn’t there? Might get a lead on the Philosopher’s Stone,” he said, eager to get back on the road. Seeing how far Pitt had come in the year made him want to make some progress of his own as soon as possible.

But this was one of those rare occasions where Alphonse had a different idea. “How about we go back to Resembool first?”

“Resembool?” Edward asked, still facing the wall, his back turned to his brother.

“Yeah. We should go home every once in a while. You need a maintenance check on your automail anyway.”

“Why would I want that? It’s not broken. And there are plenty of other places I’d rather go. We don’t have time to go home.”

“If you say so … ” Alphonse realized that talking about the old days with Pitt had made him homesick. He shook this feeling off and tried changing the subject. “I was surprised you were so nice to Cassie. We might never have gotten her home if you hadn’t stepped in.”

“Hey, I’m always nice.”

“Right, funny. Remember when Winry used to fall down and cry? You’d call her a crybaby … and make her cry even harder.”

“Ancient history,” Edward snorted, glaring at his brother over his shoulder. The particular incident Alphonse recalled had happened before they were even in school. And Edward hadn’t intended to make her cry more. He just didn’t understand how to make her stop. “I was just trying to help her out.”

“Kind of an interesting way to help.”

Edward frowned. “Look, I’m going to bed,” he said, pulling the covers over his head.

“I’ve just been thinking about the past a lot since running into Pitt,” Alphonse went on. “Remember that time when you wet the bed? You hung your sheets outside in the rain, and Winry saw them. You got so flustered that you just started babbling, and … ”

“If you have to remember something, remember anything but that!”

“Whoa!” Alphonse shouted as Edward’s wadded-up blanket came careening toward his head. “Hey, if you’re planning on resting up, don’t go throwing away your blankets,” he admonished, gently returning the blankets to his brother’s bed. Edward thrust his head under his pillow.

“Get some sleep. I’m going to go see Pitt.”

“Pitt?” Edward looked up to see Alphonse picking up a basket by the door. It was the one Pitt had been using to gather his medicinal herbs.

“When he ran away from Cassie, he forgot to take his basket. The herbs got a little wet in the rain, but I think they’ve dried off well enough now. I’m going to take them to him.”

“Want me to come along?”

Edward did feel at least partly responsible that the herbs got wet. If Alphonse hadn’t joined Edward to walk Cassie back home, he might have reached their house before the rain started falling in earnest. Edward sat up in bed, but Alphonse waved his hand and walked toward the door. “No, I couldn’t force a sick man out in weather like this … even if you do really, really like the rain.”

“But … ” Edward began, still concerned, and then his brother’s choice of words hit him. “Grr … Al!” Edward shot out of bed, but the door had already shut. His shouting echoed around the house, chasing after Alphonse as he left.

“SOMETIMES, I wish he didn’t have such a good memory … ”

Alone in the house, Edward grumbled to himself, tossing and turning beneath his blanket. Not that he could blame his brother—that day remained burned vividly into his own mind, too.

It had been drizzling the entire morning after Edward wet the bed, but he hung his sheets outside anyway in an attempt to hide the evidence. It would have worked, too, if Winry hadn’t happened by just as he and Alphonse were heading out for a walk.

“Why are your sheets hanging outside? They’re going to get wet.”

“Oh, yeah, I know.”

“Aren’t you gonna take them in?”

“No … I, uh, like the rain.”

“Enough to sleep in it?”

“Yeah. I like the rain.”

Edward looked up at the ceiling. “Winry … ”

Something inside Edward had clicked when Alphonse mentioned going back to Resembool. They had talked about it many times before, but every time he let it blow by. If there were a problem with his automail or Alphonse really wanted to go home, he might have given it serious consideration, but as it was, it didn’t make sense going so far out of their way for anything less than an emergency.

“I wonder if she still cries so much.”

Edward remembered the day he called Winry a crybaby. Eventually, it had gotten her to stop. She had been so mad, she stood up and smacked Edward in the jaw.

It wasn’t like that the day they left the village, when Winry stood crying in front of their burning house. Not sure what to do, he had once again said the first thing that came to mind. “You always were a crybaby.” It didn’t make her stop then, and he couldn’t make her more angry than she already was. Edward never told her why they were leaving, and Winry had waved good-bye to them without asking the hundreds of questions he could see in her eyes.

“What if she cries again? And where would we stay? It’s been a whole year, and nothing’s changed. We can’t go back to Resembool.”

Edward closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the rain beating down on the roof.

“ ED! ED, wake up!”

“Huh? What? Oh, it’s you, Al … ” Edward groggily rubbed his eyes and rolled over in bed. “It morning already? Let’s get ready to leave … ”

“No, it’s not morning—just get up!” Alphonse shouted, shaking his brother roughly by the shoulder.

Edward opened his eyes, realizing for the first time that something was wrong. Alphonse never shook him like that. “What is it, Al?”

Edward felt like he had been asleep for long time. He half-expected to find the morning light streaming through the window, yet the room seemed as dark now as it had been when he fell asleep. The sound of the rain on the roof was even louder than before.

“Ed, come on! The river … ”

“River?” Edward put one and one together. “What? Is it flooding?!”

“Not yet, but it’s only a matter of time!”

Edward ran to the door, peering out into the rainy gloom. He immediately noticed that the river seemed much closer than it had that morning. The water level must have risen considerably. The gentle flow from before was gone, replaced with a wild torrent crested with the white edges of swirling waves. By the sides of the river, several lanterns hanging from poles swung wildly in the wind.

“The townsfolk have started piling up sandbags along the riverbanks, but I don’t know how long that will hold!”

When Alphonse went to bring the basket to the clinic, he had found Dr. Norm working with the other villagers in the steadily increasing downpour to raise the banks of the river. He was dripping from head to toe. “The reservoir upstream has burst its dam!”

The dirt walls of the reservoir typically held strong against slight increases in the water level and even the light floods of spring. If the reservoir dam had broken, no matter how high they raised the banks of the river, it wouldn’t be high enough. Alphonse ran to get his brother.

“I can’t do it myself! You have to help, Ed!”

“Right!” Edward shouted, finally understanding what his brother wanted. Whipping on his coat, he dashed out into the rain. “Looks like the time to pay back the town’s hospitality came sooner than we thought!”

The two made their way down the road, which was a sodden mess, and soon their feet were caked in mud. The ground, already so saturated that it was almost like a river of mud itself, was far too wet to draw an alchemical circle on. Only Edward, who could do alchemy without the aid of the circle, had any hope of raising a dike to keep the water in the river from spilling out.

As they slogged their way through the mud toward the river, they could hear the adults from town shouting.

“Arrgh! No good! The water keeps rising!”

“Raise the banks as high as you can!”

“Can’t let the fields get drenched this close to harvest time!”

Every able-bodied man in town heaved massive sandbags, piling them by the edge of the river, but already the water threatened to overflow their hastily constructed wall.

Edward and Alphonse ran between larger men carrying heavy bags of dirt on their shoulders and made for the bridge.

“Uh-oh, that looks bad!” As the brothers watched, the level of the water rose until it almost reached the bridge. “It’s gotten higher since I went to get you!”

The river there had become a roaring torrent. The high reeds on the bank where Alphonse had been catching bugs were already swamped with water, and the water was sloshing up against the base of the bridge.

“It may already be too high to stop it with dikes,” Edward shouted. Next to him, Pitt arrived with several children in tow.

“Edward! Alphonse!”

“Pitt! Is the clinic all right?”

“No idea! I was afraid the water was going to come in, so I brought the kids out here!”

The ground level on the far side of the bridge seemed to be lower than the near side, and Edward could see the water already spilling out in sheets toward the town.

Pitt, rain dripping from his glasses, told the kids with him to head up the hill, then ran back to the bridge. On top, Dr. Norm helped guide women and children out of the village. Next to him stood a huddle of children too terrified of the river’s wrath to move. The reservoir had never broken before, and they had never seen such a flood.

“I’ll be right there!” Alphonse shouted, running for the bridge. Edward joined him, and together with Pitt and Dr. Norm, they began pushing the children across to safety.

“There you go! Just a little farther!”

“We’ll all be safe on the hill!”

Those they couldn’t convince to walk, Alphonse picked up. “Let’s get out of here!”

“Pitt, Edward, get off the bridge. It’s too dangerous!” Dr. Norm shouted. The sound of rushing water suddenly increased. The torrent below surged up and struck the underside of the bridge. Great volumes of water blasted onto the other side, streaming through the fields toward … 

“The clinic!” One of the men packing sandbags by the river shouted in alarm. “Wait, Danny’s medicine! Doctor, what about Danny’s medicine?!” The man who must have been Danny’s father threw down his shovel.

Dr. Norm looked back from where he’d been helping a handful of stragglers toward the hill. It looked clear that no one had time to worry about medicine. “Let it go!” Dr. Norm shouted, shaking his head furiously in the rain. “We can get more medicine soon, and the herbs we have will work for Danny’s cough!”

“But … ” Danny’s father frowned and turned back toward the bridge. His face looked stricken with unease at the thought of losing the one curative that could stop Danny’s coughing fits immediately. “Doctor, what kind of bottle is the medicine in?!”

By now, the water had risen so high that going back to the clinic looked like a one-way trip.

“You can’t go back—the bridge could fall any minute!” Dr. Norm shouted, but the man still seemed unconvinced.

“I’ll go get it!” shouted a voice in front of Edward, who was busily trying to figure out a way to raise a dike in the mud. It was Pitt. “I know where Danny’s medicine is! I’ll be right back!”

But as Pitt tried to cross the bridge, Danny’s father grabbed his arm. “No!” A hard look on his face, the man dragged Pitt back down from the bridge. “You can’t do this! You need to get to safety with the other children!”

His tone made it clear that he wasn’t stopping Pitt out of concern for Pitt’s safety. He was stopping Pitt because he didn’t believe the boy could do any good.

Even Edward could see Pitt’s face twist behind his dripping glasses. Edward was frowning, too. He expected Pitt to lash back, but much to his surprise, his friend quietly replaced his glasses and hurried back to the safe side of the bridge, with Danny’s father behind him. Again, the water slammed against the bottom of the bridge. A surge just above the bridge knocked the sandbags off the wall, and water went streaming out into a field.

“The sandbags aren’t holding!”

“Everyone back!”

The remaining men dropped their sandbags and retreated from the river’s edge. The water slowly seeped into the village. They watched in pain as the ripe wheat and vegetables in their fields were lost beneath the muddy swirls.

But while the townspeople headed up to the hill, Edward alone went back down to the river.

This bridge is coming down soon!

If the support posts of the bridge gave out, it would make a hole in the wall of sandbags, and the river would flow straight out into town.

Edward looked back over his shoulder at Alphonse helping the children up the path away from the river. If the wall broke, then the flat fields and roads of the town would be submerged immediately, and anyone not on the hill would be washed away.

“I can’t use this wet mud to make a dike—it will just wash away too quickly. So what do I … ” Edward’s brain churned as he looked around. He saw an open field a little way down the river. An idea came to him. Don’t know if I can do this, but it’s worth a shot!

Running down to where the river curved slightly before the field, Edward stepped forward and brought his hands together with a loud clap.

The townspeople still near the river shouted at him.

“What is he doing?!”

“Hey you, the river is about to flood over!”

“Get away from there!”

Without looking back, Edward thrust his hands into the rushing river. “Everyone, get back!” he shouted at them, as a great light flared from his hands.

In the blaze of light, a section of the river bank at the corner began to sink. Soon the entire empty field became a great hollow in the muddy ground, into which the water from the river rushed.

Drawn off by the sudden appearance of a new pond, the surge of water beneath the bridge lessened.

“Great, it worked! Okay … ”

Edward looked away from the submerged field, and this time, the alchemical light that had created the pond raced along the river’s edge like a thunderbolt. Now all the earth that had moved out to make the pond thrust up in a great muddy wall.

“And … done!”

The light faded, and the sound of the beating rain and gloom once again settled on the town—and its newly constructed dike and reservoir. Though the rushing water had chewed away at the wet soil along the banks, the reservoir sapped enough of its strength to prevent the river from breaking through Edward’s dike and the wall of sandbags.

“W-was that alchemy?!”

“Amazing!”

The villagers turned to Edward in astonishment.

“It’s little more than a stopgap, but I think it should hold. We’d better reinforce it while we have a chance,” he told them as Danny’s father and the other men snapped out of their daze and began to speak all at once.

“Simply incredible! I had no idea you were an alchemist!”

“Here we thought you were just some sick boy passing through!”

“Look, the water’s draining from the fields!”

“The clinic was spared the worst of it too! Hey, Rymar, looks like Danny’s medicine will be okay! Good for you!”

“I was just about ready to give up on the harvest this year! Thank you!”

As the villagers came streaming back from the hill they all shouted their thanks, smiles of joy on every face. Danny’s father shook Edward’s hand.

The breaking of the reservoir dam and the flood had been entirely unexpected. The villagers had reacted as best they could, but even as they began building the sandbag walls, they knew it was too little, too late. Yet, when a natural disaster seemed inevitable, a single young boy had come to the town’s rescue. For an entire town wondering how they would make it through the next winter, it was a miracle.

Smiling and laughing, the men went back to work, carrying sandbags to reinforce the dike.

“Good job, Ed!” Alphonse called out. He was carrying the boy Danny on his back. “That was a good idea, making that reservoir.”

“Al,” Edward said, raising an eyebrow, “you sure you should be carrying Danny out in this rain?”

“He’s got a raincoat on, so we’re fine, but he got drenched on the way up to the hill. His mother wanted me to take him to see Dr. Norm. At least he’s not coughing.”

From Alphonse’s back, Danny reached out a small hand toward Edward. “You saved my medicine! Thanks!” He had been watching Edward’s alchemy from the hill, and though he was too young to understand what had happened, Alphonse had filled him in.

“Yeah, the medicine’s fine,” Edward said, giving Danny’s hand a shake, but then the boy frowned.

“I don’t like that medicine. It’s yucky. I like Pitt’s medicine better.”

“Huh? You mean Pitt actually made medicine for you?” Alphonse asked, remembering what Cassie had said. He turned to look at Pitt, standing a short distance away. He stood alone, staring up at the dike Edward had made with his alchemy. In the midst of all the excitement and happiness, Pitt alone looked like he had swallowed something bitter.

“Hey, Pitt. What’s wrong?” Edward asked walking over, thinking his friend must be down after what Danny’s father had said to him.

Pitt slowly turned his gaze from the makeshift reservoir to stare at Edward. “She did this too, didn’t she. The alchemist you apprenticed yourself to?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, you’re right. I guess she did.”

Pitt was talking about Izumi, the woman who had come to Resembool once during a rainstorm. As Edward had done today, she too had constructed larger dikes with alchemy to hold back the river there. Impressed, Edward and Alphonse had asked to become her apprentices and studied under her for a while.

“Funny, I hadn’t noticed that I was copying her until you mentioned it.”

“You did more than that. You added the reservoir, too … ”

“Yeah, but Izumi’s dike was huge—much bigger than mine. I am still in training, after all.”

Edward wasn’t just being modest. Izumi’s alchemy was of the highest order, and though he might mimic it, his attempts would never reach her level without years more training.

Pitt frowned and turned away. “Oh, yeah. Like you need to get better than that,” he mumbled, raising his hand to fix his glasses.

Edward had trouble hearing what he said through the rain and the muffling effect of Pitt’s hand.

“Huh? You say something?”

Suddenly Pitt whirled and slapped Edward on the cheek.

“Yowch!” Edward yelped, so surprised he sat down in the mud. When he looked up, he was furious. “What’s the big idea?!”

“What’s wrong, Pitt?!” Alphonse asked from behind them.

“How can you say that?” Pitt asked, his voice a growl. “Still in training? Well it was good enough to save that medicine—the medicine I couldn’t save … !”

Edward could see Pitt was biting his lip and his hands were trembling—but he wasn’t about to take this abuse quietly. He had been expecting at least a word of thanks for helping out, not this. “What’s gotten into you? Who cares about protecting that crappy medicine? You can make your own!”

“What do you know about it?”

“Enough to know you’re angry at me over something that’s not my fault!” Edward jumped to his feet, ready to take a swing, when Alphonse ran between them, still carrying Danny on his back. “Stop fighting! C’mon, the flood’s been averted, and the town’s been saved. We should be celebrating along with everyone else!”

“Feh.” Pitt spat and turned away. He looked down at the ground, ignoring Edward, who stood with fists raised, like a boxer before a big match.

“What, you running?” Edward taunted him, but Pitt didn’t look around.

“I’m not running from anything. I’m going to check on the herbs around town, see if they’re okay,” Pitt replied in a low voice. Then he picked up his lamp and walked away.

“What’s with him … ?” Edward muttered, slowly cooling down from his battle mode.

“Your cheek okay?” Alphonse asked, sliding Danny higher up on his back. “I need to get this kid to the doctor, anyway. Why don’t you come along too, Ed. And no fighting, ’kay?”

“Fine,” Edward mumbled back. He’d been ready to chase after Pitt and beat him down to the ground right there, but Alphonse had seen right through him and cut him off. Edward half considered running down Pitt anyway, but in the end he decided that he’d already given his younger brother enough trouble since they had come to town.

“It was pretty strange of Pitt to just hit you like that, though,” Alphonse said as they walked. “You should ask him why he did it. Later, though, when he’s cooled off.”

“You bet I’ll ask him! I’ll ask him five times, one for each knuckle!” Edward said, raising his clenched fist. The brothers walked toward the bridge. Across the river, they could see lights on at the clinic. Dr. Norm must be back at work already.

As they crossed the bridge, Edward and Alphonse lowered their lamps and looked down at the river below. The water was brown with mud, but it rushed by without threatening to touch the bridge or its new banks.

At the clinic, the herbs in the garden by the front door had been bent over by the water. When they opened the door, they found that some water had seeped in and pooled on the floor of the clinic. However, the damage to the garden seemed superficial, and the floor would be good as new after a thorough mopping.

“Dr. Norm?” Alphonse called out to the doctor, who was busily sweeping water out a back door using a long board.

“Ah! Alphonse and Edward, I see.”

“Do you think you could take a look at Danny? He got pretty wet before we found him a raincoat.”

“Of course, of course. Let’s see how your brother’s cold is coming while we’re at it, shall we?”

Dr. Norm led them into the examination room straightaway, and after sitting Danny in front of a small heater, he gave Edward’s chest a listen with his stethoscope. “Pitt told me you were an alchemist, but to be honest, I never expected anything of that caliber. You’ve done this town a great service. Everyone thanks you.”

“Good job, Ed,” Alphonse said happily, knowing full well that his brother hadn’t done it for the attention, but feeling no small amount of fraternal pride at the same time. “Danny’s mother was watching from the hill—she was so happy. She said she’d be here later after going to pick up Cassie, and she wanted to thank you personally.”

“I’ll pass,” Edward said glumly. “Wait, is Cassie home alone?”

“Yeah. She went home as soon as the dike went up. Her dad was still piling sandbags, and her mom planned on bringing Danny in, but I suggested that she go pick Cassie up first—we didn’t know how long Danny’s checkup would take, and I figured Cassie could play with us and Pitt while she waited.”

Edward allowed himself a relieved breath. It surprised him, how concerned he was about the little girl they had met earlier that day, and he was glad his brother had maneuvered to keep her from being stuck alone again in her own house.

Dr. Norm slapped a poultice on Edward’s cheek. “You get into a fight or something?”

His cheek had swollen where Pitt slapped it, and it was beginning to throb painfully.

“It wasn’t a fight. Pitt just decked me out of nowhere! He’s got one coming to him as soon as I get out of here.”

Dr. Norm took off his stethoscope and chuckled. “You got a little rained on, but it looks like you beat that cold, Edward. You can leave tomorrow if you like—just don’t push yourself, okay?” Dr. Norm patted Edward gently on the shoulder.

“Thanks for everything,” Edward said, remembering the doctor’s advice from before. He had to learn how to take a breath every now and then, even on this seemingly endless journey. He was lucky that they had happened to run into a doctor who was good not only at examining cuts and bruises but weary hearts as well. On the mend, and with a clean bill of health, Edward felt good. He yawned.

Still, good health didn’t necessarily mean he was happy. “Now I got to go find Pitt and deck him one!” No matter how eager he was to leave town, there was business to settle first—business between his fist and Pitt’s jaw.

“What did I say now? No fights. You all play nice, understand? Isn’t that right, Danny?” Dr. Norm said, listening to the boy’s chest through his stethoscope.

Danny nodded. “Yeah. Cassie says that all the time. And if she can’t go shopping tomorrow, we’re gonna play.”

“Really, now?”

“Good to hear,” Alphonse said, looking at his brother. Edward smiled until he heard what Danny had to say next.

“You know what? Cassie said she was gonna go to her secret hideout tonight to get some stuff for us to play with!”

The brothers looked at each other.

“What was that … ? !”

“Wait, she doesn’t mean … ”

Thuh-kunk. There was a tremendously deep boom, and the clinic shook.

“Oh, no!”

Fearing the worst, Edward dashed outside. In the still driving rain, he could see several lanterns wobbling, moving toward the abandoned mine entrance toward Cassie’s secret hideout.

Edward and Alphonse ran at top speed up the path to the mine entrance and pushed through the crowd of villagers.

The entrance, standing so sturdily earlier that day, had collapsed in half. The boards placed in an “X” had snapped in two, their splinters scattered on the rock-strewn ground under the driving rain.

Cassie’s mother and father were there. From their expressions, and those of the people around them, it was clear that Cassie was inside.

“What happened? What happened?” Dr. Norm shouted from behind the brothers. He had followed them up the path. One of the villagers turned, raising his lantern. “Someone heard Cassie calling for help from inside the mine, Doctor! Pitt went in after her … but before they came out, the cave collapsed!”

“Pitt’s in there too?!” Alphonse shouted, growing increasingly worried. “What do we do, Ed?”

“That idiot!” Edward crouched down to touch the rocky side of the hill next to the mine entrance. Large stones had been piled there to reinforce the mine years ago, but they were loose now. They moved freely when Edward gave them a light push with his hand. Behind him, he could hear the anxious voices of the villagers.

“What do we do? And what was Cassie doing coming up here in the first place?”

“Pitt should have known better than to go in by himself! Now we’ve got two kids stuck in there … ”

“It’s not going to be easy getting them out!”

His back turned to the crowd, Edward lifted his lamp and peered through the wreckage of the mine entrance. “Cassie kept stuff in here—her treasures,” he said without turning. “When she went in to get them, the cave must have collapsed and trapped her. Pitt came up here looking after his herbs, and … ”

Edward stuck his head in through a gap in the rocks. In the gloom beyond the mess near the entrance he could see a narrow path angling down into the darkness. “It’s not wide enough for an adult in there. That’s why Pitt went in alone.”

“Can you do something with your alchemy, Ed?” Alphonse asked, but Edward looked out from the wreckage and shook his head.

“Not a chance. There’s been a big cave-in, and I don’t know the structure of the place well enough to begin with. I won’t be able to do anything from the outside.”

“Maybe we could dig in slowly … ?” One of the villagers came up and went to touch the gap in the rocks. Edward grabbed his hand, stopping him.

“If we just start digging blindly, we could bring down the rest of the tunnel.”

“So what do we do?! Is there no way to help Cassie?!” her father shouted behind them. “While we sit out here discussing this, she could be … !”

Dr. Norm came up behind Cassie’s parents and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “It’s a little early to lose hope just yet.”

“That’s right,” Edward agreed. “I can repair the collapsed sections here bit by bit, then work my way through that gap … ” As he spoke, Edward took off his jacket. “If Pitt got in there, so can I.”

Edward clapped his hands together, used a little alchemy to strengthen the rocks around the gap in the rubble, and began to crawl in. The passage was narrow, but if he twisted his body in just the right way he found he could keep moving forward. “I think I can make it. I’m going in.”

“Be careful!”

Alphonse took the lamp from Dr. Norm and watched as his brother worked his way past the rubble. “Good luck, Ed!”

“Yep,” Edward replied, looking around and waving his hand as best he could before heading down into the mine.

The slope leading in from the entrance had collapsed partially, leaving only about three feet of crawl space beneath it. Edward continued on, doubled over, tracing the rusted mining-cart rails with his feet, and gradually, the light from the villagers at the entrance grew dim until he could no longer see. Edward lifted his own lamp and lit it.

Gradually, the sound of the heavy rain outside grew distant, and silence wrapped around Edward.

“Things look better in here … ” he muttered, looking around at the shaft. Unlike the entrance, the walls and ceiling around him seemed to be mostly in their original condition. Protected from the elements, they hadn’t weathered as much as parts of the mine closer to the surface. Edward continued down, pausing occasionally to fix a crumbling wall or ceiling rafter with his alchemy.

In a short while, he found himself in the mineshaft proper, and the tunnel became large enough for him to stand at full height. Lifting his lamp he looked around. The tunnel was now a proper mineshaft, with square corners, and it branched every now and then.

“Pitt! Cassie!” Edward shouted down each branching tunnel he came to, but no reply came, other than his own voice echoing in the darkness. “Great. Guess I’ll just have to follow my gut.”

Edward lifted his lamp higher, squinting his eyes at the darkness ahead. All around him stood nothing but earthen walls and the wooden beams that supported them. No Pitt, no Cassie. At least, he thought with some relief, the structure of the mine was sound down here. When they had heard the collapse from the clinic, he had feared the worst, yet it seemed that it had been more bark than bite.

Still, he hadn’t heard a sign of Pitt and Cassie, and since they hadn’t come out on their own, they must have gotten stuck under something.

Edward stopped at every intersection, looking long down each shaft, picking the ones that seemed to be in the worst condition before going on. “Pitt could at least have come to get me first … ” Edward said out loud, trying to fend off the faint claustrophobia he felt walking down the mineshafts alone. With his alchemy, he could have come down to help get Cassie and avoided getting two of them trapped. But Pitt was angry at Edward, and when the emergency came, he wanted to fix it himself. That was Pitt’s mistake.

“What’s that guy’s problem, anyway?” Edward said, scowling at the silent darkness.

Edward lightly brushed his fingers across his cheek. He could feel the swelling even through the poultice Dr. Norm had given him. Edward’s brows furrowed. In the past, he had always known without thinking how Pitt would feel about something. But now, his old friend felt like a complete mystery to him. He couldn’t understand why Pitt had hit him or why he had run down the mineshaft alone. “One thing’s for sure—he was never like this before,” Edward muttered angrily.

He’d been surprised at first to see how much Pitt had changed in the years since they last met. His one-time reckless co-conspirator was calm, even polite. A doctor in training. Edward had been impressed, so much that he regretted not having made more progress himself over the last year.

But now that he thought about it, something was wrong. Pitt seemed to be holding himself back—letting people complain to him without so much as a word in response. When he ran away from Cassie, who had only wanted him to make medicine, and when he hit Edward, he hadn’t given any reason for his actions. The old Pitt never would have turned away without saying a word. And he would never have tried something as foolhardy as this.

Pitt had changed, but not all of it was good. “It’s like he’s a different person,” Edward said, shuffling forward. His mind churned with questions.

At last he came to a place where the square tunnel warped and sagged. The ceiling here had collapsed, and part of the wall and the support beams were crumbling. There was a damp smell in the air. If he was looking for a place that had collapsed in the rain last night, this was looking like a candidate.

“Pitt! Cassie!” Edward shouted, then stopped to listen. Hearing no reply, he made his way deeper through the collapsed tunnel and repeated the process.

After he had done this several times, he thought he heard a faint sound in the darkness. He came to a stop and listened.

The tunnel was so quiet it made his ears ring, but then he heard it again—a sound like crumbling dirt coming from somewhere. Then, at regular intervals, he heard the sound of rocks rubbing against rocks. Somebody was picking up rocks, digging their way out.

Edward oriented himself toward the noise and began to run. He passed several intersections and kept going, fixing the shaft where he could, until he saw a faint light ahead. It was a lamp. Edward ran faster, making his way toward that lamp bobbing in the darkness ahead. “Pitt!”

Ahead, a lantern sat on the rocky floor of the mineshaft. Next to it, Pitt clawed away at a wall of rocks with all his might.

“You’re okay!” Edward shouted, running up. “Where’s Cassie?!” He stopped and looked up at the wall of rocks blocking the passageway. He had a lot of things on his mind to say, and he still hadn’t forgotten about the punch he owed Pitt, but now hardly seemed like the time.

Pitt was working at a foot-wide hole in the rocks and earth. Peering through it, Edward could see Cassie lying asleep on the other side. “Is she hurt?”

“She’s just tired herself out crying,” Pitt responded without looking around. His hands kept moving, working at rocks.

“Right, I’ll reinforce the tunnel around here and open a larger hole.” Pitt was right, they had to dig through the rocks, but if they tried to move them without reinforcing the surrounding tunnel they could bring the whole place down on themselves.

Edward put his hands together, ready to start his alchemy, but Pitt knocked one of his hands away. “What are you doing?!” Edward yelled, but Pitt merely turned and continued clawing at the rocks. Edward frowned and slapped his hands together again, only to have Pitt knock them aside once more.

The blood rushed to Edward’s head. He grabbed Pitt by the collar. “What’s wrong with you? Are you crazy? Stop getting in the way!”

“I don’t need your alchemy!” Pitt roared back, his yelling drowning out Edward’s own. “I’ll save Cassie! I don’t need you here!” With a surge of strength, Pitt pushed Edward away and turned back to his stones. Edward stared at his back, his expression a mixture of disbelief and rage. “What’s gotten into you? Are you trying to be some kind of hero? Can’t you pick a time that’s not an emergency to play?”

“Say what you want! I’m doing this, and I don’t need your help!”

“Stop being stupid and step aside!” Edward scowled, grabbing Pitt by the shoulder and yanking him backward hard. “If you want to prove you can do something on your own, go make medicine! I heard you can make Danny’s medicine after all! Go do that, and leave this to me!”

Pitt stumbled backward and fell to the ground. Edward didn’t so much as glance behind him, slapping his hands together for a third time. He placed his palms on the wall as an alchemical light flared in the dim tunnel. The wall of the mineshaft gradually transformed, becoming harder, stronger. The crumbling earthen wall transformed into a hard, shiny surface that spread to cover all the rocks around the hole Pitt had made. The rocks melded with each other to form one solid rock wall.

Edward brought his hands together again, touching the new rock wall in front of him. When the light faded, a hole had formed in the wall large enough for a child to crawl through.

“Cassie!” Edward went through to the other side and picked the girl up in his arms. Cassie held a collection of pretty stones and beetle cages in her hands—the collection she had meant to show Danny. Even asleep, exhausted, she clung to her precious treasures. Traces of tears glistened on her cheeks, washing clean lines into her dirt-covered face, but dirty though she was, she did not seem injured. Edward breathed a sigh of relief and carried Cassie back through the hole in the wall.

There he found Pitt, both hands on the ground, his head slumped low. “Why did you have to come in here?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Edward raised an eyebrow. “Why? I came to help you and Cassie,” he replied coldly, still unable to fathom Pitt’s inexplicable attitude.

All his thoughts of getting payback had disappeared, overcome by his earlier regret that he didn’t understand his old friend anymore.

“Came to help?” Pitt raised his head, looking up at Edward. He looked as though he were in pain. “You say that so easily … you do it so easily … how come you can do that all by yourself? How come you get to be someone? How do I get to be someone?!”

“Get to be someone?” Edward echoed back, startled. “You are someone! Not me.” Edward furrowed his brow, then spoke again, this time more softly, with a hint of regret in his voice. “I knew you’d changed when I first saw you, and I thought it was for the best. Just a year out of Resembool and you were already a full-fledged assistant. But you’ve changed so much … You’re not Pitt anymore.”

In part, Edward worried that the change he saw in Pitt was only a sign of how little he himself had changed in the last year. His friend was pulling ahead, and he couldn’t keep up. That year had put space between them, a gap that couldn’t be crossed easily. Edward grew sad thinking about it.

But Pitt shook his head. “I’m not anyone! I know I’m not myself … I know that much. But I … but I have to change … I have to do something!” Pitt’s voice echoed through the mine. “What was that you said about Danny’s medicine? Yeah, I can make it. They just won’t let me!”

“Won’t let you?” Edward furrowed his brow again at the unexpected words. He had assumed there was another more practical reason why Pitt was unable to make his medicine—be it a lack of the right herbs or something else. It never occurred to him that someone might be stopping Pitt from making the medicine Danny needed. “Why not?”

Pitt’s medicine was effective, and cheap to make. He couldn’t see why anyone wouldn’t want it—Cassie had practically begged him to make it. Pitt’s shoulders slouched even deeper. “I made a mistake one time—a misdiagnosis. They don’t trust me anymore.”

“A mistake?”

“ … It was about half a year after I came here. Danny had a cold. I thought it was just a regular cough. I wasn’t supposed to do anything without the doctor there, but his parents told me they wanted medicine, anything would do, so I gave them some herbal remedies I’d made. I was careful to pick only the mildest ones, ones that couldn’t possibly harm anyone, but he had an allergic reaction … ”

Pitt scratched at the ground, reliving his humiliation and regret at the failure.

Edward remembered seeing how Danny’s mother ignored Pitt at the clinic, how Danny’s father had been so cold to him. “I get it, so that’s why you … ”

Pitt had backed down in the clinic and on the bridge in the rain because he knew he had been wrong. That’s why he wasn’t acting like the Pitt that Edward knew. It wasn’t hard to imagine the Rymars pressuring Pitt into giving the medicine, either.

But none of them had known about Danny’s allergy, clearly. It had been an honest mistake, and a forgivable one, but ill feelings festered between the Rymars and Pitt. Danny’s parents had lost their faith in anything but the most expensive, strongest medication. When Cassie asked Pitt to make more for Danny, she must not have known what had happened.

It must have been tough for Pitt, wanting only to help yet being denied by Danny’s parents, unable to honor Cassie’s request. So he pretended to be someone else in order to hide the pain, the irritation, the unhappiness. He pretended to be an adult, unflappable and emotionless.

Pitt sat up with his back to one of the walls and moved a hand over his face to fix his glasses. “I can’t do anything. I’m just a kid. Once, it got to be too much for me, and I even ran back to Resembool. But you left and never looked back, didn’t you? Your alchemy’s as good as your teacher’s, even!”

Pitt kept his hand over his face. “We used to be even. But somehow, you pulled ahead and left me behind! I didn’t want to lose. That’s why I left Resembool after you—but now, I see you again a year later, and you’re so far ahead of me … ” A single tear fell from beneath the rim of Pitt’s glasses.

Edward noticed for the first time that whenever Pitt had paused to fix his glasses, it was to hide the pain in his face or the tears in his eyes. At last, he finally understood that while Pitt had seemed so far ahead of him, Pitt had thought the same thing of Edward.

“Come on … ” Edward stood next to Pitt, reaching out a hand. “Stop trying to crank up the pressure on me to get ahead. Let’s go.”

“What? I thought I just told you, I was the one worried about falling behind … ”

Pitt stared suspiciously at Edward’s outstretched hand. Edward grinned.

The two boys really were a lot alike.

In height, temperament—especially their stubbornness—and the way they both tried too hard to be first, they were exactly the same.

Pitt had wanted to go get the medicine in the rain and had come to save Cassie because he wanted to be someone people could trust more than anything else. Edward wanted to find the Philosopher’s Stone and get back what he and his brother had lost more than anything else. Both of them wanted to move forward, and both looked at each other and worried the other would succeed first.

Dr. Norm had probably realized that the two boys were mirror images of each other. That’s why he had known exactly the right advice to give to Edward—because he knew Pitt. Both of them needed to learn how to take it easy.

Edward realized he had been holding his breath. He let it out in a long, quiet sigh. “You know, when I saw you again the other day, I felt certain you were the one who’d moved ahead.”

“Huh?” Pitt looked up in surprise.

“We were neck and neck back in Resembool. But here I thought you had gone and left me behind. It was hard for me to see you working at the clinic, looking so successful, hard for me to know I didn’t have a home to go back to. I thought about a lot of stuff.”

Pitt listened silently.

“The thing is, we both chose paths that would lead us to adulthood faster than any of our friends. We have to be ready to deal with pressure—grown-up pressure. You know, to be adult.”

Edward no longer worried about getting ahead.

He knew there would be trouble enough in the days and months to come. He just had to meet it without comparing himself to anyone. He would face whatever challenges waited for him on his own terms, as would Pitt.

Edward laughed, but Pitt didn’t take his hand.

“Whatever,” Pitt mumbled, and before Edward could move, Pitt swiped up with his own hand, connecting with Edward’s palm in a painful high five. Pitt grinned.

It was the same grin as always, the same old Pitt.

THE NEXT MORNING, three figures stood on a hill over the village. A refreshing breeze blew, and the sky looked clear blue, without a single shred of cloud, as though the heavy rains of the night before had been only a dream.

“All right! The rain’s stopped, the wind is good—a perfect day to restart our journey!” Edward said with a loud yawn, sucking in as much of the crisp air as he could. Pitt stood next to him, waiting to see the brothers off. Now he pointed toward a mountain in the distance.

“There’s a large town over that way. Should be a train station there, too.”

“Right, thanks!”

“Thanks for everything, Pitt. And give our regards to Dr. Norm and the other people in town.”

“Sure thing.”

In his arms, Alphonse carried a bag stuffed with fruit pancakes. The villagers had come out and showered them with gifts when they tried to leave, both in thanks for building the new dikes on the river, and for saving Cassie. Dr. Norm threw in some antibacterial bandages, and Cassie gave them a card.

Edward reached out, plucking the card from the bag and opened it quietly.

Inside, she had drawn a picture of Danny and Cassie and their parents holding hands, with a caption that read “Thanks, Edward and Alphonse!”

“Looks like Cassie’s going to be fine.”

“Yeah.”

Edward and Alphonse looked down the hill toward the village. The water from the heavy rains had begun to drain from the fields, and here and there, tiny waves rippled across the remaining large puddles.

The river flowed gently once again, and children played around the new reservoir. Unable to catch bugs now that all the tall grasses by the riverbank had been swept away, the kids had quickly shifted gears to fishing. Edward and Alphonse spotted Cassie among the group of kids with fishing poles over their shoulders laughing as they cast their lines. Danny was sitting next to her.

After they had learned why their daughter was going into the mines, and after a word of advice from Dr. Norm, Cassie’s parents were trying to let Danny and Cassie play together as much as possible. The best thing for Danny was not to be too overprotective of him and to let him build his strength. Besides, if Cassie could help her parents look after her brother, it would strengthen her bond with them at the same time.

Even when they left the water’s edge and ran around, Cassie always kept an eye on her little brother. Only one day in, and she already filled the role of big sister perfectly.

“I hope you can fix those bad vibes between you and the Rymars soon too,” Edward said.

Pitt shook his head lightly. “It’s hard to gain somebody’s trust once you’ve lost it. The best I can hope for is to not make another mistake the next time they ask for something,” Pitt responded calmly, taking off his glasses. “Guess I need to study some more.”

It wasn’t an offhand comment. Pitt had thought things through. He was ready to face reality. His face looked relaxed, brighter, as though the demons that plagued him had finally called off their attack.

“You look more like the old Pitt without the glasses.” Edward watched his friend squinting in the light.

“You think?”

“Yeah.”

Pitt had never worn glasses in Resembool. Edward and Alphonse were used to seeing his face when he wasn’t hiding behind a pair of lenses. Those familiar mischievous brown eyes twinkled.

Pitt handed Edward his glasses. “Try them on.”

“Me? But I don’t wear glasses. It will be all blurry.” Still, Edward set down his traveling trunk, put on Pitt’s glasses, and stared out across the field. “See … Huh?” The field looked exactly the same as it had before he put the glasses on. “Wait … These aren’t real? They’re just glass?” Edward tried taking the glasses off and putting them back on several times until he was convinced that the lenses weren’t lenses at all.

“Yeah,” Pitt said with a smile. “I got sick of people calling me a kid, so I wanted to spruce up my image a bit. But, like you said, there’s no point in rushing to grow up, is there? I guess I don’t need those anymore.”

“Heh,” Edward laughed, knowing all too well how his friend felt.

It was part of a young boy’s nature to want to grow up as fast as he could, and it was the silliest thing to do. Edward and Pitt had finally realized that they could only keep walking forward, at their own pace. There was no point in hurrying, and there were no shortcuts.

Edward toyed with the glasses a bit, then put them on again and turned to Pitt and Alphonse. “What do you think, are they me?” Edward asked with a grin.

The two shook their heads immediately. “No way.”

“C’mon, you can lie just a little. Say I look grown-up!”

“Not even a little.”

“You’ll always be a kid, Edward, you know that.”

“Whaaaat?!”

Alphonse and Pitt laughed, running away from Edward’s raised fist. For a while they chased each other through the grass like they had so many times before. It took Pitt several minutes to get his laughter under control. “Hey, remember when I said I had gone back to Resembool once?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I went to Winry’s house. What do you think she was doing?”

Edward, taken aback at the sudden mention of his old friend, shrugged as casually as he could. “Probably working on some automail like always?”

“Winry always did love the stuff.”

Edward, Alphonse, and Pitt all knew of Winry’s disdain for “girly” things. Her one love had always been for tinkering with automail.

Pitt shook his head slowly. “Wrong. Pinako was teaching her how to cook stew!”

“Winry was cooking?!”

Pitt had gone back to Resembool the day after he had made his misdiagnosis of Danny’s cough. When he walked by the Rockbell house, he had caught a whiff of stew coming from the kitchen and looked in to see Winry toiling over a giant pot on the stove.

“Of course, she’s still working on automail too—gotten quite good from what I heard. But there she was, making stew for dinner. Even Pinako seemed surprised that she wanted to learn. She asked me if I knew anyone who liked stew … ” Pitt grinned at Edward and Alphonse. “You two are big stew fans, aren’t you?”

“Yes, we both love stew,” Alphonse happily admitted.

Alphonse was happy to hear that Winry hadn’t forgotten their favorite food even after they’d been gone more than a year. Edward sat quietly by his brother.

“You were saying you didn’t have a home to go back to, but I bet I know someone in Resembool who would feed you and put a roof over your heads if you dropped by.”

Pitt’s words reminded Edward of what he’d said to Cassie, when she didn’t want to go home. He cast his eyes downward, watching the grass by his feet waver in the soft breeze.

We can’t go home. We don’t have a home to go back to.

What if they see what little progress I’ve made in the past year? I don’t want them to worry.

What if I went back and didn’t want to leave again?

That’s why he hadn’t even called his friends in Resembool. He hadn’t written. He hadn’t gone home. Yet all that seemed to be melting away now.

“Maybe you’re right … ”

Families. They welcomed you home and gave you something warm to eat. That’s what families do. Edward realized how important that seemingly simple thing was and how much he and his brother had longed for it. Without effort, without even trying, families made you feel like you belonged. Without knowing it, this was what Winry had wanted. She longed to make them feel that, when they came to Resembool, they would be coming home.

Edward had the feeling that, if they came stumbling back into town, still bearing the heavy burden of fate on their backs, Winry would greet them as though they had just come back from a day playing outside. That’s how she was. She would give them the same welcome if they decided they never wanted to leave again or if they couldn’t wait to get back on the road. It came as a deep relief to Edward to know there was a place—and a person—like that left in the world.

Pitt placed his hand on Edward’s shoulder. “You might not have your own house to go back to, but you always have a home. There are people waiting for you. Don’t forget them.”

Though he hadn’t told Edward, when Pitt went back to Resembool, he had learned two things. The first was that the person he longed to see again most was Winry, and the reason he had always picked on her so much was because he had a crush on her.

The second thing he learned was that she had devoted herself to honing her skills—first automail and now stew—all for the sake of the boy who had lived next door, and she didn’t have so much as a thought for Pitt. Unable to confess to Edward how he had realized his first love and lost her at the same time, he did the next best thing and hit him on the shoulder. Hard.

“Owch!”

“Go get ’em, Edward!” Pitt grinned, hitting Edward again.

Edward, oblivious to the thoughts going through Pitt’s head, stuck his arm out in front of him. “We’re heading out.”

“See ya.”

Pitt put his own arm out to meet Edward’s, a challenge in his smile. “Next time we meet up, let’s see which one of us is closer to reaching his goal. And I warn you, I hate losing.”

The backs of their arms met in front of their faces. It was a tradition—whenever they made up from a fight or came up with a particularly naughty plan, they would hit their arms together like this—wishing each the best of luck and at the same time each vowing that he would be the winner.

“Later!”

“Thanks, Pitt!”

“You too, Alphonse!”

And so the three parted on the hill, each to their own path. Pitt went back down into the village, and Edward and Alphonse turned to begin the next step of their journey.

But, only a few moments later, Pitt’s voice rang out across the hill. “Heeeey!”

The brothers turned to see Pitt waving from a considerable distance.

Edward and Alphonse waved back, thinking this was his final send-off, when they saw a small object flying through the air toward them. At the same time, Pitt’s voice reached them on the wind.

“Beat you by half an inch!”

Edward picked up the object which had fallen in the grass by their feet, to find it was a small bottle. He read the label.

“P-paint thinner? What’s this?!”

“Ack!” Alphonse twisted his head around to look at his own back. Two marks had been painted on his back in red paint, one a full half-inch above the other. Next to that was painted the words “I win.”

“What the heck?”

“It’s your and Pitt’s heights. I don’t know why he thinks he can use me as a measuring post … ” Alphonse sighed.

Edward stared at his brother’s back. “Heights? Wait, so what does that mean?! This mark below, is that supposed to be me or something? So that means I’m shorter than he is?!”

“I guess that’s what it’s supposed to mean.”

“Pitt! No way am I accepting this as evidence! I never agreed to any of this!”

Edward turned around, gritting his teeth, but Pitt was nowhere to be seen.

He knew his friend well enough to know where he was going. By now he would be heading back to his desk to study. Once he’d taken on a challenge, he didn’t mean to lose. Edward turned, impatient to get on with his own task and began to walk.

The gentle breeze blew against his face. Edward brushed back his bangs.

“Hey, Ed,” Alphonse called out as they began to walk.

“Hmm?”

“Let’s make a stop by Resembool someday soon … if we happen to be in the area.”

“Yeah, let’s,” Edward replied, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. “I would like to see how Pinako and Winry are doing, if only for a day or two … but we can’t really go home until … ”

“Until we have our bodies back, right?” Alphonse said with a laugh, finishing his brother’s sentence for him.

“That’s right!”

He didn’t know how long it would take them to reach their goal, but he had to keep moving forward. And what better reason than that for stopping to take a break sometimes? Just knowing there were people waiting for them took a little of the weight off his shoulders and strengthened his resolve all the more. “Hope you’re ready for this next leg of the trip, Al—got a feeling it’s going to be a long one!”

“You bet!”

Edward and Alphonse stepped back onto the road beneath a sky far from home.