| |
"Al, you can't tell anyone about what we're trying to do," I told him. "D'you promise?"
"I promise," Al replied as he finished drawing the transmutation circle. "I don't even know what we're doing."
"I'll tell you if you pass me the elements I need as I call for them." He nodded. I start out with the easier elements; the solid elements. "Calcium... Phosphorus..." Potassium..." Al looked at me with bright eyes.
"Now will you tell me?" I wait a second to answer, and finish mixing the first three elements I called for.
"I was thinking, that we would..." I paused to draw out the tension as much as possible. I even added "Pass the sodium!" just to get on his nerves.
He dug through the containers irritably. I grinned. At least I was having fun.
"Um, Winry?"
"What?"
Al held up the canister that was labeled 'sodium'. Nothing was in it. "Did you dump it out, Al?" An offended look crossed his face. Immediatly I apologized for my accusation.
An angry shout came from the kitchen. (Me and Al were in the closet). It called for me. Something probably was wrong. Didn't matter what the problem was; didn't matter if I had an alibi or not. It was always my fault. The door flew open and smashed into the wall. Light poured through the opening and revealed my dirt- smuged face.
"Winry get out here now!" Mr. Harris, the manager of the restaurant me and Al stayed at, boomed.
I managed to get to one knee before literally getting dragged into the dining room and thrown in front of a table. "Winry, there's no salt on this man's fries!" I propped myself up on one elbow.
"Um... o-okay..." I said, unsure of what else to say.
"What're ya gonna do about it, Winry!?"
I was slightly irritated by the way he overused my name. "Get more salt, Sir?"
He nodded. "Bingo."
I pushed myself to my feet and scurried into the kitchen. I heaved my body up and knelt on the countertop. As I pulled down the extra salt container, my arm sort of felt weird. Weak. Like there was no water running through my body. I still got the container down, and noticed it was empty. "Sir," I shouted from where I was, "there's no salt left."
"What d'ya mean, no salt left?" Mr. Harris stormed into the kitchen. "I just gone to town and bought me ten container fulls of the stuff yesterday!"
I popped open the lid as he came toward me. A rancid stench wafted up from it; Mr. Harris recoiled. "It's chlorine," I said as I sniffed the interior. "I think all the sodium's gone..."
"Then find it!"
'Okay as long as you're not coming,' I think to myself. "How?" I bit my tongue and wish I could take that back. No one was to question the boss -ever- no matter what you needed to know. Mr. Harris folded his arms across his chest.
"Well lets find out." He (again) dragged me back out into the dining area, shoved me hard and ordered me to ask. "D- does anyone know what happened to the sodium?"
After a short silence, a man puched his seat out and answered. "Aye, the King took it all. I think he put it into a sodium reserve."
I never heard of a sodium reserve before. "Do you know where it'd be? The reserve, I mean."
He thought for a moment. "Somewhere in the North. The King's got guards there, so you probably could buy it."
"Okay, thank you."
He sat back down again. Mr. Harris and I went back into the kitchen.
"You might wanna get going, Winry, if you still wanna live here."
"Only if Al can come," I suggested as I see his head popping out of the door.
"I don't care, just get moving so we don't lose any more customers."
A wave of happiness washed over me, but I didn't show it. I motioned to Al.
"Let's go!"
"Do I have to?" he whined as he dragged himself out of the closet. I tied my hair back into a thin blond ponytail and pulled on a red overcoat.
"Of course!" We ventured out of the building and into the bright sun. I shielded my eyes from it.
"We might wanna go before Harris lights smoke under our butts..." Al said uneasily. It was a good idea.
~~~~~
After getting into a long sword-versus-pistol fight against thieves a little more than halfway across the desert, I had gotten a headache and a little dizzier than normal.
"What's the matter, Winry?" Al asked me with concern. He himself also looked a little tired.
"I think I'm dehydrated, with the sodium being gone, and being in that fight back there..."
I put my hand to my forehead and held it tightly in pain. Al stopped in his tracks. "Winry! Look!" he pointed ahead. "Is that the reserve?"
I squinted and made out a large building with tall watch towers on the side. "I think it is. Maybe we can sneak around back and get in..."
Al agreed and we circled to the rear of the building, making sure we were a safe distance away from the towers. We came upon a ladder about one quarter off the side of the building. This was too easy, I thought. It was almost as if the king wanted me to take back all the sodium he stole from everyone, mysteriously all at once.
"Al, stay behind me. I'll protect you if ther're guards up there, you can catch me if I fall." I stepped up the ladder. As I neared the top, I noticed a trapdoor blocking the rest of the way. I rapped on it three times. Solid Oak. I reached behind me for the samurai katana, but then remembered that I left it at the place wher I fought off those bandits.
"Stand back!" I shouted as I climed down a few steps, slipped a special glove on my right hand, and snapped my fingers. A stream of fire shot from my index finger, charring the walls and making a hole just wide enough for me and Al. I climbed up the rest of the stairs and pulled myself into a pitch black room.
"How'd you do that??" Al asked in wonderment as he climbed through the hole.
"Do what?"
"Make fire just by snapping your fingers!"
"Oh, that," I shrugged. "It's simple alchemy." I glanced around the black room. The only thing that stood out was a glowing thing that appeared to be a stone floating in a see through container. There wasn't even glass surrounding it. I reached between the top and bottom and touch it, but recoil as soon as I do. My hand burned so bad! How could anyone touch that thing? Once I think that, Al sauntered over next to me and grabbed it with no problem.
"How could you just grab that thing? Doesn't it burn??" He pulled off his glove and revealed that his hand was not of flesh, but automail.
"No time to explain now." I grabbed Al's hand and pulled him with me into the next room; for we heard guards come up the ladder we had.
The next room had a gargantuan hole in the middle that contained a lusterious silverish metalloid. "It's the sodium, Al!" I exclaimed, then dropped on my knees and scooped out a large piece. Al dropped next to me and put the stone on the sodium. It disappeared. The color returned to Al's face, and I felt dizzy no more.
As soon as that happened, the guards burst through the door and aimed their rifles at us. Al whirled around and touched the stone on the concrete three feet in front of him. The floor under the guards was transmuted into water, and two tsunami's from both sides of them crashed down. They didn't harm us, though.
When the water was a little more calm, I threw my piece of sodium into the lake, causing a huge explosion. I grabbed Al again and made a break for a near exit, hoping that the explosion had created enough of a distraction for us to escape.
Luckily it did. We were halfway across the desert, on our way home. I collapsed on the sand. "Let's... rest... awhile..." I huffed as I lay there. 'That reserve was a lot closer that i though it would have been, thought to myself.
"Winry, what do you think this is?" Al asked. I turned to see him staring at the stone.
"I don't know Al," I squinted to get a little better look at it. "My best guess is that it's something mankind isn't ready to use responsibly yet."
He stared at it for another moment, then crushed it in his automail hand. Strange substances seeped through his fingers and dissovled before they hit the ground.
END
-----
Note: earlier in the story, I typed the word 'lusterious', and I know that it's not an actual word, but my science teacher uses it (as a joke) and I wanted to too, so I did!)
|
Help Us Stop Plagiarism -
Nearly all works at PnP are original. However a few people choose to plagiarize.
To check, choose a phrase from the work, then either drag and drop to the search box or copy and paste.
click on search and works at Google will be shown which match. Just to be sure, please do this before
you recommend or rate the work highly...
|
 |
|
|
|
Select a Random Work
from Stories
|
|
Welcome !
