Ah, always takes longer when I have to do that "research" thing.
“Even Rocky had a montage...”
Day Ten, Western Plains of Earth Kingdom
“Okay, let's stop here.” Ed managed to get his ostrich-horse to
slow to a stop.
I glanced at the horizon. The sun wasn't even near it. “Why?” I
asked.
“There's a culvert over there that should keep us out of sight for
the night,” Ed said holding up one finger. “We need to rest.”
He held up another finger and I didn't comment on how it was mainly
him who needed to rest. Then again, riding an animal with an
nonresponsive artificial leg was probably hard. “Third, we need
time to start your lessons in earnest.”
“Okay.” I slid off my mount and clucked at it, rubbing the
feathery frill along its neck. “I think they're omnivorous,” I
said, glancing at the teeth. “We might be able to save some feed if
we let them hunt for themselves, or at least graze.” The plains
here were mainly scrub grass. “Though if we leave them unattended
they may run off.”
“Good riddance,” Ed said not entirely under his breath.
“Now, now, they're much faster than walking. Faster than horseback
in fact.” I glanced to the shrinking mountains. “We probably made
almost twice as good time as we would have otherwise. If that map was
right its thousands of miles to the Northern coast, across plains and
rivers and mountains...”
Ed rolled his eyes. “Fine. Still feels weird riding a chimera
around all the place.” He tried to dismount, but only managed to
land facefirst in the dirt. I tried not to laugh, I really did. I
think the mounts were just as amused.
“Go on,” I said to mine. “Hunt for yourselves and we'll have
some feed when you get back.”
The dinosaur-like mount made a 'kweh' sound and ran off the moment I
released the reins. His companion followed him. I hoped I'd see them
again. Shaking my head I went to help Ed to his feet (and adjust his
leg, which had been jostled loose by the long ride). Soon we were in
the culvert, examining our meager rations.
“We're going to have to make this last,” I said. “Unless you
have a way to alchemy up food?”
Ed made a disgusted face. “Ugh. Complex organic chemistry with
multiple proteins and admixtures in specific configurations? Even if
you were ready for that level of transmutation withut risking
poisoning us the result probably wouldn't be palatable. Beside, you
shouldn't rely on alchemy to do your mundane work anyway. Alchemy is
an extraordinary method, and should be reserved for extraordinary
circumstances.”
“I think I'm pretty talented,” I said, unable to keep the
petulance entirely out of my tone. “I've managed to memorize
several arrays already.”
“That's because you've stuck to very simple transmutations,” Ed
pointed out before taking a bit of a hard-packed trail ration. He
made a face at it but chewed in silence for a moment. “There are
five different kinds of transmutations, in increasing order of
difficult. The ones you need to know are shape transmutation, state
transmutation, reaction transmutation and elemental transmutation.
Though some types are more difficult within their type, or even more
or less difficult that they exceed the general rules.” He waved his
hands. “It's all very complex. But that's a good guide for now.”
“Shape? State?” I asked.
“Shape transmutation doesn't make any changes to the molecular
structure of the object being transmuted. It only concerns itself
with the shape of the outcome.” He picked up a rock. “Turning
this rock into a perfect square, but still made of rock, would be
shape transmutation. It's the simplest because its the easiest for
our brains to picture and thus borrows the least from your Gate.” I
nodded. “State transmutation doesn't change the molecules but does
change the state of the object. Ice to water to steam is the example
of state transmutation. Almost all the same principles as shape
transmutation apply, but its more complex because a transition of
state involves a change in the energy of the system and that energy
has to be account for. Changing water to ice, for example, requires
decreasing the energy in the water which means that you have to move
that excess heat somewhere. Similarly if you change water to steam
you have to add energy from some other source, decreasing the heat in
the environment. Generally alchemist channel excess heat into the
earth or draw it from the crust. Accounting for all that heat
exchange is annoying, because if you don't balance the equation
exactly the Gate will balance it for you.”
I winced. “And burn you up or freeze you solid?”
“Exactly. That's why state transmutation, while simpler than
anything but shape, is much rarer. The rebound from an improperly
balanced state transmutation will kill you, maybe even everyone
around you. Though I know one or two alchemist who specialize in it.”
“So what's reaction transmutation?”
“Inducing chemical reactions.” Ed leaned back. “In effect you
use chemicals and molecules already available in the target and
enduce a specific chemical reaction to get your ends. For example,
the transmutation you used to turn steel into rust was a reaction
transmutation that made the oxygen react with the iron.”
“That doesn't sound to complex, if I can already do it...” I
mused.
“That's because oxidation is probably the most simple reaction
transmutation you can perform!” Ed barked. “Most chemical
reactions, especially the useful ones, involve many molecules all
reacting. You have to exactly balance dozens of variables, maybe even
hundreds, and on top of that control the speed and balance of the
reaction at every instant.” He laced his fingers into his hair.
“Reaction transmutations can be divided into the four basic types
such as single replacement and double-replacement and decompositions
and synthesis, and more complex forms, and sometimes have two or
three or a dozen reactions all occurring in a specific order!” He
leaned his head back and grimaced. “Not to mention the need to
successfully picture the composition of multiple chemicals in your
head at the same time. And every variable you don't account for your
Gate will!” He growled. “There is a reason it takes years,
sometimes decades, to master even a single class of reaction
transmutation.”
“Okay, okay!” I held up my hands in surrender. “No messing
around with chemicals until you say so.”
He took a deep breath and looked at me again. “Elemental
transmutation is the rarest alchemy.” He tapped the ground. “It's
transmuting one element into another. Lead into gold, for example.
Theoretically, with elemental transmutation you could do practically
anything; transmute the nitrogen in the atmosphere into titanium or
turn water into oil.”
“I sense a 'but' coming.”
Ed's frown deepened and he nodded. “With chemical reactions you're
still dealing with molecules, smaller than we can see but still
something that we can picture. With elements your moving around
atomic particles, and we don't even fully understand the math for how
that works. Heck, we can't even account for the electrons entirely,
since Uncertainty kicks in at the scale of effect we're talking
about. In effect, with elemental transmutation you are leaving almost
everything up to your Gate to account for.”
“And that's bad?”
“It can be. The biggest problem is accounting for the mass.
Titanium, for instance, has an atomic mass of twenty-two to
nitrogen's seven. Plus nitrogen is much less dense and is more
distributed throughout the atmosphere. So if you created a titanium
knife out of atmospheric nitrogen you'd be draining all the nitrogen
for a massive area around you, which would create a vacuum that would
flood with gasses from outside and” he clapped his hand together,
“crush you like a bug. Or maybe just flood the air with a poisonous
admixture of the remaining gases and so on and so forth.”
I felt a little light-headed. “And you do this for a living?”
Ed grinned. “Anybody who wants can use alchemy, but it takes a
special kind of crazy to actually want to.” He laughed.
“For now we're going to stick to shape transmutation,” he said.
“Which means I need to teach you about mass and physics.” He
pulled a empty scroll from his pack and his inkbrush. “Pay
attention. There will be tests.”
I gulped.
Day Thirteen, River Bank Western Earth Kingdom
“Enough, I'm done.” I collapsed to the ground, gasping to catch
my breath.
Ed slowly moved out of his stance. “Come on, get up. This is
nothing.” He walked over and kicked me in the stomach lightly.
“Lust nearly beat you to death and you still fought!”
“That was” gasp “different” gasp.
“No it wasn't.” Ed crouched next to me and lifted me up by the
hair. “It was exactly the same.”
“I was” gasp “fighting for” gasp “my life.”
“And you're doing that now.” He banged my head against the
ground. “Unless you can call up that strength at will, it will
desert you when you least want it to!” He stood up and crossed his
arms. “Now get up or I'll get you up.”
I groaned and moved my arms, trying to brace myself. “What does
this...” I managed to push myself off the ground by a few
centimetres. “...have to do with alchemy?”
“Healthy body, healthy mind. Healthy mind, healthy alchemy.” I
cried out as he planted his metal foot on my back and started pushing
me back down. “No alchemist I know was fat or lazy. Now up!” Ed's
grin turned just a bit malicious. “Plus, I don't complain when you
make me ride that chimera.
“Liar... hate... you...”
Day Fifteen, Forested Hills Western Earth Kingdom
“Well, we're officially out of food.” I shook the bag to
emphasize this.
“I don't suppose you know anything about scavenging?” Ed looked
around the forest. The light here was filtered by the canopy.
“Bit and pieces...” I admitted. “But I don't think my
knowledge is good here anyway. The native species aren't really
anything I'm familiar with.”
Ed's stomach grumbled. “We're going to need money.”
“Yeah.”
There was a soft crunch as our ostrich-horses walked back into the
clearing. I didn't even look around, used to the strangely loyal
animals arrival. What I didn't expect was for the creature to loom
over my shoulder and drop something in my lap. My eyes widened.
“Is that... a rabbit?”
“With flippers?” I asked rhetorically.
I looked up at my mount and rubbed the side of his snout. “For
us?” I asked.
He made a kweh sound and rubbed at the side of my head hard enough
to rock me sideways. I laughed. “Heh. Good boy, Rappy.”
“Rappy?” Ed asked. “You named the chimera Rappy?”
“Like a velociraptor,” I said.
“Yeah, well I name mine Hemmy!”
“Hemmy?” I asked.
“Because it's a pain in my-augh!” His sentence went unfinished
as his mount bowled him over with her long neck. “Stupid chimera!”
Ed shouted in indignation. The animal paid his words no mind, using
her massive head to push him back to the ground. “Let me up you!”
'Hemmy' seemed to take delight in using her mass to constantly push
him down again.
I smiled behind my hand. “I'll go clean this and make a fire,” I
said, holding up the... whatever.
Day Nineteen, North-Western Earth Kingdom Forest
It looked okay. I knelt down an examined it from all angles.
All the elements and compounds were accounted for? The equation was
balanced? Exact mass calculated? I raised my drawing rod and ran my
tongue over my teeth. I hesitated. It looked good. I glanced up at
Ed, who stood with his arms crossed nearby. He raised an eyebrow at
me but otherwise made no other sign good or bad with his expression.
Well, if I was about to blow my arm off he'd stop me, right? I
placed the rod down and took a deep breath before placing my hands on
either side of the array. In the background I could hear our mounts
shifting back and forth. The fire crackled. Ed's breathing seemed
much closer than it had before. Distractions.
This was the first array I had designed from the ground up myself.
Sink or swim time. Close my eyes, filter out all sound. Listen to the
voices inside.
For a few days after the encounter with Tsubaki, the sound had
horrified me. Now that I knew what they were, they made my stomach
crawl. But that feeling faded over the last few days as ed really
began to tutor me in earnest.
“You have to remember those voices aren't an illusion. Your past
isn't made up. It's real. Just because its made up of the lives of
hundred of people doesn't mean each of those memories isn't real.”
My mind flashed back to Ed's words as we rode. We talked to fill the
silence of the long ride. Mostly I tutored him in the local language,
but sometimes we strayed to discussions more philosophical. “Every
brother and sister you remember? They lived. Every person you met?
They existed. All those emotions and conversations and triumphs and
moments of boredom all happened. They're no less who you are just
because of what you are.”
The babble of voices rose up around me as the array etched itself in
my mind. I squeezed my eyes tight and clenched my jaw. Please,
help me.
From cacophony, chorus.
My eyes opened and I stared down at the result as the blue lightning
faded away. I was entirely in one piece. I let out a sigh of relief
at that. Ed clapped and walked into my line of sight. “Not bad, not
bad at all. Try them on.”
I picked up the thin metal gloves, all that remained of the weapons
we had scavenged from the fallen earthbenders. We were running out of
raw materials. I had long ago transmuted the leather saddle-bags into
jerkins with Ed's help a few days back. Our skin was now a healthy
bronze from riding shirtless through the wilderness for six days
straight, but any more exposure and they'd burn. At least it would
help us blend in more.
The gloves slid on perfectly. They were one piece and fingerless. I
admired the mirror like sheen and turned to look at the palms. Etched
in black against silver were two arrays.
“Are you certain these will work?” I asked Ed, turning to him.
“Don't you need a specific array for each transmutation?”
He shook his head. “The equation is a balance between the array
and your mind. The more you can do in your mind, the less specific
you have to make the array. Lots of alchemists use arrays on stuff
like gloves or gauntlets or even tattooed directly into their hands
to avoid the need to waste time drawing an array.” He walked up to
me as I stood. “Of course, it also has a drawback. It's less
flexible than array drawing, since every equation you perform has to
include the array as its starting point. The more you focus on the
starting array, the more flexible you can get with that base.” He
grabbed my hands and I fought down a blush. “The primary limit of
these arrays is the material. The right is 'stone' and the left is
'steel'.”
“So once I learn to use them, I should be able to reshape those
but nothing else?”
Ed grinned. “Ah. That's true, but thank your lucky stars that you
have a certified alchemy genius as you teacher. Because if you can
master shape transmutation, than those arrays will be much more
flexible.”
“R-right!” I pulled my hands away quickly. “So, I start
practising with these now?”
“No.” Ed stepped back and raised his hands. “Now you learn to
fight while wearing them.”
I did not whimper, anyone who told you that is a damn dirty liar.
Day Twenty-One, Ruined City North-Western Earth Kingdom
We raced two steps ahead of our mounts, pulling on their reins as we
dashed into the questionable safety of a partially collapsed
building. The rain had come suddenly, catching us far from any
shelter and rapidly went from drizzle to monsoon. I collapsed against
the wall, taking deep breaths. Ed groaned and slumped down himself,
before beginning to unroll the pantleg over his mechanical leg.
“Damn, its probably going to rust,” he said with a snort. “Hey,
could you come over her.” He carefully removed the pins that kept
the leg in place. “I need you to fix this up.”
“Yeah, just a second.” I waved my hand towards him. “Need to
catch my breath.” Ed nodded and waited in silence for me to recover
from our final dash. Finally I stood up and walked over before
kneeling next to him. I gave a look at the leg. “You could have at
least drawn the array for me.”
“You do it.” Ed gave me a significant look.
“I... you think I'm ready?”
“It's just more shape transmutation.” He grinned. “And you got
talent, kid. Just b precise.”
“Right.” I closed my eyes and placed my hand on the stone floor
of the building. “Just be precise...” I muttered.
The voices rose up within me, discordant and conflicting. Array
Cutting Technique, I didn't so much think the name of the
technique Ed had beaten into my head over the last two days as sing
it in my head. The voices joined me in song, slowly at first, but
then with increasing speed. When I opened my eyes the array was there
on the ground, carved perfectly into the stone.
Ed whistled. “Even I'm impressed.” He ran his fingers over it.
“Okay. Looks good.” He placed his leg in the center of the array.
“Fix 'er up.”
Another flare and crackle of blue lightning and Ed was gleefully
reattaching his limb. This was getting easier. My thoughts were
interrupted by a shout from further into the building.
“Who's there!”
Ed and I glanced at each other. For the last ten days we had been
avoiding any contact with the locals, but that couldn't last forever.
The man who walked out of the back was carrying a wooden spear
uncertainly in one hand. His eyes flicked between us. He was dressed
in ragged green clothes and looked (and smelled) like he hadn't
bathed for weeks. Then again, we weren't much better.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” He seemed uncertain who
to point his spear at.
“Woah! Hold on!” I raised my hands. “We're just moving
through, taking refuge from the storm. We mean you no harm.”
“Yes, I is pleasing myself to meet you!” Ed shouted.
The man blinked at Ed's declaration.
“My cousin is a little simple minded,” I explained.
The man took a few more steps into the feeble light and took a
closer look at us. Then his eyes widened. “Fire Nation!” he
shouted. He backed up a half-dozen steps and brandished his spear
more forcefully. “I won't let you hurt my family!”
“No, no!” I waved my hands but that didn't seem to calm him
down. Right, he probably thought I was about to firebend at him. “I'm
not Fire Nation, I'm... and earthbender!” Time to use the other
techinique Ed had drilled into my head. “See!”
I slapped the 'stone' glove against the ground and blue lighting
erupted in front of me, constructing a thick wall of stone. It didn't
look much like any earthbending I had seen, but it just needed to not
look like firebending. “See, earthbender, not fire.”
The man relaxed, his spear dropping. Before he could say anything
else a loud cry came from the other room followed by a woman's voice.
“Wong? Is everything okay?”
“It's... just some refugee earthbenders,” he called back.
Nothing to worry about. He turned to us, clearly more relaxed. “What
brings you to Taku?”
“Is that what this place is called?” I said.
He nodded. “If you're looking for the herbalist she's up at the
top of the mountain, in the ruins of the old institute.”
“Herbalist?” I asked.
“My wife and I came looking for her, she's pregnant..” He
blushed and coughed. “We thought it best to stock up on medicine
before starting the long trip to Ba Sing Se.”
“Ah. I see.”
“But your cart is broken, so we will be slowed down considerably
now.” He seemed to just need a stranger to unload his worries on so
I let him continue. “We might not make it across the continent
before the baby is born.”
“Ah, maybe I can help with that,” I suggested.
“Help, how?”
“I'm good with fixing things.” It wasn't exactly a lie.
“Money!” Ed shouted.
I turned to Ed. “What?” I asked in Amestrian.
“I heard the words broken and fix,” Ed said in his native
tongue. “If you're offering to help him, we need money.” He
turned back to the man. “You pay for help,” he said in his
babyish version of the local language.
The man coughed. “We... spent most of it on medicine. But if you
really can fix the wagon, I'll gladly pay what I have.” He pulled
out a handful of coins.
I had no idea how much that was. “Only half that,” I said,
repressing a surge of guilt. He may be a poor refugee, but then
again, so were we. “And after I finish with your wagon, tell me
more about that herbalist?”
Day Twenty-Three, North-Western Earth Kingdom Hills
“Yuck, I'm still covered in cat hair,” Ed said.
“That's just because she liked you.” I smiled. Ed certainly had
a... way with animals.
“Well, overaffectionate cats just prove my point!” He pointed at
his mount. “Chimera! Normal animals exist, so they are
chimera.” Hemmy snorted and suddenly bucked, sending Ed tumbling to
the forest floor.
“Are you okay?” I asked, unable to keep from snorting in
half-contained laughter.
“Hate... chimera...” Ed sprung to his feet, shaking off the
pain. “Fine, we'll stop here for tonight. According to that crazy
old lady there should be a town less than a day's ride from here. We
should prepare.”
“Okay.” I slid smoothly out of my saddle and sent Rappy off to
hunt on his own with a cluck of my tongue.
Ed, meanwhile, had gotten out a bowl and a scroll. He filled the
bowl with water from our skins and dumped a black potion in it.
“What's that?” I asked.
“Dye. Got it from the old bat.” He stuck his tongue out. “Many
weeds died in that hothouse so we could have this.”
“Dye?”
“And old trick I used.” He quickly sketched an array on the
scroll and placed the bowl on it. Then he leaned forward and dipped
his long blonde hair into it. “Now, activate the array.”
Raising an eyebrow I reached out with one hand and did so. Blue
lightning raced across the bowl and a black stain slowly crept up his
hair until the entire thing was black as ink. He pulled his head
back. “See? Instant hair colour just like locals.” He gestured.
“Your turn.”
Day Twenty-Five, North-Western Earth Kingdom Trading Town
“Sank yu very much!” Ed waved the man off. I resisted the urge
to giggle at his mangling the local language. He was getting better,
really, he was. Ed counted the coins in his hand, shaking his head.
“Man, we could probably get a lot more for this stuff.”
“These people are refugees,” I pointed out. “And it hardly
takes us any effort.” I gestured to the blanket in front of us,
which was covered with all sorts of pots, pans and containers. Ed had
been a whirl of activity once we arrived at the small trading town,
which straddled the delta between two merging rivers. All the money
we had earned from the refugee man and our day's labour for the old
herbalist had gone into buying a bunch of scrap metal, which I then
transmuted into knives and other useful gadgets.
Ed's guess that Earth Kingdom metalworking was way behind the Fire
Nation proved correct and we were selling high quality merchandise
for a steal compared to any of the other merchants in town, if they
even had metalwork this good. In less than a day we had tripled our
money, which was a good start to a warchest.
“Still,” Ed rubbed his chin. “Ah, forget it. Once we get you
up to elemental transmutation we'll just alchemy up some gold
anyway.” He grinned and rubbed his hands together.
“What happened to not abusing alchemy?” I asked. “And isn't
that illegal?”
“Illegal in Amestris!” Ed corrected me with an upraised finger.
“And don't abuse alchemy except in extraordinary circumstances, and
i count stuck in some continent where people can use alchemy just by
dancing to be extraordinary.”
“So, do as I say, not as I do,” I added sardonically.
“You have grasped the teacher-student relationship well.”
I stood up. “Do you think you can handle the rest of the sales? I
should check around town.”
“For?”
“News about the Avatar and the Fire Nation. It might take more
subtlety than your language skills can handle.”
He looked about to protest than closed his mouth and waved me away.
“Try not to get into trouble.”
“Yes, dad.” I rolled my eyes and walked away.
The river port town was amazingly busy, the streets were packed with
people. Most of them seemed to be gearing up to leave as quickly as
possible and their was a constant stream of refugees heading East out
of the city. I even caught some less than reputable looking men and
women in blue dress with much darker skin tone than anyone else. I
was just beginning to think of where I should start looking for
information about the Avatar or Point Mako when a commotion drew my
attention.
There was a flare of fire in the distance and screams. I paused and
looked down the street towards the docks and a debate went on in my
head. Then I was moving. After all, I just was gathering information,
right?
Pushing through the crowd, most of whom were fleeing, was difficult.
I considered restoring to alchemy to free a path, but decided against
it. No need to announce my presence yet. Finally I managed to turn a
corner to the docks just in time to almost be hit by a boy who went
flying past my face. I slipped back into the shadows, hoping I went
overlooked as the boy crashed into a wall with a grunt of pain.
Amazingly, he managed to stand up again. The first thing I noticed
was his eye, which was surrounded entirely in scar tissue which crept
back to his ear. His clothing was nondescript brown, his hair was a
mess on top of his head but the way he stood showed an unbending
pride and discipline that belied his poor appearance. A snarl was
stretched across his lips.
“Zuko, what a remarkable coincidence,” a man shouted. I looked
towards him. There were five of them, and each was mounted on a huge
beast that looked like a cross between a lizard and a rhino, red
armour plates affixed to their heads. The men were moving their
rhino-like mounts to surround the boy on all sides. “You should
just come with us quietly,” the leader said. The other four
laughed.
“Zuko, don't try to fight them here,” an old man who was leaning
against the wall said. He tried to raise to his feet. “If you fight
them you'll just-augh.” He collapsed to his knees, clutching his
chest. I could see a huge, and extremely fresh looking, burn scar as
his dirty shirt tumbled open.
“Uncle!” The boy, Zuko I supposed, ran to the old man's side.
“Don't try to stand,” he said.
The leader shook his head. “How far the mighty have fallen.”
“Shut up! He's ten times the man you are!” Zuko snarled,
whirling to face the five men. He started to fall into a martial arts
stance.
“Zuko, you can't, too many people will see...” The old man
clutched at his nephew's leg feebly, obviously fighting the pain to
even stay conscious. Zuko suddenly looked conflicted. The leader
sighed and seemed to make a decision, he gestured his men forward.
[ ]Get the kid and old man out of danger and run away.
[ ]I promised Ed not to get in trouble and this doesn't involve me.
Make myself scarce.
[ ]Where are the town guard? Go get help.
[ ]MORTAL KOMBAT!
EDIT: Also, since we're now firmaly into what I am considerng the "third arc" of the story, maybe I should name it. Suggestions?
---------------
Epsilon
“Even Rocky had a montage...”
Day Ten, Western Plains of Earth Kingdom
“Okay, let's stop here.” Ed managed to get his ostrich-horse to
slow to a stop.
I glanced at the horizon. The sun wasn't even near it. “Why?” I
asked.
“There's a culvert over there that should keep us out of sight for
the night,” Ed said holding up one finger. “We need to rest.”
He held up another finger and I didn't comment on how it was mainly
him who needed to rest. Then again, riding an animal with an
nonresponsive artificial leg was probably hard. “Third, we need
time to start your lessons in earnest.”
“Okay.” I slid off my mount and clucked at it, rubbing the
feathery frill along its neck. “I think they're omnivorous,” I
said, glancing at the teeth. “We might be able to save some feed if
we let them hunt for themselves, or at least graze.” The plains
here were mainly scrub grass. “Though if we leave them unattended
they may run off.”
“Good riddance,” Ed said not entirely under his breath.
“Now, now, they're much faster than walking. Faster than horseback
in fact.” I glanced to the shrinking mountains. “We probably made
almost twice as good time as we would have otherwise. If that map was
right its thousands of miles to the Northern coast, across plains and
rivers and mountains...”
Ed rolled his eyes. “Fine. Still feels weird riding a chimera
around all the place.” He tried to dismount, but only managed to
land facefirst in the dirt. I tried not to laugh, I really did. I
think the mounts were just as amused.
“Go on,” I said to mine. “Hunt for yourselves and we'll have
some feed when you get back.”
The dinosaur-like mount made a 'kweh' sound and ran off the moment I
released the reins. His companion followed him. I hoped I'd see them
again. Shaking my head I went to help Ed to his feet (and adjust his
leg, which had been jostled loose by the long ride). Soon we were in
the culvert, examining our meager rations.
“We're going to have to make this last,” I said. “Unless you
have a way to alchemy up food?”
Ed made a disgusted face. “Ugh. Complex organic chemistry with
multiple proteins and admixtures in specific configurations? Even if
you were ready for that level of transmutation withut risking
poisoning us the result probably wouldn't be palatable. Beside, you
shouldn't rely on alchemy to do your mundane work anyway. Alchemy is
an extraordinary method, and should be reserved for extraordinary
circumstances.”
“I think I'm pretty talented,” I said, unable to keep the
petulance entirely out of my tone. “I've managed to memorize
several arrays already.”
“That's because you've stuck to very simple transmutations,” Ed
pointed out before taking a bit of a hard-packed trail ration. He
made a face at it but chewed in silence for a moment. “There are
five different kinds of transmutations, in increasing order of
difficult. The ones you need to know are shape transmutation, state
transmutation, reaction transmutation and elemental transmutation.
Though some types are more difficult within their type, or even more
or less difficult that they exceed the general rules.” He waved his
hands. “It's all very complex. But that's a good guide for now.”
“Shape? State?” I asked.
“Shape transmutation doesn't make any changes to the molecular
structure of the object being transmuted. It only concerns itself
with the shape of the outcome.” He picked up a rock. “Turning
this rock into a perfect square, but still made of rock, would be
shape transmutation. It's the simplest because its the easiest for
our brains to picture and thus borrows the least from your Gate.” I
nodded. “State transmutation doesn't change the molecules but does
change the state of the object. Ice to water to steam is the example
of state transmutation. Almost all the same principles as shape
transmutation apply, but its more complex because a transition of
state involves a change in the energy of the system and that energy
has to be account for. Changing water to ice, for example, requires
decreasing the energy in the water which means that you have to move
that excess heat somewhere. Similarly if you change water to steam
you have to add energy from some other source, decreasing the heat in
the environment. Generally alchemist channel excess heat into the
earth or draw it from the crust. Accounting for all that heat
exchange is annoying, because if you don't balance the equation
exactly the Gate will balance it for you.”
I winced. “And burn you up or freeze you solid?”
“Exactly. That's why state transmutation, while simpler than
anything but shape, is much rarer. The rebound from an improperly
balanced state transmutation will kill you, maybe even everyone
around you. Though I know one or two alchemist who specialize in it.”
“So what's reaction transmutation?”
“Inducing chemical reactions.” Ed leaned back. “In effect you
use chemicals and molecules already available in the target and
enduce a specific chemical reaction to get your ends. For example,
the transmutation you used to turn steel into rust was a reaction
transmutation that made the oxygen react with the iron.”
“That doesn't sound to complex, if I can already do it...” I
mused.
“That's because oxidation is probably the most simple reaction
transmutation you can perform!” Ed barked. “Most chemical
reactions, especially the useful ones, involve many molecules all
reacting. You have to exactly balance dozens of variables, maybe even
hundreds, and on top of that control the speed and balance of the
reaction at every instant.” He laced his fingers into his hair.
“Reaction transmutations can be divided into the four basic types
such as single replacement and double-replacement and decompositions
and synthesis, and more complex forms, and sometimes have two or
three or a dozen reactions all occurring in a specific order!” He
leaned his head back and grimaced. “Not to mention the need to
successfully picture the composition of multiple chemicals in your
head at the same time. And every variable you don't account for your
Gate will!” He growled. “There is a reason it takes years,
sometimes decades, to master even a single class of reaction
transmutation.”
“Okay, okay!” I held up my hands in surrender. “No messing
around with chemicals until you say so.”
He took a deep breath and looked at me again. “Elemental
transmutation is the rarest alchemy.” He tapped the ground. “It's
transmuting one element into another. Lead into gold, for example.
Theoretically, with elemental transmutation you could do practically
anything; transmute the nitrogen in the atmosphere into titanium or
turn water into oil.”
“I sense a 'but' coming.”
Ed's frown deepened and he nodded. “With chemical reactions you're
still dealing with molecules, smaller than we can see but still
something that we can picture. With elements your moving around
atomic particles, and we don't even fully understand the math for how
that works. Heck, we can't even account for the electrons entirely,
since Uncertainty kicks in at the scale of effect we're talking
about. In effect, with elemental transmutation you are leaving almost
everything up to your Gate to account for.”
“And that's bad?”
“It can be. The biggest problem is accounting for the mass.
Titanium, for instance, has an atomic mass of twenty-two to
nitrogen's seven. Plus nitrogen is much less dense and is more
distributed throughout the atmosphere. So if you created a titanium
knife out of atmospheric nitrogen you'd be draining all the nitrogen
for a massive area around you, which would create a vacuum that would
flood with gasses from outside and” he clapped his hand together,
“crush you like a bug. Or maybe just flood the air with a poisonous
admixture of the remaining gases and so on and so forth.”
I felt a little light-headed. “And you do this for a living?”
Ed grinned. “Anybody who wants can use alchemy, but it takes a
special kind of crazy to actually want to.” He laughed.
“For now we're going to stick to shape transmutation,” he said.
“Which means I need to teach you about mass and physics.” He
pulled a empty scroll from his pack and his inkbrush. “Pay
attention. There will be tests.”
I gulped.
Day Thirteen, River Bank Western Earth Kingdom
“Enough, I'm done.” I collapsed to the ground, gasping to catch
my breath.
Ed slowly moved out of his stance. “Come on, get up. This is
nothing.” He walked over and kicked me in the stomach lightly.
“Lust nearly beat you to death and you still fought!”
“That was” gasp “different” gasp.
“No it wasn't.” Ed crouched next to me and lifted me up by the
hair. “It was exactly the same.”
“I was” gasp “fighting for” gasp “my life.”
“And you're doing that now.” He banged my head against the
ground. “Unless you can call up that strength at will, it will
desert you when you least want it to!” He stood up and crossed his
arms. “Now get up or I'll get you up.”
I groaned and moved my arms, trying to brace myself. “What does
this...” I managed to push myself off the ground by a few
centimetres. “...have to do with alchemy?”
“Healthy body, healthy mind. Healthy mind, healthy alchemy.” I
cried out as he planted his metal foot on my back and started pushing
me back down. “No alchemist I know was fat or lazy. Now up!” Ed's
grin turned just a bit malicious. “Plus, I don't complain when you
make me ride that chimera.
“Liar... hate... you...”
Day Fifteen, Forested Hills Western Earth Kingdom
“Well, we're officially out of food.” I shook the bag to
emphasize this.
“I don't suppose you know anything about scavenging?” Ed looked
around the forest. The light here was filtered by the canopy.
“Bit and pieces...” I admitted. “But I don't think my
knowledge is good here anyway. The native species aren't really
anything I'm familiar with.”
Ed's stomach grumbled. “We're going to need money.”
“Yeah.”
There was a soft crunch as our ostrich-horses walked back into the
clearing. I didn't even look around, used to the strangely loyal
animals arrival. What I didn't expect was for the creature to loom
over my shoulder and drop something in my lap. My eyes widened.
“Is that... a rabbit?”
“With flippers?” I asked rhetorically.
I looked up at my mount and rubbed the side of his snout. “For
us?” I asked.
He made a kweh sound and rubbed at the side of my head hard enough
to rock me sideways. I laughed. “Heh. Good boy, Rappy.”
“Rappy?” Ed asked. “You named the chimera Rappy?”
“Like a velociraptor,” I said.
“Yeah, well I name mine Hemmy!”
“Hemmy?” I asked.
“Because it's a pain in my-augh!” His sentence went unfinished
as his mount bowled him over with her long neck. “Stupid chimera!”
Ed shouted in indignation. The animal paid his words no mind, using
her massive head to push him back to the ground. “Let me up you!”
'Hemmy' seemed to take delight in using her mass to constantly push
him down again.
I smiled behind my hand. “I'll go clean this and make a fire,” I
said, holding up the... whatever.
Day Nineteen, North-Western Earth Kingdom Forest
It looked okay. I knelt down an examined it from all angles.
All the elements and compounds were accounted for? The equation was
balanced? Exact mass calculated? I raised my drawing rod and ran my
tongue over my teeth. I hesitated. It looked good. I glanced up at
Ed, who stood with his arms crossed nearby. He raised an eyebrow at
me but otherwise made no other sign good or bad with his expression.
Well, if I was about to blow my arm off he'd stop me, right? I
placed the rod down and took a deep breath before placing my hands on
either side of the array. In the background I could hear our mounts
shifting back and forth. The fire crackled. Ed's breathing seemed
much closer than it had before. Distractions.
This was the first array I had designed from the ground up myself.
Sink or swim time. Close my eyes, filter out all sound. Listen to the
voices inside.
For a few days after the encounter with Tsubaki, the sound had
horrified me. Now that I knew what they were, they made my stomach
crawl. But that feeling faded over the last few days as ed really
began to tutor me in earnest.
“You have to remember those voices aren't an illusion. Your past
isn't made up. It's real. Just because its made up of the lives of
hundred of people doesn't mean each of those memories isn't real.”
My mind flashed back to Ed's words as we rode. We talked to fill the
silence of the long ride. Mostly I tutored him in the local language,
but sometimes we strayed to discussions more philosophical. “Every
brother and sister you remember? They lived. Every person you met?
They existed. All those emotions and conversations and triumphs and
moments of boredom all happened. They're no less who you are just
because of what you are.”
The babble of voices rose up around me as the array etched itself in
my mind. I squeezed my eyes tight and clenched my jaw. Please,
help me.
From cacophony, chorus.
My eyes opened and I stared down at the result as the blue lightning
faded away. I was entirely in one piece. I let out a sigh of relief
at that. Ed clapped and walked into my line of sight. “Not bad, not
bad at all. Try them on.”
I picked up the thin metal gloves, all that remained of the weapons
we had scavenged from the fallen earthbenders. We were running out of
raw materials. I had long ago transmuted the leather saddle-bags into
jerkins with Ed's help a few days back. Our skin was now a healthy
bronze from riding shirtless through the wilderness for six days
straight, but any more exposure and they'd burn. At least it would
help us blend in more.
The gloves slid on perfectly. They were one piece and fingerless. I
admired the mirror like sheen and turned to look at the palms. Etched
in black against silver were two arrays.
“Are you certain these will work?” I asked Ed, turning to him.
“Don't you need a specific array for each transmutation?”
He shook his head. “The equation is a balance between the array
and your mind. The more you can do in your mind, the less specific
you have to make the array. Lots of alchemists use arrays on stuff
like gloves or gauntlets or even tattooed directly into their hands
to avoid the need to waste time drawing an array.” He walked up to
me as I stood. “Of course, it also has a drawback. It's less
flexible than array drawing, since every equation you perform has to
include the array as its starting point. The more you focus on the
starting array, the more flexible you can get with that base.” He
grabbed my hands and I fought down a blush. “The primary limit of
these arrays is the material. The right is 'stone' and the left is
'steel'.”
“So once I learn to use them, I should be able to reshape those
but nothing else?”
Ed grinned. “Ah. That's true, but thank your lucky stars that you
have a certified alchemy genius as you teacher. Because if you can
master shape transmutation, than those arrays will be much more
flexible.”
“R-right!” I pulled my hands away quickly. “So, I start
practising with these now?”
“No.” Ed stepped back and raised his hands. “Now you learn to
fight while wearing them.”
I did not whimper, anyone who told you that is a damn dirty liar.
Day Twenty-One, Ruined City North-Western Earth Kingdom
We raced two steps ahead of our mounts, pulling on their reins as we
dashed into the questionable safety of a partially collapsed
building. The rain had come suddenly, catching us far from any
shelter and rapidly went from drizzle to monsoon. I collapsed against
the wall, taking deep breaths. Ed groaned and slumped down himself,
before beginning to unroll the pantleg over his mechanical leg.
“Damn, its probably going to rust,” he said with a snort. “Hey,
could you come over her.” He carefully removed the pins that kept
the leg in place. “I need you to fix this up.”
“Yeah, just a second.” I waved my hand towards him. “Need to
catch my breath.” Ed nodded and waited in silence for me to recover
from our final dash. Finally I stood up and walked over before
kneeling next to him. I gave a look at the leg. “You could have at
least drawn the array for me.”
“You do it.” Ed gave me a significant look.
“I... you think I'm ready?”
“It's just more shape transmutation.” He grinned. “And you got
talent, kid. Just b precise.”
“Right.” I closed my eyes and placed my hand on the stone floor
of the building. “Just be precise...” I muttered.
The voices rose up within me, discordant and conflicting. Array
Cutting Technique, I didn't so much think the name of the
technique Ed had beaten into my head over the last two days as sing
it in my head. The voices joined me in song, slowly at first, but
then with increasing speed. When I opened my eyes the array was there
on the ground, carved perfectly into the stone.
Ed whistled. “Even I'm impressed.” He ran his fingers over it.
“Okay. Looks good.” He placed his leg in the center of the array.
“Fix 'er up.”
Another flare and crackle of blue lightning and Ed was gleefully
reattaching his limb. This was getting easier. My thoughts were
interrupted by a shout from further into the building.
“Who's there!”
Ed and I glanced at each other. For the last ten days we had been
avoiding any contact with the locals, but that couldn't last forever.
The man who walked out of the back was carrying a wooden spear
uncertainly in one hand. His eyes flicked between us. He was dressed
in ragged green clothes and looked (and smelled) like he hadn't
bathed for weeks. Then again, we weren't much better.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” He seemed uncertain who
to point his spear at.
“Woah! Hold on!” I raised my hands. “We're just moving
through, taking refuge from the storm. We mean you no harm.”
“Yes, I is pleasing myself to meet you!” Ed shouted.
The man blinked at Ed's declaration.
“My cousin is a little simple minded,” I explained.
The man took a few more steps into the feeble light and took a
closer look at us. Then his eyes widened. “Fire Nation!” he
shouted. He backed up a half-dozen steps and brandished his spear
more forcefully. “I won't let you hurt my family!”
“No, no!” I waved my hands but that didn't seem to calm him
down. Right, he probably thought I was about to firebend at him. “I'm
not Fire Nation, I'm... and earthbender!” Time to use the other
techinique Ed had drilled into my head. “See!”
I slapped the 'stone' glove against the ground and blue lighting
erupted in front of me, constructing a thick wall of stone. It didn't
look much like any earthbending I had seen, but it just needed to not
look like firebending. “See, earthbender, not fire.”
The man relaxed, his spear dropping. Before he could say anything
else a loud cry came from the other room followed by a woman's voice.
“Wong? Is everything okay?”
“It's... just some refugee earthbenders,” he called back.
Nothing to worry about. He turned to us, clearly more relaxed. “What
brings you to Taku?”
“Is that what this place is called?” I said.
He nodded. “If you're looking for the herbalist she's up at the
top of the mountain, in the ruins of the old institute.”
“Herbalist?” I asked.
“My wife and I came looking for her, she's pregnant..” He
blushed and coughed. “We thought it best to stock up on medicine
before starting the long trip to Ba Sing Se.”
“Ah. I see.”
“But your cart is broken, so we will be slowed down considerably
now.” He seemed to just need a stranger to unload his worries on so
I let him continue. “We might not make it across the continent
before the baby is born.”
“Ah, maybe I can help with that,” I suggested.
“Help, how?”
“I'm good with fixing things.” It wasn't exactly a lie.
“Money!” Ed shouted.
I turned to Ed. “What?” I asked in Amestrian.
“I heard the words broken and fix,” Ed said in his native
tongue. “If you're offering to help him, we need money.” He
turned back to the man. “You pay for help,” he said in his
babyish version of the local language.
The man coughed. “We... spent most of it on medicine. But if you
really can fix the wagon, I'll gladly pay what I have.” He pulled
out a handful of coins.
I had no idea how much that was. “Only half that,” I said,
repressing a surge of guilt. He may be a poor refugee, but then
again, so were we. “And after I finish with your wagon, tell me
more about that herbalist?”
Day Twenty-Three, North-Western Earth Kingdom Hills
“Yuck, I'm still covered in cat hair,” Ed said.
“That's just because she liked you.” I smiled. Ed certainly had
a... way with animals.
“Well, overaffectionate cats just prove my point!” He pointed at
his mount. “Chimera! Normal animals exist, so they are
chimera.” Hemmy snorted and suddenly bucked, sending Ed tumbling to
the forest floor.
“Are you okay?” I asked, unable to keep from snorting in
half-contained laughter.
“Hate... chimera...” Ed sprung to his feet, shaking off the
pain. “Fine, we'll stop here for tonight. According to that crazy
old lady there should be a town less than a day's ride from here. We
should prepare.”
“Okay.” I slid smoothly out of my saddle and sent Rappy off to
hunt on his own with a cluck of my tongue.
Ed, meanwhile, had gotten out a bowl and a scroll. He filled the
bowl with water from our skins and dumped a black potion in it.
“What's that?” I asked.
“Dye. Got it from the old bat.” He stuck his tongue out. “Many
weeds died in that hothouse so we could have this.”
“Dye?”
“And old trick I used.” He quickly sketched an array on the
scroll and placed the bowl on it. Then he leaned forward and dipped
his long blonde hair into it. “Now, activate the array.”
Raising an eyebrow I reached out with one hand and did so. Blue
lightning raced across the bowl and a black stain slowly crept up his
hair until the entire thing was black as ink. He pulled his head
back. “See? Instant hair colour just like locals.” He gestured.
“Your turn.”
Day Twenty-Five, North-Western Earth Kingdom Trading Town
“Sank yu very much!” Ed waved the man off. I resisted the urge
to giggle at his mangling the local language. He was getting better,
really, he was. Ed counted the coins in his hand, shaking his head.
“Man, we could probably get a lot more for this stuff.”
“These people are refugees,” I pointed out. “And it hardly
takes us any effort.” I gestured to the blanket in front of us,
which was covered with all sorts of pots, pans and containers. Ed had
been a whirl of activity once we arrived at the small trading town,
which straddled the delta between two merging rivers. All the money
we had earned from the refugee man and our day's labour for the old
herbalist had gone into buying a bunch of scrap metal, which I then
transmuted into knives and other useful gadgets.
Ed's guess that Earth Kingdom metalworking was way behind the Fire
Nation proved correct and we were selling high quality merchandise
for a steal compared to any of the other merchants in town, if they
even had metalwork this good. In less than a day we had tripled our
money, which was a good start to a warchest.
“Still,” Ed rubbed his chin. “Ah, forget it. Once we get you
up to elemental transmutation we'll just alchemy up some gold
anyway.” He grinned and rubbed his hands together.
“What happened to not abusing alchemy?” I asked. “And isn't
that illegal?”
“Illegal in Amestris!” Ed corrected me with an upraised finger.
“And don't abuse alchemy except in extraordinary circumstances, and
i count stuck in some continent where people can use alchemy just by
dancing to be extraordinary.”
“So, do as I say, not as I do,” I added sardonically.
“You have grasped the teacher-student relationship well.”
I stood up. “Do you think you can handle the rest of the sales? I
should check around town.”
“For?”
“News about the Avatar and the Fire Nation. It might take more
subtlety than your language skills can handle.”
He looked about to protest than closed his mouth and waved me away.
“Try not to get into trouble.”
“Yes, dad.” I rolled my eyes and walked away.
The river port town was amazingly busy, the streets were packed with
people. Most of them seemed to be gearing up to leave as quickly as
possible and their was a constant stream of refugees heading East out
of the city. I even caught some less than reputable looking men and
women in blue dress with much darker skin tone than anyone else. I
was just beginning to think of where I should start looking for
information about the Avatar or Point Mako when a commotion drew my
attention.
There was a flare of fire in the distance and screams. I paused and
looked down the street towards the docks and a debate went on in my
head. Then I was moving. After all, I just was gathering information,
right?
Pushing through the crowd, most of whom were fleeing, was difficult.
I considered restoring to alchemy to free a path, but decided against
it. No need to announce my presence yet. Finally I managed to turn a
corner to the docks just in time to almost be hit by a boy who went
flying past my face. I slipped back into the shadows, hoping I went
overlooked as the boy crashed into a wall with a grunt of pain.
Amazingly, he managed to stand up again. The first thing I noticed
was his eye, which was surrounded entirely in scar tissue which crept
back to his ear. His clothing was nondescript brown, his hair was a
mess on top of his head but the way he stood showed an unbending
pride and discipline that belied his poor appearance. A snarl was
stretched across his lips.
“Zuko, what a remarkable coincidence,” a man shouted. I looked
towards him. There were five of them, and each was mounted on a huge
beast that looked like a cross between a lizard and a rhino, red
armour plates affixed to their heads. The men were moving their
rhino-like mounts to surround the boy on all sides. “You should
just come with us quietly,” the leader said. The other four
laughed.
“Zuko, don't try to fight them here,” an old man who was leaning
against the wall said. He tried to raise to his feet. “If you fight
them you'll just-augh.” He collapsed to his knees, clutching his
chest. I could see a huge, and extremely fresh looking, burn scar as
his dirty shirt tumbled open.
“Uncle!” The boy, Zuko I supposed, ran to the old man's side.
“Don't try to stand,” he said.
The leader shook his head. “How far the mighty have fallen.”
“Shut up! He's ten times the man you are!” Zuko snarled,
whirling to face the five men. He started to fall into a martial arts
stance.
“Zuko, you can't, too many people will see...” The old man
clutched at his nephew's leg feebly, obviously fighting the pain to
even stay conscious. Zuko suddenly looked conflicted. The leader
sighed and seemed to make a decision, he gestured his men forward.
[ ]Get the kid and old man out of danger and run away.
[ ]I promised Ed not to get in trouble and this doesn't involve me.
Make myself scarce.
[ ]Where are the town guard? Go get help.
[ ]MORTAL KOMBAT!
EDIT: Also, since we're now firmaly into what I am considerng the "third arc" of the story, maybe I should name it. Suggestions?
---------------
Epsilon