The Mansion On Drachmian Border

The Road Back Begins

Their ride back to Amestris turned out to be much more frustrating than they first thought it would be. They thankfully found a car and a trailer in the mansion's garage, which solved at least one problem. Riza volunteered to drive a car with Maria, Alphonse, and Dante, mostly because no one trusted Roy and Edward to drive or not to murder Dante, so it was best to leave it to the more level headed people. Alphonse bearly qualified as one of them but they needed an alchemist present.

That left two cars and a trailer to fit the others in. Emery 'called' the trailer and both her siblings and Edward dutifully went with her. Denny quickly followed having a lot of experience with children himself and knowing that eight to one was not a good ratio of children and an adult.

Winry and Sheska moved Hughes to the back of Furey's car, which the man welcomed gratefully. Between the medical jargon and the stories about the Armstrong family, he preferred medical jargon. Sheska first cushioned the seat with a blanket provided by Wrath and Emery described as 'dad's favorite' and a pillow she found in the back. Winry visibly wanted to just throw the blanket away. It looked like it got dragged through the mud on a couple of occasions, with many permanent stains hiding the original pattern. They laid Hughes down in a safe position and prepared bottled water in case he woke up.

That left Roy, Jean, and Alex in the third car and Roy could already feel his headache getting stronger preparing for the ride filled with stories and cigarette smoke.

Surprisingly enough the kids didn't pack too much stuff. For eight children, there were five suitcases, six bags, and a dollhouse Riza was pretty sure she saw Alex going back inside for. She couldn't blame them for wanting to have it with them though. It was beautiful, wooden, clearly handmade.

Maes's belongings fit only one handbag and upon her questions, she found out that 'daddy doesn't like his clothes' and that they only packed stuff he was found of. Well, that was fine with Riza too, they could always get him new stuff in Amestris and a new wardrobe might actually be a good idea. Maybe it could help him draw a line between the mansion what is going to come after.

After their attack, Gluttony has been killed by Roy but Envy disappeared somewhere. Because of that, she questioned everyone, who left the group.

The other problem presented itself by their approach towards the flowers. Somehow the sent was far worse now and they could even make it to the flowers.

„I was wrong,” she said in a serious manner „The barrier isn't really meant for keeping people out, it's for keeping them in.”

Al eyed the flowers „...you know, I might have an idea.”

In the next few minutes, she watched him make a transmutation circle based on the pentagram. He dropped a kunai on each of its ends and threw another five at the field. He dropped on his knees activating the transmutation causing the flowers to wither at a fast speed. Soon the field was full of dead flowers letting out an unpeasant smell of decay but nothing as bad as the original sent.

There was a single flower left untouched and Al walked over to it. He created a container out of dirt and lifted the flower together with soil.

„I'd like to give it to Russel to look over,” he explained himself.

„Yes, that might be a good idea,” considering they were in Drachma, a country whose peaceful relation with Amestris was like a thin glass studying the 'biological warfare flowers' sounded very reasonable „What you've just done, it was alkachestry, wasn't it?”

„Yeah,” he smiled and nodded „I went to Xing a while back to study. You have to remember, I was gone for almost three years.”

„Oh, I remember. Edward was all over the place.”