Wayward Son

Chapter 12

Pain was no stranger to Aerrow. Far from it. It was something he'd had to get used to in his life as a Sky Knight and he knew he would be an idiot if he didn't come to expect it. He was fighting, after all. Of course he would get hurt.

But now there was pain all over his body and it was unbearable. If it didn't stop soon, he could die just from the agony alone.

No. He had to power through this. It was just pain. It alone couldn't kill him.

That which was causing the pain, however...

It was hard, but he managed to open his eyes just a little.

Still daylight. Good. How long had he been unconscious? No, that didn't matter. What mattered was finding out where he was, locating Edward and them returning to the Condor ASAP.

He tried to move his left arm, but it wouldn't respond. He could still feel it but for some reason couldn't move it, like it was disconnected from his body. And when he tried to move his right arm-

Ow!

The extra sharp stab of pain jolted all of his senses back to their normal level of functioning and he looked to the side, and almost choked when he saw what was left of his skimmer pinning his right arm to the ground. He looked down at his left arm and saw it dangling limply off his body and no matter how many times he told his fingers or hand to move or tried to force them to move, they wouldn't.

He was trapped and had no way of getting out. His breath caught in his throat on the way down and he found himself panting, struggling to get enough air to-

"Panic and I'm gonna leave you there."

He looked round and sighed in relief as Edward approached, carrying a solid-looking branch over his shoulder. He was relatively unhurt save for a bruise on his forehead and his black clothes, currently not obscured by the red coat hanging around his shoulders, were covered in dust.

"Edward," said Aerrow, slumping to the ground. "Man, am I glad to see you. Are you okay?"

"More or less."

The alchemist gave Aerrow a hard, rough kick in the arm and the redhead screamed in shock and pain.

"Ow!" he cried. "Edward, what- What did you do that for?"

"Don't bother thanking me," said Edward flatly, "it's not like I just fixed your dislocated shoulder or anything."

"Huh?" Aerrow tried to move his hand again. It still hurt and was rather stiff, but it was mobile and that was what mattered.

A sudden thump made him flinch - while he was testing his hand, Edward had rolled over a large blackened rock and dumped it on the ground next to the skimmer's remains. He shoved the branch under the metal and pressed it over the rock a couple of times to make sure it wouldn't slip off.

"I'm gonna try to lift this thing off you," he said. "The moment you're clear, you get the hell out of there, understand?"

Aerrow nodded frantically, eager to be free.

Edward took a deep breath and pressed down on the branch with all his might, relying exclusively on his left arm for some reason. It was working though: Aerrow could feel air on his arm, the pressure was lifting and the pain not so strong anymore. Behind him, Edward put his leg on the branch for some extra power, but the wood was beginning to crack under the pressure.

"Just a bit more," Aerrow said to encourage him. "I'm almost... there!"

He scrambled out to freedom just as the branch snapped into two and Edward fell to his knees in exhaustion, gasping for breath.