Of Wolves and Metal

Chapter 2

On the train

"Brother," a whisper came from the large suit of armor which contained the anchored soul of Alphonse Elric. "I think we're being followed."

"Yeah, I know." The blond next to him replied. Edward Elric, quickly glanced over to the hooded figure who had followed them onto the train and had sat down a few seats away. Ed could feel the figure stare at him every so often. "Let's just see if they cause any trouble." He stretched and folded his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "Wake me up when we get close would you Al?"

"Sure thing brother."

The girl sat in her coat, glancing at the young blond every now and then, wondering if maybe she should introduce herself before they reached the next stop. Maybe it would make it easier to get him to understand if they had more time. She had left her brother in the cargo area of the train, but was now getting very lonely. She knew he would be fine but they were hardly ever separated; but she hoped that he would be more approachable with out a giant metal wolf next to her.

"The hell with it." She got up and began to walk to the cargo areas of the train.

She walked through 3 cars of people before coming to the first cargo car.

"Brother!" She called looking though all the trunks and suitcases. "Oi, Old man!"

"Don't call me that, you're not that much younger than me ya know!" Came the slightly muffled reply of her buried brother.

"On no, Howard! Where are you?" She began to dig and move though the luggage trying to find Howard in all the mess. How can such a large armor get buried so well?! "Damn it, hang on." She backed up and clapped her hands together, then slapped the floorboards. The blue light of alchemy lit the car and the floor rippled and moved all the cargo to reveal an upside down wolf armor squished against the wall.

The girl stared at him for a moment before falling to the floor in laughter. Her brother, still stuck mind you, just stares at her with silver eyes and huffs.

"Well i'm glad you find this hilarious, NOW GET ME UP WILL YA?"

The girl was still giggling as she stood back up but didn't move forward because out of the corner of her eye she saw a large figure blocking the doorway. She slowly turned to the figure with began to walk forward. Her hands twitched, wanting to defend herself but something in the back of her mind told her to wait.

"Alchemy without a Transmutaion Circle. I take it you've seen the Gate then. Question is, why are you following us?"

Well I wasn't expecting to talk right now, but oh well I guess it can;t be helped.

"Yeah, that's true Sweetie. But I mean you no harm I promise." She said lowering her guard a bit and walking toward her contorted brother. "I was simply hoping I could ask you something." She reached down and pushed the armor to the left so it would land in it's side and therefore Howard could straighten himself out. He did, grunting and mumbling curses about whack job railways and crazy drivers. "Give it a rest Howard, you could have just stayed alert and not meditated until we found a place to stay." She laid her gloved hand on the wolf armor helm and tapped it gently. But the sound was not of soft hitting metal, but metal hitting metal. A fact that was not lost on Edward as he stood watching with wide eyes. Al had come in behind him and heard the whole thing as well.

"An anchored soul, just like me." Whispered the large armor. "So you attempted human transmutaion as well?"

The wolf armor lowered it's head.

"No," Came the deep voice, filled with pain. "Just a really bad recoil."

The girl lowered her head, her long bangs covering her eyes. Her shoulders shook in silent sobs.

"Hey," Alphonse knelt down next to the girl, as the wolf armor helm nudged her shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Beth?" The wolf armor whispered.

Suddenly the girl stood up and ran for the door, once out she jumped up onto the roof of the next car, her long black coat fanning out as she spun to face the wind created by the momentum of the train.

"What was that all about?" Ed asked, crossing his arms and looking out the door.

The wolf sighed and clunked its way toward the door. "She feels responsible for the accident." He sat down just before the door. "We know that y'all are very similar to us, which is why we decided to follow you. We wanted to ask for your help and to hopefully tag along with ya if we could. Maybe we can find a way to get back what we lost together." Howard turned his helm toward the boys who were staring at him in shock. "We had to leave our home 'cause they forced us out because they assumed the same thing you did." His silver soul-fire eyes narrowed, a harsh laugh echoed through the armor. "They never gave us a chance to explain after we recovered."

"That's awful." Alphonse said, hanging his helm.

"Yeah." Muttered Ed. "So how did you guys end up here following us?"

"That part is easy, Beth there is a State Alchemist." Howard replied matter-of-factly.