"You're welcome," Reyes said, though he didn't have a chance to finish explaining all of the questions Jaron was asking. They could talk more later on; it was clear that his brothers and this group were heading to somewhere else, and that would likely involve a decent amount of walking.
Unlike last time, Kendrik and Jaron opted to use the usual entrance. They walked past Reyes, went through a couple hallways, and soon pushed open the door to the outside world.
Where, of course, Lunis was waiting for them.
Kendrik didn't question it; the panther was a tracker and assassin by trade. Or, he'd been one. In any case, they stopped and waited for the others to catch up.
Jaron focused on the necklace for the first time, resting the gem on his hand and moving it between his fingers. The hound glanced to the panther, and their eyes met for a second. They nodded to each other.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Reyes exited the building soon after Jaron and Kendrik emerged from it. Greed welcomed his brother to their small group with a hearty pat on the back, something that made Reyes look more than a little uncomfortable. Oh, well. He shouldn't have been surprised - it seemed like Reyes and Envy were closer than he was with the former. He did admit he was missing some of the interaction he had before all of this went down, but there was plenty of people to talk to.
He made a beeline for Jaron, Kendrik and Lunis. It didn't matter that they weren't actually chimeras. They reminded him of his friends, and that was good enough for him. Better yet, there was a good topic of conversation available: Jaron's arm.
"That's an interesting piece of automail you've got right there," Greed said, gesturing at said arm. "Who's your mechanic? I've never seen anything like it before, and I've seen my fair share of automail."
When everyone was outside, Sallow silently turned and started walking toward the direction of the temple. Now that her aggression from earlier had faded, she was left feeling empty and melancholy. The comradery in these group of creatures made her miss her sisters. She was lost in her thoughts- how many years had it been since she had seen them? Several decades, at least, she figured.
Kendrik walked closer, cracking his knuckles, but the fox held out his arm. Jaron looked down at the prosthetic arm. He smiled briefly, but slumped his shoulders and sighed. "It's mine," he whispered. "I cobbled it out of some parts when the city burned down and they c - I lost my arm. I stuck it in the socket and I've been trying to get it to work." He ran his fingers down the patchwork metal surface, eventually reaching the small, finger-like ends. "It's not really worked, though."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Greed's smile faded. That sounded tough, even for what he was used to. There had been Isvhal to the east, but that had been a complete genocide - they didn't have time to cut people's arms off. The alchemists had just massacred every Ishvalan they had come across. To survive something traumatic as that, and then have to deal with a missing arm? That would be a nightmare.
"Well," Greed said after a moment of silence, "I'd say that arm's certainly a good start. You can't make the best piece of automail overnight. It's going to take time, but you already have a decent beginning."
"Yep," Jaron mumbled, poking at his prosthetic arm. "I built a lot of it a couple years ago, after the city burned and all that. I had a bunch of spare parts from rummaging around in the city, so I stuck them together and made this. I've been focusing on making it work, but I should add fingers sometime. Or something." He sighed; being called a beginner, even though he really didn't know much about electricity or biology, wasn't exactly reassuring. Then again, Greed sounded like he was fairly knowledgeable - Jaron would ask him some questions when they arrived the temple.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Greed nodded as Jaron talked, trying to imagine what something like that could have been like. He had a horrible life, admittedly, but it had never compared to something like that. "So where do you live now?" Greed asked, trying to keep the conversation going. "I stay in a place the Devil's Nest. It's a pub in Dublith. Live there with my friends - there's Bido, Martel, Roa, Dolcetto, and Ulchi. Things can get a bit crazy there but it's where home is for me now."
Jaron bit his lip and shook his head. "I," he whispered, before staring up at Kendrik, "We don't really have a home right now. We just wander around. Sleep in hotels, sleep in tents, sleep on the ground. But I'm with him, so I'm not really worried about home. Maybe we'll find one in the future?"
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"That's what my brothers and I have been doing, actually," he quietly said once he found his voice again. "We're still not sure how, but we ended up in an alternate reality. It's not a good one. We're not good guys in that reality, except apparently for me, and poor Reyes is the leader of our country. So we've been keeping low as we're traveling around. Even the Devil's Nest isn't a good place to go to now. Not after...not after what happened in that reality..."
Jaron blinked. He didn't know how to handle the idea of alternate realities, but he could relate to places being unsafe, or him and Kendrik not being considered heroes. Placing a hand on Greed's back, Jaron nodded. The fox wasn't sure if that was an appropriate social gesture, but it felt right. "It sucks when places aren't safe," Jaron whispered. "Especially if it's your fault. Kendrik and I are stuck in a country where everyone's mad at us because we helped kick out their queen. We're not very popular, so we have to find places where there's not a lot of people around." He noticed that the nymph was already starting to walk away, followed by Lunis. "But I have somebody to hold on to in the nights," Jaron whispered quickly, a smiling starting to grow on his face. "He snores a lot, though."
Kendrik coughed loudly. Turning around, the fox grabbed Kendrik's hand, and they walked after Lunis and the nymph.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Sallow paused at on overgrown path between the trees.
"This was the path to the temple. I don't think there's a clearer way to get by."
She gently parted the overgrown bits of the trees and branches, wincing a bit. It was always hard to force plants to move backwards from their path of growth, especially when they were packed and crowed together like this.
Finally, something he understood. Lunis dug his claws into the bark of a tree, pulling himself up. From there, it was easy enough to leap from one tree to the next, jumping into and out of the canopy in the process. He ignored the leaves and branches that poked at his skin and ruffled his fur; a tiny price to pay for one of the few things he'd enjoyed doing in his assassin days.
Kendrik and Jaron, however, followed the nymph. The hound pushed branches out of the way, giving Jaron room to move. Since Jaron was smaller, he could squeeze through some of the tighter spaces. Kendrik, on the other hand, quietly cursed as he ducked beneath overhanging limbs and jumped over thorns.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
The four homunculi took the same approach as Kendrik and Jaron. While it was slightly difficult for the larger of them - mainly Sloth - to maneuver through the foliage, they were also used to pain. A little scratch here or there wasn't much cause for concern, so they paid little mind to the branch scrapping up against their bare skin.
Sallow, being slightly small in stature, passed through without brushing the higher growing branches. The vegetation that she did brush, however, seemed to caress her and linger on her skin for longer than usual. She smiled sadly toward a tree. This was a first for her- leading creatures to trample through her carefully-grown underbrush.
