Young Writers Society

Fyrsil slowed to a stop near a staircase, sniffing the air. He breathed a sigh of relief; some of his friends had been through here. "Devil's Nest?" he said, looking back at Greed. "Doesn't seem all that friendly?"



Other than the occasional thump! of Aegeas's feet smacking against the stairs as Kellach dragged him down them, or the breeze that rustled the grass around Tristan, it was quiet.

Not an eerie quiet, though - the whole place looked friendly enough. Covered in shadows, the house stood at the other end of a gravel path that the staircase had just happened to land on. Trees lined the path, cogs and pieces of metal hanging off of them. A few machines littered the ground on either side, including what looked like parts of metal arms - fingers, elbows, imitations of bones. To Tristan's right, a small lake glistened in the little sunlight it caught at its edge.

Taking a deep breath, Tristan started walking over to the house.

He stopped beside Fyrsil and looked up the stairs.

"The Devil's Nest is my home," he said. "It's all the way in Dublith, nice and far from Central and Pops. I run it - ran it. It might have been slightly illegal at times, but Devil's Nest is where things were at. Me, Roa, Dolcetto, Ulchi, Martel and Bido - we were family, there, and out of all my possessions, they're the ones that I care for the most."


"Is anyone home?" Robin suddenly asked as the group approached the house. The question was loud enough for anyone inside to hear it. She knew they were trying to be quiet - or maybe just too scared to face who might have been inside - but they had just landed a ship in the house's front yard. If there was someone there, they already knew they had arrived.

Making his way up the stairs, Fyrsil frowned. "You're talking about it like it's in the past," he said.



Oop. Tristan wasn't exactly trying to be quiet, but he'd been pretty happy that whoever lived in the house hadn't come out. Swiveling around, Tristan was just about ready to put a paw over his mouth and tell Robin to be quiet, but he heard a muffled voice coming from what he had to guess was inside the house.

"I'll be out in a minute."

That was, familiar. Tristan went back to staring at the house - the tan plaster walls, the brown thatch roof, the circular windows on either side of an oak door. Sure enough, he caught the shadow of something hanging something up near one of the windows.

Greed fell into step beside him once more.

"It is," he confirmed. His smile faded. "Hopefully in the future, too, but I'm not sure when I'll see them again. The world...The world is changing. Reyes is the one who noticed. I was content with just staying with my friends, but then the Elrics, him and Envy showed up on my doorstep. Something is happening in my country, and I know it has to do with dear old dad."


Oh.

That was unexpected.

Robin hadn't really anticipated a response - she had just assumed the reply would be silence. But it looked like they weren't the only ones there, and that they were about to be introduced to someone who would probably question at least half of the people present.

Envy straightened beside her, little sparks of red neatening out and tweaking their appearance so they looked more presentable. Mage readjusted his cloth-cloak. Soul straightened like Envy, fixing his helmet and the cloth covering something on his back. Zogin grabbed rested her hand on the gun at her side. And the wraith was fixing his mask and cloak, trying to make sure all of his traitorous skin was covered.

Robin looked down at herself.

Maybe she should have been doing something, but she was already more presentable than usual. Her current appearance might have raised some eyebrows, depending on who was inside, but it was already more friendly than the woman she actually was - she wouldn't be causing any screaming today, that was for sure.

Well, he'd found the roof. Resting his paws on his knees, Fyrsil took a few deep breaths as he stared at the wood floor, metal railings, and the staircase leading to the ground (!) below. "How is your dad still around?" he said. "Just how old is he? I know that dragons can live for a really long time, but I'm getting the feeling he isn't one of those."



Seeing that the others were getting ready, Tristan walked back to Kellach and Aegeas. Grabbing Aegeas's legs and pulling them off the ground, Tristan brushed dirt off the blanket wrapped around Aegeas.

"Maybe we could go swimming in the lake after this?" Arlais whispered, gesturing to the water as she moved to stand next to Tristan.

"Yeah," Tristan said, staring out at the water. "That'd be nice."

"He's not a dragon," Greed confirmed. "None of us are sure exactly what he is, though Envy has a theory or two. We're also not sure how old he is. We think he was around to destroy Xerxes, but that was based on something he told us when we were kids. I'm guessing he's like us - he's got to have a philosopher's stone somewhere, or something like it."


Zogin had hoped that the one good thing to come out of the change would be Soul losing his fear of water, but that fear was stubbornly remaining. Soul had started clinging to her the moment the sight of the lake really registered. She also had thought it would be easier moving around when he did something like that now instead of back then because of the different, lighter weight, but it was harder than expected to get anywhere with his arms wrapped around her arm.

"Uh, Xerxes?" Fyrsil said, making his way down the staircase. He waved to the others, but no one waved back, looked back, or noticed him at all - they were all focusing on the house in front of them. Not a great sign, but Fyrsil felt a little more secure with Greed around. "It sounds like there's a story there."



"Is something wrong?" Arlais said. She'd turned to hear what the noise behind her was, but found Soul clinging onto Zogin. A little odd for someone covered in armor. She frowned. "I know this is all a little stressful."

"That's one way of putting it," Greed said, his attention quickly shifting from the conversation to the group gathered at the foot of the stairs. He could just barely make out the form of his younger sibling standing next to some woman with wacky hair. Her outfit made him think of Martel - she would have loved that haircut. "Well, it looks like Envy managed to make a friend."


"I-It's nothing," Soul said. He eyed the lake nervously. It wasn't going to hurt him if he fell in. He'd just drown, just like any other living being would. He let out a nervous laugh. Drowning didn't sound all that good to him, but it was still nothing compared to the previous threat water posed to him, right? "I-I'm just not that big of a fan of water..."

Reaching the bottom of the staircase, Fyrsil watched Envy and nodded. "A step up from fighting people," he said. "Even if, uh, that wasn't really their fault."



"That sounds awful. I'm guessing you can't swim?" said Arlais, setting a paw on the armor over Soul's leg and staring up at him.

Greed gave a lazy grin.

"I hope they introduce me to their new friend," he said. It was taking all of his concentration not to rush over to the two and ask all about Envy's newest acquaintance - Envy had been more conservative with their friendships since their family had split up, and was in more of a need for friendship than either Greed or Reyes. Even the Elric brothers were doing better than Envy was, and they had left their home town so Edward could join the military.


Soul nodded.

"I never learned," he quietly said, his grip on Zogin's arm tightening. His partner gave a startled yelp at the sudden change, but made no move to pull her arm - Soul was grateful for that.

Fyrsil snorted. "So you can be the embarrassing brother?" he said. He sighed. "I wish I had siblings - they would've been fun to mess with. I do have a boyfriend I can play tricks on, though. Kellach is almost too easy to startle."



"Uh, maybe I could teach you?" Arlais said, focusing on how hard he was gripping onto his partner. "You, might have to ditch the armor, but it looks kind of like a shallow lake."

"I may or not tease them a little," he admitted. "But I have to make up for lost time, so a little teasing won't hurt."


Soul frantically shook his head.

"It's okay," Soul said. "I'm, um..."

He glanced at Zogin for help. The fear of water usually helped explain the armor, but it would do little to help now.

"He's allergic to sunlight," Zogin blurted.

Soul stared at her from within his helmet.

"That makes me sound like a vampire," he whispered into her ear, frowning a frown no one else could see.

"He gets really bad sunburn," Zogin continued, ignoring him and continuing in the kind of tone that was confident and truthful - even though it was a blatant lie.

Fyrsil smirked. "And I'd like to join in on that." He paused, smirk flipping into a wince. "Though, uh, knowing what your sibling can do, I'm not sure that'd be a good idea. For me, at least."



"Oh," Arlais said. "That's unfortunate. But maybe you should let him say it, since he sounds a little embarrassed by it?" She hadn't heard what Zogin and Soul had whispered to each other, but had pieced it together easily enough.

"You'd be fine," Greed reassured him. "I'm not saying to go and mess with them, but they're not as terrifying as they seem - they're actually a major dork, but don't let them know that I said that-"

"I can hear you," Envy suddenly interrupted without so much as turning their head.

Greed froze.


"Uh, no!" Soul replied with a shake of his head. "It's okay. Zogin got it right. I mean, I can, um, say it myself, but I don't need to. Like she said, I get really bad sunburn, so it's better to stay covered, and the armor's the only thing I've had to fully cover me, so..."

Fyrsil darted behind Greed. "I've met some pretty terrifying dorks," he said, poking his head out from behind Greed to make sure Envy hadn't turned around (thankfully, no). "So I'm not going to take any chances."



"Why did you just have armor?" Arlais said, tilting her head. "It's so bulky and heavy and expensive compared to something like cloth. Did you just, have a suit of armor lying around? For some reason?"