Beauty and the Bastard Chapter 12

Beauty and the Bastard Chapter 12
Roy X Ed
The Attack of the Wolves

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Edward stumbled over an overgrown root and landed face-first in the mud. He had stopped running long ago, instead opting for a confused, slow walk through the never-changing forest. Pushing himself up off the ground, he looked around again. All the trees looked exactly the same. It was raining hard now and the rain had erased his footsteps, so he could not tell if he had been wandering in circles all day or had made progress and was at least somewhat closer to town. Also, what little light Edward had had was disappearing as night quickly settled in.

Shivering, Ed leaned heavily against a tree trunk and winced as yet another memory of the crash flashed before his eyes.

"Stop, please stop." Edward moaned quietly as he pressed his fists against his eyes, trying to block or distort the horrifying images. He could see the car suddenly erupting into flames. Alphonse and his mother jumping from the car. He could see and feel himself struggling with his seat belt as the flames spread around him. "No more, please."

Ed's eyes shot open as he heard his mother's screams of pain echo in his ears. Clasping his hands over his ears, he looked around wildly, panting heavily. When he did not see a fiery metal contraption that was once a car, or his mother lying dead beside him, he lowered his hands slowly. As he took deep breaths to calm himself down, he heard wolves howling. He frowned, remembering his encounter with the monsters weeks ago, but figured that they sounded far enough away.

He'd been having flashbacks of exactly what happened the day of the crash ever since Mustang had snapped and sent fire hurtling towards him. They came in flashes, varying in length, but often left him immobile as he relived his terror from that day.

Pushing himself away from the tree trunk, Edward began walking again. He wrapped his arms around himself and coughed a little when he laughed at himself. He'd get no warmth form his metal hand; if anything, he was merely making himself colder.

'I should have gone back in for my coat.' Edward thought grimly to himself as he sloshed through the mud. He grabbed his stomach as it growled and gurgled unhappily. 'Some food would've been a good idea, too.' He hadn't even eaten breakfast and it was probably dinnertime.

'I could have sworn that there had been a path leading to the manor. And I know I started running down the same path so,' Ed stopped for a second and looked around. 'Where am I?'

Ed jumped as he heard a branch snap, and spun around. He was a little disappointed to find no one there. He then shook his head and scowled at himself. 'Why would Mustang come after me? He clearly wanted me gone.' Edward turned back around and trudged in the direction he hoped was toward the town. 'I can't even consider going back and asking for help. He'd probably come after me again with that fire.' The blonde alchemist froze as he heard a low deep growling behind him. Part of him was overjoyed, Mustang had followed him! And another part was worried Mustang had followed him only to continue the chase.

But when he turned his head, all he saw in the dark were a pair of glowing red eyes staring back at him. Just then the growling multiplied and the sound moved through Ed, paralyzing him. 'The wolves weren't as far off as I had thought,' Edward slowly turned in a circle as he saw what seemed to him like millions of glowing, menacing red eyes.

"Oh, no." Ed gasped as he could feel a sudden burning phantom pain come from both his right arm and left leg. Another flashback was on its way and he was helpless to stop it or the pack of wolves that was ready to attack.

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Roy ran through the forest, thankful for his advanced night vision, following the wolves' howls until they stopped. And when they stopped, he began to inhale deeply, hoping to at the very least catch their fresh scent and follow them, and he took off again. He couldn't let them hurt Edward, even if the blonde hated him for what he had done, he couldn't let him be hurt any more than already was.

His inner beast was burning within him, unwilling to let him rest. The need to find Ed was like a fire rushing through his veins. He paused to inhale again, his heart leaped as Edward's scent filtered through his nose. But as he took another breath, he could still smell his blood and the sharp scent of his fear. The wolves had found him. He moved stealthily closer, hearing the predatory growls of the wolves. Then he heard Edward's voice, the quietest he'd heard it, whisper a pained, "Oh, no."

Roy got to the scene just as the blonde grabbed at his right shoulder as his legs gave out under him. The moment his knees hit the ground, the wolves leaped into action. Inside of Roy, his inner beast roared with rage which Roy was all too happy to express aloud. Some of the wolves turned from the blonde as Roy's fur stood on end and he bared his teeth at them. Roy ran toward them and counted ten wolves in all.

One wolf was already on Edward, biting at his right arm, while the blonde just stared off in, a look of horror in his eyes. Roy charged at that one first and threw him off the young alchemist and into a tree. The beast looked down at Edward to be sure he was alright, though he knew the wolf had only gone after automail. He saw golden eyes staring up at him, watching him warily. Their eye contact was broken as another wolf jumped onto Roy. He wrestled with it and tossed it off of himself and turned to see Edward now clutching his head, unaware of two other wolves that were quickly advancing on him.

"Edward!" His voice as loud and it startled the younger man, but not enough for him to move. Roy ran to him and one of the two wolves backed off for the time being. The other jumped at Roy and latched onto his arm, its teeth sinking deep into his flesh. He shook the animal off, making the wound worse, and growled threateningly at the remaining seven as he stood protectively beside their blond target.

"Fire, everywhere." The small man beside him clutched at his automail as he muttered, "it hurts."

Though Roy could hardly hear him over the snarling wolves, an idea began to form from what he had said. Though from Edward's reaction earlier that morning, he knew the blonde was terrified of it. However there was little comfort he could give as the three wolves he had thrown off joined into the circle the others had formed around the two alchemists.

Roy thought over his options, limited as they were, and knew he would have to use his alchemy despite Edward being so close. He glanced away from the circling predators for a moment to look at Edward. He was a pale white, and soaked to the bone, shaking terribly. The wolves began to close in on their circle as Roy knelt down and wrapped his injured arm around the blonde's shoulders and drew him to his chest. Edward made a muffled sound of protest at being pushed into Roy's fur, but the beast kept him there; his arm against Edward's back and his hand holding the back of his head.

"Hold still, Edward." He extended his other arm and snapped, feeling the blonde jump against him and grab onto his damp fur. Warmth flared around the two as Roy controlled the flame, killing the bloodthirsty wolves. The adrenaline that had rushed through his veins faded away as the rain continued to pour. His arm began to sting as the water repeatedly hit his open wound, but he kept quiet about the pain, not wanting Edward to know about it.

"B-Bastard?" Roy looked down, into tired, sad yellow eyes, his fists clenched at his wet fur a bit painfully, but Roy didn't voice his complaint as the blonde continued, "T-thanks." The beast nodded, and noted how scratchy Edward's voice was. His hand moved from the back of his head to his cut cheek and ever so slowly, he moved his thumb over it. Edward winced a little, but kept his eyes locked with Roy's.

"You've probably already gotten yourself sick, let's get you back to the manor." His rough voice broke Edward's trance and the blonde nodded warily.

"We've got a long walk back." Exhaustion saturated his voice as he leaned more into Roy's chest. Roy blinked confused.

"Edward, we aren't that far from the mansion."

"But," Edward raised an eyebrow at him in confusion. "I've been walking in one direction all day..." Edward trailed off as his face scrunched up. Right as Roy was about to ask what was wrong, Edward sneezed.

"Let's figure this out after we get back." Roy decided, as he could feel fatigue begin to weigh on his mind.

As they stumbled through the woods, both were silent, except for the occasional cough from the younger alchemist. As they neared the gate to the manor, however, Edward stopped. Roy walked a few more paces forward before looking back.

"Something wrong, Edward?" The blonde neither said nor did anything for a few moments, just staring at the ground. He shook his head before he looked up and murmured, "It's nothing." And moved past Roy, up the path to the manor.

Roy stayed at the gate, and stared after him. He now knew the young alchemist was extremely wary of fire, and now wary of his ability to control it. But Roy now had to wonder, why Edward hadn't at least tried to fight back against the wolves? How did he lose his arm and leg? And he clearly hadn't been referring to the flame Roy had sent after him this morning when he had muttered what he had about fire... 'I will find out what's bothering him.' Narrowing his eyes in determination, he followed after the blonde.