[fic] State of Mind - Chapter One
Title: State of Mind
Author: elric_ward
Rating: PG
Genre: Survival. Slow burning plotfic
Word Count: 2,018
Summary: Ward never liked the world, but he was content. Then life decided to turn things around and make it difficult for him.
Author Notes: Writing is a bit confusing. I’m never entirely sure if I’m writing the talking scenes correctly. Anyway, Chapter One brings the total word count to 3,092. Wow. I hope you enjoy! On actual story, I just finished writing up Chapter 5.
Prologue |
State of Mind
A Fullmetal Alchemist Zoofic by Elric ‘Hunter’ Ward
Copyright:
The Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) and all its respective work and ideas are copyrighted by Hiromu Arakawa and her distributors.
Comments and critique welcome.
Chapter One
Ward’s eyebrows furrowed into a frown as he clenched his eyes shut even tighter, rolling up into a ball. He hated mornings, loathed them. With thee horrid brightness in the window, birds chirping and who knew what horrors the day would fling at him. Probably a walk. He hated it when the Master took him for a walk outside in the garden with the wet grass and smelly dirt. He wanted to stay safe and warm in his den. Mornings were truly the most horrible part of life. He could already smell the musty grass of the garden, strong after the morning rain. His nose twitching and muttering to himself, Ward blearily opened one eye to the world.
What…?!
Both eyes opening wide, he shot up and struck his head hard against a too-close roof.
Where…?!
He wasn’t in his den. He wasn’t even in the Master’s garden with its bad smelling flowers. Mouth ajar, the young Elric took in his surroundings. There were big trees, bushes, grass and so much mud he thought he would drown if he took a step. He was certainly not in his home territory! Scooting backwards until his rump hit a corner, he cowered low to the ground. Had he done something bad? Was he going to a new home? He didn’t even remember coming here! The last he remembered was being shoved into the large metal box with holes he was currently huddling in. Ward huddled in the corner, motionless with a snarl on his face waiting for the masters to just try to move him.
His stomach growled.
Reprimanding himself he sat up and shook his head, hair glinting dully in the light. This was no way for an Elric to behave, especially an Edward! No masters were here, he would hear them! He would just have to go find the Master, or any master, and demand food.
<‘Fucking masters! They couldn’t leave me alone! They think this is some stupid game, making me find them!’> He growled as he stomped around the box, the mud squelching between his toes with each step. <‘Oh great, this is just disgusting. They couldn’t even give me my foot-wraps?! Inconsiderate bastards!’>
The Edward continued on in this manner as he attempted to neaten himself out and just made himself worse, snarling in distaste at the state of his red pelt streaked with dirt. Grooming his hair free, he hissed in pain when his hands came in contact with his ear. His ear throbbed in response as his hand came away with some crusted blood
<‘What the hell?! Perfect!’> He growled, <‘Yes, what a perfectly lovely day, thank you very much! I always wanted something in my ear!’> Another tentative touch of his ear had him quickly drawing his hands away from it. Baring his teeth in frustration, he threw a clod of mud at a bird who dared to tweet at him. <‘You shut up!’> He pointed an accusing finger, <‘Don’t make me eat you!’> Ward wasn’t even sure if you could eat birds, but he could make an exception and try his best.
Grumbling, he stumbled away from the box. It was time to find the masters. They would fix his ear and clean him up. He wouldn’t even bite or scratch them while they did it, as long as he ended up clean. They might even fix his now throbbing head.
Figuring any direction was as good as another, he stalked down a natural path. He needed to find the giant dens the masters lived in, or the hard grey rivers the masters lived near. No doubt this was a test and they were waiting for him to show up. Maybe it was meant to be a new trick for him to learn. The master was always teaching him useless tricks like ‘sit’ and ‘stand’. Maybe they were trying to teach him how to walk? Ward snorted. He already knew how to walk, thank you very much, but if it got him home to his quiet den he would be grudgingly glad to learn this new trick. He stumbled onwards.
Later, Ward wasn’t sure how much later, he leant against a tree breathing hard. Sweat stuck his hair to the back of his neck and tickled unpleasantly. There was no sign of the masters yet, but he had found a giant pond with fast flowing water. The damp ground shifted and squelched beneath him as he eagerly crouched down and drank desperately while he continued to berate the world for putting him in this situation between gasping breaths. The cold water was soothing to his throat as slowed down and lapped it up, pink tongue darting quickly. With his thirst slowly being sated, Ward felt slightly calmer and more optimistic about finding the master. Well, as calm as he could get. Which meant that rather than snarling furiously at everything in his path, he could just glare idly instead.
<‘Humph.’> He muttered as he looked down into the water, <‘It’s all those stupid masters. Always their fault. Fucking up my life. Can’t just leave me alone in my den.’> The ripples cleared up to show his mud streaked face set in its now permanent scowl. The hair that matched his golden eyes was a mess, and his ears were mussed. He twitched them and the injured one stung a little while something swung from it. There was a plastic thing stuck to it with the master markings on it. What was #326? Maybe it was like a collar, for the master to drag him. Ward didn’t much fancy being dragged around by his ears, he’d bite off the fingers of the one who dared.
Scowling, he splashed the water to get rid of his reflection and the ear thing, sending a fine spray all over himself as he lurched back upwards.
<‘Damn fucking water!’> He yowled at it. What was with it with the world and him being dirty today?! He paced around angrily as he tried to squeeze his pelts dry, resorting to shaking himself and snarling incoherently. This was too much! <‘Let me go home!’> He wailed at the uncaring world.
Something rumbled.
All the hair on his tail and neck shot up as he froze. That noise…it was familiar! It sounded like the things outside his travel boxes. He never saw it, but where the rumble things were there were masters! Yelping in excitement at the concept of home, Ward shot in the direction of the rumble. Oh, master! He would be a good Elric and never bite and let the masters pat him! Just let him go home!
Skidding around the tree, Ward froze in excitement. There in front of him was a big, thin grey river. The hard rivers the masters live near, but he didn’t see any masters. Were they hiding? Was this like the games the Master used to play with him when he was a kit? Eyes wide he flattened himself and edged out cautiously. The ground was hard and dark and smelled vaguely familiar as he edged over to it cautiously. It was bigger and wider than the ones near the Master’s garden.
Dare he step on it it? Could he? Ward is pretty sure he had stood on it before. Maybe the Master wanted him to stand on it, then he would show up and pat Ward roughly and maybe even praise him. Then he would be taken home, back to his den! Prancing out excitedly, tail wagging in an unfamiliar movement, Ward stood in the middle of the grey river. Right on the white lines and waited.
He waited some more.
The sun was getting lower in the sky, but still he waited.
Sighing, he poked at a bug walking past him. Maybe this isn’t where the masters were going to get him? Standing up, he brushed himself off as best he could and looked around. He could see the direction he came from and some of the pond, and off in the distance he could see a cloud getting closer. His good ear flicked. The cloud was making a faint rumbled sound that got louder and louder when with a huge VRRRRRRRRRR. Scooting forward with his tail twitching, he watched eagerly as a big, metal monster headed towards him. It sounded like the Master’s rumble-thing! It must be the Master! Dancing excitedly, he ran towards it.
It wasn’t slowing down, and it was big. Stopping uncertainly, he fidgeted as it kept heading towards him, his eyes growing larger in horror. He watched as it sped towards him, closer and closer…until the monster bellowed and he broke his frozen stance and he jumped to the side, yelping as something stuck his side and sent him spinning into a ditch. The backlash of the wind shook his hair completely loose and he barely registered the high screech and smokey smell over his shock.
What WAS that thing?! Where did it come from? It was horrible, he couldn’t breathe! Ward curled up breathing heavily, his mind filtering into shock. He wanted to go home and never come here again. Mind foggy, he tried to stand and felt his leg burn in pain and collapse beneath him. Mewling under his breath, he crawled towards the forest as the monster came back in his direction, the loud noise hurting his ears as it stopped near him on the hard river. He tried to crawl faster, but he was too confused to make sense of where he was going. Curling into a tight ball, he faced the monster and bared his teeth. It wasn’t Master’s. Master had never hurt him before.
Ward watched in dumbstruck horror as the monster’s mouth opened and loud, flashy, brightly coloured masters came pouring out of it. There were lots of little masters and some large masters. They were talking and yelling and pointing at him. Some were even crying. None of them were coming near him, but were milling around the bigger masters. Eyes wide, he watched as one of the larger masters came closer to him with a blanket, making kit sounds and calling him a good boy. Someone had a camm-err-raaarr, he could see it flashing as he bared his teeth in retaliation.
<‘Go away,’> he whimpered to the larger master, <‘Go away. Leave me alone’>
The master with the blanket was only a couple of metres away now. He had stopped to talk to the other masters.
“Its an Elric! It’s not walking, think we hurt it!”
“Keep the kids back, it’s probably wild.”
Ward tested his leg. It still hurt, but the feeling was coming back now and he could get it to move as he pushed into a crouch and scooted back. The masters were making their nonsense noises, few of which he recognised.
“Should report that we hit it, the Park can send out a ranger and check on it.”
Turning, Ward limped off into the forest as quickly as he could. He just wanted to get away from the masters and their hurtful monster.
= = =
School field trip gets a surprise visitor
A group of school children on a field trip to the Amestris National Park got a close up and personal encounter with an endangered Elric after their bus hit it on the E5 highway.
Mr. Tarani, the 4th year teacher, comments, “It was just standing on the road looking at us. We beeped the horn and it moved, but not fast enough. There was a big thunk and we stopped to check on it. It didn’t move much, but it did crawl off.”
Several of the children were distraught over the Elric, identified to be of the Edward variant. Suzie Wilson, 8, says “It was sitting there and it had yellow hair and it was all dirty.”
The Amestris National Park has reported that they don’t know of any Edwards in the park, but doesn’t deny that one may wander in. They will send out a ranger to investigate and see if this endangered species needs a vet.
Next Chapter ->
Author: elric_ward
Rating: PG
Genre: Survival. Slow burning plotfic
Word Count: 2,018
Summary: Ward never liked the world, but he was content. Then life decided to turn things around and make it difficult for him.
Author Notes: Writing is a bit confusing. I’m never entirely sure if I’m writing the talking scenes correctly. Anyway, Chapter One brings the total word count to 3,092. Wow. I hope you enjoy! On actual story, I just finished writing up Chapter 5.
Prologue |
State of Mind
A Fullmetal Alchemist Zoofic by Elric ‘Hunter’ Ward
Copyright:
The Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) and all its respective work and ideas are copyrighted by Hiromu Arakawa and her distributors.
Comments and critique welcome.
Chapter One
Ward’s eyebrows furrowed into a frown as he clenched his eyes shut even tighter, rolling up into a ball. He hated mornings, loathed them. With thee horrid brightness in the window, birds chirping and who knew what horrors the day would fling at him. Probably a walk. He hated it when the Master took him for a walk outside in the garden with the wet grass and smelly dirt. He wanted to stay safe and warm in his den. Mornings were truly the most horrible part of life. He could already smell the musty grass of the garden, strong after the morning rain. His nose twitching and muttering to himself, Ward blearily opened one eye to the world.
What…?!
Both eyes opening wide, he shot up and struck his head hard against a too-close roof.
Where…?!
He wasn’t in his den. He wasn’t even in the Master’s garden with its bad smelling flowers. Mouth ajar, the young Elric took in his surroundings. There were big trees, bushes, grass and so much mud he thought he would drown if he took a step. He was certainly not in his home territory! Scooting backwards until his rump hit a corner, he cowered low to the ground. Had he done something bad? Was he going to a new home? He didn’t even remember coming here! The last he remembered was being shoved into the large metal box with holes he was currently huddling in. Ward huddled in the corner, motionless with a snarl on his face waiting for the masters to just try to move him.
His stomach growled.
Reprimanding himself he sat up and shook his head, hair glinting dully in the light. This was no way for an Elric to behave, especially an Edward! No masters were here, he would hear them! He would just have to go find the Master, or any master, and demand food.
<‘Fucking masters! They couldn’t leave me alone! They think this is some stupid game, making me find them!’> He growled as he stomped around the box, the mud squelching between his toes with each step. <‘Oh great, this is just disgusting. They couldn’t even give me my foot-wraps?! Inconsiderate bastards!’>
The Edward continued on in this manner as he attempted to neaten himself out and just made himself worse, snarling in distaste at the state of his red pelt streaked with dirt. Grooming his hair free, he hissed in pain when his hands came in contact with his ear. His ear throbbed in response as his hand came away with some crusted blood
<‘What the hell?! Perfect!’> He growled, <‘Yes, what a perfectly lovely day, thank you very much! I always wanted something in my ear!’> Another tentative touch of his ear had him quickly drawing his hands away from it. Baring his teeth in frustration, he threw a clod of mud at a bird who dared to tweet at him. <‘You shut up!’> He pointed an accusing finger, <‘Don’t make me eat you!’> Ward wasn’t even sure if you could eat birds, but he could make an exception and try his best.
Grumbling, he stumbled away from the box. It was time to find the masters. They would fix his ear and clean him up. He wouldn’t even bite or scratch them while they did it, as long as he ended up clean. They might even fix his now throbbing head.
Figuring any direction was as good as another, he stalked down a natural path. He needed to find the giant dens the masters lived in, or the hard grey rivers the masters lived near. No doubt this was a test and they were waiting for him to show up. Maybe it was meant to be a new trick for him to learn. The master was always teaching him useless tricks like ‘sit’ and ‘stand’. Maybe they were trying to teach him how to walk? Ward snorted. He already knew how to walk, thank you very much, but if it got him home to his quiet den he would be grudgingly glad to learn this new trick. He stumbled onwards.
Later, Ward wasn’t sure how much later, he leant against a tree breathing hard. Sweat stuck his hair to the back of his neck and tickled unpleasantly. There was no sign of the masters yet, but he had found a giant pond with fast flowing water. The damp ground shifted and squelched beneath him as he eagerly crouched down and drank desperately while he continued to berate the world for putting him in this situation between gasping breaths. The cold water was soothing to his throat as slowed down and lapped it up, pink tongue darting quickly. With his thirst slowly being sated, Ward felt slightly calmer and more optimistic about finding the master. Well, as calm as he could get. Which meant that rather than snarling furiously at everything in his path, he could just glare idly instead.
<‘Humph.’> He muttered as he looked down into the water, <‘It’s all those stupid masters. Always their fault. Fucking up my life. Can’t just leave me alone in my den.’> The ripples cleared up to show his mud streaked face set in its now permanent scowl. The hair that matched his golden eyes was a mess, and his ears were mussed. He twitched them and the injured one stung a little while something swung from it. There was a plastic thing stuck to it with the master markings on it. What was #326? Maybe it was like a collar, for the master to drag him. Ward didn’t much fancy being dragged around by his ears, he’d bite off the fingers of the one who dared.
Scowling, he splashed the water to get rid of his reflection and the ear thing, sending a fine spray all over himself as he lurched back upwards.
<‘Damn fucking water!’> He yowled at it. What was with it with the world and him being dirty today?! He paced around angrily as he tried to squeeze his pelts dry, resorting to shaking himself and snarling incoherently. This was too much! <‘Let me go home!’> He wailed at the uncaring world.
Something rumbled.
All the hair on his tail and neck shot up as he froze. That noise…it was familiar! It sounded like the things outside his travel boxes. He never saw it, but where the rumble things were there were masters! Yelping in excitement at the concept of home, Ward shot in the direction of the rumble. Oh, master! He would be a good Elric and never bite and let the masters pat him! Just let him go home!
Skidding around the tree, Ward froze in excitement. There in front of him was a big, thin grey river. The hard rivers the masters live near, but he didn’t see any masters. Were they hiding? Was this like the games the Master used to play with him when he was a kit? Eyes wide he flattened himself and edged out cautiously. The ground was hard and dark and smelled vaguely familiar as he edged over to it cautiously. It was bigger and wider than the ones near the Master’s garden.
Dare he step on it it? Could he? Ward is pretty sure he had stood on it before. Maybe the Master wanted him to stand on it, then he would show up and pat Ward roughly and maybe even praise him. Then he would be taken home, back to his den! Prancing out excitedly, tail wagging in an unfamiliar movement, Ward stood in the middle of the grey river. Right on the white lines and waited.
He waited some more.
The sun was getting lower in the sky, but still he waited.
Sighing, he poked at a bug walking past him. Maybe this isn’t where the masters were going to get him? Standing up, he brushed himself off as best he could and looked around. He could see the direction he came from and some of the pond, and off in the distance he could see a cloud getting closer. His good ear flicked. The cloud was making a faint rumbled sound that got louder and louder when with a huge VRRRRRRRRRR. Scooting forward with his tail twitching, he watched eagerly as a big, metal monster headed towards him. It sounded like the Master’s rumble-thing! It must be the Master! Dancing excitedly, he ran towards it.
It wasn’t slowing down, and it was big. Stopping uncertainly, he fidgeted as it kept heading towards him, his eyes growing larger in horror. He watched as it sped towards him, closer and closer…until the monster bellowed and he broke his frozen stance and he jumped to the side, yelping as something stuck his side and sent him spinning into a ditch. The backlash of the wind shook his hair completely loose and he barely registered the high screech and smokey smell over his shock.
What WAS that thing?! Where did it come from? It was horrible, he couldn’t breathe! Ward curled up breathing heavily, his mind filtering into shock. He wanted to go home and never come here again. Mind foggy, he tried to stand and felt his leg burn in pain and collapse beneath him. Mewling under his breath, he crawled towards the forest as the monster came back in his direction, the loud noise hurting his ears as it stopped near him on the hard river. He tried to crawl faster, but he was too confused to make sense of where he was going. Curling into a tight ball, he faced the monster and bared his teeth. It wasn’t Master’s. Master had never hurt him before.
Ward watched in dumbstruck horror as the monster’s mouth opened and loud, flashy, brightly coloured masters came pouring out of it. There were lots of little masters and some large masters. They were talking and yelling and pointing at him. Some were even crying. None of them were coming near him, but were milling around the bigger masters. Eyes wide, he watched as one of the larger masters came closer to him with a blanket, making kit sounds and calling him a good boy. Someone had a camm-err-raaarr, he could see it flashing as he bared his teeth in retaliation.
<‘Go away,’> he whimpered to the larger master, <‘Go away. Leave me alone’>
The master with the blanket was only a couple of metres away now. He had stopped to talk to the other masters.
“Its an Elric! It’s not walking, think we hurt it!”
“Keep the kids back, it’s probably wild.”
Ward tested his leg. It still hurt, but the feeling was coming back now and he could get it to move as he pushed into a crouch and scooted back. The masters were making their nonsense noises, few of which he recognised.
“Should report that we hit it, the Park can send out a ranger and check on it.”
Turning, Ward limped off into the forest as quickly as he could. He just wanted to get away from the masters and their hurtful monster.
= = =
School field trip gets a surprise visitor
A group of school children on a field trip to the Amestris National Park got a close up and personal encounter with an endangered Elric after their bus hit it on the E5 highway.
Mr. Tarani, the 4th year teacher, comments, “It was just standing on the road looking at us. We beeped the horn and it moved, but not fast enough. There was a big thunk and we stopped to check on it. It didn’t move much, but it did crawl off.”
Several of the children were distraught over the Elric, identified to be of the Edward variant. Suzie Wilson, 8, says “It was sitting there and it had yellow hair and it was all dirty.”
The Amestris National Park has reported that they don’t know of any Edwards in the park, but doesn’t deny that one may wander in. They will send out a ranger to investigate and see if this endangered species needs a vet.
Next Chapter ->