Auria had laid out a towel and sat on the beach, watching the waves swish and sway, she had to plot her course of action carefully, who knew where her dad could be at this point.
Auria sat her hat down and stripped off her trench coat. She was left in her black short-sleeved shirt, black short shorts, and black thigh highs, it was just her color. She didn't want to take her shoes off because she didn't want to get sand on her thigh highs, so she just rested on the towel for a while, reading through her book.
She flipped through the pages, looking for any hidden messages she could decipher. Alchemists enjoyed using hidden allegories or hidden language to hide a meaning.
After a while of reading, she found a few small notes, which she kept tabs on. Heaving a sigh, she closed up the book and tucked it into a pocket.
As soon as she tucked her book away, she was greeted with an almost deafening boom coming from the city.
Hopping up, Auria grabbed her hat and trenchcoat and hastily made her way back to the city. Smoke signaled to the surrounding area that something wasn't quite right, and more loud booms erupted from the city, it was like something straight out of the apocalypse.
As Auria reached the site of the smoke, she was greeted with a horrible sight. The entire area in front of her was completely leveled, nothing was left.
Auria grabbed her staff and gripped it tightly, then scanning the area around her. As she scanned the area, she saw the few people scattered around scrambling to collect anything that was left of their homes.
Auria began to trot over to help, but stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of one man picking up another and devouring him in one single bite. She didn't know how to respond, how to react, what was going on?
The man finished his meal and stared directly into Auria's eyes. He was on the skinny side, but had an appetite, and his eyes said it all. He was hungry.
Auria locked onto him, glaring into his eyes just as he had done hers, "Who are you?" Auria asked.
The man thought for a moment before speaking, "My friends like to call me Gluttony, I don't mind what you call me, I just want to eat!"
"You eat… People?"
"Oh, I eat everything I can, things just feel so good when they go into my stomach! It's so much fun to eat!"
"I… See…" Auria commented, "Are you going to eat me too then?"
"Mmm… Yes!" Gluttony shouted as he leaped into the air to pounce onto Auria.
Auria tapped her staff twice on the ground and transmuted it to jut out to Gluttony, hitting him in multiple areas and forcing him to fall onto his back.
"Ouchies! That wasn't very fair!"
"Sorry, homunculi, the Godless Alchemist doesn't play to lose," Auria grinned smugly, "And I mean that,"
Gluttony rubbed his cheek and stomach for a moment before perking up, "Did you say Godless Alchemist?"
"Uh… Y-Yeah… I did… What of it?"
"Ohhh! I'm so glad I could meet sister! I've met sister, I've met sister!" Gluttony chanted, "Let's play more, okay?"
"Wh- Oh sh-" Auria exclaimed as Gluttony pounced again. Auria beat him away with her staff, though each time, Gluttony seemed to just get faster and faster. At one point, Auria had begun spinning her staff around to even have a chance to hit Gluttony.
Despite Auria's best efforts, Gluttony was just too fast and knocked Auria to the ground and her staff was knocked away.
Auria rolled over and just laid there, letting out a groan of pain, "Urgh… That one hurt…"
Slowly standing on her feet, she stared towards Gluttony. He stood, just staring back at her, menacingly.
"Sister is playing very well! Very good, very good!" Gluttony exclaimed.
"Why do you keep calling me sister? I'm not related to you," Auria replied, "Stop calling me that,"
"But… Lust said you were! So you must be! She would never lie to me!" Gluttony said, clearly hurt by Auria's comment.
Auria heaved a sigh before getting ready to fight again. This time, she placed her hands on the ground and as her palms made contact, the ground again transmuted to strike at Gluttony, to which he was sent flying away.
Auria's breath by this point was shallow. It was this way the last time too, for some reason she felt more and more tired the more she got into fights.
"I should take it easy…" Auria murmured just before Gluttony leaped into the sky and landed just in front of her, even cracking the stone ground beneath him.
"Oh, you're kidding… Looks like we're doing this again," Auria groaned, "Come on, let's play,"
"Sister looks tired! Sister is getting tired! Gluttony will go easy!" Gluttony chimed in, "Sister should have fun!"
"He never runs out of energy…" Auria whispered under her breath.
Auria kneeled down and placed her palms on the ground. She pulled a sword from the ground and rushed towards Gluttony with it. She slashed at his abdomen, though it seemed to heal almost instantly.
She tried once more, to no effect. And again. And again… She stuck one final time, feeling the last of her strength drain from her body. Gluttony, seizing the opportunity, smacked her with such force that she was launched back several feet and knocked unconscious.
"What should we do with her?" A man asked.
"Ugh, she's so disgusting, do all Ardenians come like this?" Another commented, "It's absolutely disgusting, I knew they were savages, but I thought they at least had hygiene,"
"Enough, we're here to do a job, let's not get wrapped up in all this gossip," A third man interjected, "If you lot won't do anything, I will,"
"Be our guest," The first man replied.
There was a shuffling of feet and Auria was left in a small tent with one man, he was dressed in a military uniform, though she didn't know who he was, certainly not Ardenian, where was she?
"Morning," The man said, "We found you lost at the border, so we brought you back with us… Mind telling me what such a little girl was doing there?"
Auria, with her limited capabilities in Ikarian, struggled with the question for a little before speaking, "Running…" She replied.
"From what?"
"Bad people… Very bad…"
"I see… Well, I'm Rifleman Senwell, what's your name?" Senwell asked, "I hear names are important, so I'm curious,"
"Auria…" Auria hesitated for a moment, "Crane… Auria Crane…"
"Auria Crane, huh? Well, isn't that a neat name, honestly I'm a bit jealous of you," Senwell snickered, "Anyway, how are you? Can I get you anything?"
Auria shook her head.
"Alright…" Senwell said, "Get some rest, okay? We don't exactly have any ways to get you washed up, but we'll be travelling back to Command in the morning, so we'll bring you along, allow you to get set up, alright?"
Instead of paying any more attention to Senwell, Auria hopped up and drew a transmutation circle into the dirt. She placed a palm onto it and water sprouted from it! With this, she washed the dirt and grime from her face.
Senwell was left in awe, and trotted off to tell the other members of his team, meanwhile Auria just curled up into a sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep.
As Auria finally came to, she scanned the area around her. Gluttony was nowhere to be seen, but everything was still in complete chaos. People mopping up the remains of their once glorious houses, people taking the wounded and the dead back into the ruins that they once held near and dear to their hearts. It was a sight Auria wished nobody to see.
Auria felt as though she were about to vomit, it was absolutely horrible, though she had no real time to process as she was swarmed by an angry mob, shouting profanities at her.
Auria backed off for a moment, but being surrounded made it difficult for her to do anything at all. Honestly, it was overwhelming, her brain felt like it was being fried and even thinking was painful. Though eventually just passed out once more.
Auria again woke up, this time, in a proper bed, though the entire bed was wet, her body felt sticky. She had been sweating so much that it seeped through her clothing and onto the bed, her pillow was the worst. Absolutely disgusting.
Almost instantly, she hopped out of her bed and ran out of the door. She clomped down the stairs. In the living room, just below the stairs, sat Auntie Fehr and Constance. Thankfully, it seemed that the house was undisturbed by the attack of Gluttony.
"Hey there, Auria," Constance said, "Feelin' alright?"
"Con," Auria sniffled, "...Stance!" She whined as she ran to Constance and gave her a hug, "Ahh, the first thing I thought when I woke up was what if something happened to you two? What would I do- And- And…" The rest of her sentence was unintelligible.
"Ugh, please don't use my uniform as a tissue…" Constance said before peeling Auria off of her, "Besides, we are tougher than we look, it'd take more than that to take us down,"
Auria sniffled before nodding along, "Yeah! You guys're pretty tough!"
"Damn straight! Now quit your whining! You're tougher than that, you're a Colonel… And a pretty damn tough one, at that," Constance said, giving a slight hint of a smile.
Auria wiped her eyes and nose before turning to Fehr, "Auntie Fehr…" She whimpered, "I'm sorry I couldn't do more…"
Fehr simply motioned for Auria to come closer, to which Auria complied. Fehr wrapped her arms tightly around Auria and whispered into her ear, "Nobody is expecting you to… It's amazing having a hero so brave, and even if nobody has asked… Or even knows of the things you do, it's still amazing that you work so hard, I'm so proud of you,"
Fehr rubbed her hands in circles on Auria's back, and Auria gave a cry-laugh, it was a sort of laugh that you give when you know you're about to cry.
Auria sniffled again and just murmured a "thank you" before resting her chin on Fehr's shoulder and letting Fehr console her.
Meanwhile, Edward continued his journey, though at this point, he had decided to take a break. Walking was doing him no good.
He reached into his pocket. He had grabbed a single picture, showing Auria and her mother, she had just been born.
Edward stroked Auria's chin before turning his attention to her mother. She looked so happy… But… There was a sadness he couldn't quite comprehend.
"Oh, Khara…" He murmured as tears began to well up in his eyes, "I'll make things right, I promise,"