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Ed wanted to leave. Al was perusing the incense and crystals for sale. Greed, however, was having a great time messing with the “psychic”.
“Recently, you often find yourself completely alone.”
“Well that’s just impossible.” Ling commented cheekily.
“Yes, tell me more.” Greed feigned giving his entire attention to the obvious fraud.
“But!” The fake psychic continued. “Soon this will change! I see a beautiful woman arriving and bringing with her the excitement and adventure your life has been lacking!”
“Okay, that's the oldest line in the book, I think that’s enough to be sure this is a fake. We should leave before Ed gets too bored.”
But Greed wanted to keep messing with her. “So, what will this girl look like?”
“Tall and blonde. And she will have traditionally masculine interests that will make your life more interesting.”
“Hey, Ed!” Greed called back. “You’d better keep me away from Winry’s mechanic shop or I might just steal your girl!” Ed rolled his eyes and Greed started laughing, then he addressed the self-proclaimed psychic again. “Alright, we’re done here.” He got up from the table and joined Al in looking through the crystals for sale.
“What?” Al asked. “Do you need another pretty rock?” He said it with more humor and less malice than Ed would have.
“Hey, you never know what you’ll find in these places.”
Ed walked back over after paying the psychic. “You’re not getting another pendulum, now come on, let’s get out of here. This is our second ‘psychic’ in the last three days.”
“Don’t be so grumpy, brother.” Al said. “But yeah, I think it’s time we leave.”
“I agree, actually. That girl behind the register keeps giving me looks like I killed her cat or something.”
Said cat hopped up onto the counter and moved from there to perch on the girl’s shoulder and give Greed a matching nasty look. The boys left the shop.
“Where’d we park again?” Ed asked.
“A couple streets over, by where we had lunch.” Al answered.
“Ugh, that’s right. Why’d I agree to walking all the way here?”
“Walking is good for us, brother.”
“Not in this heat.”
“I’ve gotta agree.” Greed said. Then he stopped walking, or rather, something stopped him from continuing to walk. “What the hell?” He asked and looked down at the ground. Five blade-shaped pieces of quartz surrounded him, and they were connected by glowing lines, forming a pentagram. Ed and Al watched in horror as Greed seemed to completely disappear, along with the pentagram.
Greed blinked and suddenly found himself in a secluded alleyway, still trapped within the quartz blades.
“Greed, what the hell?!” Ling asked, and fear and adrenaline rushed through them.
“Damn, we must have pissed of a mage. But don’t worry, kid, this is pretty basic stuff. I think we can handle them.”
Then a small figure stepped out of the shadows. She looked to be about fifteen at most, had her hair in long braids, and had a small black-and-white cat perched on her shoulder.
“You!” Greed exclaimed. “You’re the girl from the shop! What the fuck did I ever do to you?!”
“Silence, foul beast!” She spoke in a voice as small as her stature but brimming with forcefulness nonetheless. “You don’t belong here, demon, and I’m going to stop you from hurting anyone!”
“And just how do you plan on doing that, kiddo?” Greed said with as much condescension as he could muster.
“With an exorcism!” The little mage shot back.
“Shit shit what are we gonna do?!”
“Calm down, we’ll be fine.” Greed reassured. “Look here, pumpkin, I’m not your average dime-a-dozen demon that you can throw any old exorcism at. Plus,” he showed off the back of his hand, “I’m bound here, so it’d take the combined efforts of at least five powerful mages to send me anywhere.”
“We’ll see about that!” The girl responded, but her voice shook as she did so.
“No, all we’re gonna see, sweetie, is how well you made this pentagram. You’re obviously a beginner, do you really think whatever energy you poured into this is stronger than me!” For effect, Greed took off his sunglasses and ended his sentence with a sharp, toothy grin.
The mage tried to put on a brave face for a moment, then promptly started loudly crying.
“Oh shit! Hey, listen, it’s okay!” Greed tried to say soothingly. Just then Ed and Al showed up at the end of the alley and ran towards them.
“Greed!” Al exclaimed. “Did you make this little girl cry?!”
“She started it!” Greed insisted.
“Ling?” Ed asked for confirmation.
“She did, in fact, start it. She threatened to do an exorcism on Greed.”
“But that’s great!” Al exclaimed.
“Hey!” Greed protested.
“We’ve finally met someone else who knows about magic!”
“This kid? A mage? Really?” Ed said skeptically.
“Can someone be concerned that this girl was trying to send me back home?!”
“I’m concerned.”
“Thank you.”
Throughout all of this Al was trying to comfort the crying child-mage.
“Hey, it’s okay. We’re not gonna hurt you. We just want to talk.”
“But you’re with a demon!” The child managed through sobbs. “That means you’re the bad guys!” The cat on her shoulder hissed as she said this.
“No no, we’re not bad guys! Listen, Greed may look and act scary sometimes but he wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“But he’s a demon!”
“Who told you that means he has to be evil?”
“… No one” The girl said thoughtfully. “I guess I just assumed.”
“Well he isn’t evil. He’s just… greedy.”
“This is pointless. She can’t have put too much energy into circle, with a little concentration, I should be able to just walk out.” Greed’s eyes went white and the red circuit lines appeared on his skin. He attempted to step out of the circle.
And found that he couldn’t.
He tried again. And again. And again. “Dammit! What the hell are you drawing this much energy from?” He practically snarled at the girl, who, seeing that the demon was indeed trapped, had stopped crying and was now smiling smugly.
“My crystal knives draw energy from the earth itself, you’re not getting out of that circle unless I want you to.”
“That… is that even possible?” Ed asked.
“And can you teach us?” Al added excitedly.
“Hello?! One thing at a time, people, I’m still stuck in a circle!”
“Hey,” Al said to the mage. “What’s your name?”
“May.” The girl replied a little warily.
“Hi, May, I’m Alphonse. That’s my brother Edward, the demon in the pentagram is Greed, and the person Greed’s possessing is Ling. May, I think what you can do is amazing, and me and my brother would be very grateful if you could teach it to us.”
May looked up at Al with wide eyes. “Really?”
“Or you could, y’know, point us in the direction of an actual adult that could teach us.” Ed suggested.
May scowled at him. “You’re not going to find anyone more skilled in the mystical arts than I am.” She said confidently. Ed rolled his eyes.
“I think they’ve forgotten about us completely.” Greed bemoaned.
“I wish we had enough room in here to sit down, this might be a long conversation.”
Greed decided that that would not be the case. “Hey morons! We’re already on our way to go learn magic, and we need to get back home some time before next semester starts!”
“Damn, he’s right.” Al said. “Listen, May, is there any way we could keep in contact with you so we can meet up with you again later?”
“I can give you my phone number and email address!” May answered quickly. Al produced a pen and some scrap paper from his pockets and May neatly wrote out her contact information.
“Great. Now, we do need to get going, so can you please let Greed out of the pentagram?” Al asked.
May looked towards Greed and made a face of disgust. “Are you sure you don’t want me to get rid of him? I can at least try the exorcism.”
Al laughed. “No, trust us, he’s harmless.”
“I resent that!” Greed complained from the pentagram. Everyone ignored him.
“And he’s our friend.” Al added. Greed felt a little bit better after hearing that.
May looked from Greed to Al and back a few times. “Alright. I’ll trust you.” As she said this the crystal knives clattered as they fell over and the glowing pentagram disappeared.
Greed walked over to where Ed and Al were standing. “About time.” He muttered. Again he was ignored.
“Okay, we have to go now, but I’ll text you soon about when we can come back.” Al said to May.
“Okay, I hope it’s soon!”
“Me too, bye.”
“Bye Alphonse!”
As they walked away Ed spoke. “Should we be leaving a little girl alone in the middle of a dimly lit alleyway?”
“I think it’s pretty clear she can handle herself just fine.” Greed pointed out.