Sparks in the Dark

A little girl with golden hair that was a little longer than shoulder length, grabbed a pair of gloves from a shelf and runs out the door only to run back in and grab a coat.

My name is Denise, Den for short. I am 12, and I look small for my size. My parents died when I was 8. I now study alchemy under Roy Sensei. He was known as the great flame alchemist back in his military days, but he rarely talks about those days. He has lots of pictures, though. I've been studying as his apprentice for about 4 years now, and today he is going to teach me to use these special alchemy gloves. They allow an alchemist to not have to draw a transmutation circle over and over agen. I've been waiting for this day for a while, so I can't believe it's finally here!

She ran down a worn dirt path, through the small end of a forest, and over a small bridge to a cottage. She burst through the door and gasped:

"Sorry I'm late!" as she bowed her head frantically, "I'm really sorry, really I am"

"It's ok, it's ok. Did you bring the gloves?" He sat at a desk while he fiddled with a pocket watch. He usually was either looking at an old picture or playing with that watch. Many times, Den had wondered what the watch meant to him and what the pictures signify but she never summoned up the courage to ask him. She was shy.

"Ahh…" She felt her pockets and dug through her bag a few times and then checked the inside pockets of her coat and found them. "Ah yes, I have them!" she said, relieved as she pulled them out of the pocket.

"Good. Let me see them." She handed him the gloves and he examined the markings on the back. Ooh I hope I did it right. She closed her eyes and clenched her fist. "Good, I think your ready to go out back." Her eyes lit up and a smile grew on her face as if the world was her own.

"You mean it? You really mean it?!" She took the gloves from him and looked at them. She had been working on them for a while. This was the 11th pair she had made. I can't believe it! Now, I can become a flame alchemist just like Roy Sensei! She darted out the door rounded the corner and went to the back where she would train. It had almost any thing you could think of. Almost every mineral you would need for anything was there. It was a large space and towards the back was a gun range but Den never really went over there. She didn't even know why Sensei even had it back there. He said that one day he wanted to use it as an excuse. But for what? Roy Sensei doesn't even have a gun. She didn't care, all she wanted was to learn how to be as great as Roy Sensei.

But one day she did ask him about it:

"Um…Roy sensei?"

"Yes"

"Why is that gun range there?"

Roy stood up and looked at it. "It's as an excuse. I built it to use it as an excuse for something."

"Did you ever use it?"

"No" He laughed a little. Den looked up at him. That wasn't really the reply I was looking for. It doesn't matter. She just went on working.

Now I remember! In almost every picture there was a girl, and she always had some sort of gun with her. Come to think of it she was always at Roy Sensei's side... I wonder if that's who he built it for. I'll ask him later.

She put the gloves on and extended her arm. She focused on a small log that Sensei had placed in the center of a dirt field. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She snapped her fingers and out came a red flash that left a scorch mark on the stump.

"I-I did! Roy Sensei! Look I did it! Uh... Roy Sensei?" She looked around. Usually Roy Sensei would follow behind her, but he was no where to be seen. She retraced her steps back into the cottage. She peeked into the keyhole and saw that he was on the phone. She couldn't help but eavesdrop.

"Hello?...Yes, this is Roy…Oh, Hey Jean!….No, I haven't…. Yeah I know…. I-I cant, I gave up on her. I couldn't face her now….No, she doesn't….Okay.. Fine Ill think about it….Bye" He hung up. "That was an old friend." He turned around and looked to the door. He knew she was there , She instantly turned bright red. "It's okay, I knew you were there. Come in here, I want you to do some thing for me." Den slowly opened the door and walked up to Roy, he put his hand on her head and smiled.

"Okay, now this is what I want you to do," He pulled out a small picture of a girl that that had golden hair like hers, but it was pinned up. She had a small dog with her. It was the girl from all of the pictures. "I want you to take this to her. Her name is Riza Hawkeye." He gave her a small box that was tied tightly with string, there was a transmutation circle on the bottom She looked at it for a minute then put it in her brown bag that hung down from her shoulder.

"But how do I fined her Sensei?"

"She works at a gun range in the town, training soldiers. She should be there" He watched Den take off her gloves and put them in her coat pocket. "Now, go if you want to make it home before dark. You don't have to come back here today because it is a long trip to the town." She took off with out a word.

To be continued in chapter 2!

Hay, this is Moki! Thanks for reading sparks! I started this a long long time ago but one day I was going through files on my computer and found it! So I started it up agen . I know the first chapter is really short but the 2ed chapter it twice the size…. But its good non the less ( well at least I hope its good) I welcome Ideas and subjections coz I do some times get stuck and don't know what to do.

and a big thank you to kisa! my eddtor now hopefuly its not so full of spelling errors...