Misery in the Mountains

Family Tree



The air was comfortable and still. Crickets chirped just outside of the cave, and the river babbled along happily. I could feel the cold rock under me, even through my blanket, and sighed. "Crap," I whispered to myself. I sometimes have the most untimely cases of insomnia, like when I'm leading four strangers through a stretch of dangerous mountains and I need all the rest I can get. But, here I am, wide awake. I sat up slowly, cracking my neck and back before looking into the dwindling fire for moment, its dancing flames dying slowly. "Can't sleep?" asked a voice, and I looked over to see Gojyo sitting against the cave wall, cigarette lit, but I don't think he was actually smoking it.


"Yeah, looks like haven't had much shut eye yourself," I whispered quietly, trying not to wake anyone up, but judging from their snores, I think I was safe. Gojyo looked at me and opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it and closed it again. "How'd you do that to Goku earlier?" he asked.


"Do what?" I asked innocently, but ruined the effect with a grin.


"Smartass, you know what I meant. I've seen that monkey eat enough food in one sitting that could feed the three of us for a week, so how'd you fill him up with two apples?"


I put my finger to my lips , then looked around mock-nervoulsy, and laughed. "I can't tell you, its my grandfather's secret recipe he passed down to me."


"Geez, who was your grandfather, Superman?"


"Nope." I said. "Just Edward Elric from Resembul."


"Elric? Weird name," Gojyo said, and I looked at him. "And Sha Gojyo isn't?" As expected, he ignored me.


"My granddad was a real famous alchemist in his country. In fact, he was a genius, he became a state alchemist at age twelve and was a major in the military because of it." Once again I wished I could have met my grandfather at my age, going on the adventures with his brother that became my favorite bedtime stories. It was a wish that I had always wanted but knew would never come true.


"Never knew my grandparents," Gojyo said casually. "Don't really remember my parents either. "


"Is it cause you have a memory like Swiss cheese, or you don't want to remember them?" I asked. Gojyo glanced over at me, and I had a feeling that I had just delved a little too deep. Oops. I like to learn about people, but I usually go about it the wrong way. "Hey, I'm sorry. Its not my business, didn't mean to pry." I looked outside to see far off the smallest, palest line over the horizon. "Try to get some sleep, Gojyo, sun's waking up in a few hours, and today we're gonna make real tracks."


Gojyo nodded, and without another word laid back down, crushing the cigaratte out on the rocky floor. "How long are we gonna be on this hike?" he asked. "Well, if we factor in the amount of times we stop to rest and feed Goku, we might be looking at another four days."


"What?! You said it would take about four days total!"


"If we cover the same distance we covered today, then yeah, it'll take four days. If we pick up the pace and have fewer lunch breaks, then we might make three days. Better now?"


"Don't tempt me to push you over a cliff," Gojyo said, and I laughed. I'd love to see him try.


We never did go back to sleep. For a while, we simply laid there, listening to Goku's snores, Hakkai's quiet breathing, and Sanzo's sleepily muttered death-threats (yes, even in his sleep he threatened to kill people). I could tell from his breathing that Gojyo was still awake, and don't even think 'oh, he could tell by his breathing he was awake, that's kinda creepy!' I wasn't dwelling on the fact, it was just something I noticed as I watched the pale sunlight brighten the sky.