I slowly stroked the small chimera on my lap, fingers bumping over tiny, dry scales as they passed them over and over again. It had moved out of my shirt some time ago, leaving a small spot of sweat to cool where it had clung to my chest. At some point as I sat there it must have gotten overheated and crawled out. Instead of running away like I would have expected, it nuzzled up cat-like on my lap and continued its snooze. I scratched its head absentmindedly, not reacting much in the least to its presence. To his credit, Mustang didn’t react either, merely listening to me intently as I told him the entirety of my tale.
Even as a half-hour, then an hour passed, Mustang didn’t waver in his concentration, black eyes never leaving my face as I told him where I came from, what we guessed had h
