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She closed her eyes for just a moment, wincing with pain as the doctor applied yet another bandage to stem the flow of blood from her throat. Rebecca's voice faded away, indistinguishable

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At this point, Riza sorely wished her training had included jungle survival. In cities and the desert, she could navigate herself fairly well, but here every tree looked the same. Finally she started using a rock to mark the trees that she had already passed, but that would only tell her if she was going in circles. It wouldn't help her find water or humanity.

She heard footsteps and whirled around, coming face to face with a man carrying a spear. He looked almost like an Ishbalan, except without the red eyes. His posture was non-threatening, but the spear made her wary. She immediately took a few steps back and held up the rock, ready to throw it at him.

"What is this place?" she asked. "How did I get here?

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The man did not seem threatened by her -- understandable, as Riza did not much feel like a threat at the moment -- nor did he seem inclined to attack. But Riza remained in a defensive position as she listened to his explanation. Tabula Rasa -- the blank slate, if she remembered her father's alchemical studies correctly. The name had an ominous ring to it.

The offer of doctors and medical facilities sounded almost too good to be true. It was hard to believe any kind of real civilization could exist in this jungle.

"How was I brought here?" she asked, not moving. The wound on her neck throbbed, but she wouldn't budge until she got a few more answers.

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Riza liked the sound of this place less and less. But her vision began to swim, and she could feel the blood leaking out of her makeshift bandage.

"These medical facilities," she said, caving just slightly. "Who runs them?"

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"What do you mean by magic?" Riza didn't believe in magic. In order to get something, you had to sacrifice something of equal value. Equivalent exchange. As powerful and inhuman as the things alchemists could do were, that was the core principle of alchemy.

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Riza hesitated. She was suspicious of this "magic," and she did had no reason to trust this man. But her wound needed a doctor; there was no getting around that. She did not care to find out what it felt like to bleed to death, or more likely, to get an infection.

She clutched the rock, allowing herself a brief moment to long for her gun. Then, stoically, she gestured for the other man to lead the way.

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Riza kept a wary eye on him and his spear as they walked. She would have given her name in turn, but the mention of his 'human' name brings her to a halt.

"Your human name?" she asked, her body tense. He wasn't homunculus; he couldn't be homunculus. King Bradley had been human once... Instinctively she cast her eye around for something she could use as a weapon, something stronger than a rock, even as she knew she had no hope. The homunculi had been immune to bullets; it had taken the power of the Colonel's flame alchemy to kill them. She was less than powerless, and he already had a weapon.

Only the fact that he had made no threatening movements towards her yet kept her from fleeing into the jungle, but it was a slim thread.

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What he said made perfect sense, of course, but Riza had a hard time trusting it. It took her some moments, but she boxed the fear away, sealing it up as tightly as she could. It was not her best effort, but it was enough to get her feet moving once more.

"How far do we have to go?" she asked.

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"I'm fine," she said, though her legs were sore and her vision a little dizzy. Weakness was not something she admitted to strangers. And wherever he was taking her, she wanted to get there as soon as possible.

"Can you share your story as we walk?" she asked.