Summary:;
Khayal’s mother asks him to take his father’s lunch to the mines. On the way, some of his father’s fellow miners let Khayal know that his father is working in the furthest mine today, number 8. Since it is so far away, he decides to take a shortcut. Concentrated on his task, he completely ran over the young girl. He stops by to find out where she’s from and what she’s doing, but she passes out after declaring that she’s successfully crossed the Great Desert. Khayal ends up sharing his father’s lunch with a starving young stranger. After the meal is finished and Khayal gives a proper thank you, the young stranger introduces herself as May Chang and the little panda companion as Xiao-Mei. Khayal asks why they came so far from there, the Xing homeland. He reveals himself to be searching for the secret of immortality, but before they can continue, there is a loud crash.They head towards the sound and as they get closer they hear that mine number 8 has collapsed. Khayal and May rush to the collapsed mine. Khayal is stopped by another miner from rushing to save his father as the mine continues to collapse. May makes a remark that she doesn’t need to go to the fallen shaft to help them, and then begins to perform an alchemical sequence that ends up restoring the mine. Khayal’s father, Halling, is seen through the cleaning dust helping a fellow miner out of the tunnel. May states that this is her way of repaying Khayal for the food he provided.The group retires to a local inn for food and refreshments, and Halling recounts that this is the second time he has been saved by the alchemist. The first time it was the Elric brothers. May, having heard of Edward’s achievements, decides to seek him out.Back in Rush Valley, Winry, who works for Mr. Garfiel, is about to take a break from work when Ed and Al show up looking for some repairs on Ed’s arm. Again. Paninya, who has just finished repairing the roof, hears a commotion inside and when she enters, expecting to see Ed and Al, she finds a well-beaten Ed on the floor. Apparently because of what Winry gave him for damaging his automail again. As Winry begins to fix Ed’s arm, Paninya and Al sit together. There is talk that Paninya no longer steals for a living, but she has a little trouble convincing people that she really has given up being a thief. During a conversation between Ed and Winry, while she is working on his arm, they learn that the boy’s next stop will be Central, and Winry decides to go with the brothers.While Al and Ed wait for Winry to finish her remaining tasks, they head into town to explore a bit. While there, Al sees something that catches his eye in the alley and goes to investigate. Ed thinks Al has found another stray kitten and asks him if he has and Al says yes. It turns out not to be a kitten, but a young man, and before Ed can tell Al to leave him, he ends up feeding him. He is grateful and after the meal tells that he has come from Xingu to do research on rendanshu, or what is commonly known as alchemy in Amestris. Ed and Al introduce themselves and ask the visitor to show them some examples of his country’s rendanshu, but unfortunately, while interested in the art, the visitor does not practice it. When the boys question this, it is revealed that the visitor is looking for the Philosopher’s Stone. That’s all the brothers need to hear to end their discussion, but when they try to leave, the stranger holds them back with his masked accomplices to hear more about the stone and how he can use it to achieve immortality.