Ed, Al, And Winry with the Fellowship

Disclaimer: What's with all this disclaimer stuff? Ok, ok, I'll do a disclaimer... (scowls) I write the storyline, not create the characters. They belong to...oh gosh, what's her name? Hiromu Arakawa, that's it! And J.R.R. Tolkien. Him, too. On with the story...

Little did Edward and Alphonse realize, their daring and heroic feat of destroying that which saves and kills, the Gate, only led to the creation of another powerful Gate that dealt not with parallel universes, but with completely different universes altogether.

A few days after the Gate was successfully destroyed, Edward, Alphonse, and Winry were slowly making their way toward Risenbul from Rush Valley.

"Honestly," Winry began as she examined a newly-developed screw, "if you just took better care of your automail like I tell you to every single day, we wouldn't have to make these long journeys all over Amestris."

"Or you could just keep all of your equipment decently stocked in the first place," Ed retorted. Winry shot a glare at him.

"If you wouldn'tconstantly break your arm and take my supplies, we wouldn't even be out here."

Ed gave her an accusing look, but he knew she was right. He was a bit rough on his artificial limbs.

Then it happened. Ed's instincts went into overdrive again.

"Al, look out!" Ed screamed as he flung his right arm over Al's head into the creature he saw out of the corner of his eye. Or so he thought.

The automail arm smashed against a tree in the shadows of a forest. The encasing steel cracked and broke off in bits.

Ed stared in wide-eyed horror at the splintered metal he called his arm. His first instinct (after he'd finally regained control over them) was to run like he had never run in his life. His second instinct was to pretend like nothing had happened and continue to amble on carelessly. Plan C was suicide.

Trying to decide which of the three choices to make, Ed eyed Winry cautiously. He only glimpsed her flaming eyes before quickly averting his gaze back to his broken limb. There goes plan B. It was now either sprint like heck or find a deadly object before Winry could.

He chose A.

"Edward Elric, you get back here!" Winry screamed at the top of her lungs as she took off toward the fleeing body.

Al, watching the festivities from the sideline, could only sigh. "Have they even changed at all?" He mumbled to himself. Even though Ed and Winry were now eighteen, they still had the maturity of two fourteen-year-olds.

Ed glanced back to get a good view of the distance he had put between him and the attacker. Unfortunately, it was less than what he started out with. "Oh d—" Ed began before he plummeted into something obviously in front of him. The force sent Ed flying downward toward the ground.

He looked up to figure out what could possibly have obstructed his path in the middle of the road. Nothing there. He looked down and saw someone lying in the dirt, clutching his head and cursing aloud. Five other figures stood over the fallen man. Three were laughing and pointing at their comrade, and the other two (evidently the intelligent ones of the group) were staring at the one who had slammed into their friend. Or what was presumably their friend.

Four of the five that were standing above the man on the ground had the bodies of children but the faces of young adults. The remaining one standing was tall and slender, with long blonde hair and ears pointed at the tips. And the fallen one couldn't be—

"A dwarf! It's your kin, Ed!" Winry cried joyfully, pointing at the ground and completely ignoring the fact that these people were apparently not human. Not to mention the fact that she had been charging at Ed with every intention of killing him just two seconds before.

Ed tried hard to pretend he hadn't heard Winry's comment, and only managed to subdue his rising temper a little.


I know it's short, I didn't realize it wasn't longer. Oh well. Maybe next chapter will be extra long. It will also pick up RIGHT where this one left off. So, yes, reviews are always appreciated.