AN: This is my first fanfic, go easy on me. Constructive criticism would be nice. Anyways, onto Woods of Song

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA. I do own Mountain's Shadow. At least, I think I do. O.o

Woods of Song

Chapter 1 – Another Assignment

That spring day started out as usual. Hughes shoved dozens of pictures of a five year old Elysia in Ed's face while he poured over books on the philosopher's stone. Riza Hawkeye would search him out in the library as usual to refer a couple of books that she had come across. However, today was different. After giving Ed a book on the stone to look over, she said something rather unexpected.

"Mustang wants to see you."

Ed stared blankly at her, then closed his book with a snap.

"What does that know-it-all jerk want now?" Ed asked, annoyed and curious at the same time.

"He wouldn't say." Hawkeye replied. "Although it's probably another assignment."

"Fine, fine, fine." Ed muttered to himself. He replaced one of the many books littering the floor back on its shelf and went to go out the door to find Hawkeye gone.

Not giving it another thought, Edward Elric proceeded down the hall towards Mustang's office. He stopped when he heard a slight snuffling behind him. He turned around to come face to face with a rather large black and white dog. Hawkeye must have ordered her dog to make sure that Ed went straight to Roy's office.

"Stupid mutt." Ed said to himself.

The door to Mustang's office slammed, and the black haired Lieutenant Colonel looked up from his paperwork to find Ed huffing and puffing with his back against the door. The distinct growling and barking of a mad hound could be heard through the door. It stopped after about five minutes and Ed breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he looked up at Mustang.

"You really have to quit insulting that dog Edward." Mustang said, going back to his paperwork.

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever. You wanted to see me?" Ed said, thoroughly irritated now.

"Yes. I need you to go make an assessment of a town for me. It's called Mountain's Shadow." Mustang said, not looking up from his paperwork.

"Mountain's Shadow huh? Never heard of it. When do I leave?" Ed asked, now obviously annoyed that he had to go do a stupid assessment.

"Tonight."

"WHAT!"

"Tonight. Do you need hearing aids on top of stilts FullMetal?" Mustang quipped, amused at Ed's reaction. "I already have your train tickets. You're lucky, there were only two seats left."

Ed was practically hopping mad now, but he knew that he couldn't do anything about it. He hastily grabbed his assignment papers and stormed out the door, heading to the nearest payphone.

"WHAT!" Winry was obviously upset.

"I'm sorry Win, but you know that I can't disobey Mustang."

"Ed, we've been planning this for weeks. A nice dinner in a nice restaurant, together for once, and you have to go away when it's tomorrow!"

"Winry, please don't be mad. I just can'…..Winry….WINRY!" A dull buzz was all that answered Ed.

The train seemed bumpier than usual as it sped east, the sun sinking low behind it. Ed sat glumly with his head pressed against the window, still mad at Mustang for putting him on this stupid mission. A man sat across from him, and a woman bouncing a young boy on her knee sitting next to him. Al sat next to Ed, a bit uncomfortable as always in his armor.

"Sooooo…." The man said, leaning a bit towards Edward. "Where are ya headin'?"

"Mountain's Shadow." Ed replied, not lifting his head from the cool window.

"Oh, you must be going to see the sisters." The woman said, smiling at Ed.

"Sisters, what sisters? They nuns or something?" Ed asked, finally looking at the couple.

"Oh no, nothing like that." The man replied. "You see, there are four of them. And they all are alchemists. Each one is more powerful in a certain element. One's for air, another for fire, another for water, and another for earth."

"Then they're just regular alchemist, aren't they?" Al inquired.

"Well, not really. It's not them that's so special, but what they've done. You see, Mountain's Shadow is like any town. You've got your people, your tourist shops, your farms, but you've also got a ton of industry up there. The industry was pretty much killing the town, poisoning the air and water, the farmers' crops died, and everyone started to leave, making the town really poor."

"Dang…I'm surprised anyone's still there." Ed said, returning his head to the coolness of the window.

"They're there because of the sisters. There's a wood next to Mountain's shadow, and that's where the fabled sisters live. Practically no one's seen where they live, they just know that it's there. Anyways, they cleaned the place up. The water sister cleans up the water supply every month or so and helps when there are droughts, the air sister cleans up the air regularly, the earth sister helps the farmers with their crops, and the fire sister comes about when winter rolls in. Without them, Mountain's Shadow wouldn't exist."

"Interesting. We'll have to pay them a visit." Ed said, no longer wondering why Mustang sent him. If these sisters were as powerful as the man suggested, then the military would naturally want to keep an eye on them.

"You're in luck, since it's spring, you might get to see either the air or earth sister, if you're lucky." The woman said.

"Either? If you only see them one at a time, then wouldn't you assume that they're the same person?" Al asked.

"Oh no, they've got very distinct qualities about them, although no one has seen the earth sister for certain. Many claim to, but then they have always seen her in the fields at night, on the full moon."

AN: Well, there we are. My first attempt. Again, Please RR, I would appreciate it. Look for "Woods of Song, Chapter 2: Mountain's Shadow".