As a quick summary before the story begins, this story takes place in the Elric's childhood, while Trisha was alive. Neither Edward nor Alphonse have any useful knowledge on alchemy until later chapters. They know alchemy, they've tried it, but they aren't good enough yet to produce much. The story starts when Winry and Ed are 5, and continues until the beginning on Ed's journey to Central. I have artistic license here, so I have full control over what happens in my story. Its starts pretty innocent and slowly contrasts. This story is told in the Author's POV.
Chapter 1: Within the Water
Year: 1904
"Hey Edward!"
"Alphonse!"
Winry's voice echoed through the silence of the countryside. Everyday, the moments that passed just little bit before the strike of noon hour always lead her to this same exact location. A top of the meadow hill, she called for her friends Edward and Alphonse, two young boys who lived nearby. Being neighbours without another soul peering into the distance for several miles, the children would play almost everyday from the breaking of dawn until the hours of dusk. The trio were a close knit group of friends, rarely distanted from one another, often see walking throughout the small village or causing some form of mild mischief. Just like their friendship, it was a rare sight to see Winry not calling out to for the Elric Brothers from the top of this hill everday. Just a typical day in the valley this was, as Winry cupped her hands around her mouth to call again for her friends.
"Ed and Al, where are you?!" She called, glancing eastern and western hoping to spot them. Hoping to see two heads of messy golden hair running through the valley somewhere so that she could catch up and go see them. Hanging out with the Elric Brothers was about one of the only entertaining aspects that Winry's young life in Resembool possessed. At home, she usually played fetch with her dog or took him for walks as another way to relieve herself from boredom which constrained her as she lived temporarily with her grandmother Pinako waiting for her parents to come home from work. They'd only left less than one month ago, but Winry only wished that the two of them would come home already. Being only five years old, it was a lot for Winry to have to be away from her folks for such a long period, only wishing for their return. But other than that, entertainment was scarce in Resembool. Leaving Winry's only source of finding adventure and laughs stemming from Alphonse and Edward's shinanigans.
Without a single sound but the birds chirping and the sheep crying in the distance as her echoes pierced the near noon air, which was rather unusual, Winry slowly walked down the hill and began to walk northern towards the nearing river, a place where she was hoping to at least spot one of the brothers for something to do. Usually, you could hear Edward and Alphonse yelling and playing, but for some reason it was quiet in the valley.
Maybe the two brothers got into a fight?
Often when the two would fight, a person could always find young Alphonse sitting collectively at the edge of the river bed as he stared into the water and thought to himself. Of the two brothers, Alphonse, who was younger but slightly taller, was more of a gentleman and often kept his opinions to himself. Edward on the other hand, was a bit of a loud mouth and nothing slight of a mule for his stubborn attitude. Though both kind in their own ways, their opposite personalities often clashed, leaving Alphonse to sit by himself at the river's shore until Edward came to walk him back home. It would be just about the only place Winry could think of to find the Elrics at a time like this, considering that the boys usually didn't go home to eat lunch before two o'clock on a mildly warm day like this.
As Winry walked, the air of the valley was cool with the sun's rays beating down a warmth onto the path ahead of her. It was too cold of a day for the Elrics to go for a swim in the river, but it was a nice walking temperature. As she slowly wandered closer towards the river, walking up the uphill path that slowly drifted downwards towards the water table below, Winry could hear a faint yelling. It startled her, as she couldn't tell whether it was Edward or Alphonse shouting, but it was definitely one of the boys. Relieved to finally of found them, Winry begins to race down the beaten path, running past the bushes and trees ahead and finally coming into view of the beautiful water. The boys turned their heads upon her arrival, both armed with a branch in each hand as they waved.
"There you two are," Winry scowled. "I've been yelling out for the two of you for the past twenty minutes!" Ed smiled a warming grin.
"Sorry Winry, we got distracted." He smirked. "Me and Al are playing Musketeers." He hands Winry a branch off of the ground next to his foot. "Wanna play?"
Winry hesitated as she reached out to take the stick from Edward's hand. "We're not actually hitting each other with those things, are we?"
"More like just bashing them together like swords and running around." Alphonse said happily. "Come on Winry, come play! Can't be Musketeers if their's only two of us."
"You two were playing just fine a second ago." Winry said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Edward tapped his branch against the ground.
"We were just waiting for you to show up actually. " He mumbled. "Me and Al were just practicing fighting with our branch swords. We're waiting for you so we could head off on our journey to the Resembool Quarry, or as we like to call it, the Cave of the Falma! The evil monster of Drachma!"
Winry and Alphonse seemed excited by Ed's words of encouragement. "When shall we leave here brother?"
Edward puffs up his chest and looks bravely towards the water. "I'd say we leave nigh brother. What say you, oh fair Wnry?" Ed's words suddenly cause Winry to blush as Ed grins at her with a big courageous smile. Edward and Alphonse suddenly began to talk like heroes of the olden days as Winry rose her branch into the air like a musketeer's rapier.
"All for one?" She yelled.
"AND ONE FOR ALL!" The boys chirped in unison, leaving them to clash swords together before the trio walked westernly down the riverbed.
Being only four and five year olds, this type of play was normal to see from the three gold haired youth, who often played games like tag, jax, marbles and explorers all over the countryside. Wandering with their swords beside them, the trio looked around along the river as frogs to their left and right hopped past their feet with birds flying gracefully overhead. As they wandered down the winding river, they soon noticed several miles up stream that the log bridge that helped civilains cross the river seemed, different than usual.
"To the cave, across the bridge oh brother and companion!" Edward said as he pointed his sword towards the somewhat damaged log bridge. "What's this?"
"Isn't this the log that we usually crawl over to get to the quarries, Ed?" The younger Elric asked his dumbstruck brother who looked at the fallen tree with suspiscion.
"Seems to be." Ed answered. "Looks a little bit more, rotted though. I think it's fine though. I mean, we use this bridge every other day. We just used it two days ago for pete's sake." Winry walked over to the log, placing her hand onto it and trying to pull off any kind of bark to see if the tree was rotted or something. It looked like it was just wet from the current, but the middle of the log looked incredibly wet in comparison to the rest of it.
"It looks to me like the log's just full of water." Winry said with a sigh. "You sure it's fine Ed?"
"Looks okay to me." Alphonse said with caution. "Like Edward said, we use this bridge every other day to go play in the woods and in the quarry. I'm sure it's fine."
"Just be careful you don't slip, Winry. Most likely you will." Ed said jokingly as a rouse to slightly get under Winry's skin. She looked at him and sneered.
"Just don't drag me down if you fall in, shorty." Ed bit his lip at her harsh words and walked towards the log, dropping his branch sword and grabbing his brother's hand.
"If we walk together across, it will balance out the weight on both sides of the log if that middle part seems to be rotting a little." Edward pondered. " Once we get to the middle, we need to step over it. Rotted wood can feel like mud if you step in it." Alphonse made a grab for Winry's hand as well, dropping his sword at his feet.
"What about our swords?" Wnry asked their blonde leader, who seemed to have a plan in his sleeve. Edward kicked his sword into the river, causing it make a splooshing sound as it crashed into the clear water.
"Leave 'em. We won't need them. We can always find better ones in the forest ahead."
Carefully taking hand in hand, the three began to slowly cross the bridge. As they quickly found out as Edward stepped onto the log's surface, it seemed that their bridge really was rotting and was just weakly hanging onto each side of the river. Winry began to tense as Alphonse slowly stepped, toe to toe, across the stripped bark, which appeared as slippery as grease beneath their feet. As Edward managed to reach just shy of the middle of the log, he could feel his feet sinking into the soaking wood, causing him to stop.
"Guys..." He whimpered as his throat suddenly tensed with a slow fear that was slowly crushing his airway, "Turn back."
Alphonse looked at his brother with concern. "Why brother? What's wrong?" Ed looked scared all of a sudden, the the log suddenly creaked loudly, striking fear into Alphonse and Winry's hearts. The three moaned with uncertainty as Ed's weight alone was causing the wood to slowly fall inward. Alphonse and Winry stepped back cautiously, slowly pulling Ed back as well. However, Ed's feet were almost submerged in the wood, making it almost like he was stuck in a muddy puddle with his shoes acting as suction cups, preventing his escape.
"I can't move!" Ed panicked as he attempted to lift up his feet to no avail. "Help!"
"Brother!" Al yelled, unintentionally letting go of Winry and grabbing onto his brother's left hand, pulling as hard as he could to help his brother. Beneath them, the log was beginning to break in half, as Winry grabbed onto what she could reach of Ed's hand, trying to help Al pull him out. Under the log, the currents were slowly beginning to move faster, as the time was getting closer striking 2, which was when the rapids would begin to rush downstream from the waterfall about twenty miles north from the valley. It was almost lunch as well for the Elric's and Rockbell's, but the river was too far away for Ed's mother or Winry's grandmother to hear them yelling for help.
"Hang on Ed!" Winry cried as she and Alphonse tried to heave him out of the sinking wood. As they pulled, Alphonse could feel his feet getting pushed in too, followed by Winry who felt the rotted bark slowly anchor her downward. They were all soon trapped, feeling their mass cracking the log beneath them. The water suddenly began to move violently below them, with the currents powerfully pressing against the side of the rotted tree that felt like it was absorbing them. They could feel as the water crashed against the now severely damaged sides of the log that the log was not only about to break, but that it would break with the current that viciously rumbled through the valley, carrying them with it. Knowing of the inevidable, Edward used both of his hands and grabbed both Winry and Al, holding their hands tightly.
"This thing's gonna break!" The older brother screamed as the currents roared loudly beside them. He placed Alphonse's hand onto Winry's wrist. "Alphonse, promise me this. When this thing snaps, hold onto Winry and don't let go! If we all seperate, they'll never be able to find us!" All three of the children looked terrified, but out of all of them, Edward appeared to be the most calm all of a sudden. Alphonse gasps.
"But what about you?!"
"When this log breaks apart, I'm going to be pushed in front of it, while you guys will be thrown behind it!" Edward yelled with a tone of stubborness in his voice. "You need to get WInry to shore and take her home!"
"I'm not going anywhere without you, Brother!" Al screamed, feeling horrified as the final moments of standing on the bridge were ticking closer. "Isn't the motto of musketeers, 'All for one, and one for all?'. I'm not leaving you behind!" Edward gave his brother a calm smile.
"I'm gonna try and keep my hold on this log when it gives way! When you and Winry swim close enough, I'm going to grab you both and pull you up!"
"You're not strong enough, Ed!" Wnry cried, feeling the log begin to break apart. "Grab on to me and Al! Before..." Suddenly as the children heard the roaring of the current surge heavily, a massive current struck the side of the log..
"CRACK! CRACK! SPLOOOOOOOSH!"
...plunging the three children into the cold waters below.
And that is chapter one people. :) This is my first time writing a FMA fanfic of any kind. I'm kind of a new fan to the series so, what do you know, I like it. :D Please Read and Review and continue to the next chapter. I posted them both so you aren't left wondering what happens next.