Chapter 2
"Terra, most of the things I told you were lies." Ed said, slumped over in shame. He obviously thought I was going to hate him and leave him, but he was wrong.
"Ed," I sighed, annoyed he could think such a thing, "You have your reasons for lying, I understand that, but could you tell me the truth now?" When he jerked his head up to meet my gaze I saw so many things in those golden orbs. Shock, fear, hope, sadness, he was giving away all his emotions through his eyes.
"Yah, the part about my dad leaving is true, and so is my mom dieing but my brother didn't die. You see here in this world we have alchemy, and me and my brother studied it. When our mom died we were convinced we could bring her back using alchemy. We trained hard learning all we could and when we felt we knew enough, we tried human transmutation, but it all went horribly…" Ed trailed obviously having a hard time telling the story. I rubbed his back comfortingly, waiting patiently for him to continue when he was ready.
After a few minutes he began his story again. "When Al and I tried the human transmutation, we ignored the rule of equivalent exchange: in order to gain something of equal value must be lost. We thought we had nothing left to lose but we were wrong." Ed took of his sweatshirt and pulled up his left pant leg, revealing a metal right arm and left leg. "I lost my leg and Al lost his whole body, then to bring my brother back I gave my right arm to attach his soul to a suit of armor."
I just stared. I was trying to comprehend everything Ed had said. Alchemy, human transmutation, attaching a soul to armor! This was all very new to me, and I didn't know how to react to it. I was glad when he kept going with his story.
"After a while Al and I discovered the Philosophers Stone, the stone that had the power to give anyone who wields it the ability to gain without sacrifice, to ignore the rules of equivalent exchange. We wanted to use it to get Al's body and my arm and leg back." Ed scowled. "I know now how wrong that idea was."
"Why? What happened, and how did you get to my world?" I asked. This barely made any sense to me. I wanted to know what happened to him, why he was hurt so badly. He was about to start his story again when I started shaking. What was happening?
"Terra, are you ok? What's wrong, why are you shaking like that?" Ed panicked. He grabbed me trying to make me stop shaking. Then his eyes widened as he looked at me. "Terra you're, you're starting to fade! No please don't leave me!" He screamed as he held tighter onto me, not wanting to let me go.
"Ed I promise you, I'll find a way back, no matter how long it takes." Then suddenly I woke up. There's no way that could have been a dream, it was too realistic. I could still feel his grip on my arms. It had to be real, there had to be a way I could get to him.
The next night I laid in my bed. Through the day I had figured out that we could probably communicate through my dreams, and I wanted to get to sleep as soon as possible. I closed my eyes and willed myself to fall asleep. Then I appeared in a strange room. After looking around I realized Ed was sitting on a couch on the other side of the room. I started walking over to it.
"Ed," I whispered, "Ed! I can't believe I'm back!" I exclaimed. When he turned around to see me he jumped up and pulled me into a hug.
"You're back! I thought I had lost you! What happened? How did you get back here?" Ed questioned. We went and sat on the couch he was previously sitting on.
"First of all can you tell me where we are?" I asked.
"We are in a town called Central, and this place is my friend Roy's house. After you disappeared I went into Central and bumped into Roy. After he got over the fact that I was back he offered to let me stay here and I couldn't decline. It's only been a half an hour since you left, and apparently only a year after I left."
"After you left?"
"Yah I still haven't gotten to that part of my story yet. I'll tell you but first you have to tell me how you got back."
"Ok so after I disappeared I woke up and it was morning. All throughout the school day I was trying to figure out how I got to your world when I realized it must have been through my dreams. So that's how I got back, right now I'm asleep in my world." I explained. "Now you're turn"
"Ok. The world we are in now is a completely different world. See there's this thing called the gate, and its basically the portal from this world to yours. I first saw the gate when me and my brother tried to bring back our mother through human transmutation."
"Human transmutation?" I said.
"Yes. You see in this world there's a thing called alchemy. Here I'll show you" He walks over and picks up a glass then drops it. Then he takes his hands and claps them together just like he would in our P.E. class and puts them to the ground. I gasp as I see a blue light and all the pieces of the glass meld together and form back into the glass.
"That…that's amazing!" I said, still slightly shocked by what I just saw.
"Yes it is an amazing thing, but human transmutation is alchemy's biggest taboo. Our mother had fallen ill and died. We thought we had lost everything, so we decided to try human transmutation. We studied alchemy for years, enduring hard training. When we decided we were ready we gathered all the ingredients that make up a human body and started. What we did instead of bring our mother back was open the gate. That's when I saw the truth, and that's how I can perform alchemy without a transmutation circle. The gate took my brothers body and my left leg, then I gave up my right leg in order to save my brother, and I attached his soul to a suit of armor." He pulled off his coat and pulled up his left pant leg. "See I have automail for an arm and leg.
"Wow you must have gone through some hard time. I bet you're glad to be back here with your brother and all your friends."
"Yeah. Although I don't know where Al is, Roy said he had gone to visit my old friend Winrey in our home town of Resembool."
"Really? We should go and visit him so I can, meet, him…but I don't know how much time I have left before I wake up in my world. Ed I want to stay here with you. I want to see all the places you've been and maybe go to some new ones, but I don't know how to get here permanently." I said.
"I want you to stay here to. In the half an hour you were gone I was trying to figure out a way to get you here, and I think this might work." He pulled out a paper that had a big circle and some triangles and circles inside of it. "This is a transmutation circle. I don't know if it will work in your world but if you smear a little of your blood on your hands it might. And I think there's a good chance it will because you have such a strong connection with this world." He hands me the transmutation circle and pulls me in for a hug. Just then I start to shake and fade, I'm waking up in my world. "Please, come back soon, there's so much I want to show you."
"Don't worry I'll be back." Then I wake up. I look in my hand and the transmutation circle is still there. This was a good sign. I put it down on the ground and go and get a knife. When I come back I prick my thumb and smear blood on my hands, then I put my hands down on the circle. At first nothing happened but then a blue light filled the room and engulfed me. Next thing I knew I was back in Roy's place standing right where I had been, and Ed was right in front of me.
"Well that didn't take long." He said, "It worked! Now I can show you all the things in this world, and maybe even teach you alchemy.'
"Ed, this is wonderful!" I get pulled into his arms and I couldn't be any happier. "I love you Ed." He pulls back a little and looks down at me, and I look up at him.
"I love you too Terra." Then he leans down and places a gentle kiss on my lips.
