Ed was plopped down on a sandy seashore. Man, what a head rush , thought Ed. He picked himself up and dusted himself off, then took a look around.

There was a huge multitude of people standing by the seashore. They had set up a lot of tents. Obviously they were a traveling culture, but they showed no signs of advanced technology, which surprised Ed. He saw a cloud of dust off in the distance. Apparently the people saw it too, because they looked very worried.

Since I'm here, thought Ed, I'd better see if I can find someone that I can talk to. He started to look around for someone that looked like he knew what he was doing, when suddenly the huge crowd of people started running past him. He couldn't do anything but go where they were going. Oh well, thought Ed, maybe I'll still get a clue from where they lead me.

The people stopped just by the sea. They all started shouting insults at someone that he couldn't see. He tried to stand on his toes to catch a glimpse of who they were shouting at, but the people were just too tall.

So, Ed grabbed the person nearest him, who was a girl who happened to be about his size, and said, "What's going on around here? Why is everybody so afraid?"

The girl just looked at him for a moment, and then asked, "Who are you? I've never seen anyone with hair and skin like yours. Are you one of THEM?"

Ed shook his head in disbelief. He had spent so much time with the people of Ishbal that he no longer noticed when someone had a different skin color than he had. "Look," he said, "I don't know who THEY are. I'm from a distant country unknown to you. I just happened upon your camp, and now that I'm stuck in this crowd, I'd like to know what's going on."

The girl looked down and sighed. She then looked back up at Ed and said, "My people were in slavery for many years, and have just gained our freedom. We are trying to return to our native land, but we've been stopped by this sea. Now, our former masters, the Egyptians, are coming after us to try and take us back as slaves!"

Ed looked at the ground, and dug into the ground with his shoe. "I-I'm sorry. I wish there was something I could do to help." What really hurt was that he could have done something to help, had he been on his own side of the gate.

Then, both he and the girl sprang out of their trance as they heard a loud voice shouting from the seashore. Ed couldn't hear most of the words, because the crowd wouldn't stay quiet enough for him. He had to get closer.

"Is there a way to get closer to the front?" Ed asked the girl.

"Maybe, but you'd have a fight on your hands if you tried." Said the girl.

"I need to speak to whoever that is speaking. Could you please show me how to get closer?" asked Ed.

"Okay, if you insist, but I warned you," said the girl, "Follow me."

Ed and the girl wove their way through the people in the crowd. "Watch it, kid!" said one man, gruffly.

"I'm sorry, sir." Said the girl.

"Won't you watch where you're going?" said a woman.

"I'm sorry, excuse us," said Ed.

Finally, they came close enough to see and hear the man who was speaking. An old man was standing by the sea with a staff in his hand, shouting at the multitude. The girl who had led Ed leaned over and whispered in his ear. "That's our leader. His name is Moses. God speaks directly through him."

Ed tried to stifle his scorn of such talk. He'd had to deal with a man pretending to be God back in Lior, and he had gotten pretty hardened to it by now.

Finally, the crowd quieted down enough so that Ed could make out something of what was being said by the old man. He listened carefully, and heard, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord."

Then, the old man turned to face the sea. He lifted his arms up to the sky and recited something that Ed couldn't hear. Then, he lowered his arms, clapped his hands together once, and placed his staff in the water.

All of a sudden, the water split apart and piled up in two huge walls, leaving a clean, dry path in between. Ed felt the intensity of the crowd as they started running past him again, toward that path.

That was definitely an alchemical reaction, thought Ed, but how was it that he had managed to perform alchemy on this side of the Gate? Apparently, Ed realized, alchemy was possible here, but it required a different procedure than the one he had been taught.

Ed waited until the people were all gone and the sea had settled back down to normalcy. He wasn't exactly sure how that old man had done it, but he was going to try. He walked up to the sea, stretched his arms above his head, and muttered something, since he didn't know what the old man had said. Then, he brought his arms down again, clapped his hands together, and touched the water.

Ed waited…but nothing happened. "Darn!" exclaimed Ed. The secret was so close and yet so far away.

Suddenly, he heard a strong wind coming. Oh no, thought Ed, not yet! I haven't figured this out yet. The wind wrapped around him and pulled him up into the air. Higher and higher he went, until he could no longer make out any details of the landscape below. Everything started to grow fuzzy, being drowned out by light.

Ed sighed. "Well, here we go again. I hope that the next stop gives me as big of a clue as this one did."

To be continued...