Finally got around to updating this one… Enjoy!

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Several hours had passed, and Ed was now doodling in the dirt with his right hand. He was the only one awake, having been asleep throughout the boat ride and such. He yawned as the sunlight began to fade. Nighttime was quickly approaching.

He began to space out as he doodled. After a while, he realized he had drawn a transmutation circle on the ground. He shook his head and wiped it away. "Wish you were here, Al," he muttered as the cavern grew dark. He heard voices on the other side of the rock wall he had made.

"The tracks end here, at the base of the cliff. It looks like they were standing around for a while, too."

"You don't think they climbed up there, do you? Especially with that boy not being able to move."

"There's a chance of it. Let's go back to the ship and get some rope."

"Hold on, if we go back, we could lose the trail, especially with those clouds up there. I think it's going to rain soon."

"Fine, we'll just have to do without."

Ed was absolutely silent as the two humans outside began scaling the Cliffside. Ed saw a flash of light through one of the holes. One of the two had a torch precariously gripped in his teeth. He paused when he saw the hole, and looked inside. Ed moved out of his view just in time, pulling Yuri out of sight as well.

"Hey, what are you stopping for?"

"There's a cave down here. Pretty big one, too."

"Well, there's no way they'd be able to get in through those tiny holes, so just forget about it."

Ed breathed a silent sigh of relief as the man continued on his way, and looked down at Yuri. There was still a minimal amount of torchlight coming in through the hole, and it reflected on Yuri's eyes. "You know, you can let go now," the Demon King said as he sat up. Ed stepped back and tripped over his feet. He fell back with a thud and a startled cry, which he cut off as soon as he remembered that there were people looking for them. The two held their breaths as they listened for a sign that Ed had been heard.

"What was that?" came a voice from above.

"Probably some animal in the woods. Just ignore it."

"No, it sounds like it came from inside that cave down there."

"Then it's probably some animal that lives there. You don't honestly think that those demons are in there, do you?"

"Remember what they said? That human has powers. He could easily have made that into a hiding place for them."

Ed wanted to bang his head on a wall, but he didn't want them to hear him, so he refrained from doing so. He stood quietly, looking up at the holes as Yuri shook Josak awake. The three of them waited in silence for something to happen, Ed and Josak both prepared to fight to defend themselves. Yuri had a sword, but he held it with uncertainty.

After a while, the two humans gave up and continued on their way. Ed breathed a silent sigh of relief and gently lowered himself to the ground. There was a long silence in the cave as they waited for the humans to get out of hearing range.

Josak sighed and turned to face Ed in the darkness. "Okay, we got lucky that time, but try to be more careful, okay?"

"Yeah."

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Ed woke up with a start the next morning. Something was very wrong. He heard voices, but not ones he recognized. He tried to sit up, but something was stopping him, and as far as he could tell, he had been blindfolded.

After a moment, he could hear Yuri's voice. He sounded as confused as Ed felt. Ed tried to shift so that he could move the blindfold away, but he couldn't. He called out to Yuri, hoping that there would be an explanation for this situation. Instead, Ed felt a foot go into his chest.

"Hey, this one's awake."

"Well, make sure he can't escape and get him on the horse. We have to get out of here anyway."

"Yes, ma'am."

Ed felt someone pull him to his feet. Whoever it was forced him to walk forward, which was hard, since his right leg didn't seem to be working very well. They put him on a horse and left him there for a moment. Then someone got on behind him and grabbed the reins. Ed felt very ridiculous, but he couldn't do anything about it. He had lost control of his muscles once again.

After a while, they stopped, and Ed felt someone pull him off the horse. He stumbled forward as the person guided him to wherever they were going. Finally, they stopped, and someone took the blindfold off. Ed looked around. They were in a house. There were several people around him, including Yuri. One of them spoke to Yuri.

"So what is this human doing with you, your majesty?"

"Ah, he's a friend of mine. He agreed to help me find what I'm looking for."

"You're trusting a human?"

"Yes. I trust him."

The man shook his head. "Well, even if you trust him, it doesn't mean that he is worthy of being trusted. If we hadn't found you this morning, then you would have been caught for sure."

"But that's not his fault. He's as much of a fugitive as we are."

Ed was getting rather sick of them talking as if Ed weren't in the room, but he could barely move, and he had a blade at his neck, so he decided to let Yuri handle this.

"Your majesty, if he's a spy, then he could easily be here to kill you, or worse, hand you over to the humans. We have to do something with him."

"Like what? You aren't planning on killing him, are you?" Yuri asked angrily.

There was a brief silence. All the adults in the room had strange expressions on their faces. Ed began to worry that they were indeed planning on killing him. Finally, the one demon spoke again.

"No, not if you want him alive, but we will have to keep him under a strict guard. I'm sorry, your majesty, but it's for the best."

Yuri looked at Ed with a pained expression on his face. "Very well. Just… be nice to him, okay?"

"Of course."

They sat Ed down in a corner and brought chains out. Ed noted that they had enough sense to not allow his hands to come together. Once he was firmly chained down, the demons stepped back to look at him. "That should be fine," one of them said, and the group dispersed.

After a while, Yuri walked over to Ed and sat down next to him. "Sorry about this."

"What happened?" Ed asked.

"Apparently we got so off course that we ended up back in the Demon Kingdom. Someone found those humans and heard about us from them."

"So what now?"

"For now, we're going to stay here. Someone sent a message to Gunter, and he's going to come down here as soon as he can."

Ed was quiet for a while. "Yuri, I'm almost afraid to ask, but…"

"Where are Conrad and Wolfram? I don't really know." Yuri looked at the ceiling. "They were probably still on the ship we got taken off of, but they might have been captured, or…"

"I see."

"We'll have to look for them too."

Ed nodded. It was quiet for a while. Josak was standing nearby, but everybody else had dispersed, leaving the three of them alone in the room.

"Hey, Ed?" Yuri asked quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you admit that there wasn't anything inside that armor? You could have hidden it for a while."

"Yeah, I could have, but what good would that have done? You would have found out eventually, and trying to hide it would have made us look even more suspicious. I figured it was better to be honest."

Yuri paused. "So, you can bond a soul with alchemy? Is it difficult?"

"Yeah, it takes a lot of knowledge, and you have to pay a price."

"A price? Like what?"

Just then, someone came over to the two of them. "Come on, your majesty, we have food ready."

"Oh, thank goodness, I'm starving." Yuri stood up and walked away. As he got to the door, he looked back at Ed. "Um…"

"Don't worry about him. We'll get him food in a moment."

"Right…"

Ed never did get any food.

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The next day passed peacefully, and Yuri went to bed late that night. He had only been asleep for an hour when someone shook him awake. It was Gunter. Gwendal was standing a fair distance behind him.

"Come on, your majesty. We're heading out now."

"Now? But it's the middle of the night!"

"Yes. We're close to the border, so it would be best to travel at night for a while."

Yuri nodded and stood up. They walked quietly through the house to the door. "Wait, what about Ed?" he asked, stopping in the doorway.

"That human? We're leaving him here," Gwendal replied.

"Why?"

"Why do you want him with us?"

"Because he can help us."

Gunter looked from Gwendal to Yuri, and finally at where Ed was sleeping in the corner. "It can't hurt to have him with us," he said as he walked over to Ed. "Besides, I have a feeling that he won't be welcome here once the Demon King has left."

Gunter gently shook Ed awake and got rid of the chains. As they walked out of the building, Yuri noticed that Ed's hands had been tied together.

"It's just a precaution, your majesty. Also, it would be best if Edward were to appear as a prisoner while we're in the Demon Kingdom. Besides, if an emergency arises, he can easily work around such restraints, right?"

Ed nodded. "That wouldn't be much of a problem."

"Good."

They got on horses and rode into the night.

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Yeah, I know it's short… but it's something, right?