SORRY SORRY SORRY!!! Ember's a day late. She REALLY meant to post this yesterday... it just didn't work out. She's also sorry for the cliffie... kinda.

Insanity Is Iminent-- YAY! Thank you very much for your kind review! As for the rock... lol. It was supposed to drive people insane. Especially Sarah. Because she's a researcher, and hates not knowing much about what it is. Or rather, the secret it contains. The rock is... just that. A rock. But soon...

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 6

While Sarah was fending off her attackers, Edward was dealing with four men himself. However, his fight was much easier than Sarah's because of his greater experience, and soon the four men were on the ground, unconscious.

At first he relaxed a little, but then he grew even tenser than he had been before the attack. Four men had attacked him. In all likelihood, if he had been attacked, there were others after Sarah.

And she was conveniently asleep in their campsite.

Edward muttered a string of curses and sprinted back to the campsite, hoping he was wrong and no one else was there.

Of course, he was right. There were four men there, too. However, one was already down and Sarah was dealing fairly well with the other, kicking out to keep him from getting close enough to do severe damage to her. Her staff was lying on the ground, presumably forgotten, next to a spear that had been bent out of shape, and a forming bruise on her face and more on her arms was a testament to a hard fight.

However, while she was doing well, she was only able to hold him off. If she tried to attack, he would use his superior strength to defeat her. She was probably already tiring. She needed help—the sooner, the better.

And so Edward crept up behind the remaining two men, dispatching them with quick, precise blows.

Before he could turn to help Sarah with her current attacker, she screamed. Whipping around, he noticed that the man had grabbed her arms and pinned her to the nearest tree. Then the two fighting noticed that someone else had arrived, and the man who had been fighting Sarah shifted his attention.

It was the only advantage Sarah needed. Wrenching herself out of his formerly strong grip, she picked up her staff and swung it, connecting solidly with the man's head. He went down and stayed down. Then Sarah collapsed.

Edward was far more concerned about Sarah than he was about her attacker, and so he ignored him and rushed to make sure she was alright. She was out cold, but she wasn't hurt too seriously—just bruises on her arms and a rather spectacular-looking black eye. The fight had drained her, though, and she needed to rest.

Relieved, Edward began packing up their campsite. It was probably a good idea to keep moving, to get away from their attackers in case they regained consciousness before he and Sarah would move out the next morning.

He couldn't carry their gear and Sarah, so he had to wake her up. "Sarah," he whispered, shaking her shoulder gently.

Her eyes snapped open and she kicked out, landing a blow on his shin before she realized who it was. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she whispered. "I thought you were one of them."

"It's okay." He winced, rubbing his shin. "Anyhow, I figured we should leave, even if it isn't morning yet. Those men won't wake up when it's convenient for us."

She nodded, though he could barely see it in the dark, and stood, gathering the things she normally carried and consulting her compass. "We should go that way," she muttered, pointing.

"You can actually read that thing when it's this dark?"

"Yeah. I've read harder things than a compass in the dark before. I guess I have good night vision."

She didn't just have good night vision, she had amazing night vision. He shook his head and began walking in the direction she had indicated. "We'll just go until we find the next place we can camp, alright?"

"Yeah. Oh, and one more thing. You're teaching me to fight when we have time."

"Glad you finally realize that that's important for people like us," Edward commented.

Due to the hour, they said little else as they moved. They were both exhausted after a day of walking through the woods and a night spent fighting. Luckily, though, they soon stumbled upon another clearing, one that was fairly large.

Unluckily, the sun was starting to rise. Sarah groaned and muttered, "I'll never be able to sleep now."

Edward looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"The sun's up," she grumbled. "As soon as the sun comes up, I generally can't go to sleep."

Edward winced. "That sounds bad."

"Oh, it is. You wouldn't believe the number of times I've spent all night researching and then had to stay awake the whole day after, simply because I couldn't sleep." Suddenly she broke off, staring past Edward's shoulder.

Were there more people about to attack them? Edward spun around, but he saw nothing. He faced Sarah again. "What is it?"

Sarah continued to stare, moving slowly towards a boulder in the center of the clearing. She reached the boulder and examined it. "I think we just found it," she replied, half-whispering.

~*~*~

On the boulder Sarah was staring at so intently were markings that she almost hadn't recognized. Then she remembered in her research that she had come across a strange language she hadn't encountered before. This matched the markings used in that language.

This was what they had been looking for, of that she was certain. But what exactly was it? That remained to be seen.

She ran to where she had dropped her pack, exhaustion forgotten, and rummaged for a notebook, a pen, and a dictionary she had created as she decoded the strange new language. That would make translation go so much faster.

She bent over the boulder, slowly deciphering what was written. Edward apparently knew better than to interrupt. This was a delicate stage in the process, and an interruption could destroy her train of thought, forcing her to start from the beginning.

When she finally translated what it said, making sure to write it down in her notebook, she wished she hadn't.

Having noticed that she had finished the translation, Edward asked, "So, what does it say?"

Trying to keep her fear out of her voice, she replied, "One of us has to transmute the stone without using a transmutation circle. Even if we draw one, it won't last long, not on this type of stone, and it warns against trying to draw one around the thing."

"Well, that's easy enough. So what's bothering you?"

"The 'without using a transmutation circle' part."

Edward chuckled. "That's it? You don't like to transmute without drawing the circle?"

Ashamed of her silly fear, Sarah nodded.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you're going to have to transmute this stone. You know far better than I do what the end product is supposed to be, and you're better with transmuting stone than I am anyway."

Sarah stood over the stone, trying to mentally prepare herself for the transmutation.

Suddenly she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. Edward was behind her, supporting her, lending her strength. Not alchemical strength, but a sort of confidence in herself she hadn't known she possessed. "You can do this," he whispered in her ear. "How hard can it be for the Earthen Alchemist to transmute a stone?"

That kind of sarcastic humor was typical of him, she had learned. He just wanted her to believe she could do this. And it was working. Filled with a newfound strength and confidence, Sarah clapped her hands together and touched the stone. The transmutation began.

~*~*~

As Edward watched over Sarah's shoulder, the boulder became sand and slid down a set of stairs that had been hidden under it.

Whatever they had come here for was waiting for them at the end of those stairs.

Slowly, but without any hesitation whatsoever, Edward and Sarah went down the stairs and found a small room bare of everything except a small table with an old book on it.

Sarah continued on to the table, where she examined the book. "This will take a long time to translate, but I think this is what we came for."

"No, it can't be. It's not like there's nothing else here," Ed muttered sarcastically, but he too was excited that they had found what they were looking for.

Together they went back up the stairs and Sarah transmuted the pile of sand back into a boulder that looked exactly as it had when they arrived. "Your attention to detail is amazing," he commented.

"What can I say? It comes to you when you spend most of your time poring over musty old books trying to make connections between vague references here and there," she said, slightly pink in the face, as she gently put her notebooks and the book they had taken from the room in her pack.

They had spent longer than he had thought in that room. The sun was almost directly overhead, from what he could see through the trees. "We should probably keep moving. If we keep going in the same direction we came to get here, how quickly can we be out of this forest?"

"Um, I think we can be out of here by the end of two days if we move fast enough. It's not like we're moving slowly, searching through every clearing anymore."

"Let's get going, then. The less time we spend here, the better."

"Agreed." And they moved out, walking faster and talking now that they had reached their goal, moving much as they had at the start of the journey, except for the addition of sparring every morning. Like at the start of their journey, time seemed to fly, and all too soon they were out of the forest and walking back toward the train station. Sarah had underestimated their determination to leave the forest—they had reached the station, not the edge of the forest, by twilight.

Suddenly an idea came to Edward. "Sarah?"

She turned to him. "Yes?"

"While I'm out of Central, do you mind if we pay a visit to my brother? I haven't actually seen him in a while, and I think I should. After all, I don't know when I'll be out of Central again."

"Of course! You said he was in Risembool, right?"

Edward was stunned at her memory. "You remember that? I think I only mentioned it once in passing."

"Of course. You never know what you'll need to remember one day, so I try to remember everything I can. Anyway, that's in the East Area, right? Let's go!"

And so, instead of going to Central and staying there, after the night-long ride to Central they snuck onto a train bound for the East Area.

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Heehee. Sarah got a rock. Or rather, a musty old book that was inside a rock. But that just doesn't have the same ring to it as the line from that Charlie Brown Halloween special that always finds its way into Ember's life somehow... "I got a rock."

Ember's just a little bit hyped up on sugar right now... in case the world couldn't tell.

In any case, the next chapter? Total authoress gratification with minimal action action. Just the fun stuff XD. Just as a warning. It's a long one, too... *examines* Wow.

And Ember won't be LATE next time, either. Oh how she hated herself for that... But please review anyway, even if you hate her too?

Ember and Rags to Riches--the mutant penguins, as an engagement present to each other, have made the first moves in taking over the WORLD using an army of sporks. Fear us. Or love us. We really don't care which.

PS. Rags to Riches says if you try to fight against us you'll be roasted in a bonfire on a beach in late August. Violent, isn't she?