Previously: Scourge escaped from an attack by Mustang. Meanwhile, Ed, Al, and Kane set off to find a map that'll guide them on their journey, leaving Mei behind at the camp site.
Oh, and in case you couldn't tell by the title, this chapter is inspired by Indiana Jones, one of the few guys who can make a fedora look awesome.
Chapter Nine: Indiana Elric
Ed, Al , and Kane followed the map to where the second map was supposed to be, they had been walking for two hours in the jungle. With Mei waiting at the camp site, they didn't have to worry about her. They followed the map as best as they can when Kane came to a stop, Ed and Al nearly crashing into him. Kane looks around for a bit, then studies the map again before putting it away.
"That's it," He said, "we reached the location on the map, we can't follow it any longer."
"So," Al responded, "where's the next map?"
Kane shrugged, "It's here somewhere. Remember, the map I have isn't exactly precise."
"Well, how are we going to find it?"
"We'll have to look around," Ed said, "Let's split up, howler if you find something, meet back up here in an hour." Kane and Al nodded as Ed added in, "Try not to get lost."
With that, They headed off in different directions. Fortunately for them, the forest wasn't too complicated. Ed looked around intently for the map, while Al and Kane looked for some sort of marker that may lead them to the map. While Ed couldn't see Al and Kane from he was at, Kane was able to see Al from his position. After a half hour of searching, Ed heard a yell coming from Al.
"AL, what's wrong, Al?" Ed shouted, worried that something may have happened, "AL!" Ed ran towards the direction Al's yell came from.
"ED! OVER HERE!" Kane yelled out when he saw Ed, motioning him to come over. "Here, this is where I last saw him."
"But where is he?" Ed said, looking around the area, shouting for his brother, "Al, where are you? Sound off?"
"BROTHER?"
Ed could hear Al's voice, he just couldn't see him, he couldn't even see where his voice was coming from. "Al, where are you?"
"DOWN HERE!"
Ed was starting to get confused, "What are you talking about, I can't see-" Ed was cut off as he almost fell into a hole, but Kane was able to grab Ed's right arm before he lost him.
"GOTCHA!" Kane hoisted Ed back out of the hole.
"Thanks , Kane." Ed then got in his knees and yelled into the hole, "AL, YOU IN THERE?"
Al responded from the hole, "BROTHER? I THINK I FOUND SOMETHING!"
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING DOWN THERE?"
"WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE, I FELL THROUGH A HOLE, IT WAS HIDDEN BY GRASS." Ed could tell from the sound of Al's voice that he was rolling his eyes, "JUST GET DOWN HERE, I THINK I FOUND A CAVE."
"ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THI- uh, Kane, what are you doing?" Ed was interrupted when he saw Kane tying a rope to a tree.
Kane ignored Ed and yelled down the hole, "AL, WE'RE COMING DOWN, I'M THROWING DOWN A ROPE." Kane did exactly that, the rope falling down the hole.
"GOT IT!" AL responded back.
"Kane, are you sure about this?" Ed asked as Kane prepared to descend down.
"We were looking for the map, right? It's got to be down there." Kane made his descent.
As soon as Kane made his way down, Ed followed. When Ed arrived at the bottom of the hole he was relieved to find Al in one piece. "Are you all right?"
"A few scratches, but I'm fine." Al responded.
Except from the light coming down the hole, it was virtually dark in there. If they kept going, they would be lost in the darkness.
"Anybody got a light?" Ed asked.
"I got a lighter." Kane lit the lighter, he looked around and saw some sticks, he took the biggest stick, tore a piece of his shirt off, and wrapped it around the end of the stick, and made himself a torch, which he then lit with the lighter. Ed and Al made themselves torches too, and lit them with Kane's lighter.
"Okay," Ed said, "Let's get moving."
They proceed into the cave, the torches lighting their way through the cave, they soon notice their surroundings were that of stone.
"Looks like this cave was man made." Al said as he looked around.
"We must be on the right track." Kane responded.
"Keep an eye out for traps, you two." As soon as Ed said that, he steps on a tile that was pressure sensitive, the tile is lowered a bit which catches Ed's attention, "Oops."
Darts start to shoot out from the walls, alerting the trio. There were three darts shooting from the walls, one at knee level, one at midsection level , and one at head level.
They all look on as Al spoke to Ed, "Great job, Bro."
Mei got up an hour after they left, the breakfast they left was quite good. It's been three hours after they left, and she was getting bored. Xiao Mei got out of Mei's pocket, yawning and stretching,
"Good morning, sleep well?" Mei said to her panda, "They've been gone quite a while, I wonder when they'll be back?" Her panda offered no response.
"I sure wish they get back soon, I can't wait to get home." Mei continued when she heard a hissing noise to her right.
A loud scream could be heard throughout the jungle: "AAAAAHHHHH!"
"Great going, Ed, now we have to get past this!" Kane said, sounding a little pissed.
"Shut up!" Ed barked back.
"Did you hear someone scream just now?" Al asked. No one heard Al.
"Okay, we gotta get past this somehow." Ed said
"Yeah, but how?" Kane responded.
Ed didn't answered Kane, but was studying the darts. The lower darts were too low for them to crawl under. Ed was sure he can deflect the darts with his automail, but that wouldn't do Kane or Al any good. Ed tried to find a pattern to the darts, and after a while he seemed to find one. The darts were shooting from one wall and then from the other. First, the darts would be shot from the right wall, and then from the left wall. There wasn't much room for error, but Ed was sure they could slip past, well almost sure. The skeleton on the floor didn't help his confidence much.
"Okay, guys, I think I can get through this." Ed said, getting a worried look from Al, "just let me go first, I can make this." "I hope", Ed thought to himself.
Once Ed gathered up his confidence, and the darts from the right wall shot out, he stepped into the path of the first darts. Once the darts from the left side shot out, Ed stepped forward, moving just before the darts from the right side shot out. He does this for the next darts that was coming from the right side, moving forward before the darts on the left side shoot out. There was a three second delay between darts, if Ed was fast and careful, he could get through safely. Ed didn't know if the darts were poisoned, and quite frankly, he didn't want to find out. There were five sets of darts total, and Ed had successfully made his way thorough.
"You see that, guys, piece of cake!" Ed said triumphantly. "Okay, your turn."
Kane was quite impressed with Ed. Al, on the other hand, was scared to death. "You make it sound so easy!"
"I'm not saying it was, but these darts has a flow, just go with it." Ed responded.
"I'll go next." Kane said.
"Whenever you're ready, Kane." Ed said.
Kane stepped into the darts, moving forward gradually and avoiding them, following Ed's movements. Like Ed, he too made it through. Now it was Al's turn.
Al was hesitant to go, "You do know I'm not a suit of armor anymore." Al said.
Ed just grinned, "A fact I'm reminded of every night with your snoring."
"Hey, you snore too!" Al replied back.
"Al, if you don't feel comfortable, you can climb back up the hole." "I'd preferred it, actually", Ed thought, "Kane and I can move on."
"No way, I'm not chickening out!" Al said
Kane was losing patience, "Then get a move on, we don't have all day!"
"Okay", Al thought, "here we go". Putting on a brave face, Al steps into the darts, moving forward when it was clear, and avoiding the darts behind him.
"Good, Al, keep it up!" Ed said, cheering his brother on.
Al made to the last set of darts, but as AL was about to make it past the last darts, Al lost his footing and was falling backwards into the left darts. The upper dart would've hit Al's head, but Ed grabbed a hold of Al's shirt, and Ed blocked the upper dart with his automail arm.
Ed pulled AL out of the last set of darts and into safety. "Nice safe, brother." AL said.
Ed patted his brother's shoulder, "You did go, let's hope we won't have to deal with that again,"
"Come on," Kane said, "Let's go."
The travelers continued deeper into the cave, which surprisingly wasn't as dangerous as the darts. There was a chasm that they were able to cross by swinging on some vines. There were also some rolling blades coming from the walls, which they were able to avoid by running forward when the blades retreated into the walls close to the group, and jumped over when the blades came out on the far side.
Before long they came across a huge door that they pushed open, entering a large round room, with pillars running along the sides, some were falling apart with age. There were holes in the ceilings where the light was shining out, and most of the area was covered in grass.
Al spotted an archway on the other side of the room, "Look, I think that must be the way out."
"Good," Ed said, "I don't want to go through those darts again." Ed then noticed that something got Kane's attention, "Kane, what is it?"
Kane pointed a finger to the middle of the room, "Look."
Ed turned to where Kane was pointing at and saw a pedestal in the middle with a sheet of paper lying on it at being held in place by clips. "Is that?"
"Yes, it must be." Kane said as he moves towards the pedestal followed by Ed and Al. Kane stands in front of the pedestal and looks at the paper. "The second map, we found it!"
"Well, let's grab it and get out of here." Ed goes to grab it.
"Brother, are you sure you just want to grab it." Al asked, "It might be booby trapped."
"We can't just leave it here, after what we went through." Ed pulled up the stone clips holding the second map in place, and took the map from the pedestal. "Got it, let's go." Ed said, putting the map in a safe place on his person.
Just as they were about to leave, the clips slam back in place. The room starts to shake as dust and sand started to fall from the ceiling.
Kane starts to look nervous, "I think Al was right."
The trio is alarmed when a big piece of debris falls down close to them.
"Let's get out of here!" Ed yells out as they run towards the archway.
They run through the length of the hallway, the area still shaking and sand still falling. They exit the hallway and come across a big round corridor. They then hear something click, and turn around to see a giant boulder rolling towards them!
"Oh shit, RUN!!!" Ed yells out, running for their lives, as the boulder chase them down the round corridor. After running from the boulder for a bit, they see light up ahead, the exit. They jump through, escaping the boulder which was too big for the exit.
Ed, Al, and Kane find themselves leaping out and rolling on the hill, after a while they finally stop rolling and find themselves lying on the grass, exhausted and out of breath.
Ed: "Whew, we made it."
Kane: "Yeah, small miracle, huh?"
Al: "I feel like my heart is about to burst."
They took their time to catch their breath and brush off the grass from their clothes. They then decided to head back to camp, Al was wondering if Mei was okay.
"You said the traps were alchemy related, Kane." Ed told Kane as they headed back, "there was nothing there even remotely related to alchemy."
"Okay, so there wasn't this time." Kane responded, "It's not like there's conclusive proof."
"Guys, we're alive and we have the second map, let's just be happy with that." Al told the two of them
"Okay, by the way, have you taken a look at that map, yet?" Kane said.
Ed pulled out the map, "Not yet." Ed studied the map; it's a lot clearer than the other map in terms of finding the location. Ed also saw another alchemy symbol, different from the other map. "Hmm", Ed was thinking, "I wonder what significance these symbols have." Ed then studied the map to find out where the third map was. Once he found that out he smile and spoke to Al, "Hey, Al?"
"Yeah, Brother?" Al responded.
"I think Mei is gonna be glad she went with us."
"Why?"
"Cause the next map, it's in China."
"Where in China is it?" Kane asked.
"It's in the northeast area." Ed responded.
Al was beaming, "Well, this is perfect, we can go to China to get the next map, and Mei will finally be able to go home."
Ed was smirking, "You're gonna miss her, aren't you?"
"I just want to see her get her home." "Since we can't yet", Al thought to himself.
"It's settled then, we head to China." Ed said.
Kane took out the first map, "Then we don't need this anymore." Kane was prepared to throw the first map into the nearby stream when Ed stopped him.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Kane, let's not be hasty." Ed said, "I think we should keep that map for now."
"Why?" Kane asked.
"Just a Gut feeling I have." Ed responded
"Good enough for me." Kane said putting the first map back into his pocket.
They arrive back at the campsite late in the afternoon, surprised to find that it's empty. There isn't a sign of Mei in sight.
"Where did she go?" Al asked, confused. "Mei" Al shouted, "Where are you?"
"I-I'm up here." Mei said shaking like a leaf hanging onto a tree branch with Xiao Mei.
Now Al was really confused, "Mei? What in the world are you doing up there?"
Mei pointed to a spot in the near where the campfire was at. "T-that." Al, Ed, and Kane saw what made Mei climb a tree. "Snake. Snake! SNAKE!!"
Ed carefully picked up the snake with his right hand and threw it away.
"It's gone now" Al said, with a reassuring voice. "You can come down now."
Mei climbed down the tree, "Sorry, I'm just deathly afraid of Snakes."
"Don't worry, everybody's afraid of something." Al said helping Mei down. "Where's Xiao Mei?"
"She's still here." Mei said as Xiao jumped all out of her pocket, breathing a sigh of relieve. "I was wondering when you'll get back."
"Yeah, sorry, it took longer than we thought." Al said them smiled. "But I got good news, we're heading to China next!"
Mei was beaming, "Really!"
"Yeah, you'll be able to go home!" Mei jumped up and hugged Al.
Ed was smiling, watching the scene unfold as Kane entered into his tent, one step closer to the doorway, and home.
Hope you enjoyed, please read and review, or I'll have Winry get her wrench! :)