Fullmetal Sorcerer

Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Fullmetal Alchemist stuff. I do, however, own the rest of it.

Chapter 2: Peach Grove

Ed opened his eyes, unable to get a firm grip on his thoughts. He knew he was doing something important, but what exactly that was escaped him. It was like trying to grab water. Around him, countless trees and a blue sky with puffy white clouds were spinning slowly, making him fell sick to his stomach. When he tried to sit up, the world only spun faster. His breakfast threatened to come back, so Ed flopped back down on the ground. He tried closing his eyes to stop the spinning. The feeling of spinning continued, but then the he also felt like he was rolling backwards as he spun. Eyes open was certainly better.

Ed couldn't really tell how long it took for everything to stop spinning. He knew it was a while, because he was able to watch the sky change from blue to purple as time passed. Just as the light from the first starts started to peek through the sky, the world finally stopped spinning enough for Ed to focus his thoughts.

He sat up with a start, which turned out to be a mistake. The world started spinning the moment he moved fast. He slowly looked around looking for Al and Noa. Neither of them was near by. He called out for them, but got no answer. He looked around to see that he was sitting in a large patch of grass. There were trees around, but not too many. He was in grassland of some kind. The day was cool, and as the sun when down it only got a little colder. He was a long ways away from any type of desert. Fortunately, his backpack sat only a couple of meters from where he was. In the distance he could see a road running across the horizon. Next, he looked up at the sky. At least the stars were still familiar. They never changed, even when he went to other worlds. Later he could use them to navigate.

Ed shakily got to his feet and made his way over to the nearest tree. He would probably do fine without a fire during the night, but sleeping in the total dark was uncomfortable. All sorts of bugs came out of the woodworks with out the light and heat of a fire. He gathered a pile of sticks and placed them in a pile not far from the tree.

"All right. One little transmutation and I should have a fire in no time." He said to himself.

Ed clapped his hands together. He felt the familiar power surge from the world around him and follow his arms into a circle. He thrust his hands down atop the pile of sticks. Nothing happened. For a long moment he could only stare at the pile of sticks. It was impossible for him to make a mistake on such a simple transmutation. He tried again. He could distinctly feel the power flow through his arms and out of his palms when he placed them upon the pile of sticks. But still nothing happened.

Ed furrowed his brow in worry. Even if he had not practiced his alchemy in two years, this was not something he could forget. Alchemy came as natural to him as breathing. Maybe he was still disorientated form spending the whole day too dizzy to move. When he tried a third time, he noticed something very wrong that he did not notice before. It reminded him of the time about a year ago when he badly shocked himself on one of the Nimbus aircraft. It had burned him, just as surely as the campfire had burned him when he was little. But the pain was different even though they had both been burns. This energy that was flowing through his arms was still energy, but it was different too. It was subtly so, but different nonetheless.

At that moment, Ed was fairly sure he was in another world. It was not his world. Alchemy was a science and would not be different if he was simply in another country in his own world. This place was nowhere in the alternate world either. He had traveled that world extensively and never did feel the power of alchemy, or the power he was feeling now.

"Great. Where the hell am I now?" Ed said to himself.

Still needing a fire, Ed went and found the flint stone he kept in his backpack. There was enough wood lying around nearby that he was able to get a respectable fire going in no time. His tent was setup a few minutes after the fire was going. His dinner consisted of some dried meat and a drink of water. It was hardly satisfying, and his rations would not hold out long. He would have to find civilization shortly. He would head to the road tomorrow and travel. Roads always connected cities.

Ed stretched out on his bedroll. He wondered where Al and Noa ended up. If Al or Noa were nearby, the fire would draw them close. He was not really worried about either of them. Both of them had spent enough time on the road that a few days camping out, even with out supplies, would be nothing more than an inconvenience. Sleep found him quickly.

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Ed had only been walking down the road for about an hour when he saw a vehicle approach. As it got closer, he realized that it was at the same time unlike any vehicle he had ever seen before, and yet very familiar. It was largely shaped like the old truck that had carried them through the desert, though painted bright red instead of pale green. However, it had no wheels. Instead the whole thing hovered about a foot above the ground. As the vehicle got closer, Ed tried to flag it down. Rides on strange floating trucks were far better than walking after all.

The car pulled over. Driving was a tall man with a square face, red hair and a bushy red beard. He looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. His wrists seemed as thick as Ed's neck.

"Where you headed kid?" the man asked.

To say that Ed was relieved that the man spoke English was an understatement. Trying to convince a stranger for a ride while using a foreign tongue would have been near impossible. They would have never have made it through France without Noa's help. She had a gift for languages.

"Just to the next town, sir." Ed said.

"What are you doin' out here by your self?" the man asked.

"Just traveling. I'm too poor to afford transportation." Ed said.

"Looking for work then?" the man asked.

Ed nodded. It wasn't a complete lie. He wanted to set out to find Al and Noa as soon as possible, but the journey would be far easier if he had a little bit of money.

"All right. Hop on in. I'm headed to Peach Grove. I'll take you that far."

Ed smiled to the man. "Thank you sir."

The man just grunted in response, then opened the passenger door for Ed. Ed placed his pack in the bed of the man's flying-truck-thing and got in. Once he was seated, he held out his left hand to the other man.

"Edward Elric." He said.

The man took his hand and shook twice. His grip was powerful; almost but not quite painful. Now that Ed was able to get a good look at him, he realized this man was indeed, huge. He gave off the illusion of being as wide as he was tall, and was solid. Physically he reminded Ed of Major Armstrong, except where Armstrong obviously took time to carefully sculpt his muscles, this man was the type to get them from doing lots of heavy lifting all day.

"Thomas Bradley." He responded.

Ed sat back as Thomas moved the car forward. As far as Ed could tell, from the inside the car was the same as the ones from America. One petal made the car go forward, one made it stop. Thomas never did have to shift anything though. It would be interesting to see how the propulsion system worked. And how did the bloody thing float?

"So what kind of work are you looking for?" Thomas asked.

"Just a couple of odd jobs. I need some traveling money so I can find my brother. I'm good at fixing things." Ed said.

"Well, I doubt you will find anything much in Peach Grove. It's a small place. You should go to Four Rivers. It's only a couple days walk from Peach Grove. You could make it in a couple hours if you can find a ride. Folks go out that way a lot." He said.

The two men fell into silence after that. Ed had a thousand questions he wanted to ask Thomas, but he didn't want to seem too ignorant. There would be too many questions if he revealed he was an outsider. Ed decided he needed to find a library or something as soon as possible.

"Are you any good?" Thomas asked, breaking Ed out of his train of thoughts.

"Huh? Good?" Ed asked.

"At fixing things." Thomas said.

Ed nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty good."

"Tell you what. I got something that needs fixing. I can't pay you much, but if you do it I'll give you fifty bits, a room for the night, a hot meal, and I'll drive you to Four Rivers tomorrow. How's that sound?" Thomas asked.

Ed had no idea how much fifty bits was. He did know it was better than zero bits, which was how much he had with him. The rest of the deal sounded good to Ed too. He really didn't want more dried meat for dinner. But then, if it was one of these floating-car-things that needed fixing, Ed doubted it was a job he could finish.

"I'll see what I can do." Ed said.

"Appreciate it." Thomas replied.

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It was midday when Ed and Thomas arrived at Thomas' house. Thomas lived in a modest size place. It was two stories and had a great sweeping porch that stretched from the front of the house and around the side. Ed couldn't tell if it went behind the house. There was lots of land, and fields that stretched to the horizon. It reminded Ed of his hometown. Out front, there were two small children, a girl and a boy, playing with a small gray dog. When Thomas got out of the car the children ran up to him. He lifted the girl high in the air and twirled her around. He set her down, and then he ruffled the boy's hair.

"Edward, these are my children. Elaine here is four, and Mark is five." He motioned to the children.

Elaine hid behind her father's leg. Mark waved to Ed, and then grabbed his sister's hand to take her back to playing with the dog. Thomas started to walk towards the house and motioned for Ed to follow him.

They walked up porch stair, the third step creaked when Ed's heavy automail leg steped on it. Thomas ushered Ed inside the house. Ed noticed that it was a considerably cooler inside than it was outside, obviously artificially cooled. The lights seemed to be electric. Ed followed Thomas to the kitchen. In the kitchen was a medium sized woman with blonde hair tied back into a ponytail. She looked to be in her mid thirties. The woman was cooking something that smelled wonderful. Ed had to concentrate to from drooling.

"Hey Anna, I'm home." Thomas said.

The woman turned around and kissed her husband on the cheek. He returned a kiss to hers. Then her eyes fell on Ed.

"And who is this?" she asked.

"This is Edward Elric. Edward, this is my wife Anna. Edward here has agreed to fix our skimmer." Thomas said.

Anna frowned. So did Edward. A "skimmer" could only be one of those floating-car-things. Damn. The food smelled so good too.

"Thomas, you know we can't afford to get that fixed right now." She scolded.

Thomas put his hands up in what looked like a warding gesture. "It's ok. He agreed to do the job for fifty bits if we put him up for the night and I give him a ride to Four Rivers tomorrow." Thomas said.

Anna's cheeks immediately turned pink. She grabbed Edwards's hand and shook it. Edward was completely confused.

"I thank you for your generosity Edward. Please, enjoy our hospitality tonight." Anna said.

Ed scratched the back of his head. "Hey, no promises that I can fix the thing. I don't even know what's wrong with it."

Ed felt kind of bad for deceiving Thomas like he was. He doubted if he could fix the skimmer, but he had promised to try. He hoped the engine was like the cars from the other world. Maybe if he couldn't fix it they would still feed him for trying. Still, there was no sense in putting it off.

"I'd like to take a look at your skimmer now. I don't know how long this is going to take." Ed said.

"Right down to business. Anna, I like this kid. Follow me." Thomas said.

Thomas led Ed out the back door. The porch did stretch all the way to the back. They walked to a barn fifty or so meters from the house. Thomas opened the large barn doors and flicked a switch, turning on an overhead light.

The light revealed all manner of contraptions. There was what looked like half a dozen manikins standing stone still in the bar. Ed thought that they looked much like golems. There were a couple of larger machines there too that Ed could not even hazard a guess as to what they were for. Thomas stopped next to a fast looking skimmer. It had sleek lines and black paint. Ed had never seen anything like it. The skimmer was not floating in the air like the truck-like one.

"I bought this a few years ago from a fellow passing through town. It worked great for a while, but about a year ago it stopped. I was hoping to sell it so I could afford to put my kids in a decent school." Thomas explained.

Ed really had no idea where to begin, and was relieved when Thomas fiddled with something under the steering wheel and the hood of the skimmer opened. Edward looked inside and was amazed. He had to hold in a gasp. There was a web of copper wire that was arranged in a beautiful intricate pattern. He had no idea where to even begin looking for a problem with this. Still he had to make it look good. He would have to take a risk though and bank on Thomas' ignorance.

"Hmm. This is not good. Thomas, this will probably take me an hour. I'm honestly not sure I can fix this." He said.

Thomas made a face. "Damn. Well, do your best kid. I'm got a bit of work to do inside."

And Thomas left. Ed spent the next fifteen minutes staring at the intricate pattern. He knew he couldn't fix it. Still he wanted to study it. The more he looked at it though, the more he thought that it was kind of familiar. The way the lines and curves interacted with each other just looked right.

His eyes widened slightly when he realized why it was familiar. If a transmutation circle was every made three dimensional instead of flat, he was thought it might look something like the mess in front of him. Once he realized that, his mind began to break down the pattern. A soft curve intersecting with a right angle here, a pair of curves intertwining to make a single line there. And near the right side of the web two right angles almost touching. Ed couldn't help but thing that the two right angles should be touching. He looked at the pattern that the rest of the web followed and saw that, according to the pattern, the two should be touching.

Ed reached out and grabbed the two copper wires to move them so they would fit together. He might as well have been trying to move steel girders. Not even the strength of his automail could move the wire. Looking at the web as a whole again he thought that copper should not be able to support as much weight as was without bending. When he touched the wire though, he felt that buzz of power that was so similar to the buzz of alchemy more acutely. Ed figured he might as well give his alchemy a shot one more time. After all, last time he had been a few steps passed exhausted.

Ed clapped his hands together. The power made it's way to his palms, then he thrust his palms down on the copper wire. He half expected a flash of light that would render the wire in to the pattern he had in his mind. Instead he bent two handprints into the copper wire. Ed panicked slightly when he saw this and tried to bend the wires back into shape. They were once again rigged as inch thick steel.

Ed went over in his mind what had happened. When he clapped his hands together, the felt the buzz of power travel to his palms. It stayed on his palms as he placed them on the copper wire. The feeling was still there as he pulled his hands back from the wire. The buzz didn't fade for a few seconds.

Ed clapped his hands together again, and this time he grabbed a piece of wire in his hand. It was as malleable as he expected thin copper wire to be. About five seconds after he first touched the wire it became ridged again. This coincided with the same time the buzz left his hands. Ed smirked. Perhaps he could fix this thing after all.

It took him fifteen minutes of clapping and manipulating to fix the damage his had done when he slammed his hands into the copper net. One quick manipulation later and he had joined the right angle. Half of a heartbeat after the angle was joined, the skimmer rose about a foot off the ground.

Ed stared dumbly at the risen skimmer for a moment. He had just fixed a piece of nearly alien technology on nothing more than a hunch. Ed threw his hand up in the air and let out a mighty whoop.

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Ed stayed in the barn for another fifteen minutes, just examining the copper web and other parts of the skimmer. He found half a dozen webs similar to the copper one that went where the engine should go. Though he couldn't tell what any of them were for, he could tell that each one followed the same pattern rules as the engine. Whatever rules governed the energy this place used, they were set in stone like alchemy's rules.

Ed could have been happy working in the barn all day, but he really wanted to learn some more about this place. He decided to go find Thomas and ask the older man if Peach Grove had a library. His stomach reminded him that he should do something about lunch.

Ed left the barn, making sure to close it behind him. He crossed the yard and walked up onto the porch. He opened the back door to see Anna making sandwiches in the kitchen.

"Oh, Edward. I was just about to go out to the barn to see if you were hungry," she said as she lifted a plate off the counter.

Ed smiled. "I'm famished." He said.

Anna passed the sandwich, ham and Swiss cheese, to Ed. He thanked her, and then promptly dug in. She had just finished pouring him of tea when he finished. He took the glass of tea from her and drained it in one draught.

"Ah, that was wonderful. Thanks Anna!" he said.

Anna had a kind of surprised look on her face. "My, you ate that so fast." She said.

"Yeah, well I have spent a lot of time on the road. You learn to take your meals quickly when you travel." Ed said.

"So, how are the repairs going?" Anna asked.

Ed smirked. "All done."

Anna looked surprised again. "Wow. So fast," she said, and then her face took on a more somber demeanor, "And thank you for doing the repair for so cheap. I know it's a lot less than your normal rate." She said.

Ed wondered how much a repair like that normally cost. He still didn't know how much a bit was worth. Yes, a library would be most helpful. His ignorance made waving off her thanks easy.

"It was nothing. Thomas helped me when I was in trouble, the least I could do is return the favor. If you really want to thank me though, you could drive me to this town's library. I really want to look something up before dinner." Ed said.

"I would, but Peach Grove doesn't have a library. Sorry. But I have about a million books in the basement. I like to read, and I knew that they will be useful when the kids get older. Maybe you can find what you need down there?" she asked.

That arrangement actually suited Ed just fine. It kept him closer to the food. He stood up and so did Anna.

"That sounds fine to me." Ed said.

Anna led Ed to the door that led down to the basement. The stairs were narrow, but well lit. Anna was not kidding when she said she had about a million books. The whole basement was full of them.

"I may be down here a while. Come get me when dinner is ready?" he asked.

"Ok. Have fun Edward." Anna said.

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Ed was interrupted from his studies a few hours after he was first shown the room full of books. While in the basement he had learnt a lot. First of all, a bit was worth about fifty cents. So, Thomas paid him about the equivalent of a weeks pay for an average American, and Anna thought that was way too low. How much did repairmen make here anyway?

He also learned some about the area. He was in a country called The Rovan Confederate. It took up the area consisting of everything east of the middle of Texas. To the west was the Coradia Empire. It stretched from the Rovan border all the way to the Pacific Ocean. He was currently located in a province Indur, where Alabama was in the other world. The closest major city was Chago, about one hundred miles to the north. That was where Ed decided to go. It is where Al would go if the transmutation circle had deposited him anywhere close.

The most interesting thing he learned was about Sorcery. It was akin to his world's alchemy, and about the same number of people practiced it as practiced alchemy. None of the books Anna had went on in any great detail about Sorcery though. That was not overly surprising. If it were anything like alchemy, then only those studying it would own the books that taught it. It was like, buy the same token, Anna didn't have any books on medicine.

Ed joined the Bradley's at their dinner table. Anna had cooked up a wonderful looking casserole, and a stew that had undoubtedly won Thomas' heart in the first place. The first few minutes of the meal were spent in silence as a testament to Anna's meal. In other words, Ed couldn't talk when his mouth was full with stew. After the initial feeding frenzy ended the Bradley's started to talk, and Ed got the feeling that he was being interrogated.

"So Edward, forgive me for prying, but why is someone of your talents struggling for money?" Thomas asked. He seemed a bit nervous.

Ed had to think fast. "I don't have time to work. I spend all of my time looking for my brother. He's been missing for a while now. It's got me kind of nervous."

"Does he have your… talents?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, he is every bit as good as I am." Ed replied.

"Did you find the information you were looking for?" Anna asked.

Ed noticed how quickly she changed topics. He remembered a passage he read. Most will not meddle in the affairs of sorcerers it said. That could come in handy.

Ed scratched the back of his head again. "Yup. Your books are great. Elaine and Mark are goanna make great use of them. So, what do you guys do around here?" Ed asked.

Thomas and Anna seemed more relieved than Ed was when the focus of the conversation changed. Ed learned that Thomas worked the land around here. He grew grain that he sold in Four Rivers for a decent sum. He wanted more for his children of course; he wanted them to grow up educated and go to a university.

After dinner, Ed wanted to go back down to the library and read some more. Mark and Elaine had other plans. They recruited Ed for a game of tag. Thomas and Anna tried to stop them from bothering their guest, but Ed really didn't mind. It would get his mind off of the overwhelming feeling of being stuck in a new world that kept threatening to pound his psyche in to mush. The next couple of hours passed quickly. They played tag, the hide and seek, and then a game called moon in the water the children had to teach Ed. Soon the children were worn out and ready for bed.

Ed was seated in a rocking chair on the porch watching the sun go down when Thomas approached him. He clapped Ed on the shoulder and then sat down in the chair next to him. He stuffed a pipe with some tobacco and then offered the pipe to Ed. Ed declined.

"Looks like the Kids wore you out." Thomas said.

"Yeah. Mark is so full of energy, and Elaine is awfully bright." Ed said.

"You should get some sleep too. We got an early start to Four Rivers tomorrow." Thomas said.

"Yeah. Night." Ed said as he stood up.

"Night." He heard Thomas call as he went inside.

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A/N: My first reviewer brought up the question about the age of the characters. According to his Wikipedia article, Ed was between the ages of 16-18 during the Conqueror of Shamballa. That would make him between 18-20 at the start of this story. For the simple fact that I'm more comfortable with older characters, Ed is 20. Noa's age was never specified; though I always thought she was about the same age as Ed. So, she's 20 as well. Al is a little more complicated, what with his resurrections and what not. The general consensus is that he is two years younger than Ed. That would make him 18 in this story. True, he lost some years at the end of the television series, but he got them back at the end of the Conqueror of Shamballa. His body is physically younger (closer to that of a 16 year old), but he has a full18 years of existence under his belt.

Also, I had formatting problems last time. It seems the little marks I put in between the different parts of my chapters didn't make the transition from Microsoft Word to whatever format it is that this place uses. I went back and fixed that, and fixed it in this chapter as well. I Hope it's a bit easier on my reader's eyes.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew Cross