Edward
His vision blurred and the white void was replaced with a myriad of colors, he saw earthly brown, lush green, a few shades of grey, and a lot of black. As the world stopped spinning he found himself face first in a large mud puddle. Ed could only thank well, certainly not truth or any other fictional deity, but he was grateful no one was around to see. With some effort he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Wiping the mud and filth from his face he looked around to find that he was in a forest and judging from the position of the moon and stars it was the middle of the night.
Lurching to his feet he called out "Alphonse, Hohenheim, Mustang, ALPHONSE!" he frantically looked around for any sign of his brother. But with clouds and branches blocking the moons light the best he could make out where the outline of trees. His paranoia fooled from a life time of shit kicked in as he envisioned his frail brother falling through the gate and snapping his neck, or some wild beast coming upon him and making the malnourished boy its meal. He needed to find his brother; years stuck in the gate wasting away had left his brother little more than walking skeleton with skin stretched tightly across his bones. The worst things ran through his mind, his brother alone in a foreign world, surrounded by strangers or worst.
Did Alphonse land somewhere more populated, did he find himself in a city or town, Ed quickly thought of his little brother laying dead in a ditch with people just ignoring him as they go about their business. As his mind was assaulted by these horrible visions of what might be the strength in his legs gave way and he found himself kneeling on the ground. He tried to pull himself together, tried to assure himself just because he entered the world alone didn't necessarily mean his brother did. Perhaps Marcoh was with him or Armstrong or even Scar would be welcomed as long as his brother wasn't alone and well looked after, at least until he could find him and tend to him himself.
Feeling exhausted from this whole experience he once again struggled to his feet, blindly moving through an unknown forest for what seemed like hours his patience starting to wear thin. Till finally he came to a clearing large enough for him to transmute a small shack, quickly bringing his hands together and then pressing them against the uneven ground and calling to mind the equations needed to form a small refuge from the wild. It was simple shack with one room with a little fire place on the opposite side. Once inside he performed some more alchemy to seal the door and reinforce the walls to keep out any unwanted visitors and with all his work done and feeling as though he hadn't slept for decades he collapsed on a little bed he had whipped up, not bothering to even kick off his boots and finally allowing sweet sleep to claim him.
Ed slept for a couple hours at best until various sounds from the outside world crept through his walls making it more and more difficult for him to sleep. At first it was soft murmurs and a couple of half assed attempts to open his door than a few a shouts and finally there was a loud banging and Ed's eyes snapped open, bloodshot from barely any sleep. He staggered to his feet and clumsily made his way to the door, unsealing it he flung it open to come face to face with a funny looking man wearing a golden cap.
"Girl, we are looking for a boy traveling to with the Nights Watch" the man made gesture to the group of men and boys right outside his shack. It was odd as the man continued babbling on Ed could tell what he was saying but he also noticed it wasn't Amestrian, words spewed from his mouth that Ed knew he shouldn't had known, but he paid very little attention to the oddity of the language and focused more on what the man had said.
Ed blinked once
Than twice
Then a metal fist smashed into the gold capped bastard's face making aloud crunching sound and launching the man several feet backwards. When the dust settled and all could see the crumpled mess of a face that was left to the poor dumbass, his nose was obviously broken most of his teeth knocked out and a large imprint of a fist lay in the center of his newly rearranged face.
"You fucking cunt!" roared someone on horseback as he made way to ride Ed down, as the man drew his sword and charged at the still seething Fullmetal Alchemist Ed simply stepped to the side catching the man's sword arm snapping it with another loud crunch, one similar to that of the one his friends face had made, and threw him from his horse. Landing a few inches from Ed it was already too late for him to defend himself as Ed grabbed him by his neck with Ed's right and preceded to strangle him.
"I… AM… A MAN" Ed growled dangerously as the man's face turned an unpleasant shade of purple. Ed letting out one more growl before releasing the poor bastard. Gasping for air he quickly ran toward another horse, assumingly that of his companions as his own horse hadn't stopped and just kept running, climbing on its back and urging it to run as fast as it could to get away from the little monster, forgetting his injured friend and leaving him behind in the process, he forced the horse to gallop at break neck speeds all the while screaming foul obscenities.
"Err, lad you shouldn't have done that." Croaked someone off to the side of him and for the first time he got a good look of the place where he had erected his shack. Apparently his temporary home was just a few feet from what could only have been a road.
How the hell did I miss that Ed thought to himself, he was sure it hadn't been there the night before, but then again he was pretty tired last night so he supposed it was possible for him simply to have overlooked it. Ed then surveyed the men and boys surrounding him. He wasn't impressed most of them had the look one only got from a lifetime of hard struggles on the streets, some were harden men, possibly even killers, other where simply young men and boys who have had some bad luck. But Ed was most intrigued by the old man who had spoken to him, he was dressed all and black and from the man's eyes was clearly the hardest man apart of the group.
"They started it old man" Ed said as turned around to close the door on his shack.
"That maybe so, but now they're gonna be lookin for ya as well." Ed was barely paying attention to the old man has he brought his hands together and then pressed them against the door and in a burst of alchemical energy the shack dissolved into the ground from whence it came. The old man and all his companions jumped back some grabbing anything that could be used as a weapon, some falling flat on their asses, and the old man himself grabbing the hilt of his sword.
"What are ya some sort of wizard"
"Hmph, magic's not real you old fool, that was alchemy"
"Alchemy? Like turning iron to gold?" That caught the attention of some of the old man's traveling companions.
"Any halfwit alchemist can make gold, me I can do a bit more than that" there was mocking tone in Ed's voice.
"Yeah well whatever you can do you should keep it to yourself, most don't hold with magic?" the old goat said, agitating Ed a little when he persisted on calling his beloved alchemy magic. And then a groan came from the fallen gold cap bringing Ed back to situation at hand.
"Who the hell is he anyway" Ed gestured to the broken man.
"Not from around here hey? That's a city watchman from Kings Landing. He and his friend followed us from the city asking about one of the boys. When we where bit unforthcoming about which one he was they got the idea that we might be hiding him in your shack." Ed just looked at his handy work, regretting it a little as he noticed most of the man's teeth where now sprinkled on the ground.
"What did the boy do to get them looking for him" Ed asked wondering why they just didn't hand him over.
"Doesn't matter" Ed was a bit surprised by that response "This lot here is going to the wall, soon they will be Brothers of the Nights Watch when you join the watch you get amnesty from all your past crimes, so it doesn't matter" the old man finished
"Old man" Ed called to black cloaked old man
"Yoren" he supplied
"Edward, Yoren you travel a lot?" Ed asked wondering if maybe this man has seen Alphonse
"I do"
"Have you seen a boy like me, golden eyes and golden hair, although he'll be malnourished, mostly skin and bones" Ed asked the barest hint of hope in his voice.
"Sorry lad no one like that around these parts, at least none I've seen" Yoren went on "You attacked two men just following orders from the King" shit Ed thought, things always got messy when royalty was involved "You best get far away from here. You're welcome to come with us, I dare say that you'll be put to some good use on the wall, but you should be careful of who you do your magic in front of. A lot of superstitious men in the Nights Watch" Yoren offered.
"Thanks but no thanks, besides Kings Landing, which is the closest city?"
"Closest in the opposite direction of Kings Landing is a hundred miles that way" Yoren pointed north "There may be a handful of villages here and there, I would tell you it's not safe to travel alone at the moment what with the war thats about to break out, but something tells me you can handle yourself, but still you might want to at least travel with us until we get out of the Riverlands , the Mountains been raping an pillaging all around these parts and I've made this trip a hundred times so who knows, might be taking a few less known paths and come across that boy you mentioned."
Edward was silent for a time thinking over his options. On one hand he didn't like being a part of a group which he was rapidly starting to believe were comprised of criminals looking to escape punishment. On the other hand Yoren knew the land, at least knew it more than himself, and then there was this Mountain Yoren mentioned. Ed thought he didn't sound like the type of man he wanted to get involved with, well at least not while he was looking for Alphonse, after that he would gladly pay the rapist a good beating. Then there were his possible traveling companions, Ed gave quick glance at the group bound for a wall, all of them had eyes on Ed, and most were still clutching their makeshift weapons.
"What the hell, I don't know anything about this place, I could use a guide"
"That's all well and good, boy, you may not join the watch but if you travel with us you'll pull your own wait, now I have no qualms with giving out a helping hand and seeing as you're new to these parts I guess you could use one, but you'll not perform that magic, like I said most don't hold with it and while the Nights Watch is well respected, that doesn't necessarily mean we're welcomed, you understand" Yoren said firmly
Edward reluctantly consented to Yorens terms, after all he got the feeling this place was somewhat more primitive than his homeland, if the unpaved road was any indication and the fact not single one of them had a gun, and if Ed remembered his history correctly before Alchemist had became a respected and critical part of the State Military they were either murdered in their sleep or burned at the stake by fearful religious fanatics. The kind that preyed upon ignorant primitive minds; the kind Ed despised.
That's how Ed had come to travel with a group of outcasts and criminals, the first few days had been uneventful, mostly he helped Koss and Kurz, a couple of poachers, to hunt in the woods. The experience had brought Ed back to that island years ago, where he used to hunt and scavenge with his younger brother who to Ed's growing despair still remained missing, he kept hoping to come across some person with some knowledge of Alphonse's whereabouts. But none they had come across knew anything about a golden eyed golden haired boy.
The pace set by Yoren was brutal, but Ed understood, it was best to keep ahead of any city watch that might have been trailing after them. As the journey to the north continued on while Ed was tolerated he was by no way accepted. Many shunned him, even two of three bastards in the cage refused to make eye contact, except for the red haired one with the golden lock swept to the side of the face, that one didn't seemed scared like most of the others just cautious. That went on for the first week with only Yoren willing to talk to him. He had a lot of good stories, Yoren did, had been all over the seven kingdoms collecting men for the Nights Watch, which as far as Ed could tell was some sort of capital punishment; after all Yoren was forced to join after he had killed his brother's killer. The only other person who wasn't afraid of him was a little girl pretending to be a boy. Every time Ed turned around he found her lurking behind a tree staring at him. It wasn't until the second week after they had made camp one night that she actually spoke to him.
"How did you make that shack disappear?"
Ed, who was lying against tree, cracked one eye open to find that she was leaning over him, her head cocked to one side. "Alchemy"
"Yoren said he's heard of alchemy turning iron to gold not making shacks disappear, he says you're some kind of wizard even if you don't want to admit it"
"Alchemy can do a lot more than make gold"
"Like what?" Ed now fully awake decided to humor the girl
"The art of Alchemy revolves around transmutation, changing one thing to another but you can't just make gold out just anything; in order to gain something of equal or greater value must be lost. That is the law of Equivalent Exchange the founding principle of alchemy. I used the earth itself to make that shack, to mold the walls and roof and then when I was done using it I simply returned to its original form" He noticed the girl had a small frown.
"But How" Ed sighed already tired from the days march and getting the feeling that explaining tectonic plates underneath them crashing and grinding into each other creating the energy necessary to empower the various alchemical arrays was going to be bit too much for the girl to understand so he simply gave another explanation one that he loathed.
"Magic" Ed said with a roll of his eyes
"So you are wizard" the girl said excitedly
"Sure"
Authors Note
Okay I'm fairly certain the pairings in this fic are gonna be
Mustang/Val
Ed/Elia Sand/ Sansa Stark with a weird love triangle thing going on
That's pretty much the only romances though that might change if the mood hits me