here's the first chapter...enjoy!
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"Do you remember?"
Ed whirled around at the whisper, staring out into the darkness. "Who are you? What do you want?" he yelled out into the gloom.
"Do you remember, Edward?"
He stared out into the unknown. "What are you talking about? I don't remember anything!"
With a flash of light and the sound of a power surge, a pattern was illuminated in the black around his feet.
"Do you remember this?" the voice asked.
Edward stared at it. A simple pattern, really. Three perfect circles were laid inside each other, each ring bearing runes that shone. They were so familiar, but not at the same time. He felt like he'd seen them before, but that it was missing something.
"Do you remember?" The question came again, asked by the unknown.
He stared at the circle for a few more seconds, then looked up. "I don't."
There was a breath of wind, almost like the memory of a sigh. "You will remember…" With its parting words, the owner of the voice disappeared from feeling.
"Wait! Hang on; who are you?!" Ed blundered toward the edge of the circle, tripping once on an object hidden in the dark. He almost made it to the edge of the circle before the runes stopped glowing.
"Wha?" He stopped in his tracks, looking around for any light. He took another cautious step forward.
The runes flared up again with a sullen red light the color of dried blood. In the glow, Edward knelt and touched the ground curiously, lifting his fingers up again. They glistened with a dark, sticky fluid. He bent his head to examine them further, but a rustle from behind sent it whipping around instead. Scrambling to his feet, he backed away from the moving form in the center of the circle, splashing into the blood inside the rings.
A single eye peered out from underneath a mane of dark hair. It tracked his movements, then flared into an ominous red as they sent ripples through the large pool. The human, for it was a human, reached out with a single deformed arm, stretching out as far as it could, claw-like fingers grasping as if it wanted Edward to come closer.
He backed away a few more steps, to the edge of the circle, but found that he couldn't step over the first ring. Slowly, painfully, the result of his first forbidden transmutation crawled toward him, trailing bits of its own torn flesh and broken bones. Terrified, he could do nothing but watch as it came closer and closer…
And he jolted awake, snapping to a sitting position. Breathing hard, he cradled his head in his hands, running his fingers through his thick blond hair. The sun was shining right into his room, and birds chirped cheerfully right outside his window. It had been a while since he'd been to the city of Munich; the two of them had left it in favor of the calm of a smaller town.
"Just a stupid dream," Edward muttered, kicking off the covers and clambering out of bed. He stretched in the warm sunlight.
"Hey, big brother!" Alphonse's head poked around the doorframe. Ed looked over his shoulder at him.
"Yeah? What is it?"
Al continued past, waving an envelope in his hand. "Mail came. It's from Charles. I think he sent it a few days ago." He disappeared from Ed's field of vision as he went past the other side of the frame. His voice floated back. "Gloria made breakfast, so you'd better hurry up."
"Right."
The lady at the stove looked up once as Edward came into the room. "Morning, Mr. Elric," she said as she ferried a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast to the table, setting it in front of the other chair.
"Good morning, Gloria," he responded, sitting down. She poured a cup of coffee and set it next to his plate. "Thank you. Anything interesting, Al?"
Alphonse turned another page of the newspaper. "Nothing so far," he answered. "Oh, but here." Reaching under his plate, he slid out the envelope, handing it to his brother.
Ed smiled to himself as he wiped a smear of jelly from the edge, laughing silently at his brother. "You'll look like one of those fat cows out there if you keep on eating so much of that stuff."
"I like jelly, thank you." The edge of the newspaper twitched back, and Alphonse made a face at his older brother, a piece of toast smeared with fruit preserves stuck in his mouth.
Shaking his head as if with disproval, he used his knife to slit open the envelope. He pulled out the letter and started to read, absentmindedly eating at the same time.
"Well?" Al asked.
Edward glanced up at his brother's face. "He says that he wants to talk with us," he said, holding the letter up with one hand, reading it, and putting a slice of bacon in his mouth with the other. "See?" he continued, voice slightly muffled by the food. "Right here." He jabbed at the paper with his fork. "He wants us up in Munich immediately; we have to bring clothes for a week."
Al sat back. "D'you have any idea what it's for?"
He shrugged. "Dunno. Probably wants to talk about a rocket or something." Finishing the last of his coffee, he stood up. "I'm going to go pack. Gloria, would you mind taking care of the house?"
"Not at all, Mr. Elric," she said.
"Good." He left, heading for his room. Al hastily folded up the newspaper and followed him.
The train ponderously started out of the station, picked up speed, and accelerated to a good pace. Inside, Edward and Alphonse settled themselves in for a long trip.
Al looked out the window at the countryside. ""Why do Charles and his family stay in Munich? They're talented enough to get work anywhere. It's dangerous there."
"They wouldn't know, Al. Munich is safe to them, and it has a lot of opportunities," Ed answered. "Besides, it's only been two years and nothing has happened. For all we know, it could be a hundred years before the event."
"Yeah…that's true. But I still have a bad feeling about all of this." He turned and looked at his older brother. "It's hard to believe that it's only been that long. I wonder how Winry and Grandmother Pinako are doing."
Ed leaned his elbow on the window frame, resting his chin in his hand as he looked at the countryside. "I wonder, too, Al."
And the train whistled once as it rattled toward Munich.