Heh, this one took a little longer to write because I hit one of my traditional "rough spots" that I always hit in stories, but it wasn't too big of a deal, hehe. I pretty much got over it. Thanks to SakuraSagura for a lot of the ideas for this chapter, and to cuylerjade for her suggestions and counselling. While most of her ideas will be used in the next chapter, the counselling still helped me to get over the rough spot I was in, hehe.

How many times do I need to say it? I disclaim! ((I think the more interesting question would actually be, how many times HAVE I said it, and in how many different ways? Heh, that could be rather interesting, actually. When I'm not tired and lazy, I can come up with pretty interesting disclaimers at times, hehe. Maybe I'll have to do the math and find out the answer to that sooner or later, including how many times I've forgotten to put a disclaimer up! Hehe.))

Edward woke up the next morning, feeling quite refreshed. He stretched his arms and took a deep breath, only to be startled by what he felt himself breathe in and jolted up to a sitting position. He had breathed in water. It hadn't hurt him at all, since he was built to handle it...but it had startled him, since he had thought for the moment when he was regaining consciousness that he was back at the Rockbell house. It really hurt for him to remember all of a sudden that he was not there.

"Of all the rotten luck," he muttered to himself while fingering his snail shell necklace, "Things were going so great, and then THIS had to happen!" He lifted himself up from the riverbed, and swam up to the surface. He had kind of hoped that maybe somehow, that Al or Winry would be around, so that he could explain what had happened. Heck, he'd settle for anyone being nearby, since he could always send them to bring said individuals to him, but there was no such luck.

Sighing, he turned around in place a few times. He wasn't sure how long he'd be able to stay here. This was a rather small lake, and he wasn't even sure if he knew how to take care of himself. He was also starting to feel a little bit sick, which he suspected was probably simply a symptom of being in fresh water. Maybe he belonged in the sea. He needed to be amongst his own kind, whatever and wherever his own kind were.

He sunk back below the water and sighed. "Where am I supposed to go?" he yelled to himself, "I don't belong here, so...where?"

Just then, the snail shell that he was wearing began to glow and floated out a little way from his chest. Ed's eyes went wide at the sight, but he remained still just to see what would happen. The snail shell continued to float away from his body and Ed soon was able to feel the pressure of a light tug coming from it. He didn't really understand what was going on, but then, nothing that had happened in the past few days had really made a lot of sense to him anyway, so he decided that maybe it would be best to just follow the snail shell, and see where it led.

It wasn't long before he found himself in the river, having left the lake. Naturally, it was even smaller than the lake was, and he had felt that the lake was small. He felt rather cramped in this small location, but there really wasn't a lot that could be done about it if he were to get back to wherever his own kind were. He closed his eyes and kind of floated in place for a minute or two, just stopping to think. He really hoped that he own people would accept him, being raised by human beings and everything. They were human beings, right? He shook his head. He really had no idea, and the necklace beckoned him on, so he decided just to keep going on.

Back at the Rockbell house, Winry was making a very angry phone call to Colonel Mustang. "How could you call him back all of a sudden like that? He wasn't due to come back for several days yet! Didn't you know how sick he was? Why I wouldn't be surprised if..."

"Whoa!" said the voice on the other end of the line, "I don't know what you're talking about Miss Rockbell, please slow down."

Winry stopped and took an agitated breath, and then started again. "Ed's gone missing, and I just can't believe that you would call him back early from a leave of absence you had personally forced him to take for his own good!"

"Good," said Colonel Mustang, "Don't believe it, because I didn't do such a thing. I knew that Fullmetal was really overworking himself lately, and that he needed a nice, long rest. That's why I sent him home to you."

"You mean...he hasn't returned?"

Roy hesitated, and then said, "...I'm sorry, but I know nothing about his disappearance. With you practically being his family, I would let you know if I knew anything like that, but I seriously don't."

At this news, Winry started choking up. "B-b-but, then, where could he be? It's not like him to just vanish like this, without a trace. He's never done this before, at least, not without warning us."

Colonel Mustang was about to reply when there was a knock at Winry's door. She asked Roy to hold, and then she went to see who it was.

She opened the door to reveal a rather weathered-looking fisherman. She stared at him in puzzlement for a moment, and was about to ask him what he wanted, when he asked question of his own. "Is this the place they make auto-mail?"

"Yes," Winry nodded, "This is Rockbell Auto-Mail."

The fisherman then proceeded to reveal a couple auto-mail limbs he had been carrying with him. "I just pulled these up from the lake. I was wondering if they might be yours."

Winry took one look at those auto-mail limbs, and instantly knew. "Ed!" she shrieked as her hands flew to her face. "No!" She turned to the fisherman. "Did you see a boy anywhere around there?"

The fisherman shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, miss. I only pulled up these here limbs and I brought them straight to ya. I ain't seen nothing of a boy."

Winry's gaze dropped and tears began to fill her eyes. "Th-thank you..." she couldn't bring herself to say anything more. The fisherman seemed to understand, so he simply nodded to her, put down the limbs, and left. Winry carefully picked up the auto-mail, carried it inside, and shut the door.

As soon as she had the door shut, she let her sobs come out audibly, completely forgetting that Colonel Mustang was still on the phone. He heard the sobs and began calling for her to come back to the phone and tell him what was the matter.

Fortunately, she managed to hear him. Though she was slightly embarrassed that she had let him hear that sobbing, and that she was still sobbing, since she couldn't stop once she'd started, she picked the phone back up and told him what had happened.

"So, Fullmetal's stuck without his auto-mail, huh? That can't be good." Roy paused for a second, and then continued. "Whatever you do, don't panic. He could very well still be alive. I'll send some men over there to scout out the area and find him. I wouldn't worry too much just yet. As strong as that boy is, he's probably okay, we just don't know where he is yet."

Winry nodded and grunted in response, but she was still skeptical. She was sure that something awful had to have happened to him. "Thank you..." she said. She wanted to say more, but she couldn't find anything more, especially since it was still a little bit difficult for her to talk with the man, since he had been the one that had been ordered to execute her parents. "...Bye."

"Goodbye, Miss Rockbell. We'll see you soon," said Roy. Click. He had hung up, so with a sigh, she replaced the phone on the receiver as well. What could have possibly happened to that boy?

Yawn. Okay, even though I know what I want to do for the next chapter, I think that I'm going to go to bed. I'm tired, and I want to write the chapter while I'm awake, not tired, hehe. So, if you'll forgive me for having to sleep like a normal human being, and just leave me a lot of nice reviews telling me to update, then I'll start updating like crazy again! Heh...okay, okay, I realize that one can't quite push the readers into anything...but I can give you my puppy dog stare, can't I? ((puppy dog stare)) Please, leave me lots of reviews for when I wake up in the morning...which will probably be after noon since I stay up so darn late, and I'll give you lots of updates in return. How's that? hehe.