Muahahahahaha! I still have my muse! W00tness! Okay...now I'm talking like my geeky brother, which is scary...but oh well, I guess that I'm technically a geek myself, so I guess that works, heh. Anyway, hope you enjoy the story, and thanks to AdventureAddict for finally giving me some ideas I could use, hehe.
Disclaimer: I'm too bored to come up with a creative disclaimer. Read last chapter's disclaimer to see what I'm disclaiming.
"Ed...Ed!" Edward simply snored in response to the voice that was calling to him in his sleep. It was difficult to do otherwise, considering how thick the mud was getting the farther west he went. Any thicker and he wouldn't be able to sleep at all without drowning, which was quite a feat for a merman to accomplish. As it was, he couldn't sleep all the way through the night without rising to the surface to breathe a few times, and his subconscious mind would remind him of that periodically and wake him up to do so. He knew that this wasn't his subconscious mind however, his own subconscious mind didn't call to him in a female voice.
"Edward!"
Edward snorted and snapped his eyes open in response. When a voice gets loud enough, even the great Edward Elric can't ignore it. He took a few slow breaths to slow down his racing heartbeat as well as to ensure that he didn't choke on the thick water around him. Gradually his eyes began to adjust to the darkness around him, and a form of light appeared to him, seemingly standing in the midst of the water. If they were standing, then they certainly didn't belong in the water, that much was clear.
"Who are you?" Ed said, and then regretted it as he had to cough to expel the mud he had taken in to speak.
"Aw, Edward," said the figure as they gently placed a hand on his forehead, "You don't have to speak. The water's too thick for you. I can understand you by your facial expressions."
Edward calmed himself down and nodded. Then he stared intently at the figure and raised an eyebrow, hoping that whoever or whatever it was would be able to decipher that he was still trying to ask the previous question.
The figure laughed in response. "Edward, honestly! Did you actually think that I would abandon you guys?"
Now both of his eyebrows rose up in confusion. He recognized that voice from somewhere, but he was having a difficult time placing exactly where. He'd run into too many different women lately to be able to figure out who this voice belonged to when they were clearly out of their element. Apparently, the visitor was able to read this expression on his face quite well, because she suddenly laughed and then bent down even closer to Ed's face, as though that would help. It didn't, since she was just a blurry white form, but Ed understood the gesture.
"Ed, you dummy! It's me, Sylvia!"
Edward's eyebrows were already up, so he couldn't jerk them up in surprise, but his jaw had not yet dropped, so he let that go and in return got a mouthful of mud which sent him into a choking spell. Expelling mud while still remaining in it is not an easy task, and the choking just seemed to be getting worse until Sylvia's glowing form slapped him on the back, helping him to dislodge the mud from within him.
"Geez, Ed, you're going to choke to death if you stay down here much longer."
Edward wanted to sigh and ask her if she had any better suggestions, especially considering how it had been she herself who had suggested that he come this way in the first place, but he didn't dare open his mouth again.
"I didn't realize that the river got this muddy this far west," said Sylvia, standing erect again, though Ed still couldn't make out any details on her. Part of him was comforted to know that she still existed, but it was still a bit unnerving to have her present in spirit the way she was. It went against the way he had been raised, not that the rest of the things he was experiencing lately didn't. It was just one more thing to add to his collective pile of weirdness that had suddenly entered his life.
"I'm sorry about this, Ed," said Sylvia, breaking Ed's train of thought, "I'm not going to abandon you two, don't worry, not after I tried so hard to get you guys to safety. I'll find a way out of here for you."
Ed opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say a word, the apparition had vanished. Maybe she had been smart enough to notice that he was going to respond, and disappeared before he could do so and choke on more mud. Still, he wished he'd gotten the chance to ask her a few things. If he was going to be seeing ghosts now, he wanted to be able to understand what he was seeing. Surely she of all people would understand that, having had traveled with him for a few weeks.
A few hours later, Ed rose to the surface again to breathe. The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, and the birds were in full twittering mode. One would think that all the birds would still be in the south during the winter months, but either these ones were the first ones back, or they had never left. Ed shrugged. He didn't really understand the behavioral patterns of birds anyway. He then took a deep breath of the fresh morning air and then dove back beneath the surface.
Al was still sleeping on the bottom of the river when Ed came down to look for him. It was pitch black underneath such muddy waters, he honestly didn't know how anything could live in it, though some creatures did. None of them were things he would consider eating though. The creatures he would eat all required sunlight. Something about completely colorless river animals just turned him off of all thoughts of eating them.
Ed felt around the bottom of the riverbed until he found the mess of wet clothes that Al was still wearing. The boy would have to change them soon if he wanted to still wear normal clothes like a human, because these ones were going to rot away before long. Edward felt along his brother's body until he found a shoulder, and then he gently shook it, coaxing the boy to wake up. He couldn't see whether his efforts were having any effect, but he would know that they were once Al started moving of his own accord.
After a moment, Al finally did start to squirm under Ed's touch, so Ed removed his hand and swam back up to the surface to await Al's arrival up there. In waters this this, the only way for the two of them to talk was to talk above the water. By and by, Al's sleepy head finally appeared above the water and gasped for breath. As soon as he calmed down, he brought his hand up and began to rub at his eyes. "Wow, it's morning already?" he said.
"Yep," said Ed, shrugging in response, "I didn't see much point in continuing to sleep down there when the sun was up." Ed then swam over to the side of the river and pulled himself up onto a rock that happened to be positioned there, and Al quickly followed suit. The two were a mess to behold once they had gotten themselves out of the water. Their hair was stained with mud, not to mention the fact that Al's clothes didn't look new at all anymore. At least they were black, so the stains wouldn't be permanent. Not like it would matter since he would have to throw those clothes out soon anyway, but it was still annoying.
"Look, Al," said Ed, pulling his tail up to his chin and wrapping his arms around it as though he had legs still, "There's nothing to eat in the river, and I can't go on land. Would you go on land and find some food for the both of us?"
"And leave you behind?" said Al, raising his eyebrows in shock, "No, never!"
"But Al," said Ed, sighing and resting his forehead on his tail where his knees would have been had he been human, "We're both hungry. We haven't eaten in a couple days because of this mud. We're taking a risk either way. Either we risk something happening because of our being separated, or we risk dying of starvation. I'd much rather take the risk that might prevent either one from happening."
"In other words," said Al, who then sighed and placed his arms and legs in the same position as his brother, "You want me to go out and find food, but not take too long about it so that nothing has the chance to happen."
"Basically," said Ed.
"Fine," said Al, "But if something happens to you while I'm gone, I'm holding you personally responsible."
There was a delayed reaction as the joke Al had made slowly sunk into Ed's brain, but once it had, Ed could no longer resist and he began grinning and letting out a few chuckles. "Al," he said, shaking his head while still grinning, "Don't make me laugh about something as serious as this."
"Why not?" said Al, standing up and trying in vain to dust himself off, "Those who take life too seriously have no fun in life."
"That's true," said Ed, who put his head back down on his tail as Al turned and walked off into the wilderness, leaving him alone.
Al didn't really know where he was going, so he just continued to walk forward in the direction he had started out in, making sure not to get lost. Sooner or later, he would have to find something. Sure enough, there was something up there ahead of him that he could see, but he couldn't yet make out what it was. There were some bright flashy colors that poked through the brush, but that was the best that he could tell. Who or what would be out in this wilderness, he couldn't say, but it made the most logical sense for him to head in that direction.
After quickly performing a transmutation on his clothes to ensure that all the mud was off and he looked presentable, he continued to head in the direction of the brightly colored something. Before long, the sounds emanating from the direction of the brightly colored thing began to reach his ears, and he started to piece together what it was. There were shrieks of laughter, loud exclamations as though someone was shouting from a platform, and lots of cheerful, festive music. It must have been some sort of traveling carnival or circus to have that kind of aura about it. Surely there would be food there, even if it might be junk. At least it would stave off his and his brother's hunger.
It wasn't long before he had arrived in the midst of the carnival. While the music and the shouting and the laughter continued as before, he realized to his chagrin that there was no crowd present, hence the carnival wasn't open. Apparently, everyone here was practicing for the next big show, wherever it was being held. So maybe he couldn't buy any food from a snack booth, but there was still the possibility that he could talk someone out of their food, since they had to have their own food around somewhere.
Al walked up to the nearest person and tapped on their shoulder. "Um...excuse me, but..." The person spun around, obviously surprised at being approached like that, and Al gasped. He stared at the person wide-eyed as he mentally counted over and over again how many limbs they had to make sure he wasn't merely seeing things. The person had three arms, the extra one hanging down from his right shoulder, but draping across his chest, almost lifelessly.
"Hey," the man said, and then smiled in a friendly way, which made Al unsure of whether he should relax in the presence of this man or not. "You're new here, right? What's your problem?"
"M-My problem?" Al stammered.
"Yeah," said the three-armed man, "I mean, why did the boss collect you? You seem pretty normal to me."
"Collect me?" Al said, once again repeating the words of the man, "I don't quite understand."
The man raised one of his eyebrows and stared at Al oddly. "Then the boss didn't bring you here because you were some kind of freak?"
Al's gaze turned blank as he slowly shook his head, trying desperately to understand what this man was getting at. Did he look like a freak to this three-armed man? How could he possibly look like a freak around someone with too many limbs?
"What is this, some kind of freak show?" Al asked, curiosity getting the better of his polite side.
The man smiled again and stifled a chuckle. "Of course it is. I would have thought you knew that if you managed to find your way in here."
Al hung his head in shame and embarrassment. He had honestly never been to a freak show in his life because he didn't like the idea of pointing at people who had simply been born differently from everyone else, but he would have thought that he would have recognized one had he seen it. Apparently not.
He raised his head again after a nervous chuckle. "I-I really only stumbled upon this place by accident. You see, me and my brother haven't eaten anything for a couple days, so I thought-"
"...That we might have some food to offer?" the man finished for Al, "Well, I'd like to help, but frankly, that's up to the boss. You'll have to talk to him. Where is your brother, anyway?"
"I-I left him by the river," Al said, feeling nervous and beginning to dig at the ground with his toe, hoping that the man wouldn't probe too much, as he had a very difficult time hiding the truth when a person did so.
"Why?" the man probed.
Al sighed. Why did everyone have to know everything about everybody? If only he had learned the fine art of lying, but everyone would see right through it. His only chance was to simply not tell the full truth and leave the man on a need-to-know basis. That was rarely ever seen through. Al looked down at the ground again. "My brother can't walk."
"I'm sorry," said the man, who then patted Al on the shoulder with one of his normal arms, "Maybe the boss would be willing to help. Does he look a little different from normal? I know the boss would help him for sure if he did."
It was time to divert the man's attention away from the question he had just asked, since there was no way he would be able to come up with a convincing lie to that question. "Uh, may I ask why your boss does this? All your banners are in Creatan, so why are you in Amestris?"
"Ah," the man said, leaning his head back and letting out a sigh. "That is simply because Amestris is so well known for its alchemy. Freak shows aren't popular in Amestris, so he doesn't run a lot of shows while he's here, but he finds most of his freaks here due to alchemy accidents."
"So he's on a recruiting mission right now?"
"Basically," said the man, "We're going to head back to Creata soon though. This time has been a rather dry run for him, and he's been a bit more irritated than usual, but he's got a good heart. A good heart that wants to make all the money it can, but a good heart nonetheless." At this, the man laughed, as though his joke was witty. Al wasn't so sure that it was, but he laughed simply because the man was laughing.
"So, is there any chance that I could talk to your boss about getting some food?" Al asked after the laughter had died down. The man opened his mouth to speak, but just at that moment, the two heard a noise like the crunching of brush to their side somewhere and they jerked their heads in the direction of the movement. There was nothing there except for empty tents, but Al had the sneaking suspicion that someone had been eavesdropping on their conversation.
Edward was still boredly sitting on the rock he had been on when he had sent Al to fetch some food. How long was Al going to take? He knew logically that it probably hadn't been all that long since Al had walked off, but it felt like an eternity to him.
The sun was baking his skin dry. He should probably get back in the mud and soak himself before that happened, but he really didn't want to be in that mud again if he could get away with it. He brought his fist up to his mouth and began biting at his fingernails. At the very least, biting fingernails would take up some of the time and alleviate some of the boredom he was feeling at that moment.
He had been biting at his thumb for a couple minutes when he suddenly felt a fist grab either of his arms and pin them to his body, effectually immobilizing him. That was most certainly not Al; these fists were too big. "Hey!" he shouted as loud as he could, as though doing so would make the attacker leave him alone, "Let me go or you'll be sorry you messed with me!"
The attacker didn't take Ed's suggestion seriously, so he began to wriggle and convulse his body in every way he could possibly think of to get out of this person's grip, which he had to admit was pretty strong. If only he still had legs, he would at least have a chance of kicking himself free, but he wasn't sure how to do it when all he had was a tail. The man then lifted Ed off the rock he had been stationed on and placed him on a flat part of the ground, where Ed naturally continued to wriggle for freedom.
The man then placed his foot on Ed's right arm in order to pin it down and removed his hand. With a swift motion, he struck his hand to the back of Ed's head, instantly knocking him unconscious.
Hope you all liked that. If you've got any questions, comments, suggestions, or anything, feel free to review to let me know. I try not to beg for reviews anymore, since I'm confident enough in my own writing ability now not to need them to keep myself writing, but having others' thoughts still helps, though it's up to you whether you want to give them or not, hehe.