A/N: Here we are! On Friday and everything. Woo. I am really tired so please excuse mistakes. Enjoy!
Chapter 3
"Brother, do you think the smugglers are using the river?"
"They could be. There's nothing 'round for miles. No other towns or anything. But the river connects everything." As Ed finished speaking, the ground beneath his foot gave way and he was forced to clumsily stumble backwards.
"Careful!" Alphonse warned.
"I'm fine. Let's look around." Ed stuck his hands in his pockets and continued walking along the bank.
Truthfully, there wasn't much to see. The west was made up of vast plains and rocky hills jutting out from the ground. The gathering of trees that surrounded the small town they were visiting was the closest thing there was to a forest for miles. Mainly out of curiosity, the Elric brothers had gone exploring and had followed the large river until the grass beneath their feet disappeared and they were surrounded by dirt and jagged rocks. Ahead of them, the river cut through craggy hills, creating a small canyon full of rushing water.
"Could the smugglers really travel on the river? The current seems to be pretty rough."
"In town, they said it's been raining. They said it wasn't cold enough to snow yet." Edward sounded distracted and the far away tone caught Al's attention. He slowly turned and looked, really looked at his brother. Ed was standing close to the edge now, staring hard at the rushing water. His breathing had become shallow and he seemed to have grown pale. It was unnerving and Al felt a cold sense of worry shudder through his frame.
"The water is moving so fast though. It seems too dangerous." Al muttered as he cautiously stepped forward. Something had seemed off with Ed for a few days and Alphonse had been giving his brother space, but maybe that had been a mistake.
Edward was no longer listening to Al at all, nor did he notice the way his brother was moving slowly toward him. Ed was staring into the swirling water with great intensity. It went rushing, roaring by with such a force that the sound of it was horrendous. It filled his ears and flooded his brain. Everything else had faded away.
"He followed the water." Ed mumbled, unaware he had spoken aloud. Alphonse responded with something, but Edward couldn't hear him. His chest began to ache as his heart pounded and pounded, beating faster, pushing the water through his entire body, he would drown. He took a great, gasping breath, trying to force air into his lungs, but there was none. There was nothing, but the sound of waterfalls. Great tumbling waterfalls.
Ed's knees were bending and with one hand he began clawing at the skin over his heart. What the hell was going on? He had been feeling awful lately, but he couldn't let it affect him this much. He was past this. He was better than this. With one last shred of awareness, Edward tried to make sense of it, he tried to stop it. He was imagining things, he was panicking, he was probably scaring his brother…
Suddenly, a hand was on his shoulder and all of his reasonable thinking ceased. He was going to be taken again, taken and bound and hurt and no he couldn't go through it again. He screamed and he ran. He ran about two steps before the ground fell out from underneath him and he was falling through the air. There was a sudden, freezing, watery impact that brought him back to his reality. The river. He had been standing on the edge of it. Now it rushed around him, pulling him under. The coldness of it hit him hard in the chest and it pulled the little bit of remaining air out from his lungs. He really had no air this time, he couldn't breathe.
And there, that muted sound was Al screaming his name. Desperate and already too far away. He was being swept down the river, towards the sheer rocks and rough terrain. There would be no easy bank for him to climb out. He was going to drown.
No, no, no, he couldn't leave Alphonse. He had to do something, he had to get out. He reached out desperately looking for something to grab hold of. But there was only water. He could transmute the water. Turn it to ice. It might be possible, but he had never done it and it was all rushing by so quickly. Swim. Think. But the current was too rough and it kept turning him upside down, making him choke. Fight. Transmute. Too cold, no air. Don't die. His automail was too heavy. He had never tried to swim with it, he knew it would be difficult, too dangerous to attempt. Think. Al needs you. Think.
Edward's panic and racing thoughts were instantly stopped when his head collided with a rock and he was lost to darkness.
"Edward!" Alphonse yelled. If Al had lungs they would have given out long ago.
"Ed!" If he still had a throat, it would have gone dry and useless from screaming.
"Brother!" If he had a body, he would have been exhausted from running along that river.
"Ed, please!" Climbing over those rocks would have caused him so much pain.
The sun was setting and Al only knew it was cold because it was winter, but if he had a body, he would have been feeling the chill in the air.
"Edward! Where are you?" Unfortunately, not having a body didn't save him from the feeling of his heart breaking as he searched and searched and couldn't find his brother.
He had run along that river screaming and looking, feeling panicked and helpless. He couldn't get wet, the blood seal would be washed away, but how was he supposed to save Ed? He had lost sight of him when the river turned into the hills and the walls became steep. Al climbed them anyway, too scared to stop and draw a transmutation circle to make the way easier for him. Alphonse could only follow the river hoping his brother would find a way to stop himself from being pulled too far. But he never saw Edward. Not clinging to any rocks or clinging to the bank.
The river widened and the current slowed marginally. When this happened, Al dropped to his knees and drew a transmutation circle in the ground. In desperation, he caused the ground to rise up, block the water, set it spewing out on a new course. His dam didn't work as well as he thought and he fled quickly to avoid the flood of water that now poured and filled the surrounding area. It had slowed the water down though. If the current wasn't so strong, he thought he might have a chance.
That had been hours ago. Now it was growing dark and he didn't know what to do.
"Brother!" Al called again, but his voice caught, disrupted by a sob. It was stupid, he couldn't even cry real tears, he shouldn't be able to get choked up… and yet his despair shook every part of him and he thought he could fall apart from the weight of it. It was when Alphonse really began crying with everything that he was that he caught sight of something out of place on the riverbank.
The ground here wasn't as rocky, the sharp hills had given way to plains once more and the current slowed a great deal as it widened and wove its way through miles and miles of long grass and softer earth.
There, amongst the grass on the bank, lying halfway out of the water, Alphonse could see a bit of red. Brother's coat.
He was losing the sunlight, but he was sure of what he saw. Al ran as fast as he could, yelling for Edward.
And just like that, after all the searching and fear, there was Edward. His forehead was bleeding freely and he looked as though he was freezing, but his chest was moving, slowly, so slowly. He was breathing. He was alive.
"Ed..." Al whispered, voice heavy with relief. Al pulled his brother gently from the water, dragging him over to the softer grass. Alphonse quickly began assessing him. Breathing, but pale, he's unresponsive. Al glanced back to the river and saw a trail of red in the dim light. Blood. So much blood. Too much blood. Too much just to be coming from his head wound. Where is it coming from? Where? Alphonse scanned his brother, tugging at the rips in his clothes, where was the injury? Where? With a sense of dread, Al realized that the blood was pooling under Edward's right leg. Alphonse lifted his brother's leg gently to study it. He pulled away torn fabric to see the injury more clearly. He was pretty sure that the bit of white he saw in the large gaping hole that was torn into Edward's calf was his brother's bone. The fibula.
If Alphonse had a body, he probably would have been sick. Instead, the dread he felt spread throughout his armor, it filled him up and settled in every limb.
"What should I do?" Al whispered. The boy then looked up quickly and glanced at his surroundings. There were plains for miles and hills in the distance. There wasn't a single hint of another living being in that great expanse. Alphonse was alone.
Night fell and Al thought for sure that his brother was going to die in his arms as he carried him. Al had begun to walk back upstream, but then he had seen a little glimmer of light out on the plains. So he walked towards it, slowly, carefully, scared of jostling Edward too much. He was walking for some time when the light wavered and disappeared. Realizing he was now truly lost, Al transmuted a makeshift shelter for them both and was able to build them a small fire.
He spent that night watching the rise and fall of his brother's chest. Edward's leg was wrapped with ripped fabric from Alphonse's loincloth. It had been the only dry fabric that Al had at his disposal. The bleeding had slowed, but Edward seemed to have slipped into shock. If he couldn't find help soon, he knew that Ed could die. He didn't know what he should do. He didn't know enough about medical alchemy and was scared to try something that could hurt his brother more.
He would wait a little longer, to be sure Edward was completely dry from the fire. Then he would pick up Ed and they would head off again. He would continue walking to the place where he thought he last saw the light. It was his best chance, even if it was dark now.
Ed groaned in his sleep and Alphonse was at his side in an instant.
"Brother? Can you hear me?"
Edward made a sound that could have been a response, but it was hard to tell.
"Brother, you're hurt, but it's going to be alright."
"…Al." Ed's eyes fluttered open and he stared dully up at his brother.
"Yes! I'm here. Don't move alright?"
"…'s cold." Ed mumbled, his eyes drifting shut again. Al felt horribly guilty. He could never gauge temperatures anymore, but he had hoped the fire was warm enough. However, Al could see wind blow across the grass, it was probably bitingly cold. They would have to move soon, Edward needed more than a fire and a shelter transmuted from the earth around them.
"It's going to be alright," Al whispered. "You're going to be fine."
Since he didn't have vocal chords, Al always thought it was unfair when his voice wavered and his words would become mingled with the sounds of tears.
"You're… you're going to be f-fine."
No, it just wasn't fair at all.
To be continued…
A/N: So some people probably thought Ed got kidnapped again, but it turns out that Edward is just the unluckiest person in existence.
I thought I wouldn't make my own deadline to post this because… well, because of Kingdom Hearts honestly. I played all day today and almost forgot I needed to get this chapter uploaded. Next chapter should be next Friday as well. However, I do have a bit of homework and I'm busy this weekend attending an Anime Convention. Please leave me a review!
