Well, third chapter I wrote tonight.
I will have to edit it later, right now I want to sleep.
Heavenly Brothers
Ch.3 The Island
Ed was awaken by the presents of some one standing over him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Al? You going to the bathroom?" he looked beside him when he heard light snoring next to him.
Al was still asleep. Ed looked up to the figure above him. A man in a mask looked back at him through glowing eyes. The masked man lifted up his arm which held a club and brought it down onto were the two Elrics were sleeping. Ed had grabbed Al and pulled him out of the way just in time.
"What is it Brother? Can't you use the bathroom by yourself…" Al mumbled still asleep.
"You idiot! Open your eyes!" Al opened his eyes to see the masked man charging toured them. He brought the club down.
They scrambled back and put their backs to a tree. They stayed there watching the man stand up after pounding the spot they just where with the club, missing them by inches. Once the man straitened out he said a warning.
"Get out!"
"You've gotta be kidding! If we run, then our training will be-" Ed was cut off by his brother pushing him to the side.
He tumbled to the side as the masked man went after Al.
"Damn," Ed said as he tried to look up.
The man was swinging wildly at Al. Al dodged every swing but one finally caught him. He fell to the ground and the man punted him acrossed the clearing. Al landed hard.
"Al!"
The man walked up to Al who lying on his back. He raised his club to finish Al off, but Ed ran acrossed to them and punched the man on his cheek. The man acted like it didn't faze him and swung at Ed. This sent him flying; he landed near the edge of the clearing. As the man was distracted with Ed, Al was able to stand up.
"Damn…Al! Run!" they both took off in opposite directions.
The man looked at each way they had gone and headed the direction in between. Both Elrics ran as fast as they could just incase the masked man was right behind them. They circled around in hopes that the other did the same. Ed had run out of breath and leaned agents a tree.
"Now what? Don't get lost on me, Al…" he said looking up.
A hand came out and grabbed his shirt from behind. Ed froze and started yelling franticly.
"I won't taste good if you eat me!"
"Brother, it's me!" Al popped his head from behind the tree.
Ed turned around tears in his eyes. "Al! Thank goodness! I thought I'd lost you!"
"Shh!" Al turned to look behind him.
The man came out of a bush and looked around. The boys hid behind a tree covering each other's mouth. The masked man walked away eventually and they made their way back to the camp.
They stayed up the rest of the night not willing to go back to sleep until the sun started to rise.
It was about mid-day when they finally woke up.
"Who was that man? I'm scared! I'm scared to death!" Al said as they walked trough the small forest. "And she said there were no wild animals here!"
"There's something even worse than wild animals here!" Ed said also freaked out.
"What should we do?" Al asked.
"What can we do? It's another mouth before they're coming for us." Ed said checking the strength of some vines along the edge of the clearing. "For the time being, we can't fight on empty stomachs." He cut down the vines to make some traps.
Soon they caught a rabbit in one trap.
"You did it!" Al said running to Ed with the trapped rabbit.
"We can catch it with the right kind of trap!" Ed exclaimed.
The little rabbit was squirming on the grown as they watched it.
"So…" Al said looking at the thing try to get loose. "How do we eat it?"
"We stick it!" Ed said bringing up the knife.
"We stick it?" Al asked afraid.
They both walked up to the rabbit and gulped. The rabbit looked up at them with big eyes begging to be let go.
"You'll have to do it." Ed said defeated handing Al the knife.
"No! Brother, you do it! I've never killed an animal before." Al said holding up his hands, palms out.
"Neither have I!" Ed yelled back.
"That's not fair! You always force me to do the things you don't want to!" Al shouted.
"I make you do what?" Ed asked angrily.
Just then a fox darted out from the near by brush and stole the rabbit at their feet.
"Ahhh!" both boys yelled. "Hold it!"
They chased the fox through the vegetation yelling at it. It dropped the rabbit and turned to face them. The fox lunged forward, Al was able to jump out of the way but all Ed could do was turn just enough so the fox would miss his face. The fox still was able to bite hard on Ed's shoulder. Ed fell into a bush and it let go running to the rabbit. It picked up the rabbit and took off.
"Brother are you ok?" Al looked at Ed's shoulder and saw blood but before he could move to help him, Ed was already taking off after the fox.
"Come back here you bastard!" Ed yelled after the fox, still following it.
Once they caught up to it, it was back at its den. Watching the fox it set the rabbit at the opening in the roots of a tree. Then two small baby foxes came out and started eating the rabbit their mom brought for them. Ed and Al thought it was cute at first but once they started digging into the rabbit they didn't feel like having rabbit any more.
"Want to go fishing, Al" Ed was grossed out at the foxes' lunch.
"Yah lets go fishing." Al replied grossed out too.
They went and made some fishing rods and went down to an outcropping of rocks near where Teacher left them. They stayed there for the rest of the day. By the time the sun was going down they didn't catch anything.
"I wonder if you can eat fox…?" Ed asked menacingly.
Al laughed lightly. "Take it easy."
Just then a fish bit Al's hook. "Got one!"
They went a little ways into the forest and started a fire. They felt giddy that they were about to eat. The fish was cooking nicely when something landed like a bolder behind them. They looked to see the masked man looming over them. They ran away screaming leaving the fish for him to take.
They made it back to the clearing and marked another day down on a tree, one the edge of the clearing.
"There's no way we're giving up! 28 more days left!" Ed said as another grove in the tree was added.
As days went by the brothers tried fishing with both rods and spears with no luck. The traps were failing, only catching Ed once. They even tried catching a bird to eat. They had to hide from the man in the mask almost every night. Before they knew it, it had been seven days without eating more than two of three fish and a few fruits. They felt weak and hungry. They even tried some mushrooms they found but got very bad stomach ache. Soon the hunger got to them and they forgot what they were there for.
"Say… What did we come here for, again?"
"Beats me…"
On the tenth day it rained. They hadn't found any food at all.
"What would happen if we died here?" Ed asked clutching the shoulder the fox bit under a makeshift tent made of leaves and sticks. Al had been sitting in the rain.
"No way…" Al said looking down at his hands. "Winry and Grandma would grieve for us. There's still a lot of things I want to do. All of this… what does it have to do with alchemy? I've had enough! I want to go home!" Al curled up into a ball and cried. Ed stayed silent.
Later that night the masked man showed up. He cornered the brothers up against a bolder. He charged kneeing Ed in the stomach. Ed went flying into a bush; he just lied there not wanting to move. Al had ran up behind the man with a small log to hit him with but the man turned around kicking it out of Al's hands. The masked man started to beat up Al with the club and his fists.
Ed heard his brother being beat up but he couldn't get up to help him. The looked to his side to see a cicada being pulled apart by some ants, the thing was dead but the world didn't stop like it did. He seemed to realize something because he got up and stammered to his feet and pulled out the knife. The masked man was pulling Al up by the front of his shirt. Ed held out the knife with shaky hands.
"Let go of Al…" the masked man turned around. "Let go of Al…" Ed said again.
The man just looked at him, then after a long minute he dropped Al and walked away. Ed watched him go then dropped the knife into the ground. He slid to his knees looking up at the rain pouring down.
The next day he talked to Al.
"We talked about what would happen if we died here, remember?"
"Mm-hmm, everyone would grieve."
"Um, that's the subjective part. Looking at it objectively, if I died, the world would keep on going as if nothing had happened."
"Your existence is a tiny one."
"Don't call me small!" he hit Al.
"Owwww,"
"Well, if I, with my small existence, was to die, my body would still remain."
They talked like that for a while coming up with the answer to their teacher's riddle.
There is a giant flow that they couldn't see with their eyes. They were one little part within the larger flow. One within all.
But then, all of the ones have to come together for the all to exist. All within one.
The world follows the flow of the greater laws that we can't even imagine. We learn that flow, break it down, and reconstruct it.
And that is alchemy.
Once they understood it they started to under stand how to survive on the island.
The days went by fast once they got the hang of surviving on the island. They caught lots of food and the masked man stopped bothering the brothers. They felt confident they where going to survive. But one day something occurred to Ed. He then face palmed.
"Hay Al," Ed said hand still over his face.
"What's the matter," Al asked looking at his brother.
"We're part angel right?" Ed asked behind his hand.
"Yes…" Not sure where his brother was going with this.
"We could have flown off this island whenever we wanted." Ed explained seeing his brother didn't get it.
It took a second but Al then faced palmed too.
"Oh my god, are we idiots. We should have thought of that before." Al said behind a hand too.
"Well we wouldn't have been able to train with teacher if we had; besides we only have one day left." Ed said removing his hand.
"Yah, I guess your right. But don't you think we should have thought of that before?" Al said.
"Aren't you the one who is supposed the optimist?" Ed asked face palming again. Al shrugged.
When Teacher came they sat on their knees in front of her.
"Ok boys, what is the meaning of 'one is all, all is one'?" she asked.
"All is the world," Al said.
"And I am the one." Ed finished.
Izumi just stared and started laughing. She hadn't thought that they would get it. They looked confused until she said they passed. They jumped up and high fived each other, Ed got so excited that he felt his wings starting to come out. He then panicked, they just were accepted to be pupils, and he wasn't going to ruin this for him and Al. He stopped jumping and used all his will power to force his wings to stop growing, it worked. Al gave him a look that said 'what's wrong' and he gave him a look that said 'I tell you later'. Izumi just looked at them funny like she was trying to figure out what just happened. Instead they just jumped into the boat ready to leave.
They made their way back to the meat shop to rest for tomorrow. Their real training starts then.
Lets see I started writing around 9p.m. maybe, and now my clock says 7:37a.m.
Wow, I wrote three chapters. All to this story, now I just need to edit them.
Fun…
Dying Heart Alchemist