Natural and Periodical Elements
Iron. Nickel. Selenium. Argon. Neon. Erbium. That's right, these people were insane. Ed opened his eyes slightly and saw there were two low walls of rock holding him in place. The kid sitting was still glowing. Maybe he was doing alchemy with Neon somehow.
Cobalt. Iridium. Radium. Cesium. Lithium. Europium. These alchemists didn't use circles or runes. But, they seemed to use a different technique of alchemy; they didn't deconstruct or reconstruct periodic elements. They seemed to freakishly control nature's four elements; fire, air, water, and earth. How did they do it?
Erbium. Xenon. Carbon. Hydrogen. Aluminum. Nitrogen. Gallium. Europium. Ed looked at some of the areas the earth controlling girl had altered. Behind the rock walls, there was a large gaping hole. The rock came from the ground! They were still following the laws of Equivalent Exchange!
Tantalum. Arsenic. Beryllium. Osmium. Oxygen. Even though they appeared to follow equivalent exchange, this still didn't explain how the girl committed human transmutation without paying the toll. Did she have a Philosopher's Stone? She did heal his hand, but the light was blue, not red. If she didn't use a Stone to heal Ed's hand, or commit the taboo, then what did she use?
Lead. Erbium. Gold. Those bastards still had his arm and leg hostage. He needed at least his leg, otherwise, he was as mobile as a log. He realized there was nobody around him. They were all around the kid who was glowing. Ed squirmed and chaffed the rope. The rope frayed and finally snapped, and the kids were still in the same place. Suddenly, the glowing kid stood up, and he had a constipated look on his face.
"…Don't they have bathrooms in the spirit world?"
"As a matter of fact, they do not." What a bunch of weird freaks. Ed crawled with great difficulty to the chimera. Once he reached the beast, he tried to figure a way to get into the saddle. He tried to pull himself up by grabbing the hair on its tail, but having only one arm caused him to fall down. The chimera growled.
"…It's okay, Apple. Just trying to get on your back." Was that the thing's name? He hoped it wasn't hungry. Surprisingly, the chimera lifted its tail, and Ed managed to roll into the saddle. Ed peered over the saddle ledge and saw the glowy kid was no longer glowing. He was talking with the other three kids. Ed had to hurry.
He spotted his leg and shoved it into the knee port. Immediately, something felt off, and it was way more painful than usual.
"OW! DAMN IT LEG! WHAT'S WRONG?" Ed yelled, then slapped himself. The four kids yelled and ran towards Ed. What should he do?
"Yip yip?" He remembered the kid saying the same thing to the chimera. The beast slapped its tail and took off to the sky.
"I don't know how the hell you're flying, but keep doing it!" The beast grumbled. Ed then held his knee. Usually, he only felt pain when the nerves first connected, but it was still painful. "At least I'm away from those circle-less freaks." Ed smiled, but panicked when the chimera's ears perked up. The chimera did a quick turn and headed back for the island. "No! Turn around, chimera!" The chimera ignored him. Ed looked and saw the angry faces of the kids. One of them was blowing into a whistle. "Don't you land." The chimera landed and licked the boy blowing into the whistle. Ed grabbed his arm and jumped off the chimera. Normally, the impact would be absorbed by his automail, but it caused a horrible pain.
"Damn!" Ed ran as fast as he could, and connected his arm. "GAH! IT HURTS!" Light streams of blood trickled from his knee and shoulder ports. Ed recognized the black ground as being sulfur. He clapped his hands and created a large sulfur dioxide cloud to stop those kids from following him. After he was sure they wouldn't be able to get through the cloud, Ed sat down to catch his breath. His automail was leaking with blood, and it was excruciatingly painful.
Scanning the sky, Ed saw the chimera fly over the toxic cloud and it landed not too far away from the injured alchemist.
"He's over there!" In the blink of an eye, the small boy was standing menacingly over Ed.
"Ah!" How did he get there so fast?!
"Why did you take Appa!" The kid was pissed, and the other three were rushing over. Ed quickly clapped and transmuted his arm into a blade, and was successful at scratching the kid. He clapped again and made dozens of fists pop out of the ground, hoping they'd hit something. The kid, who now had a shallow cut on his chest, redirected the fists. He started to glow. And float.
I'm dead, Ed thought.
"Why did you steal Appa!?" This time, the kid's voice sounded scary and echoed. Ed backed up and tried to stand. It seemed like a typhoon had blown in.
"Aang!" The girl yelled and reached for the freaky glowing floating kid. Ed decided not to stick around and sprinted away. His sprinting was more like half limping, half running. With every step, more blood gushed out of his leg. It felt like his nerves were incorrectly connected.
The smaller girl had followed him.
"Hey! Pansy! Why don't you stop running like a girl and fight me?" The girl smiled mischievously. Ed had enough of these freaks. The pipsqueak wanted a fight? He'd give her a fight. He yelled and charged ungracefully at the girl. She did more of her stupid wall tricks, but Ed destroyed them before they managed to smack him in the face. The girl also made smaller pieces of earth pop up to trip Ed. He caught his footing each time, and was nearly close enough to the girl to throw a blow. He aimed a punch at her, which she easily dodged. She then grabbed Ed's outstretched automail hand.
"You almost hit me. It would be a shame if this arm broke." Ed felt a strong sense of déjà vu. He wasn't going to let his arm break that easily this time. He kicked the girl with his left foot as hard as he could and raised his arm to finish the fight. Just as he was about to strike, something hit him in the face.
He yelled and felt his cheek with his left hand. It was covered with blood from the deep gash that the boomerang had caused.
"You're a terrible person, beating up a blind little girl." Sokka said.
"I'm not sexist!" Ed roared, defiantly. Toph stood up and punched Sokka's shoulder. She then turned toward Ed and cracked her knuckles.
Potassium. Antimony. Iodine. Niobium. Ed was in a world of pain. He felt very dizzy because he had lost a lot of blood. He fell down to the ground and curled up in a ball. The arm and leg that he so desperately fought for was killing him. The puddle of blood around him was growing larger.
"Hey, I didn't even touch you yet." Ed ignored the voice. He grimaced and then wrapped both arms around his left leg. His screams pierced his ears like needles when he pulled out the automail leg. It was too painful to keep. After the leg was gone, Ed felt relieved. His arm still felt like it was being stabbed. He looked briefly at the girl, then back at his right arm.
Taking off his arm was just as painful as taking off his leg. He screamed again, but stopped when the offending automail limbs were disconnected and no longer caused him pain. He closed his eyes.
"What's the matter? I heard a girl scream." Oh, the voices were back.
"It was him, not me." He thought he told the voices to go away.
"Oh, good! You showed him who's boss." Go away, voices.
"I didn't touch him. He just ripped off his arm and leg! His breathing is way too slow." Damn it voice, be quiet.
"He needs help. I'll heal him." The voices wanted to help him?
"No! He attacked us. Just leave him here." No, the voices were bad. They wanted to kill him.
"He'll die! I won't let anyone get hurt if I can help it." He liked this voice. It reminded him of his promise.
"Fine. Don't come to me when he hurts you." He didn't like this voice. Bastard.
"He won't. He's just confused. Sokka, you're going to stay away from him until he's healed." The voice wanted to help him. A monster. Ugh, the pain was too much.
"You'd better hurry, his heartbeat just sto-" Ed didn't hear the voices speak again because he had slipped into a painful unconscious state.
Dysprosium. Erbium. Actinium. Titanium. Hafnium…
The bed Ed was on was very soft and comfortable. Too bad Ed was absolutely freezing, or he would have felt relaxed. What just happened? Was he sparring with Teacher too much? The bed was very fluffy, so Ed buried his head farther into it, hoping his rapid shivering would end. He felt very weak, he couldn't even manage to open his eyes.
All Ed could manage to do was think. He knew he wasn't in a dream anymore, this was real, and he finally accepted it. There really were strange creatures that weren't chimeras. They didn't need arrays because they weren't using alchemy; bending, they called it. The only thing that unsettled him was the girl committing human transmutation. Maybe he had taken her words the wrong way.
He wondered what Alphonse was doing right now. Probably stuffing stray cats into his armor. Ed missed Al deeply. He had almost even broken his promise by nearly dying from blood loss. Wait, these people saved him, even after all the trouble he caused? He owed them big time.
"…How old do you think he is?" The voice, no, person, asked. It was Toph.
"Not very. He's almost as tall as you." Sokka replied.
"…Old 'nuff to kick your ass…" Ed spoke quietly, still too weak to move or yell.
"He's up?" Aang asked.
"No. I think it was a subconscious response. He shouldn't stir for a long time." Katara, his healer, was right. Ed lay still with his eyes still closed. He let everything come in. Everything he had done since arriving in this land suddenly came rushing back into memory. Remorse was the first sensation he felt. He had scared the crap out these kids, then actually hurt them. Even after all of that, they still had it in their hearts to save his life.
Ed slowly opened his eyes. He was no longer shivering. The sun was starting to rise over the sparkling ocean water. He slept solidly through the night. No voices. No nightmares. Just sleep. Besides the slight pain in his shoulder and knee, he felt glorious. It was nice and quiet, except for his snoring bed…snoring bed?!
He leaned his head up and saw his soft bed was actually the tail of the chimera. No, this wasn't a chimera, he reminded himself. Its name was Apple. Ed rested his head against the fur and glanced at his surroundings.
Sokka was sitting on the ground with his mouth open, which had drool dripping out of it. He was facing Ed with a sword at his side. So, he wasn't a very reliable guard. The other three were probably sleeping in the saddle, not worrying about any attacks from the previously half dead alchemist.
A loud growl emitted from Ed's stomach. The shocking noise woke up Sokka, who stood up and flailed his sword around.
"We're under attack!" Ed decided this kid was a moron. Aang, Toph, and Katara mumbled from the saddle, and looked to see what the commotion was about. Toph jumped out of the saddle and felt the ground.
"There's no one here but us, Sokka." Katara and Aang also climbed down from the saddle.
"My back hurts. Can you heal it, Katara?" Sokka asked the agitated water bender.
"Maybe you shouldn't have slept sitting up."
"Fine. Don't help your older brother. We should get going to make up lost time, but first, let's eat." Food sounded fantastic, and Ed could feel his mouth start to water. Katara began to cook stew (hell ya!) in a small pot.
"How are you feeling?" Aang handed Ed a bowl of the beautiful smelling stew. Ed placed it awkwardly in his lap and ate it with his remaining arm.
"I'm fine, thanks." Ed drew his gaze to Aang's chest. His clothes were torn and there was a ghastly healed wound sliced across his chest. Ed's eyes winced. "Does…does that hurt?" Aang glanced at his wound and smiled.
"Nope. All better."
"I'm sorry about that. I was-"
"No need to explain now. Rest." Aang turned and sat down next to Katara. At least they didn't seem to hate him, otherwise, they wouldn't have fed or saved him. Ed quickly devoured the stew, only to regret it when his stomach felt queasy. After not eating a good amount of food in a while, his stomach couldn't quite handle being full yet.
Once his stomachache passed, he sat up and watched the four kids talk. Sokka kept on sending unfriendly glares his way. Aang stood up and walked towards Ed, then offered his hand.
"Why don't you come sit by us?" Ed graciously grabbed the hand and sat down next to Aang. The group fell silent and uneasily stared at him.
"So, why don't you tell us what you're doing here, Edward Elric?" Sokka spat out his name.
"Sokka!" Katara glared at her older brother.
Ed breathed heavily. "You can just call me Ed. I'm really sorry about attacking you." Without realizing it, Ed told the kids about everything. His first day in this land. The strange forms of alchemy. Chimeras. When he was done explaining why he used the Avatar's identity, and about his strange time in this country, Ed realized these people must think he was extremely crazy. They all looked at Toph. She simply nodded her head up and down.
"So, you're not a bender?" Aang asked skeptically.
"No. Alchemy is a science. It's a science that is based on understanding, decomposing, and reconstructing matter. There is the law of equivalent exchange, in other words, I cannot create something out of nothing." Ed drew a tiny circle in the ground, and touched it when it was done. A little rock dragon popped out of the ground, which the kids seemed to be amused by. "You see, around the edges of the statue, the ground is caved in. That caving in is like the sacrifice made to create the statue. Simple, right?"
"Looks like earth bending to me." Sokka said, but the others nodded in agreement. Ed glanced at his bowl of soup, which was mostly water, and drew a circle around it. He turned the liquid into a solid.
"See. I reconstructed the water's matter. Science."
"…I do like science…" Sokka muttered to himself.
"According to you, there is one Avatar. The only one to control your nature's four elements. If I was bending, then wouldn't that make me be the like Avatar? I told you, I'm not bending. I'm just using alchemy." Toph nodded her head again. At least they didn't think he was a nut house, again.
"I know it must be hard for you to understand, because it sure was hard for me to comprehend how things in this country worked. I think I went into shock a few times." Ed laughed nervously. "I'm really sorry for what I made you guys go through. I'll make it up to you somehow before I find my way home. I can't thank you enough for saving me."
"Yeah, considering you died." Sokka said bluntly.
"Yeah, I-…wait, what!? What do you mean I died?"
"Your heart stopped beating. You were technically dead for a few minutes. Sugar Queen over there brought you back." Toph said, while Katara glared at her. So this must be what Katara had meant by bringing Aang back. She hadn't committed human transmutation, she simply saved his life with the magic-y bending water. Ed had worried for nothing. Now, he owed these guys, big time. Why not start now?
Ed dug into his pocket and pulled out a small copper coin. He threw it at the unsuspecting Sokka.
"What's this for? Your medical bill?" Sokka scoffed.
"Equivalent exchange."
"Huh?"
"It wasn't mine to take." Ed shrugged, and watched the realization flash through Sokka's eyes.
"It was you! You were the one who mugged me!" Ed gave Sokka a wide grin.
AkumanoshippoNiahma- Thank you so much for all of your reviews! They help inspire me to keep writing, (not that I wouldn't if nobody reviewed) Glad I could write a worthwhile story. :)