Elements [FMA] Episode 17 - Lost

Was she joking me? I snarled at her. How dare she say such a thing? I glanced down at Hayate, who was still barking and was now wagging his tail. I listened for Atticus, but there was no more sound coming from him outside. If Cache was lying, how come the animals seemed excited? Someone had to be out there.
"Cache, what-" I grumbled, rising up from my seat. I was in no mood to be messed around with. "Simply impossible, Ed-" But when I looked outside the window, I had to stop myself from saying what I was about to say.
Outside stood four people. Mustang and Brielle were there, along with Fluffy, who ran across the yard from Atticus. Cache's dog, however, didn't seem interested in the small lamb. He was jumping on the man standing next to the boy who I recognized as Al; Atticus was jumping onto a blonde-haired man who I knew in my heart was Ed.
But he's taller than Ed was. My mind said, but I knew he would have grown some since I last saw him. His hair seemed a bit longer. Hair grows over time. I reminded myself. He looks more mature...handsome..Those gold eyes? Is it him?
My heart was now beating faster than it had been when I encountered Sarafina and she told me about the two brothers Lin was going to meet. I could feel heat rising up into my cheeks as they drew nearer to Riza's door. Suddenly, I became aware of how plain I looked in my light pink dress and how girlish and fragile it made me look; how ridiculous my hair must've looked with only one braided lock on the side of my head.
"Leann!" Cache said, shaking my shoulders. "They're back!" And then she left me as she rushed towards the front door.
Hastily, I sought a place for myself to hide. As Cache swung the door open, I trotted back to the room I had always stayed in when I was with Riza.
"Hey you guys!" I heard Cache yell.
I looked over my shoulder to see what was going on. BOOM! I felt a shock of pain as I walked straight into the corner of the wall. Immediatly, I regretted not watching where I was going, for I heard voices draw nearer.
I stood there, swaying until the pain subsided. When I brought my face out of my hands, my immediate action was to walk straight back into the room, but something seized my leg.
"Aunt Ann!" I looked down to see Brielle squeezing my left leg.
"Brie, where have you been?" Said I, momentarily forgetting about the others, but when I looked up I saw Cache, Riza, Mustang, Al, and Ed staring at me.
I blushed as I met with Edward's eyes. I tried to glance down at Brie, but his gaze seemed like a spell and held my attention to him.
Why am I so afraid? I can not say anything...my mouth has suddenly gone dry...I'm frozen here and I can't move nor can I do anything!
"Leann?" Al said, smiling widly. He ran up to me. "Is that you?"
I nodded.
"Wow! You look so grown up now!" He said, clapping his hands together.
"And...And you've...got your body back." Said I, smiling. It was hard to get the words out when my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth.
"Aunt Ann! Aunt Ann!" Brie said, jumping up and down. "I was lost and I was really really scared and den," She spoke fast; her words poured out like a waterfall. She pointed to Al then Ed. "Dese boys found me and - and dey found Mustang. I'm sorry, Aunt Ann. I didn't mean to get lost."
"It's okay, Brie." I said, not thinking about what exactly I was saying. At the time I was too shocked and nervous to care about how Brie disappeared.
"Ouch! Hey!" Ed yelled, looking back at a smirking Mustang. I saw that Ed had stumbled a few steps forward. He looked back at me and waved a hand, grinning sheepishly. "Hi, Leann."
"Brother! Isn't this great? We're back!" Al yelled, throwing a hug on me. He continued to run around the room yelling, "We're back!"
Brie giggled.
"So...um...this is your neice?" Said Ed, looking down at Brie.
Cache, Mustang, and Riza talked amongst themselves.
"Yes. Thank you for finding her...Where have you been?" I asked, tearing.
"Yes, where have you guys been?" Cache asked.
"Why don't we sit down and discuss this?" Mustang suggested, plopping himself onto Riza's sofa.
"Alphonse!" Ed called to his brother as he sat down on one of the chairs.
Al scurried back to where we were and sat down next to his brother.
I left Brie in my old room with Fluffy. When I came back, Mustang was saying, "...going down the street searching for any would-be kidnappers and mapping out the area's in which the kidnapped children were last seen. Then I found these two walking down the street with Brielle!"
After I sat down I glanced at Ed. He was looking at me. He quickly looked away as Mustang said his name.
"So why don't you tell us, Ed? Al?"
Al left Winry's in search for Ed less then a year ago. After Ed restored Al's body, he said he had tranfered into another world across 'the gate' where he stayed with his father until he found a way to come back.
"You met your father?!" I exclaimed.
Ed nodded. "Actually...He showed up a little while after you went to England, dissappeared again, and then popped up again in that world."
Ed gave us a brief description of this other world before continuing with the story. After he found his way back, he somehow ended up thousands of miles away from here in Russia. He was captured, for being alien, and held in a prison until two days later when he finally escaped. Ed traveled for days in the wilderness until he reached the border of a land he described as, "...dark, a forboding place. There was smoke everywhere from lava pits, and the air was humid and smelt like death. I tried to travel through it, but I soon became lost. It took me two days to find the place where I had entered. From thereon, I stayed on the edge of the Red Wastelands."
"The Red Wastelands?" I asked. Remembering my encounter with Sarafina, I added. "What's that?"
"It use to be a small town." Mustang said. "I don't know much about it since it all happened before I had joined the military. Supposively, someone who was discharged from the military went to that town, then known as Alistair, to live with his daughter. He had taken some biohazardous chemicals with him and exposed them to the area. The military had to go in and destroy the whole town - They saved all the people they could..." His eyes narrowed as his voice faded away. "It was tragic, but it had to be done. If they hadn't, the chemicles would've spreaded overtime and caused more people to die."
"Is the place," Cache whispered. "Safe now? You aren't sick, are you?" She glanced at Ed and Al.
Mustang laughed. "Don't worry, Cache, they cleaned it all out, though the land can never be used again due to the enviroment."
"What happened after that?" Riza asked Ed.
Instead Al replied, "That's where I came in! Okay, at that time I was way down south at the ocean. I met a fisherman who came from Russia to sell some fish. I bought some of his fish and ended up chatting with him for a while. We got to discussing illegal immigrants, and that's when he told me about Ed." Al grinned widly and narrowed his eyes at his brother.
I looked at Ed, who was once again looking at me. When he saw my eyes he looked away, and that was when he saw that his brother was looking at him. "What?"
Al snickered. "He told me that a short man with blonde hair and gold eyes was arrested near his house."
Ed snarled, grinding his teeth. I could see his fists tighten up. It looked like he was using everything in his power to stop himself from attacking his younger brother.
"When I asked him for more details I knew it was Ed. So I asked the fisherman if he would take me to Russia with him and I got permission from the state to go. When we reached Russia, I searched for Ed until I tracked him down at that border. We were so happy to see each other, right Ed?"
Ed loosened up a bit and sighed, "Yeah." smiling.
"But then we were chased into the wastelands by those bandits!" Al exclaimed. He turned to me. "Leann, do you remember those men that attacked us on that train the day we met? The - Crimson Fevers?"
I glanced at Ed, then away and quickly made myself look like I was thinking instead of trying to look at Ed. "Yes. Yes, I do."
"They somehow - followed me, I guess, and demanded that we come with them! Of course, we refused to and fought them. They looted some of our stuff, including Ed's pocket watch, before we ran into the wasteland and lost them.
"For the next several days, we were lost."
I believe I need not to explain the "other world"...
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