Bwargh I'm so sorry, I suck at updating… but here you go, chapter four! Way overdue, but here nonetheless.

Martin was standing in the hallway just outside of the infirmary, listening to the Elric brothers talking. He was about to leave when Sister Cicely walked up. She went in to check on Ed and came out after a moment.

"Honestly, I don't see why we're just letting his brother sit there, even if he doesn't need to eat or sleep. He needs to get outside sometime."

Martin nodded. "You have to realize, though, that for a while Alphonse had no idea that his brother was alive. Those two have a tighter bond than anybeast in this abbey. Besides, haven't you noticed? Ed's been healing much faster since he found his brother again. I don't see a problem with him staying. It's better for both of them."

"Even seeing his brother in such a bad state?"

"He's seen worse."

"I'm still worried about him."

"Don't worry, I'll get him outside soon. For now, though, don't try to separate them."

The sister nodded, and began to walk down the hall. "You're right about it being better for Ed, at least. I've never seen him look so peaceful as he did just now."

Ed stared at his plate. He had finally been allowed to leave the infirmary, and to celebrate, there was a party that night. Ed didn't see why they were making such a big deal out of this, but then he realized that this place was a lot different from Amestris. Everyone cared about him, whether he deserved it or not.

He tried to be cheerful, but he couldn't help worrying about certain details. What would happen after the situation with the rats was resolved? Would they be able to find their way back? Ed hoped so. He didn't want his brother to be stuck in the armor forever.

Tansy noticed Ed's mood and went over to him. "Is something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, no, I'm just thinking about something else…"

"Like getting back to where you're from?"

"Yeah. Of course, we're not going to leave until we get rid of those vermin, but I have no idea where to go from here."

"Well, you have time to think about it, so don't worry about it right now. You should be happy you don't have to be stuck in the infirmary anymore."

Ed looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, but I want to get Al back to normal as soon as possible. It's hard for me to concentrate on anything else right now." He looked over at his brother, who was currently being attacked by dibbuns. He tried not to laugh as one of them absconded with Al's head. "Even if it means nobody will be able to steal his head again."

"Shouldn't you go help him?"

"Nah, they'll get tired eventually. Besides, it looks like he's having fun."

Martin came up to the two as Ed said this. "So why don't you go join in on the fun?" he asked with a grin.

"Eh, I'm not really in the mood to be tackled."

"Then why don't you show them some magic?"

Ed groaned at the use of the 'm' word, but he decided to show off nonetheless. After all, he didn't want Al to hog the spotlight.

It was a few days before there was a sign of the vermin army. They came up the road as if being seen was part of their plan. Evidently they wanted to frighten the residents of Redwall.

Ed and Al, along with a few other Redwallers, watched them approach from the wall top. Once they were close enough, Al ducked so that he wouldn't be seen, and Ed made his way down to the front gate. Martin was there, waiting for him.

"You know what to do from here, right?" he asked the alchemist.

"Yeah, it's all set." Ed waved to his brother, who began the first phase of the plan. Ed listened as Al and Auma tried to convince the rats that Redwall was haunted. Once the vermin responded with disdain, Ed clapped his hands together and placed them on the ground. From the other side they could hear shouts and screams.

Al watched as the rats panicked. Once they had calmed down some, Auma shouted down, "See? What did we tell you? Are you sure you want to stay?"

One of the rats made a rude gesture.

"Oh, I see. Still not convinced, eh?" She waited until the ground underneath the vermin moved again. Then, to her surprise, some spikes jutted out of the ground, nearly impaling several rats. She managed to hide her shock as she continued. "If you value your lives, you should leave Mossflower. Don't ever come back."

There was a great deal of muttering amongst the rats, followed by a hasty retreat. Once they were sure the rats wouldn't change their minds, Auma and Al went down to meet Ed.

"What possessed you to make those spikes?" she asked Ed. "You could have killed one of them."

"I didn't, though."

"Still, that was slightly overkill, brother."

"I don't see how it matters now. They're gone, aren't they?"

Martin nodded. "He did what we asked him to do, and if it weren't for that, a lot of blood may have been shed needlessly."

Ed woke up early one morning to his brother shaking him. The sun hadn't risen yet. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Is it time to go now?"

"Yeah. Are you ready?"

"Just give me a minute," Ed replied as he fell back onto his pillow.

"Brother! Get up!" Al got a hold of his brother's hair and pulled him up.

"Ow! Okay, I'm up," Ed said as he rubbed his head. "Jeez, you didn't have to pull so hard."

They met up with Auma to say goodbye before leaving. She walked through the abbey with them, and as they came to the gate, she took Ed's left hand in her massive paw.

"I don't know anything about humans, but meeting you two has left us with a good impression. Thank you for helping us."

Ed gently pulled his hand back as they went through the gates. "Be careful, though. There are a lot of good people, but at the same time, there's a lot of corruption and destruction due to humans. Don't automatically trust any human you meet, if you meet any more."

"I'll remember that. Thank you."

"No, thank you for saving my life. I…"

"Feel free to come back and visit. We'll be happy to see you again."

"Yeah, if we get the chance, we definitely will."

They walked down the road in the direction from which they had come. Ed was going slowly, as if he were lost in thought. He only snapped out of it when Al pushed him off the road into some bushes. Ed watched as his brother tried to hide next to him.

"What's up?"

"Someone's following us."

"So why are we hiding in the bushes?"

"So we can see who it is."

"Oh."

"Shh."

Ed and Al waited for whomever it was to pass by. When whoever it was got close enough, Ed saw that it was Martin. They got back onto the road and greeted him, ignoring the fact that they had just come out of the bushes.

"What's up?" Ed asked.

"You forgot something," Martin replied, holding something out to Ed. Ed took whatever it was with a confused look on his face. "Stay on your guard. There's still a chance that they're still around."

"Right."

Martin waved as he walked back down the road. Ed stood for a moment, watching as the mouse walked away. He looked in the sack Martin had given him. Inside were his watch and a decent amount of food. Ed took his watch out and put the sack into his suitcase.

"Hmm. I wonder how I managed to forget this," he said as he put the watch into his pocket.

"Maybe you wanted to lose it. Or maybe one of the dibbuns stole it."

Ed looked into the sack again. Inside was a note. Ed pulled it out and looked at it.

"It's an introduction letter. In case we meet up with woodland creatures."

"What does it say?"

"Not much, just how we're humans and how we saved Redwall and all that."

It took several days for Ed to realize that they were completely lost. There was no way they'd be getting back to Amestris any time soon. They tried to retrace their steps, but that didn't work either. After a while, they ended up at a beach. They had reached the sea.

Ed groaned as he looked out at the water. "How did we end up here?"

"Maybe you should have stayed on the road."

"Are you blaming me for this?"

"Well, it was your decision to leave the road and head into the woods."

"Yeah, well, you're the one who wanted to follow that river!"

"Only because we would have been hopelessly lost if we hadn't!"

"We wouldn't have been hopelessly lost!"

"Yeah, we would have! Face it, brother, you have no sense of direction!"

"Says who?"

"Everyone knows it, you're just in denial!"

Ed stopped as he saw something in the distance. There were several woodland creatures standing by the shore, all of them watching the two brothers. After a moment, they approached the two, weapons in hand.

"Who are you?"

Ed exchanged glances with his brother. "My name's Edward Elric. This is my younger brother Alphonse. We're trying to find our way back to where we're from, but we sorta got lost."

"Lost? Where are you from?"

"Uh… See, that's the problem, we don't even know how we ended up in this area."

"And brother's too stubborn to admit he doesn't know what he's doing."

"Will you be quiet, Al?"

The good news is that nobody was suspicious of the two after another moment of this. One of the shrews introduced himself as Log-a-Log, the chief of the Guosim. He invited the two back to the camp after reading the letter Ed handed him.

Ed and Al spent the rest of the day helping the shrews fix boats and such. Ed earned a lot of respect for being an alchemist, and Al let his brother enjoy the fame. He didn't want to have to deal with youngsters pulling his head off again.

The next day was stormy, so the brothers stayed put. That evening, someone arrived in a boat. Ed managed to recognize it as an otter. She was suspicious of the two brothers at first, but she trusted them once Log-a-Log told her of what the two had done for Redwall.

That night, Ed was quiet as he listened to Grath's story. It was somehow familiar to him. Once she finished, he spoke up.

"So you're going to avenge your tribe now?"

"Of course. I can't just sit around and let them continue what they've been doing. Wouldn't you do the same?"

"I've gotten through fifteen years without killing anybody. I'm not in the mood to start now. Besides, I've seen how revenge can get out of hand. I know it's different for you, but back home…"

"Get out of hand? What do you mean?"

When Ed didn't say anything, Al decided to say it for him. "Our best friend's parents were doctors. They were working in a battlefield when one of the people they saved killed them. That person has also tried to kill us, out of revenge."

"Why did he kill them?"

"It-it's complicated."

After that, nobody brought up the subject again. The rest of the evening passed happily enough, especially when someone began singing. Finally, everyone had fallen asleep except for Al. He went outside for a while during a lull in the storm, looking out to sea. He started when he saw something moving in the distance. There, sailing in the unstable waters, was a ship. From what he knew about vermin, it seemed like the ship was a vermin ship.

But it didn't stop. It just continued going south. Al watched it for another moment before going back to his brother and waking him up.

Ed looked around in confusion as he woke up. "What's going on, Al?"

"A vermin ship just passed by."

"Oh, that's nice…" Ed mumbled as he lay back down. "Wait, what if they go up towards Redwall on that one river?" Ed moved to wake up Log-a-Log, but Al stopped him.

"We shouldn't worry them. Let's just go to Redwall ourselves."

"Right now?"

"Do you think we should wait until the morning?"

Ed shook his head. "But, we should leave a note, at least."

"I'll take care of that."

"Okay."