Descent

Chapter Eight

"You might as well come down, Edward." Mustang called up to him. "You can't stay up there forever."

"Yeah that's what you think you bastard!" Edward yelled back. He gripped the tree even tighter, certain that Mustang would try to burn the tree for Ed's insolence. He was, however, proven wrong. Mustang simply laughed and began to climb the tree. Edward reacted immediately. He quickly snapped off all the branches above him and began to piff them down at Mustang's head. Only a few of them hit, but every time they did Edward heard Mustang yell and tell him he was going to regret it. Edward didn't doubt it. He looked over to his right, to see if the tree next to his was close enough to jump to, but it was several meters away. He'd never make it. But he was in luck. The tree to his left was so close it was practically adjoined to this one. He would have to time his jump, though. If he did it right now, Mustang was close enough to the ground that he could just jump down and wait. Ed was a faster climber than Mustang was, though. He waited till Mustang had climbed three quarters of the tree, only four or five meters below Ed, and then, his heart pounding, his common sense screaming at him not to do it, he mustered together all of his adrenaline and jumped.

He grabbed onto the branch nearest him, and landed his feet on the one below. The branch under his feet snapped and he lost his grip on the one above, and for a few terrifying seconds he was tumbling down the tree, smacking every body part possible on what felt like every single branch, but then, for a moment, he was falling horizontally, and by pure luck he landed gut first on a branch sticking out almost completely horizontally. All the breath was knocked out of him and he felt a rib break, but all he could think about was that he'd stopped falling. A look right and upwards and he saw Mustang glaring daggers down at him, before beginning to climb slowly down the tree. Apparently, after Edward's fall, he was not willing to jump trees.

With a huge amount of effort, Ed slid down to the next branch and began climbing down as quick as he could. Roy was not willing to climb quite as fast as Edward, because he was not accustomed to climbing trees as much as Edward was. So Edward was at the base of the tree and running away as fast as he could before Mustang was even halfway down his tree.

That was brilliant! Edward thought to himself as he ran. Now I just have to get back to the apartment and Mustang can't do jack to me!

It began to rain just as Ed made it to the apartment. Slightly wet, he dashed in, locked and bolted the door shut, and collapsed against it, breathing heavily, clutching his side, where his rid was broken. He was covered in cuts and scratches from falling from the tree, and he had a brand new set of bruises to add to his already overflowing collection. He could feel a light flow of blood seeping from a deep cut on his cheek, where it had scraped across a broken branch stump.

Suddenly Winry came running, and when she caught sight of Ed, she froze.

"Edward!" She yelled, shaking off her initial shock and rushing to him. "What happened to you?"

"Fell out of...a tree." He huffed.

"Oh my God! What the Hell were you doing in a tree?" She demanded, not unreasonably. Thankfully, Edward was spared having to answer by Riza rushing to them.

"What happened?" She asked, her voice a mixture of concern and sternness, that she expected an answer.

"He fell out of a tree!" Winry squeaked.

Riza repeated Winry's earlier question, wanting to know what he had been doing in a tree. But at that moment, a sudden flare of pain went through him, and he groaned and put his other hand to his rib. "I think it's broken." He said through his teeth.

"We need to get you to a hospital, Edward." Riza said calmly.

"No! I don't need to go to the hospital. I just need, I think I'll just go to bed. I'll sleep it off." He said stubbornly.