It was one of those unbearably hot days, and the over-sized crimson lizard, or Guilmon to his friends (Guil to those very close to him), was sitting in his little 'hideout'. The gates were locked as usual to halt Guilmon from getting curious and leaving his little pen, which left Guilmon panting rather heavily; tongue hanging outside of his large maw, and a ridiculously small fan Takato had provided to keep himself cool (which hardly done anything for the huge lizard). Guilmon waved the small fan up and down, up and down as fast as he could as to cool himself off, which only lasted for a couple of seconds before he realised he had to do it again, and again.... and yes, again. But with a rather loud thud, Guilmon slammed the fan down onto the ground next to him, eventually getting sick of his repetitive actions, so he decided to, as he had once heard on the 'box with the trapped humans inside it', "Break Out Of This Joint". Guilmon could no longer put up with the heat, so he figured the only way to solve his problems was to get out of his pen and go looking for a pond; the cold blue liquid that him and his friends had all enjoyed relaxing by and in seemed so delightful right now, but to get to it he had one obstacle to overcome. He curiously looked up at the large iron-bars in front of him; rusted with age and graffitied by so many unruly, bored Japanese teenagers. He knew there were two options, one hard and one easy: the easy option was just to Pyro Sphere the iron bars to smithereens, and Guilmon knew that with his strength it was a very easy thing to do. But there was a nagging in the back of his head, a small voice telling him NOT to take that option, a voice that told him that Takato would be EXTREMELY angry if he did break the bars down, and Guilmon didn't want that. So he had to take the hard option, and the option which would take the most effort. Guilmon gazed wearily behind him to the massive hole in the wall he had created because he wanted the pen to be bigger, but if Guilmon could do that to a wall, maybe he could apply it to the ground. He lowered his wide-eyed gaze to the ground, staring intently at the dirt below his large three-toed feet and came up with a plan he was certain wouldn't fail.
"D'you think Guilmon's alright, Jeri?" Takato whispered with concern as they sat on the school bus, other children chatting away casually as they would do, wondering what their friends had been up to during the weekend.
"I really think you should stop worrying Takato. You're always like this when you have to leave Guilmon behind for a couple of days." Jeri spoke, trying her best to reassure Takato that everything would be fine.
Takato and his school were off on a field trip for a couple of days, camping like they had done once before. This time Takato, Jeri, Kazu, Kenta and Henry all thought of it as wise to leave the Digimon behind this time since it was far too risky to try and smuggle them all on the bus again.
"Ohh c'mon Takato," Henry grinned from across the bus, obviously having overheard his conversation with Jeri, "I left Terriermon back at my place, so if he gets bored he would go check on Guilmon. Obviously I left the window open, and I managed to find him a good hiding spot so my sister wouldn't find him and try to dress him up again...."
Takato just sighed deeply and tilted his head backwards so it was resting on the chair. But something caught his eye from above in the storage compartment; it was some sort of cream and emerald colour scarf. But this wasn't any ordinary scarf, no, it was twitching, and before Takato could notify anyone else, Henry loudly blurted out, "TERRIERMON?!" Albeit one child fell off of his chair at this moment, no one seemed to notice as everyone at the front of the bus had turned around in their seats, hopped up and gazed silently over at Henry. Those behind him just tried to peek over each other's chairs. Henry blushed a dark shade of red from the embarrassing outburst, now slipping down in his chair as to avoid the gaze of so many, if not all of his classmates. Takato just blinked at Henry who was now covering his face with a magazine he'd brought along, but soon looked back up at the storage compartment. Terriermon had disappeared.
"Phew..." Guilmon sighed in achievement, covered head to toe in dirt as a small hole beneath the Iron Gate indicated his way out. He basically dug his way out of the pen like a dog. The sun continued to shine down on Guilmon, averting his gaze up, but away from the sun. Somehow the thought of the massive ball of fire in the sky made him think about Takato and how much he was beginning to miss him right now, which caused his wing-like ears to slowly flutter down to the sides of his face. He shook his head from side to side a couple of times in order to snap himself out of missing his tamer/partner/best friend and focused on finding a pond so he could cool off, and get cleaned, though that would last too long if he had to return to the pen. Problem was that Guilmon couldn't really remember where there was a pond, and his best option at this moment was to just randomly walk around hoping he'd find one. Then again Takato had always told him to be extra careful and make sure no humans ever saw him, or he wouldn't see Takato ever again. With a long gulp, Guilmon started walking south.
The bus had now stopped outside a small building where supplies for camping were sold; the essentials such as tents, fire making tools, marshmallows, and Takato even swore he saw a blow-up campfire guitar. He thought nothing of it and continued to search the compartments with Henry.
"Now are you two sure it wasn't just this heat making you see things?" Jeri asked as she watched the two boys struggle to see into the compartments.
"I'm positive Jeri, it was definitely Terriermon, he's probably run off somewhere..... If I find him I'm going to ki---- WAAAAHHH!!" Henry shrieked as he fell back onto a chair, groaning in pain.
"HENRY!!!!!!!!!!!" Terriermon flew out of one of the compartments above him, landing 'gracefully' on Henry's stomach, causing Henry to groan some more. "Ha-ha, Henry, you were never good at hide-and-seek!" Terriermon admitted as he turned around to view his tamer's, if you'll excuse my French, pissed-off looking expression. "Ohh.. Well... yeah, you never liked that game, did you Henry? Momentai, silly!" With his silly Cantonese catchphrase, Henry immediately smiled and hugged his partner.
After a few minutes of dodging several teachers complaining and whining, asking why Takato, Jeri or Henry hadn't set up their tents, and fellow campers asking if they needed help, they finally made it onto a quiet little bench at the edge of the campsite where Henry began questioning Terriermon (whom refused to listen and complained that his voice was annoying when he was angry). "I don't see what's so wrong; Guilmon'll be fine on his own, what could possibly go wrong?"
Well, let's just say Guilmon wasn't exactly discreet about hiding from the humans. With the box he received from Guilmon the very first day they had met, Guilmon was walking around town with the cardboard box over his entire body albeit his tail sliding along the ground in plain view. All there was to guide Guilmon was the very small hole which was the box's handle, which, to be honest, wasn't much help at all, but at least people didn't suspect he was a Digimon.
"Mommy, look at the funny man under the box!" one ten year old boy pointed, but was just dragged away by his parental. All the children didn't seem to mind, it was just the adults who wouldn't let their children near the box. One time a child got close enough to touch Guilmon's box, but the father just smacked his hand and dragged him off. The concept of children and parents already confused Guilmon enough, he didn't understand why the children were so curious but the adults weren't. Why were they so different? Why was he beginning to think that he was like a child, and Takato was his Mummy? Guilmon shook his head and made his way forwards, eventually reaching some sort of clearing, which was strange because Guilmon could swear he was in the dead centre of the hustle and bustle of Japan. Then Guilmon saw something, something so beautiful, he completely forgot about Takato. His heart skipped a beat for the first time. He saw, what was, BanchouLeomon.