Story Title: Guardians of the Wind
Characters: Ranamon, Rosemon, & Angewomon||Pairing: Rosemon x Angewomon/Angewomon x Rosemon
Word Count: chapter: 1,857||story: 1,857||chapters: 1/3
Genre: Adventure, Romance||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing, H5 threeshot; Halloween Trick or Treat Advent 2015, day #18, write a surprise encounter and review someone you've never reviewed before; New Year's Mini-Advent, roll dice to determine chapter count: 3 chapters; Valentine's Day to White Day Advent 2016, bonus #1, generate a random number between 1,000 & 10,000 for your word count: 5,574 words; Easter Egg Basket Advent 2016, day #18, include something white, something fluffy, and something sweet in your story; Purely Digimon Challenge; Character Diversity Boot Camp, #21, regret; Collect the Legendary Warriors: warrior of water
Summary: Ranamon's search for her Beast Spirit took a very long time, even starting before Ophanimon's Chosen arrived in the Digital World. One little adventure crossed her path with something she should've taken better care of in retrospect to come...
"Ranamon! Ranamon! Ranamon!"
Ranamon smiled her most brilliant and charming smile, throwing kisses out to her adoring fans. They were all her adoring fans, of course. They wouldn't be there if they weren't.
But now she leaned forward, batting her eyelashes at them. "I've got a question for all of you. You can help me, can't you?"
"Of course we can!" Almost all of them cheered and the ones who didn't bobbed their heads up and down with equal enthusiasm. She smiled even more at them. Such devoted fans she had.
"I've been looking for this thing. It wouldn't mean anything to any of you, but it would to me. It's about the most important thing I want right now." She leaned forward on her seashell throne and kicked her feet, inspiring a wave of adoring sighs. "Have any of you seen the Beast Spirit of Water around here?"
A sudden and confused silence fell on them all. Everyone looked at everyone else, heads being slowly shaken across the clearing they'd gathered in to worship her. Ranamon tapped her fingers on the side of her throne, losing some of her patience.
"None of you? Not one?"
More headshakings and soft whispers of denial rushed through the crowd.
"We can go looking!" One of them declared. "If you want it so much, Ranamon-sama, then we'll find it for you!"
That was what she liked hearing. She smiled and cooed at them. "You do that. If you find it, let me know right away." This was one advantage she had over all of the rest of Cherubimon's warriors: she had fans who loved her all over the Digital World. She could learn almost anything about anyone if she could figure out who to ask.
And even in places where she didn't have fans, all she had to do was turn up there and a new branch of her fan club swept into place with barely a twitch of her wonderfully long eyelashes.
But now she bounced to her feet and waved one more time. "I've got to go now!" She really didn't, but the sooner they got to work finding her Beast Spirit for her, the better. She could come here and be admired any old time.
"We miss you already, Ranamon-sama!" One of them declared. She barely bothered to learn their names. There wasn't any real reason for it, in her opinion. They were her fans. That was their identity. What else did they need?
"Of course you do! How sweet!" Ranamon waved one more time, then dived into the lake, enjoying the feel of the water closing over her. She'd always loved swimming and diving, even before being the Warrior of Water. Cherubimon-sama said that contributed to the Spirit choosing her.
Well, she still hadn't found her Beast Spirit and while no one had said anything to her about it, the simple fact that Arbormon and Grottomon - neither of whom even came close to her level of beauty - found theirs first infuriated her. She needed to do something to prove how much better than they were she was.
Her fan club went a long way towards that. Digimon everywhere knew how beautiful and wonderful she was and praised her for it all day long when she passed by them. All that happened when Grottomon and Arbormon happened by were screams and Digimon fleeing in terror.
Which wasn't always a bad thing since they did need to take code for Cherubimon-sama but at the same time, and Ranamon liked the sight of people being in awe and terror of her as well. But because of how beautiful she was, not because of how ugly she was.
Which she wasn't. And she never would be. She not only ruled the waters of the Digital World, but she was the most beautiful being in land, sea, or air. Anyone who even dared to think otherwise would regret it.
She twirled around in the water, humming a content little song to herself. Sooner or later she couldn't live this happy life of hers, thoroughly bloated on the praise of her fans and having nothing more important to do than take code now and then, or search for her Beast Spirit when the annoyance reached a record high.
Sooner or later, the other Legendary Warriors, the ones that carried the spirits Ophanimon hid, would start to cause trouble. But Ranamon didn't let herself worry about that..
Worrying caused wrinkles. Ranamon refused to have wrinkles.
She didn't pay that much attention to where she was going. She didn't need to; one of the perks of being the Warrior of Water was that she could enter any body of liquid and come out essentially where she wanted to be. So if she wandered somewhere that she didn't want to be, then she wouldn't be there any longer than it took for to realize she was there and leave.
She wound her way through what seemed to be a river or stream stretching off from the lake, waving at a few Digimon who passed her by. Most of them squeed and waved back, whispering among themselves. She couldn't hear them, but she could guess what they said anyway. It was the same thing almost everyone said when they saw her: coos and squeals that someone so beautiful lowered herself to be seen near them.
Another day, another set of hours filled with her adoring fans. Ranamon laughed; life just didn't get any better than this!
A growl from her stomach told her that while life didn't get better, it would probably be useful to surface and find something to eat. If there wasn't anything near where she came up, then she would find one of her fans and have dinner with them. It wouldn't be the first time she'd prevailed on someone else's hospitality.
Her head broke the surface and she looked around in curiosity at where she was.
High mountains surrounded this place, which had now become another lake, this one as cold as Mercuremon's heart. Thick trees coated the lower slopes of the mountain, thick in number and thick themselves. Ranamon didn't think four of her could've stood around one of those and been able to stretch out and touch one another
She allowed herself a few moments to enjoy the thought of four of her. The world wouldn't be able to handle such beauty.
At first she wasn't sure if anyone else lived here, or if she'd simply discovered a beautiful and empty valley. Then she turned around and for a few moments, stood with her jaw nearly touching the water.
There rose a glorious castle, nearly as lovely as those inhabited by Ophanimon or Seraphimon. Pure white marble edged in gold, a dozen towers rising to pierce the cloudless blue sky, and surrounded by a lawn of the brightest green.
"Are you just going to stay there?" A voice that she didn't recognize asked, shot through with rich amusement.
"If that's what she wants to do, then why stop her?" A second voice, one that rang with even more power and more amusement, joined the first. Ranamon looked from one side to the other.
"Where are you? Are you making fun of me? You'd better not be!" Ranamon hated people who made fun of her. She got rid of them as fast as she could, too. It didn't matter how strong they were. If she couldn't do it, then she knew Digimon who could.
Having fans was so useful.
"Up here, my dear," the first voice said, laughing at their own rhyme. Ranamon jerked her head up and her eyes widened at the sight that she saw.
She knew she wasn't the oldest of Digimon by any means, but the sight of two Digimon, one a Perfect and one an Ultimate, hanging in the sky side by side, with no fear at all at the sight of her, one of Cherubimon's Legendary Warriors, wasn't anything she'd seen before or ever thought she would.
"Are you all right?" Angewomon asked, golden hair tossing in the breeze. "You look...surprised."
Ranamon shook her head and concentrated, belatedly realizing that she wanted to make a good impression on these two. They were powerful, moreso than she was without her Beast Spirit, and if she could convince them to join Cherubimon-sama, then that would be wonderful. No one had ever convinced a pair as powerful as Angewomon and Rosemon to join their master.
Maybe one of them would even be strong enough for the Spirit of Darkness. Angewomon probably wouldn't, angel types were always so holy, but perhaps Rosemon...
It would also mean that they wouldn't be quite so pretty anymore. Ranamon liked the idea of that.
She rose up on a column of water until she stood in front of the two of them. "I'm Ranamon," she introduced herself. "Nice to meet you." She'd done this with her fans enough times to know how it happened. Though none of her fans had ever been this beautiful or this powerful.
"Ah, the Warrior of Water," Rosemon said, giving her a thoughtful kind of look. Ranamon tried not to fidget under it. Rosemon looked as if she knew far more than she wanted to say. That didn't endear her to Ranamon, though the potential for dinner kept her polite for the moment.
"A pleasure to meet you," Angewomon said, and bent her head in greeting. "May we ask what you're doing here?"
Ranamon couldn't see a reason not to answer. It might even get her better service and more respect. "Looking for lunch. And my Beast-Spirit."
The two exchanged a glance Ranamon could not read before Rosemon looked back at her and spoke. "The Beast-Spirit of Water isn't here. But if you wish to dine with us, you're welcome to do so."
Ranamon let out a gleeful squee at the thought of not having to eat with her fans. They were useful to admire her, but few of them had any real skill at cooking. These two amazing Digimon surely would set a table fit for the Queen of the Seas! Her worries about Rosemon flitted away with the waves.
"Come along, then." Angewomon gestured for her to head to the shore and Ranamon obliged, mostly because she couldn't wait to see what the inside of the castle looked like. If it were half as beautiful within as it was without, then Ranamon considered taking it for her own. She'd always loved waterfront property.
"She's going to want it if she finds out we have it." Angewomon murmured, voice too low for their guest to hear as they flew. "We can't allow that."
"I know. I know how to handle her. Trust me, love." Rosemon slid an arm around her lover and smiled. To anyone watching - such as Ranamon - it wouldn't have denoted anything aside from their bond.
The thought that the bond itself could be a distraction wouldn't be likely to occur to one of Cherubimon's warriors. Rosemon and Angewomon headed toward the shore to continue treating with their unexpected guest.
To Be Continued
Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.