Chapter 6
"We have to find a way to get out of this floating city" Suko scratched his head. I thought these sewers must lead to some kind of exit. The issue was getting down, not finding an exit.
"Let's move and see what happens guys!" Suko marched forward, and I made sure to get close to him so that he didn't go too far without me. The sewer was indeed huge. The water made dripping sounds and sometimes I got chilly. We found a ladder to get to a lower level. I carried Suko with me as I jumped down and let Burgermon get down through the ladder by himself. We were in a bigger chamber of the sewers, with a huge pool of stinky water. There were small waterfalls of more murky water. This was the place where all the sewer tunnels converged. I put Suko down and held him by the hand while we advanced through a wider tunnel.
"How will we rescue my family?" Burgermon asked shyly. "I hope we come up with a plan quickly."
"We tried fighting against one of those eagles, but we were taken." Suko told Burgermon about how we got into this situation, beginning with the shrine incident. "But I am sure Renamon and I will come up with something, Mr. Burgermon."
At last, we saw a light. A very strong sound could be heard, like a giant waterfall. Suko wanted to run and see, and he pulled me forwards. Once we got near, I saw the vast expanse of the land of this bizarre land: Green grasslands expanded onwards, with a few copses here and there. In front of me, far away, we saw the rainbow canyon, and the dark forest where we were transported. The wind was blowing rather fast, and I could see other creatures flying. Some were birds with dolphin faces, blowholes and all. Their wings were large and flew rather elegantly. "Wow, look at that, Renamon. I wonder what do they eat all day, or how do they communicate."
"Maybe they can understand our language. It's worth a try" I suggested, and Suko concurred. Suko spotted another one of those dolphin birds and called it. The dolphin bird surely enough understood Suko and came closer to us.
"Um. Hi! I am Suko Nakamura from the first grade. I wanted to know if you could please help us get down. It's because we got stuck here and we have no idea how to get down." Suko played with his hair as he was saying this. It seemed to be some kind of habit he had whenever he met someone new. He did it when he met me.
The dolphin bird looked at us and smiled: "Of course I can help you out, Suko." The dolphin-bird looked at me and at Burgermon, "What are your names?"
"Renamon".
"Burgermon".
"Very well guys, you may climb my back. There is enough space for three people." And indeed, there was. I carried Suko to the eagle, and I sat behind him. Burgermon was on my back. The dolphin-bird, which we learned were called dolpheons, took off and made sure to go as far away from the floating city as possible. On the way down, we told the dolpheon everything that had happened, and the situation with Burgermon. We indeed saw many of the giant eagles making rounds about the floating city. It looked like they were looking for us.
"You guys were lucky to have escaped." The dolpheon's voice was grave, and I heard Suko swallow.
"Why do you s-say that?" Burgermon's voice was nervous and quivering.
"Well, that king is a barbarian. He murders anyone he imprisons. Freeing a prisoner, in his lingo, means executing them to free them of this world." Dolpheon looked at us, perhaps to gauge our reactions.
"Uh oh…" Suko exclaimed. "H-how long until the king decides to murder Burgermon's family?"
"Well, that depends on the king's mood, really." Dolpheon said. Burgermon began to cry as he heard this. I could feel he had lost all hope of seeing his family again. We passed by a giant cloud, and I felt the vapor ruffle my fur. I felt horrible for Burgermon, and Suko's urge to help out became more patently necessary. It would really be out of our way to do it, but Suko really wanted to help our and I wished to respect that, and I in fact endorsed it. It was a great chance for my tamer to fight other enemies along with me. But we needed a strategy, as this was a life and death situation for everyone involved.
"We are almost down folks!" Dolpheon said. We landed on the edge of a forest, but it was a regular forest with pines and oaks, and no faces on the trees. I could see beams of sunlight come into the shadows of the woods. A different atmosphere could be sensed. It was more benevolent and serene. We thanked the dolpheon before he flew away.
"Now we got to find a way to rescue your family." I said.
"How? How?! If we are already down and away from the floating city!" Burgermon looked behind me and the floating city was a mere dot in the blue sky. I wish I could answer, but I didn't really know. I still didn't want to disappoint Suko so I thought what else could we do.
"Let's explore the area guys. Maybe someone or something can give us an answer." Suko was marching without moving around, anxious to go and explore.
"Hey… Calm down." I smiled and ruffled Suko's hair. We walked through the forest and did not encounter any enemies. We walked by a small river, where we saw small fish. After an hour of walking aimlessly (let's be honest here) we decided to set up a camp to rest. We set up right next to the river, that way we could have access to fish if we wanted to. It was Suko's idea to be next to the river, for the fish.
At night we set up a campfire and made some fish skewers. Suko ate so much that he almost left us without provisions. He must have been so exhausted, but even then, he stayed awake most of the night. I worried that he would run away somewhere and get into some kind of trouble, so I battled my sleep to keep an eye on him. I heard he was speaking with someone, and it sounded like another boy around his same age. Could there be another human trapped in here? I doubted that very much. To my surprise, there was indeed another boy. But this boy was different: He was wearing a red and green costume, made from leaves and animal hides. He had a long pointy hat as well and pointed ears. He carried a sword on his side, and more surprisingly, I saw a digivice.
"What do you think about Digimon cards?" I heard Suko ask. The elf-boy seemed to be thinking hard about this, until he saw me. He jumped and after looking at my face he looked at Suko.
"Oh, that's my Digimon partner, Renamon. Renamon, this is… what was your name?"
"My name is Gaelin." The boy said as he bowed to me.
"Sorry Gelin. I am really bad with names." Suko played with his hair again.
"That is not a problem Suko. I am glad to meet the both of you. I see that you are a tamer Suko." Gaelin turned to Suko.
"Yes. I just wish I could know more about what means to be a tamer." Suko lowered his head. It seemed like that question was still bothering him a lot.
"What do you mean?" Gaelin seemed puzzled.
"Yeah. I am sure it's not just battles and all that. Or just being friends with your Digimon. There has to be something else to it."
Gaelin scratched his head and thought for a few minutes. Then he abruptly looked at Suko and smiled, saying: "Well, that's a journey for you and your Digimon to partake on. It's very personal, my friend."
"Very personal?"
"Yes! My sister is also a tamer. Our people, the green leaf elves, believe that Digimon are like spirit guides that come to teach us something."
"Hmmm…" Suko rubbed his chin and nodded. "I see."
"You got the basics: fighting, emotional bond. But we believe there is a higher purpose to it than just chance."
"Me too, I don't think I was just lucky! That's why I want to know." Suko said.
"Well, you will have to discover what you and your digimon's mission is. Like I said, we elves believe it is very personal and there is no one who can give you a straight answer." Suko just looked aside. I could tell he was not that happy about the answer, but that it was better than nothing for him. He seemed to appreciate it as a step in the right direction. I knew I had to meet Suko for a reason, but I couldn't put my finger on it either. I still would not let it consume me.
"Where's your Digimon?" Suko bluntly asked.
"Huh? It has been here this entire time!" Gaelin smiled, "Kudamon, you can make yourself visible." All of a sudden, Kudamon appeared. It was a long, white, fox-like Digimon holding what looked like a cartridge, with Digimon inscriptions on it. It had purple markins on its body, big golden eyes, and ears with black tips. One of the ears had a golden ring on it.
"Howdy!" Kudamon greeted us.
Gaelin seemed like a nice elf-boy and seemed to get along well with Suko. Gaelin showed us his Digimon cards, which were so different from the ones on our world. These cards did not have any color on them and had cruder drawings on them, with a different alphabet altogether. Gaelin told us about how he met Kudamon. Gaelin used to roam these forests by himself and would hunt fish and other game. He would ward off predators from the village. One day, one of the predators was too much for him to take on, and Gaelin almost died. However, Kudamon appeared and rescued Gaelin. Ever since then, according to Gaelin, they became best friends. He seemed more mature than Suko for his appearance, and he also had questions about his mission as a tamer, until he decided to simply enjoy Kudamon's company and let the acts come to him. "Just relax buddy." That seemed to be Gaelin's catchphrase for Suko. The one he had for me was "Did mice eat your tongue, or did you eat too many mice?" I found it a little annoying after a while but kept that to myself. Kudamon would ask Gaelin to stop, which Gaelin simply agreed to do reluctantly. Suko dared to touch the elf's ears, poking at the tips. "What are you doing? Stop that." I said as I grabbed Suko and held him until he stopped moving around. Gealin simply returned the favor and felt Suko's round human ears. Both stared at each other blankly before they started laughing. The laughter became too prolonged. Why did they do that? Why did they randomly decide to touch each other's ears and then laugh like two little maniacs? Only they knew why. It was still adorable to watch them play like that. I also felt Suko's ears, and he turned to me pouting. I simply smiled.
We told Gaelin about our situation. When we mentioned the king of cards, Gaelin gasped. "The king of cards has Digimon incarcerated? Oh no!" Gaelin got up.
"Yeah, and he is capable of killing them if no one does something." Suko said.
After a few moments of pondering, Gaelin got up and told us his plan: "I will take you all to my village, including that Burgermon you rescued. We will meet with the king of elves. Don't worry! He is a nice person who is always willing to help out. The elves and the cards have always been in a sort of cold war. Grown-up matters, you know. It seems we might get into a hot war."
"A war?" I said, concerned.
"Yes. We consider Digimon to be sacred. They are spirit guides. We can't allow them to be treated like criminals. They are here to teach us stuff!"
"Spirits guides..." I said while looking up at the sky. I saw a shooting star. The trail it left was light blue.
We decided to stay at the camp for this night, and Gaelin promised he would come back to us the next morning to escort us to the elf king. Suko and I stayed at the campfire, staring at the flames. I looked a Suko, and noticed he was getting sleepy. I wanted to ask him how he felt about the answer Gaelin had given him regarding tamers. I really wanted to know what he thought, but he was sleepy, and we simply went to sleep after putting off the fire.