Digimon Adventure: Revised

Written by Divine Guidance Alpha

Requests and private comments may be sent to HitoSorrelius

Chapter 03: Lobster and Sage

It took some walking, but Aururaumon did finally lead Evan to a source of water. It was large and clean, and Evan drank gratefully the moment he could cup enough to get to his mouth. Every gulp was like a gift from some greater being. Aururaumon drank deeply too, though all he did was dip his roots into the muddy embankment a ways away.

When his thirst was finally quenched, Evan moved slightly away from the lake, back into the trees, to start setting up a camp of sorts. Aururaumon helped by making vines to use as rope, which he used along with a rather large outdoor blanket his mother had given him to make a tent between two trees . She had used it all the time in dangerous situations, she said, and it always worked out. Not that he could remember a time that it had; sure, the bear hadn't torn it up, and the snakes couldn't bite through it, and the wolves had ignored it...okay, maybe she was right.

Once the tent was made, Evan started gathering materials for a fire. He found some decently sized sticks, as well as some twigs for kindling. After digging through his rather well-stocked backpack, he came up with a few old school papers as well. He arranged the materials so that the burnable pieces were overlapping or wrapped around the larger sticks, with one particular piece sticking out for the initial starting spot. He retrieved a lighter from one of the pockets of his backpack, and lit the papers. He watched as they slowly burned, then caught the twigs, which helped catch the sticks. Soon, there was a jolly fire going, which Evan fed further by getting bigger sticks.

With the fire nice and hot, the boy and mon settled in to start dinner. They had canned tuna and baked beans, which they ate out of plastic bowls. Evan was pleasantly surprised that his partner liked mixing them just as much as he did. They ate in a rather peaceful silence, watching the fire instead of the slowly setting sun. When the meal was done, Evan wiped the bowls clean, rather than rinsing them in the lake. He didn't want to go near it at night. After that, they continued watching the fire, still rather silent in their companionship.

"...It's been hours," Evan suddenly said as he looked up from the fire. "I wonder if anyone at the camp even noticed that I'm gone. Tai might...he is a good friend. The counselors might. They might catch some trouble if my old man decides to call and I'm not there."

Something about that caught Aururaumon's attention. "Old man? You possess an elder?" Evan's laughter did not help the confused mon at all.

"Not exactly, Aururaumon. I meant my father." This didn't help the creature either, and Evan saw it. "Humans have these people, called a mother and father, or parents. Humans are born live, not hatched from eggs, and they are even weaker than a baby Digimon, I'm sure. They can't walk or talk for about a year after birth." Aururaumon was almost horrified, and this amused Evan greatly. "And we don't Digivolve, either. We age, but we never really change our appearance. I will always be human." This shocked the poor Digimon even more, and Evan had to laugh at it. When the Digimon glared at him, he patted the creature's back, saying, "That's not necessarily a bad thing, buddy."

Both of them seemed to blink at that. Aururaumon was shocked because he had just been treated as a real friend by his partner, and Evan because he considered someone he knew so little about a real friend already. The two sat in silence for a while, watching the sun finally get taken beneath the horizon. Neither saw the small ripples on the surface of the lake, or the dark shadow slowly moving towards the shore.

Finally, Evan said, "You get some sleep first. After waking up in that sand dune, sleep doesn't sound so appealing to me." The mon didn't even bat an eye in doubt as he crawled into the tent, curling up on one side so his partner could crawl in when he got tired.

Evan sat at the base of one of the trees, watching for any sign of movement from the forest side. Again he missed the shadow slowly creeping from the water, but his ears caught the dripping sound, as well as the scuttling of rather heavy feet. When he turned to try and see where the sound was coming from, it stopped. He looked away, and it began again. "Aururaumon," he said softly, but still with force. "I think something is out there."

"I know," the plant's voice came back just as softly. "I dug my roots in to drink while I slept and felt the vibrations."

"What do you think it is?" Evan asked.

Aururaumon never got the chance to answer, as suddenly the forest was alive with sound: Trees crashed behind him, and Evan just barely dived out of the way to avoid being caught by a giant pair of pincers, the tree he had been leaning against being cut clean in half. He had to duck as the claw swung in again, the giant lobster-like creature it was attached to growling in anger that its prey had escaped.

"Poison Ivy!" Aururaumon's voice came from the dark, and Evan saw and heard the vines lash against the carapace of the creature, to no effect.

"Claw Crusher!" A much deeper voice growled out, and Aururaumon was smacked clean through a tree by the massive pincer. All of Evan's calm assessment went out the window, and he felt hate. It was something he had felt before, especially about bullies. This time, it was because he was watching a friend get hurt.

Suddenly, the Digivice began to glow, just as it had during the fight with Monochromon. So did Aururaumon, who had just crawled to his feet after hitting the tree behind the now-missing one. "Aururamon, Digivolve to..." The small voice grew again, and Evan could almost make out the little plant growing, becoming very human in shape. "Sagemon!"

The glowing stopped, and in Aururaumon's place was a scarecrow-esque figure. He had on a big, floppy hat, held a long staff with a sunflower on it in his left hand, and all of his clothes, hat included, were rather patched and frayed in appearance. His eyes were as green as his cape and hat, his skin as grey as the dead. His mouth was hidden. There was a pouch at his waist, held there by a rope belt. His boots zipped up in the front, and had a leaf on the zipper. If one knew of Wizardmon, they would say this fellow was a cousin who happened to be a farmer.

"You Digivolved again!" Evan was surprised, but happily so. He had expected Digivolution to be a lot of hard work. However, if size was any indicator, this strange lobster-like Digimon was still stronger.

"That I did. Now I'm equal in level to this crustacean, but I am the stronger. Isn't that right, Ebidramon?" The lobster growled, swinging the giant claw at the scarecrow again. He caught it with the sunflower, which glowed like sunlight. "Magical Beam!" He whipped the staff around and struck the lobster across the face with it, a burst of golden energy firing off dead-center. This time, Ebidramon was the one smashed through a tree. It scrambled around and thrashed, finally managing to get up to its feet again.

"Claw Crusher!" It swung again, raging and furious. Again, Sagemon blocked it and repelled him with a swing to the face. This time, he leaped after the crustacean, and got on top of his back when he righted himself.

"Binding Earth!" Sagemon shouted, slamming the sunflower right into Ebidramon's back. Thick roots from the trees around them shot up, wrapping the lobster in a crushing grip. Evan was amazed, but silent, even as the vines tightened, and the creature began to whine in pain. Sagemon stopped about then, and stepped down. "We don't have any paper, but I can grow a few good, dry sage bushes, and we can have ourselves a big lobster barbecue."

Evan chuckled, and the lobster whined. "Please, not that! I was just scared, that's all! Etemon has been torturing us for no reason at all, making us listen to his rancid music and do his every whim."

That turned Evan's smile into a dark frown. "Tell me more," he said, nodding at Sagemon to remove the bindings.

Once freed, Ebidramon proved to be a gold mine of information: Evan was on the Continent of Server, one of the largest continents on the Digital World, in a forest just south of the desert. They were close to a place that Ebidramon was absolutely positive had the Tag that they were looking for. About halfway through the conversation, Sagemon de-Digivolved back into Aururaumon. Once that had happened, Ebidramon began speaking of Etemon and his Dark Network. This was when Evan listened most intently, and he discovered that almost everyone was working for Etemon. Everyone feared or hated him, and no one was brave enough to stand up to him. If they did, well, there were plenty of reminders of the consequences. Several of them were listed: A small village of baby Digimon had been captured and caged, and their village was now being used by evil baby Digimon. That was a tough concept for Evan to grasp; Tanemon had been absolutely cute and harmless. But, it was also a trap. It was pretty far away, so Evan didn't think it much of a problem. There were other strange occurrences, such as the Coliseum and the oddities of the desert, but none of them really struck a chord in him.

Finally, Ebidramon had one last story to tell. "There is a place out there, somewhere beyond this forest. It's a frozen wasteland. Few Digimon even go out there, but there is one who is standing vigilant. He doesn't seem evil, but he protects the mountain behind him fiercely. His name is MasterTyrannomon, and he has never lost a battle." That got Evan's attention. A powerful force that guards a seemingly insignificant place? It sounded like his kind of adventure. If anything, this force could prove beneficial, and he could learn more about Aururaumon and his powers. Sagemon was powerful, and it seemed that Digivolving could go further, if all that talk about completely Digivolved Digimon and the Tag and Crest proved to be true.

"Thank you, Ebidramon. You can go now. We'll meet again, I'm sure, and I hope we won't be on bad terms." The lobster nodded, then began scuttling back towards the lake. Once at the edge, it dove right in, vanishing into the dark water.

Now alone again with his partner, Evan repaired the tent, crawling in with the plant. Ebidramon wouldn't be too far away, and he had said his purpose was to protect the lake, so Evan let sleep take him without any effort at all. It was nice, sleeping well because others had your back.

(Author's Note: Hello, all you Digi peoples. I must say, I have had a fun time writing this so far. I may not always write at my best, but I always put my best into writing a story. I didn't want to explain everything yet, so I gave the general overview, and when each topic comes up, I'll give the details then. Anyway, I am going to ask you, the readers, if there are any 1st generation Digimon that weren't in the show, or maybe that were and didn't get a lot of airtime or personality, that you would like to see in this. While I am doing this for me, I also wish to do this story for the reader.)