Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. I just own the ones I've created (if any) and the plot.
Author's Notes: I suggest you have Wikipedia on while reading my fanfics. I'll be using some uncommon Digimon and Digimon attacks later on, so it'll be better if you have something that helps you picture it. It'll be hard if you guys have to picture each Digimon with descriptions I gave.
Chapter three: Village
Normal POV
"Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot…" JP mumbled while the gang walked through the forest under the shining digital sun. Sweat was trickling down everyone's back, and those who wore jackets, vests, hats or bandanas had long since taken them off.
"Shut up," growled Kouji. He felt more irritated than usual, and JP's chants weren't helping anyone. Kouichi looked over to his twin and reached over to put his hand on Kouji's shoulder, but stopped. Kouji didn't like conversations when he's pissed. Especially not in a burning hot environment like this.
'I wonder if we'll manage to find a village or town here,' thought Kouichi. Sweat dripped onto his brow and he brushed away some of his black hair that had stuck to his forehead. His head felt like it was on fire. His throat felt like sandpaper. His feet hurt from the walking. In general, he just wasn't feeling that great. And Kouichi doubted the others were feeling any better.
"Keep going guys," Takuya encouraged. He wasn't feeling better than the others, but someone had to support the gang. "I bet we're not far from a cool, shady place." The gang came across another part of the forest that was more well-covered by the trees. The leaves above blocked some of the sunlight, leaving wavering golden and green patches on the grassy ground. It was darker, but the children felt relieved to finally travel in somewhere shady, and not poorly-covered like the plains they had just set foot on.
"See?" Takuya turned over, smirking proudly. His smirk fell when he realized that his friends weren't looking at him, but past him. Turning around, he grinned when he saw what his friends were staring at.
In front of them, less than ninety paces ahead, was a village camouflaged in the forest of trees and vines. The village houses, roofed and square-shaped, were built using strong branches, and were at least ten feet off the ground. Ladders were hung from holes at the bottom of the houses, presumably the entrances, and streaming out from the windows at the sides were strings of vines that reached out to other houses and the trees nearby, supporting the houses and keeping them from falling to the forest floor. Biyomon flew around the village, some carrying food back, and some just playing with their friends.
"…Wow," Zoe whispered. The village was beautiful, even more so with the pink Biyomon soaring in the air. The others were just overjoyed to finally find a place of civilization; even Kouji was grinning.
"Uh, hey," Kouichi greeted a nearby Biyomon, who looked relatively young. "We're travelers, and we would like to meet your village's leader. Can you take us to him, or her?" Kouichi asked politely, but the Biyomon turned tail and flew, flapping his wings nervously. "Mom said not to talk to strangers from the forest floor, sorry!"
The children looked at the retreating form of the young Biyomon, sweatdropping and quite confused. "Ooookay…That went…well," JP commented, raising an eyebrow. Tommy tried what Kouichi did, but got the same result. The Biyomon here were simply not willing to talk to anyone that didn't fly in the air.
'It would've been a lot more easier if I could just spirit evolve to Kazemon,' thought Zoe. 'I could've talked to them.' She looked over to her friends, hoping for any sign of finding the village leader, but her male companions looked just as helpless as she was.
Suddenly, she felt a tug on her skirt's hem, and she turned around, only to find a Biyomon looking at her curiously. "Hello," the Biyomon chirped, her eyes staring at Zoe. "Where are you from?"
"Uh…" Zoe stammered. It would be silly to even attempt explaining that she came from the 'real world', or that she was the Legendary Warrior of Wind. "Where are we?" Zoe changed the subject. She glanced sideways, and noticed that her friends had come over to hear what the Biyomon had to say.
"Oh, you're in Evergreen Village. In here, our trees are always green, even in winter. There's also a gigantic tree in the middle of our village; you might want to have a look at it if you're tourists." Biyomon pointed to the left with the claws at the end of her left wing. "Our village leader, Birdramon lives there. I can take you to him if you wan―"
"You!" A sharp voice interrupted Biyomon's introduction of the village, and everyone turned to the owner of the voice. It was another Biyomon, and an old one at that. He was flapping his wings in the air, hovering a feet above them. "You ignorant brat, you know better than to tell ground-levels about our village!" The old Biyomon spat angrily, and squawked, "Spiral Twister!"
The children gasped and ducked out of the way as the spiraling stream of green fire charred the ground they had been standing on a few seconds ago. The young Biyomon looked distressed and chirped, "They're just a group of passerby! If they're here to invade us, they would've made their move a long time ago." She moved out of the way while the older Biyomon attacked with a Talon Twist, cartwheeling towards her with his claws extended.
Their fighting brought attention, and the Frontier gang watched in dismay as a large bird-like Digimon, covered in flame-like feathers, landed on the forest floor. The two Biyomon stopped their assault and bowed along with the others who were witnessing the fight. The children followed their example and knelt down.
"What is going on!?" asked the flame-bird Digimon. He had an air of nobility around him, and Zoe could feel the heat radiating off from his wings, in spite of the distance between them.
The older Biyomon stepped up and huffed angrily, pointing at the children, "This youngster here told those Digimon about our village. Comprehensively, too. It's as if she wanted us to be attacked!" Several Biyomon in the crowd whispered to each other, as though agreeing with the older Biyomon. Hearing this, he puffed out his chest feathers and eyed the gang menacingly.
"Digimon? But—" Tommy was cut off by Kouichi, who shook his head disapprovingly. It might be better if they didn't tell the Biyomon that they were human children. It seemed that they have never seen one, so there was no point in raising the villager's fear of the unknown.
Takuya put up his leader stance and stood in front of the others, "Birdramon, we've travelled a long way to get here, all the way from the forest behind. We're no threat to your village, and uh, if you don't mind, can we stay here? We're all tired and hungry." He smiled crookedly and nervously scratched the back of his head. 'Oh man! I really should learn how to put up a good speech,' he thought grimly.
'Yeah, real smooth, Takuya,' commented Kouji sarcastically in his mind. Knowing he would have to back him up, Kouji stepped up and met Birdramon's piercing gaze steadily. "Like Takuya said, we're no threat to your village. Do you see us destroying your village when we got here? If we are to do that, we would've done it a long time ago." The others nodded. Birdramon looked deeply into both Takuya and Kouji's eyes before saying, "Very well. I see no deception in your eyes. I'm feeling generous today, so you may stay in our village for at most three days. My guests, what species of Digimon are you?"
"Oh! Uh…" Takuya frantically searched his head for an answer before the obvious hit him. "Agunimon! Yeah that's it!"
"Lobomon," Kouji followed Takuya's example. 'Takuya's idea probably wasn't a good one after all,' he thought. 'They might have heard of the Ten Legendary Warriors, and label us as frauds. And since we can't spirit evolve, we can't prove that we're the bearer of the spirits.'
"Beetlemon," JP waved his hand, grinning. He didn't care; he just wanted to fill his empty belly.
"Kazemon," Zoe smiled politely. She looked at the young Biyomon who had spoken to her earlier. She was different from the others, and very sincere.
"I'm Kumamon," Tommy said, his eyes not meeting Birdramon's. He had to admit, a phoenix-like Digimon five stories tall was indeed quite intimidating.
"Loewemon," Kouichi smiled. He, like his twin brother, too thought that the idea probably wasn't a good one; but since everyone used their warrior names, he had no choice but to follow.
"Hm…Interesting. You obviously aren't from this part of the Digital World. I have never heard of those species. What level are you in; rookie, champion, or ultimate?" Birdramon, noticing the size of the six 'Digimon', found it highly unlikely that they were in-trainings, or megas.
"Rookie," Kouichi replied. He had no idea what those levels meant, but rookie was probably the lowest grade; so he automatically chose it. There was no need to amplify their strength when they have so little of it.
"Agunimon, Lobomon, Beetlemon, Kazemon, Kumamon, Loewemon, you may stay in the young Biyomon's hut, since she seems to be comfortable with you Digimon around. I'm putting our six guests in your wings, young one," Birdramon turned to the young Biyomon. She nodded enthusiastically.
"All right, now that's settled, get back to what you were doing, everyone," Birdramon spread his wings and flew back to the gigantic tree, where he came from. The crowd started to scatter, with everyone still mumbling to each other.
"They don't trust us," JP looked around nervously. Sure enough, almost everyone was casting them suspicious, or threatening glances. JP felt his skin prickle uncomfortably as he subconsciously veered himself farther away from the glares.
"Don't worry," the young Biyomon said. She seemed to be the only one, other than Birdramon, that trusted them. "Once they know you are harmless, they'll feel guilty of it. Plus, you are only staying for three days, so why care what everyone else thinks?" She led the children to her hut easily while the others were trying to decipher the difference of this young Biyomon's home from the many others that surrounded it.
They climbed up using the ladder hanging from the entrance, and found themselves in a cool, shady space. Wind blew in from the windows at the sides, tousling the leaves and moss on the ground, which were used as bedding. One of the corners of the hut was carpeted with big, smooth leaves, with fruit of different kinds laid on it. Some were wrapped up, while some were simply placed there.
The children sat in the center of the hut and Biyomon gave them each a round, pink fruit. "Dig in," She chirped, biting into hers. Zoe took a hesitant bite. The fruit was soft, sweet and juicy, singing with the mild flavours of the forest. It was different from the fruit they ate in the ravine, which was crispy.
"So, Biyomon, how come your village was so scared of 'ground-levels'?" Takuya asked curiously. He remembered that the quarrel between the young and old Biyomon was because the young Biyomon had told them about the village.
Biyomon frowned. "Well, our village used to be built on the ground, but some mean Digimon then raided our villages for food and hurt quite a lot of the villagers in the process, so we hoisted everything into the air. It hadn't happened for quite a while, but the other Biyomon were still extremely cautious of being attacked. That's why we don't talk much to those walking on the ground."
The children nodded grimly. No wonder the old Biyomon had been so mad when the young Biyomon greeted them. "But why aren't you afraid of us?" Tommy asked after swallowing a mouthful of the fruit.
"There's no reason to, Kumamon," Biyomon explained. "Like I've said, you Digimon aren't harming our village, so why treat you as though you've done it?"
"Wow, that's brave of you. You're different from the other Biyomon, you know?" Zoe complimented. Biyomon blushed and chirped a "Thanks". "Do you have a name, other than Biyomon?" Zoe asked suddenly after a round of silence in the hut.
"Well, in this village I'm called A22," Biyomon answered.
"A22? What name is that?" Kouji asked.
"Each of us has a name like that. It may not serve individuality, but it makes our lives easier. We have to do duties like guarding the village at night, gathering food for the elders, or patrolling our territory. You see, the alphabet in front is the sector we're in. Our village has four sectors: A, B, C and D. A22 means that I'm the twenty-second Biyomon in sector A. We take turns doing the duties, so it's much simpler when we start everything from the first ten Biyomon in sector A. Two of them will find food for the elderly, three will patrol the territory, and five will guard the village at night," Biyomon explained.
'It's worse than math class! Now I'm all confused,' grumbled Takuya in his mind.
"Well, that's a fair system," Kouichi commented. He finished his fruit, and reached for another.
"Yes, it is," Biyomon replied. They chatted animatedly until sunset, and Biyomon took them out for fruit picking and told them about which fruit not to pick and which are safe to eat. She also managed to stop JP before he stuffed a poisonous apple-like fruit into his mouth, but with a price. JP's shoes now had burn marks on them, thanks to Biyomon's spiral twister.
By nightfall, they went back to Biyomon's hut with some leaves for bedding. Having had a tiring day, the children were soon fast asleep and in their dreams. This time, they need not stand guard, and they slept better than ever in weeks.
To Be Continued...
Author's notes: Yeah, crappy ending, but I have to make a cut somewhere. This really is a filler chapter, and is kind of boring…Still, excitement will come soon, I tell you that.