A/N: Whoops, this was later than expected. Now, thanks to my beta, we got this chapter done. I hope that you enjoy this chapter, this took longer than expected.
Taichi and the others decided to spend the night next to the lake, but then Seadramon attacked us! In the end, Yamato's Digimon, Gabumon, evolved into Garurumon and saved us.
I woke up when I heard a strange, loud, rumbling sound. "Huh? Where are we?"
"In a forest." Kou-nii informed, "good morning."
"Good morning." I hopped off his back and started to run around. As I ran, I found myself staring at the strange trees that surrounded us. Some had thick, corded branches, while others had skinny, thin branches that looked as if they were about to snap. Vines hung from the canopies, obscuring what lay beyond our current location. "Hello, Take-chan." I greeted my brother.
He smiled back at me, "hello, Taka-chan." I ran over to my other brother.
"Onii-chan, hey."
"Hey." He answered back.
"Hi, Mimi-san," I greeted as I ran to her.
"Hi, Takara." She smiled, then stopped, "you sure are hyper when you wake up."
"Of course, my energy's been recharged!" I exclaimed as I turned and went over to Taichi.
"Taichi-san, good morning."
He looked down at me as I was hopping around, "hey, Takara."
"Sora-san!" I called as I ran up to her. "Hello!"
"Hi, Takara-chan, did you sleep well?" She asked politely.
"Yeah, now I am full of energy!"
"I see," she laughed softly as I ran over to Jyou.
I climbed on his back, causing him to scream in surprise. "Hi, Jyou-san."
"What? Hi, Takara."
"Thanks for saving me yesterday." I told him gratefully.
"It was nothing. My family are doctors, so they teach me about health too." He stopped walking, "how long are you going to stay there?"
"Not long!" I hopped off, "bye!" I ran back around the group in circles.
"Takara, be careful, stop running!" Taichi complained, "why is she still running?"
"Terriermon, Lopmon!" I exclaimed when I found Sora taking care of Lopmon for me. "Thanks, Sora-san. Terriermon, run with me!"
I grabbed his ears, and started to run around in circles again as the group began to move again. "Taka-chan, come here!" Take yelled.
"You have to catch me first!" And then he started to run after me in circles.
"Oi, Takeru, stop!" Onii-chan commanded firmly. He stood there and watched as I ran around, and finally caught me. He pulled out my medicine and popped one of the pills in my mouth.
I swallowed it, and started to run over to Sora. "Sora-san, I can take care of Lopmon now."
"Arde you sure? I can still carry her if you want."
I shook my head, "I'm good, she's my Digimon after all." Yesterday, Lopmon nearly fell into the water while the island was moving. She is still in a slight shock right now. Terriermon was just walking among us in a sullen silence. He occasionally sneaked a glance and Lopmon, then continued his walking.
"Takara-chan has calmed down a lot since you gave her medicine." Jyou observed, "what medicine did you give her?"
"Adderall, she has ADHD." Onii-chan replied.
"I can't control it sometimes, one time, we ran out of medicine, and I went crazy!" I laughed as I remembered the havoc I had caused that day. I stopped my loudness as soon as I heard the same rumbling sound. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Taichi asked me, though I wasn't even sure if he cared or not.
"That rumbling sound."
We continued walking for a bit, the others totally ignoring me because I was not thinking correctly because of my ADHD.
There was the rumbling again, but this time, EVERYONE heard it. "What was that?" Taichi asked, worry tinging his voice.
The rumbling came again, this time from the sky. We all looked up in the sky, and saw a mysterious, round, black thing fly across the sky.
"It looks like a gear." onii-chan stated, squinting.
"Are you sure that it's not a flying saucer?" Sora asked.
"You mean a UFO?" Jyou asked Sora back, she nodded. "There is no such thing as a UFO, UFOs don't exist."
"Jyou-san, they do. If UFOs didn't exist, then the word 'UFO' wouldn't exist as well." I retorted confidently.
"It could have been a gear-shaped meteor." Mimi suggested.
"Whatever it is, something doesn't feel right." Jyou sighed anxiously.
Take stepped on a large, yet weak branch. It snapped suddenly, catching him by surprise and causing him to fall. "Ow." He whined. Onii-chan reached forward to pick him up, but Taichi beat him to it.
"Are you okay, Takeru?"
"It hurts, but I'm fine."
"You don't have to say that," Sora insisted. "There's nothing wrong with saying that it hurts."
"Okay…" Take started, "it really hurts."
"Are you okay, Takeru?!" Patamon suddenly exclaimed, worried for his partner.
"It's useless to ask now." Tentomon said matter-of-factly.
We all laughed, and Take hugged Patamon. "Let's take a break for Takeru before we start walking again." Sora suggested.
"I'm fine, I can still walk." Takeru insisted resiliently.
"You just said that it hurt, so we're going to wait for a bit."
"But you guys still walk even though Taka-chan is in pain."
They all turned to me in shock. "Takara-chan, is that true?" Sora turned to me and asked gently.
I shook my head, avoiding everyone's gaze, "I'm fine, I was still jumping around this morning." I pointed out in my defence. "She's lying. Yesterday, when she jumped to save Lopmon, her stomach slammed against the rocks. It hurts, doesn't it? You still can't breathe right now because the water is blocking your nose, that's why your mouth is still open. We are twins after all." He added. For all this time, ever since I had seen him again, I had forgotten that not only can I read his mind, but he can also read mine.
"Takara!" Onii-chan scolded, running over to me. He lifted up my shirt, revealing a greenish-black bruise just above my belly button, the size of his hand. "Why didn't tell us?" He questioned, an edge of concern in his usually calm voice.
"I'm fine, I can still walk." I refused to look him in the eyes.
"Yes, but next time tell us that you got hurt, okay?" His eyes softened and he petted my head. "Yosh! Let's go! No use sitting here and complaining."
"Let's go!" We all shouted.
"We don't really know where we are actually going through…" Sora admitted everyone's thoughts out-loud.
Piyomon rubbed herself against Sora, "I'm perfectly happy as long as I am with Sora." She chirped contently.
"Even if you're one-hundred percent happy, it'll still be troublesome for me." Sora sighed. "I can't handle responsibility very well."
"'One-hundred percent'?" Questioned Piyomon, oblivious to the human term.
"N-no, no, it's nothing." Sora stuttered out.
We all started walking away while Sora stood there with Piyomon, their conversation continuing as they didn't notice that they were being left behind. "Sora, come on!" Onii-chan called, "stop playing around."
"I'm not playing around because I want to." Sora complained back. I stood there and waited for her to catch up, and then started to walk again. I tripped over a rock that showed up out of nowhere on my first step.
"Are you okay, Takara-chan?" Sora queried, helping me up.
"I'm fine." I sighed, "I'm used to it."
"Piyomon is a very sociable Digimon." I heard Tentomon explain to the others.
"Ah, so each Digimon has a different personality." Kou-nii assessed.
"Hey, Koushiro!" Sora called, making him turn around. "Takara-chan is your sister and you don't even worry about her!"
"She's used to falling by now." He simply replied and walked off.
"Sora-san, I'm fine." I assured her, "let's go."
She nodded, though she still didn't look convinced. We walked side-by-side as Piyomon called out Sora's name every few seconds, "Sora~, Sora~" She sung happily.
All of us stopped for a bit to look around, "We can get out the forest!" Onii-chan exclaimed, a relieved expression on his face as he pointed at something in the distance.
I looked in the direction he was pointing, seeing that there was what seemed like a desert there.
The moment we stepped out of the forest, I was already in a bad mood. It's hot. Takara doesn't do hot.
Scorched, dusty sand littered the earth, immediately filtering into my shoes. A haziness clouded the horizon, and heat pierced through every pore on my skin. Unlike regular deserts, this one was covered in telephone-poles. These poles, however, were slanted in different positions and seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever. We ploughed on for a while and we were about halfway to the desert when Kou-nii spoke up, "it looks like the Sahara Desert; I saw it on TV once."
"Does that mean that there will be some animals here?" Taichi questioned.
"Some elephants would be nice." I panted out, somewhat delirious because of the sudden heat.
"Elephants? Well, it would be nice to see those regular animals out there." Onii-chan agreed.
"There are only Digimon here." Tentomon informed us, much to our dismay. "You guys are the only humans or animals here."
"Are there telephone poles in the Sahara?" Onii-chan wondered out-loud.
"Nope." Answered Kou-nii, "none at all."
"Maybe people are nearby, that's why there are telephone poles to communicate." Jyou said, completely ignoring Tentomon. "There have to be."
"What if these telephone poles are just like the phone booths and the trolley? Completely useless and with no humans at all." Someone said, I was too hot to know who it was.
"No, there has to be someone!"
Suddenly, my vision started to blur a little. I shook my head, trying to stop the fuzziness from clouding my eyesight.
Mimi took out her compass, declaring, "maybe this could help us!" We all sat crouched down and crowded around her to see which direction we were traveling in. The red arrow pointed to the left first, then right, and then it spun around like crazy. Onii-chan realized that I had one too, and looked at it. My compass was already haywire, however, and was just as helpful as Mimi's.
"This is not sand, though it looks like it. It's actually powdered iron! That's why it's attracting the magnet in the compass." Kou-nii, who had been sifting through the sand, observed.
"We must be in a really strange place." Sora sighed, and I collapsed there.
"Takara!" I heard them shout. I stood back up, my legs were wobbly, so they gave way, and I fell again.
I felt Kou-nii's hand touch my forehead. "She's overheated!" He exclaimed.
Onii-chan came over and swung me on his back, Kou-nii took a hold of Lopmon and Terriermon went on top of my head and used his ears to shade me.
"Thank you, everyone. Sorry for the trouble." I coughed.
We continued walking in the scorching sun, "maybe we should have stayed in the forest after all." Jyou complained.
"Hey, Takara-chan is close to death, but she isn't complaining." Sora scolded him lightly, "be a good person like her."
"At this rate, we might all overheat." Onii-chan pointed out as he lifted me up higher up on his back.
"Jyou-san, how's Gomamon?" I managed to croak out.
"Jyou-san, Taka-chan wants to know about Gomamon." Take said louder for me.
'Thank you.' I said to him with my eyes.
'No problem.' He expressed in his eyes as a reply. Luckyily, I was able to have eye conversations with Take, so everything was much easier.
"I want ice or at least some water." Everyone sighed.
"Want to borrow my hat, Palmon?" Mimi asked.
"Thank you…" Palmon panted out. I looked at Take.
'Take-chan, tell Terriermon to go to Mimi-san.'
'But will you be fine?'
'Don't worry, I've got a hat.'
He nodded, "Terriermon, go and make shade for Mimi-san, please." He commanded gently.
"But, Takara…"
"She told me that you should go." Terriermon looked down at me for confirmation, and flew over to Mimi, blocking out the sun for her and Kou-nii.
"Sora~, Sora~." Piyomon continued to sing.
"Piyomon, stop, I am thirsty and tired right now, and to make matters worst, I am tired of walking, so please stop clinging on me." Sora pleaded, exasperated and slightly irritated because of the heat.
"Sorry." The poor Digimon apologized.
"It's okay, you can walk with me, just not on me."
"Sora, I love you." The Digimon said earnestly.
"This is a problem, we keep on walking and walking, and nothing comes into sight." Onii-chan observed worriedly. "Maybe it is better if we go back to the forest."
I looked over at Take and my surroundings. The sun was really burning me up, and I wanted to drink water. I think that Onii-chan is starting to get tired too, so maybe I should get off of his back.
I struggled a little, and eventually slid down his back.
"Takara, get back up." He called, but I shook my head furiously.
"I'm fine." I managed to croak out weakly. I took off my hat, and placed it on Lopmon. The poor thing, she's been drying up in the sun all day.
Taichi pulled out his mini telescope and looked ahead. "Ah!" He suddenly exclaimed, "it's a village! A village!"
"See, see, see?~" Jyou almost sang, giddy with relief. "There's a village, so there have got to be humans there!"
It seems like he's in a good mood. While I am burning, he's happy. Yay.
"Let's go check it out, it's not going to kill us." Kou-nii spoke up.
"Alrighty, let's go!" Taichi exclaimed, reinvigorated.
"Let's go!" We exclaimed back, except for me, because my throat was still really weak and raspy.
Everyone quickly rushed towards the village, though I stopped every once in a while, taking in a few deep breaths. I think I deserve a good clean up after this. My shoes were filled with sand, powdered iron, or whatever the thing was. And, not to mention the fact that I was sweaty, like, REALLY SWEATY. I could feel every inch of my clothes sticking to me - totally disgusting.
When the group stopped, in a surprised way, I used that chance to catch up, and ran after them. I looked to see what made them stop there. As I assimilated what stood before me, I stood there in shock as well. There were a lot of little, pink radishes, with blue leaves, and orange and yellow stems hopping around in what looked to be a miniature village.
The huts were really small, no way a normal human being could live in it. The biggest hut that I had seen was only as tall as me, and I was the shortest member of the group.
"So it's a Pyocomon village!" Taichi finally spoke up, being the first to recover.
"Aww, man! And I had such high hopes for humans, too." Jyou sighed, disappointed.
We all looked down to the ground for a moment. I think that the only one of us that is happy is actually Piyomon because she's been happily playing with the little radishes. Which reminded me, wasn't Piyomon a rad- Pyocomon before she became Piyomon?
"Taka-chan!" I heard my twin yell, snapping me out of my daze. I glanced at him, "look, there's a fountain!" He pointed out happily.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the fountain. "The water in the fountain is the water from Miharashi Mountain," one of the Pyocomon explained to us. "It's delicious!"
"This is the famous, delicious water from Miharashi Mountain." Tentomon repeated for us.
"What's Miharashi Mountain?" Take queried curiously.
I looked at the fountain. It was quite a simple fountain, just water shooting up, and the water dividing into two sides. "That mountain!" The Pyocomon turned over towards this mountain. It looked like it was in layers, like one circle on top of another.
"Pyocomon, can I have some of this water? I want to give some to Taka-chan." Takeru requested politely.
"Of course, we have plenty to share." The little radishes smiled.
As Take leaned forward to hold some water, it suddenly stopped flowing out. Everyone gathered around the mountain and stared at it, "What happened?" Piyomon questioned curiously. "This is weird..."
I heard a distant rumbling and took one step back. As I did so, the fountain, instead of water, shot out flames straight up in the air.
"No! I was so thirsty too." Take looked at me 'Are you okay?'
'Yeah, I'm fine, but it looks like I'll be silent for a while, though.'
'Okay then, don't strain yourself.'
"I didn't even get a drop!" Mimi whined.
"What's going on?" Questioned Taichi. He had fallen when he backed up away from the flames.
"Don't worry, everyone. Luckily for us, there is a pond over there where you can get water from" A Pyocomon reassured us.
"Let's take a look!" Taichi decided and we all quickly ran over there, with the lead of a Pyocomon, of course. When we got there, we saw a giant hole.
'I thought that we were going to the lake.' I looked at Take.
"Where's the water?" Take asked, while the others groaned in frustration. We ran back to the village and the Pyocomon led us to the village's well.
Taichi threw a bucket with an attached rope down, and it landed at the bottom with the loud bang. "Pull it up!" Onii-chan commanded. Taichi grabbed the rope and reeled it up.
'Take-chan.' I looked at him.
'What's wrong?'
'There's that rumbling sound again, and I don't like it.'
'Let's back up?' I nodded my head, and we slid a step back. Taichi pulled up what looked like the end of the rope. It was smeared black, it got… burned?
Flames suddenly erupted from the well. Luckily, no living thing got hurt. Taichi moved out of the way just in time, hopping around with the Pyocomon in fright.
"Earlier, I saw something land on Miharashi Mountain!" Shouted one of the Pyocomon.
Onii-chan thought for a few seconds, "wait, could it have been the thing we saw earlier?"
"That black gear?" Questioned Kou-nii. "Taka-nee, are you alright?"
I gave him a firm nod, 'I'm better now, just resting my throat.' I told Take, and he announced it to the others.
"Okay, that's good." Sora started, "what could the black gear have to do with this?"
"What is going on?" Jyou added.
"All the water here comes from Miharashi Mountain." The Pyocomon explained. "So if anything happens there to stop the water, then all of our water is gone."
"But there is a Digimon up there protecting the mountain for us!" A different Pyocomon explained. "His name is Meramon."
"That mountain over there, right?" Taichi questioned as he tossed his telescope lightly in his hand.
"Yep, that mountain has supplied us with water for a long time!" The Pyocomon continued.
Taichi extended his telescope and peered at the mountain with it. "What's that?" He asked suddenly. All of us looked over at the mountain too. It's on fire! Uh, fire trucks? Fire fighters? Someone has to put out the fire, cell phones don't work… so uh, uh…
The Pyocomon are hopping even more, like popcorn kernels, saying something about "Meramon is acting strange!"
"We've been talking about Meramon, but what type of Digimon is he, exactly?" Take questioned as I thought of it.
"Meramon, an ever-burning flame Digimon. He burns up everything he touches during battles." Tentomon explained, displaying his vast knowledge of the Digimon World.
I lifted Terriermon up, and held him in my arms. He snuggled with me, the way Lopmon does.
"Lopmon will be okay, right?" He asked quietly. I nodded my head, of course she will.
I looked back up at the mountain, there is a life or death situation going on right now that no one can ignore. I could see that tiny, blinking, yellow light shedding off the mountain.
"He's saying something!" All the Pyocomon exclaimed.
"Right…" Taichi said, "Can anyone hear it?"
"Hey, Takara." Onii-chan called me, "Can you hear him?" I gave him a firm nod.
I closed my eyes and focused, ignoring all the commotion that the Pyocomon are making.
''Burning! Burning!'' I said with my eyes, 'He's just saying that over and over again.'
"He's saying 'Burning!'" Take said for me.
I blinked, and when I opened my eyes and looked back to the mountain. This time, not only the mountain was on fire, but the forest was bursting into flames.
Now that Meramon was closer, we all froze in shock. I watched as the glowing blob accelerated, racing faster in our direction. "Run!" Taichi shouted.
I could hear the malicious laugh of Meramon as I was running. The Pyocomon either ran behind or ahead, and when they jumped down, it looked like a river of pink cotton candy. I stopped aside and lead the Pyocomon down the dried up pond carefully, making sure that nobody got left behind.
Piyomon stood there and helped me, "run this way, everyone!" She ushered.
"You go too, Piyomon!" The Pyocomon shouted as they ran by, "the human too, get to safety!"
"I'll be fine," Pyocomon reassured, "just hurry up and run to safety!"
Terriermon stood beside me and helped me guide the Pyocomon. I tapped him and pointed towards the safety ship. "No, Takara, I won't leave you behind."
I blinked at him, "I've already failed to save Lopmon, I have to save you."
I picked up Terriermon, and then gently threw him down toward the running Pyocomon. "Takara~" He whined in protest as the Pyocomon carried him along with them as they ran in the abandoned ship. I saw Sora run towards us. I ran towards her, pointing to the ship. "Takara-chan, you can go ahead without me." She shoved me forward, and I nodded and ran towards the ship.
By the time, I had arrived at the top, Meramon had already arrived. I heard a burst of flame, and looked up. Meramon had created a fireball, but before he managed to throw it, Piyomon flew up.
"Magical Fire!" Piyomon attacked him fiercely. She repeated it over and over, but Meramon wasn't affected by it at all. All of a sudden, he grew in size with even more power.
The rest of the Digimon ran out to help Piyomon, after she'd been hit by Meramon's burning fist attack. Attack after attack, Meramon just literally ate up the attacks and grew stronger.
"He's sucking in everyone's energy!" I heard Kou-nii exclaim, realisation brightening his eyes.
"He's getting bigger and bigger!" Onii-chan observed while he was next to me. Taichi, Kou-nii, and Sora were down there with the Digimon. Onii-chan, Take, Jyou, Mimi, Palmon, Gomamon, and I were in the ship with the Pyocomon.
Meramon was sliding down into the dried up pond, heading towards us. I looked over to what I thought was an unconscious Piyomon, until I realized that she was glowing. "Piyomon, evolve! Birdramon!"
Piyomon became a huge, flaming orange bird. It had a beak with crooked teeth pointing out of it, and two large feathers sticking out on top of its eyes.
Birdramon swooped down to pick Meramon up, and tossed him back up and out of the pond. Roughly throwing him down, he landed on the dry earth with a loud thump.
"I'm burning!" Meramon repeated, agonised. "Burning Fist!" He threw a fireball on one of Birdramon's wings, but Birdramon brushed it off quickly, and counterattacked.
"Meteor Wings!" She shouted as she closed and open her wings, sending out a bunch of searing fireballs, each hitting Meramon square-on. The more times he got hit, the more he shrunk.
He crouched down and wrapped his arms around himself protectively, turning back to his original size. Suddenly, a large black gear popped out of his back and leapt into the air, disappearing with a puff of smoke.
Birdramon shrunk back to Piyomon, and flew into Sora's arms. The flames all disappeared, as we ran back up to the village and the pond started to slowly fill itself back up with water.
"Yay! Meramon, I'm glad that you're back!" The Pyocomon exclaimed, one after another, "why did you do that?"
"A gear fell from the sky…" Meramon started, "then...I don't really know."
Meramon stood up and ran back towards the mountains. The Pyocomon and everyone else bid their goodbyes and final words, but Take and I had other plans.
'Now that the water is back, drink it, Taka-chan!' He smiled at me, scooping up a handful. I took a sip of the water. I felt the cold, delicious water run down my throat as I drank in.
"Recharge, complete!" I spoke for the first time in a while.
"Take-nee, welcome back." Kou-nii said, when he arrived near me
I nodded, "I'm back!"
The Pyocomon were kind enough to share their food with us, so we don't have to go and find food for today. "Thanks, Pyocomon!" I said, as I dug into the bowl of grains? Seeds? Whatever the food was, it was delicious.
Sora sat there, staring at the food as if it was poison. "Sora, why aren't you eating? It's really good!" Piyomon asked.
"There is no way a human can eat this…" She she muttered, poking the food experimentally.
"Sora-san, try it, it's really good." I stuffed some in my mouth, "It really is!"
"Well, if Taka-chan says so." Take decided, and stuffed some in his mouth, "you are right, it's delicious!"
"No use going on with an empty stomach." Onii-chan agreed, and started to eat some of the food too.
"You guys are serious?" Sora exclaimed incredulously.
"If you chew it long enough, it's actually pretty good." Jyou added.
"Now I really want to go home," Mimi whined again, though she nibbled at the grains too.
"Once we go home, I'll try to find you, and promise to make you some omurice." I amended.
"Eh, Take-nee is going in the kitchen?" Kou-nii teased, "surely, your loving brother will get some too?~"
"Yes, I promise that I will cook for everyone here." I assured them.
"Eh, Takara, aren't you only seven years old?" Questioned Mimi in slight shock. "I can't even boil water on the stove properly yet!"
"I help out Mama at home, and she teaches me how to cook somethings."
"Oh, I see." Mimi hesitantly grabbed up some more food, but eventually stuffed the clump of grains in her mouth. "Wow, it's good…" We all ate what we got in our bowls.
"Takara…" Lopmon called, "Takara!" She suddenly shouted. I quickly picked her up in my arms, and patted her back.
"It's okay, it's okay, I'm here." I gently said. "Good morning." I whispered in her ear.
"Takara, sorry for leaving you." She apologized as she hopped out of my arms.
"It's okay, here, you must be hungry." I handed her a bowl of food, as she happily devoured it. I smiled, Lopmon is back and my friends are all here, so far things are starting to get better, aren't they?
A/N: I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter. Please favorite and review. Thanks for reading.