After the encounter with gennai Leomon and I headed back into the forest kingdom. We walked for days, during that time I had the chance to see many other different kinds of digimon. Even though it was nice, I still wasn't too thrilled by having to sleep on leaves instead of a soft mattress.
Although we spent a couple nights in caves that we happened to come across which was slightly more comfortable. It really put a crick in my neck. I slept with the egg not too far away so I could keep an eye on it throughout the night. Speaking of which, it's been three days since I started carrying it and it still hasn't hatched yet. I was starting to get impatient and a little worried. Leomon and I were currently taking a break near a small lake we had run across. It was extremely beautiful to gaze upon such clear water with no sign of litter or pollution. I occasionally saw small furry water mammals with red hair swimming by, they played in the water which made me smile while I watched. The lake had a small beach that had sand that was slightly warm and was perfect to relax on. I sat down on the sand and took my backpack off so I could place it beside me to take a break since I had been carrying it for so long. I decided to take a look at the digiegg to make sure it was ok. Unzipping the top pocket I slowly took it out and placed it on my lap. I slid my hand across the surface of the shell, it felt warm and I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. My eyebrows scrunched up in concern. Leomon walked up to me and sat down on the sand not to far away. "Your worried aren't you." He said, seeming to see right though me. I turned to face him. "Was it that obvious?"
"You remind me of a caretaker digimon." He laughed.
"Caretaker digimon?" I asked in curiosity.
"I believe in your world the closest term to a caretaker digimon would be your 'parent'."
So I look like a worried mother do I? Well it would make sense, I was responsible for an unhatched egg, and what comes out of eggs? Babys. So yeah, I was kinda worried. And not to mention that the digimon inside was also supposed to be my future 'partner'. I wasn't even sure what a partner was supposed to do but it sounded important. I let out a deep sigh and cradled the digiegg in my lap. "Is it normal for it to take this long for a digiegg to hatch? You said that a digiegg needs attention from annother person for it to hatch. Well I'm giving it ALL my attention but it still isn't even showing a sighn of progress." Leomon hummed in thought and gave his response when he was done thinking over my question. "Yes it's true that it should have hatched by now, but when you think about it that digiegg is from a meremon who was injured am I correct."
It was true, I saw the meremon this egg came from get shot with a strange electrical beam before it turned into an egg. "Yeah, but does that have any affect on how long it takes for it to hatch?"
"Yes it does, if it's injured then it might be taking its time to recover its energy and heal before its ready to enter into the world once more." I looked at the egg and thought over his answer which made me feel a little better, but if it was hurt inside then that made me even more worried about it. "There is something else you should know." I turned my attention back to Leomon. "Once it's born then it might or might not remember anything about its previous life. I'm not sure if it will have any affect on us but it's still something to look out for if his memories of the attack on the fire village return."
I turned back to the egg in horror. If he should remember what happened then he would remember having his home and his friends getting crushed. He might even remember getting shot. For him to have the memories of all that pain return would just be torture. I hope that once he is reborn then he will get a whole new chance at life without those memories of pain and suffering. I held the egg a little closer and hoped that the odds would turn in his favor so he wouldn't have to remember that pain again. Leomon stood up and walked past me. "We should start walking again soon. We'll reach the Garden kingdom sometime tomorrow." I placed my forehead on the large egg in my lap and held it.
"Okay." It's warmth felt nice, it felt like the same kind of warmth that you would receive from a hug. I felt the heat pulse inside the egg again and again. The rhythm in which it started and subsided felt a lot like a heartbeat. I released my grip and placed it back in the bag comfortably. But before I could zip it up. A small red beastly digimon quickly snatched it from me.
"HEY! Give that back! You have no idea how fragile that bag is you little thief!" The digimon was as small as a child and had flames coming out of its tail and an emblem on its head. It gave me a sharp toothy snarl and grit its teeth showing every one of its small but sharp fangs. "I'm verry aware of how fragile it is. And YOUR the thief!" Leomon quickly joined in and yelled at the furry, orange digimon. "Your Coronamon am I right? You must have followed us from the fire kingdom village. Whatever you want we will try and deliver but please give us back the bag." This little runt followed us all the way here? I wonder why he would do such a thing?
"Please! I'll do whatever you want just don't take it! Please!" The small fire digimon seemed shocked at my plea. But he quickly regained his hateful look. "Don't play that game with me! I saw you steal this egg just like all the others. Give up the act, I know Your working for the goblinmon!" Leomon and I glanced at eachother. I straitened my posture and walked a little closer to the kidnapper, I don't know why but I was pissed. "You think we're working for those horrible, evil digimon? If you think for a second that I would do anything to harm that egg then you are mistaken. I put my LIFE on the line to SAVE that egg, and I would gladly do it again in a heartbeat if I had to." Coronamon looked up at me and lost all the fierceness in his attitude. "If you don't believe me then look in the bag. I placed cushions around the egg to protect it if anything were to bump into it. Do you honestly think I would do that if I meant to harm it?" The digimon looked me over and slowly handed me the bag. "I-I'm sorry for the misunderstanding." I quickly grabbed the bag and held it close. I was never going to let anything like that happen ever again. Leomon gave a low chuckle "It's s good thing you gave it back, I wouldn't have been able to stop her if she had decided to attack you to get it back." Coronamon glared at him in astonishment. "She would do something like that?" He looked at me while I was looking over he egg for any scratches or cracks "Ever since this young girl rescued that digiegg they have been inseparable. It wouldn't surprise me if she attacked you even though she would be at a disadvantage." Coronamon looked at me in wonder. It was a surprise that a human would be so protective of a digiegg. Suddenly a giant roar escaped from the forest behind us. "What is it now?" I said, tired from the the adrenaline that quickly shot through my body when the bag was stolen. Leomon turned in the opposite direction of the sound.
"We heave to go, NOW. That sounded like we just woke a nearby sleeping kabuterimon with all our screaming." Leomon, Coronamon, and I started running to get some distance from the direction the sound came from "A kabu-WHAT?" I asked Leomon "Trust me you don't want to know." He replied. I looked back to see how far we had gotten only to see a giant beetle fly out of the trees and head right towards us. It flew fast and it didn't take long for it to catch up to us. It landed In front of us blocking our path and snarled. Leomon lunged at kabuterimon and attacked. "Your in our way! FIST OF THE BEAST KING!" Leomon punched the giant bug but it only brushed it off. It's armor was too hard for leomon to do any damage. Then it did something totally Unexpected. It went straight for ME. I ran but it was too fast and it caught me in it's buggy claws. I tried to take the backpack off my sholders so I could throw it to Leomon or Coronamon so the egg would be safe, but it was to no avail. Kabuterimon's claws were too tightly gripped around me.
"REINA!" I heard Leomon yell out to me. Feeling desperate to escape I punched the hand that was holding me. It was no use. Looking down I saw Coronamon closing his eyes, the fire coming from the flaming emblem on his head grew in size. Leomon stopped him. "No. You'll hit Reina!" Whatever Coronamon was trying to do would probably have better results then all the other things we've tried. "NO! GO AHEAD! DO IT, ILL BE FINE!" Leomon looked up at me with a worried look. "But..." Kabuterimon roared and tightened his grip on me. I gasped and strained to breath. "JUST DO IT!" I honestly had no idea if I would be okay after Coronamon did his thing but we had no other choice. He charged up his flame one more time. Then with a blast of flame the emblem on his head shot fire right at us. "CORONA FLAME!" The fire engulfed kabuterimon and I. He screamed as his body burned from the intense heat. I closed my eyes and waited for the fire to start painfully burning me too but it never did. I looked up to see that I WAS on fire, but it didn't hurt. Kabuterimon released me and I fell to the ground still Covered in flames. "REINA!" Leomon and Coronamon rushed over to see if I was okay. They found me curled around the digiegg that had been exposed when the backpack burned to ash. I wrapped myself around it to make sure it wasn't hurt by the fall. I stood up slightly burned and swatted at the flames on my shoulders and arms trying to snuff them out. Kabuterimon flew into the lake and dived in with a sizzling sound. We took the opportunity and ran back into the forest and hid in a conveniently placed cave.
Once we sat down Leomon and Coronamon looked at me strangely. "What?" I asked
"You should have been seriously hurt by Coronamon's attack. But your perfectly fine." Leomon said perplexed. Thinking about it, it did seem strange that I came out of it unscathed. Even kabuterimon couldn't handle the intensity of the flames. Coronamon fell to his back, exhausted from the powerful blow he dealt. It probably took all his strength. Now as if all that wasn't enough, something on my stomach started to get REALLY hot. I looked down to see the source of it. It was was the digiegg I was holding in my lap. It was glowing all over and the light it was emitting got brighter and brighter. "Uh...is what I think is happening, happening?" Leomon looked at he digiegg surprised. "Yes, it is. It's hatching" Just then the blinding light consumed the room.
