GoggleMaster01- I'm back at last! Sorry I haven't been updating. Bad author, bad! *smacks self* Well, I'm back, and I have more fic! In the last chapter, Tai dreamt that Matt's dad Sesshoku was plotting to bring the Dark Masters and Apocalymon back to life. But, it was just a dream- right? Right? Well, Digimon, Pokemon and Warriors still don't belong to me, otherwise I'd be filthy stinkin' rich and have no need to waste my time on fanfictions, and enjoy this fic!
Chapter 11
Hunting
I woke up panting and soaked in sweat. I was back in the apprentice's den. Agumon was standing right in front of me. "Good morning, Tai," he said.
"'Morning, Agumon," I mumbled. I got up and stretched. At first, when I felt something on my back stretching, I was confused, but then remembered that I had wings now. This was going to take some getting used to.
I got up and went back to the place where I got my bath when I first came to freshen up a bit. I'll let you in on a little secret- I'm terrified of haircuts. Why, you ask? Maybe it's the cold vinyl apron the guy puts around your neck. Maybe it's the fear of those sharp scissors getting lodged in my ear. Or maybe it's simply because I'm afraid the barber will make me bald. I don't know. Never liked haircuts, never will.
My parents made a deal with me that, as long as I took care of my hair, I'd be safe from the terror of haircuts. And, every day after that, you bet I did. I made sure to wash, blow dry and brush it every morning. That was the first thing I did. I didn't like doing it, but I had done it every morning up to this point.
I had even brushed it in the Digital World because Mom had sent me to the summer camp with a small brush I kept in my pocket so I could use it in case I got separated from the group during a hike or chased out of camp by a bear or something. I tried to explain to Mom that, if I was chased out of camp by a bear, I'd be more worried about getting back to camp or killing the bear than making sure I looked my best, but Mom didn't understand my logic. She sent me with the brush anyway.
After searching around the room, I found eight toothbrushes and toothpaste. These guys had really been expecting us, huh? I took one of the toothbrushes (the orange one) and proceeded to brush my teeth.
I brushed my teeth every day because of my parents too. I never brushed my teeth for the longest time. Then, when I was six years old, Dad took me with him to the dentist when he was getting a cavity filled. He told me, "This is what happens to bad little boys who don't brush their teeth." And then, he forced me to sit there and watch while the dentist worked on his cavity. And you can bet that, every day after that, I brushed my teeth for a solid two minutes.
This morning, however, something was different. I couldn't put my finger on it until I rinsed and bared my teeth into the mirror. Every tooth had sharpened to a point, sort of like Agumon's teeth. I made the mistake of touching one of them.
"YOW!" I cried. The tooth was a sharp as a carving knife. I ran my finger under the water. The water stung, only a little bit at first, then, I felt pure pain. Not unholy pain, like when I got my powers, but more like a wasp-sting-in-your-rear pain. I yanked my finger out from under the water. This was the single craziest thing that ever happened to me. Water never actually hurt me like that before!
I decided to shake it off and got a good look at my wings in the mirror. They were messy from last night's attempts to move about, but I kind of liked them better that way. Could I really fly with these wings? I spread them. They were so big, they seemed to be the size of Texas!
Hey, the bigger the better, right?
I went back to the apprentice's den to catch up with Agumon. My stomach rumbled. "Agumon, I'm hungry," I said. "I feel like running to the big pile of stuff by the clock tower and swallowing it in one gulp."
"That's the fresh-kill pile, remember, Tai?" Agumon said.
"Yeah, the fresh-kill pile," I said. "Whatever."
We rushed up to the fresh-kill pile. I was about to jump into it, roll about and dig in, but when I lept into the air, I landed on a gray shell with red stones on it.
Redtail lifted up his head and turned to face me. "There you are, Taichi!" he yelled. "Psystar has been waiting for you for hours!"
"Where is he?" I asked.
"OUTSIDE!!!" Redtail yelled so loud that the sheer force caused me to bounce backwards into Agumon.
"'Outside' outside?" I asked.
"Yes, outside, around the place where you found Base!" Redtail said. He looked like he was about to shoot fire like he had yesterday at the meeting.
"I'm going, I'm going, yikes," I said. Me and Agumon shot out the dark tunnel where we entered Pokemon Square from.
Once outside, I closed my eyes and inhaled- and got a whiff of the forest for the first time. I had been able to smell people and objects before, but I couldn't tell what was coming off of what. My mother could have been easily mistaken for the math homework I did last week- it was all a jumble. But now, I noticed that, not only could I smell everything really, really well, I could finally tell what it was.
I could tell that an earthy smell was coming off of the dirt, and the smell of pine came off some of the trees, plus there were a billion other smells that I can't use human words to describe. But, all the smells meant one thing to me- home. This was what my home smelled like.
Hey, beats the cat litter and discarded pizza and scraps of my mom's cooking in my old room!
"Oh, Agumon," I said. "This is-"
"What are you standing there sniffing for, Halfborn?" came a growl. I opened my eyes. A huge creature was standing in front of me. He was around the size of Garurumon and looked like a black, blue and yellow lion with a wild black mane and fierce red eyes. He had a stubby black tail, too. At his side stood a Salamon, but it wasn't Kari's Salamon. This one had a torn ear.
"Um, my name's not Halfborn, it's Tai, nice ta meetcha…" I said nervously.
Salamon made a face. "You're right, Sensei, he is ugly!" Salamon chirped.
"I'm always right, Bronzepaw," the creature growled in reply. "It's quite silly of Psystar to be welcoming these Halfborns here with open arms, eh? Half human knockoffs like this one can never become real warriors. The warrior code does say that humans cannot join us."
"I- am actually a very good-looking guy-" I began to say.
At that point, Psystar walked up to Bronzepaw and his "sensei". "That's enough, Lionstorm," he said.
"Psystar-sama," Lionstorm bowed his huge head. "Your apprentice is late." I waved and grinned.
"I know," Psystar said. "I'll let you slide this time, as this is your first day, but never again. In the wild, time stands still for no one. You must be trained to survive, and today's lesson is important. You must learn to hunt and forage- no more free food from the fresh-kill pile. From now on, to eat, you must hunt, whether you are Pokemon, Digimon or Halfborn. It may seem unfair, but that's how it works out here."
"Oh, so you mons DO hunt!" I said.
"Yes, of course we do, Tai," Agumon said. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, maybe it has something to do with Gabumon saying Digimon hunt for themselves, and then what happened?" I asked. "You guys never hunted! You all mooched our human food whenever we ate!"
"Which is the exact reason why these hunting lessons are important for Agumon as well," Psystar said. "Bronzepaw, show these two the correct hunting position."
The rude Salamon with the torn ear stuck his rear in the air and lay his front paws out in front of him. He reminded me of our cat Miko when he stalks mice.
"Oh no," I said. "No way. I did not sign up for this!"
Agumon was already in the hunting crouch. "It's easy, Tai!" he said happily.
I was about to say something when Lionstorm walked up behind me. "Do it, or I'll make you," he growled. I felt a cold claw on my neck.
"Okay, okay, here I go!" I panicked and got in the right position. "Meow."
"Lionstorm, don't scare the poor thing," Psystar scolded. "He must adjust to our life at his own pace."
"He's part human," Lionstorm growled. "He can never adjust to our life."
"Um, I'm standing right here," I said.
Psystar turned to me. "Okay, Taichi, I see you," he said. "That's a nice hunting crouch. But, there's one more thing. Unsheathe your claws."
"Claws?!" I asked. "Whoa whoa whoa, back the truck up a bit. I don't have claws."
"You didn't have claws," Psystar said. "But now, you do. They are underneath your fingernails. Do you feel them?"
"Well, now that you mention it…" I began, staring down at my fingertips. I did feel something sharp scraping the back of my fingernail. "Yea, I think I feel them."
"Good," Psystar told me. "Now- are you following me, Taichi?- push your claws out from underneath your fingernails."
"Push them out?" I asked.
"Just picture a trap door opening," Psystar said.
I did. I felt a strange sensation in my fingertips and heard something ripping. I dared to look down at my fingertips. At the end of each of my fingertips was a single black claw. The claws were curved and sharp like a scythe. They were so sharp that they ripped right through my gloves. I didn't really know what to make of them.
"This is sick," I said. "I have claws. COOL!"
"They may be sharp now, but they'll wear down, Taichi," Psystar said. "You'll need those claws to hunt and defend yourself. If they get dull, you'll need to sharpen them, but you don't need to worry about that now.
"Anyway, today, you'll learn to hunt mice. Since mice are so small, they will feel your footsteps BEFORE they catch your scent, so you have to step lightly and carefully to catch one. Then, when you think you have it in place, pounce upon the mouse, pin it down with your claws and bite hard on its scruff, which is located on the back of the neck. To pounce correctly, you must…wha hwa wha wha wha…"
Psystar went into Charlie Brown's Teacher Mode. I was getting bored. Suddenly, a mouse sped by my nose.
"MOUSIE!!!" I threw all caution to the wind and sped on all fours after the mouse. The mouse ran scared, and I continued to pursue it at high speed. I flung myself at the tasty tidbit, fell flat on my face, and watched the mouse scurry away.
"Damn it," I mumbled. Okay, maybe it was time to listen to Psystar, because I really, really wanted to catch that mouse and prove to Lionstorm and Bronzepaw that I COULD become a warrior!
I slowly moved along at negative three miles an hour. Eventually, I saw the mouse. It was sitting underneath a tree. Thinking I was long gone, it stopped to nibble some grass.
"Easy score," I whispered, puling myself into a hunting crouch. "Enjoy your last moments of freedom, little mousie. You're mine."
The mouse stopped nibbling and turned to face me. "PARTY TIME!" I cried, lunging at the mouse. This time, I managed to catch the mouse's tail in my teeth. The tiny creature squeaked and tried to run away.
"Nuh uh," I said. I put the wriggling mouse in my hand, then grabbed its scruff in my mouth before it could send me on another wild goose chase through the forest. Even in my mouth, even when it was pretty much beat, the mouse tried to run to Mexico.
"Nuh UH!" I bit hard on the mouse's scruff until it lay limp, dangling from my mouth. I could taste the mouse's blood in my mouth. I stood upright, spit the mouse out into my hand and looked at it.
My very first catch.
GoggleMaster01- And there it is, Chapter 11 at last. More will come, hopefully soon. Also.. PLEASE REVIEW MY FIC!!! When you don't review, it makes me think no one's reading. If you read, please review so I know you read my fic! I've even enabled anonymous reviews (they were turned off before) so there should be no reason you were unable to review. Please review my Pokemon fic Ruby, Sapphire and Yellow too- it risks being discontinued!
In case I don't update, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Day that Taiora (or Sorato) was proved as a Canon Pairing in the Digimon Christmas Special or Happy Whatever Holiday You're Celebrating this Year!
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Wally Jr.'s back, and he wants you to review too!
