Over the Seras
Aneda Forests, Eastern Province, Kingdom of Chronus
"It's getting late," mused Kyoko, checking her D-Vector and finding it to be late afternoon. The remaining trio had remained camped near the riverbank, awaiting the return of Artemis. The Strabimon had not shown her lupine face since departing to search for Cyrus and Hang, who had disappeared in the chaotic aftermath of the battle of Arcwater.
She reclined against the rough-hewn trunk of a large tree, while Bolter snoozed in her lap and Jeanette sat next to her, likewise leaning against the tree. "Net-chan?" she asked, turning to look at the other girl, only to find her having joined Bolter in slumber.
A sad little sigh fluttered from Kyoko's lips. It wasn't the loneliness of the moment that plagued her. No, it was clearly something else. She popped open her D-Vector, and accessed the control that displayed the full, holographic keyboard. Resting the purple and orange device on one hip, she tapped at the keyboard and slowly input a journal entry.
I know we all had to try at Arcwater. I didn't want Net-chan getting hurt, that's why I thought it was such a bad idea for us to fight… I, I care about her. She told me about her adoptive father, how horrible he was, about her Narcolepsy and everything. It hurts my heart to think about what she's gone through, she's such a nice girl. If only I knew for sure…
The Lopmon stirred in her lap, and Kyoko hastily hit the button to archive the entry. Those personal words disappeared from the screen, and Kyoko set the device aside.
"Any sign of Princess cheer yet?" Bolter grunted, rolling over onto his back and letting his large brown ears flop against his partner's legs. His eyes at last popped open, as he looked into the upside-down face of his tamer.
"Nu-uh," Kyoko shook her head slightly, nibbling on a candy bar from her pack. "I'm getting kind of worried…"
"Yeah," Bolter sat upright, his little arms folded as he frowned in thought. "Thinking whatever got Cyrus and Hang got Arty too?"
"Hai," murmured Kyoko, rocking slightly in place and stealing another look at the serene expression on Jeanette's sleeping face. "I never know whether to wake her up or let her sleep," she murmured sadly, leaning closer. She reached up with the utmost care and removed Jeanette's glasses, before holding them up to her own face.
The glasses were slender and silver, the frames probably titanium and nigh-indestructible for normal wear and tear. Even looking through the lenses clearly skewed Kyoko's vision, and actually wearing them was a muddy mess tolerable for only a few seconds before they were removed again.
"Having fun?" Bolter smirked teasingly, breaking from his depth of thought. "If we go look for them, they may come back and not find us. If they are in trouble, one of us going to look isn't going to fair any better. If we sit on our tails, trouble might get worse."
Kyoko nodded before folding Jeanette's glasses and tucking one stem into the collar of her top. "Maybe we can leave them a trail of breadcrumbs, like the story Hansel and Grettle…"
"Horusmon and Grottomon?" Bolter tilted his head, a blank look on his face. "Never heard of that one…"
"No, silly," Kyoko poked Bolter square in his three-horned forehead. "Hansel and Grettle. They left breadcrumbs as they travelled into the forest so they could find their way back. It's a story my mother used to tell me before bed when she wasn't travelling."
"Leave them a trail so they can find us?" Bolter frowned. "And what if someone else picks it up?"
"We ask them politely to not eat or enslave us?" Kyoko said impatiently, standing up. "Anything's better than staying around here, just waiting. C'mon." She set Bolter down on the ground, and then leaned over and jiggled Jeanette. "Wake up," she urged quietly. "Jeanette?" A firmer shake, and the youth's head lolled to the side while she still slept on.
"Is she okay?" Bolter said sharply, waddling closer to the sleeping girl.
Kyoko leaned close. "She seems to be okay," she murmured with evident relief. "She must just be exhausted. Are there any towns nearby? Maybe we could rent a room."
"I'm not sure," Bolter scuttled up her back, plucking the D-Vector from where it was clipped at his tamer's waist. His small digits manipulated the controls, until a map of the region appeared on the screen. "Hmm, there's a town northwest of here. It's called Moonbrook."
"How far?"
"Maybe five miles – hey!" Kyoko plucked back her D-Vector, and promptly shrugged the Lopmon off her back. His ears opened like a parachute to break his fall. "What gives?" As he turned around, Kyoko had already knelt in front of Jeanette and was in the midst of lifting the blond onto her back. Draping Jeanette's arms over her shoulders, Kyoko wrapped her arms around Jeanette's legs and carefully stood.
"Sheesh," the Japanese youth muttered, swaying precariously. "And I thought you needed a diet, Bolt-kun." She took a steadying breath and stood as best she could with the weight of her friend and both packs. They wouldn't get very far very fast, but Kyoko quietly vowed to press on.
East side of the Seras River, Northern/Eastern Province Border, Kingdom of Chronus
Jeanette stirred faintly, her mind reconnecting to a body still inert. Three senses flooded her mind, the smells of sharp pine and mellow wood, the faint sounds of rushing water, and steady footsteps that seemed to match the way she felt her body sway.
Her arms tensed slightly, and she felt someone warm and close. Her mind continued to lumber slowly toward full wakefulness, and she finally cracked an eye open. The blue iris and its black pupil settled first upon the sky streaked with the dark blues, purples, and blacks of twilight, and then drifted downward. Much closer was a bleary and indistinct pattern of browns and greens, and then closer still was a clearer and more familiar sheet of auburn.
"Kyoko?" she murmured, her other eye flickering open as well.
"I'm here," came that familiar voice. "You okay, sleepyhead?"
"Mm-hm," she stirred further, picking her head up. Blinking several times and squinting did little to clear the blurriness of her vision. Her glasses were missing. "Where are we?"
"Walking to a town," Kyoko explained in strained tones, while panting heavily. The swaying stopped as Kyoko did. "Can you walk, Net-chan?"
"Yes," Jeanette felt Kyoko's arms slacken, and she carefully slid from the back of the taller teen. Her sneakers touched solid ground, and she stepped carefully away.
"Woo, that was tiring," Kyoko said, puffing for a minute and then retrieving Jeanette's glasses for her. "Here you go," she said, unfolding them and slipping them back onto their owner's face. "Better?"
The world slid back into focus, and Jeanette smiled, an expression that was soon mirrored back at her. "Where are Cyrus and 'ang? And what about Artemis?"
"Oh, don't mind me," muttered Bolter from near both girls' ankles. "I'm just chopped liver. You can eat me later if you're hungry."
"We don't know what happened to them," Kyoko rested her hands on her hips. "Artemis hasn't come back yet." She turned around, glancing up the dirt road and along the sturdy wooden bridge. It ran over a river her D-Vector's map identified as the Seras. That meant that Moonbrook wasn't that much farther now. "I wanted to get us to a town where we could rest and eat."
"Oh, that sounds good," Jeanette nudged her glasses up, rubbing sleep from her eye. "But why didn't you wake me up?"
"I tried," Kyoko said sheepishly. "I figured you were exhausted after the battle last night when I couldn't, so I carried you instead." Finally seeming to catch her breath, she straightened up and let her arms fall to her sides. "Man, I'm beat."
"Have Jeanette carry you," Bolter replied as the group slowly moved on. "It's only fair." Jeanette's stunned look was the foil of Kyoko's blooming grin.
"He's right, Net-chan," Kyoko said teasingly, edging closer to Jeanette as they started across the bridge. She held the grin as Jeanette flushed scarlet and mumbled out acquiesce, before it finally cracked and she burst out laughing. Bolter joined in, and Jeanette's flush deepened.
"We're just kidding, Jeanette," Kyoko leaned a little as their feet formed a steady rhythm on the bridge's planks. "Lighten up. You could cook an egg on your face right now." As they walked, Bolter abandoned his position on the ground between the two girls and instead clambered up Jeanette's back until he reached her shoulders.
Jeanette paused and looked out onto the river flowing swiftly below them between its two rocky walls, listening to the serene hiss of the water's constant flow. "Um," she said quietly, her timid voice nearly lost in the river's surge. "Kyoko?"
"Nani-sorry, what?" Kyoko said, turning her head to look at Jeanette.
"Thanks," she seemed to get even quieter, and her pale cheeks flushed a little again. She managed a small smile and bowed slightly at the waist.
"You're welcome," Kyoko replied kindly, grinning. "Call me Kyo-chan, mkay?"
Jeanette turned from the river, following Kyoko toward the other side of the bridge. "Kyo-chan?"
"Mm-hm. It's Japanese. I'll explain."
Town of Moonbrook, Northern Province, Kingdom of Chronus
Jeanette stifled a yawn behind one hand as she pushed the door to the inn open. She stepped inside with Kyoko on her heels, the brunette rubbing her arms due to the evening chill. The entry room took the form of a tavern, occupied by a fair crowd at the hour, warmed by the roaring fireplace set on the far side of a spacious room dotted by tables.
Bolter craned his neck, muttering to himself in apparent distaste of his current carrier. No doubt he was missing Kyoko's extra height and her absence of long hair. "Well, at least we can get a room for the night here. This place isn't large enough to have apartments for –"
"Artemis!" Jeanette bolted across the room, reaching a corner with a very familiar green-eyed Strabimon.
"Jeanette," the child-level Digimon answered in the same familiar, level voice. The Strabimon rose from where she was seated at a table in the corner. "I am glad to see you are well." She moved gingerly, apparently recovering from her prior injuries.
Jeanette bent down slightly, hugging her shorter partner. The Strabimon briefly started, but it seemed Jeanette hadn't intended to hold it for long as she broke away. Turning around, Kyoko had caught up to her.
"Where are Cyrus and Hang?" Kyoko asked, while prying Bolter from Jeanette's back before transferring him to her own.
"Captured by a pair of bandits," Artemis explained coolly, fixing her eyes on Jeanette. "I attempted to pursue them, but was injured and lost them."
"Injured?" Jeanette said worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"I am," the Strabimon inclined her head.
"So," said a voice as someone with silver hair and clad in a dark coat rose from the same table Artemis had been sitting at. "You're her partner?" The young man fixed his eyes, also silver, on Jeanette.
"Um, yes?"
A floating, gear-like Digimon floated up beside the boy. Jeanette's D-Vector chimed, and it identified the creature as Hagururmon.
"Howdy," said a warmer, male voice as another tamer rose from the table. "These here are Zander and Koro," he nodded to each. "Our other friends, Katsumura and Arcsinh, are upstairs. And I'm Colin, Colin Summers," he touched his brow as though tipping a hat he did not wear to Kyoko and Jeanette. "If you're looking for rooms for the night, this place has plenty."
"Friends?" Zander echoed skeptically, turning to look at Colin with a raised eyebrow. "I don't know about you, but my friends will at least talk to me."
Kyoko completed the round of introductions for the rest of their group, while Bolter ambled off to take care of the room arrangements. "Is there any way we can track where they've taken Cyrus and Hang?" she asked, looking at Artemis. The Strabimon's silence was enough of an answer.
"Uh, excuse me," Colin said. "I don't know where they've taken you friends either, but I've heard about a bandit base that's supposed to be in this area. If anyone knows where it is, it would be Katsumura."
"Where is –" Jeanette began, but Kyoko silenced her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Thank you," Kyoko said. "It'll have to wait until morning. We all need to rest." Jeanette opened her mouth to object, but Kyoko fixed her with an eye. "That way we'll be ready for whatever happens once we go looking."
Sensing defeat, Jeanette sighed. "Okay. How about dinner? We've barely 'ad a chance to eat."
"Well then," said Colin, gathering a few empty chairs from nearby tables and adding them to the one they had already been seated at. "Come on and take a load off. I'm sure we can find something on the menu for you young ladies." He helped both girls into their seats before he and Zander in turn sat down again themselves.
The food was good, the air cozy, the company pleasant as the seven lounged around the table, talking, eating, laughing, chatting, and joking as the wall-mounted Clockmon statue clock steadily chimed the hours away...
Credit for Cyrus Black and Hang goes to Otterly Lost
Credit for Zander Steele and Koro goes to Neocorruption
Credit for Katsumura Sugiyama goes to Schmegkopf