Hello everybody. And here we have the next chapter of this story at long last. If there are any of you who read this but not my other story then I can tell you that my long absence was both due to holiday interruptions, writing oneshots for some of my other readers and hard revising for an important exam which I took last week, along with a filming trip which took up a large portion of my time. But I am back now and I intend to keep on going with this, trying to get out at least ten chapters a month, possibly not including this one due to the late start.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this long awaited chapter.
To Be a King
Chapter 21:- Avian Clash
Beleram had never been a particularly talkative Eagle. Few of the Eagles were – they preferred to spend their time seeing rather than speaking and most often conversed in their own language rather than reverting to the Common Tongue. Their dealings with the other races of the world had been minimal for a long time now, meaning that they spent most time in one another's company, if that. As a whole, their race maintained a quiet and dignified manner, surveying the world from above, each one like an individual monarch of the sky.
And yet, Beleram was finding that his new companion – the mysterious being that had saved his life known as Sparrowmon, was pretty much the complete opposite. She would not… stop… talking.
And while Beleram felt he would normally be irritated by such a thing, he was finding Sparrowmon's company to be oddly amusing and actually quite a refreshing change of pace from the usual silence that he held during long flights. It was almost impossible to find what she did irritating. She had such a bubbly and infectious personality to her. At least when she was not angry herself.
"…sometimes I wonder what it must be like to have feathers," she was saying, looking at Beleram's broad, brown wings and watching as the feathers slid over one another with each motion to create a flawless and ever shifting carpet that ran along each appendage. "I mean I could never work out exactly why feathers help in keeping people that fly in the air but still… sometimes I think it might be like being covered in a big blanket all the time as opposed to this hard yellow armour that I've got here. What it's like, having feathers? I asked Beelzemon once and he said that he hadn't really given it much thought."
"Well, to be honest, neither have I," Beleram said. "It's always just been a fact of life from me, almost since the day I hatched. Granted back then I was covered in nothing but fluffy down but when my feathers did develop… I still didn't really think about the difference. It is nice I suppose. It keeps me insulated and I admit that I do love the feeling of a good thermal pushing my wings upwards. It's like you're riding on a giant… er… what's the word I'm looking for?"
"Cushion?" suggested Sparrowmon.
"What is a cushion?" Beleram asked, blinking.
"Oh right, you wouldn't have cushions," Sparrowmon giggled. "It's a shame really. You're missing out. I once laid down in Bastemon's bed, which is covered in more cushions than you could possible imagine, and I swear to you it took me a real effort to get back up. It was so comfortable."
"That does not sound like something that I would like," Beleram said, slightly disturbed. "Comfort becoming so great that it stops your core functions?"
"No, no, not that. I just meant it was so nice that I didn't want to get up because if I did I wouldn't get the nice feeling anymore."
"Oh," said Beleram. "Well, while that makes a little more sense, it does not explain to me what a cushion is."
"Let's just say it's a soft object that people can rest upon to make them nice and comfy."
"Well, that does sound a little like a thermal then."
"Exactly," Sparrowmon grinned. "I don't use thermals myself. I can barely feel the things. My jet thrusters are what keep me in the air."
"Your what?" Beleram blinked. "You mean those things in your wings that are spurting light out of the bottom and back?"
"Yeah, those," Sparrowmon nodded. "Essentially it's a special device that pushes against the air around me to forcibly push me forwards or up or down."
"That is both extraordinary and yet ludicrous-sounding," Beleram said. "Essentially you are saying that those things of yours allow you to create your own thermals that point in any direction?"
"Well… something like that, yeah," Sparrowmon grinned. "I can't go backwards though. I don't have any thrusters in the right position to do that."
"You are a riddle, Sparrowmon," Beleram shook his head. "I cannot place a single thought that would describe you in one word. You are so strange in so many ways."
"You know, I could take offence to that," Sparrowmon sniffed.
"Well I did not mean it to be offensive. I am merely stating what I see. Never have I seen or heard of anything even remotely like you in this world. Never have I heard such things as being able to forcibly keep yourself aloft like you do, and yet I can see you doing it. You are moving through the air at high speed and yet you are neither flapping nor gliding. You are pushing yourself through the air and yet it takes you no effort to do so."
"It is complicated," Sparrowmon admitted. "Even I'm not totally sure how my thrusters work. I guess it's like your feathers. I just take them for granted. But trying to explain them to someone, isn't easy."
"Well, perhaps you should think on it," Beleram chuckled. "For I am taking you back towards our eyries in the mountains, where the rest of my kin make their home."
"Are we nearly there?"
"We are making good time. The wind is with us today, which is fortunate, for if it were against us I would have an even harder time flying through it than normal thanks to the slight damage on my wings by those goblin scum."
"Do I even want to know anything more about them?"
"Perhaps we should wait until you and introduced to my kind before we talk more about this place. The others will be able to help fill in any gaps in your mind about this place."
"Then they have a lot of gap to fill," Sparrowmon said gravely. "For this is not my world. I am now totally sure of that. I'm lost in a strange dimension, and I haven't the faintest idea what I'm supposed to do next."
"Confusing as what you say is, you are not lost. Even if you are from another dimension, befuddling and ridiculous as that sounds, you are with me now, and I know full well where I am going. We should arrive back at the Misty Mountains within an hour or so. We've made good time considering we've been flying for almost three already."
"Well that's good news at least. Do you think your friends will have found any of mine?"
"I do not know but I know that if your friends are anywhere within a hundred miles of our roosting site and possibly even further than that, then my kind will be the most likely to have seen them provided they are out in the open."
"Good," nodded Sparrowmon with a grin. "Oh I hope, I hope, I hope that someone else is out there. No offence, you're great company, but I could do with a more familiar face right about now. Just because it would tell me that I'm not the only one of my group that is around here."
"Do not fret yourself," Beleram said, powering his wings forward a little more and wincing at the slight pang above his wing joint from a goblin spear. "The Eagles are a good people. If nobody has seen your friends, I am sure that they, like me, will agree to help you and start a more deliberate search for them. Though you may have to describe what we are supposed to be looking for. Though, on second thought, if your friends are anything like you, then perhaps spotting them might not be so difficult. Especially for we who can spot a rabbit from two miles away."
Sparrowmon giggled. "Let's hope so then. Let's hope so."
Some distance away, another avian Digimon was watching the Sun as it began to sink down the sky, while he himself was perched on a rocky outcrop that jutted out from the main body of a mountain around three-quarters of the way up, It had not been a particularly proactive day for MailBirdramon so far. In fact, it had been an extremely frustrating one, largely because he had not been able to do anything for much of it.
Though freeing himself from under the pile of snow that had accumulated on top of him when he had landed had not been particularly difficult, the snow itself seemed to have it out for him today, for not long after he had gone flying to try and search for the others, he had flown straight into what appeared to be some kind of mountain blizzard storm. And that had not been good for him in any way.
MailBirdramon was a durable Digimon, but his inability to fold his wings left him with one big disadvantage and that was that if wind somehow hit him on the large flats of his wings it could drastically knock him off course, despite his own jet thrusters. Normally this was not particularly a problem – he could predict winds relatively easily and make sure to avoid them or power through them with his jets, but in a mountain storm things could get very difficult. First, a freak updraft had hit him from directly below when he'd tried to fly between two mountain peaks and had sent him spinning until he almost crashed into a mountain-top.
After that he had decided it might be a good idea to find a place to roost until the storm lifted, for such powerful and unexpected winds might cause him more serious damage next time if he were to crash headlong into something. And it wasn't like he could just pop into a Xros Loader and get healed this time. If one of his wings was damaged here, that was it, really.
So he had waited… and waited… and waited… and all the while the wind had been howling through the mountain passed and shooting past the ledge that he had managed to find for himself, occasionally getting behind his wings and trying to push him off again, but he held him ground. Almost worse was the snow, which was splattered against his body constantly in a wet sheet from the wind and was often flung down on top of him in large clumps from above when more was shaken loose by that same wind.
So help him if another avalanche started and tried to bury him again, he would not be happy.
But he stood there stoically, without any audible complaint, for hours on end, tucking his small head down against his chest to better protect it from the elements that were pummelling at him throughout the whole time. He lost all sense of time after a while, meaning he had no idea exactly how long he had been perched on that ledge before the storm finally, finally, lifted. As the clouds had scattered away, MailBirdramon had looked up and prepared his jets to launch himself back into the sky.
Except that he found himself burdened with another problem almost immediately. He hadn't noticed thanks to all the buffeting snow during the blizzard but during his period of in activity on the ledge in the frozen conditions, a layer of ice had formed on his wings and a large portion of his metallic body, formed by the snow turning to water when it hit him and then freezing totally as it dripped down him. Almost instantly as he took to the their he staggered, if that's the correct term for a sudden jerk in the air that almost made him fall out of the sky.
"Sometimes it seems the world is out to get you," he had muttered to himself before he forced himself upwards. The ice was not only making him heavier but it had managed to get into the workings of his thrusters, lessening their output and causing a couple of them to stop occasionally, leading to a sporadic zig-zag flight that MailBirdramon had practically no control over.
Obviously this forced him to land again, but before he did he flew up as high as he dared and tried to locate a ledge that was as bathed in the Sun as possible. And that's where he was now, flaring his thrusters slightly every so often while he turned his body face on to the Sun and waited for the ice to melt. Which was taking its own sweet time considering the area around him was still cold, but the occasion burst from his thrusters helped to speed things along.
"All in all," he said, as he stared at the receding Sun. "Not a brilliant day. No offence to Ice Digimon, but I am beginning to hate snow."
He looked down as his thrusters, which were still dripping away the last remnants of the melted ice, analysing them for any potential damage, but to his satisfaction there appeared to be none. He flared them a couple of times to check their functionality and then launched himself off the cliff, activating them once again and rising into the air without any problems at all.
"Excellent," he nodded to himself. "Looks like the sun's going to go down in a couple of hours or so, if that. This hasn't been the best start at finding out what in the world is going on, and where the others are. I better make use of the remaining daylight and get a move on." And he turned around a shot away over the mountains.
MailBirdramon was capable of moving at incredible speed when he wanted to. He was not as fast as Sparrowmon and she was far more aerodynamic than he could ever hope to be, but he made up for that with his tougher bulk and ability to take hits in a fight. And now he was shooting away over the mountain-tops, unworried by the thin air up here and shooting through clouds like a knife stabbing into a chunk of candy floss, before he curved down and span about in a tight corkscrew to get any last remnants of the ice out as quickly as he could.
After that, he debated what course of action he should take next. Perhaps the other Digimon were also somewhere in the mountains, but equally they could be out across the vast land that he could see stretching away to the far east – a huge expanse of woodland and plains and in the distance, one single, solitary peak sticking out of the ground. Could they be over that way? Or could they possibly be on the other side of the mountains which he could not make out over the towering peaks themselves. Where were they most likely to be?
The honest answer – he didn't have any idea.
But something else was about to happen that would take his mind off all that once again.
For unknown to MailBirdramon, as he had been sunning himself on that ledge, he had been spotted from quite some distance away but another being, who had been out flying after the recent surprise visit. That person had been, naturally, another Great Eagle. His name was Meneldor the Swift, and he was aptly named, for he was one of the fastest Eagles of the Mountains, or possible indeed the world. His build allowed him to be perfectly streamlined and there were few other Eagles who could keep up with him on the wing.
That said, Meneldor was also a rather hasty eagle in other aspects as well as physical speed. He spotted MailBirdramon well over two miles away, which was beyond MailBirdramon's own vision – although the Digimon had great vision it was still not nearly up to the standard of an Eagle. Meneldor hadn't had a clue what to make of this strange, blue creature, and had flown closer, covering the gap between them another mile before he alighted on a ledge of his own and peered across the great distance as if he was a human analysing a specimen on the table in front of him.
MailBirdramon was a complete mystery to him. Never before had Meneldor seen a bird-like being that was totally covered in hard metal. There was not an inch of feathers or even skin in sight anywhere. Could it be a creature just covered in hard armour? Or was that metal actually a part of its body. Meneldor could not tell. It had three prongs on the end of its tail as if it was a weapon and its eyes were small and had no pupils at all. And yet it was still roughly about the size and shape as the Eagles themselves.
Meneldor has been even more alarmed when he has seen MailBirdramon activating his thrusters. As far as he could see that was just small fires bursting out the back of its wing-like projections, if they could even be called wings.
He had stood there examining oblivious MailBirdramon for only a short amount of time before Meneldor's brain began to concoct a theory that made sense. In ancient times past, when Sauron had been a mere lieutenant, the Dark Lord that ruled that lands had been Morgoth. Meneldor knew all about Morgoth. Every Eagle did. They told the story with pride about how the greatest of all their ancestors, a mighty Eagle named Thorondor, had personally clawed Morgoth's face with his huge talons and sent him staggering back while he helped some of Morgoth's enemies escape from him.
But Meneldor also knew of the evils that Morgoth had committed and the evil creatures he had created – in this case orcs and trolls. The ancestors of orcs and trolls had once been Elves and Ents respectively that had fallen into Morgoth's clutches and had been brutally tortured, tormented, mutilated and twisted by Black Magic until they had become a completely different and totally evil race. There was no such thing as a good orc or a good troll. Each one of them was stained with the evil that their ancestors had once been infused with to make them such nightmarish creatures.
And Meneldor then thought that this new creature, this strange, mechanical bird, could only be one thing. Morgoth had never captured and done the same thing with one of the Great Eagles themselves, but it seemed clear to Meneldor that now, somebody had. It was the only explanation that made sense. Somehow, somebody had managed to capture an Eagle and use more Dark Magic to twist it and turn it into another, evil creature.
And once the theory had taken route, Meneldor instantly believed that it was the truth. How could it be anything else? The creature could only be some kind of Dark Eagle.
With that in mind, Meneldor had made his way back to the main Eagle roost while MailBirdramon was still thawing. There were many roosts dotted throughout the Misty Mountains, each containing a large number of Eagles all living in one place and all of them very interested to hear what Meneldor had to say about what he had seen.
Now, as MailBirdramon swung low over the mountains, he was still oblivious to the eyes watching him, though this time there was not one but four sets of fierce yellow eyes glaring down at him from above, though admittedly glaring was one of the few expressions Eagle eyes seemed to be able to do. At least by human terms.
"You see what I meant?" Meneldor asked his three companions. "What else can that be? I've never heard of anything like that in any of the old stories and we know that the Eagles have studied the world from above since our awakening and passed down all knowledge of what we have seen. Surely a creature like that would have been mentioned somewhere if it had ever been seen before."
"We do not know for sure what that creature is," said the slightly large Eagle that flew along beside him, and that went by the name of Landroval. "We cannot determine for certain that that is a Dark Eagle, but it is true that I have neither encountered nor heard of its like before."
"What do we do then?" Meneldor asked. "Lord Gwaihir is not here, therefore the decision falls to you, Landroval."
"This creature may not be our enemy," Landroval said after a moment's silence. "However we must take precautions until we can determine its allegiances and right now it is getting close to our eyries. We must ensure that our homes and our young are protected so for now, we shall attempt to drive it away. But be wary."
Meneldor and the other two Eagles nodded before Landroval led the way and spilled the air from beneath his wings, upending himself and steeping into a dive towards the distant stranger. Despite his huge size, he was capable of moving at impressive speed, especially when he tucked his wings into his body to become almost arrow-like in appearance.
But Meneldor was even faster and overtook Landroval shortly afterwards, rotating around and flexing his talons as he aimed for the unsuspecting MailBirdramon's wingtip.
Just as MailBirdramon had made the decision to head out across the plains first where he would have a better view and therefore a better chance of actually spotting anyone that might be out there, Meneldor slammed into the edge of his wing with full force and sending the startled Digimon spinning through the air with a loud cry of surprise. As Meneldor spread his wings out to catch himself MailBirdramon frantically tried to do the same, flaring his thrusters to force him back out of the spin moments before he crashed into another mountainside, tilting up sharply and whooshing up the face of the rock tower, shaking stones loose with his slipstream alone.
Once he had recovered himself enough he turned himself around and glared at Meneldor as the Eagle winged his way around with powerful flaps of his wings and came back towards him again. MailBirdramon was not best known for his amazing tact, and the only real thing the sprang to mind out of all of this was that he was being attacked. And he did not like to be attacked.
He opened his beak, charging the cannon inside it and taking aim at the incoming Meneldor but before he could shoot a blow another heavy something crashed into him, this time in his back, heavy talons locking around the red spike jutting out behind him and forcing him downwards. Unprepared for the strike, MailBirdramon went down heavily, flung away by whatever had hit him until he crashed heavily into the mountain and slid down it some distance, causing a rockslide around him as he did so.
Once he had regained his wits, MailBirdramon pushed out with his talons and launched himself away, and out from under the rocks cascading around him and back out into the open sky. Moments later he saw two more huge bird, both slightly bigger than even he was, swooping down towards him, wings flaring out and talons lashing forwards to hit him again. The Digimon responded instantly, flipping himself upside down and spiralling out of the way, the two birds rushing past him instead of hitting him.
He quickly cast about for other adversaries and quickly determined that there were four of them and one of them, Meneldor, was already closing in on him again, aiming another blow for his wing. MailBirdramon's eyes narrowed and he suddenly put on a spurt of speed with his thrusters. Meneldor squawked at the surprising increase in pace and flared his wings upwards, barely avoiding a mid-air collision as MailBirdramon skewed underneath where he had been.
"If you want a fight," MailBirdramon said. "Then you have one." And he swung around again in a tight circle and barrel-rolled after the retreating Meneldor. He never thought about why the giant birds might be attacking him. He was a member of Blue Flare and throughout most of the war, when someone had challenged them, they had responded to said challenge with a challenge of their own. And as far as MailBirdramon was concerned he had been challenged.
"PLASMA CANNON!" he roared, opening his beak and offloading several large bolts of crackling yellow plasma at Meneldor's back. The Eagle, able to see it coming through a slight tilt of his head, was taken by surprise by the nature of the attack, but recovered quickly – it was not unheard of for some creatures of Middle Earth to discharge attacks from their mouths. He tilted his wings back into a dive and the attack missed, but if it had been an Eagle other than Meneldor, it would have been a much closer shave.
And now, as far as the other Eagles could see, the creature was acting with hostility. That was not excusable. It was now a battle. A clash between avians.
Landroval dove down alongside MailBirdramon and levelled off towards him, talons stretching out and seeking to hit MailBirdramon in the stomach from the side, but MailBirdramon saw it coming and spun around, lashing out his own metal talons and catching hold of Landroval's. Instantly the two of them went into freefall, rolling over and over one another as the plummeted towards the ground above half a mile below. Landroval felt MailBirdramon's sharp talons cutting into his feet slightly while his only scratched at the metal, but nevertheless he held firm, flaring his wings and fighting for some form of control.
MailBirdramon though, had other plans and piled more energy into his thrusters, instantly dragging the startled Landroval out of their spiral and through the air, upside down, before MailBirdramon released his grip and sent the eagle spinning towards the ground some distance below. MailBirdamon spun around to pursue but Meneldor had quickly moved in on him from above and latched his talons around the base of his metal neck, throwing him forwards and into another couple of rolls as he span around, trying to throw his sudden rider off.
One of the other two Eagles swept towards the falling Landroval, while the other moved in to help Meneldor. The first swooped in and seized Landroval's talons in his own, flaring his wings and wrenching the spinning Landroval to a stop, allowing him to finish arresting his fall before he hit the ground and regain control. The other seized MailBirdramon by his pronged tail and heaved, swinging the heavy metal bird around as Meneldor released his grip, and giving MailBirdramon his turn and spinning away.
"Alright," MailBirdramon muttered. "That tears it." He quickly recovered himself again and shot downwards towards the ground, pursued by the four Eagles who hoped to box him in against the ground and leave him nowhere to go. But MailBirdramon kept going down, arresting his fall only metres before he crashed into the ground and skimming along just above the bushes. The four Eagles flew above some distance, wondering how on Middle Earth the newcomer could every fly that low and still maintain itself in the air.
But then MailBirdramon span around and cut his thrusters, falling to the ground backwards and feet first, slamming into the turf and his metal talons ripping up a long stream of soil as he skidded backwards. Then his thrusters exploded into life again and he kicked off from the ground again, lancing up at a speed that shocked the Eagles and whooshing into a spin, his wings spinning like helicopter blades as he aimed himself right at the two nearest Eagles.
Quick reactions had long served the Eagles well though and they split off hurriedly, MailBirdramon whooshing past them and clipping off a few of their tail feathers as he passed. Then he came out of the spin and swung around. Now he had the altitude and he quickly singled out Meneldor and whooshed down towards him, raising his tail and swiping it down at him as he shot swiftly passed. Meneldor overturned himself and just narrowly avoided the slash of the three prongs, shocked that this creature could actually be faster than him.
He was even more shocked when MailBirdramon span himself around at an incredibly tight angle and came for him again, preparing his tail for another strike. Meneldor banked sharply sideways but still felt the three spikes rake across the top of his wing and pull out several feathers, causing him to stumble in the air but not doing any serious damage. Ignoring the pain, the Great Eagle powered himself downwards towards the rocks of the mountains they were fighting in with MailBirdramon spinning around and rapidly pursuing.
It was here that it became apparent that the Eagles did have one advantage over MailBirdramon – they knew the mountains. He did not. Meneldor steeped into a dive, pulling his wings in close and shooting downwards with MailBirdramon shooting after him, the swift Eagle moving at high speed but MailBirdramon gaining on him every passing moment. Meneldor then flared his wings outwards and turned as sharply as any Eagle could around a corner. MailBirdramon swung around after him, but only then did he realise his mistake.
For Meneldor had pulled in this wings again and shot through a narrow canyon between two mountain peaks.
And MailBirdramon could not fold his wings in the same manner, which was a bad thing for him because his wingspan was wider than the canyon. MailBirdramon pulled up with a mighty wrench but he still slammed the end of one wing into the side of the mountain and overturned himself, crashing onto his back and scraping against the rock face.
The Digimon gritted his beak and powered his thrusters, shooting back up into the air before he lost his momentum and drew to a stop where getting up off his back would be almost impossible for him. He scanned about quickly for any signs of his quarry and saw him emerge from the canyon on the other side and spread his wings, flapping hard to try and gain some more height after that daring stunt. MailBirdramon charged another Plasma Cannon inside his beak but a shadow fell across him and he looked up sharply to see the other three Eagles descending down towards him.
So he fired at them instead. The Eagles quickly split off, aware that he could do this now, though one blast still went through the ends of the tailfeathers on one of the others. Landroval swept around towards the mountain-face above and dived down towards him, talons held at the ready. MailBirdramon swung around and threw out another pair of Plasma Cannons, but before they reached their target, Landroval slammed his feet into a huge protruding boulder on the mountain and then flapped to get out of the way as the boulder crashed down and started a landslide that pelted down towards MailBirdramon.
These birds were good, MailBirdramon had to admit. A couple of the boulders crashed into his Plasma Cannons and cancelled them out in an explosion of rubble, but the others continued to cascade towards him. MailBirdramon arced over and shot away quickly before he could be caught out and damaged further, only to find himself in the path of the other two Eagles, who each seized one of his wings in their talons and pushed him downwards under their combined weights.
"You will not ground me," MailBirdramon snarled and suddenly his thrusters burst into their full power. The Eagles were taken by surprise as their fall was suddenly counteracted and MailBirdramon actually began to push the two of them upwards, reversing their direction completely while they flailed their wings to try and keep some semblance of control. But when MailBirdramon opened his mouth and charged the cannon within they quickly let go and tumbled downwards before he could strike.
MailBirdramon shot up and span around, glaring down at the four Eagles who were all now below him. They were obviously experienced aerial fighters, much more so than he had originally thought. They had managed to cause him some damage while some of them had taken comparatively little. This wouldn't do. So, it was time to literally pull out the big guns. Or rather the big cannon.
His yellow eyes narrowed as he gathered the energy within his chest cavity and he roared, "NIGHTHAWK!" The socket in the middle of his chest flashed and then a huge yellow laser-like blast exploded out of it and lanced downwards towards Meneldor.
This attack definitely took the Eagles by surprise. They had never encountered anything like this before, and had no idea that such a thing was even possible. Meneldor almost didn't react in time, but at the last possible second he flung himself to the side with a powerful stroke of his wings, the cannon blast passing within mere centimetres of his feathery chest and lancing on past to strike the mountainside and blast a chunk out of it, sending rocks flying into the air with a colossal boom.
The remaining Eagles instantly split off, alarmed at the nature of the attack. Frustrated at the miss, MailBirdramon swooped across and launched another Nighthawk directly at another of the Eagles, which desperately veered off to the side and still had a few wing feathers burnt through. The remaining Eagles began climbing towards him from the sides, trying to stay out of range of the blasts, but MailBirdramon spun himself around and aimed another Nighthawk at Landroval and his companion, the two of them upending themselves and going into dives to avoid the blast.
What followed could only be described as a mad frenzy of aerial activity as MailBirdramon dived after his opponents and unleashed Plasma Cannons and Nighthawks at them from every angle, trying to hit the surprisingly slippery opponents, and getting a lot of near misses as the Eagles determinedly dodged his blasts with swift huge beats of their wings.
MailBirdramon spun around the peak of another mountain and came for them once more, spotting one of the Eagles landing on a ledge nearby to try and regain its balance and aiming a Nighthawk at it. The Eagle pushed itself upwards hurriedly and the Nighthawk took out the ledge it had been standing on and reduced it to powder in the following explosion and knocked the Eagle's aerial balance off at the same time.
MailBirdramon singled this one out as it struggled to regain control and shot towards it, beak opening as another Plasma Cannon charged within it. This one would be the first and then the others would follow soon after.
The Eagle looked up at him and screeched defiantly as MailBirdramon took aim…
…and was completely taken off guard when something heavy slammed into the back of his neck and threw his aim off, the Plasma Cannon firing wildly to the side and hitting another mountain-top. The Digimon looked over its shoulder to find itself face to face with another Eagle – not one of the four that had been attacking originally.
He wrenched himself in the air and through the newcomer off, swinging around to face him, but suddenly another Eagle plunging towards him from above forced him to roll to the side, right into the path of another Eagle that rammed him in the bank and tossed him downwards in another head-over-heel fall. As MailBirdramon looked up, flaring his boosters for control, he was startled to see at least twelve large Eagles in the sky above him now, all diving down towards him in an organised phalanx formation. The sounds of the battle, particularly the loud explosions caused by the Nighthawks, had reached the rest of the roost and now they had come in force to aid their brethren.
Now it was MailBirdramon that found himself on the run, veering off as another Eagle dived at him from above and spinning to the side to avoid yet another, only to meet with two more that were coming in from the side with talons outstretched. He launched a Plasma Cannon at them and they parted to avoid it but another Eagle had born down on him from above and slammed into his back, pushing him downwards. MailBirdramon forcibly flipped himself and the Eagle over to fling it away, only to have another two Eagles swoop in from below and hit him in the back again.
Chaos followed as the metal bird was swarmed by the feathered ones, which were unable to do any direct damage against him with their talons and beaks but were still dealing heavy blows against him with their enormous bodied. MailBirdramon swooped in several tight circles, dodging Eagles left right and slipping around in a figure of eight as they came from every direction.
There seemed to be no end to them, each one finding a position again after their misses and coming at him from a whole new angle after several other Eagles had had their shots. And they were aiming for his blind spots like his wings and back while the ones he was facing always seemed to be far away enough to dodge his Plasma Cannons that were launched in their direction.
MailBirdramon twisted past another falling Eagle and veered aside as another slashed at him with his talons, slashing back with his tail but missing as the Eagle was already out of range, only for another Eagle to slam into his wing and latch on with its claws. Before MailBirdramon could jerk himself free another seized him by his other wing and held on tightly. He turned his head to charge a Plasma Cannon but suddenly a third Eagle swooped in from the front and grabbed his neck in one foot and his beak in the other, clamping it shut, while a fourth came in from below and seized him by the tail, keeping it from flailing at anything.
The four Eagles bore MailBirdramon down, down, down towards the ground in a spinning, flailing ball of feathers and metal and MailBirdramon new full well that their intention was to slam him into the ground as hard as they could and considering the weight of them on top of him and the speed they were going at, that was going to hurt.
"And we're making the final approach now," said Beleram as he winged his way over the mountains. "And with good timing too. The Sun looks like it's going to set on another day. We made it just before dark."
"Well, that's a relief," Sparrowmon said, deciding not to mention that she probably could have flown here and back to Fornost at this point if she had been going at her usual travelling speed.
"My eyrie is just over the peak," Beleram said. "I suggest that when we reach it you hang back for a moment while I tell the others about you. If they saw a strange creature like you heading towards them at high speed they might assume that you meant harm to the eggs or the eaglets and try and attack you."
"Do you get many threats to them?" Sparrowmon asked.
"No, but threats are known," Beleram replied. "Most of the fauna that live in the mountains know that targeting those is a bad idea but sometimes we do get the occasional bold predator."
Sparrowmon nodded and the two of them closed the distance in silence. When they reached the peak, Sparrowmon drew to a stop and pulled behind it, listening as Beleram swooped around it and peering out and around it as much as she dared. She couldn't see much, but she saw Beleram swoop around and alight on a nearby ledge and address somebody that she could not see.
"Armenel," he said. "I have returned."
"So I see," said another voice. "And you appear to be a little injured, Beleram. Did you encounter any trouble on your scouting mission?"
"I encountered a host of it," Beleram responded. "But still, that can wait for a moment. Where is everybody? Why are you the only one still here guarding the eggs?"
"The others are close," Armenel said. "Apparently Meneldor spotted a strange creature this morning that was getting close to the vicinity of the roost. He said it looked like an Eagle, except it was covered with blue armour and had a much longer neck. He said he thought it was some kind of Dark Eagle. He and some others went out to drive it away but it's putting up a fight. You could hear the sounds of battle from here."
Sparrowmon's eyes had widened instantly as she overheard what the other Eagle had to say. Forgetting Beleram's previous instructions she surged out of hiding and cried, "What did you say? A large bird covered in blue armour?"
"What the…" Armenel screeched.
"Sparrowmon…" Beleram started.
"Where is it?" Sparrowmon said urgently. "What's happening?"
What was happening was MailBirdramon was still plummeting, burdened by the four Eagles that were weighing him down. The other Eagles dived down around and above them, following the path of the battle as they waited to see what would happen next.
MailBirdramon growled through his clenched beak and let loose a muffled roar of frustration as he flared his jets for all they were worth. Still the four Eagles were too heavy for him to move aside, but the one holding his tail screeched as the fires that jetted out of the thrusters burnt at him and he instinctively let go of MailBirdramon's tail. The tail instantly came up and gouged a mark across the Eagle's side, forcing it to veer away. And with one Eagle less, MailBirdramon could act.
With the most furious wrench yet, MailBirdramon twisted over, wrenching one wing down and the other wing up and hauling the Eagles that were latched onto them to the side with him, forcing one of them to let go to avoid a mid-air collision with the one holding MailBirdramon's neck. MailBirdramon surged forwards on his thrusters to shake the other one loose and wrenched his head back, yanking it out of the grasp of the other Eagle. He was free.
The Eagle in front of him raised its talons to try scratching at his eyes but MailBirdramon brought forward his own talons and locked them with his opponent's for the second time that day, pulling him upwards and into the air.
But this time MailBirdramon would not let go. This time he began to charge a Nighthawk as he and the Eagle grappled, aiming for a point-blank shot right at his opponent's chest.
"You messed with the wrong Digimon," he growled, as the chest-cannon burned a bright yellow. "NIGHT…!"
He was shocked beyond belief when several blue lasers lanced out of nowhere and hit him in the side, knocking him off kilter and allowing the Eagle to wrench itself free of his grasp and flap away. The other Eagles screeched in alarm. Some of them looked around for the source. Others tried to close in on MailBirdramon while he was off balance.
But something yellow and extremely fast suddenly shot through their ranks and did several rapid circuits of MailBirdramon sending the Eagles flapping backwards and out of the way, unsure how to process this new threat. But then it resolved itself into Sparrowmon, who hovered in front of MailBirdramon protectively and yelled, "Leave him alone! He's not your enemy!"
"Sparrowmon?" MailBirdramon gasped in disbelief. "Where did you…?"
Sparrowmon turned back and offered him a wry grin. "Boy, am I glad to see you," she said. "I was beginning to think that I was the only one who had been zapped into this strange place. But I'm not alone after all."
MailBirdramon offered her as best a grin as he could give with a metal beak. "It is good to see you too. I've been… wait a minute… you just shot me!"
"Well yeah," Sparrowmon giggled. "You were about to shoot one of the Eagles. I couldn't let you do that."
"But they were attacking me."
"Did it ever occur to you to find out why? Nope, I thought not."
"Huh?"
"What in the name of Eru is going on?" Landroval asked, unsure what to make of this turn events and sudden lull in action.
"Lord Landroval," called a voice, as Beleram soared over, passing through the ranks of Eagles that were circling the two Digimon and turning about to hover as best as a Giant Eagle could next to Sparrowmon. "Pardon this intrusion but I fear there has been a misunderstanding going on here."
"A misunderstanding?" Landroval repeated.
"This creature… this blue metal bird… it is not your enemy," Beleram said. "Nor is it a threat to the young. I can personally vouch for that. My companion, Sparrowmon, states that this bird is her friend and if she says so then I have good cause to believe her. For she saved my life earlier today."
That caught the attention of all the Eagles present.
"But… if it is not a threat then what is it?" Meneldor asked. "Are you saying it is not some kind of Dark Eagle, Beleram?"
"Definitely not," said Beleram. "I really don't understand most of it myself but they are not here to fight us. They are not minions of darkness. They are, if all that I have heard is true, warriors for good. Like us."
"Wait a second, what is going on?" MailBirdramon said, confused. "These birds attacked me, while I was merely flying in search of the others."
"No," said Beleram, turning to face him. "They did not. At least not at first. We have never seen anything remotely like you before, Digimon. You must forgive my brethren. They assumed that you were some kind of dark creature – there are many of them abroad in the land during these times. And they thought that you might be a threat to them the eggs back at our roost so they were merely trying to drive you away so that you could not bring any harm. It was all one big misunderstanding."
"My guess is that you just assumed it was an assault and went on the offensive straight away, didn't you, ya big dummy," Sparrowmon rolled her eyes and grinned. "That strikes me as the sort of thing you would do."
"Well excuse my ignorance," MailBirdramon said. "Usually when someone slams into your back from above with their talons it means they are trying to kill you. Certainly it does where we come from. What was I supposed to think?"
"Well this is one big case of culture-clash, isn't it?" Sparrowmon grinned, but then she turned around and announced. "It's alright. We're friendly. We don't hurt children, we protect them. We know that you only have our word for it, but… well… don't I have an innocent looking face?"
"Oh dear Lord," MailBirdramon muttered.
"My Lord, she is telling the truth," Beleram said. "And… well… I know it for a fact. It's an embarrassing story to tell but… late yesterday evening I was investigating a group of goblins near the old ruins of Fornost and I got too low. I was brought down by siege machines and held captive through the night. But Sparrowmon here came upon me earlier today, attacked the goblins and freed me, then aided me in destroying the goblin horde and their machines. Those are not the actions of a Dark Creature. There can be no doubt. These two are fighters of the Light."
Landroval considered for a moment. "Well… we do still only have your word for this, Beleram. Frankly I still find the presence of not one, but two strange avian creatures such as ourselves with such bizarre abilities a little suspicious. However, I trust your judgement on this matter. Especially if you claim your… companion saved your life."
"Glad to hear it," Sparrowmon said as she moved over beside Beleram. "So does that mean no more trying to kill each other? Because if something like that happened then I think it would sour everyone's day."
"Yes," Landroval said. "We shall relent. If one of our own says you can be trusted then I'm sure you can be."
"Great," Sparrowmon grinned. "My name is Sparrowmon, and this big bundle of scrap metal that you've been attacking is called MailBirdramon."
"Scrap metal!" MailBirdramon said, affronted. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"
"Have you taken a look at yourself? You have seen better days."
MailBirdramon looked down at his armour, which was slightly dented and had a few scratches in some places from the heavy blows of the Eagles. "True enough. But my wings are still functioning and that's what counts."
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances," Landroval dipped his beak to them. "And you have our sincerest apologies for striking out at you such as we did. We only had the best interests of our children and eggs at heart."
"That is understandable," MailBirdramon nodded. "And I am sorry for retaliating such as I did. But where I come from when somebody strikes out at you, they are usually trying to kill you."
"That is true, actually," said Sparrowmon. "Maybe in future you can just land nearby and talk it out with the stranger."
"We did not know if he was an intelligent creature," Landroval said. "Few creatures are in Middle Earth. And if he were then we would not know if he could be reasoned with, for we also assumed he was a Dark creature and they would not barter deals with our kind. Nevertheless, you have heard our apologies and I graciously thank you for accepting them. Perhaps we could make things up to you by providing you with a place to rest after the battle. And then we can find out what exactly you are."
"Likewise," MailBirdramon said. "Thank you for the offer but…"
"We definitely accept," Sparrowmon interrupted before MailBirdramon could say anything else.
Landroval chuckled. "Then follow us. We shall take you back to the eyries." And with a flap of his wings he steered himself around and soared away, a phalanx of eagles falling into place behind him. Beleram nodded in their direction and followed on, indicating the two Digimon should do the same, and they did so, powering their thrusters and flying side by side, while Meneldor fell in beside Beleram.
"So, Beleram…" the other Eagle chuckled. "You were saved by a sparrow?"
"Shut up," Beleram said, good-naturedly but with a little edge, not wanting Sparrowmon to think that that was a slight against her.
"Oh, it's so good to see you again, MailBirdamon," Sparrowmon was saying again behind him. "It's so good to see some kind of familiar face around here. Everything's been madness since I woke up and found myself in a field instead of at the castle. First I got poked in the face with a stick, then I got threatened by a bunch of tiny people who were terrified of me, then I had to fly around and try and talk to one of the humans and could only get one to listen to me by picking him up and putting him on a roof since they were all so scared of me too, and then I had to battle against a large group of goblin things. Utter chaos."
"It's good to see you too," MailBirdramon said when Sparrowmon finally paused for breath. "My day was slightly less eventful until I was attacked by these birds, except for the fact I got caught in a blizzard and had to wait it out for some time. Have you any idea where we are? Did you say there were humans in this world?"
"Yeah, but I don't think this is the same human world that Nene and the others live in," Sparrowmon murmured. "Nene never mentioned anything about goblins and stuff like that and I haven't seen anything like all the technology and giant cities that we saw when we fought DarknessBagramon. Either this is the same human world but we've been hurled into the past through time-travel somehow, or this is a completely different world."
"I feared as much," MailBirdramon agreed. "Kiriha once told me that I was far bigger than any bird that lived in the Human World, but some of these birds are larger than me. And I know now this isn't the Digital World. I fear your right. Have you seen any of the others?"
"No," Sparrowmon shook her head. "But there have been a lot of forests and stuff that I've flown over so I could have missed a few of them. Do you think that they're all in this world too."
"I hope so. All this started when the Code Crown started projecting light at us, and all of us had a beam of light hit us back then, which leads me to suspect all of us were thrown into another dimension. If that is case, then I hope it is this one. But unfortunately I have not been able to check around very far thanks to that blizzard."
"I really hope you're right," Sparrowmon said. "That we're trapped in another dimension is bad enough. If we were all flung into a lot of them…" she shuddered.
MailBirdramon paused for a moment. Then he said, "Your friend seems pleasant. How did you meet?"
"Beleram? Well, like he said, he got caught by those goblin guys and when I saw him he was chained down and being poked with spears. And I… well… you know…"
"Couldn't turn your back," MailBirdramon said with a wry chuckle. "I assumed as much."
"Yeah, I know," Sparrowmon snickered. "It's what we do. But Beleram's offered us his help. He says that he and the other Eagles would probably be willing to help us find the others. If what he says is true, their eyesight is even better than yours. And they can cover a lot of ground between them."
"So that's why you accepted the invitation to the nests."
"Pretty much, yeah. You know, never say know to extra help when you find it."
"True. Very well then. We'll do it this way."
"Oh don't sound like that. If the rest of these guys are like Beleram they're really nice guys. Don't get a irked at them over that misunderstanding. Keep it water under the bridge and all that."
MailBirdramon chuckled. "Says the person that initially refused Taiki's help when he offered to try and save Nene from that Lucemon."
Sparrowmon pouted. "I've learned since then."
MailBirdramon chuckled and fell silent. The silence stayed that way for a few moments before Sparrowmon said, "Seriously though, it's so good to see you again."
"You still shot me," MailBirdramon muttered dryly.
"Not on full power!"
Soon after that, they arrived at the Eagle's massive eyries. Never before had either of the Digimon seen such massive nests – huge structures that were close to fifteen by twenty feet wide, resting on huge ledges of rock and across flat mountain-tops at various heights but all within close range on one another. Armenel was still standing guard on the second highest peak, watching over the nests, some of which contained large eggs, others young, but still large, fluffy eaglets covered in white down. There were a couple of other slightly smaller eagles still around as well.
And on the very highest peak was the biggest eyrie of all, and the tallest. It could only be the eyrie of the Eagle who was in charge of the roost.
The Eagles all flapped to their respective nests, Landroval nodding to Armenel and assuring him that the newcomers were welcome. The eaglets seemed to be excited at the presence of the two strangers. MailBirdramon settled on a large pile of boulders, while Sparrowmon effortlessly continued to hover next to him, while Beleram alighted nearby and stood close to the two Digimon.
"Nice place you've got here," said Sparrowmon. "Definitely my kind of place. You can see a lot of things up here. On both sides of the mountain range. Very strategic."
"Indeed," Beleram laughed. "Though we don't usually get much that does manage to attack us up here. We mostly build up on places like this so we can be warned of any incoming dragons, but we haven't seen any dragons around here for some time."
"Well that might change soon," muttered MailBirdramon. "Since some of our own friends are dragons."
"Now," said Landroval as he alighted on his nest, which both Digimon noted was not the big one on the highest peak, but was the second largest one close to it. "I think I speak for all of us when I say, if you are not dark creatures then what exactly are you?"
"Well," Sparrowmon shrugged. "This… is where it gets complicated. It always does."
"I can vouch for that too," Beleram said.
And so, Sparrowmon and MailBirdramon did their best to explain the same things that Sparrowmon had earlier explained to Beleram, about all the things that a Digimon was and what they represented and what their world was like. Naturally this did not particularly increase the Eagle's understanding of them. A lot of the words they used sounded like complete gibberish to the giant birds and all they really learned was that they were called Digimon and that they were not from Middle Earth. Which explained why they had never seen anything like them before.
What the Eagles were more easily able to grasp was the concept of Xros Heart, except for the whole thing about merging bodies to create more powerful forms – that bit sounded like nonsense to them. But when they heard what Xros Heart stood for, and how they protected anyone and everyone that deserved it no matter how dangerous the situation or how desperate the help needed was, they began to look at the two with further interest.
"So you are members of the court of a King?" Landroval asked.
"Yeah, we are," Sparrowmon nodded. "We're all good friends with our King in our court. Shoutmon is the best King I've ever met, though I haven't really met that many, but still… he's just and fair and a bit of a laugh. And he never forgets his morals or ideals ever. He's kept our world a safe place for everyone."
"Despite that fact he's also so small that I could probably step him flat with one foot," MailBirdramon added. "Though he is very strong for his size. I know that from experience."
"You sound like a noble group," Landroval acknowledged. "And you say you think that rest of this court is now in Middle Earth scattered around? That is very unfortunate for you."
"No kidding," muttered Sparrowmon.
"Excuse me if I sound presumptuous, but I thought that we might offer them our help," Beleram said. "After all, I am indebted to Sparrowmon. If she had not come along then it is highly likely I would be goblin food by now, or at least in a lot of pain. The least I can do is repay her by helping her to find her friends. And I was hoping that some of you others would help me."
"Perhaps we will," Landroval nodded. "It seems fitting. We, in turn, have to make up for our poor reception to you, MailBirdramon. I believe that some of us should indeed help if we can."
"You don't need to do it because of that," MailBirdramon said. "I acted overly aggressively I suppose. I don't know if I can repay that…"
"No, it is nothing," Landroval said firmly. "It was my decision to bombard you such as we did. You were merely reacting. This is all on me."
"Well you had your reasons," MailBirdramon said, with a shrug in his voice since he couldn't pull a literal one.
"Thank you for your understanding," Landroval nodded. "And may I say you are quite the aerial battler. There are not many other creatures on Middle Earth who are capable of standing up to four Eagles as you did and still come out without a whole lot of damage. One of the few that I would say can do that are the dragons, and we have not encountered their kind for years."
"Thank you," MailBirdramon said. "You were quite impressive yourselves. You may not have the abilities that I have but you still had me on the ropes a couple of times there. And I have a feeling that I would have fallen to the might of your combined roost strength if the fight had not been interrupted."
"Wow, you must have made an impression," Sparrowmon snickered. "MailBirdramon doesn't go around admitting that he would have lose very often, you know."
"Then we thank him for the compliment all the more," Landroval nodded. "Yes, Beleram, it seems that you have made some good friends."
"Indeed," Beleram nodded.
"I shall help you to find your friends," Landroval continued. "Is there anyone else amongst us who will join me in this?"
"I shall go," Meneldor nodded. "I am the one who started the battle by telling everyone you were a Dark Eagle."
"And so will I," said another Eagle. "I also wish to see what other strange creatures we may be able to find on our scouting patrols."
"Thank you, Baranthor," nodded Landroval. "Anyone else?"
Several of the other Eagles piped up their offers, including some of the eaglets that couldn't have hoped to join in the search. The only ones who really didn't were the mothers who had a responsibility to hunt and protect and catch prey for their young or to continued sitting on the eggs that had not yet hatched.
"Then it is settled," Landroval nodded. "We shall offer our aid to the Digimon."
"When do we start?" Sparrowmon said eagerly.
"Tomorrow morning, at first light," Landroval said, turning to face the Sun which had just hit the horizon and was beginning its final descent. "Good as our eyesight may be by day, by night it is much more limited. Finding anything now may be next to impossible. And we must rest up after our little bout anyway."
"Indeed," nodded another Eagle nearby, looking down at the mark on its side that had been made by MailBirdramon's tail. "Not all of us got out of that without some slight injury."
MailBirdramon coughed. "Yes, sorry about that."
"Not exactly the best first meeting in the world, was it?" Sparrowmon said dryly. "I hope that our comrades are having better luck with some of the other locals of this world."
"Well," Beleram turned to look at them. "Rather like with your friend it would rather depend on what they look like that would determine the…"
"Lord Gwaihir approaches!" Armenel's voice suddenly rang out over the roost site. "Out of the southeast he is returning to us."
"Lord Gwaihir?" MailBirdramon asked, as all the other Eagles turned to face the Southeast and try and get a view.
"Isn't he the leader of all you Eagles?" Sparrowmon questioned Beleram. "The one that sent you on your mission in the first place?"
"Yes, that is him," Beleram nodded. "Also known as the King of all Birds. Lord Gwaihir is the greatest Eagle of our time and he is returning now."
"Why was he not here before?" MailBirdramon asked.
"Ssh. We'll probably find out in a minute," Sparrowmon said, rising above Beleram to try and get a look herself. Though her eyesight was significantly better than a human's it still was not up to the standard of one of the Eagle's so it took her a while to spot the silhouette against the darkening sky. When she did, she watched with a little excitement as the silhouette grew larger, and larger, and larger, until she could tell that this particular Eagle was definitely the biggest of all of the members of the roost site.
The enormous Eagle soared majestically across the sky, glossy feathers rippling across his body and the setting sun painting them a golden orange colour. He flew high, just beneath the cloud layer, eyes turning to lock onto the roost site that he had left behind a few days ago. As usual the other members were there to greet him, all having spotted him some time ago, but this time the presence of the two new strangers caught Gwaihir's eye.
It took him a couple of moments of staring at the strange pair of newcomers, before he chuckled. "Well," he muttered to himself. "This certainly is interesting."
He tilted his magnificent wings and stooped downwards towards the roost, before flaring to a surprisingly graceful stop considering his massive size and alighting on the huge eyrie right on the highest peak. The Eaglets started chirping excitedly at the presence of their King, and the Windlord first turned to look upon Landroval.
"Brother," Landroval bowed his head to Gwaihir.
"Brother," repeated Gwaihir with his relatively deep voice, reclining his own head in turn. "I trust that everything went well in my absence. I have flown many leagues over the last few days in aid of Gandalf and I have seen the musterings of war in the lands below beginning to the South, yet I presume things have been better here."
"For the most part, yes," Landroval nodded to his nestmate. "Though, we did encounter something that took us all by surprise earlier today."
"So I see," Gwaihir chuckled, turning to fix his piercing eyes on the Digimon. Sparrowmon actually found herself fidgeting slightly, as the intense golden gaze focused on her for a moment, before Gwaihir turned to Beleram. "I see you too have returned, Beleram, though you appear to be injured."
"Did he just skip over us?" Sparrowmon muttered quietly, though Gwaihir heard her and had to suppress a chuckle.
"Yes, my Lord," Beleram nodded. "I have seen many things in the north as you have sire, including the mustering of goblin, sire."
"So I feared," Gwaihir nodded. "It seems that Gandalf was right. The war will be coming to the lower lands on all fronts, from the north and from the south. There will be near no direction uncovered, and things are progressing more rapidly than ever."
"Um…" Sparrowmon muttered, wondering why the Eagle Lord seemed to be unconcerned by their presence.
Gwaihir chuckled for real this time. "And now I turn to you, strange newcomers. I must admit, I was not expecting to find anything like you here when I returned to my eyrie."
"My Lord, allow me to explain," Beleram began.
"No," Gwaihir raised a talon. "That is unnecessary. I believe I can gather all the information I need myself. In fact, I would go as far as to say I know more about this than most of you. Are you two, by any chance, Digimon?"
The Eagles looked startled that their Lord knew this already but the two Digimon in question were completely taken aback. "D… Digimon?" Sparrowmon blinked. "Yes… yes we are. How… do you know about us?"
Gwaihir gave as much of a smile as a beak could offer. "Gandalf was forewarned of your arrival before you even got here into our world, due to the will of Eru Ilúvatar himself." The Eagles around him looked awed by this straight away – obviously that was no small thing. "He told me that a great many of you would be landing in this world, to aid the world in the fight against Sauron?"
"Who?" MailBirdramon asked.
"That Dark Lord guy that Beleram mentioned?" Sparrowmon asked. "You're saying someone brought us here to help you fight some sort of evil being?"
"Indeed," Gwaihir nodded. "And I can tell you that your friend and King, Shoutmon, has already agreed with the new White Wizard, Gandalf, to do just that and do what he can to win the war. In fact, he told me so in person."
"Shoutmon?" MailBirdramon asked sharply. "You have seen him and spoke to him?"
"Certainly. He is in the company of one of the most powerful wielders of magic to walk Middle Earth many leagues south of here and will be shortly making preparations to join the war effort down below. I assume, as you are subjects and friends of his, that you will be doing much the same in the future?"
Sparrowmon and MailBirdramon glanced at each other and the former sighed. "Well," she said. "While I would have appreciated it if we had been asked before getting thrown into a warzone like this, we can't really say no. Even is Shoutmon wasn't here. After all, we don't turn our backs."
"Agreed," MailBirdramon nodded. "If there is strife in the land, we help to end it."
"Still, it's such a relief to hear that Shoutmon is okay," Sparrowmon said with a grin. "And that he's in good hands too. That's great. Were there any others there with this wizard guy or was it just him?"
"Just him," Gwaihir said. "However, I believe I may have spotted some other members of your team. Gandalf asked me to go out and search for some former companions of his and when I found them I saw they were in the company of two more beings I had never seen the like of before. A tall female that resembled some kind of Elf warrior with a large sword and an arm that appeared to be some variety of snake…"
"Mervamon!" Sparrowmon beamed. "Oh wonderful! She's okay too."
"And the other one?" MailBirdramon asked.
"A small pink creature that resembled some kind of rabbit."
"Sounds like Cutemon," said MailBirdramon, with a chuckle. "At least the little mite didn't land himself in trouble like he usually does. He'll definitely be safe enough with Mervamon around."
"Yeah, isn't it great? Including us that's five of our company accounted for. A much better day than I was originally expecting. Can you take us to them tomorrow?"
Gwaihir shook his head. "No. Trust me when I say they are in good hands. However, there is a strong likelihood that other members of your party are not in such good straits right now. I take it that we have already offered our help in searching for their other friends, Landroval?"
"Indeed," Landroval nodded. "We had just finalised it when we spotted your approach."
"In that case," Gwaihir said appreciatively. "Tomorrow, we will begin our search for any of your other companions that we may find. Your three friends were all heading north the last I knew and it is likely that they will be meeting up at some stage in the future. If there are any others around this area that we can find then we can guide them in the right direction to do the same. But we may need your help to identify some of them so perhaps that would be the better option, do you not think?"
Sparrowmon was a little disappointed but she saw the logic in his reasoning. "I suppose so," she said.
"I have no objection," MailBirdramon agreed.
"Excellent," Gwaihir nodded. "Now, it has been a long flight and we have an early start tomorrow. Let us take our rest for the night."
And so, the Sun dipped down the sky, bringing the first full day that Middle Earth contained Digimon, February 27th, to a close. And already things were drastically beginning to roll into motion, which would soon lead to a snowball effect – a chain of events that the inhabitants of Middle Earth were sure to never forget.
Sparrowmon and MailBirdramon were reunited and took up residence with the Giant Eagles of the North, ready to begin searching for other members of their team come first light.
Mervamon and Cutemon were still running north, the former not having taken a break since dawn and still going strong, impressed with the stamina of her new companions as they too continued to run, Gimli occasionally flagging but still keeping up, while the latter continued to apply healing to Boromir whenever he thought it necessary.
King Shoutmon had accompanied Gandalf north into Fangorn Forest, reuniting with fellow Digimon Deckerdramon and now waiting impatiently for the events which Gandalf said would occur to take place.
Ballistamon continued wandering aimlessly lost through Emyn Muil while the three red Monitamon that had been accompanying journeyed on in the company of Frodo and Sam, led by the bizarre Gollum in an easterly direction.
Dorulumon, at the insistence of the villagers he had rescued, began to head west with them before he and the others would split off down to Edoras, shepherding them in the direction of the fortress of Helm's Deep in case there were any other raiding parties around that may have ambushed them.
The Bombmon huddled together in a crevice in Saruman's pits for a second night, still relieved that their little forms had gone unnoticed by the orcs around them.
Beelzemon and Wisemon settled down to rest in the forest of Lothlórien, the former still pondering the words of the Lady of Light, Galadriel and trying to fathom the images he had seen in the mirror, while the other complained that none of the Elves had allowed him to extract one of their teeth for analysis.
ChibiKamemon, Lunamon and Dondokomon spent the entire day trying to get what rest they could but refusing to move from the spot in the marshes they had found themselves in, taking it in turns to keep watch over the still yet disturbing bodies that littered the water around them.
Spadamon, in a similar circumstances, wandered in circles in the heavy fogs, trying to ignore the whispering and hissing sounds that occasionally went on in the downs around him and knowing he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.
Golemon plodded south in absolute silence and with seemingly no purpose or destination in mind whatsoever, while some distance away the Gaossmon continued to argue with one another over exactly which way they were meant to go.
Knightmon, the PawnChessmon, Starmon and the Pickmon wandered upriver at an excruciatingly slow pace for the tall, armoured Digimon for the Pickmon had such stubby legs that walking briskly for them was next to impossible, and he and the PawnChessmon had to resort to carrying many of them in arms and on shoulders and heads just to start moving quicker.
Dracomon fought his way through the freezing snow with the help of Cyberdramon most of the day until the latter used his spear to dig him an ice cave for the night.
Jijimon was one of the worst off, having spent the entire day adrift at sea, his wooden staff the only thing keeping him from sinking and struggling to stay awake for fear of letting go and drowning in the night.
Others that were not well off included Bastemon, who barely budged from her place on the riverbank, flinching every so often as the arrow in her shoulder pained at her, while Greymon continued to crash through the undergrowth several miles away in search of her and their former companion, Revolmon remained the captive of Rangers of Ithilien.
But who was the worst off?
That would have to be Lillymon, cocooned from feet to mouth in the thick spider silk and surrounded by the horrible hairy arachnids, tears falling from her eyes every now and then and almost wishing they had blindfolded her so she didn't have to look at them, while the three green Monitamon hid nearby, with no idea what to do next.
The chain of events brought on by their appearance was only just beginning to unfold. And when the Sun rose again as it would surely do, that chain was set to unfold even further.
And that brings this chapter to a close. Not much to say here except the aerial battle was difficult and yet fun to write at the same time. I hope that you enjoyed it even if it was another battle between two sets of good guys. Trust me, the combined fights against the bad guys will be coming soon enough.
TTFN.
Next time…
When last we saw her, despite her valiant efforts, Lillymon found herself caught by the Giant Spiders of Mirkwood. Now, cocooned in their webbing, all she can do is await her fate and she knows that unless she can get loose soon, it will be a far from pleasant one.
Coming up:- Chapter 22 : Fairy Ensnared