The Ancient Curse

Part Thirty-Seven: Arrival

***

Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all related characters, merchandise, money, etc, does not belong to me. Plot does. In short, don't steal, don't sue, don't forget to moo.

Moo. Enjoy.

PS: I'm sure no one believes me, but this really is almost over. Thanks for reading.

***

The stars were shining brightly and the moon was high in the sky. In the silence of the spring night, the waves crashed against the shore, the force of them slowly taking back the land into the sea.

The beach was small, littered with rocks and shells. A short distance from the water's edge, the ground rose steeply upward, forming a tall, rocky cliff that overlooked the ocean beyond.

The grass was tall and green, sweet smelling, filled with wildflowers. There were no towns, people, or digimon around, only a few insects that buzzed amidst the blossoms. There was no sound but the wind gently rustling the grasses and the waves below continually crashing into the rocky shore.

In the midst of this empty and peaceful silence, there was a flash of light that momentarily illuminated the wide expanse of field. It faded almost immediately, vanishing into the darkness of the night. In the place where it had once been stood two people and two small digimon, each of them carrying a bag of supplies upon his or her back.

Daisuke blinked as the light faded and took in the scenery as best was possible in the dim light. Before he had taken in very much at all, however, he realized that a previously unnoticeable weight in his arms was growing much heavier.

Hikari felt her knees give out and her eyes begin to close. She leaned forward into Daisuke, sleepily gripping the fabric of his shirt with one hand. Almost immediately, he tightened his arms around her, holding her up, and she leaned into him even more, her head suddenly feeling impossibly heavy and far too difficult to hold up.

"Sorry," she mumbled sleepily, resting her head upon him now. "I'm so…."

She yawned in the midst of her words, and immediately forgot what she was trying to say. It seemed to take an enormous effort even to yawn. Moments later, she was asleep standing up.

Daisuke had been expecting this. He had been with Takeru when he had first teleported two people at once, and that was a far shorter distance. Glancing down toward the digimon, he saw that Tailmon had not wasted any time with words but curled herself into a ball in the midst of the tall grass and shut her eyes as well.

"Are we really in the Western Islands?" V-mon wondered, looking about him as Daisuke slowly lowered Hikari down to the ground. He turned and looked out toward the ocean.

"I have no idea," Daisuke replied, "since I've never been there before." He was removing the bag he'd carried on his back, and now he set it down in the grass beside him and began removing the contents. "Can you keep watch?"

V-mon looked around him and saw nothing but tall grass and wildflowers. "I can barely see over the grass," he reported, "and it's dark. If anything is sneaking up on us, we're doomed."

This was an incredibly pessimistic outlook on the situation, even if it was true. "Well, try to start a fire then," Daisuke suggested. "I'm going to set up the tent so we have some shelter in case it starts raining."

"Raining?" V-mon echoed, looking up at the stars. A few puffy clouds were gently floating overhead; nothing to suggest an approaching storm. Spring weather, though, could be unpredictable.

They had packed a bit of wood so that it would not be necessary to spend time searching for it. V-mon assembled some of it into a small pile in a relatively clear patch of space, away from the grass as much as possible. He pulled up a few more wildflowers and green stalks, making the clearing a bit larger.

Daisuke meanwhile, set up a small tent. He took a tall pole which could double as a walking stick and jammed it into the ground as securely as possible. Then he took a large piece of thick fabric and threw it over this post. A few rocks held down the edges of the fabric, making a small but serviceable tent. Within a short time he had laid down the blankets they had brought along for sleeping, and then carried Hikari inside the shelter.

V-mon had by this time managed to get a fire going, allowing for a bit more visibility. He yawned widely now and curled up beside Tailmon, whose sleeping place was not far from the warmth of the fire.

Daisuke peered out over the grassland and saw nothing but darkness and grass. He heard nothing but the wind gently rustling the grass and the waves crashing into the shore. He walked the short distance to the cliff and peered over the edge.

Below, the small beach was empty of life. Waves crashed against the shore every few moments. Across the water, there was only the dark of night. Daisuke yawned, and turned back toward the tent, intending to sleep.

***

The full moon was quite bright, illuminating the large, empty room. Footsteps echoed upon the polished marble floor as a tall man with dark hair crossed the vast space.

His shoes were boots of polished black leather that glinted in the moonlight, fastened with silvery buckles. He wore dark blue trousers of a silken fabric that seemed to shine in the darkness, and a long white coat which fell down past his knees and billowed behind him as he walked. His long, dark hair was bound in a braid which fell back behind him.

At the end of the room, he stopped, and sank down upon one knee. He remained there for a long moment, and the silence of the room stretched on.

A short distance from him, an old man sat in a high backed stone chair which looked quite similar to a throne. His digimon was not clearly visible in the darkness of the room, shaded from the brightness of the moonlight, but its eyes were large, observing the situation.

At long last, the old man stood, pushing himself up from his seat with the aid of the armrests, and stepped forward into the light of the moonlight. He had a long white beard, impeccably trimmed, and his face was lined with many of the wrinkles of age. His eyes were a sharp, pale blue. He wore a hat upon his head, a small dark blue cap beneath which spilled a few short locks of the same white hair as his beard.

He was dressed in dark red trousers and black slippers. His shirt was a slightly paler shade of red, trimmed with gold thread, fastened with gold buttons. Around his waist was a belt which would hold a sword, though the old man carried no weapons.

He spoke, finally ending the silence. A command, simple and succinct.

The younger man nodded, and touched one finger to the jewel he wore at his throat before he vanished into nothingness.

***

The sound of raindrops on the tent's roof woke Hikari with a start in the predawn light. For a moment she panicked, not recognizing her surroundings, and then she looked and saw that Daisuke was sleeping beside her.

They were in a small tent, a tall post between them acting as the center support. There was no flap to separate them from the outside world, and thus Hikari could clearly see that the grass beyond was being soaked by the rain.

V-mon and Tailmon were both curled up between them in the center of the tent. Daisuke was lying on his side, facing the exit, a blanket half-covering him. He had removed his shoes – they were squeezed into a corner of the tent – but had not otherwise changed his clothes.

Thunder rumbled overhead, gently at first, and then louder. After a moment, a flash of lightning briefly illuminated the tent's interior, sending a shiver of fear down her spine.

Perhaps sensing her partner's distress, Tailmon lifted her head, yawning, and opened one blue eye. "It's only rain," she said pragmatically, and then shut the eye once more, lowering her head.

"So it is," Hikari replied. "A storm, that's all." Slowly, she lowered herself back to the blanket she had been lying upon and let her eyes fall shut once more.

***

Midmorning, Miyako was awakened from an otherwise peaceful sleep by the sound of shouting somewhere in the house. It was a distant sound, several rooms and perhaps several floors away, but it was loud enough to awaken her, especially as it was followed by the slamming of a door.

After a moment or two another voice answered the first, equally as loud, and then the first voice responded. Hawkmon, a bit closer, mumbled crossly, "What on earth is going on?"

"I don't know," Miyako replied, rolling over in bed and pulling the covers over her head. For a few moments there was blessed silence, and then another door slamming shut once more jolted her awake.

"Some sort of tragedy, I hope," Hawkmon grumbled, rubbing his eyes, "because if it's not something serious…."

He let the end of this threat remain unspoken, and Miyako silently finished it in several entertaining ways inside her head. As sleeping was clearly impossible, she sat up reluctantly.

As the house was seriously damaged, the amount of guest rooms was severely limited. Miyako had been sharing a room with Hikari since her arrival, and she was not surprised now to find that the other bed was empty, as it was rather late in the morning already.

"That's right," she recalled, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. "She was supposed to leave today." Sighing, Miyako got to her feet and yawned, stretching her arms over her head. "You'd think she would have woken me to say good-bye."

Anything Hawkmon might have said in response to this was interrupted by the sounds of further shouting in the distance, and then another door slamming shut. "It sounds," he said instead, "as though a serious disagreement is happening."

***

Having stayed up most of the night to prepare for the journey, Daisuke did not wake until nearly noon, by which time the storm had finished and the sun had reemerged. He opened his eyes to find that he was lying upon his back, peering up at the roof of the tent, which miraculously had not leaked. The inside was slightly damp, the result of the wind, but nothing was damaged.

He turned his head to the right without otherwise moving and saw that the grass was glistening with raindrops in the bright sunlight. A few small insects buzzed through the wildflowers, and a particularly colorful butterfly paused briefly on one bright flower a short distance away.

He turned his head the other direction and saw that Hikari had at some point curled up beside him. She was resting her head upon his arm and holding onto him with one hand. As he turned, she opened her eyes sleepily and blinked at him in the bright sunlight.

Perhaps she was astonished to find him awake, or perhaps she briefly mistook him for someone else, he was never quite certain. Either way, she abruptly released her hold upon him and scrambled backward. As she did so, one foot made contact with the center post of the tent, knocking it over and causing the entire structure to collapse.

Chaos reigned for a few moments. Daisuke sat up, and struggled with the tent until he managed to push it off his head and view sunlight once more. Then he crawled the rest of the way out from under the tent and pulled aside the fabric. As the outside of the tent had been quite wet from the raindrops, this had the effect of making anything that might have been considered dry now quite a bit more damp than before.

Hikari was still sitting in the spot she had been, a rather sheepish expression now upon her face. She was studying the ground and absently twisting her fingers about themselves.

"Are you all right?" Daisuke questioned, holding the tent fabric away from the space that had once been the tent. She nodded without looking up.

"Sorry," she said after a moment. "I was…I don't know."

He shrugged, carrying the tent fabric a short distance away and shaking it to remove the excess water. "Don't worry about it," he said. He gave the material one last hard shake and then began to fold it up into its previous shape for easy carrying. He turned back in time to see her getting slowly to her feet.

She was wobbly, more wobbly than she had expected, and her legs were shaking slightly. After several tries, she managed to get to her feet, only to feel them start to give out again. Daisuke, only a short distance away by this point, reached out and held her up.

"Careful. You should rest more," he said, and she shook her head immediately.

"We don't have time to rest," she replied, pushing back from him. "We have to…."

Once more, her legs wobbled and her knees gave out. Once more, Daisuke grabbed onto her. He held her right arm, slightly above the elbow, and wrapped his other arm around her waist, preventing her from falling. "It can wait," he said, "until you've had some more rest."

Hikari was quiet a long moment, and in this silence he unexpectedly pulled her closer. He removed the hand that had been holding her arm, and wrapped this around her shoulders now. Sighing, Hikari let her eyes fall shut once more and rested her head upon him.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't think I'd be this tired."

"You took us a month's journey out to sea," Daisuke replied, and with her head resting upon his chest Hikari found that she could feel the rumblings of his voice as he spoke. "I would guess that takes a bit of time to recover from."

"I suppose," she admitted, and sighed. After a moment or two, she gave in and sat down once more upon the blanket she had slept on.

As they were by now a bit damp, Tailmon and V-mon had been forced to awaken as well. The feline digimon opened her mouth wide and yawned, then stretched out as only cats are capable of. Then, with one good shake, she expelled most of the water from her fur, sending a good portion of it onto V-mon.

He, too, was yawning wide, and in the midst of such an activity when a bit of this water splashed onto him. Previously, he had been only slightly damp, but now he was a bit wetter. For a moment, he frowned his displeasure toward Tailmon, who pretended to take no notice of this, and then he gave up and started to search for something he could dry himself with.

Daisuke, meanwhile, restarted the fire that had been extinguished the previous night, setting a few dry twigs upon the pile. When he'd managed to get a decent flame burning, he rummaged in his pack for a bit of food.

"We are in the right place, right?" V-mon questioned, rubbing the top of his head with a bit of dry blanket that had miraculously escaped the rains.

Hikari looked out over the plains that surrounded them for the first time. "Is the ocean nearby?" she asked.

"That way," Tailmon informed her, gesturing with one paw toward the nearby cliff. "Keep walking straight, you can't miss it."

"I'm going to look at it," Hikari decided, once more starting to get to her feet, this time with only slightly less difficulty than before.

Daisuke looked up from his cooking adventures. He'd found a bit of dried meat and a few vegetables. There was a vaguely disapproving look in his eyes, but he said nothing, only watched.

She managed to stand with the aid of the walking stick that had once been the center post of the tent. With a few tugs, she removed it from the soft ground and used it to steady herself as she walked toward the edge of the grass.

It was only a few steps to the cliff's edge. Beyond, the ocean stretched on as far as the eye could see. A few white puffy clouds floated in the blue sky, which met the water at the horizon, a far distance away. There was nothing of interest visible in the distance.

Hikari sat down a step away from the edge, her legs not willing to hold her for much longer. "That's the ocean," she noted. "It looks so big from here."

"No boats," V-mon observed, having followed her. He raised one hand to shield the bright sunlight from his eyes, and squinted out across the water. "No land, either."

For a moment, both were silent as they contemplated the vast expanse before them. A gentle breeze blew in from the sea, carrying the smell of fish and salt water with it, a summery smell.

"How can you tell if we're in the right place or not?" V-mon wondered. "There's nothing here." He turned and looked out over the grasslands, which seemed to stretch as far as the ocean in the opposite direction.

Hikari sighed and then fell back in the tall, cool grass. "Magic," she answered. "It's the only way to know for sure. I've never heard of a teleportation spell that didn't work the way it was intended, but then I've only teleported once before, and it wasn't this far."

The smell of food cooking was now beginning to waft over the grass, mixing with the scent of the sea air. In the distance, V-mon thought he could see a few bird digimon flying over the water, but it was hard to tell what they were.

"Do Piyomon fly this far?" he wondered. "If you wanted to send a message back home, could you send a Piyomon?"

"I don't think there are many that fly that far," Daisuke answered. "I suppose if you paid one enough he might make the journey, but it's a long flight."

"They wouldn't take it all in one shot," Hikari noted. "They'd probably stop and rest on ships or on islands along the way, assuming that there were some."

"Even flying, it would take a few days, I think," Daisuke went on. "It's probably faster to use some form of magic to send a message." He shrugged. "I don't think many messages are sent this far, though."

"Those that are, are sent by magic," Hikari agreed, sitting up. "I remember my father getting a message from the Western Isles once. It came by way of a wizard. I don't remember what sort of spell they used to send it."

"The magic they use is different, too, isn't it?" Tailmon put in, looking up from her daily inspection of her claws. "It's all long, complicated poems and chanting."

"I've only seen such a spell cast three times," her partner replied. As it was a short distance back to the fire, she did not bother to get once more to her feet, but crawled across the grass toward the food.

***

Miyako had taken her time getting dressed. Curious though she was to find out the reason behind all the shouting a slamming of doors she had heard earlier, she was at the same time not particularly interested in getting in the middle of a violent argument. She took as much time as she could, but eventually it was necessary to leave the room.

She emerged into the hallway in a moment of quiet. Several minutes had passed without any sort of noise, and so Miyako wondered if she had managed to miss the excitement. She was both disappointed and relieved at this possibility.

She wandered down the hall, heading toward the nearest set of stairs leading down. As she was about to descend them, however, she noticed a bit of movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned her head down the hall.

Wormmon was sitting at the bottom of a staircase leading upward, a cautious expression clearly visible in his big eyes. Momentarily forgetting about the shouting she had heard earlier, Miyako headed toward him instead.

"Good morning," Hawkmon greeted pleasantly as his partner peered up the staircase. It had obviously been recently damaged by fire, and little had been done to repair it yet. The steps were looking rather unsafe, and the walls on either side of the narrow ascent were charred, with a large hole in one section.

"It's nearly afternoon," Wormmon noted, "but hello all the same. Are you avoiding the shouting as well?"

"Not avoiding so much as unknowing," Hawkmon replied. "What's going on down there?"

"An argument or two," Wormmon replied. "Or three."

"Between who?" Miyako wondered.

"Between who not?" he returned immediately, and sighed. "All of this could be avoided if people would simply leave behind notes when they vanish in the middle of the night. It would save so much trouble."

"It seems the considerate thing to do," Hawkmon agreed.

Miyako blinked, feeling as though she had missed some essential part of the story. "Someone vanished in the middle of the night?" she wondered.

"Someone, no," Wormmon answered. "Some two."

"Hikari," she concluded immediately, recalling the empty bed in the room earlier. "That's why she didn't wake me to say good-bye. She left last night…with Daisuke? Where did they go?"

"That's the thing that's causing the shouting," the caterpillar replied with another sigh. "If you haven't any idea where they've gone, then you might want to stay out of the way."

"Is that why you're sitting here?" Hawkmon questioned, gesturing with one wing at the narrow staircase. "Hiding?"

"Oh no," Wormmon said. "I'm keeping watch in case anyone comes along who might want to do some shouting." He nodded toward the steps behind him. "Ken is investigating."

"Investigating what?" Hawkmon questioned.

Miyako didn't bother asking any further questions. She lifted the hem of her skirts and slowly, cautiously, ascended the staircase. There was a loud creak with each step she took, and the damaged wood seemed to give a bit more than usual. She avoided the gaping holes with some difficulty, and reached the top of the steps.

The room had once been a bedroom, but little remained to suggest that. A large section of the ceiling had been burned away, and bits of sunlight cascaded in from above. The rain the previous day had also done its share of damage, so that the charred floors had subsequently been soaked through.

The room had once been filled with things: with furniture and clothes and a multitude of useless gadgets. Now, all that remained were the walls, which were mere shells of themselves. Gaping holes that had never been windows provided a clear and unobstructed view of the sky beyond. Bits of charred wood here and there suggested that things had once been present, but they were all gone now.

Ken stood at the opposite side of the room from the steps, in the space where the wall should have been and a window should not. He had shut his eyes, indicating that he was not intent upon enjoying the view, and was not holding on to anything. The sunlight, which was by now coming from almost directly overhead, seemed to intensify the look of concentration upon his face.

A gentle gust of wind danced across the space, scattering small particles of dust and ash that had collected in the room. With a frustrated but quiet sigh, Ken sat opened his eyes and sat down upon the floor, letting his legs hang over the side of the building. He rubbed two fingers upon the bridge of his nose, as though experiencing a headache.

"Any luck?" Miyako asked quietly, stepping further into the room with great caution, as the floor did not seem to be particularly stable. Ken shook his head.

"You're better at this than I am," he replied with a sigh. "I don't know what I'm doing."

"Was," she corrected, stepping around a pile of disintegrated something, lifting the hem of her skirts over the dust. "I'm afraid you're far better than I am, now." She shrugged lightly, as though it was a matter of little concern.

"Simply possessing magic does not by default create skill," Ken answered, watching as she slowly crossed the room. "The wind is your element, not mine." He frowned, turned back to look out across the fields below. A few small shoots were faintly visible in the distance, between the furrowed rows of dirt, carefully cultivated.

Miyako paused at the edge of the floor, a step behind Ken. A gentle gust of wind brushed at her cheek. On the floor, a small, silvery button slid across the floor toward a pile of dust and halted at the bottom of it. She shut her eyes, listening to the sound of the wind as it blew through her ears, but did not attempt any magic.

After a moment of silence, she stepped directly behind him and placed both her hands upon his shoulders. "Let me teach you, then," she said. "Gather the magic."

Ken frowned skeptically but sighed. He shut his eyes in concentration and willed the magic to gather from inside him, to move it to the forefront of his mind where it could be manipulated. Miyako, watching, could see this as a concentration of different-colored lights swirling within his aura.

For some time now she had been performing spells with the wind, and they had become so commonly used that she scarcely thought about them in a conscious manner. Now, however, she recalled the spell as she had originally seen it written, and the hand movements it advised for the manipulation of the aura in the correct manner.

Unskilled, novice mages often used words in their spells. As they grew more adept, the words would vanish (for they were a bother to remember) and only hand movements (or occasionally other movements) would be the only manipulation required. If they were particularly skilled, wizards could perform complex spells with thoughts alone.

Although she was far from the level of a skilled wizard, Miyako had used the spells of the wind so often that she could manipulate them easily without words or movements. Recalling the movements required a search within her memories, but she managed somehow, and related them to Ken.

His movements were more fumbling than hers, as he was not quite so familiar with them, but they managed, somehow, to produce the desired effects. Miyako watched with an outsider's eyes as the magic embedded within the aura whipped the wind into a frenzy. Soon, powerful bursts of wind were blasting through the half-open room, sending up a haze of dust and ash debris. She raised one hand to shield her eyes from the tiny particles, and to move her hair out of her face. Her skirts were waving wildly in the wind.

Ken almost had to shout to be heard over the roar of the breeze. "Now what?" he asked, and Miyako pulled a lock of hair out of her mouth to answer.

"Pick a direction!" she replied. "Direct it somewhere."

"Where?" he asked.

"Wherever you think you might be likely to find them."

He considered. "Koushiro is already searching to the North," he reported, "and he said that he could not sense them within the borders of Yagami. South is only the ocean. East or West?"

"There's nothing to the East but desert!" Miyako answered; they both knew this well. "To the West is oceans!"

"And islands," Ken recalled. "Could they have gone toward those?"

"Anything's possible," she admitted. "Turn your thoughts in that direction, direct the magic that way."

She was shouting now in order to hear herself. The wind was blowing through her ears so loudly that she would have heard nothing if a man in full, clanking metal armor had trod up the creaky stairs behind her and raised his sword to attack.

The wind's power lessened somewhat. It was no longer blowing in every direction at once, but only in one, toward the West. Miyako turned her head into the wind and called further instructions.

"Ordinarily, I'd say it'd be best to seek Hikari, since she has magic. It was her magic that teleported them, so we know she's used it, and a lot of it if they've gone to the islands. I don't know if the wind spell can reach that far. I've never searched outside the boundaries of the kingdom."

"We'll find out," Ken replied, shouting now over the sound of the wind. He had not opened his eyes since beginning the spell, and now he squeezed them tighter shut as he concentrated.

"It might be better if you searched for Daisuke," Miyako went on. "Since you know him better. I warn you though, it'll be hard to find him with magic."

The wind was roaring loudly in her ears, and for a long moment, Miyako enjoyed the silence in the volume. She let her eyes fall shut.

Within the wind was information, carried by magic, by dust and particle. The breeze reached the ocean in short order, as it was relatively close, and continued speeding across the waves, not wavering in its intensity. As she could still feel and see magic, Miyako felt this through the breeze and knew that clouds were gathering over the coastline, that a boat filled with fisherman was anchored a short distance out, and that a ship with mages bound for the Sanctuary Island was even further. She wondered if any of them sensed that the wind was magically created.

Suddenly, and without warning, the wind vanished. Small bits of debris that had been hovering in midair dropped instantly to the ground. A quiet sort of clatter sounded for a brief moment. Ken leaned forward, and placed one hand upon his forehead.

"I can't make it go any farther," he said, voice sounding tired.

Miyako dropped to her knees beside him, holding him up in case he should fall too far forward and plummet from the building. Their partners were still at the bottom of the steps, and she was still without magic, so a fall would be quite damaging. "It's a tiring spell," she recalled. "You held it for longer than expected."

He nodded, silent for a moment as he considered her words and tried to regain a bit of his strength. "Do you think you could reach the Islands?" he asked after a moment.

"I've never tried," she answered. "I don't know. You got at least as far as the Sanctuary Island, and that's a few days journey out to sea. I doubt they went there, though."

Ken shook his head. "No," he agreed. "They're farther. Much farther."

"In any case," Miyako said with a sigh, "I haven't got enough to reach as far as the ground." She smiled, but it was a rather weak smile. "I suppose that if Daisuke and Hikari really did go to the Western Isles, the only way to find out for sure would be to follow them."