Chapter 4
"Whoo!" Wolf hollered as he broke the surface of Dragon Eye Lake.
A second later, Revemon came up as well, splashing Wolf with his wake.
"Hey! Watch it, horn-head!" Wolf yelled happily and splashed his digimon.
"You watch it, human!" Revemon replied just as good-naturedly and splashed back.
The two got into a friendly, full on splash fight, sending wave after wave at each other and eventually culminated in the both of them taking turns dunking each other's heads under the water. After they'd finished, they'd looked at each other for a moment before bursting out laughing, enjoying the whole scenario. They then swam back to the shore and laid themselves out on the beach to dry off.
"Well, I can't claim to be any cleaner, since I have no soap, but that's a hell of a lot more fun way to bathe than the Yankee showers." Wolf thought out loud.
"So, Wolf, what are we gonna do today?" Revemon asked.
Wolf thought about that. It had been three days since he'd first landed in the digital world. So far, he and Revemon had done nothing but relax. They'd laid out under the sun on the beach, swum in the lake, hunted for food, and explored the island some, but not much. As much as Wolf was tempted to keep his newly lazy existence going for a while, he decided he would have all the time in the world to be idle once he'd finished setting himself and Revemon up for life.
"I think we'll start working on the house today." Wolf said to his partner.
"What house?" Revemon asked.
"Our house."
Wolf then turned over onto his stomach and, using his finger, he began to draw in the sand. He used swift and confident strokes to quickly map out a rough sketch for a log cabin.
"I'd rather not build something as overall country and stupid as a log cabin, but since we don't have the resources to build anything else, there isn't much choice in the matter." Wolf said as he finished the drawing.
Revemon looked at it closely and saw that it was a fairly intricate design for a somewhat large, single story log house.
"Can you really build this?" Revemon asked.
"Totally. I've been studying architecture, reading how to manuals, watching construction workers, and just visualizing how to do it for years. It was for my original plan back on Earth, but since that's moot now, we'll build it here. It'll be our place."
"We'll build it here?" Revemon asked.
"Yeah, right here! This lake is so beautiful, it's the perfect spot! We'll build it in that clearing over there, just before the sand starts. It'll be great!"
Seeing the enthusiasm on his partner's face, Revemon couldn't help but smile warmly back at him.
"Okay, I'm in!" Revemon said. "But, you should probably go get dressed again first."
Wolf gave a slight chuckle, got up, and walked over to where he'd left his clothes. The jeans, boots, jacket and shirt were right where he left them. He picked them up, and went behind a tree. Once he was changed, he took his removed, wet underwear that he'd bathed in since Revemon had been with them, and placed them under a rock in the sun to dry. Wolf completed his outfit, adjusting his red-lens goggles on his head.
"If we're going to be doing a lot of manual work, we should probably have some breakfast before we get started." Revemon said.
"I was just about to say the same thing myself." Wolf said with a smile. "I'll set up the fishing pole and then we'll go get some fruits and stuff."
OOO
Several hours later, Wolf and Revemon were walking through the forest, heading for an area with trees suitable to build a house out of. Wolf had decided that he really didn't want to take the trees at the lake so as not to ruin the view and aesthetic of it. As a result, Revemon was leading them to where he thought they could get what they needed. The two were then more than an hour's walk away from the lake.
"I think these might be more what you're looking for, pal." Revemon said.
Wolf walked over and inspected one of the trees. It was a very old growth tree. It was reminiscent of a redwood, and stood about thirty feet tall with a diameter at its base of about eight feet. Even though Wolf detested the idea of cutting down such a beautiful thing, he eased his conscience as much as he could by reminding himself that human so-called progress had never touched the digital world before, and that he knew he wasn't going to take anymore trees than he absolutely had to to build the house.
"Okay. This should do for the start. Although, now we've got another problem. We've got no tools to cut it down with. I could possibly make a crude ax out of a rock and some sticks, but that would take quite some time." Wolf said.
"Ah, you don't have to go to that trouble. I can handle this part." Revemon said.
The little guy stepped up close to the tree and raised one hand over his head.
"Reve-chop attack!"
He swung his hand down and struck it against the side of the tree. For what seemed like a very long time, but was actually only two seconds, nothing happened. Wolf was almost about to say something when the tree began to fall over, the base snapping and breaking apart. It fell with a huge, crashing sound. Wolf walked over and stood next to Revemon. He smiled down at him.
"Nice job, pal!" Wolf said. "Okay, that hurdle's handled, but now we've got a whole new problem to overcome. That's at least a thousand pounds of wood. Revemon, I assume you're physically stronger than I am, so if we could find some vines, or maybe make some kind of rope, between the two of us, it'd be very hard, but maybe we could probably get it back to the lake." Wolf said.
Just as they began to walk to try to find something to accomplish their task, they heard an immensely loud, angry roar coming from seemingly all around them. Looking behind themselves, they saw something that appeared to be coming towards them.
"Revemon, am I seeing things, or is that a tree coming at us?"
The tree then stopped twenty-five feet away from them, and Wolf and Revemon could see that it had a mouth, two eyes, four spider like legs, two giant arms on its side that extended all the way to the ground, and two smaller arms protruding from its front.
"Oh, this is Woodmon." Revemon said. "I've heard of them, but I've never met one before. They're supposed to have a bad temper and be really dangerous if you get them mad. They always work for bad guys, and his Leaf Slider attack could cut you to ribbons!"
"Human! Did you chop down that tree?!" Woodmon screamed.
"Uh... Well, kinda, yeah, we did." Wolf said a bit apprehensively. "See, uh, we're kind of planning to build a house, so we need the wood to..."
"Inexcusable!" Woodmon interrupted. "These trees may be digital, but they're every bit as alive as the ones from your world. Not that it matters to you! I cannot allow you to harm them for your selfish purposes. You'll kill them all! We digimon know what you humans do, and you never stop! But I will stop you, and your energy will feed me well!"
"Hey, we're not looking for a fight, pal." Wolf said, trying to placate him.
Woodmon then suddenly charged at them.
"Woody Smash!"
Woodmon stabbed its two larger arms out, aiming to seriously injure both Wolf and Revemon with the same blow. The two of them jumped out of the way just in time, got quickly back to their feet, and reconvened fifteen feet behind Woodmon.
"I don't think he feels the same way." Revemon said.
Woodmon then turned and tried charging them again, forcing Wolf and Revemon to dodge out of his way again.
"Okay, diplomacy didn't work." Wolf thought to himself.
He took a quick appraisal of their immediate environment. There were rocks, trees, a few large fallen branches, but nothing that struck Wolf as being particularly helpful in the moment. Woodmon turned in their direction once more.
"Leaf Slider!" The digimon yelled.
A series of leaves materialized around Woodmon's body, began to rapidy spin end over end, and then shot themselves at Wolf and Revemon. The attack came at them so quickly, the only way to dodge was for Revemon to push Wolf so they both fell forward onto the ground.
"Okay, we got to get on the offensive here!" Revemon said as he got up and rushed Woodmon. "Fire Spike Slash!"
Revemon's spikes on his head and shoulders all alighted with a small amount of fire and he jumped and used them to cut a flaming gouge across Woodmon's face.
"You're nothing but kindling for us!" Revemon said with a laugh.
Woodmon then looked at the smaller digimon with malice in his eyes. He was mostly unaffected on the whole.
"Branch Drain!" Woodmon yelled.
He sent one of his smaller arms down and one of his fingers just stabbed into Revemon's chest. Revemon instantly began to feel weaker. He could feel Woodmon siphoning his energy way, adding it to his own reserve. Revemon tried to get away, but Woodmon's other small arm grabbed onto his shoulder and both of Woodmon's larger arms were pressing him closer to his enemy.
Just then, Woodmon's balance on his own feet became upset. Turning his body as much as he could, Woodmon saw that Wolf had grabbed hold of a very large tree limb, stuck it into the space underneath Woodmon, between two of his root like legs. Wolf was grunting with effort as he used all of his strength to leverage Woodmon up, off his feet, and onto his side. Wolf also grabbed onto his partner and pulled Revemon aside just as Woodmon began to tip over.
"Revemon! Are you okay, buddy?" Wolf asked, obvious concern and worry in his voice.
"Yeah, yeah, I think I'm okay. He just pilfered some of my energy. I'll be good."
They then looked over and saw that Woodmon was using one of his larger arms to push himself back onto his feet.
"Okay, you stay here for a second while I hold him back so you can recover."
"Wolf, wait!" Revemon yelled.
But, Wolf was already rushing in, and Revemon was too weak at just that moment to chase after him. Wolf grabbed the same tree limb he'd used a second earlier as he ran, spun himself to gain momentum, and slammed the limb right against Woodmon's side with as much force as he could put into it. Wolf then kicked Woodmon as hard as he could in the face, jumping off of him into the air above and hit the tree limb into Woodmon's opposite side, shattering it. As he was falling back to the ground, Wolf was slammed in the stomach by one of Woodmon's larger arms, sending him hurtling into the trunk of a tree ten feet away.
Woodmon came at Wolf quickly, pressing his advantage. Woodmon stabbed at Wolf with the pointed ends of his larger arm, but Wolf was able to duck under it just in time. Woodmon's arm was buried and stuck in the tree-trunk. Wolf took the opportunity to do as much as he could, kicking and punching Woodmon with his best shots, but as he couldn't find any weak spots on the digimon's body, he wasn't able to accomplish anything more than hurting his feet and cutting his knuckles.
Woodmon was then able to pry his arm free from the tree and rounded on Wolf. Wolf just evaded a stabbing jab from one of Woodmon's smaller arms. As Wolf rejoined Revemon, the both of them saw green leaves, dislodged from their stems, fluttering down around Woodmon.
"Hey Revemon, think you can do something with that?" Wolf asked.
"Huh?" Revemon asked and looked more closely at the leaves. "Oh, yeah! I can do that."
Revemon then turned and ran back away from Wolf. Out of sight of Woodmon, Revemon began to climb up a tree.
"Ha! Your digimon is smarter than you are! He's saved himself and left you here to die."
"Come on, then, beaver food, show me what you got!" Wolf declared.
Woodmon then charged again. As Wolf kept Woodmon busy down below, Revemon was maneuvering himself into place in the branches above. Once he was in position, Revemon aimed himself, pulling himself back against the branch to spring-load his legs, and then launched himself.
"Fire Spike Slash!"
His blow struck Woodmon across the face again. Revemon then performed a handstand flip, landed on the side of another tree, leapfrogged off, used his attack on Woodmon again, and repeated the process several more times. When he came to a stop back at Wolf's side, half of Woodmon was on fire and he had buckled to two of his knees.
"Well, that ought to take care of that." Revemon said.
"Nice job."
The two then turned and began to walk back to the sight of the task they were at before the fight started. After a few steps, Wolf felt a slight increase in temperature on his back and noticed an encroaching shadow. Half turning, he saw Woodmon raising both of his larger arms up over their heads.
"Revemon!" Wolf yelled and shoved his partner out of the way.
He just managed to bring his arms up to block, but it wasn't enough to prevent Woodmon's attack from smashing him into the ground. Woodmon lifted one of his root feet and crashed it down into Wolf's chest and pressed down, crushing him. Wolf got a grip on his enemy's foot and tried to push it off, but he simply didn't have the strength.
Getting up from where he'd fallen, Revemon looked at his partner.
"Wolf, no!"
Just then, a beam of light shot out from the digivice on Wolf's wrist.
"Revemon digivolve to... Shradomon!"
Both Wolf and Woodmon saw the digivolution happen and looked up at the new, champion level form of Wolf's partner, forgetting what they had been in the middle of. Shradomon was hovering sixty feet above them. His new form was a long, black, serpent like dragon with a length of about fifty feet. He had four, strong legs, spaced proportionally accurately away from each other at the respective ends of his body, giant, bat like wings with a span of twenty feet, and a tail with similar wing appendages on its end. Shradomon's head had gleaming fangs jutting out of his mouth, large blue eyes, and pronounced armor plating around his forehead.
Only a split second after Shradomon's digivolution was complete, he dashed in and grabbed Woodmon, wrapping the end of his tail around him.
"Tail Flick!"
Shradomon sent Woodmon hurling into the air.
"Black Blazer!"
A plume of black fire erupted from Shradomon's mouth, enveloped Woodmon, and destroyed him. Shradomon then flew back down and landed just in front of Wolf.
"Wolf, are you okay?"
"Yeah, actually, yeah. I don't think I'm hurt too badly." Wolf said. "Shradomon, while you are just awesome, and you saved my life, I don't know how I feel about you killing Woodmon."
"You shouldn't worry about that. All Woodmon are virus types and always work for evil digimon. Years ago, they worked for those Dark Master guys who tried to take over the whole Digital World. They're always bad."
"Okay, I guess." Wolf said.
Shradomon then suddenly began to glow, and Wolf watched as his form shrank and he dedigivolved back into Revemon.
"You're a funny kind of guy, Wolf." Revemon said. "From what I've gathered, I take it you don't like other humans much, but you're worried about not hurting a digimon known to be bad."
"Yeah, I guess that is kind of a contradiction. All I can say is, I've seen enough of people to have formed my own opinions on them. Humans are the most detestable things in my opinion. To my mind, any and all digimon are better than them."
"I guess I get that." Revemon said. "Well, with all that over, we better get back to what we were doing."
"Right." Wolf said.
The two friends then turned and saw the tree they'd cut down earlier.
"Now, how are we gonna get this thing back to the lake?" Wolf asked out loud.