My brain has been on the fritz, so thats why its been so long in between chapters. Thats also why I may not have done very well. @_@
d/c: nope. don't own digimon. Just the plot...and Arrow. If, for some reason, you want to use Arrow in your story, you can. You have my permission.
Ivory Mountain, chapter 6
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Joe's p.o.v.
It was still my turn. Tai was still dreaming. He was rolling around so much, you'd think he was wide awake and having a tantrum! When he started getting close to hitting Mimi (while sleeping, of course), I decided to wake him up. I leaned over as far as I could (without disturbing Mimi) and shook him with one hand, attempting to awaken him.
Tai's p.o.v.
I was walking through a thick forest. I was alone too. Without realizing it, I walked right into a swamp. I started sinking in the quicksand, faster and faster. I panicked and started to flail my arms. This only made me sink faster. In a matter of seconds, I was up to my elbows in swamp. Suddenly this weird digimon flew out of the sky and picked me up. It carried me to a really tall, beige mountain. I'm not sure, but I think it was shiny too. A hole opened up--no, a DOOR--and it carried me inside. I was taken to a really huge room, and I saw TK sitting in a throne. He was dressed weird, and a staff was floating by him. The digimon set me down in the middle of the room. I tried to get TK and run out the way I came in, but he held up the staff and said 'no'. Suddenly, lightning shot out of the staff. It was about to hit me when Sora jumped in front of me. She took it in the chest and fell to the other side. I asked how she got there so fast, but she just smiled at me. She said, "It doesn't matter Tai. I love you and thats all that matters. Live a good life for me, Taichi. For me." I knelt down and held her in my arms. She looked at me with those eyes. It was the last time she ever did. She died, in my arms! I kissed her on the cheek, hoping...hoping she'd magically come back to life, but no. Instead, TK pointed the staff at her. A stream of red light came from it and hit her. She transformed into Devimon, then Myotismon, then MetalSeadramon. MetalSeadramon coiled his tail around my waist and lifted me into the air. I tried hitting him, trying to make him release me. He squeezed as tight as he could, crushing every bone in me. I kept hitting him, but not very hard because I was so weak. He started shaking me violently in midair. I was losing consciousness, my body flailed back and forth, and the last thing I felt was being shaken to death...
"TAI!!! TAI!! WAKE UP!!" I opened my eyes. Gradually at first, then all at once. The world no longer felt like it shaking. Joe had been trying to wake me up. Realizing that the whole thing was just a dream, I sat up quickly. I threw my arms around Joe. I cried. I cried for the first time in a long time. These were tears of joy, however. I was happy that nothing had happened to anyone.
Joe's p.o.v.
Okay. Tai was hugging me and crying. That dream he had must have really bothered him. I wasn't exactly sure what to do, so I hugged him back and tried to be as reassuring as possible. It seemed to be working, because soon he stopped crying. He let go of me and sat back back on his heels.
"Joe, I had a really bad dream. I guess you could tell, huh?"
"It was pretty hard not to notice. I'm surprised no one else woke up. Do you want to talk about your dream?"
Tai thought for a moment, then said "Yeah." He told me about being carried off, about Sora, about MetalSeadramon. What caught me off-guard was what he said next.
"I think I love her. More than just as a friend."
"Are you sure? Don't take your dream too seriously. Besides, she's already got someone."
"I know. Matt." He looked down at the ground. He looked so sad, it was breakin' my heart just watching him.
Tai's p.o.v.
I KNOW I love Sora, and I'm sure it's not the dream talking. How CAN I be sure? This HAS to be the dream! I feel all messed up! This is happening way too fast. This shouldn't be happening. This is ridiculous. I fall in love with one of my best friends just because I had a dream. Or maybe this dream is trying to tell me something. Well... I guess I always did like her, but I just never realized it. Now it's too late. Matt and Sora are together. I'm not going to try to break them up. They obviously belong together. He's got so much to offer her, but I'd just get her killed. Just like in my dream. Maybe I am taking it too seriously. After all, it was just a dream. Wasn't it?
Joe's p.o.v.
"Tai, go to sleep. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. You need to get rested up." I said. He didn't look up. "Hey, Tai." I reached over and touched his arm. It startled him, and he jumped. Then he looked at me.
"Huh, what? Oh. Yeah. Sleep. Okay, I'll try." He turned away from me and lay down. A while later I could hear a soft snoring, which meant he was asleep. I glanced around the campsite at the rest of the kids. They were still sleeping. I looked down at Mimi. She looked so innocent with her hair falling around her face. I love her. She's so pretty and sweet, and she loves me too. I smiled when I thought this. I touched her cheek, then I stroked her hair. It's so soft. I looked at her face, and I saw her smiling. She has such a pretty smile.
Arrow's p.o.v.
I woke up suddenly. I don't know why. I hadn't heard anything that would wake me up, and there weren't any monsters around. For some reason though, I had a weird feeling. Without sitting up, I looked around at the others. I thought Joe was the only one awake until I saw Izzy move. He propped himself up a little, just enough to see over everyone else, and faced me. I closed my eyes most of the way so I could watch him without him knowing I was awake. He just kept looking at me. This continued for a while. I was surprised Joe hadn't noticed that he was awake. He was too busy staring at Mimi to notice, I suppose. I was too wide awake now to go back to sleep anytime soon, so I decided to take over for him. I sat up. Izzy quickly lay down. I've got a feeling he didn't want me knowing he was watching me. I stood up and walked around the others to get to Joe. When I stood next to Mimi's head, he looked up at me.
"What?"
"I believe your turn is over. I'll stand watch now, if you'd like."
"Thanks, Arrow."
He gave me a grateful look, then turned towards Mimi again. The same feeling that had awakened me was back. Quickly, I looked at Izzy. He was looking at me again. He had tilted his head back so he could see me. He looked kinda cute like that. Immediately he blushed and turned his head so I couldn't see his face. I looked back at Joe, who was now lying on the ground. He had his arm around his girlfriend. I walked around gathering sticks to make more arrows from. When I had a satisfactory amount, I sat down on the other side of Izzy. He didn't notice. I was hoping to start a conversation with him while I worked, but he must have fallen asleep.
Izzy's p.o.v.
I'm so embarassed. She caught me staring at her! She looks familiar though. I didn't notice that earlier. I feel like I knew her from somewhere. Oh well. She's sitting behind me now, so she's not upset about me watching her.. I could hear her scraping the bark off of the sticks she picked up. A breeze blew, and I shivered. The weather had gotten cold recently. I guess the Digiworld has seasons like Earth. The wind stopped, but I was still cold. Suddenly, something black was draped over me. I realized that it was Arrow's cloak. I gathered my courage, sat up, and faced her. I clutched the cloak closer to me to keep warm. "Hi," I croaked.
"Hello." Her voice was so smooth, and so strong. She looked up from her stick. "You looked cold, so I gave you my cloak."
"Thank you. What about you? Don't you need it?"
"No." There was a pause. I shifted uncomfortably. She looked down at her project and began working on it again. "I sat over here so I could talk to you, but I thought you were asleep. Now I can't think of anything to say!"
"Well, I guess we could talk about each other." Another pause. "Do you make all of your arrows?"
"Yep. I learned at archery camp when I was eight."
"I didn't know they had archery camp."
She smiled, not looking up. "It was when I lived in America."
Why is she being so friendly to me now? When we first met, she hardly ever talked to me!
"You look nervous."
"I am."
"Why? We aren't in danger. You aren't on stage in front of millions of people."
There was NO way I was going to tell her about...my feelings...for her. "I-- I don't want to talk about it." I played with a leaf on the ground. I must have been blushing, because my face felt really hot. Funny, the rest of me felt cold.
"You don't have to." She set her stick down and looked me in the eye. "I already know. You have a crush on me, don't you?"
Oh no... she knows. "Y-yeah."
"There's no reason for you to be nervous then."
"What do you mean?"
"I'll put it to you this way, Izzy." She gave me a sly grin. "I've got a thing for redheads. Ones like you."
I dropped the leaf and looked at her in total shock. "Are you saying...you like me?"
"Yes...why wouldn't I like you?"
"You've only known me a few days, and we never really... talked to each other until now... I didn't think you'd go for someone like me."
"You've only known me a few days as well, but you seem to have gotten a crush on me anyway."
Arrow's p.o.v.
I watched him blush again when I said this. I decided that I was finished with my arrows for tonight, so I carefully picked up all of my stuff and put it in a pile behind me.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Yeah. Go ahead."
"When you first got here, you didn't talk much. You were so calm and strong, you know? Like an Indian chief or something. Why are you so... outgoing... now?"
"An Indian chief, huh? That's cute. I was that way because I was kinda scared."
Softly, he said "Of what?"
"That you guys wouldn't accept me. In the "short" time we were in the Digiworld, the eight of you got to be close friends. I was afraid I would step right in the middle of it and, well, upset someone. I was self-conscious too. I didn't want to start acting ditzy or anything. See Mimi over there?" I pointed at her. "We have some things in common. We can be really ditzy, but we don't mean to. We're flirty. We like people. We're outgoing. We're friendly. Usually. We have our differences too, but I'm not gonna go into that." I stopped. That feelilng I had before, the one that told me there was something familiar about Izzy, returned. "You know, you remind me of someone."
"Oh?"
"Back when I was in first grade, my dad had to move to Japan for a year. Something for business. He took the whole family with him so we wouldn't be separated. We got there about one month into the school year. On my first day of school there, the teacher introduced me to the class. None of the students looked like they cared if I was there or not. She told me to sit next to a boy in the back row. I took my seat, and the teacher went on to what she was doing up front. The boy introduced himself to me, and asked if I would meet him by the door at lunch."
"What was his name?"
"I can't remember. I DO remember that he had red hair."
"Do you remember the name of the school?"
"Yeah. It was Odaiba Elementary."
"I went there in first grade too!"
"Anyways, the lunch bell rang and I waited for him by the door. We walked together to lunch, we sat by each other, and we played at recess together. We became best friends that day. After that, we were inseparable. Until I moved back to America, of course."
"I remember my best friend in first grade. She was a new student. Before her, I didn't have any friends."
"How sad... tell me more."
Well, on the first day we met, I told her to meet me before lunch so I could ask her something. I forgot what, so we just talked. I still don't remember what I was going to ask."
We looked at the ground in silence. I guess we ran out of things to say.
"Do you remember the tacher's name?"
"Miss Dorama."
Izzy looked up. "That was my teacher too."
This was getting weird. All these coincidences...maybe...just maybe... "I remember his name now. It was Ryan. That's what everyone called him."
"That was MY nickname! I got that nickname back in Kindergarten, and everyone called me that until 3rd grade!" His face lit up with that look that means you've just realized something. It faded as he started to say something, but hesitated. "Michelle?"
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d/c: nope. don't own digimon. Just the plot...and Arrow. If, for some reason, you want to use Arrow in your story, you can. You have my permission.
Ivory Mountain, chapter 6
-------------------------
Joe's p.o.v.
It was still my turn. Tai was still dreaming. He was rolling around so much, you'd think he was wide awake and having a tantrum! When he started getting close to hitting Mimi (while sleeping, of course), I decided to wake him up. I leaned over as far as I could (without disturbing Mimi) and shook him with one hand, attempting to awaken him.
Tai's p.o.v.
I was walking through a thick forest. I was alone too. Without realizing it, I walked right into a swamp. I started sinking in the quicksand, faster and faster. I panicked and started to flail my arms. This only made me sink faster. In a matter of seconds, I was up to my elbows in swamp. Suddenly this weird digimon flew out of the sky and picked me up. It carried me to a really tall, beige mountain. I'm not sure, but I think it was shiny too. A hole opened up--no, a DOOR--and it carried me inside. I was taken to a really huge room, and I saw TK sitting in a throne. He was dressed weird, and a staff was floating by him. The digimon set me down in the middle of the room. I tried to get TK and run out the way I came in, but he held up the staff and said 'no'. Suddenly, lightning shot out of the staff. It was about to hit me when Sora jumped in front of me. She took it in the chest and fell to the other side. I asked how she got there so fast, but she just smiled at me. She said, "It doesn't matter Tai. I love you and thats all that matters. Live a good life for me, Taichi. For me." I knelt down and held her in my arms. She looked at me with those eyes. It was the last time she ever did. She died, in my arms! I kissed her on the cheek, hoping...hoping she'd magically come back to life, but no. Instead, TK pointed the staff at her. A stream of red light came from it and hit her. She transformed into Devimon, then Myotismon, then MetalSeadramon. MetalSeadramon coiled his tail around my waist and lifted me into the air. I tried hitting him, trying to make him release me. He squeezed as tight as he could, crushing every bone in me. I kept hitting him, but not very hard because I was so weak. He started shaking me violently in midair. I was losing consciousness, my body flailed back and forth, and the last thing I felt was being shaken to death...
"TAI!!! TAI!! WAKE UP!!" I opened my eyes. Gradually at first, then all at once. The world no longer felt like it shaking. Joe had been trying to wake me up. Realizing that the whole thing was just a dream, I sat up quickly. I threw my arms around Joe. I cried. I cried for the first time in a long time. These were tears of joy, however. I was happy that nothing had happened to anyone.
Joe's p.o.v.
Okay. Tai was hugging me and crying. That dream he had must have really bothered him. I wasn't exactly sure what to do, so I hugged him back and tried to be as reassuring as possible. It seemed to be working, because soon he stopped crying. He let go of me and sat back back on his heels.
"Joe, I had a really bad dream. I guess you could tell, huh?"
"It was pretty hard not to notice. I'm surprised no one else woke up. Do you want to talk about your dream?"
Tai thought for a moment, then said "Yeah." He told me about being carried off, about Sora, about MetalSeadramon. What caught me off-guard was what he said next.
"I think I love her. More than just as a friend."
"Are you sure? Don't take your dream too seriously. Besides, she's already got someone."
"I know. Matt." He looked down at the ground. He looked so sad, it was breakin' my heart just watching him.
Tai's p.o.v.
I KNOW I love Sora, and I'm sure it's not the dream talking. How CAN I be sure? This HAS to be the dream! I feel all messed up! This is happening way too fast. This shouldn't be happening. This is ridiculous. I fall in love with one of my best friends just because I had a dream. Or maybe this dream is trying to tell me something. Well... I guess I always did like her, but I just never realized it. Now it's too late. Matt and Sora are together. I'm not going to try to break them up. They obviously belong together. He's got so much to offer her, but I'd just get her killed. Just like in my dream. Maybe I am taking it too seriously. After all, it was just a dream. Wasn't it?
Joe's p.o.v.
"Tai, go to sleep. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. You need to get rested up." I said. He didn't look up. "Hey, Tai." I reached over and touched his arm. It startled him, and he jumped. Then he looked at me.
"Huh, what? Oh. Yeah. Sleep. Okay, I'll try." He turned away from me and lay down. A while later I could hear a soft snoring, which meant he was asleep. I glanced around the campsite at the rest of the kids. They were still sleeping. I looked down at Mimi. She looked so innocent with her hair falling around her face. I love her. She's so pretty and sweet, and she loves me too. I smiled when I thought this. I touched her cheek, then I stroked her hair. It's so soft. I looked at her face, and I saw her smiling. She has such a pretty smile.
Arrow's p.o.v.
I woke up suddenly. I don't know why. I hadn't heard anything that would wake me up, and there weren't any monsters around. For some reason though, I had a weird feeling. Without sitting up, I looked around at the others. I thought Joe was the only one awake until I saw Izzy move. He propped himself up a little, just enough to see over everyone else, and faced me. I closed my eyes most of the way so I could watch him without him knowing I was awake. He just kept looking at me. This continued for a while. I was surprised Joe hadn't noticed that he was awake. He was too busy staring at Mimi to notice, I suppose. I was too wide awake now to go back to sleep anytime soon, so I decided to take over for him. I sat up. Izzy quickly lay down. I've got a feeling he didn't want me knowing he was watching me. I stood up and walked around the others to get to Joe. When I stood next to Mimi's head, he looked up at me.
"What?"
"I believe your turn is over. I'll stand watch now, if you'd like."
"Thanks, Arrow."
He gave me a grateful look, then turned towards Mimi again. The same feeling that had awakened me was back. Quickly, I looked at Izzy. He was looking at me again. He had tilted his head back so he could see me. He looked kinda cute like that. Immediately he blushed and turned his head so I couldn't see his face. I looked back at Joe, who was now lying on the ground. He had his arm around his girlfriend. I walked around gathering sticks to make more arrows from. When I had a satisfactory amount, I sat down on the other side of Izzy. He didn't notice. I was hoping to start a conversation with him while I worked, but he must have fallen asleep.
Izzy's p.o.v.
I'm so embarassed. She caught me staring at her! She looks familiar though. I didn't notice that earlier. I feel like I knew her from somewhere. Oh well. She's sitting behind me now, so she's not upset about me watching her.. I could hear her scraping the bark off of the sticks she picked up. A breeze blew, and I shivered. The weather had gotten cold recently. I guess the Digiworld has seasons like Earth. The wind stopped, but I was still cold. Suddenly, something black was draped over me. I realized that it was Arrow's cloak. I gathered my courage, sat up, and faced her. I clutched the cloak closer to me to keep warm. "Hi," I croaked.
"Hello." Her voice was so smooth, and so strong. She looked up from her stick. "You looked cold, so I gave you my cloak."
"Thank you. What about you? Don't you need it?"
"No." There was a pause. I shifted uncomfortably. She looked down at her project and began working on it again. "I sat over here so I could talk to you, but I thought you were asleep. Now I can't think of anything to say!"
"Well, I guess we could talk about each other." Another pause. "Do you make all of your arrows?"
"Yep. I learned at archery camp when I was eight."
"I didn't know they had archery camp."
She smiled, not looking up. "It was when I lived in America."
Why is she being so friendly to me now? When we first met, she hardly ever talked to me!
"You look nervous."
"I am."
"Why? We aren't in danger. You aren't on stage in front of millions of people."
There was NO way I was going to tell her about...my feelings...for her. "I-- I don't want to talk about it." I played with a leaf on the ground. I must have been blushing, because my face felt really hot. Funny, the rest of me felt cold.
"You don't have to." She set her stick down and looked me in the eye. "I already know. You have a crush on me, don't you?"
Oh no... she knows. "Y-yeah."
"There's no reason for you to be nervous then."
"What do you mean?"
"I'll put it to you this way, Izzy." She gave me a sly grin. "I've got a thing for redheads. Ones like you."
I dropped the leaf and looked at her in total shock. "Are you saying...you like me?"
"Yes...why wouldn't I like you?"
"You've only known me a few days, and we never really... talked to each other until now... I didn't think you'd go for someone like me."
"You've only known me a few days as well, but you seem to have gotten a crush on me anyway."
Arrow's p.o.v.
I watched him blush again when I said this. I decided that I was finished with my arrows for tonight, so I carefully picked up all of my stuff and put it in a pile behind me.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Yeah. Go ahead."
"When you first got here, you didn't talk much. You were so calm and strong, you know? Like an Indian chief or something. Why are you so... outgoing... now?"
"An Indian chief, huh? That's cute. I was that way because I was kinda scared."
Softly, he said "Of what?"
"That you guys wouldn't accept me. In the "short" time we were in the Digiworld, the eight of you got to be close friends. I was afraid I would step right in the middle of it and, well, upset someone. I was self-conscious too. I didn't want to start acting ditzy or anything. See Mimi over there?" I pointed at her. "We have some things in common. We can be really ditzy, but we don't mean to. We're flirty. We like people. We're outgoing. We're friendly. Usually. We have our differences too, but I'm not gonna go into that." I stopped. That feelilng I had before, the one that told me there was something familiar about Izzy, returned. "You know, you remind me of someone."
"Oh?"
"Back when I was in first grade, my dad had to move to Japan for a year. Something for business. He took the whole family with him so we wouldn't be separated. We got there about one month into the school year. On my first day of school there, the teacher introduced me to the class. None of the students looked like they cared if I was there or not. She told me to sit next to a boy in the back row. I took my seat, and the teacher went on to what she was doing up front. The boy introduced himself to me, and asked if I would meet him by the door at lunch."
"What was his name?"
"I can't remember. I DO remember that he had red hair."
"Do you remember the name of the school?"
"Yeah. It was Odaiba Elementary."
"I went there in first grade too!"
"Anyways, the lunch bell rang and I waited for him by the door. We walked together to lunch, we sat by each other, and we played at recess together. We became best friends that day. After that, we were inseparable. Until I moved back to America, of course."
"I remember my best friend in first grade. She was a new student. Before her, I didn't have any friends."
"How sad... tell me more."
Well, on the first day we met, I told her to meet me before lunch so I could ask her something. I forgot what, so we just talked. I still don't remember what I was going to ask."
We looked at the ground in silence. I guess we ran out of things to say.
"Do you remember the tacher's name?"
"Miss Dorama."
Izzy looked up. "That was my teacher too."
This was getting weird. All these coincidences...maybe...just maybe... "I remember his name now. It was Ryan. That's what everyone called him."
"That was MY nickname! I got that nickname back in Kindergarten, and everyone called me that until 3rd grade!" His face lit up with that look that means you've just realized something. It faded as he started to say something, but hesitated. "Michelle?"
************