A Different Reality Part 13
by Cybra
A/N: 13! My lucky number! Especially on Friday the Thirteenth when I'm wearing black!!! It's the dreaded Thursday the Twelfth that I fear. Well, off we go!
Disclaimer: :::grabs a lawyer by the throat::: I don't own Digimon!!! Do you understand?!?!?!
Gatomon ran to help Tentomon get free of Redvegiemon as I ran over to Koushiro. His eyes only looked at me for a second before he focused his attention back on Redvegiemon. He aimed and shot the gun in his hand at a spot near Redvegiemon's body.
"Lightning Claw!"
Tentomon flew out of the red plant's grasp and turned around.
"Super Shocker!"
"Lightning Claw!"
There was nothing left of Redvegiemon (except for a few stray pieces of data) after those attacks hit.
I forgot to do something…but what…oh, yeah!
It's me, Kari! Sorry about that!
Tentomon landed beside Gatomon and shook her paw.
"Thanks for the assist. I couldn't turn around to attack."
"No problem. Glad to help."
I turned to Koushiro. He looked as calm as normal.
I briefly wondered if I should be worried.
That's when the forest changed into a desert. Koushiro looked as surprised as I was. I could tell from his eyes.
"Let's get moving," was all he said.
As we began to walk in the direction that the train had gone, I asked, "Aren't you mad?"
"About?"
"About me jumping off the train to stay with you."
He thought for a moment. "I am…upset. However, there's nothing I can do about it now. You made your decision and I have to live with it."
The words kinda stung, but I realized this was the exact opposite of what Tai would've said. He would've been giving me the lecture of my life. This was one of the only times I'd ever gone against what Tai had told me to do.
This is going to sound really selfish, but…
…it felt great!
Koushiro put his handgun in some spot in his backpack. We continued to walk (or, in Tentomon's case, fly) through the blazing hot desert. However, I noticed this slightly cool breeze hitting the back of my neck.
It took me a moment that Tentomon was flying behind Koushiro and I. His wings were creating that cool breeze I was feeling.
Koushiro's eyebrows suddenly arched upwards for a second like he'd forgotten to do something, but only now remembered. He moved his head back and forth to look at the three of us.
"If anybody feels like they need to rest at any time, say something. Don't try to tough it out in a desert. You'll end up dehydrated or worse."
Gatomon, Tentomon, and I nodded in agreement. There wouldn't be much water around here since this was a desert.
It was pretty hard to walk across the sand. My feet would sink into it, then I'd have to lift my feet high up in order to walk. Gatomon was walking on all fours, using her larger paws like show shoes…or, rather, sand shoes. She could walk on top of the sand…unless she hit a soft spot. Then she'd fall in over her head and hop out again.
The sun beat down on my right arm. After about an hour, it felt like it was burning.
"Wish I'd brought my sun block," I muttered.
Gatomon looked at me, confused. "What's sun block?"
Koushiro looked at my arm. "Looks like you're getting a sunburn. Do you usually burn easily?"
I shook my head. "Not when I have a tan."
"Same here. Of course, being in the shade of Puppetmon's forest so long doesn't help."
I noticed that Koushiro had a sunburn on the back of his left leg. He began looking around. Then he looked at Tentomon.
Tentomon nodded and buzzed way up high into the air. My eyes widened. That never failed to impress me.
"How do you guys do that?"
"Do what?"
"You just look at each other and it's like you talk…only you don't say a word."
"We get a lot of practice."
I smiled as I looked down at Gatomon. "That'd be neat if we could do it. Huh, Gatomon?"
"Yeah," Gatomon agreed.
Tentomon swooped back down, shaking his head. The bug Digimon seemed to be disappointed, but Koushiro just smiled with his eyes.
"It's okay. I'm sure you tried your best."
Tentomon shrugged, but said, "On the plus side, the sun will be down soon."
"Excellent. Traveling by night will help." Koushiro turned to Gatomon and I. "Will that be okay with you two?"
We nodded. There wasn't really much else we could do. We'd all fry if we kept walking in all this heat.
I knew the reason why we were doing it the hard way. If our Digimon needed to fight, we couldn't have them worn out from carrying us. Even though flying would be much easier.
"There's some sort of road about fifty yards to our right," Tentomon told us, pointing with his claw. "It'll be a slightly-faster walk if you didn't have to drag your feet through sand."
"Great!" I said.
We all began the walk at a diagonal. That way, we'd still be going forward, but also would be heading towards the road. We weren't going very fast because of the sand, but also because we were going at an easy pace. That way, we wouldn't wear ourselves out as fast.
However, our pace went a little faster when we finally got onto the road.
~@~
You want to know what I learned?
It's cold in the desert at night!
However, it felt really good on my sunburn.
I had taken my pink bandanna off a while ago when it had gotten too hot to wear it. Now, I put it back on.
Gatomon had managed to find a cactus-like plant covered with these spiny fruits. If it hadn't been for her, we never would've been able to get at them. She had stabbed several of them onto her claws, and shaken all the spines off.
The fruit had to be one of the most delicious things I'd ever tasted. Even though it had had spines all over it, it was this kind of pale orange color that hid a sweet-tasting center. It kind of reminded me of those little Sweetarts candies that you get in the stores.
Even though the air was much cooler at night, we were still on alert. It meant that predators would be coming out. I didn't want to find out just how mean those guys were.
Yet, I felt safe. Gatomon was here and so were Koushiro and Tentomon. I was kinda scared, but I wasn't terrified. The feeling reminded me of when Tai would tell me everything was all right after I'd had a nightmare.
Thinking of Tai made me miss him. I wondered how he and the others were doing. I bet he was hopping mad when I jumped off the train like that. I wondered if he was still mad. Or if he was extremely worried.
'But that's one of the reasons why I did it,' I reminded myself.
I have to admit that I had two selfish reasons for jumping off that train. Well, two selfish reasons and one desire to help Tentomon get free. I believed in Koushiro's abilities, like he'd said he believed in mine, but I had been worried that Tentomon and Koushiro might get hurt by Redvegiemon.
My two selfish reasons were that I wanted to prove to Tai that I could take care of myself without him and I wanted to be near Koushiro.
You see, I kinda have this crush on him…
"I'm sure Tai and the others are fine," Gatomon whispered, somehow reading my mind.
I smiled at her and she smiled back. It's kinda weird, but it's almost like we can read each other's minds sometimes.
I yawned, feeling sleepy. I wasn't used to staying up this late walking. Koushiro slowed down a little with Tentomon.
After exchanging a quick look with Tentomon, he told me, "I apologize for pushing you so hard, Kari, but I don't like the feel of this desert. We were lucky Gatomon found that fruit and we saved some, but eventually our supplies will run out."
I smiled. "It's okay. I understand. I just need time to get used to late-night walking."
Koushiro did that smile with his eyes again. It's like he only smiles for Tentomon, Gatomon, and I. I don't completely understand why, but it makes me feel good.
Is that selfish, too?
~@~
We continued to walk late into the night. Gatomon was falling asleep on her feet. Tentomon looked about the same as he flew. I was the walking dead…or so it felt like. Even Koushiro looked tired.
I heard Koushiro ask himself, "A bus station?"
I looked up to see this bench with an overhang. It was out in the middle of nowhere…but that bench sure looked good right now.
"This'll be the perfect place to sleep for the rest of tonight and into tomorrow," Koushiro suggested.
I sat down on the bench and closed my eyes. Gatomon curled up beside my feet. I heard Tentomon land and Koushiro sit down.
Within moments, I fell asleep.
~@~
I slept for hours. The overhang provided just enough shade so daylight never really hit my eyelids. Someone moved beside me, shaking me a little on accident. I slowly opened my eyes.
"Is it time to get up already?" I muttered, not quite awake.
"Sorry, Kari," Koushiro's cold voice apologized.
I woke up completely to find myself leaning against Koushiro, just like I had done yesterday morning. I looked around and noticed that the sun was high in the sky.
"Try to get a little more sleep. We'll be walking during the night again."
"What about you?"
Koushiro didn't answer for a full minute before he said, "I'm going back to sleep in a few minutes. I need to check something on my computer."
I closed my eyes and listened to the quick "click-click-click" noise of Koushiro's fingers rapidly pressing down the keys on his laptop. I briefly wondered how much of a battery charge he had left on that thing, but was still a little too sleepy to ask. Besides, it would've been rude. After a few more minutes, I heard the "click" as he shut the laptop.
Soon afterwards, I fell asleep again.
~@~
"-ri! Kari! Kari!" Gatomon's voice shouted to me.
I woke up to see her worried blue eyes in my face. I gave a slight yelp before she leaned away from my face. She was perched on the back of the bench. I was lying flat on the bench's seat.
My Digimon friend sighed with relief. "You scared me there for a while!"
"Why?"
"You got really hot and you wouldn't wake up…"
That's when I noticed that I felt a little sore. What had happened to me?
Koushiro leaned over towards me and put a bare hand on my forehead. He frowned slightly for a minute.
"Your fever's gone down since the air got colder, but I still don't like it…"
I sat up and quickly realized what was wrong. I could've kicked myself.
You see, I hadn't come to the Digiworld from summer camp with the others because I hadn't gone to summer camp. I'd come down with a cold (or so my parents told me) that prevented me from going. I must've been having a relapse.
"You feeling all right?" Tentomon asked, concerned.
I nodded. "I just feel a little sore."
Koushiro shook his head. "That's probably left over from last night, but that might be a symptom of the flu or something."
I visibly jerked, realizing something. How long had Koushiro been living here? Would he get sick?
As if reading my mind, Koushiro reassured me, "I had all my flu shots before I left for the Digiworld."
"How long ago was that?"
"Uh…16 digi-years ago. I don't know how long that is in Earth time." He looked up at Tentomon. "Up for a little night flight?"
Tentomon nodded.
I immediately argued, "I can walk."
He looked at me sternly. "I have no doubt that you can walk. However, we don't want any Digimon to get any ideas on a quick meal. I've been thinking about this all day before I learned you were sick. We're safer in the air than on the ground."
"Not to mention the view will be better," Tentomon commented.
I laughed at Tentomon's joke, but coughed a little bit. Gatomon smiled, but she was obviously slightly concerned. I wasn't as bad as I had seen some people be, but she didn't know that. I gave her a reassuring smile.
"Besides, a little extra rest will be just what the doctor ordered," Tentomon said before Koushiro could speak.
I thought about it for a moment. They hadn't been planning this because I was sick. They'd been planning this because it was dangerous walking through the desert at night. It was a good idea to go by air…Besides, it would be kinda nice to see what the desert looked like from above.
"What if the Digimon need to fight?" I asked.
"We'll take Kabuterimon. Gatomon has had more experience which makes her invaluable in a fight. By taking Kabuterimon, we leave her with enough energy to digivolve to Angewomon if necessary," Koushiro answered easily.
"Let's go!" I cheerfully yelled before breaking into a new coughing fit.
Tentomon digivolved to Kabuterimon and stood still as we climbed onto his back. Soon, we were high above the desert, flying towards what looked like city lights in the distance. I sat next to Koushiro with Gatomon on my lap.
I was incredibly happy that Koushiro had given me a chance to take care of myself and make my own decisions. I couldn't help noticing the difference between Tai and Koushiro. Tai would've made all the decisions for me, but he did that out of love, and I'm glad he cares enough to do that. Koushiro let me make my own decisions, but also made sure that I didn't do anything stupid.
That's how I wish my brother would treat me. Maybe some day, he will.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: Can I get any more cheesy?!?!