Chapter 1
"Tai, get over here! You have got to see this!"
Taichi Kamiya, leader of the Digidestined, would have been happy under any other circumstances to hear the voice calling him from a few trees away. These particular circumstances, however, were not his cup of tea. He quickly closed the pocketknife in his hands, a fifteenth birthday present from his granddad that he rarely used, and stowed it in his pocket.
"Tai? Where are you?" Footsteps sounded on the crunching groundcover of dead leaves.
"Oh, great," he muttered, thinking fast. The footsteps were coming closer. Beginning to panic, Tai glanced back at the lines etched in the tree's bark. "She can't see this!" Inspiration dawned just in time; he struck a 'casual' pose, his arm leaning against the tree and covering his handiwork.
Only *just* in time; at that moment, his best friend Sora Takenouchi appeared from behind a bush.
"What have you been up to?" she said sternly, her by-now keen eyes immediately catching the "I-did-something-I-shouldn't-have" that his posture was broadcasting as clearly as if it was written on the hapless boy's forehead. Knowing someone for all of one's remembered life, she reflected, teaches you a lot about their body language.
Tai gulped. "Um, nothing...you wanted to show me something?"
"Yes," Sora said guardedly, now scanning the area for damage. Nothing seemed out of place... Then she spotted the weird position of his arm. He was covering something! She grinned, and walked to a clear viewing distance. "Why don't we go look at it right now?"
"Um..." Tai said, treed like a tree toad in a tree. How to get out of this? Not a good situation, not a good situation at all...
"Well?" Sora said, calmly waiting for him to step away from the tree.
"Uhm...why don't you go first, and...um...look for...stuff? While I catch up?"
"Nothing doing, Taichi Kamiya," Sora said, crossing her arms. No point in being roundabout. "What's on the tree?"
"Uh...bark?"
A true Taiism. Sora gave him a Look, and reached for his arm...
"Sora? Are you coming, or what? We need your help!"
Saved by the sister. Tai let out a sigh of relief. Giving him a glare that said "We'll-finish-this-later", Sora stalked off into the brush in the direction of Kari's voice.
"Coming?" she said dryly. He shrugged and followed her.
Behind him, out of Sora's sight, the bark of the tree was left exposed, the newly carved lines pale orange-pink against the dark brown of the untouched bark.
The characters for 'Taichi' and 'Sora' stood immortalized in the tree bark, nestled in an unfinished heart. The sentiment was sincere, but the suddenly terminated lines of the frame bore an eerily prophetic resemblance...to a broken heart.
Hurrying into sight, Tai and Sora crashed through the brush, back to the place where Kari was kneeling with Izzy nearby. The younger girl looked up as they made their entrance, looking genuinely confused.
"Tai! What took you so long? Wait until you see this..."
"Come give this a once-over and tell me what you think of it, Tai," Izzy said seriously from his perch on a log. Puzzled, Tai joined Kari at this mysterious site and leaned over to look.
A shallow trench had been carved in the ground, oddly square at the edges, with a smooth, flat, slightly tilted bottom and sides of hard-packed brown earth. The top of it was bridged by a slightly collapsed web of grass roots and grass, as though...
"It's like something was sitting here for a long time, and then just...vanished," Tai said softly, surprise edging his voice. "How-"
"We don't know," Izzy answered, interrupting the question. "But there's something definitely wrong with this area, just like that scan said."
Remembering the strange anomaly that had been picked up by their Digivices that morning, Tai frowned. "You think it was caused by...whatever that thing was?"
"I'm making an educated guess that it probably was. And this trench isn't the only one. Look around."
Tai obliged. The vicinity of the trench was crisscrossed with more trenches, all about the same shape and size.
"I don't get it..." he said, confused.
"Tai!"
Tai's head came up as Sora's cry floated from just out of sight behind a stand of trees. He hadn't realized that she'd wandered off. A loud crash reached his ears.
"Tai, help!" Her voice had risen to a scream. He leapt to his feet and followed the sound of her voice, with Izzy and Kari at his heels...
Bursting through the trees, he spotted her backed against a forest giant of a tree several feet away, fear running rampant in her eyes. An enormous yellow shape was between them, coming menacingly closer to her as she tried to edge away.
A Tortomon.
"Sora!" he yelled. Another inspiration hit him. "Hey, you big ugly pile of rocks! Over here!" The Tortomon and Sora both froze, and turned to look at him. Something was wrong with the Digimon's eyes...they looked clouded, and dark. Before he could reflect much more on this, it began to lumber toward him at an elephantine gallop that shook the ground and ate up the distance in seconds. He had just enough time to realize that it was going to crush him like a Tai-kebob against the branches of the trees he'd just come through, and that he didn't have enough reaction time to escape...
Suddenly, mere inches from him, the body of the Digimon jerked, convulsing strangely. It let out a bellow, its hot breath washing against Tai's face, and collapsed, twitching spasmodically. Lifting its head, it roared once more at Tai, and he realized with a shiver that its eyes were insane. Then it crumpled into a rocky yellow heap, and reformatted in a wash of white light.
For a frozen moment, Tai stared at the place where it had been. A shudder ran down his spine, and he sat down hard in the grass.
"Tai!"
With the power to move restored to her now that the danger had passed, Sora sprinted across the little clearing and fell to her knees next to him.
"Tai, are you okay? Say something!" She shook him, and he blinked and let out a little strangled sound, still in shock.
"That...thing...was going to kill you," he whispered.
"It almost killed *you*!" Sora said, her face still pale. "I was just walking through here, and it came bashing out of the trees...I tripped, I couldn't get away...it was crazy! Tai, it wanted me dead!" She paused, and met his eyes.
"What you just did was the bravest thing anybody has ever done for me, Taichi Kamiya," she said, beginning to cry. Slowly thawing from his fear, Tai awkwardly gave her a hug.
"Shh," he said, trying to be reassuring. "I couldn't let it get you. If you died, where would I find someone to confuse me? You're so good at it, you know."
Sora laughed weakly. "Yeah, that's my job right there. Best friends forever, huh?"
Tai nodded. "Best friends forever."
Smiling, Sora sniffled, choked back a few tears, and swallowed hard, pulling away with a recovering smile just as Izzy and Kari came crashing through the trees behind them.
"What happened?" Izzy demanded, looking around at the crushed bushes and deep ruts in the earth that the Tortomon had carved in its headlong rush at Tai. The trail of destruction curved away between the trees into the distance, and a sharp turn in it marked where the Tortomon had veered off from its path to attack Sora.
Kari rushed over to her brother, looking terrified for him.
"Tai!" she cried. He looked up, suddenly very tired.
"Hi, Kari. I'm fine, don't mind me..." He blinked and swayed slightly, wincing as a bruise on his leg made its presence known. "It's been a...strange day," he sighed.
"Whatever happened, it's over now," Izzy proclaimed, "and you both look tired. You got a bad scare, didn't you?"
"You could say that," Sora said wryly, rubbing at her arm where she'd landed in her fall.
"What you both need is a place to lie down," Kari said with a sigh. "I'd be tired too. Let's go home."
"Hold on!" Izzy said, looking alarmed. "I left my laptop back there!"
"We can come back for it," Kari said sensibly.
"But...what if it rains?" Izzy protested, the tone of his voice stating that this would be a disaster on a par with the Titanic, or perhaps even the Apocalypse.
"Oh, all right, go get it...but hurry back!" Kari said, helping the dizzy two to their feet. "I'm heading for the Digiport with Tai and Sora. The others can find their way home on their own."
"Right," Izzy said, and sped off in the direction of the mysterious trenches.
Shrugging, the other three started for the nearest Digiport.
Unknown to them, a creeping fog stirred in the shadows around them as they passed, and began to drift after them...
"Tai, get over here! You have got to see this!"
Taichi Kamiya, leader of the Digidestined, would have been happy under any other circumstances to hear the voice calling him from a few trees away. These particular circumstances, however, were not his cup of tea. He quickly closed the pocketknife in his hands, a fifteenth birthday present from his granddad that he rarely used, and stowed it in his pocket.
"Tai? Where are you?" Footsteps sounded on the crunching groundcover of dead leaves.
"Oh, great," he muttered, thinking fast. The footsteps were coming closer. Beginning to panic, Tai glanced back at the lines etched in the tree's bark. "She can't see this!" Inspiration dawned just in time; he struck a 'casual' pose, his arm leaning against the tree and covering his handiwork.
Only *just* in time; at that moment, his best friend Sora Takenouchi appeared from behind a bush.
"What have you been up to?" she said sternly, her by-now keen eyes immediately catching the "I-did-something-I-shouldn't-have" that his posture was broadcasting as clearly as if it was written on the hapless boy's forehead. Knowing someone for all of one's remembered life, she reflected, teaches you a lot about their body language.
Tai gulped. "Um, nothing...you wanted to show me something?"
"Yes," Sora said guardedly, now scanning the area for damage. Nothing seemed out of place... Then she spotted the weird position of his arm. He was covering something! She grinned, and walked to a clear viewing distance. "Why don't we go look at it right now?"
"Um..." Tai said, treed like a tree toad in a tree. How to get out of this? Not a good situation, not a good situation at all...
"Well?" Sora said, calmly waiting for him to step away from the tree.
"Uhm...why don't you go first, and...um...look for...stuff? While I catch up?"
"Nothing doing, Taichi Kamiya," Sora said, crossing her arms. No point in being roundabout. "What's on the tree?"
"Uh...bark?"
A true Taiism. Sora gave him a Look, and reached for his arm...
"Sora? Are you coming, or what? We need your help!"
Saved by the sister. Tai let out a sigh of relief. Giving him a glare that said "We'll-finish-this-later", Sora stalked off into the brush in the direction of Kari's voice.
"Coming?" she said dryly. He shrugged and followed her.
Behind him, out of Sora's sight, the bark of the tree was left exposed, the newly carved lines pale orange-pink against the dark brown of the untouched bark.
The characters for 'Taichi' and 'Sora' stood immortalized in the tree bark, nestled in an unfinished heart. The sentiment was sincere, but the suddenly terminated lines of the frame bore an eerily prophetic resemblance...to a broken heart.
Hurrying into sight, Tai and Sora crashed through the brush, back to the place where Kari was kneeling with Izzy nearby. The younger girl looked up as they made their entrance, looking genuinely confused.
"Tai! What took you so long? Wait until you see this..."
"Come give this a once-over and tell me what you think of it, Tai," Izzy said seriously from his perch on a log. Puzzled, Tai joined Kari at this mysterious site and leaned over to look.
A shallow trench had been carved in the ground, oddly square at the edges, with a smooth, flat, slightly tilted bottom and sides of hard-packed brown earth. The top of it was bridged by a slightly collapsed web of grass roots and grass, as though...
"It's like something was sitting here for a long time, and then just...vanished," Tai said softly, surprise edging his voice. "How-"
"We don't know," Izzy answered, interrupting the question. "But there's something definitely wrong with this area, just like that scan said."
Remembering the strange anomaly that had been picked up by their Digivices that morning, Tai frowned. "You think it was caused by...whatever that thing was?"
"I'm making an educated guess that it probably was. And this trench isn't the only one. Look around."
Tai obliged. The vicinity of the trench was crisscrossed with more trenches, all about the same shape and size.
"I don't get it..." he said, confused.
"Tai!"
Tai's head came up as Sora's cry floated from just out of sight behind a stand of trees. He hadn't realized that she'd wandered off. A loud crash reached his ears.
"Tai, help!" Her voice had risen to a scream. He leapt to his feet and followed the sound of her voice, with Izzy and Kari at his heels...
Bursting through the trees, he spotted her backed against a forest giant of a tree several feet away, fear running rampant in her eyes. An enormous yellow shape was between them, coming menacingly closer to her as she tried to edge away.
A Tortomon.
"Sora!" he yelled. Another inspiration hit him. "Hey, you big ugly pile of rocks! Over here!" The Tortomon and Sora both froze, and turned to look at him. Something was wrong with the Digimon's eyes...they looked clouded, and dark. Before he could reflect much more on this, it began to lumber toward him at an elephantine gallop that shook the ground and ate up the distance in seconds. He had just enough time to realize that it was going to crush him like a Tai-kebob against the branches of the trees he'd just come through, and that he didn't have enough reaction time to escape...
Suddenly, mere inches from him, the body of the Digimon jerked, convulsing strangely. It let out a bellow, its hot breath washing against Tai's face, and collapsed, twitching spasmodically. Lifting its head, it roared once more at Tai, and he realized with a shiver that its eyes were insane. Then it crumpled into a rocky yellow heap, and reformatted in a wash of white light.
For a frozen moment, Tai stared at the place where it had been. A shudder ran down his spine, and he sat down hard in the grass.
"Tai!"
With the power to move restored to her now that the danger had passed, Sora sprinted across the little clearing and fell to her knees next to him.
"Tai, are you okay? Say something!" She shook him, and he blinked and let out a little strangled sound, still in shock.
"That...thing...was going to kill you," he whispered.
"It almost killed *you*!" Sora said, her face still pale. "I was just walking through here, and it came bashing out of the trees...I tripped, I couldn't get away...it was crazy! Tai, it wanted me dead!" She paused, and met his eyes.
"What you just did was the bravest thing anybody has ever done for me, Taichi Kamiya," she said, beginning to cry. Slowly thawing from his fear, Tai awkwardly gave her a hug.
"Shh," he said, trying to be reassuring. "I couldn't let it get you. If you died, where would I find someone to confuse me? You're so good at it, you know."
Sora laughed weakly. "Yeah, that's my job right there. Best friends forever, huh?"
Tai nodded. "Best friends forever."
Smiling, Sora sniffled, choked back a few tears, and swallowed hard, pulling away with a recovering smile just as Izzy and Kari came crashing through the trees behind them.
"What happened?" Izzy demanded, looking around at the crushed bushes and deep ruts in the earth that the Tortomon had carved in its headlong rush at Tai. The trail of destruction curved away between the trees into the distance, and a sharp turn in it marked where the Tortomon had veered off from its path to attack Sora.
Kari rushed over to her brother, looking terrified for him.
"Tai!" she cried. He looked up, suddenly very tired.
"Hi, Kari. I'm fine, don't mind me..." He blinked and swayed slightly, wincing as a bruise on his leg made its presence known. "It's been a...strange day," he sighed.
"Whatever happened, it's over now," Izzy proclaimed, "and you both look tired. You got a bad scare, didn't you?"
"You could say that," Sora said wryly, rubbing at her arm where she'd landed in her fall.
"What you both need is a place to lie down," Kari said with a sigh. "I'd be tired too. Let's go home."
"Hold on!" Izzy said, looking alarmed. "I left my laptop back there!"
"We can come back for it," Kari said sensibly.
"But...what if it rains?" Izzy protested, the tone of his voice stating that this would be a disaster on a par with the Titanic, or perhaps even the Apocalypse.
"Oh, all right, go get it...but hurry back!" Kari said, helping the dizzy two to their feet. "I'm heading for the Digiport with Tai and Sora. The others can find their way home on their own."
"Right," Izzy said, and sped off in the direction of the mysterious trenches.
Shrugging, the other three started for the nearest Digiport.
Unknown to them, a creeping fog stirred in the shadows around them as they passed, and began to drift after them...