Disclaimer: it bore me to do this disclaimer thing.... but I guess I don't have choice. Digimon don't belong to me...

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A tale of four Children

Chapter 4 - Song of a river

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"Can't we stop? My feet are hurting!"

Daisuke sighed. Veemon was right. It was hard to take care of a princess.

"We've only walked two hours!"

"It's enough for me to get hurt! I'm not used to this yet!"

A point for Hikari. They traveled together for three days, and she was less and less complaining. But she was still complaining a lot, and Daisuke had to be very patient, along with Veemon and Gatomon. And they were now walking through a large plain in the middle of Erania's territory. It was a beautiful land, with wild flowers, grass, digimon everywhere, and right now they were following a river with a deep shade of blue. It made Hikari very happy because she loved staring at the water and listening to the noises it made. Gatomon and Veemon were always trying to push the other in the water and when one of them managed it was making the rest of the group laugh.

"Do you know the legend that belong to this river?" asked Hikari.

"No, tell me. I've always loved stories like this."

"My grandma told me there is a creature who lives here, near this blue river. It is a mermaid. A very gorgeous one. The legend say she have long and beautiful pink hair that shines like the sun and a long and green tail, like one a fish would have. When the sun is setting or rising, she leaves the water and stands on a rock, above the water. Then she sings, and her voice would make every guy completly crazy for her."

"Sounds interesting."

Hikari winked at her friend's reaction.

"When men hear her songs, they jump into the river to swim to her and a whirlpool appear and swallow them all."

It made him laugh.

"It's a good legend, but I don't think it was true."

"I'll tell you something: me neither. I've never seen or heard any mermaid's voice here. And I don't like that girl who just sings and makes men fall for her!"

"Jealous, aren't we?"

"I?Jealous? I can sing as well as her!"

And to illustrate her point, she started singing a popular song in her country. But it was horribly wrong and her three friends covered their ears, pleading her to stop. She did with a laugh.

"Finally, I think she sings better than me."

She glanced at Daisuke and found him staring at the sky. She followed his gaze.

"Oh my, I sing so bad I make big darks clouds and rain?"

A few drops fell on her face.

"We should find somewhere to go before the storm burst out!"

"Storm? How do you know that, Hikari?"

"Don't know. Just know. Come on, let's find somewhere to hide!"

They looked around, but there was nothing but grass in view. They began running, and the rain pouded harder every minute. A crack of thunder made them run even faster. Suddenly Hikari stopped.

"Here!" she shouted.

Rain was making the landscape grey and they could barely see where their feet where. However, Hikari indicated her friends a rock standing in the river.

"If we jump on it, ther will be a few others after, and they will lead us to a cave! Hurry up!"

She jumped on the first stone and soon disappeared in the mist. Gatomon followed her closely, then it was Daisuke and Veemon's turn. Hikari had told them the truth: there was a cave at the end of the slippery rocks. Daisuke lit up his fingers.

"Cool! We're safe in here!"

Veemon looked around.

"There's nothing to burn here!"

"I can't hold this flame up as long as this storm is out!"

A loud noide of thunder resonated between the dark walls of the cavern and the rain was making a lot of noise. Still holding a little flame, Daisuke leaned against the wall, sitting up. Kari did the same, and each one took their digimon in their lap.

"So, what do we do now?"

"We wait."

"It can last a few hours, can't it?"

"It can."

"Cool."

Daisuke opened his bag, took out the book he had with him since the very beginning. He flipped the pages, and Hikari watched as he was chosing his way in the book. He finally found what he was looking for. He cleared his throat.

"If you're lost in the dark, let the light lead you, if you're lost in the night, day will find you!"

After this few words, it was as clear in the cavern than in the middle of the day.

"It will last one hour or two." said Daisuke casually.

"You do know how to cast spells?"

"Yes, lady Hikari, don't you?"

"I guess I never tried..."

"You can, now. I have a whole book full of spells for the four of us."

"The four of us? How did you find it?"

"Some old wizard gave it to me. The first one who called me 'child of Fire'."

"But why you and not me or the others?"

"Because I'm the one who shall bring the four Children together!" he said proudly.

"Yes, but water is stronger than fire. Si I'm stronger than you!"

"Maybe. But fire is stronger than earth. And earth is stronger than wind. And wind is stronger than water!"

"So there is no stronger in the group."

"No. We're all equals. We all need eachother and we have to stay friends and not to hurt eachother."

"You know, you're so stupid sometimes, but you can be so much mature other times."

"Oh yeah? And which side do you prefer?"

"I think I like both."

"Cool."

Time passed, and the four of them stayed silent, sleeping or just listening to the rain pounding against the rock. An hour, maybe two passed. Daisuke cast his spell again. He was begining to drift into sleep when a sound linked him back to the reality.

"Hey, have you heard that?"

He turned his head towards Veemon, but he was sleeping. And so were Hikari and Gatomon. Daisuke listened carefully and he heard the rain stopping slowly. And that sound, again. But it was clearer. Clear like water, smooth, blissful, peaceful, beautiful... He was running out of words. He had to know what was this sound. He had to know what was this voice.

As a mechanical thing he walked out of the cavern, jumping easily on the rocks. When he stood at the middle of the river, a bright sun was shining, and he saw a shadow. A chinese shadow. Something, somebody, he didn't really know. But his vision was blurry, too far away. And it was standing in the middle of the river, still producing this marvelous voice. His only choice was swimming, so he purposely slipped of his rock and fell in the water, swimming to this fantastic and beautiful and perfect creature who held such a fantastic and beautiful and perfect voice.

His brain was in a total mist, and he couldn't think anymore. He didn't even protested when water played with him and sent him where he wasn't heading. He stopped swimming, and the last things he saw were... a beautiful and marvelous strand of pink hair and a rainbow. Then the water took over his mind and body.

*

Hikari woke up with a curious feeling. A feeling of void. Like when somebody is missing. And she soon noticed Daisuke was the one missing. But strangely Veemon was still here. And for the time she knew the boys, she was sure Daisuke would never go anywhere without his pal. That's why she began to worry. She woke up Gatomon and Veemon.

"Guys! Daisuke is gone! Don't you know where?"

"Dai is what?" Veemon asked sleepily.

"Gone!"

"He'd never do that without me!"

"He did."

"Huh?"

The three got up and walked out of the cavern. Hikari, the first outside, gasped in surprise and horror at what she saw, and what she heard. She just saw a bright sun shining into some pink hair and a whirlpool that was carrying Daisuke away. She heard a voice, a beautiful voice, she couldn't ever dreamed it could exist. Then she heard a splash next to her. Veemon was in the water too.

"Oh no, Veemon is a boy too! He's going to be swallowed by the whirlwind!"

Hikari and Gatomon followed him, and Daisuke's head disappeared underwater.

"Gatomon, go get Veemon. I'll get Daisuke!"

Then she took a deep breath and pulled underwater. Luckily the river was clear and she easily saw a human body, sinking deeper and deeper. She rushed to him but she was already out of breath when she reached him. It would have been too dangerous for him to come out and breath before leading him outside, so she gathered all her courage and took his hand, carrying him near the surface, fighting against the whirlwind. It was way too difficult and she felt she had to breath. Thinking it was the end, she released all the air she had in her lungs and let them fill in with water, hoping it wouldn't be a too painful death, and begging Daisuke to forbid her when they'll be reunited in paradise.

To her major surprise she found out she could breath underwater. Not believing it at first, she breathed some water like she'd breathed air, it actually worked. She was practically jumping for joy but she remembered Daisuke hadn't this power and that he was still unconscious. Fighting again against the whirlpool she managed to reach the surface, and pulled Daisuke's head overwater. She heard that damn voice again, but not caring where it was coming from, she did all she could to lead her friend to the river's side. When she did, the voice stopped.

"Guess I made her angry..."

Gatomon was kneeling near an unconscious Veemon. She half-smiled at Hikari. They both stared at the creature behind them.

"I never thought this legend was true..." Gatomon whispered.

"How do you dare taking my men away from me?" came a high voice. This voice was coming from a rock over the water. Sitting on it was the exact mermaid Hikari had told in her story. A green tail, some long and fabulous pink hair. But what she forgot was her bright honey eyes. And she looked furious.

"They are not your men! They are free to belong to whoever they want, or not to belong at all!"

"I do what I want with them!"

"No you don't! What's your name anyway, stupid mermaid?"

"I'm not a stupid mermaid and my name is Mimi! I'm not stupid, I'm clever! I want people to talk about me, to know me, so I beacame popular using this kind of amusement. And now, people fear me! I feel so proud!"

"You're mad. Let me clear your ideas."

She blasted some water to Mimi's face. She wiped her eyes.

"I see, a watery witch. We had to battle then!"

She snapped her fingers and columns of water got up around her.

"Go!" she shouted, pointing at Hikari. Then the columns rushed into her. Gatomon, as fast as she was, pushed her friend out of the way. The blast hit Daisuke and he woke up. He groaned as he sat up.

"What's up here?" he asked, noticing his wet clothes, and Hikari running around with Gatomon, chased by some flying water.

"I must be dreaming!" he said, shaking his head. But no, he wasn't, and some pink haired mermaid was really attacking Hikari and Gatomon.

"Hikari, stop running! Don't be such a coward! Fight! I don't know how she got this water to run for you, but you can do the same! Try!"

Mimi jerked her head to glare at him, and he was almost paralyzed by this look. Seeing her ennemy inattentive, Hikari snapped her fingers and pointed at her. Immediatly, the water from the river stood up to fight her, and hit her right in the stomach. She fell from her rock, but didn't stay underwater for long. Then Gatomon jumped high in the air.

"It's my turn! Gatomon digivole to... Sirenamon!"

The tiny body of Gatomon turned to be a woman's with long gold hair, a long helmet that covered her eyes, and a blue tail. She was two times bigger than Mimi. Her hands were webbed.

"She's cool!" Veemon, just waken up by Daisuke, said.

Even Hikari was speechless in front of her partner's digivolution.

Sirenamon landed in the water just next to Mimi and the two mermaids, human and digimon, started to battle, with Hikari's cheerings. But Sirenamon wasn't very strong for her first digivolution and she was almost beaten by Mimi's anger. Chosing the right moment, Daisuke launched a fire ball into her hair. The mermaid screamed and disappeared underwater: when she came back to the surface, she gasped in horror as she saw her ruined hair. She shrieked even more and disappeared. Sirenamon turned back into Gatomon and swam to Hikari.

"I don't think she's going to come back soon!" Daisuke said, laughing out loud.

"Hey, my legend was true after all!"

"You said yourself you didn't believe it!"

"I take back those words."

Daisuke stayed still a moment, thinking about how he just had been fooled by a stupid mermaid. Hikari, just looking at his face, understood. She was about to tease him about that, but she changed her mind.

"Right. So now, where are we going?"

He came back into the cave to take his bag, and slipped out a map.

"We're here... I think. If we head east, we'll soon be in the middle of a desert, then we'll arrive to the sea... And then, we'll think of others things to do."

"A desert? You're sure?" Hikari said, a little shaking.

"Don't worry, with you, we can always have something to drink!"

"Yeah. Anyway, you didn't tell me I could breath underwater!"

He looked at her with wide eyes.

"You can breath underwater?"

"How do you think I rescued you?"

"Hum, thank you. And it must be your powers that grow up."

"Great."

"So, what are we waiting for? I'm dying to know the others Children!" she said laughing, and she pushed him on the way.