A Little Side Adventure

Episode Two: New Friends

By Shelli-Jo Pelletier

(ussfantasy@hotmail.com)

***************

Sarith trotted beside Biyomon and Sora, happily chatting with the two and reflecting on the circumstances. She was glad to make new friends, and amazed that humans could be so nice! Brell always said that you should never let them see you in your true form, but he was old and even stuffier than Tok was. He did make a good teacher, though. She learned how to fly under his tutelage, and she could sense wind currents better than anyone.

The boy with brown hair and the little pink Digimon were walking in front of them, leading the way. Well, the boy did most of the walking. For some reason he wouldn't put the little pink Digimon down. It's probably hard to walk with no legs, she mused.

Behind them Tok was stamping along, grumbling. He insisted on walking in the back so that none of the humans could sneak up on him. She thought he was being silly, but that was Tok. He was such a worrywart. Brell would have been proud. The shorter human boy and the insect Digimon were also back there, trying to get Tok to answer some questions. They weren't succeeding very well. She cocked a pointed ear back to listen.

"—so if you're not Digimon, you must have arrived in this world in a way similar to ours. And if you can leave again, I would really appreciate it if we could possibly discuss some ways. . . ." the human boy trailed off, and Sarith could just imagine Tok's look. She couldn't bite back a giggle.

"What is it?" asked Biyomon.

"I don't think Tok is cooperating with your friend."

Sora glance back at him and Izzy gave her a shrug.

A young boy's voice piped up far ahead of them, drifting to Sarith's ears through the still air and distracting her. "Look, Tai and the others are back! And they've got people with them!" There were other voices too. Sarith tried to see what was ahead of them, but Tai was in the way.

A very little human, dressed in green with blond hair under a helmet and bright blue eyes, ran up to meet them, followed by a little white rabbit Digimon with long ears. "Hi!" he said. "I'm T.K. and this is Tokomon. Who're you?"

Sarith grinned. "My name's Sarith. This is Tok, my brother." She turned and urged him to step up beside her. He did, grudgingly.

"Wow! I've got a brother too!" By this time everyone had clustered around in a big circle. T.K. pointed to a taller human boy that had the same hair and eyes as he did. "That's my big brother Matt. Hey Matt, Sarith's got a brother too!"

He was eyeing both of the lizard-like creatures. "I heard."

Tai made some hasty explanations about finding the two of them, then everybody settled down onto the ground, Tai on one side of the two newcomers and Sora on the other. Next on the agenda was introducing everyone. It took a bit of time, but eventually they all knew each other's name. Then Sarith, in the spirit of trust, offered to tell her and Tok's story first.

"Sarith!" he objected sharply. The possibility of fourteen against two was making him slightly uneasy.

Skillfully ignoring her sibling, Sarith stretched out comfortably on her stomach in the sand and began.

"As I said before, we're on vacation. Brell—he's our teacher—gave us the week off. But we have to be back in a week, or we'll get in trouble. Tok heard of this really cool place connected to Earth, so we decided to come here and check it out. . . ." She looked around at all the blank faces and chuckled. "Oh my. You all have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"Just what are you two?" Izzy queried. "If you're not Digimon, and you're obviously not human."

Sarith paused, thinking. "Oh, what's that word? There's something you call us . . . it's . . . it's . . . oh, I know! Aliens!" she exclaimed proudly. "That's it! We're aliens!"

Everyone stared. Izzy's mouth was hanging open. "I knew it," he muttered faintly into the stunned silence, blinking a few times. "I just knew it."

"They're going to mutate into slimy things and eat us any second now," moaned Joe. "I just know it."

Tok didn't like where this was going. "What's wrong?" he demanded, worried and suddenly remembering that sometimes humans overreacted about things like this. "That's the correct term, isn't it? Someone not from your nation or your world? Alien?"

T.K. hugged Tokomon to his chest. "Do you mean you're from outer space?"

"Well, another planet," Sarith clarified. "It's not even moving around your sun. It's somewhere else, far away. But we like to go to other planets and meet new people. It's fun!"

"How do you do it?" Izzy asked eagerly. "Can you travel faster than the speed of light?"

Tok snorted and rolled his eyes. "No," he shook his head impatiently. "We don't travel like humans think of traveling. Like, in math class you learn about going from point A to point B, right?" No one asked how he knew about what went on in their math classes. It didn't really seem important, given the circumstances. Besides, they were just as curious as Izzy now, and waiting to listen to Tok's answer. "The fastest way to get from point A to point B is to travel in a straight line from one to the other," the indigo creature stated. "But if you could just . . . ah, disappear from point A and reappear at point B, you wouldn't have to travel the line at all!" he finished triumphantly.

"Wow," was Gomamon's opinion. "Sounds a lot easier, all right."

"But how do you do that?" persisted the auburn-haired boy. "Have you developed technology that can do it?"

"No, no, no," laughed Sarith. "It's a part of us. We just do it. It's like breathing. Well, not really, because you have to learn how to do it, and you don't learn how to breathe. I guess it's like learning how to swim, or riding a bike. You just practice until you can do it."

"It sounds like magic!" Mimi blurted out.

The two aliens exchanged a look. "Exactly," they said at the same time.

Tai shrugged. "It sounds like something out of a TV show to me, but this is the Digiworld after all. Anything can happen."

"And does," added Koromon.

"So I guess that answers that. But then what are you guys? I mean, we know you're aliens, but you have to have a name for yourselves. Like, we're humans, and they're Digimon." The boy leader pointed to Koromon in his lap. "So what are you?"

Sarith opened her mouth to answer the question, but she was interrupted by Izzy, who was once again tapping away furiously at his laptop. "They're dragons," he announced.

Mimi looked at Sarith and Tok doubtfully. "They don't look like dragons to me," she told him.

"That's because they're not Japanese dragons," Izzy replied, turning his computer around so that everyone could see the screen. It was split down the middle, and on the left there was a black and white picture of a serpent-like creature that appeared to be flying, even though it had no wings. It seemed to have a mane around its head and streamers coming off of its body, including two that made it look as if it had a mustache. Two legs and a portion of a third could be seen bent at strange angles.

On the right was a mostly brown and orange beast, this one looking much more like Sarith and Tok. Shaped a lot like a big lizard or dinosaur, it had two wings with membranes and horns on its head. And big fangs.

"The dragons from our culture are Oriental dragons," Izzy explained. "They're usually depicted in legends as benevolent and very wise, and in tune with nature. The other one's a western dragon, from European myths. They're supposed to breathe fire and go around rampaging villages and eating people. Supposedly, they were quite evil."

"You're right, but those are just stories," Sarith was hasty to point out. "A long time ago dragons used to go to Earth a lot. It's a really pretty place! When humans saw us they made stories about us, but some of the stories were really bad. They said we killed people and awful things like that. I think they were afraid, because dragons are so much bigger than they are and can do things they can't. So we started hiding from humans whenever we went to Earth, and then they didn't believe we were real anymore. And now they think we're just imaginary. The grownups think it's better that way." She sighed regretfully.

"Can you really breathe fire?" Gabumon wanted to know.

Tok frowned. "Well . . . yes. But it's strictly for self-defense!"

"I could too, when I was Agumon," Koromon reminded everyone. Tai silently looked away.

"Wait a minute, you said 'grownups,'" Sora realized. "Are you guys kids, like us?"

"Of course!" giggled Sarith. "You'd know if we were grownups. We'd be much bigger."

There was more talk after that. Mostly from Sarith and Tok, describing the dragon way of life and what had happened between when they first entered Digiworld and now. Then Tok informed the Digi-Destined that it was their turn to spill the beans.

Tai started. He explained how they had all been at summer camp, and how they had been pulled from their world by a swirling vortex in the sky. The narration fascinated the two dragons, but they couldn't tell the kids anything more than they already knew. Then the brown-haired boy related how he had first encountered Koromon, and the others took turns remembering how they had met their own Digimon partners.

"And that was when Kuwagamon showed up," Mimi shivered, "and the Digimon digi-volved! Tanemon became Palmon, and the Digimon were able to defeat that bad old bug."

"Well, we fell off a cliff, really," admitted the plant Digimon modestly.

The recounting went on for a long time. By the time the kids had gotten through the defeat of Devimon, and the strange little guy named Gennai who had called them to Server, the sun was sitting low on the horizon. And everyone was hungry.

"So," Tai concluded, "now we've got to find out how to get rid of this evil monkey dude named Etemon, and what are we going to do about dinner?"

"There are coconuts, but they're up at the tops of the trees," Joe reported.

"No problem!" Biyomon and Tentomon announced at the same time.

"We'll help too!" Sarith offered. Tok growled softly, but didn't object. The four flyers took off with a flutter of wings.

"Electro Shocker!" Coconuts bounced down to the ground.

"Spiral Twister!" More fell.

Sarith and Tok combined efforts on a single tree, and the coconuts dropped like rain. The grounded of the group gathered up the fallen fruit and split them open, and there was more than enough to go around. Between the milk and the white pulp inside, no one was hungry for very long.

"This is yummy!" T.K. exclaimed. Tokomon agreed wholeheartedly, the whole front half of his little round body buried in a coconut shell as he licked the inside clean.

After dinner they talked some more and relaxed. Tok was gradually dropping his guard. After all, the fourteen had shared their history and their dinner with them, even after knowing who and what they were. The humans aren't so bad, he admitted privately to himself, watching Sarith and T.K. playing tag with Tokomon. And the Digimon are likeable too.

When Sarith had first seen the humans on the opposite bank, she had all been for flying across and saying hello. He had desperately pointed out that they were probably now coming to look for them, hoping to knock some sense into his sister. But it had the reverse effect, and Sarith immediately set out to fly around the edge and meet up with the strangers looking for them. He had caught up just in time to convince her to hide, but that certainly hadn't lasted very long.

Just because you don't sense any evil from someone doesn't mean you should just jump out and say hello, the dragon thought. But I can't deny that meeting up with these people has been a nice experience. And as a group we're stronger and safer than if Sarith and I were alone. . . .

"You're it!" giggled the mint green dragon, bumping into Gomamon and breaking Tok's train of thought. She galloped off in the other direction as the seal-like Digimon gave chase, and her brother couldn't help but chuckle.

Soon the sun set and one by one, the stars came out. The Digi-Destined, being city kids, had never seen so many stars before they came to Digiworld. Most of the time the bright city lights drowned out the night sky, but here they spread across the deep blue expanse like tiny jewels, winking and sparkling. A full moon rose, bathing the lake in its blue light.

"We should pick someone to be lookout and turn in," Matt voiced after a while. "It's getting pretty late."

Sarith looked over at the blond, interested. "A lookout?" she echoed. "What for?"

"Just in case we get attacked by digital camels," joked Tai, and there were tired chuckles. It was such a nice night, not too cold or windy, and the sixteen friends were enjoying themselves. When Matt explained about what had happened with Seadramon, Tok surprised his sister—and the others—by volunteering to take a turn at guard too.

So Joe and Gomamon settled in for an hour of vigil while the others got comfortable for the night. No fire was needed; it was plenty warm enough and the moon cast quite enough light to see by, reflected off the water.

"So Gomamon, know any good jokes?" murmured Joe quietly, not wanting to disturb the others.

"Sure," he answered cheerfully. "Okay, a Bakemon and a Numemon are walking in the woods, and the Bakemon says. . . ."

* * *

A gentle breeze blew by, bending Sarith's ears back slightly. She inhaled deeply with a smile on her face, then let it out in a content sigh. What a night to be alive.

The branch of the palm tree swayed under her as Tok landed, keeping his wings spread for balance as he returned from an airborne sweep of the area. Theirs was the last shift of the night. "What do you smell?" he asked softly, his blue-green eyes shining in the moonlight.

"Mostly sand," she grinned. "And water. If the wind shifts you can smell the humans and the Digimon. They smell funny. Makes my nose tickle when I think about it." She sniffed delicately.

He chuckled for the second time that night, and Sarith decided she liked it better then when he was snorting and rolling his eyes. It made him seem more grown up. As he settled down beside her, his words seemed to echo her thoughts. "If only Mom and Dad and Brell could see us now," he muttered with a shake of his head. "I don't know what they'd say."

"Aw, who cares?" she retorted. "I like our new friends. And besides, grownups are always such worrywarts. 'Don't talk to strangers,' 'don't let the natives see you,' 'don't go anywhere your not allowed,' don't do this, don't do that, don't blah blah blah." She made a face. "They don't let us have any fun!"

"Sarith, think for a minute. You're always running into situations without considering the consequences. What if these humans had been bad, like the Digimon on the ship? And we wouldn't have even had to deal with those Numemon or that Kokatorimon if you would have waited a minute and scanned for their intentions!" His words were a bit harsh, but his features were softened with worry.

Her face clouded over with the memory, and for a moment neither of them said anything. "Well," she finally mumbled, "at least now we know who that Etemon guy is."

Tok sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset."

"I know, I know. You're just looking out for me. I can take care of myself, you know."

"Yeah, just like you did on that ship!"

"I could have gotten loose!"

"Maybe."

"Huh." She looked away, annoyed and amused and touched all at once. If only Tok wasn't such a pain in the tail half the time. . . . She turned back to utter a witty reply, but the indigo-colored dragon was no longer paying attention to her. He was rigidly sitting upright, his ears perked straight up, head cocked to one side.

She recognized the seriousness of his posture. "What is it?" she whispered, listening as he was. She didn't hear anything, but something felt . . . wrong. She couldn't put it into words. Instead she looked around the landscape for something out of place, but nothing met her eyes either. The moon was setting, soon to slip below the horizon. Dawn would arrive shortly. Already the sky was lightening, the stars fading. Nothing moved out on the desert. "Tok?" He was always better at that sort of thing than she was.

"Shh," he warned. Now he was peering around, as if looking for anything she had missed. "Don't you feel it?"

"I feel something," the female breathed. "And I don't like it one bit. What is it, Tok?"

"Something bad. It's . . . I'm not sure. It's far away. But it's powerful, or else we wouldn't be able to pick it up. It's almost as if it's searching for. . . . Look, even the humans can feel it." He was now gazing down below, where the Digi-Destined and their Digimon slept. Before they had been dreaming peacefully, but now they tossed and turned, as if having nightmares. T.K. whimpered in his sleep and hugged Tokomon tightly. Tai muttered something about Devimon.

Sarith swallowed, beginning to feel frightened. Humans only had five senses as far as she knew, while dragons had six, including the ability to tell a being's evil or benevolence. She had no clue as to the Digimon, but if the Digi-Destined could subconsciously feel the malevolence in the air, it must be powerful indeed. "Should we wake them?"

"No." Tok shook his head. "They're humans. They wouldn't understand."

She tensed and spread her wings. "They're suffering," she growled, preparing to leap down. "I want to help them."

But he caught the end of her tail firmly in his mouth. "Don't move!" he hissed.

Glaring, she whipped her tail free. "What's your problem?"

He was ignoring her again. Looking out over the desert, he appeared to be deep in thought. A fierce expression of concentration crossed his face. Wondering and worried, Sarith settled down to wait for her brother to speak again.

The silence stretched out over a minute, then ten. Tok made no move and no sound, and barely appeared to be breathing. Sarith anxiously waited for a sign of life. She had never seen him act this way before. Several times she made as if to jump to the ground and wake the others, but each time she decided against it at the last second. Concern for her brother kept her rooted in the branches of the palm tree, gazing at his motionless form.

What is he doing? she wondered as she gently called his name, trying to gain his attention. Tok didn't respond, even when she shook him. What if this was someone else's doing? What if it had him entranced, and was planning on attacking their group? What if she was next? What if—

"Sarith."

She shrieked and leapt into the air, pumping her wings furiously. Whirling around in midair, she snarled, "That was not funny, Tok—"

"Sarith, be quiet for once and listen," the dragon ordered flatly. His solemn demeanor doused her ire, and she fluttered back to her spot.

Her brother's eyes were feverishly bright. "I put myself into a trance," he explained. "There isn't time to tell you everything, but there's an evil out there that is searching for something. It's using a sense similar to ours. Except instead of being able to look at a being and sense it's intentions, this thing's power is much more broad, and it can search a wide area and zero in on whatever it searches for." He paused. "It's seeking out a disturbance caused by the presence of creatures not of this world. That means it's not searching for Digimon. And that means they're either searching for us, or. . . ."

"Or the humans," she finished for him, gazing down at the sleepers sadly. "But couldn't it be that it's searching for someone else? I mean, we can't be the only ones in the entire Digiworld who aren't supposed to be here."

"That could be true, except in the last ten minutes it's been heading steadily toward us. It moves very fast. Unless there are some other dragons, humans or other aliens very nearby, this evil force has got a lock on us and is zeroing in. We don't have much time."

Sarith gulped, her mind spinning. She had had no idea Tok could do what he just said he did. Brell worked with each of them separately on their strongest abilities, and they rarely asked each other about what happened during the lessons. They were personal experiences. She remembered when the old dragon had taken her for three nights out into the mountains near home. It was the first time she had spent the night without her parents, and she had been, well, scared. But when she and Brell had returned, there was no one in the Clan who could fly as she could.

Tok must have been learning to fine tune his sixth sense or something like that, she decided. "What can we do?" the mint-colored dragon appealed.

He gave her a calculating look. "I've thought of something . . . but I'll need your help. And there isn't time to ask questions, you'll just have to agree or refuse." He pressed his lips together thinly, which told her that he didn't like the idea at all, but couldn't think of any other way.

Sarith couldn't imagine of what he was planning. Despite what he had said, she asked, "What do you have planned?"

"Well, I doubt this evil is searching for dragons. I don't know of any dragons who have ever come here besides us. Remember what a hard time we had convincing Mom to let us go alone? And this world is so closely linked to Earth, it would make much more sense that it would be seeking the humans. According to what they said, they have the power to save both their world and this one from evil. Maybe one of their enemies is tracking them down."

Sarith's jaw was on the ground. During her brother's small speech her blue-green eyes had grown bigger and bigger, as what Tok was proposing dawned on her. It was . . . preposterous! It had never been done on a creature other than a dragon, and he had surely never done it at all! Did he really care about their new friends so much? How did he know how to do it? Would it even work? What would happen if it did?

But what would happen if it doesn't? a tiny voice whispered inside her. That evil would be here soon, and if it was tracking the humans. . . .

"Let's do it!" she declared impulsively, turning to Tok with eager eyes. "Tell me what to do."

He grinned, and she could tell he was relieved, glad he had her support. It sparked a warm feeling in her chest that her brother depended on her so. "Just stay there and don't move. You have to trust me."

"Of course I trust you, Tok," she assured him. "I just hope they forgive us for what we're about to do."

Tok tried to reassure her in turn. "They will, once we find enough time to explain. But that's a luxury we don't have now."

She looked down at the Digi-Destined and their Digimon. She glanced at the moon, just a tiny sliver still above the horizon. Finally she gave her brother one slow, deliberate nod.

He began immediately. She watched curiously as he sat back on his haunches, raising his front claws, clenched, into the air with his wings spread and tail held out to balance himself. She watched his eyes close, his horned head tip back as he faced the lightening sky. When his fists began to actually glow with a soft, opalescent light she could barely contain a gasp of surprise.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, she was exhausted. Each muscle weighed a ton, refused to respond, and it took a conscious effort for her thoughts to make sense. It felt like she hadn't slept in weeks, as if the strength had been drained right out of her. She could barely keep her eyes open.

With the last of her willpower, the dragon forced herself to keep an eye on her brother. The swirling glow rose from his claws, expanding until it was a wide, radiant disk. As it began to descend to the ground Tok collapsed, as weak as she was. The palm tree swayed but held both their limp bodies. Hope you know what you're doing, Tok, was her last coherent thought as the darkness of unconsciousness grabbed her and pulled her down into its whirling depths.