A Little Side Adventure
Episode Three: Tok's Decision
By Shelli-Jo Pelletier
(ussfantasy@hotmail.com)
***************
Sunlight streaming through the branches overhead woke Sora, shining directly in her eyes. She blinked a few times and squinted, still half asleep. With a yawn and a stretch the girl sat up. The movement felt kind of funny, and she absentmindedly wondered if she had slept wrong and pulled a muscle or something. A quick glance to her side told her Biyomon still slumbered. But when Sora looked around for the others, she got quite a shock and snapped fully awake.
Everyone was gone.
Not only that, but she was surrounded by more dragons! These ones were a lot bigger than Tok and Sarith, whom she couldn't see anywhere. These were as big as she was! At least they were still asleep, and she could sneak away.
Sora's mind reeled with questions. Who were these dragons? When did they get here, and why? And what about her friends? What had happened to them? Was this whole thing some kind of trap? Had Sarith and Tok tricked them?
Staring around in complete shock, too dazed to even make a break for it, she eventually noticed that the Digimon were still there, asleep as well. She could see Gabumon's pointed horn from around the side of a snoring yellow dragon with blue wing membranes and spines. Gomamon was leaning against an entirely gray dragon. Koromon rested wrapped up in the tail of a blue dragon with orange wings and spines. And there were three other dragons as well, she quickly counted. A green one, a pink one and an orange one.
It was the Digi-Destined who were gone, she realized in horror. She was the only human left. But why hadn't they taken her too? Where were the others?
I have to get control of myself, the short-haired girl thought desperately. First I'll—I'll wake up Biyomon. Then we can wake up the rest of the Digimon. Carefully. And get away. Then we have to find Sarith and Tok and find out what's going on. . . .
Sora's breath caught in her throat as one of the dragons turned over, murmuring sleepily. Parilyzed with indecision, not knowing whether it would be better to run now or take a chance that the waking creature would quiet down again, she sat with every muscle frozen.
No such luck. The pink dragon slowly opened pale green eyes, staring right at her. For a moment time seemed to stand still as nothing happened. Then it bolted to its feet, bowling Palmon over in the process, and screamed.
That woke everyone else up quick enough. In seconds Sora was surrounded by alarmed dragons and bewildered Digimon, all staring about wildly. She could tell everyone was confused. They looked at each other as if never seeing such a sight before, murmuring uncertainly. "What's going on here?" the blue dragon finally announced loudly into the crowd.
Silence fell. Sora felt as if she had been slapped in the face and punched in the gut at the same time. They all turned to stare at the blue and orange dragon in complete and total disbelief. That dragon . . . spoke . . . with Tai's voice!
"T-Tai?" gasped Sora into the stillness. And gulped, as they were all looking at her now.
The blue dragon's yellow-orange eyes narrowed with suspicion, then widened. "How did you know . . . Sora?"
"Of course. I. . . ." Something was wrong. The expressions on the others' faces . . . they were the same as hers. Even Biyomon was staring as if she didn't recognize her. Sora slowly looked down at her hands. At her bright red, reptilian claws. "No!"
"I'm scared," whimpered the green dragon, huddling next to Tokomon. The little In-Training Digimon nuzzled his yellow wing.
"We've been transformed," the orange one marveled.
"Is that you, Matt?" Gabumon asked, peering at the yellow dragon.
"I think so," he returned, blinking blue eyes.
Sora tried to order her brain into some semblance of organization. So many little things that hadn't seemed quite right made sense now. That was why she felt kind of weird when she woke up. And she hadn't really noticed before, but the Digimon weren't the right size. Instead of Biyomon being waist high to her, they were about equal, staring each other in the eye. She glanced at each of the Digi-Destined, trying to figure out who was who. The dragons all looked alike to her, except for their coloring and the number and position of horns on their heads. But they were easy enough to identify from their voices, if she listened. Not to mention the fact that their Digimon all hovered around nearby.
The blue and orange one was Tai. He had two horns on the top of his head, pointing slightly forward, just like Tok. And the yellow one with blue wings, spines and eyes was Matt. He had two horns on the top of his head and another on his nose. The pink dragon with pale green wings and spines and two horns on her head that angled backward—currently wailing to Palmon about her lack of hair—had to be Mimi.
The green one with yellow wings and spines was a bit smaller than the rest of them, but still bigger than Tokomon. That made him T.K. He sported horns like his brother, except these were just tiny nubs, not yet real horns. Izzy was the orange one with purple wings and spines, reddish brown eyes and no horns at all. He was deep in conversation with Tentomon, who was not very happy about the situation. The formerly human boy, on the other hand, was simply fascinated. And Joe was completely gray except for his dark blue eyes, and with a nose horn like Sarith. He looked positively sick. Gomamon was trying to console him.
Like Sora, the others were also identifying each other. It felt sort of strange, introducing yourself to friends you've known for so long. And it felt even stranger hearing their voices coming from creatures that weren't even supposed to exist.
"Okay," Tai broke into the milling conversations. "Does everyone know who everyone else is?" There were nods all around. "Good. Now we just have to figure out what to do next."
"We need to find Tok and Sarith," Matt said flatly. "Get them to change us back."
"But what if they can't?" moaned Joe. "What if we're stuck like this forever?" His dark blue eyes rolled around in his head as he stared about wildly. T.K. gasped and edged closer to Matt.
The yellow dragon gave Joe a dirty look, his tail twitching back and forth like an angry cat's. "That's not helping anyone, Joe," he snapped.
"Not helping!? Look at me! I've got wings and four legs and a tail! Don't talk to me about not helping!"
"And I've got no hair!" the pink dragon shrieked once again, her eyes squeezed shut to block out the awful sight. "And horns growing out of my head! And I'm positive being a slimy lizard is going to ruin my complexion."
Palmon sighed. "Oh Mimi."
"Let's not panic," Sora found herself saying, standing up to go over to Mimi. As the only girls of the group, the two often relied on each other for support. But as soon as she took her first step, the red dragon tripped over her own legs and sprawled face first into the sand. She picked up her head and blinked in surprise. "Uh . . . gee. Walking with four legs is a lot harder than walking with two," she stated to the group.
The others, realizing that they hadn't done any walking either, gave it a try. Gomamon and Tokomon instructed the new four-footers. "Try not to think about it," was their best advice. It didn't help much.
"If you think that's hard, try walking with no legs at all!" joked Koromon. He bounced alongside Tai, who was slowly moving one foot at a time, alternating opposite legs front and back.
"I wonder if we can fly too," Izzy mused, spreading his purple wings to their fullest experimentally. Unfortunately this tipped him off balance, and he tumbled to the ground. It wasn't a far fall, of course, but it knocked his expectations flat.
"Let's work on walking first," suggested Tentomon kindly, helping him up again.
"Matt, what if Joe's right? What will we tell Mom and Dad?" T.K. wondered unhappily, his gleaming white eyes wide with worry as he stared up at his brother.
"Joe's not right," insisted the lemon-colored dragon. "As soon as we find Tok and Sarith, they'll fix us. Don't worry 'bout it, little bro." He smiled down at T.K. encouragingly.
Izzy overheard. "That's assuming they're the ones behind this metamorphosis," the orange dragon pointed out. "Perhaps they have nothing to do with it."
"I never even thought of that," Matt admitted. He didn't like the notion. It felt better thinking they knew exactly what to do and who to look for to change themselves back. "But we still have to find them. They were the last to stand guard last night. What if something happened?"
Biyomon saw Sora, finally in control of her limbs, heading for the lake. The pink parrot gazed at her for a minute, then followed. "Sora, where are you going?" she asked as she caught up.
"To look at my reflection," was the reply. The two of them stepped up to the still water's edge at the same time. Sora took a deep breath, preparing herself, then leaned over and stared.
A deep red dragon stared back at her with bright yellow eyes. She didn't have any horns on her head. She gazed at the reflection for a long time, thinking. Finally she said, "Biyomon, what do you see?"
Her Digimon was quiet. Then, "I see my friend. What do you see?"
A sigh. "I'm not sure. I'm all confused. I want to know who's behind this, and why."
"We'll find out. Until then, don't worry. You're still Sora, no matter what you look like. Inside you're still the same."
"Yeah. Inside," murmured the girl softly, watching the alien lips of the image move as she spoke. Biyomon couldn't tell if she believed it or not. She wrapped a pink wing around her companion comfortingly. Sora sighed again. Her breath rippled the water's surface. When it cleared, six other dragon faces were lined up beside hers, also staring into the lake. The Digi-Destined gazed at their bizarre reflections, silent and thoughtful.
"Looks like you're the ones with the wings this time," Tokomon told T.K. in his high voice.
"And when you digi-volve to Patamon, we'll both have them!" he returned, smiling. "If I'm still a dragon by then, anyway." The youngest of the Digi-Destined accepted their situation the easiest. To him it was just one more wild adventure in the Digiworld.
"What are you all doing just standing around?"
The very familiar voice from above and behind startled them, and they collectively whirled around with their heads craned upward. The two missing dragons—real dragons—stared down from the branches of a palm tree. Sarith yawned sleepily, but Tok was wide-awake and glaring. "Don't just stand there!" he ordered impatiently, spreading his golden wings and gliding to the ground as he spoke. "We have to move. Right now."
For a full minute, there was silence. Then everyone began talking at once.
"What did you—?"
"Why did you—?"
"How did you—?"
"—thought you were our friend!"
"IS IT PERMANENT!?"
"Change us back! Now!"
"How dare you—"
"—could've asked us first!"
"What about—"
"—better start talking!"
"Quiet!" roared the twilight-colored dragon, and a burst of blue-purple fire shot from his jaws. It dissipated in the air immediately, but succeeded in stunning everyone to silence. No one seemed to remember Izzy's earlier comment about the real dragons perhaps not being behind their transformations. Since Tok and Sarith hadn't seemed surprised about their new looks, it had been assumed they knew what was going on.
"Now we leave." Tok turned to go. A glance over his shoulder told him no one had moved. Not even his sister.
"Sarith?"
She fluttered down from the tree, her blue-green eyes uncertainly alternating between her brother and the Digi-Destined with their Digimon. Finally, to the newly transformed dragons, she implored, "Please come with us. There's a great evil heading this way, and we must not be here when it arrives. Tok will explain everything as we go, I promise. Please."
The seven former humans looked at one another. Tai ran through everything that had happened since they met up with these aliens in his head. He was looking for answers, but all he found were more questions. Were they telling the truth? Was it some sort of trap? If it was, they could have attacked last night when they were all asleep. Or maybe they did. But what sort of an attack turned them into dragons? What purpose did it serve? Were they really just trying to help them, like they said? The questions just went around circles, getting him nowhere.
Suddenly he came upon a single realization: They were now in the shape of dragons. Obviously. And the only chance they had to return to normal was to go along with Sarith and Tok. It was the only way. They had no choice.
Scowling, Tai eyed the aliens. "Okay, we're coming with you. But you have a lot of explaining to do."
The two blue dragons locked gazes for several tense moments. Tok was the one to ultimately nod and turn away. "Come on," he announced, spreading his wings. "Let's go."
Now it was Sarith's turn to snort and roll her eyes. She trotted up to her brother's side. "Tok, they can't fly. It could take months to teach them," she murmured quietly.
He turned back once again to stare at them. They stared back. "Right," he sighed, letting his wings fold close. "Then we walk."
The sixteen set out immediately. Tok led the way with a determined look on his face, followed closely behind by Sarith. The space after her was a sign of the tension between the duo of dragons and the others. Then came Tai, with Koromon riding on his back between his wings. T.K. gamely kept pace with his brother, but was now too small to carry Tokomon. Gabumon took that responsibility. The rest of the dragons and their Digimon spread out behind them in an informal line, occasionally passing worried glances between them.
Despite what Sarith had promised, there were no explanations. Uncomfortable silence reigned. After what seemed like much too long a time trudging along, the group neared the edge of the oasis, where the palm trees stopped and the endless sand began. Tok momentarily paused, his head up to test the wind. Blue-green eyes roved the desert, searching.
"Come here," he murmured softly, and everyone heard him. With only a slight hesitation, the Digi-Destined and their Digimon clustered around Tok and his sister. The male dragon pointed with one claw.
On their right, the sun was rising over the land. But Tok was pointing to the left. A dark gray haze stretched across the western horizon, looking like an ugly, dirty mist creeping over the sand.
"W-what is it?" gasped Joe, shivering. He didn't like the look of it at all.
"Evil," Tok muttered, fangs bared.
T.K. moved closer to Matt. "Is it coming for us?"
"I dunno."
Tok shook his head, but he wasn't answering T.K.'s question. It was more a snap to his senses. "We'll head north," the dragon announced. "We don't have much time. It's coming this way."
The oasis where this adventure had all began disappeared behind them as they started off again, and soon there was nothing but sand on every horizon. The going was slow—the Digi-Destineds' legs were a lot shorter now—and the heat enveloped them like an uncomfortable blanket once they were away from the lake. No one had had any breakfast either. They weren't tired (yet), but they were unhappy. And they still didn't have any answers.
Tok alone was the only one with any idea what was going on. Even Sarith was as clueless as the others were. Her brother's thoughts whirled like the sand in the wind as they traveled. The evil he could sense pulsed against his mind, a loose tooth he couldn't leave alone. It was close. Much closer than it was when he had first become aware of it. That told him it was still heading toward their previous position. When he had transformed the seven humans into dragons—an act that had cost most of both his and Sarith's energy—he knew the evil would no longer be able to track them.
Let's be honest now, Tok, the dragon told himself sarcastically. You don't know anything. This is all a gamble. What if the evil can track dragons as easily as it can humans? He knew that was unlikely, though. Most beings encountered by dragons couldn't sense them, if they had the power to at all. It was a kind of biological protection against detection. That was another reason Tok felt that the evil must be searching for the humans, and not them.
The young dragon cast a glance at his sister and felt a pang of anxiety. When they had first come to Digiworld he had planned on just relaxing and having fun, in his own way. Tok knew he wasn't the most laid-back of individuals, but he still didn't like to be on-guard all the time. Then the experience aboard the cruise ship taught him that there were dangers here. Sarith was never careful; it was his duty to protect her. Now not only did he have to look after her, but a group of seven humans as well! He was doing the best he could with all these pressures, but he wondered if that was going to be enough.
It'll have to be. Maybe the evil was searching for the humans, maybe for us. I don't know for sure, but I made a decision and followed through with it. Now we just have to see what happens, and react in kind.
"Tok?" He looked over his shoulder as the blue and orange dragon trotted up beside him. Tai blinked his yellow-orange eyes. "What's going on, Tok? What happened?" His voice wasn't angry anymore; he merely wanted to know.
The stragglers of the gang of sixteen clustered closer as the two blue dragons started to speak. Tok related what had happened the previous night, what they had sensed while they had been standing watch, his decision, and what they had done. "It's not something that I'm really supposed to do, except in emergencies," the dragon admitted. "And we're supposed to make ourselves resemble other species, not the other way around. I didn't even know if it would work. But I had to try. Because . . . well, because I didn't want the evil to claim you." If a dragon could blush, Tok was doing so now.
He cleared his long throat and continued, explaining how he thought they were safe now. "Whatever that evil is, if it can't sense us anymore, then we should get far away from the last place it could. It will probably head there to see what happened." He fell silent, thinking.
Mimi tripped over her pink tail, caught herself, and spoke up. "But you can change us back, right?"
Tok grinned. "If I did it once, I can't see why I won't be able to do it again!"
The Digi-Destined heaved sighs of relief. Koromon cheered, waving his long ears in the air. "I knew you'd be alright!" The other Digimon lightened up as well. Now that that immense weight had been lifted from the shoulders of the kids, the future looked much more positive.
Izzy, who had been watching his clawed feet in fascination as he walked, suddenly jerked his head up and screeched to a stop. "Wait a minute! Where's my laptop!?" In the shock of everything that had happened that morning, he had completely forgotten about it.
"And my hat!" exclaimed Mimi, looking around as if she had dropped it just now.
"And our digi-vices, and Crests," Tai added, sharing a worried look with Joe, the only other person who had found his yet.
"And our clothes," put in Sora.
Tok motioned for everyone to remain calm. "Don't worry. They're all still there. They're inside of you."
Somehow, this failed to reassure anyone. "What do you mean?" T.K. wondered.
"I mean," explained the indigo dragon, "that everything in your possession was altered as you were, and formed into your selves. It's hard to explain. Like, um . . . the things that made up what you were before are still there now, just changed. I didn't put you in new bodies as much as changed your old ones."
Izzy looked like he was beginning to understand. "Do you mean you changed us on the molecular level, reconstructing the atoms of both our bodies and of our belongings to thoroughly alter our basic matter?"
Tok blinked. "Uh . . . yeah."
"Then theoretically, when you change us back, our articles of clothing and possessions should return too. Correct?"
"As far as I know."
This settled, the band started walking again. Joe, in the back with Gomamon, now worried that all of them were completely naked. But since the Digimon always were, and nobody seemed to be concerned with it, he tried to put it out of his head. Besides, there wasn't much they could do about it out in the middle of the desert.
The next two hours passed uneventfully. The talking lessened, as the further they went the more they had to concentrate on continuing. There was never a change in the oppressive heat that beat down on them from the sky, and breezes were few and far between. Their stomachs called for breakfast.
"Sand, sand, sand," Sarith grumbled, pacing along. "This is so boring!" She beat the air a few times with her wings, but didn't take off. Grains of sand swirled away from her on the currents made by the movement. She looked around the group and brightened. "At least we're nice and colorful! Red, orange, yellow, two greens, two blues, gray and pink! And that doesn't even count the Digimon."
"We're a regular rainbow," muttered Matt with a toss of his horned head.
"How did we arrive to be at these particular colors?" Izzy asked, his curious reddish brown eyes on Tok. The two of them had taken to traveling side by side up front, where Izzy had pelted the dragon with questions until he ran out of breath. Tentomon came behind them, along with Sarith.
Tok considered the question. "I think it has to do with the colors of your 'atoms' before the transformation," he replied.
The orange dragon nodded. "T.K., Tai and I are all the same colors as our shirts," the boy mused, no longer really talking to Tok but more thinking out loud. "It justifies Mimi. And Matt's blond." He craned his long neck around and looked at his own wings. "But that doesn't explain why I've got purple. Well, except for my shoes."
The blue-purple dragon smiled mysteriously. "Perhaps it is your Soul Color."
Sora, who had been listening (there wasn't much else to do), was the one to ask. "A what?"
"Soul Color!" Sarith piped up. "They say everyone's born with a Soul Color, the color that's inside of you, that represents who you really are. Maybe your true color has come forth, now that you're a dragon!" She giggled, not looking very serious.
Tai joined in on the conversation. "Who's 'they?'" the blue dragon asked.
"Oh, the Elders. And the Wise Ones." She made a face, managing to look extremely similar to a kid remembering a preachy sermon in church. Koromon laughed.
"Uh . . . I don't want to ruin the moment," spoke up Joe nervously from behind them, "but shouldn't that cloud thing have gone away by now?"
Everyone turned to see what the gray dragon was talking about. He and Gomamon were also turned around, gazing back the way they had come.
The gray haze was directly behind them. And not all that far away.
Tok said a particularly nasty swear.
"Tok?" Sarith's voice quaked with fear.
"I'm not certain if the Digimon could battle a cloud," faltered Izzy, staring. "Even if they could digi-volve with the reconfigured digi-vices—"
Tok's voice overrode the orange dragon's, commanding authority. "It's following us! Run!" He spread his golden wings and took off, circling the group as he gained altitude. "Sarith, keep going! I'll find out exactly what it is!"
"Tok! NO!" she called after him, but he caught the wind and sailed off.
The Digi-Destined and their Digimon stared uncertainly, either behind them at the shrinking spec that was Tok or at the distraught Sarith, who was visibly holding herself back from taking off as well. Finally the mint-colored dragon sighed, a sound of painful hopelessness, and turned. "Come on," she announced sadly, and started to walk. "We have to go."
* * *
Tok flew with powerful beats of his wings, covering the distance between his friends and the gray cloud quickly. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he cursed himself, each berating word punctuated by another flap. I'm such a fool. How could I forget to watch behind us? What if Joe hadn't spotted it? It could have snuck up on us and attacked without warning. This is all my fault. I'm an idiot!
He had been wrong. Whatever the evil was, it was hunting dragons. That was the only explanation. He had done his best, but in reality he had just been giving their opponent a stronger target! Now it had nine dragons to track, not just two. The realization that he had made things worse, not better, stung badly. If Sarith or the others were hurt because of his stupidity. . . .
Well, he couldn't think about that now. It was his responsibility to stop whatever this thing was. He didn't know how he could do it, but he had to try. Because it was his fault. All. His. Fault.
Casting a glance over his shoulder, he found the group of his friends and sister had disappeared in the distance. Good. They were safe, for now at least. It was a small comfort.
The great cloud of dark mist rose up before him, almost close enough to touch. Tok pulled back, climbing up into the sky. If he could get above it, maybe he could see some sort of weakness.
Billowy grayness flashed by as he pumped his wings to gain height. No matter how hard he peered into the seething mass, nothing met his eyes. The soup was just too thick to see into. Not to mention it seemed to go on forever. Just how high did this cloud reach?
The air was growing cold and thin when he finally topped the haze. Trying to save energy, the young dragon stilled his furious wing beats and glided for a while, coasting above the grayness. It spread across the landscape like an ugly quilt, reaching out to cover and obliterate all that it saw. Tok swallowed. What could it be doing? Why was it here, really?
He got his answer all too soon. Even as he watched, unbelieving, a thin mass of the stuff—a tendril, an offshoot of some kind—came hurtling up toward him like a whip. He was no master of flight that Sarith was, but he was good enough to roll to the side just in time to avoid being snatched up by the thing.
Gotta get out of here. Away. Higher. He pumped his wings, frantic now, as other tendrils began reaching upward, searching for him. Wanting him in their grasp. . . .
Tok climbed steadily into the already thin air. His throat constricted on its own, refusing his efforts to unclench it. His lungs seemed to collapse in on themselves. No matter how hard he tried to breathe in, it was as if they had forgotten how to work. His wings faltered. Once. Twice.
Can't . . . breathe. . . . There was no air. He was too high! The sky was darkening around him. He could almost imagine he could see the blackness of space, the tiny pinpricks of stars.
When the cold, surprisingly gentle tentacle of cloud wrapped itself around his body, pulling him to earth at speeds so fast his blue-green eyes blurred with tears, he only had one thought.
I'm so sorry, Sarith.
Then the main mass of the haze enveloped him into its center, and the world went black.
* * *
The blue-purple dragon regained consciousness abruptly, and found the darkness had not left him. It was so complete he couldn't see a thing, even though he blinked a few times to make sure his eyes were really open.
When one thing does not work, try another, was one of Brell's favorite expressions, drilled into him by the stern old teacher like the rest of his lessons. It was an extremely helpful thing to consider in almost any situation, and Tok decided to employ a bit of that wisdom and follow his teacher's advice. So one of his senses didn't work. He would use the others, then.
It was cold, wherever he was. No breeze, just a heavy cold in the air, as if underground where the sun never came. When he took a breath—it felt so wonderful to breathe!—the impression he got was mostly stone. Wet stone, with mildew. And the strong smell of something metal. Iron, maybe.
That was what he felt under him, he realized. Solid, rough metal under his claws and stomach. He tried to move, and started a little in surprise when the ground under him moved too. It rocked, swaying back and forth when he froze. It seemed to be free to move except for one fixed point above him. There was a noisy creek from not far over his head.
Suddenly, a hissing in the blackness. And a voice. Tok's pointed ears perked at the soft and dry sound. "He's awake."
He shivered. There was evil in that voice. He could sense it.
Sounds of more movement, not too far away, maybe across a room. But no light. Could these creatures see in the dark? He sure couldn't. Not in this total blackness.
There was a brush of cloth on cloth. A clicking of a tongue. "Awww!" a female's voice whined, and something made him shrink back a fraction with unease. "I didn't want him awake yet! How can I pay attention to him and get the rest of them at the same time?" the voice pouted.
The first one hissed again. "Shall I fix the situation for you?"
"Please do, Jakamon," purred the female.
Tok reached out blindly with his arms, feeling for a way out. His claws scraped against vertical bars of metal, surrounding him. A cage—
"Swift Punch!"
The pain caught him totally unprepared, the force of the blow picking him up and smashing against the bars behind him. He felt the back of his skull slam against the metal, felt more pain and stars burst before his sightless eyes, and then felt nothing at all as unconsciousness claimed him once again.