Chapter 13

Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes.
Clare Ansberry, The Women of Troy Hill

Christmas vacation. Tithonia intended to work the entire time, which would earn enough money to buy her mother a new jacket for Christmas.

Her mother worked across the parking lot in a restaurant, and once a month they met there for lunch. But today was not that day, and Tithonia was working hard, ringing up purchases, checking receipts, and telling customers which computers were the best buy. She lacked a computer of her own, but she could play with the ones on display in the store, which was why she worked at CompUSA.

She was so busy she had no time to worry about being locked out of the Digital World. She had no time for anything but work until there came a lull, and she was able to lift her head. CompUSA was decorated for Christmas, and Tithonia had been too busy to even notice.

She was gazing at the flashing garland hung around the Macintosh corner when a tall boy walked up with his hands in his pockets. "Where's that cute girl with the red hair?" he asked, looking at the other checkstands.

"Christmas shopping, I imagine," said Tithonia frostily. "May I help you?"

"Yeah. Do you sell these?" And he laid a yellow digivice on the counter.

Tithonia's eyes grew round. "Where did you get that?"

"I found it in my desk," he replied. "Cheap piece of plastic. I figure somebody dropped it. Do you sell them?"

"No," said Tithonia, still staring. "Those are extremely rare. I'd keep it if I were you."

"Valuable?" said the boy, grinning unpleasantly. "Maybe I could pawn it."

Tithonia's heart lurched at the thought of treating a digivice so casually. "Look," she said, "why don't you see if it works? Hold it up to a computer screen and press the blue button."

"Why, what's it do?"

"It's a sort of remote control for a computer. But don't let anyone see you."

"Right." His grin this time was friendlier. He returned the device to his pocket and walked off among the computers.

He didn't return.

Tithonia waited five minutes, then went and looked for him, but he was gone. She returned to her register with a pounding heart (the portals worked again!) and found a line of customers waiting for her.

She slaved away the rest of the afternoon, watching for the boy and telling herself that she had missed him when she looked for him the first time.

At six her mother came to pick her up, and Tithonia ran and looked for the boy a second time. The aisles were empty. She dashed back to her mother. "Wait five minutes, Mom. I'll be right back." She ran back to the aisles of display computers and pulled out her own digivice.

The working port was on a computer that had shipped in the previous day. Two seconds later Tithonia was standing in a lush green jungle in the Digital World.

She checked her digivice for Mulemon's location. Mulemon was three miles away, but had received Tithonia's insertion signal. Tithonia sent her a message on her digivice. "The others and I are okay. I found a port! There's a new Digidestined in here, look out for him. I'll come back tomorrow."

Then she returned to the real world, delirious with joy.

* * *

That evening, Savannah received a phone call from a girl with a soft voice. "Hello, may I speak to Savannah Reed?"

"Speaking," said Savannah. "Who's calling, please?"

"Tithonia Harris," said the voice on the line. "You know, the other Digidestined?"

"Oh yeah," said Savannah, sitting down in front of her computer. "What's up?"

"I found a portal that works."

Savannah straightened. "You're kidding! Where?"

"At CompUSA," said Tithonia. "The new computers have access."

"Have you called Zach?"

"I tried. It was busy."

"Did you go through it?"

"Yes ... do you know the name of that boy who tore up Zach's drawing that time?"

Savannah made a face. "Rick? Yeah, what's he done now?"

"He's Digidestined."

Savannah stared at her computer screen without speaking, lips puckered as if she had tasted a lemon.

"Hello?" said Tithonia.

"Are you sure?" said Savannah.

"He had a digivice. He was the one who opened the portal first. I went after him later, but it puts you in a jungle, and by then he was gone."

Savannah was silent a moment, then said, "Thanks for telling me. Do you think we could go down there tomorrow and get into the Digital World?"

"Yes, but I have to work."

"Thanks. Well, I'd better go now. Bye." Savannah hung up and sat looking at her screen for a long moment. Then she connected to the internet and sent Zach an instant message. "That Tithonia girl found an open digiport."

Zach's response came all in capital letters. "REALLY? WHERE??"

Savannah repeated the information about the digiport, then added the tidbit about Rick.

It was several minutes before Zach typed anything. "Was she sure?"

"She sounded sure."

Zach typed his favorite expletive, then added, "Why why why?"

He and Savannah griped for several more minutes, then Savannah said, "Think of an excuse to leave home tomorrow. We can catch the bus downtown."

"I'm supposed to be packing to go to dad's," Zach typed, "but I think Mom will let me run some errands. See you tomorrow."

* * *

When they arrived at CompUSA the next day, Savannah and Zach walked to Tithonia's checkstand. "The computer's over there," Tithonia said, waving a hand toward the PC section. She lowered her voice and leaned toward them. "That other boy never came out yesterday, I asked. I'm worried about him."

"Oh," said Savannah, trying to look concerned. "We'll look for him."

"I'll come in after six," said Tithonia. "Good luck."

Zach had a hard time masking his excitement; he wanted to smile. He and Savannah walked to the PC section and waited impatiently for a gaggle of shopping mothers to leave. Once the aisle was empty, Zach whipped out his digivice.

The first computer opened obligingly, and Savannah and Zach warped into the portal, were converted to data, and landed in a tiny clearing in a jungle.

The light was bright green. The sun overhead was nearly hidden by enormous fan-shaped leaves, vines and flowers. There was a green, earthy smell. After an initial glance at their surroundings, Savannah and Zach set out contacting their partners with their digivices.

"They're about a mile from here," said Zach, squinting through the green trunks around them. "That way."

"Great, let's go," said Savannah, tossing back her hair. "I can't tell you how glad I am to be back. I was staring to think I'd dreamed it."

"Me too," said Zach, stepping over a vine as thick as his whole body. "Think we should look for Rick?"

"No," said Savannah, scowling. "Let him fend for himself. He'll have a partner, won't he?"

"Yeah." Zach smiled. "Wouldn't it be great if something ate him?"

They walked in silence a moment, circling tree trunks and climbing through masses of matted leaves. There were no plants they recognized; each tree had one broad leaf on top, like an umbrella, covered in short spiky hairs. Once in a while they passed an orange flower the size of a bathtub, something like a daylily. Birds sang overhead, and crickets chirped all around.

They rounded a thick tree trunk and came upon a clump of mushrooms as tall as they were, with brown caps and white stems. "Too bad they're probably poisonous," said Savannah as they circled them. "Gorgeous, aren't they?"

"I didn't know mushrooms could get that big," said Zach. "Look, it's opening up. We must be coming out of the jungle."

The broad leaves overhead were thinning, and sunlight was filtering through. Savannah checked her digivice. "We're getting closer."

"Look, there's a house or something," said Zach, pointing to an orange dome rising above the trees. "Maybe that's where they are."

They climbed over another thick vine and walked out into a clearing around the orange house. But it was not a house.

Zach stared at the great orange sphere. It had grooves in its sides and a stem on top. It was familiar, although he could not place it. Savannah figured it out first. "That's a pumpkin!"

"Good grief! Are these pumpkin vines?" said Zach, remembering reading that they grew on vines.

"I guess," said Savannah, touching the pumpkin's side. "Zach, smell it. Doesn't it smell like Halloween?"

Zach did so. "Yeah. Do you think there's more?"

"Yeah, let's go see!"

They circled the pumpkin and kept walking, guided by their digivices. The vines were fewer now, and from time to time they glimpsed other orange or yellow spheres rising above the leaves. "How could a garden this big even exist?" said Savannah.

"Maybe it feeds really big digimon," said Zach. "Remember some of those ones in Gigaterra? I'll bet they'd eat a pumpkin pie that big."

"Zach!" came a distant shout. The Digidestined looked up and saw a green dinosaur, a red snake and a tiny donkey galloping toward them. A moment later their digimon reached them, and there was a fair amount of backslapping, squeals, laughing, and affectionate biting.

"So where are we?" asked Zach when the reunion was over.

"Oh, this is Vinegarden," said Spikemon, grinning all over his square face. "It's a really really big garden. We're in the pumpkin patch, but they grow all kinds of stuff."

"They?" said Savannah, whose arms were full of Hissmon's coils.

"The plant-types," said Spikemon. "They have green thumbs. Heck, all their fingers are green."

"Are they dangerous?" asked Mulemon, who was standing a little apart.

"Some are," said Spikemon. "But only if you steal food."

Suddenly Savannah pitched forward, dropping Hissmon, and was dragged backward through the pumpkin vines. She managed a muffled cry and grabbed a vine, but thin green tendrils whipped around her arms, tore her loose, and whisked her out of sight.

Zach and the digimon bolted after her. "Savannah!" he yelled, fumbling out his data stick and sliding it into his digivice. Behind him, Spikemon digivolved to Carnomon and charged ahead, his horned head lowered.

Whatever had taken Savannah moved fast. It was out of sight, only the swaying of the leaf-trees marking its passage. There was no sound from it or Savannah--Zach hoped it had not killed her. "So they're not dangerous, eh?" he yelled at Carnomon.

The green dinosaur looked back at him. "How was I supposed to know there was a virus standing back there?"

"You're a digimon! You're supposed to know!"

"I'm not the Programmer, Zach! Hurry up!" The carnotaurus raced ahead and soon he, too, was lost to sight.

Zach slowed, panting and holding his side. Mulemon galloped past him. A moment later Hissmon caught up. "I can't believe this," he was hissing. "We barely joined up, and now she's gone again!" He glared at Zach. "Well? Run faster!" He slithered ahead, leaving Zach in the rear. Zach walked fast, breathing hard and wishing he were in better shape.

"Hey!" called a new voice from the left. "Hey Holling!"

Zach looked, then wished he had kept running. Striding toward him through the pumpkin vines was Rick Sterling, tall, blond and handsome. Zach kept walking, and Rick ran to catch up. "What are you doing here, Holling?"

"I like the scenery," said Zach. Seeing his tormentor dwarfed by the Digital World (and lacking a partner) diminished his terror. Zach actually felt superior, for he knew what was going on and Rick did not.

"Wait up!" said Rick, jogging behind him. "You don't want to go that way, a big dinosaur just ran by!"

"Did you see what it was chasing?" asked Zach, glancing at Rick.

"No," Rick puffed. "All I heard was some rustling. Look, hold up a minute! Where are we?"

"The Digital World," said Zach. "Didn't you know?"

"I can't get back home," said Rick. "I spent the night out here. Take me back!"

"Stick it in your ear," said Zach, and sprinted ahead as Rick snatched at him.

Zach leaped a vine, descended into a hollow, and found the three digimon waiting for him. "Lost him," reported Carnomon, head hanging. "I can't even smell him. He's a plant and his smell blends in."

Zach walked up to him and was stroking his head when Rick ran up and stood staring. Zach flashed him a grin, then said to the digimon, "Guys, this is Rick, another Digidestined. His partner hasn't showed up yet, and he's lost."

The digimon caught the sarcasm in his voice and eyed Rick. "Hello," said Hissmon. "I'm Savannah's partner, but she's been kidnapped."

"I'm Tithonia's partner," said Mulemon, flicking her ears.

"And I'm Zach's," said Carnomon. "Zach, the plant-types live over by the beans. We could run over there and see if that's where she's been taken."

"Okay," said Zach. "Could I ride on your back?"

"Sure," said the carnotaurus, crouching to let Zach climb on his shoulders. "Let's go."

Zach flashed another grin at Rick as Carnomon set off at an easy lope through the garden-forest. The other digimon followed, and after a moment, so did Rick.

After fifteen minutes of traveling, the pumpkin vines ended and Carnomon stepped into a wide clearing of composted ground. Rising in tall green pyramids to the right were the beanpoles, covered in thin vines, tendrils, heart-shaped leaves, and enormous purple bean pods. Straight ahead rose the outskirts of a cornfield, each corn stalk more than six stories high. Even riding Carnomon, Zach felt about two inches tall.

Carnomon was unperturbed by the size of their surroundings. He jogged toward the pyramids, once in a while crossing a bridge over a canal that opened at their feet. "A whole river waters this place," he told Zach.

As they neared the first bean pyramid, five small digimon walked out to meet them. Three resembled flower buds with eyes, while two were mushrooms with faces on the stems. They looked nothing like the toadstools they had seen earlier.

"Hello," said the Floramon in shrill voices as Carnomon approached. "Are you friend or foe?"

"Friend, so far," called Carnomon, striding up to the group. "I'm a vaccine, and this is Zach, my partner."

The Floramon and Mushroomon grouped together and whispered excitedly, and the word 'Digidestined' was exchanged. One of the Mushroomon stepped forward and cleared his throat. "We welcome you to Vinegarden," he said, bowing until only his round cap was visible. "How may we be of service?"

"My friend Savannah was kidnapped," said Zach. "We came to ask if you know anything about it."

The rookies all whispered together again, and this time a Floramon stepped forward. "Stranglemon just came running out of the vines and entered the third bean tower," she said, pointing down the row. "We didn't pay much attention, but we did notice he was carrying something."

"He's a champion level," added a Mushroomon, "but he hides very well. He's Blossomon's second cousin."

"Please don't harm the beans," said a Floramon, looking worried. "They're just getting ripe, and it would be a disaster if one of our towers was burned."

Carnomon glanced at Zach, then said, "We'll do our best. Thanks for your help." As the rookies retreated, he muttered to Zach, "Great, that means contact attacks only."

"At least he's the same level as you," said Zach. "You think Hissmon or the donkey could hurt him?"

"Plants are unaffected by venom," said Carnomon. "I think Mulemon's element is air, but her partner isn't here."

Rick and the other digimon approached, looking around. Hissmon was moving the quickest, but Mulemon was walking with Rick, instructing him on how to use his digivice. As they crossed a canal, a small shape climbed out of it and followed Rick and Mulemon, unnoticed. Carnomon saw, however, and Zach felt him stiffen. "What?"

"I don't believe it," growled Carnomon, staring at the digimon following Rick. "I don't believe it! He's his partner!"

"What? Who?" said Zach, completely lost.

Rick heard a sound and glanced over his shoulder. "Hey! There's a big frog following us!"

Mulemon looked around and gasped. "Where did you come from?"

Frogmon's smile was as wide as his head. "I'm his partner! It just took a while to swim this far." He hopped to Rick's feet and looked up at him with bulging eyes. "I'm Frogmon, and I'm your partner. What's your name?"

"Rick Sterling," said Rick. "Are you a frog?"

"Of course."

Rick nudged Frogmon's moist foot with one toe. "You don't have horns or claws."

"Not at this age," said Frogmon. "Pleased to meet you, Rick."

"I don't want a frog!" Rick exploded, throwing his digivice on the ground. "This sucks! I want to go home!" He strode off, and Frogmon picked up his digivice and followed him.

Mulemon trotted up to Zach and Carnomon, eyes wide. "He's got Frogmon!"

"I saw," said Carnomon.

"Why?" asked Zach. "Is Frogmon powerful?"

"Very," said Carnomon and Mulemon in unison.

"Then let's get him to help rescue Savannah!" said Zach. "Giddyup, Spikemon."

"Carnomon," the dinosaur corrected. "I'm not going near that kid or his partner. I can beat a crummy flower myself." And he stalked toward the third bean tower.