Notes: All right, Tamachi and Tokyo show up in this part, and I just wanted to remind you all that these are not the places in Japan, they're just town names for whatever universe I made up. ^^
The fairy tale Jun reads to Daisuke in this part is "The Tinder Box" by Hans Christian Andersen. Special thanks goes to those lovely people on the DaisukeKen ML who gave me suggestions! (eternalsailorsolarwind, Ari, Kathleen, Terrie… ::glomps all of them::)
And last but not lease, many thanks to my thesaurus, which has help me come up with many fic titles in the past, including this one. ^^;
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, its characters, Tokyo, Tamachi, or "The Tinder Box". I own the blue dragon. *^_^*
Bewitching the DragonPart One -- Chapter OneBy: Hanae Michiko===============
Motomiya Daisuke thrust his sword into
the straw dummy tied onto the post in front of him until it came out the other
side and then removed it from the dummy's torso, jumping back as if dodging the
dummy's own weapon. Supporting most of
his weight on the balls of his feet, he circled the dummy, waiting for the next
appropriate opportunity to strike. His
breath came heavily, in ragged, uneven gasps, and sweat covered his
bronze-colored skin, making it glisten but not doing much in the way of cooling
him off. Despite his obvious exhaustion,
Daisuke continued with his exercises.
Just as he
was about to jump forward and slice off the dummy's head, a pretty pink-haired
lady stepped in front of him, blocking Daisuke's pursuit of the dummy and
coming perilously close to having her own head lopped from her shoulders.
"Kami!"
Daisuke cursed between tightly clenched teeth when he managed to freeze the
movement of his sword mere millimeters from the lady's neck. "Lady Mimi, you really need to stop doing
that to me. You're going to get
yourself killed some day."
Mimi smiled
brightly at Daisuke with an air of confidence that seemed to say, "Or so you
think."
"Lady Sora
wishes to see you," she announced politely.
Daisuke
brought one arm to his forehead to wipe away the sweat and was about to answer,
"I'm busy," but thought better of rejecting his superior.
"Tell her
I'll be with her in a moment. I need to
clean up."
Mimi nodded
curtly and turned to head back to Sora. Daisuke let out a heavy sigh and dropped his sword. He began walking back to his quaint
cottage-like home, not even bothering to wait until he reached the house before
starting to rid himself of his sweaty training clothes. Once he felt he was presentable enough,
Daisuke approached Sora's throne, which was in the middle of the courtyard that
was considered the center of Tokyo.
"Daisuke!" Sora smiled cheerfully at her favorite
knight as he knelt in front of her throne. "Stand up."
He did so
and met Sora's gaze with the eagerness of a child who was about to be told he
could have a box of cookies if he washed his hands before dinner. Sora always saved the best assignments for
him.
"Lady Mimi
informs me that there's trouble in Tamachi," Sora explained nonchalantly, as if
this was the sort of trouble people experienced every day.
Daisuke
knew better. Assignments that started
with a description of "trouble" meant "bad…danger…you no like this." The young auburn-haired man could feel his
hands getting clammy. However, it was
the only outward sign of his growing nervousness…or he hoped, anyway.
"Trouble…?"
Daisuke inquired, trying to sound more excited and interested than as
apprehensive as he was.
"Yes. Apparently there's a large blue dragon
wrecking havoc upon the town."
"D…dragon?" He could barely contain the squeak threatening
to escape his throat and replace coherent words.
Sora only
smiled and nodded slowly. Dragon
shmagon, this was going to be a piece of cake, right?
"I…I
suppose you want me to slay the dragon for you?"
Much to
Daisuke's chagrin, Sora nodded again.
"Yes,
please."
Daisuke
brought a sweaty hand to the back of his neck and rubbed the area right below
his hairline in an unconsciously nervous gesture. He forced a smile.
"No
problem! I can handle anything! This dragon should be easy!"
Sora smiled
again.
"I was
hoping you would think so. Thank you,
Daisuke. You will leave tomorrow."
Daisuke
took a deep breath to steady himself, and he nodded.
"Sure…tomorrow…no
problem…gotcha."
He let Mimi
lead him to the courtyard's exit, and he walked numbly back to his house.
"Dragon…?"
he asked himself. "I…I have to slay a
dragon? I have to leave tomorrow…to go
to Tamachi…to slay a large blue dragon?"
Daisuke
began laughing. This had to be a joke,
right? Sora was sending him on a
suicide mission! Dragon? Yeah, right.
The usually
over-confident young man suddenly felt as if everything had crumbled around
him, and he couldn't shake the sense of dread suddenly overwhelming him and
causing his heart to clench painfully. Surely this meant the end of Motomiya Daisuke.
* * * * *
"Jun, make
me some sandwiches!" Daisuke commanded the moment he walked through the door.
Lady
Motomiya Jun, Daisuke's older sister of three years, turned from where she
stood at the small wood stove to narrow her eyes at her younger brother.
"I'm not
your slave!" she retorted. "Besides,
I'm busy."
Daisuke
sighed exasperatedly and sauntered into the kitchen, a smug grin curving his
lips.
"Are you still
trying to woo that blonde?" the redhead asked, leaning against a countertop
next to the oven and eyeing his sister suspiciously.
Jun rolled
her eyes.
"I'm merely
making a cake to be friendly. But you
wouldn't understand, you're just a kid."
"Not too
much of a kid to have Sora send me to Tamachi to slay a dragon."
Jun's attention
was immediately caught, and she turned to her brother again, eyes wide with
fear and surprise.
"What?!"
"That's
right. Apparently there's this blue
dragon terrorizing Tamachi, and Sora wants me to get rid of it."
"But…a
dragon?!"
Daisuke
smiled inwardly while trying to remain nonchalant for his sister. He loved when Jun showed him concern. She hated to be caught caring about her
younger brother, and Daisuke knew that very well, so any opportunity to win in
their little game of sibling rivalry was a good thing. Plus, it made Daisuke feel loved.
"Yes, a
dragon. What's the big deal?"
"It's a dragon! Angry, fire-breathing monster with sharp
teeth and even sharper claws!"
"Jun, it's nice
that you worry about me and all, but I really need to start packing, so if you
would make me some sandwiches for my journey, that'd be a real help. Thanks," Daisuke said before turning
abruptly and heading to his bedroom.
Jun
sputtered.
"I wasn't worrying
about you!" she cried after him even as she moved to make her brother his
sandwiches. "I was worrying about the
dragon!"
She heard
Daisuke scoff at her from his room, but she ignored it.
Inside his
room, Daisuke shuffled through a large mess of his belongings until he found a
bag, and then proceeded to throw random articles of clothing into it. He grabbed a map from his bedside table and
studied it. Tamachi was a long way from
Tokyo, especially on foot, but he estimated that with his efficient means of
traveling he would make it there in no less than four days. Lying back on his bed, Daisuke tried to calm
himself. He could feel his heart
palpitating against his sternum and could hear his pulse thundering in his
ears. He almost chided himself for
being so apprehensive when he had never been nervous about any of Sora's
assignments before now, but reasoned that before now, Sora had never sent him
to slay a dragon.
"I'm
young…I still have my whole life ahead of me…what was she thinking?!"
Daisuke was
a healthy sixteen years old, having studied and apprenticed under some of
Tokyo's best knights. He was squired
when he was ten years old and had impressed all the warriors in Tokyo, and
Sora, so much that he had been knighted before he was even of legal age. Most men were knighted when they were old
enough to move away and marry. Daisuke
was still required to be under the custody of his parents.
The redhead
was Sora's pride and joy. She was
overjoyed to find out she had such a skilled knight in her court, and one of
such a young age. Tokyo's orange-haired
leader often bragged to many a city that she had a prepubescent (which Daisuke
didn't take to flattery) knight who was more skilled in the trade than most of
her older knights of several years were. Whenever she sent her knights out on assignments, Daisuke was always the
one to get the best, and frequently most trying, ones so that he would have
almost endless opportunities to show off.
Until now,
they had always been "Save The Damsel in Distress" types.
Or "Chase
the Snakes out of Ireland" types.
He knew it
was part of a knight's job to have to kill when necessary, but Sora had always
said he was too young to be killing. Now this! A war might have eased
him into it, but here she threw this dragon onto him as if it was nothing!
"Daisuke,
your sandwiches are done!" Jun called from the kitchen before he had more time
to fret.
"Great…"
Daisuke grumbled on his way to the kitchen. "One more step closer to inevitable doom."
* * * * *
He was
packed. He had food, clothing, money,
blankets, a map, a compass, his weapons, a lucky charm or two, and some things
to write with incase he needed to make out a will. After checking over his inventory for the umpteenth time, Daisuke
sighed. His clock had been ticking away
for quite a while, and the night had long since turned into very early morning,
yet he couldn't sleep. Apprehension and
fear had kept him awake for many hours, despite the knowledge that he would be
barely functional the next morning if he didn't go to bed.
A light
knock on his bedroom door stopped Daisuke from pacing, and he answered the
door, finding Jun on the other side of the threshold.
"Daisuke,
please go to sleep. I can hear you
pacing in my room and it's driving me nuts."
"Sorry, I
was just…" Daisuke trailed of, never willing to admit to his sister that he was
scared or worried, "…thinking."
Jun smiled
skeptically, but didn't press the subject further. She teased her little brother about almost everything, but this
was one topic she simply couldn't find the heart to pester him about.
"Come
on…lay down in bed and I'll read you a story."
Daisuke
scoffed, not hiding from Jun at all how very offended this treatment made him
feel.
"I'm not a
child."
"No," Jun
agreed. "But I think you could use
it. Now get in bed."
Daisuke
heaved a heavy, exasperated sigh, but reluctantly climbed into his bed. Jun pulled one of Daisuke's favorite fairy
tales from childhood off his bookshelf. It was one she used to read to him whenever he had nightmares. Smiling, she began reading.
"A soldier
came marching along the high road…"
Daisuke
rested his head against the pillow and closed his eyes, trying to let Jun's
voice and the story take over his thoughts.
"…As he walked
on, he met a very frightful-looking old witch in the road…"
The fairy tale was his comfort
story, and always succeeded in helping him get to sleep. Plus, and this was something Daisuke had
never confided in anybody, he liked to pretend he was the princess. He liked the idea of being swept away to a
cabin at night to court a handsome soldier, especially the one in the story Jun
was reading to him, and not being the hero for once.
"…As soon as the rope was tied, the
soldier climbed up the tree, and let himself down through the hollow to the
ground beneath…"
Daisuke had long since gotten over
his small crush on the soldier, but the desire to meet someone like him had yet
to be extinguished.
"…Then he went into the third room,
and there the dog was really hideous…"
As visions of his hero danced
through his head, Daisuke slowly drifted off into the world of dreams.
Jun, having
only gotten past the first couple pages, had to chuckle when she noticed her
brother had fallen fast asleep. A sweet
smile curved her lips upwards and her eyes softened. She was praying for her brother. As much as she teased him, and as much as he annoyed her, and as much as
she disliked him most of the time, he was still her brother, and she still
loved him, and she hoped more than anything in the world that he would come out
of Sora's crazy assignment alive.
The
raspberry-haired girl stood, placing the book she had been reading on the chair
she had been sitting in, and kissed her brother's forehead.
"Good
night, Dai'ototo-chan. Good luck."
* * * * *
"Quick! Get all of the women and children out
first!"
"Run
north! The dragon never leaves town,
and the quickest way out is north!"
"Mommy! Mommy, where are you? Mommy, I'm scared!"
"Why hasn't
anyone come yet? Why won't anyone help
us?"
"Doesn't
the thing sleep? Even in the middle of
the night it comes rampaging!"
"Where did
it come from? Why does it want to hurt
us?"
"HELP! My baby! I can't find my baby!"
"Daddy! Daddy, watch out! Don't try to fight the dragon!"
"NOOOO!!"
~End Chapter One~
