A/N: Uh...boy, I'm including the whole cast of Digimon aren't I? **Half-expects Ryo to pop up out of nowhere despite his only being shown as a flashback in like one episode** Erm...anyways. I promise this will all make sense someday. ^-^'
Wallace frowned as he shoved yet another low-hanging branch out of his face, taking care so as not to get scratched up any more than he already was. His body ached with sore exhaustion and he wanted nothing more than to drop onto the floor and sleep the rest of the day away, but his determination would not let him give in just yet, and so he pressed on through the forest. When his best friend had run away from their village in the middle of the night, he had been quick to follow, though he had only been able to follow after he'd found out about his friend's escape, the morning after the incident had happened. The rubble that had once been an old widow's house had been in the process of being cleaned up that day, which took the attention of everyone in the entire village, making it all-too-easy for him to survey the surrounding forest and find the path left by his friend the night before.
He wiped at his sweaty brow and breathed a sigh of relief when he finally broke out of the forest. His mouth opened wide and he slowly dropped his hand to his side when he saw what he'd just stumbled upon.
"Wow."
Before him stood a very large and expansive not-too-old-looking castle, with a fresh, cut lawn surrounding it for about fifty feet in all directions. He began stumbling forward to the castle, figuring he could just knock on the large wooden doors and ask for a spare room (he was sure there would be plenty) to stay in for the night.
He trekked over the lawn and began walking around the perimeter of the castle in search of the side with the front entrance and was almost about to give up when he heard voices. He snuck to the edge of the side of the castle and peered around it, where he saw two boys who looked to be only a few years his senior playing what seemed to be croquet.
"Damnit!" cursed the first boy as his ball missed the semi-circle ring in the ground. "Not again!"
"You seem to be getting a bit rusty with your game, master," observed the second.
Wallace shook his head and stared harder at the two. At first, he thought they were twins. They were the same size, had the same blue-colored unruly mass of hair, had the same pale-colored skin, and seemed to be equally thin. However, one wore glasses and regular clothes: a green sweater over a plain white shirt and blue jeans with white sneakers poking out of the end, and the second wore strange clothes: a cape, a blue and grey jumpsuit, large army-like boots, gloves, and yellow goggles with purple-tinted lenses. He figured one was the normal twin and the other was the eccentric twin.
His mind suddenly registered the fact that the normal-looking one had called the other "master."
What the hell?
"I'm tired of playing this stupid game. I don't want to play anymore." The strange-looking one pouted and threw his croquet mallet down onto the floor, crossing his arms over his chest.
"As you wish, master. I'll clean this up while you go back into the castle."
Wallace took the opportunity to leap out from behind the castle wall and shout, "Hey!"
The caped boy that had just turned to begin walking back to the castle gave a startled jump and whirled around. The other boy looked up from where he stooped to pick up the croquet mallet the other had just flung upon the ground.
"Who are you?" the first demanded, pointing a gloved finger towards Wallace. He looked down at the second and asked in a quieter voice, "Were you expecting anyone around today? Why didn't you tell me?"
"No, no, I just stumbled out here from in those woods," Wallace explained, pointing behind himself. "See, I'm lost, and I could use a place to crash for the night."
"What is your name, boy?" questioned the first.
"My name's Wallace," he replied, stepping forward to shake a gloved hand. He leant down to shake the other boy's hand as well.
"You obviously have no idea who I am," the first said haughtily. "Or else you wouldn't come marching up to me the way you are now. I am the great Kin-er...Kaizer who owns this castle and reigns within it. I own and control all of the land you see around you for miles and miles."
"And you're his servant?" Wallace asked the boy kneeling on the ground.
"Court jester, actually," the boy mumbled. "Though I don't do a good job of it. However, since the Kaizer and I are the only ones who reside in the entire castle, I do double as his servant. My name is Osamu."
"Is he your brother or something?"
Osamu and the Kaizer looked at each other and raised their eyebrows. The Kaizer looked at Wallace again and growled.
"How dare you insult me like that?! I should hang you for saying such a thing!"
"Look, all I'm asking for is a place to sleep tonight," Wallace repeated wearily.
The Kaizer narrowed his eyes at Wallace and crossed his arms over his chest again. "Now that I think about it...I could use another servant in the castle. Why shouldn't I take advantage of this situation? I could easily bend you to my will. Capture him, Osamu."
Wallace felt something cold closing over his left wrist and heard a faint clicking sound. He looked down and saw that he was handcuffed to Osamu. Osamu gave him an apologetic smile.
"He isn't so bad to be around. His haughty attitude is all for show. Don't worry, you'll have fun here."
Osamu began to drag Wallace to the castle.
"But...but I was going after my friend," Wallace mumbled, trying vainly to slide his hand out from the metal clamped around his wrist.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to the castle," Osamu went on cheerfully, oblivious to Wallace's struggling and mumbling.
"What about the croquet stuff?" Wallace asked, casting a hesitant glance over his shoulder.
"Don't worry about that, we'll get it later. No one's going to come and steal it. There isn't another soul around for miles. We're all alone here, as if we're on some kind of distant planet or something."
Wallace groaned and succumbed to the boy yanking him along towards the castle's main entrance.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Well, we should be leaving again soon. We can't stay here for too long," Ken reminded his friends.
"Are you sure we have to leave so soon?" Daisuke whined, staring at the mass amounts of food spread out over the long table they were eating breakfast at. "I mean, when's the next time we'll have a chance to eat like this?"
"We can't stay here forever," Takeru snapped at him. "We don't live here."
"You're welcome anytime you want to visit," Hikari told them warmly. She eyed Daisuke and smiled. "Anytime."
"See?" Daisuke gave Takeru a pointed look, which he ignored.
"We will depart on our journey as soon as we are done eating," Ken said firmly.
"Okay," Daisuke replied cheerfully, giving Ken a full grin.
Takeru gave the redhead a dirty look and sulkily tore a chunk of meat off of the chicken leg he was munching on.
They heard a blast coming from somewhere outside and all talking ceased. Taichi sprung to his feet and ran to poke his head out of the hut. He pulled his body back inside and shouted, "We're under attack!"
Everyone scrambled outside and stared in shock as a mob of people began running into the village with guns and torches. The ones carrying torches began flinging them onto the roofs of huts, setting them aflame and making the people inside run out, screaming in terror. Taichi ran out to the middle of the village square and stared around with wide eyes at the damage being caused. He turned and screamed as loud as he could for all of the men to find weapons and fight back and for all of the women and children to run to safety. Figuring they were able to pass as "children", everyone but Taichi, Yamato, and Takeru ran like hell out of the village. The other three stayed behind to try and fight, but soon they found themselves overpowered and the three also fled into the forest.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Ken!" Daisuke screamed frantically. "Ken, where are you?! Takeru? Are either of you out there?"
"Yamato!" Miyako cried into the woods at her side. "Yamato, where the hell are you?!"
She bit her lip to fight back tears as she struggled to regain composure. She felt incredibly worried at the fact that she could not find Yamato, and she knew he had stayed behind to fight. She hoped that he was okay. She didn't know what she would do if she lost Yamato. She turned and saw that Daisuke seemed to be hyperventilating on the forest floor.
"Daisuke," she said clearly, shaking his shoulder. "We have to search for the others."
"But I've always been told that when you get lost you're supposed to stay still," Daisuke said, his voice a mere whine in his panic.
"Well, if everyone stayed put then no one would ever go looking for them and no progress would ever be made," Miyako said reasonably. She tried to haul him to his feet. "Come on, let's start looking. We can't lose our heads over this."
"Okay," Daisuke said, clearing his throat and trying to clear his mind as well. "Okay. I'm fine now."
He stood and began looking in all possible directions at the forest around him, trying to choose which path to take. He stopped and stared forward at the broken path he was now staring at. It was the path they had just run through. He turned around one-hundred-eighty degrees and pointed.
"We have to keep going straight. We should eventually come to some form of civilization."
Miyako stared in wonder at the now calm-and-composed Daisuke. His change in personality had been a surprise to her and she couldn't help but nod and agree with his reasoning, following him down the path he'd just pointed at.
Daisuke was determined to find Ken and Takeru. He decided he would stop at nothing as long as he would be able to find them again. He hadn't been without them for a couple of days and he already missed their company.
I'll find them, and I won't ever lose them again, he told himself. Takeru's probably going crazy right now with no one to argue with.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Ken? Where are we?"
"Er, I don't exactly know where we are right now, but give me a moment and I'll find the direction we should be headed in," Ken replied confidently. He closed his eyes and thought hard for a moment, and then began looking carefully at all of the trees around himself. "These trees only grow in one certain place. I know where we are now. We just have to head in this direction for a few miles and we should come to a village."
"I'm glad I got lost with you, Ken," Hikari said thankfully. "You at least know what you're doing."
"Well, I have to," Ken said, looking over at her. He looked forward again. "Let's get going."
~ ~ ~ ~
"What do you mean we're lost? Don't you know anything about the area surrounding your own village? And you, I thought you knew the area well? After all, you spend all your time romping around in the forest and shooting people with your stupid arrows!"
"If you don't shut up, I'm going to shoot you," Yamato told the younger blonde with a growl just as fierce, possibly even fiercer, than the other's. Takeru narrowed his eyes but wisely kept his mouth shut.
"Wait, I know where we are," Taichi said, looking around himself from the rock he'd climbed up on. "We need to go...that way," he said, pointing to the right.
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as I am that the sky is blue," Taichi replied with a cheeky grin.
Yamato and Takeru gave him twin skeptical looks.
"Come on, what do we have to lose?" Taichi asked brightly.
"I'm not sure I like the idea of you leading us," Takeru said, looking Taichi over.
"Come on, Takeru. Don't you trust me?"
"No."
"But I know where we are," Taichi said again.
"I think I'll go my own way, thank you very much," Takeru said, going off in the direction to the left.
"We have to go to the right!" Taichi called after him, pointing with his finger.
"I'm going to the left," Takeru called back over his shoulder.
"But...but..." Taichi sighed and dropped his finger in defeat. He looked at Yamato. "Well?"
Yamato stood and pondered the matter for awhile before turning and walking off to the left after Takeru.
"Hey!" Taichi called indignantly.
"That kid's annoying, but he's got a head on his shoulders," Yamato said without looking back at Taichi, knowing that he was following close behind, probably hanging his head and dragging his feet reluctantly. "Unlike you, who has got a tiny bit of neck and then a brown bush you call your hair."
"Very funny," grumbled Taichi.
"If you don't want to lose me, you'd better walk faster than that," Takeru called back.
"Man, does he remind me of you," Taichi said.
"That's why I'm following him," Yamato said, smirking. "Everyone knows I'm always right."
"I hope so," Taichi said as he straightened up and resigned to his fate, walking faster so he wouldn't lose sight of the blonde walking far ahead of them.
