Chapter Two: Preparations for the Ceremony
Once at File Island the young Wise One and his accomplices were whisked away into the large castle they'd be staying at for the following week of celebration. Gennai felt his legs turning into jelly as he walked up the stone steps and into the castle. He kept swallowing, trying to wet his mouth, but finding it harder to do each time he swallowed. His heart was beating unusually fast and he felt faint.
Wizardmon on the other had, was calm and collected. He was use to such ceremonies and how they worked. It amused him how the young Gennai was so nervous. Being the observer that Wizardmon was, he could tell that the boy was nearly frightened to death. He chuckled slightly as they approached the second flight of stairs, where their chambers would be for the next week.
"If you keep up that act people /will/ start to doubt you." Wizardmon said in a low voice to Gennai. He got a small glare in return and the boy picked up his pace, leaving his advisor behind. Wizardmon let out a laugh and continued in his own leisurely pace up the stairs.
At the top of the flight was a long hallway of rooms, a chandler lighting up the deep red walls. Gennai stopped at the top and looked out the window next to the stair case. So many people were out there, either setting something up or wondering around, observing. Beyond the treetops he knew the Yokomon Village lay. He had traveled there only once at the age of five with his father and Wizardmon. He remembered much of the humons that inhabited that place looked pretty much the same, but there had been one girl a few years older than he who looked a little different. He wondered what happened to her now...
A voice snapped Gennai out of his thoughts. A human female a little older than him with long orange curls tied back by a ribbon and bright green eyes stood a few feet before him. She was dressed in a servant's attire that consisted of a pale almond skirt that went little past her knees and a white blouse with a not-so-white apron covering half of her, faded brown boots ended her outfit.
"Milord Gennai, welcome." She said with an accent while bowing deeply, her curls falling over her shoulder. She straightened up and pushed the long hair back over her shoulder. "M' name's Darcia, I'll be your chamber maid throughout your stay. If there be anything you need, let m' know."
"T-thank you. I will." Gennai replied with a nod of his head. The maid bowed again before making her way down the stairs he had just come up from.
"Tsk, tsk." Wizardmon's disapproval came from behind him. "Stuttering is not for Wise Ones."
"She took me by surprise!" Gennai defended himself, a slight blush of embarrassment creeping onto his face. Wizardmon shook his head and made his way down the hall. Not sure which room he should enter, Gennai followed Wizardmon.
"That will be your room for your stay," Wizardmon pointed to the last room down the hallway, "I am right across from you. The others are in various rooms. I suggest maybe going over your speech, as for me, I'm going to take a nap. I'll come collect you when it's time for the ceremony to begin."
"If you don't oversleep it, that is." Gennai muttered. "But I suppose your right, I /should/ go over my speech." The boy sighed.
"Look lively, if you're nervous and depressed the entire time, how do you expect the Realm to accept you as chosen Wise One?" Wizardmon questioned.
"/You/ try being the youngest Wise One to be appointed in history /and/ live up to expectations of the greatest Wise One to ever live!" Gennai yelled. "It's not exactly easy!"
"Shh!" Wizardmon hissed. "Do not raise your voice in the corridors! If you're going to yell at me do so in here." He gestured to his own chambers. Gennai glared slightly, before softening and then sighing.
"I know, I know. I have to learn to control my temper. But this whole thing is so nerve racking!"
"I know it is, but you must appear to the people as if it is no big deal. You must learn not to display your true feelings in front of them." Wizardmon explained. "Perhaps you should take a dip in the hot springs here, I heard they were the best in the realm."
"I don't know, I really should go over my speech again..." Gennai replied sulky.
"You'll have enough time to do both." Wizardmon reassured him.
"Well, if you say so... I guess it would be alright..."
"Of course it is. Why don't you go find Darcia, she probably knows where they are." The boy's advisor suggested.
"Alright, I'll be back in an hours time then. You should be up by then." Gennai left his advisor in the hallway and started his search for Darcia, in hopes she'd be able to direct him to the hot springs.
Wizardmon watched the boy descend the stairs and smiled to himself. He was proud of Gennai. He knew it was no easy task becoming Wise One, and living up to the expectations of the people, for Gennai would be overshadowed with his father's greatness. Tired from the days journey, Wizardmon went into his chambers to rest up. It would be a long night of partying...
~*~
Gennai sighed out of relief and allowed himself to sink into the hot mineral water. He closed his eyes and relaxed, trying to think of nothing, especially the events that would occur that night. He was alone in quiet surroundings, the way he liked it after being around so many people in the last month or two.
"Mind if I join you?" It sounded like whoever it was were holding their nose while talking and had a semi-high pitched voice. Gennai tried not to sigh, hope of peace gone. He opened his eyes to see who just plopped into the water.
At first he saw nothing and thought he imagined such a voice talking, but then a body sprang half way out of the water. He whipped his head back and the water from their fiery red hair splashed Gennai in the face. Gennai lifted his right hand to his face and rubbed his eyes, allowing his vision not to be blurry from the water the stranger splashed.
"Wonderful," Gennai thought, "I'm better off just going back up to my room and rehearsing my speech."
"Oops, did I splash you? Sorry!" The stranger than giggled a little before heavily sighing as if in bliss.
Gennai raised an eyebrow at the imposter. They were obviously a male, and most likely humon, considering they were so pale their skin was almost white. Either that or they didn't get out in the sunlight much...
Pale as the guy's skin was, his hair begged to differ. It was a fiery red and stuck up at all angles, it reminded the young Gennai of a type of mohawk, except it went all around the guy's head. Underneath his lively green eyes were purple marks that were in the shapes of miniature boomerangs. He looked to be about his age too.
"Isn't it relaxing here?" The guy on the other side of the hot spring asked. "It's the best thing after a hard days work! Me and my buddies have been preparing just about /everything/ for the new Wise One's ceremony tonight. I heard he arrived here earlier today, but no one's seen him!" The red head exclaimed. "Don't you find that odd? If I was the new chosen Wise One, I'd want to inspect the settings I'd be at for the majority of the night and meet with the inhabitants!"
Gennai sank a little deeper into the springs in hopes that maybe the talkative humon wouldn't recognize him as the new Wise One. He then remembered the last time the entire Realm had seen him had been at his father's burial and that was quite some time ago. Even so, the guy across from him made him nervous with all the talk of the Wise One. He was also getting a head ache from him.
"You don't have much to say do you?" the humon asked him.
"Not really." Gennai replied annoyed. He closed his eyes and sighed.
"Rough day?" The guy asked sympathetic.
"You have no idea." Gennai replied.
"Say, I've never seen you around here. What's your name?" Gennai didn't know how to reply, not really wanting to give his identity as new Wise One away, so didn't reply at all. "...Okay... Well, my name's Gomamon. It's nice ta meet ya!" The humon introduced.
"Likewise." Gennai replied, not trying to come off as rude, but at the same time trying to give the stranger a hint to hit the road.
Gomamon was quiet for a few moments, leaving the troubled person to his thoughts. He observed the no name with bright, troubled green eyes. His skin was sort of tanned and he seemed to around the same age as him. His hair was a pale brown that was short in the front but at the nape of his neck a small ponytail lay. He didn't have any special marking that he could see on his body, so figured he must have been a human. Being humon or human didn't matter to Gomamon, as it would to most humons, what mattered to him was the kind of person they were.
"This guy needs to lighten up." Gomamon thought to himself. "I wonder where he's from... I'm sure I've never seen this guy around..." An exciting thought then struck him, "Maybe he's one of the Wise One's Sages or something! That's why he's not slipping who he is!"
Gennai was aware that the stranger, or Gomamon as he now knew the guy's name, was staring at him. It was really making him uneasy. "What's /he/ looking at?" He thought kind of embarrassed.
"Ha! I know who you are!" Gomamon finally splattered out, ending their silence. Gennai tensed up not really wanting to be discovered yet. "Your one of the new chosen Wise Ones Sage's aren't you!?"
Gennai mentally sighed in relief. He wouldn't /really/ be lying if he said he was, after all, he was once a Sage. "Perhaps..." He replied, hoping this would end the humon's curiosity.
But it didn't. In fact, the guy wanted more information on who the new Wise One was, what he was like, what he looked like, if he truly was Azulongmon's son. Gennai was so overwhelmed by the questions, and not really wanting to lie he left the hot springs in a hurry with some horrible excuse to the curious humon.
With Gennai's leave, Gomamon sighed depressed. "And to think, something interesting could've been revealed. Oh well, the story of my life..."
~*~
Back in his room and dressed, Gennai sighed for his zillionth time that day. The hot springs didn't have much of a chance relaxing him with that very talkative humon being there, badgering him with questions. Gennai sat on the chair next to the window sill. It was a sunny out and most people out there, despite the hard work, looked to be enjoying themselves. In his heart of hearts, Gennai wished he could be one of them. One of the people who celebrated the new Wise One's crowning instead of being the one to receive it.
The only reasons Gennai strived to become in a position of such honor was, one, it was his birthright to become it. It was what his father wanted him to be, it was the promise he made to his father on his death bed. Two, he didn't quite trust anyone else who was after the position during his childhood. It had been nine long years without a Wise One to look up to. He supposed that, that was why Wizardmon pushed him to reach the potential of Wise One at such a young age. It was because the Realm needed a Wise One. Trouble stirred more frequently when their wasn't a Wise One to dispose of it...
There was a knock at his chamber doors, snapping Gennai back to reality. "What am /I/ thinking!? It's a great honor to become Wise One!" Gennai mentally yelled at himself. He got up to answer the knocking, figuring it was Wizardmon. When he opened the door he was quite surprised to see five children with big round blueberry blue eyes and a lighter shad of blue hair, tossed up in a high ponytails. They were all identical to each other, right down to their little pink tank-tops and pink shorts.
They all gasped at the sight of him and talked all at once, pointing at him and giggling to one or the other. Gennai raised his eyebrows in bewilderment, not sure what to do and why they were at his chamber doors in the first place.
"Um..." Gennai started.
"It's him isn't it! I know it is!" One of the girl's piped up.
"It can't be! I heard that he had long golden hair like Angemon's!" Another one said.
"There's only /one/ Angemon! So this must be him!"
"But he's not old and wrinkly like Gomamon said..."
"...Um, excuse me?" Gennai said softly to the little girls in front of him.
"It's him!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"No it isn't!"
"YOKOMON!" Came a loud yell from down the hall. The girl's ceased talking at once, fright evident in their eyes. The all scattered around Gennai, hiding behind him, peering around his legs to see whom it was searching for them.
Gennai looked down at the cowering five and sighed. Just what had they been babbling about? Him being the new Wise One? He glowered, and what did they mean he was supposed to be old and wrinkly?!
Just then a blur of red, orange, yellow, ran down the hall. The five behind Gennai squeaked scared. Gennai stuck his head out the door to look at what just went running past his room. A female humon a few years older than him with long golden yellow hair and muscular arms spotted the young Wise One's head and walked over.
She was well built with dark peach skin and light sparkling green eyes. Most of her hair was down and went to her mid back, but two red hair elastic type things with triangular cut outs in them incased the shorter parts of her hair on either side of her face. She wore baggy pale blue pants that were ripped at the bottoms (most likely from walking on them, for they were also a bit too long) and there was a rather big tear through the material on the left knee. Ending her attire was a red halter top and dark brown boots.
"Yokomon! What do you think you are doing bothering people!?" She yelled at the five cowering behind Gennai.
"W-w-we just wanted to see if the new chosen Wise One was here..." One bravely spoke up.
"So you go around the castle going room to room bothering people? What's wrong with you!?" The humon scolded them. "Come out from behind that man now!"
The little girls bowed their heads in shame and did as they were told. "Now, apologize for your rudeness." She instructed.
"Sorry, sir." They said in unison.
Gennai merely blinked at the lot of them. "I-it's okay..."
"I hope they didn't disturb you sir." The girl bowed her head.
"No, they just took me by surprise, that's all." Gennai laughed nervously.
"Really, I don't know /what's/ gotten into them lately. I guess it's all the commotion of the new Wise One coming here to File Island," She said thoughtfully, "but really, they /should/ mind their manners." She directed to the girls who kept their heads bowed in shame.
"It's fine." Gennai replied with a nod of the head. "They'll meet the Wise One soon enough." He smiled. "When does the ceremony begin?" He asked as if he didn't know.
"Less than an hour, I believe." The humon replied. "Oh! How rude of me. My name is Biyomon. What's yours?" Gennai's smile faded slightly. If he told her his name she'd most likely know he was the new Chosen One...
"For now, I am nameless, but it was nice meeting you." Gennai replied. "I'm sorry I cannot tell you." He bowed his head out of respect.
"Oh..." Biyomon said, surprised. "Well, I'm sure you have your reasons...?"
"I do. Maybe we'll meet again later today, at the ceremony." Gennai said. He saw the little girl's smile and look at each other as if they knew something that no one else did. The way they were taking that proposal was most likely not the way he tried to make it out to be.
"Perhaps we will." Biyomon bowed her head. "But for now, we have to go, I have to get these kiddies ready for the ceremony." She gestured to the little ones before her. "Bye, for now."
Gennai nodded his head to the six of them and they turned and left. He chuckled to himself. That had been interesting. A thought of horror stuck him then. He only had less than an hour to go over his speech /and/ to rouse Wizardmon! He ran over to his advisor's door and pounded it for all it was worth.
"Wizardmon!!" Pound. "Get!" Pound. "Up!" The door opened a few moments later to a glare from Wizardmon.
"What is it?" He asked annoyed.
"The ceremony begins in less than an hour!" Gennai said anxiously. "We need to go over my speech!"
"Couldn't you have done that yourself!?" Wizardmon hissed, stepping out of his room and closing the door.
"Maybe, but you need to help me with any last minute stuff." Gennai muttered. His advisor sighed.
"Alright, let's get to work." Gennai nodded and the two headed into the soon to be Wise One's chambers...
To Be Continued...
~*~
Author's Note: Longer than the first two, I know, and that's probably how it will be for the majority of the fic here after. We'll see. Anyhow, what are you comments on this? Oh! I have fan art!
Go here to check out Gomamon:
http://www.geocities.com/digimon_fan_fiction/FanArt/gomamon.jpg
Go here to check out Biyomon:
http://www.geocities.com/digimon_fan_fiction/FanArt/biyomon.jpg
Also, keep in mind that all chapters are posted at the Digimon_Fan_Fiction Mailing List first, care to join?
http://www.geocities.com/digimon_fan_fiction/Fanfiction/mailinglist.html
Gennai, Wizardmon, and the little Yokomon will be on the way soon, and so will the third chapter ^_~. Til then,
Eraya ^_~