Chapter Three
The four left the village early the next day, just as the morning sun was creeping over the eastern horizon. The farewell that they received was eerily somber, though none of the a'ladon seemed even remotely sad to be rid of Davis. Even as a great host of the creatures bowed in quiet reverence before T.K. and Kari (it was widely whispered that the reason for the 'god's' return was a desire to see young T'Kai safely to the gathering point on the mountain), many more made the sign that warded off evil in the direction of the brown-haired human boy. One elderly woman even spat at the dirt by his feet.
T.K. strapped the backpack that the creatures had given him over his shoulders and gripped the long rod that they had provided tightly in his hand. The stave was almost an exact duplicate of the one that he had wielded against the Saurian king and the angel of Darkness the last time that he had been in that world. After several years of forced and impromptu combat with such a weapon, he was actually becoming quite good with it. Not as good as Angemon was with his staff, of course, but nevertheless...
Davis, after learning that T.K. was to be armed, had insisted on being provided a weapon as well. After learning that the rather rustic creatures had no idea what exactly a "gun" was, the boy had consented to taking along an enormous, bladed weapon with a sharp hook on the end. It had been taken from a wild band of roving Saurians some months back, and had been kept mainly as a trophy of sorts, since it was far too big for any a'ladon to wield effectively. (In truth, it was far too big for Davis to use as well, but to keep from hurting the boy's feelings both T.K. and Kari refrained from mentioning that fact.)
T'Kai was dressed in the same cloak that he had worn the day before, though one of the women in the village had made a sad attempt to mend the frayed edges. Strapped to his waist was the same weapon that he had threatened Davis with on the previous day, and around his neck dangled the same whistle. He had thought, briefly, about bringing along other instruments as well, but then decided otherwise. When told of the boy's quandary, T.K. had given a secret smile. How like his forefather...
Did you want me dragging my pipes along? We're supposed to be in a hurry. T.K. could almost hear Mylam speak the words as his descendant brought them to mind.
Kari strolled alongside T'Kai at the front of the group, smiling and humming merrily to herself. Both T.K. and T'Kai had agreed not to mention the young a'ladon's 'vision' of his impending death, the creature not wanting to upset the 'goddess'. T.K., on the other hand, knew that Kari was made of sterner stuff than that, but did not want to mention it either. He was afraid at just what the girl might do to the village elders who were sending the boy away when she found out just how dangerous his journey was to be.
"We're going to have to travel rather quickly, My Lady," the young creature said to Kari. "We'll need to make it to the next village before the sun goes down."
Kari looked at him, a question in her eyes.
"The beasts of the wild come out after dark," the boy explained. "And there are some creatures out here that I would not care to meet, even with Your Grace at my side." He paused with a frown, then looked up at the girl with concern. "Did... did that sound like heresy, My Lady?"
The girl smiled. The young creature was just so adorable that Kari was having a bit of trouble keeping herself from kneeling down and cuddling him. But it was clear that the boy was attempting to play a part that was much older than he was, quite like T.K. had done years ago against Piedmon, so she refrained from embarrassing him by doing so. "T'Kai? You have my word that if I ever hear you say anything that sounds even a little heretical, you'll be the first to know."
The young creature responded with a satisfied smile as he turned from the girl, and pursed his lips and began to whistle a content, rather lilting tune. Kari returned the smile as she walked alongside the boy, nodding her head to the melody. "Will you sing for us sometime, T'Kai?" she asked.
The creature stopped whistling and looked somewhat flustered, bowing his head just slightly. "I'm afraid I'm not much of a singer, Lady Hikari," he said quietly. "I've tried, because that's all my songs really seem to be missing, but I just don't do it very well."
"Oh... well, that's all right," the girl replied, hoping fervently that she had not embarrassed the young boy. "But you can at least play for us sometime, right?" she asked, indicating the whistle around the other's neck.
Now T'Kai looked upset, though it was clearly directed at himself instead of at the human girl. "I, uhm, don't think that's a good idea, My Lady. Sometimes... well, strange things happen when I play songs. I mainly just brought this along because I'd feel kind of naked without it with me."
T.K., walking beside Davis some distance back, smiled as T'Kai once again started in on his simple tune. His muscles ached, as he had spent the previous night sleeping on the floor of the room that he and Kari shared, but the morning and the song were just too enjoyable to be ruined by a bit of soreness.
The blond-haired boy looked ahead at Kari. He was almost certain that the scene in the bedroom the previous day had been some new way for her to tease him, but it had awakened in him some new, confusing emotions that he was not prepared to deal with. In any event, he didn't trust himself quite far enough to sleep in the bed next to the brown-haired girl this time. He had a promise still outstanding to Matt... and when it came down to it, to Kari herself, after all. He was just fairly certain that the girl did not realize how difficult she was making it for him to keep it.
Davis trudged along irritably, lugging his chosen weapon across his shoulders. The heavy blade weighed as heavily on him as his dark thoughts. Once again, he was in a situation where everyone seemed to dismiss him as irrelevant while just falling all over themselves to adore T.K.. First Kari, then the other chosen children, now this village of strange, squirrel-like creatures. The boy gave an angry, sideways look at his rival. What is so special about him? he demanded of himself. After all, I'm the leader, right?
"Hey, that's right!" the boy said quietly to himself. "Wait up for a sec!" he called forward to Kari and T'Kai.
The pair stopped and turned to look at him. "What is it, Davis?" the girl asked patiently, not altogether certain that she wanted to hear the answer. She'd tried her best to ignore it, but she just knew that she'd heard some sort of bothersome idea percolating back there behind that shock of dark brown hair.
The brown-haired boy stopped beside them and cleared his throat. "Well, you see, since I'm the leader," he emphasized, "I think that it's only common sense that I be the one to decide exactly what it is that we should be doing next. Right Kari?"
The girl closed her eyes and covered them with her hand. She'd willingly let the earth swallow her whole, given the opportunity. T'Kai was stunned into immobility, his mouth sagging open just slightly. "He is your leader?" the creature asked in astonishment, pointing towards the brown-haired boy.
Davis looked smug, though possibly not quite as smug as he could have. "That's right, squirrel," he answered. "And as the leader, I think that I need to be told what's going on here, so I can start making the important decisions."
T.K. walked right past the three without even slowing. "Actually, Davis," he returned. "None of us is the leader here. This entire journey is T'Kai's duty, and we're along with him only at his pleasure. So if anyone here is 'the leader', I think it's him."
Kari and the young a'ladon looked at one another and nodded, the girl giving a quiet sigh of relief as well as they hurried to catch up with the happy, blond-haired boy. It wasn't that she didn't trust Davis as leader... after all, Tai himself had chosen the boy. But from the limited number of times that he'd served in that role for the new chosen children, she had the uncomfortable feeling that he 'lucked' into the right decision much too often. And that was with experienced advice at his side.
Davis was seething, his teeth audibly grinding together. I can't believe it! He did it again! the boy thought angrily to himself. Why is everybody always on his side?
Kari and T'Kai quickly caught up to T.K. "Nice," the girl murmured to him with a quick wink, overwhelming relief evident in the word.
T'Kai blinked. "Uhm, Lord Takeru? Did... did you mean that? I mean... about me being... you know..."
T.K. smiled down at the young a'ladon and placed a hand on the other's furry shoulder. "Of course, T'Kai. This is your world and your duty to perform. Who better than you to be in charge?"
The boy looked stunned for a moment, then returned the human's smile. "Thank you, My Lord," he said, just a bit of the overwhelming shyness vanishing from his demeanor. "No one... no one has ever trusted me like that before."
T.K. nodded, then the look in his eyes turned serious. "T'Kai, just what kind of trouble are you expecting to find out here? I heard you talking to Kari about some sort of creatures."
"It should be nothing to worry about, Lord," the boy replied. "The distance between towns is short enough that we should be able to get from one to the next well within the daylight hours, and the wild ones have never appeared during the day... not that I've heard about, anyway. But no one... no one, goes out after nightfall if they can help it. There's all sorts of nasty things out here, or so the village elders say."
T.K. gave Kari a nervous glance. And they were going to send him out on his own? the human boy thought, frowning at the very idea. "C'mon," he whispered to the brown-haired girl. "Let's see if we can't pick up the pace a bit. I don't like the sound of this at all."
************
The four reached the next village (which turned out to be a fairly large city, complete with stone walls) perhaps half an hour before sunset. Two burly guards (burly by a'ladon standards, anyway) stood by the main gate, each with a long spear resting lazily across his shoulder. T'Kai waved at the pair when the group was still a fair ways off, and Davis' incessant complaints finally came to a halt as he was able to finally put his heavy weapon down and rest.
The first of the two guards looked at the group as they approached. "You are the Warden T'Kai?" he asked gruffly.
The young creature nodded as T.K. and Kari stood back from him a bit. He had explained to the pair that the chosen representatives who traveled to the holy mountain were all called 'Wardens' until one of them was selected by the muliebral priesthood. And all the cities had agreements between them that the Wardens were supposed to be treated as the most venerable of all guests on their way to the mountain-top, since they were acting on behalf of a'ladon everywhere, after all.
"We've been expecting you," the second said with a bow. "Though you're a bit younger than we had anticipated. Much younger than the others who have passed this way." Then his eyes went to the humans behind the creature, and he peered closely at T.K.. "And who are these that you've brought with you? It seems to me that I should recognize..."
T'Kai nodded with a smile as the guard trailed off. "It is my greatest and utmost honor to be accompanied on my journey by the gods of old, Lord Takeru the Oathkeeper and Lady Hikari Lightbringer," he beamed.
The guards both looked on in awe. "In truth?" the first asked the human pair.
T.K. and Kari glanced quickly at one another, the boy with his bottom lip between his teeth. And Kari knew him well enough to know that he would have no answer for such a question. "That... that is what your people call us," she replied, trying to keep the answer as neutral as possible.
The guards bowed even more deeply than they had for T'Kai. "Then we are thrice honored," the first said. "To host not only one of the holy Wardens, but also the most divine of all creatures."
"And who are you?" the second guard called pleasantly to Davis, who had sat down on the ground to remove a stone from his shoe. The brown-haired boy was, to be honest, starting to look a bit ragged from the whole ordeal. Unlike T.K. and Kari, he had not been clothed in the fine attire of the a'ladon, and so still wore his heavy coat and tennis shoes from school which had been damaged heavily by their time in the lake.
T.K. looked alarmed and made a secret motion for the other boy to be silent. They'd surely misinterpret the pronunciation of his name as badly as T'Kai had. "Ah, this is... this is..." he stammered, trying to come up with a plausible story before Davis said something stup--
"I guess that would make me Lord Davis the Great!" the other smiled proudly, marching confidently towards the creatures after witnessing the honored welcome that the others had received.
The guard was impossibly fast as he brought up his spear to remove Davis' head from his shoulders, but somehow T.K. was even faster and brought his own weapon down across the other's shaft to force it away from the dark-haired boy. "Demon!" the second swore in alarm, also setting his weapon for combat.
"No! No, stop!" Kari cried, stepping protectively in front of the other boy and raising her arms. Davis flashed a smirking grin at T.K., who could only roll his eyes in response. "He came with us!"
The guards looked down at young T'Kai, who could only nod glumly in response. The first affixed him with a stern look. "It appears that your journey is destined for disaster already, then," he muttered, also looking somewhat upset with T.K. for the blond boy's alteration of his skewering thrust. "You travel with doom at your back."
The second guard relaxed his weapon, apparently unwilling to be pointing it at Kari. "I cannot be certain what this is all about, Your Grace," he said dangerously, a cautious look in his brown eyes. "But this creature," he pointed at Davis, "cannot be allowed inside these walls. The three of you are more than welcome here, but this is a place with women... and children as well. Even were you to command it, that cannot be permitted to enter our fair city."
"But you can't just leave us out here!" Kari protested. "Not with all of the... the wild ones," she recalled T'Kai's words.
"Lady Hikari," the first answered. "Your Grace is more than welcome in our city... indeed we would be most honored to have you and the Lord Takeru housed inside of our walls. But this... thing," he indicated Davis, "will have to stay out here with his own kind. We would be guilty of an abominable dereliction of our duties if we were to allow such an instrument of torment to pass."
The brown-haired boy was seething, and T'Kai looked up helplessly at T.K. The sun was now falling rapidly over the horizon, and soon the city gates would be shut for the night. "My Lord, we cannot stay out here," he murmured. "To do so would invite the worst manner of disaster upon us."
T.K. sighed, looking over the others in the group. Then, "Kari, T'Kai?" He looked consigned to a bad decision. "You two go on inside. Get rested up, and do whatever T'Kai is supposed to do here. I..." he paused, then glanced over at the other boy and sighed again. "Davis and I will stay out here together."
"T.K.--" Kari started, but the boy interrupted her.
"Kari, go on. You and T'Kai can take care of one another in there. We'll be okay for just the one night."
The girl gave a small pout, the reasons why she so loved the blond boy again becoming quite clear to her. Her eyes were downcast as she stepped over to T.K. and placed her arms around his neck, then, not caring that Davis was watching, kissed him quite seriously on the lips. "Don't you dare let yourself get hurt out here, T.K.," she warned, her normal, playful way of flirting with him vanishing into a more solemn expression of love at the thought of the danger he was putting himself in. "You're just too... too important to me to..." she stammered, her lips quivering and tears pooling in her brown eyes.
A sudden feeling overtook the young boy, and he impulsively grabbed Kari by the shoulders and urgently returned the kiss that she had given him. The girl's eyes widened in surprise, as such an assertive response was quite unlike him, and then pulled his body closer to hers and leaned back in his arms, reveling in the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her. "I promise, Kari," he murmured into her ear, again reinforcing his bond to the girl.
"I trust you, T.K.," she countersigned, the words private, for him alone. With that he nodded and released her, and with T'Kai and the pair of guards she went into the great city, her eyes not leaving him until the gates closed slowly between them.
************
"This is just stupid!" Davis scowled, kicking at the dirt as he looked angrily into the small fire that T.K. had managed to start. "I'm twice the hero that you are! Why does everyone hate me here?"
"They don't hate you, Davis," T.K. responded quietly, looking up at the stars just now beginning to make their appearance. The constellations were foreign and unfamiliar to him, reminding the boy that he was in an alien land. He looked away, now back to Davis. "They just don't know you. Your name here means... something else. And you're not what they think you are any more than I'm their god." He stopped, kneeling to poke a small stick into the fire. "We're going to have to take turns sleeping, you know. One of us is going to have to stay awake and keep watch for the creatures that T'Kai was warning us about."
"Oh, wait... let me guess who gets to sleep first," the other boy retorted with a roll of his eyes. "Honestly... wild creatures?"
T.K. sighed. "Davis, he didn't have any reason to lie to us, and you saw how nervous he was about it. But you can go ahead and rest first. You've had a rough day, and probably need to get some pretty quick."
"Damn right," the brown-haired boy snapped with an angry nod. He was uncertain just which he was more upset about: The fact that the squirrels around here were treating him like some sort of disease, that he apparently wasn't going to be the leader here... or the fact that Kari had kissed T.K. before she'd gone inside. On the lips, too! Still grinding his teeth in anger the boy lay down on the ground and turned away from his companion, pouting for almost half an hour before drifting off to sleep.
T.K. stood up and moved a bit away from the small fire. He was already exhausted from the day's journey, and knew that sitting down near the warmth of the blaze would only make him more drowsy. Whatever kinds of creatures there were around here, they were apparently fierce enough to keep the a'ladon in their cities during any hours that could even be vaguely considered nighttime. He hoped fervently that the stories were just exaggerated, or perhaps that the creatures wouldn't venture this close to a city... but in any event, well, he just couldn't allow Davis to be left alone outside the town.
It was almost six hours later when T.K., having used every trick that he could think of to keep himself awake, went to rouse Davis. "Drop dead..." the other murmured crankily, rolling to the other side as T.K. shook him by the shoulder. "Just give me another half hour or so..."
"Davis, please," T.K. insisted. "You've got to stand watch for a while, just a little bit. I can't keep myself awake anymore."
"All right, damn it," the other said darkly, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes repeatedly. He rolled his neck around to try to relieve some of the stiffness. Jeez, who ever thought that sleeping on the ground could be so uncomfortable? Snatching up the cruel-looking weapon that the a'ladon had provided him, he went over to the blaze that his companion had been tending and plopped down heavily.
T.K. removed his backpack and rested his head on it like a pillow, falling asleep almost instantly. He was troubled, but still managed to catch hold of a happy thought as he drifted off. Kari was inside, safe, and she loved him still. Even if he was to be stuck outside with Davis and sleeping on the ground, that was what was important.
Davis abruptly snatched his own pack from where it rested by the fire, digging around in it to see what he had been provided. He had already tried one of the lean strips of dried fruit that the squirrels had granted him in the way of food and found them to be not to his liking. A thin, nylon rope was uninteresting, but they had also left a soft pair of leathery shoes like the ones that T.K. and Kari had been wearing. The boy shrugged off his own tennis shoes, which were beginning to take on a peculiar odor, and slipped on the other footwear. Davis snorted. Not exactly his style, but they gave his toes plenty of room to wiggle around, anyway.
The boy stood up and walked around for a bit, getting the feel of the shoes, then sat down with his back against a tree near the edge of their makeshift camp. Wild creatures... sure. Since they'd arrived the previous morning he hadn't seen anything larger than the squirrels. That little rodent that was traveling along with them was probably exaggerating, anyway. Probably just some stupid... story made up... to... scare...
Davis' musing trailed off into a dream as he drifted off to sleep, his chin hitting his chest as his back rested against the tree. The moon continued its nighttime journey across the sky, but there were no longer any human eyes open to follow it.
The boys, on the other hand, were being watched. A single pair of narrow, unblinking eyes watched in satisfaction as the one with the brown fur atop his head fell asleep, and the owner of those cold eyes made his way quietly around the camp to the human's backside where he would not be seen even if his prey should awaken. His race, when called upon to be so, could be quite silent.
Davis was right in the middle of one of his favorite dreams and smiled, watching Kari as she repeatedly slapped T.K. across the mouth for thinking that he was better than her hero. After all, Tai himself had named him the new leader of the chosen, and it seemed only common sense that the older boy's little sister would see him in the same light. He was just coming to the best part of the dream when he felt an uncomfortable tightness around his face, and he awoke in alarm.
The boy struggled against the tightness, but then a scaly hand clamped down across his mouth and he felt a searing pain as his right arm was twisted awkwardly behind his back. He gave a muffled scream against the rigid flesh and fumbled for his long weapon, but he had left it over by the fire when he had stood up to try out his shoes. Reaching back he clawed feverishly at whatever it was that had grabbed him, then bit at the hard flesh of its hand when he couldn't seem to hurt it with his fist.
"Mmph! Mmmmph!" Davis cried in terror as his unseen assailant pulled him further and further away from the camp and from any help. At that moment, he would have even been glad to see T.K.
"Stop, Saurian," the human boy heard a shrill, yet forceful, voice order from behind him even as a dazzling light lit up the forest that he was in. The creature that was holding Davis turned, rotating his human captive about as well. Despite, or perhaps because of, the radiant glare of the crest that was bound about Kari's wrist, Davis could still make out the form of the young a'ladon T'Kai standing in front of the human girl, his small weapon drawn and pointed straight at his captor.
"H... hehh... leave... boy," the creature hissed at the child, Davis barely able to decipher the creature's stammering words.
T'Kai stubbornly shook his head in refusal as both he and the lizard hesitated, the situation evidently a standoff. The Saurian was clearly unwilling to surrender his prospective meal, and T'Kai could not attack the creature for fear of impaling the human as well. And although he himself was not completely adverse to that idea, he was fairly certain that it would upset the Lady Hikari.
T'Kai frowned, then grabbed at the whistle dangling around his neck and sounded the same short, trilling series of notes that Kari had heard him play on that first day at the lake. The Saurian gave an angry hiss at the sound, but continued to hold Davis' head firmly in his claw. The smell from the beast was almost choking the boy, and the creature's scaly flesh left a rotten taste in his mouth as he tried continued to try to bite his way free.
Then Kari's eyes lit up as brightly as her crest as she saw T.K. darting through the trees at the lizard-man's back, his long rod gripped tightly in his hand. At the last moment she stopped herself from calling out to the boy so that he might keep the advantage of surprise, and kept the Crest of Light high over her head to illuminate the clearing that they were in.
The blond-haired boy's teeth were clenched together as he approached the others. On their previous journey he had gotten plenty of experience fighting against creatures such as this, and now knew exactly how to handle the situation. Mylam had told him where their greatest weakness lay. As quickly and as quietly as he could the boy ran at the creature's back, then at the last moment gripped his rod in both hands and swung it mightily at the back of the tall creature's head.
The Saurian stumbled forward with a gasp, releasing his grip on Davis with a howl of pain. The moment that the human was free and scurrying away, T'Kai bounded over to the lizard and clobbered him once again on the back of the head with the hilt of his weapon. The creature gave a long hiss of disorientation, then proceeded to collapse in a large (and quite putrid) heap at the feet of the young a'ladon.
Kari rushed to Davis' side as T.K. and T'Kai stood over the body of their fallen opponent. The human nodded in satisfaction to the a'ladon, even as he stifled a yawn. He had still only been asleep for a short time when the sound of T'Kai's whistle had somehow brought to him the feeling that he was urgently needed. It must have done the same for the soldiers back at the lake. "Why are you out here?" T.K. asked, just now noticing that it was still nighttime.
The young creature tapped his head with his forepaw. "I had the Vision," he replied, then looked angrily at Davis, who was happily submitting to Kari's ministrations. "You know that he fell asleep as soon as he started his watch?"
"It doesn't matter," T.K. told his namesake. "Everything turned out okay in the end."
The young a'ladon said nothing in response, but it was clear from the look in his blue eyes that he was much less willing than the human boy to excuse Davis' blunder. Silently the pair went over to join Kari, who was still checking over Davis.
The brown-haired boy smirked up at T.K., obviously pleased at the attention that he was getting from the girl. "You can thank me for saving your life sometime later, T.B. If it wasn't for my trying to tackle that thing barehanded, you'd be lizard food right now. You can just feel lucky that it attacked on my watch." His eyes shifted to the side, making certain that Kari had heard every word.
T'Kai's eyes went wide, and he started to sputter. "Are you seri--"
T.K. shook his head to interrupt the young a'ladon, then he smiled. "Thanks, Davis. I appreciate it."
T'Kai was seething. It was now clear to him that the brown-haired creature was, like his name implied, attempting to beguile the blond god's mate with lies and half-truths. And, just as the tales told of Lord Takeru, he would not denounce the other to keep from embarrassing him in front of the female. But T'Kai allowed himself a silent smile. Before the encounter, he had taken it upon himself to tell the Lady Hikari the truth of what had actually happened. Now she would know the other, lying creature for what he really was.
Kari gave Davis a patient smile as she finished checking him over. "You've got a few scratches, but nothing too serious," she said with a nod.
"Yeah. I mean, T.J. would've been a lot worse off if I hadn't taken it upon myself to save his butt," he crowed, giving T.K. a triumphant grin.
T.K. looked saddened for a bit, but then Kari favored him a secret smile and a knowing wink. "Oh yes, Davis," the girl replied, her voice just sprinkled with a touch of irony that even T.K. might have missed were it not for the wink. "You were positively... heroic."