A/N: Sorry for the prolonged wait on this chapter....I had to make a few
adjustments to the beginning chapters (for those who were confused at
first). Thank you guys sooo much for the reviews! I LOVE YOU ALL! ^o^ OMG!
Finally my cousin decides to read and review my story. I'm in utter shock
right now. *Clasps hands to mouth*....lol.... Anyways, this is the
contunation of Chapter 7...a lot of mysteries and sweet Takuminess is ahead
of you!!! Please R&R!
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, Digimon Characters or any other related subjects that are directly copyrighted towards Toei Animation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"True friends are never far apart...Though they may be far in distance...They are never far from heart..."
The Pure of Heart: Netherworld Journey {I}
In Gracious Dedication to 'G'....."Whoooose THAT GUY!!!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Isle of Mae -Chapter 7- [Part 2]
Each passing moment, since they had mounted from the ground, had brought them soaring higher and higher into the, now, brilliantly blue, cloudless sky. The cool, refreshing rush of wind whipping at their faces and in their hair. And a for a moment, during their escalating journey within the inviting heavens, it felt as though all their worries and pre-destined duties began to vanish like the passing blur of scenery from the, presently, distant Naraka Woods. Soon the only scenery that they could see for miles was the vast expanse of the glittering, ever-blue sea.
Suddenly, "IZUMI!" Takuya yelped as he frantically crushed her closer to himself, locks of her golden hair choking him as he continued to yell. "Do you--argh--know where you're flying--argh--this thing?"
Yoseimon, on Izumi's command, had abruptly plunged into a steep fall. The free-falling plunge had drawn them closer to sea; the ocean was but a few feet beneath Yoseimon's gliding body. It took a few relieving seconds until they had steadily flown in a straight, calm line again.
Takuya took in a long, nervous breath, still clutching to the back of his hat as he said, "Izumi--what--are--you--doing?" Takuya panted through each word he spoke.
"Flying, of course." Izumi simply stated, her face beaming excitedly. Izumi then gave a loud, hooting fit of giggles as she clasped onto the back of Yoseimon's head feathers to control their flight.
"And again I ask you; do you know where you're flying this thing?" asked Takuya, regaining his normal breathing pattern.
"This--THING--is Yoseimon!" said Izumi indignantly as she turned to face him. "And as a matter of fact, I do know where I'm flying. Can't you feel Galen directing us to the Isle? He's been communicating with us since we left."
"No. I don't feel his directions." Takuya replied flatly. "I was too busy holding onto dear life to notice anyone communicating with us."
Izumi scoffed in reply to his comment and turned her back to him. Takuya flinched uncomfortably. The reaction he had provoked from her reminded him sorely of their last dispute. Only now, a mounting sense of fear began to send a prickling sensation to his stomach, causing it to lurch uncomfortably.
"Izumi--I didn't--I--I--didn't mean it. I--I mean, I'm sorry." Takuya stammered.
Izumi quickly turned to face him, again. She blinked blankly at him, bemused by his sudden outburst. She, after all, hadn't meant to be so sensitive about his rather small sarcastic comment. There was certainly something else he was trying to say.
"Takuya." she began softly. "What are you saying sorry for?"
"Erm..." Takuya fell silent, a rush of uncomfortable heat began burning his cheeks. "I was...for...I'm sorry for not paying attention to Galen's directions...that's all."
"Oh." Izumi replied, sounding dispirited and made a swift move in, again, turning her back to him.
Izumi had hoped for something more than what was said from his reply. She had half-expected him to even share a secret with her. The one's he had been deliberately keeping to himself, lately. She didn't press on the subject any farther than she already had, however. But as the silence grew, so did her troubling thoughts. She began to realize that even with her strong ability of telepathy--the bond that they shared together--she still could not break down the barrier, the one he had built stubbornly around his most inner thoughts, to know any of his hidden muses.
"Izumi," Takuya's voice broke through the chain of her distressing thoughts.
This time she had not turned. His arms, around her waist, had begun to feel tense and insecure from her silence. And he had soon lost the nerve in speaking comfortably with her. He, in fact, had lost all words and all excuses to this awkward loss of speech. The only apparent words that each of them could hear--rather feel--was of Galen's directions and ongoing guidance to the Isle of Mae. The rest of the hours that had passed were followed in unbidden silence.
"Direct Yoseimon eastward, Izumi." Galen sent to Izumi's mind.
Izumi silently obeyed by veering Yoseimon further to the right.
The day grew darker as the sun began to descend from the sky; a radiant ruby background lay in the distance. As this sunrise changed the colours of the sky--from its previous cool blue to a striking scarlet red-- it also changed its presumed appearance. An intricate design of green, gleaming lines had covered the sky like a meticulously woven spider-web. Though, the spider-web-like patterns had not covered all the sky above them. It was only certain parts of the sky that the glowing green designs occupied.
Numerous questions had risen from this sight. Galen quickly picked up the children's confusion. He was certainly more than willing to explain.
"This, children, is the broken barrier that you are fighting to restore." Galen clarified through their thoughts. "Once you have restored the balance of good in this world...all of this you see before you...will be an impenetrable barrier of protective data that will repel all evil-- even better than before. A barrier that even Lucemon, himself, cannot harm."
"Are you sure we're able to get the data back from Nagamon?" Izumi asked cautiously. "We haven't even thought of a plan of attack."
"I would not have sent you to the Isle of Mae if I did not think you were capable of your powers--you are, and you have each other." he stressed further.
"Is that really...enough?" Takuya sent his thoughts, unconvinced. "Just being together?"
"The unity you both share is the strength you will wield during battle. What separates you from the rest... is your bond, your telepathy. You possess the power to know each other's moves and actions before they are executed, and before your attacker even suspects them." Galen explained. "And what's more, you have strength in number."
Takuya and Izumi frowned, not understanding his last comment. They were only two. How was this possible--strength in number? Galen immediately detected their confusion.
"Your friends are with you...they have always been at your side." said Galen, his statement still hung in their minds for further explanation. "Though they are far in distance...they are never far from heart."
At an instant, flashes of memories and friendly faces flickered one by one through their minds. Kouji, Kouichi, Junpei and... Tomoki brought flustering feelings of warmth and security to their uncertain thoughts.
Izumi, relieving herself of Takuya's exasperating and tactless behaviour, turned to him and gave him a determined stare. "They know we're still alive. I feel it." said Izumi. Her previous ordeal of distressed thoughts now hid behind a mental barrier, as Takuya had done with his own so skillfully and rather often, as well.
She strained her mind to focus on their present situation. "Our powers were strong when we fought together as a team. We still are a team...We still have their strength. If there's anything that we learned out here, it's that no matter how hopeless and alone we felt...we knew we had each other...even when we were separated. We can't let their faith in us feel worthless just because we're separated, again."
Takuya nodded, smiling with his unwavering courage evident within his fiery eyes. Then, "How do you do that...?" he thought silently.
Izumi raised a curious brow, "How do I do...what...?" she sent back to his silent question.
Takuya blinked amazed, their mind-reading abilities were obviously strengthening, "How do you stay so calm and relaxed...when you're explaining things to me...even when I'm--even if you don't remind enough, I know I am--difficult to be around?" Takuya now spoke aloud.
"Lots of practice." Izumi quipped lightly, streaming her speechless response to his mind.
Takuya chuckled. Izumi felt a shivery smile spread throughout his thoughts. And Takuya swore he had seen a faint smile struggling to escape through her persistent frown.
Suddenly, Yoseimon clicked her beak to alert their attention forwards. In the near distance they could see, by the early moonlight's glow, a large billowing cloud of mist. The moon's glow illuminated the orb of mist. Its mysterious form appeared as if it were dancing eerily amidst the growing pitch-black sky.
Yoseimon increased in gliding speed, causing both children to brace themselves as they drew nearer to the mysterious white haze. Yoseimon suddenly gave an audible squawk of surprise.
"It's an island." Takuya's watchful eyes widened. "It's the Isle of Mae."
Among the haze and eerie fog were silhouettes of the Island's features; a tropical, jungle-like terrain could be traced out by the moon's luminous glow.
"It's hard to see in all this creepy mist." Izumi shuddered and tightened her grip to Yoseimon's feathers.
Yoseimon had reached the outer rim of the foreboding mist and hovered before it in slight hesitation. "Something wrong?" Izumi asked Yoseimon, soothingly.
"Everything is wrong about this place, Izumi." Takuya shivered to the feel the fog creeping against his skin.
"Galen, where do we go from here?" Izumi sent her thought.
No answer. Takuya and Izumi began calling out to his outlying aura. Nothing. Their minds began to feel as foggy as the scenery in front of them.
"What do we do now?" Izumi asked, biting her lower lip in dread. "And where's Galen?"
"I don't know. But, it's getting really dark. We should find somewhere to land before it gets harder to see." Takuya replied.
"Right." Izumi tugged gently at Yoseimon's feathers and directed her forward. "C'mon Yoseimon. Let's go."
Yoseimon obeyed. They now began traveling through the thick fog. The haunting mist felt as though it were prickling against their skin and began tickling at every sense of fear at the back of their minds. And yet it was only until they had caught a glimpse of, what looked like, a floating mass of skeletal bones drifting among the sludge-like sea that surrounded the island, that the truest form of fear had sunk deeper into their skin to create goosebumps. What were those floating corpse doing there? Or more importantly, how did they get there?
"I see an open landing. It's behind that tree, over there." Takuya finally shook himself of the gruesome sight and pointed to the far-left side of the inlet of the Island.
Izumi turned Yoseimon towards Takuya's guided direction. "The sooner we land, the sooner we get out of all this weird haze." said Izumi, shaking herself to shun away her rising panic.
"Once we land what do we do?" Izumi asked Takuya, failing to keep her voice in showing as little panic as possible. "Galen's not guiding us anymore."
"We should find somewhere to sleep for tonight." Takuya replied thoughtfully. "It's getting close to midnight."
"Right." Izumi nodded, hiding another secret smile that tempted to spread across her face; she could not hide the affection she felt for him each time he had been true to his intent on keeping those close to him safe.
Within the seconds they were about to land, there came an abrupt barrage of glowing, green flares that darted towards them. The source of the attack was shrouded within the misty island. Takuya and Izumi instinctively flung their arms over their heads to shield their faces. The menacing green attacks were too quick to avoid, as Izumi tried to do so helplessly. One had directly hit Yoseimon's left wing and another merely skimmed Izumi's right arm. She yelped to the searing pain of another that shot at her left leg.
"IZUMI!" Takuya saw that Izumi's left leg had been saved from any severe injuries but still had been slit and gashed painfully. Takuya's heart began to race wildly. What was he to do? He wished he were flying Yoseimon now, to safely land the injured creature.
There was nothing left to do except crash, the children thought panicking. Izumi had tried to land towards the clear glade up ahead--where Takuya had suggested earlier--but Yoseimon began to drift farther and farther away from Izumi's command and directions. Instead, Yoseimon began heading, at an ever-increasing speed, towards a tree.
"IZUMI!" Takuya shouted frantically. "TREE! WE'RE HEADED TOWARDS A TREE!!!"
"I CAN'T TURN! YOSEIMON'S LOSING CONSCIOUSNESS!!!" Izumi cried.
At the last second possible Yoseimon had faintly regained her sense of direction and made a sharp swerve to the left, just escaping the certain fatal impact of the tree. Though, not to say that they had accomplished a soft landing.
As they plummeted to the ground they skidded against the rough surface of musty earth and a few vigorous tumbles had then stopped them in their tracks. Takuya difficulty lifted himself up from the rubble. He dusted off his aching body from all the debris; leaves and broken branches had snapped and collected along their way from a dangerous attempt at landing. He quickly whirled around to find Izumi painfully jerking her leg up to stand. He hurried over to her and flung her left arm round his neck, supporting her weight against his.
"Takuya, it's okay...just a cut...slight bruising." Izumi tried to push him away while pulling twigs and brushing leaves out of her hair.
"Well tell that to your bleeding leg." Takuya ushered her arm back around his neck.
"Is Yoseimon okay...where is she?" Izumi said suddenly, slipping out of his reach and limped to her right and then to her left in frantic search for an injured creature.
"No. But we have to find somewhere for you to rest. Your leg isn't going to heal any faster." Takuya took her arm and put it round his neck, again. "Don't worry I'll find Yoseimon. She can't be too far."
"You can't go alone. What if someone attacks you...you'll be all alone. I have to come and help you find her." Izumi protested through gritted teeth and then whimpered to a sudden pain from her wounded leg.
"Izumi, you can't. You're just going to hurt yourself more." Takuya looked pleading. "Just stay--stay here." He had found a slightly hidden and secluded area of brush and small trees.
Takuya made some branches and bushes crowd around her, making it harder for any potential predator to see where she hid. "Now look, if you hear anything come by just stay completely silent. When I come back I'll call your name so you know it's me." he instructed and she nodded in response.
"Wait!" Izumi cried before he turned to find Yoseimon. "Takuya I--I-- just don't get yourself into any trouble. Don't go into a fight without telling me. I want to help so don't go all lone-warrior on me."
Takuya smirked at this, "I won't. Just stay put. I'll be back in a little while."
Izumi watched as he vanished behind a large brush of trees and rapidly disappear within the nearby misty haze. "Be...careful..." she whispered, regretting that she was not by his side.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: AHH!!! SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG! I'm really preoccupied these days...^_^;;; Anyways, I hoped you like this new chapter! It was mostly directly concerning their flight to the Isle of Mae...so...I hope that's still okay...I dunno....whatever...again, I hope you liked it anyway...
I'd like to here from all of you guys soon so, R&R please!!! ^_^ *Evie has logged off*
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, Digimon Characters or any other related subjects that are directly copyrighted towards Toei Animation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"True friends are never far apart...Though they may be far in distance...They are never far from heart..."
The Pure of Heart: Netherworld Journey {I}
In Gracious Dedication to 'G'....."Whoooose THAT GUY!!!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Isle of Mae -Chapter 7- [Part 2]
Each passing moment, since they had mounted from the ground, had brought them soaring higher and higher into the, now, brilliantly blue, cloudless sky. The cool, refreshing rush of wind whipping at their faces and in their hair. And a for a moment, during their escalating journey within the inviting heavens, it felt as though all their worries and pre-destined duties began to vanish like the passing blur of scenery from the, presently, distant Naraka Woods. Soon the only scenery that they could see for miles was the vast expanse of the glittering, ever-blue sea.
Suddenly, "IZUMI!" Takuya yelped as he frantically crushed her closer to himself, locks of her golden hair choking him as he continued to yell. "Do you--argh--know where you're flying--argh--this thing?"
Yoseimon, on Izumi's command, had abruptly plunged into a steep fall. The free-falling plunge had drawn them closer to sea; the ocean was but a few feet beneath Yoseimon's gliding body. It took a few relieving seconds until they had steadily flown in a straight, calm line again.
Takuya took in a long, nervous breath, still clutching to the back of his hat as he said, "Izumi--what--are--you--doing?" Takuya panted through each word he spoke.
"Flying, of course." Izumi simply stated, her face beaming excitedly. Izumi then gave a loud, hooting fit of giggles as she clasped onto the back of Yoseimon's head feathers to control their flight.
"And again I ask you; do you know where you're flying this thing?" asked Takuya, regaining his normal breathing pattern.
"This--THING--is Yoseimon!" said Izumi indignantly as she turned to face him. "And as a matter of fact, I do know where I'm flying. Can't you feel Galen directing us to the Isle? He's been communicating with us since we left."
"No. I don't feel his directions." Takuya replied flatly. "I was too busy holding onto dear life to notice anyone communicating with us."
Izumi scoffed in reply to his comment and turned her back to him. Takuya flinched uncomfortably. The reaction he had provoked from her reminded him sorely of their last dispute. Only now, a mounting sense of fear began to send a prickling sensation to his stomach, causing it to lurch uncomfortably.
"Izumi--I didn't--I--I--didn't mean it. I--I mean, I'm sorry." Takuya stammered.
Izumi quickly turned to face him, again. She blinked blankly at him, bemused by his sudden outburst. She, after all, hadn't meant to be so sensitive about his rather small sarcastic comment. There was certainly something else he was trying to say.
"Takuya." she began softly. "What are you saying sorry for?"
"Erm..." Takuya fell silent, a rush of uncomfortable heat began burning his cheeks. "I was...for...I'm sorry for not paying attention to Galen's directions...that's all."
"Oh." Izumi replied, sounding dispirited and made a swift move in, again, turning her back to him.
Izumi had hoped for something more than what was said from his reply. She had half-expected him to even share a secret with her. The one's he had been deliberately keeping to himself, lately. She didn't press on the subject any farther than she already had, however. But as the silence grew, so did her troubling thoughts. She began to realize that even with her strong ability of telepathy--the bond that they shared together--she still could not break down the barrier, the one he had built stubbornly around his most inner thoughts, to know any of his hidden muses.
"Izumi," Takuya's voice broke through the chain of her distressing thoughts.
This time she had not turned. His arms, around her waist, had begun to feel tense and insecure from her silence. And he had soon lost the nerve in speaking comfortably with her. He, in fact, had lost all words and all excuses to this awkward loss of speech. The only apparent words that each of them could hear--rather feel--was of Galen's directions and ongoing guidance to the Isle of Mae. The rest of the hours that had passed were followed in unbidden silence.
"Direct Yoseimon eastward, Izumi." Galen sent to Izumi's mind.
Izumi silently obeyed by veering Yoseimon further to the right.
The day grew darker as the sun began to descend from the sky; a radiant ruby background lay in the distance. As this sunrise changed the colours of the sky--from its previous cool blue to a striking scarlet red-- it also changed its presumed appearance. An intricate design of green, gleaming lines had covered the sky like a meticulously woven spider-web. Though, the spider-web-like patterns had not covered all the sky above them. It was only certain parts of the sky that the glowing green designs occupied.
Numerous questions had risen from this sight. Galen quickly picked up the children's confusion. He was certainly more than willing to explain.
"This, children, is the broken barrier that you are fighting to restore." Galen clarified through their thoughts. "Once you have restored the balance of good in this world...all of this you see before you...will be an impenetrable barrier of protective data that will repel all evil-- even better than before. A barrier that even Lucemon, himself, cannot harm."
"Are you sure we're able to get the data back from Nagamon?" Izumi asked cautiously. "We haven't even thought of a plan of attack."
"I would not have sent you to the Isle of Mae if I did not think you were capable of your powers--you are, and you have each other." he stressed further.
"Is that really...enough?" Takuya sent his thoughts, unconvinced. "Just being together?"
"The unity you both share is the strength you will wield during battle. What separates you from the rest... is your bond, your telepathy. You possess the power to know each other's moves and actions before they are executed, and before your attacker even suspects them." Galen explained. "And what's more, you have strength in number."
Takuya and Izumi frowned, not understanding his last comment. They were only two. How was this possible--strength in number? Galen immediately detected their confusion.
"Your friends are with you...they have always been at your side." said Galen, his statement still hung in their minds for further explanation. "Though they are far in distance...they are never far from heart."
At an instant, flashes of memories and friendly faces flickered one by one through their minds. Kouji, Kouichi, Junpei and... Tomoki brought flustering feelings of warmth and security to their uncertain thoughts.
Izumi, relieving herself of Takuya's exasperating and tactless behaviour, turned to him and gave him a determined stare. "They know we're still alive. I feel it." said Izumi. Her previous ordeal of distressed thoughts now hid behind a mental barrier, as Takuya had done with his own so skillfully and rather often, as well.
She strained her mind to focus on their present situation. "Our powers were strong when we fought together as a team. We still are a team...We still have their strength. If there's anything that we learned out here, it's that no matter how hopeless and alone we felt...we knew we had each other...even when we were separated. We can't let their faith in us feel worthless just because we're separated, again."
Takuya nodded, smiling with his unwavering courage evident within his fiery eyes. Then, "How do you do that...?" he thought silently.
Izumi raised a curious brow, "How do I do...what...?" she sent back to his silent question.
Takuya blinked amazed, their mind-reading abilities were obviously strengthening, "How do you stay so calm and relaxed...when you're explaining things to me...even when I'm--even if you don't remind enough, I know I am--difficult to be around?" Takuya now spoke aloud.
"Lots of practice." Izumi quipped lightly, streaming her speechless response to his mind.
Takuya chuckled. Izumi felt a shivery smile spread throughout his thoughts. And Takuya swore he had seen a faint smile struggling to escape through her persistent frown.
Suddenly, Yoseimon clicked her beak to alert their attention forwards. In the near distance they could see, by the early moonlight's glow, a large billowing cloud of mist. The moon's glow illuminated the orb of mist. Its mysterious form appeared as if it were dancing eerily amidst the growing pitch-black sky.
Yoseimon increased in gliding speed, causing both children to brace themselves as they drew nearer to the mysterious white haze. Yoseimon suddenly gave an audible squawk of surprise.
"It's an island." Takuya's watchful eyes widened. "It's the Isle of Mae."
Among the haze and eerie fog were silhouettes of the Island's features; a tropical, jungle-like terrain could be traced out by the moon's luminous glow.
"It's hard to see in all this creepy mist." Izumi shuddered and tightened her grip to Yoseimon's feathers.
Yoseimon had reached the outer rim of the foreboding mist and hovered before it in slight hesitation. "Something wrong?" Izumi asked Yoseimon, soothingly.
"Everything is wrong about this place, Izumi." Takuya shivered to the feel the fog creeping against his skin.
"Galen, where do we go from here?" Izumi sent her thought.
No answer. Takuya and Izumi began calling out to his outlying aura. Nothing. Their minds began to feel as foggy as the scenery in front of them.
"What do we do now?" Izumi asked, biting her lower lip in dread. "And where's Galen?"
"I don't know. But, it's getting really dark. We should find somewhere to land before it gets harder to see." Takuya replied.
"Right." Izumi tugged gently at Yoseimon's feathers and directed her forward. "C'mon Yoseimon. Let's go."
Yoseimon obeyed. They now began traveling through the thick fog. The haunting mist felt as though it were prickling against their skin and began tickling at every sense of fear at the back of their minds. And yet it was only until they had caught a glimpse of, what looked like, a floating mass of skeletal bones drifting among the sludge-like sea that surrounded the island, that the truest form of fear had sunk deeper into their skin to create goosebumps. What were those floating corpse doing there? Or more importantly, how did they get there?
"I see an open landing. It's behind that tree, over there." Takuya finally shook himself of the gruesome sight and pointed to the far-left side of the inlet of the Island.
Izumi turned Yoseimon towards Takuya's guided direction. "The sooner we land, the sooner we get out of all this weird haze." said Izumi, shaking herself to shun away her rising panic.
"Once we land what do we do?" Izumi asked Takuya, failing to keep her voice in showing as little panic as possible. "Galen's not guiding us anymore."
"We should find somewhere to sleep for tonight." Takuya replied thoughtfully. "It's getting close to midnight."
"Right." Izumi nodded, hiding another secret smile that tempted to spread across her face; she could not hide the affection she felt for him each time he had been true to his intent on keeping those close to him safe.
Within the seconds they were about to land, there came an abrupt barrage of glowing, green flares that darted towards them. The source of the attack was shrouded within the misty island. Takuya and Izumi instinctively flung their arms over their heads to shield their faces. The menacing green attacks were too quick to avoid, as Izumi tried to do so helplessly. One had directly hit Yoseimon's left wing and another merely skimmed Izumi's right arm. She yelped to the searing pain of another that shot at her left leg.
"IZUMI!" Takuya saw that Izumi's left leg had been saved from any severe injuries but still had been slit and gashed painfully. Takuya's heart began to race wildly. What was he to do? He wished he were flying Yoseimon now, to safely land the injured creature.
There was nothing left to do except crash, the children thought panicking. Izumi had tried to land towards the clear glade up ahead--where Takuya had suggested earlier--but Yoseimon began to drift farther and farther away from Izumi's command and directions. Instead, Yoseimon began heading, at an ever-increasing speed, towards a tree.
"IZUMI!" Takuya shouted frantically. "TREE! WE'RE HEADED TOWARDS A TREE!!!"
"I CAN'T TURN! YOSEIMON'S LOSING CONSCIOUSNESS!!!" Izumi cried.
At the last second possible Yoseimon had faintly regained her sense of direction and made a sharp swerve to the left, just escaping the certain fatal impact of the tree. Though, not to say that they had accomplished a soft landing.
As they plummeted to the ground they skidded against the rough surface of musty earth and a few vigorous tumbles had then stopped them in their tracks. Takuya difficulty lifted himself up from the rubble. He dusted off his aching body from all the debris; leaves and broken branches had snapped and collected along their way from a dangerous attempt at landing. He quickly whirled around to find Izumi painfully jerking her leg up to stand. He hurried over to her and flung her left arm round his neck, supporting her weight against his.
"Takuya, it's okay...just a cut...slight bruising." Izumi tried to push him away while pulling twigs and brushing leaves out of her hair.
"Well tell that to your bleeding leg." Takuya ushered her arm back around his neck.
"Is Yoseimon okay...where is she?" Izumi said suddenly, slipping out of his reach and limped to her right and then to her left in frantic search for an injured creature.
"No. But we have to find somewhere for you to rest. Your leg isn't going to heal any faster." Takuya took her arm and put it round his neck, again. "Don't worry I'll find Yoseimon. She can't be too far."
"You can't go alone. What if someone attacks you...you'll be all alone. I have to come and help you find her." Izumi protested through gritted teeth and then whimpered to a sudden pain from her wounded leg.
"Izumi, you can't. You're just going to hurt yourself more." Takuya looked pleading. "Just stay--stay here." He had found a slightly hidden and secluded area of brush and small trees.
Takuya made some branches and bushes crowd around her, making it harder for any potential predator to see where she hid. "Now look, if you hear anything come by just stay completely silent. When I come back I'll call your name so you know it's me." he instructed and she nodded in response.
"Wait!" Izumi cried before he turned to find Yoseimon. "Takuya I--I-- just don't get yourself into any trouble. Don't go into a fight without telling me. I want to help so don't go all lone-warrior on me."
Takuya smirked at this, "I won't. Just stay put. I'll be back in a little while."
Izumi watched as he vanished behind a large brush of trees and rapidly disappear within the nearby misty haze. "Be...careful..." she whispered, regretting that she was not by his side.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: AHH!!! SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG! I'm really preoccupied these days...^_^;;; Anyways, I hoped you like this new chapter! It was mostly directly concerning their flight to the Isle of Mae...so...I hope that's still okay...I dunno....whatever...again, I hope you liked it anyway...
I'd like to here from all of you guys soon so, R&R please!!! ^_^ *Evie has logged off*