Author's notes:

Last Chapter: Domino and Dice, two recently born Digimon are staying in Primary Village, helping Elecmon as they can.

Disclamer: I've said it before and I'll say it again: Man I love being a turt- I mean, Digimon owned by TOEI. All hail TOEI
and the ORIGINAL version of Digimon without that annoying and corny 'Digimon are the champions' song.

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Tanomoshii Sugoroku 03
by Kino Hikari (hikari_san@hotmail.com)
and Wanderer D (wandererd@hotmail.com)
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Dawn slowly began to brighten the Eastern horizon as we three very tired digimon put the last of the babies back into their cradles and managed to get them to sleep. Elecmon grunted and stepped back, then glanced at us and noticed his two protegés were falling alseep on their feet.

Well...in a matter of speaking, anyway, as Nyaromon have no feet...

Elecmon dropped to all fours then proceeded to curl up, resting his head on his forepaws. "Okay, you two," he said, "I think we're done for now. Try to get some sleep."

"Sleep?" I slurred. "Hah! I laugh in the face of sleep!" I yawned, and my eyelids felt extremely heavy. "I could go on for days..."

Beside me, Dice flopped down and fell instantly to sleep. Just like a man, I thought with a grin. Lazybones. Then I turned to Elecmon.

"Elecmon, can I ask you something?" I said softly.

He yawned and opened one eye to look at me. "Yes, Domino, what is it?"

I looked around us. "Is all of the Digital World like this? I mean...what is the rest of this world like, anyway?" I asked. "Is it all green and lush like Primary Village?"

Elecmon opened his other eye and gazed at me, amused by my curiosity.

"Some parts are," he said, "but most of them are--" He stopped himself, and yawned again. "Listen, you're still too young to worry about all that, Domino... Myabe once you're a little older you can go exploring, but right now, it's time for sleep."

I frowned. "Okay..." I said, and closed my eyes. With a sigh, I managed to eventually fall asleep. I was still curious, but too tired to really pursue my inquisitiveness.

Over the next few weeks there was a frantic rearrengement of the Primary Village. With so many new babies to deal with, Elecmon, Dice, and I were forced to ask for help from other nearby digimon. The other digimon were quite happy to help, and made rounds, feeding and playing with the babies, helping ease off the amount of work on the three of us.

They served another purpose, also. As every new digimon came to town, both Dice and I would stick to them like glue, to learn of the places they had seen and where they lived. Some of them, like Meramon, had encountered the same fabled Digidestined Elecmon had, and, when the famous Leomon graced the village with an offer to help out, he told us about the children's battle with Devimon, feeding our minds with images of glory and action.

When each day came to an end, each of us would tell the other about what we had heard. Dice told me of how the Digidestined had managed to break through Devimon's frightening illusions and freed Leomon from the evil digimon's dark control. I told him how Meramon had been rescued from a black gear and how the children had stopped him from nearly destroying a village of Yokomon. Steadily, our need to see these adventures for ourselves grew, until it was an almost paplable energy that clung to us like an aura. We were growing restless within the confines of Primary Village, and I'm sure Elecmon noticed it, too...

Elecmon and I looked up as Dice jumped behind Leomon, trying both to gain his attention and help him carry the food he held within his massive arms. I quickly learned that Dice had gained a hero in the mighty Beast King digimon, and Leomon was more than glad to turn his "helping out" around the village into "training sessions" that would help him become stronger.

I, on the other hand, while just as enthusiastic, was a little less obvious than my friend, gathering every scrap of information I could into my mind, and even taking control of the situations at times. I discovered I was quite the born leader, and I hated taking orders. I much prefered giving them. Dice and I had never spent so much time apart, and at the same time been so close than we had now. Somehow, the different stimulations from different digimon and different situations, while drawing us each in our own direction, seemed to unite us in a single wish. Our wanderlust was increasing every passing second.

It didn't come as much of a surprise when Dice digivolved again not long after Leomon first showed up. About a week had passed before the little black Nyaromon we had all gotten so used to was again engulfed in that familiar white light, emerging as a new creature altogether. When the light faded, where the In-Training form of a Nyaromon had once been, now stood a Salamon, the Rookie form.

For a moment, we could do nothing but stare. Then, after the initial stupor had worn off, we all rushed forward to congratulate him. I laughed as I watched Dice happily dance around Leomon, praising the larger digimon on how well his training had worked.

I moved forward and smiled. "Wow, Dice, you've got legs now!"

He beamed at me.

"Yeah, it's great!" he exulted, and proceeded to jump around me. He suddenly took a misstep and pitched facefirst into the ground.

I jumped back, a little startled.

"Seems you might want to work a little more strength into those little legs, Dice," leomon said benevolently as he plucked the young Salamon from the ground and placed him back on his feet. I grinned wickedly.

"Yeah, and you might wanna take a crash course in walking on them, too," I laughed.

Dice blinked at me, then said, unabashed, "Let's get going! I wanna see if I can digivolve again today!!"

Leomon smiled, amused by Dice's enthusiasm, and Elecmon gave me a patient smile. "I think you'll have to wait a little longer for that, Dice," he said. "Right now, we should get going, there's still a lot of work to do today."

I bounced around him as he started forward. "So when do i get to digivolve again, Elecmon?" I asked. "I wanna be a Salamon, I want legs! I wanna run!"

He smiled as he picked me up.

"I don't think you will have to wait too long, Domino," he assured me. "Remember, before, there was only a difference of a few hours in your evolutions..."

Several days passed, and, as the second week approached, and I feared I would just die from waiting, I finally digivolved, to the pleasure of everyone, but mainly myself.

"Why did I take so long to digivolve, Elecmon?" I asked the rabbit-like Digimon, as we watched Leomon say goodbye to Dice. The huge lion digimon had decided that it was time he continued with his travels, and possibly help those Digidestined kids along their way. Dice had been very sad to learn this, and Leomon was a little reluctant as well. It would seem he had grown used to having a student. But it was time to go, and both had excused themselves to talk a little before Leomon left.

Elecmon gave a little piece of food to one of the babies and stopped to consider my question.

"Well, Domino, I think it was because Dice spent so much time training with Leomon. He had enough energy
and strenght to Digivolve faster."

"You mean it depends on how strong you are?" I asked, startled. I hadn't really thought of that.

Elecmon nodded. "Among other things, yes."

I watched as Elecmon continued feeding the babies, then turned, and noticed that Dice was alone. Apparently, Leomon
had already left, and Dice looked a little depressed about the whole situation.

I gave Elecmon a big grin. "Then I am gonna train really hard so I can digivolve quickly!" I flashed him a toothy grin, and then my eyes moved back to Dice. I fronwed. "Erm...'scuse me for a second, Elecmon." I walked over to where Dice sat by himself, staring wistfully out at the horizon. "Dice?" I said, sitting down beside him. "Dice, are you okay? What's wrong?"

He looked up at me.

"Oh, it's you, Domino," he said, almost as if it had taken him a moment to recognize me.

I blinked. "Are you okay?" I repeated.

He half-nodded, then let out a sigh.

"It's just that... I wanted to go with him, Domino," he told me softly. "I want to see all those places he and the others have told us so much about."

I frrowned. Truth was, I was thinking the same thing. I longed to see the world they painted with their words, I yearned for the adventures they spoke of...but...but we were only...

"But, Dice, you're just a Salamon," I protested, trying to play the voice of wisdom, "you're not strong enough to go with Leomon, you heard about all the battles he said had been in." I paused a moment, and gave him a look. "Dice, you could get hurt."

Dice sighed again, gazing longingly into the dense forests surrounding Primary Village.

"You know what, Domino?" he asked me. "Right now, I don't care. I don't care about the danger factor, I just feel I'm missing so many things!"

I stared at the ground and sighed. "I know how you feel, Dice," I said, "believe me, I do... I'm bored here... I mean, Elecmon is great, and the babies are fun...but..."

Dice looked at me, and I sighed again.

"But I feel trapped here...like I know there's just this whole big other world out there that's just crying to be discovered and explored..." I concluded slowly.

He nodded, then stood up and reluctantly turned away from the forest.

"Let's go back and help now," he said.

I didn't get up.

"I don't want to babysit anymore..." I complained, scowling. "We're more than this, Dice. We could be something so much bigger." I looked at him, yearning in my eyes. "I want to be that...I don't want to spend the rest of my life here..."

Dice looked a little contrite.

"But... shouldn't we help him out?" he asked. He looked at all the Digimon working alongside Elecmon. "Although, he seems to have plenty of help as it is..."

I pouted. "I know we owe him...he raised us to be who we are now..." I sighed. I looked at my paws. "But I am just not satisfied here anymore..." I glanced up at Dice, frowning. "You're not either...are you?"

The black Salamon looked at the forest longingly.

"No..." he admitted. "No, I'm not..."

There was a pause of silence, and then I shook my head.

"We have to tell him, Dice..." I insisted. "We can't keep lying to him and saying we're happy... We're lying to ourselves, too..." I paused, a little discouraged. Then I brightened. "I'm sure he'll understand...this village is his destiny... We have to find ours..." I paused. "And we won't find it here."

What we didn't realize was that Elecmon had watched the entire interchange from where he stood, still feeding the babies. He had noticed the looks we both had given the forest. Hw would later admit to us that the last few weeks, ever since we had hatched into his life, had been some of his most rewarding. We had both had helped him a lot, taking care of babies, and taking care of him, too, in some ways.

We had also apparently become favorites of the rest of the digimon, who were always happy to tell us their stories. But, as we started walking towards Elecmon, we could see the look of sadness on his face as he realized that the day when when we would leave his side had finally come. It was true that he had noticed our restlesness before, but it would seem had tried to brush it off...avoid this moment for as long as possible.

He gave the food to Meramon, who had to lower his flames considerably, and walked up to us.

"Is something wrong, Domino, Dice?" he asked, as if he hoped we would suddenly change our minds.

I frowned and twitched my nose. "Erm...Elecmon..." I stamered, fidgeting. Then I sighed. "Okay, I'll be blunt...you deserve to know the truth..." I looked up at him. "Elecmon...we can't stay here anymore..."

Elecmon looked from me to Dice. "Dice?" he asked, perhaps a little to hopefully.

"I... m-me too, Elecmon..." Dice answered, looking away, and fearing the reaction.

Elecmon nodded.

"I see... I knew this would eventually come up... I..."

"Elecmon..." Dice said taking a couple of steps forward, and the older Digimon looked away.

"I'm okay," Elecmon said, "really." We didn't believe him. He had glittering tears forming in his eyes, tears that he tried, rather in vain, to prevent from falling. "Well, I won't try to stop you, but I will ask you to stay here tonight, and get on your journey early in the morning. What do you think?"

I smiled broadly. "Thank you, Elecmon," I said, "we'd appreciate that." I paused at the pensive look on his face. "Oh, don't look so sad, Elcmon," I chided, "it's not like you'll never see us again, we'll come back and visit someday. I promise."

Elecmon managed a smile, and turned around. "Well, I'd better help Meramon with that, he seems afraid of burning the babies!"

I paused, my heart writhing at how casually he seemed to be taking it. I growled softly, then ran up after Elecmon and wove around his leg in a very catlike manner.

"Thanks for everything, Elecmon," I said. "We'll never forget your kindness." I paused and looked up at him. "And when we come back," I added excitedly, "just think of all the fine stories we will have to entertain the babies!"

Elecmon's smile grew even wider as Dice copied my actions. "I'm sure you will, Domino. I'm sure you will."

I turned to Dice as Elecmon headed back to the babies. "We're really gonna do this, aren't we,
Dice?" I asked boisterously, bouncing. "The two of us, Domino and Dice, out on a big adventure all by ourselves!!"

Dice nodded and looked absently at the forest. "At last..." I heard him whisper. "At last..."

It seemed we would finally get to go on our adventure...


The next day Dice woke up before me, and I slowly opened my eyes to find him gazing longinly at that forest again, in the direction Leomon had left. His constant pacing had awakened me, and I looked at him for a moment.

"Dice?" I asked, blinking groggily. "You're wearing a hole in the ground..." I sat up. "What's up?"

Dice looked back at me, then stopped and sat down beside me. "You think he's already found a new adventure, Domino?"

"Who, Dice?" I asked, following his gaze to the horizon. "You mean Leomon?" I paused. "I dunno..maybe..." I gave him a sidelong glance and frowned. His pensive attitude was starting to irk me. I quickly jumped to my feet. "But, it doesn't really matter, because we're gonna find our own big adventures, right? We have to be brave enough to lose sight of the shore if we want to discover new oceans!" I puffed out my chest and looked over at him. "I'm brave!" I cried as he looked at me like I was completely insane. "Are you?" My shoulder slumped as he did not reply. "Well, are you?" I hesitated, then sighed at his unresponsive mood. "Dice?" I asked, sitting back down. "What is it with you? I thought you would be happy we're finally getting to go exploring!"

He regarded me soberly. "Well, yes, Domino... I am, in a way..." he admitted.

"But?" I prodded.

"But, well, I think we should go now, so we can find him and train with him!"

I almost fell over. "Train? That's all you want to do?" I cried, shocked. "You don't want to go and explore the world? You don't want to get your paws dirty and learn things the hard way?" He gave me that what planet are you from? look again. I shook my head. "All you want to do is train?" I squinted one eye. "That's so much work! It sounds like school."

Dice looked a little startled by my outburst. "School?" he asked. "What's that?"

I blinked. I honestly didn't know. School?

Luckily, before I had time to come up with some lame explanation, he continued, "And what's wrong with Training? Besides, travelling and training will make me stronger and I'll get to know more things!"
"I guess so..." I sighed. "But, Dice...don't you want to go and have...fun?" I stood up and walked around him in a circle. "Being strong is good, sure...but it's so much work..." I paused and sat down. "All work and no play, so they say..."

Dice thought about it for a moment.

"Well, you didn't spend that much time with him, so I guess you wouldn't know how fun it is..." he said, and I guess he had a point.

Not that I was going to admit that to him...

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes, "I'll bet he's a slave-driver..." I hesitated, and looked at him. "So...I guess that means you won't be coming with me..." My eyes moved to the Northern horizon.

"But.. why don't you wanna come along?" Dice asked, evidently unsure if he wanted us to separate.

To be honest, I really didn't want to split up...but...

"I'm headed North, Dice," I said firmly, "toward the spot where Elecmon said that boy and his Gabumon found Frigimon. I want to see snow. Don't you want to see snow? I'll bet it's a lot more fun than training." I paused to think. "And maybe I will travel to Mount Miharashi, and see where Meramon came from. Or perhaps I will go to the forest where the Digidestined children first came to this world... Who knows? I might even meet one of them!" I looked at him hopefully. "Don't...don't you think that sounds like a lot more fun than...than training?" I hesitated when he didn't respond, then sighed gistily. "Dice, I don't want us to separate..." I said honestly, with a sad look, "but I think perhaps we're headed in too different of directions to stick together on this one..." I plopped down on my haunches and hung my head.

Dice looked a little uncomfortable by all this.

"But..."

He looked again towards the forest and then nodded slowly.

"I think you're right, Domino," he said, and I snapped my chin up. "But...but I want you to promise something..."

I smiled. "Anything," I said without missing a beat.

Dice gave me a warm smile.

"Domino, if you're ever in trouble, look for me, okay? I will become stronger and help you whenever you need me!" He hesitated. "And... promisme me...promise me that meet again someday...okay?"

I smiled at him.

"I promise, Dice," I vowed. "But you promise me something, too..."

Dice blinked.

"What?"

I sighed again.

"I may not ever be as strong as you...and I might not train as hard as you will...but I will always be your friend...and promise you will always be mine, no matter what happens, no matter where we end up..." I straightened my back. "Promise me nothing shall ever come between us..." I stuck out my right forepaw.

"I promise," Dice answered, holding his paw out in return. "Friends forever, right, Domino?"

I shook his paw. "Friends forever." I beamed at him. "We will meet again someday, Dice... Someday, somewhere..."--I drew in a deep breath and exhaled silently--"we'll see each other again."

Dice stood up and started walking towards the forest.

"I'll see you later, then," he said haltingly.

Then, as if afraid to stop, he started running, and jumped into the forest.

Elecmon, who was also awake, unbeknwonst to us, had heard everything, and waited for a few moments, a little hopeful that Dice would return, but also, at the same time, knwoing he owuld not. When he didn't, the elder digimon sighed.

"Good luck, Dice," he said softly, "I'll remember you, always."

I saw Elecmon, and gave him one last smile before heading North.

Then I whispered to myself, as I made my way toward the snowy Northlands of the Digital World, "Semper fi, my dear friend Dice... If ever you need me, you need only call. No matter where I am...I will hear you..."

That having been said, I put on speed, sprinting as fast as I could toward the undiscovered horizons before me...

[End Part 3]

You can continue to Dice's story or go to:
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=628790 for Domino's