In the Dark
Part Twenty-two: Destruction, Devastation, Diversion
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Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Characters do not belong to me, which would be pretty obvious to anyone who observes that I write in English. Plot belongs to me, though. Don't steal, don't sue. Thanks!
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Iori's brow knitted into a worried expression, but he said nothing, made no noise. Dared not move. Takeru, less than an arm's length away, could barely hear him breathe.
The screeching roar sounded again. The creature was angry. It had been angry before, but then it had found something to be angry at. Then it was pleased about its anger, used it for a purpose. Now, its prey had disappeared, and that made it even angrier.
Anger was really the only emotion it was capable of.
Rage turned into fire, and the destructive fire used most of the trees around the cabin as fuel to turn into a larger fire. Trees didn't run, didn't fight back, just took the fire as easily as they took the sun and rain and wind. If they suffered, they certainly weren't letting anyone know about it. Trees were the strong, silent types.
There was no one left to frighten with anger, or chase after, or set on fire. This made the creature angrier. It turned and flew back where it had come from, because now it was angry with its creator.
***
The moon was bright, but without the help of a torch, the small creature wasn't clearly visible in the darkness of the desert.
"Die?" Daisuke echoed blankly.
"Die," answered the voice. "I'll kill you both."
"No," returned a different voice. "You won't."
Daisuke relaxed. This seemed more pleasant.
"I won't?" questioned the first voice. "Why?"
"Killing humans is not allowed."
This statement produced grumblings from the first voice. "Fine then. We'll take them prisoner."
***
It was Iori, standing behind her, who supported Miyako when she felt weak and nearly lost her balance. It was Takeru who took her hand and tried to pull her upright again. "Are you all right?" one of them asked. She wasn't certain which.
"Too many spells," Miyako muttered. Actually, it was more like too many new spells, but that was more explanation than she could manage. She felt light headed. Jyou would have suggested she sit, but there wasn't anything to sit on.
The roof of the cabin was on fire again, but there was no one inside it, and most of the belongings had been removed, so it didn't matter as much now. No one asked Miyako to put it out again.
***
A hazy winter sun rose over the snow-covered forest, its warm rays barely penetrating the dense fog and doing little to warm the creatures within.
Miyako had slept on the cold ground, wrapped in blankets salvaged from the cabin, now destroyed. She awoke with the sun, feeling weak and stiff from the exertion of the night before. Someone had built a fire the night before, but it was only a smoking pile of twigs now in the center of ten sleeping figures.
She sat up, feeling the chill immediately, and wrapped her cloak around her, pulling the fur-lined hood over her head. Some hunger clawed at the inside of her stomach, but most of her exhaustion had evaporated. She shut her eyes, testing the strength of her aura and her magic and wishing she knew a spell to warm herself.
***
The heat of the day returned with the first light of the morning, and Daisuke began to clearly see the creatures that had been leading them through the endless desert for the whole night. Unable to see, he'd tripped over rocks and sand dunes the whole way along. The darkness had made any thought of escape impossible, as he'd learned on the first attempt.
In the dim sunlight, however, it was possible to see that they were Veggiemon and Red Veggiemon, strange yellow and red plant digimon with long arms that they swung like whips whenever their prisoners wandered off course, whether accidentally or with intent to escape. Apparently, they had better vision in darkness than humans did, for they'd had no trouble gauging their direction in the black night. For some reason, possibly related to the spirals each one wore either on its arm or around its body, they didn't seem to need sleep, either, for they'd marched on through the silent night without tiring.
The humans, though, were exhausted.
***
When Takeru awoke, the fire had been relit, and it was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes. Just beyond it, Miyako was sitting in what he'd come to realize was a meditative posture. Her eyes were shut, but her expression was one of concentration.
Iori and Jyou were quietly rummaging through the foodstuffs they'd salvaged and trying to make as little noise as possible while they discussed what might be a viable option for the morning meal. Takeru sat up, rubbing his eyes, and glanced toward the ruins of the cabin. He recalled what effort it had taken to build it and felt a brief spark of anger that the product of such hard work had been so easily destroyed.
The good things – if there could be good things about that morning – were that the monster from the night before had not returned and most everything of value had been saved from the cabin before it was destroyed. What spell books Koushiro had left behind were too heavy for them to carry, but they were apparently flame-retardant, as they had not burned.
Takeru stood, stretching his legs, and joined Iori and Jyou at the opposite side of the fire. Having decided upon some fish for the morning meal, Iori was placing a few pieces in a pan of appropriate size while Jyou searched through the available vegetables, most of which had frozen during the night.
The meal was half cooked when Miyako returned to the world. By then, the digimon had also awakened and were making more noise than the silent forest had heard in some time. With few words to each other, however, the humans ate the breakfast and drank cool water that came from melted snow.
"Now what?" Takeru wondered.
***
Hikari was so weary that her eyes were closing even while she walked, as though she might fall asleep while walking and crash down to the sand. Her warm winter boots were filled with sand and the soles were worn from the long walk. They both abandoned their winter wraps not long after dawn, when the sun became too much, but even without it she was hot, and the sun was harsh on her skin.
They had no idea of where they were being led. The Veggiemon had offered no explanation other than they were being taken prisoner. They could easily discern why, as each of them wore a spiral or a ring, but they could not figure out to where. Each attempt Daisuke had made to ask the question had been met either with stony silence or contact with the whip-like appendage. Eventually, he had given up.
Now, in the bright sunlight, the view they had also yielded no clues as to their destination. All that could be seen was sand, piled in dunes and blown about in the wind. When she turned, Hikari could see the marks the Veggiemon made in the sand stretch back as far as she could see.
Her legs felt like mush and she was fairly certain she wouldn't be able to take another step. Nevertheless, she did, because there was no choice but to keep moving.
***
"There's still been no sign of Daisuke or Hikari," Iori reported, the expression on his face grim. "I'm not certain if that's good or bad."
Takeru sighed. "I'd like to think that they saw the fight and hurried back to safety at Primary Village," he stated. "But somehow, I doubt it's quite that simple. And I think they would have returned by now." He glanced upward, toward the sun. It had been day for a few hours now.
"If we attempt to go find them, wherever they may be, then we cannot bring everything with us," Iori added. "And we cannot leave it behind." He gestured to their surroundings. Koushiro's magic books, still within what had once been the cabin, were safe, and probably would be from whatever came that way, but the other objects were not so lucky.
And there were many other objects. Each of the cabin residents had a trunk that contained their belongings and extra clothes, and those had been saved, which meant there were six trunks altogether. Three crates of food had been salvaged, and another crate filled with medicines and bandages that Jyou had felt were the most necessary of his large collection. Iori's map project had been saved, and tucked safely within his trunk. Anything else that had been within the cabin had been destroyed, save Koushiro's books.
Jyou nodded grimly in agreement to this. "We didn't hurry as we did to save those things only to lose them again."
"Would it be possible to leave some things at the village?" Tailmon wondered. She was anxious, antsy, and eager to be moving if only so she could be reunited with Hikari.
"Maybe," Iori admitted. "But it may take us a day to get them there. We haven't a carriage or cart or anything with wheels, and there's far too much here for us to carry it all."
"Maybe a shelter?" V-mon asked. "Something which would hide it?"
"I'm afraid that might take time we don't have," Iori answered, his frown growing more severe on his face. He sighed deeply and shook his head. "We might send for help, but the request could take three days to get there and another would pass before help arrived."
Tailmon scoffed. "They could be dead by then," she muttered. V-mon scowled.
Takeru had been considering V-mon's suggestion. "I think we ought to try to hide the things," he spoke up. "It may take time, but it's our best option, and it's better than waiting for something to happen. Perhaps a hole? Dug in the ground?" He glanced toward Armadimon as he spoke.
***
The sun was high in the sky, and the desert even more desolate than before, when they stopped. The three Veggiemon walking in front of the human prisoners suddenly turned about and swung their whip-like arms, stopping them in their tracks and causing them to step back a few paces.
"Are you certain we cannot kill them?" one of the red-skinned creatures asked. He had a cruel look in his eyes, even crueler than the rest.
A larger Veggiemon swung the whip-like arm, which sent the smaller creature flying to the ground. The smaller digimon grumbled in a soft voice, rubbing the back of its sore head, but didn't repeat the question.
Taking advantage of the break, both Hikari and Daisuke collapsed into the sand, wiping the sweat from their faces and wishing fruitlessly that there was some sort of shade nearby.
The Veggiemon appeared to want a break as well. Without speaking, several of them moved off behind a dune while a select few were left with the humans. They stood in a tight circle around their prisoners, their eyes glowing bright red.
The air was thick, hot, and still. "If there was a sandstorm," Daisuke thought aloud. "We could escape."
"We would die," Hikari answered. "We would be buried alive within the sand and we would die."
"Who's to say we won't die anyway?" he returned. "The Veggiemon won't kill us, but…."
"But you think that Ken would?" She turned to face him, eyes wide. "Surely not!"
He sighed, shook his head. "I don't know what he would or would not do anymore," he answered glumly. "I'm not sure if any of Ken is left."
In the distance, Hikari thought she could hear a screeching sound, but when she turned her head, it dissipated. "Some of him must be left. You mustn't think like that," she said instead. He didn't answer.
She sighed. "I've got sand in my boots, between my toes, even in my hair. There's been no wind; I'm not sure how that's happened."
Daisuke was silent for a moment. "Did you hear that?" he asked.
Before she could reply, a shadow passed over them, blocking the rays of the sun for a moment. Looking up, both humans and the Veggiemon could see the monstrous creature fly overhead and then soar off into the distance and the end of the desert. It screeched again, loudly, and the sound filled the arid space.
"That's the monster we saw back in the woods," Hikari realized.
The Veggiemon had seen the monster as well, and it incited them to action. The circle which surrounded their prisoners began to urge them to their feet again, though without words, only with swings of their whip-like arms.
"I don't think they very much like it, either," Daisuke observed, getting to his feet. "They're quite upset."
Without waiting for the others who had moved off, the plant digimon began their march again, this time at a faster rate of speed, flailing their arms about angrily and hurrying their prisoners along.
***
With Digmon's assistance, the construction of a pit deep enough to hide the salvaged materials was quick despite the frozen ground. The trunks, the food, and the medicinal supplies were hurried within. Miyako and many of the digimon worked quickly to gather leaves and branches and cover over the hiding space. Then Takeru and Jyou shoveled snow over the top so that soon the spot was completely indistinguishable from the rest of the forest ground.
By the time they had finished, it was nearly noon, and valuable time had been used. A small meal was cooked while they all prepared for a journey to come, and Miyako prepared to cast the wind spell in hopes she would somehow find their missing friends.
***
A cool breeze seemed to come from nowhere, whipping the wind about and scattering the sand. The Veggiemon were even more disturbed by this event than they had been by the monster's appearance. Hikari was grateful for the cooling air, but not for the sand.
She scolded Daisuke over the sound of the Veggiemons' confused, angered shouting. "You wished for a sandstorm, didn't you?"
"This is no sandstorm," he answered, pulling the edge of his shirt over his face and wishing he hadn't discarded his cloak. The tiny grains of sand beat through the thin fabric and assaulted his arms. The back of his neck had thousands of miniature pinpricks. "This is only a minor disturbance." He was grinning as he spoke.
"You're insane," she told him, certain she had spoken those words before and would again.
The wind calmed for a moment, long enough for the Veggiemon to take stock of the situation and urge them walking again, still at a quickened pace. "Don't you remember what caused the last sandstorm we were caught in?" he asked as they walked.
"The last – Miyako!" Hikari suddenly recalled. "You think she was responsible for that, just now?"
"If she was, we'll soon find out," Daisuke replied.
The wind suddenly appeared again, this time with more intensity. A whirlwind of sand formed around them, and it became impossible to see. Through the roaring of the sand, Hikari could hear the Veggiemon screaming, though she couldn't tell if it was in anger or pain now. Perhaps both.
"A lucky break!" Daisuke shouted over the roar. "Let's go!"
"Go where?" she asked, but not loudly enough. He took her hand and pulled her toward the wall of sand that surrounded them. She shut her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.
***
"There's no time to eat. We've got to hurry."
"Is there danger?" Tailmon stood immediately, noticing the look on Miyako's face.
"They're in the desert. I've tried to buy them some time, but there isn't much I can do from here. We've got to get out there as soon as possible."
"What's happened? Why are they in the desert?" V-mon asked, but Miyako waved the questions aside.
"There isn't time," she repeated. "I'll explain later. We've got to go."
***
Short, but sweet. More coming soon. Stay tuned.
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