The last chapter before I quit this…

Chapter Seven – Farris's Fandango

Farris plopped down onto a big brown rock, exhausted. He untied his bandanna from his arm, and whipped his head with it.

His was a long, hot, and dry journey. Around him was a short, but wide, mountain consisting of dry, sandy dirt and almost red colored rocks. Farris had to stop just for a moment, or his heat exhaustion would get to him.

Farris looked down at the black bandanna his grandfather had once worn. It was old and weathered from many years of use. He remembered when he was eleven, how he and his grandfather had gone on a fishing trip on an extremely hot day, and that his grandfather taught him the perfect cast and given Farris the bandanna to tie around his head to keep the sweat from his eyes as Farris patiently kept trying until he got it just right. Farris smiled at that happy memory. Only a little while after that, his grandfather died, and all he had left of him was the worn black bandanna. Farris cherished the bandana greatly.

He tied it around his head like his grandfather had.

Farris was an intelligent youth. He was always cool and calculating. He always tried to make not only others, but himself sure of every decision before he did it. He was a patient boy, as well as tolerant. He was tolerant of other's sometimes confrontational personalities.

Farris grew up in the northern city of Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. With his mother, father, and big sister, but the person who had the most effect on him was his grandfather, who lived down the street. From a very young age, Farris's grandfather was his teacher and friend. They went fishing and hiking together, as well as many other things.

When Farris was eleven, during Myotismon's invasion, it was on one of these little excursions with his grandfather that Farris saw his first digimon. Farris was hiking, and several feet in front of his grandfather. Just as he rounded a corner on the trail, he saw a Gururumon sitting on the side of the mountain, staring off into the Canadian countryside. Farris stood stunned and turned to yell to his grandfather. When Farris looked back, the digimon had vanished. Farris had franticly tried to convince his grandfather that he really had seen a giant wolf. His grandfather finally said, that if Farris said he saw it, then he believed him. This meant a lot to Farris, and only a few months later his grandfather died of a heart disease. It was the saddest day of Farris's life, but a great gift was given to him only a couple months after that. The digiegg containing his digimon burst from an anonymous e-mail.

"Hey Farris, what's the hold up?" Furrimon asked, hobbling out from behind where Farris was sitting.

Farris was catching his breath, "I need a break."

"A break? Now? But we're just getting started."

"We've been walking for..." Farris glanced at his watch, "...five hours since that last town. I can't walk anymore. I don't wanna get heat stroke. I'm not used to this kind of weather. I don't think I've ever even seen a cactus before I got here"

"All right, whatever..." Furrimon said unenthusiastically, "Can I see the tag."

Farris pulled the tag off of his neck and handed it to Furrimon. Furrimon dangled it in the air, the familiar green energy border formed around the window and the tag turned to a direction behind Farris.

"Hmmm..." Furrimon said interestedly as he walked off behind a couple of rocks, following the tag's direction.

Farris sighed reaching among his things to the side. His hand came over the long neck of his wooden folk guitar. He brought it up to him and felt the metallic strings. He griped at frets and plucked a few methodical notes, as he delighted in the simple tones he preformed.

Farris was motivated by his music. He loved even the simplest of music he could make.

"OH WOW! Farris you gotta see this!"

Farris jumped up instinctively, and ran back between the red rocks, guitar still in hand. He ran to a small out cropping where Furrimon gazed into the valley below.

"Furrimon what is... Ohhhh..." Farris said looking over the ledge.

Furrimon and Farris looked off into the sandy, desert valley at the bottom of the outcropping of stacked reddish rocks. A ways from the rocks, was a small village of wooden buildings (or more appropriately, shacks) with a small stone well in the center. Off in the distance were several acres of some tall crop, maybe corn. Dominating the view was a monstrous figure, it was reptilian and massive, with three spikes protruding from it's head, a Triceramon. It was growling things, holding a big sack open. Around it, small gray things scurried around franticly carrying buckets of something from a longer shack to the Triceramon's sack.

Well," Farris started, "You don't see that everyday."

"That's not all. Check this out." Furrimon said, holding up the tag he had clutched in his hand.

It had the regular green border, but all of a sudden, a small green light laser burst out of the center, startling Farris. It seared down toward the shanty town and landed smack dab on the well in the center of town.

"Oh wow! Our crest must be in that well."

"Well, duh!"

Farris ignored Furrimon, he grabbed the tag and hide it in his pocket, "We should keep a low profile, not screw up what ever is going on down going on down there, and let's just hope they didn't see our tag's light. Let's go."

Farris packed his guitar in it's slender black case and made his way down the ledge, hopping from rock to rock, followed all the time by Furrimon. Farris made it down the hill and mad dashed toward one of the shacks on the outskirts. Made it there, and pressed himself against the back wall. Furrimon ran up seconds later. Farris caught his breath, as he peered around the side of the building.

Now he could see what the little gray things were. Scared Gotsumon, Gizamon, and Gazimon ran franticly to a store house, they loaded wicker baskets with ears of corn, hoisted them up and hauled them to the large bag held open by Triceramon. This didn't appear to be a simple collect of food in a big bag. The digimon were visibly trembling every time they approached Triceramon.

Farris was also close enough to hear what Triceramon was bellowing, "FASTER YOU WORTHLESS RUNTS! DON'T MAKE ME ANGRY, OR THIS TOWN'LL BE MY NEW CHEW TOY! PICK UP THE PACE, GIMME MY FOOD YOU WORKED SO HARD TO PICK FOR ME!"

Farris gritted his teeth, "He's making them give him their crops." he said back to Furrimon.

A Gazimon carrying a basket of corn walked a little to fast, and lost it's balance. It fall face first into the ground, spilling the corn before Triceramon. A stray ear bounced and hit Triceramon in the big clawed toe. All the other workers gasped. The Gazimon looked up in terror. Triceramon slowly averted his view down toward the sprawled out Gazimon.

Triceramon lowered his voice a bit, "What do we have here? A troublemaker?"

The Gazimon was petrified in terror, and couldn't move much less talk.

Triceramon looked angrily down at the Gazimon, "You know, I don't ask for much. All I ask is that when I occasionally stop by, you give me half of the corn you have stored in your store house, so in return, I won't smash your village, and what do you do, YOU THROW CORN AT ME!"

"No!" the Gazimon mustered, "but I didn't THROW the corn..."

"And now you're talking back. This is great, just great. You know what I have to do now, don't you!" Triceramon glowered.

The Gazimon backed away, "Wha... what are you gonna do?"

Triceramon was taken aback by that question and had a surprised look on his face, "Ah, well... sumthin' bad, DON'T POINT OUT MY OWN VOCABULARY DIFFICULTIES!! You're gonna get it now!" Triceramon called stomping toward the Gazimon.

Farris was seething mad, "Grrrrr! We can't let that happen!"

Furrimon leaned around Farris looking at the Triceramon and frightened Gazimon, "So what are we gonna do?"

Farris dug into his pocket and pulled out his Digivise as it began to glow, "Do it Furrimon!"

"Ah, wait a minute. Triceramon is a Ultimate, I wouldn't have a chance."

"But that poor Digimon in trouble, are we just gonna leave it?!"

"Ah, I guess not..." The light engulfed Furrimon as he grew, "Furrimon Digivolve to... Pinemon!"

Pinemon's lumbering form stepped out from behind the rickety building. The Triceramon hadn't noticed him yet, an opening. Pinemon placed his hands in front of him toward the bulk of Triceramon.

"Needle Spray!" Pinemon yelled.

Thousands of tiny needles blasted off his hands. The little spines hit Triceramon's armored sides, but merely bounced off. Triceramon stopped his foot's slow decent, the surrounding Rookies turned to view the new assailant. Pinemon growled at the three-horned dino.

"Go get him, Pinemon." Farris yelled.

"Dang it..." Pinemon mumbled.

The Triceramon's red eyes glared at Pinemon, it started to chuckle maliciously, "And who might you be?"

Pinemon's response was harsh, "Let the little one go!"

Triceramon grabbed the fallen Gazimon by the head. He hoisted it up as it squealed frightened, "You want it? Come take it."

Pinemon rolled into a ball, "Spike Ball!" The mass of quills barreled forward like a "Good Year" tire toward Triceramon.

Triceramon continued to chuckle. The twirled around swing his big tail, the tail smash sent Pinemon flying backwards and collapsed across the ground. Farris gasped and ran out into the open to support his Digimon. Pinemon made a struggling effort and climbed to it's feet.

"Oh, want another?" Triceramon jeered.

Triceramon took a quick look at the furry mass between his fingers, deemed it uninteresting now, and tossed it behind him. The Gazimon bounced and scurried off to the barn, where the other inhabitants of the village were watching the battle. Triceramon angled it's head down.

"Tri-Horn Attack!"

Triceramon charged forward toward Pinemon was struggling to it's feet. The three horns prodded deep into Pinemon's soft underbelly. Pinemon shrieked and, with the force of the blow, Pinemon was sent sailing. Farris, who was running toward his partner, ducked to the ground as the spiky Digimon soared over head. In mid fall, a yellow light engulfed Pinemon, and he shrunk back to Furrimon. Furrimon landed far back with a thump.

Triceramon made a gigantic laugh, "Is that all. I was expecting more form you, pin cushion. I've been waiting so long for a good fight, and it seems I'll never get one. Ha, ha, ha."

Farris dashed to the side of his limp friend, and held it's small head in his hands, "Furrimon, are you alright!"

Furrimon's black eyes slowly opened, "What did I tell ya, no chance at all."

"I'm sorry..."

"Owwwwww..." Furrimon whined.

Triceramon continued to laugh, but soon became serious. He turned to the spectators, the Gazimon, Gotsumon, and Gizamon jumped at his gaze. He frowned and spit a monstrous luggie on the ground. He hoisted the sack of corn over his back

"NOW! Because of this little disturbance in working. I'm gonna need a rise in productivity. Each time I come her I want TWICE AS MUCH CORN!"

The congregation of Rookies gasped. A brave Gotsumon opened his mouth to say something.

"But... but sir, that's all our corn..."

Triceramon frowned and raised the fingers on his hand to count them, "Uh... let's see. One half... times 2... uh, ah..." He mumbled.

Farris frowned and murmur to himself, "Dumb ass..."

"Oh yes, " Triceramon raised his voice again, "So it is... SO WHAT!"

The Gotsumon became too frightened and back down, a Gizamon took his place, "But if you take everything what will we have to eat. We'll all die of hungry."

Triceramon stroked his chin, "Hmm..." he murmured, "If they all die then where will I get my weekly corn..."

Furrimon mumbled under his quiet moans of pain, "Dumb ass..."

"Ok, I've decided. Every time I come here you will give me one half, then a half a half more. Got it?"

The villagers looked at each other confused.

"Three-fourths?"

"YES, THREE-FOURTHS. NOW GET OUT OF MY FACE YOU SCRUBS!!!" Triceramon made a stomping fit, that scared everyone of the small Rookies away. He chuckled, and began to walk off in the direction of a set of mountains.

Farris turned back to Furrimon who had stopped whining and was pulling himself up, "If you're hurt you should rest."

"Naw, I'm cool. Boy, though, that guy's not running on all cylinders is he."

"No..."

"Are you ok, Farris."

"No..."

"Well..." Furrimon stopped mid sentence, as the villagers began to gravitate towards them. "Ut oh."

Gazimon, Gotsumon, and Gizamon stalked toward the purple-haired human and his downed digital partner, angry scowls on their faces.

Farris averted his eyes, shamefully, back to his hurt Digimon.

An angry Gazimon growled at him, "Thank you so much, now we have more work to do,"

Farris looked back down, "Sorry..."

An enraged Gizamon stared at him, "What's wrong with you?! You didn't think you could stop an ultimate did you?!"

"I just wanted to help..."

"Help?!" A Gotsumon yelled, "You call that help. You've got a pretty misconscrewed idea of help. You can't just go running head long into stuff like that, you'll get you and everyone around you killed!"

All Farris could do was stare at the dusty ground, "I didn't think."

"That's an understatement." A Gazimon grumbled, "Let's go guys, we have work to do. Don't plan to stay in town too much longer unless you plan to help us harvest."

The collection of Digimon turned a fled slowly, letting the pain of their words hit Farris hard with every step they took. They moved out of the town, off to the fields somewhere to return to their slavery. Farris sat on his legs, feeling weak, he kept up on one arm, the other he rubbed his face, a quirk of his when he felt sad and regretful.

Furrimon was able to get to his feet finally, and even though he was obviously in a lot of pain, he made the best compassionate look he could as he moved to comfort Farris.

"Look, Farris man, it's..."

"Furrimon, I'm so sorry." Farris suddenly interrupted.

"Yeah, I know, man..."

"No, I'm sorry for betraying you."

"What do you mean?"

"I wasn't myself, I was being more like Julian, because I admire his courage, but... you now that's not how I operate, and... I failed..."

Furrimon smiled showing sharp teeth, "Don't worry 'bout it. Would do you say we go look for that crest, huh?"

Farris looked at the well only a few yards away from him, built up to waist level with dark brown stones, a little bucket and rope sat beside it. As he watched it shimmer in the hot air, he thought about the redeeming qualities of finding his crest as soon as possible.

"Let's go."