Enter The Light
Part Two: The Arrival of Cold
###
Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all related incarnations, characters, creatures, logos, profits, etc, are property of various companies, the only one of which I will bother to list here is Toei. I don't work for them, and thus get no money from the creation of this fic. The plot, however, is (mostly) mine, and I am only borrowing minor points and characters to make it work to my satisfaction. In short, don't steal, don't sue. Don't forget to moo. Enjoy!
###
The sun had barely risen, and already Miyako was traveling, a fact which did not put her in the most pleasant of moods. Hawkmon, napping on the opposite seat of the small but comfortable carriage, hadn't bothered to stay awake after they started, but Miyako was filled with nervous energy. She wasn't quite sure what to expect when she arrived.
As she traveled, the young mage peered listlessly out the window of the carriage. With ease, the lumbering Monochromon had traveled through the tiny village-city and were now pulling her along the main road, through an endless expanse of fields, still covered with a light sprinkling of snow. The sun poked through a mass of thick grey clouds overhead, causing the snow to sparkle and shine.
###
Takeru didn't mind the cold, at least not as much as some, and he felt restless remaining inside for too long. Shortly after the morning meal, he wrapped himself in his warmest clothes and set out for a walk. Patamon wasn't particularly pleased about the idea, but was even less pleased with the suggestion that he allow his partner to go out alone, and so he followed.
"See?" Takeru said, encouragingly, as he opened the door. A gust of cold wind blew past them, allowing a few snowflakes to blow off the trees and land at his feet. "It's not that cold."
Patamon shivered from his perch of safety and relative warmth atop Takeru's warm hat, but said nothing. His previous attempts to inform his partner that leaving the palace was foolish, crazy, insane, or just plain silly, had failed.
"That's what you call not cold?" another voice interrupted. "I'd hate to see what you consider freezing."
Takeru turned to find Hikari behind him, arms wrapped around her for warmth. "This?" he said. "This is nothing. "I've felt much colder. Besides, I'm not going far. Just for a walk."
She nodded. "Don't go too far," she advised. "I think that Jyou has his hands full. He said just this morning that if he gets another frostbite patient - "
"He's going to scream, I know," Takeru finished. He, too, had been there for the doctor's morning grumblings at breakfast. "I'll be sure not to freeze." With a casual grin, he ducked out the door, shutting it behind him.
Hikari sighed, shaking her head in amusement. There were footsteps in the hall behind her, and Sora appeared around the corner. "Was that Takeru I heard just now?" she asked.
"Yes, he's gone out. He says it's not too cold, and he has promised not to inconvenience the doctor by freezing," Hikari reported. "Actually, Sora, I'm concerned for him. He seems...more reckless than usual, doesn't he?"
The elder girl considered for a moment. "Reckless?" she echoed. "I don't know. I'd say distant, I think. Did something happen?" She turned, taking a few steps down the hall.
Hikari followed, matching her steps. "Many things happened," she answered after a moment's thought. "I don't know what would cause him to wander off by himself so often, though. I'd ask Miyako, but she's gone. I'd ask Daisuke, but I'm afraid to go near him today. He's not in the best of moods."
"He was never one for books," Sora recalled, chuckling slightly. "What about Iori? Perhaps Iori would have some idea."
###
"Does it seem cloudier to you today?" Taichi questioned when Iori entered. He was peering intently at the sky that could be seen from the window.
"Cloudier?" Iori echoed. "Perhaps a little. Do you think a storm is coming in?"
"I think something's coming," Taichi answered vaguely. "I don't know if it's a storm. Look closely. Do they look darker, to you in any way? Different?"
Confused, Iori set down the papers he had been carrying and ventured closer to the window. He peered through the glass, squinting through the dim light at the clouds. "They just look like clouds, sir," he answered after a moment, shrugging slightly. "Clouds often look dark before a storm."
Taichi meant something completely different from that, but he wasn't quite sure how to explain it. He was still puzzling over the correct words to use when their was a short knock at the door and then Hikari peered in.
"I'm sorry to interrupt. Are you busy?"
"No, no," he said, waving her in. "I was just thinking about the clouds."
"Thinking about the clouds?" Hikari repeated. "What's there to think about clouds? They're big, fluffy things that bring rain. Shouldn't you be thinking of more important issues?"
Iori sighed audibly, giving up trying to look busy because there wasn't anything to do at the moment. "He thinks the clouds look different," he reported.
"Different how?" Hikari asked, but neither of them was able to explain. Iori shrugged dismissively, Taichi in a more embarrassed fashion. Hikari sighed. "Well," she said then, patting her brother on the shoulder in an encouraging way. "I didn't come to talk to you about clouds. I wanted to talk to Iori about Takeru."
"What about Takeru?" Iori asked, setting down the paperwork that he'd been vaguely trying to do something with.
"I don't know if you've noticed lately," the princess reported, "but he's been rather distant. Reckless."
Iori started to shake his head, then stopped and appeared thoughtful. "I haven't seen him much lately," he answered after a moment. "Is that what you mean?"
"No one has seen him much lately," Hikari replied. "I wonder if something happened to affect him so. It?s not like him to go wandering off by himself so much."
"Where is he now?" Taichi wondered.
"He's gone for a walk," she answered. At these words, both the others turned to look out the window.
"In this weather?" Taichi asked.
"I don't know what could have affected him, specifically," Iori said, answering the unspoken question. "There was a lot that happened. I do remember though, the incident with the Digitamamon. Do you remember that?"
"Digitamamon?"
Hikari was silent for a moment, considering. Slowly, her expression changed from thoughtfulness to recollection, and then to concern. "I do," she answered. "I wonder if that's what's causing it."
"What about a Digitamamon?" Taichi wanted to know.
###
It was nearly noon, and Daisuke had made no progress in finding whatever he had lost within the book. Each page looked so very much like the one before it that he could not pick out the page he needed by sight alone. He came to the conclusion that it was necessary to actually read each page in the hopes that something would jar his memory.
V-mon had been similarly trying to recollect what the mysterious stranger had said, but, unable to remember, had left his partner to his scholarly pursuits, slipping out quietly sometime not long after breakfast.
The reading was slow. The ancient book had been written by hand, and the old, dark ink that flowed around the flowing script turned to mush before his very eyes. Daisuke lost track of what he had been reading, the words made little sense to him. He began to feel sleepy and light headed. His eyes drooped and he rested his head on the book.
There was an abrupt knock at the door, and he was jolted awake, feeling disoriented. Had he slept? Had he dozed? If so, for how long? It didn't feel like very long, but sleep could be deceiving.
The knock sounded again. Daisuke rubbed his eyes and hoped he didn't appear as though he'd been napping. "Come in," he called, shaking his head to clear it. He looked down at the page before him. It was only the fifth page of the book. Had he read it?
"Have you made any progress?" Koushiro questioned, shutting the door behind him.
"None," Daisuke replied, his expression and tone conveying his frustration.
###
Despite Takeru's claims, Hikari found that it was actually quite cold outside. Even with her warmest wraps, she could still feel the icy grip of the waning winter in all her extremities. She ventured from the palace and crossed the snowy grounds, her boots crunching in the silence. Cold as it was, anyone without need to be outside was inside, and anyone with need to be outside was doing their work quickly. The grounds were mostly deserted.
"Which way did you go?" she wondered aloud to herself. She had hoped to follow his footprints, but there was heavy traffic from this exit, and the ground was a mish-mash of footprints going in every possible direction. Hikari stared at the ground and realized with some reluctance she wasn't likely to determine which ones belonged to Takeru.
That left her with nothing more than a hunch to go on, and so she followed it, heading in the direction of the Monochromon pens. Few Monochromon were likely to be outside in this weather, as they were best suited to much warmer climates, and took shelter in the massive barns built to house them in the cold months. Still, the fences remained, and as Hikari grew closer, she could see that a few Monochromon were lumbering around the yards, searching perhaps for a bit of food buried underneath the snows.
Takeru was there too, leaning over the side of the fence and so lost, either in thought or in simply observing the activity of the Monochromon, that he didn't notice her approach. Hikari watched from a distance and concluded that Takeru was most likely lost in thought, as the large digimon weren't doing much that was worthy of observation.
"Takeru?"
He turned away from the fence, startled by the sound of her voice in the previously still and quiet environment. "I thought it was too cold for you," he said, a teasing sort of grin on his face. Whatever he had been thinking about, Hikari thought, was gone from his eyes now.
She frowned."Cold enough," she answered. "Takeru ? what are you doing out here?"
The playfulness left his eyes, and he turned back to the fence, gloomy once more. "I needed to think, that's all," he said with more casualness than she thought he felt.
"You've been thinking a lot since we returned," Hikari ventured, stepping beside him and leaning against the sturdy wooden fence. "Is something wrong?"
Takeru shook his head, but didn't speak, didn't turn his gaze. There was a long silence that Hikari kept so that he would have a chance to speak. He didn't.
"If you ever want to talk about it...."
"It's nothing," he answered dismissively. "Nothing important." He turned, flashed a brief grin.
"Somehow, I doubt that. Takeru, you've never been one to be so alone. What makes you wander off in the cold now? Don't tell me the Monochromon, because I won't believe that."
There was a silence. Takeru's expression changed from the grin to a more guarded almost-frown. "I'm changing, Hikari," he said then. "We all are, I think. I'm not the same person I used to be."
"None of us are," she agreed. "We're all becoming different because of what has happened to us. Takeru, we can help each other with this. You don't need to go off alone."
He sighed, then opened his mouth to respond. Before he could, however, the sky suddenly became darker than before. The light filtering through the clouds grew even dimmer. A gust of cold wind blew past them. The Monochromon that were outside made grunts and groans of distress and hurried quickly back to the safety of the barns. The trees bent in the strong wind.
"I think a storm is coming," Takeru said. "We ought to head back."
Another strong gust punctuated this statement, and then another, so that it seemed as though the increase in speed was not merely a temporary gust. Within the barns, the Monochromon made panicky noises as the barn creaked in the wind.
"I'm glad we're not out in the woods for this," Hikari called, shouting to be heard over the wind. She ducked her head and pulled her scarf tightly around her neck.
"No, nor in a tent!" Takeru agreed, turning and following her back in the direction of the palace. He held Patamon safely within his arms now, lest his partner be blown away. "We'd be blown away and then left to freeze!"
"We still might be!" Patamon shouted, burying himself deep within Takeru's coat and scarf.
###
Sora and Mimi were at the door, holding it open, awaiting their return. During the walk back, the snow had begun to fall, and by the time Takeru and Hikari dashed inside, it was swirling around in great gusts. All four of them shoved hard against the heavy wooden door to close it against the wind, and then slid the bolt into place.
Takeru shook the snow from his hat and scarf before hanging them both to dry on a hook near the door. He unbuttoned his coat, allowing Patamon to escape, and he did so, shaking the snow from his ears.
"It looks as though you made it back just in time," Mimi said, relief in her voice. She helped Hikari to remove her half-frozen cloak and hood. "Come inside and warm up before you turn to icicles in this cold hallway."
"It came out of nowhere," Takeru said, removing his boots and leaving them to dry in great puddles near the door. "Just, suddenly, the wind picked up and then...."
"It looks as though it may be the beginning of a blizzard," Sora observed. "You were lucky. Much longer and the snow would have blinded you and then you'd have been stranded, maybe not more than two steps from your own door and frozen solid."
###
The blizzard called a halt to whatever subdued activities had been planned for that afternoon. Travelers throughout the kingdom were forced to take shelter as best they could, and many passers-by were forced to wait out the storm in the shelter of the palace. As the storm grew stronger, villagers whose homes were not yet warm enough to withstand the storm were brought to the palace for shelter. More still were lost in the snows.
The afternoon meal was a hurried and chaotic affair. Great cauldrons of hot soup were cooked, tea brewed, stew ladled out into bowls for half-frozen travelers. Everyone who wasn't half-frozen was called out to help serve or cook, and those that were shivered and ate, trying to warm themselves.
Daisuke had been pulled from his reading ? a welcome reprieve, he thought ? and was left the task of gathering blankets from each bed in the palace. With Koushiro's help, the two amassed warm blankets from every bedroom.
The massive hall that served as the throne room was the best place suited for the task of serving and warming those that needed help. Despite Jyou's earlier threat, the doctor issued not a single scream at the sight of the half-frozen patients that awaited him.
By late afternoon, the blizzard still raged, but the flow of travelers did not.
###
Hikari busied herself in the warmest rooms of the palace ? the kitchens. With no medical training but a bit in the way of cooking, she offered her assistance to the cooks there and spent her afternoon stirring soup, cutting vegetables, and helping in any way possible.
Once the food was finished, she helped to carry it out to be eaten and then sat to enjoy her own helping. As she spooned the hearty soup, she glanced around the table at the visitors ? nearly two hundred travelers, stranded due to the storm, and each grateful to be inside, warm and fed.
Somewhere in the middle of her second bowl of soup, she stopped eating and looked around the table again. She felt eyes upon her and saw that Takeru was looking at her with a concerned glance from across the table.
"Is something wrong?" he asked. "You've stopped eating."
"No," she said, pushing her bowl aside. "I'm just...full, now." She smiled, an expression that felt wrong and looked wrong, even to Takeru, and then stood up from the table.
###
There were many rooms in the palace, but not enough to house all the travelers stranded by the storm. Some were given rooms, but the rest had to be content to bed down in the great hall, satisfied that they were not outside in the cold and hungry. The sun set, plunging the outside world into darkness. Anyone who had not made it to shelter before this was likely to freeze in the night.
Daisuke had returned to his studies, a candle beside him as he sat in bed, a sweater wrapped around his shoulders for warmth and the blanket pulled over his legs. He'd made little progress, but it was a job that had to be done, and so he worked at it.
Two or three hours after the ending of the evening meal, there was a soft tap on his door, so soft that he could barely hear it. He looked up from his book, but it didn't sound again, and so he returned, only to be alerted by a second, louder knock.
Reluctantly, he pulled himself from the warm cocoon he'd made for himself, and hurried across the room. Hikari stood in the dark, cold hall, shivering slightly, a blanket over her shoulders.
"I don't mean to disturb your studies," she said, "but, might I come in?"
Wordlessly, Daisuke stepped aside from the door, allowing her entrance. He slipped into the parlor adjoined to his room and returned with two of the comfortable chairs. He set them by the fire, and then they both sat. A long moment of silence passed before he finally asked: "What?s wrong?"
Hikari had been staring, blankly, into the flames. Her shivering had ceased now, but she looked pale in the firelight. She said nothing for a few moments.
"Hikari?" Daisuke asked, certain now that something was wrong. "Are you ill? Are you hurt?"
She took a deep breath, shook her head, and finally pulled her gaze from the fire. "No," she said, "I'm all right. It's Miyako I'm concerned about."
###
And the story continues. Questions, comments, complains? Review, or send me an e-mail. Thanks for reading!
Part Two: The Arrival of Cold
###
Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all related incarnations, characters, creatures, logos, profits, etc, are property of various companies, the only one of which I will bother to list here is Toei. I don't work for them, and thus get no money from the creation of this fic. The plot, however, is (mostly) mine, and I am only borrowing minor points and characters to make it work to my satisfaction. In short, don't steal, don't sue. Don't forget to moo. Enjoy!
###
The sun had barely risen, and already Miyako was traveling, a fact which did not put her in the most pleasant of moods. Hawkmon, napping on the opposite seat of the small but comfortable carriage, hadn't bothered to stay awake after they started, but Miyako was filled with nervous energy. She wasn't quite sure what to expect when she arrived.
As she traveled, the young mage peered listlessly out the window of the carriage. With ease, the lumbering Monochromon had traveled through the tiny village-city and were now pulling her along the main road, through an endless expanse of fields, still covered with a light sprinkling of snow. The sun poked through a mass of thick grey clouds overhead, causing the snow to sparkle and shine.
###
Takeru didn't mind the cold, at least not as much as some, and he felt restless remaining inside for too long. Shortly after the morning meal, he wrapped himself in his warmest clothes and set out for a walk. Patamon wasn't particularly pleased about the idea, but was even less pleased with the suggestion that he allow his partner to go out alone, and so he followed.
"See?" Takeru said, encouragingly, as he opened the door. A gust of cold wind blew past them, allowing a few snowflakes to blow off the trees and land at his feet. "It's not that cold."
Patamon shivered from his perch of safety and relative warmth atop Takeru's warm hat, but said nothing. His previous attempts to inform his partner that leaving the palace was foolish, crazy, insane, or just plain silly, had failed.
"That's what you call not cold?" another voice interrupted. "I'd hate to see what you consider freezing."
Takeru turned to find Hikari behind him, arms wrapped around her for warmth. "This?" he said. "This is nothing. "I've felt much colder. Besides, I'm not going far. Just for a walk."
She nodded. "Don't go too far," she advised. "I think that Jyou has his hands full. He said just this morning that if he gets another frostbite patient - "
"He's going to scream, I know," Takeru finished. He, too, had been there for the doctor's morning grumblings at breakfast. "I'll be sure not to freeze." With a casual grin, he ducked out the door, shutting it behind him.
Hikari sighed, shaking her head in amusement. There were footsteps in the hall behind her, and Sora appeared around the corner. "Was that Takeru I heard just now?" she asked.
"Yes, he's gone out. He says it's not too cold, and he has promised not to inconvenience the doctor by freezing," Hikari reported. "Actually, Sora, I'm concerned for him. He seems...more reckless than usual, doesn't he?"
The elder girl considered for a moment. "Reckless?" she echoed. "I don't know. I'd say distant, I think. Did something happen?" She turned, taking a few steps down the hall.
Hikari followed, matching her steps. "Many things happened," she answered after a moment's thought. "I don't know what would cause him to wander off by himself so often, though. I'd ask Miyako, but she's gone. I'd ask Daisuke, but I'm afraid to go near him today. He's not in the best of moods."
"He was never one for books," Sora recalled, chuckling slightly. "What about Iori? Perhaps Iori would have some idea."
###
"Does it seem cloudier to you today?" Taichi questioned when Iori entered. He was peering intently at the sky that could be seen from the window.
"Cloudier?" Iori echoed. "Perhaps a little. Do you think a storm is coming in?"
"I think something's coming," Taichi answered vaguely. "I don't know if it's a storm. Look closely. Do they look darker, to you in any way? Different?"
Confused, Iori set down the papers he had been carrying and ventured closer to the window. He peered through the glass, squinting through the dim light at the clouds. "They just look like clouds, sir," he answered after a moment, shrugging slightly. "Clouds often look dark before a storm."
Taichi meant something completely different from that, but he wasn't quite sure how to explain it. He was still puzzling over the correct words to use when their was a short knock at the door and then Hikari peered in.
"I'm sorry to interrupt. Are you busy?"
"No, no," he said, waving her in. "I was just thinking about the clouds."
"Thinking about the clouds?" Hikari repeated. "What's there to think about clouds? They're big, fluffy things that bring rain. Shouldn't you be thinking of more important issues?"
Iori sighed audibly, giving up trying to look busy because there wasn't anything to do at the moment. "He thinks the clouds look different," he reported.
"Different how?" Hikari asked, but neither of them was able to explain. Iori shrugged dismissively, Taichi in a more embarrassed fashion. Hikari sighed. "Well," she said then, patting her brother on the shoulder in an encouraging way. "I didn't come to talk to you about clouds. I wanted to talk to Iori about Takeru."
"What about Takeru?" Iori asked, setting down the paperwork that he'd been vaguely trying to do something with.
"I don't know if you've noticed lately," the princess reported, "but he's been rather distant. Reckless."
Iori started to shake his head, then stopped and appeared thoughtful. "I haven't seen him much lately," he answered after a moment. "Is that what you mean?"
"No one has seen him much lately," Hikari replied. "I wonder if something happened to affect him so. It?s not like him to go wandering off by himself so much."
"Where is he now?" Taichi wondered.
"He's gone for a walk," she answered. At these words, both the others turned to look out the window.
"In this weather?" Taichi asked.
"I don't know what could have affected him, specifically," Iori said, answering the unspoken question. "There was a lot that happened. I do remember though, the incident with the Digitamamon. Do you remember that?"
"Digitamamon?"
Hikari was silent for a moment, considering. Slowly, her expression changed from thoughtfulness to recollection, and then to concern. "I do," she answered. "I wonder if that's what's causing it."
"What about a Digitamamon?" Taichi wanted to know.
###
It was nearly noon, and Daisuke had made no progress in finding whatever he had lost within the book. Each page looked so very much like the one before it that he could not pick out the page he needed by sight alone. He came to the conclusion that it was necessary to actually read each page in the hopes that something would jar his memory.
V-mon had been similarly trying to recollect what the mysterious stranger had said, but, unable to remember, had left his partner to his scholarly pursuits, slipping out quietly sometime not long after breakfast.
The reading was slow. The ancient book had been written by hand, and the old, dark ink that flowed around the flowing script turned to mush before his very eyes. Daisuke lost track of what he had been reading, the words made little sense to him. He began to feel sleepy and light headed. His eyes drooped and he rested his head on the book.
There was an abrupt knock at the door, and he was jolted awake, feeling disoriented. Had he slept? Had he dozed? If so, for how long? It didn't feel like very long, but sleep could be deceiving.
The knock sounded again. Daisuke rubbed his eyes and hoped he didn't appear as though he'd been napping. "Come in," he called, shaking his head to clear it. He looked down at the page before him. It was only the fifth page of the book. Had he read it?
"Have you made any progress?" Koushiro questioned, shutting the door behind him.
"None," Daisuke replied, his expression and tone conveying his frustration.
###
Despite Takeru's claims, Hikari found that it was actually quite cold outside. Even with her warmest wraps, she could still feel the icy grip of the waning winter in all her extremities. She ventured from the palace and crossed the snowy grounds, her boots crunching in the silence. Cold as it was, anyone without need to be outside was inside, and anyone with need to be outside was doing their work quickly. The grounds were mostly deserted.
"Which way did you go?" she wondered aloud to herself. She had hoped to follow his footprints, but there was heavy traffic from this exit, and the ground was a mish-mash of footprints going in every possible direction. Hikari stared at the ground and realized with some reluctance she wasn't likely to determine which ones belonged to Takeru.
That left her with nothing more than a hunch to go on, and so she followed it, heading in the direction of the Monochromon pens. Few Monochromon were likely to be outside in this weather, as they were best suited to much warmer climates, and took shelter in the massive barns built to house them in the cold months. Still, the fences remained, and as Hikari grew closer, she could see that a few Monochromon were lumbering around the yards, searching perhaps for a bit of food buried underneath the snows.
Takeru was there too, leaning over the side of the fence and so lost, either in thought or in simply observing the activity of the Monochromon, that he didn't notice her approach. Hikari watched from a distance and concluded that Takeru was most likely lost in thought, as the large digimon weren't doing much that was worthy of observation.
"Takeru?"
He turned away from the fence, startled by the sound of her voice in the previously still and quiet environment. "I thought it was too cold for you," he said, a teasing sort of grin on his face. Whatever he had been thinking about, Hikari thought, was gone from his eyes now.
She frowned."Cold enough," she answered. "Takeru ? what are you doing out here?"
The playfulness left his eyes, and he turned back to the fence, gloomy once more. "I needed to think, that's all," he said with more casualness than she thought he felt.
"You've been thinking a lot since we returned," Hikari ventured, stepping beside him and leaning against the sturdy wooden fence. "Is something wrong?"
Takeru shook his head, but didn't speak, didn't turn his gaze. There was a long silence that Hikari kept so that he would have a chance to speak. He didn't.
"If you ever want to talk about it...."
"It's nothing," he answered dismissively. "Nothing important." He turned, flashed a brief grin.
"Somehow, I doubt that. Takeru, you've never been one to be so alone. What makes you wander off in the cold now? Don't tell me the Monochromon, because I won't believe that."
There was a silence. Takeru's expression changed from the grin to a more guarded almost-frown. "I'm changing, Hikari," he said then. "We all are, I think. I'm not the same person I used to be."
"None of us are," she agreed. "We're all becoming different because of what has happened to us. Takeru, we can help each other with this. You don't need to go off alone."
He sighed, then opened his mouth to respond. Before he could, however, the sky suddenly became darker than before. The light filtering through the clouds grew even dimmer. A gust of cold wind blew past them. The Monochromon that were outside made grunts and groans of distress and hurried quickly back to the safety of the barns. The trees bent in the strong wind.
"I think a storm is coming," Takeru said. "We ought to head back."
Another strong gust punctuated this statement, and then another, so that it seemed as though the increase in speed was not merely a temporary gust. Within the barns, the Monochromon made panicky noises as the barn creaked in the wind.
"I'm glad we're not out in the woods for this," Hikari called, shouting to be heard over the wind. She ducked her head and pulled her scarf tightly around her neck.
"No, nor in a tent!" Takeru agreed, turning and following her back in the direction of the palace. He held Patamon safely within his arms now, lest his partner be blown away. "We'd be blown away and then left to freeze!"
"We still might be!" Patamon shouted, burying himself deep within Takeru's coat and scarf.
###
Sora and Mimi were at the door, holding it open, awaiting their return. During the walk back, the snow had begun to fall, and by the time Takeru and Hikari dashed inside, it was swirling around in great gusts. All four of them shoved hard against the heavy wooden door to close it against the wind, and then slid the bolt into place.
Takeru shook the snow from his hat and scarf before hanging them both to dry on a hook near the door. He unbuttoned his coat, allowing Patamon to escape, and he did so, shaking the snow from his ears.
"It looks as though you made it back just in time," Mimi said, relief in her voice. She helped Hikari to remove her half-frozen cloak and hood. "Come inside and warm up before you turn to icicles in this cold hallway."
"It came out of nowhere," Takeru said, removing his boots and leaving them to dry in great puddles near the door. "Just, suddenly, the wind picked up and then...."
"It looks as though it may be the beginning of a blizzard," Sora observed. "You were lucky. Much longer and the snow would have blinded you and then you'd have been stranded, maybe not more than two steps from your own door and frozen solid."
###
The blizzard called a halt to whatever subdued activities had been planned for that afternoon. Travelers throughout the kingdom were forced to take shelter as best they could, and many passers-by were forced to wait out the storm in the shelter of the palace. As the storm grew stronger, villagers whose homes were not yet warm enough to withstand the storm were brought to the palace for shelter. More still were lost in the snows.
The afternoon meal was a hurried and chaotic affair. Great cauldrons of hot soup were cooked, tea brewed, stew ladled out into bowls for half-frozen travelers. Everyone who wasn't half-frozen was called out to help serve or cook, and those that were shivered and ate, trying to warm themselves.
Daisuke had been pulled from his reading ? a welcome reprieve, he thought ? and was left the task of gathering blankets from each bed in the palace. With Koushiro's help, the two amassed warm blankets from every bedroom.
The massive hall that served as the throne room was the best place suited for the task of serving and warming those that needed help. Despite Jyou's earlier threat, the doctor issued not a single scream at the sight of the half-frozen patients that awaited him.
By late afternoon, the blizzard still raged, but the flow of travelers did not.
###
Hikari busied herself in the warmest rooms of the palace ? the kitchens. With no medical training but a bit in the way of cooking, she offered her assistance to the cooks there and spent her afternoon stirring soup, cutting vegetables, and helping in any way possible.
Once the food was finished, she helped to carry it out to be eaten and then sat to enjoy her own helping. As she spooned the hearty soup, she glanced around the table at the visitors ? nearly two hundred travelers, stranded due to the storm, and each grateful to be inside, warm and fed.
Somewhere in the middle of her second bowl of soup, she stopped eating and looked around the table again. She felt eyes upon her and saw that Takeru was looking at her with a concerned glance from across the table.
"Is something wrong?" he asked. "You've stopped eating."
"No," she said, pushing her bowl aside. "I'm just...full, now." She smiled, an expression that felt wrong and looked wrong, even to Takeru, and then stood up from the table.
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There were many rooms in the palace, but not enough to house all the travelers stranded by the storm. Some were given rooms, but the rest had to be content to bed down in the great hall, satisfied that they were not outside in the cold and hungry. The sun set, plunging the outside world into darkness. Anyone who had not made it to shelter before this was likely to freeze in the night.
Daisuke had returned to his studies, a candle beside him as he sat in bed, a sweater wrapped around his shoulders for warmth and the blanket pulled over his legs. He'd made little progress, but it was a job that had to be done, and so he worked at it.
Two or three hours after the ending of the evening meal, there was a soft tap on his door, so soft that he could barely hear it. He looked up from his book, but it didn't sound again, and so he returned, only to be alerted by a second, louder knock.
Reluctantly, he pulled himself from the warm cocoon he'd made for himself, and hurried across the room. Hikari stood in the dark, cold hall, shivering slightly, a blanket over her shoulders.
"I don't mean to disturb your studies," she said, "but, might I come in?"
Wordlessly, Daisuke stepped aside from the door, allowing her entrance. He slipped into the parlor adjoined to his room and returned with two of the comfortable chairs. He set them by the fire, and then they both sat. A long moment of silence passed before he finally asked: "What?s wrong?"
Hikari had been staring, blankly, into the flames. Her shivering had ceased now, but she looked pale in the firelight. She said nothing for a few moments.
"Hikari?" Daisuke asked, certain now that something was wrong. "Are you ill? Are you hurt?"
She took a deep breath, shook her head, and finally pulled her gaze from the fire. "No," she said, "I'm all right. It's Miyako I'm concerned about."
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And the story continues. Questions, comments, complains? Review, or send me an e-mail. Thanks for reading!