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Chapter 2

The Winds of Fate

--o--o--o--

Coyomon stood on the edge of the mesa, watching the line of tamers and digimon straggle along below him in the direction the Jagamon had indicated they'd seen Makuramon. It was a slim lead. There was no telling how long ago they'd seen him-- Jagamon were just about as stupid as they were numerous.

He had broken away from the group again to 'scout' despite Rika's half-hearted protest that they should all stay together. The truth was he needed some time away from the incessant chatter of the Noise Boys (his name for Kazu and Kenta) to think. He was troubled and the red desert felt peaceful and familiar to him somehow. It was easier to think alone, up high with the wind in his fur.

He was worried about Takato.

That morning, shortly after the team had left Meramon's cairn, Coyomon had overheard Guilmon and Takato talking. It was obvious that the boy was still disturbed by the sudden and apparently meaningless death of Meramon. He'd asked for assurances from his little red partner that nothing bad would happen to him. Even that hadn't been enough-- Takato made Guilmon promise him that nothing bad would happen.

Coyomon shuddered, remembering the promise he'd made to his first tamer-- that they'd always be together. Events had made a liar out of him in the most brutal way possible. Coyomon savagely kicked loose rocks off the cliff and watched them clatter and bounce to the sand below. Takato and Guilmon were his friends and he would do everything he could to make sure no harm came to them-- but he knew how useless such intentions were if fate decided otherwise-- and the Digital Dimension was a savage and merciless place. He'd thought about trying to get Takato alone for a private talk but decided against it. The boy would either stand up or fold up when the inevitable crisis came-- no amount of jabber was going to prepare him for it.

A data stream was scoring its way across the desert floor, visible bytes of data surging upward through its ruby colored column. Coyomon stood and admired it for a while. The data streams were really quite beautiful and this was the closest one had approached.

In fact, it was getting really close.

Coyomon gave a startled yip and leaped down the face of the mesa, racing for the other team members who were only just realizing their danger. The data stream roared past him, throwing out a stinging cloud of sand and small shards of rock. Running figures emerged from the dust storm around the column-- Leomon and Jeri, Renamon and Rika, Terriermon and Henry, Guilmon and Takato-- and that was all. Coyomon couldn't see Kazu or Kenta.

Suddenly, Renamon scooped up Rika and raced back into the path of the data stream. Coyomon put on a desperate burst of speed, catching up with the stream and passing it just in time to see Renamon, his tamer, and the two foolish boys engulfed in the column and ripped away from the desert's surface. Coyomon hesitated, then screamed out a curse and leapt into the roaring stream.

The red column rushed on, leaving a stunned, group behind it.

"Coyomon told me never to use words like that," Guilmon said quietly.

"I think the situation warranted it," Terriermon replied.

"Where did they go?" Jeri asked plaintively.

"There's no way of telling," Leomon told his tamer, "They could be anywhere in the Digital Dimension. It would be useless to search for them. We must continue on our quest and hope that they will find their way back to us."

They all discussed the matter for a while longer but nobody could come up with a better plan.

--o--o--o--

Kazu groaned as Coyomon grabbed his arm and hauled him out of the shallow crater he'd made in the desert floor when he'd landed. "You're fine," the smirking coyote digimon told him. "Isn't it fun being digital? Back home a drop from just a few stories up woulda killed you. And we must have fallen--" he looked up at the towering cliff and the tiny globe of the Earth that hung above it, "--jeeze, must be a kilometer at least!"

"Look how far away it is!" Kenta said. "We're never gonna be able to climb back up there!"

"Oh, I don't know," Coyomon said turning to Renamon and miming carrying something under his arm. "You up for a game of Don't-Drop-the-Baby?" Renamon made a small noise that might have been a cough or might have been a stifled laugh.

Kazu frowned in confusion. "Who're you calling a baby?"

"As long as we're down here we might as well have a look around," Rika said, brushing sand off her shoulder. "Renamon," she pointed to the left, out of the narrow cleft of rock. "Coyomon," she pointed to the right. The two digimon leapt away. "Kazu. Kenta--" Rika sighed, "--try to keep up." She turned and began walking down the sandy slope into the valley.

A half hour later they were back together again, Renamon speaking loudly to be heard over the rising wind. "There is a small village nearby," she said, pointing downwind.

Rika nodded. "Coyomon?"

"Nothing over my way," he told her, "just more desert and dead trees."

"Then we should--" Rika began and then had to jump aside as an old tire rolled by, propelled by the strengthening wind.

Coyomon watched it with a surprised look on his face. "They've got cars here?"

The next gust was even stronger and they all had to brace themselves to avoid being blown over. A microwave oven bounced end-over-end across the sand and caromed off a boulder, nearly hitting Kenta.

The group ran for cover behind the largest piece of nearby sandstone and all watched in amazement as more household goods and random trash flew by in the howling wind.

"Where the hell is all this furniture coming from?" yelled Coyomon. Nobody had time to answer him before a grand piano slammed into the far side of their sheltering rock and exploded with an ungodly noise. The impact broke off a huge chunk of the rock, which toppled over and would have landed on them if Renamon hadn't lunged at it, shoving it aside.

"We've got to find a safer place than this rock!" Renamon yelled, barely audible over the roar of the wind. "Let's head to the village!" She held Rika in front of her, stepped into the blast of air, and was instantly propelled down wind. Coyomon grabbed up the boys by their collars and followed.

They just barely managed to reach one of the squat, mushroom-shaped adobe houses in the village. They burst through the swinging circular door, groaning and coughing up sand. Renamon put her shoulder to the door and swung it shut.

"Good thing that door wasn't locked, huh?" Coyomon said as he untangled the cord of an electric razor from his left leg.

"And who would be so rude as to barge into our home uninvited?" came a gravelly voice.

The team turned to see two ancient dwarfish figures standing in the archway to the next room. The apparently female one of the pair turned to the one who had just spoken and asked, "We didn't invite them, did we?" The male furrowed his brows and shrugged.

Rika thumbed on her digivice and read, "Jijimon and Babamon, both Megas and-- hey-- what do you know-- they're married!"

"That's right, happily married for forty years--" Jijimon said, "--and not so happily for ten after that."

"What?" Babmon screamed, "Why, you old coot! I ought to--" She swung her broom and Jijimon and he ducked, taking a swipe at her with his lion paw-tipped staff in return. And with that, the two bizarre characters began cursing and swinging away at each other in a rather ineffectual manner.

Rika frowned at them. "Why are they fighting?"

"And," added Coyomon, "if they're Megas-- why are they doing it so badly?"

Rika glanced at both her digimon. "You guys aren't going to be like that when you're old, are you?"

"Holy, Tesla," yipped Coyomon, "I sure hope not!"

"Well," Renamon said, "first of all, digimon don't age, and secondly," she continued, looking pointedly at Coyomon, "if you ever--" She was interrupted by the crash of some piece of furniture toppling over.

The group followed the squabbling digimon pair down a flight of stairs to a cavernous room below the main house.

"Why are you fighting?" Rika yelled at them.

The pair broke off their dueling and looked up at her. "Huh? Whazzat?"

"I said, 'why are you fighting?' Are you having a lover's spat or something?" Rika glanced back at her partners. Coyomon rolled his eyes.

"Oh," Jijimon shrugged, "it passes the time."

"Sure," Babamon added. "What else have we got to do when the wind's blowing? Hey-- we could fight you! That'd be different."

Rika's partners instantly leaped in front of her to confront the gnomish pair. Jijimon looked back and forth between the two tense, snarling digimon and said, "Or-- we could go make some food." And the two bizarre Megas turned and left their guests standing alone and bewildered.

"Okay, " Coyomon said to Renamon, "first there's a rain of furniture and now there's these two nutjobs-- did we fall into the Digital World's version of an insane asylum or something?"

"There are much stranger things here, I promise you." Renamon told him calmly.

"Really?" Coyomon asked. Renamon nodded and Coyomon's face broke out in a wide grin. "Cool!"

--o--o--o--

The feast was amazing.

Jijimon and Babamon spread dozens of delicious plates of food across the heavy wooden table and everyone ate their fill with enjoyment. Throughout the meal the two little Megas continued to verbally snipe at each other in a genial way, much to the amusement of the rest.

After the meal Kazu and Kenta took up Jijimon's offer of a hot bath. The rest of the group fled to a distant room to avoid the off-key caterwauling that the two boys considered necessary to accompany their splashing and horseplay.

"Just when I thought the Noise Boys couldn't get any more irritating--" Coyomon growled, his ears pinned back protectively against his head.

"I thought my eardrums were going to bleed," Renamon snapped, her polite demeanor forgotten under the assault of the appalling racket.

"'Noise Boys'?" Rika chuckled, "that's perfect!"

Babamon invited them all to spend the night and Rika accepted for the group with thanks.

After a few minutes of quiet and companionable conversation, Renamon tapped Coyomon on the leg with the tip of her tail and gave him a significant look, twitching her muzzle toward Rika where she stood by the fireplace with a cup of tea. Coyomon gave her a barely perceptible nod and turned to Rika.

"Hey Rika," I've been thinking," he began.

"Uh-oh," Rika said.

"No, really," Coyomon continued, "I think that as long as we're separated from the rest of the team we might as well search for Calumon on our own. After all--" and he continued to lay out an unnecessarily convoluted plan for his tamer.

With Rika occupied, Renamon slowly approached Babamon's chair and knelt beside it. "Babamon, may I ask you something?" she spoke quietly.

"Of course! What is it?" the little Mega said, not looking up from her knitting.

"Have you and Jijimon ever-- um-- had a child? An egg, I mean."

"Heavens, no!" Babamon cackled. "This village is very peaceful. We hardly ever need any replacements. No eggs have shown up here for years!"

"Oh." Renamon said, taken a bit aback. "Shown up?"

"Yeah, you know-- dropped from the sky to replace a dead digimon."

Renamon blinked. "But don't you-- can't you make them-- together with your mate?"

Babamon stopped knitting and leaned over to peer at the confused fox. "You've got some strange ideas there, missy. How could we do that?"

"I--" Renamon's composure nearly left her, "I heard that it could happen that way, sometimes."

Babamon went back to her knitting. "I never heard such a thing!"

Renamon was happy to return to Rika's side.

"--and just where do you think we are going to get a giant catapult?" her tamer was asking Coyomon.

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