A Grain of Sand ' 'Adventure 03' ' Chapter 5: Stuffed Animals, a digimon fanfic

Chapter 5: Stuffed Animals

Kari finally came by to pick me up almost an hour later than she'd promised. She explained about the dam and about running in to Will in the computer lab, so I understood just fine.

"That Will kid keeps popping up in weird places," I said. "Do you think he knows something?"

"I don't think so Gatomon," Kari assured me. "He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's all."

"If you say so. Do you think I should stay at the house, just in case?" I asked.

"He'll see you again later anyways. I don't see why it matters," Kari said. I don't know why, but she always seems to take the lighter side of things. Maybe it has to do with her crest or something, but she never seems to think that anything can really be bad. She would feel sorry for Myotismon if he got a paper cut.

""Gatomon, are you hungry? We should probably stop and get something to eat before we go to the field." Kari said.

"Yeah, that'd be great," I said with a smile. It was harder to talk while walking on four legs, but I had to so that people wouldn't notice me as much. I had actually eaten some fish that I found in the refrigerator a few minutes before Kari showed up, but I was still pretty hungry.

By the time we arrived at the field, everyone else was already there, at least everyone who was going to show up. Ken and Davis were both down on the field warming up. Yolei, TK, and Will were sitting in the bleachers near the back. Will had a whole bunch of stuffed animals wrapped around him.

"Hey Kari, how've you been?" TK called out.

"Great," Kari yelled back. "I just stopped to get something to eat, that's why I'm a little late." She sat down next to Yolei on the right end of the bleachers. TK was sitting on Yolei's left, and Will sat just beyond him.

"Will was just showing us some stuffed snakes that he brought," TK chuckled and winked at Kari. Will had two long, rather colorful toy snakes around his neck, and in his lap he held a shorter but fatter white one. The only problem was that it wasn't a toy snake. I almost jumped up when I realized that it was a Dremon, an in training digimon.

Will was giving me a funny look, probably because I was staring at the 'toy'. "Kari, I think something's wrong with your cat," he said.

"Huh? Gatomon what are you doing?" She laughed as she picked me up. I jumped out of her hands and bolted up to the top row of bleachers, hoping that she'd follow me.

"She's acting kinda funny," TK observed.

"I'll be right back," Kari said as she walked up toward me. When we were safely out of earshot, and I was turned around so that Will wouldn't see my mouth moving, Kari asked, "What's wrong Gatomon, why'd you run up here?"

"I needed to tell you this. The little white thing isn't a toy, it's a digimon called Dremon.

Kari laughed a little. "Gatomon that's silly. If Will knew about digimon he would've been able to figure out everything already."

"Kari, I know what a Dremon looks like! I'm completely serious here," I argued.

"Gatomon that just doesn't make any sense. Will has no idea what digimon are, except maybe from the news reports from a few years ago. But if he really had a digimon, he would understand that we have them too, and he clearly doesn't. It probably just looks a lot like a Dremon, but there's no way it could be."

"But Kari I . . ." I tried to think of some way I could prove it to her, but the fact that Will hadn't come forward and said that he knew about digimon was puzzling. "I'm sure that that's a digimon. I'd know as well as anyone!"

"You're probably just tired Gatomon. Maybe you didn't sleep well last night," Kari suggested.

"Kari, I know that that thing is a digimon," I continued to protest.

"Okay, we'll talk about it with Davis and the others later. For now can you not make a big deal about it?" Kari asked. She still didn't believe me.

"Fine," I said, shaking my head. We wandered back over to the group. The game was about to start.

I don't really care very much about human sports. Kari seems to enjoy watching her friends play them, so I usually humor her. But today I couldn't take my eyes off of the Dremon. I just stared at it, looking for any signs of life, but I was surprised. It remained perfectly still, not even blinking, unless Will picked it up. It even let its head limply lay sideways when Will set it down on the bleacher. It was so lifeless that I almost was convinced that it was fake. Almost.

"And now, half time," Will announced as the teams reached the mid-game break. "How long does this usually last?"

"Not long," TK said. "Don't bother running home for something, you won't be back in time."

"Why do you carry around that guitar?" Yolei asked Will.

"So that I can hit people over the head with it," Will replied with a sarcastic smile. "I learned how to play a year ago, and also how to sing."

"Wow," TK said. "My brother has a band. How good are you?"

"I'm okay. I've still got some stuff to learn, but I've memorized quite a few songs," Will said.

"Could you play one for us?" Kari asked.

"I'd normally love to, but I don't know how to sing them in Japanese. The rhymes and meter would be all messed up and it wouldn't sound good," Will explained.

"That's okay, play one anyways," Kari said. "I don't care if we can't understand it."

"Alright, if you insist," Will said as he pulled his guitar out of its case. He adjusted the strings a little, then cleared his throat and began.

Deep inside of a parallel universe
It's getting harder and harder To tell what came first

Under water where thoughts can breathe Easily
Far away you were made in a sea Just like me

Christ I'm a sidewinder I'm a California King
I swear it's everywhere It's everything

Staring straight up into the sky
Oh my my, a solar system that fits In your eye, Microcosm

You could die but your never dead spider web
Take a look at the stars in Your head, fields of space kid

Christ I'm a sidewinder I'm a California King
I swear it's everywhere It's everything

Psychic changes are born in your heart, Entertain
A nervous breakthrough that makes us the same
Bless your heart girl

Kill the pressure it's raining on Salty Cheeks
When you hear the beloved song, I am with you

Christ I'm a sidewinder I'm a California King
I swear it's everywhere It's everything

"Wow Will, that was really good," Kari said.

"I just wish I could understand the words," TK commented.

"I guess I could translate them for you right now if you wanted," Will said. "But I'm not sure a translation would do the song justice."

"What do you mean?" Yolei asked.

"Well, it's kinda like reading a translation of the Odyssey. You'll get the story and the main points, but the poetry is lost because of the change in language. A translation of a poem or song never really does justice to the song. But I'm even more afraid of translating this. The Red Hot Chili Peppers use a lot of symbolism, and if I translated it literally I'm not sure it would make any sense at all," Will explained.

"Well, I suppose we could get by if you'd explain it to us," TK said.

"Or we could just learn English," Kari suggested.

"I'm not sure that's a good route. It's supposed to be the hardest language to learn, not to mention that you'd be at an even greater disadvantage because you've never used that alphabet," Will said.

"Then how did you learn Japanese?" Yolei asked.

"Since my dad started me at such an early age, it made no difference to me because neither language was really ingrained in my head yet," Will replied.

"I think I'd like to try anyways," Kari said. I gave her a funny look. I've learned differently since then, but at the time I didn't see any value in using another language. In the digital world digimon don't really use language, they think ideas and translation programs make their human partners hear in their language. I didn't know that until Izzy did some of his most advanced research on it.

"I'm not really a teacher, but I guess I could help if you signed up for a class or something," Will offered.

"That would be great," Kari replied. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey you guys, the game's starting again," TK said. We all turned our attention toward the field. I looked toward the Dremon. Will picked it up and turned its head so that it faced the field. This was proof enough for me, but I kept watching anyways. It was remarkably good at staying motionless.

Then I noticed that Will was staring at me. He had a strange smile on his face, and was unconsciously nodding his head slightly. I had a sudden feeling that he had figured me out also. Most humans can't maintain the focus that I was on the stuffed animal, much less a common house cat. I looked toward him, and he matched my gaze.

"Gatomon, huh?" he said in a whisper. I looked at the humans. None of them had heard, they were too preoccupied with cheering for Davis and Ken (despite their being on opposite teams). Only my keen ears had heard him. I returned my gaze to his face. He now wore a strange smirk. He knew. I know he did.

"Great game, huh Kari?" Davis said as we walked home. The obvious answer was no. Ken's team had won by a large margin.

"Yeah, I thought you almost had them beat at one point," Kari laughed.

"That playbook that Ken made is really advanced," TK said. "It would be hard for any team to beat it. Why don't you give it to a professional team Ken?"

"I don't think they'd have that much use for it. The game changes as it gets to higher levels. Tricks that work in this league might not work at for the pros," Ken replied.

"You never know. People have thought poorly of a lot of things that ended up working in the past," Will commented.

They continued chattering about games and ideas and plans that had or hadn't worked all the way home. I had to remain silent, of course, because Will was there and after discussing what I had seen with Davis, TK, Ken, and Yolei, Kari still believed that Will had no idea what was going on. I had a plan for proving my case though. Will would most likely have his digivice in his back pack. After all of the humans were engrossed in studying, I could snoop around in it and once I found it, there was no denying that Dremon was his digimon and not his stuffed animal. But great plans never seem to work for me.

"Hey, I've got mail," Kari said, pulling out her D-terminal.

"What's that thing?" Will asked. I could understand him not knowing about D-terminals. He probably didn't have a D3.

"It's kinda like a mini-computer slash phone," TK said. "Kari gets email all the time."

Kari's expression changed quickly as she read the email. "Uh, guys, I think we're going to have to cancel the study session for tonight," she said, sounding worried.

"What's wrong Kari?" Ken asked. She gave him a look that meant more than words could have said, even if she could have said them. "Oh, in that case I'd better get home," Ken said.

"Yeah, me too," TK said.

"Well, then I'll see if I can find, er," Yolei caught herself just before she said something, "no wait. I've gotta go home too." Davis followed suit, and everyone split.

Will looked around, apparently rather confused. He kept walking with Kari and me.

"What exactly just happened?" Will asked.

"Nothing Will. There's a family problem that I have to take care of," Kari replied, quickening her pace.

"Oh, well I hope nobody's hurt," Will said, but there wasn't concern in his voice, instead there seemed to be comprehension.

"No, nothing like that. I've just got to get home right away," Kari said. "Sorry, but we'll have to get everyone together next week."

"Alright. See ya around," Will said as he turned around.

"Bye!" Kari called after him quickly before breaking into a sprint toward home.

"Kari what's going on?" I asked as soon as we couldn't see Will any more.

"The email was from Matt. Gobumon and the others are in trouble," Kari said.

"Well let's hurry then!" I said. I forgot about Will for now. That problem could wait.