Chapter 3: The price
A weak scent of vanilla awakened the asleep redhead. He opened his eyes and realized he was lying in a comfortable bed with white sheets. The room where Koushiro had been brought to was dark, but he could distinguish some bookshelves and a closed door. He walked to the door and opened it carefully, entering a long corridor with a weak blue light at its extremity. As he walked, he realized that the light was some sort of sphere floating in the air, a sphere of the size of a beach ball. When Koushiro got close enough to it, he saw that there was something inside the sphere, better said, someone.
"Tentomon?" He asked frightened. His bug friend seemed to sleep inside that thing. Koushiro was about to grab it, but a door at his left side was opened and someone pulled him to an illuminated room.
The place was huge and circular, like a saloon. There were books everywhere, forming real towers. Tables and bookshelves next to the walls had many bottles, statues and exotic objects that Koushiro was sure he had never seen in his life.
The individual who had grabbed his arm had, now, let go of it. The boy looked at the other and noticed that he had the size of a grown man. Entirely dressed in large gray clothes that covered his body, including gloves and boots, the individual had a heavy and long coat with hood and a scarf. His face was hidden behind a white mask without any hole for the eyes or to breathe.
"I apologize for doing that, Koushiro," he said calmly while sitting on a chair and pointing a sofa for the boy, who sat on it reluctantly, "but if you had touched the sphere, your friend would have died."
"What?" Koushiro felt as if he had been petrified.
"Don't worry, he's out of danger right now. I've stopped his time flown."
"His time flown? What do you mean?" The boy asked, frowning. The other stood up and walked to a bookshelf, from where he took a whine bottle and a glass. Then, he returned to his seat and put the objects in front of the boy.
"If I explained to you how I'm able to stop time, Koushiro, you probably wouldn't be able to afford the price. It's a very expensive information." He said in the same calm tone from before.
"You... sell information?"
"Yes, and other things too. You can call me Merchant."
"Merchant? What's your real name? Who are you?" Koushiro asked quickly.
"Neither your freedom or your life are enough to pay for this information. You should be careful about what you ask, Koushiro."
"How do you know my name?" Koushiro was anxious, something about that Merchant bothered him. The Merchant merely opened the bottle and filled the glass with whine, handing it to the boy after that.
"Let's do this, if you drink the liquid of this bottle, I'll tell you everything I can." The other spoke nicely, but Koushiro was finding that suspicious.
"I can't drink this, I'm a child."
"I know. You're the kind of person who never break rules, so this very idea must make you shiver. You really don't want to do that."
"If you know that I don't want to drink, why are you offering this to me?" Koushiro was getting annoyed.
"Because you don't want to drink it. It would be like a sacrifice to you, like a price. So if you drink it, I can consider the price for these previous informations paid. I'm been nice to you, it's just a small sacrifice, don't you think so?"
Koushiro couldn't trust the other and the Merchant noticed that.
"If I wanted you dead, I would have let you in the desert instead of taking you into my carriage and giving you whine, don't you think so?"
Carriage? This huge place is a carriage? How come?
"What do you gain if I drink this?"
"It's not about what I gain, but what sacrifice you make. Your friend is frozen in time and he's going to stay like that if you don't pay the price for his life and I can't tell you anything if you don't sacrifice anything."
Koushiro studied the glass for a while; it could be a trap, but it was the only way to help Tentomon. He drank it. He felt as if the liquid burned his insides and let the glass fall and break, gasping. The Merchant took the bottle and put it on the table.
"What... was that... thing?" Koushiro questioned with difficulty.
"My special whine. Just a thing that will not let you pass any information I give you without my permission."
He fooled me. Koushiro thought, angry, trying to deal with the pain in his throat.
"Now we can talk," the Merchant said cheerfully, "Tentomon's state was so bad that there was no medicine that could help him. The only way to save his life is by erasing what he suffered. I can do that turning back the time in his body until before he was hurt. His memories won't be affected."
"And for you to do that... what's the price?" Koushiro asked, still in pain.
"You'll only have to do a job for me, a tiny thing." The Merchant said maliciously.
Some time later, Tentomon woke up. He realized that he was being carried by Koushiro, on the boy's back. In front of them, there was an immense gray mountain
"Koushiro-han? What happened? I feel good, did you get the antidote?"
"Y-yeah, nothing to worry about, I found a mer-"
Koushiro gasped and coughed, he felt as if there was fire in his throat. Tentomon was worried.
"What happened? Are you alright?"
"Yes, I-I'm good. I met someone who had the medicine by coincidence. He even brought us here. We were lucky." Koushiro said, forcing a smile. Tentomon could feel that something was terribly wrong. At a small house at the bottom of the mountain, a tiny Digimon saw the two of them coming.
"Why is there always someone without luck to come to this place?" He wondered, "It doesn't matter. I have to keep my promise to my master."