Monday, 12:15am
With nothing else to do on the long hike back to the mountains, Hikari had found herself talking to the fairies. It was more than a little strange, to begin with - not least of all because the definition seemed to encompass a far wider range of creatures than she had thought. Lilimon was a fairy-type digimon, after all. She'd always assumed that fairies fitted into that general sort of appearance. And then it had turned out that almost half her guard called themselves fairies, despite the fact that they all looked rather different to each other, and a large portion of them seemed to have no wings at all.
"It's more of a catch-all term, really," Alwyn had explained. "In ancient times, things were more distinct, but the people of the Forest have lived amongst each other for so long that we have begun to merge into one people. Only the Fae keep to themselves, and the humans are…different."
Hikari wasn't entirely sure that his answer really made sense, but she thought it was probably a little rude to say so. Besides, Alwyn was going to have to explain everything to Koushiro, so it didn't seem fair to make him go on about it twice. Instead, they talked about digimon, and some of the adventures the Chosen Children had had in the digital world.
Alwyn seemed to take it all in his stride - although the concept of computers and the nature of the digital world intrigued him as much as it did the rest of their travelling companions. Hikari tried and failed to explain what the internet was. He just couldn't get his head around the idea of it. Given the level of technology this world seemed to have, Hikari supposed that it wasn't so surprising, really. They had electricity in the Forest City, but seemed to only use it for lighting, and even then, half of the corridors were equipped with flaming torches. She hadn't seen anything even remotely approaching a computer.
She was tired by the time they reached the forest's edge, although not sleepy. Apparently she'd slept long enough after being knocked out that she was starting to adjust to the time in this world. It had to be the middle of the night back on Earth by now.
"Here we must turn to your guidance," Alwyn said, as they emerged from the thicker growth at the forest's edge, and found themselves facing a steep cliff littered with caves. "It would be best if you can remember which cave you ventured into before, but I believe they are all connected, so we shall be able to continue if you can't."
Hikari swallowed nervously. Announcing that she was perfectly okay with going back to the caves of - quite literally - her nightmares had been fine from the safety of the Forest City. Faced with the prospect of having to walk into them now, she wasn't so sure. Every fibre of her being itched to turn and run. She didn't want to do this. Didn't want to face the beast which lurked somewhere inside them.
"I…I think it's this way," she said, forcing her fears to the back of her mind. She had to do it, after all. The others needed her, and the information she had. And she would be useless without her D3 and D-Terminal anyway. There really wasn't any other option.
The whole group seemed to pick up on the need for quiet as they walked along the rocky scree at the base of the cliffs. The only sounds were those of their footsteps, and the faint clanking of the weapons slung on the backs of their guards. She wished that Tailmon was with her. It just didn't feel right to be in a place like this and not have her partner around. Despite the company, the abrupt change in geography from dense forest to mountain slopes felt a lot like the digital world. She expected digimon to leap out at them any moment. That they actually might only made her nerves worse. It was a small comfort to think that she might not even make it into the cave before appearing back on Earth. If she disappeared now, would Alwyn manage to grab her in time to go as well? What would they think if she just disappeared without him?
"There," she said at last, recognising an opening. "It's this one, I'm sure of it."
The group halted before the cave entrance, standing in a loose semi-circle around it with Hikari and Alwyn in the centre.
"Well," Alwyn said, looking to one of the guards. "I believe that this is where we part company. If all goes well, we shall return this night."
The captain of the guard nodded. "We shall make camp under the forest eaves," she said. "Aldith will keep us concealed. I will caution you though - should you not return by the second hour past midnight, we must make our return to the City. We take chance enough as it is."
Alwyn nodded. "Fair tidings," he said, before turning to Hikari. "Are you ready?"
She shook her head. "Not really. But I suppose that doesn't matter. I have to go anyway, don't I."
"If there were any other way for you to return, we would use it," Alwyn said. "But we can think of none, and your D-Terminal will be invaluable in locating the other Chosen Children."
Hikari bit her lip. Even knowing that she had no choice, she didn't want to go in that cave. None of her travelling companions had spoken of what waited inside it, but she'd caught some of them exchanging nervous glances. It wasn't encouraging.
"Alwyn," she said hesitantly. "Do…do you know what it is? The thing that's in there?"
He sighed. "I do. But you know I cannot speak of it."
She nodded. "I know. But if… when I get back home, will you tell me then?"
"I think I can agree to that."
She forced herself to smile. "Well. I suppose we'd better get on with it then. You'll have to stay close though. You need to be touching me to be taken along too."
One of the guards passed them an unlit torch. "You'll need this, most likely," he said. "For when you return."
They stowed the torch in the knapsack Alwyn carried, and walked to the cavern entrance. The others hung back, visibly nervous. Hikari's stomach knotted with fear. Suddenly this plan seemed so much more dangerous than it had before. What if she wasn't scared enough to go back? What if Alwyn was separated from her, and didn't go too? Would he be killed? Or worse - what if she somehow brought whatever monster it was in the cave back to Earth with her?
Normally, she would have tried to push the thoughts away. But she needed them now. It was strange, though. The more she accepted how frightened she was, the more her fear seemed to fade. She found herself taking one step forward, then another. This had to be done. She had to try.
"Hikari."
She stopped. Alwyn was holding out his hand.
"Perhaps it's best for us to go hand in hand. It will be dark inside and, ah, I confess, I have no wish to be left behind."
She was glad of the contact, as the darkness swallowed them both. The air in the cave was rancid, and the ground slippery underfoot. Each footstep echoed, and she could hear faint drips somewhere in the dark. The light of the world outside faded as they walked deeper, until it was just a glow behind them, not illuminating any of the inky darkness ahead. They went slowly, taking care not to lose their footing on the uneven floor.
They had walked a few hundred yards into the cavern when Hikari almost tripped on something which rattled and clattered as it was knocked out of her path.
She shrieked, then winced at the echoes she had set off. Stupid, she thought. It's just a stone, or something like that.
Neither of them moved. For a moment all she could hear was the uneven huff of their breathing. Her heart hammered loudly in her chest. She couldn't remember the last time she had been in such complete darkness.
Crrrrunch.
The sound came from up ahead. Hikari closed her eyes, although it didn't make that much difference. She was terrified. Why wasn't it working? Why hadn't she gone back home? She'd been scared the whole journey, why was she still here in the cave?
"It's in front of us," Alwyn said, his voice a faint murmur.
She couldn't move. Her eyes opened again, and she stared into the darkness. Her fear seemed to have evaporated, leaving her calm and emotionless. Idly, she wondered if this meant that she was going to die. If she couldn't feel scared any more, then she wouldn't get home. No one would know what had happened to her. She'd never see her brother again, or her parents, or Tailmon.
Her eyes stung, and overflowed with tears. This wasn't how it was meant to work at all. She needed to go home, needed to warn the others that they had to save another world. If she died here in the dark, could the world even be saved? What if they needed her? What if they needed the Crest of Light?
I'm the Child of Light, and here I am in a dark cave. Is that why I can't feel anything?
Light. It bloomed inside of her, brimming outward and illuminating the passage they stood in. She opened her eyes and saw the cave walls and floor around her, lit by the faint glow coming from the centre of her chest. Jagged rocks slick with moisture, and a floor littered with off-white objects which were…which were bones. She looked up, and blinked. The creature that stared back at her looked like an elephant, of all things. What was an elephant doing in a cave?
It raised its trunk to reveal a wide mouth full of sharp teeth. When it moved, she realised that its body looked all wrong - it was too long, and behind its front feet there didn't seem to be any more legs, just a smooth torso which continued off into the darkness. A feeling of intense wrongness welled up in her gut. Whatever this thing was, it had killed the creatures whose bones littered the cavern floor. The trunk lowered again and widened into a second mouth, with a snake's forked tongue and long, sharp fangs. It hissed, loudly and sharply.
Very suddenly, the fear came back, hitting her like a punch in the stomach. She opened her mouth to scream even as the trunk lashed forward to strike - and felt darkness smother her once more.
The world snapped back scant seconds later, sharp and bright and loud. The scream she had drawn breath for erupted as she exhaled, but hardly lasted any time before she toppled forward off of Taichi's bed and hit the floor, knocking the wind from her. Adrenaline surged in her veins, and for half a second all she could see in her mind's eye was that thing, lunging for her with a gaping mouth which was just impossible.
A familiar voice - no, voices - cried her name. As her eyes adjusted she realised the room was technically dark, but no darkness in Tokyo could be as complete as that in the cave. Moments later the door was flung wide open, letting in light which made her teary eyes water even more.
"Hikari!" Her mother's voice was a shriek now, relief and worry all jumbled together. Hard on her heels were more people, but before she could get a good look at them her mother had swept her up into her arms and was squeezing her so tightly she could hardly breathe. It was only then that someone turned the light on, and yelled with surprise.
"What the hell is that?"
Hikari stiffened, feeling the fear which had only just started to ebb come back. It was short-lived though, because Alwyn's voice replied:
"A fairy, naturally. Might I enquire when it was that you misplaced your manners?"
She couldn't help it. Perhaps it was the shock catching up with her, but all she could do was laugh, hysterically, and cling to her mother as the tears rolled down her cheeks.
Monday, 12:36am
Jou gaped. He had to admit, it wasn't anything like he had been expecting. Barren wastelands; spooky forests; mysterious and unnerving coastlines; pitch black fields? All those things, sure. A mountain pass overlooking a pretty stunning alpine valley? Not even on the list.
Surely there had to be some sort of mistake? This didn't look anything like the dangerous and terrifying world the others had mentioned. His glasses had light-sensitive lenses of course, which helped with the brightness. But hadn't Takeru mentioned being scared the whole time? If he hadn't known better, he would have said it was the digital world. Or even somewhere on Earth.
"Well this isn't so bad," said Gomamon from beside him. "You know, with all the stuff they were saying, they almost had me worried."
He flinched. "Gah! Jeez, Gomamon, you nearly made me jump out of my skin."
Gomamon grinned. "Well, it's good to know you're still the same old Jou inside at least. Even if you did have to get so big on the outside. Are you ever going to finish growing?"
Jou grinned. "I think I'm probably about done getting taller now Gomamon," he said. "And I'm sure we've had this conversation before."
"Well, you said you were done growing last time, too, and look, you went and got taller again. You need to visit more often, that's the problem."
He sighed. "We've talked about this one too. If I'm going to be a doctor, this next few years are going to be really busy for me."
"Well you know, when Mimi was gathering us all up she had a pretty good idea about all that. She said she'd take her books and go study in the Digital world. You know, you could always do the same thing sometimes. I mean, it's not like I miss you or anything, but maybe the fresh air would do you some good, you know?"
Now it was Jou's turn to smile. "Always have my best interests at heart, eh?"
"Well, I figured it didn't take much effort to pass the suggestion on. I'm a pretty decent digimon after all, so really it only seems fair to mention it."
"It's certainly a good idea, though. I don't know why I never thought of that before," Jou said. "But for now, I think it's probably more sensible to try and work out where we are, and how we're going to get back. It's all very well talking about going to the Digital world more, but we need to get out of this one first."
"I could try making you jump again if you like," Gomamon replied. "We'll be back in no time."
"Oh, very funny," said Jou, adjusting his glasses. "I can certainly see how you're going to be a big help here."
The mountains rose steeply to their left; a high and almost sheer rock face. Looking up, Jou could see that the mountain was capped with snow. On the other side, the slope was more gradual, and behind them, the land rose along what could only loosely be called a path. The ground underfoot was rough and uneven, and littered with rocks and stones. Obviously they were at the head of the pass, although where it led from and to was anybody's guess.
The most immediate problem was that there weren't any problems, in fact. Jou was well aware that he had a rather more nervous disposition than many of the other Chosen Children, but even he couldn't see anything to be particularly scared of. By the looks of things, they could walk for miles without seeing anyone or anything. Although honestly, the idea of walking seemed rather pointless. It really was quite nice to just stand there and take in the view. Peaceful, in fact.
With his studies taking up an ever increasing portion of his free time, it was something of a luxury to be able to stand there and let his worries ebb away. Something about the place invited stillness - even Gomamon had fallen silent after their initial burst of conversation. For a long while, both of them simply stood and admired the view.
The tranquillity ended when the ground began to shake. It was gentle at first, a slight tremor which caught their attention and woke them from the peaceful spell they'd fallen under. Jou blinked, and looked around him.
"What the…oh no. Gomamon, it's an earthquake!"
The shaking rapidly gained intensity, and within seconds they were struggling to remain upright. Atop the deep rumbling sound was the clatter of small stones, jumping across the earth.
"Jou, look out!" Gomamon cried, leaping towards Jou. He careened into him, sending them both flying.
Jou landed heavily on his back, and was about to yell at his partner to cut it out when he saw the reason for Gomamon's panic. Above them, the sheer, rocky slope was on the move. It was a landslide, and they were right in its path. Even as he watched, the upper part of it shattered into large chunks which tumbled down towards them. He clung to the small body of his partner, rolling over to shield him from a blow which neither of them could possibly survive. Moments later, everything went dark.
Monday, 12:44am
Ken almost dropped his laptop when Hikari's terrified scream ripped through the apartment. As one, everyone leapt to their feet, with Mrs Yagami first to Taichi's bedroom door. From the look on her face as she passed him, Ken was prepared to bet that she would have hit anyone who got in her way. In the chaos, he ended up being last to her door, so was unable to see what Daisuke meant when he cried out:
"What the hell is that?"
He didn't hear the reply properly, only Hikari's laughter in response - a horrid, desperate laugh which made his stomach clench. What had happened to her? That didn't sound anything like the Hikari he knew. He didn't think he'd ever heard her sound so terrified.
Miyako had backed out of the room, eyes wide. She looked as though she wanted to say something, although it was anyone's guess what it was. Curiosity prickled at him, but he knew better than to poke his nose in. After all, Hikari had been missing almost as long as Yamato - the last thing she or her parents really needed was everyone crowding around them at that moment. Looking away from the door, he spotted Mrs Takaishi sitting back down at the table. What must she be feeling?
"I…I'm sure Takeru and Yamato are okay," he said, wishing the words sounded as uplifting as they had in his head.
She met his eyes, and tried to smile. He felt horrible. What could anyone say, after all?
A commotion in Taichi's room mercifully broke the awkward silence, and he turned in time to see Miyako and Daisuke backing out of the doorway, their eyes wide. They were followed by Hikari and her parents, and… and a small person with large wings, who flew several inches above the floor. Ken wasn't really sure what he had been expecting, but that wasn't it.
He took a step back as the…whatever that was landed on the floor, looking around him with amazement before clearing his throat and bowing to everyone.
"Well met. I am Alwyn, of the Forest City, and I am pleased to meet more of the Chosen Children and their families."
"And you're a fairy," Daisuke said flatly. "As in…fairies. Actual fairies. Like, not messing us around or anything, that's what you are."
Hikari sighed. "Yes, he is. It's… a long story." She looked around the room. "Wait a minute. Where's Tailmon? And Koushiro, too. And what happened to Jou and Gomamon?"
Miyako cleared her throat. "Well, it turns out that it's not just the four of you getting pulled into that other world. It's all of the original Chosen Children."
To their collective surprise, Hikari just nodded.
"Yes, that's why I need to talk to Koushiro. It's really important. There's another prophecy, and the Digital world is involved somehow, and-"
"Yeaah, um, Koushiro's kinda in the other world right now?" Daisuke said, with all of his usual discretion.
Ken sighed. Honestly, there were times when he was sorely tempted to…well, not actually slap Daisuke, because honestly, he had all the self-awareness of a child when it came to this sort of thing and it would just be wrong, but certainly he wanted to take him to one side and point out the importance of tact. Although that said, the likelihood of Daisuke understanding tact even if it jumped up and hit him in the face was pretty slim.
Miyako had no such compunctions, and smacked him across the side of his head.
"Daisuke!" she cried. "Give her a minute, for heaven's sake."
"Hold on," Hikari said, raising her hands. She seemed remarkably calm, all things considered. "Can someone explain what's going on?"
"..And then you'll tell us where you were all this time?" Mrs Yagami said, her voice trembling slightly. "We were so worried about you."
Hikari looked at their visitor. Ken was still having a bit of a hard time believing that he was a fairy, no matter what the others had said. Fairies were creatures from make-believe, after all, and this person was far too real, right down to the dust and dirt on his clothes, and the deadly serious expression on his face. Even digimon seemed to make more sense than fairies, and they were made of computer data.
"There was a bit of a misunderstanding," Hikari said. "Alwyn's people thought I was…a spy, I suppose. So they questioned me, and when they realised I'm one of the Chosen Children they let me go. Except by then my D-Terminal had run out of batteries, so there was no way for me to tell you I was safe."
Ken frowned. "Wait a minute, does that mean that place is the digital world?"
She shook her head, then fixed him with a look which made him feel distinctly uncomfortable. "It's a different place. Very different. But somehow digimon are ending up there, and we're getting pulled over because there's a prophecy saying that the Chosen Children will make things right. I don't know what the whole prophecy says, because it's very old and they didn't have a copy in the Forest City, but it mentions our crests. All of them. Including yours Ken."
After having been the recipient of endless attention as a child prodigy, Ken had thought he was used to people staring at him. However, there was something uniquely unpleasant about feeling everyone's eyes turn on him at that moment, full of pity and concern. He wanted the ground to swallow him up.
"What, so they don't want the rest of us?"
For once, Ken felt nothing but relief as Daisuke captured everyone's attention again, even if his remark had caused Mrs Yagami to flinch. Miyako rolled her eyes and batted her hand at his arm this time, making him yelp, while Hikari just sighed. Mr Yagami had hung back slightly, and was watching the proceedings with a solemn expression on his face.
"We do not know the full details of the prophecy, as the texts are held in the library of the Grand Council, far from the Forest City," Alwyn said. "In truth, we know only that the Children who are Chosen will use the power of the Marks - Crests - to make things right, and the names of the nine Crests."
"Honestly, I'm just as happy to sit this one out," Miyako said. "I mean, no offence Mr Fairy, sir, but I've seen what happened when the others got back from your world, and I'm fine right here. I'll be communications person, really I will."
"Well how are you gonna do that when-" Daisuke began, then stopped abruptly when Ken reached out and hauled him backwards, setting him off-balance.
"Think about who's here before you talk, will you?" Ken muttered, feeling his cheeks heat up as everyone looked at him again. Hikari in particular seemed confused.
"Will someone explain what's been going on now?" she said. "I've missed something important, I can tell that much."
No one spoke, although Miyako looked as though she wanted to. The silence stretched out for several seconds before it was broken by Mrs Yagami turning to cry into her husband's shoulder. Mrs Takaishi stood, and walked over to the group.
"Maybe you'd better take her to get some rest," she said to Mr Yagami. "It's been a…a trying day, and I think it would be easier for the children to explain things without us around."
Ken hadn't ever really had the chance to get to know the others' parents all that well, although he knew Takeru and Koushiro's in passing thanks to their previous involvement with matters in the digital world. His respect for Mrs Takaishi went up considerably as she spoke. Despite how worried he knew her to be, she was remarkably calm and collected, and seemed to understand the situation perfectly.
Mr Yagami nodded. It took a few more minutes to convince Mrs Yagami that Hikari would still be there in the morning, but at last they retired to their bedroom, leaving silence in their wake. Mrs Takaishi mentioned checking on Mimi, and disappeared into Hikari's room.
"Now will you tell me what's going on?" Hikari snapped. She shuddered. "It wasn't exactly fun getting back here you know. And where's Tailmon?"
Ken blinked, shocked by her outburst. Miyako and Daisuke seemed no less surprised. Alwyn rested a hand on her shoulder as though to reassure her.
"The others are all missing, Hikari. We don't know where any of them are."
Ken jumped, and whirled on the spot. The speaker was Tentomon, who had been sat watching Jou for so long that he had forgotten the digimon was even there.
Hikari covered her mouth with her hands. "Taichi?"
Miyako cleared her throat. "He was with Takeru and Koushiro. They were all okay, but a few hours ago they stopped replying to our messages. Sora disappeared around the same time, along with Piyomon."
Hikari frowned. "Disappeared?"
"We think it was a fear gate," Ken said. "That's Koushiro's theory, anyway. Being scared enough in the other world sends you here, but after visiting there, it works both ways. Something must have scared her enough to send her across. That or…"
"Or Yamato came home briefly, and then pulled her back with him," Miyako said. "But Mr Ishida was out when it happened, so we really don't know."
"Pardon my interruption," Alwyn said, "But you mentioned that the Child of Knowledge stopped contacting you at the same time this Sora disappeared. How was he able to communicate his theory?"
Even Daisuke looked a little awkward after Alwyn spoke. Apparently none of them wanted to be the one to explain that mess. Ken had never quite been able to work out what the relationship between Hikari and Takeru was - it hovered somewhere just past normal friendship, but short of anything obviously more. Then again, the same could be said for several of the other Chosen Children, too. Either way, it was more bad news on top of an already bleak situation.
After a somewhat awkward silence, Miyako sighed. "It was Takeru. Koushiro was asking him about what had happened in the other world, and Takeru sort of got a bit panicky, and then… they both went whoosh and vanished. But then they met up with Taichi, and everything seemed to be okay. And Tailmon was with them, because she-"
"Wait, Tailmon's there? Now?"
Miyako winced. "She, uh, kinda went back with Taichi because they were looking for you. I mean, Takeru got a look at the world with Pegasusmon, and he thought he was on the other side of the forest you were in, so they set out across it to find you, and then…they vanished."
Alwyn perked up at that. "It's possible they were apprehended by Forest City scouts," he said. "If they were travelling with digimon they would have been brought in, in much the same way as Hikari was."
"You think so?" Hikari said. The tension seemed to drain out of her. "Oh, I hope you're right."
She turned to the rest of them. "They'll be safe if the scouts got them. The Elders will realise who they are, and then we should be able to contact them again, unless they run out of batteries. We never had that problem in the digital world."
"It certainly complicates matters," Ken said. "Particularly as most of the older Chosen use their phones to communicate with each other these days. We can get a stock of batteries for the D-Terminals, but the phones need to be charged here."
"Koushiro doesn't even have a phone with him," Tentomon said. "He normally uses his laptop, and that got left behind."
"Which is just as well, really," Daisuke said. "I mean, it'd be no good- Ow! What was that for Miyako? I was just gonna say, it'd be no good Koushiro having his laptop seeing as we need it here! Seriously, what gives?"
A.N.: Hurrah, an update during NaNo! It sorta helped that I wrote Jou's section aaaaaages ago (seriously, at one point I thought it was going to make it into chapter 21, and then the plot expanded somewhat), but nonetheless, here it is!
I'm not entirely happy with the third section - it's very dialogue-heavy, and I am still not so comfortable writing Ken's PoV. But I needed an external narrator for that part, and honestly, I don't think I could have done it so well with either Miyako or Daisuke. I do want to stress that at this point, they are all very tired, which I think goes some way towards dampening their otherwise natural freak-out over a fairy materialising in front of them. Plus, I mean, digimon. They're used to weird stuff. Hikari is also a lot calme than, say, Takeru was after coming back, because she fully expected to be scared out of her wits before going into the cave.
Incidentally, the creature in that cave? I did not make it up. I might have embellished the appearance a little, but that's all. Google "grootslang" and you will see what I mean. Humanity has thought up some seriously weird stuff over the years. (And that's also a bit of a clue actually, as to what the world is. Props to anyone who gets it!)