In this chapter John get's beaten up by an old man. For plot!
Chapter Six
Flee to the Forest
I genuinely couldn’t believe it. We were stronger now than we’d ever been, and we could clearly hurt Tyranterramon, or otherwise he wouldn’t bother guarding against our attacks, and yet he overpowered us at every turn. I was stunned and disheartened, and I wasn’t the only one. So as we travelled from the Desert, the site of our greatest defeat to date, I felt almost like I was going through the motions. Jeremy managed to use a sample of the energy of the Desert Core to refine our search program and locate the Forest Core in the forest region to the north from a pretty good distance, and I didn’t get excited. I was starting to wonder what we could even hope to do once we found the core, even as we journeyed toward it.
As we approached the Core site, we expected to see some kind of ancient structure, like the Desert Tower, so the real location of the Forest Core was anything but what we’d expected. Instead of a tower or another large structure, we only found a simple straw hut in the middle of a clearing. The only features of interest besides the hut were a clothes line with simple rags hanging from it, and a small field of wheat and corn, alongside two rows of meat. I’d forgotten that in the Digital World edible meat grows from the ground.
“Are we sure this is the place?” Sarah asked.
“No doubt about it,” I answered, reading from the Digicomp handheld, “the core is definitely here, under that hut from the look of it. I’m reading two signals inside, but they’re small, and as far as I can tell, not very strong.”
“Alright then,” said BlackColtmon, “let’s break down the door!”
“And do what?” Jen asked, mirroring my earlier thoughts, managing to put them into words. “We can’t move the core. All we can do is wait for Tyranterramon to show up and try to fight him off!”
“She’s right,” said Sarah. “If we couldn’t win before then we can’t win now. It’s starting to seem pretty hopeless.”
I wanted to protest, but I couldn’t fight the fact that what they were saying was the truth. Of course, we had no choice but to keep fighting, right? And I was leader, and my team needed the boost to morale, so I had to be optimistic. Still, I hesitated, and I was beaten to the punch.
“I’m not sure what you’re discussing young ones,” came an elderly voice from the direction of the hut, “but there’s always hope.”
We turned, and we found ourselves facing two stout figures. One looked like an old man with a long gray beard, whose gray hair had grown out to cover his eyes. He was wearing what looked like a potato sack, and he carried a walking stick topped by a stuffed paw. The other looked like a short, elderly witch in tribal garbs, carrying a broomstick. She wore a necklace of spherical pink jewels around her neck.
“Hello dearies,” said the old woman. “Who might you be?”
“We’re humans from the real world,” I replied. “Who are you?”
“I’m Jijimon,” said the man. He gestured to the woman, “This is my wife Babamon.”
“You must be the Digidestined that we’ve been hearing so much about,” said Babamon. “You defeated Manipulamon. Lucky for us the rapscallion never came this way.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said, “we beat Manipulamon, and that’s great. You should be very happy. But now another enemy has shown up. An even stronger one. He’s coming here, right here. You two should leave.”
“Nonsense,” said Jijimon. “We aren’t leaving, at least not until we’ve had some tea.”
“And some fresh meat,” said Babamon. “You all look famished!”
“Please wait right here,” Jijimon insisted. “We were just about to have lunch. We’ll go get it and have ourselves a picnic.”
And before I could pretest, the two elderly Digimon disappeared back inside their hut.
It wasn’t long before the two elderly Digimon re-emerged from the hut with a blanket and several containers filled with food and drink, wooden plates, and metal cups. In only a few minutes the picnic was in place. We were all running on empty, and the food smelled good, so we decided to accept the invitation to join in the meal.
“Wow,” I said, finishing off a piece of spiced meat, “this is pretty good.”
“Uh huh!” Serpentmon agreed.
“Problem is,” I told our hosts, “we’re running short on time. You see, we think you built your hut over top of the Forest Core. An ancient and powerful Digimon named Tyranterramon is coming for the core. We need you to leave the area for a while. When Tyranterramon comes, we need to be ready for him.”
Jijimon laughed.
My eyes narrowed, “What’s so funny?”
“Do you think you’re anywhere near ready to take on the likes of Tyranterramon?” Jijimon asked, meeting my eyes.
I was shocked, though I tried very hard not to show it. This Digimon, and likely his wife as well, knew more than they were letting on.
“The key to beating Tyranterramon has never been brute force,” said Jijimon. “It’s always been the power that is born from unity!”
“Are you saying that you know how to beat Tyranterramon?” I asked.
“Yes,” Jijimon replied. “Fight me and you will too.”
Everyone grew quiet. Babamon stood up silently and began gathering our dishes and carrying them back into the hut. Jijimon stood up as well and walked further out into the clearing. My two Digimon and I moved to face him.
“Only one of your Digimon may assist you against me,” said Jijimon.
“So wait,” I said, “you mean that you want me to fight, not my Digimon?”
Jijimon nodded, and I took a deep breath, “Okay then, if that’s the case I’ll try not to hurt you.”
I considered for a moment which of my Digimon I wanted by my side, and there was, unfortunately, only one choice if I wanted to make the best use of the terrain. I turned to BlackColtmon and said, “Sorry buddy, but you’ll have to sit this one out.”
BlackColtmon scoffed, but he nodded and walked over to join the others.
“Are you scared, Human?” Jijimon asked as Babamon re-emerged from the hut and joined my friends.
I smiled, “Of you? No way.”
“Then let’s start!” Jijimon cried, charging at me, waving his staff wildly.
“That won’t work,” I said, dodging the staff. I ducked underneath, pushed in closed, and punched, hitting only air as Jijimon jumped away at lightning speed.
Pretty quick and limber for an old guy, I thought as Serpentmon launched his attack, which Jijimon easily avoided.
Jijimon lunged, aiming to slam Serpentmon with his staff, but Serpentmon sprung out of the way, up into the branches of a nearby tree. He jumped from the branch and fired his Serpent Strike again, but like last time, Jijimon avoided the attack with ease, circled around, and came right at me. He swung his staff. I ducked underneath it, but he followed with a thrust, knocking me over and pinning me to the ground.
“Looks like you lose, Sonny,” said Jijimon.
“Who are you guys?” Mummymon asked, aghast.
“Don’t count us out just yet,” I said. There was a flash, and Jijimon turned just in time to see Dragonterramon swing his tail in Jijimon’s direction. Jijimon was forced to raise his staff to absorb the blow, allowing me time to roll away. Jijimon was thrown several feet. He flipped and pushed off of a tree, swinging his staff and smacking Dragonterramon in the head, knocking him to the ground. I charged at Jijimon, punching him, but he used his staff to block. He chuckled, “Not good enough!”
“Apparently not,” I replied grimly, rubbing my hand.
“Don’t worry,” Dragonterramon assured me, “I’m just getting warmed up. Terra Flame!” He opened his mouth and spewed a stream of fire. Jijimon twirled his staff, deflecting the flames back toward me. Dragonterramon stepped in and deflected them, but by the time he did, Jijimon was on top of him. He thrust his staff upward, tossing Dragonterramon effortlessly over my head and into a tree.
“We won’t lose,” I said. I stood ready to intercept Jijimon’s next attack. There was a flash from within Jijimon’s hut, Dragonterramon de-Digivolved to Serpentmon, and Jijimon halted his advance.
“What’s wrong?” I asked Serpentmon, worried that he’d been hurt more than I’d realized.
“Nothing,” he answered. “I feel great! Stronger than ever!”
Serpentmon jumped onto my shoulder, and I said, “Then let’s finish this, together!”
I felt power surge from Serpentmon into me, giving me strength. I felt renewed. I once again felt like anything was possible. This fight was anything but over.
Next Chapter >>
No comments:
Post a Comment