“The lake,” Maisy replied, she bit her lip nervously, her eyes focused on the new canyon that had appeared, “it might be best to play it safe for now.”
Hawkmon sat up straight proudly, she jumped from Maisy’s shoulder to Sagitarimon’s neck, her talons digging in to her rough fur just slightly, “an excellent, safe, and brilliant idea,” her words were full of venom and aimed at Sagitarimon, who ignored the slight pain that Hawkmon’s talons were delivering.
“I’m tired anyway,” Sagitarimon announced, hiding her slight anger that nobody went with her idea, “this way I can walk as Vmon and conserve energy.”
Hawmon tutted loudly and flew back to Maisy’s shoulder.
“That’s a great idea!” Maisy grinned, blissfully unaware of the small disagreement that was occuring between her two Digimon.
Sagitarimon slowed to a stop gently and let Maisy climb down before devolving to Vmon. The trio began to walk towards the lake and Vmon stopped, sighed and began to look over herself slowly, “I preferred being large and elegant,” she began, only to be cut off by Hawkmon.
“Overly bulky isn’t elegant. Lean, sleek, and graceful like Rinkmon is elegant,” Hawkmon grinned, still perched on Maisy’s shoulder, ignoring her discomfort as Hawkmon was just a little bit too large to be sitting on a 14 year old girl’s shoulder.
“Flamedramon is that too. Sagitarimon is elegant in her own way.” Maisy moved her shoulder shoulder slowly, hoping that Hawkmon would get the hint. She didn’t.
“In what way?” Hawkmon asked, slightly inconvenienced by Maisy’s shoulder movements.
“My own.” Vmon answered.
Maisy shrugged as hard as she could, not knowing the right way to tell her feathered partner to dislodge herself from her shoulder, she began to walk, “Hey uh, Hawkmon, why don’t you try and get an overhead view, scout for trouble ahead at the lake? Might be some angry fish Digimon there or..something..maybe they’re upset or worried that an entire mountain decided to become a hole.” Maisy bit her lip and crossed her fingers, hoping this would work giving Hawkmon a hint, or, at the very least, would convince her to fly instead of hitching a ride on a young human.
It didn’t, Hawkmon merely adjusted her talons on Maisy’s shoulder, “Digimon are nice and wouldn’t attack us. Especially sea or fish Digimon.”
“Weren’t we attacked by a MarineDevimon before?” Maisy was just picking up on Hawkmon’s slightly difficult behaviour, “and a rather unhelpful Submarimon?” Maisy added.
“I handled it. I can handle whatever comes in our way,” Hawkmon sighed, “you should have more faith in me.”
Maisy looked forward as they approached the lake , hoping for anything in the distance that might be a threat, she then turned to Vmon, giving her a pleading look.
Vmon tilted her head to the side, noticing her partner’s look, but not understanding it, “do..do I have something on my face?” Vmon proceeded to whack herself in the face, trying to remove whatever Maisy had been looking at.
Maisy sighed, half with amusement and half with frustration, at this point she was just hoping for some evil Digimon or David or something to rush into them.
Eventually they reached the lake, Maisy crouched down, causing Hawkmon to tighten her grip on Maisy’s shoulder to remain stable. Maisy winced and looked into the water.
“It’s meant to be clear,” Hawkmon spoke, finally dislodging herself from Maisy’s shoulder, Maisy almost toppled froward into the water with relief.
“How can you tell?” Vmon asked, she watched Maisy stabilise herself on the edge of the water.
Hawkmon sighed, frustrated at what she thought to be a stupid question, “the water is meant to be from the spring at the top of the mountain, it’s not clear anymore, it’s full of dirt and it’s a light brown…It’s meant to be the clearest water in the Digital World..I wonder what changed.”
“Maybe it’s upside down,” pondered Vmon, who looked towards the newly formed canyon, “or the spring is no longer here because of the lack of mountain,” she added, nodding, “yeah,” she nodded again, her eyes closed to think, “that’s probably it.”
Hawkmon laughed nervously, “of course I knew that,” she looked around for something to change the topic, she gasped softly when she spotted a figure by the lake, “human,” she murmured, her talon reached to pull on Maisy’s clothes softly.
Maisy followed Hawkmon’s gaze, “oh no, David..he..did he follow us?”
Veemon ran to a nearby rock and tried to get a better view and Hawkmon flew high into the air. Veemon moved to a closer rock as quietly as she could as Maisy moved to the first rock Veemon was behind. She couldn’t see if the figure was David, she looked to Veemon and then up at Hawkmon and shrugged.
Veemon, once again, moved to a closer rock, stepping on a sharp rock in the process, she gasped in pain, alerting the figure, who turned around.
Hawkmon let out a loud groan is disdain, she flew lower, ready to swoop on the figure.
Maisy began to approach, her hand on her Digivice, her eyes darting between the figure and Veemon. Maisy was able to make out a frown that spread across the figure’s face as the figure became clearer – he was a tall boy with the beginnings of a beard, probably only a few years older than Maisy. “Hi..” May greeted the boy cautiously, noticing a slight element of fear and sadness in the boy’s expression. Veemon hid behind Maisy and Hawkmon laughed from above.
“Are you the fury..coming to get me too?” The boy asked, both his hands were clasped together, holding something close to his chest.
Maisy was so relaxed by the statement she began to laugh softly, causing the boy to take a few nervous steps back. Maisy noticed this and shook her head, “no, we’re good, we’re good, we were worried you were the fury as we’ve not had a lot of luck with other humans.”
“Other humans…” the boy softly repeated, nodding a few times, his expression turning sadder.
“Well other human.” Maisy corrected.
“Other human.” The boy repeated again.
“Named David.” Maisy added.
“Named David.”
Veemon peeked out from Maisy’s legs, “is he some kind of repeating Digimon?”
Hawkmon landed aggressively on Veemon’s head, her talons digging in, “no, idiot, he’s in shock.”
Maisy looked from Hawkmon and Veemon back to the boy, “what’s your name and what happened?” she asked, trying to keep her voice as nice and calming as possible.
“S-sam..and..my Digimon..Gabumon..was taken and corrupted by a boy that the fury has taken host..” The boy replied, he opened up his hands revealing what he had been clasping so tightly – sand, or maybe dust, he looked into his hand and back to Maisy, tears welling in his eyes, “my digivice,” he explained, “this happened when,” Sam stopped speaking and closed his eyes, “my Digimon was turned inside out,” he closed his hand and opened his eyes, he bit his lip in an attempt not to cry.
Hawkmon looked up, “well, that may explain that SkullGabumon that showed up out of no where,” Hawkmon nodded, smiling at her own deduction despite it being quite morbid, “was your Digivice a square shaped one?” Hawkmon asked, not knowing the proper terminology.
Sam nodded, silently, he stuffed the dust into the pocket of his dark grey hoodie.
Hawkmon looked up at Maisy and exchanged a concerned look, “and you’re positive that dust is the Digivice?” Hawkmon asked, trying to piece together what they saw and what they knew.
Sam nodded, “I think he was trying to clone it so he could have his own to control Gabumon himself,” Sam looked down at his feet and kicked around the soft dirt nervously, “I don’t really remember much.” He looked up and smiled apologetically.
“Where did all this take place, maybe we could search for clues?” Veemon suggested, still hidden behind Maisy’s legs. She scratched the top of her head in an attempt to shoo Hawkmon.
Sam looked up and thought for a second, “well,” he began, looking back to Veemon, “The forest is where Gabumon first started acting strange,” he answered, “but the Tsunomon village is where I first saw David snooping around.”
Hawkmon leaped from Veemon’s head to Maisy’s arm.
“Why do you hurt me in this way?” Maisy murmured as Hawkmon’s talons dug into her skin.
Hawkmon ignored this question, “where should we investigate?”
To be continued………
Patreon supporters will be asked in our Slack chat to vote on how Maisy should answer; The forest where Gabumon first acted strangely or the Tsunomon village where David was seen snooping around.
All paths and voting will take place in the #Continuationmon channel in our Slack.
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