The plain plains

[Dante]

So finally everyone was conscious. Their partners were gathered around them, and even Alchemon had emerged to watch...whomever he was watching. It didn't seem so obvious to him exactly who that gaze was fixed on. Regardless of who the unlucky target was, he didn't seem so happy to be watching them. Either that, or the watching reminded him of something he'd rather forget. Either way, the digimon wasn't really of any concern to Dante. He was on...Inori's side, Dante supposed. He could at least be counted on to not bother too much with someone who wasn't a threat to whatever it was he valued most in the situation at hand. He didn't seem to fit the bill, so he was good to go for the time being. That wasn't what interested him, though. What interested him was the sounds of crying and sobbing that could be heard. He was pretty reasonably sure they weren't coming from Inori, which left one remaining source. So why was that person crying? What did it mean when someone like him cried? Was he just trying to lure them in, or was he sad or something? Either way, any air of infallibility Shiv had managed to build up was totally shattered. The difference between Dante and Shiv was made more obvious in that moment. True, Dante didn't know a thing about what was going through the kid's head, but whatever was making the kid cry was definitely something that wouldn't trouble an invincible person. So what did he think made the two of them so different, anyway?

Meanwhile, Gatomon was about out of energy to maintain her form, and she knew it. She turned her head this way and that, searching for any sign of the Fangmon. Alchemon had come into view, so perhaps the danger was passed. Still, she wouldn't let their group be caught off guard while she was in a state to do something about it. Also, she wanted to hang onto this form as long as she could. She wanted to savor the feeling of being so powerful and so able before she was reduced to hopping once again. At least she and Candlemon could commiserate on the subject now...

[shivdeeviant]

Shiv... Was in pain. A great deal of pain. His tears would not stop, no matter how much he tried to halt them. His leg just hurt so much. Would Shiv ever be able to use it again? All that went through his head at that moment was how much trouble he was in, and how much pain he was in. Anything outside of his immediate person was unnoticed. The crying continued.

Yang didn't know what to do with himself. What could he do? He didn't know the first thing about humans! How could he make Shiv feel better? Humans couldn't regress could they? But wait! Wasn't there a time that Yin had gotten hurt by dragon fire? Yes that's right! That time on the Grey Volcano! They had barely escaped a Tyrannomon, and Yin had gotten burned by that last attack! They had found an underground spring within the mountain, and Yin had cooled himself off in it until he felt better! So Yang just needed to find water!

But where was water? Yang didn't remember seeing any that day. But maybe...

Yang stood up, a resolute look on his face. He looked out into the darkness beyond the fire, as though his eyesight could pierce the darkness itself. It couldn't of course, but at least he looked cool. He closed his eyes, and took in his surrounding with his other senses.

His hearing was filled with the sounds of fire and crying adolescent, and Yang had to willfully ignore it lest it upset him too much. There was a slight breeze blowing from the west, or what Yang decided was west at that moment. Yang held his arms out at a 45 degree angle angled downward from his shoulders, hands and fingers open. The fire was downwind from Yang, so the air was brought fresh to his face. He smelled something. A vague dampness on the air that heralded either a change in the weather or a stream nearby. Yang had to take the chance, for Shiv.

After standing still beside his fallen partner for about two minutes, Yang bent his knees and launched himself into the darkness, landing in a dead run towards the hope of water.

[Inori]

Inori groaned, swatting vaguely at Candlemon's hand as he prodded her again.

"Thank the Sovereigns..." Candlemon murmured in relief at the girl's reaction.

"Worst vacation....ever." Inori muttered as she opened her eyes. She took a moment to examine Candlemon, a frown crossing her face. Finally she commented in a blunt tone, "You're not Wizardmon."

The candle blinked a few times, before laughing in an awkward tone. "Not yet, but I will be after some rest."

"...right." Inori didn't sound horribly convinced, but moved to sit up, and rub her head. She took a second to examine the situation. She glanced briefly between the two other trainers, then their partners (or at least the ones she could see).

"So...did we win, or did we loose, because right now I cannot tell." She raised her voice a bit, hopefully loud enough to be heard despite Shiv's crying.

Candlemon half shrugged, and the flame shook it's head. "Not sure there is a real answer to that."

Alchemon meanwhile remained on guard at least for the moment. He'd have plenty of time to harass Candlemon later....

[Dante]

Dante turned to Inori, electing to ignore the little boy's cries of pain for the moment. She was more interesting than that other one anyway.

"We were spared," he said, spitting out the words like they were poison, "Our tormentors have apparently decided to leave us with our lives for the time being."

To him, it was a loss. Even the kind of power Gatomon wielded meant very little in the face of that fact. Ultimately what had made them flee was their own choice and nothing else. They had been discarded instead of destroyed. They would be stronger next time, though. Dante swore to himself that he and Gatomon would be much more difficult foes if the Fangmon visited them again.

Gatomon nodded soberly. She knew just as well as Dante that if the Fangmon had wished it, none of them would have woken up. Still, she had to cast their fate in some kind of positive light.

"We're alive. That's what matters."

It didn't really occur to her that as she spoke her focus grew more and more exclusive to Candlemon.

"We did our duty. Our partners are safe."

Her energy lasted until she'd gotten that last word out, then she teetered on her feet and fell forward, hanging onto consciousness by a slender thread. Her body glowed as she fell and slowly reduced itself in size until she was Nyaromon once more, and a particularly pathetic looking Nyaromon at that.

Dante walked over and picked up his partner.

"You were brave, my friend," he said for her ears alone, "You protected everyone."

[shivdeeviant]

The darkness seemed to coalesce around Yang. Rushes beat against his stone arms as the digimon's eyes adapted to the dark. His ears picked up no sounds of moving water yet, but his heart told him to push on. The only sound he knew was the sound of his breathing, his beating heart. His only sensations those he created, the whiplike beating of tall grass as he passed, the solid earth pounding in rhythm with each fall of a stony foot. All he saw was the dark. Yang lost himself in the dark, knew only his haste, his need for water.

He did not see the rock, did not even know it was there. His awareness only registered when his foot caught and he plummeted forward. The ground was rough and hard, dry. Not a good sign. Yang grunted and returned to his feet, he was scuffed up a bit, his arms and face covered with dust. He tapped his toes against the ground, checking for damage. Finding none, he took off again with the same wild abandon. The darkness took him once again.

Yang was unsure how much time passed, he knew little of anything other than it was dark. It meant that it was before morning at least. The smell of water was getting stronger, the humidity wafted on the wind in his face. Emboldened, Yang quickened his pace, the sight of the campfire long behind him. Shiv needed him, that was all he knew. That was all he cared about.

Another rock got in the rookie's way, this one pointed on one end. Yang cried out in pain as his foot chipped a little and he once again plummeted to earth. A splash, a feeling of wetness, an inability to breath. Yang sputtered out of the puddle he fell into, his arms caked with mud.

Water!

Yang gave a hoot of triumph, the wind picking up around him as he did so. The puddle was small, but deep. Yang would have missed it had he not tripped on that stone. So grateful was Yang that he picked up the rock and held it close.

"You are now my lucky rock!" He proclaimed, "Now, lucky rock, let's get this water to Shiv!"

He chuckled, then stopped, how would he get the water back? He brought no water skins, no way of transporting the water to the camp. How stupid! A feeling of renewed wetness came to Yang's cheeks. He had failed Shiv! His partner! His great adventure! How foolish could he be? What was he going to do now? How could he return with nothing after finding what he was looking for? His sorrow felt as though it woud consume him.

There Yang sat on his knees, and the darkness was all he knew.

[Inori]

Candlemon's flame shifted somewhat to look at Nyaromon.
"She will be alright. I'm sure of it." The flame commented in as helpful of a tone as it could muster.

"That...is really kind of creepy." Inori whispered loudly to Candlemon. "The whole...two faces thing."

"If it's any consolation, I'm not a fan of it either." He offered with a shrug. "The sooner I can be back to my other form, the better. I miss legs already."

Alchemon made an annoyed sound and glanced to Shiv. He desperatly wanted to tell the boy to quite crying, but the idea that it might set Inori off had him hold his tongue. For now at least.

[Dante]

Nyaromon heard Candlemon and attempted a nod, meeting with minimal success. She could barely move, so great was the pain she now suffered. In exchange for transcending her limits for one glorious moment, she was banished back to this form, and wracked with such pain, to boot...

Dante didn't fail to notice his partner's suffering.

"Are you okay, Nyaromon?" he asked quietly.

"I will be..." she managed, "Parts of me I haven't been able to feel before are hurting. Maybe once all this soreness goes away..."

She probably wouldn't have gotten that far if it was anything but a very difficult to ignore ache all over her small body. It was like each individual hair was sending pain signals which melted all together into a dull wash of pain that made her very much not want to move.

Dante winced slightly. He really did wish that he could do something for her. She'd fought bravely to protect people that didn't matter to him, but evidently meant something to her. In exchange, she wasn't going to be able to move, much less fight, for a while until she healed.

His awareness shifted suddenly to a sound that he'd been ignoring for a few moments: the sound of a little boy troubled by something. He didn't care much about Shiv, so he hadn't been really paying the boy any mind. Seemed it was time to take care of that, or at least discover the reason for the wretched sound. He walked over to Shiv and knelt by him, careful not to disturb the digimon in his arms too much. He reached out with a free hand and tried to roll Shiv over a bit.

"Dude, what's your damage?" took the place of whatever caring words he'd been meaning to say.

[shivdeeviant]

Shiv's crying regressed to choked sobs for a moment as he turned his watery attention to the bully. He had no energy to quip the large teen into place due to the pain and his crying. All he could do was pull back his arms and reveal his leg.

His right leg was still smoking a little from the blast, the pant leg itself largely shredded up to mid thigh. Shiv's skin underneath was a toasty brownish red, with blister beginning to form up and down the inside his leg. Some of the forming blisters oozed a bit with white pus.

The burns were bad, and would need bandaging to keep them out of the elements, but would not cause any permanent damage if they could be cooled somehow.

In the distance, thunder rumbled.

Yang looked up from his depression. The short staccato of water droplets beating on the dry ground punctuated the night in a gathering crescendo of white noise. Soon Yang was soaked, the water streaming off of his rocky skin.He slowly stood from his knees, gaping at the sky.

"Thank you Sovereigns!" He cried to the night sky.

This rain would surely make it to camp! Shiv would have water for his burn! The day was saved! Yang looked around, now all that was left was heading back! Let's see, he was heading westerly according to the stars when he head out so...

Wait. thought Yang, Where are the stars?

And so once again, Yang was lost.

"But wait!" Cried Yang to no one in particular, "I still have my lucky rock! I'm sure it will lead me to everyone!"

Yang lifted his lucky rock up to the sky sitting on his palm.

"Which way, lucky rock?!" Yang declared.

A bolt of lighting shot down from the heavens, striking this pointed tip of Yang's lucky rock. In the flash, the tip shined brightly for a moment before dutifully passing the current onto Yang's hand.

"Dazazazazazazaza!" Cried Yang in shock as the electrical current cascaded around his body, lifting his feet off the ground.

And then it was over, Yang lay on his back, smoking slightly. He giggled.

"See?" he mused to no one in particular, "Now Shiv and I are even more alike!"

Yang hopped back to his feet, still smoking slightly, and ran off in a random direction.

[Inori]

Alchemon couldn't keep quiet any longer.

"You're crying your eyes out over that? Pathetic." He stopped and pointed at Nyaromon. "She's worse off then you, and I do not see her crying."

"Alchemon!" Inori scowled briefly before moving to stand. She inched towards Shiv taking a moment to examine his injury from where she stood. "Should be okay if we can get some water. I'm guessing that is what your now absent partner is up to..."

Candlemon had moved to stand next to Inori, hopping awkwardly as he did. "Hopefully he did not get lost."

[Dante]

When Shiv uncovered his damaged leg, Dante recoiled slightly. What issued from his mouth immediately following was a string of nonsense that could be remotely qualified as a curse word only by the tone and body language that accompanied it. The damage was pretty crazy. No wonder the kid was crying. Immediately following that, though, Alchemon played the skilled diplomat, as always.

Nyaromon, hurting all over, chimed in weakly.

"Stay off my side..."

Dante's first impulse was to either snap at Alchemon or shush Nyaromon, but he did neither, distracted by both his confusion over how much he suddenly cared and Inori getting to one of the above first, then turning to examine Shiv's wounds. Thus made thoroughly useless, he merely stood, cradling his injured partner. At mention of Shiv's errant digimon, he looked around.

"Oh great, Captain Optimism wandered off? Glory..."

[shivdeeviant]

The rain spread across the plains, Yang in the midst of it all. Once again in his natural stride, Yang was unstoppable, he needed to get to Shiv. A glimmer of light in the distance caught his eye, slowly the sun began to rise on the digital world once again. There was only one problem...

The sun was rising to Yang's right.

"Oh." Mumbled Yang, "Darn."

Then Yang turned to look at where he was going. In view, and not too far off, a large house stood. Yang couldn't tell the details in the half-light of dawn, but didn't the others say they were heading to a house?

"Yay!" Cried Yang, "I get to be the first one there!"

And so Yang took off through the rain, running for the manor.

Meanwhile, on the edge of the storm, thunder crashed over the party as the rain started to suddenly fall in droves. Shiv let out a sigh of relief as the cool water cascaded off of his burnt leg. Yin grumbled as he rested next to Shiv. The rising sun had brought no view of Yang, and thus Yin was in a rather grumpy mood.

Yin didn't know what was bothering him more. The fact that Yang had run off because of Shiv, or that Yin wasn't as worried for him because he was in Rookie form. Why was he becoming more acclimated to this whole digivolution business? Change was evil, and power innately uncontrollable. Why could no one else see that? So it was raining, but at least Shiv had stopped crying.

[Inori]

"I am not on anyone's side." Alchemon retorted before moving away from the others and sneaking off into the shadows.

Inori looked relieved at Alchemon's departure, then knelt down near Shiv. "We're going to have to figure something out for makeshift bandages." She added, seeming generally unphased by the rain.

Candlemon raised his hands and ducked down a bit, trying to protect his flame from the rain.
"Ahh of course things get worse. The Sovereigns are probably laughing right now!"

[Dante]

Nyaromon was going to comment on Alchemon's statement, but didn't deem it worth it. Even the small movements associated with talking hurt right now. She felt likewise about Candlemon's assertions, but for a slightly different reason. While replying to Alchemon's statement would just lead to a pointless debate, replying to Candlemon's assertions would likely just sound petty. It was tricky speaking as the most heavily injured member of the party, probably including the boy with the burned leg, as any comment she made could be interpreted through that lens. Comments about the suffering of the other people in the group could be easily misinterpreted and cause a fight she didn't much care to participate in. Especially considering the fact that having one's entire body extremely sore made one a bit surly...

Dante didn't miss Nyaromon's practiced silence, and decided to follow suit on all counts but one. While he, too, was unfazed by the rain, he wasn't so unfazed by her statement.

"What exactly did you want to make bandages out of? We don't exactly have a wealth of supplies on hand, do we?"

His voice was a mix of confused and incredulous. While sure, he found Shiv useful at times, he didn't care so much about the kid that he was willing to tear strips off his shirt or something to help him. If he had bandages on hand, that'd be different, but he didn't. Still, Inori was worth listening to at least. Depending on what she came up with, he'd be varying degrees of helpful. She was nice, and her kindness disarmed his natural mistrustful tendencies, but that didn't mean she wouldn't be betraying him. She was probably just biding her time, waiting until he lowered his guard enough. Crafty little whatsit. Well she'd just see, wouldn't she?

[shivdeeviant]

Now that the pain had been reduced to a dull ache, Shiv found his voice. He grunted as he reached a sitting position, his muscles stiff from all the crying.

"Here," He said, taking off his jacket, "Just wrap it up with this. It should let the skin breathe but still keep it out of the wind and such. Just, if it's possible, please try not to tear it. I like this jacket."

Shiv held out the jacket to Inroi. Yin sat and watched carefully. He could tell Shiv was straining himself. The conundrum of these chosen was astounding. Why did the Digimon need these creatures? They were so weak, Nyaromon had taken much more damage and was faring much better. Ugh, Nyaromon! The false sense of selflessness was almost nauseating. Her power was beyond her, at least in this form she was tolerable. Yin's eyes narrowed at all of the chosen in the party. None were trustworthy. None of them!

[Inori]

"Problem solved! I can avoid tearing it I think." Inori replied, taking the jacket and setting about trying to make it into a decent bandage of sorts without damaging it. She didn't do too bad of a job, mentally thanking herself for both the handful of health classes she'd had taken, and the mild interest after some run-ins with both technology and people alike.

Candlemon fidgeted a bit as he adjusted a few times to keep his flame as dry as possible. The face on the flame was far more intent on watching what Inori was doing then seeming to care about if it was getting damp or not.