Virtue
Monday morning once again. What could make a person feel any better than waking up at 6:42am on a Monday to go to school and listen to your teacher droll on about something to do with pies.“Yup…sure doesn’t get any better than this”, I said to myself.
As I finished gulping down some cold oatmeal and a glass of orange juice, I tied my shoes, grabbed my backpack and hurried down the hall. I came to the steel frame of the old fashion elevator and pushed the button. Standing there waiting I realized, maybe it’s not such a bad day, I mean…it’s not raining.When the door finally opened I was surprised to see Yolei and Cody weren’t here yet. I could wait, I thought, but it’s getting late and I don’t want to scrape gum. I hopped in and rode the elevator to the bottom level of our condominium.
Out side the sun was shinning and you could even hear birds between the sounds of trucks and buses. I began the 12.6 minute walk to school sticking to the sidewalk as cars zoomed by blowing dust in my face.“I wonder what I’d ever do without the sights, sounds and,” I began but a huge frat truck honked it’s loud horn as it spirited a funnel of thick, dark smoke into the air.
“And smells,” I choked “Of the city?”
Just as I was going to turn into the school entrance a kid with brown hair ran past me almost knocking me over.
“Hey Davis. What did you do now?”
“None of your business T.S.!” He shouted back at me.
“There he is! Let’s get him!” Three older boys followed him in hot pursuit.
“Hi T.K.” I turned away from Davis being tackled to the ground by the boys and looked at the girl with the short brown hair and the red eyes that almost seemed as if they smiled.
“Oh hi Kari. What was all that about?” I pointed behind me.
“I have no idea. But would you come with me? I have to make a trip to the office.”
“Sure.” We walked down the hall past the doors full of teachers drinking coffee and laughing, turned the corner and started to climb the stairs.
“So…um…what did you do last night?” I asked. Trying desperately to make some sort of conversation.
“Homework…you know the usual. Hey that’s what I wanted to ask you last night when I called…”
“You called?”
“Yeah,” She giggled “I called you last night and your mom answered. She said you were watching the “Play Offs” and couldn’t hear a word other than the TV”
“Oh….uh…sorry about that…” I turned red. Mom should have told me it was Kari!
“That’s alright. But what I wanted to ask you was what did you get on question five?”
“Oh question five? Um…I think I g-“ I was cut short by a vibrating then a beeping coming from my D-3. I looked down and saw it was flashing.
“Oh no! There must be trouble!” Kari said. She started down to the computer room but I grabbed her arm.
“We can’t go now! What if somebody sees us? Or calls home because we didn’t arrive at school?”
“But…T.K….AH!” Kari bent over and grabbed her head. She looked like she was in pain.
“KARI! What’s wrong?” I took her shoulders. She was shaking. All the sudden I felt a strange tingling sensation, like when your feet fall asleep because you’re sitting funny on the bus but all over!
“What’s going on?” She cried over the now rushing sound blasting in my ears.
“I don’t know! Hang on!” She latched on to my hands so hard I thought they would fall off.
After the rushing came the feeling of weightlessness. I kept drifting until I was surround by darkness. When I awoke I was sitting near a huge rock with Kari right beside me. Good we’re both here…and alive. I thought. Now there’s only the matter of where are we?
I looked around to try and see the surrounding landscape. Green trees, blue rocks, purple sky? It can’t be! I thought. We’re in the Digital World. But this couldn’t be possible…could it? We need a Digital Gate to enter the Digital World…don’t we? This was making my head hurt.
Kari stirred on top of the rock.
“Huh? How? What?” She began.
“Kari, I think we’re in the Digital World.”
“But that’s not possible!”
“Tell me about it. I don’t understand it either.” I shook my head and stood up. I lent a hand to get Kari to her feet. She seemed even more dazed than I did.
“Should we stay here or start looking for a TV?”
“I’m not really sure yet Kari. I don’t think it’s going to do us any good staying here waiting for a search party. I don’t think they have any of those in the Digital World.”
She nodded and started walking. I followed her but after hours of walking we’d found nothing but more blue rocks and green trees.
“I think I need a break T.K.” Kari sat down on the ground and started rubbing her feet.
“Yeah…we have shade here so it’s a good spot to rest.” I sat down on a large blue rock under the shade of a purple and green tree. This is kind of weird when you think about it, I thought, I’m seeing all these blue rocks and crap but it doesn’t bother me at all…it’s almost…normal now…that is scary. I turned and looked at Kari. She was taking off her shoes and dumping all the little rocks out. When she turned to look at which direction we should go next, her hair caught in a beam of sun and just glowed. Wow, I sighed. Wow…hey! I’m lost in the Digital World with no clue where we are and I’m thinking like that? “Ugh”.
“What?” Kari turned around and looked in my direction.
“Um…me? I didn’t say anything…” I stuttered. Man…sometimes T.K. you are SO stupid…I stopped as a saw something moved from behind a tree.
“Kari…don’t move…”
“W-what is it? T.K.?” She turned around just as the thing came out of the bushed and headed straight towards us.
I froze. I just couldn’t find the strength to move. Then I heard Kari scream and snapped back to focus.
“Kari! Get away from her you…whatever you are!” I charged at the thing and slammed into it with all the strength I could muster. It was REALLY hard. It felt like slamming into a rock wall! I fell back stunned but scrambled to my feet. The thing from the shadows was carrying Kari away and it was running fast. I couldn’t just stand there and watch. She was in trouble!
“KARI!” I yelled as loud as I could and chased after them. Now that I could see it clearly I could tell the thing carrying Kari was definitely a Digimon. No wonder I couldn’t make a scratch when I banged into it, it was a huge rock looking Digimon. It was square and looked like it had literally been carved from stone.
“Over here rocks for brains!” I yelled and bent down, still running, to pick up a rock. I my wrist hard and sent the rock spiraling towards the Digimon’s head. Direct hit! It made a clunking noise then swung its ugly mug down my way. Man was it ugly! I stood and stared as it looked at me, still running, and crashed into a tree. And stupid, I finished.
With the Digimon’s grip loosened, Kari pulled herself free and ran over to me. She hid behind me and covered her eyes.
“What is it? And what did it want with me?” She asked shivering into the back of my shirt.
“I don’t know but it’s not done yet. Hold on!” I picked Kari up and threw her over my shoulder. Then I started running like Heck.
“Ah! What are you doing? Uh oh! It’s coming!” She yelled over my shoulder, her feet almost kicking me in the face. I spun my head around to check a glimpse of the Digimon getting to its feet and shaking its head. Then it started running. And by the looks of things, I’d say it was pretty mad right now.
“Ah look out!” Kari cried. I turned around to see that we were nearing a cliff now. No where left to run. I put Kari down and stopped to face the monster.
“Foolish Humans…I will have the child of light give her up now and I might spare you.” It talked with a voice like thunder that almost made me cover my ears.
“Never!” I yelled back. Trying to sound braver than I felt.
“I was not talking to you little human.” He extended one finger and flicked me aside. I fell to the ground holding my stomach, trying to get my breath back.
“Now child, come with me and I will not harm your puny friend.”
“…” Kari looked at me then to the monster. “T.K…. I’m sorry…” She turned and began to follow the monster.
“NO!” I yelled. I got to my feet and punched the monster in the back. It felt like my hand would break off. In-fact it was broken. Hanging there limp and looking like a piece of meat.
“Ah!” I fell to the ground and grasped my hand.
“T.K.!” Kari yelled. She ran from the chuckling monster and took my hand.
I squinted my eyes against the pain. Then something really weird happened. Pink light came from Kari’s hands and traveled through the skin to mine. It felt warm and smooth. Like it was going down to the very bone on my hands. Then I could move my hand. It worked fine again!
“Kari what was that?” I asked in amazement.
“I-I-I’m not sure…” She stuttered.
The monster laughed. “Foolish, foolish child. You are oblivious even to your own powers! You have not even to begin to see your infinite boundaries!”
“Infinite…boundaries?” Kari asked sounding slightly scared.
“Yes and soon I will harvest them for myself!” The monster laughed again that evil laugh that makes your shiver right through to your bones and reached to grab Kari but a blast of purple fire came down and shattered the ground below me. I slipped but caught a hand on a protruding root in the hard packed dirt.
“T.K.!” Kari again tried to run towards the cliff but a huge dragon type Digimon swooped down and tried to grab Kari again.
“NO!” She yelled and ran backwards. Another blast of purple fire shot down from something in the sky making the ground shake and crumble causing the root I was holding to give way. The last thing I saw was Kari being slammed into a tree by the force then a long plummet to a raging white river below.
When I finally awoke I was lying on a riverbank. But I didn’t realize that until after. When I first awoke The first thing I saw was Kari’s face extremely close to mine. So of course I thought I was dreaming and closed my eyes again. Then I felt a choking feeling in my throat. I sat up and started spitting up water. I must have fell into the river and Kari must have pulled me out. I almost thought for a moment there that little fishes might start coming out of my mouth but they didn’t, which was a good thing.
Then I felt a tight grip on my shoulders and turned to see Kari was hugging my and crying.
“Um…what just happened.” I asked still very confused.
“You fell off the cliff when the explosion happened and I got away while those two Digimon were duking it out. I found you in the water and I thought you had drowned.” She told me through tears and squeezed me harder.
“Okay…but what happened before that? When I first opened my eyes?”
“Oh…that…u-um…nothing happened…..” She said and started to blush.
I guess I’ll have to go on wondering. I hate blacking out. I thought.“Well…it’s getting dark and I think we should make a fire. It’s going to be too hard to try and find a way home in this poor light.” She continued trying to change the subject.
“Yeah…” I stood up and almost froze. My damp clothes caught in the wind and I thought I would turn into a Popsicle. “Ugh…”
“What’s wrong?” Kari asked.
“Nothing…. just really cold.” I answered.
“I’ll get the fire started you try to come over to where these logs are.” She said and hurried out to get some sticks.
I took a deep breath, stood up, and made a dash for the logs. I tried to huddle up and get out of the wind but it was going right through me.
Kari returned with a bunch of sticks and began rubbing them together. Soon it sparked and we soon had a roaring fire in front of us.
“Well…that’s better.” Kari sighed and sat down on a log beside me.
“Yeah.” I said at a loss for words. Well what do you say to a person that just saved you from drowning when you should have been looking after them...I felt useless...
She sighed again.
“What’s wrong Kari?” I asked a little worried.
“I’m scared…I mean…what did those monsters mean by ‘The infinite boundaries of my power?’ and how are we ever going to get home? I mean…we don’t even know how we got here let alone how to leave…”
This time I sighed. She had made a good point.
“I don’t know Kari…and…our parents are probably really worried about us by now…” I saw tears start to form in her eyes and quickly added, “But I’m sure Tai and Matt will come looking for us. Yolei, Cody, and Davis too. I’m sure they’ll know to come looking for us in the Digital world…don’t worry Kari…” This time I hugged her. That seemed to work. Kari soon fell asleep but I couldn’t. Maybe I was being paranoid but I wasn’t going to take the chance of a sneak attack.
When dawn broke I was REALLY tired…but we had made it through the night. Kari stirred. She was still leaning on me and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and looked at me.
“That was nice. Did you sleep well?” She asked.
“Oh yeah like a log.” I lied. I didn’t want her to know I’d stayed up all night. She’d probably argue that we should have taken shifts.
After we finshed eating the cookies we found in Kari's pockets and a smushed sandwich that was, I don't know how old, we started walking again. Walking through the dew covered grass I really started to wonder if our parents were looking for us yet. I started to say something but Kari cut me off with a gasp. "What is it Kari?" But all she could do was point. I followed in the deriction of her outstretched finger and saw to my amazement a city. Yes a small city perched on top a mountian full of Digimon. I had never seen something like this though. It almost seemed to be welcoming us. "T.K. what do you think it is?" Kari asked "I'm not sure...but I really want to find out!" I started climbing some steep mountainous hills leading to the city with Kari hot at my heels. When we finally reached the top it was dusk and we were welcomed by bunches of Digimon asking if we would like a place to stay the night. We were celebrities! Wow…I though. This is too cool! We finally decided to stay at one of the many inns we were offered and were totally shocked to find that there were hot tubs, spas, and a restaurant, anything you could want! Well anything you could want after sleeping on a log the past night. “This is amazing!” Kari said, “There must be anything we could ever want at our finger tips!” We were supplied with new clothes and decided to try out the spa facilities. It was awesome! After that we ate and I could easily say that I have never had a better supper in my life. After all the excitement we headed to bed. The bedroom was filled with huge bureaus and tiny tables. It looked like something out of a movie. There were four beds with a flannel layer of sheets and a fun cover to top it of. I’ll tell you…I was not cold that night. I stared at the ceiling for a long time, just wondering how this could all be real but soon fell asleep to the sound of Kari’s soft breathing. When I awoke in the morning the smiling face of Kari looking down at me greeted me. “Breakfast in bed!” She chimed positively delighted. “All we have to do is ask!” “Wow…” I said. I’ve always thought of breakfast in bed but mom would never let me. I looked past Kari’s shoulder to see two Tapiermon bringing in eggs and bacon on silver platters. “This is amazing!” I said gobbling down the last of my eggs. “Definitely!” Kari said sitting at the foot of my bed finishing the last of her breakfast. She was visually too excited to really have breakfast in bed. “Your majesties…” A Digimon is a silk turban walked into the room “Oh…majesties huh?” Kari interrupted poking me in the side. I laughed. “Your majesties if I may be so honored as to intrude there is a slight matter I wish to speak with you about.” “Shoot.” I said. The Digimon clapped its hands and the two Taiermon flew out the door. The Digimon did a slight bow then continued. “It’s a matter of a certain Digimon…Malirismon. You see Malirismon is the ruler of the fire and mountain and is having a small fude with Linchimon, Catoblpasmon, and Dendromon…” He seemed to notice we were confused and explained, “The other three guardians.” “I thought Azolongmon and the others were the guardians of the Digital World.” Kari said. “Yes and they are. They are the guardians of the four hemispheres but they do not stay in this world so they have sent us the guardians of Fire, Water, Rock, and Sky. These guardians have protected the Digital World well but lately have been acting strange. They have been arguing amongst themselves over the matter of the Digital World being in danger. They fear that a great power will soon take over and nothing will be left.” “Okay…so why would they think this and what does it have to do with us?” I asked starting to see the big picture now. “Well the guardians think that if they harness the powers of Light, they will be able to save the Digital World.” “No…” Kari gasped once again. “Yes child…and I too know about your encounter with Catoblpasmon and Dendromon. But what we need you to do now is seal their power with yours.” He looked back at Kari. She was scared I could tell. I held on to her shoulders and asked, “How do we do that?” “We must take to the mountains and get the guardians together in one spot then you will know what to do.” When he had finished he turned and left but before closing the door he said, “We will gather the troop at day break of the next moon.” Kari simple stared at the closed door for a long while then turned to me. “T.K. I think I can do this but…I need your help.” “No problem Kari…you know all you ever have to do is ask.” “Thanks T.K. I really appreciate it.” The rest of the day went by as a kind of daze. I didn’t really remember anything up until the moment I closed my eyes. When dawn broke I found Kari sitting at the end of her bed. She seemed to be thinking but when she saw I was awake she turned to me and smiled. “So…did you sleep well?” This time I was able to answer “Yes.” without lying. I felt that I had never really slept until I had slept that night. “So…you…uh…ready to go?” I asked almost wishing I hadn’t. She nodded her head but couldn’t get in a word because the door had just banged open by the Digimon that had talked to us last night. He told us it was time and that we must follow him. When we got outside, we saw a huge army of Digimon all wearing little turbans and chest armor. They were ready to go that was for sure. Gazing at the army I didn’t really notice when a small tough Digimon tapped me on the knee. I looked down and it bowed to me. “General T.K. you will be needing this!” It stared up at me and handed me an old stick looking thing. “Uh…just a second here big boy. Did you just call me General?” “That is correct sir!” It clapped its hands to its head and stood stiff as a board. “Yes you are in charge of leading the other three guardians to the mountain top where their powers will be sealed by the great one.” The Digimon with the turban appeared again. How does he keep doing that? I wondered. “What! Why me?” I asked not sure if I liked this guy as much anymore. “You have been sent to us with the great one. You are our omen! You must help lead us to victory!” “Great…” Before I knew what was happing I was on a Centimon and headed down a steep valley followed by the small army. When we came to a stop we were near a deep cave and one of the Digimon urged me forward. “What am I supposed to do?” I asked afraid of what I might hear. “Go in and summon the great master of rock, Catoblpasmon. Tell him Malrisimon seeks his presents and wishes to see him on Mount Tajria.” “Oh…well that sounds easy enough.” I stared into the deep cave and wondered if this was all a big mistake. “Who enters!” The same rumbling voice I’d heard when we first came here three days ago. “You! The puny human? The one that through a rock at me? T.K. is it not your name?” Okay…maybe he’s not as stupid as I thought, I thought. “Sorry you must be mistaken…for I am…um…T.J. of the army of Tajria.” I said hoping he’d buy it. “Oh okay then go on. What do you want?” He didn’t seem to be in a good mood. Maybe he never was. “Malrisimon wishes to see you on mount Tajria.” “Oh well in that case let me rush out to her every whim. Yes I will drop all that I am doing to see her.” “Great.” I said. “GET OUT!” The monster yelled and let out a blast of foul air blasting me out the entrance of the cave. I rolled backwards and hit a tree rubbing my head I stood up. “I am guessing that did not work too well master.” The same Digimon said to me. “Nope. Better get back to the village.” I said having had enough. “NO! The master will not except defeat! We will be punished! Are you not the omen? You will lead us to victory! You can not give up!” “Yeah…well I was sick with this acting all formal anyway. When I say go you go okay?” I nodded and picked up a rock and through it into the darkness of the cave. I heard it clunks and shouted, “Come and get me rocks for brains! HAHAHA!” “GRRRRRRR……YOU!” A very angry sounding Digimon started running after me. “GO!” After a morning of being chased by Digimon we were back at the city with the waiting Digimon. “I really down understand you.” Kari said when I got back completely out of breath and sweating. “You do know this was supposed to be formal.” “Yeah well Digimon don’t seem to like formality.” She laughed then turned to go with the turban Digimon to seal the guardian’s powers. She waved and I called out to her to be careful. But was cut short by the sound of the guardians bickering loud as thunder. I didn’t get to see all the action of the actual sealing but when Kari returned the bickering had stopped and she looked totally wasted. I took her to her room and must have looked pretty cool carrying Kari down the halls, chest out and back straight with my little general’s stick. The Digimon cheered throughout the streets. When I finally got to the room and closed the door I laid Kari on her bead and covered her with the fur blankets. We really did win, I thought looking at her soft face. We won. After years of protecting the city of Tajria we ascended and became the Rulers of Tajria. I was now thirty-five years old and never once thought of going back to the world we had left behind. I had everything I’d ever wanted. I was looking after the Digimon here, they depended on Kari and me, Kari was by my side as queen and I felt like I made a difference every time I looked at the smiling faces of my subjects. One day I was out patrolling the woods around mount Tajria where the sealed guardians lay in internal sleep, I heard a noise and gripped the handle of my sword. When I Digimon with black wings emerged from the woods I asked almost automatically, “Are you friend or foe?” “You do not belong here.” The Digimon said bluntly. “What are you saying?” “You do not belong here.” It repeated. I pulled the handle of my sword but before I could do anything I felt the rushing in my ears and turned to see Kari, back as she was when we were twelve standing on the stairs of the school I only remembered in my dreams gripping her D-3. “T.K…?” She asked sounding as totally shocked as I was. “W-w-what just happened?” “I-I-I have no…clue…it’s weird…I was” I heard the bell ring and turned to see Davis standing below us at the bottom of the stairs. “Hurry or you’ll be late for class Kari!” He said. “But….but…. I’m thirty-four and…I where are my people?” She sounded scared again. “Huh? People? You mean the rest of the class? In class duh!” “Yeah…where’s the mountain…the guardians…the….” I started not knowing what to say. This is too confusing…. “What? Did you fall down the stairs? It’s Monday! We have S-C-H-O-O-L remember!” “I know! The whole time we were in the Digital World only seconds have pasted in the real world! Remember! Like what Izzy was talking about!” Kari said. Now I got it. “But…why are we young again?” I asked. Davis sighed and ran into class. “It must have never happened. Let’s forget about it and get to class.” Kari said and started to leave. “You mean nothing happened? Nothing at all? None of it really happened?” I said. How could I just go and forget the only time in my life I had been totally and completely happy? “Well…maybe something really happened…in our hearts.” With that she hurried down the hall and went to class. In our hearts huh? Wonder what she meant by that?
