Digimon Frontier: The Warrior's Return

Chapter 24: A Treasure in the Riverbed

Chapter 24: A Treasure in the Riverbed

You sat near the mouth of your tiny refuge watching the deluge of water pouring down from above. It made a choppy sheet, hanging between you and the storm outside like a curtain. In the distance there was a flash of light and a massive roll of thunder.

There was also a storm brewing behind you. "This stupid rain is driving me crazy!" Takuya howled. "I just wanna get out of here!"

"Well, someone might just toss you out if you keep shouting!" Junpei growled.

"Really, Takuya! Can't you just relax and enjoy the rest while it lasts?" Izumi chided.

"Not when I can practically hear Agunimon's spirit calling me!"

"Please! If Agunimon's calling anybody it'd be Ally!" Junpei shouted.

You twitched at the sound of your name but kept your face pointed out the cave mouth as if you weren't listening. "I just hope that there aren't any landslides or anything," you said conversationally.

"Could that really happen, Ally-san?" Tomoki asked nervously.

"Of course! Steep slopes, loose soil, buckets of rain per second. If the ground gets soft enough gravity will bring it right down."

"Then we'd all be buried!"

"No worries. If you get buried me dig you out," Grumblemon commented.

You chuckled and repeated the statement to Tomoki in the earth spirit's exact phrasing.

"Oh, that's right. Grumblemon's the earth spirit," he replied. "He'd know if the cliff was going to collapse, right?"

"Hey, that's not a bad idea! Grumblemon, would you warn us if the cliff starts to come loose?"

"Okie dokie!" He gave you a thumbs-up and you returned it and grinned.

"There you go, one less thing to worry about."

"That's good." There was another pause as you both watched a nearby mountain stream made wild by the torrential rains and listened to the team threatening Takuya with bodily harm if he didn't shut his trap. "Hey, Ally-san?"

"Yeah?"

"I've been wondering... What's it like to talk to souls?"

"It's not really that different from talking to real people, like how I'm talking to you now," you replied thoughtfully. "It's only that no one else can see or hear them."

"Are they being nice to you?"

"Pretty nice, except for Mercurymon. But he has his moments too."

"That's good. They weren't so nice the last time around."

"Kouichi mentioned that," you said with interest. "But he didn't know much about the battles you all had since he was kinda brainwashed and all. What was it like fighting the evil spirits?"

Then you were treated to Tomoki's version of their last visit, a more optimistic and uplifting tale than Kouichi's had been. He told you of how all the rest of the group had come to the world and found their spirits and the shenanigans they had gotten up to in the early days. He went into the evil spirits: Grumblemon, Mercurymon, Arbormon, and Ranamon. The earth spirit had given them the most trouble up until they started to find their beast spirits.

"What's a beast spirit?"

"It's like a human spirit but more powerful. Grumblemon found his first and we really couldn't stand up to him until we got some of ours."