Digimon Frontier: The Warrior's Return

Chapter 1: A Fateful Meeting

Chapter 1: A Fateful Meeting

Nothing special has ever happened to me. I mean, aside from that time I fell and fractured my arm. My mom and dad both paid attention to me for a week. That was as exciting as life got.

Frankly, I liked life plain and simple. Class during the day, work in the evenings, sleep at night. Predictable. Boring. Safe.

I had no idea what I was in for.

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With a quiet sigh you left the small dining hall of your small local college, flimsy coffee cup in your left hand while you pressed the buttons of your iPod with your right. The frigid wind immediately bit into you and your tongue-scorching coffee cooled in seconds to about milkshake temperature. Impressive but irritating.

You were wearing your heaviest jeans, a tattered hoodie, and a scarf. But under the hoodie you only had on a thin T-shirt, not the best winter wear. Your commonsense must have been on vacation this morning.

But your dad was always saying that you should be tough - his whole half of the family was. There was some truth in that, so you hunched deeper into your sweatshirt and doubled your pace.

The winter had begun mildly and turned Arctic in a flash. Barely a month ago, your whole county had gotten a foot and a half of snow. Most was gone now - it'd turned to ice.

To your left someone fell on the slippery sidewalk. You paused briefly, but they were up and off again before you could decide if you wanted to help. You continued on, the change in your progress barely noticeable.

Suddenly the sound in your headphones went out. You yanked your iPod out of your pocket and stared at the blank screen. You grumbled a curse. The cold had even frozen your battery.

You put your useless machine back in your pocket but kept the headphones on. They kept your ears warm. Well, almost.

Now came the worst part of getting to your morning class - crossing the big, cold parking lot. You looked at all the heaped-up snow and the rivers of ice that had formed downhill of it. Another exciting round in the game of Fall On Your Ass.

With another sigh you set out for the far end, dodging around the few patches of ice you could. When you reached the halfway point you dared to hope that you might make it through unscathed.

Right on cue, cruel fate dashed that hope. While you were in the middle of a particularly smooth field of ice, the wind began to blow. Hard.

It actually began to push you along the parking lot! But, of course, not towards your destination. While you tried desperately to keep your balance, other people were falling, and you expected to go over at any second.

Suddenly you hit something - soft? Obviously, it wasn't the ground or a car, but whatever it was, at least it'd stopped your wild ride. Then an arm steadied you and tilted you back upright, and you realized a person had rescued you.

"Phew!" you gasped. "Thank you!"

As soon as you were sure of your balance, you took a look at the guy. He was a head taller than you with short brown hair like yours. He had the prettiest brown eyes you'd ever seen, so unlike your green and gray ones. He was kind of chubby - that was why your impact was so soft - but most of him was hidden under a big blue coat.

You observed all this in a second and decided that the guy seemed nice. Your shyness kicked in though, and you had to resist the urge to run. You'd fall anyway.

"No problem," he said with a wide smile. The wind gusted again and he offered you his arm to steady yourself as you wobbled.

"Sorry I keep falling into you," you said, embarrassed. You kept your eyes down - to watch your step, of course.