Digimon Frontier: The Warrior's Return

Chapter 44: Two in Paradise

Chapter 44: Two in Paradise

After restoring the courtyard with your Spirit Inferno you suddenly felt drained of energy. You dropped in midair and then fractal code surrounded you and you landed on your feet on the ground. Immediately your legs collapsed out from under you and you landed heavily on your backside.

"Ahaha!" you laughed. "That'll learn 'em!"

"Not bad," Mercurymon said as he and the other spirits appeared in a ring around you. "It almost looked like you knew what you were doing."

"Shut up, Mercurymon," Dramon replied.

"I think it was a great fight," Zephyrmon said. "You have a knack for handling your beast spirit, just like Izumi."

"What knack? I'm just lucky that I didn't blow everything up."

"That's the knack," Beetlemon chuckled.

You had just climbed back onto your feet when another wave of dizziness hit you and you staggered to one side. Luckily Arbormon was in that direction and he caught and steadied you.

"Hey kid," he said, "you ain't lookin' so hot. You oughtta lie down, right."

"It's weird," you said, "I feel so weak."

"Beast spirits take a lot of energy," Dramon explained. "Especially in battle. You'll need food and sleep before we can keep traveling."

"Hey," Ranamon suddenly spoke up, "do y'all hear that?"

You all quieted. You could hear the breezes rustling through the restored trees, wind chimes gaily tinkling on the verandah, and the jubilant shouts of the Toucanmon in the distance. But closer than all of that you heard a different kind of shouting.

"Is that a spirit?" you asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately no," Dramon said. "But it is someone that needs help."

"I don't think I have the energy to evolve again," you protested.

"You don't need to. Just follow us."

Your spirit companions scaled the stairs into the main resort building and you followed at a much slower pace. The exhaustion was making your limbs heavy and it was starting to invade your soul as well. You would need a good long sleep to regain your physical and mental motivation.

Once inside, the spirits led you down a side corridor that ended in a door. It was from here that the indistinct shouting emanated from. The only lock on the door was a chair pushed in front of it so you moved it, and as you reached for the knob the door flew open and two figures tumbled out.

It was the other Toucanmon! You had almost forgotten about them. They were bound with rope and cloth gags were wedged into their beaks to keep them silent. They rolled their eyes to look up at you, clearly afraid.

"Don't worry. I'm here to help," you said. You knelt and removed the gags and undid the ropes to free them.

"What about the pirates?!" one of them asked anxiously.

"Don't worry, we took care of them," you replied.

You smiled as the Toucanmon cheered together but as you stood the edges of your vision began to go black. You were quickly reaching the limit of your strength. The happy sounds echoed around you as you placed a hand on the wall to steady yourself.

"Ally?"

You opened your eyes - you hadn't realized that you had shut them - and spotted Junpei coming towards you with the other Toucanmon. Their figures were blurry; you were fading fast.