We continued walking through the forest, when I heard something fly by. I looked up towards the sky and, sure enough, saw something black fly across the cloudy sky.
Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed, because everyone else looked up towards the sky too.
"Hey!" Sora called.
"Did you guys hear that?" Tai asked.
"It appears to be some kind of aircraft." Matt suggested.
"It looked like a big, flying gear." Sora said.
"Admit it, my alien theory is becoming more plausible." We all groaned at Izzy's out loud thoughts.
"Yeah, fhey hit us with an anti-gravity ray to make us all crooked, or maybe that sign's just crooked." Joe said.
Tk gasped as he slipped and fell, but was quickly picked up by Tai and Matt.
"Watch it. That could've been a snake, or worse." Tai warned.
"Oh, man I'm sorry. Hey, Biyomon, are there really snakes here?" Tk asked.
"No, just giant flying killer bugs and other unpleasant digimon." Biyomon answered.
"Don't worry, Tk I'll protect you from them." Patamon said as he snuggled in Tk's arms.
"Okay, now that that's settled, let's get going." Sora said changing the subject.
"Nothing's settled and where would we go? We have no idea where we are." Matt said. I bumped him on the shoulder.
"With that attitude, we'll never get anywhere." I teased.
"Yeah, Yamato! No bad attitudes around here!" Luna shouted from my shoulder.
I giggled as I watched Matt's face turned red.
My happy face gained a confused expression. Why was he always turning red?
"All right guys, enough of that. I'd say we keep walking and see if we can find any signs if intelligent life." Tai said.
"Hey, wait a minute, is he saying that digimon aren't intelligent? Is that what he's saying?" Biyomon asked while rubbing her head on Sora's leg affectionately.
Sora reassured Biyomon, but her voice faded as we left her while she was talking.
Sora and Biyomon caught up with us not too much later.
"Moving right along, folks, keep it moving. Our next stop on the tour will be the forest of irrelevant road signs. No pictures, please." Matt joked as we walked.
I smiled, missing his joking matter. Years ago he used to always crack jokes and play around. After our talk at the lake the other day, I think now know the reason as to why he stopped being the carefree kid I grew up with.
"Hey, wait up. My shoelace is broken." Joe said.
"You need new shoes. Ooh, new shoes." Mimi gushed as she went off into her mind, thinking about new shoes.
We looked around and quickly spotted something in a desert nearby.
"Guys, look!" Matt pointed out to the desert, "Telephone poles. I say we follow them and see where they lead."
We all agreed and walked into the hot desert.
"Ugh, it's so hot, I can feel the heat coming up through my socks." Tk said.
"Well, Tk, maybe you should out your shoes back on." Matt retorted.
A few more minutes passed.
"Ugh, this hot desert air is destroying my complexion. How much further is it?" Mimi asked.
"Is that all you care about, Mimi? We'll be lucky if we even survived this hike." Joe fired back.
"Hey, does amybody but me see that these telephone poles have no connecting wires?" Sora asked.
We all looked around and saw that her observation was correct.
"You're right, maybe they aren't telephone poles, maybe they're some odd alien equivalent." Izzy hypothesized.
I shook my head, "You and your strange aliens. Are you sure you're not just hoping to find an alien so you can experiment on it?"
Izzy bowed his head and embarrassment, "Maybe?" He said.
"Hey, remember those phonebooths and that streetcar?" Mimi asked.
"Yeah, what about 'em?"
"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if anybody else remembered."
"That's it! Doomed! The heat has baked our brains! We're all gonna end up like roasted piglets!" Joe freaked out yelling.
"Just remain calm, Joe. We've only been walkign for two minutes." Izzy said.
I sighed, looking over ny shoulder at Luna, "Luna, can you grab the water out of my bag? I think everyone needs to cool off."
Luna happily nodded her head, opening my bag and pulling out all three of my water bottles.
I gratefully took the bottles and held them out to everyone.
"All right, guys. I have some water for you all to share, but only drink in moderation. It should help with iur hike." I said.
Everyone gasped with smiles on their faces, taking the bottles of water and drinking like there was no tomorrow.
When it was time for Tk and Matt to have a sip, they looked worryingly at me.
I guessed what they were thinking and I waved it off, "Don't worry you two. I can stay alive without water for a little while longer. Drink up." I said.
They turned back to the bottles and drank the last of my water supply.
Suddenly, Mimi smiled and happily hummed, "You won't believe what happened to my favorite watch." She said, holding up a compass, "The sun melted thw numbers right off."
"Mimi, for a girl who hates hiking, you sure have a lot of compasses." Tai commented.
As we stared at the compass, the needle spun out of control.
"Of course none of them actually work."
Izzy picked up some sand and dirt and closely examined it.
"This dirt contains small traces of metal which could affect the compass needle." He concluded.
"Oh well, I'm always late anyway."
"This is one weird world and I don't like it one little bit." Sora said.
"I think we should start looking for water, you guys." Izzy suggested, turning towards me, "No offense, Raya, but your water wasn't enough to keep us cool for long."
I smiled, "None taken."
"Yeah, but we're doing okay for now, aren't we?" Tai nervously asked.
"Help! Somebody please find us! Help! Ugh!!" Mimi screamed to the heavens.
After that little fiasco, we continued walking through the desert. I would be lying if I said that I was feeling the heat or any pain.
I was burning up inside, sweat was running down my head and cheeks, I had given my jacket to Luna to keep her cool, and my leg was thumping like no tomorrow. That's what happens when it gets too hot or too cold.
Not the greastest advantage, but it's the only one I've got and I have to live with it.
"I've taken a soil sample, measured the barometric pressure and analyzed the relative humidity." Izzy said.
"And what did you find?" Sora asked.
"Its really, really hot." Was Izzy's brilliant answer.
"Hang on just a little longer. Don't give up now." Tai encouraged us.
Tk, who was walking by Matt and my sides looked up at my glistening face.
Both brothers were worried, "Raya, are sure it was okay for us to drink your water?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, you didn't get anything to drink." Tk added.
I shook my head to try and rid myself of at least a little heat and smiled back at the two brothers.
"I'll be just fine. If you guys went thirsty while I was hydrated, that wouldn't be fair now would it?" I said.
"But it's not fair to you since you didn't get a sip of water." Tk said.
"I'll drink when we find another water source." I said. That statement made them stop asking me things.
"Hold it, I have to stop." Biyomon panted, "I don't think I can go any further."
"We have to stay positive. Let's all pretend that it's raining." Sora suggested.
Biyomon perked up and ran right up to Sora, rubbing her head on her leg.
"That's a great idea. I absolutely adore the rain." She said.
Matt smirked, "Me too, but it's time for a reality check. This isn't getting any better. It might be a better idea to turn around and get out of this desert right now."
Joe nodded, agreeing to the plan.
"You mean before we all have a power outage? I'll vote for that." Tentomon said.
"Wait. Hold on just a second, everybody." Tai said looking through his mini-telescope.
"If I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing... it's not a mirage, it's real water." He said, filling the rest of us with relief and joy.
We decided to run all the way to the village Tai spotted. When we got there, it turned out to be smaller than we had thought.
And not only was it small, it was filled with Yokomon, Biyomon's in training form.
The Yokomom smiled and welcomed us, swarming around at our feet.
"From so far away, everything looked so big." Tai said.
"But they're so cute and tiny." Mimi gushed over the Yokomon.
While the other digimon talked and explored the little village, I walked around and trued to find some water.
While I was searching, I saw a large mountain a few miles away from the village.
It was large and tall, covered in lush green trees, but the sight of smoke feom the top told me that it wasn't a mountain at all.
It was a live volcano.
All of a sudden, I heard something.
"Meramon, why do you stay up here and not with the Yokomon below?"
"Well, little one, I stay here to protect the Yokomon from any dangers caused by the volcano. Plus I watch over the spring. Without it, the Yokomon wouldn't have any water to drink."
"But don't you get lonely? No other digimon are up here with you."
"It is lonely at times, but I can always find things to do, and even some digimon come up here to visit, so it's not that lonely."
"Then, can you promise to always protect the Yokomon village? No matter what might happen to you?"
"I already promised from the beginning, but for you, little one, I'll promjse once again. I'll never let harm come to the Yokomon village."
The voices stopped, I placed my hand against my head as a sudden pounding hit against my skull.
"What was that?" I asked myself.
"Raya?" Luna asked, looking at me with worried eyes, "Are you okay? You got really quiet all of a sudden."
I looked down and weakly smiled.
"I'm okay. I think the heat finally got to me." I replied.
"Water! Water!" I heard Tk shout, "Look everyone, a fresh water fountain!"
I turned around and walked towards the happy cries. Sure enough, I saw everyone surrounding as large water fountain.
"All the water here is pumped down here from a spring on Mirhirashi mountain. It's the best water in the world."
"Forget the world, MT. Mirhirashi water is best in the entire galaxy." Tentomon commented.
"Where is Mt. Mirhirashi?" Tk asked, the Yokomon faced that mountain I was looking at earlier.
"Hey, that's a live volcano."
"Yes, but the heat boils away all the germs." A Yokomon explained.
I smiled and walked up to the water fountain, setting Luna down on the edge and taking a huge sip of water.
Luna just jumped right in and laughed as the cool water tickled her nose and feet.
"Is it good water, Raya?" Matt asked as the rest of the group joined us at the fountain.
I wiped my mouth from the excess water and smiled back at my friends.
"Yeah, the water tastes amazing! And it's so cold and refreshing." I said.
As everyone gathered around the fountain to get a drink, I suddenly felt something. I couldn't describe it, but it was.... kind of cold.
And not the type of cold that would help with this blistering heat. It was a type of cold that suffocated you.
I tooka look at Mount Mirhirashi, and sensed the cold feeling I had growing stronger.
Luna jumped onto my shoulder, staring at me with a worried expression.
"Raya, are you okay?" She asked, snapping me back to reality. I looked over at my partner and nodded.
All of a sudden, the water fountain dried up and a burning pillar of fire erupted from the well.
"What is happening?" Tai asked.
"The water's evaporating." One Yokomon said.
"That's okay, because the lake is always full of water." Another Yokomon said.
We all ran over to the nearby lake, our eyes widened with shock as we saw not a water filled lake, but a large, dry hole.
"The water's all gone!" Izzy stated the obvious.
"Goodness, where'd it all go?" Mimi asked.
"Somebody pulled the plug." Tk piped in.
We went back to the village, where Tai threw a bucket down the dry well. But the sounds of hollow thumps proved that it was dry.
"Dry as a bone." Matt said.
"I won't give up." Tai said, pulling up the bucket.
We were surprised to see no bucket, and only a sorched end of the rope.
Once again, a pillar of fire erupted from the well, Tai jumped in surprise.
"Look, Tai's doing a little dance for us. Is that to stop the fire, or bring down the rain?" Mimi half joked, half asked.
Just then, Matt's eyes widened in realization, "Hey, do you guys remember that gear we saw flying around?" He asked.
"Yes, it crashed right into a hillside." Izzy said.
"Great, of all the hillsides out there, ot crashes into Mirhirashi mountain." Sora groaned.
"That's where the water comes from." Joe stated.
"Yes, the water comes from a lake on the top of Mirhirashi Mountain." The Yokomon explained, "We don't dare go up there. Only one person has gone up and down from the mountain, becuase they made friends with the guardian of the mountain. The mountain is protected by a fiery digimon called Meramon. He's hideously dangerous."
"You're wrong." I said, confusing everyone, "Meramon is a kind and gentle digimon. He wouldn't hurt anyone."
"How do you know that, Raya?" Joe asked.
I wondered the same thing myself, "I... don't really know."
"I want a closer look at that mountain." Tai said, looking at the mountain through his mini telescope, "You say this Meramon is a fiery digimon? What does he look like? Never mind, 'cause here he comes!"
"But he never comes down from the mountain. This is very strange behavior for him." A Yokomon explained as the others began to panic.
I don't know how, but we could hear hid cries of pain as he slid down the mountain.
"Burning! Burning! BURNING!" He cried.
"Meramom is a fire type digimon. There shouldn't be a reason fir him to be burned by his own flames. It's his nature." Palmon informed us.
Meramon continued down the mountain, screaming in pain as he entered the forest.
"Everybody, stay still." Sora said, "Don't move a muscle."
"Sora, I don't standing here is going to help us." I said.
"Unfreeze! And run!" Tai shouted. Then, total chaos.
We ran to the empty lake, careful not to step on one of the Yokomon as Meramon got closer to the village.
"Single file, please." I said as the Yokomon piled into the ship in the center of the lake.
I ran inside and helped the Yokomon get all the way towards the rear of the sunken ship.
Just then, I saw Tai and Izzy running towards Meramon.
"What's going on you guys?" I asked loudly over the crying and screaming Yokomon.
"Sora ran to get Biyomon!" Tai said. I panicked for a minute, before running after them.
When we got there, Biyomon was attacking Meramon, but was knocked to the ground.
"Biyomon." Sora said sadly after seeing her partner fall.
"Pepper breath!" Agumon said as a fireball shot out of his mouth.
"Super shocker!"
"Blue Blaster!"
"Boom Bubble!"
"Tear shot!" Tear shot was one of Luna's best moves. She concentrated power into her antennae and fired a beautiful water orb at Meramon, hoping to cool him down.
But none of the attacks worked, in fact, it made him bigger and more powerful.
"If we knew why he was crying, then maybe we could help him." Tai said.
"Well, fire's not affecting him, so I guess it's not heartburn." Izzy retorted.
Meramon continued to grow on size and in power.
"Better get ready, 'cause here I come!" Meramon shouted as he came down the cliff with a large smile on his face.
"Meramon! Please stop this!" I screamed, "You made a promise to someone a long time ago. You said that you wouldn't hurt the Yokomon! Would you really break your promise?"
In that instant, Meramon looked down at me and stopped. For a second, I could see a little bit of sadness in his blue eyes.
"Biyomon. Digivolve to.... Birdramon!"
We all looked towards the voice and saw a large orange bird covered in flaming feathers.
Birdramon lifted Meramon up to the top of the cliff and dropped him.
"We'll be safe, now." Sora reassured us, "Biyomon digivolved to save us."
Meramon stood up and taunted the bird digimon, throwing a ball of fire at her and hitting her wing.
Birdramon flew back to Meramon, only to be pelted with even more fireballs.
But she still didn't give up. She flew higher into the air and flapped her wings so hard, that fire came off of them and hit Meramon dead center.
The attack was effective. Meramon grew smaller, and something emerged from his back.
It was a black gear.
We celebrated with Biyomon as she returned to normal. I walked up the cliff and up to Meramon.
"Be careful, Raya. He could still be dangerous." Luna warned me.
I simply smiled and held a hand out to the confused fire digimon.
"Are you alright, Meramon?" I asked. He looked up at me, shaking his blurred head before his eyes widened with surprise.
"It's you." He gasped, "You're the one who spoke to me about a promise."
He reached out and grabbed my hand, but instead of a pianful burning pain, it was comfortably warm.
I led him down to the Yokomom village just as the sun was setting and the water was returning.
"Meramon, why did you attack our village?" A Yokomon asked.
"I couldn't stop myself." Meramon answered.
"That must've been awful for you. If you couldn't control yourself then who was controlling you?"
"The last thing I remember was being hit by that gear."
"Well, we're just glad that you're back to normal. And we hope that something like this never happens again."
We all said our goodbyes to Meramon, when Biyomon reminded us about dinner.
We were served a bowl of some kind of rice. Once I had a taste, I found myself having seconds. It felt good to have something else in my stomach.
But then my mind wandered back to the strange voices talking to each other from earlier.
I knew that one of them was Meramon, but who was the other one?
They sounded young from their high pitched voice. Either who ever was talking was really young, or a very small digimon.
Whatever the case, I had to know: Who was talking to Meramon? And how did I hear their voices?