New chapter! Okay, so we're still lost in the forest of irrelevant signs...Short chapter...No super important developments yet, and everyone is still just walking and talking. But I don't suggest saving this chapter for later, as the next chapter will be a long one!

December...It's getting awfully rainy and dreary right about now. But soon, when the snow begins to fall, it will be 'sit by the foggy window with a book/manga and a nice warm mug of hot chocolate' season again~ ^_^

~W

8.

Our shoes made dull sploshing sounds as we ventured across the grass. The air was still damp and I broke out in sweat under the beaming midday sun. A leaf tickled my face and left a damp line on my cheek.

As usual Tai sauntered at the head of the group. I trailed behind Sora and Joe, keeping both my eyes on T.K. who marched not far in front of them. Occasionally I looked over my shoulder. From the moment we stepped into the forest I

Stumbling over a tree root by chance, I lowered my head and saw that her white socks were wet. She wore geta sandals with a thick blue and white speckled thong that matched her yukata. The wet grass drew dark spots all over the blue hanao, and tickled the hem of her cotton dress.

"You okay Matt?" Sora asked and gripped my elbow tightly, keeping me from falling over.

"See Joe, I'm not the only one. Legs are overrated, flippers are the bomb!" Gomamon laughed, leaping onto his partner's shoulders as Joe sighed for what seemed like the ten-thousandth time.

"Yeah I'm fine," I said though I simply couldn't wipe away the feeling that someone was watching us from behind the bushes and a sign that read, "private property, no trespassers".

"Does anyone know where we are or where we're going? All these signs are starting to make my head dizzy," Mimi whined.

"Don't worry Mimi," Sora tried to reassure her, "We'll find a place to stop soon. To be honest I'm not sure Tai even knows where we're going, though it's not like we've got any choice but to keep moving on. Maybe we'll come across some friendly Digimon once we step out of this forest, and we could ask them for directions to wherever we could find the next Dark Master…"

"Either that or the Dark Masters will find us!" Mimi squealed, trying hard to hold back her tears.

"Mimi's right. The bad guys really have a knack for finding us first," Joe sighed dispiritedly. His glasses had slipped off his sweaty nose and were dangling crookedly from his lopsided ears. Gomamon ruffled Joe's hair teasingly, chuckling wildly at something Patamon had said. "I really hope the evil clown guy doesn't jump up on us next," Joe continued, "He looked extremely bad…even more frightening than the giant mechanical monster with the huge metal jaw!"

Up ahead T.K. and Kari were still eagerly questioning Yuko about the brothers who tried to alter the landscape of the Digital World.

"Did you ever find out what really happened to them?"

"Did they have Digimon too?"

"How come we've never heard of the story Yuko?"

She jumped down from a low branch, cradling another four red apples against her belly.

"I've been here for a very long time. Nowadays no one really cares about the legend. It's a story that older Digimon tell younger Digimon, and I guess you guys have been too busy saving the world to sit down and listen to a bearded Koromon tell you stories from his youth over a cup of steaming tea and shabu-shabu…"

She handed an apple to Gatomon and Kari. Palmon stole one from the bundle with her long green tentacles, and the apple she gave to Patamon slipped out of his tiny paws and landed in T.K.'s hands.

With their mouths stuffed full, munching through the crisp red skins of the apples, T.K. and Kari stopping asking questions, and instead turned their attention to keeping the juice from dripping down their chins and onto their shirts. I split my bit with Gabumon. I wasn't that hungry but I forced myself to eat it. Who knew when we'd come across proper food again?

We kept walking deeper into the forest, stepping carefully over snake-like roots and chomping loudly on fruit. Every few minutes Yuko would pull out more fruit from between the leaves or from a hole in the tree, and once she even leapt down with a stale baguette sticking out of her obi. Blowing dust off the crumbly surface she cracked the loaf on her kneecap and threw it in the air where Gatomon tore it into a dozen pieces with her lightening claw.

"Who knew these things would still be here after all this time!" She pondered contentedly to herself as the bread crumbs drifted down like dust upon our shoulders. Everyone else was eagerly munching down their chunks of tough bread and for a good ten minutes the sound of rabbits gnawing on cardboard replaced that of Mimi whining, Joe sighing and Yuko telling stories in attempt to distract us from our tiredness and hunger.

"Eat up Matt," she leaned close and whispered inside my ear, "There's more hidden up ahead though I can't promise if any of it is still good…I mean, if the Honeybeemons haven't gotten to it yet, nature probably has. Ten years really flew by fast," she sighed.

Thanks for reading~ Please drop a comment~