Rescue, a digimon fanfic

disclaimer All basic disclaimers apply. I own nothing. Don't sue me!

She was screaming. As her mind struggled to catch up with her body, Kari could plainly hear her own mental voice plaintively wonder why she was screaming. And for that matter why did her screams sounded so… echoey? Echoey? Her mind was certain that wasn't a word. Wait… didn't she have something more important to think about? Oh, that's right… she was falling. And screaming, but the screaming was really secondary to the whole falling thing. Her voice echoed against the walls of the valley she was falling into and she could distantly hear the others calling desperately to her, to one another. She squeezed her eyes shut and fought back the urge to laugh. She must have had some sort of magnetic pull that made her more likely to be tossed, thrown, or just fall into some sort of peril. Machinedramon's city, Piedmon's rope, and now, tossed off by some digimon whose name was currently escaping her flustered, panicking, and chaotic mind.

Eyes closed, her mind may have been wandering, but her body's focus was sharpening unnaturally on what was going on around her. The wind was rushing past fast enough to make it difficult to breathe… or maybe that was just her nerves tightening vises on her lungs. It was cold. It was slightly wet. Her brown hair was whipping across her face in tiny, stinging blows. She had already passed the lip of the plateau where she and the rest of the Destined had been fighting and into the forested valley beside it. She'd have plenty of time to listen to the wind against the canyon walls and watch the sunlight through her eyelids before she reached the ground or even the treetops… plenty of time to think. Her mind wandered wildly and pulled up an almost laughable comparison to her own situation. "And what's this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like 'Ow', 'Ownge', 'Round', 'Ground'! That's it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me? Hello Ground!" Kari laughed dizzily. She certainly wasn't a falling sperm whale, but she was falling and she decided that that was close enough.

A sudden moment of perfect clarity, where her mind quieted and her focus sharpened dramatically, and her hypersensitive senses felt something against her hand. The hand latched out instinctively, gripping whatever it was between her fingers. The next instant she was sorry for her awkward grab as the rest of her body tried to tear away from her suddenly stationary hand and arm. Her shoulder jolted nastily, seemingly threatening to tear from its socket and for a moment her fall was halted. Then, her body jolted a few sudden inches, the fall resumed (albeit slower than before), and a startled bugle made her jump.

Her eyes flew open. Clutched in her grasping fingers was a handful of blonde mane, attached quite firmly to an arched, orange neck that was in turn attached to an orange and white body. Kari swung her other hand up, catching more of Pegasusmon's mane. The stallion's wings were working furiously, but her weight -concentrated on his right side- was causing him to lilt dangerously in the air. He couldn't quite get a full sweep with his right wing without battering the wing's leading edge against Kari's head or shoulders; something he dared not do for fear of dislodging her hold on his mane.

He had been the closest to where the girl had been thrown and a sharp dive had brought him along side her. The digimon hadn't expected her to latch onto his mane, but it did save him from having to waste precious time in an attempt to get into just the right position beneath her for a safe catch.

Later, he would thank his lucky stars that horses had no nerve ending in their manes. Her weight was disrupting his flight and making him more unsteady in the air than he had been his first day as Patamon (and that was saying something), but he wasn't being distracted by pain, at least.

As he flailed mid-air, Pegasusmon felt Kari's shoe come down, hard, against his flank even as she tried to pull herself up onto his neck with her arms. When her foot found no purchase and slipped, she tried again. The girl knew she had to somehow get herself onto the stallion's back. If she stayed clinging to his side for much longer, her weight would flip him onto his side, and she knew he wouldn't be able to fly from a horizontal position. Not only would she be falling, but also she'd be bringing him down with her and that simply wasn't an option. With his shoulder covered by smooth, golden armour, the next best place for her to find purchase to lever herself onto his back would be his flank, where she could use his hip to push off of.

Reflected in his blue eyes, Pegasusmon could see the tops of the trees coming at them rapidly. He had to get control of the fall before they hit of the tree or there'd be no possible way for him to salvage a landing. When Kari's foot fell from his side again, he swung his right wing out and down and ,as she attempted to place her foot against his side, he swung his wing into its path. Her sneaker landed bruisingly against the feathered appendage. They dropped like a stone as the horse turned his attention from flying to heaving mightily, pushing Kari's weight up with his wing. He bugled – the sound a cross between the silvery sound of an angelic trumpet and a stallion calling to his mares – in defiance and determination and the girl managed to swing herself onto his back with a heave of her own.

No longer was Kari experiencing the hypersensitive feelings she'd had before; the rest of the fall was a blur. She pulled her legs back (to keep them from fouling her mount's wings) and ducked her head into his mane with her eyes squeezed shut once again.

Every feather on Pegasusmon's wings was spread to catch as much air as possible, even the leathery wings (ears… whatever they were) on his head were spread wide in a desperate attempt to slow their fall. He was straining every muscle he had, and his aching right wing was shouting in protest of the abuse.

They hit the treeline. Pegasusmon had pulled his legs up as far as he could to protect his underside and Kari's legs from the whipping branches with the gauntlets that adorned his legs. Still, he could feel the whip-like strikes on his flanks, thighs and neck. His long, blonde tail was tangling in branches and leaves, ripping hairs out as he went. His wings were getting the worst of it though, spread out as they were. The digimon knew he was loosing feathers the same was he was loosing strands of his tail but his delicate wings couldn't take the beating the rest of him could. Despite himself, he was happy when the ground began to approach – he would be able to rest his aching wings. Letting his legs fall, the stallion braced himself for landing – he could feel Kari tensing on his back as well.

His hooves hit the ground and he dug in his heels, skidding a few inches before the shock caused his knees to buckle. Pegasusmon's chest hit the ground as he suddenly lurched forward and Kari's momentum drove her into his neck. His wings flopped limply across the forest floor and both human and digimon lay there for a moment, panting.

Kari gratefully leaned against the stallion's orange neck, her cheek resting in his mane near his drooping ears. Through her cheek she could feel the stallion's heart beating rapidly and she could feel his chest expand as he pulled in gulps of air. She ran a hand through his sweaty fur until his heart rate slowed, then lifted her body off of his neck and reached forward to grab the armoured head in her hands. She turned his head so he was looking over her shoulder at her with tired blue eyes.

"Thank you." She said breathlessly, holding his head with one hand and running the other down his armoured nose, a gesture she had once seen from TK after a particularly tough battle.

There was a smile in the stallion's blue eyes as she dismounted, carefully stepping around his wings. He dedigivolved into Patamon almost instantly and Kari scooped the little rookie into her arms. Flying Hope, Kari mused to herself as she gave the little digimon a once over. This was the second time he'd saved her during a fall, when she'd been sure she was going to die. She gingerly touched his swelling right wing, massaging the appendage lightly as Patamon sighed in content.

With Patamon falling asleep in her arms, Kari smiled. Judging by the lack of noise from the plateau above the battle was over. All she had to do was a find a way back up there, back up to a human and a digimon who were certainly worried sick for their partners, their battle companions, and – most importantly – their friends.

an I'd really like to do a run of human-digimon interaction pieces. Stories about Chosen and a digimon who is NOT their partner, just to show some of the group dynamic that is glossed over so often in this fandom. Any suggestions for later pairings would be appreciated.