Frontiers Unexplored

4) Tempest in the Treetop

Takuya groaned as he opened his eyes, unsure of how much time had passed since he was last conscious. He slowly pushed himself off the ground, feeling dirt and grass below him. The light from above was overpowering, and it took him a moment or two to gather his bearings after his vision was shrouded in darkness for so long. 

He could hear murmurs from all directions, but he didn't have the slightest clue who could be making those sounds. Confusion hit him at first until he heard a grumble from Junpei off to his right. Everything that had happened the day before came flooding back to his mind, and a light gasp left his lips. 

That was right. They were running from the Candlemon after being attacked the night before, but his power had run out while he was Agunimon, and he crashed on the ground. The others had all gone down with him too, though he didn't know where specifically they were. He remembered seeing a large tree nearby when he was falling, but everything else was fuzzy. 

Takuya managed to sit up despite the ongoing complaints of his muscles, and he rubbed at his eyes. His goggles had fallen down onto his neck during the crash, and he reached down to put them back on top of his head as he glanced around at his companions. Junpei was sitting up already, and Tomoki had Bokomon and Neemon hanging off his shoulders as he got to his feet slowly. Izumi pushed herself off the dirt, shaking her left arm through the air to dispel some invisible pain that had appeared in it during the night. 

Good. They're all alive, Takuya thought distantly. The murmurs returned to his mind as he became sure without a shadow of a doubt that the voices didn't belong to his friends. 

Takuya's gaze fell on a crowd of Digimon that had come to surround his party. They all appeared to be different copies of the same creature. Their bodies were a pale green color, and their legs were green and appeared to be made of roots. Their spiked tails followed a similar pattern. Their arms were connected to their bodies at green shoulder pads, though the limbs themselves were pale purple that got darker at the root-like fingers. A curly yellow strand protruded from each hand at the center. Their heads were yellow and connected to their torsos with a pattern of red petals with pink centers. Their eyes were as blue as the sky itself, and red helmets sat atop their heads. 

"Floramon," Bokomon explained, though Takuya figured that it was more of an observation for himself rather than a definition for the humans of the group. 

One Floramon stepped forward from the crowd. "Who are you?" she asked, tilting her head to one side. 

"We're travelers," Junpei replied simply. "We were attacked in the night, and it seems we crashed here."

"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience," Izumi told the Floramon, rising to her feet and bowing her head in apology. 

"You all look pretty badly hurt," the Floramon remarked, examining the four humans before looking to Bokomon and Neemon. 

At these words, Takuya found himself looking to the rest of the group, and he realized that she had a point. Bruises littered everyone's skin, and a few cuts could be seen here and there. Izumi's blonde hair had grown dirty from the crash, and she was forced to tear a clump of mud away from her tresses. 

"Yeah... I guess so," Tomoki remarked. He swallowed nervously as he brushed some dirt away from his knee. 

"Would it be alright if we stayed here for a day to recover our strength? I promise that we'll be out of your hair as soon as possible," Izumi said gently, taking a small step forward towards Floramon. 

Floramon hesitated at first, something Bokomon noticed, prompting him to speak up. "We are agents of Seraphimon looking to rid this world of Cherubimon's tyranny," he explained. "Cherubimon has hurt far too many innocent creatures, and we would like to do what we can to change that."