Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digiquest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero ❯ Turning Points ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter 12

By Time Lady

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Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or Quest for Glory

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Ken lay in bed, waiting for the others to fall asleep. In his mind he tried to go over what Aluramon had told him. The Undead Unguent was in his pack, along with his daggers and several rocks. Wandering around the forest at night wasn't something he was looking forward to. Neither was entering a cursed graveyard. Considering the alternative was being eaten by a hungry ogress, he'd rather face the ghosts.

The full moon was in the window and rising. Daisuke was snoring away. Ken couldn't tell if the others were asleep or not, but he didn't have much time. Mandrake had to be pulled at midnight. Silently he dressed in the dark, shouldered his pack, and climbed out of the inn window. No one was in sight.

The thief studied the barred gate. The bar appeared to be of a whole tree trunk. No way he'd be able to move it. "The wall it is." Ken breathed a silent prayer, then attempted scaling the wall surrounding the town.

---

Yamato sat up in his bed and yawned. Glancing out the window, he realized it was well after sunrise. "Don't remember the last time I slept this late," he thought as he rubbed his eyes. He looked around. Both Daisuke and Takeru were still asleep. Ken's bed was empty. "We can't have slept that late."

He slid out of bed and dressed. Takeru began to stir. "Morning," he yawned.

"Morning. Why don't you wake up Daisuke. I'm going to see where Ken is."

"He's not here?" asked Takeru.

"No. He might have actually gotten up before us. Or. . ."

"He's been sneaking around all night. We better get up and look for him."

"Yeah. He was acting like he was up to something last night. You see if Shema or Shameen saw him, I'll wake Daisuke."

Yamato walked out to the main part of the inn. Shameen sat near the fireplace. "Have you seen Ken?" he asked.

"I am sorry young sir. I have not seen your friend this morning."

"Thank you." Slightly discouraged, Yamato sat at the table. Shameen clapped his hands, calling Shema from the back room.

"Good morning," said Shema. "May I serve you this morning?"

"Yeah. Three breakfasts. Oh, and you wouldn't have possibly seen our friend Ken this morning?"

"The dark-haired, quiet gentleman? Not since supper last night."

"Okay. Thanks."

By the time Shema returned with breakfast, Takeru had managed to wake Daisuke and both joined Yamato at the table. "So where do you think he would have gone?" asked Daisuke as he shoveled scrambled eggs into his mouth."

"I found the shudders to our room unlatched," returned Takeru in a low voice. "I closed them securely before we went to bed. He probably slipped out sometime overnight."

"First stop then would be the sheriff's office then," stated Yamato.

---

Half an hour later they emerged from the sheriff's office. "I don't know why you had to keep stomping on my foot and elbowing me in the ribs," complained Daisuke.

"Ken apparently wasn't arrested," returned Yamato. "Do you want the sheriff to know what Ken is up to occasionally?"

"So what now?" asked Takeru.

"I hope he didn't go out into the forest," said Yamato, glancing out the gates. "Ken hasn't been out there late at night by himself."

"You check the town," suggested Takeru. "Daisuke and I will try and comb the forest."

"Okay," agreed Yamato.

An hour later, Yamato had finished searching the western half of the town. Gennai hadn't seen him. Neither had Sorcerymon, nor the eye on Sorcerymon's sign. The old woman slept in her rocking chair with her Salamon. A few other people taking care of business in the area hadn't seen the young thief either. He turned towards the eastern half of town.

It was about eleven by the time he reached the alley of the Aces and Eights Tavern. In the shadows he saw a beggar holding out a bowl. "Alms, alms for the poor," called out the beggar, who didn't seem any older than Daisuke.

"Here you go," said Yamato, who reached into his pouch and pulled out a few silvers, then dropped them into the bowl.

"Thanks mister." As the beggar looked up, Yamato could see the dark skin of his face, as well as his dark brown eyes. "It's getting so that a beggar can't earn a decent living around this town."

"Been begging long?"

"A couple of years. Before the brigands took over, there were plenty of tourists willing to give a handout. Nowadays, if you're in the alley too late, the thieves will get you."

"You wouldn't have seen a slender young man, dark hair, black tunic," asked Yamato.

"Sorry."

"What's your name?" asked Yamato.

"The name's Sam. Sam the beggar."

"Thanks Sam. I hope things get better for you."

"Take care. Oh, and if you go into the tavern, don't drink the Dragon's Breath!"

"I don't think I'll be drinking anything," said Yamato, grimacing at the memory of his one experience of getting drunk.

As Yamato entered the tavern, he wondered how a young man like Sam would wind up as a beggar. A shiver went down his spine. If he hadn't been given a job, he and Takeru would have been begging too. Yamato shook himself out of the memory and approached the bar.

"What'll you have?" asked Gorimon.

"A little information."

Gorimon stared at him. "What do I look like, an old lady?" Yamato pulled out two gold and slapped them on the table. "Whaddaya want to know?"

"Have you seen my friend Ken at any time since, say, after sundown last night?"

"The guy you were in here drinking with a coupla' weeks ago, right?"

"Yes."

"Haven't seen him in a coupla' days."

"You're sure?"

"Why? He in some kinda trouble?"

"No. We're just worried about him."

"Haven't seen him."

"Thanks anyway."

Glancing around, Yamato considered asking Ogremon. The way Ogremon glared at Yamato made him think otherwise. On the floor near his stool, the young man noticed a crumpled up piece of paper. Gorimon was at the other end of the bar taking care of another customer. Ogremon turned his glare elsewhere. Yamato bent over, picked it up, and slipped into his pocket.

"So d'ya want a drink, or are you just planning on taking up space," said Gorimon as he finished serving the other customer.

"Sadly, I have to find Ken. Perhaps I'll stop back by later," said Yamato.

Outside of the tavern, Yamato uncrumpled the paper. It turned out to be a note.

"I,

Urgent. Meet me at the archery range at noon.

K"

"K?" thought Yamato. "I hope that's not Ken." He glanced up at the sun. It was nearly noon. He took off out the gates and towards the archery range.

Once Yamato neared the bushes surrounding the archery range, he dropped to his hands and knees and crawled close. He found a boulder large enough to hide behind. Cautiously he peeked over the rock. A blonde-haired young man dressed up as one of the brigands paced back and forth nervously.

"Okay Kyle." Yamato saw Igamon approaching. "What was so important that you had to call me from my post."

"The boss is getting nervous," returned Kyle.

"She's always nervous."

"Well these heroes wandering about are making her more so. She's starting to suspect everyone. Particularly you and me. The laughing jackass says there might be spies among us."

"Not good," agreed Igamon. "Bad enough I'm already doing double duty with the chief and the boss."

"We need to lay low. It probably won't be safe using the ambush approach. We could be ambushed and no one would care," said Kyle.

"You remember the back door?"

"Where the bouncer hops, right? Yeah. I still have the key."

"Good. Don't forget the password. You wouldn't like to have to mess with Fred."

"I heard the last person who messed with him wasn't much of a person afterwards."

"Don't forget the password. Hiden Goseke."

"Hiden Goseke," repeated Kyle. "Got it."

"Good. I better get back to my post before the Chief finds out I'm gone. I'll try and slip back in to the hideout after dark," said Igamon.

"Right. Meanwhile, I'll head back to the hideout before I get my butt chewed out."

Yamato watched as the thief and the brigand parted ways. If he had heard them correctly, he knew where the entrance to the brigands' hideout was.

---

"Aluramon said she sold Ken some Undead Unguent and that he was asking a lot of questions about Mandrake root," said Daisuke. "We know he's not in the cemetery. He didn't spend the night in Hikari's Peace. Where else could he be?"

"Let's check by Lillymon's corner of the forest. If he's not there, we can check with the hermit," suggested Takeru. "And if all else fails, maybe Wizardmon can cast a spell to locate him."

"I just hope. . ."

"I know. But Ken knows how to sneak around without being detected. If he was in the forest last night, I'm sure he managed to get somewhere safe."

The two adventurers hiked through the forest. Over the last few weeks, they seemed to have been making a dent in the monster and brigand population. Unless they specifically went to the Goblimon training grounds, they weren't attacked anywhere near as much as they used to be. The trip was relatively uneventful.

As they entered the grove in Lillymon's corner of the forest, they breathed a sigh of relief. They found Ken sound asleep in the shade of Lillymon's flower. Takeru saw the dark circles under the thief's eyes. "Think we should wake him?"

"What? You want to carry him back to town? Or do you know some sort of levitation spell?"

"Not yet. I just don't think he's ready to wake up. Something big happened last night," explained Takeru.

"Now that you mention it, he does look pretty bad."

"I'll go back to town and get Yamato. It shouldn't take me too long. You stay here with Ken."

Daisuke nodded his agreement, then watched Takeru head back to town.

---

Yamato sat in the inn, pondering what he had heard. There was only one bouncer that hopped, and he didn't think Igamon meant Ogremon. "If I'm right. . ." Yamato's train of though ended abruptly as the inn door swung open.

"We found him," said Takeru excitedly.

"Is he hurt?"

"No. He was sound asleep. It looked like he'd had a rough time the night before. We found him by Lillymon's flower. We didn't want to wake him yet. Daisuke is still with him."

"Okay. I'm coming."

Yamato followed his brother out of town and through the forest. They found Daisuke and Ken where Takeru left them, but Ken was now awake and eating a ration from his pack. "Normally I don't ask what you were doing all night, but this time I'll make an exception," said Yamato, his arms crossed over his chest.

"You're not going to believe me," said Ken, who was still very groggy.

---

". . . So then, she turned me back to a human, took the Mandrake out of my pack, and was shouting something about making Mandrake mousse. After that she zapped me back outside the gate. I made my way south, found myself here. It looked safe enough, so I went to sleep." Ken ended his long tale.

"I don't believe you did something as stupid as try to face someone like Babamon Yaga by yourself," said Yamato.

"Trust me, it's not like I planned to really get that involved," returned Ken. "I was just going to check out the place and head back out. I didn't ask to be caught."

"You didn't happen to see the gestures she used in her spells, did you?" asked Takeru. Ken and Yamato glared at him "What?" added Takeru innocently.

Yamato shook his head. "Well, at least we now have an idea of what we're facing with Babamon Yaga. But now, we have some planning to do. . . ."

<to be continued>

Author's note: This Sam is Sam, the American Digidestined. AKA Phil in the dub.

Believe it or not, the beggar in the game is also named Sam.

Don't worry about Sam. He'll be back in game 5. Sometimes all that begging pays off ^_^.

I've decided I'm finally going to take a section of the space I have for the Mystic Manor Homepage and turn it into a section for my Digimon fanfiction.

Actually, I will be turning it into several showcases, one for each of my story "sections."

I will be dividing it into the following sections:
Digimon Fairy Tale Theater (all of my fairy tales, including "A Digi-Tale")
Digiquest for Glory
Angels (the stories of Takangemon/Karangewomon)
A Teacher's POV
and one section for the miscellaneous other stories I'm working on (the Doctor and the Debutante may get it's own section later).

The problem?

I CAN'T DRAW!!!!!

Since I can't draw, my best friend the artist is bogged down with her classes, and my other friend the artist is otherwise occupied, I am putting out a request for art.

What am I looking for?

I'm looking for:
Logos
Background images
Other artwork

I'm looking for anything inspired by any of my Digimon stories that could be put up with the different stories.

I'd like to get started on the pages around Christmas (2 weeks, no school, little more planned than my mother's cataract surgery and running every hour every day for a week to put her eyedrops in), so I'll be accepting anyand all art through then (and probably afterwards as well).

Thanks all!