Forest-Friendly

[Miyagi Kasumi]

Brittany looked towards Veemon with a calm expression as she watched him climb up a tree and sit there while attempting to grab a ball. She had told him not to throw it up so high, but he insisted that there wasn't any chance of it getting suck. It was after this statement that the ball did indeed get caught within the very tall tree, leaving her with a smirk and him with a sheepish grin.

"Truly...You are a mon of many skills..."

Veemon continued to reach out for the red ball, sticking his tongue out towards Brittany before finally retrieving it from a branch. Then, the blue dragon jumped down from the tree and landed before her with a grin.

"Heh heh...You only wish you had all my many talents..."

[marik]

Between catching up on his long overdue school work and dealing with the various digimon that popped up, Marik had been getting very stressed out lately. School just piled on more and more work, and just when it looked like the end of it might be in sight, his digivice would go off and he'd be out having to battle or otherwise deal with some stray digimon, and he'd come back another day behind. It was a vicious cycle and it was starting to take it's toll on the young male. If his hair weren't naturally a silver color, he'd probably be getting gray hairs right about now.

Of course, Kudamon had noticed his tamer's deteriorating condition, and as his partner had become deeply concerned for his well being. To help him cope, Kudamon insisted on him taking a break from all the work. So here they were, on a stroll through the forest. Kudamon had hoped that it would be a calming outing for Marik, but his tamer was being quite skeptical of the entire idea.

"How can I relax when I have all that school work I need to get done?"

"You'll get it done later. Just forget it for now and just take some time to calm yourself. Its only going to get harder and harder to work if you run yourself ragged."

"I guess..."

Marik continued walking on, with Kudamon following, floating close behind him. After a bit of walking, the sound of people talking got their attention. Kudamon instantly darted for Marik's coat, thinking it was a pair of humans, but relaxed as they spotted a Veemon. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Brittany. "Hey, Brittany, Veemon. Wasn't expecting to bump into you two." Marik greeted. "How have things been lately?"

[Miyagi Kasumi]

Looking over her shoulder, Brittany stared towards the two and smiled as she realized it was Marik. He was boy that had at one time been with Shana, the girl that had pretty much destroyed her home. But after talking to him, she realized that he wasn't a bad kid, he was even a little cute. But it was more in the area of kid brother. The boy was way too young for her and she had no interest in him outside of that.

"Pretty good....Just hanging out in the woods...Playing ball..."

Veemon looked towards the duo as well, blinking as he tossed the ball up and down before holding it tightly in his arms. He wasn't sure if Brittany was on complete good terms with this kid or not, though he knew she wouldn't just go out and attack him. After all, the guy had came up so causally. So perhaps...things were settled?

[marik]

Marik had been pretty nervous when he had bumped into Brittany at the mall, and he was certain she was completely ticked at him. On the contrary though, she had turned out to be pretty fair to him, and after getting to know her better, he had begun to see her as a bit of an older sister. Of course Marik had absolutely no interest in anything beyond that. Even if she was closer to his age, after Shana, Marik didn't want to so much as think about girls in such a way for a long time.

"Sounds fun. I've been pretty swamped with work lately, but I guess I've let Kudamon drag me outside for a break. Could we join?"

Kudamon meanwhile hovered over to Veemon. He merely blinked as the Veemon stopped tossing the ball up and down only to cling possessively to it. Did he think he was out to steal his ball? "Greetings, I don't believe we've properly met. I'm Kudamon." He said, introducing himself to the Veemon. This was the first time they were really face to face. Last time he had been invisible, so it was hard to count it as a meeting.

[Mirei]

In the quietness of the forest, the arrival of four unknown and talkative invaders remained not undetected. From the shadows of the forest, a very imposing figure that would freeze the blood and make even the bravest of warriors cower in fear emerged in all its glory. It was the guardian of the forest, a being of unimaginable power, one that could easily destroy all life that dared to defile the holy forest, something so fantastic and otherworldly that its mere presence would drive mere mortals MAD! it was .... just a cheerful palmon taking care of her small garden.

The palmon was previously attending to a small patch of soil where she planted a few seeds some weeks ago and patiently waited day after day to see them grow into beautiful flowers. They were seeds that originated from the flower shop of the Hitoehi sisters Hanako and Shana and it was Hanako herself the one who provided the palmon with the seeds of life during one of their many encounters in the forest, which now was the home of the flower digimon.

Life in the forest was lonely and despite she finally adapted to live alone away from civilization, she still wished for company even if it were from complete strangers. However, the digimon was not a fool and having into account what the sisters told her, she avoided adult humans and only entered in contact with humans who were tamers. If they were friendly, GREAT!, if they were hostile, she had the strategic advantage of being in an area where plant digimon were at home and could easily shake off any evil tamer.

Anyways, the palmon left her little garden the moment she felt voices in the nearby area and after checking that the owners of the voices were neither adult humans nor non-tamer kids, she quickly rushed in front of the human tamers. They seemed to be in friendly terms and people that values friendship can't be bad, so she decided to present herself in front of them.

"Hello everybody, welcome to my little garden!"

The untrained eye might confuse her with certain digimon partnered with certain mischievous girl, but make no mistake, this was a palmon, not an aruraumon, although hilarity would ensue were she mistaken for Shana's partner by those who knew about the mischievous girl and her digimon XD

[Miyagi Kasumi]

Brittany smiled as she turned her head towards Marik as she nodded. It wasn't an issue to have another party with them, it just increased the fun. All of them needed a break from time to time, especially from school and all the dangers that surrounded them now. Once there was a time when she would have never thought this was possible. A world that existed outside their own. But seeing Veemon and all the many other digimon they have encountered, she couldn't help but believe it.

Veemon looked towards the Kudamon as he floating in front of him. So this was Marik's partner digimon. He didn't remember seeing him, only hearing his voice that night of the accident. But it had indeed stopped the girl's little rampage, even though the damage had already been done. Though he wasn't the one he was still somewhat upset with, it was that girl.

"Nice to meetcha...Names Veemon..."

Extending his hand towards the Kudamon, Veemon grinned as he held the ball under his arm. Though within moments, his attention was turned to the digimon that seemed to appear out of no where. Eyes looking her over, Veemon quickly dropped the ball and got into a fighting stance.

"Not a step closer or your a salad...."

[marik]

Marik smiled. He was glad to have a friend like Brittany. After spending so much time with Shana, Marik had forgotten what it was like to have a nice calm, non-violent game with a friend. It seemed like everything Shana did involved some sort of aggression, whether it was chasing down and fighting whatever digimon they came across, playing some sort of fighting based video game, or wrestling eachother (which always resulted in him losing... badly)

However, their game didn't even get to start, before they were interrupted by a digimon calling out to them. Marik froze when he first glanced at the Palmon, at first fearing it was Shana's partner, Aruraumon. However, it quickly became clear that this wasn't the same digimon. It was a Palmon, and he didn't think Aruraumon was the kind of digimon to be that... eccentric. "Hey there." Marik greeted the Palmon. "Who might you be?"

Kudamon smiled at Veemon as well, extending his short arm to shake with the blue dinosaur. They didn't get much time to get into the game Brittany and Veemon had been playing, due to the abrupt arrival of a Palmon. Kudamon hovered backward a few inches away from Veemon as he threatened the Palmon. He however kept his calm. "Easy, Veemon. She hardly appears to be a threat." said Kudamon as he looked the Palmon over. Indeed, this type of digimon had a striking resemblance to Aruraumon, but the differences were still clear enough.

[Mirei]

"Eeek!"

The moment the veemon menaced to make salad with her, the palmon immediately hid behind a tree. A coward she was not, but she disliked violence and she always tried to avoid getting involved into battles unless it were necessary or unavoidable.

She wasn't sure about leaving her hideout as the veemon seemed to be aggressive, but the male human boy in the group sounded like he was gentle and wanted to know the plant digimon. Maybe it wasn't a bad idea to go out and talk with them after all and the veemon maybe was just worried about his tamer.

"I-i'm the palmon that lives in the forest. This is my home and I protect it from bad people!"

Actually she did almost nothing protection related, maybe extinguish cigarettes some visitors tossed on the grass and once a while scare bad humans who were hurting the plants or the animals of the forest, but she never actually participated of any digimon battle, she was never close enough to realize there was one and even if the timing were right, her own survival took priority on everything

[Miyagi Kasumi]

"Yes...Down boy...I don't think she wants to harm anyone..."

Brittany walked past Veemon as she knelt down close to the ground. She didn't approach the digimon's hiding place, but she spoke calmly as a means to try and help in making the Palmon feel at ease. If anything, they were more dangerous to her than she was to them. There was also the fact that she didn't sound like she was lying about wating to protect her home, though she would be lying if she said the forest was totally safe.

"Sorry about that...We've just had some bad experiences within the woods with wild digimon. He's just a little jumpy when it comes to new faces..."

Veemon looked at Brittany with a blank expression, crossing his arms as she mimicked her silently with his mouth. He didn't think of himself as jumpy. If anything, he was just acting like most digimon would around their tamer. Threats first, ask questions, then attack if needed. It was better to talk tough first than to appear like a complete push over.