Backing up the Bayou (Hunt)

"Come on! Let me out, Yoshi-Yoshi!" The Rukamon trapped inside the Xros Loader had been pleading like that for several minutes no, but Tadayoshi knew it was a bad idea. This was one of those very rare times that Silence was expected to operate amphibiously, and that was why they were at the moment floating down a mucky river in the murky swamps of the Backup Bayou. The terrain was difficult and unforgiving, but their client today was also their guide through the swamps.

The General smiled softly. Rashi was such a sweet and innocent soul, but the poor boy just didn't know what he was asking for. Apparently he was unwilling to learn his lesson the easy way, too. Well, no one can say I didn't warn him. So Tadayoshi knelt at the edge of the team's vessel, held his Xros Loader over the depths, and, amused, conceded, "Alrighty, Rashi. You can stay out as long as you want. Deploy."

"Woo-hoo!" Splash! The form of the dolphin digimon diving from the digivice was ephemeral, as the dank, murky depths completely obscured him as soon as he was below the surface.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Already Rashi had stayed below the surface much longer than the young man had expected him to. Did he actually like it down there for some reason? Twenty two. Twenty three. Twenty four. Yoshi was counting on his watch down to the second exactly how long the little dolphin was doing. Thirty fi- Splash! There he was.

"Put me back! Put me back! Put me back! Put me back! Put me back! Put me back!" The young General wasn't exactly happy about Rashi's suffeirng, but he was a little amused by the quick change in reaction. Back in the digivice Rashi recovered from his panic, whining, "That water's disgusting! How does anything even live down there?"

"It does not." That deep booming voice belonged to the vessel that was carrying Silence on this river cruise. It was Deckerdramon, their client, guide, and ride.

"So does that mean no relaxing swim after the job's done?" Dakota lay himself down flat on Deckerdramon's back. Obviously he was being sarcastic. Unlike the rest, he was even scrunching up his face into a grimace, for the stench of the place was overwhelming to his sensitive nose. "Hey, no offense, big man, but how do you do this all day?"

"I live here." Apparently, Deckerdramon believed that was sufficient explanation. Dakota waited for elaboration, but it didn't come.

He wasn't.

That was OK. They knew what they needed to know in the end anyway. Deckerdramon was a guardian of sorts over a plot of remote territory in the wild swamps that tended to enjoy something resembling peace and safety. He had compared it to an oasis in the dessert or a mad, savage world surrounding Eden. Well no matter any flowery language, Silence rather unanimously agreed on how wrong it was for scavengers, raiders, and the like to intrude on this land bring violence upon it. It was settled: this was not one of Silence's more ethically questionable jobs. Perhaps Deckerdramon had no legal claim on the land, but in such a lawless place anyway the team agreed goodwill and a little muscle were the next most valid claims.

It was easy to know when the group had crossed into Eden because its border was marked by a unique signature: on either bank of the river, bright, vivid flowers grew in abundance. At the same time, the water oddly went from being dark and murky to clearer than the world's cleanest window. The transition was not gradual, either, but an instant transformation as if there were some invisible wall between the two sections of water. Tadayoshi walked against the direction of floating to try and get a closer, longer look at the boundary, but for as long as he was able to examine it he couldn't find any reason for it to have been physically possible by his own world's rules.

"If you say so." Rashi was clearly quite thrilled with this new water quality, which Tadayoshi could distinguish because now he could see the little dolphin.

The rest of Deckerdramon's 'oasis' was likewise uncharacteristically lush. The bayou was already green enough, but the dark and drab green had become a brighter, more vivacious shade. Sunlight hardly reached the ground between too many leaves before, but now there was space enough for the sun to brighten up the musty space and really emphasize all of those colors.

"Nice, nice. You built this, big man?" Dakota was so impressed that he stood up and leaned over one of Deckerdramon's ordinance carriers just to take in the view. Even though his mouth was full of terrifyingly sharp teeth, the grin that showed them off was completely innocent, almost childlike in his wonder of his surroundings. Deckerdramon didn't seem to agree with the Strabimon being so impressed, or if he did he didn't reveal it through his speech.

Plant life wasn't the only thing that lived here. So did digimon. No large ones, however, which was something the whole team noticed. Everyone was of rookie rank or below. They laughed and played and ate plentifully and splashed and lived with only temporary pauses to stop and wonder, Who were those oddly stern-looking ruffians whom Deckerdramon trusted enough to carry here on his back?

"Perhaps we have some things in common," is what the other reptilian armed with explosives who helps others as his occupation said to that.

Acquired: Xros Partner Deckerdramon