Danger In The Caves, A New Evolution Rises (OPEN)

Well... that could have gone a bit more smoothly.

Owen the MachGaogamon had been flying across the freezing tundra of the North in search of this fabled "Shining Lake". He had heard about it from travelers and had decided to attempt to locate it from the sky. His jetpack ablaze, he had searched, but failed in the vastness of the region.

Worse, it seemed a snowstorm had picked up around him. While he was a pretty tough Ultimate level, well, it seemed mother nature had a dispute of that and badly knocked him around the sky with turbulent winds that threatened to send him crashing down below and be frozen. While his fur kept him warm, even it was being challenged to stave off the cold.

And so Owen was forced to land (upside down, buried to his shoulders in a snowdrift) before righting himself and looking at his surroundings. He was near the mountains, so that was a relief, they could block the wind. Still though, a cavern would be needed to protect from the chill.

Then, his evolution was prematurely ended from loss of energy. Owen glowed, then de-digivolved to his Gaomon form. Owen then felt the cold even worse. While his blue and white fur was thick, all he was wearing was a brown T-shirt, his red scarf and his boxing gloves. He needed to find shelter, and fast. And thus he was brought to a cave, which was still rather chilly, but at the least took wind chill out of the way. And so, here, Owen sat by the entrance. He hoped to make a fire, but he had no means of doing so. So it seemed he would just have to do his best.

He was relieved at hearing footsteps and movement though. He looked up and saw a heavily dressed human and a Dorumon nearby. At first he thought it was his beloved Hikaru, but this one's scent was different. It was simply a Dorumon he'd never met before. Supposing he'd best be polite, he stood up and approached them.

"Hi there" he said. "Bit of a nippy day out there isn't it?" he gave an awkward smile and scratched the back of his head.

From what K could tell the Dorumon was fairly on guard; and had much of a right to be. After all she had appeared out of now where... But that didn't seem to bother the tamer all too much. One of her questions was easily answered as she ran around both of them after getting what amounted to stars in her eyes. The barrage of questions wasn't really a surprise; but it was hard to keep up with them as she wasn't really given a chance to answer most of them.

She'd rub her muzzle a little bit as Amsel introduced both her and her partner; which was quickly followed by the same question being answered along with an introduction from the Gaomon. She'd blink a few times and look between the three of them before sighing softly; what did she really expect when following footprints? Giving a small shrug she'd introduce herself; though she sounded far more tired about it than she really should.

"My name is K; used to be an innkeeper in the eastern-timberlands."

She'd tilt her head a little bit when Owen explained his reasoning behind being in the north. Or at least this portion of it; a whole new area in the northern prominince? That was unexpected to hear; she figured that this location would be slow to change.. at least with all the snow storms and general unchanging landscape. Sheepishly she'd rub the back of her head before giving it a soft shake before moving her goggles back to their usual position.

"Unfortunately My reason for being up here is far less exciting. I wanted to blow off some steam, so I took a walk. Wasn't expecting to get this far north actually but... You know how it goes."

Ordinarily Owen would have been a little more intimidated by K, but despite the Shutmon's fearsome appearance, well, he didn't really think he had much to fear from her. She seemed to be a fairly even tempered digimon, plus he was a Perfect level himself, normally, so, he treated her in a friendly manner without fear.

One thing he noticed though was that she seemed to be rather contemplative, seeming to look at them for a short time before answering. She also let out a sigh and seemed a little tired. Was there something on her mind? Well, it wasn't Owen's business to pry.

She said that her name was 'Kay' and worked in an inn in the timberlands. Owen remembered something vague about that. "Oh? Is that right?" he asked. He had been in an inn there himself a while ago, but its innkeep was a Renamon. But... Shutmon seemed to have some foxish features. Owen just had to ask. "Sorry if this seems sudden, but were you a Renamon in your Rookie level?" he asked. "Because I visited an inn a few months back and there was a Renamon there as a manager".

Her answer as to why she was here was also a little confusing. She just wanted to... blow off some steam? "Heh, wow, that must be a lot of steam, no offense" he said, chuckling.

Then Owen turned his attention to the human, who seemed a little bit childish. By now Owen had met enough humans to tell that like digimon, they had several stages of development. He ranked this one as one of the more younger humans in his encounters. But, he remembered, her partner was also present, and seemed a little protective of her.

"Ah, okay" he said in response to her words. "Well, we seem to be stuck here for now, so, what should we do?" he asked, wondering if they should sit down and wait for the storm to pass or do something else.

K had to admit that the human was rather excitable, if not younger and full of that kick that she had heard that some humans had. The few that she did meet had a 'kick' in different way. It was somewhat refreshing if not alarming in some fashion. She'd raise a brow as the human jumped up and down seeming excited beyond what the Shutmon was expecting.

At the mention of her Inn having good prices when it was still around the Shutmon chuckled lightly. There wasn't much of a reason to charge too much for things there; it would keep business flowing better even if most of the business had been from those that had lived in the town. There were many memories in that place which only made the thing that had happened to it much more impactful.

She still desired vengeance against those that had done her inn harm. Something fierce and it was easy to see even with her head dipping in a nod; accepting the apology that owen gave... along with the offer to listen to what she had to say upon a later point.

"Thanks, I don't... I don't really talk about it very often."

There was a brief but somewhat quiet pause before K followed where Owen was looking, raising a small brow as she could guess he was trying to either figure if they should go deeper or if there would be a threat coming from that way.

"Sounds like a wise idea."

At the mention that it could be like a sleepover K rubbed her muzzle and shook her head. She didn't think this was so much like a sleepover as it was camping with people that could be friends.

"Wouldn't it be more akin to camping than a sleepover though?"

At the query about having any materials, K shook her head slowly and looked rather exasperated.

"I didn't bring anything to make a fire with. Call it bad planning on my part hah."

The shutmon would take a seat and rummage around her bag, grumbling when she saw the warped key-ring to her inn but after a few moments she'd pull out a rather hefty bag of jerky along with what looked to be some drinks that were frozen solid.

"I've got some food, nothing super filling unfortunately. That and It might be a bit hard."

There was an awkward pause and she'd tap her leftmost blade on her forearm.

"I can make fire with these, it's really hot but that might be enough to help thaw stuff out.... Or Get us some patches of ground that aren't covered by snow."

Owen's face softened into a sympathetic look when K seemed to be somewhat hurt at the thought of her inn no longer being there. Especially when he had said he enjoyed it rather a lot there. Oh man, he hoped that she could get back what was taken from her if it truly was destroyed.

In the meantime, the Gaomon considered the two words. "Yeah, camping seems like a better summary of it" he said. "Seeing as we're allied parties with a mutual goal of survival" he then realized he had said something linked from his old officer days. He cleared his throat and respoke that sentence. "I mean, we're all working together to make it through the night without getting hurt" he added.

So it seemed they had little material to make a fire. That was fine though, as K had some beef jerky for some food. Owen looked at it, then thought that would be okay.

"Sure. If I eat that, I should be able to evolve to Gaogamon and keep us warm" he offered. His fur was even thicker in that form, and as winterproof as a husky's. If going through the night required him to snuggle up with these three then he supposed he'd do so. Of course it wouldn't mean anything further, given that he was already engaged to that wonderful Dorumon that was Hikaru.

Then Amsel added Ice Cream and Chicken Soup to the equation and all fears were alleviated. "Heh, nice. That'll definitely help keep the warmth, although I won't ask to take it all" he said. Better still, that meant there was enough food to share. At first he had been worried they might be at risk of weakening from lack of food, but with this much available, that was no longer true.

But it was proposed that they look for fuel to make a fire. Well, Owen could understand with that. Light was good for morale after all. It didn't even have to be a particularly hot fire either to achieve that effect. "Well, if there's any fuel in this cavern, hopefully we can find it" he said. "But we shouldn't go too far. It's very easy to get lost in the caverns". That he had heard from his friend Brad, who had confessed that he had died from being lost in the caverns. So he did not say this lightly.