The Bush Tucker Dog [Job B] [Invite]

Well, it seemed that they had arrived early. Owen and Bezil waited at the city gate for the other young digimon to appear. There was no hurry though, Owen had all day free, he just tended to be an early riser.

"What sort of things are we gonna be learning, dad?" Bezil asked curiously, climbing up on one of the fence posts and sat down on it, his feet dangling in the air as he tilted his head curiously down at Owen.

"Well, we'll see what awaits us out there, mate" Owen replied. "But we'll probably be doing a bit of foraging, as well as learning how to make a campsite, that sort of thing". Owen had more of that to teach, but, he supposed he shouldn't really go into the kind of complicated defense theories he had learned as a soldier. Firstly, he didn't remember them in full, and secondly, he was more of a recon specialist, more concerned with learning to conduct operations on the attack. But now wasn't the time to think of that.

Before long, it seemed a couple of humans were approaching Rosewood, and Owen recognized them both. Bezil meanwhile only recognized one. "Oh hey, it's Johan and Dokamon!" he exclaimed, jumping down off the fence post to stand at Owen's side.

"And Adrian and Shoutmon!" Owen added. Bezil blinked.


"Hiya!" Bezil said, giving a wolfish grin that matched Owen's.

Owen gave a bit of a sheepish chuckle as Adrian and Shoutmon seemed exasperated that he seemed to have another kid every time they met. "Well... what can I say? I like having a family" he said, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Yup, I wouldn't trade having a dad for everything in the world!" Bezil added proudly. Owen tried not to think about what had happened in the Bayou. If he hadn't fought as hard as he did, Bezil wouldn't be here today.

Then Adrian asked if he could scan Bezil with his D-Terminal. The Gumdramon was a little confused, but shrugged. "Well, you asked, so, sure" he said, not really having a problem with it. Especially with someone that Owen trusted.

Then Shoutmon asked Owen what they were doing here. "Well, we're kinda resting here" the Gaomon explained. "Three days ago we went on another visit to the Backup Bayou. And, well... things got kinda bad in there. Remember Sagomon? He... remembered me".

He wouldn't forget that for a long time. Sagomon nearly killing Bezil by pushing him into a bog, and paralyzing Owen so that he was forced to watch him drown, unable to move. The sheer emotion had triggered Owen's evolution to mega so that he both saved Bezil and destroyed Sagomon though.

"He won't be a problem anymore though!" Bezil said, proudly. "Dad evolved to Mega and showed that bastard what happens if ya mess with us!"

"So, yeah, after that we came here to recover for a bit" Owen continued. "But today I'm gonna help out some of the digimon here by teaching them some survival skills in the forest" he smiled.

Owen pondered about Dokamon's advice. "I dunno... I kinda wanna have a daughter too" he mused, but chuckled. "Alright, I get ya. I wanna see all three of my boys grow up strong, and the more siblings they have, the less time I'll have with them, so, alright, I'll take that on board".

"Aw, I wanna have a sister too" Bezil complained, but quickly came up with a solution. "Alright! I'll train hard and digivolve, dad, then when I'm all grown up you can do that!"

"Or maybe you could have a daughter of your own when you're all grown up?" Owen suggested, which made Bezil immediately blush.

"W-what? Me? With another digimon... like you and dad?" he asked, blinking. "W-well... when I'm grown up, sure, but... gosh, I haven't thought of that" the Gumdramon remained silent for a little while. But he was distracted by Adrian's D-terminal. "Ah, okay, yeah, that's fairly accurate. I don't do that Fire Vortex attack though, I tried it once, dad said it's hugely impractical so we worked up a better attack instead". Indeed, just a burst of fire was more tactically sound than spindashing.

Shoutmon then asked if they gave Sagomon the old fisticuffs. "Yeah, I did" the Gaomon said, going as far as venturing forth with a grin. "I also had sword-length claws on my fists so it didn't end well for him".

It almost didn't go well for Bezil either, but the Gumdramon would be forever grateful that Owen had pulled him from the quagmire beforehand so he could see him defeat Sagomon in one hit like that.

Then Johan asked if they could come too. Owen consented with a nod. "Sure! I could teach you guys some stuff too..." then he realized that humans tended to be much older than digimon. "Although have you been out camping before? I wouldn't want to patronize you and assume you wouldn't know much about outdoor survival" he asked beforehand.

As he asked this, the young rookie digimon from Rosewood approached. Five digimon - an Agumon, Muchomon, Floramon, Terriermon and Goblimon approached. They saw Owen first, then immediately noticed the two humans.

"Wow, Mr. Gaomon! You even got some humans for the lesson?!" the Agumon asked, impressed.

"Well... more of a coincidence really" Owen admitted. "But yeah, they'll be coming with us. This is Adrian and Shoutmon, and this is Johan and Dokamon". Owen turned to Adrian with a nervous look, realizing he hadn't consented yet. "Is... that okay?" he asked quickly.

Owen sweatdropped a little as Dokamon took him seriously. "Yeah, don't worry, it's not on the cards" he assured him.

It was understandable that Shoutmon wanted to have a swing at Sagomon too, but things couldn't be helped. Owen had to act fast and decisively, and a digimon that was trying to kill his son had effectively signed their death warrant. Owen had at least spared his data, so if he came back in the Village of Beginnings, he'd have one last chance. Owen would not spare Sagomon that next time.

Owen and Bezil gave identical blinks as Adrian talked of LSD fruits. Bezil was the one to inquire first. "...what's LSD?" the furred Gumdramon asked.

"Okay, no rainbow fruits... got it" Owen said, cautiously. Johann mentioned that he had survived a roller coaster accident once. This made Owen and Bezil a little shocked.

"Whoa... that's heavy. I'm... glad you did survive, but I meant stuff like, uh, bushcraft, camping, that sort of thing" the Gaomon explained, plucking at one of the buttons of his tunic uncomfortably.

The young digimon were intrigued by the humans, the five of them gathering around Adrian and practically bombarded him with questions.

"Hey! Do you have a digivice? What's it look like?!"

"Is this your partner? Wow, how high can he digivolve?!"

"Gosh you're tall! Are you gonna grow any bigger when you digivolve?!"

"So that's what pants look like! Do you know where I can get some too?!"

"Have you managed to find a digimental?!"

This was kind of enough for Owen to step in to try and calm them down. "Hey, guys, settle down, let's give Adrian a chance to respond, hey?" he asked in a cheerful yet commanding voice. Something he had retained since his old army days - the ability to be heard when he wanted to be.

With the digimon paying attention to him, he decided that they could probably walk and talk at the same time. "Let's head out into the forest then" he said, beginning to walk out. Bezil followed, and the other digimon did too. They'd still be able to chat with each other for a bit before Owen would lead them to their first lesson.

"Oh dear..." was all Owen could say about the effects of the "LSD Fruits" that were being talked about. Well, he had heard about substances in the digital world that caused odd effects, but he wasn't willing to try those out. And he certainly wasn't going to stand by and let Bezil be exposed to the same. But thankfully they seemed to be a minimum threat here.

As the Rosewood Rookies asked their questions, they were a little taken aback by how the human... seemed to faint.

"Mr. Gaomon, are humans weak to Question type attacks?" Agumon asked curiously.

"Uh... well, question type isn't really a type of an attack, Agumon" Owen replied, trying not to chuckle. "But I think you should probably just ask Adrian one question at a time, anyone can get overwhelmed after all".

Welp, here they were making their way into the forest around Rosewood. The digimon glanced up at Johann as he caught their attention by offering to impersonate Dokamon by making a really grumpy face. All of them broke off into snickers, including Bezil. Owen meanwhile pretended not to notice.

Before long, they arrived at their first destination - a camping fireplace. A ring of large stones surrounded a pile of ash, indicating it as a frequently used place for a campfire. Owen thought this would be a good place for a lesson.

"Alrighty then, here's our first task for the day" the Gaomon said, turning to the group. "Each of you has to gather as much dry firewood as possible. There was a bit of drizzle this morning so that may be hard to find, but, it wasn't a heavy rainfall, so, hopefully you'll be able to find enough fuel to make a good fire for later. Also... seems it's a bit overcast today, so, if you've got a way to keep the fuel dry, might wanna bring that into action too".

So their task for now was set. Owen looked forward to see what would come of this first task.

Dokamon's grumpy expression only amused the kids more. In fact if Bezil had been a human, he would have totally pulled out a cellphone to take a picture of it to share online. But as he didn't have a cellphone, or indeed pants to store one in, he'd simply remember it as an anecdote for later.

Owen was more sympathetic though. He supposed immaturity and children weren't everyone's cup of tea so to say.

As Owen sent the others searching for firewood, Bezil eagerly joined the others in the task. He had a special fire technique with his tail to dry out wet patches of firewood, and after a few Pyro Waves, managed to turn a bunch of soaked logs and branches into suitable kindling and firewood, and promptly set about returning them to the clearing where Owen was standing.

The Gaomon turned to Dokamon as he approached, listening as he explained that he couldn't stand kids. This made Owen more curious than understanding.

"Can't stand kids? How come?" he asked, patiently. "Sure they can be a bit silly sometimes..." Bezil demonstrated this on cue by tripping over a raised root as he approached the firewood pile, landing flat on his face, but promptly stood back up, brushed dirt and leaves from his fur and continued. "But, you can't really judge all kids as awful, right? You and I were both young once".

Still though, he knew telling Bezil this information would only upset everyone, so on that he could keep that promise. "Alright, I won't tell Bezil" he said. "Also, thanks for being honest with me, I'll... try and keep him out of your face until he's grown up a bit". Owen didn't want Bezil to interpret Dokamon's shunning as something personal and have it come to blows, since that would be a very bad thing for all of them.

With that, Owen turned his attention to Johan, who was suggesting leaves to keep the firewood dry.

"Nice choice, Johan, but, I think you missed a step there" Owen advised. "Leaves are good, yeah, but you need a frame to keep them there. Can anyone guess how?"

The Goblimon answered first. "It's like a tent or a house, right? You need a frame first"

"Yep! Got it in one!" Owen said. "First, let's get a framework of branches over the firewood, then we can look for some big leaves to put over them".

The rookie digimon continued their foraging. They had already gathered enough firewood, now they were on the lookout for long branches to use as frames. "Also, these don't have to be dry, you can cut them off trees if you need to!" Owen added. So this was the next element of their task.

Bezil found an ideal branch above - a long wiry one with lots of twigs, perfect for a shelter frame, but, he couldn't reach. "Hey, can anyone help here with distance attacks?" the Gumdramon called out.