[] No (Verge goes to rest)
[] Gnaw's previous attempt at catching "That stupid tricky bird" failed, now he's coming to you to ask for some help.
====
In the end you decide to decline Flamemon's offer of further training and instead head straight towards your hut. The emotional weight of what had happened still weighed heavily on your mind, something only made worse by the very real threat of being deleted. But perhaps what pushed you most to decline was the pain. The beating you'd received meant that every movement sent one ache or another to the forefront of your mind. Stressing your body now might only make things worse. Right now, all you want to do is lay down on your bed and try and recover from the days events through rest.
So
that is exactly what you do. At first sleep proves to be an Illusive thing, as no matter how much you toss and turn in your mew bed, the events which happened today refuse to leave your mind. What certainly doesn't help is the trepidation that sleep might bring yet another nightmare.
Surprisingly it is Lunamon that actually helps you find the peace needed to actually sleep. She clumsily sneaks into the hut a few hours after your initial attempt to sleep, then proceeds wiggle into the fur on your side. At first it's a little uncomfortable, but then she begins to stroke your head with her hands. It feels.....comforting, and little by by little bit your thoughts begin to simmer down. By the time she stops you're at the brink of falling unconscious.
*huuuhhaa* "Good night Onii-chan."
"......Go-good night Lunamon."
Your dreams do not prove to be unpleasant that night.
===
When you wake up in the morning there's a faint throbbing on your forehead, but beyond that the pain from yesterday proves to be entirely gone. By your guess that must be where the dark green Goblimon whacked you right before....you let out a momentary shiver as the memory of his threat resurfaces.
R-right before he threatened to d-deleted us.
Carefully you extricate yourself from the smaller digimon's hold, being careful not to wake her from sleep. Before leaving the shelter, you can't help but gaze down upon the resting rookie, a warm smile coming onto your face
Thanks Lunamon.
Carefully you exit the hut, looking around for any of the other villages inhabitants that might be up. However your early rest seems to have translated on getting up earlier than normal as well. Only Gramps and Sorcerymon prove to be awake in the early dawn. Seeing the white champion near the villages cauldron reminds your stomach that you'd missed not only lunch but also supper yesterday and it lets out a very loud, very hungry protest in response. With the nearest meal cooked by Gramps being hours away you decide to visit Sorcerymon to trade in some crystal for a good sized meal.
After consuming the bars you don't have much to do but wait until everyone else gets up. It's not like you can try to get Auger up to head towards the cave again. The very thought of going near the *banned* mountain again sends tingle of fear down your spine. However that quickly leads you onto the path of something else, something that is just as equally distressing.
Before the club-wielding rookie digimon had struck the final blow you'd been so...angry. It had completely overwhelmed your sensibilities, changing what you'd wanted to do even forced you to attack him regardless of the potential consequences. While it's true that you'd felt it happen before, twice in fact you'd tried your best to ignore them thinking that just maybe it would go away. But a third time? You can't help but get a sinking feeling in your core. It's going to happen again.
That fact frightens you, maybe next time it would get you deleted, or worse send you into a rage against someone else who wasn't trying to hurt you. But even so much as you're worried about that, a dark corner of your mind offers it's own opinion. That maybe you
need it since you're too pathetic, too much of a coward to actually fight on your own terms.
Before you can continue any further with the brooding thoughts a voice calls out.
"Hey Verge!" Gnaw shouts, quickly bounding towards you on all fours. He slides to a halt several feet away, a claw going up to scratch his chin. "About yesterday, I'm glad that you're..." The Blackgabumon pauses for a few seconds searching for a way to end the sentence in a way that's not using the word *Okay* before finally shaking his head. "..not gone. Hn, for a coward you're alright "
For a brief moment, you can't help but feel a tinge of shame at words, but it passes quickly enough. You suppose that's the closest thing you'll get to Gnaw saying that he likes you.
"I. Blegh, I need your help Verge" the big rookie grunts. "Auger is still healing, so you're the only one who can do the digging I need"
"Y-you need me to dig?"
"Yes I do!" He snarls, glaring up towards the sky. "That
stupid tricky bird avoided my trap and made me get....well that's not important! It's stealing food from the fields and Gramps wants me to stop it." Gnaw beckons for you to follow him, then begins walking towards the gates exit. "We'll set a trap for that damned bird just outside the village. I know where that dumb digimon flies in, so it'll see the food and land on the pit you'll be digging." He explains, leading you around the wall to the villages east side. "I'll
rip some branches free and cover the ground, then put some meat on top. Then when it lands...." You watch as the Blackgabumons mouth opens up, showing an extremely vicious grin. "I'll
get it."
Despite knowing the predatory look isn't directed towards you, it's impossible not to start quivering. You find yourself very grateful that Gnaw doesn't see you as an enemy, if he did.....well you don't want to even think about it.
===
The pit that Gnaw wants you to dig doesn't prove to be all that difficult of a task. Sure creating a small pit ten feet deep requires moving lots of dirt, but by now if nothing else you're
used to spending hours drilling through the ground, and dirt is a lot easier to move through than stone. Of course, the fact that Gnaw just wants a relatively narrow it instead of a wide one also helps things move along faster. Real real challenge proves to be making it sturdy enough to not collapse while you're digging but you manage to prevent that from happening. Thus it only takes a couple hours for it to be finished. By the time Gnaw comes back from his foray, you've taken the small circle he'd drawn on the ground with his claws and turned it into a proper hole.
"Bwahahaha! That stupid bird won't stand a chance!" The Blackgabumon cackles, dropping his load of branches to the ground. From that point it's just a simple matter of watching him finish things up before Gnaw tells you to come with him to hide in the nearby trees. He also makes sure to cover you in branches as well. According to him, "Darnit, Purple is not a stealthy color!* The next couple hours prove to be completely and utterly boring, simply waiting with your companion as time goes by. Eventually a hand shakes your shoulder roughly, as the Blackgabumon shoots you another grin. "It's here"
At first it proves difficult to spot the *Bird* Gnaw is talking about, but a few seconds thereafter it begins gliding down towards the trap Gnaw had set up. The small bird digimon alights on the ground nearby the pit before cautiously looking around.
"Come on you stupid thing. Fall for it. Fall for iiiiiit." Gnaw growls under his breathe. "Come on..."
After what feels like an eternity of waiting, the rookie digimon finally hops forward claws reaching down to scoop up the small piece of meat, his feet come down right on the trap.... then falls through the layer of branches with a surprised squawk.
"Bwahaha! Yes!" Gnaw howls victoriously from your side, leaping free from the brush and sprinting towards the hole. Thanks to the small circumference of the hole, the bird digimon can't simply fly up, meaning that it has to climb. Something that gives your companion more than enough time to clear the fifty feet and then leap in after the bird digimon.
"
Horn Attack!"
A scream of pain rises up from the hole, and is soon followed by the sound of scuffling as Gnaw attacks it with full force. You swallow nervously, from your hiding place not wanting to be around the conflict and simply wait to see what happens. Roughly half a minute later the rounds stop and another how echoes through the air proclaiming Gnaw's victory to the world at large. Quickly you break free form your coverings and scamper over anxious to see if he's okay. Oddly enough on your way there, some sort of...shimmer appears over the hole it's only for a few moments but the strange phenomenon still makes you pause.
Gnaw climbs out of the pit a few moments later from what you can see his body bears a few scratches and even a small hole in his shoulder, but the rookie doesn't look like he even feels it. Rather by his happy grin Gnaw is actually happy.
"Y-You won?"
"Bwahaha! Of course I did. That stupid bird didn't stand a chance!"
"Th-that's good." You do your best to return his smile, but don't find it that difficult. Helping him defeat another digimon like that actually makes you feel...happy. "W-where is it?"
Gnaw pauses briefly at your question, then shakes his head.
"Gone." He grunts. "Don't worry about it Verge"
"Wha-"
I'm glad that you're.....not gone.
O-oh. He. H-he...He Deleted it.
The elation you were feeling twists into pure horror as you realize what had happened. The trap you'd helped Gnaw make, it was so he could corner the bird digimon where it couldn't get away. So he could make it *Gone*
Gnaw tilts his head at your quivering form, then lets out a snort of derision and starts moving back towards the villages walls.
"Get moving, we're heading back inside"
You slowly begin to follow him, but the thoughts of what he'd just done won't leave your mind.
=== Choose One:
[] You don't think Gnaws actions were right, he shouldn't have deleted that digimon. Doing that is just....wrong.
[] You think that he went too far. Killing another digimon over stealing a bit of food from the village was just...too much.
[] You honestly don't know what to think. In the end you helped him do it but....if it was stealing from the village was Gnaw right do it?
[] Write in reaction
===
Stat/Skill changes:
- Strength: 37.5->39.25
- Fortitude: 33.0
- Endurance: 36.75->38.50
- Agility: 22->23.25
Digging: 6/100->7/100
===
Authors Note: Sorry about the update tonight being late. I had some great conversations which held me up a bit.
Also, there will be a retcon. Since *The Champion* title doens't really work I'll be switching it over to *The Gladiator*
