Digimon Inheritance: A Heroic Lion's Turbulent Times (Finished)

[] Power
[] Ask Frigimon what's wrong, she's asking after Beat; so did something happen concerning him?

===

While your first instinct is to head out there to make sure Warren is okay, whatever happened regarding Beat refuses to stop troubling your mind. So with a heavy heart, you turn away from the largest of your wards and ask Frigimon what's wrong.

The stout champion gives you a sad look, then begins to explain.

"Drop and her little friend Dracmon left a few days ago during the night. Took a few of the sandwiches I had prepared in the fridge with them." Frigimon states with a worried sniffle. "I tried searching for them, but the little sweeties must have found a way out of town." Frigimon slumps down in defeat. "I pray every morning for them to still be okay…"

Ah, I see… that's, um, not good news.

"Drop left?" Ardat states quizzically, a hint of sadness falling into her tone. "Aw, but I liked her…."

You hadn't really known either of the rookies that well, especially Dracmon, but Beat had seemed relatively close with the Otamamon. Though given how he'd never really returned the larger rookie's affections, part of you wonders if he's actually going to care that much. For a few moments you contemplate how to possibly comfort the snowwomon in front of you, but are interrupted as she snaps straight up once again.

"Dearie me! It's almost lunchtime!" The caretaker exclaims, clapping both mits to the side of her face. "I'm so sorry for the news you two, I know it must be hard, but please stay for dinner."

Hmm. More travel bread, or an actual meal?

It's not a hard decision to make.

"That sounds erm, good."

There wasn't anything technically wrong with the hardy and filling loaves, they were tasty enough. Tastier than a theoretical neutral tastiness, at least? However, the problem lays in just eating the same thing over and over again. After subsiding almost on them for the past week, there's absolutely no way you'd turn down the chance to eat something different.

With that the snowy champion whirls about and rushes towards her home's kitchen. She leaves the basket full of medical supplies in the field, but judging from the rookies' conditions none of them seem to actually be injured enough to warrant that kind of healing.

By now Bearmon has finished his rough and ineloquent victory speech to the other rookies, but Pidmon waylays the group of rookies, rounding both sides of the conflict up so he can start boisterously explaining his accomplishments. The various digimon seem quite taken with his story, sitting attentively as he explains how he first defeated a Devimon.

A familiar pressure on your side alerts you to the presence of Grip, who's taken this moment to jump onto your right arm. The Spiderling takes up a much larger portion of your fur now that he's become a rookie, but the feeling of warmth flowing through your core as he hisses in happiness is no different.

Scourge finally spots you from where the defeated gang of rookies are sitting and rushes towards you. Roughly three moments later and now both your arms are covered by spider digimon. The fact that you missing both of their evolutions is a bit saddening, but you're just glad they're still okay.

Ah, this… this is nice~.

You spend a couple minutes checking up on the smaller brothers, asking them how they'd been in the past week and use your healing spell to relieve Scourge of his minor scrapes and bruises. Neither of them talk very much, but for Grip you note that it's more because he's nervous that anything else. He seems to constantly be worry about what to say, to the point where he mostly just nods and tries to give quiet answers. Scourge on the other paw prefers to just hiss and make motions with his forelegs, which is not the most informative. You don't know if they've developed some sort of secret language based around the sound, but the two seem to be to communicate fluently using the weird chittering noises.

Getting to the unconscious Warren and tending to him comes next. The moment after your healing energies proliferate through the large Demi-Dokugumon's body, his many eyes snap with a growl. One that he cut offs upon realizing that it's not Bearmon in front of him.

The insect digimon springs to his feet, then lowers his head down in a bow.

Huh?

You stare down at the rookie in confusion for a couple seconds before giving a slightly embarrassed cough. A second later, you speak up, explaining that the insect digimon doesn't need to do anything like that every time he sees you.

The eight-eyed rookie rises back up with a shake of his head, and stares directly into your remaining working eye. Warren takes a moment to center himself, then calmly explains that bowing is the least he can do considering what you are doing. Your largest ward happily explains that last week he realized why you kept leaving. That you're out there fighting for him and his brothers in order to keep them all safe. He calmly and seriously states that he wants to be worthy of your actions. Which by your guess is why he's trained so much.

When Ardat walks over to join the conversation, you ward bows again this time towards her and lets out a greeting of "Lady Ardat". Something about those words set your teeth on edge… until the Witchmon lets out a tiny squee of happiness and exclaims "You've been reading the book!" after that you're just confused.

It soon becomes clear that your Ward's rather strange speech (well strange when compared to his brothers at least) and more stoic demeanor are based off the books Ardat has been giving him to read. Which is a bit worrying, considering that it's pushing Warren more towards serving her seriously instead of just during play. Heck you didn't even know he could read!

Thankfully, from there things fall back to more *normal* topics, as Warren explains that he and Bearmon have become enemies of a sort, through the older rookie is currently more powerful and wins nearly every skirmish.

As to the *Why* they're fighting, apparently it just started as sparring, but since both of them had ended up de facto leaders of small rookie groups things had evolved from there until these near-daily brawls. Warren himself doesn't really mind this as it's just a way for him and his fellows to gain more power, and Scourge actually likes all the fighting. On the other paw, Grip tries not to engage if possible and tends to stay near Frigimon so he can help patch up any minor injuries with his webbing.

The five of you don't get much more time to talk before Frigimon calls everyone for lunch, treating everyone to a series of bowls filled with chunks of cooked pink meat, a red sauce and noodles covered in a tasty layer of white material.

After lunch Ardat takes your advice to heart and excuses herself to head off towards the Gym. You have a couple potential options on how to spend the rest of your day.

=== Choose One:

[] Head out to the gym with her so you can work out, and meet with Beat to tell him the news. Who knows, there might even be another wrestling class tonight.
-[] Strength: (Heavy Weights) 4 Strength, 1 Fortitude, 1 Endurance
-[] Fortitude: (Autopuncher) 4 Fortitude, 1 Endurance 1 Strength
-[] Endurance: (Low Resistance Track) 4 Endurance, 1 Agility 1 Strength
-[] Agility: (High resistance Track) 4 Agility, 1 Strength, 1 Endurance

[] Stay at the mansion with your wards for some playtime and maybe a little digging. Just try your best to relax after everything that's happened and do some bonding.

[] Agent Greymon might still be in town, and you have a plethora of Green crystals just sitting in your bag. See if you can find him and trade the crystals in for bits. Perhaps he has something else that might be neat to buy?

=== Verge will be finishing the Flame Weapon Shroud this night in game. What will he focus on next? (Choose One)

[] Muscle Burst: (Strength Buff)
[] Hasten Burst: (Agility Buff)
[] Frame Reinforce: (Large Fortitude Buff + Agility Debuff)

===

Authors Note: Sorry for not getting this out last night. Retconning Grip to be a rookie too, made more sense to me this way. Beta'd by @no.