Burning Trainer's Passion [Open; Introduction]

[Vanga]

“Well then, maybe you should get hit on the head with rocks more often,” Meramon replied to the Impmon’s cover up with a brief chuckle.

Turning back to the human’s wound, he carefully removed the torn cloth covering the gash. The blood immediately began to flow again with the loss of pressure, pouring slowly but surely down her leg and pulling on the ground. The fire-type considered the best way to go about this, taking a moment to study the infliction before raising his body temperature to the appropriate level and setting to work. Thrusting his index and middle fingers forward, he drove them nearly an inch into the wound. This would be slightly painful as he slowly drew his fingers down the bloody length, slowly withdrawing as he approached the edge. The temperature was at a carefully calibrated level and he moved at as precise a rate as he could. The sensation of feeling his flames at the rate he was working would be akin to the level between passing your hand over a flame fast enough to feel nothing and a fullout burning sensation. There would be discomfort, perhaps even some pain to add to that of his fingers penetrating her wound, but nothing serious.

As he came to a close, pulling his digits free and cooling down their flames, he studied his handiwork. The gash was now more of an impression on the skin, red and splotchy and in a few isolated areas black from where the skin tissue had died. The bleeding had completely ceased and the immediate threat of the wound was gone. The area of the gash now just needed to heal on its own, which was good since they probably didn’t have a lot of time to be sitting around and recuperating, the flaming digimon thought as he kept himself prepared for the possibility of another threatening situation at any moment.

“Your wound should be fine for the moment,” Meramon announced as he stood back up to his full height, “your body will take care of the rest, but you’re out of danger now. I’m sorry for any pain you might have felt, I don’t exactly get to practice cauterizing wounds all that often.”

Turning to face the nearby ascent that acted as primary entrance and exit for the mountain-enclosed valley with his burning gaze, he considered what to do next as he spoke aloud, “Right now, we need to get out of here. No telling if those Ankylomon will be coming back for revenge. Impmon, you’re going to have to carry her. I’d do it if I could, but then she’d have worse than a bleeding wound to deal with. These flames can’t exactly be turned off.”

[Becula]

Katrin winced a bit but said," Thanks. And as for him getting hit by rocks, I can arrange for that."

"Try it and see what happens! It won't be pretty!" Damion snapped, grabbing the girl by the arms and dragging her away. "Stupid heavy human."

[Vanga]

“Let’s get moving out of here.” Meramon said, walking past the Impmon and his partner who he dragged along behind him, “We don’t want to stick around here long enough for those Ankylomon to change their minds about running away.”

As he started moving towards the incline out of the valley, he passed by one of the rock slabs turned slag from one of his earlier days of target practicing. He had a feeling that he wouldn’t be coming back to this place for training purposes anymore, not now that so many others had found its location. It was about time for him to be moving on anyways, travel someplace knew. He wouldn’t be finding what he was looking for if he just stayed in one place all the time.

Deciding to get one more piece of good out of these barren grounds, he raised an open palmed hand and let loose a gout of fire that quickly carved through the slab near the top. With his other hand curled into a fist, he slammed his burning knuckles into the clean cut slab, dislodging it from the rest. It clattered to the ground, sliding to a stop a short ways in front of the Impmon, just about at the short digimon’s waist level. Flat on top and smooth along its rounded bottom, the small slab would be both easier on the digimon if he got behind it and pushed and an easier ride on the human girl, who needed to have better traveling conditions in her time of healing.

Without saying a word, the fire-type proceeded a ways ahead of the pair, keeping a fair distance in front. He wasn’t worried about a surprise attack from behind, the valley was wide open and with little cover to hide those bulky Ankylomon who had attacked the trio. Besides, the misfit digimon had ran off into the surrounding mountains so, if anything, he was endangering himself by drawing their fire early enough to keep the other two out of danger. He wasn’t worried about his own safety, however; he just knew that the human girl might be in trouble if she got hurt anymore during an ambush and he didn’t want to feel responsible for any more injuries on top of her wounded leg. He remained silent and vigilant as he progressed onward, always taking a moment here or there to glance over his shoulder and make sure that the other two were keeping up with his pace, adjusting accordingly if he had to.

[Becula]

Katrin then got into the slab of rock, letting her partner push, mumbling things about her owing him, and him hating humans.

[Vanga]

“Once we’re beyond the mountains it should be relatively safe from there.” Meramon called as he trudged onward, “A village isn’t too far away from there, you two can get a chance to recuperate there.”

As the time passed, the trio quickly made their way out of the valley he had been using for training purposes and were now walking the winding paths leading out of the mountainous region. He maintained a distance between himself and the two others, taking care so that if a surprise attack came from the front then the injured human and her Impmon escort would be out of immediate danger but still close enough so that if any ambushes took place from another direction he could still be there at a moment’s notice.

His flames rippled with intimidating swells and licking curls in preparation for the Ankylomon in wait around any corner, but hoping inwardly that they had simply taken off and gone home with their tails between their legs. He would enjoy another fight with those troublemakers when he was alone if they ever met up again, but he didn’t want the human girl to get hurt anymore in the conflict.

“So,” the flame-type digimon called over his shoulder as he kept a sentinel’s scrutiny over the area around him, speaking to the human, “I hope this experience hasn’t turned you off entirely to the digital world.” He gave a brief chuckle to lighten the air a little, though he wasn’t feeling very humorous in his battle-ready state of mind, “I told you this place could prove dangerous at any moment, but it truly is a wonderful place once you get past the daily dangers to life and limb.”

[Becula]

"I don't know. All I know it that its going to be a while before I want to come back. Maybe if I could find a beach or something it wouldn't be so bad. But I think I'll steer clear of mountains," Katrin said.

[Vanga]

“I’m sorry to hear that you feel that way.” Meramon replied genuinely, “If it’s of any consolation, there are beaches in the digital world.” He failed to mention the fact that it was just as dangerous there as anywhere else since digimon came in all shapes and forms. It was a fear that by saying so he might terrify her away from this world for good.

He already felt responsible for what happened to the human girl back in his training valley. It might have been a silly thought on his part to think he could have done things differently, considering the numbers stacked against him, but he had the kind of hero-complex one might say that could make him feel easily guilty if someone got hurt under his watch. What good was all of this training and getting stronger, what proof was there that he was even improving in his abilities, if he couldn’t protect someone from a bunch of hooligan digimon. These thoughts weighed on his flaming shoulders as he led the human-digimon pair out of the mountains, though a trained warrior as he was that didn’t stop him from instinctually remaining vigilant in his attention to the surrounding area for ambush.

[Becula]

"Yeah, there are. If you want to get eaten by water digimon. Or pulled under and drowned, or swallowed by a Whamon...or-" Damion said.

"OK I get it," Katrin said.

[Vanga]

((Sorry my replies took so long, I've been working on my Ishiki introduction and after I finally finished/posted it, I felt a bit of creativity exhaustion xD))

After a short hike through the mountainous terrain, the trio made it to the outlet leading to more leveled land. A simple dirt road continued the mountain path, trailing off into the distance. As Meramon made it out first, he stepped off to the side to let the human-digimon pair pass by and leave behind the dangers of ambush for good. The way he moved aside for them, it didn’t seem like he was planning to go any farther with them.

“This is the road leading back to the village I’ve been camping out near for the past few days,” the fire-type explained, gesturing an open hand in the direction they would be traveling, “if you get there you should be safe enough to rest until you’re fully recovered.” Though he was looking mostly at the human who was hurt the most, he also was speaking to Impmon, who had taken quite a beating from that third Ankylomon.

[Becula]

"OK. Thanks for you're help," Katrin said. "And it was nice meeting you."

"Whatever, let's get there already. I'm sick of pushing you," Damion said. "I really should have just left you to kick the bucket."

[Vanga]

“Good luck to you,” the fire-type replied in turn, having waited around to see them off safely, “The name is Meramon; perhaps we’ll cross paths again one day.”

He turned around and began to walk back along the mountain trail they had just come from. He wasn’t going far, he was going to stick around until the digimon-human partners split to make sure they were at least somewhere that was an easy place to spot danger from, like the open plains between them and their village destination. After that, he would head back fully into the mountains, not returning to his training spot but rather to the other side of the ridge where he would continue his journey some elsewhere, to whatever new location in the digital world he was lead to along his mission.

[Becula]

"I'll probably need it, with this pain around," Katrin said.

"Shut up. I saved your stupid life. You owe me," Damion said.

The two headed further into the village, bickering as usual along the way.

[Vanga]

“Just don’t kill each other before we cross paths again,” Meramon said to himself as he glanced over his shoulder their way as they walked off in the distance.

Chuckling a bit at this playful comment, the only person who could since no one else was around and close enough to hear it, he started back into the depths of the mountains. He already knew the paths that led out of the rocky ridge and had plans for which town he should visit next. It was all a matter of getting through to the other side now without incident and, quite frankly, he hoped that didn’t happen. Maybe he’d get lucky and run into those Ankylomon, or at least meet up with some other ill-tempered digimon that he could use as target practice to let off some steam and anxiety.

This little meeting with the human girl and her partner had told him what he already knew, that he had to keep training harder. If he had been stronger, neither of them would have gotten hurt by those third-rate digimon hooligans. It was just another reason to take to heart for him to find what his master wanted him to find along this journey of his, so that he could take the next step in becoming more powerful. There was bound to be more for him on the other side of that destination, he just had to get there. Shrugging off his concerns, he took more dedicated strides as he progressed back along the trail he had just come through with the human-digimon partners.

[Meramon Exit Thread]

[Becula]

(OK, .3 for Meramon and Damion.)