thefolder | Time to move on.

Kit nodded. "That's gotta be a hard job, taking care of all the babies by himself," she said solemnly. "I know Mama had a really hard time taking care of us after Papa died, and there were only four of us." She paused, frowning thoughtfully. "...The parents should stay around and help him, so he doesn't have to take care of all the eggs and babies by himself. It's not fair that he has to do it all himself."

Fortunately, Kit was distracted by more pleasant talk of Emerick digivolving. "Gatomon," Emerick replied, obviously proud despite being tired.

Kit nodded. "So when she digivolves, we're both cats!", she said. "'Cept I can't smash concrete with my claws like she can."

"And there was another Gatomon there too, with a guy named Dante," Kit said. "Him and his partners helped us get clear of the fighting, and make it back to the apartments in time to save our stuff." Kit indicated the lumpy blanket bundle and equally lumpy basket draped with her blanket cape. "Good thing we don't have that much stuff; the wagon got wrecked and I don't think I coulda carried much more all this way..."

"It is...but he's able to do it somehow." Takato admitted softly, thinking about what Kit said before realizing the majority of those baby Digimon were probably the adults she had brought up.

Thankfully, the subject was changed when Emerick discussed the Digimon she Digivovled into.

"A Gatomon? That's amazing, Emerick! I haven't seen a Gatomon for a while now!" The aforementiond Gatomon he was talking about was the one partnered to Hikari on the 'Digimon' TV series. "The next time you Digivolve, I should take a picture of the two of you side by side."

Of if nothing else, he could definitely draw a picture of them. Either one would do. "What were you able to grab, Kit?"

Emerick smiled. "Thanks," she said. "It surprised me too. I don't think I ever saw a Gatomon til I turned into one. And I've never had my picture taken either." She turned back to Kit. "What do you think? Can Takato take our picture next time I digivolve?"

"Sure!", Kit said. "I never had my picture taken either, so it'd be fun."

"And I think I managed to get everything...", Kit said, undoing the hasty knots of the blanket bundle with some difficulty until it fell open on the ground, revealing its contents. "All the soft stuff's in the blanket," Kit said, indicating the now spread blanket, "and the hard stuff is in the basket, with the food. Couldn't run off without some food."

All the clothes Kit wasn't currently wearing had been tossed haphazardly into the bundle, along with the plush lion from Chika and the Salamon-face pillow from Fluttershy; everything soft and without any pointy edges. She then pulled the blanket-cape away so that Takato could see the basket's contents as well. The rest of he important possessions, mostly gifts from her friends, had been tucked away in the large basket, under her blanket-cape, along with whatever food she'd been able to pack into the remainder of the space. There were the last few small loaves of fruit bread, about a double handful of assorted granola bars, several boxes of animal crackers, an apple, a bottle of water, and a bundle of fresh parsnips, still tied together by their stems. A few small, vital items (her flupe, her D-Stream, her D-Terminal, the dragon tooth ocarina from Roze) were in her belt pouches as well, since that was where she always kept them when they weren't in use.

"Did you manage to save any of your stuff?", she asked. She didn't see Takato carrying a pack or anything, but he could have just left it elsewere in the village.

"Okay! When we get to the next town I'll have to get a camera...so I can make sure to have one ready." Takato laughed faintly at his own comment...

Until he saw Kit's bag of assortments and his eyes nearly popped out from pure surprise at how much the girl had brought with her! He didn't have one himself, but he did listen to what the Digimon said to the Chosen who received them.

"Uh, Kit...you shouldn't have to carry all of that around, hehe. You can use your new Digivice to carry things!" He explained to Kit that her device was called a D-Stream and what it's specific functions were.

"Since I came here with my own Digivice, it wasn't changed like everyone else's. I saved my stuff, and Guilmon's got my bag with him right now."

Kit smiled a bit sheepishly at Takato's reaction to her packing. Traveling around Third Earth had taught her to make the most of packing space, at least until she and Kat had acquired the Forever Bag. Then it hadn't been a problem. But still, hauling all this stuff by herself was tiring, and she wasn't looking forward to having to do so for however long it took them to get where they were going.

Kit blinked, though, as Takato explained about her D-Stream. She'd already known what it was called, since Venusmon had told everyone, but other than making Emerick Digivolve, she didn't know that it had any other use. She slumped, face-palming as she realized how much trouble she could have saved herself. "I wish somebody'd told me that earlier...", she said with a sigh. Well, at least she wouldn't have to carry all her stuff around the whole trip.

And speaking of trips... "So, you said there was another town we're going to?"

"Mm! We're going to HospiTown. We'll be making a few stops on the way, but that's the main destination." Takato replied, patting Kit on her shoulder for a moment. "If I'd run into you earlier I would've made sure to tell you.

"Are you two ready to head out, or should we wait a little longer?" Takato could just let Guilmon know that they were heading out, if Kit was ready.

"'Hospitown', huh?", Kit said. "Sounds like a nice place."

"And yeah, I know you would've," she assured Takato. "It's just that I coulda saved myself a whole lotta work, ya know?"

Kit frowned slightly in thought at the idea of heading out somewhere else immediately. "I think Emmy and I'll stay here for a little bit," she said. "It's been a really long day even before that big, gold jerk-mon showed up. We should probly build a fire, have something to eat, and maybe get some sleep before we try going anywhere. 'Specially if it's far away."

"Heh, yeah it does sound like a nice place." Takato nodded in response to Kit's question before giving her explanation some thought.

It really hadn't been that long since they dealt with the Digimon, and getting his friends to the nearest Trailmon could wait. They all needed to rebuild their strength, and eventually Takato would have to contact Guilmon to get him to sleep...

Is this how you would've handled things, Jen?

"...If you're gonna stay here, I shouldn't leave you alone. Besides, what if I get hungry on the way? And it's much better to travel with friends than without."

Kit smiled, looking both happy and a little relieved that Takato decided to stay with her. "Thanks, Takato," she said. Though it was no less necessary, building a fire suddenly seemed a bit less daunting with someone else to help.

"How about you find some rocks and make a fire circle?", Kit suggested. "I'll find some wood and stuff. Then, once we have a fire, we can cook the parsnips; they're not bad roasted."

"...Of course, Kit. We're friends, and I can't leave you alone out here. Promise." Takato smiled, and hoped that if there were roaming data streams like in his Digital World, they would stay faaaaaar away.

"Sure! It shouldn't be too hard to find rocks around here, but I'll keep in touch. Hehe, I've never had roasted parsnips before!" Takato got to his feet and started trekking. As promised, it wasn't that hard to find rocks but they were spread out so that alone took the goggle-wearing Tamer a while.

After about 10-15 minutes, Takato returned with enough rocks to make a pretty decent fire circle; possibly even two!

Kit smiled and nodded. She wasn't alone, of course. She had Emerick. But Takato and eventually Guilmon would be welcome company too.

"OK," she told Takato. "Shouldn't take too long to find wood and kindling either," she said. In fact, there were a few likely sticks she could see from right where she was.

Leaving Emerick to guard the campsite, Kit got up to wander around the area, collecting sticks, bits of bark, and a few clumps of dry grass. She got back not long after Takato, to see him working on setting up the circle. "Looks pretty good," she said, setting down the wood and kindling.

With the circle in place, she piled some of the wood inside it, leaving some to add in later. She then tucked the dry grass and bark into the pile of wood, and pulled a little book of matches from one of her belt pouches. A Meramon mascot could be seen giving a tiny thumbs-up on the front of the matchbook as Kit struck one against the strip, and lit the grass and bark, gently blowing on it until the wood started to catch as well.

She then sat back with a sigh. The fire provided some much needed warmth that pushed back the chill of the winter air. She then offered Takato one of two pointy sticks she'd created by snapping a longer stick in half, as well as one of the parsnips from the bunch. "Here," she said. "You wanna be sure to take the stems off before you roast it, though; you can only eat the root part."

She demonstrated by snapping the stem of her parsnip off at the base and tossing the leafy part aside before spearing the root on he end of her own sharp stick. "These are sorta like the vegetables my family grew back home," she commented after a moment. "'Cept ours were a lot bigger."

"Thanks!" Takato got up once the circle was finished, moving to help Kit with the wood and kindling before stepping back to let her finish on her own if she wanted. After watching her at work he sat down with a smile, accepting the pointy stick Kit offered him. "Right, I'll remember that."

Just to be sure, he watched her demonstration and made sure to do exactly the same with his own before spearing another root with his sharp stick.

"That sounds amazing! How big were they?"

Kit grinned a bit, despite the situation. "Bigger than you are," she said. "You had to be big and strong to pick them and haul them around; that's why Kat and I couldn't really help with the farm work much."

"We helped Mamma with stuff though," Kit said. "We helped with the mending, and cleaning up, and sometimes cooking. Sometimes we'd all go out berry picking too, while Papa was out in the field. Or fishing and picking water-plants in the stream."

Kit's smile became wistful. "It was really nice then...", Kit said, trailing off with a bit of a sigh.

Time to move on.

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