Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Renewal of the Forgotten ❯ An Electrifying Encounter ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
“I swear this bird had the wing span the length of a semi-truck!”, Emma was telling her friends during lunch the next day.

“Emma, are you on your ‘orange flavored crack’ again?”, said Melissa jokingly before she took another bite of her egg salad sandwich. Emma paused with her mouth open as she was about to continue her story before Melissa had made the comment.

“No Melissa...I wasn’t on...IT’S NOT EVEN CRACK IT’S A VITAMIN SUPPLEMENT! Anyway, I’m not kidding this bird was freakin’ huge.”

“Sure it was Emma,” said Ciara sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she ate her chocolate pudding. “How do we know you’re not lying to us?”

“Because, I have proof,” Emma replied and she bent down and grabbed the bag sitting on the ground next to her chair. The others glanced at her curiously. Emma opened the bag and pulled a bundle of cloth out of it, set it on the table and proceeded to unwrap it carefully. When she was done unwrapping it she delicately picked up the two large orange feathers for her friends to see. Ciara’s eyes got big.

“Are those real,” she asked.

“What do you think I’ve been telling you for the past five minutes?!” Emma replied.

“Can I look at it?”

Emma handed Ciara one of the feathers and she handed the other one to Melissa to look at. They examined the feathers completely awestruck, just as Emma had the night before.

“So what are you gonna do with them?” Melissa asked as she continued to look over the feather through her retro horn rimmed glasses.

“Well I was going to hang them on my wall but now I’m think I should take them to some sort of bird specialist to find out what kind of bird it was. I have no clue what it could be. It was bigger than an ostrich, I know that. The only thing I can think of is that it’s some exotic bird from somewhere in South America, other than that I have no idea. Maybe I discovered a new species of bird?”

“That would be really cool if you did.”
~
Two weeks had passed since the night the bird appeared. Since then Emma had called her best friend Kayla. Kayla lived two and a half hours from Emma and the only time they saw each other was during the summer, yet they understood each other better than anyone else and they called each other or talked on the internet whenever they had the chance. If it weren’t for the fact that Kayla was a little shorter and 3 years younger than Emma who was 18(though she looked 14), they could pass for sisters, twins even, for they had the same hair color(though Kayla’s hair went mid way down her back), they enjoyed the same things, and they had more inside jokes than they could count. For the past year and a half Emma and Kayla had tried to convince Kayla’s mom to let her stay at Emma’s house for a few days. Every time they were denied and given a lame excuse. This time however, for some strange reason they couldn’t figure out, Kayla’s mom had actually said ‘Yes’.

When Kayla arrived at Emma’s house she was told the story of the giant bird and Emma showed her the two large feathers. Kayla soaked in every word. For the two nights after Kayla arrived they decided to walk the dog late at night to see if they could catch another glance of the giant bird. It was to no avail however. They entered the house after their walk on the second night and put in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. Meanwhile Emma made some pancakes for dinner while her and Kayla played freeze frame, a game in which they would pause the movie at random times to see what odd or unusual faces the actors would pause on.

“AHAHAHA! Did you see that?! He was all...” Emma imitated the latest face they had paused on. Kayla began laughing so hard she fell off the couch. Emma managed to get back up from her laughing and flip the last two pancakes. They left the movie on pause so they could eat for a minute.

“So, how’s Ray like bein’ kicked out of his room,” Emma asked as she spread a good chunk of peanut butter over her pancakes. Ray was Kayla’s step brother whom they enjoyed torturing.

“Oh, did I tell you he went back to Alabama?”

“Really?! Is he staying for good this time?”

“Yep, I think so,” Kayla said.

“Hmm, guess we’re gonna have to find someone else to harass now. How ‘bout the gypsy people?”

Kayla almost chocked on her pancakes. The gypsy people that lived on the same road their grandparents did were a new breed of hillbilly. They had a habit of revving their army of semi-trucks at the early hours of the morning. Some nights you could hear an argument or gunfire if you were lucky.

“Yeah, if they don’t shoot us first,” Kayla replied.

“Yeah...but I almost think it’s worth it now that Ray’s not there. Because obviously we can’t go after my cousin J–”

“WROFF, WROFF!!”

The dog’s abrupt barking made Emma jump as usual and she stopped mid sentence. Mabel, Emma’s dog, was looking out the window, the hair on her back standing on end, and her tail was still, wagging only slightly. The dog continued to bark.

“Is there a cat out there Mabel,” Emma asked, not thinking it was much more, and continued eating her pancakes. The dog growled as she pressed her nose hard into the window. Her eyes were fierce with concentration.

“Who’s out there girl?” said Emma as she slipped off her stool, curious of what was upsetting the dog so bad. Since it was pitch black out and they couldn’t see a thing she flipped on the light that illuminated the back porch. She scanned the back yard but could still see nothing that would upset the dog. She looked at Kayla. “Wanna go outside with me and check things out?”

Kayla nodded and joined Emma. Emma unlocked the back door and shoved the dog over with her leg so she could open it. Her and Kayla slipped through the door carefully and closed it behind them so the dog couldn’t get out. A little ways past the porch was a retaining wall, about 3 feet tall, and another retaining wall jutting out from that, so that her back yard was nothing more than two giant steps. Emma slowly walked out to the edge of the first retaining wall, Kayla following behind her. They squinted in the dark and listened for anything, but they still hadn’t found what Emma’s dog saw. They could still hear her muffled barking. Emma decided to jump down onto the next retaining wall. Kayla followed suit.

“I think whatever it was left,” Kayla said quietly, finally breaking the silence.

“Yeah, let’s go inside, my feet are getting cold.” They turned around and started to climb back up the first retaining wall when the sound of gravel crunching at the bottom of the second retaining wall made them stop. They slowly turned back around.

“What was that,” one whispered to the other. They looked down the retaining wall, and as their eyes finally adjusted to the dark they could see a small round figure.

“Is it a cat,” Kayla asked.

“I dunno, I can’t tell.” They inched closer to the figure. It shifted, backing into the fence, then it looked up at the two girls, it’s eyes flashing in the dark. Large round, green eyes. Eyes too large for any house cat. Kayla moved a little closer.

“Let’s go see what it is,” she said waiting for Emma to agree. Emma paused uncomfortably and Kayla moved her attention back to the creature. She moved closer still, now on the edge of the second retaining wall.

“Kayla? Remember last winter when we went up the road? And we found those houses that looked like they belonged to the gypsy people that live next door to your grandparents...and I wanted to keep going but you had a real bad feeling so we turned back?”

“Yeah, what about it,” she said still watching the creature.

“Well I’m having that same feeling now. I really think we should go back inside.”

“Oh c’mon, I don’t think it’s big enough to hurt us...”
“Kayla, I mean it, I really don’t like this...”

Kayla ignored her pleading. Emma looked nervously at the creature then back to Kayla. She reached for Kayla’s arm.

“C’mon Kayla, we’re going inside.”

As Emma grabbed Kayla’s wrist the small creature growled and suddenly flew straight at her, an electric charge encasing the creature at the same time. Emma released Kayla’s wrist and dove to the side, her back sliding against the retaining wall. The creature then bolted for the fence and jumped over it in one soaring leap.

“Jesus Christ!” Emma shouted clutching her right arm to her chest, “The hell was that?” Kayla was still where she had left her. Emma looked at Kayla with her eyes wide and Kayla looked back, shaking her head very slowly as if to answer Emma’s question. Emma realized this must’ve been how she looked that night the bird appeared. After a moment’s pause they both scrambled back up the retaining wall and inside the door, locking it. Emma examined her arm in the kitchen. It was just slightly scorched.

“Ow, that looks like it hurts,” said Kayla.

“Yeah,” said Emma wincing, “just a little.”

The two of them eventually finished their pancakes and their movie and then went to bed. Outside the sky had turned to a strangely beautiful grey-ish/purple, and it almost looked as if there was a soft light behind the thick cloud cover that made the sky seem to glow a little. The clouds moved quickly across the night sky and the trees swayed with the growing wind. And a light misty rain covered the window of the room where the two girls slept.