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The sun was beginning to set over the horizon. The four children and two digimon had managed to walk quite a good distance since they left Breezy Village after getting their fill of food and drink. They had hoped to wait for a Trailmon to come through, but the Floramon had warned that it could take months for the next one to arrive. The village didn't see much traffic ever since the Mushroommon Brothers had started terrorizing the place. They were glad that the whole situation was behind them now, and Izumi promised they'd see more traffic soon. At the very least, she was going to spread the word of how wonderful that little town was.

Their tummies were grumbling by the time they stopped, and although it seemed they were definitely headed in the right direction, there still weren't many trees about for shelter.

"I really hope it doesn't rain tonight," Takuya speculated off-handedly as he walked about trying to find firewood.

"Then maybe we just shouldn't sleep here tonight," Junpei whined.

"Do you see anywhere else for us to stay? It's not exactly like there's a hotel nearby!"

Takuya was getting frustrated with Junpei. The older boy may act like he was more mature than him, but he sure complained a lot. Heck, it seemed like Junpei complained more than Tomoki. Usually the youngest of them mentioned his feet hurt, or that he was tired, or that he missed his mom. Junpei was just out-right whiny. It didn't help that Takuya was feeling tired as well. Junpei and Takuya managed to get enough wood for a fire before killing each other. It took them both a while to set up the fire since neither of them had ever actually had to make one before. The night prior, they stayed with the Candlemon and they had made a fire for them.

"ARG!" Takuya yelled as the sticks collapsed. "Can't we just throw it all together or something? What's it matter if we're just gonna burn it!"

"We want the fire to last as long as possible. If you just throw them together, the fire could smother. Maybe if we get some rocks to help the sticks stay up..."

"Oh, now you wanna get rocks? I thought you were tired, Junpei," Takuya snickered.

"I am! But if we're gonna do this, we should do it right!"

"Whateveeeer."

While the boys tried to get a fire started, Izumi, Tomoki, Bokomon, and Neemon were off by a nearby stream collecting water and trying to see if they could catch some fish for dinner. They were failing.

"I don't really like fish anyway," Tomoki mumbled after attempting to grab a fish with his bare hands and missing.

"We don't really have the luxury of being picky, Tomoki," Izumi said with a sigh. She had tried to come up with a way to make a fishing pole. She found a stick just fine, but the twine... That was the hard part.

"Why don't you just freeze the stream?" Neemon asked. The way Bokomon sighed and began ranting made it seem like Neemon's idea was terrible, but Tomoki was tired and hungry enough to give it a shot anyway. He spirit evolved to Kumamon and blew a breath of ice onto the water's surface, hoping that would do the trick. A few breaths later, and a good portion of the stream was frozen solid.

"Yeah! It worked!" Tomoki exclaimed excitedly, looking at his handy work. But Izumi just sighed.

"Yeah, it did... but how are we suppose to get the fish out now?"

Kumamon looked from the frozen stream to Izumi before running off to get Takuya. Izumi sighed again.

Takuya managed to focus fire enough to cut the fish out of the frozen stream.

"Wow this is seriously thick, man," Agunimon commented as he worked to cut the fish out of the stream.

"Cha, seriously did a number there," came Junpei's reply. "Hope it thaws by morning."

"Why?" Tomoki asked, finally looking away from Agunimon's task.

"How else are we suppose to get cleaned up?"

"Oh..." Tomoki hung his head. Junpei was just saying it matter-of-factly, but Tomoki still felt bad about it. He hadn't thought about how to get the fish out of the stream once he froze it, and he also hadn't thought about how a frozen stream would hinder them. This was just another instance the showed just how young he really was.

"It'll be fine," Izumi told him in a gentle voice. "Don't worry about it. You did manage to get the fish, right?"

"Yeah!" Maybe there had been unforseen consequences, but he still managed to do what he'd been hoping to do. It wasn't a complete screw up.

"Ug! Think that's enough?" Agunimon complained once he'd finished cutting six fish out. It was one for each of them. That'd be plenty, right?"

"It'll have to do," Izumi huffed. Something was better than nothing, after all. "You two did get the fire started, right?" The looks on Junpei and Agunimon's faces suggested that no, they had not.

"I'll get it, I'll get it!" Agunimon yelped as he rushed over to the fire to start it. One attack set the sticks on fire alright, but it was huge and almost out of control. "Uhhhh..."

Sometime later, after the campfire was made and controlled, and the fish thawed and cooked, the four humans and two digimon sat about the slowly dying flames with full bellies and tired eyes.

"We're gonna need to sleep in rounds," Takuya said with a yawn.

"But we're all tired!" came Junpei's complaint.

"Well yeah, but I mean we're not exactly hidden here." Takuya gestured to the area around them. There were a few trees here and there, and the stream, but the group was most definitely out in the open. The night before had been spent with the Candlemon, so all of the group could sleep with the Digimon watching over them and keeping them protected. This was definitely a much different case.

"You seriously think we'll be attacked out here?"

"It's entirely possible, young man," Bokomon said in his condenscending tone. "Cherubimon has minions everywhere. You never know when one might attack."

"Yeah, but what are we suppose to do? Me and Takky only sleep half the night?"

"Uhhhh, I can do a watch too, you know," Izumi scoffed.

"What? No, you can't!" Junpei sounded almost indignant.

"Oh, and why not? I have eyes. I can see at night."

"W-what no, I just mean that you're... you know..."

"I'm what, Junpei?"

Junpei was leaning away from Izumi nervously, trying to look anywhere but at her. She was glaring right at him, not at all backing down.

"Ok, so we have three to switch off. That's not so bad," Takuya said good naturedly, trying to ease some of the tension.

"Well... what about me?" Tomoki asked hesitantly. Izumi and Junpei stopped their interaction to look over at the youngest.

"Tomoki... I don't know," Izumi finally said, frowning at the boy.

"Yeah little man, you kinda need your sleep."

Tomoki pushed out his bottom lip. He wanted to pull his weight too. Losing sleep wasn't good, and having four people switch off was better than three, right? He looked over at Takuya, hoping he'd have a different opinion.

"Sorry, Tomoki. I'm with them," he replied with an apologetic shrug. Well, that was that then.

The three played rock, paper, scissors to see who took the first watch, and then again for the second. Takuya ended up first, then it would be Junpei, and Izumi to finish out the night. It was relatively quiet when Takuya's watch came to an end, and he woke up Junpei. The eldest wasn't thrilled about being woken up, complaining that he just needed a few more minutes and that Takuya should be able to wait that long. Finally after much eye rolling and some mild name calling, Junpei took up his watch and Takuya settled down to sleep. Several hours later, Izumi woke with a start to realize that Junpei never woke her up for her watch. He'd fallen asleep at the fire, which was now dead. She rolled her eyes, as she got up to take over.

It definitely was not the most successful camp-out, but considering it was their first of many, it could have been a lot worse. They'd get use to the walking and the fighting, they'd become more familiar with making fires and gathering food, and they would get use to each other. But until then, they'd probably pass out right after eating and bicker until the sun rose.