Chapter 11 – Exuberance
Maisy sighed, her arms wrapping around Moosemon’s neck. She buried her face in Moosemon’s warm fur. “Through the mountains,” she moved her face up out of the fur and turned her head slightly to look at Veemon, “the mountains sound good, there’s cover there…” Maisy’s voice trailed off as she turned her head further to look behind her, the darkness was now a speck in the distance.
Veemon nodded and looked up at Maisy , “I’ve heard things about this mountain, underground caverns and caves under the mountain! I have also heard that those mountains had some..special..treasure..or power..or something. Maybe we can look for that while we’re there? It could help us fight The Fury! What do you think Moosemon?”
Moosemon murmured something that sounded like a tired agreement.
“Hey, Moosemon, what’s up?” Maisy began stroking Moosemon’s neck gently.
Moosemon began to slow down, her breathing was uneven, “sorry, can’t,”. This was all that Moosemon could manage before she began to glow and shrink back down to Hawkmonm, causing both Maisy and Veemon to land on top of her, “sorry,” she said again, squirming from underneath Maisy.
Maisy got up and bit her lip, she looked to the mountain, “we could walk?”
Veemon laughed and put both her hands on her hips, smirking proudly, “Have you forgotten? I can armor evolve too! The benefits of having two digimon!” Veemon paused before laughing again, “I’m better, of course!”
Maisy unclipped her D3 from her belt and grinned, “alright! Show me what you’re made of!” She held out her D3 and aimed it at Veemon.
“I bet whatever armor form I take I’ll look super, super cool!”
“DIGI ARMOR ENERGISE!”
“Veemon armor digivolve to!” The crest of hope shone brightly over Veemon’s body as shadows of Patamon, Angemon, HolyAngemon, and Seraphimon rushed past, “Sagitarimon! The greatest hope on earth!” Sagitarimon stood proudly, the feeling of a hero giving her confidence, she smiled and looked at Maisy and Hawkmon, “well…” she spoke with a booming voice, “do I look super..cool?”
“No.” Maisy’s expression was blank and void of emotion.
“Not in the slightest.” Hawkmon added.
Sagitarimon’s pose cracked and she dropped to her knees, “Aw..why not?”
“You look like somebody who has skipped every day at the gym except for arm day. You hold a heavy bow but your arms are still the same width as when you were Veemon, maybe skinner.” Maisy replied, nodding slowly, “yep, definitely not cool.”
“Moosemon is cooler.” Hawkmon’s expression and pose mimicked Maisy’s.
Sagitarimon frowned, “well, I guess make your own way to the mountains then,” her voice was cracking slightly, her feelings were obviously hurt. “I do look cool.” She murmured as she turned around and began to gallop towards the mountains.
“Should..should I feel bad?” Maisy looked to Hawkmon, her voice full of concern.
Hawkmon began to laugh in response, shaking her head, “Nah.”
Maisy removed her goggles from her head and began to clean them with her shirt “Well, let’s follow her,” Maisy smiled and turned to Hawkmon, “Hey, Hawkmon can you evol-“
“No.”
“Why?”
“Do you even have to ask that? I’m tired and I can’t evolve.”
“We’re not walking.”
“Clearly we are.”
Maisy grumbled something under he breath and the two began to walk forward.
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Sagitarimon turned around to check on the two, she smirked and began to speed up. “That’ll teach them for saying I’m not cool.” she blinked a few times as she spotted something approaching her, “that looks interesting…” she grinned as she sped into the distance towards the mountains, soon she became a small speck on the horizon.
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The two had been walking in silence for quite a while before Maisy broke it with a frustrated whine.
“Can you carry me?”
“I am half your size at least, you should carry me.”
Maisy grunted, “Wait,” Maisy began to peer into the distance, she gasped and a huge smile took over her face, “Sagitarimon’s back!”
Hawkmon tapped herself on her beak softly, “well of course she is, she probably realized how uncool she looked and felt bad about leaving us behind.”
“Hey! Sagitarimon!” Maisy called out, both hands in the air, waving furiously. “I’m sorry!”
Sagitarimon continued to race towards the two, she seemed to speed up, her shape in the distance becoming clearer, as Sagitarimon’s shape became larger, the shape of the mountains in the distance appeared to shrink.
Maisy lowered her hands, “something is wrong.”
Hawkmon flew off the ground to get an aerial view, she gasped and then returned to Maisy , “The mountains..Uhm..they’re being destroyed? They seem to be..eroding and becoming like a canyon.”
“Like a canyon?” Maisy repeated, unsure what Hawkmon meant.
“Like..nothing there.”
Sagitarimon came to a screeching halt next to Maisy, “Get on.” She grumbed, stomping her back hooves on the ground angrily.
Hawkmon perched herself on Sagitarimon’s head and Maisy struggled to pull herself up, causing Sagitarimon to lower herself slightly to assist Maisy. “Now who’s not cool…” Sagitarimon mumbled to herself. Maisy chose to ignore this.
“What happened up there?”
Sagitarimon shrugged, causing Hawkmon to momentarily lose her balance, “one minute, mountain, the next, less mountain and I’m running this way so the void doesn’t get me.”
“I feel like there was some important information there.” Hawkmon fluffed up her wings and readjusted her placement on Sagitarimon’s head.
“The void?” Maisy wondered.
“Something ate the mountain, the fury, probably, saw us coming this way?”
Maisy’s eyes went wide, “The fury knows we’re there?”
Sagitarimon shrugged again and Hawkmon gasped, once again losing her footing. This time Hawkmon decided it was probably safer to ride on Sagitarimon’s body rather than her head.
“But that powerful thing you mentioned, is that still there?”
“I sensed a great power, so I’d say yes, in the depths of the new canyon, plus that’s our path now if we’re still going that way.”
Hawkmon peered into the distance, “Yes,” she began, “but it could be dangerous.”
Maisy thought for a second, “well, what are our options? We’re already going in this direction..so..let’s continue and check out this power in the mountains and then continue onto Wind Village.”
Hawkmon took flight, “I’m going to get an aerial view to survey the area, maybe there’s a good path we should take,” Hawkmon flew up for a few moments and then landed on Maisy, digging her small talons into her shoulder, causing her to yelp.
“It looks like there’s a lake path around the bas-well, what used to be the base of the mountain and we can go there to obse-“
“Yeah but I saw the canyon and it looks like we can just go straight into the underground caves underneath the mountain. That’s where the power will be. I’m sure.” Sagitarimon interupted Hawkmon proudly.
“Well..” Hawkmon began, shooting an aggressive glare at the back of Sagitarimon’s head before turning to Maisy and smiling sweetly, “what do you think Maisy?”
To be continued………
Patreon supporters will be asked in our Slack chat to vote on how Maisy should answer; Lake around what was the base of the mountain or straight into the canyon to the underground caves?
All paths and voting will take place in the #Continuationmon channel in our Slack.
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