“The lake,” Maisy replied, she bit her lip nervously, her eyes focused on the new canyon that had appeared, “it might be best to play it safe for now.”

Hawkmon sat up straight proudly, she jumped from Maisy’s shoulder to Sagitarimon’s neck, her talons digging in to her rough fur just slightly, “an excellent, safe, and brilliant idea,” her words were full of venom and aimed at Sagitarimon, who ignored the slight pain that Hawkmon’s talons were delivering.

“I’m tired anyway,” Sagitarimon announced, hiding her slight anger that nobody went with her idea, “this way I can walk as Vmon and conserve energy.”

Hawmon tutted loudly and flew back to Maisy’s shoulder.

“That’s a great idea!” Maisy grinned, blissfully unaware of the small disagreement that was occuring between her two Digimon.

Sagitarimon slowed to a stop gently and let Maisy climb down before devolving to Vmon. The trio began to walk towards the lake and Vmon stopped, sighed and began to look over herself slowly, “I preferred being large and elegant,” she began, only to be cut off by Hawkmon.

“Overly bulky isn’t elegant. Lean, sleek, and graceful like Rinkmon is elegant,” Hawkmon grinned, still perched on Maisy’s shoulder, ignoring her discomfort as Hawkmon was just a little bit too large to be sitting on a 14 year old girl’s shoulder.

“Flamedramon is that too. Sagitarimon is elegant in her own way.” Maisy moved her shoulder shoulder slowly, hoping that Hawkmon would get the hint. She didn’t.

“In what way?” Hawkmon asked, slightly inconvenienced by Maisy’s shoulder movements.

“My own.” Vmon answered.

Maisy shrugged as hard as she could, not knowing the right way to tell her feathered partner to dislodge herself from her shoulder, she began to walk, “Hey uh, Hawkmon, why don’t you try and get an overhead view, scout for trouble ahead at the lake? Might be some angry fish Digimon there or..something..maybe they’re upset or worried that an entire mountain decided to become a hole.” Maisy bit her lip and crossed her fingers, hoping this would work giving Hawkmon a hint, or, at the very least, would convince her to fly instead of hitching a ride on a young human.

It didn’t, Hawkmon merely adjusted her talons on Maisy’s shoulder, “Digimon are nice and wouldn’t attack us. Especially sea or fish Digimon.”

“Weren’t we attacked by a MarineDevimon before?” Maisy was just picking up on Hawkmon’s slightly difficult behaviour, “and a rather unhelpful Submarimon?” Maisy added.

“I handled it. I can handle whatever comes in our way,” Hawkmon sighed, “you should have more faith in me.”

Maisy looked forward as they approached the lake , hoping for anything in the distance that might be a threat, she then turned to Vmon, giving her a pleading look.

Vmon tilted her head to the side, noticing her partner’s look, but not understanding it, “do..do I have something on my face?” Vmon proceeded to whack herself in the face, trying to remove whatever Maisy had been looking at.

Maisy sighed, half with amusement and half with frustration, at this point she was just hoping for some evil Digimon or David or something to rush into them.

Eventually they reached the lake, Maisy crouched down, causing Hawkmon to tighten her grip on Maisy’s shoulder to remain stable. Maisy winced and looked into the water.

“It’s meant to be clear,” Hawkmon spoke, finally dislodging herself from Maisy’s shoulder, Maisy almost toppled froward into the water with relief.

“How can you tell?” Vmon asked, she watched Maisy stabilise herself on the edge of the water.

Hawkmon sighed, frustrated at what she thought to be a stupid question, “the water is meant to be from the spring at the top of the mountain, it’s not clear anymore, it’s full of dirt and it’s a light brown…It’s meant to be the clearest water in the Digital World..I wonder what changed.”

“Maybe it’s upside down,” pondered Vmon, who looked towards the newly formed canyon, “or the spring is no longer here because of the lack of mountain,” she added, nodding, “yeah,” she nodded again, her eyes closed to think, “that’s probably it.”

Hawkmon laughed nervously, “of course I knew that,” she looked around for something to change the topic, she gasped softly when she spotted a figure by the lake, “human,” she murmured, her talon reached to pull on Maisy’s clothes softly.

Maisy followed Hawkmon’s gaze, “oh no, David..he..did he follow us?”

Veemon ran to a nearby rock and tried to get a better view and Hawkmon flew high into the air. Veemon moved to a closer rock as quietly as she could as Maisy moved to the first rock Veemon was behind. She couldn’t see if the figure was David, she looked to Veemon and then up at Hawkmon and shrugged.

Veemon, once again, moved to a closer rock, stepping on a sharp rock in the process, she gasped in pain, alerting the figure, who turned around.

Hawkmon let out a loud groan is disdain, she flew lower, ready to swoop on the figure.

Maisy began to approach, her hand on her Digivice, her eyes darting between the figure and Veemon. Maisy was able to make out a frown that spread across the figure’s face as the figure became clearer – he was a tall boy with the beginnings of a beard, probably only a few years older than Maisy. “Hi..” May greeted the boy cautiously, noticing a slight element of fear and sadness in the boy’s expression. Veemon hid behind Maisy and Hawkmon laughed from above.

“Are you the fury..coming to get me too?” The boy asked, both his hands were clasped together, holding something close to his chest.

Maisy was so relaxed by the statement she began to laugh softly, causing the boy to take a few nervous steps back. Maisy noticed this and shook her head, “no, we’re good, we’re good, we were worried you were the fury as we’ve not had a lot of luck with other humans.”

“Other humans…” the boy softly repeated, nodding a few times, his expression turning sadder.

“Well other human.” Maisy corrected.

“Other human.” The boy repeated again.

“Named David.” Maisy added.

“Named David.”

Veemon peeked out from Maisy’s legs, “is he some kind of repeating Digimon?”

Hawkmon landed aggressively on Veemon’s head, her talons digging in, “no, idiot, he’s in shock.”

Maisy looked from Hawkmon and Veemon back to the boy, “what’s your name and what happened?” she asked, trying to keep her voice as nice and calming as possible.

“S-sam..and..my Digimon..Gabumon..was taken and corrupted by a boy that the fury has taken host..” The boy replied, he opened up his hands revealing what he had been clasping so tightly – sand, or maybe dust, he looked into his hand and back to Maisy, tears welling in his eyes, “my digivice,” he explained, “this happened when,” Sam stopped speaking and closed his eyes, “my Digimon was turned inside out,” he closed his hand and opened his eyes, he bit his lip in an attempt not to cry.

Hawkmon looked up, “well, that may explain that SkullGabumon that showed up out of no where,” Hawkmon nodded, smiling at her own deduction despite it being quite morbid, “was your Digivice a square shaped one?” Hawkmon asked, not knowing the proper terminology.

Sam nodded, silently, he stuffed the dust into the pocket of his dark grey hoodie.

Hawkmon looked up at Maisy and exchanged a concerned look, “and you’re positive that dust is the Digivice?” Hawkmon asked, trying to piece together what they saw and what they knew.

Sam nodded, “I think he was trying to clone it so he could have his own to control Gabumon himself,” Sam looked down at his feet and kicked around the soft dirt nervously, “I don’t really remember much.” He looked up and smiled apologetically.

“Where did all this take place, maybe we could search for clues?” Veemon suggested, still hidden behind Maisy’s legs. She scratched the top of her head in an attempt to shoo Hawkmon.

Sam looked up and thought for a second, “well,” he began, looking back to Veemon, “The forest is where Gabumon first started acting strange,” he answered, “but the Tsunomon village is where I first saw David snooping around.”

Hawkmon leaped from Veemon’s head to Maisy’s arm.

“Why do you hurt me in this way?” Maisy murmured as Hawkmon’s talons dug into her skin.

Hawkmon ignored this question, “where should we investigate?”

To be continued………

Patreon supporters will be asked in our Slack chat to vote on how Maisy should answer; The forest where Gabumon first acted strangely or the Tsunomon village where David was seen snooping around.

All paths and voting will take place in the #Continuationmon channel in our Slack.

You can become a Patreon supporter and access the Slack chat group from as little as a dollar per month, through there are higher reward levels for those who pledge more. https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2532661

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

You can become a Patreon supporter and access the Slack chat group from as little as a dollar per month, through there are higher reward levels for those who pledge more. https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2532661

Maisy watched in absolute terror at SkullWereGarurumon, who had tilted back its head and unleashed a blood chilling howl, her feet felt like they had been frozen to the ground, her body felt rigid and heavy, her stomach felt sick, the only movement that she could make was a small head shake.

Flamedramon and Moosemon were at her side, awaiting commands, despite both being overcome with fear themselves they would do anything to save their world and protect their partner.

David slanted forwards and fell to his knees, he punched the ground and looked up at his partner Digimon, “This,” he looked to the ground, “This..isn’t what I wanted…”, he looked up again, slowly, and dry retched at the horror that was in front of him, “My…Digimon?” he mumbled.

The SkullWereGarurumon looked at him, growled, and lowered its head, David flinched and closed his eyes, holding his Digivice in his hand, he gasped as he felt his Digivice heat up and expand.

Flamedramon, who was watching the scene intensely, turned back to her partner, “Maisy, we have to leave…”

Moosemon nodded, also turning her head to face Maisy, “We have to leave.”

David held up his Digivice, darkness streaming from his hand, covering his body entirely.

Flamedramon looked to Moosemon, and then to Maisy, “We have to leave, now” Flamedramon repeated, a slightly frustrated tone in her voice.

David let out a sharp scream of pain, his body overcome with darkness, the screaming slowly turned to manic laughter, “YES! NOW THIS IS TRUE POWER!” David’s voice, sounding slightly more croaky than before, erupted from the darkness that had taken over his body.

Maisy unfroze slightly, she tried to speak, all she could manage was a small gasp.

David’ laughing continued and his body rose, turning towards Maisy and her two Digimon.

Maisy unfroze completely, “We have to leave now.”

Moosemon lowered slightly, allowing Maisy to climb up, Flamedramon devolved back to Veemon and pulled herself up as well, Moosemon let out an angelic beam of light in one direction and immediately started bolting in the other direction, “That will confused them..darkness isn’t too bright,”

Veemon punched Moosemon in the neck, causing the now chuckling Moosemon to gasp.

“Right, no fun allowed, gotcha.”

Maisy looked behind her, the darkness now becoming smaller on the horizon, “What was that?” She asked, her voice small and shaking.

“The Fury.” Veemon replied, “The Fury has taken a host.”

Maisy shook her head and turned to face Veemon “What do we do?”

“We avoid it, for now at least, we get stronger, we find the spirit, we purify the Fury, for now, we run.” Moosemon ran faster, to provide emphasis.

Veemon sighed, “So maybe we find a different path to the Wind Village, up through the mountains, or we could try along the sea, or maybe we hang back for a while and check out the cave I came from? Maisy, what do you think?”

To be continued………

Patreon supporters will be asked in our Slack chat to vote on how Maisy should answer; Wind Village through the mountains, Wild Village path by the sea, Visit the Cave of Courage.

All paths and voting will take place in the #Continuationmon channel in our Slack.

You can become a Patreon supporter and access the Slack chat group from as little as a dollar per month, through there are higher reward levels for those who pledge more.