Digimon Story: Rainbow Traverse -- Chp 12

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"Watch your step," warned Viximon. No sooner had she finished, however, than Al felt - then heard - his foot sink into bog water. "Told you."

The group had reached the point where the forest of ancient trees became noxious swamp, the air thick and humid as the canopy strangled out the sky from view.

"Not again," said Vivi. "Half the water's covered in moss. How're we supposed to move around if we can't trust the ground under our feet?"

Al’s foot sunk into the water, and he would look up at Viximon as she gave advice from the safety of her perch. “Be thankful that you’re small and up there.” He said as he glanced over to Vivi. “We just have to be careful.. who knows how deep this stuff can be…”

"I think it's kind of nice," said Kukuimon, the green piglet dipping his cloven hooves in. "Nice and mineral-rich!"

"You're a plant, Kuk," said Gazimon, tongue hanging out as he panted. "Some of us got actual fur to deal with here. I'm gettin' cooked luggin' this around."

"Wanna digivolve and use Freezing Wing?" asked Vivi.

Ike shook his head. "Digivolving's a bad idea," he said. "Unless it's an emergency, we'd just end up drawing attention to ourselves."

"Oohoohooh!"

"Eyes?" said Vivi, watching the dark dragon bobbing up and down from her shadow. "Got something, girl?"

"I can help! You want ice right? Nice ice?"

"Ice is nice," mused Malie.

"Deceptive Ill-U-siooooon~!"

The dragon's violet eyes flashed as a refrigerator materialized out of crystal-blue pixels, scaring the crap out of Ike as he sidestepped out of the way. The fridge sank into the mud at an angle, but not before opening to reveal nothing but piles of ice cubes contained inside.

Gasping, Gazimon didn't waste a minute before pouncing onto the frozen hoard, rubbing himself all over it... before the cubes of ice dissipated into cubes of blue data, leaving him inside an empty fridge.

"Aww, C'MON!!" he snarled.

Alemana watched that bit play out.. and would then helpfully point out-

“Her illusions are only one third the durability of the real thing.” He said as he looked up at Viximon.

“How are you holding up, fuzzball?” He playfully asked.

"Much better than that freezer box," mused the kit.

Eyesmon's barbs shot up as she shot Viximon a look. "At least I'M doing something!" she sneered. "What're YOU doing?"

Smirking, Al's partner hopped off his head as she sped down his back, making speedy noises with her mouth as she zoomed towards a nearby tree.

The dragon snickered. "Aww, what?" she asked, watching the fox climb the tree. "Can't handle a widdle cwiticism? Gonna sulk in a twee, hmm?"

Without slowing down, Viximon rushed along the length of a branch. Amused, Eyesmon didn't bother to dodge as she watched the kit leap off and dive towards her.

"Killing Stone!" cried Viximon. By then it was already too late. Everyone watched as the tiny yellow loaf curled into a ball and then exploded into a noxious cloud of Sulphur, replaced by a kit-sized rock with a smiley face painted on it. The rock hit Eyesmon square in the umbral forehead, bouncing off her snout before turning back into a giggling Viximon. And so began the fox hunt, Eyesmon chasing Vixi in circles around the group, threatening to swallow the kit, but always failing due to Viximon's mastery of abruptly changing direction!

Alemana would watch as  Viximon zoomed around and tormented Eyesmon, her child-like glee and mischievous race car noises proving to be infectious, and the boy began to laugh as she lead Eyes on a little chase. After a few moments of judging the pattern of her little faints and jukes.. he would reach out and try to scoop her up!

The others began to make their bets on who would win: a shadow dragon Champion-level digimon and a tamer with years of team sport practice under his belt, or one speedy gurl. To Viximon's credit, she would get Alemana to work up a sweat, but in the end, the tiny kit could not outrun pursuit.

"Nyoooo~!" she cried, glomping at Al's thumb as he scooped her up in his arms, her tail thrashing about like something fierce.

The boy was surprised as well- he thought he could just scoop her up no problem. So having to actually chase her for a bit did a number to help him forget his anxiety to an extent as he then finally caught her, laughing and hugging her to his chest.

“Hah… got you!”

But Al's attention would be pulled away from the kit, as he looked past her to see what his foot had stepped on. A narrow path of wooden beams stood elevated above the morass of the swamp, wide enough for someone Alemana's dimensions to walk across without risk of falling in, but only barely.

"Huh? Where did this come from?" asked Eyesmon, pressing low to the ground as she sniffed the beams. "This was NOT here when we got here! I know that for a FACT!!"

"It looks stable enough," said Viximon. "Wonder where it leads."

"Eyes," said Vivi. "Mind scouting ahead, just in case?"

The dragon nodded before diving into the platform's shadow, but already, Kukuimon was climbing aboard.

"This may look old," he said. "But I can feel the strength in its timber. Almost like it's brand new!"

“She’s right.. I didn’t feel any wood under my feet when I was chasing Vix…” and he would hold her a little more protectively as Eyesmon and Kukuimon  got on the plank bridge.

“Don’t go too far… Okay Kukui?” He said, feeling a little uneasy.

[Hmm... roll Perception.]

[Rolling: 3 4 4 +6 = 17]

Peering into the gloom, Alemana could see the zigzagging path of the bridge through the trees, but also paper lanterns hanging from nearby branches, stained and full of holes. From afar, what looked like Digicode was inscribed on them, but otherwise it was difficult to make anything else out, since none were lit or fully out in the open.

Eyesmon then reappeared, blocking Kukuimon and Al's path. "I'm back!" she said, only to turn around and face the group. "And now I'm front--there's a number of little islands ahead, each one's got a bridge connecting it to the next!"

"Okay," said Gazimon, no longer sulking inside the illusory fridge. "But what's at the end of it?"

"DO I LOOK CRAZY TO YOU?!!" asked the dragon, maw wide and threatening to engulf all that was good - only for Eyes to shift back like nothing had happened. "I'm not going THAT far ahead. Sheesh."

"You can unclench your butthole now, Gaz," chuckled Malie.

Seeing the paper lanterns in such a state gave this place a sense of abandonment, and for some reason that made him feel a little sad to see them in such a state. Were the Green Lady and her goons responsible for keeping whoever tended to the lanterns away.. or was there another reason? Whichever was the case, the sense of melancholy made him hug viximon a little tighter.

When Eyesmon returned, Alemana for his part was too busy wiping Viximon’s little paws with a napkin and marveling at just how tiny her toes were to notice Eyesmon’s theatrics. “How can you move so fast with such itty bitty legs, Kitmon? You’re amazing,”

"Call me Kitmon all you want," mused Viximon, even as Al played with her tiny limbs. "At the end of the day, you're still the one who got called it first."

"Hey, love birds," said Ike. "We gonna do marching order again? This bridge's too narrow to go more than one at a time."