Through The Valley's Shadows (Fragment Hunt)
Jul 14, 2018 3:36:21 GMT
Post by Sho Tsuginaga on Jul 14, 2018 3:36:21 GMT
Thin cloths and mesh nets were all of the respites one could get from the deathly waves of heat in the western flats. They bombarded every gale of horrid wind and all the life one could find out here before you could tell it was even living. No one could be spared from the dry burning feeling that coated the skins, scales and hides of those who travelled through something this unbearable. The conclusion of all of these factors seemed so clear in the rippling vision of a sweat-laced teenager.
Whatever mirage he was seeing couldn't live here. Not even to draw those like him, those thirsty for some clue or direction.
But the blinking in front of Sho's hazed eyes was no illusion. Something he could easily prove with only himself as his audience as his ears picked up the slowly clearing signal that rose from static. The distress that echoed and replayed in his spinning mind from that small speaker in his paid caravan was all the convincing he needed. There was nothing that could dissuade someone being slowly carted towards the slowly opening cracks and crevices that widened and scaled into a heavenly shade.
While the wind floated past, nothing seemed clearer but that signal.
That crackling cry became a lone goal in spacious, echoing silence. It was the single spoken objective in Sho's mind, and even his exasperated utterings of "Stop here..." and "Thank you..." couldn't ring through that simple request for help. What or whom he sought was here, and he couldn't stop saying that to himself. But while he was able to step out of the mesh and threads, it was even more of a relief that the sun was merely a thin glaring streak above him.
A stretch at the collar was all it needed to breathe in the dry air and straighten his mind. His ringing thoughts grew still, and he could weakly polish his glasses to look ahead into the imposing valley. Sensibility was once again within his grasp.
Now he could get started.
The voice was already too familiar to him. If he heard any more requests in that tone he might be more inclined to run the opposite direction. It was everything else in the crags and nooks of this place that would be harder to seek. Nothing about the blinking signal on his digivice told him anything but a general location. His narrowed eyes carried his only doubt of starting his trot into the valley, darting from crevice to crevice and never letting his device out of his hands.
Stress was its own refreshment while stopping by every rock for a track or staring off at every odd crumble and rock tumble waiting for something to jump out. Out of every other claw mark or tread in the ground, the only thing producing any results or progression was the incessant signal on the tiny screen of his device. He couldn't count his own tired sighs or every second he held his breath for something to happen.
It was all too familiar. But he couldn't hear anything...not yet. Sho couldn't let go of that trail just yet. He had to follow that blink along, letting his tension cranking him along the entrance of the valley.
And out of all that, he still managed to be hopelessly lost.
Sho began to haplessly kick at rocks and send dust into the cool air just trying to find something. At this point, he only had the nerve to scratch his head and stare into another thin crack while squinting. Maybe he could make himself see something while he was glancing back and forth at his still blinking Digivice. Maybe crossing his arms and getting into a fit of frustration like he was now was all he could do.
He began to click and press on the different functions of the machine in his hand, fiddling with it just so he could focus on something. This couldn't just be all the valley was...some imposing landscape littered with markings and tracks. Something had to make them, and even if they were long gone, that wouldn't explain how they all would cut off so abruptly.
Stretching out his hands, Sho placed it in front of his device once again. He ripped it past the swirling Digicode around his palm, morphing into just the right Digimon for his idea. Bastemon. The long claws he could wield so easily would be great for scaling the steep paths carved into the rock around him. They might also be just effective enough to destroy the remnants of some historical significance. But what was the worth of some tracks when on the other hand you had sweet victory?
The feline currently running and pouncing at the carved notch at the other side wall of the valley had already made their choice. Thrusting his magenta claws into the rocky wall, Sho began swinging across on a twist of his paws towards the next crevice. That thin split in the side of the valley seemed a lot less thin when up close, but even that space was just tiny enough for Sho to get his arm stuck inside it once he tried to fling himself up to somewhere wider. He could only barely cling on while stuck inside that clutching space, dropping slowly into somewhere thinner.
Sho had to sling his other claws into the crevice as well with a small yelp trying to scrabble and slash at the rocks to free himself before he gets his arm crushed into flattened bits of data. Yanking his arm out of that trap and trying to only just hang on was as lucky as he could've hoped for. Now all he felt like doing was crying about halfway falling and not even getting close to dying. He just had to hold his breath and fling himself up to somewhere better now. Digging in and flying out in a continuous fluid motion.
Reaching somewhere where he could shimmy in took no time at all, even if the smaller space didn't exactly bring any positive memories. He was able to flop out of that craggy entrance onto a dusty platform was enough for now, his form dispelling back into digicode again.
He was able to stand up, groaning, finding himself under a split and broken light, looking up to see the concave dome of something far too old for him to understand. He blinked, going to his knees and sweeping aside windswept sands to reveal the odd and ornately textured rock tile underneath. It seemed so archaic, even just at a glance. The edges of the faded art and drawings on that concave roof were illuminated by that dim light.
Sho stood up fully, beginning to stretch and shaking out his arm. He seemed to forget after so long, how the injuries he sustained would stay there, even the small cuts and scratches that were made just climbing into this place. He shuffled through his pocket for his digivice, picking it up from the floor he stood from and looking at the blinking signal still on its screen. He began to walk towards the quickening flashes upon the increasingly cracked ground.
The walls that surrounded him held slashes in their stones and cracks in their peeling colours. It attracted his eyes as well as his strolling legs, drawing his fingers across the ancient work around him. It still made his heart skip a beat hearing shards of stone fall from where he touched, drawing his hand away at the noise and moving back along the cracks in the ground.
By now it seemed like just looking at those cracks told the whole story. With a scoff and narrowed eyes, he slowly walked back into the centre of the room. He didn't even need to look at the Digivice to figure out this is where he needed to go. The last time he had to look for anything he only got somewhere by falling somewhere. And standing right over a shattered seal or symbol seemed like the clearest way to do just that.
Giving a simple sound of self-satisfaction, he stamped that part of the floor, barely feeling it shift before stamping it again. His leg falling through didn't feel the greatest, but neither did his entire body falling through a few seconds afterwards.
Taking a sharp tumble down the sand covered stairs still left him with enough of his senses to kick at the steps with his feet haplessly trying to get himself to slow down. He was able to land quite plainly on the short platform at the end of all that, hearing the sand from his tumble slide into the abyss below him before he could scramble back.
He only saw the gleaming tips of massive spears and the heads of great axes below him and swinging silver rings on old and rotted ropes in front of him. Stepping back on shaky legs he stared into the cut and scarred chasm in front of him. He had only to open up his hand again and take a breath, going ahead wasn't a question, whether he could crawl out of this or not. Tearing at the digicode once again, the form of Bastemon enveloped him once more.
There had to be momentum to this. He backed up to the top of the stairs and slid down the sandy stairs once again, hearing the rings around his arms and ankles clink along with his decent. Crunching his body forward, Sho leapt at the first ring, catching it with a single claw and letting himself fall upside-down to twirl up to the next two catching them with clenched toes and swinging into the wall in the process. Feeling the slack hopelessly snap in half while he yowled and shrieked, curling up again as he stuck his claws into the wall and listened to the melodic chime of the rings spiralling down a sword below him.
Hanging on for dear life he began to shimmy along the wall again, slowly scaling it again until he could jump to the next ring. Every bound seem to loosen a ring now, ripping each of them away until he reached a platform he could land on. As his claws sliced into the ancient rock beneath his feet, a deep, guttural rumbling echoed and surrounded him. It displaced the weapons that clattered below him and shook the sand on top of the cracks in the roof.
The rock bridge in front of him didn't budge.
Without the slightest hesitation, he began to trot along towards the wavering and stilted bridge before feeling it crack underneath his paws. He held his breath and wobbled, feeling himself come back to balance, breathing the air back into him and watching as the braid behind him fell to the dark below. He only had to look to the side to see the arrow that had flown past him.
His ears perked up as the path in front of him seemed to lengthen in front of his eyes.
So he chose to close them, leaning off the side of the stilt and hanging on it with her legs. He could hear the arrows scraping past his ears and shoulders as he leaned into the next pole, avoiding every arrow tripped as he scrambled under them. Right at the final one, he was able to scramble up and do a somersault onto another set of stairs, feeling an arrow skewer the top of his ear.
But he'd made it! He could be climbing the stairway to heaven at this point, there wouldn't be any difference in how his heart leapt at the climbing of these stairs.
At the top awaited neither dust nor heat, only the cool air and colder light streaming from the triangular cavities in the wall opposite him. But with only a single step, the low sparks of flames seemed to flicker into existence, dimming and brightening with little control over either. Once they were all lit, it seemed to be a whole arena, with steps behind a descended crater of a battlefield. The rock in front of him seemed to almost melt further into the ground, almost as if sapped towards something.
He dispelled his form, feeling his digivice back within his own hand again. Not bothering with his newly sliced ears and scuffed up clothes, he took a moment to sit down before moving any further. This entire place had sucked the life out of him so easily anyway. And he was only just starting to whimper at the fact that he probably didn't have a way out, but he was able to muster up most of his will and slide into the melted rock slope with a small summit. He could adjust his cracked glasses and stare up at what awaited him there,
A winged totem with a silver helmet and horn. All the things he could ever need, right there.
But no living person...no human noise that he got so annoyed by. Nothing. No purpose but some vaguely necessary power. Sho bit his lip and threw his glasses at the chilled wall, hearing it clatter. He wasn't sure how much he could hear that was real anymore. Even then, he could've sworn there were attached whispers to every echo. Sho resigned his paranoia to go back and pick up his shattered glasses, putting them back on after feeling around on a bit.
The only thing that bothered him is that there was nothing plastic on his glasses.
The only thing he was feeling under him fingers were a perforated speaker and circuit board, embedded in a corner of the chamber. It was useless, but considering how useless he found his senses at this point, he was much more comfortable pocketing it away.
But now he could get back to business.
He slid back into the crater, aiming his Digivice at the totem again and sucking all of the code right in. Even the tiny whispers entering his digivice made him tighten his grip that much more. Sho opened up his hand again, looking forward through his shattered glasses and letting the door to all those whispers open up again.
"Save your Heart..."
And as he shredded the bundled, undulating digicode, that whisper turned into the scream. He spread the wings of Griffomon and dove down the stairs, gliding upon his wings all the way back through, barely thinking about the path that lay in front of him. He could find the stairs he slid down before and rip right through.
Screaming.
The shock broke the ground and caused the roof to fall in past him. As Sho tore through the heat and air, feeling nothing but his own desire on his back. That was the one thing he couldn't stop shouting to himself for. Wings, Srength, Grace, Knowledge. No matter what he had, he had to break free.
Whatever mirage he was seeing couldn't live here. Not even to draw those like him, those thirsty for some clue or direction.
But the blinking in front of Sho's hazed eyes was no illusion. Something he could easily prove with only himself as his audience as his ears picked up the slowly clearing signal that rose from static. The distress that echoed and replayed in his spinning mind from that small speaker in his paid caravan was all the convincing he needed. There was nothing that could dissuade someone being slowly carted towards the slowly opening cracks and crevices that widened and scaled into a heavenly shade.
While the wind floated past, nothing seemed clearer but that signal.
That crackling cry became a lone goal in spacious, echoing silence. It was the single spoken objective in Sho's mind, and even his exasperated utterings of "Stop here..." and "Thank you..." couldn't ring through that simple request for help. What or whom he sought was here, and he couldn't stop saying that to himself. But while he was able to step out of the mesh and threads, it was even more of a relief that the sun was merely a thin glaring streak above him.
A stretch at the collar was all it needed to breathe in the dry air and straighten his mind. His ringing thoughts grew still, and he could weakly polish his glasses to look ahead into the imposing valley. Sensibility was once again within his grasp.
Now he could get started.
The voice was already too familiar to him. If he heard any more requests in that tone he might be more inclined to run the opposite direction. It was everything else in the crags and nooks of this place that would be harder to seek. Nothing about the blinking signal on his digivice told him anything but a general location. His narrowed eyes carried his only doubt of starting his trot into the valley, darting from crevice to crevice and never letting his device out of his hands.
Stress was its own refreshment while stopping by every rock for a track or staring off at every odd crumble and rock tumble waiting for something to jump out. Out of every other claw mark or tread in the ground, the only thing producing any results or progression was the incessant signal on the tiny screen of his device. He couldn't count his own tired sighs or every second he held his breath for something to happen.
It was all too familiar. But he couldn't hear anything...not yet. Sho couldn't let go of that trail just yet. He had to follow that blink along, letting his tension cranking him along the entrance of the valley.
And out of all that, he still managed to be hopelessly lost.
Sho began to haplessly kick at rocks and send dust into the cool air just trying to find something. At this point, he only had the nerve to scratch his head and stare into another thin crack while squinting. Maybe he could make himself see something while he was glancing back and forth at his still blinking Digivice. Maybe crossing his arms and getting into a fit of frustration like he was now was all he could do.
He began to click and press on the different functions of the machine in his hand, fiddling with it just so he could focus on something. This couldn't just be all the valley was...some imposing landscape littered with markings and tracks. Something had to make them, and even if they were long gone, that wouldn't explain how they all would cut off so abruptly.
Stretching out his hands, Sho placed it in front of his device once again. He ripped it past the swirling Digicode around his palm, morphing into just the right Digimon for his idea. Bastemon. The long claws he could wield so easily would be great for scaling the steep paths carved into the rock around him. They might also be just effective enough to destroy the remnants of some historical significance. But what was the worth of some tracks when on the other hand you had sweet victory?
The feline currently running and pouncing at the carved notch at the other side wall of the valley had already made their choice. Thrusting his magenta claws into the rocky wall, Sho began swinging across on a twist of his paws towards the next crevice. That thin split in the side of the valley seemed a lot less thin when up close, but even that space was just tiny enough for Sho to get his arm stuck inside it once he tried to fling himself up to somewhere wider. He could only barely cling on while stuck inside that clutching space, dropping slowly into somewhere thinner.
Sho had to sling his other claws into the crevice as well with a small yelp trying to scrabble and slash at the rocks to free himself before he gets his arm crushed into flattened bits of data. Yanking his arm out of that trap and trying to only just hang on was as lucky as he could've hoped for. Now all he felt like doing was crying about halfway falling and not even getting close to dying. He just had to hold his breath and fling himself up to somewhere better now. Digging in and flying out in a continuous fluid motion.
Reaching somewhere where he could shimmy in took no time at all, even if the smaller space didn't exactly bring any positive memories. He was able to flop out of that craggy entrance onto a dusty platform was enough for now, his form dispelling back into digicode again.
He was able to stand up, groaning, finding himself under a split and broken light, looking up to see the concave dome of something far too old for him to understand. He blinked, going to his knees and sweeping aside windswept sands to reveal the odd and ornately textured rock tile underneath. It seemed so archaic, even just at a glance. The edges of the faded art and drawings on that concave roof were illuminated by that dim light.
Sho stood up fully, beginning to stretch and shaking out his arm. He seemed to forget after so long, how the injuries he sustained would stay there, even the small cuts and scratches that were made just climbing into this place. He shuffled through his pocket for his digivice, picking it up from the floor he stood from and looking at the blinking signal still on its screen. He began to walk towards the quickening flashes upon the increasingly cracked ground.
The walls that surrounded him held slashes in their stones and cracks in their peeling colours. It attracted his eyes as well as his strolling legs, drawing his fingers across the ancient work around him. It still made his heart skip a beat hearing shards of stone fall from where he touched, drawing his hand away at the noise and moving back along the cracks in the ground.
By now it seemed like just looking at those cracks told the whole story. With a scoff and narrowed eyes, he slowly walked back into the centre of the room. He didn't even need to look at the Digivice to figure out this is where he needed to go. The last time he had to look for anything he only got somewhere by falling somewhere. And standing right over a shattered seal or symbol seemed like the clearest way to do just that.
Giving a simple sound of self-satisfaction, he stamped that part of the floor, barely feeling it shift before stamping it again. His leg falling through didn't feel the greatest, but neither did his entire body falling through a few seconds afterwards.
Taking a sharp tumble down the sand covered stairs still left him with enough of his senses to kick at the steps with his feet haplessly trying to get himself to slow down. He was able to land quite plainly on the short platform at the end of all that, hearing the sand from his tumble slide into the abyss below him before he could scramble back.
He only saw the gleaming tips of massive spears and the heads of great axes below him and swinging silver rings on old and rotted ropes in front of him. Stepping back on shaky legs he stared into the cut and scarred chasm in front of him. He had only to open up his hand again and take a breath, going ahead wasn't a question, whether he could crawl out of this or not. Tearing at the digicode once again, the form of Bastemon enveloped him once more.
There had to be momentum to this. He backed up to the top of the stairs and slid down the sandy stairs once again, hearing the rings around his arms and ankles clink along with his decent. Crunching his body forward, Sho leapt at the first ring, catching it with a single claw and letting himself fall upside-down to twirl up to the next two catching them with clenched toes and swinging into the wall in the process. Feeling the slack hopelessly snap in half while he yowled and shrieked, curling up again as he stuck his claws into the wall and listened to the melodic chime of the rings spiralling down a sword below him.
Hanging on for dear life he began to shimmy along the wall again, slowly scaling it again until he could jump to the next ring. Every bound seem to loosen a ring now, ripping each of them away until he reached a platform he could land on. As his claws sliced into the ancient rock beneath his feet, a deep, guttural rumbling echoed and surrounded him. It displaced the weapons that clattered below him and shook the sand on top of the cracks in the roof.
The rock bridge in front of him didn't budge.
Without the slightest hesitation, he began to trot along towards the wavering and stilted bridge before feeling it crack underneath his paws. He held his breath and wobbled, feeling himself come back to balance, breathing the air back into him and watching as the braid behind him fell to the dark below. He only had to look to the side to see the arrow that had flown past him.
His ears perked up as the path in front of him seemed to lengthen in front of his eyes.
So he chose to close them, leaning off the side of the stilt and hanging on it with her legs. He could hear the arrows scraping past his ears and shoulders as he leaned into the next pole, avoiding every arrow tripped as he scrambled under them. Right at the final one, he was able to scramble up and do a somersault onto another set of stairs, feeling an arrow skewer the top of his ear.
But he'd made it! He could be climbing the stairway to heaven at this point, there wouldn't be any difference in how his heart leapt at the climbing of these stairs.
At the top awaited neither dust nor heat, only the cool air and colder light streaming from the triangular cavities in the wall opposite him. But with only a single step, the low sparks of flames seemed to flicker into existence, dimming and brightening with little control over either. Once they were all lit, it seemed to be a whole arena, with steps behind a descended crater of a battlefield. The rock in front of him seemed to almost melt further into the ground, almost as if sapped towards something.
He dispelled his form, feeling his digivice back within his own hand again. Not bothering with his newly sliced ears and scuffed up clothes, he took a moment to sit down before moving any further. This entire place had sucked the life out of him so easily anyway. And he was only just starting to whimper at the fact that he probably didn't have a way out, but he was able to muster up most of his will and slide into the melted rock slope with a small summit. He could adjust his cracked glasses and stare up at what awaited him there,
A winged totem with a silver helmet and horn. All the things he could ever need, right there.
But no living person...no human noise that he got so annoyed by. Nothing. No purpose but some vaguely necessary power. Sho bit his lip and threw his glasses at the chilled wall, hearing it clatter. He wasn't sure how much he could hear that was real anymore. Even then, he could've sworn there were attached whispers to every echo. Sho resigned his paranoia to go back and pick up his shattered glasses, putting them back on after feeling around on a bit.
The only thing that bothered him is that there was nothing plastic on his glasses.
The only thing he was feeling under him fingers were a perforated speaker and circuit board, embedded in a corner of the chamber. It was useless, but considering how useless he found his senses at this point, he was much more comfortable pocketing it away.
But now he could get back to business.
He slid back into the crater, aiming his Digivice at the totem again and sucking all of the code right in. Even the tiny whispers entering his digivice made him tighten his grip that much more. Sho opened up his hand again, looking forward through his shattered glasses and letting the door to all those whispers open up again.
"Save your Heart..."
And as he shredded the bundled, undulating digicode, that whisper turned into the scream. He spread the wings of Griffomon and dove down the stairs, gliding upon his wings all the way back through, barely thinking about the path that lay in front of him. He could find the stairs he slid down before and rip right through.
Screaming.
The shock broke the ground and caused the roof to fall in past him. As Sho tore through the heat and air, feeling nothing but his own desire on his back. That was the one thing he couldn't stop shouting to himself for. Wings, Srength, Grace, Knowledge. No matter what he had, he had to break free.