Chapter 4
The Temple of Despair
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Sometimes I cry
Because it's so vexing
We're not alone in our world
But I have my aspirations
If we stay barefoot, I'm sure we'll be all right
"Be All Right" (Takeru's theme)
TK examined his digivice. "Just the same as yesterday. I can't pick up any other signals on this."
"Same here," said Kari. "I can't get get anything, either."
"I guess the interference is still in the air," Cyan concluded.
Gatomon spoke from down near Kari's feet. "If we can't find them, we can at least try to find out what's going on here."
"Right!" said Patamon, enthusiastically. TK agreed with him. "Good idea."
"So let's go," said Kari.
"It's something to do, at least," Cyan replied, but his voice was low and he sounded tired.
They started walking, following TK, who merely picked a direction and headed out. His eye had caught a line of trees some distance off, and for this he headed. But the walk was difficult. The weather was fine and the ground soft and even, but soon the whole company began feeling lethargic. Their steps became slower and less certain, and within a few minutes TK was wondering if he had chosen correctly.
"Can we stop and rest?" asked Gatomon.
"So soon?" asked Kari. "But I think you're right. I feel like I've been walking for hours."
TK wanted to press on. "There's something in that forest we have to see," he said urgently.
"Why?" asked Cyan.
"I don't know. It's just that I feel we have to go there. No matter how tired we feel."
"If you say so," Cyan said laconically.
So they slogged on, struggling against the incessant weariness. Ever so slowly the line of trees came closer. But the nearer they got to them, the more they felt the walk was hopeless, that they would accomplish nothing. Everyone fell silent, and lost in their thoughts they trudged along, saying nothing.
The stillness was suddenly broken by a cry from Kari. "TK, stop! I can't go any further!"
Turning around, TK saw Kari had sat down on the grass. Gatomon was clinging to one of her arms. He walked over and squatted down beside her. "What's wrong?" he asked softly.
"It's hopeless!" Kari was even weeping. "There's just no use in going on!"
"No use?" asked TK. "But look around. There's nothing to be afraid of."
"I can't explain it. It's so quiet, and we haven't even seen a dangerous digimon all day. But it's just that, well, I don't see any use in all of this."
TK sought out one of Kari's hands and clasped it. Surprised at the touch, Kari looked up from the ground and into TK's face. His compassionate blue eyes met her brown. "Cheer up, Kari. I'm here, and so is Cyan, and Gatomon, Patamon, and Cantomon, too. We'll protect you. But we have to stick together. C'mon, you can do this." Standing up, he gently pulled on Kari's hand, and she stood up also. He let go as soon as she was standing, then called over to his other friend. "Cyan, how are you feeling?"
"Tired, like I had not slept all night," came the reply. But he drew his sword and held it high. Its polished blade flashed in the sunlight. "Yet I am not afraid. Fair maiden, I shall protect thee!"
Perhaps it was TK's hand, perhaps it was the sword, or perhaps it was Cyan's bravado, but Kari's helplessness diminished. She even smiled. "With two brave boys to look after me, what do I have to be afraid of?" she asked.
"Then let's go into the forest!" said TK. Their spirits raised, they found a trail and followed it in.
The forest was unexpectedly dark. Trees here grew high and thick, and the canopy overhead reduced the light below. Scarcely a hundred steps down the path, both the kids and the digimon felt the oppressive despondency return. Patamon stopped flying and clung nervously to TK's hat. Behind them, Gatomon wound her tail around Kari's wrist and would not let go. Following them came Cantomon and Cyan, his sword held in front, determination on his face.
Ten minutes they plodded along like this, until the forest suddenly ended again in an immense clearing. Ahead of them loomed a massive dark stone wall, interrupted at regular intervals by squat, round towers capped with conical stone roofs. A thousand feet ran that wall from their left to their right, and beyond it rose a huge stone tower, in height well above the tree tops, dominating everything in the area. In the centre of the wall's width, directly ahead of them, was set an imposing entrance.
And at the sight of the wall and tower everyone stopped dead in their tracks. TK and Kari would have turned and retreated, but Cyan was blocking their way, sword still drawn. Forced to stay and confront their helpessness, all three kids closed their eyes and concentrated intensely. A minute later the depair subsided.
"Wow!" said TK quietly. "This place sure is big!"
"And odd, too," said Cyan. "I don't recognize it."
Neither did Gatomon. "I don't know this temple either."
"You've never seen it before?" Kari asked in wonder.
"No," Cyan replied. "That's what makes it so strange, I thought I'd seen most of the Digital World already. Well, all the landmarks like this, at least."
"We should explore it," said TK.
"Maybe we can find some clue as to what's affecting the Digimon," Kari suggested.
Cantomon was not so easily convinced. "I don't like this ... I have a strange feeling about it." And Cyan agreed with him.
But TK's thoughts were with Kari's. "You're right, Kari, the answer's here. I can feel it. Whatever's wrong with the Digital World, it's here. We'll just have to be careful."
Summoning up hope from deep within, TK slowly started across the wide field to the entrance. With great reluctance Kari, Cyan, Gatomon, and Cantomon followed too.
It took all their strength of will to cross that expanse from the forest to the wall. Nothing attacked them, but the hopelessness that gripped each member of the group wore them down just the same. Finally they reached the gate. Here there were able to appreciate the immense size of the place: the great stone wall loomed above them to a height of thirty feet, and the gate house was taller still. Great wooden doors were hung there, but they had been neglected for some time. Damage from an attack had not been repaired, leaving a crack wide enough for the kids to squeeze through.
"What's that?" asked Cyan, pointing to a pair of large flat stones set into the wall on either side of the gate. The same text had been carved into each:
-
Six little bees
Fly away! Fly away!
Look for six wildflowers
To brighten your day!
Patamon was both surprised and perplexed. "It's a nursery rhyme! I remember it from my earliest days. But why carve a nursery rhyme into the walls of a place like this?"
"This is the Digital World," said Cyan. "Nothing here makes much sense."
"Let's go inside," said TK. "I'm still tired, but I want to see what's here." He carefully slipped through the broken door, followed by the others.
For just a moment despair was replaced with wonder. About two hundred feet ahead of them stretched another fortified wall, just as dark as the outer one, surrounding an inner enclosure. The great stone tower they had seen from the outside was within that wall, but from where they stood they could not see an entrance. A black flagstone path ran forward from the gate, wide enough for four people to walk abreast; a raised stone curb separated the path from the surrounding grass and wildflowers. Stone pedestals, squat and grey, had been placed at irregular intervals along the path, hard against the curbs on both sides. At one time they had been adorned with various digimon carved in stone, but now most were bare, their statues laying broken about their bases.
Scattered in the field betwen the first and second walls was an amazing collection of shrines, fine statues, empty fountains, sundials, solitary archways and column circles, slender stone needles, and overgrown groves and flowerbeds; as though a hundred park planners had been let loose at once, each with a different idea what to put there. Yet despite the apparent disorder, the whole was not displeasing to the eye. Harmony appeared to be the watchword here, for together the discordant pieces made a symphony in stone and not a resounding clash.
Then the weariniess that had plagued them all day returned in force. "I'm so tired," whispered Gatomon. She yawned deeply.
Beside him, TK heard Cyan say, "I'm almost asleep on my feet, too."
"What's happening?" asked TK.
Kari was blinking her eyes, struggling to stay awake. "It's like what's been happening to all the digimon we've seen."
"Just try to stay awake a little while longer," TK urged them all. "We can explore this place a bit, then go home and sleep."
He started down the path. The others followed, fighting the call of the grass to lay down and rest. About halfway to the inner wall, the path stopped in a T-intersection, continuing left and right parallel with the walls. Here TK paused a long time, labouring to make the simple choice of going one direction or the other. Finally he turned left. He seemed unsteady on his feet.
"Hey!" called Cantomon suddenly. "Look over there! It looks like a couple of sleeping digimon!" Raising a paw, he pointed to a pair of shapes curled up under the bowl of a dry fountain between the path and the wall of tbe inner enclosure. Relieved for a distraction, they all left the path and walked to where the two digimon lay.
"It's Elecmon!" cried Gatomon.
"And Tsunomon!" said Patamon.
"Looks like we're not the only curious ones," Cyan observed.
To their immense relief, the digimon were still alive: they were warm to the touch, and when the kids placed a finger close to the digimon's nostrils they could feel air moving as they breathed in and out. But try as they might, the digimon could not be awakened.
"What's wrong with them?" asked Kari.
Gatomon seemed to understand. "I think it's what we're feeling, too. Except they actually went to sleep, and now they can't wake up again."
Through all this Cyan stood guard. Well for them he did, for he spotted a tall, firece, tawny coloured digimon as it came slowly around the far corner of the inner wall. It first looked curiously at the group, then started toward them. Cyan called an alarm.
"Something's coming! Looks kind of like a Tyrranomon!"
"Wrong colour," said Cantomon. "It's a Goldtyrramon!"
TK looked up, then called to Patamon, still on the ground tending to the sleeping digimon. "You'd better armour digivolve!"
"You, too, Gatomon!" said Kari. Together she and TK called out, "Digiarmour energize!"
Nothing.
"What happened?" asked TK. He spoke urgently--the Goldtyrramon was still heading for them.
"We can't armour digivolve!" Patamon cried.
"It's just like the control spires!" added Gatomon.
"But there aren't any control spires here!" cried TK. "Try digivolving normally!"
But again nothing happened. "We're just too tired," Gatomon wailed.
"Let me try," said Cyan. "Cantomon and I are a bit stronger, and we may be able to."
And able to they were. Cantomon now stood up and was taller and leaner, a knight in shining armour. Even Cyan's clothing changed: shoulder guards appeared on his breatplate, and his shirt sleeves and pant legs gained greaves. Knightmon drew his sword, and together the pair walked over to do battle with the Goldtyrramon.
But the energy required to digivolve had exhausted their reserves. Too late they realized they no longer had strength enough to engage. Standing there in front of the beast they put on a brave show, but were able to do little beyond holding their swords aloft. The Goldtyrramon lunged toward Cyan, blue eyes blazing in its yellow head. It picked up Cyan bodily and threw him against the inner wall. A loud crunch echoed through the quiet complex, and bits of stone and rubble ran down the wall to the ground where Cyan lay. The Goldtyrramon collapsed, completely spent. Knightmon reverted to Cantomon, and Cyan's armour disappeared.
"Cyan!" cried Kari.
"Are you OK?" asked TK.
Cyan's voice came feebly across the grass from the wall. "We're just too weak to fight it ..."
"Let's get out of here!" said TK. "We don't know how many of those things may be lurking around! Cyan, can you walk?"
Cyan struggled to his feet and took a couple of steps. "I think so," he said.
"All right! I'll get Elecmon--Kari, you grab Tsunomon!"
They did so, and once Cyan and Cantomon had joined them they struggled their way back to the broken door and squeezed through. Here Kari handed the unconscious Tsunomon over to Cyan. Unable to bear being in the shadow of those grey walls, they labouriously crossed the hundred yards of open ground to the forest's edge. Utterly exhausted, they collapsed to the ground.
TK lay on his stomach and buried his face in his arms. His voice came muffled from the grass. "What are we going to do? How can we fight all the evil in this place?" It was hard to tell, but to Kari it seemed he was crying.
The others stared at him, stunned. While not as brash as Davis, TK never failed for bravery, and his optimism would hold longer than any other's. So to see him here now, on the verge of giving up, distressed them more than they had ever been before. The despair finally consumed them all.
"It's hopeless!" said Cyan glumly, holding his head in his hands. "If Knightmon and I can't take on a Champion level digimon ...." He stopped, lost for words. Gatomon mewed piteously, and she and Kari held each other close.
Then everything fell silent. Lost in their discouragement. the kids spoke no more, and their digimon sat motionless beside them. Shadows grew long in the glade, but no one made a move to get up and walk. Despondent, their strength and will gone, each sat or lay as they had been since their retreat from the temple. Not a breeze blew to relieve the stagnant air, and no birds sang, nor did the crickets chirp. The stillness closed in around them like a slowly closing trap.
Nearly an hour after being carried from the temple, Elecmon and Tsunomon awakened. They spent a minute figuring out where they were before trying to rouse the quiet digimon beside them. Elecmon managed to get Gatomon awake. Then Gatomon woke Kari, and Kari roused the others: all had fallen asleep unawares. By now there were no shadows, for the sun was near set.
"What happened?" asked Elecmon.
"We found you in there," said Kari. "You were asleep and we couldn't wake you up. Then a Goldtyrramon attacked us, and we picked both of you up and ran out here. We were so tired we fell asleep ourselves."
"I remember going in there," Tsunomon said. "But I don't know why. Then we just got so tired that we had to lay down and sleep."
"Lucky you guys came along when you did," Elecmon added, "or we'd have been that Goldtyrramon's dinner by now."
"Let's start walking," said Kari. "I want to get as far away from here as I can!"
No one disagreed with her. Slowly they got up, stretched, and started down the trail away from the compound.
"Do either of you two know what that place is?" asked Cyan as they walked. "I've been in the Digitial World a lot, but never saw it before today."
"I haven't either," replied Tsunomon. "But whatever it is, it's dangerous. We should get rid of it!"
"Maybe getting rid of it isn't the answer," said Patamon. "Most places like this were once good and just became bad over time, or when the Digimon Kaizer got his hands on it."
Elecmon made an important connection. "All that's needed to make it right again is for the Digidestined to go in there and clean it up."
"But we can't!" All the digimon were surprised: it was TK who had spoken. "We can't even go inside without falling over."
"Maybe if there were more of you," Elecmon suggested. "I see only three of you here. Aren't there more?"
"There are," said Cantomon, "but they're not friends right now."
"Oh," said Tsunomon. "But you can get back together, can't you?"
TK was not at all hopeful. "I don't think so," he said. "Not after everything that's gone wrong the last couple of days." The despairing tones in his voice stopped further conversation.
At length, still tired and downcast, they reached the end of the forest. Kari's digivice picked up the weak signal of a TV set nearby. They parted company with Tsunomon and Elecmon, then walked until they found the TV. In silence they waited for the Digiport to open and return them to the computer lab, and once there quietly walked out of the room.
"Are you two boys going to be here tomorrow?" asked Kari just before they took separate paths home.
"I don't know," replied TK. "Right now, I just don't know."
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Thank you from both Cyan and Bradmon.