Chapter 9: Journey Up the Mountain

"Cogelusmon, my King." A small, green and red Dinosaur Digimon dipped its head, before looking up at the large, gold-covered serpent in front of it. "There have been reports of a rag-tag group of teenagers travelling across our land. What shall we do?"
The serpent thought for a moment, "those must be the tamers I have heard about. Bring them here, I must meet them."
"Of course, Great-King." The dinosaur bowed its head, before scampering off, leaving tiny footprints in the deep snow. Once it was away from the summit, it met up with a group of its own kind.

"We must go, the King wishes to meet the tamers. We must bring them here." The rest of the group nodded, before they all began to climb down the tall, ice-covered mountain.

"We're nearly there! Nearly at the mountain!" Axomon chirped, wagging its large tail,
"Nearly. That's the key word." Jake shook his head, "why are we doing this again?"
"So we can get out of here!" Christina barked, "that's kinda the point of travelling."
"But there's probably an easier way, like, maybe we could call up a taxi to drive us around. Or maybe Digivolve our Protomon so we can ride them around." He retorted.
"What would be the point in that? I doubt you could ride me, no matter how far up the Digivolution line you go." Cacomon replied, shaking its head.
"Can you guys just stop fighting for once, it's all I hear half of the time." Chelsie turned and glared at Jake,
"woah, jeez, didn't mean to talk. Guess I'll just stop doing that." Jake stared at her, raising an eyebrow,
"that sounds fun! Let's do that all the way up the mountain!" Axomon began jumping around, "and we'll start it… now!" Immediately, Axomon covered its mouth with its short forearms.
"This is going to be a long trip." Christina sighed, shaking her head.

It was a long trip, by Chelsie's standards. They walked for what felt like years, just to even reach the start of an even longer trek. In front of the group sat a winding, gravel pathway, which led up the mountain. Although the gesture to even build a path seemed kind, she doubted it was for guiding people up the mountain, instead being a way to help lost Digimon off. Her legs were trembling, they felt weak, as if they could fall of at any minute, and just by looking at Christina's face, she could tell the other teenage girl was about to collapse. The only plus side to climbing this mountain would be the fact that Jake had finally shut up for once.

No more complaining at least. Mentamon had turned to Chelsie, staring up at her, "maybe we could just ride you guys up the mountain."
Cacomon frantically nodded in agreement, "you look like you're about drop dead if you take another step." It turned to Axomon, "can you quickly Digivolve so we can travel faster?"
Axomon, still with its mouth covered, shook its head. Of course, neither it nor Jake could speak, so they couldn't do anything.

So they were stuck walking up the mountain on their own, just because Axomon didn't want to help them; great.

It had been at least five minutes since they began climbing, but Chelsie already felt sick and tired. Snow was pummelling down on them now, out of nowhere. There were very few clouds in the sky when they were walking towards the mountain, but somehow an entire mile of storm clouds got stuck at the peak. It didn't help that she wasn't wearing anything that would keep her warm, just like Christina and Jake. The occasional rumble of thunder seemed to scare the life out of Axomon, who was still sitting quietly on Jake's head, but its eyes were full of terror.

The path continued to wind up the mountain though, as if mocking them for their non-existent capability to walk. Then, a large, ferocious roar rolled through the mountains, nearly being masked by the unforgiving, continuous snow.

"What was that?" Christina turned to Chelsie,
"hopefully something friendly." Chelsie looked back at her.

As if on cue, around the next corner, a large, black dinosaur with white feathers stepped out, its light blue eyes filled with hunger.

"You had to say that."

"Root Bombs!" The large dinosaur turned to them, before spitting yellowish-brown seeds from its mouth, which exploded once they hit the snow. One seed managed to land beside Mentamon, which then promptly exploded, sending the Reptile Digimon flying backwards.
"Mentamon!" Her partner laid in the snow, attempting to get itself up.
"Cacomon, go!" The bug-like Digimon glided towards the dinosaur,
"Web Swarm!" It fired a web at the Dinosaur Digimon's face, only managing to cover the bridge of its snout.
"King's Roar!" The Champion Digimon proceeded to roar, nearly shattering Chelsie's eardrums. The attack seemed too powerful for even Cacomon to handle, as it was flung off, landing harshly beside Mentamon.
"Yolk Spit!" Ovummon, who had been sitting in Chelsie's bag the entire time, spat egg yolk at the larger Digimon, but even this was fruitless.
"Pack Attack!" A group of small, green and red Dinosaur Digimon leapt from a cliff above the Champion Digimon, each landing somewhere on it. They began snapping their jaws and raking their claws across the feathered dinosaur's body, before it whined and ran off, back up the mountain path.

One of the Dinosaur Digimon stepped forwards, unlike the others, it had a slightly larger tuft of feathers on top of its head.
"Yutyramon should've known not to mess with our mission." It spoke as it stared up at them, "no Digimon interrupts a mission from Cogelusmon itself."
"Not only that, but it was up against Data Digimon, and everyone knows Data Digimon beat Vaccine Digimon." Another Dinosaur Digimon spoke, before shutting itself up.

Cogelusmon sent these guys! That means we're nearly there!

"Cogelusmon? You mean that Digimon we were looking for?" Christina shook her head, "I can't believe it. We were both looking for each other this entire time."
"Why didn't you come get us while we were walking up this mountain?" Chelsie spoke up,
"we were, it just takes a while to walk from the peak, all the way down here, even if we used shortcuts." The lead dinosaur calmly spoke, "but no time for chatting, we must go."

The Dinosaur Digimon all turned and began walking up the path, with the tamers walking after them, much slower.

"You would've never thought a bunch of Jungolomon would work for Cogelusmon, would you?" Cacomon landed gently in Christina's hair,
"so that's what they are. I thought they were just some weird-looking variant of Agumon."

The sun seemed to break through the never-ending, stormy clouds, causing the path to glow golden. Ahead of them, the snow seemed to have been melted away, the soft gravel that made up the path turning into gold. From here, Chelsie could see a golden temple in the distance, tiny colourful specks littering the tall columns. And as she stared, she could see the long, elegant shape of a snake-like Digimon, pale pink and light blue, but none of its details noticeable from this distance. As they approached slowly, the clouds seemed to twirl around their feet, white puffs of smoke gliding across the once black sky, which was now a bright blue. Is this what it looked like to be this high up? Even when she thought she was supposed to get altitude sickness, her body seemed immune to it, somehow getting stronger as she walked.

"Do you think I'll be able to fly up this high when I Digivolve?" Ovummon asked, its white eyes wide with wonder,
"hopefully. But that's if you even Digivolve to have wings." Mentamon answered it, "I probably won't."
"That's because you don't have enough faith in yourself." Cacomon shook its head, "with a little more faith, maybe you will Digivolve to have wings."
"Maybe if I wish really hard it'll come true!" Ovummon chirped, "really, really hard!"

As the Digimon continued to chat, the temple became so close, Chelsie could see each fine detail. Snake patterns were carefully carved into the pillars, each scale carved out as well, small, round, pink or blue gems placed where the eye was supposed to be, the coloured gem changing each snake. A small set of stairs lead up to the main area, silver with diamond-shaped, green gems edging the border. A silver path from the stairs the back edge of temple, the gems still edging the pathway. And floating above it all was what Chelsie presumed to be Cogelusmon. It still looked elegant; metallic, baby blue scales covered its back, while softer, pale-yellow scales covered its underbelly. It had a pale, purple mane around its neck, with a pale pink helmet covering its head, all except its bottom jaw. A long, flowing wave of light blue mist ran down from the back of its head to the tip of its tail, multiple pairs of white wings scattered across its spine, with a pair of short, feathered, white arms with three pink claws on each hung near the top of its form. Its sharp, blue eyes seemed to be full of wisdom as it stared down upon the tamers and Protomon.

It was intimidating.

The Jungolomon lead them up the stairs, before splitting off the stand beside one of the dozen golden pillars, their heads held eye and their gazes on the Great-King Digimon before them.

"Welcome, tamers." Cogelusmon's voice was calm and commanding, not booming, but not weak and quiet either. It was like a mother's tone to her young child but coming from something that looked nothing like a human female. "You have come seeking freedom, is that correct?"
Chelsie quickly nodded, "we want to leave this place."
Cogelusmon's gaze turned to the sky for a moment, "I cannot give you that, I'm afraid. It isn't in my power to do so." Its gaze settled on the tamers, "but I am able to read your thoughts, your wishes and your desires."

Chelsie heard Christina gulp. This wasn't going to be good.