Awake and Alive

Chapter Seven: The Crescent Warrior

**Part Two**

Rikka's feet slipped outward on slick, abandon path as she rounded the corner of trees. The suddenly cold air shocked her throat and lungs as she inhaled deeper and faster and harder. Her heart hammered against her rib cage, all or nothing. And she knew if she didn't reach there in time, it would all be over.

A vast blanket of white hung heavy. It suffocated every tree at its base, swallowed every distant object and vanished around every corner only to abruptly appear again. Rikka felt that if she stopped even once, she would be erased by it. And staring at it made her nerves go haywire, making her feel as if she was staring at nothing. She felt exposed, vulnerable, and at any given second something could attack from behind.

Another shrill shriek knifed through the silent air, prompting Rikka to hasten her steps; what seemed like hours was, in truth, a handful of minutes.

When she burst from the shrubby and other foliage, she felt like time had stopped in her eyes – unmoving and an almost permanent image in her mind.

Lunamon laid battered and beaten on the ground, and Rikka desperately wished that the fog would cover all of this up; instead it barely clouded this particular area of the forest. Her eyes half-closed and what could be seen were pink irises dulled by pain. She barely moved, but her body wracked with her ragged breathing.

Towering above the fallen Digimon was an imposing bipedal feline with a well-endowed figure and long, light reddish hair that curtained her back to her hips. Her eyes were like dark amethysts and they possessed a dangerous, feral glint to them. The flimsy veil around the lower half of face did nothing to conceal the predatory smirk stretched across her flawless face. Twin tails swished behind her and her long pink claws were sharpened with precision, giving off that notion to stay away.

Her attention flickered up to Rikka, the damned grin never leaving her face. In fact, it only grew wider. "Well, well, it certainly is an honor to be in your gracious presence, Lady Aether."

Rikka returned the spite ten-fold in just one word: "Leave."

"That's not nice," Beastmon childishly pouted, tails flicking. "Even after I came all this way to greet you, Milady,"

"I said leave. What – those big ears just for decoration?"

Beastmon's purr was certainly not out of contentment. Rikka would've continued her taunts, but with her standing over her partner like that she wasn't going to risk anything just to get the last word in.

"M–Milady?"

The human girl jolted a bit, eyes quickly shifting to the ground. Lunamon steadily braced her body weight with her arms, tearfully looking at Rikka. A grateful smiled made her heart lift, but the gesture was short lived when Beastmon planted her foot on the back of Lunamon's head.

"Stop, leave her alone!" Rikka growled, hand instantly reaching over to D-Tector.

Beastmon clicked her tongue, "Not so fast."

Just as Rikka's finger skimmed the top of the button, something heavy slammed into her back. Sprawled on the forest ground, she made a move to get up but she ended being pinned down forcefully.

"Say hello to my KoDokugumon, will you?"

An ear-splitting hiss sounded above Rikka. She twisted her head to the side, only to be greeted by the sight of a huge spider sitting on her back. Dull yet pointy red claws were pressed against her shoulders to keep her down and beady blue eyes stared at her, a tad bit hungrily. To further prove that a drop of saliva dropped from KoDokugumon's gaping maw and onto Rikka's cheek.