Awake and Alive

Chapter Eight: Above Sea Level

"I know this is no day at the beach, Joe," Gomamon spoke. "But that's no reason to be a worrywart about it and make all your friends unhappy. Pardon the pun, but chill out."

"It's cold," TK muttered, huddling in on himself. Slightly behind him, Mimi and Palmon were in a similar predicament and Patamon tried to brace himself against the chilling breeze.

"I think I'm drooping," Palmon moaned.

"In contrast," Gabumon looked beside him, "this one's gotten more energetic than usual."

Lunamon looked behind her shoulder and giggled. Gomamon was practically skipping, all giddy and happy, all without a care in the world. Then she looked upward at her partner whom she had been holding hands with the entire walk; she frowned. Rikka had a rather impressive resilience against the cold, Lunamon noticed, but that didn't mean that the human wouldn't shiver every now and then.

They had been walking all day, and the sun was going down. They probably had another hour or two before they would need to stop due to inability to see. The only problem was that they had yet to find somewhere nice and warm. Everywhere was freezing and temperatures only continued to drop.

"Ah, come on you guys. The cold isn't that terrible." Tai shrugged, ignoring the whining protest in the back.

"Perhaps not, if you were a polar bear or a penguin." Izzy retorted.

Tai continued on, "Yeah, but if it snows, we'll throw some snowballs!

That appealed greatly to Mimi and TK, "And make snowmen!"

"Who do you reckon Snowmon is?" Gomamon asked Gabumon.

"A Digimon from their planet, I suppose," he shrugged.

"It's difficult to explain." Izzy said, hearing their thoughts.

"Well if it's edible, count me in." Tentomon said.

"No, the best thing about snowballs is that you can throw them at each other. It's a fun game that we play in the winter months." Izzy tried clarifying.

"Why would you throw food at each other?" Tentomon sounded appalled at the prospect and Izzy kind of gave up on trying explain the concept to his partner, as it was just flying over his head.

"We could even built a snow fort" Matt was easily getting pumped up at the thought.

"You're gonna need one!" And his enthusiasm instantly sparked a similar reaction in Tai.

"I bet I could beat both of you." Sora grinned.

TK whooped, "I want to build an igloo!"

"Milady," Lunamon looked up, "what's an igloo?"

Rikka crouched down to Lunamon's height, still not letting go of her little paw. "You make bricks out of snow and stack them on top of each up until you make a little hut. Most of the time, people sit inside of them and just have fun."

"Oh..." Lunamon's eyes suddenly sparkled, "I wanna share an igloo with Milady!"

The girl laughed and lifted the Digimon into her arms, nodding. But she noticed that off to the side, Joe had his eyes casted downwards. Knowing him, he was probably thinking about the possible dangers of incoming snow. And soon enough...

"C'mon, get serious!"

He would openly voice his concerns.

Seeing he had everyone's attention, Joe continued, " It'd be horrible if it started snowing right now!"

As Sora walked over to him, Rikka zoned out into her own thoughts. Joe was absolutely correct about the problems snow could bring. It would not only be difficult to find camp and food, but no one was dressed for the frigid temperatures. Hell, even she wasn't – dressed in shorts and a cropped t-shirt.