The Beats Go On

Chapter 14: Is That Light?

☀️Chapter 14: Is That Light?

Up and up and up they went. The staircase seemed to be really long. It was kind of boring and tiring to be honest. They always kept looking up to see how far they were from reaching the top. Every time they checked, they couldn't tell. The ceiling kept getting higher and higher...

Cho, who was leading everyone up the stairs, began wondering about the treeangle piece they had recovered. It was purple...but the purple treeangle should be intact? They didn't remember hearing about the tree splitting up. And what has a piece like that doing here? It was indeed very curious.

However, the group now had a point of weakness on them with that treeangle piece. Cho assumed Sese and Racu would want to take it, but there could be other forces as well that would want the piece. The group would have to be more careful from now on. Cho kept quiet, keeping all these thoughts away from the team. Besides, talking while climbing could get exhausting quick.

"Cho, you doin' okay?" El asked, noticing their silence.

"Yes. Quite. I have a few ideas about the treeangle piece, but I'd rather not bore anyone with them."

"Thank you" Pepe grumbled. He had had enough of Cho's theories and ideas from being with him in the underground for...who knew how long.

"Awww, but I wanted to hear them!" Digo whined.

"Ah...if Cho doesn't want to say, then we shouldn't force them to..." Ina mumbled.

"Perhaps when we get out of this place I will explain" Cho said simply.

After that, everyone remained quiet. Coco was worried about the possibility of the mountain top being a trap, or worse. What if there was a rock slide? An eruption? The thoughts piled up, as he wanted to be prepared for anything. The stairs made him feel more and more tired by the second. Then again, at least the light wasn't getting purther and further away.

The sides of the cave wall were no longer decorated with mushrooms and crystals as they went further and further up. Only regular dull rock. No fossils, no hidden treasure, even. It took a while, but they could see the light approaching closer and closer. Everybody's spirits were lifted upon seeing this, glad they were nearing the exit and didn't have much longer to walk.

Eventually, they finally gotten out of the hole, which was actually part of a side cave on the mountain. Cas quickly ran out to the path in front of them, looking over the edge to see how far up they were. Surprisingly, they looked like like they were about a fourth of the way up the mountain. Ami looked up against the mountainside, to see how far they were. It seemed that there was some sort of strange storm of red clouds forming up above.

He decided to tell the others about it later. Right now, they just needed to figure out another way up without falling into the underground again. Coco found a medium sized rock and attempted to mimic what Ami had done by throwing it out in front of them to see if the path was weak. Surprisingly, it held very firmly. The ground they were on now was firmer than the ground below, which, don't exactly sound so good in the event of an earthquake.

Coco went out and stomped on the ground to be extra sure. The ground held, and it wasn't suspicious like the last time. There seemed to be no signs of traps set up around, but that was only what Coco could see. He just hoped Sese hadn't warned any of his allies after that battle. What if that lizard from before did that too? Was Sese working for them? He would never know.

"So Cho, what was that thing about the treeangle? Cas asked, running back to the group.

"Well...it bothered me, because it was purple. As far as I'm concerned, the purple treeangle is still intact, because if it was broken, then there would either be a lesser amount of purple things, or an overload of them. It makes me wonder if this is part of...some other treeangle" Cho explained.

"Oooh! Like a rainbow treeangle perhaps?" Ina asked.

Of course, she herself had never heard of such a thing, but the thought of possibly being part of finding one sounded nice.

"That would be cool!" Digo added.

"Well, that could be a possibility. We won't know for sure until we collect more pieces" Cho replied.

"Ugh, but are we seriously going to do THAT when we already have a task at hand?!" Pepe groaned.

"For once I agree with the gremlin, I thought we were stopping the corruption" Ami said.

Cho sighed.
"Well, perhaps we will just have to wait and see..."

"Hey guys? I found another way around the mountain!" El shouted.

The group walked up the mountain a little more, and sure enough, it split in two. Both paths looked the same, neither of them seemed suspicious. However, one path went up more while the the other path went around the side and stayed at the same height. Naturally it was assumed the group wanted to go up higher instead of around, but Digo checked just to be sure. He walked to the front and turned around.

"Ok so is anyone going around on the other path?" he asked.

"You guys can go up the one way, we're going to check out the other side" Cho said, motioning to Pepe.

"Okay! Anyone else?"

Nobody spoke up, so Digo assumed they were fine.

"Okay then! Let's get a move o-wait, who's going to hold the treeangle piece?"

"I figured it would be us, since you guys might encounter trouble at the top and there may be an enemy wanting to take it away" Cho said, waiting for Pepe to make a response about it since Cho hadn't told him this before. He seemed fine with it, though.

"Okay, seems fair. Let's get going, gang!" Digo exclaimed.

And so they started up the mountain.