The Beats Go On

Chapter 22: Back on Track!

🌴Chapter 22: Back on Track!

Ari - Hexagon - Green

Despite being rather tall and intimidating, this shape is actually quite friendly and very affectionate. If you harm his friends though, prepare for a fight.

"How are we gonna get back down now..?!" Cas called, looking down at the area below. They surely went up quiet far, the height was impressive.

"No clue...It'll be risky if we go back from where we came...who knows what's waiting for us down there?" Ami muttered. "Even so...That path will be too broken down to follow through anyways.." Ina sighed a little.

"Well we can't give up! Maybe there's another passage.." Digo said, looking at the others. "What doesn't seem very accurate..." El shrugged in response.

"Guys.." Ari began to talk before he was interrupted. "Well we have to try something out.."

"Guys..."

"Well what if we jump across?"

"That won't work...the path crumbled before us, Digo almost fell in!"

"Guys..?"

"I know! What if we jump-"

"WE ARE NOT JUMPING OFF." Ami hissed.

"GUYS!" Ari yelled, slightly surprised when he got their attention.

"Alright...So...there path down from here...it just over there..." he nodded over to a winding staircase that seemed to go all the way down to the bottom.

"Oh...How convenient?" Coco muttered, eyeing the steps.

"They look intact...Do you think they're really that safe..?" Ina asked quietly.

Ari only shrugged. "Dunno. All I can say. Some may be slippy and you loose foot easy, but if careful, it okay."

"Right..." Coco murmured. "Well- lets take it slow-"

"Let's go!!" Cas cheered as he began hopping down the steps.

"Cas!" Both Ami and El scolded the shape as they followed after him. Ina looked at the other shapes before leaving, slowly advancing behind them.

"Well- lets go before they get into trouble..." Digo laughed quietly, soon leaving with Coco and Ari.

The trip down was pretty smooth...Except for a few mishaps. Cas was being reckless as always, Ina was worrisome with a few slip ups and Ami had trouble to not legitimately through Cas off, though, everyone could agree that he might as well have fallen off by now anyways. Coco had to admit, Ari was very interesting to him. He had no idea where he had come from. He kind of wanted to know more.

"How far are we..?" El sighed, walking slower due to the length of the walk.

"We're about...a quarter of the way down I think..?" Digo mumbled in response, he looked just as tired.

"Not...Sure." Ami murmured as he looked down from where they were.

"I hope the others made it out okay..." Ina whispered.

"I'm sure they're fine. They're both very strong. Plus if they found a way down and Elis is there, then they would be in good shape." Coco paused. "Pun not intended.." he muttered.

The group broke out into a soft laughter, clearly finding the "joke" funny. They carried on, hoping to make it down quicker and not end up back down underground. Ami noticed Coco looking at Ari, but said nothing about it. Ari on the other hand, saw something out of the corner of his eye and looked down at Coco, who quickly turned away. Ari tilted his head.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"No, I'm fine..." Coco sighed.

"Need huggie?"

"No...no need huggie" Coco grumbled.

"Well, while a group hug would be nice, we don't have time for that right now" Ina said, "we have to keep going."

"So...who "others"?" Ari asked.

"Oh, they're other shapes in our group! Cho is a hexagon, and Pepe is a scalene triangle! None of them are corrupted, but they are shorter than you..." Digo replied.

It was true, Ari was the tallest one in the group at the moment.

"Boys? Girls?" Ari asked.

"Uh...I think they were guys? No wait, was Cho nonbinary or something?" Cas said.

"Yeah, something like that I think" Ami said.

"Whatever the case is, they're our friends and we're headed back to 'em" El said.

Ari nodded.
"Oh...ok"

"So uh...how long have you been here?" Ina asked Ari.

"I...I no know. Past is fuzzy. Forget much" Ari replied.

"Oh..."

"Do you at least remember what corrupted you?" Cas asked.

"Hmmm...think it was...um...water? No, been corrupted for longer...uh...don't remember. Sorry" Ari said.

"Interesting..." Ami mumbled.

Maybe that giant lizard did it? Or had Ari already been in the volcano, corrupted as is? Was there another force ruling over that giant lizard that the group didn't know about? It just raised so many questions that weren't answered. The group just hoped they could get to the bottom of this.

The path continued downwards, and the group was starting to get more bored by the second. Luckily, that was about to end quickly.

"Hey look! I think I can see them from here!" Cas exclaimed, pointing outwards towards the sea where indeed, the group could see the trio in the water.

Cho and Pepe were on Elis, but the trio didn't seem to see the group. Well, at least the group knew where they were now. All they needed really was a quicker way down. The footing around the place was starting to get unstable too, so they needed to be even more careful. Cas stepped on a loose rock and almost slid down the steep slope, had Ina and El not grabbed him.

But...this gave Digo an idea.

"Hey guys! What if we rode the rocks down the mountainside? Like, we sat on them and sledded down!"

Ami glared at him.

"No, we're not doing tha-"

"That sounds fun!" Cas exclaimed, "and I already found my rock!"

Everyone turned to look at him, only to see him trying to pull out a giant rock that was wedged between two other giant rocks.

"Ooh! Ooh! I help!"

Ari ran over and began tugging on it as well, and before long, the rock was out and on the ground, facing the slope of the mountain.

"Are ya ready?" Cas asked everyone, hopping on.

Everyone else sighed, but knew they kinda didn't really have much of a choice at this point.

"Sure..." El groaned.

So they got on with Ari in the back, and he pushed them down the mountainside.