Frontiers Unexplored

7) Pursuit

Takuya's entire body felt like it was throbbing when he next opened his eyes. He could feel the drowsiness sinking in already, and he wanted nothing more than to roll over and go back to sleep. He was covered in water, but he didn't particularly care about that fact. After all, the air was more than warm enough to keep it from bothering him, and he was only tempted further to close his eyes and return to slumber.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be possible. Even if Takuya was more than content with going back to sleep, Koji was far from satisfied with the idea. "Come on. Get up," the harsh voice of the Warrior of Light said.

Takuya groaned at the noise before forcing his eyes open once again. He pushed himself off the ground and sat up, slowly looking around. He yawned to himself, not bothering to cover his mouth as he did so. Now that he was upright, his sleepiness was starting to fade, so he took this chance to start looking around to figure out where they were.

Takuya could see that he was a few feet away from a river. There was a slippery area where the water clashed with the grass nearby, and Takuya assumed that he had been spat out by the river onto the ground not long ago. He couldn't see any traces of buildings nearby, though there was a cliff on the other side of the river that caught his attention.

His mind was still dulled as he glanced around to see where Koji was. Despite hearing the voice of the Warrior of Light, Takuya hadn't been able to locate him. He followed his ears and turned his head to see that Koji was standing nearby. He wasn't wearing his bandanna, having taken it off to wring the water out of it. Droplets rained freely from the fabric, and Koji began to shake it out violently.

Standing beside Koji was none other than Tomoki, who had his arms wrapped tightly around his body. He was shivering slightly, though Takuya could tell that it wasn't from the cold. After all, there wasn't any cool air to speak of due to the heavy humidity of the region. Even if it had been cold, Tomoki was the Warrior of Ice, so he would naturally be immune to such powers of freezing.

Takuya didn't get the chance to acknowledge Tomoki's nerves, instead cut off from his thoughts by a sudden rushing of remembrance. He cringed as he recalled the battle from the night before against Cybelemon. As soon as the Warrior of Earth got their hands on the Spirit, they had been too strong for anyone to deal with. After the mountain fell apart, the group was sent falling downwards into a river that ran through an area at the base of the peak. That was likely the same current that had spat them back onto the ground not long before Takuya woke up once more.

"Where are the others?" Takuya asked, feeling his stomach twist into a knot. He grabbed his goggles from around his neck and tilted them so that the water within was dumped onto the grass. Once he was sure that they were as close to dry as they would get, he rose to his feet, stretching his arms skywards. The action did little to ease the uncertain tension that had formed inside his core.

"I don't know," Koji replied bluntly. He began to unfurl his bandanna once again before sliding it back onto his head. Afterwards, he started pulling the water free from his ponytail, sending another cascade of droplets into the emerald grasses below. "They can fly, so I doubt they got as unlucky as we did. They're probably back at the mountain."

"Then we should go and find them!" Takuya exclaimed. The idea of being without the others was already making him nervous. Cybelemon had given them a sound thrashing, and even before the shift, Aeoelmon had been more than too much for the group to handle. What were they supposed to do if someone else showed up to fight the trio?

"I don't think we can," Tomoki murmured. He was still rubbing at his arms furiously as he stared at the ground, and Takuya wondered if he saw tears forming at the corners of the younger boy's eyes for a passing moment.