Frontiers Unexplored

22) Built of Starlight

However, Takuya didn't get the chance to say anything on the matter, as Chihiro cut him off with a friendly smile. Tomoki hadn't seen them look so open since they first joined the party. "Come and get it," they declared. If Chihiro noticed that Tomoki was staring, they chose not to comment on it. 

The rest of the group gathered around to pick up their share of the food, but Bokomon stayed where he was. Even after the Legendary Warriors and Neemon had pulled back from the table with their meals, the white Digimon remained completely still, his eyebrows furrowed as he read through the book. All of a sudden, his eyes went wide, almost impossibly so. The rest of the group was too distracted to catch onto his shock. 

Bokomon's subsequent cry was more than enough to make everyone turn towards him. "Come quick!" he yelped in surprise, gesturing frantically for the group to gather around him. Food was set down on the smaller tables in the room, and the party of eight remained tightly knit around Bokomon. 

He held up his book in an attempt to show everyone what had captured his focus so suddenly. Nobody said a word, not fully understanding what he was trying to indicate. As soon as Bokomon was able to move past his flustered behavior, he explained, but his words were rushed and came out in a haze of slurred syllables and excitement. "I've figured out where the next Beast Spirit is!" he shouted. 

Gasps rose up from the group as Bokomon pointed furiously at one of the pages. "This is where we can find the Beast Spirit of Thunder! It's in the eye of a storm located on the border of the Continent of Darkness! We're going to run into it on the way to Evergreen Dawn!" he exclaimed. When Tomoki looked a bit closer, he could see that Bokomon's hand was trembling due to a mix of excitement and adrenaline. 

"That's amazing!" Takuya cried out, his hands slamming together with an echoing clap. "We can pick it up while we're heading towards Cherubimon's palace, and then we'll just need to worry about finding out where Koji's Beast Spirit is!"

"We had best get going if we want to find it then," Koji said with a small nod. "Let's get back to eating and then head that direction. We don't want to be caught here again by Oceaniamon or Fioremon. I think that we've seen more than enough of those two these past few days."

The rest of the group agreed unanimously with Koji, and Tomoki couldn't keep the smile off his face. After so much turmoil, life seemed to finally be heading in the right direction. The next Beast Spirit was in sight, and the group was going to find a way to deal with it together. They had promised such in the aftermath of Zephyrmon's appearance, after all. For the first time in years, Tomoki could say the future was promising and mean it with every part of his being. 

~~~~~

Mayumi and Haroi didn't stop walking until they came out to a large clearing. Haroi seized the upper segment of Mayumi's arm and pulled her behind a tree to see what was happening. His head was starting to buzz already, and he felt something in the back of his mind tighten with unforeseen tension. He had a bad feeling about this, and they had just arrived. 

There were countless Digimon scattered around the area, all of them standing on the grass that surrounded a large chasm in the ground. The hole was uneven, as if a piece of the earth had been slammed into the center of the world with an oversized hammer. At the center of the abyss stood a single pillar that rose high into the sky. No matter how hard they tried to see the top, neither Haroi nor Mayumi was able to figure out what waited at the other end of it. The trees hid the upper areas of the column from view. 

Haroi attempted to make sense of the many words being spoken by the various Digimon nearby. He realized that all of them appeared to be similar to animals of some sort, though he couldn't pick any of them out specifically due to his lack of experience with this world. Mayumi shrugged when he looked her direction, proof that she was just as clueless as he was. He shouldn't have expected anything less given that they had arrived at the same time, but the truth still left him feeling oddly demoralized.