Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Tale of the Original DigiDestined ❯ Infinity Mountain and Food ( Chapter 10 )

After another hour of walking, they arrived at Infinity Mountain.

"Man, this is one big rock," Brain says, craning his head to look up.

"Yeah," Jesse says sarcastically, "I believe they call it a mountain."

"Shut up," Brains snaps.

"Respect your elders," Jesse snaps back, hitting him upside the head with his right hand.

"Please, we don't need to be fighting amongst ourselves," James pleads.

"Ah, let them fight," Samantha says, "it'll give us something to watch."

"Come on, sis," Daniel begs, "be nice."

"How can I be nice to these morons?" Samantha demands, "they constantly argue among themselves and they haven't a clue as to what they are doing."

"Sis, please try to be nice," Daniel pleads, "we have to get along with these people for a long time."

"How do you know?" Samantha asks her little brother, "we could go and fight this Beast of Darkness as soon as we defeat Vilemon."

"That would be suicide," Pixiemon says, "Vilemon is nothing next to the Beast of Darkness. The Beast's power is all but unbeatable."

"And we're supposed to beat him?" Jesse asks.

"Well, you'll only have a chance after you get your Tags from Vilemon, find your Crests, and learn how to use them," Pixiemon says, "but once you figure all that out, beating the Beast of Darkness should be a piece of cake."

"Did somebody mention cake?" Tapirmon pipes up.

"Never mind, Tapirmon," Daniel says with a grin.

"But I'm hungry," Tapirmon complains.

"When a Digimon gets hungry, their strength decreases," Pixiemon says, "and Rookies eat a lot. Champions and Ultimates don't eat as much, because to digivolve to Champion or Ultimate on its own, a Digimon has built up a large reserve of energy."

"Well then, let's eat before we try to climb Infinity Mountain," Brians suggests, "besides, I'm hungry as well."

The group stops and sets up a small picnic. Jesse and Heromon go and pick the fruits while Wizardmon and Brian fish in the stream. Biyomon starts a fire with her Spiral Twister and Samantha starts boiling some water in a pot they had brought with them from Primary Villager. Daniel and Tapirmon locate some edible roots and other vegetables and they use it all to make a stew of sorts. James heats some stones in the fire and then using them to cook the fish.

"You know, this place could really be a paradise if not for all the Digimon attacking us," James says as the stones heat up.

"Actually, the Digital World will be a great place once you defeat the Beast of Darkness," Pixiemon says, "and File Island will be a good place once again once you defeat Vilemon."

"Yeah, but won't we be going home after we defeat the Beast of Darkness?" Jesse asks. He had arrived with a large amount of fruit. Heromon had arrived with a lot of fruit as well.

"From what I know, yes, you will go home," Pixiemon says slowly, "but you must defeat Vilemon first. And there are other evils, even greater than Vilemon that you must defeat before you'll be ready to take on the Beast of Darkness."

"Why am I the one doing the cooking while you guys talk?" Samantha demands.

Jesse walks over to the pot and dumps a few pieces of sliced fruit into the stew.

"That'll give the stew a new flavor," Jesse says with a smile, "hey Daniel, let me take a look at hose rots and vegetables you've gathered!"

Daniel shows Jesse the roots and vegetables that he had gathered. He smacks Tapirmon's paw to keep him from sneaking one into his mouth.

"Well, you found some very flavorable vegetables here," Jesse says, "at least among those that I recognize."

Jesse picks up some of the vegetables and roots, puts them on a flat stone, and proceeds to chop them.

"Jesse, how do you know all this stuff?" Brian asks, amazed at all the things Jesse has shown himself to be capable of.

"Well, I've always had to pretty much take care of myself," Jesse says as he continues chopping, "I was adopted by my aunt and uncle when I was three, but their jobs pretty much kept them away from home. So I would just read a lot. I learned how to fight through trial and error after reading several books on various martial arts, and I just don't mean stuff like kung fu. I also had to cook for myself, so I learned a lot about cooking very early. My curiosity eventually led me to read about various herbs and spices. When I turned 16, I got my drivers license and started taking trips to the woods a few miles away from my home. I started gathering various herbs that I recognized. My learning took a giant leap when we got a computer with internet access two years ago."

Jesse takes the food he has chopped up and dumps it into the pot of boiling water and stirs it a little.

"Pretty much I'm a survivor," he says grimly.

"That's so sad," Brian says.

"Don't worry about it," Jesse says as he resumes chopping vegetables, "I've learned to accept it. Maybe my luck will change after this adventure."

Jesse sniffs.

"Heromon, get your hands away from the fish," he says without even looking in the direction of the cooking fish.

Sure enough, Heromon had been about to spear one of the fish with his sword, most likely to eat it.

Jesse looks over the herbs he had gathered earlier. He mentally checks off to see what he has.

"Looks like there's some thyme, some mint, some cloves, some bay leaves," he mutters.

He takes the bay leaves and shreds them. He dumps the bay leaves into the stew and stirs it some more. He looks at one strange spice.

"Hmm, fennel," Jesse mutters. Wordlessly, he takes the fennel, crushes it, and proceeds to sprinkle it over the fish.

"Hopefully this will add to the flavor," he explains as he sprinkles it on. When he finishes sprinkling the fennel over the fish, he goes over and chops up the last of the vegetables and dumps them into the stew.

"Heromon, hand me a couple of fish and your sword," Jesse commands.

"No way are you using my sword!" Heromon exclaims.

"Heromon, if you won't let me use your sword, then use your Hero Sword attack to slice and dice a couple of fish for me to add to the stew," Jesse says.

"Fine," Heromon says, "Hero Sword!"

The slicing force of the Hero Sword attack not only slices and dices the fish, but the rocks they were cooking on as well. Jesse picks up the pieces of the fish and dumps them into the stew.

"I don't really care for fish," Jesse says as he stirs the pot, "but it's the best we got at the moment."

A few minutes later they are all eating the fine meal.