Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sitting in the Principal's Office is bad enough; sitting there drenched in water was even worse. To my right was my best friend Austin, who I currently wanted to strangle with a cord; on my left was my twin-sister Selena, next to her was a girl a year younger than us, I think her name is Laurel. All four of us were drenched. The door behind us opened and in stepped our Chemistry teacher, Ms. Johnson, and our Principal Mr. Brown. Taking his seat Mr. Brown looked at each one of us before speaking.  

   “Would one of you please explain to me why the Chemistry lab is currently being dried?” he asked.  

   I glared at Austin knowing this was his fault, but not wanting him to get into too much trouble I decided to downplay what happened.  

   “I was writing down observations about the experiment we were doing when Austin accidentally bumped into me, causing me to knock over nearby chemicals. The flammable one fell into the Bunsen burner and caught fire, which spread to the sleeve of my lab coat. Selena ran to get the fire blanket but tripped and fell into Laurel, who was right next to us, and she knocked her chemicals over, making the fire worse. Austin helped me take the lab coat off and ran to get the fire extinguisher to put out the fire. He put out the desk fire before the coat fire, and the coat fire burned long enough for it to trigger the sprinklers before he put it out with the extinguisher. Then the whole class got wet and that’s when Ms. Johnson came back from the hall after talking to a teacher in the hall. When she asked what happened everyone pointed in our direction, and now here we are,” I spoke so fast I had to take a deep breath to refill my lungs with air. Everything I said was completely true, I just left out the reason Austin bumped into me.  

   “Well, this incident is one of many that has happened because of the four of you.”  

   I winced as I remembered what he was referring to. Austin altered the school’s PA system, so the next day the "Macarena” played every time the speakers were turned on. Selena had to be pulled off a guy by security because she attacked him; although to be fair, he was harassing a girl. She tried to help her get away by distracting him, but as she walked away, he noticed and grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her back, which set Selena off. By the time security got there, the guy had a black eye, a bloody nose, and a missing tooth. Last year my science fair project was stolen so I rigged the thief's locker with an exploding dye pack that blew up in his face when he opened it, unfortunately the force of the explosion knocked him onto the floor and knocked him out. I didn’t know what Laurel had done to get in trouble, but I doubt it was anything too bad.   

   “Each one of you has caused trouble at this school, so I will have you work for the school,” said Mr. Brown.  

   “Um... what exactly are you saying?” asked Austin.  

   “What I’m saying Mr. McLean, is that this Saturday the four of you will be working for the school janitorial staff, helping them clean the school.”  

   “WHAT!” we all yelled.  

   “You’ve got to be joking. Are you joking, please tell me you’re joking?” Austin asked nervously.  

   “I am not actually. The four of you are to report to the front of the school on Saturday at ten in the morning. If you do not arrive on time, you will risk either suspension or expulsion depending on your previous transgressions.  

   After that he told us to wait outside in the lobby until our parents arrived to pick us up. After a few minutes of sitting, my leg started to bounce up and down from the nerves. I couldn’t get expelled; my whole future could be in jeopardy. Again, I looked over to Austin and gave him the nastiest look I could. He saw me and gulped with fear, knowing how much trouble he was in.  

   That was when my mother walked into the school. Suddenly I was the one gulping in fear. My mother was terrifying when either my sister or I were in trouble. We learned early on that when the vein on over her eyebrow was pulsing to not bother her, and right now it was pulsing maddeningly.  

   Selena and I scooched over to one another to brace for our impending doom. Our mother looked at both of us then to Austin, before taking a deep breath before telling us to get up to go home. She looked over at Austin and said, "Austin, sweetie, your mom is busy, so she asked me to pick you up.”  

   “Of course, she is. Alright, I’m coming.”  

My mom signed us out and we left the school. When we were all seated in the car, she turned to face us and with a tired voice said, “God help me, if I get one more call, about one of you assaulting a kid, blowing up a locker, or anything else for that matter, they’ll find your bodies floating in a lake.”  

   She said nothing after that. The whole ride home was quiet; the only sound was the music from the radio. We made it home to the apartment complex where we live. We entered our apartment, with Austin in tow since he always forgets the keys to his apartment upstairs. Mom locked herself in her room stating that she’s tired and will come out to start dinner in a few hours. As soon as she closes her door, I face Austin and smack him on his head.  

   “Ow, what was that for?” he whined.  

   “This is your fault,” I replied. “I told you to stop flirting with Rachel and help me with the assignment, but instead of walking towards like a normal person, you decided to look cool, and moon walked backwards bumping into me, causing this whole mess.”  

   “Dude I’m sorry. You know I’ve been crushing on her since freshman year, and this is the first class where we’ve sat near each other, so I took my chance to get to know her.”  

   “I know that; I get that, but next time you want to flirt with a girl don’t do it while in a room with dangerous chemicals.”  

   “I don’t think you’d get far anyways,” said Selena. “I heard she’s getting back with Justin... again.”  

   “Are you kidding me? Exactly how long were they separated for again?” he asked.  

   “Three months and twelve days. This is the fifth time they’ve gotten back together.”  

   Austin groaned before flopping onto the couch. I rolled my eyes and went to my room. I put my backpack under my desk before grabbing a book from my nearby bookshelf and falling onto my bed. I spend the rest of the day in there until Selena comes in and tells me it’s time to eat.  

   I went to the bathroom to wash my hands before making my way to the dinner table. Austin was sitting on the far end of the table, which wasn’t surprising as he usually ate here every other day. My dad, who came back from work while I was in my room, sat next to him. Mom asked me to grab the pot of rice while she grabbed the chicken she made. Once we were all at the table we started eating. My dad asked us about our day and was subsequently disappointed about the lab incident.   

   After dinner we watched a movie in the living room. Near the end Austin got a text from his mom letting him know she’s home and left. By the time it was time for bed I put on some plaid pajama pants and an old T-shirt, brushed my teeth and drifted to sleep.  

   When my dream formed, I saw what looked like an ancient Greek city, made from granite and marble. It was filled with angelic looking creatures; armored pegasi with golden wings flew over the city alongside human-like beings with large, white wings instead of arms and talons instead of feet. In the streets I saw a strange centaur-like creature with purple bumps protruding from all over its body. A white cat with a purple stripped tail and gloves over its paws slept on the roofs of one of the buildings and literal angles walking through out the crowds.   

   Looking at the city I kept seeing strange and wonderful creatures all around. Suddenly the city started to tremble, and the sky turned red. A metallic screech echoed through the city as a dark cloud headed towards the city. Seahorse-like creatures with feathery wings flew overhead, producing a loud siren sound. Many of the angles summoned metal rods, swords, or other weapons and took flight towards the dark cloud. Others herded the frightened creatures into different buildings, telling them to stay safe.  

   Many more creatures followed the angles; white sphinxes and lanky, draconic gargoyles. Large monstrous canines ran through the streets, one more lean and wolf-like, the other burlier wearing red gloves with claws coming out from them and a red scarf emerging from its mane. Yellow nine-tailed foxes with yin-yang symbols on their forehead followed in pursuit. Humanoid flower fairies, knights with large broadswords, an anthropomorphic lion wearing armor and rotating gauntlets, and many more creatures all went towards the dark cloud.  

   The scene blurred and I found myself in the middle of a battlefield; broken weapons scattered across the ground. The angels and creatures I saw before were engaged in combat with hideous monsters. A sphynx was locked in combat with a purple, vampiric looking wolf. The lanky dragon-gargoyle was wrestling a similar looking creature, a black demonic dragon with leathery wings. A large knight was blocking the scythe of a red-hooded phantom with his sword. Many of the creatures on both sides were felled by a creature on the other, and each time they disintegrated, turning into dust.  

   The battle was horrific, each death was more violent than the last. I struggled to process what was going on. The same sound as before echoed throughout the battlefield, louder than before. Seven pillars of darkness rose from the earth, a different figure emerging from each one.   

   On the left there was a hooded figure with demonic wings, wearing blood-red priest robes. A cruel-looking old man with red bat wings protruding from back, a large wooden staff, and a long white beard. And a muscular chupacabra monster with purple wings, large horns emerging from the back of its head, with broken chains swinging from different areas on its body.  

On the right a red reptilian monster emerged, it had a long snout, which exhaled rainbow colored gas, blue dorsal fins ran along its back, its legs, and its two tails. Then there came a human-looking being with purplish-gray skin and a purple mask. It had three red eyes and wore leather clothes, resembling a biker. After him came a beautiful woman with pale skin, covered in purple robes, blue eyes, and hair so black it was almost purple, but that was where her beauty ended. She had black bat wings; she wore a head accessory with golden horns, her right hand was replaced by a golden claw.  

   From the center came forth a muscular man with blond hair parted in the middle, white boots, and black and white leather clothing with gold accents. On his right there were white angel wings on his back and on the side of his face above his ear. On the left there were leathery devil wings parallel to the angel wings. Each of the seven beings looked around before the middle one began to talk.  

   “Citizens of the Digital World,” the center figure said. “I am Lucemon, leader of the Seven Demon Lords. For years we have been imprisoned in the Dark Area, tortured for millennia, but now we are free. Today we will conquer the Digital World and topple the powers that be.”  

   Raising his hands, Lucemon let out a blast of energy that obliterated the angels and their companions. Many fled hoping to get away before they too were destroyed, others weren’t so lucky being slain where they stood. The other Demon Lords entered the battle cause even more chaos and death. As more and more of the angels fell a loud sound erupted from the city. Twelve multi-colored beams of light fell from the sky and twelve creatures emerged from them.  

   In the front there’s a humongous bird-like creature with a large tree surrounded by an entire forest on its back and what seemed like a woman on its head; a large purple creature with a large, round body its mouth right in the middle of it, a long serpentine tail beneath it, two large arms on its sides, and a tiny Majin Buu head on top of its body. An orange armored anthropomorphic lion with a long golden mane and a miniature sun above its head. Next to it was a woman, who’s armor was blue and silver. She wore a pink scarf around her neck and wielded a scythe with a blade on both ends. Then what I can only describes as the upper body of a muscular man on top of a whale body covered in blue scales. It had a dark blue helmet, somewhat resembling a shark, blue dorsal fins on either side of the helmet, and a horn on the forehead.  

   In the back were two muscular male figures that resembled animals. One resembled a leopard with a red horn on its head, red fur all over its upper body; the metal braces on its wrist spewed fire up its arms. The other had the head of a canine, like the ones I saw earlier, it had shaggy green hair curling at the end like a tail. Its feet looked like they had boots completely made of green fur. There was a red-haired man in a robotic suit with eight arms, each with a different kind of weapon. There were two women, one with long blonde hair wearing a white dress cut on the sides, exposing her legs, her eyes were covered with a similar cloth. The other had a golden helmet that resembled a snake with wings on the back of it. She had a sword with two snakes on the flat side of the blade.  

In the center there were two golden figures. A woman with golden armor, a staff with a glowing orb at the top, a beautiful blue cape flowing behind her, and a crown with red rings floating above it. Then a robotic figure made of gold at the end of its arms where its hand should be, golden hammers sparked with electricity.  

   Lucemon snarled at the newcomers, while the other Demon Lords growled with rage. The old man with the long beard rushed at them but Lucemon intercepted him.  

   “Not now Barbamon,” Lucemon scolded. He then turned to face the twelve new figures, staring at each of them with a sinister grin. “Olympians, what a welcome surprise.”   

   “Lucemon, what are you doing here?” asked the one with the golden hammers. “Plutomon was to keep you and the others from escaping the Dark Area.”  

   “Unfortunately, Jupitermon, Plutomon is currently busy taking on our punishments. Just like how you Olympians are about to do.”  

   The red-horned leopard growled at him, “YOU DARE THEATEN US! We are the Olympus XII, the most powerful Digimons in the Digital World, and you Lucemon shall pay for your arrogance.  

   “Actually, Marsmon, you were the strongest Digimon around,” corrected the biker. “You see while in the Dark Area we’ve used what little power we had to influence Digimon and convinced them to break us free.”  

   He extended his arms and a group of new monsters appeared: a terrifying red dragon with a hazard symbol on its chest. A purple insectoid with a dragon head and red wings. A green Frankenstein monster with spiky, red hair and a large axe in its hands. A black metallic canine, with a silver underbelly and jet wings on its back. Finally, a muscular monster of titanic proportions, it wears green armor and carries a gigantic sword. A pair of yellow horns with orange stripes protrude from its skull. The moment it sees the Olympians it bellows with rage, a look of bloodlust in its eyes.   

   Each group changes their stance preparing to fight. Leading their companions into battle Jupitermon and Lucemon charge at one another, fists ready to punch the other and-  

   “GABRIEL WAKE UP!”  

   My eyes flew open, and I shot up out of my bed. I look around and see that I’m in my room, Selena standing at the side of my bed.   

   “Finally, I’ve been yelling for five minutes, hurry up and get dressed or we’ll be late for school. I don’t know about you, but I am in no mood to get in trouble, again.”  

   I took a deep breath and got up to get ready for school. As I put on a clean shirt, I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell I had just dreamt.  

Chapter Text

   It’s been two days since my strange dream, and no matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn’t get it out of my head. Since today is Saturday, I thought that all the cleaning I was being forced to do would tire me out enough to forget about it. Austin, Selena, and I walked in through the main office where Mr. Brown was waiting for us. Laurel was already there, but I was surprised to see two other people there as well. A dark-skinned girl with grey eyes and braids falling down the back of her head, and a tall Hispanic guy with dark hair and green eyes.  

   “Finally,” exclaimed the principle when he noticed us. “Now that you’re all here let us begin.”  

   “Uhm... who are they?” asked Selena pointing to the other two kids.  

   The dark-skinned girl introduced herself as Kayla, and the Hispanic boy introduced himself as Caspian. The three of us, plus Laurel, introduced ourselves. "Well now that you’ve gotten to know each other, let’s get on with your punishment.”  

   Leading us down the hall Mr. Brown explained how there isn’t much in terms of janitorial work for us to do. “It’s been a bit of a slow week in that department, fortunately I’ve found something else for you to do.”  

   He led us into the computer lab and opened a door in the back of the room, which opened into a large room. In there were shelves filled with dozens of boxes filled with old monitors, mice, and keyboards. “This is all the school’s old computer equipment. Your job will be to test them to see which are still functional and can be used. If they can’t be used place them in these empty boxes and they’ll be collected after you leave to be sold for parts or thrown away. Alright get to it then; I have other things to do, but I will drop in on you occasionally, to see how you are doing.”  

   After he left, we started getting to work. Austin and Caspian got the computers from the shelves, while the rest of us charged and turned on the computer to see which ones worked. Principal Brown came in to check up on us every half hour. By the time of the third check-in, we were barely half-way done.  

   “This is taking forever,” groaned Caspian. “I shouldn’t even be here.”  

   “Why are you two here anyways?” asked Laurel.  

   “Yeah, we accidentally set a fire in the chem lab, what did you do?” said Austin. I lowered my head in shame at his honesty.  

   “I was doing other kids' homework and projects for money,” replied Kayla. “Made almost a thousand bucks before I got caught.”  

   Austin whistled in surprise. “Damn that’s a lot of money. How’d you get caught?”  

   “Some little rat snitched on me, don’t know who though. Now I’ve got to pay back all the money I made, but I don’t have it anymore, used it all up.”  

   “On what?” asked Selena.  

   “That is none of your business.” She turned over to Caspian and eyed him up and down. “What about you pretty boy, what did you do?”  

   “Don’t want to talk about it,” he replied.  

   “Ooh, how mysterious.”   

Selena yawned as she put another computer in a box. “Don’t fall asleep and leave the rest of us to do your work.” I told her.  

   “Sorry. Didn’t get much sleep last night, had a weird dream.”  

   “Same,” replied Kayla.  

   “What kind of dream?” asked Austin.  

   “I was in some city in the sky filled with these weird monsters,” said Selena.  

   Weird monsters? That kind of sounded like the dream I had a few nights ago, but there was no way it was the same one.  

   “My dream started the same way,” said Kayla. “There was this loud sound and then a...”  

   “Black cloud was headed for the city,” finished both Austin and Caspian. They looked at each other in shock.  

   No way. “Did any of you see a giant red alligator or a lady in purple?” I asked. They all nodded.  

   “How about a bunch of angles or a red sky?” asked Laurel.  

   “Okay, this is getting a bit too weird,” said Austin. “How the hell did all six of us have the same dream?”  

   We all looked at each other with looks of unease and fear. Then things started to get even weirder. The lights began flickering on and off. The computers that weren’t plugged in turned on and their screens were filled with strange symbols. Someone screamed. (Definitely not me). And all the lights went off.  

   “What kind of horror movies shit is this!?” yelled Kayla.  

   I grabbed my phone to turn on the flashlight, but it was dead.   

   “My phone’s not working!” I yelled.  

   “Mine’s dead too!”  

   “So is mine!”  

   My breathing started to accelerate. Panic swelled in my chest. What the hell was going on, why is this happening? A light appeared at the corner of my vision. I turned to see one of the computers had turned on, the sound of static coming from it.  

   A dark silhouette appeared on the screen and started to speak in a garbled voice, “If ...hearing this.... twelve... defeat... help us...they’ll... human world as well. We’ll... our world... save...DigiDestined.”   

   The silhouette disappeared and the screen shone with even more light. Six rays of light shot out of it and into our phones. Orange to me, white to Selena, grey to Kayla, green to Laurel, brown to Austin, and blue to Caspian. Our phones transformed before our eyes into thin, rectangular box the same colors that hit that phone, and a small camera at the top.   

   I feel as though I’ve started moving and realize I’m being pulled towards the screen; we all are. I try to run away, but I am unable to move my body. I watch as the others are surrounded by light and sucked into the screen. My heart races, pounding in my chest. I closed my eyes as I was sucked into the screen, letting out a blood-curdling scream.  

Chapter Text

Why? Just why?

Coming to school during the weekend was already annoying. That dream was downright freaky and kind of traumatizing. But getting sucked into a computer, that’s just ridiculous. I closed my eyes from fear before I was suck in, but the light was so bright it shone through my eyelids.

When it died down a bit, I slightly opened my eyes, hoping it was all in my imagination. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I found myself in the middle of a forest. I looked around hoping to see my brother, or the others, but I was alone. I noticed my phone was in my hand in its new altered state. I pressed the power button to turn it on, relieved to see that it worked, as it hadn’t before. I tried to call my brother but there’s no service. I called out Gabriel and Austin’s names but stopped as I remembered I didn’t know where I was, or if there were any dangerous animals nearby.

I looked up, seeing dark clouds start drifting through the sky. Fortunately, they seemed like regular clouds and not the ones from the dream, but with how dark they were it was probably about to rain. I decided to start moving to find shelter.

After a few minutes, I found a small cave where I could wait out the storm. Thunder shook the earth while lightning spread throughout the clouds as rain fell onto the earth. I was sitting on one of the rocks in the when I heard something. Focusing on the sound, I realized it was the sound of a little kid crying. Why was there a kid here, wherever here was, I didn’t know. Knowing I had to do something, I ran out of the cave towards the sound of the crying. Running as fast as I could I came across a rock formation, the crying coming from behind.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked gently, not wanting to scare the poor child.

The voice of a little girl came from the stones. “I’m scared.” she said.

“Of the lightning?” I asked.

“Yes,” she sniffled. “And l lost my brother.”

That struck a chord with me. “Your... brother?”

“Yes. We were playing in the forest when the storm came, and we got separated. Now I’m all alone.”

My heart ached; this little kid was in the same situation as I was.

“I got separated from my brother too. Tell you what, come with me and once this storm is over, I’ll help you find your brother.”

“Really?”

“Really. But first you have to come out from behind of those rocks.”

“...Okay.”

I stepped forward to be closer to the little girl, but what came from behind the rock wasn’t a girl. I screamed and fell back as a soft pink and purple stuffed animal-looking creature emerged from behind the stones. Upon seeing my reaction, it began to cry in the same voice as the little girl I thought I had heard.

“A-are you scared of me?” she sobbed. “I thought you were going to help me?”

“No, I’m not scared, I was just... surprised.” I was ashamed of myself for making the little creature cry. “I thought you were human.”

The little creature looked at me with confusion. “Human? What’s a human?”

“I’m a human,” I said pointing at myself. “Um... what exactly are you?”

“I’m Lunamon. What’s your name?”

“I’m Selena.” I would have said more, but at that moment a lightning bolt flew across the sky, bringing with it a deafening thunder, that made Lunamon cower in fear. “Let’s continue this conversation later, come on I found a cave nearby where we can wait out the storm.”

I picked up Lunamon and carried her all the way back to the cave. We spent the next couple of hours in there waiting for the storm to go away. While waiting I asked Lunamon where exactly we were.

“This is the Forest of Time in the center of the Digital World. It’s said that time moves differently here. That a day in here is a year outside of it.”

Forest of Time? Digital World? And what is this about one day here being the same as a year? This made no sense.

“What exactly is the Digital World?” I asked.

“It’s the Digital World. The place where all Digimon live.”

“Digimon, what are those?”

“Digital monsters, like me.”

“Like... you?”

“Well, not all Digimon are like me. Some are large and scary. Others are brave and strong, like my brother Coronamon.”

“What is Coronamon like exactly?”

“Coronamon is the best! He helps me when I’m in trouble, he comforts me when I’m hurt. He doesn’t look like me though, he’s orange and has a tail with a small fire on the tip.”

“A what?” I asked dumbfounded.

“A fire silly, on his tail.”

“Oh, okay.”

When the rain finally stopped, we left the cave and went out to find our brothers. The ground was slick with mud, so I had to be careful of where I stepped. We walked around calling their names, but never heard a response. When we finally decided to take a break, my stomach was rumbling with hunger.

Lunamon’s eyes began to tear up again. “We’re never going to find them, will we?”

“Yes, we will. Don’t worry, I said I’ll help you find your brother, and I meant it. It’s just going to take a while.” Even though that’s what I told her, I started to question it myself. I wonder if I’ll ever get to see my brother again; if I’ll ever see my parents again. Mr. Brown has probably contacted them now, and they’re likely worried sick. I missed them; I missed my room, and all my stuffed animals.

As I kept sinking into a pit of despair, a loud sound knocked me out of it. I looked over in the direction of the sound and saw three figures approaching. I squinted my eyes trying to get a better look at them, and when I saw who two of them were a sense of relief washed over me. Laurel and Caspian were running towards me.

Laurel had a strange reptilian creature with a frill made of petals running beside her, while Caspian was carrying a bright green creature with an orange crest on its head. I waved my hands, signaling them over to where I was.

They shouted something at me but were too far away for me to make it out. As they got closer, I managed to understand what they were saying, but when I saw what was behind them it was obvious what it was. “RUN!”

Behind them a large blue bug monster was flying towards them. I screamed in fear, grabbed Lunamon and hightailed it out of there. Caspian and Laurel managed to catch up with me.

“Why is there a two-ton beetle chasing us!?” I yelled.

“That not a beetle, that’s Kabuterimon. Beetlemon look different.” said Lunamon.

“You’ve got one too?” asked Laurel, surprised.

“Yeah, this is Lunamon, how about you?”

“Pleased to meet you,” said the flower reptile. “My name is Floramon.”

“I’m Betamon,” added the green creature in Caspian’s arms.

“Hey!” yelled Caspian. “If you’re done introducing yourselves, why don’t we try to figure out a way to lose the bug!”

“Right, and again why is – what did you call him Lunamon, Kabuterimon?” she nodded. “Why is he chasing us?”

They both look to the side, clearly hiding something. “We may have eaten his food while he wasn’t around,” said Caspian.

“Are you serious!” I screeched. It was bad enough they had gotten us into this mess, but to know they had gotten to eat something, and I didn’t, simply wasn’t fair.

“We were hungry, and like I said he wasn’t around, so we didn’t know.”

“Have you tried apologizing?”

“We did, he just wouldn’t listen,” said Laurel.

In a raspy voice Kabuterimon shouted, “You didn’t just eat any food, you ate my entire stash of Aegis Apples! You’ll pay for that!”

“What are Aegis Apples?” I asked.

“They’re a special fruit that increases a Digimon defensive abilities. They’re incredibly rare.” said Lunamon. Great, just great. Not only did they eat this guy’s food, but it was hard to get food that we probably won’t be able to find.

I started slowing down, my hunger keeping me from running as fast as I could. I ended up tripping and fell onto the ground, twisting my ankle. Caspian and Laurel came back to help me up but froze when Kabuterimon’s large shadow fell over us.

“Finally, I’ve got you,” said Kabuterimon. Suddenly a ball of electricity started to form in front of him.

As it grew, I thought to myself, this is it, this is how I die. In a strange world, at the hands of a giant bug, surrounded by people I barely even know. Lunamon grabbed onto my shirt, sobbing into my chest. I squeezed her a bit, hoping the end would be painless.

“ELECTRO-”

“PETITE PROMINENCE!”

Kabuterimon’s attack was abruptly stopped by a ball of fire that rammed into him from the side, knocking him to the ground. It then ricochets off Kabuterimon and onto the ground in front of us. When the flames dissipated it revealed a small cat-like Digimon with orange fur, a small flame lighting the tip of its tail.

I realized who it was as Lunamon cried out his name, “Coronamon!”

“Hi-yah sis,” he said back.

“Selena!”

I turned my head to a hill left of us. At the top were two people I couldn’t be happier to see. Gabriel and Austin.

Chapter Text

This just gets freakier and freakier. First, I have that weird-ass dream, then I find out five other people had it too. After that we get swallowed up by a computer and I find myself in some forest. I looked around hoping to see if anyone else was with me, but it was just me. Or at least it was for a second.  

   A burst of light appeared next to me, forcing me to cover my eyes. When it died down, I saw Gabriel standing next to me, screaming his lungs out. I called out his name, but he couldn’t hear me over his screams. I called him two more times before I decided to slap him across the face, knocking him back to reality.  

   A shock look spread across his, before tenderly raising his hand over the area I had slapped.  

   “Did you just hit me?” he asked.  

   “Well, I tried to talk to you but, you didn’t hear me, so I slapped you.”  

   “Why didn’t you just cover my mouth?”  

   “This way was more affective.”  

   He gave me a death stare before looking around. “Where are we?”  

   “No clue,” I responded. “When I opened my eyes, this is where I was.”  

   “Are we the only ones here?” he asked.  

   “Looks like it.”  

   I can see Gabriel start to worry. He and Selena have always been very close, especially since the incident, so being separated like this must be hard for him. I wrapped my left arm around his shoulders and told him it would be okay.  

   “Relax,” I said. “Selena’s a wilderness expert. She’ll be fine.” It was true, unlike the two of us Selena was more acclimated to the wilderness. Being the one to take the lead whenever we’ve gone hiking or camping. Gabriel and I don’t go as much as we used to since we always get hurt one way or another, and the mosquitoes see us as all you can eat buffets.  

   “Good point,” he acquiesced.  

   “So, what do we do now?” I asked.  

   “We should start by looking for the others, we should decide on what to do after we’re all together.”  

   I agreed and with that we headed in the direction that we were facing when we got to the forest. We walked for what seemed like forever and I was getting twitchy. I was fiddling with my fingers for a while when it started to rain. I cursed and we ran under a tree with a dense canopy.  

   I hoped the others were okay. Selena would have noticed the storm before us and found shelter by now, but I had no clue if the others had any wilderness experience. Gabriel sneezed, and when he wiped his nose with his shirt collar, I noticed something I should have when we first arrived.  

   “You’re wearing different clothes,” I told him.  

   “What?” he asked.  

   “Your clothes are different from this morning.”  

   He looked down at his clothes and saw that I was right. Earlier today he wore a green T-shirt with the image of a snake on it, dark blue jeans, and sneakers. Now he’s wearing an orange T-shirt with a yellow sun design, a pair of beige shorts, and a pair of hiking boots.  

   I looked down at myself to see if I had gotten a change of clothes as well and saw that I had. I was wearing grey shirt, pants, and my favorite pair of tennis shoes when we got to school. Now I wore a dark brown shirt with the image of a pair of shoes on it, blue cargo shorts, and a pair of blue boots like Gabriel's.  

   “So, we get kidnapped by a haunted computer, only to find ourselves in a forest in the middle of nowhere, wearing different clothes than the ones we had before this all happened,” surmised Gabriel.  

   “Apparently,” I said.  

   “What the actual fuck. Why is this shit happening?”  

   I stand there, kind of shocked; it takes a lot to make Gabriel swear, and quickly step back when he starts swinging his arms.  

   “Seriously, what is the point of all this. Is one weird dream all it takes for things to go to hell?” He looked out to the forest, cheeks flushed with anger. “I don’t know if whoever caused this is listen, but if you are FUCK YOU.”  

   It takes a few minutes for him to cool down, when he does, I wrap him in my arms and hug him tightly. Tears stream down his face onto my shoulder as Gabriel starts to cry.  

   “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m acting out like this,” he sobbed. “You’re probably as scared and worried as me, and here I am acting like a maniac.”  

   “Oh, I’m scared alright, but I’m trying to keep it together, that way I won’t worry you like you're worrying me,” I say gently.  

   He hugs me back and we stay there, keeping each other close. It takes a while before Gabriel calms down and when he does, we sit at the base of the tree waiting for the rain to end. After a while of sitting in silence, with the only noise coming from the falling rain, I heard something. At first, I thought it was my imagination, but as the sound grew louder and louder, I realized it was the voice of a little boy, yelling for help.  

Chapter Text

Gabriel and I ran as fast as we could towards the sound of the voice. As we ran around trees, trying to keep our footing on the rain slicked ground, I couldn’t help but feel a small twinge of joy. If there was a kid here, there had to be parents, adults who can tell us where we are, and how to get home. We picked up the pace as the voice grew louder and louder; suddenly another voice could be heard yelling for help alongside the first.  

   We followed the voices to a small clearing where an old dead tree had fallen.   

   “Hello!” I yelled. “Are you there?”  

   “We’re over here,” said one of the voices. We ran over to a small opening underneath the dead tree and heard the voices of the two young boys under it.  

   “Are you okay?” asked Gabriel.  

   “No,” replied the first voice. “I sprained my ankle when I fell in here.”  

   “How did you get under there anyways?” I asked.  

   “I was looking for my sister,” replied the second voice.  

   “Your... sister?” asked Gabriel.  

   “We got separated when the storm hit, while I was looking for her, I saw that the tree was about to fall on top of this guy and ran to save him. I tackled him into this ditch when the tree fell on top of us, and we can’t get out.”  

   “Don’t worry we’ll get you out,” I told them. Then I turned to Gabriel and asked, “How are we going to get them out?”  

   He scanned the area looking for a way to free the two kids. His eyes widened the way they did when he had an idea. He took off back into the forest gesturing for me to do the same. When I caught up to him, he was collecting large sticks off the ground.  

   “What are you doing?” I asked.  

   “These sticks are very big and sturdy, they should make for a good lever, and judging from the state of the tree it’s been dead for a long time, so there should be a good amount of rotten wood, making it easier to lift.”   

   He handed me a couple of sticks and we ran back to the tree and told the boys our plan. I asked them to move if they could so as to not hurt them with the sticks and they agreed. We shoved the sticks into the two ends of the opening and started pressing down. I looked over at Gabriel and saw his face red with exertion; he wasn’t skinny or weak by any means, we went on hiking and camping expeditions when we were younger, and he accompanies me on early morning runs every once in a while, so we're pretty fit, but Gabriel usually spent his time playing music or it his room reading than exercising, meanwhile I joined some of the school's sports teams, so I had more muscle than him.  

   We managed to move the tree just enough for the kids to get out, but when they came out, I was so shocked I almost let go of my sticks. Instead of two kids coming out from under the tree, a small black bear wearing a purple baseball cap emerged from the opening, followed by a small orange, cat-like creature with a small flame on the tip of its tail and on its brow. Gabriel and I looked at each other with shared expressions of confusion and disbelief.  

   “Thank you,” said the bear, his voice being the one I originally heard. “You saved us.”  

   “No, problem,” I chuckled nervously. What in the world were they?  

   “Um... what are you exactly?” asked Gabriel.  

   “I’m Bearmon,” said the small bear.   

   “And I’m Coronamon,” replied the orange cat.  

   “Hey there,” I said. “I’m Austin and this is Gabriel.” Gabriel waved at them with a nervous smile on his face.  

   “Um, I asked what you were, not your names.”  

   “Oh, we’re Digimon,” replied Bearmon  

   “Digimon?” I asked.  

   “It stands for Digital Monster.”  

   I gulped at that. The fact they just said they’re monsters made me nervous. Bearmon tried to get closer but ended up falling onto the wet ground. Coronamon went to help him, wrapping one of Bearmon’s arms around his shoulders, lifting him up.  

   “Are you good?” I asked.  

   “No,” he responded. “I twisted my ankle when the tree fell remember?”  

   Bearmon must have weighed a lot because Coronamon’s little knees were shaking from the strain. Feeling sorry for the little guy, I went to grab Bearmon sitting him on the ground. Gabriel looked at me wearingly, but I turned my back to him and loaded Bearmon onto my back. He really was heavier than he looked as I almost fell over a couple of times but managed to keep myself standing.  

   “If we’re done here, I need to go. I need to find my sister,” said Coronamon.  

   Gabriel looked over at the small feline, “That’s right, you said you had a sister.”  

   Coronamon nodded. “Her name’s Lunamon. I have to go and find her.”  

   A look of sympathy crossed Gabriel’s face. He went over to Coronamon and offered him his hand. “If you want, I’ll help you look for your sister. My sister is missing too, and I feel like if I help you find your sister, we’ll end up finding mine. So, would you accept my help?”  

   The rain began to die down, and Coronamon was just standing there looking at Gabriel’s hand before grabbing it with his paw. A big grin across his face.  

   “You got a deal,” he said, his big green eyes sparkling.  

   We started walking, looking for Lunamon, Selena, and the others. We searched for what seemed like hours. By the time we decided to stop and rest I felt as if I would perish. Carrying Bearmon was killing my back, and my arm felt sore. I heard a rumbling sound and chuckled.  

   “I’m starving,” said Gabriel.  

   “Yeah, me too,” I told him.  

   We asked the Digimon what kind of food there was in the area. They said that food was starting to become scarce. Apparently, the rivers that flowed throughout the forest were starting to dry up causing the fruit trees to start to bear less fruit.  

   “So, we don’t have anything to eat? Are you ser-” I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence as a loud sound came from the distance, followed by a familiar scream.  

   “Was that who I think it is?” I asked.  

   “Selena,” Gabriel responded.  

   We got on our feet and ran towards the direction of the scream. Gabriel and Coronamon were ahead of me since I was carrying Bearmon again. By the time I caught up with them Coronamon had covered himself in flames and launched himself at a giant blue bug about to attack Selena and two others.  

   “Selena!” Gabriel yelled, running towards his sister.  

Chapter Text

Seeing my sister again filled me with joy; seeing her get attacked by an overgrown cockroach, not so much. After Coronamon interrupted the bug mons- Digimon's attack I ran down the hill and tackle-hugged my sister, making her let go of a strange pink creature she was holding.  

   “I’m so happy you’re okay,” I said.  

   She hugged me back. “I’m happy you’re okay too, but do you really think this is a good time for a touching family reunion?”  

   I looked back at the Bug and saw that it was starting to get back up, heaving in rage.  

   “Good point,” I said. Turning to face the other two people, Caspian and Laurel, both with their own Digimon, I motioned all of them to follow me up the hill. Caspian gave Laurel the green Digimon he was carrying and helped me with Selena who apparently hurt her ankle. Seriously, first Bearmon, and now Selena; was the universe going out of its way to inconvinence us or something. We got to the top of the hill when the bug got back into the air. Coronamon shot a ball of fire from the flame on his brow, but the bug swatted it away. That attack must have drained him as he was breathing heavily.   

   Unsure of what to do, I looked at the others, hoping they had some idea. The others looked just as unsure as me, the Digimon as well. The flower one had its eyes closed, body shaking. It kept murmuring something I couldn’t make out.   

   When the bug was about to attack again, the flower Digimon opened its eyes, a look of determination on its face. It lifted its arms at the bug and shot a cloud of pollen at it.  

   “ALLERGY SHOWER!” it yelled.  

   As the pollen covered the bug, the attack it was charging up dissipated, and it fell onto the ground.  

   “What just happened? asked Selena.  

   “I bathed Kabuterimon in my pollen, sapping it of its will to fight.”  

   Caspian and Laurel looked at the flower creature in shock.  

   “You could do that all this time? Why did you let him chase us through half of the forest then?” asked Laurel.  

   “Because it takes a while to gather enough pollen to do so, and with Kabuterimon chasing us, I couldn’t focus properly to use it,” she replied. “But now that I have, I suggest we leave. The pollen will only keep him subdued for so long, so we better get moving.”  

   Not wanting to be around to see Kabuterimon come back to his senses, we all left the area as soon as possible. Selena told us about a cave that she found, so we made our way there. When we got there, Caspian and I sat Selena down on the cave wall and sat next to each other. We stayed there in silence for what seemed like forever.  

   “So... how are things going?” asked Austin. He flinched at the dirty looks we all gave him.  

   “How are things going?” asked Caspian, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Gee let's see: we got sucked into a computer, dumped into the middle of nowhere, got rained on, and almost killed by an oversized bug. I think it’s fair to say we’re all kind of pissed off, don’t you.”  

   “Sorry. It started to feel a bit awkward in here, so I tried to lighten things up a bit.”  

   “The sentiment is appreciated, but we’re just too tired for any kind of joke right now,” said Selena.  

   The pink bunny Digimon that she was holding earlier jumped onto her and began weeping into her chest. “Thank you, because of you I found my brother again.”  

   A small smile formed on her lips before speaking, “It was my pleasure.”  

   We all smiled at the sweet moment before my brain did a double take on what was said, “Wait, did you say brother? Does that mean you’re Coronamon’ s sister?”  

   “Yep, that my sis,” replied the little fire cat.  

   Everyone, except for Selena and the siblings, had a look of bewilderment on their faces. Their eyes darted back and forth trying to see any type of resemblance between the two.   

   “Not all families look the same or are biologically related,” says Selena turning to me. “Remember that kid who in Third grade who was adopted; he had two dads, and none of them where the same race.” Fair enough.  

   Laurel let out a deep breath before saying what we’ve all been thinking and dreading, “What are we going to do now?”  

   A solemn look befell all of us, the humans that is, the Digimon just looked at us in confusion.  

   “I don’t know,” I say. “I have no clue on what to do next. We have no clue as to why we’re even in this world to begin with, and we have no clue on how to get back home.”  

   “Not to mention that not everyone is here with us,” says Caspian. “Kayla is still missing.”  

   We went silent with shock.  

   “Shit,” swore Austin.   

   “We have to find her, wherever she is,” said Laurel. “We all appeared in different parts of the forest, she’s probably around here too.”  

   “Uh, what’s a Kayla?” asked Bearmon.  

   “She’s a human like us,” responded Laurel. “She has long dark hair, and dark skin. She was with us when we were transported here. Now we have no clue to where she is.”  

   “Do not worry, we’ll help you find her,” reassured the flower Digimon. All the other Digimon agreed.  

   “Thank you Floramon,” said Laurel.  

   “So, it’s settled once Selena and Bearmon and able to walk again, we’ll go looking for Kayla,” I said. Despite what we just went through I felt somewhat hopeful. We had a goal then; we knew what we were going to do. We may not have had everything planned, but it was a step in the right direction.  

   So naturally my good feeling had to come to an end. At least this time it wasn’t from the appearance of another hostile Digimon, but the sound of my stomach eating itself.  

    “Please stop that,” begged Austin. “It makes me remember how hungry I am.”  

   “Me too,” added Selena.  

   I noticed how only three of us were hungry and looked at the other two. Caspian and Laurel were looking guilty, and I realized it could only mean one thing.  

   “You already ate,” I said aloud.  

   Austin looked at them in surprise, while Selena just looked annoyed.  

   “They did have something to eat,” Selena said sharply. “They ate a bunch of apples that Kabuterimon had saved; that’s why he was chasing us.”  

   “Again, we had no idea Kabuterimon existed, he wasn’t there when we found his stash, so we didn’t know that was his food,” complained Caspian.  

   “Hold on,” said Austin. He looked over at Bearmon and Coronamon. “I thought you said there was no more fruit?”  

   “That’s not what we said,” Bearmon replied. “We said that fruit was becoming scarcer, not that it was gone.”  

   Hearing all this gave me an idea. It was a crazy idea, likely to get us killed, but it was the only one I had.  

   “What if we go looking for Kabuterimon,” I said. The moment those words left my lips the others started shouting at me, calling me insane.  

   “Wait, just listen,” I waited for everyone to calm down before resuming. “Kabuterimon has to be getting all that food from somewhere, if we figure out where, we can get something to eat without raiding his personal stash. It may not be a good idea, but unless someone has a different idea, we’ll starve if we don’t do this. Who knows when we’ll find some food of our own.”  

   The others looked at one another, unsure of what to do. Eventually, they agreed to my proposal, and I told them how I was planning to do this.  

Chapter Text

What did I do to deserve this? I asked myself while sneaking up behind Kabuterimon. After Gabriel told us his plan. (Which I still think is a terrible idea). We set out to find Kabuterimon. Selena and Bearmon stayed behind since they were injured. Lunamon stayed with Selena because she didn’t want to leave her alone, and Betamon stayed behind since we weren’t too sure what he could contribute to the plan since he has no hands. (That must suck). After a while we found Kabuterimon near the area we left him in, grumbling about us. After saying some particularly nasty things about us, he mumbled something about getting more food.  

   Austin, Floramon, and I were in charge of following the large Digimon, while the others were further in the back, ready to jump into battle in case we were discovered and needed backup. Although considering we only had two available Digimon at the moment, I wasn’t so sure what kind of support they could offer. We followed him to a large hollowed out tree, the spot where Laurel and I first encountered the bug.   

   Kabuterimon grabbed a basket out of the tree and headed deeper into the forest. We silently trailed behind him, careful not to give ourselves away.  After a few minutes of following the blue bug, the trees began to thin out, becoming sparser, making it harder to hide behind them.  

   The forest eventually ended giving way to a large river, about half an acre wide. On the other side was a small orchard of apple trees. Kabuterimon flew over the river and began picking the fruit from the trees. We waited for Kabuterimon to come back to this side, hiding the best we could behind the trees, before heading towards the river. The river was somewhat deep going up below my chest, due to that Floramon, being much shorter than me, had to be carried on my shoulders. We waded through the river over to the orchard. Once there we signaled the others to come over and help us collect the fruit.  

   Just like I did Gabriel had Coronamon on his shoulders. The orange cat Digimon eyeing the water with disgust. Guess he’s more like a cat than I thought; just hope he doesn’t start grooming himself in front of me. Once they arrived, we began to pick the apples.   

   “There really aren’t a lot of apples,” I observed. I’ve searched a dozen trees and only three of them had any fruit at all. So far, I have five apples in my arms.  

   “This is supposed to be the time of year when apples are most plentiful. The rivers drying up have caused such a food shortage many Digimon have gone elsewhere,” said Floramon. Her head turned towards the ground.  

   “That river we crossed was pretty full,” said Austin.  

   Floramon turned to look at him, “That river should have been filled with much more water, flowing so fast we wouldn’t have been able to make it half-way across before being swept away. The plant Digimon have been working to keep the forest healthy, but if the water isn’t restored soon, the forest, our home, will die.”   

   I stared at the little flower lizard, unsure what to say. My words would be meaningless, they wouldn’t be able to restore the water, they wouldn’t be able to keep her home from dying. I thought back to when I was twelve, when I was dropped off at my uncle’s house, my baby sister crying in my arms, my brother asking me where our parents were. I knew what it felt like to lose a home, and hearing Floramon talking about the forest dying brought back the feelings of hopelessness and despair.  

   “Hey, are you okay?” I turned around to see Gabriel with his hand on my shoulder. His soft brown eyes staring at me with sympathy.   

   “Yeah, it’s just upsetting of what’s happening, so many people? Do Digimon count as people? Whatever. They shouldn’t be losing their homes.”  

   “Agreed, but there isn’t much we can do about it. Besides right now we need to focus on finding Kayla and getting home.”  

   I knew he was right; I just couldn’t help but feel upset about leaving the forest in such a condition. We finished picking as many apples as we could carry and headed back to the cave. Floramon was on Laurels shoulders this time and Coronamon stayed on Gabriel’s. By the time we made it back to the cave the sun had begun to set.  

   “Finally, you’re back. I was beginning to worry,” said Selena.  

   Gabriel shook his head, handing her an apple, “We managed to get the food without any trouble.”  

   We distributed the apples and ate in silence. After we ate, we began to discuss how to find Kayla.   

   “Maybe one of the Digimon could sniff her out?” asked Austin.  

   “They’re not dogs. And even if they could we don’t have anything that has her scent that they could use,” said Selena.  

   “Well, how do we look for her then?” asked I said. “We don’t even know if she’s in the forest. She could be in a desert or stuck on an island in the middle of the ocean.” I didn’t consider it earlier, due to exhaustion, but now that I had time to rest, the possibility dawned on me.  

    “I have an idea!” said Floramon. We all turned to look at her, hearing what she had to say. “I know a Digimon who knows everything that happens in the forest. He’d certainly know if another human appeared here.”  

   We all looked at each other unsure of whether to go along with the little flower creature when Laurel spoke up, “C’mon guys we should at least see if this Digimon could help. We don’t have many options if we want to find Kayla.” She was right, we all knew it, so we agreed to let Floramon take us to her friend tomorrow morning.  

   “Well, at least we have a potential lead,” sighed Gabriel. He got up from the rock he was sitting on and sat next to a stalagmite. “I’m exhausted, see you guys in the morning.”   

   With that we all positioned ourselves around the cave sitting next to stalagmites and the sides of the cave. The Digimon we made friends with snuggled next to us. Betamon laid on my right as I drifted into the darkness of unconsciousness.  

Chapter Text

    We walked through the forest for what seemed like forever. Floramon woke us up at sunrise, saying we had to get an early morning start. The others weren’t so happy about that, with a few (Selena) threatening violence if they didn’t get another hour of sleep. Funny enough, Gabriel didn’t have much of an issue with it, saying he tends to get up early for morning runs. Once everyone was awake, we made sure that Selena and Bearmon could walk properly, which they could with some assistance, and headed out. 

   Floramon led us deep into the forest, leading us towards the mystery Digimon. Although she hasn’t told us anything about him yet, which made me nervous. I like Floramon; I really do. She saved me after I fell off a cliff when I first got here, but she’s still someone who I barely know, so I’m taking a big risk letting her take us to someone who may not be so welcoming. Deciding to try and get more information I asked Floramon about her friend. 

   “His name is Cherrymon, he’s the leader of the forest’s plant Digimon. He can be quite intimidating at first, but he’s really nice once you get to know him,” she said.  I couldn’t help but imagine a giant cherry person with Mickey Mouse gloves and shoes.  

   “So, where exactly are you – AGHH!” I yelled when someone pulled me back by my collar. The spot where I had stood before began to be bombarded by shards of wood that sank deep into the ground. I looked up in the direction the attack came from and froze when I saw a giant lizard on the side of the tree. Its body seemingly made of tree bark, allowing it to blend seamlessly with the forest, moss covering its top side.  

   “Intruders, identify yourselves!” it yelled at us, in a raspy voice.  

   Coronamon and Betamon jumped in front of us ready to fight. Lunamon hugged Selena’s leg, and Bearmon on Austin’s back, unable to move too much due to his injury. Before anyone could do anything Floramon jumped in between us and yelled at the giant lizard, “Petaldramon, stop this right now!” 

   Petaldramon faltered at the sound of Floramon’s voice.  

   “Floramon! What are you doing with these intruders?” questioned Petaldramon. 

   “These are my new friends!” she yelled. “I brought them here because they need Cherrymon’s aid, not so you could attack them. Now let us through, or else I won’t talk to you for a month.” 

   That seemed to be all that was needed to knock the fight out of Petaldramon.

   Honestly, I was shocked at how Floramon was talking to the giant creature. I wonder if there is any relation between them as Petaldramon looked like a more terrifying older version of Floramon. 

   “All right,” conceded Petaldramon. He jumped off the tree he was on, shaking the earth when he landed. “This way.” 

Deciding not to antagonize the lizard Digimon any further, we followed him.  

   “Hey Floramon,” I whispered to the little flower creature, “how were you able to calm Petaldramon down?” 

   “Petaldramon has taken care of me my entire life. I learned from a young age how he just can’t say no to me, I basically have him wrapped around my petals,” she said.  

   Wow, I did not expect her to be such a manipulator. 

   As Petaldramon led us deeper into the forest, the soft grass turned into a well-trodden path leading to something I never expected to see. A small but beautiful village hidden within the forest, filled with all kinds of Digimon. Mushroom men with mischievous smiles talking to a group of small, green Digimon with a stem coming out of the top of their head. A pink bird Digimon flew overhead, a red ladybug Digimon with spikes instead of black spot following it.  

   I looked around amazed at all the different Digimon inhabiting the forest. Similarly, they were looking at us, although the looks they gave us differed from one to the other. Some looked at us with apprehension, others with curiosity, others with disgust. A large cactus Digimon with red boxing glove hands grabbed a pink plant Digimon with green eyes and a blue flower on its head, stopping it from coming towards us. 

   “Ignore them,” said Petaldramon. “We’re not used to having... ‘foreigners’ around. The forest is far away from any kind of civilization, so we do not get many visitors, especially visitors like you.” 

   We’ll we are from a different dimension; of course they’ve never met people like us. 

   “So, when you say civilization, what exactly do you mean?” asked Selena. 

   “Exactly what it sounds like,” replied Petaldramon, “villages, towns, cities and whatnot. All inhabited by Digimon.” 

   “Oh, right. Sorry for asking.” 

   Finally, we arrived at a giant wooden gate, almost thirty feet tall. There were two Digimon that looked like withered trees with root-like feet and two sets of stump-like arms, one set larger than the other, and the smaller set was closer to its... chest? I honestly have no idea how their bodies worked. Digimon biology made no sense to me. 

   The two guards who Petaldramon addressed as Woodmon, asked for our reason for being here, to which he told them we desired an audience with Cherrymon. The guards were skeptical about letting us in, but Floramon whipped out her baby-doll eyes and they allowed it.  

   They pushed in the gates, revealing a beautiful meadow filled with all sorts of strange and magnificent flowers and trees. On my left was a Willow tree with iridescent blue leaves filling its branches. On my right was a large Oak tree with its trunk twisted like a spring. I was amazed by the unique plant life found here, were all the forest in Digital World’s like this. 

   At the far end of the meadow was a Cherry tree in front of two large statues. One of a large bird-like creature, the other of a woman wearing a mask. The figures the statues depicted seemed familiar, but I didn’t know why. The Cherry tree began rustling and turned, revealing itself to be a Digimon. It appeared to be quite elderly, holding a short cane in its left hand. Its tired yellow eyes widen at the sight of me and the others. 

   Both Floramon and Petaldramon bowed before the old Digimon, gesturing for us to do the same. We all got on our knees and bowed, hoping to make a good impression on Cherrymon. When I raised my head, I saw the aged tree staring at us up and down, analyzing us.  

Seemingly reaching a conclusion, Cherrymon turned to face Floramon, a small smile gracing his lips when he saw the flower lizard. “Welcome back home young Floramon,” he said in a kind voice. “Tell me, who are these strangers you bring with you.” 

   Floramon stepped up to address the aged Digimon, “These are my new friends Cherrymon. They come from another world and seek to return home. Unfortunately, one of them was separated from the rest of the group when they arrived, we were hoping you had heard of a strange being arriving in the forest.” 

   Cherrymon shook his head and turned to us, “I’m sorry young ones, I’ve heard nothing of the sort. But if you would give me a description of your lost friend, I could ask the other Digimon to keep an eye out for them.” 

   “Thank you, that would be a huge help,” I said with a smile on my face. “Her name is Kayla, she’s about the same height as me, has dark skin, and black hair.” 

   Cherrymon nodded as I relayed what I could remember of Kayla. “I shall pass this information onto the Woodmon, until then why don’t we get you situated. Petaldramon, please escort our guest to the Inn. Tell Lilamon I’ll be taking care of their expenses for the time being.” 

   With that we thanked Cherrymon before departing from the meadow. I took one last look behind me before the gates to the meadow closed, catching a glimpse of the two statues. Curious about them I asked Floramon about them. 

   “Those statues depict Lady Ceresmon, goddess of the Digital World’s forests and plant Digimon,” she said with a whimsical look in her eye. “Her avian form is made of rock and rich, fertile soil, creating a beautiful tropical forest. She would fly around the world and bring life to barren wastelands. Her second form is regarded as her true form as it was the one she used to interact with other Digimon.” 

   “She’s a goddess!? So, the Digital World has gods, real gods, not just figures used to explain natural phenomenon like rain and the setting of the sun and moon?” I questioned. 

   “They are as real as you and me,” said Petaldramon. “There are twelve Gods who watch over the Digital World, the Olypmos XII.” 

   At once we all came to a stop and grab our heads in pain. The image of twelve gigantic Digimon flashed through my mind. The focus of the image is split between a gigantic, stone-like avian creature with a forest on its back, and woman-like figure wearing a mask of golden wood, with a red petal like frill at the top. She had mighty claws, and armored talon-like feet made from the same wooden material. 

   As fast as it appeared the pain subsided, taking the image along with it, leaving nothing but a throbbing feeling in my head. I rubbed my temples as I tried to soothe the pain. When I opened my eyes again, I saw Floramon looking up at me with worry in her eyes.  

   “Are you alright?” she asks, her voice filled with concern. “Is this normal for humans, or are you ill?” 

   “It’s not normal for six people to get a migraine at the same time, but I’m okay.” I told her. “I’m not sure what happened though. After you said Olympus XII, I suddenly saw Ceresmon. The real one, not the statue.”  

   “I saw a guy with really long green hair and a green-blue wolf head mask,” said Austin, rubbing the side of his head. 

   “I saw a woman in armor with a pink scarf and curved blades,” said Selena as Lunamon kept asking her if she was okay. Selena reassured the little Digimon that she was alright before lifting her up and gently patting her head. 

Petaldramon seemed shocked at what we said, asking Gabriel and Caspian if they too had seen anything, to which they confirmed they had. Gabriel had seen a humanoid orange lion like creature, with a golden mane, while Caspian saw a man wearing a strange fish shaped helmet in blue armor and the lower body of a whale, wielding a large trident. That made the wooden lizard’s jaw drop, muttering something about impossibilities. 

   I asked him what if he knew what that was all about, but he brushed me off and told us to continue following him. I felt like he knew something, and wanted to confront him, but decided against it, since he seemed a bit more pissed off than before. He took us back to the village, leading us towards a large tree that appeared to have been hollowed out. A wooden door was bolted into the tree, and a window was carved out next to it.  

   It seems a bit odd to do something like that; cutting down a tree only to have its corpse attached to another tree. Anyway, when we entered the tree, we went into what seemed like a hotel check-in area, with a desk to the side with cubbies filled with mail on one side and a lounge area on the other. There was a hallway next to the desk, and a winding staircase at the other end of the room from the entrance. 

   Petaldramon called out for the Digimon we were supposed to meet here, Lilamon. At once a voice in a country accent called out, saying to wait. A few moments later the sound of footsteps came from the stairs and who I assumed to be Lilamon appeared.  

   At first glance, she appeared to be a regular human woman, one who is very into cosplay. But one good look at her and you can tell she isn’t human at all. She has the figure of woman, but her skin, if you can call it that, was a pale rose color. Instead of hands and feet she had large flower like appendages at the end of her arms and legs that resembled Lilacs. Her hair was made of thin green blades of grass, covered by a pink flower that acted like a hat. In fact, she had a larger version of said flower on her back, making her look like she’s a fairy. 

   When she saw us, her expression became one of happiness to one of surprise. She looked at us as if she was unsure at what she was seeing, which is fair, I guess. Once she got over her initial shock, the smile that was on her lips before returned. 

   “Welcome to the Golden Oak inn, my name is Lilamon, pleased to meet you,” she said in a polite and practiced manner.  

   I was about to thank her, when Selena stepped forwards with Lunamon in her arm. In a surprised voice she said, “It’s you.”

Chapter Text

  “It’s you.” 

   The words just left my lips before I could even process them. But that didn’t matter because I knew the Digimon right in front of us. Or rather, I’d seen her before all this craziness happened. 

   “Um, I’m sorry darlin’, but do I know you?” asked Lilamon, seemingly perplexed by what I had said. 

   “No, you don’t, but I’ve seen you before,” I replied. 

   Lunamon tugged at my shirt, making me look down at her confused face. “Selena, we’ve never met Lilamon before. How come you know her?” 

   “I don’t know her, but I’ve seen her before. In the dream.” That got a reaction from everyone. Austin, Caspian, Gabriel, and Laurel all gasped, which I took as recognition in that I was right. The Digimon stayed confused since we didn’t explain the shared dream with them.  

   “You’re right she was there,” said Gabriel. “She was with the other flower fairy, the one that looked like her, except with actual hands and feet, and she had leaf wings instead of flower ones like her,” he detailed gesturing to the body parts he talked about. 

   ‘ Leaf wings?’ , mouthed Lilamon before her mouth made and O shape in realization. “You mean Lillymon! Oh, I get that a lot, but how do you know her, or know of her I should say. She hasn’t been around seen here in years.” 

   “We saw you in a dream, you were in a city that was being attacked by a bunch of scary looking Digimon,” I explained. “There was a battle, and a group called the Seven Demon Lords appeared, the leader Lucemon monologued for a bit and started attacking. Then the Olympos XII appeared, and they fought. I had that dream two nights ago, yesterday we ended up getting kidnapped and stranded here.” 

   Once I had finished speaking, I just stood there waiting for Lilamon’s reaction. 

   What I wasn’t expecting, however, was for her to jump towards me and hug me.  

   “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry that happened to you,” she said. “But I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’ve never gone to battle, nor have I heard about the one you described. And I’ve certainly never heard of the Seven Demon Lords, but I couldn’t imagine being ripped away from your home. Tell you what, I’ll let you and your friends live here for free until you find your way back home.” 

   “Th-thank you, I don’t know what else to say,” I said. 

“Don’t worry ‘bout it darlin’,” responded Lilamon with a wink. 

   “Well at least Cherrymon isn’t going to have to cover their expenses anymore,” unwisely said Petaldramon. 

   In a matter of seconds Lilamon went from hugging me to squishing Petaldramon’s face with her flower hands. “Cherrymon is going to pay their expenses?” she asked. 

   “H-he was, but you just said they could be here for free,” said Petaldramon while shaking.  

   Was he – scared? That was a fun thought. Watching a 13-foot-long gecko, (presumably) made entirely of wood, be afraid of a fairy not even half his size, was definitely entertaining. 

   “Now, now, Petaldramon. I said they could live here for free, but they still need to pay for meals and such, so thank you for telling me about Cherrymon’s decision, I’ll start to make up for the money I’ll lose from the rooms I’ll be allowing the children to stay,” said Lilamon in a sweet voice, but one that left no room for discussion. Who knew such a sweet individual could be such a ruthless businessperson. I’m impressed. 

   Letting go of Petaldramon’s face, Lilamon said she was going to show us to our rooms, but had to do something first. She motioned me to one of the seats in the lounge. She tells Austin to set Bearmon onto one of the seats as well.

   “Now where does it hurt?” asked Lilamon.

   My eyes widened in surprise. “How did-”

   “How did I know?”she interrupted, “It was obvious. I saw how you were leaning to the side, and how your right foot was hovering just ofF the ground like you didn’t want to put too much pressure on it. And given how messy you and your friends' hair is with some of you having dried mud on it, I guess you’ve been in the forest for quite a while. That means you’ve been walking around for a while, and since there are many roots breaking out of the ground, no one can walk through there without tripping at least twice. So both of you tripped on a root and injured your feet.” She finished her speech by putting one of her flower hands on her hip, and had a smug look on her face. 

   “Actually, we accidentally angered a Digimon called Kabuterimon and he was chasing us around the forest. I tripped and injured my ankle,but not on a root,” I corrected.

   “And I got hurt after Coronamon pushed me out of the way of a collapsing tree,” supplied Bearmon.

   “Aw, Coronamon, you little hero,” cood Laurel, smiling at the small orange feline.

   Lilamon looked less happy, with her puffing her cheeks in annoyance. “Didn’t your parents teach you not to talk back to your elders, young lady?”

   “Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin your Sherlock Holmes moment,” I said, scratching the back of my head.

   “Sherlock Holmes? I don’t know anyone by that name,” said Lilamon tilting her head in thought, before shaking it. “Nevermind that. Let me heal you real quick.”

   “Heal? Heal hoooow, what the-” I said as Lilamon emitted a soft mint green glow from her hands, making my and Bearmon’s ankle glow the same color.

   “Aura,” she whispered softly. Suddenly any pain or discomfort I had vanished, replaced by a surge of energy. Once the glow had receded I slowly rose from the couch and lowered my foot. 

   “It doesn’t hurt. Thank you, h-how did you do that?”

   Lilamon gave me a gentle smile as she responded, “That was one of my skills, called Aura. It allows me to heal any injury and revitalize whoever I use it on.”

Huh, this world is starting to seem more and more like those anime Gabriel and Austin watch. What were they called again? Isekai! That’s what they're called.

   Wait, don’t most of those shows have the main character die brutally in the beginning?

   Lilamon led us up to the third floor to the rooms we’d be staying in. There was one room for the girls and one room for the boys. The girls room was the size of both the living room and the kitchen combined, with three beds in each corner, a small vanity desk next to each of them. A large glass door on the other side of the room opened up to a balcony, which overlooked the entire village. 

   On the balcony to the right of ours were the boys, who looked down at the village as well, their eyes filled with joy.  Later that afternoon in our room, discussing what we were going to do like the night before. 

   “There really is nothing for us to do,” said Caspian, sitting on  Laurel’s bed. “Until Cherrymon comes to us with news about Kayla all we can do is sit here, hoping she’s okay.”

   “But there has to be something we can do,” said Laurel. “We should help look for her.”

   “We can’t,” I told her. “We don’t know this forest like the Digimon do. We’d probably get lost or get into a dangerous situation like with Kabuterimon.”

   I made my way over to Laurel, grabbing her by the shoulder. “I know you want to help, but we aren’t in a position to do that right now. Right now we need to figure out a way to get home, so that we can leave when we do find Kayla, alright?” Laurel gave a short nod, agreeing with me. 

   “How exactly do we get home?” asked Gabriel. “We don’t even  know how we ended up here, so how are we going to find out how to get home?”

   He had a point. We don’t know what dragged us here, or why it did so. But if getting us here is possible, then there must be some kind of Digimon with that kind of power. A Digimon of incomparable power.

   That’s it.

   “I have and idea,” I declared, turning to Floramon. “Floramon what kinds of powers do the Olympus XII have?”

   “Well, you already know about Ceresmon," started Floramon. "We also have Vulcanmon, the blacksmith god who forges the weapons of the Olympians. We have Dianamon, goddess of the moon and protector of young Beast Digimon. Minervamon, the wisdom goddess whose know for her ability to come up with amazing battle plans and-”

   “Woah, hold up,” said Gabriel raising his hand at Floramon. “The other members of the Olympus XII, do they happen to be named Neptunemon, Apollomon, Junomon, Bacchusmon, Mercurymon, Marsmon, Jupitermon and Venusmon?” 

   “Y-es they are. Except Mercurymon, he’s part of the Ten Legendary Warriors. Merukimon is the Olympian I believe you are referring to, but otherwise yes, they are all the members of the Olympus XII. Do you worship them in your world too?” asked the flower Digimon.

   “Not exactly. I knew their names sounded familiar, but you listing their powers is what finally made it click.” 

   “Made what click?” I asked my brother, hoping we’d get to the point. 

   “Each of the Olympus XII are versions of the Roman gods in our world. Ceres the Roman goddess of agriculture; Vulcan god of blacksmiths and volcanoes, Apollo god of the sun and prophecy and Diana, maiden goddess of the moon and hunting. The gods here are another version of the gods worshiped in our world, thousands of years ago!” he exclaimed.

   “Okay, does that help us in any way?” asked Caspian.

   “Maybe,” replied Gabriel. “In our world Apollo was regarded as a god of prophecy, he had a cave where his priestess would give prophecies to those who asked. If Apollomon is truly like the Apollo of ancient times, then he must have an Oracle in this world. An Oracle that can tell us how to get back home.”

   "Floramon, is there a place like that here?" asked Laurel.

   "I don't know. We could check the archives, they hold all the knowledge the Digimon in the Forest of Time have accumulated over the years. It should have some sort of reference to the cave of your world's Apollo," said Floramon.

   "Then we have a plan," I said. "Find Kayla, find the Oracle and get back home."

Chapter Text

I stood in a beautiful garden filled with flowers. Snowdrops, Foxglove, Hyacinths, and so many more covered the garden in a rainbow of petals. The sun beat down on my skin, making my arms look like sausages. I heard a door opening and closing behind me, followed by the sound of footsteps. A short, old woman with greying hair, stood beside me, a straw hat shielding her head from the sun. In her hands were two watering cans

“Are you ready Laurel?” she asked, handing me one of the cans. 

“Ready Granny!” I cheered. The two of us spend the rest of the day taking care of her garden. We watered the flowers, pruned the roses, and planted some fruits and vegetables to harvest in the fall.

We finished as the sun began to set, sitting down on Granny’s patio swing, we admired our work. Granny brought out a pitcher of lemonade and offered me a glass. As I downed the sweet drink, Granny said she wanted to ask me something.

“Can you tell me why your parents left you here? I know I invited everyone to come over,” she questioned.

I froze, unsure on how to tell her the truth. She narrowed her eyes at me, beckoning me to answer. After twenty seconds, she sighed and averted her gaze. “What is your sister doing this time?”

I stared down at my empty cup, trying to keep the resentment out of my voice, “She’s at a robotics competition. In Pennsylvania. They’ll be there till Monday.”

She hummed in understanding, taking a sip of her lemonade. “And why is it that you aren’t there as well?”

“I didn’t feel like going,” I lied. In reality, I really did want to go and cheer on Tori. However, my parents decided it would be best for me to stay with Granny, dropping me off at her house before heading towards the airport. Tori mouthed sorry and gave me a pitiful look as they drove off.

Granny sighed, “I don’t know where I went wrong with your mother. I didn’t raise her to be so selfish.” She wrapped her arm around me and pulled me. The smell of freshly turned dirt and sage filled my nose as I sniffled on her shoulder. I felt Granny’s fingers comb my hair. “Don’t worry, sweetie. No matter what, I’ll always be here for you.”

_____

I awoke with the sun shining in my face, tears brimming in my eyes. I sat up to find Floramon sleeping at the foot of my bed curled up like a cat. She looked so peaceful and adorable. I wanted to pet her, but stopped myself. I didn’t know if she’d like it, and didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. 

I quietly got up and went to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and scowled at my reflection. My usually clean, silky hair was a frizzy mess with strands shooting out in various directions. Bits of dirt, leaves, and a twig were stuck inside the tangled strands. Letting out an angry sigh, I took off my clothes and stepped into the shower and began scrubbing my head with shampoo, hoping to get all the dirt out.

Why did Digimon even have shampoo? I have yet to see any with actual hair, most of them were bugs, animals, and sentient plants. Sure Coronamon and Bearmon have fur, but that requires a completely different type of product. Or is this that type of shampoo?

Fear sprung up deep within me at the thought of using animal-Digimon-whatever shampoo on my hair?! I looked over the label, hoping I could see if it was safe for my hair, but couldn’t read the language it was written in. I hurriedly rinsed my hair and finished showering. I stepped out and wrapped one of the complimentary towels around my body, taking out a hairbrush from a nearby wicker basket. It seemed normal enough, so maybe some Digimon do have human-like hair. 

…either that or someone detangled their fur with this. 

Actually, I’d rather not know.

As I ran the brush through my hair, Selena entered the bathroom. I did my best to keep a straight face as a twinge of jealousy sparked within me. How was it that she just woke up yet had no bed head? Seriously, my hair’s been a disaster since we slept in the cave, but her hair always looks perfect! Well, maybe not perfect, it’s a bit cakey with dirt, but it looks so much better than mine. 

“How’d you sleep,” Selena asked me groggily. She leaned towards the sink and began washing her face.

“I slept fine, how ‘bout you?” I replied. With one final stroke of the brush I managed to return my hair to its previous glory. Looks like the shampoo was safe after all. I changed back into the green t-shirt with a cornucopia in the center and the blue shorts I was transported here in. I honestly don’t know why we had our outfits changed when we got here, but at least I look cute in my new clothes. 

I walked back to the bedroom and caught Floramon and Lunamon playing hand games. Lunamon’s look of total concentration was so adorably serious, I placed my hand over my mouth to muffle my giggles.

“What game is that?” I asked, walking towards them. 

“It’s an old Digimon children's game, it teaches us about different areas of the Digital World, like so,” replied Floramon. Then she and Lunamon started from the beginning.

“ Forest of Time, simply sublime, nature’s soul at its prime,

Desert of Crimson, we have a mission, war-ri-ors this is our dominion,

Earthly flames, our nation's forge, the village is, in a gorge, 

Golden spire, we admire, the di-vine voice we require- ”

A knock at the door cut the two of them off. Wondering who it was I went to open it, only to have my jaw drop at the sight of who it was. Caspian leaned on the doorframe, his messy hair and tired expression made him look far more attractive than he had any right to be. His broad chest and shoulders stretched the fabric of his blue shirt. My face was heating up at the sight.

“Hey, I was told breakfast was ready so we should head down,” he said in a husky voice, pointing down the hall. Gabriel and Austin were already dressed and waiting. Austin gave me a wave and Gabriel smirked at him. Bearmon, Betamon, and Coronamon were all playing with one another, chasing Betamon who was hopping around trying not to get caught. 

“S-sure, we’ll be right down. We’re just waiting on Selena,” I told him, trying to keep a straight face. 

Gabriel snickered. “Yeah, I think we should just go on ahead. Selena always takes forever to get ready. The food will be cold by the time she finishes.”

“You’re one to talk,” Austin scoffed. He poked Gabriel in the chest “You take just as long as she does. The only reason we got out early is because you’re an early riser and she’s not.” 

Gabriel looked insulted, putting a hand to his chest, before acquiescing Austin’s remark. They ended up leaving to get breakfast. Austin told me he’d save some for me. 

It turns out Gabriel was right, Selena did take forever in the shower. There was barely any food left when we made it down stairs. And the food that was available had already gone cold. I sat next to Austin, who saved me a few sausages links and some toast. Selena was yelling at Gabriel for leaving her without food.

“¡Siempre haces esto, egoísta!” she yelled, smacking him in the back of the head. Both Lunamon and Coronamon giggled at that.

“ No es mi culpa que tardas tanto en prepararte ! Besides I did save you something,” he replied, sliding a glass of juice towards her. 

If looks could kill, Selena’s would have certainly butchered him. She grabbed the glass of juice and sat at the far end of the table with Lunamon following her, grabbing the meager amounts of food that was left. We swiftly ate and gave our empty plates to Lilamon. 

“So do you kids have any plans for today?” she asked.

Floramon nodded. “I will be taking them to tour the archives. We hope to find the location of someone who’ll help guide them back to their world.”

Lilamon smiled, wishing them luck as she walked away, balancing the empty plates in her flower-hand things. I honestly didn’t know how she could grab things.

Floramon, herded us out of the hotel, and towards the archives. We passed the garden from yesterday, and headed to the outskirts of the village, arriving at a gigantic mound, with large wooden doors in front of us. Floramon whirled towards us and bowed. “Ladies and GentleDigimon, I am pleased to show you, The Archives!”

Floramon swung the doors open, revealing a large library going deep into the earth. There were several platforms stationed in the chasm, taking Digimon to different levels of the Archives. Each level had shelves filled with books, scrolls, and even stone tablets. There were tables where Digimon would sit at and read. The staff – or who I assume are the staff – were these human-like Digimon that wore purple wizard capes and pointy wizard hats. Each one had a staff with a large sun at the top. 

Floramon motioned for us to follow her, taking us towards one of the platforms. We headed down for several minutes before stopping near the bottom of the chasm. There were no books here, only scroll and stone tablets. 

Floramon called over one of the employees, who she identified as Wizardmon. 

(Really? Wizardmon? Why are some Digimon names so obvious, what’s next a lion Digimon named Leomon?)

Wizardmon directed us to the back of the floor, where the information about the Olympos XII was located. Floramon acquired a stack of books and scrolls, dropping them onto the table we claimed. She began handing them out.

“Okay, this here is all the information on Apollomon in this aisle. Each one of us will look for any mentions of an Oracle within these scrolls. If we don’t find any, we’ll search a different aisle, any questions?” asked Floramon.

Austin raised his hand, lifting his gaze from his scroll. “I do,” he started, “how exactly are we meant to read this?” He showed us his scroll, the same foreign language from the bottle was written down onto the paper. “I have no idea what any of this means.”

The rest of us humans also confirmed we had no idea how to read their language. Why would we? We’re from another world! The fact that Digimon are able to speak English is surprising enough.

“I guess the Digimon will have to read it out loud to us,” sighed Gabriel leaning back onto his chair. He ran his fingers through his curly brown hair. And so that’s what they did. For the next hour they sat there while the Digimon read aloud the information in the scrolls to various different degrees of success.

Lunamon had to sound out the words like a toddler, receiving praise from Selena and Coronamon whenever she got through a difficult word. Betamon kept reading too fast and stumbling over words, much to his embarrassment and the annoyance of Caspian. Bearmon kept getting distracted, going off on tangents every other sentence. Austin was no help, joining in on those tangents and discussing the usefulness of the color orange. The only ones who were having no problems reading were Floramon and Coronamon. Those two tore through the scrolls and text quite quickly.

After two hours of going through various texts, we finally found something.

“The most ven…vener…venerable!” sounded out Lunamon, her face bright at successful pronunciation. “The most venerable of Apollomon’s pries…tesses…priestesses is the Throne Digimon, Rasielmon. Rasielmon possesses the un…oo-ni-kwe…unique ability to connect to the Kernel, the core of the Digital World, which allows her to gaze into the past, present, and future of the Digital World. This is the Oracle!”

Everyone cheered, elated that we found the Oracle, only for Lunamon to continue. 

“Rasielmon watches over the Aure…lium? Is that how you pronounce it?” Lunamon asked Selena. Selena shrugged and motioned her to continue. “Rasielmon watches over the Aurelium Palace, located past the Crimson Wastelands and at the top of the Celestial Peaks…oh.”

“Oh, what oh? Why did you, oh?” I questioned the tiny Digimon, nervous at her comment. 

“The Crimson Wastelands are known to be deadly for most Digimon,” explained Coronamon. “It’s a giant desert that takes up a large part of the eastern side of the continent. It’s known for being very dangerous, having rivers of lava, bandits, and powerful sandstorms. The only safe spot is located in the center of the Desert, but few ever make it there due to the harsh conditions.”

“The Celestial Peaks aren’t much better,” added Floramon with her arms crossed. “They’re incredibly tall mountains that are said to pierce the clouds. Within them is supposed to be a labyrinthine cave system, known as the Nightmare’s Keep. Many Digimon have gone missing in those caves, never to be seen again. Going to either of those places is a death sentence.”

The cheerful atmosphere quickly plummeted. 

Caspian slammed his fist onto the table, cursing their terrible luck. Gabriel was questioning Floramon and Coronamon about the specific dangers of the Desert and the Peaks. Austin groaned and lowered his head on the table, covering it with his hands while Bearmon patted him on the back. Selena was rubbing Lunamon’s head, she was biting her lower lip, and her eyes were narrowed making her look deep in thought. I was running my fingers through my hair, trying not to panic. 

How would we get back home? If the desert is too dangerous to cross, then we can’t go through there. Maybe there’s another Oracle? I remember my World History teacher mentioning that there were other fortune-telling Gods when we did a World’s Religion unit. A disembodied head and a blind Goddess, but I don’t remember their names.

Maybe one of them had-

“I’m going.”

…

…

…

Two simple words, spoken quietly but with purpose. Two words that captured the attention of every one of us, all looking at Selena, who stood up from her chair. 

“What do you mean you’re going?” Gabriel questioned his twin. “You heard them, it's a death sentence. We can keep looking for another Oracle, in our world Apollo-”

“We’re not in our world Gabriel!” Selena snapped at him so sharply that Gabriel took a step back. “This isn’t like your stories and myths, this is actually happening! This, for some fucked-up reason, is real ! We don’t know if there is another Oracle; the scroll Lunamon read said Rasielmon's power was unique, meaing only she has it. And even if there is another Oracle, it might be in an even more impossible place to get to. This is a shot at getting home, back to mom and dad, and I’m taking it. The only question is whether or not you're coming with me.”

The air was quiet as the twins stared each other down. Selena’s sharp eyes glared at her brother like a hunter’s dagger, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. 

Gabriel on the other hand looked conflicted. He clearly didn’t want to go, but could he let his sister go at it alone? 

The question was answered swiftly as Gabriel turned his head away, huffing in defeat.

“Ugh, fine, I’ll go with you. There’s no way I’d let you do something like this by yourself. But I reserve the right to complain the entire time, and if we die, I will make your afterlife mis-er-a-ble,” he proclaimed, clapping each syllable.

Selena smiled, running over to hug her brother. 

Austin sighed, getting up from the table. “If they’re going, guess I’m going to. It wouldn’t be right to let them go at it alone.”

“Don’t worry Austin, I’ll keep you safe,” saluted Bearmon. 

“I’m coming with you too,” added Lunamon. “I won’t let anything happen to Selena!” 

“I’ll go as well,” stated Coronamon, turning to Gabriel. “I owe you for helping me reunite with Lunamon. I’ll keep both you and our sisters safe.

Caspian looked at the group of six with disbelief, a sentiment I shared with him. But I also understood Selena’s urgency to get home. In the three days we’ve been here we nearly got atomized by a mutant talking beetle and I was nearly impaled by the bark of a ginormous talking lizard made out of wood. This world was simply too dangerous for five teenagers; six if we ever find Kayla, wherever she may be. I’m mostly sure she got transported with us, but if she didn’t I hope she went to get help. 

Thinking about the separation, I decided it would be best if we did not do that with our current group. We still didn’t know most things about this world, so it would be best if we all stick together.

Though this meant I’d also be headed towards the death-trap. The thought of that made my bones shudder, but I tried not to let it show. “I’m going too, I don’t think it's a good idea for us to split-up right now.”

Caspian let out a muffled grunt, and began clawing at his hair. His face was turning red and he was breathing heavily. It took a few minutes of deep breaths for him to not look like he was about to snap and kill them all.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, “I have come to the decision that I will…go with you four. Only because I agree with Laurel that we shouldn’t split up. Safety in numbers and all that crap,” he swiftly added.

“I am coming too, I am bound to Caspian for life,” declared Betamon, eliciting strange looks from everyone except Caspian, who hid his face in his hand.

“Well, if everyone else is going I might go as well,” chimed in Floramon. “After all, the chance to see one of the holiest sites in the Digital World is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

“So, we’re all in agreement?” asked Gabriel. Everyone nodded and/or gave a thumbs up. “Alright, so when do we leave?”

“There’s a festival in honor of Ceresmon happening in two weeks. We can use that time to go over plans on how to survive the desert and can gather food and supplies to take with us,” Floramon informed us. 

Deciding it would be the smart thing to do, the ten of us all agreed to wait the two weeks to brave the Crimson Desert.

And hopefully find both Kayla and a way home.