Melody grinned brightly as she gathered up her things. She quickly stuck a few bottles of water, some granola bars, and a basic first-aid kit into a backpack. A squarish thing almost like a watch face was clipped on to one strap of the backpack, and a teardrop-shaped tab dangled from it.
"Ben, I'm heading to the library for a while!" she called as she skipped out of her room and went down the hall.
"Whatever!" her brother called from his own room. With that, Melody left the house, headed down to the library. What she was planning to do was much easier if she wasn't home. Once she got to the library, she quickly found the most secluded computer and logged in. She had long since memorized how to log in properly, and she unclipped the strange watch from her bag. The little bit of technology beeped and lit up, and suddenly, Melody wasn't in the library anymore. Her chair was empty, and the computer was dark. She was gone.
"You look just as loaded down as I do." came a voice from behind Melody. It'd be the first thing she'd hear as her ears adjusted to the new world.
Casey grinned and waited for her friend to turn around, "I only got in a few minutes ago and had a small welcoming party waiting for me. We all wanted to surprise you, but I think someone had to run off to use the little digimon's room- er- bush." Beside her foot bounced a small soft-bodied creature that looked to be brimming with excitement which paused when she heard Casey speaking and smiled up at the two girls warmly. As the tiny creature was right now, she wouldn't be able to speak but her enthusiasm had no trouble translating to the newcomers. For Casey the tiny digimon's exuberance was infectious and she couldn't help but scoop up the little one into her arms. Once settled into the nest made of Casey's forearms the little creature closed its eyes and gave a contented sigh. "I'm honestly not sure where your little buddy got off to... I'm sure she's not too far away."
It wasn't at all like looking for the other digimon would be like pulling teeth. They had arrived at a spectacular location within the digital world, albeit somewhat precarious. Before them was a steep cliff face that ran like a serpent as far as they could see into the heavy clouds that poured over its rocky side. Above and below was a dense but lively temperate forest, crisscrossed by streams that fell like silver chains down the side of the long ridge. There was plenty of space between the trees, and several paths were clearly marked by digimon who wandered the forest regularly, but that wasn't even the half of what made this place of particular magnificence.
Off away from the cliff was a number of floating islands, the largest of which appeared to be covered in dark, blocky figures of buildings partially obscured by the mist of stormy clouds while the others housed what appeared from their position to be stately manors and other such things. "I swear there has to be some way up onto those. I've been watching them ever since I got in."
Melody grinned when she saw everyone and gave her friend a hug.
"How did you make it here before me?" she asked as she pulled her digivice off her bag. "I got out of the house as early as I could. Ditched my brother and everything." Her grin turned into more of a soft smile when her digivice told her that her digimon was close. "Give me a second, I think Moonmon fell asleep in the shade again." Setting her bag down, she looped her tag around her neck and stepped just into the trees. Indeed, she found Moonmon dozed off under a low tree. Melody smiled softly and gently picked her digimon up. Moonmon stirred briefly.
"Melody?"
"I'm here, Moonmon, you can go back to sleep," Melody said softly. Moonmon murmured a bit and drifted off again. She was mostly a nocturnal digimon, and Melody didn't try to force her out of that sleeping pattern. Moonmon in her arms, Melody went back to meet Casey.
"So what about these floating islands?" she asked. She looked out over the cliff. "They look kind of interesting. Maybe there are some flying digimon around that could give us a ride?"
Casey stroked the top of Dodomon's head, waiting for Melody to collect her sleepy partner. "My mom just got a new laptop... I figured I could use the time I saved going to my library by scouting out some cool stuff but I didn't really end up needing it." Her attention was drawn again to the floating islands. "I was kind of hoping we'd find someone when we got a bit closer to them so they wouldn't have to carry us that far, uh, if they agreed to it."
In her arms Dodomon's eyes opened again and the tiny digimon have a rather frustrated sounding huff. While warm with Casey and Melody, she had a particularly hard time dealing with strangers. Gently Casey started petting the belligerent ball of fur and put the creature slightly more at ease.
"I thought I saw some birds or... well something like a bird down at the bottom of this ridge, but I have no idea how to get there from here. So..." Casey hesitated, not wanting to start off on their newest adventure without proper planning "...unless you can see a Brimpmon I think we've got two directions we could go... right or left."
Dodomon's eyes were fixed on Melody, silently, wordlessly making a request that she make some other suggestion that didn't involve the floating city at all. It wasn't that she had a fear of heights or the city itself had a bad memory attached to it, but the fact that it was a city meant there was always the possibility that there would be other digimon there, and that was difficult to her. Dodomon's relationship with the girls was definitely socializing the little creature, but her stubborn, aggressive nature was a difficult thing to dissolve. Without the ability to say much after so recently hatching, the mound of blue fur kept her eyes locked on Melody- the look was somewhere between a threatening glare and a pleading gaze.
"I think we should hang out here for a little while," Melody replied. "Get our bearings, see what we can see. Maybe a Birdramon or something will show up, you know they're a lot nicer to people than some other digimon." That, and she could see Dodomon giving her the stink-eye, sort of, and she really didn't want the little digimon to decide to tackle her again. Dodomon could hurt when she wanted to. "Besides, we have plenty of time. Nobody is expecting me back home for hours, which means I can spend weeks here if I felt like it. What about you?"
As she spoke, one hand fiddled with her digivice absently, turning the screen on and off. The device suddenly started making noise, and Melody jumped.
"Well that's different," she said, looking at it. She blinked, and her brow furrowed a bit. "Huh. It thinks a digiportal from our district was opened. But you're here and I'm here, and we're the only digidestined in our district right now, right?" Ever since it was made known that there were digidestined all over the world, the human partners decided amongst themselves to divide the world up into districts and subdistricts, so that it would be easier for digidestined to contact others like them in their area. And as far as Melody knew, she and Casey were the only digidestined in their subdistrict at the moment.
"Same, Mom already left for work by the time I logged i-- uhh..."
Casey furrowed her brows and watched the digivice in Melody's hand until it had long stopped making noise. Dodomon wiggled deeper into her arms, anticipating the prediction that sat on the edge of her tongue. "That... can't be right. Not unless there's another- I mean... a new one." She looked up and locked eyes with Melody. "But it's been what...? Like, a year since we got ours... Why would there just suddenly be a new digidestined now?"
The question was obviously rhetorical, but Dodomon shook her entire self in an emphatic 'no'. Neither wanted their cherished adventure time with their friends to be interrupted like this.
Casey frowned and poked the grumpy, blue puff ball that rest in her arms. "I... suppose we have to check that out. The islands can wait. This could be important... I mean everyone starts out pretty disoriented." She snapped her own digivice off of her belt and eyed the screen to figure out which direction they would be heading. From her remaining arm Dodomon peered at the small electronic device warily. The signal was a fair distance away, at least two digi-days if they weren't going to be hampered by any obstacles, but in their current rough terrain it was unlikely they would be so lucky. "Geeze... well... let's move on, then."
Melody nodded and picked up her bag, settling it on her shoulders.
"Let's go, then," she said. "Hopefully we'll find the new kid before anything else does." Putting her digivice into her pocket, in case she needed it again, she started going in the direction of the signal. It was down on the far end of the coast, so she wasn't too worried about rushing; there would be food and such for the new digidestined, and the ocean in the digital world was freshwater. She wasn't too worried about being attacked, either; Moonmon had enough experience with her that the digimon could digivolve at least two levels at once, if she had to, so she could be Champion-level in fifteen seconds if they got attacked.
"Once we make camp for the night, Moonmon and I will go foraging, sound good?" Melody said after a while.
Casey snapped the digivice back onto her belt and grabbed the bag she had quickly abandoned on top of a lump of rock soon after arrival. "Yeah, you're right... That would have been a lot cushier than what we got. If we're really lucky she'll be one of those survivalist campers or zombie apocalypse prep-ers and will have, like, an entire set up by the time we get there." She grinned, imagining the impossible before shaking it it off with rolling eyes "Though I think my money is on someone who is in the middle of a nervous breakdown. -- Oh, yeah. That'd be great. Dodomon and I can get up early to find something for breakfast that way, too."
So it was a little blasé, but it wasn't as if this new kid was ever going to know she was making a joking bet about their mental state. She trusted Melody and the digimon not to go blabbing about harmless jokes like that. As they made their way down one of the clear cut trails that plunged deep into the high cloud forest Casey made certain to walk near enough to Melody that they wouldn't themselves be separated.
"This is as thick as smoke... Everything is going to be soaked until we find a way out of the cloud layer. If we're not... uh... you might want to be careful foraging. Like use a rope or trail or something so you can make your way back."
The trees around them creaked and groaned as the ridge behind them disappeared into the blue-grey haze and more and more light faded under the tall trees of the forest. "I think I'd prefer finding a village or something... even if it's filled with, I don't know, Ogremon. I think I could deal with an Ogremon village for one night if it's going to rain or be wet and nasty."
"We'll see what we come across," Melody said. She made a face about a village of Ogremon, but Casey had a point. It would be better than camping in the wet.
It was a while later, just as it was getting fully dark, that they came across a small village. Thankfully, it wasn't Ogremon, but a village of Biyomon. Lucky for the girls, the Biyomon were nice enough to let them stay the night. Moonmon was awake at this point, and stayed close to Melody to keep an eye on her as she settled in to sleep.
"Just think of it as a vacation, Dodomon." Casey whispered, watching the ball of fury bounce about, agitated. "They're not enemies or anything... they're actually really friendly. They gave you some good food, even."
The helpful words seemed to have an effect for a moment or two before Dodomon puffed her tiny self up and stubbornly decided to start hoping back and forth again. It was hard to be annoyed with her right now. She was so small and each time she landed another hop in her pacing it felt as it a cotton ball had fallen beside Casey on the futon the biyomon loaned them. "You're going to have to sleep sometime, or do you want me to open my backpack so you can have a cave to lurk in?"
The offer wasn't snubbed. After setting up the digimon, Casey turned to her other travel companions, "Goodnight, Melody. Good night, Moonmon. Tomorrow will be another day full of walking. Hopefully it'll be a little less full of fog."
"Night," Melody replied, settling in. Moonmon just kept an eye on things for the night. She didn't expect any trouble at all from the Biyomon, it was just habit for her to look after her digidestined.
The next day was just as foggy as the one before, until they finally made it out of the mountains and down to the coast. Melody was grateful for that; she much preferred level ground to hiking the mountain trails. And it was much warmer down on the coast, warm enough that she'd rolled up her jeans and swapped her shirt for a tank. She didn't go barefoot in the sand, though; still not a good idea, even in the digital world.
Jordan stretched out on the warm sand and soaked in the late morning sunlight. He had managed last night easily, having be grocery shopping just before he arrived in the digital world. Not being one for adventure, really, he had set himself up on the beach, using a tipped over sailboat as his tent over night.
There had been no fire, no source of warmth and he shivered the entire night long because of it. How would he know he would need a blanket or heavy coat going to the grocer-slash-disturbingly quiet beach? His green eyes searched the clouds a moment more before shutting once more and he focused on the pleasant warmth the sun was giving him there. He had no thought about water just yet, he hadn't become thirsty enough to worry about it.
When the sun got high enough he neatly removed his jacket and button-up shirt and laid back down. So far he hadn't gotten a sunburn... perhaps this beach was at a really low altitude...? Like the Dead Sea? But this didn't look like the Dead Sea at all... "How would you know, you haven't even been..."
The wind whipped sand on him, disturbing him from his nap and when he awoke there were figures in the distance. Two human figures... Jordan sat up and waved his hands at them, as if they wouldn't have seen the half naked guy laying alone on the beach.
"Oh, hey, I think I see someone," Melody said as she looked down the beach. She nudged Casey. "You see it too, right?" She waved back, carefully keeping Moonmon in one arm, and picked up her pace a little to close the distance. The only reason there would be a person there is if they were digidestined, so Melody was confident that they had found the one they were looking for.
Casey nodded and hurried after Melody, "That's definitely them... sun bathing."
"...Yeah... Yeah I'm fine." Jordan squinted at them as the two girls made their way toward him on the beach. For a moment he looked down at his folded clothing and then launched himself in an effort to appear nicely dressed for the girls, or so it sounded from the voice that called out to him, heading his way.
The distance between them was closed in just enough time for him to put his shirt back on, albeit with the buttons askew. "So, um, I'm guessing you're here to kick me off of your private beach? Sorry about crashing here... I just, uh, blacked out or something and don't know really how I got here." He took a moment to notice their dress, and that it wasn't even in the neighborhood of the beach gear he was expecting the girls to be wearing. "Could... I call someone on one of your phones?"
Not even a moment passed before Casey lost her cool and starting snickering quietly at Jordan.
"Oh no, it's not our beach," Melody said. "You're fine there. And there's no cell service here, sorry." She grinned. "My name's Melody, and this little squishy bit is Moonmon." She tilted her head a bit. "And this is Casey and Dodomon. What's your name?" She glanced around. "And where's your digimon? You've probably had a cute little bouncing thing following you around since you got here, right?"
"Figures there'd be no coverage at all..." Jordan grumbled and rubbed his head just above his eye. Maybe they would be able to tell him where he was at least... they did have a familiar accent so he couldn't be too terribly far away from home. "I was just asking because mine wasn't working. I'm Jordan-- uh." He took a survey of those standing in front of him now and looked between the two girls, wondering why Melody added the additional two names "...What is a... digit-mon? I don't remember anything like that..."
His attention fell onto Moonmon and Dodomon finally processing the description with the names he was given. He arched his brow, high and incredulously after a second and started laughing "Oh are those digit-mon... are they like toys or something? Aren't you two too old for that?"
Not pleased with his reaction, Dodomon narrowed her eyes.
"Oh, I get it... they're like those electronic doll things. But those are for eight year olds... seriously." Jordan was having trouble not laughing at them, but managed to keep most of his judgement in. "Yeah, sorry but I never was much into dolls. Which way is the city from here?"
Annoyed, Dodomon introduced herself with a slightly less threatening growl than she intended. Jordan laughed.
Melody looked at him and sighed. Yup, definitely a newbie, although it seemed strange that his digimon hadn't found him yet.
"Alright, you're one of those where we have to start with the very basics." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her digivice. "You have one of these, right? Maybe a different color, but still looks like this? Probably found it just before you ended up here?" She gestured around them. "It' s called a digivice, and it brought you here, this place is called the Digital World. Unoriginal, but hey, roll with it. Pretty much, you were turned into data and brought here. The place is full of Digital Monsters, or digimon for short." She gestured to Moonmon and Dodomon. "When people like us are brought here, it's usually because we have our own special partner waiting. Mine is Moonmon, Casey's is Dodomon. I know it sounds crazy, but it's all true."
The longer Melody spoke the more screwed up and disturbed Jordan's face became. Surely... surely this was sign enough that either he was insane or they were. The world didn't work that way and there was definitely only one world- none of this digital world mumbo-jumbo. His head shook from side to side slowly, not exactly taking in what she was saying. Not until she mentioned the device being responsible to taking him to the digital world.
Just before he found himself on the beach he picked something up... it was a kind of steel-y gray color and small, almost like the face of a man's sport's watch or the mechanism to a pocket watch, but the look of it was like one of those old Tyco handheld toys his older brother used to play with when he wanted to remember his childhood. Jordan had thought someone dropped it on the sidewalk and, doubting if anyone would be around to collect it, was going to find some place a kid could find it easily. His eyes crawled over her digivice, taking in the buttons and the shape for the first time, really. It was far too small a thing to really play a game on, he should have known, but this explanation was far stranger. Turned into data? Digital monster... partners?
"I'm... What do you mean 'one of those'? How many...? No, uh-uh. I'm not going into this. I'm going home and leaving this psycho digi-gadgi-hoo-ha alone. Where's the closest bus station?"
A rather upset line of "doo-doo-doo"s came from Dodomon who was rocking in Casey's arms at this point. "Cool it, tough-stuff. He's just disoriented. Remember what I was like, okay?" murmured the brown haired girl. "Look, dude, we'd show you were it is but it doesn't work. We're seriously the only people around for miles... Everyone else is digimon and one of those digimon is probably desperately looking for you."
"I don't care!" he gasped, exasperated .
Casey shook her head, "We'll wait for him to show up for you to say that."
Jordan growled a bit - which Dodomon mimicked as she didn't like the idea of someone growling at her friends - "I just want to go home and not live on a beach like a hobo!"
"Calm down," Melody said. "Yes, there's a bus station, but there's no point in going there. There's nowhere for a bus to go, and nowhere for it to come from in the first place. It's just a landing spot for the Japanese district digidestined." She slipped her digivice back into her pocket. "We don't live like hobos. Really, we're just here to keep an eye on the place from time to time. Did you initially land here on the beach? Or did you walk here? Because your digimon is usually right there in the area you first landed."
Melody paused what she was saying when her digivice beeped again. She pulled it out and looked at it, curious. "Another one...?" She looked at Casey. "Is yours freaking out like this?"
"Yeah... This one isn't far away. If you want I can go check it out while you explain things to him."
Jordan made a face "You mean these things tell you when people get trapped here? That's how you found me?"
Casey grinned "You could say that, sure."
"And I'm definitely... stuck here." He said, calming down but becoming increasingly crestfallen at the implication of remaining in this insane setting. "How are you two so... accepting of that? I mean you're talking about people from Japan just getting sucked in here like it's nothing new or anything to be shocked about. I don't want to die here, I want to see my family!"
His hand dove into his pocket and pulled out the digivice he had picked up on the street... it looked sleeker than he thought on the street, though nothing really had changed about the object itself- he was just regarding it as something more than a cheap toy of no real measurable value. "I was kind of off that way... just inside the trees, but I could hear the water so I came this way and found the boat."
"Yeah, I'll stay here and look after him," Melody said to Casey, nodding. "Go and see if you can find the other one." Then she turned back to Jordan.
"Hey, Jordan, man, calm down," she said. "You're not stranded here. Honestly, you'll be fine." She grinned a bit. "To put it into perspective, Casey and I have been at this for over a year, visiting in and out. I've met some of the Japanese digidestined, they're pretty cool. This isn't anything to get upset over, we just need to find your digimon so you can get to know each other. The portal back home opens once a week, here, so we can get you back in a few days. Seriously, you'll get home maybe five minutes after you left, it's all good."
A week... a week wouldn't be so bad and at least Melody seemed like she'd be happy to show him how to get back. It was still far too odd, but things weren't changing and if he had to live through this he might as well accept the insanity and play along instead of fighting it tooth and nail. "But we're no where near Japan... What if I don't have one of those things... and what do you mean portals?"
"I don't really want to carry something like that around... it's weird." he admitted, calmer than he had been since the start of their conversation. Jordan wasn't exactly the type of person to stay visibly nervous for long. He much preferred to play it cool and be the rock other people looked to for security but there are some changes that are just too large to take in stride and discovering you've been drawn into a world filled with strange monsters was just enough change for Jordan to be uncomfortable. Nerves settled a bit at the prospect of going home soon he dropped his shoulders and looks back at the sailboat shelter he had used over the night "...I have some food if you're hungry."
Casey weaved her way inland toward a landmark she and Melody had found quite early in their adventures in the digital world. It was a small children's park surrounded by lovely flowering trees and park benches. As far as playgrounds go, it was fairly complete with a swing set, sand box and jungle gym. There was even a wooden rope bridge and climbing ropes that connected various bits of the construction together. She checked her digivice again and gave the place another look-around before calling out "Hello?" to the latest arrival.
"It's okay... I know you're out here and that you probably want some explanation."
"Nope, we're nowhere near Japan," Melody agreed. "And you don't have a choice, if you have a digivice, you have a digimon, too, so we have to find him. And you probably won't have to carry him, most In-Training Level digimon can move around on their own. I carry Moonmon during the day because she sleeps and Casey carries Dodomon just because she wants to and it's easier for them." She resettled Moonmon in her arms as the little digimon murmured in her sleep. "And I mean portals like, well, portals. The portal back to the real world moves around, it swings back around to our part of the digital world every eight days or so." She grinned. "Thanks for the offer, but I have food. Hang on to yours, you're going to need it." She tilted her head towards the trees. "Come on, we're going to go find your digimon. Where's your digivice? It'll help."
"H-hello?" a freaked-out male voice called back when he heard Casey.
"Hello!" a cheerful, high-pitched voice echoed. Both voices came from the direction of the fort on the opposite end of the park.
Jordan picked up his bag of groceries and looked out at the line of trees that marked the beginning of the forest "So... it'd be out there. Is it really imperative I find it? Like, does my life depend on it or something? I doubt it..."
Slowly the boy made his way toward Melody and Moonmon, keeping his eyes fixed on the trees for a while just in case some grey or blue thing popped out at them and started possibly rolling its way down the sandy shoreline toward them. "How will we know what ...it is? I mean I assume there are at least two of those... digi-things in there."
Casey grinned and made her way toward the fort "Why are you hiding? Did you see a larger digimon or something? It's really, really unusual that they would do anything to you, honestly."
Through the swings and under a row of monkey bars she managed to get around the half wall that made up part of the fort's defenses. The girl gave another smile and nodded at the digimon sitting with the latest arrival to the digital world. "I'm Casey and this is Dodomon."
"There's a lot more than just two," Melody said as she deftly stepped through the tree line. She looked at him. "Seriously. Digivice. It should have a signal for you to follow. Elsewise we have to do it ourselves and that could take forever since we don't even know what species of digimon you're partnered with."
"Ben. And I was trying to hide from this thing," the guy replied carefully. "But it found me anyways." Carefully, he came out of the fort, the little orange creature following him. "What's going on here? Where am I? Why is this thing following me? How did I get here? How do I get home again?"
"Hi!" The digimon next to him chirped. "I'm Sunmon, great to meet you!"
