That didn't sound very promising, and the way Jordan mouthed 'more?' pretty much said it all.

"So... I'm looking at the dots here that are flashing? There are four... five counting this arrow thing, but I think that's me?" He said, looking over at Melody for reassurance more than anything. "And you didn't... uh... answer my question about needing to find the digimon... I mean it'll be fine without me, right? It's just like... a weird pet or something? But if I don't want it I shouldn't have to keep after it... I mean I can't even handle a fish."

"Nice to meet you Ben, Sunmon. You don't need to run away from Sunmon, he's here to be your partner. Here... let's head back over to Melody and uh... Jaaason, I think? Some guy with a 'J' name. He's new here also and did manage to lose his digimon." Casey grinned, "Sunmon is definitely going to be a lot easier to hang out with than Melody's digimon-- she's paired with Moonmon. Dodomon isn't really swayed one way or another by the time of day, so I guess I'm kinda lucky."

Casey took a few steps in the direction he had just came from before looking back at Ben "It isn't far from here and you'll get caught up on everything I promise." She could promise because she knew by the way Jordan had been re-acting he would probably require everything twice if not three times.

Melody looked at the screen of Jordan's digivice and nodded.

"The four dots you see are my digivice, Casey's, new-kid's, and your digimon," she said. She shrugged a bit. "For the most part, digimon are self-sufficient, unless they're legitimate baby digimon, but you don't find them outside of the egg-nursery. But yeah, digimon are typically able to find themselves food and everything, as long as you're in the right area." She snuggled Moonmon for a moment. "But your digimon is yours. Your partner. Not a pet, more like part of you." She looked at his digivice again. "Come on, this way. That one dot away from the others, I'm betting that's your digimon."

Ben blinked.

"Wait, Melody?" he asked. He looked confused for a moment. "Weird. My sister's name is Melody. Huh, must be a pretty common name." He shook his head a bit. "So, what's going on? What's a Sunmon and a Moonmon and a Dodomon? Are there other 'mons' around? And where are we?"

The dot she pointed out as being his digimon shifted toward their location on the screen and Jordan looked up at the forest for a moment before glancing back down at the digivice. They were already moving for the woods under Melody's lead and the distance between the dots closed ever more. "So what do they eat? You said they can take care of themselves... will they just... you know do that on their own or once I find this thing am I going to have to feed it?"

Despite his hesitations, he wasn't going to be trailing behind. Jordan walked even with Melody the entire way into the tree line.

"Yep! That's her name. Neat, I bet she is just as nice. My Melody is pretty relaxed, I'm sure you'll get along with her. Er... Well I haven't met anyone else with the name Melody. I've known a few Melanies but no other Melodys." Casey shrugged her shoulders. In a town as large as her's there was plenty of chances that there were others she just hadn't met yet. "They're digimon, and yeah there are a lot more of them here in the digiworld. Er, I mean the Digital World. It's a little complicated..."

She turned toward him again and gave Ben a comforting half smile "So you just found that thingy, right? The device in your hand? That's your digivice. It'll tell you where Sunmon is, where other digivices are and in a while where a digi-portal is so you can leave the digiworld and go back to the real world. Right, Sunmon?"

"Depends, I guess," Melody replied as they followed the signal on his digivice. "I think most of them like fruit, but there are some species out there that prefer fish, or meat, I think there are some virus-type digimon that like garbage. And, I mean, depending on how long you stay, you might have to forage some, but it's not like it's hard." She paused. "Well. Unless you go into the desert, but that's the desert. Anywhere else, you would probably be okay."

Ben blinked and turned his attention to the little red thing in his hand. At first, he thought it might have been his sister's pocket-pet or something, but as soon as he'd picked it up, he'd found himself... wherever he was.

"Yup!" Sunmon chirped. "Your digivice connects us, Ben!"

"Oh." Jordan took a deep breath before breaking into a sizable smile aimed at Melody "It could be worse, then, yeah?" He might as well get comfortable with the girls as well as the setting and situation. Slowly by slowly he was feeling less crazy, but it would take a while before he would actually believe that this wasn't all in his head somehow.

"Yeah! The desert is boring, anyways!" peeped a high pitched voice from off to one side, causing the boy to jump and flatten himself against an invisible wall between Melody and the alien voice.

Off in another direction Casey giggled. She had just cleared a turn around a larger bush in time to see Jordan's fantastic reaction to something she assumed to be small and harmless. "And that'd be Jordan and Melody..." Without another moment Casey waved at them and jogged their way, leaving Ben in her wake. "Hey! Did you find your digimon?"

Melody couldn't help but laugh a little when Jordan jumped.

"You get used to that," she said, grinning. "Most digimon can talk." Going over, she moved aside some leaves to see what had spoken to them. "I'm guessing you're Jordan's partner, little thing?" she asked, trying to find the digimon.

Ben blinked and jogged to keep up with Casey. When he saw the other two, though, he stopped short.

"Mel?" he asked, blinking.

This time, Melody did jump. She turned around, eyes wide.

"Ben?" she asked.

"Mel, you're here? What's going on?" Ben asked, getting closer. The twins blinked at each other when each saw the other's digimon.

"Funny story," Melody said, a bit of a strained smile on her face. "Um... Welcome to the Digital World, Ben."

"But... but they're like animals... weird animals..." Jordan gawked, eyeing the bush with trepidation "...and animals can't talk. Why do these talk?"

A golden cat-like face appeared through the branches Melody pushed away "Because we're digimon! I'm Frimon and we're partners, Jordan!"

"It knows my name?!" Jordan sputtered, turning a bit pale.

Frimon wasn't in the bush for very long. With the path to Jordan nice and cleared out he bounced to snuggle up against Jordan's leg. The person said leg was attached to didn't move, he couldn't move... there was a cat with no legs and a giant collar like frill around what should be the parition of its body and head if any sense were to be made from it. But there was no sense in this creature seeing as it had a head and no body save a long cat's tail. "We're going to be the best of friends and don't you worry about finding food for me! I like to hunt! I'll feed myself! I'm good at hunting... maybe I can catch you something, would that be okay?" chirped the enthusiastic creature, but Jordan just stood there stunned.

Casey meanwhile was looking between the twins, grinning "I thought he looked a little familiar. Well that's cool... brother and sister digi-destined. What's great is that even your digimon match- well, sorta. They're both celestial and all: Moonmon and Sunmon."

"Okay, wait, just hold on a second," Ben said. He looked between his sister and the other two. "What is going on here? What are digimon? What is the digital world? What's a digidestined? Can someone please fill me in, here?"

Melody made a face.

"Casey, take my brother and see if you can scope out some shelter for tonight?" she asked. "Explain things to him? I'll take Jordan and see what there is around here to eat by way of fruit. We'll meet back on the beach in a couple hours?" That way, she didn't have to listen to a pair of newbie digidestined freaking out, and the guys' nervous energy could be put to use. "Keep an eye out, I think this is an area that tends to be full of rookie and champion-level digimon.

Gesturing to Jordan, she tilted her head towards the trees.

"Come on, let's go see what we can find."

Frimon was over the moon. They were going to be partners and there were other people and digimon around to talk to and enthuse about how amazing his new friend was to boot! "I don't eat fruit, I eat meat! I'll hunt for us- uh- Meeeelody? Oh! Oh! I'll catch a fish! Do you like fish, Jordan?"

Jordan still couldn't answer Frimon. He had swallowed the large pill about being in a different world, but interacting with this bizarre, impossible talking creature who already knew his name was really pushing things. He kept up with Melody as she searched for fruit.

"Yeah... those are some pretty big questions. Come on... it's easier to talk and walk so you can digest it a little easier by, uh... seeing it."

Casey tagged Ben's shoulder and started trudging deeper into the woods in the same direction that Casey and Melody had originally come down from. During their hike to find Jordan she had noted a few steep drops which would serve as great look out locations in case there were any other lucky finds like the Biyomon village nearby. Considering the rocky cliffs as well, she guessed there might actually be some caves which would serve them well tonight. "Have you gone camping before? Like... family camping with Melody or with a school group ooor with friends...? We're kinda going to be doing that for a few days until another portal opens up. I'll start in on your questions when we're a bit further out, okay?"

Melody nudged Jordan when she noticed he wasn't replying to Frimon.

"Talk to him," she said. "Get to know each other. Hell, go down to the shore and try some fishing. We're going to be here for another few days, until the portal opens again, so you may as well."

Ben walked with Casey, occasionally glancing sideways at the floating orange thing next to him that seemed to be on fire.

"We don't camp much," he said slowly. "City people and all. So we're really stuck here for a few more days? God, our parents are going to freak out if we're missing for a week..."

"But you wanted to look for fruit..." Jordan trailed off and looked down at Frimon who was comically over acting a hunt on a leaf which had fallen off of a tree or bush some time ago. "And I don't know how to talk to a ... ball of fur with a skin mane and a cat's tail."

Frimon looked up at them a moment, then back at his prey. If he weren't as distracted he would have been pretty put down by the comment, but that leaf had it coming to it, yes it did... Furiously he pounced it and shook it around in its mouth before spitting it out, pleased and triumphant. It was then and only then that the conversation made it passed Frimon's distractions. "Fish... yeah, let's get fish, Jordan! I'll show you how!"

Jordan made a face and looked between Melody and Frimon. "We are looking for fruit."

"But I haven't tried fruit before."

"Well, some people like fruit... so we're going to find some."

Frimon slowly moved his eyes away from Jordan and to a distance away "Then... smell it out! There's something this way!" - Frimon wasn't going to wait for them, the game of hunting fruit was on and besides... maybe he could try some fruit and eat it like Jordan and Melody do. He was keen to try it at least... as long as it wasn't citrus.

"They won't even notice... you'll be here for a week in the digiworld but in the real world only about five minutes will pass. I've only known Melody for about a year, but I think we've spent way more than a year actually hanging out in the digiworld. It's really cool... Oh... Right." Casey took a deep breath and looked side-long at Ben "The digital world, AKA digiworld, is a cyber... realm. It is another world separate from the one you came from before but in this one everything is part... program. It's another dimension if that helps."

She smiled a little and looked up at a rocky outcrop "So that little guy flying next to you.. and this girl in my arm... they're Digimon: Digital monsters. They're some of the kinds of creatures here... there are some fish and birds, too, but by and large it's these guys."

"I can find fruit," Melody said. "It's no big deal. But if Frimon likes fish and meat, then maybe you should see about some fish. We're on the shore, after all. Just keep an eye out for Crabmon and Shellmon. Crabmon aren't anything much to worry about, they're only rookie-level and pretty nice, but Shellmon are champion-level and kind of pissy." Melody paused for a moment. "Digimon, literally 'digital monsters', come in different levels. Baby, in-training, rookie, champion, ultimate, and mega. Moonmon is in her in-training form right now, and I'm betting Frimon is too?" She glanced at the digimon for confirmation. "They digivolve, short for 'digital evolution', into stronger forms if the need arises, and back down to lower forms once their energy runs out. I've seen Moonmon go all the way to Ultimate level before, and I think she has a Mega-level form as well that I've never seen. Anyways, that's digimon levels 101, now we need to get back to foraging. Fruit, then fish, okay?"

"Wait, so every time Mel said she was going to the library for a few hours...?" Ben said, blinking. "That's insane. And incredible. But mostly insane."

"You get to do it now, too!" Sunmon chirped, bouncing a bit and grinning.

"So, what, the whole world is full of these little things?" Ben added. "Cute little bouncy things?"

"Oh no, Ben, there are lots of big, scary digimon out there." Sunmon grinned again. "I'm just an in-training level right now, my rookie form is better than this."

Ben just blinked, a blank look on his face.

"Sooo... easiest way to think about this is like a video game, right? The more experience you get the higher the level you become and the tougher you get. Digimon will physically change depending on their level and each of those has like a name-rank-y-thingy like 'rookie' or 'in-training'... If we're lucky you can meet some friendly champions."

Casey started them walking a path along the edge of the rock face so they could look for suitable caves. "...and yeah, this is probably where she was going off to." She smirked "Did you think she was in the library the entire time? I mean she's smart and all, I don't doubt she would but... come on... you had to think something else was up. Maybe not -this-, but weren't you even curious?"

Dodomon kept her eye fixed on Sunmon. Floating around so freely would make it all too easy to get close by and do something... and oh will she let him have it if he tried.

"Ah..." nodded Jordan, an act which Frimon echoed closely. He looked back down at the cat-like being for a moment before fighting out some conversation: "So... you will ... digivolve into... what?"

"I don't know yet, Jordan... probably something really, really cool! I can't wait-- Oh! Melody! Melody there's fruit toward the big tree just to our right!"

"On it!" Melody said, grinning and going for the fruit. She glanced at Jordan. "You both will figure out how the digivolving thing works, eventually. Like with me and Moonmon, she's got her in-training form as Moonmon, her rookie form as Lunamon, her champion form as Lekismon, and her ultimate form as Crescemon. She thinks she has a mega level, but we haven't reached it yet." She grinned when she pulled some mangoes down from the tree. "Awesome, mangoes. And they're even ripe."

"Not really," Ben admitted. "I mean, we're not attached at the hip or anything. She did her thing, I did mine." He glanced at Sunmon again. "So, this changing thing... You do that?"

"Yup!" Sunmon chirped, beaming. "I mean, I've never digivolved before, myself, but I've known others who have! Even some other Sunmon who have digivolved before, all the way from Sunmon to Coronamon to Firamon and then Flaremon! That was to protect the colony, though."

"Is it easy?" Frimon bounced after her, excited "Did you ever ask Moonmon what it feels like? I can't remember when I first did it from my first form..." he shook a little with glee and bounced back to Jordan and right into his arms "You'll be really impressed what we can do! Talking or even hunting isn't even the half of it, Jordan!"

Jordan just nodded his head and tried to beat down the dizzying feelings his nerves were creating inside of him "Yeah... yeah that'll be... cool... Frimon." He wanted to set the creature down again, but Frimon rubbed his forehead against his forearm and smiled up at him. "Um... So... mangoes are good. Let's get some mangoes... little guy..."

Frimon's eyes glittered a moment before he sprung out of Jordan's hands and off to Melody "Don't pick them all! I'll help! I want to know how it's done!"

Casey shrugged her shoulders "My Dad pretty much things society is going to collapse any minutes so we're all wilderness trained... more or less. He's a little nut-zo, but I love him." She glanced over at Sunmon "Are you excited to work with Moonmon?"

"Ask her yourself when she wakes up," Melody said. "She usually wakes up around sunset, unless we need her help before that." She smiled at Frimon's enthusiasm and pointed to the next few mangoes. While Frimon was busy, she went to stand with Jordan. "Try to relax some," she said. "He won't hurt you. In fact, he'll probably be a bit over-protective until you get to know each other some."

"I've never met a Moonmon before," Sunmon admitted. "But it sounds like fun! Especially if Ben and her digidestined are family." Sunmon grinned. "Family is always fun." He flared his flame a little and nuzzled Ben, who jumped a bit at the sudden contact.

"That is a bit reassuring..." Jordan murmured. For a while he quietly went about collecting mangoes from the tree, sometimes looking over at Frimon, other times at Melody. This wasn't at all what he was expecting out of his day... or week... or life. The silence and rushing thoughts made the time seem to speed away when in reality it had only been a handful of minutes before he felt someone needed to lighten the oppressive quiet between them.

"So digidestined are people who come here... but why? What do you do here?"

Casey tried not to laugh at his reaction but she snorted before her hand could even get anywhere close to her mouth and so she broke into a rain of giggles. "Careful with those flames, Sunmon, you'll scare your partner! Moonmon is a sweetheart, I'm sure you two will be great friends while you're both awake."

"Actually..." She said, eyeing a whippy, young tree "Could you bounce on the other side of this tree and see how deep that alcove is? I think it might be a cave large enough for us to camp in."

"For the most part, we look after the place," Melody said. "It sounds a bit boring, but it's really not. We make sure there aren't any real viruses running around making a mess of things, and we make sure there aren't any digimon getting uppity and trying to control the world." She looked at Jordan. "That's happened before, actually, but last time I think it was mostly the Japanese guys who took care of it. It was a bit before my time."

"Sure!" Sunmon chirped, going around the tree. He looked around and spotted the alcove that Casey was talking about. "Um... How much space do humans need? There's a cave here, if you want to look."

"What do viruses look like?"

Frimon bounced their way, curious about their conversation "Virus? There are Virus type digimon..."

"So there are different types of digimon... uh, beyond species... and they all change?" Jordan shook his head, certain that he would be horribly confused with who was what in a short amount of time. "So we're here to act as an antivirus software for this... world. We're the good guys...?"

Dodomon grumbled as she was set onto the ground near the base of the tree. "It won't take long, kiddo." Casey whispered and eyed the walls of the cave Sunmon was partially illuminating. "I know how much Melody and I will need... come on, Ben... you can tell me how much more room you might want away from j...Jordan."

She didn't waste any time flattening out and army crawling under the tree's lower branches in order to get inside of the cave.

"We aren't talking about virus-type digimon," Melody said to Frimon. "I meant something closer to corrupt data." The s he looked at Jordan. "Yeah. I was going to go into that later, but we can cover it now. Digimon come in virus-type, vaccine-type, and I think there's a regular data-type out there. It's pretty much just their classification. Not really too important right now."

Ben raised an eyebrow but followed Casey into the cave. It was actually a spacious cave, once they were inside. It was just the opening that was small.

"I don't mind sharing space with my sister," he said. "We've done that since before we were born. But this looks like a big cave, I don't think we'll need to share space."

Frimon shuddered at the thought of corrupted data. His nightmares were normally populated by viral digimon but the worst of them featured digital corruption. "We-we really have to deal with that? What if the corruption spreads?"

"I think that's the point, Frimon." Jordan eyed Melody's backpack, not certain about the seriousness of corruption in a digital world. "Could we put these in your bag to carry them back?"

Casey nodded "Okay, good. We don't want to go much further just yet in case there is something else in here with us, but with that tree where it was it's likely we'll only have a small additional roommate if any. Let's head back and see where they are with food-- hey... I bet they'll really appreciate your help cooking things, Sunmon."

Once again she dropped to the ground and scuttled out under the tree, collecting Dodomon on her way. "See, I told you. We weren't even gone for two minutes and nothing carried you off."

Melody nodded and moved Moonmon, who had settled on top of her bag. Moonmon grumbled a bit, but it was late enough in the day that she woke up and stayed awake. She blinked a bit.

"Who are you?" she asked, looking at Frimon and Jordan curiously.

"I can cook things!" Sunmon said, bouncing cheerfully. "Well, sort of. I can keep the fire going! But I've seen Coronamon cook before, so it can't be too hard."

Ben just blinked.

"I can cook," he offered. "Maybe we can help each other?" The offer was tentative, but Sunmon grinned and nuzzled him.

"Sure!" the digimon replied.

Jordan stammered, working up the nerve to answer but was quickly interrupted by Frimon who hopped about to meet Moonmon's eye, "I'm Frimon and this is my partner Jordan! He's a digidestined just like Melody and Casey and he's going to help me digivolve and protect the entire digital world just like you do with Melody!"

"Slow down, you don't need to say everything in one breath... it'll be easier for uh...heeer to understand if you talk at a sane speed." The boy offered calmly while placing mango after mango into the back pack. "I can carry this back to the beach if you'd prefer, Melody."

Frimon nodded and turned back to the sleepy digimon so he could repeat exactly what he had said previously at a slower speed. To his credit it at least wasn't comically slow.

"Good, cooking is a nice skill to have. We'll see what Melody and Jordan found before we make any promises on who is going to cook what-- all we know right now is that a fire will definitely be handy and Sunmon here seems like the sort to specialize in starting fires. Anyways... what other questions did you have about the digiworld? We went over some basics but there are other things you just kind of pick up or Sunmon will tell you. The digimon are the experts on the digiworld after all."

Moonmon smiled a bit, indulgently. Frimon was clearly still young and inexperienced, but he would grow quick now that he had a partner.

"I bet you and Jordan will be great partners," she said.

Melody nodded to Jordan.

"Sure, if you want," she said. She picked up Moonmon, but the digimon wiggled away to bounce beside her. "Come on, let's go down to the beach to meet up with the others."

"No, I guess I'm okay for now," Ben said slowly. He figured he could grill his sister for more answers later if he needed to. "So should we go back to the beach? That's where we said we'd meet, right?"

Frimon puffed up with pride at Moonmon's words and bounced along beside Jordan, pleased as punch at his situation. "Yeah, we'll be able to take on anything... uh, with some help at first but after that I'll be able to digivolve into my ultimate-super-mega form!" - Jordan looked at his sceptically. "...Okay so I don't actually know what level I can go to. There aren't that many Frimons to ask what's next."

"Would this thing know?" Jordan wondered out loud, eyeing his digivice as they walked toward the beach, "It seemed to know where you were and the other people... is it just a gps tracker? I guess it's a little awkward for an index device... I mean I bet there are a lot of you guys..."

"That's where I'm off to, yeah." Casey nodded, weaving her way back to the trail they took to get to the cliff in the first place. "What kind of things do you do back at home?"

Dodomon kept a careful eye on Ben and Sunmon, bristling up when they got too close to her and Casey. After about the fifth time this happened, Casey put her hand over the little digimon's back to keep the fur down and continued on walking and chatting with the two as ever. "Are there any places in particular you want to show Ben, Sunmon?"