I love you more than the world,
My son, my star, I love you
More than the entire world
No matter what you do
You are my world, my world
- Greenlandic lullaby
Qinoq was the first Digidestined of Greenland.
It was an honor that suprised her. Not that she would get it - it was given at random as far as she knew, so she guessed that part sort of made sense. What surprised her was that there were any Digidestined for Greenland. She had heard that more countries were getting them, but her land was a sparsely populated, peaceful place. That there was going to be any Greenlandic Digidestined was a shock to her. She had given up on the idea of Greenlandic Digidestined. But as she held the shivering, woolly baby Digimon in her mittens, she smiled and took on the job gladly.
Her parents were proud of her. Her father made a small bed for the baby Digimon and told her he would help her train it when it got older. Her mother was thrilled her daughter was taking her responsibility seriously. Although it was awkward at first tending to a baby Digimon in the middle of the night, she understood the journey between worlds had weakened him. He needed her to be there for him, and that she was. She held him when he cried, taught him the words for things slowly, and fed him with a spoon each night. On the internet, she searched for answers.
A Japanese man named Koushiro Izumi had set up a forum for Digidestined around the world. There he had, with the help of other veteran Digidestined, explained what to do if you suddenly found your Digimon. She was supposed to wait for him to get stronger and then fight invading Digimon with him, be his friend and keep her digivice on her at all times. She'd already been doing that, wearing it as a necklace under her parka to keep it safe. Most Digimon arrived in higher forms, but it didn't matter. Life had a slow rhythm in the Arctic, and she was content to care for him until he was ready to digivolve. No one came into the world ready to be an adult, not even a Digimon. She was just happy to have him. There was no reason to rush him through life. It was better to enjoy her time with him.
So she did. Qinoq listened to music with him after school, playing him songs on her flute and on the radio. She bundled him in a seal skin blanket and took him outside to teach him the names of things and show him around the village. She climbed with him one day to the top of a snowy hill to watch the Northern Lights with him. Although Digimon were supposed to be called by their species name, she named him Ibeiba, meaning 'my son', and treated him as such. Every night she would tell him stories and rock him to sleep in her arms like her mother had done for her. She made him food and kept him nourished when the weather worsened and he weakened. When he had a nightmare, she let him sleep in the bed with her afterwards so he would feel safe. Her grand Digimon adventure grew more and more to resemble plain old parenting. Qinoq was more than okay with that.
Ibeiba grew more active, bouncing around the house happily, playing with the toys she'd gotten him, but he did not digivolve for nearly a month. The other Digidestined scoffed at this and called him weak. Qinoq, however, would hear no complaint about her Ibeiba. "We're not fighting a war like the Japanese Digidestined were," she told the others online. "There is no need for him to be an Ultimate right now. He can take however long he wants."
In that time it took for him to evolve, though, he was not idly doing nothing. He was learning how to speak Greenlandic perfectly, how to walk on ice and snow, what the dangers of this beautiful wintery land were. His human taught him how to read, how to do basic math, and how to be polite. The lessons she spent time teaching him made him realize and appreciate the loving, maternal nature of the human he had been granted, and he loved her dearly. She was his best friend even though he was weak. Her parents talked to him as if he were a part of the family, telling him how things worked and answering his questions about the human world. In this way he became closer to her than if he had digivolved right away and fought alongside her.
He went from Yuramon to Tanemon, and everyone was sure a plant would die so far north. His human feared it, even if she didn't say it. Ibeiba was always swaddled in a coat she painstakingly sewed for him and a scarf. His leaves wilted and curled dangerously, some days he felt exhausted beyond measure, but his mother was attentive and good, and he did not die. Instead he began to change in color, turning gray with dark green, pointed leaves like a pine or fir tree's needles. Other Digimon, when they saw pictures of him online, did not identify him as a Tanemon. But no one knew what he was, either. Koushiro theorized his data was adapting to the climate and this made Qinoq happy, because that meant he was going to be okay. Even if it meant he couldn't digivolve, at least he would be alive. His mother didn't care what he looked like so long as he was healthy and happy. That was her philosophy on life. But he feared that in this small, weak body he wouldn't be able to defend her if Nuuk was attacked like Japan or China or New York City was.
There came a sunless winte day when Nuuk was finally subject to a Digimon attack. All his fears were realized. The city that had raised him and taught him so much was in danger and he could do nothing. He was stuck standing there watching as his human's family, his family, fled, along with the teacher that had lent them textbooks, the baker who had given him little treats and the old woman that had taught Qinoq how to sew for her Ibeiba. And he was angry. For the first time in his life, he was really, truly angry at his fellow Digimon. If these Beemon had come in peace they would've been given Greenlandic coffee and blankets and greeted well. There was no need to hurt these people. These people, who had taken him in like one of their own, who looked out for one another, who had never done anything against Digimon - they may have been human, but they were his humans. This was his city, his country, his world, and no one had the right to hurt any of them.
Righteous anger flared, and he felt his body turn to energy, grow, change suddenly. He grew taller and thinner, with thick hair of pine needles and ashen skin, strong legs and arms with claws like a Palmon. But he retained the coat his mother had given him, closing his eyes briefly to inhale her scent. He would protect her. She had saved his life countless times by keeping him alive in this harsh land of ice. It was time to return the favor.
"Frozen Ivy!"
It wasn't that his attack was especially powerful, it was that it was completely unexpected. There weren't supposed to be Digimon in this part of the human world. There weren't any Greenlandic Digidestined as far as most people knew. The sudden blows to their wings sent them sprawling onto the ground, and when the human girl with the digivice was kind enough to open up a portal back to their home, they scrambled for it. The whole thing was over in mere minutes. Though two buildings would need repair and one man had been stung, everyone was otherwise unharmed. For a split second the crowd was silent, then someone yelled, "Ibeiba!" and a cheer went up.
The incident made the news in Greenland, which then leaked out to the rest of the world. His mother was so proud. One little rookie had taken on three champions. She was beside herself with pride for how level headed and smart he had been under pressure. She was confused as to how his jacket had changed to fit his new body, but it saved her some sewing. Three nights after Ibeiba had evolved into a form he was tentatively calling Qorsukmon, Qinoq took him aside and told him she had something important to say.
"When the world was first learning about Digimon, I wanted one very badly. A companion, a friend from another world. One night, I said I would even take one who could not be strong. I would even take one who grew no more past rookie. I said this outside. They say the stars can hear you, and pass your wishes onto heaven... three week later, I got you. You were the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. Those beautiful seal-brown eyes, and all that hair! I loved you from the second I saw you. And I remembered my promise then, as I do now. You took so long to digivolve because I spoke those words over you. I may have cursed you, and for that I am sorry. But I will always love you, even if you never grow past this. You are Ibeiba, my son, no matter how you look or what level you're at. And even if this is as far as we ever go, I am so, so proud of you. I love you. I love you more than the world."
She hugged him then, and he was only half her height, so he was buried against her sealskin parka. He inhaled the scent of cooking smoke and sweat and the berry perfume her mother had gotten her for Christmas. He closed his eyes and inhaled and remembered every day she spent teaching him to talk and every night spent listening to her soothing voice singing songs as old as time. Ibeiba knew then that he didn't need to become a Mega or even a Champion. He didn't need to be able to fly or do amazing things. All he needed, all he really needed deep down to be happy was his mother.
"I love you too," he told her, and he meant it. He loved her more than power, more than Digimon, more than anything. "I love you more than both worlds."
He meant that, too.