Disclaimer: I do not own the concept of Digimon.

Human characters in this story are, however, created and owned by me. This story has been a long time coming. In fact, I've had it rolling around in my head for the latter half of my life. I started working on the story in 2010, but focused more on what would become the sequel to this story. It had been on a hiatus after I lost quite a bit of the story I had written, and I felt a little defeated after that, and put the story on the shelf until now. The sequel I wrote before has since been deleted and I will now be working on this story. Please, enjoy.

What a strange dream. He...or rather it was real, wasn't it? Of course he was real. If he wasn't then - he decided to stop thinking about it. After all, there was no point in getting confused about something like that. Such deep metaphorical thinking would only lead to a headache. Waiting until his brain fully awakened to the state of coherency that his very existence no longer randomly came into question, Kensuke opened his eyes.

It took a few moments, however, to realize that he was not in his room. A wave of confusion and slight panic washed over him. Where was he? All around him were large colourful trees, shrubbery and other kinds of vegetation. There didn't seem to be any buildings or any sign of civilization in sight. He patted himself down, feeling the fabric of his favourite shirt, a blue and green pattern with a stylized wordless logo of one of his favourite bands. His jeans were on as well, dark blue with the cuffs worn and frayed from not bothering to get them hemmed, his sneakers with the long laces were even on his feet, having slipped out of the knot as usual.

Kensuke sat up, shaking the dirt, twigs and all other matter of debris out of his bright red hair, fiddling with his goggles in case anything was trapped underneath. He winced, finally noticing the dull aching drone of his body, as though he had just ran a marathon for the first time in his life, and had not even had the brains to train his body, or like he had fallen from a high place. That was most likely it. The situation he found himself in was pretty weird. How can you fall asleep in your bed and wake up in the woods? That dream of his was weird as well. It wasn't exactly normal for a dream to be so realistic that you would forget to differentiate reality from fantasy to the point where you even question your own existence.

He placed his hands down, and his fingers brushed up against something hard. Hard? He moved his fingers towards the strange object, the back of his fingers brushing against a smooth and rounded surface. Twisting his wrist, the pads of his fingers finally touched down. The surface wasn't smooth at all but – there was a pause as he concentrated on the feeling, rectifying it with his mind - porous? His dark blue eyes finally darted towards the object. It was an egg; though a rather large one. It was like a dinosaur egg or some kind of giant bird or mutant seagull egg. Sure, there were Ostrich and Emu eggs, which were huge, but this didn't look like any kind of egg he had seen before. It was reddish in colour, with strange unnatural patterns dotting it.

"What the..." He murmured as he picked the egg up. It was surprisingly rather light, though he suspected that the fact that it weighed less than it looked was partly the reason. He knew that he should leave it alone. After all, what ever kind of creature laid this thing was most likely not very friendly. Yet, he couldn't find it in himself to put it down. It was the strangest feeling that had come over him after he picked it up. A warm, comforting feeling swept through his entire body, filling him with an ease and relaxing calm and replacing the anxiety that had once resided. Despite it being only an egg, he felt safer with it. Maybe he could smash it against a rock and eat it, or throw it at the next weird and potentially dangerous thing that he came across. Or -or maybe he could hatch the thing and raise the dinosaur-chicken monster thing to be his own bodyguard or something! His mother was right; his imagination was wild.

He sat up, trying to ignore the ache in his muscles. He tucked the egg under his arm and began to walk. He didn't know where he was going but he knew that he should find something soon if he moved around. Normally it was a good idea to stay in one place when one was lost, though in this case he was pretty sure that no one would find him if he was there. It was just the feeling that he got. Besides, if he was going to take this egg and he was near the nest, he'd rather not be around to find out what the adult looked like.

Kensuke walked around for what seemed like hours. All the while he had been racking his brain over how he had come to be here in this situation. He had never heard of a case of sleepwalking where the person would not only get dressed during their sleep but walk out of their house, stairs and all without falling and walk into the streets and deep into the forest before waking up. Come to think of it, he didn't remember going to bed at all the night before. He remembered that he had been tired, but after that, things got a little fuzzy.

He promised himself that he wouldn't panic. After all, what good would that do? As time went on, though it was getting harder and harder to keep that promise to himself. He didn't know what direction home was, or any civilization for that matter. Should he climb a tree? That would at least give him a sense of how far away something was. His worst fear was that he was in the middle of the forest with no way of possibly getting back. This couldn't be right, though. He was in town, he couldn't have walked far. He could have very well ran into a tree if he slept-walked for hours. But there was something not right about this and the fact that he couldn't figure it out worried him.

The only secure thing right now was the fact that he had the egg tucked securely under his arm. He concentrated on the egg, wondering what could be inside of it. Was it even alive? If he knocked it out of it's nest he could have very well killed it. Depending on how long the egg had been out of the nest it could have grown cold and whatever was inside froze. Had the egg been warm or cold when he picked it up? He was disappointed when he realized he never paid attention. Now it was warmed somewhat due to it being against his arm and the side of his body. Nervously, hopeful, he rotated it. If the creature inside wasn't dead yet, then at least the extra heat given off by his exercise would be enough to keep it somewhat warm. It would be a miracle if it managed to hatch.

Kensuke only then noticed the weight in his jeans pocket now that his mind was suddenly alert. Gingerly he shifted the egg under his left arm, digging into his right pocket. There was something metallic and oval. He caressed it curiously with his fingers, trying to judge what it might have been. It was some sort of electronic, judging by the feel of the screen and buttons, but he never felt something quite as small other than perhaps a cheap child's toy. Finally he pulled it out, revealing a grey device of some sort. He tilted his head to the side, wondering what it could have been. He never saw anything like it before in his life.

He pressed a button. Nothing happened. He pressed another button, and the machine was still silent. Was the batteries dead? He flipped it over, an eyebrow raising when he saw no opening for any batteries to go in. He turned it over several times, checking all the angles, but it didn't look like it had any kind of opening at all. The device suddenly lit up and beeped, making Kensuke jump. His arm lifted and he scrambled to catch the egg, sending his poor heart racing for a second time in only a few short seconds. He sat down, placing the egg between his crossed legs, and stared at the device once again.

"You're not dead," He said, glaring at the silent device. "I know you work, so what caused you to beep like that?" There was no response from the device, not that he expected one so much as hoped he would. It was an inanimate object, and couldn't respond like a person or animal, unfortunately.

"Damn." He grunted as he got up, picking up the egg and pocketed the device for now. Maybe he'd figure it out later when he got some shelter. That was another of the many things that he forgot. Shelter, food, checking the time of day. Maybe he could find a lake or a river and catch a fish. He was starving.

It looked like there was a clearing up ahead. For the first time in a while, Kensuke's spirits rose. He tucked the egg under his shirt, pressing it lightly against his stomach and cradled it as he began a somewhat awkward jog toward the clearing. He slowed as he neared the bushes marking the end of the forest. There was no telling what kind of animal could be in the meadow. He was lucky he hadn't bumped into anything already. Cautiously, he neared the bushes, minding any fallen sticks or roots that he could step on or trip on and peered over the bushes.

His eyes widened as he saw the unmoving bodies of two people. They were both passed out, a boy who looked to be around his age, and a girl who was slightly smaller. Instantly, Kensuke ran out, immediately rushing over to the nearest, the boy and skidded to a halt, falling to his knees. He winced in a momentary acknowledgment of the egg, hoping he didn't rattle it too severely. Taking it out from under his shirt, he placed it gently on the ground before turning his attention back to the boy.

He really was around Kensuke's age, with an androgynous face and tousseled blond hair. He was wearing a dark blue button-up shirt, open with a dark grey T-shirt underneath, a necklace with some sort of rock or tooth dangling from it, and baggy jeans. Checking carefully, Kensuke could at least confirm he was alive and breathing, his chest moving without complication. He placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, gently shaking him.

The boy stirred but didn't awaken. Again, Kensuke shook him, this time with more force. He groaned and rolled over. A little frustrated, Kensuke shook harder, even giving him a small smack on the shoulder for good measure.

It was the slap that ultimately did it, the boy's blue eyes snapping open and immediately sitting up. "Ow, you don't have to hit me that hard, Dad, I-" He turned to Kensuke, his eyes once squinted in a glare, widened. "HEY! Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my room?"

"Um, well, as you can see, we're not in your room." Kensuke said as he gestured around them. He followed after Kensuke's gesture with his gaze, his mouth hanging agape.

"Where am I? What am I doing here?" Kensuke held up his hand to silence the other boys' barrage of questions.

"First of all, my name is Kensuke. Second, I don't know, I don't know and I don't know. A while ago I woke up and found myself here. I just found you like this just now."

"I'm Liorosa." He said with a sigh, watching Kensuke as he picked up his egg. "What, is that your pet ostrich or something?" He looked down at his egg, then glanced around.

"You're by an egg, too." He said with a hint of surprise in his voice. Liorosa twisted his torso around until he spotted the dark purple egg. It was about the same size as Kensuke's.

"Whoa, what th-hey, where are you going?" He watched as Kensuke stood up, following his gaze in the direction he seemed to be going. It was then that he noticed the unconscious girl a few dozen feet away from where he sat. He swore under his breath as he scrambled to his feet, picking up the purple egg.

Kensuke knelt down by the girl, checking her over. Just like Liorosa, she didn't seem to be injured. She was resting peacefully, golden blonde hair falling in silky strands down her shoulder and chest, spreading around her back area. She had pale skin, making Kensuke wonder how she could have survived like this without getting burnt in the heat of the day. She was closer to the trees than Liorosa was, so maybe she was lucky and earlier the shade protected her from the sun.

Liorosa knelt down beside Kensuke, looking a great deal more relaxed than the redhead beside him. "Is this your sister? Someone you know?" Liorosa shook his head.

"I've never seen her before in my life. I think I would remember a cute girl like that." Kensuke sighed, giving the other boy an incredulous look.

"Help me try to wake her up." Kensuke said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Liorosa looked around, possibly unsure what to do to wake her up. Unlike with Liorosa, the girl woke up right away. Kensuke was about to ask her if she was alright when she screamed, crawling on her hands and the balls of her feet, scrambling away from them as fast as possible. Both boys had covered their ears, the sheer pitch that close to their ears was almost painful.

"Where am I? Why did you bring me out here?" The girl squeaked. Kensuke was the first one to chance taking his hands from the sides of his head.

"I'm sorry, we just found you like this and were worried. We woke up the same way. My name's Kensuke, and this is Liorosa." Kensuke gestured to himself and the blond.

"Hey, you got a set of lungs." Liorosa said, shivering as he cleaned out his ears. Hesitantly the girl relaxed, shifting until she sat on her knees. Now that she was awake Kensuke could see just how cute she was. Her eyes were big and green, and her cheeks were flushed pink. "What's your name?"

"Cissy."

"Pretty name. With a hard C, right?" Kensuke said, to which she nodded. "Well, Cissy, looks like the mystery is growing. When it was just me I thought maybe I was just sleepwalking and I fell asleep near some sort of nest. But we're all here and we all have eggs. That's not a coincidence." Cissy looked at him in confusion, Liorosa already looking around the area and finally picked up the light blue egg, holding it out to her. She stared at the egg for a moment before taking it.

"So what do you think we should do, Kensuke?" Cissy asked. "Are we close to any towns?" He shook his head.

"I've been walking around for a while and all I saw was forest. What we probably should do would be to build a shelter for us and we can at least have a place to go to instead of sleeping under the stars unprotected." He stood up, looking around. There was a lot of wood around. It would be easy to find some fallen branches or fashion something out of bending the tips of smaller trees.

"It's rather warm out. If we can't make a shelter I don't think it would suck too much to sleep outside. Unless it rained, of course." Liorosa said. Kensuke wasn't sure he'd want to sleep outside even if it was warm. There were three of them now, so if they had to at least there was safety in numbers.

"Let's look for a river, first. At the very least if we stick to the river then we can have water and find things to eat. I wouldn't trust any fruits or berries unless we were sure we knew what they were." Kensuke looked around, wondering in what direction they could even find a river.

"You seem knowledgeable about this sort of thing." Cissy noted, walking after Kensuke. He hesitated before walking in the direction he had been going previously. Kensuke scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.

"Yeah, well, I did a bit of camping with my family. Dad at least made sure I knew the basics if I ever got lost." Cissy still looked like she was scared to him. Kensuke didn't really know what to make of their situation, either. He hugged the egg in his arms a little tighter, finding it a suitable security blanket and distraction for the time being. It seemed that Cissy and Liorosa had the same feelings, holding firmly to their own. He looked up, the sky as blue as ever, white puffy clouds dotting what could be seen of the atmosphere above them, slowly being obstructed as they got closer to the tree line. The trees were more tropical than what felt normal, something he couldn't believe he never noticed before. Then again, he had mostly been preoccupied with figuring out how he even came to be here in the first place.

Kensuke stopped at the treeline, glaring at it for a few moments. Cissy and Liorosa stopped as well. He turned to Cissy, giving her a smile as he held out his egg. She gave him a questioning look as she adjusted holding her own egg, gingerly taking it from him as though she was afraid she'd drop it. "Just going to climb that tree, see where we are."

"Be careful." He jumped, grabbing the lowest branch he could and walked up the trunk of the tree until he could wrap his legs around the branch, hoisting himself up from there. Focusing mostly on the branches above and below him, he didn't look around until he was as far up the top as he could go without the branches bending under his weight. Now he was well above the tree line.

"Whoa..." There was nothing but varying shades of green as far as the eye could see, the occasional jagged rocky formation poking out of the blanket, though eventually melting into an ocean to the far south of them. Or at least, what he believed south to be. If only he had some kind of binoculars or telescope, perhaps he'd be able to see farther. Turning around as best he could to see behind him, Kensuke saw the largest of the mountains in what looked to be the middle. He could determine they were on an island or perhaps a large peninsula.

Kensuke's thoughts were interrupted by a twig snapping below him. He looked down just in time to see Liorosa taking cover with Cissy in some bushes. Something was moving about beneath him, stomping on the ground could be heard coming toward them, sounding unmistakably like hooves. A deer, or maybe a serow?

Kensuke's heart felt like it halted in his chest. At first it looked like a black bull, long curved horns, at least, until the red armour. The creature stepped better into Kensuke's line of sight, revealing a centaurian physique. It even had blades strapped in sheaths on either side of it's front legs. Kensuke didn't move a muscle, even holding his breath and making an effort to breathe slowly as to not make a sound. Silently, he hoped that the bull-taur wouldn't look up and spot him. Cissy and Liorosa were on the ground hiding mere feet away from it. He feared for them more than himself.

The bull-taur stopped beneath his tree, looking around. Kensuke held his breath, hugging the tree as best he could without losing his ability to look down. He hoped that the vibrations of his beating heart wouldn't transfer down the trunk of the tree and into the ground where the beast would be able to feel it. Wouldn't that mean he'd be able to feel Cissy and Liorosa's heartbeats, too if he were able to do that? So then that would mean that he wouldn't be able to do such a thing. Relieved, Kensuke leaned back a bit, trying to get a better look.

The bull-taur was still standing there, eventually moving from his spot and continuing on. Kensuke waited a few minutes before starting his descent. Toward the bottom he jumped down instead of taking the extra time to climb down properly. He landed hard on his ankles and knees, regaining his balance and rushing for the hiding spot of his companions.

Liorosa was protecting Cissy, using his body as a shield. Cissy was laying flat on the ground, her head buried in her arms. Kensuke bent down, glancing around nervously.

"It's gone." He said breathlessly.

"What was that thing?" Liorosa asked, slipping off of Cissy and out from under the brush, dusting himself off. Cissy followed suit, looking around. "I mean that thing was half human."

"I don't know. But I think it's safe to say that my sleepwalking hypothesis can definitely be chucked out now." Were they even on Earth? There was very few things that could explain the creature that they just saw. Well, perhaps a genetic experiment and they were kidnapped to be part of it. He felt it was sad to rule out aliens. That creature was too close to a mixture of real creatures for it to be alien.

"So... still keen on sleeping on the ground?" Liorosa asked. This earned a chuckle from Kensuke.

"If I knew how to make nests, I'd say we sleep in the trees. Even better if you aren't afraid of rolling right off." Liorosa's face scrunched in displeasure.

"So what did you see up there, Kensuke?" Cissy asked. "Were there any rivers or lakes?"

"No, but we seem to be on an island of some sort. Maybe if we go to the shore we can walk along until we find an inlet." He knelt down, digging into the bush and gently rolling out the eggs that had been pushed to the side from where the two were laying. He handed Cissy her's first, and then Liorosa's, then finally his own.

Liorosa winced as he rubbed his backside. "What's wrong?" Cissy asked.

"I think I landed on something when we dove into the bushes." He said, patting his bum, his brows furrowing when he felt something, digging into his pocket. He pulled out a small grey object. Recognizing it, Kensuke pulled out his, too. "Hey, you have the same thing. I don't remember buying this, though."

"I don't either. I think we somehow got them when we ended up here." Kensuke said. "It's just a hunch, though." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Cissy rummaging around for something. First she checked the long skirt of her dress, any pockets she might have hidden in her clothes, then the brown bag she had slung over her shoulders. She eventually found what she was looking for, pulling out one of the tiny machines, too.

"Okay, that's weird." Liorosa said. "We all end up stranded in a forest with abnormally large eggs and now we also all have these strange machines on us. The mystery thickens."

"Maybe if we look around and find other people we'll be able to find out what's going on. Or at least some clue to why we're here." Cissy said. "We might also be able to figure out our way around the area a bit, too."

Liorosa nodded, following after Kensuke and Cissy, the small group mostly silent as they made their trek toward what looked to be the nearest corner of the island from Kensuke's perspective up in the tree. Whether it was because they had nothing to say, or they wanted to listen for any of the other creatures, perhaps a combination of both, Kensuke wasn't sure. The silence gave him time to mull over the strange device in hand and the egg in his arms. He still couldn't fathom how all of this could happen, and it certainly couldn't be coincidental.

Another hour passed by and they still weren't at the beach. Could he have miscalculated the distance between their current location? Perhaps there was something he couldn't have seen in between that was making their trek longer? Or maybe there was some kind of warp in their environment that meant they were walking in circles. Darn, there were no landmarks for him to check to see if that was true, apart from trees, of course. They weren't exactly helpful.

A snap sounded behind them making their pitiful band quickly turn. The bushes were ruffling, whatever it was that was making them move was heading toward them. Cissy immediately went for the bushes, mindful of the precious cargo in her arms as she landed. Something grabbed Kensuke from behind, a hand covering his mouth and dragging him behind a tree. Kensuke tried to fight them off, looking around wildly. There wasn't much he could do perhaps grab the stick on the ground. He calmed a little when he heard a voice shushing him.

Liorosa had been grabbed, too, hiding behind a tree opposite from where he and his own captor were. A girl was holding on to Liorosa, presshing him hard against a tree. There was a small cut on his forehead, possibly from her attempt to silence him and keep a hold of him. She also had her hand over his mouth, a leg pressing sharply into the back of his knee. His eyes were wide, looking around as best he could, attempting to claw at her gloved hand. The girl leaned over as much as she could, holding back a bit lest he headbutt her. She whispered what must have been 'quiet' in his ear. Liorosa's eyes once again widened, this time with interest. He relaxed a little, leaning back into her, his back now against her chest. The girl's face flushed red, but she did nothing else now that he was no longer struggling against her. Liorosa had a rather smug smirk on his face.

The girl in question was almost the same size as he was, perhaps a little bit taller. She had deep pink-red hair that fell midway down her back, curling at the ends, bright blue eyes and a healthy sprinkling of freckles dotting her nose and cheeks. She wore cargo pants that held lots of pockets and zippers and a summer blouse underneath a light summer jacket.

Kensuke concentrated on the bushes, watching as another strange creature stepped out, this time much smaller. It looked like a baby T-Rex, but stood upright like a human, tail counteracting the large muzzle that it was carrying.

It looked around, to Kensuke's surprise he noted that the creature looked confused. The dinosaur opened its' mouth, then closed it again, walking dangerously close to the trees where the four of then were hiding. The person holding Kensuke and the girl holding Liorosa tried to quietly slide them to the opposite side in case the creature was to walk past. Kensuke could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Would they have to fight this thing? Would they even have time to retaliate if it spotted them and attacked? It didn't look very fast. Maybe they could even outrun it.

"That's odd. I thought I heard something strange over here." If it hadn't been for the hand over his mouth, Kensuke would have made some sort of loud, inhuman sound. That dinosaur just spoke! Words. As in intelligible, undeniably human words. Was he sure this was a dream?

The yellow dinosaur turned to the bushes that Cissy was hiding in. "I smell a digiegg." He poked his large head in the bush. Immediately, Kensuke broke out from his captor's grasp, dashing out from behind the tree and swiping up the stick from the ground. With a battle cry he smacked the branch down on the skinny neck of the dinosaur. It let out a cry of pain and surprise, falling hard on to the ground.

Cissy got up from under the bushes, a terrified look on her face. "Cissy! Run!" He grabbed her hand, pulling her along as she leaped over the bush and followed him. The other three followed after them, Liorosa catching up instantly, along with a boy who was holding the pink-haired girl's hand. They didn't stop until they felt the levelness of the ground start to decline. They were near the beach, he was sure of it.

"Y-you're crazy. Attacking that thing. Like that." The boy who joined them said breathlessly, bending over and resting his hands on his knees. He had shaggy chocolate brown hair, long bangs that fell just above his eyes, except for the patch between his eyes, which fell halfway down his face. He looked like he never brushed, locks of hair flying wildly in every direction. He had brilliant bright blue eyes and pale skin, which was mostly covered up with a light blue t-shirt and worn, ripped jeans. "My name's Kaven, by the way."

"I'm Austin." The girl said, having sat down to recover her energy. Cissy was sitting beside her.

"I'm Kensuke. That's Liorosa and Cissy. I'm not sure if it's nice to see that there are more of us or not, though." He didn't mean it to be insulting. On one hand he was glad that they met more people. On the other hand it meant that more kids had been taken and placed in this strange place.

"Kensuke, the ocean." Liorosa said, his hands up to his ears, cupping them. Kensuke stopped, listening. He could hear the faint sound of water splashing against shore. His lips curled into a smile, motioning for the others to follow him. They walked for another ten minutes or so before finally he pushed some branches out of the way and a beach opened up to them, the crystal blue water looking bright and inviting.

"We made it to the ocean!" Cissy said. "So do you think we'll be able to find a river if we walk along it?"

"I do." Kensuke chirped. "We can also go fi-AH!" He felt his foot tug against something, tangling and he fell on his face in the warm sand. Rolling over, he saw his foot caught in someone's shirt, an egg and a little machine beside it.

"Oh, someone's clothes." Austin said, helping Kensuke free his feet. "Who would leave their clothes here, though?"

Kensuke was more concerned with the health of his egg. It had been thrown a little ways when he fell, landing a few metres from where he was. He crawled over to it, hoping it hadn't smashed. Thankfully when he checked it over, it didn't look like it even had a crack. He sighed in relief.

"It's strange how we're all so attached to these things, huh?" Kensuke jumped, turning around. Austin was standing behind him with her hands behind her back, bent forward a little at the waist.

"Yeah. Like, if anything happened to it then I don't know what I'd do." He smiled down fondly at the egg, what the strange dinosaur called a digiegg. It felt colder than it had before, despite all the sunshine and being held close to his body. He rubbed it, hoping the friction from his hand would produce some heat.

A loud scream entered his ears, causing his heart to feel like it shot up in his throat and he stood up. The scream turned into a whoop and finally laughter. Looking toward the ocean, there was a small girl riding on a surfboard, riding one of the larger waves. She looked up and it seemed like she spotted the group. She exited the wave with ease, crawling down the surfboard until she lay flat on her stomach, paddling to shore.

Kensuke's attention immediately returned to the egg, hearing a crack. "Ah! It's hatching!" The others gathered around, a small pink blob poking it's head out of the egg. Kensuke took it out of the egg and looked at it. Well, it definitely was a bird. Or at least, he thought it was a bird. It had a very soft looking yellow beak on the end of it's face. Large beady black eyes sat beside the beak, and little flipper-like appendages were the only other feature of the bird, which otherwise might not have been distinguished from a pile of pink mush That, and the short, soft feather-like fur it had.

"Pururu."

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear from you. Comments and critiques are always appreciated.