Digimon Forerunner

Chapter 2: Welcome to the Digital World

When Joshua Lawson regained consciousness he noticed immediately the change in the atmosphere. Wherever he was now was damper and cooler than the train car had been. For the second time he was left to wonder where he was though at least this time he knew who had taken him here.

The pain and numbness that he had felt had completely disappeared and the rest of body seemed fine except for a slight tickling sensation around his left forearm. He thought he might be brushing up against some soft plant at first but then he noticed that the feeling felt more like something was breathing him in…smelling him and that feeling was moving further up his arm. His remained completely still despite the fear that was welling up inside him. Once again he was at the mercy of an enemy but this time it was of a more familiar one.

The animal sniffing him reached the end of his arm and then smelled his hands. He could feel the wetness of its nose as it dragged itself across his skin. He though it had to be a bear or maybe a canine of some sort judging by its behavior and the cool, damp feeling of the air meant that he was in some kind of cave. That thought sent a shiver down his spine despite his attempt to suppress it. He was in this thing's den and until he could convince it that he was dead he couldn't have a chance to escape.

Once the creature was finished with his hands he moved closer towards his head. Joshua could hear the sound its paws hitting the hard ground. Now that he thought about it the animal probably wasn't very large considering how light its paws sounded as it moved. If it wasn't a bear maybe it was a young wolf or coyote. As he was contemplating the identity of his guest said guest rubbed its fur in his face and licked it. Immediately he felt the inescapably ticklish feeling of a dog's tongue attack his senses. His body flinched at the contact and the façade of death he had painstakingly created to fool this creature crumbled. Convinced that even the least intelligent animal would have seen through the ruse by now he opened his eyes to get a look at what his attacker truly was. What he saw shocked him.

"A puppy," he said weakly.

It was the first word he had uttered since arriving here. Standing right in front his face was a small white and unusually round puppy, one that looked particularly happy that he had acknowledged it.

"A puppy," he repeated. He then scooped the little white fur ball into his arms and hugged it. He couldn't help himself, it was the first living thing he had seen since his time on the train and it wasn't a monster or some creepy voice over the phone, it was a puppy. He could feel tears of joy on his cheeks as he realized that if a puppy was here it likely meant that it had an owner and maybe whoever that was could help him find his way back home. At the darker corners of his mind he considered the possibility that this could be another trap by the Voice but he pushed those thoughts aside and continued hugging it to make sure it was real.

After a good minute of close contact he finally pulled away and held his new friend out in front of him with his arms. The puppy looked a little winded as it its heavier breathing clearly showed but it quickly caught its breath and looked straight at him. It was weird, it was as if the small, fluffy creature was about to introduce himself.

"Hi there! My name's Xiaomon. Would you like to be my friend?" said the small fluffy creature.

Joshua did not move a muscle. For his part he simply stared at the little dog and blinked once. The white puppy blinked back and turned its head in confusion.

"What's wrong?" It asked.

Joshua's face changed to one of complete indifference and set the puppy on the ground. He then stood up looked around the cave.

The "talking" puppy followed close at his heels.

"What are we looking for?" it asked innocently.

"I thought we had a deal!" Joshua yelled. "You said I was supposed to join you and I agreed so what's the point of this!" he pointed to the creature that called itself Xiaomon.

"Umm…who are you talking to?" asked Xiaomon clearly confused at his new friend's outburst.

Joshua didn't respond. Instead he reached into his pockets and pulled out his cell phone. He briefly wondered how he had gotten his phone back since he remembered leaving back on the train but there were more important mysteries to solve. The time was 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 21, he had no missed calls or messages and no reception.

"You've got to be kidding me! I've been unconscious for a day and a half!" He shrieked.

"You play strange games new friend. Can I play too! You said I could eat what I wanted? I want the forty steaks you promised me!" said Xiaomon

This time it was Joshua's turn to look confused. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just playing the game with you, my new friend," he answered innocently.

"What kind of a dog talks and yells random things into the air? Joshua asked.

"I was just asking the cave questions like you were," he answered. "by the way, what's a dog?"

"A dog is…," Joshua began to answer. "Never mind, If you're not a dog then what are you?"

"I'm a digimon," he answered.

"What's that?"

"Well…I don't know really know but we're really fun!"

"You don't know what you are?"

"Well I'm Xiaomon and Xiaomon is a digimon and digimon are fun and…"

"Never mind," said Joshua. "Do you know what I am?" Joshua pointed to himself for effect.

Xiaomon turned his pill shaped body to the side. "You're…not a digimon?"

"No," Joshua answered. "I'm a human."

"What's that?" asked the little white "Digimon"

"It would take too long to explain; besides I need to focus on getting back home. Where are we?"

"Where in a cave in the forest," Xiaomon answered.

"I mean is there a city or a town near here?,"

"What are those? Sorry but I've never been outside of the forest before,"

Joshua breathed a sigh before continuing. "Never mind I'll explain on the way out of here."

As Joshua and Xiaomon made their way out of the cave the forest came into view. Immediately the fact that they weren't anywhere close to home was apparent. The forest ahead looked similar to a pine forest one might see in the northern latitudes but the trees themselves were speckled with various colors on top of the dark green pine leaves. The air was warm, too warm he realized, and wet. Trees like this should be growing in colder climates yet it felt…subtropical. It felt almost like he was back in Atlanta.

"What are you doing?" asked Xiaomon.

"Thinking," Joshua answered.

"Do you do that a lot?," he asked. "I don't think my old friends thought much at all."

Joshua raised an eyebrow. "You're old friends?"

"Sure! They're over there." Xiaomon ran down to where the rocky ground of the cave gave way to the green grass of the forest. Joshua followed behind the little white fur ball until he came to a stop in front of three large rocks that jutted up from the ground.

"Here they are!" Xiaomon said proudly.

Joshua looked around but saw nothing but the strange landscape ahead of him. "Who're you talking to?" he asked.

"Them!" Xiaomon answered. He inched closer to the three stones jutting up from the ground.

"The rocks?" Joshua asked.

"Yeah."

Joshua walked over to Xiaomon's "friends" and ran his hand over them. As he expected they were hard, rough and no different from any rocks back home.

"Well they're not talking," he stated. "So unless they just don't want to talk to me I think you should find some new friends".

"Why?"

"Because rocks are inanimate objects incapable of reciprocating interactions from animate beings." Joshua answered astutely.

The poor thing turned his head in confusion in that same undeniably cute way of his.

"I mean the rocks won't ever talk or play with you," he explained. "Why did you call them your friends in the first place?"

"'cause they protected me from the scary lights that came out of the cave," he explained.

"Lights?"

"Yeah, when the lights came I hid behind the rocks until they went away then I promised the rocks I would protect them so I ran into the cave to fight the lights but all I found was you."

Joshua's eyes widened. "Xiaomon, did you see anyone else in the cave with me?

He shook his head. "No, only you were there and I didn't smell anyone else. Hey! What if your friend you were yelling at earlier is invisible? Wouldn't that be neat?"

"No, and I wasn't talking to myself I was trying to find the one whose responsible for sending me here. Joshua let out a sigh and scratched his head "Well there's no use worrying about it now". He looked up at the sky. It was a warm, clear day promising uneventful weather and high visibility, perfect for exploring. "Let's keep going into the forest, if we have to we'll find food while looking for a town."

Joshua continued on his way into the wilderness with Xiaomon close at his heels. The shade from the tall trees gave them a slight reprieve from the sun's heat as they navigated past the forest's foliage which kept getting stranger the farther they traveled. Some of the tall, colorful pine trees they had seen had given way to much shorter and stouter versions that sported red, yellow or even orange needle-like leaves and the grass had grown taller and curled in on itself creating tight spirals that wafted gently in the breeze. Eventually they came upon a small circular clearing surrounded by very tall and very white pine trees.

"Let's stop here for a while," Joshua suggested.

"Why? asked Xiaomon.

Joshua looked down at his companion. He was still an energetic, fluffy ball of energy despite the distance and terrain they had covered.

"We humans need to rest sometimes. Besides we'll need to head back soon before nightfall."

"Do all humans get tired so easily?"

"Just the nerdy ones" Joshua answered. He didn't expect the little digimon to understand what that meant but that didn't matter. Hopefully, he'd find his way out of wherever he was and find his way home. Walking through a strange tropical yet temperate forest with a talking dog was a neat little trick the Voice pulled off but he was getting tired of it quickly. He pulled out his cellphone and checked the time; the digital display read 7:30 p.m. which confused him. He looked up in the clear, wholly blue sky then shielded his eyes so he could be sure that that bright, yellow sun in the sky was still directly overhead. He checked his phone again to be sure but it still read 7:30.

"That's weird. The phone's clock must be wrong". As Joshua fiddled with his phone his vision suddenly went dark as the sunlight vanished overhead.

"Wait, what just…," He began but as he looked up to find whatever it was that was blocking the light he received the second greatest shock of his life. The sun had disappeared as well as the flawlessly blue sky and its place floated three orbs he could only assume were moons. The closest one looked similar to the Earth's moon only it shined a brighter silvery color that illuminated the night sky like a glittering diamond, the second was much less bright and shone a beautiful blue color and the last which seemed the furthest due to its relative size in the sky was a red moon that glowed in the night like a tiny red eye. The rest of the sky was covered in a blanket of stars.

Joshua's mouth hung open at what he had just seen.

"What's wrong human-friend?" Xiaomon asked innocently.

"What the hell just happened?" Joshua shrieked.

"It's night time now," he answered.

"But it can't be, this is impossible! None of this makes sense! Joshua cried.

"Why not?"

"Why not?" Joshua glared at the small creature that was calling him his friend. His face shifted through confusion, fear then anger.

"This is wrong! All of it!" Joshua yelled. He pointed to the alien sky and then to the forest around them.

"The sky is wrong! The stars are wrong! The trees are wrong! You are wrong!" he yelled.

"but I don't understand," said Xiaomon. "It's always been like this."

"No! No,no,no,no! Day doesn't become night in an instant! The Earth doesn't have three moons! The stars are in all the wrong places! And dogs don't talk!"

Joshua turned away from Xiaomon and stalked off into the forest.

"Wait for me!" Xiaomon called after him.

Joshua stopped then turned back toward the little digimon. It was obvious He had wanted to comfort him somehow but he wasn't having any of it.

"We aren't going anywhere! I don't know what you want or why you're sticking so close to me but it ends here!" he yelled. He had to fight to keep his feelings from affecting his voice.

"But aren't we friends?" Xiaomon asked. "Friends are supposed to protect each other".

Joshua's eyes stung from his tears as Xiaomon's words brought up a particularly painful memory.

"I don't have friends! I don't need friends! I just want to go home!" he screamed. His voice seemed to fill as the echoes reverberated through the forest.

"I just want to go home!" his echo repeated.

"I just want to go home!"

"….want to go home!"

"I want to go home too!"

"Me too!"

"Yeah, sounds like fun if everyone there is as weak as these two!"

Joshua and Xiaomon snapped their heads up at the voices but the darkness of night shielded whatever had imitated the lost boy's voice from their eyes.

"Who's there?" shouted Joshua. It sounded like the voices were coming from the trees above them.

Mocking laughter answered him. "Heh, heh, heh, who's there? No one, everyone, someone!"

Xiaomon stepped in front of Joshua and growled angrily. "Stay back human-friend! They're digimon! I can smell'em!"

"Digimon? Now that's rude we're not just digimon!" said one of the voices from the trees. A rustling sound followed by a small gust of air escaped from the trees above and a shadow swooped down on Joshua and Xiaomon. With his small size and quicker reflexes Xiaomon was able to dodge the attack but Joshua reacted too late and his left shoulder was cut by what felt like a curved blade.

Joshua gasped in pain as he felt the cut on his shoulder. "What do you want from us?"

"What do you want from us?" repeated another one of the voices. This time it imitated his voice perfectly then broke out in a fit of high-pitched laughter.

Suddenly one of the shadows descended from the trees and hovered in mid-air. In the light of the silver moon Joshua could finally make out their assailants' form. The first thing that monster reminded Joshua of was a bat, It had long, diamond-shaped ears, leathery wings and a small, furry body. The strange thing about it was that in lieu of limbs this thing seemed to have blades for feet, it even sported a tail which held another curved blade at the tip. It was as if some mad man had crossed a vampire bat with a scythe.

As he stared at the strange bat monster two more creatures just like it swooped down and joined their comrade hovering in mid-air.

"I'm Pipismon!" said the one in middle.

"So am I!" said the one on the right.

"Me too!" said the one on the left.

"And you two look like easy pickings, so if you don't mind could you just stand there while we load your data?" came a voice from behind Joshua and Xiaomon. Immediately Joshua knew it had to be the one who had cut him earlier. That meant that there were at least four of them.

"This is going to be so cool!" shouted the one in the middle. "Wait 'till I tell everyone I killed a partner digimon!"