The next morning Reina woke up to the feeling of punimon nudging her arm. She sat up, smiled, and patted the little digimon's head by her side.

"Good morning! Is leomon off looking to see how close we are to the garden kingdom?" Punimon jumped into her arms and laughed his adorable baby laugh. She laughed with him, taking that as a yes to her question. She looked to her side and found a pile of more strange looking fruit. Reina assumed that leomon had left them there for her to eat when she woke up.

During their travels she would often wake up to find some sort of odd fruit laying beside her when leomon went off to get a better view of their surroundings, meaning he was somewhere on a tall hill or on the top of a giant tree. Reina grabbed one of the less weirdly shaped fruit, stood up, and bit into it. This one looked like a pear but tasted like a banana. She sighed *I'll never get used to the vegetation in this world.*

Reina walked into the trees with punimon resting on her head. She tilted her head up trying to spot where leomon was scouting as she took another bite into her banana pear. She spotted a large cliff slanting upwards that seemed like the place where leomon might be. Reina raised one hand to her mouth and shouted up at the hill hoping that she was right in guessing that he was at the peak.

"HEY! Are you coming down or do I have to find some other buff kitten to be my guide!?"

Punimon giggled.

Reina squinted at the top of the hill and saw a familiar head of fur look over the edge. *Shit, he IS up there. I hope he didn't hear me...*

Leomon jumped off of the cliff and landed with a large thud next to her making a gust of air wash over her from the landing. *...He's pissed...*

Leomon stood up and raised his eyebrow. "Did you just call me a buff kitten?"

Reina bit into her fruit as calmly as she could.

"Are we close to the garden kingdom village?" She asked avoiding his question.

He sighed and brushed off her previous statement.

"We'll be there in a couple hours."

"Awesome, well I guess we better get going on the yellow brick road if we wanna make it to emerald city right?" Reina laughed at herself for the wizard of oz pun. She did feel a lot like Dorothy even though leomon was the complete OPPOSITE of a cowardly lion, and punimon nowhere near resembled a dog. Plus she was also missing a few other main characters, but still.

Leomon looked at her oddly. "What are you talking about?"

Well duh, of course leomon didn't understand wizard of oz puns. And she didn't feel like explaining it to him.

"It's..uh...Never mind...lets go."

And with that Dorothy, the not so cowardly lion, and toto(close enough) continued on their path.

As they walked, Reina felt punimon's stomach rumble in her arms. She looked around and spotted some edible berries on a bush. She signaled leomon to stop and take a brake so she could go pick some for a snack. Reina walked over to the bush to pick a handful of berries, she sat down on a tree stump and fed them to punimon. She wasnt surprised when he hungrily scoffed them down in a few minutes. Once he was done eating reina noticed that he began to get hot, a lot like the digiegg used to do. "Um, leomon? Punimon is getting a little hotter than usual. Is this normal?"

Leomon's eyes widened. "Reina put him down before...!"

Just then punimon started to glow briefly before bursting into flames. Reaina screamed in fright while now holding a ball of fire. She let go of the flaming orb and fell back, but the ball of fire floated in the air instead of falling to the ground. Big blue Eyes, a stitched mouth, and two flaming little hands appeared on the new floating digimon. It smiled at her and blinked.

Reina slowly stood up and stared at the creature in front of her.

"Reina? Is me! I just changed a little bit!"

She stepped back, not expecting it to be able to talk. Then she thought about it a little more.

"Punimon?"

"Reina! I'm demimeremon now!" It said happily.

Demimeremon floated towards Reina but leomon tried to stop him on account that he was made of fire and might burn her, but he was too slow and Demimeremon reached reina nuzzling her while they both laughed. Leomon looked slightly confused for a moment but shrugged it off not wanting to over think it.

"Well Demimeremon, congrats on digivolveing! Now lets go see the garden kingdom!"

After a couple hours of walking Reina noticed the that the thickness of the trees surrounding them began to subside as they got closer. And soon she could see a clearing in between the trees. She got excited that she was about to see what the garden kingdom looked like, she assumed it was beautiful and full of flowers and flower type digimon. Thinking about it, Reina couldn't help herself and ran into the opening in the trees. But once she looked onto the supposed town of flowers she froze.

"...No...Not here..."

The garden village was in shambles. Tiny mushroom houses were crumbling, the meadow of flowers was trampled, and she could see many fairy, flower, and small animal type digimon trying their best to rebuild homes and heal the injured.

She heard leomon approach behind her from the trees.

"No. We're too late."

Deimimeremon floated beside Reina and looked at her as she was almost in tears with her fists clenched. "Reina? Are you ok? What happened?"

Reina got herself together and looked at him. She didn't want to tell him just yet about what their mission was. It might still bring back old memories although leomon said thats its near impossible for a digimon to regain memories of a past life if they are not reborn with them.

She reached up and pulled Demimerimon close to her, holding him in her arms. "Everything is going to be ok."

They walked down to the village and asked some of the locals if they could offer some assistance. They asked a nearby flower digimon which leomon introduced as floramon if they could do anything to help with repairing while they stayed in the village to replenish their supplies.(Gathering fresh water and food for their trip.) The floramon assured them that there was nothing that they could do but while she thought about it she hesitated and turned to look at a vally that could be seen not to far from the village.

Reina noticed her glance and thought something was up.

"What is it? You can tell us. We'll try to do whatever we can to help." The floramon still hesitated to say what was on her mind. Reina suddenly remembered something gennai had given her but she wasnt sure if it would help reassure the floramon that they were capable of taking on dangerious tasks.. She pulled off her magenta biker glove and showed floramon the symbol on her hand.

"See, I'm a digidestined. That should count for something right?"

Floramon awed at the crest that was tattooed on Reina's hand and nodded.

"There is a digimon that has been terrorizing the village ever since we were attacked. Its name is Apemon, it took up shelter in a cave in the valley not to far from here. Many of us wanted to fight back but we didn't want to cause any more destruction to the village so we just let him do what he wants. But recently he has been harassing digimon and demanding to be brought food."

Reina turned towards her digimon friend. "Leomon, what do you know of Apemon? Do you think we can take him if it comes down to it?"

"From what I've heard about Apemon, he is a powerful digimon that uses a bone strapped to his back as a weapon. If the situation calls for violence then we could possibly over power him if we take him by surprise."

Reina nodded and turned back to floramon. "You see, we will help get rid of your problem so there is nothing to worry about!"

Floramon was so grateful that she was almost in tears. "Thank you. It's truly a miracle that your journey allowed you to pass through our village. Thank you." Reina placed back on her glove and gripped her hand into a fist.

"Now lets go teach that big bully a lesson!" She said with a grin.