Once Upon a Time.

Note from the Author: Sorry I couldn't resist using that title! Also, you may need to visit to learn about some of the characters in this tale.

It was a murky, damp and dreary day. Just about right for anywhere in southern England. I was sitting up in my favourite Ash tree waiting for Chikara to come home from school. I don't know why she, or any other self respecting human would be crazy enough to torture themselves by going to that school place. It's boring, no dead boring and the information they teach you is absolutely useless. I mean, come on people, there are no classes on nuts. How can you ignore such a vital subject to life??

I was trying my best to keep the majority of my fur dry when I noticed a sparkly a few branches down. A sparkly is rodent lingo for anything that shines. Now I was faced with a dilemma, to ruin all my efforts at staying dry and retrieve the sparkly or to stay dry and let a magpie beat me to it. As much as I value my appearance I hate magpies more. They have no sense of morals. And so with great reluctance I scuttled down the slippery branches, and retrieved the sparkly to my little sheltered spot.

It wasn't much of a sparkly, just plastic shape with a shiny screen and some buttons. It vaguely resembled a triangle but only vaguely. I might have thrown it away as a human-child's game toy if I hadn't looked harder at some 'scratches' on the back. On first glance they we're just scratches but when I looked closer they looked a bit like elvish runes. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't make them out. Chikara obviously hadn't taught me that language.

Just then I heard the soft pad of feet up the drive. Forgetting the rain I scurried along the wall to greet Chikara, dragging the sparkly (which seemed to be remarkably heavier than before), behind me.

"Hi ya Chi." I leapt into the air and landed lopsidedly on Chikara's shoulder.

She tickled me behind the ears. "What's with that?" she had spotted the sparkly.

I held it up proudly in my two front paws, letting it glisten in the wet sunbeams. Chikara stroked it thoughtfully then drew back. "We'll see it better in artificial light."

Obediently I followed her in through the front door. Our house is a fairly normal human dwelling called The Conifers. Chikara's room is in an extension in the loft so there is a roof directly beneath the window - Chikara always leaves the window unlocked as a sort of cat flap for me. The room itself is decorated with pot plants and posters of Chinese characters. Oh, and one other thing - the room is covered in books; history books, dictionaries for the strangest of languages, murder mysteries, general fantasy, and so the list goes on.

Chikara sat down by Aceamon who was currently taking a nap on the bed and picked up a torch I 'borrowed' from the school science department. No Chikara doesn't approve of stealing, I just never told her where I got it from.

"Excuse me, but why artificial light?" I asked, confused. You see Chikara is always pro-nature and anti-technology so it had surprised me when she had mentioned using a man-invention.

"Because this thing was created by humans or at least designed by them."

"Come again?"

She smiled at my apparent ignorance. "This thing was made by something that shares a similar mind to man. First the plastic, since when are plants made out of plastic? Second it is too simple to be made by another species. Too scientifically correct." She smiled at me again, though I can't say I'd taken in anywhere near all she'd just explained. "To look at something as it's creator would, you look at in the light of its designer."

She switched the torch on and shone it over the runes. I hadn't been hyper on nuts for at least three weeks so I couldn't have been hallucinating but I swear those runes jumped straight off the sparkly and started dancing round Chikara's head. They were flashing in bright colours and starting to hurt my eyes.

"Shen?" Chikara exclaimed.

"In English?" I asked.

"Shen, It's written in Shen, the cloud tongue. But now it's only ever spoken in." she paused, a look of amazement passing swiftly over her eyes before they returned to their normal passive selves.

"Yes, go on." I was getting impatient, alas one of my many faults.

"The Digital World."

"What?"

"I said the Digital World. You know, the place where Digimon live."

"I don't watch children's TV."

"Then how come you know it's a human child's programme?" Chikara had a good point. The truth is I go round to the barn-house where Chikara's human friend Hikari lives and watch her little brother watching TV when I'm bored, while Chikara's at school. I actually quite enjoy it but I'd loose my reputation if anyone found out.

"Anyway, this thing is a Digivice."

I pretended to look ignorant as Chikara turned the torch off and held the Digivice loosely in her hand. The runes had stopped floating round the room and resettled in what I could only presume was their rightful place - the back of the Digivice.

"What do they say?" I peered over, carefully to keep my balance on Chikara's wet sleeves.

"Methansla cyuba." She stopped reading and stared at me for a few moments then started translating. "Kindness arose with Hope's golden radiance, whilst Light's wings shall journey towards the Blueruby."

"Sounds like Double Dutch to me." I yawned.

"No, give me some time and I should be able to make sense of it. It is only a riddle." Sometimes Chikara even scares me.

"What's a blue ruby anyway? I thought rubies were red." I stretched my claws, I was certain it was a wild goose chase making head or tail of that nonsense.

"It's only one word, 'Blueruby', it could be a precious stone of some sort. Maybe half blue, half red." She scratched her chin then shrugged. An expression came over her face that I have learnt to dread. "Well there's one way to find out."

I knew what was coming next.

"Bazil, we need a mirror, and wake up Acey, she won't want to be left behind." Chikara strode calmly to the centre of the room and stood there patiently. I had no idea what she was doing but I knew what she was trying to accomplish, my hours of watching with Hikari's little brother weren't utterly wasted.

Under instruction I leant the mirror up against the wall and effectively dragged a sleepy Aceamon over to where Chikara stood. Chikara continued by shining the torch onto the black screen of the Digivice, projecting a light on the opposite mirror, the light swirled and changed colour so it was almost hypnotic. As we advanced towards the mirror the light grew bigger and bigger till I was certain the mirror must have grown in size.

Then, just as I had expected, we walked through the light and into the mirror. We had created a porthole. No, a Digi-port.