Author: Ok, here's chapter 2! Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have to admit, it did seem cool in the beginning. I mean, how often do you get taken to another world by going through your computer? It seemed hard to believe, though, so I said, "The Digital world? Are you sure this isn't a dream or something?"

Gennai nodded and said, "I am sure. The Digital world is very real. So are the digimon. You'll see what digimon are in a moment. But, there are some things you need to know. You have been summoned here for a very important reason. Trouble is brewing in the Digital world. We travelers need all the help we can get. You have been chosen to become a tag tamer."

My head was spinning at that point. That was a lot of information for one kid to absorb. I said, "I don't think I understand…"

"I don't expect you to at this point," Gennai said, "You will in time, though. Just be patient."

Suddenly, I felt something, and I couldn't help but shiver. You know that feeling you get when something just isn't right? Well, that's kind of like what it was. Gennai seemed to have felt it too, because his eyes narrowed and he looked towards the horizon. I looked towards where Gennai was looking, but I didn't see anything. I said, "What's wrong, Gennai?"

"Trouble is coming," Gennai said, "We must hurry if we are to get to safety. Follow me, and stay close."

Gennai then headed in the direction opposite of the way he had been looking. I followed him, of course. He weaved his way through the fields and the forest. It was difficult to keep up to him, but I managed. The longer we traveled, the more of a hurry Gennai seemed to be in. We finally reached the end of the forest (which wasn't that big), and we were faced with a cliff. I said, "Where do we go now?"

"We have to climb down," Gennai said as he walked to the edge. He did some sort of magic, and a rope ladder appeared. I was amazed by this, so I said, "That's so cool!"

Gennai said, "You will learn to do that eventually. But for now, just climb down the ladder quickly. I'll go first to make sure nothing is waiting for us at the bottom."

I waited until Gennai was down most of the ladder, then I began to climb. It wasn't that hard, really. It just took a long time. When I was about halfway down, I heard a yell from below. I took a peek down, and I saw that Gennai was fighting with some sort of monster. The monster, which turned out to be a digimon, knocked Gennai across the ledge they were fighting on. I called out, "Gennai! Are you alright?"

The digimon heard me, and it looked up at me. This digimon was a scary looking one. It wore mostly gray, but had a red hood. I could only see it's eyes beneath it. It also had a scythe. The digimon seemed to be interested in me, so it flew up to me. It said, "Hmm, a new child? This could be interesting…"

I heard Gennai shout, "Leave the boy alone," but the digimon did not listen to him. Instead, it said, "Any human can be a potential threat to my master. It is best to eliminate to right now."

The digimon raised it's scythe, preparing to attack. Gennai was trying to attack the digimon, but he risked hitting me in the process. He couldn't reach the digimon, and the digimon was more interested in killing me than in fighting Gennai.

That was the first time I felt true fear in my life. I was trembling so badly that the rope ladder was shaking. My hands were sweaty, and my feet could barely stay on the rung of the ladder. I was too scared to move.

Suddenly, the digimon swung it's scythe at me, aiming for the deathblow.

I guess I was lucky that my foot slipped at that exact moment. Instead of taking off my head, the digimon only cut the rope ladder. But, unfortunately, that left nothing for the ladder to be supported with. So, I fell.

Gennai could see this, so he jumped up and caught me. Then, he started running along the ledge. He didn't even stop to put me down. I am glad for that, because I wouldn't have been able to run if I wanted to. Gennai ran down the ledge and into a small hole in the side of the cliff. He then chanted some kind of spell. I think it was an illusion spell, because the digimon flew right past us. Gennai waited until he was sure that the digimon was gone before he stepped out of our hiding place. A quick glance around told us that it was safe. Gennai breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That was a close one…"

I was still somewhat traumatized from the whole experience. Then, I began to cry. Not loud sobs, mind you, but a rather quiet cry. Gennai noticed this and looked at me with a look mixed with pity and sorrow. He put me down. He knelt down to my level and said, "I'm sorry, Ryo. That is the danger I was talking about. You'll have to fight digimon like that every day, once you are trained."

Still sobbing, I shook my head. I them buried my face in his shoulder and said, "I don't want to! I don't want to be a tag tamer anymore!"

Gennai patted me on the back and sadly said, "it's too late for that now."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was already dark by the time we reached a small village. I was so tired that I barely noticed anything. Gennai took me to a house, and he led me to a bed that I could use for the night. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next morning, I was awoken by the sunlight shining in through a window that was suddenly opened. Still half asleep, I turned over and tried to fall back asleep completely. But, a voice said, "Rise and shine, tag tamer! It's a new day!"

It took me about four seconds to realize that it wasn't Gennai who said that to me. My eyes snapped open, and I sat up and looked at the source of the voice. It was another digimon. Unlike the other digimon, who turned out to be a Phantommon, this digimon seemed friendly. He was mostly red, but had some purple stripes. He was small, about the size of a dog. He said, "My name is Elecmon. It is nice to meet you, tag tamer."

I was stunned, so I just said, "…likewise…"

Elecmon smiled and said, "Well, you don't want to sleep all day, do you? If you do, you won't get to meet your partner!"

"…Partner?" That was all I could say before Elecmon shoved me out of bed and out the door of the small hut. Once outside, I saw something that was really amazing. There were toys everywhere! And I don't mean regular size toys, either. There were blocks the size of a building! The ground looked to be made of a giant blanket, too. And there were eggs everywhere! I stood there in awe for a moment. Elecmon said, "Yup! This is primary village! This is where all digimon are born! And this is where you will find your partner."

I still didn't know what this "partner" business was all about. But, I couldn't say anything. I was still staring at the giant blocks. Elecmon nudged me over to the field of eggs. he said, "Just walk around until you find the right one!"

Then I had to say something. I said, "But how will I know when I find the right one?"

"You'll know," Elecmon said as he walked away, leaving me in a field of eggs. It was then that I started to wonder if every digimon was like that one. I prayed to the gods that they weren't.

I was stuck in a field of eggs without any way of getting home. I had almost died the day before, and I was sure I would almost die again. But, for some odd reason, I became preoccupied with finding this "partner" that Elecmon was talking about. So, I walked along the fields of eggs, searching for the right one. Though I didn't know how to know when I had found the right one. "You'll know" wasn't clear enough directions. I sighed and continued to walk along the fields of eggs.

Suddenly, I felt something pull me to my left. I looked around, and I saw an egg that looked somewhat different from the rest. Well, the pattern wasn't anything special (there were eggs that were spotted and eggs that were checked. All of them were like this) but the egg looked almost like it was glowing. Plus, there was a certain feeling to it. It felt like it was right. There's no other way to explain it.

I knelt down beside the egg and picked it up. It felt warm in my hands. I said, "You must be my "partner," huh? Well, my name is Ryo Akiyama, and I can't wait to meet you."

Then, a bright light surrounded me. I heard a voice say, "You have chosen your partner, young tag tamer. Now you shall go home. When the time comes, we will summon you to the digital world again. Go prepare yourself, tag tamer, and prepare your partner as well."

Then I felt like something was pulling me upwards. The next thing I knew, I was back in the computer chair at my dad's house. I looked to the clock and saw that not even five minutes had passed. At first I thought that I had dozed off. But then, I noticed that the egg was in my arms. I then knew that it was no dream. I had really been to the Digital world, and I really was a tag tamer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For quite some time afterward, I didn't get any messages from Gennai or anyone else in the Digital world. So, I spent most of my time making sure that nobody found out about the egg. It wasn't easy; Anya went snooping in my room once and almost found the egg. I barely managed to drive her out. I think she became suspicious after that incident.

I always worried that the egg would be discovered or would hatch while I was at school. So, after a week of having the egg, I began to take it with me and leave it in my locker. This had it's dangers as well. If it hatched at school, somebody might find out about it. But, at that time, I felt that it was safer to have the egg as close to me as possible. Another week passed, and nothing happened.

Then, the egg hatched.

I'll always remember that day clearly. It happened at the beginning of the day. I was just putting my bag in my locker when a glow began to emit from it. I opened the bag, and I saw that several cracks had formed in the shell. I quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Nobody had. So, holding the egg close to me, I shut my locker and ran down the hallway. A classmate called out to me, "Hey Ryo, where are you going?"

I yelled back to him, "Tell the teacher I'll be a little late."

Thankfully, my classmate didn't ask anymore about the situation. I continued to run, and eventually ended up outside. I hid behind the bleachers by the soccer field. Sitting cross-legged, I watched the egg hatch. A small digimon came out of the egg. It was light blue, and it looked kind of like a pile of frosting. It looked up at me, grinned, then nuzzled against me as it said, "Yay!"

I couldn't help but smile. I said, "Hey, little guy. What's your name?"

"Chicomon," the little digimon, apparently Chicomon, said. I said, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Chicomon. My name is Ryo."

Chicomon bounced happily and said, "It's nice to meet you too, partner!"

It may have only been a moment since we met, but we were bound together for life at that moment. Nothing could separate us again, such was the power of our bond. It's hard to believe that this little digimon meant so much to me, but he did. It was then that I began to understand the concept of a "partner."

Of course, our peaceful time together only lasted a moment. Then, a teacher came out to see if I was alright. I hid Chicomon in a nearby bush and told him to stay there until I got out of school. He didn't look to happy, but he agreed. I went back into the school to continue my day of learning, hoping that Chicomon would stay out of trouble.

Yeah, like that really would have happened.

Chicomon turned out to be a digimon that liked to explore and try new things. So, he decided that the bush was boring, and that he wanted to check out the rest of the school. He smelt the smell of food cooking coming from the school kitchens, so he decided to check that out first.

Of course, I didn't know about this. I was in class, attempting to pay attention as the teacher rambled on about world history. It was hard, though. I was busy wondering about what would happen, now that Chicomon had hatched from his egg. Then, at about 12:00, an announcement came over the intercom. It was the principal. He said in a hurried voice, "Teachers, take your students to the soccer field. We have an….incident. Be sure to avoid the kitchens when you do so."

I immediately thought that this had something to do with Chicomon. So, instead of going with my class, I snuck off to the kitchens. I ducked underneath one of the cutting tables and looked around. I saw that we were having mystery meat and rice again, yuck! I also saw that there was a lot of cooking stuff in a kitchen. There were pots and pans off to one corner, a giant dish washer, three refrigerators, three giant walk in freezers, Two stoves and ovens, lots of tables for putting trays on, and an office for the kitchen workers. There were also these weird rubber mats on the floor, probably for traction. Posters bearing health procedures were all over the walls. The cafeteria was through a door right next to the tables. Currently, the workers seemed to be scouring the cafeteria for something, probably whatever caused the disturbance.

Since the workers seemed to be distracted, I took this time to get out from underneath the table and look for Chicomon in the kitchen. It didn't take long to find him. He was hiding in between two of the refrigerators while shaking like mad and crying. I knelt down by where he was and said, "Chicomon?"

Chicomon whimpered and looked up at me. As soon as he saw me, he jumped up into my arms. He said, "Ryo! I was so scared! I was just a little hungry, and I went to find something to eat. The good smells brought me here, and those weird people started attacking me! Waaaaah!"

I held him close, tears beginning to form in my eyes. I should have known better than to leave him alone! He was only a baby, after all. I said, "Don't worry, Chicomon. I won't let them hurt you."

This seemed to calm him down a little bit. Well, at least he stopped crying. I then stood up as I said, "Let's go home."

"Home," Chicomon said, "Where's that?"

"I'll show you," I said as I walked out of the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End Chapter 2.