A/N: The Village of Beginnings is that place known in the dub as Primary Village.

The soft light of morning shone down on the Village of Beginnings on the island in the middle of the Digital World. All over the village, Digi-Eggs were falling from the sky and hatching.

In the midst of this scene, four Digi-Eggs colored light blue, green, red, and white landed. They all hatched at once, but the Digimon who came from them were not babies, so no cradles appeared for them. They were already at the Child level. They looked at each other and knew that there wwas a special connection between them.

"Hi," siad the Digimon who had hatched from the light blue egg. "I'm Koukimon, who are you?"

"I'm Konekomon," said another one.

"My name is Torimon."

"I'm Gamemon."

"Why are we all here?" Konekomon wondered.

"I don't know," said Torimon.

"Me neither," said Gamemon.

"Neither do I," said Koukimon, "but it would be good to find out."

"How would we do that?" said Torimon.

"We'll just try to learn whatever we can about this place," Koukimon answered.

"Let's start right here!" said Konekomon. He was looking into one of the nearby cradles. The others joined him.

The cradle was a light brown, rounded structure that seemed somehow to blend with the soft, pastel-colored ground. Inside it was a soft, round, black thing with bright yellow eyes - a Botamon, though the other Digimon didn't know it was called that.

"It's a . . . Digimon," said Koukimon. "Like us."

"Bo! Bo! Bo!" said Botamon.

"Who are you?" asked Torimon.

"Bo! Bo! Bo!"

"Can you tell us where we are?" said Gamemon.

"Bo! Bo! Bo!"

"I guess we're on our own," said Konekomon.

"No, look!" said Torimon, pointing.

Moving in the distance was a red and purple Digimon with long ears. It looked into each cradle, lingered for a moment, then moved on to the next one. Koukimon and his friends approached it.

"Hi there," said Koukimon.

The strange Digimon jumped. "Y-y-you're Child-stages!" he exclaimed. "Like me!"

"We are?"

"Yeah. I'm Elecmon, and I was born like this, too. So, I took charge of the village and now I'm looking after all the babies. What about yourselves?"

"I'm Koukimon. I just hatched, along with all of them."

Then they all sounded off, in a spontaneous yet timeless and traditional way. "Koukimon!" "Konekomon!" "Torimon!" "Gamemon!"

And all together: "We're Digimon! Digital Monsters!"

"I know," said Elecmon. "You know, you're all mature enough to go away and find your own places in this world . . . or would you rather stay here and work with me?"

"No, we'll go," said Koukimon. "We want to know all about all of this."

"Okay. Goodbye, children."

"Goodbye!" said the four.

They walked across the village until they reached a pair of high towers. The towers marked the village's entrance and exit.

"Would you look at that," said Koukimon.

They saw now that the village was at the foot of a high, majestic mountain.

"Is that where we're going?" said Torimon.

"Yes," said Koukimon.

"What's up there?" said Konekomon.

"We'll find out when we get there."

At first, the going was easy, but as they went on, the mountainside got steeper and steeper. The sun was rising higher in the sky, too, making the day hotter. Finally, Konekomon said, "I'm tired. Let's stop and rest."

"There's something shiny up ahead," said Koukimon. "We'll stop there."

They came to the edge of the shining pond and sat down. Looking into it, they could see their reflections. Koukimon, the lizard, had little beady black eyes and blue-gray scales. Torimon, the bird, had bright red feathers, with yellow and orange at the tips of her wings. Gamemon, the turtle, had a hard shell with a geometric pattern of lines on it. Konekomon, the cat, was brown and white and had big blue eyes. Curious, he reached out to touch the reflection. Finding only water, he instinctively bent down to drink. "Hey, this is good!" he said after a moment. "Try it!"

Everyone did. "I feel much better now," said Torimon.

"So do I," said Gamemon. "But let's stay here a little bit longer."

"Okay," said Koukimon.

When they felt rested, they kept on climbing. They passed by fewer and fewer trees as they neared the top of the mountain, and they had to pick their way through scattered rocks. Finally, they passed through a gap between two boulders and were at the mountain's peak.

They stood at one end of a flat, oblong space. At the other end was what seemed to be a sculpture of some round thing that had split in half. There was an inscription on the rock wall between them. Above the inscription, also sculpted in rock, was a single leaf on a stalk.

The little Digimon walked over to the inscription. It was written in Digi-Code, a language they could read easily. It read:

Be it known that on this spot, the summit of Infinity Mountain on File Island, the Seed Digi-Egg was opened and grew to create all the Digital World. The egg was created from the data of the original Digital World, which developed around the planet Earth. When the Earth was destroyed, the four Guardians, Qinglongmon, Xuanwumon, Zhuqiaomon, and Baihumon, along with their associate Gennai, collected some of the data from their dying world, formed it into the Seed Digi-Egg, and sent the egg to a digital device which bore it to the computer systems of another planet, where it sprouted.

Be it known to Koukimon, Konekomon, Torimon, and Gamemon that they are the reborn Child forms of the same Four Guardians, and that when they have evolved to their Ultimate forms, they will go and watch over the four continents of the Digital World. When they arrive here, they will open these doors and enter the Chamber of the Past, where information on the original Digital World is stored. The energy of the Chamber will cause them to evolve to the Adult level. May they always prosper and work for the good of the Digital World.

"Now we know why we were born," said Konekomon.

"And we know that we were meant to come here," said Koukimon.

"Protecting a whole world sounds hard," commented Gamemon.

"Maybe it won't be so hard for us," said Torimon. "After all, it is what we were meant to do. Come on, let's go in!"

"Yes, let's," said Koukimon.

"We'll all have to push together to open the doors," said Konekomon.

"Then that's what we'll do. One, two, three . . . push!"

The heavy stone doors swung open slowly. All together, the Digimon stepped into the chamber. Suddenly, a brilliant white light surrounded them, bringing with it a rush of energy.

"Koukimon, evolve! Steeldramon!"

"Konekomon, evolve! Shiromon!"

"Torimon, evolve! Hanemon!"

"Gamemon, evolve! Kuromon!"

Thrilled, the Digimon looked over their powerful new forms. Steeldramon was still blue, but he now stood on two legs and wore green shorts and a steel helmet with three spikes. Shiromon was a pure white beast something like a lion. Hanemon was still a bird, but larger and more beautiful, and Kuromon had the same shape as Steeldramon, but with black skin and a dark green shell.

"Wow!" said Steeldramon. "Look at us!"

"I feel like I could do anything!" said Kuromon.

"We sure grow up fast," said Shiromon.

"This is great!" said Hanemon.

They ventured further into the cave and found that it opened out into a huge library. Bookshelves lined all the walls, and in the middle of the room was a table with four very thick books sitting on it. They came closer and saw that these were four copies of The History and Geography of the Digital World.

"It msut be important for us to know this, if we're going to be responsible for this whole world someday," said Steeldramon, "so let's start reading."

They all sat down with the books, opened them, and began to relearn what it had been like in the old Digital World.

Disclaimer: Digimon and all related characters, places, etc. belong to Akiyoshi Hongo, Toei Animation, Bandai, and Disney. Special thanks to GigadramonYagami for coming up with Steeldramon's name. No money is being made off this; I write because it's fun. :-)