Chapter 3:
A whole new world
"D id it work?" "Judging by the throbbing in my head, I'd say we made it!" Rubbing the small lump on my forehead, I cautiously opened my eyes. Yeah, we made it alright. The familiar lush greenery and colorful flowers filled my view. The background music had long disappeared, and I now lied on my back on a carpet of velvety grass (though at the moment, it certainly didn't feel all too comfortable!). The same clear-blue sky was now partially hidden by the wide leaves of the trees. Sitting up, I looked around for Lacey under the impression that she was right beside me. Not seeing her, I assumed my headache magnified her voice to where it seemed like she was close. "Lacey? Where are you?" "Up here!" Looking up, I gasped. "What the heck are you doing up there? You wanna get yourself killed?" From atop the highest branch of a very tall tree, Lacey just looked down at me and smiled. "Hey, don't worry, I'll be fine. But you should come up here! The view is amazing!" "You've got to be kidding! There's no way I'm going up there!" Not to mention my head's still spinning from just sitting down here! "Aw, come on Heather! You really should see this!" Lacey insisted. You know, I realized that I've been sighing a lot since all this crazy stuff started, and this was no exception. Knowing she'd never stop whining until she got what she wanted, I walked towards the tree and reached up towards the first branch. "Just to let you know," I called, "I haven't climbed a tree since I was, like, six, so don't expect me up there anytime soon!" "Trust me! You'll find it a lot easier than you think when you try." Easy for you to say! I thought. But, despite my thoughts, I pulled myself up. I blinked, and looked down at the branch separating me from seven feet of air. Whoa, Lacey was actually right! I thought, amazed. This is pretty easy! Looking up again, I reached up for the next branch, and this time pulled a little harder. Next thing I knew, I was flying upward above my target and landed neatly on the branch above it. "Whoa! Since when could I do that!?" "Well, hello!" Lacey replied, smiling at me from just three branches above me. "You are Prance, now, right?" "Yeah, so?" "Well, think about it. Prance is agile and strong, so naturally, you would be, too, wouldn't you?" I tilted my head to one side as I thought about this. I guess it made sense. Lacey grinned, sitting on the branch comfortably. "Come on, give it a try," she said slyly. "Let's see what you can really do." If I weren't insane, actually believing I was Prance, I would have said, "No way!" in a heartbeat. But right then, the challenging look in Lacey's eyes just couldn't escape me, and before I knew it, with a sneaky smile on my face, I was crouching low, feeling my tail (yes, my tail!) tense behind me, and letting it all go. Who would have guessed I .. I mean Prance, had so much strength in just a little jump? With the little strength I spared, I totally passed the term "flying". I was soaring! Lacey was way below me, now, and the only thing that embraced me was clean, fresh air. And, as thrilling as this all was, I kinda paused to think about that. Here I was, probably about fifty feet above the tree, and a lot longer to the ground. If there was nothing holding me up, then that means .. "Oh crap! I'm going down!" I yelled, already feeling gravity taking effect. The wind rushed by me faster and faster as the distance between me and Lacey rapidly shrank. Seeing my panicked expression, Lacey cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Heather, don't forget, you're a cat, remember? Just land on your feet!" Kinda easier said than done! I thought frantically as I tried to straighten myself out (yeah, in mid-air, remember, so not exactly a piece of cake!). Somehow, I managed to get my feet beneath me and with a grace I never imagined I possessed, I lightly landed on the branch next to Lacey, hardly shaking the tree or anything. Lacey clapped, a wide smile on her face. "See? I told ya you could do it! How did it feel?" "I'll tell you when my head stops spinning," I replied, all but collapsing onto the branch. "Hmph, and you call yourself a cat?" Instantly, I snapped back up, throwing a nasty look at Lacey. "What'd you say!?" "I didn't say it!" I narrowed my eyes, studying her skeptically. "Honest!" she added. Then, out of nowhere, "I mean, really. Even those fat, stupid house cats have better balance than you, and they don't freak out over a little jump like that!" This time, my annoyance passed for curiosity as I looked around, realizing the voice obviously wasn't Lacey's. "Who's there?" I demanded. A rustle in the leaves below us made both of our heads look sharply down, but nothing was there. Apprehensively, I glanced at Lacey. "Please tell me you know what that was." Lacey merely looked at me with a "sorry" look and shrugged. "It kinda sounds familiar, but I can't place it." "Kinda familiar? Is that a good or bad thing?" "Your guess is as good as mine!" Once again, the voice appeared, this time giggling. "Very funny, Kyra. You don't even recognize me?" For a brief moment, I thought I saw Lacey's eyes widen in fear, but when I checked to make sure, they were normal. Instead of commenting on it, I said, "See? The voice even knows you!" "Of course I know her!" the voice replied. "She's my partner!" "Lacey, what is she talking about?" I asked, totally confused. Before I could answer, the figure to the voice stepped out from the safety of the leaves. Now, let me tell you, if ever there were a prize for the most original "anime" style facial expression, I would have won it long ago, but this once I bet would have been the one to top them all. I could just imagine my eyes the size of basketballs and my jaw dropping all the way to the ground below. The person, . er, creature, that stood before us was actually a cat, white in color with large, wide ears and tufts of purple (yeah, purple) hair on the end of each one. Her eyes were big, sharp and blue, and she wore a pair of bright yellow gloves with her claws poking out of the fingers. Her tail must have been twice the length of her body, ending in another clump of purple hairs. A single, gold ring hung neatly, close to the end of it. For those of you who are not familiar with Digimon, the creature that stood before me was known as a Gatomon. To make it short, she's dynamite in a small package- 110% fire, fury, and twice as much attitude. But what did she mean by partner? "Gatomon?" Lacey sputtered, probably looking as bewildered as I did. "W- what are you doing-" "What am I doing here?" she retorted, placing her paws on her hips. "Why don't you try telling me what you're doing here? The guys have been looking for you all morning! Everybody was supposed to go swimming down at Seadramon's Lake, remember?" Okay, all these words totally went right over my head. Completely stunned, I just looked at Lacey, who seemed equally amazed. "Um.. Uh, . I'm sorry?" Gatomon just shook her head. "Yeah, you should be. We practically searched the entire Digital World for you!" Before Lacey could respond, Gatomon pulled something out of her right glove- a small, tennis ball-sized sphere of a clear and very pretty stone. In the center, it looked like there was a tiny, golden crescent moon encrusted in it. Again, I could have sworn I saw Lacey's eyes widen. Holding up the crystal ball while still staring at Lacey, Gatomon squeezed it. Almost immediately, the tiny crescent in the center glowed brightly, making the entire little trinket look like a ball of light. Bringing the object closer to her mouth, Gatomon said loudly, "Matt, I found her." A deep, velvety (and very, very handsome!) voice replied, "It's about time!" "Yeah, I know. Just hang on and I'll meet you in a minute." "Got it," the voice answered just as the light from the crescent faded. Tucking the ball back into her glove, Gatomon said, "Just stay here. I'll go get the others. Knowing Davis, he'd probably end up getting himself lost trying to find this place. And you," she added, glancing my way, "had better stay here, too. You're obviously not a digimon, so you'd be safer with Kyra." Not allowing any time for either of us to say anything, Gatomon suddenly leapt into the sky and out of sight. Silence completely took over the scene as Lacey stood staring out after Gatomon and I stood staring at her. "What in the world was that all about?" I finally asked, looking at Lacey strangely. "If we're in the Digimon show, then how did Gatomon know you? I mean, not the 'you' you, obviously, but the Kyra you? What did she mean by you being her partner? Kari's her partner! And what was that thing she had? Why did-" "Heather?" I blinked. "Yeah?" "Did I ever tell you I ... um, ... kinda put Kyra in Digimon?" Again, I blinked. "Okay, you just made absolutely no sense." Lacey looked down, looking like she was having difficulty finding words for what she wanted to say. "What I mean is sometimes, when I was bored, I'd kinda rewrite the Digimon story in my head, putting Kyra in it." "Okay, so what does that have to do with ." Suddenly, it dawned on me. "Oh." "Yeah." I nodded, still stunned. "And, uh, did Kyra have a digimon partner?" Lacey nodded. "Yep. When I first saw it, I really like Gatomon cause of her tough attitude and her fast speed, so I kinda replaced Kari with Kyra." "And did Kyra make those little moon ball thingies?" "They're called moon globes," Lacey corrected, still somewhat shaken. "Kyra. well, she kinda made one for every digi-destined to communicate with." "Wait, Kyra made them?" I repeated. "Yeah. Remember? Kyra's got her powers and all that?" "Oh yeah." Lacey originally created Kyra kind of like a witch with all kinds of powers and stuff. Really handy, if you think about it. I sighed, leaning back against my propped tail. "So, let me get this straight," I began slowly, trying to register this all through my head. "We're stuck as cartoons in the middle of your Digimon world, right?" She nodded. "And here, Gatomon is your partner, and you have all your powers, right?" She nodded again, this time more timidly. "And you're the sister of Tai and you-" "Well, no," she interrupted, glancing at me nervously. "See, I'm .. I mean, Kyra, is. well, his cousin, not his sister." "Oh, well, his cousin, then. Anything else you'd like to add?" I replied dryly. Lacey sighed, looking all of sudden really exhausted. "Trust me, it's too long a story to explain, now. But," she added, looking at me seriously, "we need to think of how to explain you. Gatomon knows you're not a digimon, and everybody will want to know who and what you are." "Why don't we just say I accidentally got bumped out of another world, or something? With all the crazy stuff that they've been through, it probably won't be too hard to believe," I said sarcastically. Lacey looked up at the sky, thinking my idea over. "Yeah, I suppose that would work. I could just say that as Digital Guardian, I was just checking up on the other worlds and you accidentally fell through my portal." I eyed her suspiciously. "Okay, a) you sound so much like you know what you're talking about, it's scary, and b) what do you mean by Digital Guardian?" "I'll explain it later," she said, standing as she looked out towards where Gatomon vanished. "Looks like Gatomon's back." Rolling my eyes, I suddenly thought of something that made me smile and look up at Lacey. "Hey, is Matt down there?" Glancing at me, she smiled, understanding what I was getting at. "Yep, he should be!" she replied, grinning. See, both Lacey and I have fought long and hard over one of our favorite characters, (and the one we definitely think is the cutest!) Matt! With dark, dreamy blue eyes, dirty blonde hair and a smooth voice accented by his guitar, there isn't a single time we've seen him on TV and desperately wish he were real! And I get to meet him up close! I thought, barely able to keep from squealing in delight. "Come on," Lacey said, glancing at me slyly, "don't want to keep them waiting, do we?" Nodding in agreement, I stood up and looked down at the ground. "Don't be nervous," Lacey said coyly. "I mean, if you're too scared, you could always take the long way down and I'll keep Matt company for you." Narrowing my eyes, I just muttered, "No thanks!" before squeezing my eyes shut and taking a huge jump forward past the branches, waiting to touch the ground. After a few seconds when I still didn't land, I cautiously opened one eye and saw the ground quickly rushing towards me. Somehow, the cat genes in me kept my fears down to a simmer as I fully opened both my eyes and prepared my legs for impact. Again, with surprising ease, I landed in a low, crouched position, and straightened, dusting off my skirt and legs. A soft thump behind me announced Lacey's arrival, grinning like a little girl when I turned to face her. "You didn't think I'd let you have Matt all to yourself, did you?" she asked. "Funny," I replied airily, "I was gonna say the same to you!" Footsteps ahead of us warned me that our private time was just about spent. "Don't forget, you can't call me Lacey!" she reminded me. "Sure thing, Kyra." I replied, sarcastically. "Thank you, Prance." "Ky, there you are!" We both spun around and nearly fainted. Matt jogged up to us with Gatomon and a blue and white-striped St. Bernard looking digimon with six arms and a yellow horn spurting from his head. Instead of wearing his normal green school uniform, he was clad in a loose, black T-shirt and blue jeans. A big, incredibly cute smile spread across his face, he stopped several feet in front of us, not even breathing heavily. By the way, Ky is Matt's nickname for me. Trying not to make a scene, my eyes flipped to Lacey. She glanced at me. Sorry, I forgot I could do this. well, until now. Gee, thanks for giving me the warning! "Uh, sorry about giving you all a scare." Lacey replied, smiling. "I was.um, taking care of Prance!" "Prance?" Matt repeated, adjusting his gaze towards me (ahhh, I swear I almost melted!) "Yeah," Lacey continued, "she kinda accidentally slipped through my portal when I was checking up on some of the other worlds." For the few moments of silence that followed, I was almost positive they all could have heard my heart pounding against my chest. I almost breathed out a sigh of relief when somebody finally spoke up. "Well why didn't you say so?" Gatomon demanded. "I wouldn't have been so hard on you if you would have told me!" The digimon at Matt's side laughed. "Yeah right. You'd still be hard on her even if she did tell you." "Gabumon's right," Matt replied, chuckling. "You're always giving her a hard time." Gatomon simply snorted, crossing her arms. "Why didn't you just take her back?" Gabumon asked. "To be honest," I spoke up rather shyly (cause Matt was watching me now!), "I. uh,. I really wanted to stay and. see this world! Yeah, because, you know, it's very different from my world, and, I admit, I was fascinated when I stumbled in it." Nice touch. Thank you, thank you, please save all applauses for later. Lacey rolled her eyes. "Well, I certainly can't blame you." Matt agreed, nodding. "The digital world is definitely an amazing place." "Yeah, and I didn't want to offend anybody by making her go back." Lacey added, playing along with my story. "I mean, if it were the real world, of course we'd have problems because of her ears and tail, but I didn't think she could cause too much trouble if she stayed here, right?" "Hey, you're the digital guardian, not me," Matt replied, shrugging. "It's really your decision. But," he added, looking at Lacey sternly, "Digital Guardian or not, you still promised to go to the picnic with the rest of us. Prance can come along, too. That is, if you want to." As he said this, he turned to me with the most gorgeous, sparkling blue eyes I have ever seen! For a few moments, I just found myself staring at his eyes, completely forgetting about everyone else around me (I didn't even need to see her to know Lacey had a tremendously smug, tremendously amused look on her face). "Oh, Prance?" she said, struggling to hold back the laughter that threatened to explode. "You still there?" I shook my head, knowing my cheeks were flushing lightly, and looked at Lacey. "Oh, uh, yeah! I mean, yes! I would love that!" "Great!" Matt exclaimed, smiling. "The more the merrier! Ky, you wanna zap us over there?" "Huh?" Lacey said dumbly, looking at him. "Oh! Uh, zap you there? Um, I'm actually kinda tired. I mean, I went through a lot of worlds, today, and I- " "It's okay, it's okay, you don't have to say anything else," he said, grinning. "Wouldn't want you to be too pooped for the picnic." And with that, he turned and began walking the way he came, Gabumon tagged faithfully beside him. Lacey looked down at Gatomon. "You coming?" In spite of her tough appearance, Gatomon smirked and leaped up onto Lacey's shoulder, who, to my surprise, seemed unfazed by the additional weight. What did he mean by "zap"? I asked. Transporting, basically. Since I don't have a grip on these powers, yet, I was planning on figuring them out later. I'm really looking forward to figuring out my wings! She added, a small smile sliding across her face. To be honest, though I wouldn't admit it aloud just yet, for both her sake and my own, I did hope we would be able to stay here long enough to enjoy it. I could tell that Lacey was totally having a blast. If anything, she was absolutely into her "character," literally acting the part perfectly. And I was, too! Not only was being in the digital world an adventure, but also, just being Prance was an adventure! Even something as simple as walking felt incredibly different, like every muscle in my body was ready and waiting to be used to my will. The power I felt was absolutely fantastic! As I was thinking all this to myself, I suddenly returned to reality and saw that we were there! And, another moment of stunned amazement, we were surrounded by all the characters I had previously known only through a quarter of an inch of television screen glass! Tai, the big, brown haired, hot-headed leader of the original digi- destined, sat by the picnic basket (no surprise) with his dinosaur-like digimon, Augumon. Next to him sat Davis, the newer digi-destined leader, with his energetic pal, Veemon, at his side, both with half a sandwich wedged in their mouths (again, no surprise). The rest of the guys, Izzy (the computer genius) and Tentomon, Joe (the paranoid school freak) and Gomamon, TK (Matt's sweet and friendly little brother) and Patamon, Cody (the youngest, but most wise and sensitive) and Armadillomon, and Ken (the kind and once evil digi-destined) and Wormmon sat close to the water's edge, talking and laughing. The girls sat together, watching Tai and Davis plow through the food, disgusted. Mimi (the somewhat self-centered but warm-hearted fashion diva) and Palmon, Sora (logical and loving) and Biyomon, and Yolei (the smart and short-tempered) and Hawkmon all gagged and giggled over the two "leaders'" behavior. "Hey, guys!" Matt called, waving. "Look who we found!" Instantly, everyone looked up and smiled. "Hey, Kyra! What took you so long?" TK said, grinning. "Yeah, two certain guys we know attempted to wait for you." Sora said, glancing at Tai and Davis. "But they failed." Mimi added, giggling. "Hey, who's your friend?" Cody asked, looking at me. As if the spotlight had focused on me, I suddenly felt self-conscience as everyone turned to look at me (or rather my ears and tail). "Hey, you guys be nice." Lacey warned, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "This is our guest, Prance. You don't mind if she tags along for the picnic, do you?" Immediately, Tai shoved the remainder of his sandwich down his throat (disgusting, yet at the same time amusing to watch) and ran up towards us, a big, goofy grin on his face. "Not at all!" he exclaimed, excited. Ooh, Heather, I think he likes you! Well, not exactly Matt, but he's kinda cute, too! Besides, knowing you, you probably already have Matt crazy about you, right?
Well, not yet.
I gave her a side-glanced smirk before smiling brightly at Tai. "Thanks." "No problem! Want something to eat?" "What?" Lacey asked, grinning. "You mean you and Davis actually left something in the basket?" At this comment, all of us laughed while Davis and Tai looked at each other, light hints of red growing across their cheeks. Well, as everyone expected, when we got to the basket, only crumbs remained. Luckily, Joe, (Mr. Reliable), had anticipated this and produced three more, each filled with food. So we all sat down by the water's edge, (Tai on one side of me, Kyra/Lacey on the other, and Matt on the other side of her), eating to our heart's delight. The food was great, and everybody seemed sincerely happy to have me around. Everyone had a story to tell, and by the time the picnic baskets were empty, we were all on our backs, laughing. Then, somebody suggested we do something to work off all the food, and before we knew it, all of us were in the water. While Mimi, Joe, and Palmon relaxed on the beach, we started our own game of water tag where Gomamon ended up being "it". Then, within seconds, he tagged Yolei, who then tagged Veemon, who tagged Davis, who tagged TK, who tagged Patamon, who tagged Tai, who tagged me, (no surprise). Finally, I ended up tagging Matt, who started going after Lacey and Gabumon. To my surprise, she completely flew underwater. Like a speed demon, she darted this way and that, always just a hair beyond Matt's reach. As I sat in the side-lines watching, I grinned as I thought about what she had said earlier.
Not yet, huh? .hmph, 'not yet' my foot!
"They look like a couple of kids, don't they?" I spun around, surprised when I saw TK standing behind me, looking at the two of them with a small, knowing smile on his face. I nodded. "Yeah. Let me guess, they're going out .. Uh, I mean, I think that's how you say it." I added quickly, just remembering that I wasn't supposed to know about all this, being from another world and all. Tk laughed. "Actually, that's what most people think." "They're not?" I asked, completely surprised (knowing Lacey, you could even say I was stunned!) "No, they're really just best friends. Really close best friends." "Best friends?" I repeated, skeptically. "Yep," TK replied, nodding. "See, as kids, they grew up together, closer than a brother and sister, you might say. But about eight years ago, Kyra accidentally got pulled into the Digital World, and she's lived here ever since. When my brother and the rest of us original digi-destined arrived, they ended up reuniting, and since then, they've almost been inseparable. Even though Kyra still lives here, she'd always visit Matt in the real world and he'd visit her here." "Wow." I said, sincerely surprised. I totally thought she'd have him eating out of her hand by now. Major surprise on my part! Well, while I thought about this, Matt finally gave up on Lacey and tagged Gabumon, who by this time was too tired to catch a snail, so we all headed back for shore. Most everyone, by the time they had dried, began to pack up their things and were saying their good-byes. As the humans began walking off and the digimon went their own directions, the original crowd ended up thinning to Lacey, TK, Matt, and me. "It was really nice meeting you, Prance," TK said, smiling. "We all had a lot of fun." "Yeah, me too! It was great!" "Maybe I ought to have her accidentally fall through my portals more often." Lacey said, laughing. "Maybe you should." Matt agreed. At this, we all laughed. "Hey Ky, you coming home?" Matt asked before leaving. I glanced at Lacey as she shook her head. "Nah, I'm going to stay with Prance." Matt shrugged, turning to leave. "Suit yourself." "Bye, Prance. Bye, Kyra." TK called, waving as he ran after his brother. "Bye, guys!" Lacey called back. I simply stared at her, placing my hand on my hip. "And what was that all about?" Lacey turned to look at me. "What?" "Oh, come on!" I said. "I think there's a lot more to Kyra's role in Digimon than you're telling me!" "Okay, okay," she droned, sitting on the ground and leaning against a tree trunk. Not wanting to miss anything, I hopped up on the first branch and sat myself down, wrapping my tail around it (I've discovered that I like sitting on branches- I pretty much figured it was the cat-thing, again). "Well, where do I begin?" Lacey asked, looking up at me. "Here's an easy start-" I began, "what's up with you and Matt?" Lacey sighed, grinning. "Figures you'd want to know that." "Just answer!" "Fine! In the way beginning, me and Matt were just-" "-best friends, yeah, I know. TK already told me." "Oh." She said. "Well, did he tell you about how I first came here?" "Yep." "What about after that?" "The whole reunion thing? Yep." "What about the adoption?" I blinked, staring down at her. "Adoption?" "Yeah. You remember the episodes where Myotismon was defeated, right?" I nodded. "Yeah, well, in my version, Matt's parents ended up adopting Kyra. Stupid, I know, but I was really bored. Anyway, officially, I'm supposed to be Matt and TK's sister, but unofficially, nothing's changed." "What happened to Kyra's original parents?" "They were killed by Myotismon when she was young." "Alright, I suppose that makes sense. But before, Matt said something about a guardian. What's that all about?" Lacey sighed again, slouching closer to the ground. "Okay, I was way too into all this re-writing thing, just to let you know." "Don't worry, I already know." I assured her, smirking. "Anyway, what you're thinking of is the digital guardian- basically a fancy title for somebody who pretty much watches over all the worlds, not just the digital world and the real world." I stared at her. "You're right. You have been way into all this." "No, really. I'm actually kinda proud of all the detail I went into. See, the digital guardian can be anyone or anything, digimon, human, whatever. Originally, Kyra was human. But when one guardian dies, its power automatically chooses another person to be the new one. Kyra's Mom was the guardian before her, and when she died, Kyra immediately gained her powers, the wings and everything. But, since the gap between her Mom's powers and hers was huge, there was a temporary moment of vulnerability in the barrier that protects the worlds from each other. A small tear in the wall between the Digital world and the real world ended up carrying her here." Okay, let me tell you this, my head was totally spinning after all that. "You seriously have no life, do you?" I said, not at all meaning to be rude. Lacey just looked down and blushed. "Yeah, well, once I got into it, I-" "-got sucked into it, unable to escape until you had completely rewritten the entire storyline behind Digimon, right?" I supplied for her. "Well, I guess so, huh?" "No, ya think?" Lacey remained silent. I sighed, thinking I might have gone too far, and jumped down besides her, giggling in spite of myself. "Hey, I didn't mean to give you the third degree." "Yeah, but you were totally right about everything you said, though." "Hey, don't worry about it. Besides," I added, "this all would have made for an awesome fanfic!" Lacey looked up at me with a half-hearted chuckle. "Yeah, if we weren't in it." I sighed again, plopping down on the ground next to her. "Yeah, that I'd have to agree with." "I wonder how we got here in the first place." Lacey pondered, staring up at the sky. "I mean, after all this, we can pretty much deduct that this is definitely no dream!" "Yeah, no kidding." "Do you think maybe we might have somehow stumbled on a real digivice back at home that somehow transported us here?" I glanced at her, quirking an eyebrow. "Okay, now even in light of all that's happened, don't you think that's a little far-fetched?" "Yeah, I suppose so."
"But you are right," I added, leaning my chin against my palm and looking out across the water. "This is no dream, and we need to figure why the heck all this is happening."
"Yeah," Lacey muttered dreamily. "This all started up without me even having to wish on a shooting star." My eyes widened as I jumped to my feet, spinning towards Lacey. "What did you say!?" Confused, she stammered, "Uh, I didn't have to wish on a shooting star?" Realization washing over me, I slowly sank to the ground, my head collapsing into my hands. "Heather? You okay? What's going on?" "My fault." I moaned. "This is all my fault." Lacey crawled forward, placing her hand on my shoulder. "What's all your fault?" "All this! The bodies, the Digimon world, everything. It's all my fault!" I screamed. "Wait, what do you mean? What are you talking about?" I felt the tears running down my face as I struggled to control myself. "What I mean is today after school, I got into a fight with my Mom. Normally, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I was still upset about what Jason had said, so I was a bit harder on her than I would have liked, and I kinda blew up at her. Afterwards, I was feeling miserable, and . and I looked at my picture of Prance on the wall . and I . I kind of made a wish that we could . we could." Understanding what I meant, Lacey leaned forward and hugged me tightly, pressing her cheek against the top of my head. I could feel my ears drooping as I silently cried, hugging my tail to my chest. "All this is my fault. It's because of me we're all in this." "Hey, don't worry about it." Lacey said soothingly. "It's not that bad." "How can you say that? We're cartoons!" "Yeah, but think about this. As Kyra and Prance, we have the best opportunity to get through all this!" "But-" "Heather, something in that wish brought us here to my Digimon world, and that gives us an advantage, right? Just calm down, we'll be okay." "I knew it." Suddenly, we both looked up and gasped. We saw something that made our insides curl. "You're not Kyra." Gatomon stood staring at the two of us with her paws crossed. Lacey jumped up, eyes wide, staring at the digimon. "W-what are you talking about? Of course I am!" Gatomon narrowed her eyes. "Don't insult me! You're not Kyra!" "But she really is!" I joined, slowly rising to my feet. "Why would she lie to you?" Snorting, she placed her paws on her hips. "Fine then. If you're really Kyra, then you wouldn't mind opening your wings, would you?" I gulped, glancing at Lacey out of the corner of my eyes, who probably looked just as nervous as I did. Neither of us had figured out much of our 'abilities' yet except for Lacey's mind-communication thing. Great, what are you gonna do now? I asked. I guess I could try and open them, she replied rather nervously. With doubtful thoughts racing through my mind, both Gatomon and me watched as Lacey clenched her fists and tried to push. Exactly what she was pushing, I didn't know, but I could tell Gatomon wasn't being fooled. After about two minutes of 'pushing', Gatomon finally sighed and rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't know who you two are, but I know Kyra, and you aren't her!" I turned to Lacey, not sure of what exactly to say. "Might as well give it up." Nodding glumly, Lacey looked at Gatomon. "Does anyone else know?" Again, she snorted. "No. I didn't want to upset anyone while they were all having a good time. Especially Matt," she added, eying Lacey warily. "How did you find out?" I asked. Then, she threw me the suspicious glance. "The first time I found you, you called her Lacey." "Guess that'd be kinda strange, huh?" I replied dumbly. "No, you think?" Gatomon spat. "Plus, she kept on repeating herself all throughout the day." "And let me guess. " Lacey finished. "You heard the two of us talking just now, huh?" "Yep." "Oh boy." I sighed, sinking to the ground again. Lacey just stood where she was, stunned and at a loss of what to say. "So would you mind explaining who you two are, and why you," she added, pointing at Lacey, "look like Kyra." We exchanged glances, not sure of whom would speak first. "Well, it's a really, really long story." Lacey began, rubbing her neck apprehensively. "Try me."
"So you mean to tell me that you two come from a world where all this, me, the others, everything, it's all a cartoon. And everything that involves Kyra, that you made it all up, but somehow, you ended up here anyway?" "Sounds crazy, doesn't it?" I asked. "Just a little," she replied sarcastically. "I mean, you guys are telling me that my best friend and digi-destined partner is nothing more than a figment of your imagination!" "We're both really sorry, though." Lacey insisted. "We were hoping to figure out how to get home without bothering anybody." "You mean you don't know?" Gatomon asked. "You think we'd still be here if we did?" I pointed out. "Well, if it's another world you're looking for, can't you just travel to it? I mean, with Kyra's abilities, you can travel from world to world." "Yeah, but only two problems with that idea." Lacey replied. "First, like we said before, neither of us has figured out how to work our powers yet. And second, even if I did know how to, we couldn't find our world in a bunch of cartoon ones." "She's right," I agreed. "We're pretty much stuck here." At this comment, we all took in a deep breath and sighed. "So what are you going to do now?" Gatomon asked. "I don't know." I admitted, yawning. "For now, I guess the only thing we can do is stick around here until we figure something out." "I say we think about this more in the morning." Lacey suggested, yawning herself. "I'm tired." "Me too." I said. "Turning into a cartoon is a lot more tiring than it sounds." Lacey giggled. Gatomon rolled her eyes. "What? It is!"
"D id it work?" "Judging by the throbbing in my head, I'd say we made it!" Rubbing the small lump on my forehead, I cautiously opened my eyes. Yeah, we made it alright. The familiar lush greenery and colorful flowers filled my view. The background music had long disappeared, and I now lied on my back on a carpet of velvety grass (though at the moment, it certainly didn't feel all too comfortable!). The same clear-blue sky was now partially hidden by the wide leaves of the trees. Sitting up, I looked around for Lacey under the impression that she was right beside me. Not seeing her, I assumed my headache magnified her voice to where it seemed like she was close. "Lacey? Where are you?" "Up here!" Looking up, I gasped. "What the heck are you doing up there? You wanna get yourself killed?" From atop the highest branch of a very tall tree, Lacey just looked down at me and smiled. "Hey, don't worry, I'll be fine. But you should come up here! The view is amazing!" "You've got to be kidding! There's no way I'm going up there!" Not to mention my head's still spinning from just sitting down here! "Aw, come on Heather! You really should see this!" Lacey insisted. You know, I realized that I've been sighing a lot since all this crazy stuff started, and this was no exception. Knowing she'd never stop whining until she got what she wanted, I walked towards the tree and reached up towards the first branch. "Just to let you know," I called, "I haven't climbed a tree since I was, like, six, so don't expect me up there anytime soon!" "Trust me! You'll find it a lot easier than you think when you try." Easy for you to say! I thought. But, despite my thoughts, I pulled myself up. I blinked, and looked down at the branch separating me from seven feet of air. Whoa, Lacey was actually right! I thought, amazed. This is pretty easy! Looking up again, I reached up for the next branch, and this time pulled a little harder. Next thing I knew, I was flying upward above my target and landed neatly on the branch above it. "Whoa! Since when could I do that!?" "Well, hello!" Lacey replied, smiling at me from just three branches above me. "You are Prance, now, right?" "Yeah, so?" "Well, think about it. Prance is agile and strong, so naturally, you would be, too, wouldn't you?" I tilted my head to one side as I thought about this. I guess it made sense. Lacey grinned, sitting on the branch comfortably. "Come on, give it a try," she said slyly. "Let's see what you can really do." If I weren't insane, actually believing I was Prance, I would have said, "No way!" in a heartbeat. But right then, the challenging look in Lacey's eyes just couldn't escape me, and before I knew it, with a sneaky smile on my face, I was crouching low, feeling my tail (yes, my tail!) tense behind me, and letting it all go. Who would have guessed I .. I mean Prance, had so much strength in just a little jump? With the little strength I spared, I totally passed the term "flying". I was soaring! Lacey was way below me, now, and the only thing that embraced me was clean, fresh air. And, as thrilling as this all was, I kinda paused to think about that. Here I was, probably about fifty feet above the tree, and a lot longer to the ground. If there was nothing holding me up, then that means .. "Oh crap! I'm going down!" I yelled, already feeling gravity taking effect. The wind rushed by me faster and faster as the distance between me and Lacey rapidly shrank. Seeing my panicked expression, Lacey cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Heather, don't forget, you're a cat, remember? Just land on your feet!" Kinda easier said than done! I thought frantically as I tried to straighten myself out (yeah, in mid-air, remember, so not exactly a piece of cake!). Somehow, I managed to get my feet beneath me and with a grace I never imagined I possessed, I lightly landed on the branch next to Lacey, hardly shaking the tree or anything. Lacey clapped, a wide smile on her face. "See? I told ya you could do it! How did it feel?" "I'll tell you when my head stops spinning," I replied, all but collapsing onto the branch. "Hmph, and you call yourself a cat?" Instantly, I snapped back up, throwing a nasty look at Lacey. "What'd you say!?" "I didn't say it!" I narrowed my eyes, studying her skeptically. "Honest!" she added. Then, out of nowhere, "I mean, really. Even those fat, stupid house cats have better balance than you, and they don't freak out over a little jump like that!" This time, my annoyance passed for curiosity as I looked around, realizing the voice obviously wasn't Lacey's. "Who's there?" I demanded. A rustle in the leaves below us made both of our heads look sharply down, but nothing was there. Apprehensively, I glanced at Lacey. "Please tell me you know what that was." Lacey merely looked at me with a "sorry" look and shrugged. "It kinda sounds familiar, but I can't place it." "Kinda familiar? Is that a good or bad thing?" "Your guess is as good as mine!" Once again, the voice appeared, this time giggling. "Very funny, Kyra. You don't even recognize me?" For a brief moment, I thought I saw Lacey's eyes widen in fear, but when I checked to make sure, they were normal. Instead of commenting on it, I said, "See? The voice even knows you!" "Of course I know her!" the voice replied. "She's my partner!" "Lacey, what is she talking about?" I asked, totally confused. Before I could answer, the figure to the voice stepped out from the safety of the leaves. Now, let me tell you, if ever there were a prize for the most original "anime" style facial expression, I would have won it long ago, but this once I bet would have been the one to top them all. I could just imagine my eyes the size of basketballs and my jaw dropping all the way to the ground below. The person, . er, creature, that stood before us was actually a cat, white in color with large, wide ears and tufts of purple (yeah, purple) hair on the end of each one. Her eyes were big, sharp and blue, and she wore a pair of bright yellow gloves with her claws poking out of the fingers. Her tail must have been twice the length of her body, ending in another clump of purple hairs. A single, gold ring hung neatly, close to the end of it. For those of you who are not familiar with Digimon, the creature that stood before me was known as a Gatomon. To make it short, she's dynamite in a small package- 110% fire, fury, and twice as much attitude. But what did she mean by partner? "Gatomon?" Lacey sputtered, probably looking as bewildered as I did. "W- what are you doing-" "What am I doing here?" she retorted, placing her paws on her hips. "Why don't you try telling me what you're doing here? The guys have been looking for you all morning! Everybody was supposed to go swimming down at Seadramon's Lake, remember?" Okay, all these words totally went right over my head. Completely stunned, I just looked at Lacey, who seemed equally amazed. "Um.. Uh, . I'm sorry?" Gatomon just shook her head. "Yeah, you should be. We practically searched the entire Digital World for you!" Before Lacey could respond, Gatomon pulled something out of her right glove- a small, tennis ball-sized sphere of a clear and very pretty stone. In the center, it looked like there was a tiny, golden crescent moon encrusted in it. Again, I could have sworn I saw Lacey's eyes widen. Holding up the crystal ball while still staring at Lacey, Gatomon squeezed it. Almost immediately, the tiny crescent in the center glowed brightly, making the entire little trinket look like a ball of light. Bringing the object closer to her mouth, Gatomon said loudly, "Matt, I found her." A deep, velvety (and very, very handsome!) voice replied, "It's about time!" "Yeah, I know. Just hang on and I'll meet you in a minute." "Got it," the voice answered just as the light from the crescent faded. Tucking the ball back into her glove, Gatomon said, "Just stay here. I'll go get the others. Knowing Davis, he'd probably end up getting himself lost trying to find this place. And you," she added, glancing my way, "had better stay here, too. You're obviously not a digimon, so you'd be safer with Kyra." Not allowing any time for either of us to say anything, Gatomon suddenly leapt into the sky and out of sight. Silence completely took over the scene as Lacey stood staring out after Gatomon and I stood staring at her. "What in the world was that all about?" I finally asked, looking at Lacey strangely. "If we're in the Digimon show, then how did Gatomon know you? I mean, not the 'you' you, obviously, but the Kyra you? What did she mean by you being her partner? Kari's her partner! And what was that thing she had? Why did-" "Heather?" I blinked. "Yeah?" "Did I ever tell you I ... um, ... kinda put Kyra in Digimon?" Again, I blinked. "Okay, you just made absolutely no sense." Lacey looked down, looking like she was having difficulty finding words for what she wanted to say. "What I mean is sometimes, when I was bored, I'd kinda rewrite the Digimon story in my head, putting Kyra in it." "Okay, so what does that have to do with ." Suddenly, it dawned on me. "Oh." "Yeah." I nodded, still stunned. "And, uh, did Kyra have a digimon partner?" Lacey nodded. "Yep. When I first saw it, I really like Gatomon cause of her tough attitude and her fast speed, so I kinda replaced Kari with Kyra." "And did Kyra make those little moon ball thingies?" "They're called moon globes," Lacey corrected, still somewhat shaken. "Kyra. well, she kinda made one for every digi-destined to communicate with." "Wait, Kyra made them?" I repeated. "Yeah. Remember? Kyra's got her powers and all that?" "Oh yeah." Lacey originally created Kyra kind of like a witch with all kinds of powers and stuff. Really handy, if you think about it. I sighed, leaning back against my propped tail. "So, let me get this straight," I began slowly, trying to register this all through my head. "We're stuck as cartoons in the middle of your Digimon world, right?" She nodded. "And here, Gatomon is your partner, and you have all your powers, right?" She nodded again, this time more timidly. "And you're the sister of Tai and you-" "Well, no," she interrupted, glancing at me nervously. "See, I'm .. I mean, Kyra, is. well, his cousin, not his sister." "Oh, well, his cousin, then. Anything else you'd like to add?" I replied dryly. Lacey sighed, looking all of sudden really exhausted. "Trust me, it's too long a story to explain, now. But," she added, looking at me seriously, "we need to think of how to explain you. Gatomon knows you're not a digimon, and everybody will want to know who and what you are." "Why don't we just say I accidentally got bumped out of another world, or something? With all the crazy stuff that they've been through, it probably won't be too hard to believe," I said sarcastically. Lacey looked up at the sky, thinking my idea over. "Yeah, I suppose that would work. I could just say that as Digital Guardian, I was just checking up on the other worlds and you accidentally fell through my portal." I eyed her suspiciously. "Okay, a) you sound so much like you know what you're talking about, it's scary, and b) what do you mean by Digital Guardian?" "I'll explain it later," she said, standing as she looked out towards where Gatomon vanished. "Looks like Gatomon's back." Rolling my eyes, I suddenly thought of something that made me smile and look up at Lacey. "Hey, is Matt down there?" Glancing at me, she smiled, understanding what I was getting at. "Yep, he should be!" she replied, grinning. See, both Lacey and I have fought long and hard over one of our favorite characters, (and the one we definitely think is the cutest!) Matt! With dark, dreamy blue eyes, dirty blonde hair and a smooth voice accented by his guitar, there isn't a single time we've seen him on TV and desperately wish he were real! And I get to meet him up close! I thought, barely able to keep from squealing in delight. "Come on," Lacey said, glancing at me slyly, "don't want to keep them waiting, do we?" Nodding in agreement, I stood up and looked down at the ground. "Don't be nervous," Lacey said coyly. "I mean, if you're too scared, you could always take the long way down and I'll keep Matt company for you." Narrowing my eyes, I just muttered, "No thanks!" before squeezing my eyes shut and taking a huge jump forward past the branches, waiting to touch the ground. After a few seconds when I still didn't land, I cautiously opened one eye and saw the ground quickly rushing towards me. Somehow, the cat genes in me kept my fears down to a simmer as I fully opened both my eyes and prepared my legs for impact. Again, with surprising ease, I landed in a low, crouched position, and straightened, dusting off my skirt and legs. A soft thump behind me announced Lacey's arrival, grinning like a little girl when I turned to face her. "You didn't think I'd let you have Matt all to yourself, did you?" she asked. "Funny," I replied airily, "I was gonna say the same to you!" Footsteps ahead of us warned me that our private time was just about spent. "Don't forget, you can't call me Lacey!" she reminded me. "Sure thing, Kyra." I replied, sarcastically. "Thank you, Prance." "Ky, there you are!" We both spun around and nearly fainted. Matt jogged up to us with Gatomon and a blue and white-striped St. Bernard looking digimon with six arms and a yellow horn spurting from his head. Instead of wearing his normal green school uniform, he was clad in a loose, black T-shirt and blue jeans. A big, incredibly cute smile spread across his face, he stopped several feet in front of us, not even breathing heavily. By the way, Ky is Matt's nickname for me. Trying not to make a scene, my eyes flipped to Lacey. She glanced at me. Sorry, I forgot I could do this. well, until now. Gee, thanks for giving me the warning! "Uh, sorry about giving you all a scare." Lacey replied, smiling. "I was.um, taking care of Prance!" "Prance?" Matt repeated, adjusting his gaze towards me (ahhh, I swear I almost melted!) "Yeah," Lacey continued, "she kinda accidentally slipped through my portal when I was checking up on some of the other worlds." For the few moments of silence that followed, I was almost positive they all could have heard my heart pounding against my chest. I almost breathed out a sigh of relief when somebody finally spoke up. "Well why didn't you say so?" Gatomon demanded. "I wouldn't have been so hard on you if you would have told me!" The digimon at Matt's side laughed. "Yeah right. You'd still be hard on her even if she did tell you." "Gabumon's right," Matt replied, chuckling. "You're always giving her a hard time." Gatomon simply snorted, crossing her arms. "Why didn't you just take her back?" Gabumon asked. "To be honest," I spoke up rather shyly (cause Matt was watching me now!), "I. uh,. I really wanted to stay and. see this world! Yeah, because, you know, it's very different from my world, and, I admit, I was fascinated when I stumbled in it." Nice touch. Thank you, thank you, please save all applauses for later. Lacey rolled her eyes. "Well, I certainly can't blame you." Matt agreed, nodding. "The digital world is definitely an amazing place." "Yeah, and I didn't want to offend anybody by making her go back." Lacey added, playing along with my story. "I mean, if it were the real world, of course we'd have problems because of her ears and tail, but I didn't think she could cause too much trouble if she stayed here, right?" "Hey, you're the digital guardian, not me," Matt replied, shrugging. "It's really your decision. But," he added, looking at Lacey sternly, "Digital Guardian or not, you still promised to go to the picnic with the rest of us. Prance can come along, too. That is, if you want to." As he said this, he turned to me with the most gorgeous, sparkling blue eyes I have ever seen! For a few moments, I just found myself staring at his eyes, completely forgetting about everyone else around me (I didn't even need to see her to know Lacey had a tremendously smug, tremendously amused look on her face). "Oh, Prance?" she said, struggling to hold back the laughter that threatened to explode. "You still there?" I shook my head, knowing my cheeks were flushing lightly, and looked at Lacey. "Oh, uh, yeah! I mean, yes! I would love that!" "Great!" Matt exclaimed, smiling. "The more the merrier! Ky, you wanna zap us over there?" "Huh?" Lacey said dumbly, looking at him. "Oh! Uh, zap you there? Um, I'm actually kinda tired. I mean, I went through a lot of worlds, today, and I- " "It's okay, it's okay, you don't have to say anything else," he said, grinning. "Wouldn't want you to be too pooped for the picnic." And with that, he turned and began walking the way he came, Gabumon tagged faithfully beside him. Lacey looked down at Gatomon. "You coming?" In spite of her tough appearance, Gatomon smirked and leaped up onto Lacey's shoulder, who, to my surprise, seemed unfazed by the additional weight. What did he mean by "zap"? I asked. Transporting, basically. Since I don't have a grip on these powers, yet, I was planning on figuring them out later. I'm really looking forward to figuring out my wings! She added, a small smile sliding across her face. To be honest, though I wouldn't admit it aloud just yet, for both her sake and my own, I did hope we would be able to stay here long enough to enjoy it. I could tell that Lacey was totally having a blast. If anything, she was absolutely into her "character," literally acting the part perfectly. And I was, too! Not only was being in the digital world an adventure, but also, just being Prance was an adventure! Even something as simple as walking felt incredibly different, like every muscle in my body was ready and waiting to be used to my will. The power I felt was absolutely fantastic! As I was thinking all this to myself, I suddenly returned to reality and saw that we were there! And, another moment of stunned amazement, we were surrounded by all the characters I had previously known only through a quarter of an inch of television screen glass! Tai, the big, brown haired, hot-headed leader of the original digi- destined, sat by the picnic basket (no surprise) with his dinosaur-like digimon, Augumon. Next to him sat Davis, the newer digi-destined leader, with his energetic pal, Veemon, at his side, both with half a sandwich wedged in their mouths (again, no surprise). The rest of the guys, Izzy (the computer genius) and Tentomon, Joe (the paranoid school freak) and Gomamon, TK (Matt's sweet and friendly little brother) and Patamon, Cody (the youngest, but most wise and sensitive) and Armadillomon, and Ken (the kind and once evil digi-destined) and Wormmon sat close to the water's edge, talking and laughing. The girls sat together, watching Tai and Davis plow through the food, disgusted. Mimi (the somewhat self-centered but warm-hearted fashion diva) and Palmon, Sora (logical and loving) and Biyomon, and Yolei (the smart and short-tempered) and Hawkmon all gagged and giggled over the two "leaders'" behavior. "Hey, guys!" Matt called, waving. "Look who we found!" Instantly, everyone looked up and smiled. "Hey, Kyra! What took you so long?" TK said, grinning. "Yeah, two certain guys we know attempted to wait for you." Sora said, glancing at Tai and Davis. "But they failed." Mimi added, giggling. "Hey, who's your friend?" Cody asked, looking at me. As if the spotlight had focused on me, I suddenly felt self-conscience as everyone turned to look at me (or rather my ears and tail). "Hey, you guys be nice." Lacey warned, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "This is our guest, Prance. You don't mind if she tags along for the picnic, do you?" Immediately, Tai shoved the remainder of his sandwich down his throat (disgusting, yet at the same time amusing to watch) and ran up towards us, a big, goofy grin on his face. "Not at all!" he exclaimed, excited. Ooh, Heather, I think he likes you! Well, not exactly Matt, but he's kinda cute, too! Besides, knowing you, you probably already have Matt crazy about you, right?
Well, not yet.
I gave her a side-glanced smirk before smiling brightly at Tai. "Thanks." "No problem! Want something to eat?" "What?" Lacey asked, grinning. "You mean you and Davis actually left something in the basket?" At this comment, all of us laughed while Davis and Tai looked at each other, light hints of red growing across their cheeks. Well, as everyone expected, when we got to the basket, only crumbs remained. Luckily, Joe, (Mr. Reliable), had anticipated this and produced three more, each filled with food. So we all sat down by the water's edge, (Tai on one side of me, Kyra/Lacey on the other, and Matt on the other side of her), eating to our heart's delight. The food was great, and everybody seemed sincerely happy to have me around. Everyone had a story to tell, and by the time the picnic baskets were empty, we were all on our backs, laughing. Then, somebody suggested we do something to work off all the food, and before we knew it, all of us were in the water. While Mimi, Joe, and Palmon relaxed on the beach, we started our own game of water tag where Gomamon ended up being "it". Then, within seconds, he tagged Yolei, who then tagged Veemon, who tagged Davis, who tagged TK, who tagged Patamon, who tagged Tai, who tagged me, (no surprise). Finally, I ended up tagging Matt, who started going after Lacey and Gabumon. To my surprise, she completely flew underwater. Like a speed demon, she darted this way and that, always just a hair beyond Matt's reach. As I sat in the side-lines watching, I grinned as I thought about what she had said earlier.
Not yet, huh? .hmph, 'not yet' my foot!
"They look like a couple of kids, don't they?" I spun around, surprised when I saw TK standing behind me, looking at the two of them with a small, knowing smile on his face. I nodded. "Yeah. Let me guess, they're going out .. Uh, I mean, I think that's how you say it." I added quickly, just remembering that I wasn't supposed to know about all this, being from another world and all. Tk laughed. "Actually, that's what most people think." "They're not?" I asked, completely surprised (knowing Lacey, you could even say I was stunned!) "No, they're really just best friends. Really close best friends." "Best friends?" I repeated, skeptically. "Yep," TK replied, nodding. "See, as kids, they grew up together, closer than a brother and sister, you might say. But about eight years ago, Kyra accidentally got pulled into the Digital World, and she's lived here ever since. When my brother and the rest of us original digi-destined arrived, they ended up reuniting, and since then, they've almost been inseparable. Even though Kyra still lives here, she'd always visit Matt in the real world and he'd visit her here." "Wow." I said, sincerely surprised. I totally thought she'd have him eating out of her hand by now. Major surprise on my part! Well, while I thought about this, Matt finally gave up on Lacey and tagged Gabumon, who by this time was too tired to catch a snail, so we all headed back for shore. Most everyone, by the time they had dried, began to pack up their things and were saying their good-byes. As the humans began walking off and the digimon went their own directions, the original crowd ended up thinning to Lacey, TK, Matt, and me. "It was really nice meeting you, Prance," TK said, smiling. "We all had a lot of fun." "Yeah, me too! It was great!" "Maybe I ought to have her accidentally fall through my portals more often." Lacey said, laughing. "Maybe you should." Matt agreed. At this, we all laughed. "Hey Ky, you coming home?" Matt asked before leaving. I glanced at Lacey as she shook her head. "Nah, I'm going to stay with Prance." Matt shrugged, turning to leave. "Suit yourself." "Bye, Prance. Bye, Kyra." TK called, waving as he ran after his brother. "Bye, guys!" Lacey called back. I simply stared at her, placing my hand on my hip. "And what was that all about?" Lacey turned to look at me. "What?" "Oh, come on!" I said. "I think there's a lot more to Kyra's role in Digimon than you're telling me!" "Okay, okay," she droned, sitting on the ground and leaning against a tree trunk. Not wanting to miss anything, I hopped up on the first branch and sat myself down, wrapping my tail around it (I've discovered that I like sitting on branches- I pretty much figured it was the cat-thing, again). "Well, where do I begin?" Lacey asked, looking up at me. "Here's an easy start-" I began, "what's up with you and Matt?" Lacey sighed, grinning. "Figures you'd want to know that." "Just answer!" "Fine! In the way beginning, me and Matt were just-" "-best friends, yeah, I know. TK already told me." "Oh." She said. "Well, did he tell you about how I first came here?" "Yep." "What about after that?" "The whole reunion thing? Yep." "What about the adoption?" I blinked, staring down at her. "Adoption?" "Yeah. You remember the episodes where Myotismon was defeated, right?" I nodded. "Yeah, well, in my version, Matt's parents ended up adopting Kyra. Stupid, I know, but I was really bored. Anyway, officially, I'm supposed to be Matt and TK's sister, but unofficially, nothing's changed." "What happened to Kyra's original parents?" "They were killed by Myotismon when she was young." "Alright, I suppose that makes sense. But before, Matt said something about a guardian. What's that all about?" Lacey sighed again, slouching closer to the ground. "Okay, I was way too into all this re-writing thing, just to let you know." "Don't worry, I already know." I assured her, smirking. "Anyway, what you're thinking of is the digital guardian- basically a fancy title for somebody who pretty much watches over all the worlds, not just the digital world and the real world." I stared at her. "You're right. You have been way into all this." "No, really. I'm actually kinda proud of all the detail I went into. See, the digital guardian can be anyone or anything, digimon, human, whatever. Originally, Kyra was human. But when one guardian dies, its power automatically chooses another person to be the new one. Kyra's Mom was the guardian before her, and when she died, Kyra immediately gained her powers, the wings and everything. But, since the gap between her Mom's powers and hers was huge, there was a temporary moment of vulnerability in the barrier that protects the worlds from each other. A small tear in the wall between the Digital world and the real world ended up carrying her here." Okay, let me tell you this, my head was totally spinning after all that. "You seriously have no life, do you?" I said, not at all meaning to be rude. Lacey just looked down and blushed. "Yeah, well, once I got into it, I-" "-got sucked into it, unable to escape until you had completely rewritten the entire storyline behind Digimon, right?" I supplied for her. "Well, I guess so, huh?" "No, ya think?" Lacey remained silent. I sighed, thinking I might have gone too far, and jumped down besides her, giggling in spite of myself. "Hey, I didn't mean to give you the third degree." "Yeah, but you were totally right about everything you said, though." "Hey, don't worry about it. Besides," I added, "this all would have made for an awesome fanfic!" Lacey looked up at me with a half-hearted chuckle. "Yeah, if we weren't in it." I sighed again, plopping down on the ground next to her. "Yeah, that I'd have to agree with." "I wonder how we got here in the first place." Lacey pondered, staring up at the sky. "I mean, after all this, we can pretty much deduct that this is definitely no dream!" "Yeah, no kidding." "Do you think maybe we might have somehow stumbled on a real digivice back at home that somehow transported us here?" I glanced at her, quirking an eyebrow. "Okay, now even in light of all that's happened, don't you think that's a little far-fetched?" "Yeah, I suppose so."
"But you are right," I added, leaning my chin against my palm and looking out across the water. "This is no dream, and we need to figure why the heck all this is happening."
"Yeah," Lacey muttered dreamily. "This all started up without me even having to wish on a shooting star." My eyes widened as I jumped to my feet, spinning towards Lacey. "What did you say!?" Confused, she stammered, "Uh, I didn't have to wish on a shooting star?" Realization washing over me, I slowly sank to the ground, my head collapsing into my hands. "Heather? You okay? What's going on?" "My fault." I moaned. "This is all my fault." Lacey crawled forward, placing her hand on my shoulder. "What's all your fault?" "All this! The bodies, the Digimon world, everything. It's all my fault!" I screamed. "Wait, what do you mean? What are you talking about?" I felt the tears running down my face as I struggled to control myself. "What I mean is today after school, I got into a fight with my Mom. Normally, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I was still upset about what Jason had said, so I was a bit harder on her than I would have liked, and I kinda blew up at her. Afterwards, I was feeling miserable, and . and I looked at my picture of Prance on the wall . and I . I kind of made a wish that we could . we could." Understanding what I meant, Lacey leaned forward and hugged me tightly, pressing her cheek against the top of my head. I could feel my ears drooping as I silently cried, hugging my tail to my chest. "All this is my fault. It's because of me we're all in this." "Hey, don't worry about it." Lacey said soothingly. "It's not that bad." "How can you say that? We're cartoons!" "Yeah, but think about this. As Kyra and Prance, we have the best opportunity to get through all this!" "But-" "Heather, something in that wish brought us here to my Digimon world, and that gives us an advantage, right? Just calm down, we'll be okay." "I knew it." Suddenly, we both looked up and gasped. We saw something that made our insides curl. "You're not Kyra." Gatomon stood staring at the two of us with her paws crossed. Lacey jumped up, eyes wide, staring at the digimon. "W-what are you talking about? Of course I am!" Gatomon narrowed her eyes. "Don't insult me! You're not Kyra!" "But she really is!" I joined, slowly rising to my feet. "Why would she lie to you?" Snorting, she placed her paws on her hips. "Fine then. If you're really Kyra, then you wouldn't mind opening your wings, would you?" I gulped, glancing at Lacey out of the corner of my eyes, who probably looked just as nervous as I did. Neither of us had figured out much of our 'abilities' yet except for Lacey's mind-communication thing. Great, what are you gonna do now? I asked. I guess I could try and open them, she replied rather nervously. With doubtful thoughts racing through my mind, both Gatomon and me watched as Lacey clenched her fists and tried to push. Exactly what she was pushing, I didn't know, but I could tell Gatomon wasn't being fooled. After about two minutes of 'pushing', Gatomon finally sighed and rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't know who you two are, but I know Kyra, and you aren't her!" I turned to Lacey, not sure of what exactly to say. "Might as well give it up." Nodding glumly, Lacey looked at Gatomon. "Does anyone else know?" Again, she snorted. "No. I didn't want to upset anyone while they were all having a good time. Especially Matt," she added, eying Lacey warily. "How did you find out?" I asked. Then, she threw me the suspicious glance. "The first time I found you, you called her Lacey." "Guess that'd be kinda strange, huh?" I replied dumbly. "No, you think?" Gatomon spat. "Plus, she kept on repeating herself all throughout the day." "And let me guess. " Lacey finished. "You heard the two of us talking just now, huh?" "Yep." "Oh boy." I sighed, sinking to the ground again. Lacey just stood where she was, stunned and at a loss of what to say. "So would you mind explaining who you two are, and why you," she added, pointing at Lacey, "look like Kyra." We exchanged glances, not sure of whom would speak first. "Well, it's a really, really long story." Lacey began, rubbing her neck apprehensively. "Try me."
"So you mean to tell me that you two come from a world where all this, me, the others, everything, it's all a cartoon. And everything that involves Kyra, that you made it all up, but somehow, you ended up here anyway?" "Sounds crazy, doesn't it?" I asked. "Just a little," she replied sarcastically. "I mean, you guys are telling me that my best friend and digi-destined partner is nothing more than a figment of your imagination!" "We're both really sorry, though." Lacey insisted. "We were hoping to figure out how to get home without bothering anybody." "You mean you don't know?" Gatomon asked. "You think we'd still be here if we did?" I pointed out. "Well, if it's another world you're looking for, can't you just travel to it? I mean, with Kyra's abilities, you can travel from world to world." "Yeah, but only two problems with that idea." Lacey replied. "First, like we said before, neither of us has figured out how to work our powers yet. And second, even if I did know how to, we couldn't find our world in a bunch of cartoon ones." "She's right," I agreed. "We're pretty much stuck here." At this comment, we all took in a deep breath and sighed. "So what are you going to do now?" Gatomon asked. "I don't know." I admitted, yawning. "For now, I guess the only thing we can do is stick around here until we figure something out." "I say we think about this more in the morning." Lacey suggested, yawning herself. "I'm tired." "Me too." I said. "Turning into a cartoon is a lot more tiring than it sounds." Lacey giggled. Gatomon rolled her eyes. "What? It is!"