Chapter 2

Explaining what was going on to the children proved to be a rather complicated affair but the young man did his best to do so. He was a patient man, having spent a lot of time around children and he really couldn't fault these kids for wanting to know what was going on and the girl was right, he did owe them some kind of explanation.

"I believe the fact that I and the rest of the creatures ending up here was an accident," he began. "You see my own world had been going through a lot of its own problems, the beings that you had a hard time with here have been showing up all over there and have been trying to take over the land one place at a time." he folded his arms and looked at the children. "My friend and I managed to free most of the areas but when we tried to enter her kingdom we were separated and I ended up here instead." now he looked around himself at the night darkened city before adding. "...Wherever here is."

"But what are those things," Rika asked him. "You didn't explain any of that just now."

"They re called shadow beasts," he told her. "They were once human until a dark curse was put on them that reduced them to mindless animals."

"Humans?" Takato exclaimed, his eyes wide.

The young man looked at him and nodded, having no need to say anymore.

Takato's brown eyes reflected the horror stricken look on his face. The young warrior realized this boy seemed to be reliving some kind of past experience but he couldn't be sure. For all he knew the kid was probably acting like that due to the fact that he'd not just killed some monsters but people. But what else could he do? There wasn't any way to break the curse so there hadn't been anymore hope for them. Killing them had been an act of mercy, not one of malice.

Henry had also noticed the look on his friend's face and turned to him, saying his name a few times until he snapped out of whatever episode he was flashing to and looked at him.

"You're fine," he told him. "She's safe and that is over."

Takato nodded and his gaze focused on the young man once more, asking as if nothing had happened. "How come you were able to defeat them but none of us or our digimon could even give them a scratch?"

"I don't know," the man looked the kids and their digimon over. He knew nothing about these things called digimon or how they worked. "I can't explain that but there has to be a reason." he turned his attention away from them then, a frown creasing his face.

Something was troubling him.

Henry noticed this and started to get a really bad feeling. Was there more to the story than just what the man had just told them? What he said made sense, he figured. Him coming from some strange world wasn't all that far fetched considering the digital world existed. He took a quick look around himself, wondering if more than the shadow beasts had come from the portal.

"You mentioned you were looking for somebody," Rika spoke up, regaining the man's attention. "maybe we can help you find them."

He looked at her, unsure. "I don't know," he responded, uncertain. "You wouldn't even know what to look for."

"We would if you describe them to us." she retorted.

"Hold it," Henry spoke up, looking toward the young man. "I think before we commit ourselves to anything we should at least learn your name." the boy didn't know why knowing his name would make any difference at this point but he felt it was the least this strange man could do for them.

"Only if you return the favor," the young man told him. "It wouldn't be fair if I gave my name but I don't know yours."

Fair enough. The three children introduced themselves and their digimon partners. Once they had finished the young warrior said. "My name is Link, nice to meet you."

Then, before anymore words could be exchanged, the haunting screams of the shadow beasts split the air again.

Link swore, unsheathing his sword. "Looks like I'm not finished after all."

He rushed off.

The trio of digidestined watched him go then Rika looked back at the boys, her face a mask of determination. Their faces reflected the same emotion and they nodded, all three taking off after the young warrior hylian named Link.

They pursued him for a few blocks until the children saw him come to a stop and stand still as he looked around himself. When he looked over his shoulder and saw them, the expression on his face made it obvious he didn't appreciate being followed.

Weren't they aware of how dangerous the situation was, especially since none of them could do anything against the shadow beasts? Didn't they care? Did they believe, now that they knew what the beings were and where they came from, they could suddenly defeat one?

Now was not the time to be trying to answer these questions. The danger was still there and he had to take care of it before anyone was harmed.

Link barked an order at the children to stay put before he turned his attention on two shadow beasts who were crouched on the roof of a house, watching him. He gripped the handle of his sword and rushed at the creatures who leaped from the roof of the house and landed in front of him.

But at the very moment when they would have clashed another shriek split the air and the beasts paused, raising their heads and looking sideways before bolting down the street, completely ignoring the young man.

Watching them rush off the answer for their behavior suddenly came to him and he swore. Not good, not good at all! He had to get back before it was too late.

Realizing this he reached into one of the pockets on his tunic and pulled something out of it, raising the object up to eye level. The space before him collapsed into a black void with jagged green lines. He started for the portal but was stopped when that giant female fox creature suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking the way.

"Hold it!" she commanded, putting up one of her three fingered paws. "I cannot allow you to leave just yet."

Link turned, becoming aware that the children who had followed him were still there. Now what?

"Look I have already explained the situation to you," he said looking at Rika who seemed to be the leader. "the beings are leaving now and and will likely not come back, you don't have to worry about it anymore."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," the fox creature replied to his statement.

"Renamon is right," the girl put in. "Whether they are leaving here or not those things caused a lot of trouble here and could have hurt someone, maybe they did and we didn't see it happen, we can't just forget this happened. There has to be a reason for them coming here even if you don't know what it is." she paused and shot him a suspicious look. "or do you?"

He opened his mouth to give a retort, but out of nowhere a large figure came flying out of nowhere and landed on the pavement, causing everyone's attention to be diverted to it. This new creature looked like a large pink rabbit with extraordinarily long arms in a white jumpsuit and wearing a blue ribbon around it's neck.

"Henry!" it exclaimed, rushing toward the Chinese boy and grabbing him by the arms. "it's Suzy!"

The boy stare at the creature, his eyes wide. "Antylamon!" he exclaimed. "what's happened to Suzy?"

The giant bunny stared at him, her large red eyes full or urgency. "Some black monsters attacked us!" she explained in a rush. "they grabbed her and Jeri and ran off with them!"

"Jeri?!" Takato exclaimed, suddenly entering the conversation when he heard the name of his crush. A look of panic had crossed is face. "why didn't you stop them?"

"I tried," she went on. "but nothing I did made a difference. It was like they were immune to my attacks. They carried Suzy and Jeri into a portal and it closed before I had a chance to follow them!"

Henry and Takato looked at each other, their expressions mirroring each other. Those creatures had taken someone they cared deeply for. What had started out as somewhat of an incident that they could have forgotten about if they wanted to had now become personal.

The boys looked over at Link who'd been listening to the entire exchange. Henry spoke directly to him. "What were you saying about us not needing to worry about this anymore?" His expression held a strange anger, as if he were blaming the older boy for what the rabbit digimon had just related. "Your shadow monsters have just stolen my sister and our friend Jeri. If you believe we can just let it go now you have another thing coming."

The young man, sheathed his sword and closed his eyes sighing. Things had just gotten a whole lot more complicated. It looked like he didn't have a choice. These children wouldn't just forget about it now that people they cared about had been pulled into the situation, he could tell by the looks on their faces that they weren't going to take no for an answer.

He could respect that, after all he'd gone through a similar situation not long ago.

"Very well," he said. "Let's go."

Rika looked over at Renamon and gave her a nod. The fox digimon ceased blocking the portal, opening their path to it.

"Stay close," Link advised them as the group headed toward the portal. "You don't want to get separated."

As they headed into the portal the digimon including Antylamon followed. She wasn't going to stay there and wait for her partner to be brought back to her, even though Henry had tried to convince her to do so. After she'd crossed the boundary into the spiraling vortex the opening leading into Japan closed, sealing off any further interaction with that world and plunging them all into darkness.


Something was poking him. Impmon scrunched up his face and swatted at the offender, his hand making contact with something that jerked away. Good maybe now it would leave him alone so he could get some sleep. It was probably Mako, couldn't that kid keep his hands to himself for once?

Suddenly he felt a painful tugging on his face as someone grabbed his cheek and began to pull hard.

"Knock it off, Mako!" he yelled, slapping at the hand as he came fully awake. "I don't want to play with you right now!"

"Mako?" someone giggled and yanked on his cheek once more before letting it go, the skin snapped painfully back into place.

"OW!" Impmon's eyes snapped open and he sat up, rubbing the side of his face. "Mako, I told you to-" he stopped in mid sentence when he realized he wasn't in Japan nor was the person pulling on his face Mako or his partner Ai for that matter.

It was that weird female digimon he'd run into earlier. She was sitting there in front of him, grinning a toothy grin.

"Ahh!" he exclaimed, putting up his arm as his eyes widened. "What are you doing here?!"

The female "digimon" laughed. "Do you even know where "here" is?" she asked him.

"Huh?" now he became aware of his surroundings and took a moment to take them in. They seemed to be in some dark chamber partually lit by some kind of half light that left most of the room in shadows. The atmosphere it created was unsettling. "Where are we?"

She made a show of looking around the room before she looked back at him and said smirking. "I believe it's called a dungeon."

What?! Impmon's green eyes widened and he shot to his feet. He rushed around the room, making out a wall that was nothing but a line of bars. He grabbed the bars and pulled on them but they didn't give. Squinting in the darkness he could make out more cells on all sides of the one he and the female were in.

"Hey!" he suddenly shouted into the gloomy half light. "Can anybody here me? Lemme outta here!"

The female for her part watched him in silence, smirking slightly as if she was finding his reaction humorous. He finally gave up on trying to get out of the cell and turned back to her. "Okay then, you seem to know so much, where are we and don't say a dungeon?" he stated. "Where is this place and why am I here with you?"

The female looked at him and shrugged. He frowned. She wasn't going to answer his question? What kind of-

"It's kind of a long story," she spoke up before he even finished the thought. "and I'm not sure you would be smart enough to understand it anyway."

Impmon glared at her. What was her problem? He hadn't done anything to her and she kept insulting him. He started to call her out on it but then he realized not too long ago he'd had the same attitude problem as she did. Maybe she was also damaged in some way like he had been.

Considering that maybe it would be best if he worded things differently, maybe be a little kinder.

"I don't exactly have anything else to do right now," he told her, walking back to where she was sitting and plopping his bottom onto the cold stone floor. "So enlighten me then. I might just understand it."

She looked at him and smirked. "Maybe..."

He sighed. "Could ya at least tell me your name?" he asked her. "So I don't have ta call ya, toots."

The female seemed to think that request over, as if she was purposely making everything complicated just to get on his nerves, before she finally gave him an answer. "Very well then," she put a hand on her chest as she introduced herself. "It's Midna."

Midna? Not midnamon? So she wasn't a digimon after all? Then why did she look like that? She could very much pass as a digimon. It looked like whatever world he'd gotten stuck in had creatures that looked like digimon but were not. But if this place wasn't the digital world what was it?!

He noticed she was making a face at him and he turned his attention back to her. "What?" he asked.

"Common courtesy would be to introduce yourself as well," she pointed out as if it were obvious.

The digimon bit back a retort. What did she know about common courtesy? Still he decided it was best to just not get into it with her. The best way not to argue is to just introduce himself though he was very tempted to tell her where she could stuff it.

"Impmon."

"Impmon?" her tone made it seem like his name was really stupid. "What kind of name is that?"

"It's the kinda name I got, toots," he replied, unable to to keep himself from giving her a smart comeback. "What kinda name is Midna? It sounds like someone with a very unoriginal mind looked at the clock and said "oh it's midnight! I'm gonna name my kid Midna!". So don't ya go mockin' my name when yours' isn't any better, doll face."

The female named Midna glared at him, obviously unhappy with his little jab. At that moment he didn't much care how she felt. Maybe she did have something bad happen to her but that didn't give her a right to be so rude.

Impmon folded his arms and frowned at her. "Doesn't feel too good does it?" he asked her.

Midna made a face then knocked him over with her magical hair. He landed flat on his face and quickly scrambled to right himself. "Do you want me to tell you or not?" she demanded.

Of course he did, it wasn't like he could ask anyone else about it but that still didn't give her any liberty to be so bratty. Then again he might get more information for apologizing, even though he technically hadn't done anything wrong. Still as they said you can catch more flies with honey.

"Sorry," he said, as he sat back up and rubbed his face with a red gloved hand. "Could you please tell me what happened?"

Midna seemed satisfied with his apology and said. "Very well, this is how it all happened..."

000

"Look at that, do you think he's still alive?"

"I don't know, why don't you poke him?"

"I don't want to poke him! What if he bites me?"

"If he bites you, bite him back!"

Ryo slowly regained consciousness to be greeted by voices arguing about something. They sounded like they were very close to him, maybe even standing over him.

"Do you have a stick? I could use that instead."

"How could I have a stick? We live on a live volcano, trees don't grow here, remember?"

"Fine, I'll use a rock."

Ryo became distinctly aware of heavy footsteps approaching him now. He didn't know who was making them but they sounded like they were big and heavy. Very big and heavy. Like if they tripped and fell, the body that those footsteps belonged to would flatten him into a pancake.

Something told him it would be better just to play dead and maybe the creatures would leave him alone but if they were putting in the effort to start poking him, maybe it would be a better idea if he just let them know he was alive so they would at least keep their distance and if they weighed as much as he thought they did, that would be a good thing.

So without further hesitation he opened up his eyes, and instantly regretted it when he saw the bloated, brown, big lipped monstrosity that stared back at him with bulbous purple eyes.

For about ten seconds there was a pause as the two stared at each other then as one the human boy and the brown monster let out a scream in unison. Ryo, still screaming crawled backwards away from the creature until his back bumped into a rock and the creature who had intended to poke him with a rock, dropped the item and backed up one step then fell onto his butt.

The two still screamed until the brown thing's companion yelled over them. "Hey, cut it out!"

Now the two went quiet as the brown thing's companion, another brown creature, stepped forward and said to his friend. "Enough of the screaming, can't you see you scared him?"

"Well he scared me too!" his friend protested.

"He shouldn't have, bro," the creature said. "we've seen plenty of humans. Remember the one who came here to get the evil out of the temple?"

The other one seemed to recall that. "Oh yeah..."

Now the current speaker turned to Ryo and took a few steps toward him. "Hey, sorry about my bro. He didn't mean to scare you. We weren't sure if you were alive so we were just making sure you were and-"

"Wh-what are you?!" the boy cut him off, still looking freaked out as he pointed at the brown creatures.

"Us?" the two creatures looked at each other. "We're gorons."

What in the world was a goron? Was it some kind of digimon? It sure didn't look like any and its' name didn't end in 'mon'. Maybe it wasn't one, but if it wasn't a digimon what else could it be?

"What's a goron?"

The two creatures looked surprised by his question. "You don't know what a goron is?"

He answered truthfully. "...No."

"I guess you have been living n one of those isolated villages," the goron who'd told them to calm down remarked, his placed on his chin thoughtfully. "I guess we'll just have to explain it to you..."