FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Primary Encounters (Riina's Tale) "This is the Primary Village?" I looked about in disbelief at the scenery around me. I had always expected Primary Village to be a baby's paradise, with a ground soft as marshmallows, big blocks stacked up into massive towers filled with downy white feathers, digi-eggs littering the field alongside miniature cradles filled with infant, first-stage digimon, and treetops growing every toy a baby's heart could desire. What I got instead was something quite different. While much of the ground was still soft and green as a comforter on a newly-made bed, it appeared as if dirt and other materials had been brought in and placed over it. On top of it sat houses of gray and white, although a few were painted in more... exotic colors. No smoke rose from the chimneys that sat atop the peaked roofs, so it appeared as if the homes were abandoned. Many of the towers looked as if they'd fallen over long ago, and some were little more than a pile of feathers. The few trees that remained green didn't grow toys at all, but rather a green fruit reminiscent of a cross between a pineapple and a pear. No first stage digimon even played on the soft ground. All in all, Primary Village felt... well... lonely. Riina walked ahead of me. Her head tilted downward as she sighed. "It has been like this for some time," she said softly, "Ever since the Great Exodus, this village, this whole island has been a very lonely place, but a few remain still." I started to ask what this 'Great Exodus' was, but before I got the chance, Riina raised her arms over her head. "It is alright!" she called, "You may all come out of hiding now!" A moment of silent stillness passed, as if even the wind itself was unsure of Riina's claim. The sound was soft at first, a chattering as if from a baby, barely above a whisper. Another voice responded, and then another. Soon, the soft vocalizations exploded into a din. From within the houses and behind the piles of feathers, from behind the tress and even from beneath the ground emerged a veritable swarm of first and second-stage digimon. I looked each one over, trying to identify it. I recognized the black, furry form of Botamon, and the pale, ghost-like figure of Poyomon. Punimon was easy to recognize because it looked like a little red ball with three fingers stretching out the rubbery flesh atop it. Also distinctive was the digimon called Nyokimon, due to the fact that its body resembled a small black seed with golden eyes and a small sprout on top. Pitimon's body resembled an upside-down tear drop with two small antennae sprouting from the top and three small spikes emerging from behind. It seemed to take great delight in floating turning itself over and floating to my side to stare at me with its curious, brown eyes. Beside these and several other baby digimon, I spotted a number of second-stage, or rookie digimon. Koromon looked like a pale, half-deflated beach ball with a fang-filled mouth and shimmering red eyes. Several Bukamon floated around my head, resembling pterodactyls with leathery brown skin, and orange-red, flame-shaped, tufts of hair growing from just between their eyes. A pair of flippers hung at their sides in place of wings. Every one of them seemed astonished to see a human standing in their midst. "I can't believe it!" one exclaimed. "I wonder what kind of attacks it uses," one pondered. "Don't be silly!" scolded another still, "Humans don't use attacks! That's why we're here!" On and on went the chatter, growing louder and more disorderly by the second until with a single, sweeping gesture, Riina raised her hands and silenced the young digimon. "Children, please settle down," she pleaded. The bouncing digimon stood still. The flying and floating digimon quickly bobbed over and rested above their heads. Each one of them looked upon Riina with the same adoration and respect they might give a mother, or at least a favored teacher. Their big, shimmering eyes held more affection than I had ever seen any human show one another, save my own parents. In fact, I couldn't even remember seeing that look in Keirei's eyes.... Not even once. Wanyamon, an in-training level digimon whose body resembled the head of a scruffy, blue-grey kitten with a tiger-striped tail that curled over his back and between his ears hopped a few inches in front of the others. "Are you gonna' tell us a story today, Riina?" he asked. His golden eyes sparkled with excitement at the prospect. Riina lowered her hands and sat down. She reached out and took hold of Wanyamon, placing him in her lap. "In fact, I am," she said, "This is a story from long ago, before my data was written. For generations it has been passed down from story-teller, to story-teller, and now, I am passing it to all of you. Remember it well." So saying, she began her tale. * * *

IV

• * * Long, long ago, back before the Digital World became the barren place it is now, back before Primary Village became the last true haven for good digimon, before the skies grew bleak and the forests lost their green, back before the sea became so treacherous that we dare not cross it... back before all that... The Digital World was a peaceful place, inhabited by digimon of every species and level you can imagine... and even some you can't. In order to protect our prosperity, those we know only as the Harmonious Ones appointed four of the most powerful digimon as guardians of individual segments of our world, warriors to protect our borders and push back the darkness. To the east, the watchers appointed the Great Dragon, Azulongmon. The northern regions were entrusted to the care of the Unmovable Lizard, Ebonwumon. The western region fell under the jurisdiction of the Great Firebird, Zhuquiaomon, and finally, the southern region fell under the jurisdiction of the Feral Tiger, Baihumon. With these four watching and protecting the digital world, a powerful barrier was formed that kept out the dark powers seeking to invade. Unfortunately, one of them found a weakness. The dark one, calling himself Apocalymon, found a weakness in the barrier, concealed only by a wall of Zhuqiaomon's fiery essence. No one is quite certain how, but he managed to cross that wall and invade the Digital World. The Harmonious Ones watched as he plunged our world into darkness, and as many digimon were deleted as they attempted to end him. Realizing that we digimon could not defeat this evil on our own, the Harmonious Ones sought out others. They looked to the mythical humans, whose powers were responsible for our creation, and seven they found among them... The Harmonious Ones worked quickly to build tools and weapons for the humans, and selected seven special digimon to lead the fight against Apocalymon. With their combined strengths, these first humans to enter our world, known forever-after as the Digidestined, and their digimon partners managed to push Apocalymon back, but the darkness would not give up so easily, and the Harmonious Ones knew this. Back behind the wall of fire, Apocalymon gathered even more strength to himself, a vile power born from the suffering and misery of others, just as Apocalymon himself had been. The Harmonious Ones worked quickly to find new digidestined who could destroy Apocalymon's evil once and for all. To this end, they sent two digimon into the human world from ours... The first was a courageous young digimon called Koromon. He found himself in the company of two young humans: Hikari and Taichi Kamiya. The two cared for him a short while, and he quickly digivolved into his next state: Agumon. However, it was shortly thereafter that the Harmonious Ones deemed the time right to send their second herald- Parrotmon, a digimon corrupted by Apocalymon's evil influence. Unawares, Hikari and Agumon sneaked from their home into the night, followed closely by Taichi. Soon, the small group encountered Parrotmon. Recognizing him as a corrupted digimon, Agumon quickly took to fighting. The battle was loud and fierce, destroying much of the surrounding battlefield. Attempting to pull his younger sister from the battle, Taichi arrived just in time to witness an attack by Parrotmon that destroyed an overhead bridge. It collapsed, burying the children and Agumon both. It was then that something incredible happened. For the second time, Agumon digivolved, this time to Greymon. Drawing his energy from Taichi, Greymon destroyed Parrotmon before vanishing back into our world. The fight did not go unnoticed. While none of the present adults had the ability to see the fight, several other children watched from around the field. Observing them, the Harmonious Ones determined that these held the keys to Apocalymon's final defeat. They began their work immediately. And so, four years later, when the time was right, seven of those human children: Taichi Yagami, Yamato Ashida, Sora Takenouchi, Koushiro Izzumi, Mimi Tachikawa, Joe Kido, and Takeru Takaishi, were drawn into the digital world by the powers of the Harmonious Ones. Each of them was given a digivice, a mystical vessel imbued with pure light. Together, the seven traveled across the Digital World with their digimon partners, growing stronger by the day, until the time when at last they had to return to their world, for the darkness had spread, finding a new gap in the barriers around the Digital World, this one leading to the human world. Here, he sought to conquer, and to destroy the eighth digidestined chosen to end him- Hikari Kamiya. His plans were, however, thwarted by the very one he had sought to destroy, together with her digimon partner. Their task in their world done, the digidestined humans and digimon returned to our world, and took the fight to the Dark Masters, the most faithful, loyal, and powerful of Apocalymon's servants. Through much trial, they eventually succeeded, coming face to face with the darkness himself. Once more a fierce battle ensued, just as it had before, but with their strengths of courage, loyalty, hope, sincerity, knowledge, reliability, and light, and with the powers of their digivices, the digidestined removed Apocalymon forever... but this victory was temporary. Four years passed, and the darkness slept. The digidestined humans bade farewell to their digimon and returned to their own world. However, a new power grew like a phoenix from Apocalymon's ashes... His even managed to keep digimon from digivolving. To confront this evil, the Harmonious Ones had to work quickly. They sought power through an ancient form of Digivolving, and selected three new digimon partners and digidestined to battle this threat. With advice from the previous group, the human children known as Daisuki Motomiya, Inoue Miyako, and Iori Hida took up the mantle of the Digidestined. Unexpectedly, however, the Harmonious Ones soon found that two other digimon possessed the power to utilize this ancient form of evolution, and so it was that Hikari Yagami and Takeru Takaishi joined with these new digidestined. Together, these freed a sixth Digidestined child, Ken Ichijouji from the clutches of the darkness. As their power grew, these found a way to overcome the darkness, digivolving not only into their true champion forms, but as their hearts grew into one, digivolving even together. More and more digidestined join the ranks as the fate of this world, and that of the Human World became forevermore interlinked. In time, it took all of these, humans from around the world to end the darkness, and for a new barrier to be placed about the Digital World. This done, the two societies: humans and digimon lived together, side by side for some time... Soon, there was no difference between us but for our race. But as humans died and digimon were reconfigured, these things were forgotten. Travel between the worlds ceased. The barriers between the worlds began to weaken. To counteract this, the humans created a computer king to rule over and to study our world: Yggdrasil. He ruled fairly and wisely, his concern for the digimon always coming first, but as the barriers continued to weaken, and as human experimentation pushed the boundaries of our worlds closer together, he withdrew into himself. Soon, all but a few humans had forgotten about digimon entirely, and we about them. Those humans who remembered continued their experiments, seeking to reunite the two worlds as they felt should have happened with the peace established by the Digidestined. Those digimon who remembered allied themselves with these humans. As the barriers weakened, amnesiac digimon found their way into that world. To prevent them from harming themselves or the humans, and to hold back knowledge that much of the world was not ready to rediscover, the Digimon Data Squad was formed. Together, a number of brave individuals and their partners worked to protect both our worlds, but not all humans wished to see a peace established. It was not the darkness of the one called Apocalymon that infected him, but rather the darkness of his own heart, a fear and hatred that knew no bounds and held no respect for the life of human or digimon. Kurata is what the humans called him, and though he claimed to work on behalf of the human race, it became clear to the Data Squad that he held no one's interests at heart but his own. Unfortunately, he too assaulted our world through artificial digital gates... tears in the fragile barriers between worlds, and his efforts resulted in the loss of many, many brave and innocent Digimon souls. Yggdrasil believed Kurata's claims, believing that he represented humanity's interests. And so, when the barrier between worlds at last collapsed, and the two worlds, merging physically into the same universe, began to collide, Yggdrasil made his decision. In spite of Kurata's defeat at the hands of the Data Squad, humans had proven themselves too destructive to ever coexist peacefully with digimon. The human would would be destroyed in order for the Digital World to survive. With the Royal Knights, thirteen Holy Knight digimon, under his command, he assaulted the human world. The Data Squad fought back valiantly, winning allies in both worlds and even a number among the Royal Knights themselves. Several of their number rushed to the Digital World to confront Yggdrasil, but our king would not listen... The two great forces clashed in a titanic battle as other humans around their world, and digimon around ours, came together to hold the worlds apart long enough for the outcome to be decided. Daemon Masaru and his partner Agumon were the ones who finally managed to best Yggdrasil, convincing him that perhaps it was best that human and digimon live and work together... that indeed, they could exist in peace. The spirits of all had provided the strength to keep the worlds apart, and through them, the barrier was restored... although it remained fragile. Unfortunately, the time came when even these brave souls had to part ways... the Digimon felt it necessary to return to our world in an attempt to repair the damage that had been done. The humans thought it best to continue on with their own lives until that time when the worlds could again share full knowledge of one another... But that day never came. Years passed. Digimon and humans alike forgot about one another... and our worlds... our worlds continued on their own separate paths and orbits... continued to decay... The devastation remained. Many digimon grew feral, fighting one another over territory and for the chance that one day they might visit the Human World, now only a myth passed down in story. Some even de-digivolved to little more than chunks of data, so insignificant they could only exist... nothing more. It was these with whom the humans first re-established contact, although the humans themselves believed they had created the digimon. With the humans' influence, the digimon gained sentience again, but another threat, this one indeed created by humans long before, began to emerge. Among those who remembered the histories were the Digimon Sovreign: Azulongmon, Ebonwumon, Zhuquiaomon, and Baihumon. Some, notably Zhuquiaomon and Baihumon, spurned the influence of humanity, believing that the humans were responsible for hindering digivolution progress. The wars began afresh... Zhuiquiaomon gathered twelve disciples who shared likeminded views, and sent them into the human world through the still-fragile barriers. Only a few among the humans had any knowledge of these events. Some sought to destroy digimon once and for all. Some, however, three children in particular, allied themselves with digimon and began to fight back against the twelve, the "Devas." With their digimon partners, each of whom had come to them under a different circumstance: One for a dream, one for love, and one... one for strength, they managed to destroy most of the Devas before coming to the Digital World themselves in order to confront Zhuquiaomon. A titanic struggle followed, and digimon lives were lost on both sides, but Azulongmon intervened at the last moment. He pleaded with his fiery associate to give the human children a chance, citing the fact that they were not the true enemy. Reluctantly, Zhuqiaomon acquiesced. The surviving digimon and their partners returned to the Human World, only to find that the enemy had emerged there as well. With the fate of the worlds now inexorably intertwined, former enemies now became allies. The humans worked to stop the destruction of their world, while the Digimon worked against the same enemy to save theirs. In the end, the combined power of human and digimon was enough to destroy the true enemy once and for all... but it was not without its cost. As a side-effect of the method used to defeat the enemy, the digimon partners needed to return to their world... or risk permanent deletion. The partners bid a tearful farewell, and then vanished. The humans, however, were determined they would not be separated from their friends forever. One, Takato Matsuda, had made a promise to his partner, Guilmon: that they would meet up again. It was Takato who discovered the final gap in the barrier between worlds, and with a little bit of help from his fellow Digidestined, returned to the Digital World to reunite with their partners and return them to the Human World. It is said that during this time, Takato, Guilmon, and the others discovered a source of great power, but to protect it, they inscribed what they found on a set of stone tablets and hid them... * * *

IV

• * * "Much time has passed... The last digimon who remembered the truth are gone, either deleted or reconfigured so that their memories no longer remain," Riina concluded, "but the legend still flows on... and many digimon have sought to find those tablets... Some seeking power for themselves... some desiring contact with the mythical humans once more, some seeking to destroy the tablets... but that war is what has brought our world to the brink of destruction, whether the story I have told you is truth or a great myth... And if it is not stopped soon, then our world may be at last destroyed." I gazed between Riina and the young digimon. The story had, to me, sounded like a long recitation of history, rather than some epic tale, but the children were enthralled... each and every one of them, and the words of the final part of that story seemed to affect Riina deeply, as if she somehow connected to them more than to the rest of the story. At last, Wanyamon spoke up again. "Riina, now that you have a human partner, are you going to go look for the tablets?" he asked, his voice filled with a mixture of equal parts concern and excitement. Riina nodded slowly. "I must," she said. The vixen digimon‘s voice was far too quiet for her. "If Cheisu and I can find the tablets, and unlock the power they contain, we can stop this war, and we can save our world, and all of you can grow up in peace... as it was intended." "Riina, I thought you'd never leave the village behind," a voice commented, "I thought someone had tied your tail to it." Riina growled. I spun around, only to find myself looking over the great wolf digimon: Gaogamon.