FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It seemed like forever, but daylight brightened the lands in the Digital world within hours of the human's unconventional landing. Leomon was still awake -- he had gotten enough sleep to tide him over until he found something safer, and this human was his priority -- at least until he figured out what the human was doing here.

The longer he spent in the unconcious human's company, the more he became curious. The human had a multitude of different scents overlaying him, some potent, and some subtle yet inviting. He dismissed the latter scent as natural pheremones, knowing that it probably was what naturally happened with humans as they grew to adulthood. He took in the human's appearance in the growing light, and was surprised. He seemed to resemble a furry beast with hair on his face, and slight fur on its arms.

The human moaned, and started stirring, making Leomon tense up slightly.

Leomon stated quietly. "Hello."

Robbie automatically held a palm to his head, trying to soothe his headache; his eyes were closed. He must be dreaming. He could have sworn he heard a voice say "Hello."

Robbie felt the headache recede slightly, and moved his hand down, and slowly moved his head toward Leomon, and cracked open an eye. And yelped. "What the?" Quicker than Leomon was expecting, the human scrambled backwards a couple feet, his eyes wide in fear and bewilderment.

Leomon made no sudden moves. "Hello. I am pleased to see you are awake."

He presses a rather large paw on his chest. "I am Leomon. You are?"

Robbie stuttered, unable to believe his ears. A Talking LION? Why did that sound so familiar? "R-Robb..ie." He stays where he is at, his eyes glued to Leomon. The lion doesn't seem so bad, not so threatening, but it never hurt to exercise some caution. The Lion...er, Leomon didn't seem like he was about to pounce on him and eat him alive. And at that point, he suddenly realized he wasn't at home anymore, although he was in a lushly forested area -- in a small clearing.

He forced the next question out of his throat. "W-where am I?"

Leomon dropped his paw to the ground, and cocked his ears slightly as if curious. "You're in the Digital World. I found you here... last night."

Robbie frowned. "H-how did I get here?" This ...lion seemed to be making every effort of making him feel at ease, and his initial fear seemed to be wearing off.

The thick-maned lion shrugged his broad shoulders. "I do not know. Do you remember what was happening before you woke up here?"

Robbie rubbed his nose, and scowled to himself, thinking. "U-um, I remember waking up and someone was calling me on the phone, then it glowed blue...I can't remember any more."

Leomon's eyes glowed with pleasure. "Then you must be a digidestined! At last!"

Robbie checked himself for bruises and aches -- there oddly were none. Other than that headache that he had woken up with. He was curious now. "What ARE you? And what the hell is Digidestined?"

Leomon shrugged his shoulders, which Robbie blinked, watching Leomon's muscles ripple rather...encitingly. Robbie mentally shook himself. He was in a strange world, and this thing wasn't exactly human. Leomon spoke, "I am a Digimon. An entity made of data, I guess you would say. And Digidestined? Have you not heard legends of the Digital World?"

Robbie shook his head, strangely curious now about this place. "No...um, I'm afraid not." On a sudden thought, He padded his pockets, wondering if his cellphone had come with him, then gasped, as a rounded bulge was protruding from his left pocket. He slipped his hand into his pocket and withdrew an electronic device of some kind. It certainly wasn't his cellphone.

Leomon's eyes widened again as he stared at the device in Robbie's hand. That was truly a digivice... the Digital World had finally gotten another digidestined, but why only one, and why an adult?

Robbie must have heard Leomon's gasp, as he sharply whipped his gaze on Leomon. "What?"

Leomon shook his head. "That... that's a digivice. I'm certain of it!" He started leaning toward, and suddenly noticed a heady smell emanating from Robbie -- something made him want to lean closer, then he kicked himself mentally, and pulled back. This was no time to act on the pheremones. He didn't know how well Robbie would react if he had done anything, but it seemed evident that Robbie seemed slightly more at ease with him, the longer they spent together.

Did this mean that this Robbie was to be his partner?

Robbie didn't notice anything since his attention was caught on the...what did he call it? ..ah, digivice... whatever that meant. It looked oblong, with a display and two buttons under it. It was small enough to slip into one's pocket, if one so desired. He held it up and out to Leomon, finally staring at him.

"Um...what's this for?"

Leomon leaned forward, and stared at him in awe. He was surprised that he didn't even know what a digivice was, let alone this place. "That -- is how you help your digimon... partner get stronger, and combat our foes that are corrupted by the Darkness. At least, that's what I've been told."

Robbie looked extremely skeptical at the maned lion. With a snort of derision he stared at Leomon, "Are you kidding me? This sounds like a kid's game..."

Leomon felt heat coming to his face, despite him being furred. He drew up straighter, and glared. "This is no kid's game, I assure you. Yes. There were kids who were called digidestined that came here decades ago, but this is certainly no kid's game!"

Robbie swallowed nervously, and tore his gaze away, mumbling softly. He felt like he was dying of embarrassment, and his feelings were getting muddled and harder to figure out the longer he stayed here. Resignation and Timidness started to take over. "...Okay. So... um... who's my partner...?"

Leomon shrugged, knowing full well that he had made this human embarrassed and guilty of something, but he didn't know what it was. "I do not know. Perhaps the Digivice will tell you?" He gestured a clawed talon toward the device that Robbie held.

Robbie shook his head at this rather useless answer as he fiddled with the buttons on the device, wondering how it worked.

Suddenly, the digivice's display glowed white, and an ethereal voice spoke in Leomon and Robbie's heads. "At last, Digidestined! You have met your partner, both of you."

Robbie strangled out a stunned yip and dropped the digivice. He stared at Leomon in fright. It continued speaking from the ground.

"There is a new Darkness that has swept the Digital lands -- it appears as a dark mist that circles any digimon and embeds a dark gem inside their foreheads. Together, you two will be capable of fighting, and freeing the captive Digimons, and perhaps combat the Darkness Mist. There is a place you both must find, and soon. It will be in a forest cave south of you."

Leomon blinked. The last thing he had expected was to be one of the digidestined, and partnered with this human. No. Robbie. Not just a human. He spoke softly, "I know where that is. This is my forest -- my home, but I have been there. There is nothing there."

Robbie glanced at Leomon speaking, and bit his lip in puzzlement. Wasn't this what he wanted? He had yearned to be like a little kid on an adventure, and he had gotten one, if this place was indeed real.

The fluting voice spoke again from the digivice. "You will see when you both arrive there." The blazing white light dimmed until the display went grey, as the voice faded from their heads. "Good luck to you both!"

Robbie growled. "Lovely cryptic nonsense. So... Um, now what?"

Leomon hadn't expected a gravely purr as Robbie had growled, and caught himself before he reacted. He shook his head. "We should follow it's suggestions, if we are the digidestined. It cannot hurt."

He stood up easily and stretched slowly. It had been a long night of guarding. He looked down at Robbie. "Coming?"

Robbie stared up at the long expanse of muscular lion and slightly blushed. Leomon's comment broke his train of thought, and he nodded. "Yeah. I guess. Better than just staying here, I suppose."

He scrambled to his feet, a bit awkwardly and stood up, waiting for Leomon to lead the way.

Leomon nodded slightly, and led Robbie on the way. He hadn't had so many confusing signals from anyone, least of all Robbie. He knew he might have to just try to maintain his distance. And part of him was yearning for battle and the prospect of fighting with someone else made him smile inwardly. The trees thinned out as they started on their way southbound. Leomon was initially surprised at how tall Robbie was, and suddenly wondered if Robbie could fight well or not. There was so much about humans he didn't know.

Robbie was oblivious to everything but following Leo, and looking around in interest -- everything looked so exotic and foreign, and perhaps a paradise. He was getting hungry again, as his stomach suddenly rumbled quietly. His thoughts turned to food. Could he even eat anything here? Did digital food even fill you up?

Leomon sniffed something odd, but his ears pricked as an unfamilar sound reached his ears; he took a moment to recognize it as hunger. He smiled slightly, as he remembered there were a few fruit trees on the way. He hoped that Robbie could eat it without ill effects.

Robbie felt awkward tagging along behind Leomon, and kept darting glances at his muscular back, and... a tail. He idly wondered if that tail was prehensible, and then suddenly chastised himself mentally. He wanted to bring up that he was hungry, but he didn't want to sound as if he were whining.

As they reached the outer fringes of the southern part of the forest, Leomon reached up into the tree, and plucked off a round bulbish type of ...something. Robbie raised an eyebrow at this, and said nothing.

Leomon suddenly turned around, with a broad smile, that showed his pointy teeth, making Robbie suddenly nervous. He held out his palm, which had a whitish bulb in it. "It's a fruit. I hope you can eat it -- It's safe for Digimons, but I don't know about humans."

Robbie reached forward, suddenly thankful that Leomon somehow knew he was hungry, although with those ears of his, his stomach probably had been advertising for the last half hour. He looked down, and spoke softly. "Thanks...Umm..."

Leomon smiled again, and turned away, to pluck at least several armfuls, to rest on the ground. He was glad Robbie trusted him enough to eat the fruit. He idly wondered what they'd find in the cavern, since he was absolutely certain he had explored every inch of it recently.

Robbie felt at a loss for words, so he just started nibbling at the fruit, and was pleasantly surprised. It had a tartness and a sweetness in bursts of juice. It reminded him of a mango crossed over with an orange.

His hunger awakened to a fierce appetite, he started chewing the fruit as fast as he could eat it -- the strange thing was that it didn't seem to have a rind at all, so he ate the whole thing. There were no napkins available, so he tugged his shirt up and wiped his mouth clean.

Leomon had gotten a sudden glimpse of the human's fur on its slightly rounded stomach, then suddenly wondering why he was getting distracted. He shook himself out of his thoughts, and handed another fruit toward Robbie. He gestured with his chin toward his palm as he spoke. "Another? We do not have much further to walk, but if you want to take a short break...?" He knew they would have time to get to know each other -- he hoped. From what he had seen of Robbie, he liked his personality -- it was pleasant, not harsh -- somewhat submissive and forthright at the same time.

Robbie was engrossed in eating the second fruit that he found himself getting full after only the second one.

He finally spoke in a sheepish tone. "Um, thank you... I, I hadn't eaten since last night..." He stared at the pile of fruits that lay on the ground, and wished he had brought a bag. "Uh...we need a bag for those, if you really want to bring them."

Leomon nodded. "You are welcome." He inwardly sighed. Apparently he had misjudged Robbie's appetite, but he always did carry a spare empty sack. He unfastened it from his belt, and started loading at least 10 fruits from the pile. The others would have to be left for anyone who wished to dine on them.

He held the sack in his hand, and cocked his head toward Robbie. "Now, we travel, if you wish to keep going?"

Robbie shrugged his broad shoulders. "Uh, sure." He mumbled under his breath as a question sank in. "How do I get home?"

Leomon started walking toward what he remembered was the cavern, as his ears caught Robbie's mumble. He didn't know how to help there, but he somewhat knew how Robbie felt -- his home was overtaken by Dark Gem Digimons, and he couldn't stay there. So he did relate a little. He took care to make sure he took a path that Robbie wouldn't accidentally trip and injure himself, weaving through endless trees.

Robbie trailed behind, lost in his thoughts again.

[To Be Continued]