whisperingfern

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Will reached out and moved his fingertips slowly in deep concentration. This way and that way, ever so slightly. He felt a strange and curious vibration, then a snag. Subtle knife in hand, he skillfully slid the blade across the sky and peeked inside. What strange vegetation! Between the foliage, he could make out street signs. Will was perplexed: there were no vehicles, so there was no need for those. He continued to sweep this new world and spotted a refrigerator in the distance.

“What do you see?” Lyra said impatiently.

“As far as I can tell, it looks like a forest,” Will replied. “It seems safe. I think we can go through here.”

Will cut open a larger window so that he and Lyra could climb through more easily.

Once through, Will headed toward the refrigerator, stomach rumbling. It had been a while since he and Lyra had eaten, and while it made little sense for an appliance to be functioning in the middle of a forest, he just had to look inside. He opened it, and to his surprise, the inside light switched on and revealed cartons upon cartons of eggs.

Will gasped. “Oh, this is incredible.”

“Shh,” Lyra heard voices in the distance. Will had been distracted with the thought of eating and had not noticed they were not alone.

Lyra grabbed Will’s hand and lead him over to a nearby bush. With cover, they could take some time to assess the strangers and see if they were a threat.

People also had daemons in this world, Lyra observed. However, they were unlike any other daemons she had ever seen in her world. They were animal-like, but you really couldn’t call them animals. Perhaps the animals in this world looked like the children’s daemons, and maybe it wasn’t that strange at all to them. And if that were the case, Pan would likely appear just as strange to them as their daemons seemed to her.

“Hello!” A loud, robotic voice called out behind them. “Who might these little spies be?”

Will stood up in an instant and brandished his knife. Lyra, still crouching, looked up behind her and spotted a daemon that looked like an oversized beetle.

“Ahhhh…!” cried the large insect daemon. “I mean you no harm!” He hurriedly flew away to the children in the distance to warn them.

After a brief conversation with the humans, the insect flew further off, presumably in search of his human.

If only Will hadn’t needlessly pulled out his knife. He knew he shouldn’t have, too. They were clearly outnumbered, and while the children seemed to by about the same ages as Will and Lyra, it did them no good to threaten them or underestimate them. Will put the knife away, but kept his hand in his pocket should he need to use it.

A boy with dark hair and goggles atop his head hopped up onto his feet. He made a beeline to where Will and Lyra were hiding.

Lyra stood up sharply, on the defensive. Pan—in mouse form—sensed Lyra’s unease at the boy rushing toward them. He scurried out of Lyra’s blouse pocket onto the ground and became a wildcat, hissing in warning with his back arched high.

“Whoa!”

The boy with the goggles stopped in his tracks just a few feet away from Will and Lyra, nearly tripping over his own feet.

“What gives?” he scowled. Lyra met his eyes with an equally annoyed expression. The boy looked at Will and suddenly remembered that he was armed. He took a step back cautiously.

A girl in a large round helmet approached meanwhile, and the goggle-clad boy headed back toward her. Will and Lyra exchanged glances briefly.

“Sora!” The goggled boy said, exasperated. “I don’t get why they have to be so defensive, I just wanted to talk to them!”

“It’s fine, Taichi,” Sora said. It seemed to Lyra she was the most motherly of the bunch. “But you shouldn’t have run off like that!”

Another boy, blonde this time, walked up to the two children. He seemed rather tense.

“Hey. We should probably just leave them alone,” the blonde one said.

“Oh come on, Yamato. We could use all the help we can get out here. Maybe they know something.” Taichi sighed.

“Are you dense?” Yamato said hotly. “Tentomon told us the boy threatened him with a knife. It seems pretty clear they don’t want anything to do with us.”

Sora was growing visibly agitated. “Yamato, Taichi, stop it. We aren’t going to get anywhere arguing.” She paused for a few seconds, deep in thought. Finally, she said: “Let me talk to them.”

She turned to Lyra and Will nervously with her hands up. Taichi seemed concerned but said nothing, keeping his eye on the boy with the knife.

“Hello, my name is Sora. My friend didn’t mean you any harm, he just gets a little too excited at times.” Taichi frowned at Sora. She continued, “What are your names?”

“My name’s Lyra Silvertongue,” Lyra said. “His name’s Will. And this is Pantalaimon.” Lyra pointed at the ermine who had curled himself up around her neck while Yamato and Taichi had been arguing. “Sorry for looking so mean, we en’t going to do anything to you. We just got surprised, is all.”

“Wasn’t he a cat just before though?!” exclaimed Taichi. “What kind of Digimon is Pantalaimon anyway?”

“Pantalaimon is my daemon,” Lyra said. “Don’t you all know what daemons are? You got some of your own, I seen ‘em back there with the other kids.” Lyra pointed back to where the other children were, and to the creatures she believed were supposedly daemons.