The swamp croaked and creaked with life, every corner and nook filled with some manner of creeping, slithering, hopping thing. It was green and slimy, wet and unpleasant. The plants were twisted, small entities, but the ground was thick with them. Pools of water were most often grown over with aquatic weeds, requiring one to look twice when picking where to step. The few trees that grew up above were strong and tall, vibrant from facing and surviving the rough environment. Really, the whole place had certain beauty about it, and awkward kind of beauty that would really be more pleasant to observe from afar, but nonetheless was there to be seen.

It was into this wilderness that Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi, the noble sword god, led his tamer. Tsuki was quite glad she had chosen to wear her rougher, more rugged, and already fairly worn everyday outfit for her trip into the less-than-clean environs of the swamp. The typical black boy's shorts and matching t-shirt with a silver crescent moon on its front had already accumulated a speckling of mud, and the bottoms of her old tennis shoes were positively caked with it. Luna, as had been the case constantly since her battle with Yamato no Orochimon, was tucked under Tsuki's arm, sleeping in her Moonmon form.

Murakumo marched several steps ahead of Tsuki, forging the path. He seemed mildly annoyed at his normally polished and gleaming black armor being splattered liberally with the mud and detritus of the swamp. He hid his annoyance behind determination though. Where he was going, Tsuki never honestly knew, it sometimes seemed as though he was roaming simply for the sake of roaming. She didn't really have anything better to do besides follow him though, so she did.

Eventually, Murakumo drew near a large smooth-barked, tropical tree, tremendous not only in its height, but in the size of its fleshy leaves. The biggest among them looked almost as though they could be cut and folded into clothes for a grown human and even the small ones were bigger than Tsuki's head. "We can rest here Lady Moon," Murakumo said, scoping out the surroundings. The dragon scrambled up and pulled a big leaf off the tree and placed it upon the ground so his tamer would have a clean place to sit.

Glad for a chance to rest her feet, Tsuki flopped down on the leaf. "Thank you Mura-kun," she said with a contented sigh, slipping her encrusted shoes off for a moment and giving her feet a chance to breathe.

It had Faythe a little over three weeks since her encounter with Destiny to realize that she had important things to do. During a dream, there was a visit from Lobomon that told her to go seek out another being of light. Faythe couldn't remember the dream any more than that, but apparently her feline partner Tailmon had an idea of who to look for.

[Flashback...]

The Nyaormon that had digivolved two days before had digivolved once again in to a Digimon that the girl's analyzer had claimed to be "Tailmon". The bipedal feline stared down at her gloves before clenching them and looking determinedly up at her human partner.

"Are you the one Lobomon spoke of?"

The Tailmon nodded her head.

"I think so. I don't remember much about my past lives, but I do know that you're my partner--the Child of Light--and it's my destiny to serve as your protector."

"You don't remember anything? Not even Lobomon?"

Tailmon stared down at her gloves once again. She tried to remember, but there was nothing in her mind except a blank void.

"Lobomon... The name feels important to me, but... I don't remember. Nevermind that, Child of Light. You and I have work to do."

Faythe stared at her digimon partner with an oblivious stare.

"Work? What kind of work?"

"You had a dream last night, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah! I wanted to tell you about that! See, there was this voice coming from a sphere of light and he told me to, er--"

The conversation was rather one-sided. Tailmon had guessed what Faythe had told her, explained the basic mission, and set off without a word to Destiny. Faythe and Tailmon just...disappeared in to the night from their apartment.

[/Flashback.]

Now, the two of them were knee-deep in the swamp with the feline riding on her tamer's shoulders to keep out of the mud. If she were to get in and fall in a hole, she'd be under the mud and unable to breathe. Faythe adjusted the goggles on her head before climbing out of the mud and sitting down on a rather dirty patch of sturdy earth with a deep sigh.

"You know, Tailmon, this place is pretty cool for a digital world. I've never been to a swamp before."

Tailmon's ears perked. Again, her tamer opened her mouth to continue chattering on, but the digimon quickly shushed her and listened more attentively. There were others in the swamp. The teenager jumped to her feet with an excited squeal and took off through a brush towards the sound of the voices.

"Wait!"

Tailmon took off after her in a faint panic while at the same time, her tamer burst out from the brush near the girl and her Digimon partner. Faythe must have looked strange: her torso covered in a very dirty, white blouse with the sleeves rolled up past her elbows, a blue newsboy cap with goggles settled on the brim, and the entire bottom half of her body caked with mud from her blue shorts down to her blue boots. There was a leather cross-strap in an "X" across her chest and the same kind of cross-belt around her waist, each bearing some fascinating steam-punk jewelry along with a pendant looked as if it was made out of clock parts.

Even as Tsuki let out a happy, relaxed sigh and plopped back to lay on her leaf, allowing Luna to roll out of her grip and lay there on her own for a moment, Murakumo was watching and listening to the swamp. His armor clunked heavily and wetly and he mucked about, fearing that he would wind up looking more like a Tsuchidarumon than a Ryuudamon by the time they were out of the swampland.

There, a noise, the dragon was instantly on guard, prepared to summon his sword if need be. He relaxed somewhat though, when it proved to simply be a young, female tamer and her lone partner. Still someone to keep an eye on, but not an immediate threat, Murakumo comfortably concluded. "We have company Lady Moon," he said instead, handing the diplomatic aspect off to his tamer.

"Nani?" Tsuki muttered as she picked herself up into a sitting position, one hand half-consciously snaking around Luna and scooping the little bulb up. The silver-haired tamer looked around and almost immediately noticed what Mura was referring to. A new tamer Tsuki hadn't previously met had burst into the clearing, along with a cute little white cat. Her fashion sense was very different, but Tsuki, somewhat of an outsider in that department herself, immediate dug it.

Tsuki scrambled to stand up and greet the newcomer. Slipping her feet back into her mud-caked shoes, she took a couple steps toward Faythe and bowed deeply, a friendly smile on her face. "I'm Tsuki, Gin Tsuki." She introduced herself in the fashion to which she was accustomed. "This is Luna-chan," she shifted her arm to indicate the Moonmon slumbering in her grip, "and that's Mura-kun," she gestured slightly in the direction of the Ryuudamon.

"I am Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi," Murakumo interjected his own introduction, "the sword god, and Lady Moon's personal blade."

Tailmon, fortunately, did not have to attack anyone that her tamer encountered by the time she arrived only moments later. The feline was inwardly relieved yet she refused to express her feelings for the moment. Faythe, on the other hand, was greatly impressed by the girl and her Digimon partners. When Tsuki bowed, the teenager stared at her blankly.

"Eh? Oh!"

With the same enthusiasm as when she heard the voices, the odd female returned the bow. She had done a lot of research and role-played a lot of online characters that she understood very, very basic customs of "old world" cultures. When she rose again, her sweet smile was spread across her face.

"My name is Faythe Garron and this is my partner, Tailmon. Umm, I haven't thought of an ace nickname for her yet, but it'll come to me soon I hope."

The Tailmon took a knee with a hand over her chest like a servant reporting to a master in her own medieval bow. It was directed for the most part towards the Ryuudamon.

"It is an honor meeting you all. Forgive my over-zealous tamer. She is not yet fully accustomed to the dangers of our world having just arrived here three weeks ago."

Faythe uncomfortably averted her gaze. She didn't want those memories of what happened to her good friend, Lobomon, again. Not in front of someone she was meeting for the first time and, truthfully, never again. Her smile melted the bad feeling away and she returned her eyes to Gin Tsuki.

"We were just resting back there when we heard voices. Are you going to a specific place or are you just traveling?"

As dense, oblivious, and cheerful as Faythe may have seemed, she wasn't exactly stupid, either. Discussing the mission her and Tailmon were on would be pretty dumb especially since Astamon could be looking for her. Tailmon was thinking something similar once she got back to her feet and stood at her tamer's side protectively.

((*remembers that she picked out dialog colors a long time ago and pulls them out of their hidey hole*))

"Eh? Oh!"

Tsuki smiled pleasantly at the other tamer's momentary cluelessness. Not Japanese apparently, not that there was anything wrong with that. Faythe's effort to return the bow was appreciated anyway. There were few things better than meeting a friendly new tamer.

"My name is Faythe Garron and this is my partner, Tailmon. Umm, I haven't thought of an ace nickname for her yet, but it'll come to me soon I hope."

"Nice to meet you Faythe and Tailmon," Tsuki answered with a big grin. "I didn't really name Luna-chan or Mura-kun, they came with names."

Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi watched Tailmon's bow with a certain appreciation for her good manners. For his part, he held his head high and simply tried to look as noble as he could.

"It is an honor meeting you all. Forgive my over-zealous tamer. She is not yet fully accustomed to the dangers of our world having just arrived here three weeks ago."

"She is forgiven," Murakumo said passively, impressed by the ongoing courtesy displayed by the small cat. "Lady Moon's inexperience has caused trouble on occasion as well."

Tsuki released a nervous chuckle, "Yeah, I've only been here a little more than a month myself."

"We were just resting back there when we heard voices. Are you going to a specific place or are you just traveling?"

"Ummm," Tsuki started uncertainly, "I don't really know, Mura-kun's the one who's been deciding where we go."

"We're just traveling," Murakumo interjected. He was fairly sure there was nothing more than innocent curiosity behind the question, but he retained caution as the foremost principle in Lady Moon's protection.

"Yeah," Tsuki agreed brightly, despite just becoming aware of this answer herself. "What about you?" She asked in turn, trying to extend the polite small talk.

Faythe began to feel a little uneasy about Tailmon's apology for her. Was it really that dangerous in the Digital World? Her experience with Astamon had been the worst one in her entire life and she never wanted to encounter him again; on the other hand, he couldn't find her now. She had disappeared from the ancient ruins, after all, so how could he track her down that easily? They would be safe for a while. Why couldn't she just jump at the chance to meet new people?

Speaking of new people, Faythe found this Gin Tsuki girl to be quite friendly like herself. This brief thought caused her special vision to activate and the world went black and white. Both of the Digimon's figures remained to be gray, albeit a lighter gray. This meant they had the power of light within them, but it wasn't strong. Miss Tsuki, on the other hand, was illuminated by a light about as bright as a normal light-bulb. The sight was brief, fortunately, and the world quickly returned to its normal color.

"We are also tra--"

"We're looking for someone, actually."

The bipedal feline at her side threw a mingled look of bewilderment and warning towards her. All the teenager could do was glance anxiously at her partner before returning her gaze to the others.

"I had a dream and umm... We're supposed to find an idol of light."

Now that the truth was out, the Tailmon had little choice but to clarify her tamer and redirect the unfamiliar party from realizing Faythe's actual identity. No matter who they came across or what affiliation the people had, Tailmon felt the need to keep Faythe's true identity as the Child of Light a secret.

"Valkyrimon is the only Digimon I can think of who recruits tamers to join in the war against the Dark Mistress. We wish to find her."

Faythe nodded with a smile towards the group in hopes that they could possibly help with any information.

"We are also tra--"

"We're looking for someone, actually."

Looking for someone? Not so unusual a goal in and of itself, but Murakumo couldn't help but note the sudden interjection and the disagreement between the statements. One of them wasn't being completely honest. Probably the Tailmon, since she said the more innocuous thing. The following statement didn't exactly help clear anything up though.

"I had a dream and umm... We're supposed to find an idol of light."

That... sounded vaguely made up to Murakumo, or rather unusual at least. On the other hand though, it was completely possible. It added up to him not having any better idea which of the newcoming pair was being honest... if either of them was at all.

None of this, of course, occurred to Tsuki. "Wow, Fay-chan," she said with a big smile. "That's so cool."

"Valkyrimon is the only Digimon I can think of who recruits tamers to join in the war against the Dark Mistress. We wish to find her."

"Valkyri.... mon?" Tsuki puzzled at the name. "I don't think we've ever met anyone like that."

Murakumo surveyed Faythe and Tailmon carefully, something about all this just didn't add up to the Ryuudamon.

Tailmon's large, blue eyes directed their gaze to the Ryuudamon that was looking at her suspiciously. She was sure he could understand that lying to prevent certain information about her tamer was necessary because, as protective Digimon, they were wary about who to trust. It seemed, sadly, that her tamer was far too trusting.

Faythe smiled at Tsuki's comment about her dream being "so cool". She figured "cool" was the old version of the word "ace" which everyone around her used. Was this girl not updated on the latest lingo? The thought of Destiny crossed into her mind. Destiny had said something about being from an earlier year. This made Faythe's smile falter. Could she really have crossed into the Digital World from the future?

"Umm.. Forgive my plainness, but.. What year were you born? The question's a bit queer, I get it, but I have to ask."

The tamer's Digimon partner was a bit shocked by her tamer's choice of words because it wasn't every day that Digimon encountered such strange lingo. Regardless, Faythe was her tamer and the girl had been talking like this since they met. Not that Tailmon understood half of what the girl said, but Faythe managed to explain one or two things so that the feline got the general gist of things.

((Yuck, hard question to deal with -.- I follow realistic in-character time scaling based on what they're doing and how long it would take, instead of just slapping real world time on my characters regardless of how little sense it makes, but that means they have a mobile birthdate >.>; Oh well, I'll just go by today and call it good, even though it might cause stickiness later.))

"Umm.. Forgive my plainness, but.. What year were you born? The question's a bit queer, I get it, but I have to ask."

Well, that threw a proverbial wrench in the works. Tsuki was momentarily quite confused by the question, why not just ask how old she is? That was what Faythe wanted to know... right?

Murakumo meanwhile, despite a brief mental stagger, was finally able to draw some conclusions about the opposing group. They were crazy, or at least the human was, the Tailmon was probably just covering for her, or trying to. Nodding briefly in satisfaction he allowed his attention to divert to watching and listening to the swamp, alert for danger.

"Well," Tsuki started her response, "I'm 16... so that means I was born in 1994. I hadn't really thought about that before, to be honest..."

Her heart skipped a beat. 1994?! That meant Faythe really had arrived in a world where the future collided with the past. Curiously odd! She was a bolt in a jar of nuts and it didn't seem as if anyone had entirely noticed. How could they? She was a couple of years younger than Tsuki and they didn't look as if they were nearly a whole century apart.

"How odd. I was born in 2040 and I'm only 14 years old!"

"Faythe, we really should be going now," Tailmon interrupted.

"Why? It doesn't hurt to talk to other tamers, does it?"

The Tailmon's eyes narrowed into a glare up at her tamer. Why was Faythe so persistent on babbling to other tamers? They needed to keep a low profile, not jump out into the world of tamers and say "We're right here!" The feline flexed her paws to calm herself down before she spoke again.

"The faster we find Valkyriemon, the easier it'll be for us. We have to go."

"Don't blow a gasket, Tailmon! It's not like we have to find this Digimon before nightfall and I want to talk to Tsuki some more."

Faythe gave her digimon a reproachful look. What could it honestly hurt to stay and chat with another tamer for a few more minutes? That was Faythe's argument at least. Tailmon's rebuttal was something along the lines of "because you keep giving them information that could blow our cover," but unfortunately neither of them decided to argue now. Tailmon only turned away and let the girl talk.

"How long have you been in the digital world, Tsuki?"

[I'm running out of things for Faythe to talk about already. XD!]

((No worries, this is good timing for a transition for me too ^^))

"How odd. I was born in 2040 and I'm only 14 years old!"

Yep, that settled it, Murakumo decided, the girl was crazy. Though she probably wasn't dangerous, or at least there had been no signs to indicate that so far. So, the dragon allowed himself to plod off a few steps and focus on guarding his Lady from threats that had yet to emerge from the depths of the swamp.

Tsuki meanwhile, just blinked quietly at the claim. Well, that was a weird turn, certainly an odd enough one to throw the already absent-minded teen for a loop. She pondered the claim as the other girl and her partner argued. Ultimately, she decided to take the claim at face value, she had heard weirder things in her time in the Digital World. Heck, she herself had lived the legend of slaying the mythical serpent, Yamato no Orochi and finding the sword god Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi in his belly. Compared to that, this more 'sci-fi' turn of events was pretty reasonable.

"How long have you been in the digital world, Tsuki?"

"Oh," Tsuki started, suddenly brought back into the conversation. "Well, only a few weeks really. I'm still figuring it all out, to be honest. Without Luna-chan and Mura-kun I'd be totally lost."

Murakumo suddenly perked up, his armor clanking at the shift. "We have trouble coming Lady Moon, I would advise vigilance. There is a mid-sized Digimon approaching, and it seems likely that it's native to this region."

"Not now..." Tsuki sighed worriedly. Nonetheless she drew her glass revolver from its hiding palce in her back pocket and prepared for the forewarned arrival. "Do you have any cards Fay-chan?" The question a hopeful one, maybe the other tamer would even be a better fighter than her.

The Ryuudamon's declaration that something was moving their way put the Tailmon on her guard. If she had been a little more dedicated to the protection of her tamer rather than Faythe letting loose too much information, she might have caught it at the same time as Murakumo. At this point, though, protection was more important than who discovered the danger first.

"Umm... I'll check."

Faythe reached into the bag she had strapped across her chest and dug around for a card case. She counted them up and looked at Tsuki again.

"I only have eight. Is that good enough?"

Tailmon's fists clenched. It depended on how well Faythe used those eight cards and since the girl hadn't battled before, there wasn't a large chance of success. The bipedal feline figured out that she would have to do everything she could without the support of her tamer.

((Sorry this took so long ^^; ))

"I only have eight. Is that good enough?"

Tsuki nodded once, it wasn't much, but it would do, hopefully. The silver-haired tamer reached for her own cards, but realized that between Luna and her glass revolver, she already had two hands full, that wouldn't do at all. She had to choose. A quick moment of frustrated thought later, she shoved Luna over to Faythe, needing to keep her implements for battle ready. "Hold Luna-chan for me, please," she asked of the younger tamer, before taking up her cards to be ready for whatever was coming.

Readiness that was well justified. A wave of cracking and crashing noises proceeded through the swamp, drawing ever closer to the tamers and their partners. Soon enough, a large green form became visible, riding at the vanguard of the destruction. It hurtled over the land on four powerful legs which emerged from a fat abdomen, even as it aided its propulsion with six ragged wings clustered on its narrow thorax. It had no visible eyes, just jagged black lines on its face, bringing the eye's attention to a pair of scraggly orange antennae and a terrible, gnashing mouth filled with sharp teeth. Several spines adorned its back, but by far its most terrifying and inhospitable feature were the simply tremendous curved blades held up by the upper and larger of the Snimon's two pairs of arms.

Murakumo immediately stepped forward to confront the intimidating insect as it drew near. "Snimon!" He yelled to the beast, "I will give you the generosity of one warning to turn back. If you insist on attacking Lady Moon and this other tamer, you shall recieve no mercy!"

Ignoring the dragon's warning entirely, Snimon continued to power toward Tsuki and Faythe, issuing a terrible hissing roar that echoed over the swamp.