A Human and His Tamer

"Uh... what?"

Blinking around at his surroundings was a very confused twenty-three year old man. Just a few seconds ago, Kendon "Coop" Cooper was in his apartment, on his laptop, looking up what classes he wanted to take in the coming semester. There was nothing the least bit exciting about it; he had been staring at a mostly white screen with nothing but text on it. So, of course, he couldn't begin to understand why he was now sitting in a place that appeared to have been ripped straight from a video game. Everything was so... bright, and vibrant. Beautiful, yes, but to such an extent it didn't look entirely natural. And were those -- toys, in the distance? They looked enormous. No way this was real, not unless he had somehow sleepwalked his way into some sort of theme park.

"A human! It's a human!"

"I want to see! I've never seen a human before!"

"D'ya think it's one of ours?"

Tiny, shrill voices clamored not too far away from the man. He squinted, but couldn't make much out besides a few bouncing, bobbing figures.

"Out of the way! This one's mine!!" On voice shouted louder than the others, and seemed to be getting louder -- or closer -- with each second that past.

The other voices, on the other hand, seemed now to quiet down, and quite a few of the distant silhouettes began to disappear.

"Oh, it's that Bukamon."

"Best stay away."

"No human's worth messing with her.

The young man strained his eyes again and, this time, was able to make out the source of the raucous voice. It was a small, gray... creature? Something between a seal and a sea-horse and a dinosaur? With an orange, feather-like appendage sticking out from the top of its head. He didn't really know what it was supposed to be, and in the midst of his figuring it out, the thing tackled him square in the chest.

"Ow! What the--" Coop grunted as his arms flew back, trying to keep himself in an upright position. Before he could he could say anymore, the small animal began rummaging around his person, nudging his body with its nose.

"Where is it?!" she demanded, glaring at her prey fiercely, "You have one, right? Of course you do! You wouldn't be here unless you did!"

Bewildered, the human shook his head profusely. "Have what? I don't even know where I am, man. Or... what-- er, I mean, who, you are."

Closing her eyes, the creature nodded her head several times. "Of course, of course, I'm getting ahead of myself. Allow me to introduce myself!" With an abrupt pointing of one flipper at the Coop, she opened her eyes once again. "I'm the Powerful, Extraordinary, Never-defeated, Never-hopeless, Invincible Digimon!"

"The... huh? Digi...mon...?"

"That's right! The Perfect, Extra-Strong, Never-lost, Nautical, Impeccable Bukamon!"

"Those aren't even the same words."

Pretending not to hear him, the digimon with too many descriptors nudged him once again. "So where's the Digivice? It must have come with you."

"Digivice? Are you just adding 'Digi' in front of words? Look, I don't even know if I had my phone on me when I--" Checking his pockets, the university student's hand closed over an unfamiliar object. He brought it out, but before he could examine it closely, the bukamon snatched it out of his hands with her mouth and dropped it onto his lap.

"I knew it! You did have a digivice! We're gonna be great a great team."

"Team? What are you talking about?"

Nodding her head once again, the digimon began to explain everything in full. "Alright, since you're actually my human, I guess I'll explain everything in full."

"I didn't actually agree to be your human."

"You don't get to choose. Anyway, you're in the Digital World -- another world, separate from your own! This world is inhabited by Digital Monsters, or Digimon, for short. Now, digimon are powerful creatures, who love fighting each other, and when we get stronger, we digivolve!"

"I'm assuming that means digital evolution?"
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"That's right! If you had come sooner, you might have seen me digivolve from a pichimon into a bukamon. I'm very strong, you know."

"Uh... huh..." He looked over the small creature with a little skepticism.

"Anyway, there digimon, like myself, who want to get stronger than digimon normally can on their own. So, they -- we -- tame humans and use their powers to make ourselves more powerful!"

"You... tame us?" The man scrunched his nose.

"That's right! I'm your Tamer, so you have to listen to what I say!"

"Um... okay, sure. I'd love to... help you, but I don't have any powers. I must have gotten here by accident." Gently, the human scooted the digimon and the digivice off of his lap and stood up, stretching his arms out momentarily.

"Sure you do!" The bukamon picked up the digivice in her mouth and hopped around in front of him. With a flick of her head, she tossed the device into his hands. "I don't know how it works, exactly, but I've seen it before! The human pours their powers into the digivice, which transfers to the digimon, who gets even stronger and may even digivolve!"

"Look, I don't know about that. I just want to go home. I have... stuff to do." He looked around, then scratched the back of his head. "Um... do you know which way I go to get back to my world?"

The bukamon bobbed up and down angrily. "No! You can't go back, you're my human, and I'm your Tamer! You're gonna help get stronger!"

"But I have..." Coop glanced down at the digimon, who continued to glare at him without breaking eye contact. He sighed, deeply, then threw up his hands in resignation. "Alright, alright. I'll be your partner." The bukamon smiled, her eyes brightening up immediately. "--BUT, I want to go home first. You help get home, I'll help you get stronger along the way. And then I'll come visit you when I'm free, okay?"

"First of all, I give the orders, because I'm the Tamer," the bukamon said, turning her snout up in the air, "And second, I'm coming with you! You're my subordinate, after all, so I have to keep a close eye on you."

"Oh! You can do that?"

"Of course! You can come here, so I can go there, too. Now, come on, human! We have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of digimon to fight!" The aquatic digimon began moving forward.

"I have a name, you know," the young man said as he followed, shaking his head, "You can call me 'Coop'."

"Alright then, Coop! You already know my name."

"Uh, Powerful, Extra-something, uh... don't you have a nickname or something? It's kind of hard to remember."

"Hmph. Since you're my human, I will allow you to call me 'Penni'."

"Oh! Penni! That's a nice name."

The human and his Tamer continued on like this for quite some time, learning more about each other and, more importantly, learning to appreciate each other. It would be a while longer until Coop made it back home, but with Penni as a guide, he had nothing to fear. Probably.