If Akeno expecting things to become clearer once she was outside, then she was going to be sorely disappointed. Upon exiting the hut she found herself almost immediately surrounded by more strange creatures; not green and spiky this time, though Pulsemon was quick to follow at her heels, but blue and squat with menacing beaks all pointed her direction. The… bird-things, almost a cross between a penguin and a seagull, didn’t seem bothered to have a stranger like her suddenly appear in their village; if anything they seemed excited to see her, murmuring to themselves and slowly closing in on her.

The word ‘saviour’ appeared more than once.

Before Akeno had a chance to feel truly threatened by the creatures, ‘Digimon’, an unseen voice called out from somewhere to get them to disperse. They did, grudgingly, and Akeno let herself relax a little. As the birds began to go back to whatever tasks they were doing, Akeno was directed to approach the fire; her [i]and[/i] the other humans, who she could now see at various points around the village, each looking about at lost as she and each accompanied by what must be other Digimon. She stepped forward, towards the fire, and Pulsemon deciding to finally step out from behind her legs to jog in front of her and lead the way. “Y-yeah. Right this way! Gotsumon can explain everything.”

Akeno followed at her own pace, deciding to stand like one of the other girls had with her arms crossed even as Pulsemon hopped into an office chair by himself. His feet didn’t even come close to reaching the floor, so he swung them back and forth instead. She looked around the campfire, at the other people; none of them looked familiar, though Akeno wasn’t sure if she expected them to be, and none of them looked to have much in common with each other. A few girls, a few boys, a mix of ethnicities; the only common trait among them was the fact they all seemed to be within a few years of her own age. The Digimon that accompanied them were all different as well, unique; they were the only unique ones so far, with every other Digimon she had seen being one of those penguin-gull things.

Until the piles of rocks next to the fire rose up and started speaking to them at least.

She’d expected that the voice would belong to another Digimon, but Akeno still managed to be surprised by Gotsumon’s appearance. The shock wore off quickly, passing faster than it would have on any other day had she seen the same thing; the bar for what it would take to shock her now was steadily rising higher and higher. There was already a talking orange dinosaur and a ghost made of blue fire sitting in the circle with her, why not a pile of rocks? That said pile of rocks would appear disappointed in them however, judging them for the same youth that Akeno had noticed, was something she definitely hadn’t expected though. Why would their ages be surprising? Weren’t they the ones who brought them here?

Closing her eyes, Akeno pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand; despite Pulsemon’s claim that Gotsumon would be able to explain everything, so far he was only producing more questions.

Akeno mostly stayed quiet for the proceedings that followed; allowing the other people who were here to ask their questions while she thought things through. The conversation quickly turned towards the topic of their kidnapping and how they were brought here against their will, which was valid, but wasn’t going to give her the kind of answers she wanted. It was interesting to see that most of the Digimon that were paired with them were just as unaware as they were however; Pulsemon had mentioned that he’d been told about her arrival, but it seemed like these creatures were almost as clueless as they were at the moment.

Feeling eyes on her, Akeno looked down to see Pulsemon looking up at her uncertainly; he seemed to have questions, like the others did, but wasn’t sure if he should ask them. She shrugged in response, not sure what else to say other than to confirm what the others were saying; the last thing she remembered was coming home from school before being surrounded by fog and waking up here. That probably meant abduction, though how they had done it and where they had brought her were a mystery.

Raising her voice, Akeno spoke up into the mix of voices. “Maybe you should just explain everything from the start. Like, [i]what[/i] you are, [i]where[/i] we are, and [i]how[/i] you brought us all here.”