When Terry woke up, he was the only one still in the room. He sat up slowly and took a look around. "Guys?" Silence. He stood up and realized how dark the library was. He rubbed his eyes to help them adjust and looked around again. He was caught off guard by the state of the library. Everything was covered in moss and dust, there were plants coming in from the ceiling as well.
"Wh-what the hell happened here?" He ran to the door to look outside. He gasped when he opened it. The college campus was gone, and in its place was a massive forest. It was also noticeably colder outside than it had been at the campus.
He didn't have much time to take in the sights before he heard an awful chittering to his left. He looked over and saw a huge plant moving on its own. It turned towards him and made a louder noise. Terry was too stunned to move. The plant was composed of many vines that all led to a large round body with one giant eyeball.
"H-hi, uh, don't kill me?" Terry muttered. The monster seemed to have those exact intentions because the next moment, Terry was on the ground 10 feet away gripping his stomach in pain. The monster had whacked him with a large cluster of vines.
He rolled over as the monster approached. "Did anyone get the plate number of that truck?" Terry barely managed to choke the words out. He saw the monster raise a cluster of vines again. He flinched when it swung down and didn't realize until a few seconds later that the fist had stopped.
He peeked between his arms and saw a small thread holding the monster's arm back. His eyes followed the thread all the way over to a giant fluffy worm. "Argomon, stop! He's a friend!" The worm said.
"I-I am? I mean, yeah I'm a friend!" He was trying not to pass out from the sight of a plant monster and talking worm.
The monster, named Argomon apparently, lowered its fist. "Chttt. Chttrrr." It said.
"I know, but he didn't mean to scare you, he's my friend and isn't used to this world yet." The worm crawled over. Terry was still in pain and couldn't stand up, not that it mattered since he was frozen in fear and confusion. "I'm so happy to see you, Terry!" The worm exclaimed before jumping onto his shoulder.
Terry wanted to scream, but he felt an odd sense of calm with the worm on his shoulder. "I, uh, do I know you? I mean thank you for saving me, but you seem like you know who I am."
The worm smiled. "I'm sorry, I keep forgetting things are so different where you come from, I've known you my whole life! You're Terry, my partner!"
"Partner huh? That certainly explains why I feel so comfortable sitting with a talking worm. But how do you know who I am?" The worm crawled down and stood in front to explain.
"Our worlds are like parallels to eachother, except we can see into your world often, but you can't see into ours. We all have a human counterpart that we can watch and keep tabs on in the human world. Those humans are our partners." He was making a lot of gestures during his explanation. Terry did that a lot as well when he was explaining his latest fixation or hobby. This reinforced the idea that he and the worm were somehow connected.
"Wow, that's a lot to take in. I believe you though, I feel like I can trust you. What's your name?" Terry held out an arm for the worm to crawl back onto his shoulder.
"I'm Silkmon!" The worm exclaimed happily. "And my big friend over there is Argomon." Argomon waved his gigantic club-shaped arm.
"Weird, so do all of your names end with -mon?" Terry realized he had more and more questions as the conversation went on. "Sorry for all the prying, just trying to get a sense of what this place is."
"That's alright! All of our names do end in mon, it's sort of a suffix we all share, like how a lot of human towns end in 'burg' or 'ville.'" He looked over to Argomon. "I hope you don't take his attack personally, he's the defender of this place and he thoughts you were an intruder."
"He's... the defender of my campus's library?"
"No, no! In our world this place is called the Kindergarten. A lot of digi-eggs appear here, so Argomon stays here to protect all of the babies." Terry understood then that the attack was an act of defense rather than aggression.
"I see, that makes sense then." He looked to Argomon. "You did good, I'm not mad or anything." He held a thumbs up. Argomon let out another chitter.
Terry allowed his mind to settle now that most of his questions had been answered. "Oh shit, my friends! Did you see any of them? We were all pulled into this place together but I woke up alone."
"You came down from the sky to this place alone, but I saw five other lights descend from the sky nearby. They should be within a few miles of here, that way!" Silkmon pointed into the forest.
"Thank you so much." Without even thinking too much about it, Terry's heart sank at the idea of going to look for the others and leaving Silkmon there. "Will you come with me?"
"Of course I will! We're partners! Plus, it can get dangerous out there." Terry felt a lot more comfortable bringing Silkmon with him.
"Thank you, let's get going." Terry marched into the forest with Silkmon on his shoulder.
Behind them, a small group of other monsters came out of hiding. "Is the big human gone?" One asked. Argomon picked it up and patted its head, letting out a soft chitter.
