Humans.

They were as rare and mythical to digimon; as unicorns were to humans.

Which was why the first time he ever saw one, sitting just a few feet from him speaking with Cutemon, despite his curiosity to go over to it and sniff at it and ask it questions- he stopped himself with the simple reminder that aside from Cutemon- he was a solitary creature, and wished very much to remain that way.

However this did not keep him from observing the human. Nor did it keep him from tipping his head back and scenting the air so that he could smell it either. He felt it best to catch the human's scent now while he could so that he could, uh, stay away from it later.

Yeah, that was it.

The human, as he could plainly tell by both sight and scent- was female.

All the tale-tell signs were there. From the fragile and feminine build, to the shape of the face's bone structure to the long black hair tied back in a ponytail by a single teal colored ribbon that matched her eyes perfectly.

She was beautiful- well, for a furless creature, he supposed she was beautiful. Which was just another reason he felt the strange need to get away from Shoutmon's village soon.

He had no desire to be entrapped by this creature, yet knew that if he were to stay, that's exactly what would happen. Zeroing in on Cutemon, he noticed the young one acting peculiarly strange towards the human.

Not that the young one didn't act weird around everyone. But this was different.

The human had Cutemon in her lap where he was leaning in against her stomach, his long floppy ear pressed against the area and he seemed to be listening to something for several moments when he finally drew back with a grin and chirped, "I heard it! I heard it! There really is a little human in there!" Causing everything in him to freeze up for a moment as he continued to listen to Cutemon speak. "So you're going to be a mommy?"

The human nodded her head, a small smile curving her lips.

It wasn't an expression that most digimon were capable of making much less pulling off, but the one's who could were considered heads above the rest of them. Which sort of only served to make other's feel inferior and caused more trouble than was necessary.

Shaking his head, he looked around for any traces of the human's pack or mate since he highly doubted that the female would have come to the digital world without one or the other and left herself so vulnerable to exposure and attack. However found no traces of either.

There was no noticeable signs of a pack. Nor one of a mate.

Was this human insane? He wondered as his protective instincts kicked in and he suddenly found himself moving towards Cutemon and the female.

The human had been about to answer one of the bunny digimon's many, many questions when she felt rather than saw the large wolf like creature that seemed to suddenly appear well within arm's reach of her. Looking up slowly, her teal colored eyes were met with golden amber colored ones.

Sharp. Intelligent. Calculating. Intimidating-

And frightening. Don't forget frightening. Her mind whispered to her as she sub consciously reacted to that golden eyed stare by tightening her grip on Cutemon to the point of pain causing the small digimon to yelp in surprise. "Ouch! What's with the sudden death grip?" The bunny digimon asked, irritation lacing it's tone as she abruptly released him with an apologetic smile as her eyes went back to the wolf like creature.

At ten times the normal size of the average wolf, this creature was something to truly fear. His sharp fangs and claws could easily be measured as the length of or around the same size as her hands when they weren't balled into fists. It's fur on it's head, neck and thick shoulders was something between a coppery red while the rest of it's fur was as white as driven snow and clung to a body that was clearly defined as almost nothing but pure muscle and menace.

And with the large frame and muscle to match it- made the round about estimated weight about four hundred and fifty pounds easy. Maybe more depending on how quick it's metabolism was.

Cutemon, seeing the source of her sudden distress patted her on the back of the hand gently and said, "Don't you worry bout him. His name is Dolurumon, and he's my friend forever! He won't hurt you. Especially since you're going to be a mommy. He's probably just curious about you, that's all."

"Huh? W-What do you mean?" Why would he be curious about me? She wondered as she placed a protective hand over her stomach as Cutemon quickly introduced her to his friend.

"Dolurumon, this is Saya. She was brought to the digital world with two friends, but became separated from them." Cutemon said as he ran over to the wolf like digimon and jumped on his massive paw. Or rather, he tried too anyways, earning a guarded look from the larger digimon.

"And where is her mate? Surely her mate wouldn't have left her. Not in the condition she's in." It would be foolish to do so. He thought as he carefully leaned in and sniffed at her. Noting that she had an unusually sweet smell to her.

Not like digi sweets or completely floral. It was more like a combination of vanilla, chamomile, honey, lavender and... What was that last scent? He wondered as he sniffed at her again before finally managing to place it. Rain? How odd. Nice. But odd nevertheless. He thought as the human blinked up at him, seemingly either not have understood his question of simply hadn't heard it.

"I-I'm sorry- But what do you mean by mate?"

This made both Cutemon and his large wolf-like friend both stare at her as if she were crazed or something for several seconds before Dolurumon explained slowly, "The human that helped create the little one you carry within you. You're mate. Surely he must be near by."

The human worried her bottom lip and looked away for several seconds. How exactly did a person explain that sometimes things happened, leaving others behind in the wake of chaos and devastation the likes of which her 'mate'- and that was putting the term more nicely than Jared deserved- had created before he had left her lying in a pool of her own blood with her clothing almost as shredded as the skin of her wrists and inner thighs.

Dolurumon's flicked almost impatiently as he waited for the female to speak. However the longer he and Cutemon waited. The more telling her silence became. His features pulling into a fierce and angry looking scowl- the digimon regarded the female before him for several moments as his mind went over what little bits and pieces of information he knew of humans.

While it may be true that some humans had come to the digital world many, many, many years ago. That had been well over three hundred digi cycles ago and those humans were nothing more than a part of the digital world's ancient history.

And even with the help of their legendary partners- they had been hard pressed to adapt to the digital world so that they could survive.

So there was no way that the female before him could survive on her own. Especially in her condition. She would need special care if she and her young were to remain alive and in one piece.

Sighing he thought to himself, Looks like I've picked up another stray. Oh well. Some adult companionship might not hurt. Plus she could help me keep an eye on Cutemon and keep him out of mischief.

"Tell you what, human- You can travel with Cutemon and I if you want. I'll take care of you, protect you and even act the part of a mate to you, if you so wish."

The female stared up at him for a moment before saying almost warily, "Um, but I don't even know you."

"Then I guess that's something we'll have to work on while we travel. Isn't it?" Dolurumon said as he stared at her for a moment, his tail giving an agitated flick or two as he waited for the female to respond. However when she never spoke, he began to wonder what was going through her head.

Surly whatever she was thinking of couldn't be too bad. After all, it wasn't exactly everyday that a digimon like himself met a pregnant human and promised said female to act as her mate/protector.

Sure it was probably confusing to her. And yeah she probably had tons of questions, but it wasn't like his offer was a bad thing. In fact...a digimon of his ilk was considered quite the catch.

They were strong, virile, resourceful- They were quick in thought and on their feet, fantastic hunters and providers, and the drills on their tails could be used to hollow out the side of a mountain or really, really large rocks to make dens for their mates when they were pupped.

And though the human may be a different species from him, he doubted taking care of her would be too terribly difficult.

They could stick to area's in the digital world that were easy for her to travel and has plenty of eatable meats and such and then when she grew too heavy to continue their travels, he would carve out a den for her and with Cutemon's help, clean it up and line the floors with sweet smelling grass and herbs after which he'd hunt enough food for all of them to last for six or seven months or so until after the young was born.