I cannot tell you how long I've wanted to do a Digimon story. Digimon was a huge part of my childhood and was my first real introduction to an anime series. That wasn't to say I was clueless about Pokémon or SailorMoon, but the extent of my cartoon/anime watching was after school programming blocks and Saturday mornings. I didn't have access to Cartoon Network when I was younger so Fox Box was mostly where it was at for me (There was some good stuff on there, although it didn't particularly age well), but I digress. Lately, I've been wanting to do more with the anime genre for fan fiction as I've only done a couple of minor works. Since Digimon is so near and dear to my heart, I thought I would start with it. This is going to take place during season one because the original Digimon was the best. I know the title of The Biggest Dreamer is the name of the season three opening song, but it was my favorite Japanese opening song and the one I was listening to when I first came up with the concept of a Digimon story. Feel free to leave a review when you are done and let me know what you think.

There was a great crash that shook a small child out of bed and onto the floor. A little girl in a blue onesie poked her head out from her blanket, her short black hair sticking up everywhere. Her nightlight went out along with the digital clock. She wondered if it was an earthquake. She toddled over to the glass door to the balcony and went outside. She used the little chair in the balcony's corner to pull herself up to the rail so she could see over the side.

The power outage didn't just affect her apartment complex, but the entire neighborhood. The footbridge below had been destroyed and there was an orange, blue, and brown dinosaur in the rubble. Facing it was a giant green and yellow parrot.

The dinosaur let out a roar and the parrot shrieked back. The dinosaur got up and breathed fire at the parrot. Maybe it wasn't a dinosaur, but a dragon. Dragons breathed fire, not dinosaurs. Giant green and yellow feathers filled the air. The dinosaur charged forward and grappled with the parrot. The parrot grabbed the dinosaur by the throat. The dinosaur broke free and they grappled again. The parrot threw the dinosaur back. There was a flash of lightning from the parrot and the dinosaur landed back in the rubble of the ruined bridge hard. It looked like the fight was over. The dinosaur wasn't moving. The parrot began walking over to it.

The shrill sound of a camp whistle echoed throughout the neighborhood. It went on for several long seconds before cutting off. The dinosaur jumped up out of the rubble with a thunderous roar. There was a great blast of fire that engulfed both the dinosaur and the parrot. When the fire disappeared, they were both gone.

"Yume, get down from there!"

The startled little girl fell onto the floor. Her mother was quick to scoop her up.

"What are you doing out here?" her mother demanded to know.

"There's two monsters fighting, Mommy," said Yume, pointing.

Her mother looked over the side of the balcony. "They're gone now, Yume." She clearly didn't believe Yume that there were monsters outside.

"But, Mommy," Yume started to say.

"You can sleep with your brothers. They'll keep the monsters away."

Yume looked back at the door and how dark it was inside. "Mommy, I don't want to go in the dark."

Her mother ignored her and carried her inside.

It was so dark and Yume didn't like it. She could hear squeaking noises and it scared her.

"Mommy," she whimpered.

But her mother was gone and she was standing alone in the dark.

The squeaking grew louder and now there was a flapping sound to go with it. There were things flying over her head. She could feel them closing in around her. There was an evil chuckle that came from every directions. It grew louder. Something glinted in the dark. It looked like teeth.

"Mommy!"

Yume jolted awake on the floor. The nightmares were getting worse. She hadn't had the dream about the parrot and the dinosaur since they moved from Highton View Terrace four years ago, but the laughter in the dark and the teeth were more recent. She sat up and found herself surrounded by crayons and drawings. There were V-shapes and jagged scribbles in black, an orange and brown blob with blue stripes, a green and yellow blob, and purple stars. The stars were the same as the purple paper cutouts she had hanging from her ceiling. By her small desk was a backpack with her full name, Yume Naito, written neatly in her own hand.

There was a knock on her door. "Yume, you need to get up," said her mother, opening the door. She looked at her daughter on the floor with her drawings. "Oh, Yume, not again."

"I had a bad dream," said Yume.

"I know, honey, but you can't stay up all night drawing because you had a bad dream," said Mrs. Naito.

"But," Yume started.

"Come join your brothers for breakfast." Mrs. Naito left, pulling the door closed.

"I wasn't awake all night," Yume finished miserably.

Yume was the youngest of four children between the ages of twelve and seven. Her parents always wanted a girl, but after their third son thought they never would. Then Yume came as a surprise. With being such a large family, things were tight at times. Yume often wore boy's clothes handed down from her brothers.

She got dressed in a pair of denim overalls and a light purple T-shirt, something her mother had gotten her to make the outfit more girly. She put her hair up in two short tails above her ears.

She went out to the dining area to see her brothers already at the table. All of them had the same black hair and brown eyes like she did. Ichiro was the eldest, followed by Fuyu, and then Seiji who wasn't even a full year older than her. Yume yawned and sat down to her breakfast.

Mrs. Naito sighed. "Yume, you'll have to stay home from summer camp."

"What?" asked Seiji. "Why?"

Fuyu looked at Yume, annoyed. "You were up all night again, weren't you?"

"No," Yume said in a small voice.

"At least I won't have to watch you," Fuyu muttered.

Ichiro whacked his brother on the shoulder.

Seiji leaned over. "Bad dreams again?"

Yume nodded.

"Was it the laughter again?"

Yume nodded again. "And the dinosaur."

"Dinosaurs don't exist anymore, Yume," said Ichiro from across the table. "They can't hurt you."

"You boys finish your breakfast," ordered Mrs. Naito. "Are you all packed?"

"Yes," they chorused.

"Good," said Mrs. Naito. "Yume, I can't stay home from work today, so you'll be by yourself. There is food in the refrigerator you can eat and the emergency phone numbers are next to the phone. Boys, you need to leave soon."

Yume was exempt from the normal chaos of the family trying to leave. She sat at the table and watched her brothers run back and forth from their shared room to the entry with things they wanted to take with them. Mrs. Naito yelled at them for lying to her about being ready.

Seiji walked up to his sister. "I'm sorry you can't go. We were going to have so many adventures together. It won't be the same without you."

"Bring me back souvenir?" Yume asked.

Seiji grinned. "I'll bring you back a rock from the summit of a volcano."

"All right, you two," said Ichiro. "Stop playing around. We're leaving."

"Bye, Yume," Seiji said.

The family left, leaving Yume in the quiet apartment.

She went into her room and got out her sketchbook. Many of the pages had been filled up already with pictures of monsters. She flipped through to get to the most recent drawing, passing a lion man, giant bugs, sea monsters, a couple different types of dinosaurs, ghosts with pointed teeth, and a yellow and white teddy bear surrounded by hearts. The unfinished picture she was working on was a bunch of red-eyed bats. She picked up a black crayon and started scribbling a large figure with no features. She stopped and stared at what she drew for a long moment. She then flipped to a clean page and searched for a different color crayon. But she couldn't find it. She checked her big box of crayons and found the color she wanted missing.

"Where is it?" Yume asked herself. "I had it yesterday. I was playing with Kari. Kari! I must have left it there."

The Kamiya family lived next door and Yume and Kari often played together since they were the same age. She had an older brother, Tai, who played soccer with Ichiro.

Yume wondered if somebody was home at the Kamiyas' apartment. Tai and Kari were at camp with her brothers. Maybe one of their parents were home and would let her get her crayon. She really wanted that crayon.

She went next door and rang the bell. When no one answered, she rang the bell again. The door opened.

"Kari?" Yume asked, surprised to see her.

Kari was in her orange pajamas with her camp whistle around her neck. Her short brown hair was a little messy and she rubbed at her brown eyes.

"What are you doing here?" asked Yume. "I thought you were going to camp."

"I thought you were going to camp, too," said Kari. She coughed. "Are you sick, too?"

"No, Mom made me stay," replied Yume. "I was drawing in my sleep again."

"So why are you here?" asked Kari.

"I can't find my indigo crayon," said Yume. "I think I left it here."

Kari nodded. "You left it on the table in the living room. Come on in. Mom and Dad aren't home. They went to visit Grandma and Grandpa. They won't be back until late."

A thought came to Yume. "Hey, since we're both by ourselves, why don't we have a sleepover together?"

"But it's daytime," Kari pointed out.

"We can pretend," said Yume.

"I guess we can," said Kari.

"Great! Let me get my stuff!"

Yume ran back over to her apartment and grabbed the bag she had packed for camp. She ran back over to Kari's.

"What do you want to do first?" Yume asked.

"Can we color?" asked Kari.

"Sure!"

Kari and Yume sat at the dining table coloring. Kari had a coloring book of her own while Yume drew in her sketchbook.

Kari leaned over to see what Yume was doing. "What are you drawing?"

"A wizard." Yume turned the skectchbook around. She had drawn a person in an indigo robe, pointed witch's hat, and holding a staff. "I think I'll call him Merlin."

"He looks more like a witch than a wizard with that hat," said Kari.

Yume grabbed a silver crayon and started adding little stars to the staff. "I think he's just the way he is. He's nicer than some of the other things I've been drawing." She flipped a few pages back to show Kari.

"Some of these are just scribbles," said Kari.

"I know. I did them in my sleep," Yume told her.

"You sleep-draw?"

"I guess so. My parents and my brothers think I stay up all night after a bad dream and draw, but I am sleeping. I really am. I don't mean to do it. It just happens. Is there something wrong with me?"

"Don't think so," said Kari, looking up from the sketchbook. "Unless there's something wrong with both of us."

"Huh?"

"I see monsters all the time," Kari admitted.

"You dream them, too?"

"No, I see them on TV. Sometimes I see them when Mom and Dad take me somewhere. I told them about it, but they think I watch too many scary movies."

"Oh," Yume said, disheartened that she wasn't the same as Kari.

They went back to coloring for a few minutes, then Kari said, "Wanna go on an adventure?"

"But you're sick, Kari," said Yume.

"I know, but you can still protect me from the monsters. Like the bats there!" She pointed up at the ceiling.

Yume looked up at the empty air, knowing what Kari was doing.

"I'll save you!" she declared. She grabbed her bag and pulled out a wand. It was just a long dowel rod with a foil pompom and ribbons attached. She pointed it at the celling. "Go away, bad bats! Shoom, shoom! You won't hurt the princess!"

Kari giggled and ran back to her room. Yume followed, waving her wand around and making noises, fighting off imaginary bats. She closed the door behind them.

"Ha! Now you can't get in here!" Yume said triumphantly.

"They'll break through the door!" Kari cried.

"Now if I put a spell on it!" Yume waved her wand in a random pattern. "They can't get in now!"

Kari cheered, but her cheers turned to coughs.

"Kari?" asked Yume, concerned.

She hacked again.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Yume said worriedly.

"I'm okay. I want to go back to sleep."

"Okay."

Kari climbed up the ladder to the top bunk. "You can sleep in Tai's bed. It smells funny though."

Yume looked at the bottom bunk. "Can I come up with you?"

"Sure," Kari replied.

Yume climbed up the ladder and crawled into bed with Kari. Both girls were asleep in a few minutes.

Please review. If you are new to my stories, my profile is arranged that you can see what all I am working on and what's upcoming. I also have a list of stories from other authors that I enjoy and you may find interesting.