Though still frightening, this little creature did just chase off the larger one that was certainly about to eviscerate me. It's cute in its own odd fashion, cute, but terrifying. I stare down at it as I slowly inch away. It may seem adorable right now, but it just used enough force to topple a steam engine. There's raw power compacted into that tiny round body. It calls my name once again, which terrifies me further.

The spheroid critter calls, "Jaku, nice to finally meet you!"

It, it can't possibly know my name, can it? I glance around, trying to ascertain if there is something else with my name on it nearby, anything at all in this park that might be called a Jackie, Jack, Jake, or Jaku. During my frightened inching, I don't notice a large stone that my heel slides backwards into, tripping me as the creature bounds closer. I crash heavily into the ground on my back, worse, the stony ground impacts several tender locations along my spine, and kidneys. The unevenness of the ground treats me worse yet further still as my hands slide across sharp edges of stone, gashing my palms.

As I recoil, I can't even find the strength to sit up or flip over. Any part on my body that I could normally use for leverage is damaged beyond what I'd normally be able to withstand before passing out. The enormous beetle creature had rammed me into Founder's Rock repeatedly, and now my body is almost unresponsive. The adorable, yet immensely powerful, cream-colored sphere makes one last leap my direction, and I resign myself to my oncoming death.

It wasn't all bad, my life, was it? Sure there were ups and downs, but who doesn't have those? Can't say I expected fantastical creatures to spring up near an early demise, but, well, what a way to go out. Right? As I contemplate the eternal void, the unknowable destiny in the afterlife, I realize I'm still not dead as I tentatively raise one eyelid to survey my situation, peeking about. In fact, the creature has snuggled down atop my chest, and is cutely snoring. It's actually producing a massive snot-bubble as it snores.

This, this can't be real. The pain across my body feels real. Losing, and leaving my studio, jogging home through the park felt real. Finishing my last freelance task for the foreseeable future seemed real. Being told I'm barred from pursuing my passion due to new union guild rules, and my inability to keep up with membership dues felt real. The bleak prospect of returning to entry level service industry work, to barely scrape by certainly feels real. The twilight approaching post-dusk seems real. But having a frighteningly powerful spherical creature snoring atop my chest, one that can speak! It, it doesn't seem real. I mean, neither does being chased by a thirty ton insect, some sort of kabuto monster, with a mandible radius the size of a VW Bug. Huh, odd coincidence my brain decided to use that analogy. A beetle with a bite radius the size of a beetle. Hah. I'm cracking up. Maybe I'm already dead, having an out of body experience?

Hm, no, that isn't quite it. I'm able to lift my limbs ever so slightly. I try to bring my arms and hands up my torso, towards my throat as the spherical creatures rolls about my chest in its slumber. I'm hoping I can protect my jugular at least for a short while. The park is eerily empty, even considering my usual shortcut past Founder's Rock. I'd expect at least Jaslene to have been jogging circles around the area by now. Dusk turns to twilight and a chilly air passes over us, sweeping leaves across the rocky ground with a familiar crinkle. I should have laid around in the park more often. Just taken in the sights and sounds while I was still alive. Other people should too. Cherish every moment. You never know when you're apparently going to be eaten by some sort of monster that previously didn't exist. Or something, I guess.

Still, it feels incredibly odd that no one has shown up since we began our little dance of survival. Though, I suppose, if that enormous beetle was real, everyone else was likely frightened off. I suppose if anyone saw me being brutally slammed into a pulp, they'd have likely fled for their own safety. Can't say I blame them. At least I saved the dog.

It was probably some random stray, but, but I just couldn't let the beetle thing eat it. How foolish was I to grab the nearest staff-sized branch and swing at the enormous creature? I was a complete idiot. The beetle isn't even dead, or permanently gone! It'll probably eat the next stray it sees. It's going to wreak hell around here. I wonder if they'll need to summon some sort of military group to take it down. It's a gorram kaiju. Well, at least a fifth of one. Yeah, if the big ones are ten to twenty stories high or more, this one was only about two to four stories in size.

That's how idiotic I am. I picked up a stick and ran at something twenty to fifty feet tall. To protect an animal I don't even know. Ugh. I probably deserve to be eaten when this sphere wakes up, hungry from producing so much force. And yet, yet I can't help but to wonder. It used my name. It greeted me in a friendly fashion. It saved me from a larger threat. It's now sleeping snuggled atop my chest like some sort of cat.

Cautiously, trembling as I fight both my terror, and the weakness in my limbs, I inch my hand closer to the soft, pliable critter. It, she perhaps, she actually seems to subconsciously nuzzle towards my hand, quite like a cat, using my stationary hand to pet herself. Is, is this real? Am I safe? Does she know me from somewhere? Does she want to keep me safe? Or is the affection a matter of convenience pre-mealtime? Cats do like to play with their prey. I gulp at the thought.

The creature seems to awaken as her head connects with my hand. She seems almost embarrassed as she realizes we're both enjoying her cuddling and my petting. For such a fierce, fearsome thing, it's probably not the norm to fight for head-pats. I mean, existing isn't the norm for something like her.

She asks, almost timidly, "Jaku, are you okay? You're bleeding. Can you be okay? Please?"

I'm dumbfounded. She certainly knows my name, though she pronounces everything with a Japanese inflection. I should probably be more dumbfounded than she can talk, but I just met a kaiju insect, and a spherical cat-fox that could drive it away in the span of two seconds, and that spherical cat creature knows my name. I'm out of surprise to give at this point. I gaze down at the pool of vitality seeping from me and grimace. She's right, I am bleeding. I impacted the sharp rocks on this edge of the trail forcefully during my fall, and my skin had already broken open in places from the pummeling I had received earlier. My leg in particular was heavily shredded by the horn-like appendage on the insect kaiju.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

I barely manage to form words around a gulp caught in my throat, "I, I don't know. I'm alive. Glp. For the moment. Thank you? I think? Um. You saved me. Did you save me so you could eat me?"

She fairly barks a laugh into my face as she literally rolls around on her back across my belly and legs while laughing. She pauses to catch her breath and say, "Silly Jaku, why would I eat my best friend? I've been waiting so long to meet you."

Bewilderment plasters itself across my face once more. Say what now? I hazard, "Your, your best friend? But you just, I just. We've never met. If you haven't met me because you've been waiting so long, well. Like you said. How can I be your best friend? I mean, I'm honored, and glad to be alive and all."

She titters, "I'm made from you, for you, silly."

Gazing down at my blood, imagining all the things someone might be able to do with DNA these days, I'm mildly frightened. I gulp once more. Raising an eyebrow I ask for clarification, "W,what does that mean?"

She bounces on my leg playfully, with no apparent force, thankfully, as she replies, "It means what it means, I'm your digimon. It's so rare we get to meet our partners. I'm so happy I get to have mine."

Digimon? That sounds like a portmanteau of digital monster. Could this be some elaborate videogame situation? Did I sign up for a VR full-dive beta and forget that I logged into it? Attempting to log out yields no results however. I don't think we're at matrix-level virtual reality yet anyway. This whole day and night has been too real, and too surreal simultaneously. She gazes up at me expectanctly, her wide-eyes shining, but the joy is slowly leaving her face the longer I take to respond. Oh! I quickly say, "I'm, I'm so happy we get to meet then too! I'm truly lucky that, well, apparently you're a part of my life that I'd been missing. How long is too long? How old are you?"

She sticks her tongue out one side of her mouth to gnaw on it while she gazes up-leftwards deep in thought. Apparently coming to a conclusion, she answers, "About four levels, so about thirty seven petabytes maybe? Give or take a dozen. I can't see my page right now."

Levels? Petabytes? Page? This is sounding more and more like a videogame. Curious, I request more clarification and elaboration, "I'm, um, unsure how those translate to time. I guess, uh, when did you start existing maybe?"

She turns it back on me, asking in answer, "When did you first imagine joy while on the information super highway?" Her voice as she says information super highway sounds like a masculine Japanese announcer in an anime.

What in the what? What kind of question is that? Is she saying she sprung into existence from my imagination the first time I had fun on the internet? That's insane. Isn't it? Then again, I'm talking to some sort of cream-yellow cat-fox that can launch attacks capable of toppling boulders and houses. I chuckle nervously with chagrin, recalling just how dangerous she is, and just how close she is to my vitals.

I try to answer politely, "I, um, I guess when I was young, in the early days of the net. That's, kind of a long time ago now. Does that mean you've been alone all this time?"

Her face betrays her sadness while she excitedly answers, "Yep!" It's a confusing juxtaposition. I suppose she's proud that she made it through loneliness, but perhaps is saddened by the reminder of it. I heave a sigh imagining being alone the entire time I've been alive since the advent of the internet. It doesn't take much to imagine, since, well, yeah, stuff happened. The poor sweet creature. Oh, heavens, I'm just calling her her, and creature, and it. I'm such a dick.

I beg forgiveness, "I'm, I'm so sorry it took so long, I think. I'm also sorry I haven't gotten your name yet. Please forgive me. What do I call you?"

She chuckles and headbutts my thigh as she responds, "We're good Jaku. Today, call me Vixi, maybe tomorrow, call me Rena, if we're lucky. Hopefully before Kabuterijerk comes back."

Kabu-- wait. Is that thing actually named Kabuterijerk or is she making fun of it? It's hard to tell with her. She's a little catty in demeanor, with a foxishly acerbic wit. Oh, jeeze. Reality hates me. A friend finally enters my life, and her personality is a pun on her appearance? I barely resist facepalming. I don't want her to think I'm exasperated with her. In part because I'm still worried that any moment, she'll tire of our conversation, and simply finish me off. But that fear is being worn away swiftly, replaced by a feeling of safety and contentment.

It's hard to describe just how right it feels to be near Vixi. I wonder why she wants her name to change as early as tomorrow though. I mean, I'll certainly respect her identity, it's not like I don't have my own host of identity issues. I frown as I gaze down at the body I'm trapped in. A body that's got to be far more incredibly resilient than I previously imagined to not be dead after the beating I took. It's still a cage all the same. I'm fairly certain I have internal bleeding, that's the sort of thing someone doesn't survive without immediate medical treatment, and, well, we're a dozen miles from the Balth, the nearest clinic, being hunted by a kaiju, and I can't even walk.

I absentmindedly continue to stroke Vixi and ramble, "I, I don't know if I'll make it to tomorrow Vixi, I'm sorry. Everything is getting heavier. Wait, what's that buzzing?"

The obnoxious yet overpowering buzz once again fills the air as the insectoid kaiju returns, cresting the rise as it speeds towards us. Oh no. Vixi leaps away from me to deflect the return of Kabuterijerk, intercepting a blow meant to finish me off. Please world, no, not when I've just made a friend, not after all this. At least let me enjoy these last few moments.

I cry out with tears in my eyes, "Vixi! No!"