(Pidmon lets out an exasperated sigh, stands, and strides off to a new group of babies.)

"Why, I'm delighted you asked! A forklift ride goes like this - you climb onto my right hand here, my forklift. My pneumatic arm lifts you up above my head, safe and stable as you please. Then we go for a roll around this meadow on these treads of mine, so you can see it from up above!"

"Can we?," Mochimon asks Hotshot.

"Yeah!!!"

Then up they go! Higher and higher, until they can see over the closest trees into the surrounding landscape, hills and plains and forests and mountains.

They are UP SO HIGH. There are SO MANY THINGS. A whole vast intriguing world filled with THINGS. And someday maybe Hotshot will BITE THEM.

Someday!

Kenkimon begins to roll across the field. He travels slower than Elecmon, perhaps to find safe places to drive his treads, but what the ride lacks in speed it makes up in altitude. Lifted over Kenkimon's head they can see the whole field and all the Digimon in it - the other blobs, Elecmon, the other five visitors making their social rounds.

Nyaromon peers carefully over the edge; Mochimon closes its eyes and sways gently in the wind.

Wooooooow.

Hotshot looks around in all directions, leaning forward or sideways for a better angle on this or that marvel. Elecmon looks so tiny from up here! Elecmon used to look SO BIG and is still pretty respectably medium-sized from a level vantage! And look at all those blobs! There are so many blobs! And, and the visitors! The visitors are BIG and INTERESTING! If Hotshot hangs out with them enough will he get that big too??? MARVELOUS.

And all too soon, the ride must come to an end. Kenkimon lowers the three gently back to the ground.

"One thing I love about my work is seeing the world from up above like that, every day. Another is using that knowledge to arrange things better for all the smaller ’mon.

"You want to learn to solve practical problems, to grow into a form that can really make a change, talk to me or Bitmon over there." (He gestures with his other, scoop-shaped hand, at the pink rabbit visitor.)

And he trundles off to meet other ’mon.

The little fuzzy blob hops in a circle, to see all the visitors. Most are chatting with other blobs. Pidmon seems to be arguing with the ’mon in the hat.

“What are they?,” it asks.

That's a very good question and Hotshot is somewhat stumped by it. He's not even entirely sure he knows what it's asking. They're Digimon, and they're big, but is "big Digimon" what they are or is it just some things they happen to be? When you get right down to it, what does it mean to be something?

But as confused as he is about the question, he can still guess how they might get closer to an answer!

"Let's find out," he says, and treks toward the least occupied-looking giant.

That would be the egg person! It seems to have just finished up one conversation, and now be padding across the field.

Hotshot plonks himself on the ground a good ways in front of it.

"Hi! What're you?"

"I am a chef," it says, in a slightly buzzy voice.

(Hotshot's friends plonk down with him.)

"Tell me, do you know what is best in life?"

He considers this question, then says, "I think it's either biting or friendship."

"Close enough!," it says, "cookie for you. It's FOOD!"

From its shadowed face it tosses some sort of tan-colored disc at Hotshot.

He bites it!

Flavor bursts across his mouth, fluffy crumbly soaring over a thick hot river of sweetness. A feeling of security and trust buoys him aloft.

...And then he's back in the meadow, and the flavor is a flavor.

!!!

WHAT A GOOD THING.

His bite only caught half the cookie; he attempts to distribute the rest to his friends, although much of it is instead getting distributed to the ground.

Then Nyaromon will bite the more solid parts while Mochimon gloms up the more crumbled parts.

"Food is what sustains us! Food is how we grow and learn! With the right food, you can cook up any experience, any skill you can imagine." Its voice wavers with emotion.

"Wow! You mean you made that?"

"Yees," it replies. "The chocolate chip cookie is one of the simpler recipes. I could teach it in perhaps a day, once we've gathered the ingredients, if you pay good attention."

"Where do ingredients come from? Are they also food? Why make different food out of your food instead of eating the food?"