She didn't think to load "Living Jade Empire" on her phone until her break. As soon as she did she saw that she had four messages waiting. One was Aishin's usual morning greeting, with an added line that read: " I know you won't read this for hours yet."

She checked the sent time and saw that he'd sent it at four in the morning. That was in the middle of her night as far as her sleep schedule went. She replied: "Truth. I used the Sandman's dreams to review our meeting with the Mountain Guardian who said that you were the only one of our party with the tracking skills to have helped find her cub, but the trail was already old when we first arrived, do you think there's any chance?"

MatchlessMinion's message read: "Ugh. When I went in to steal it, there was nothing there. Like, literally nothing. Even the house turned out to be an illusion. So much for elves being able to see invisible things, although I guess that was seeing visible things. But will she give up? No. And we're so far south now that my character is losing health again all the time."

Danika wrote back: "There must be some kind of enchanted item you could wear that would keep you cool the way Sea Song Tione's blanket kept him comfortable out of water? I guess maybe that explains why the elves didn't spot me when I used my color cantrip, because I looked like something? Even though they did see me when I used invisibility. I thought it just detected magic?"

SaltySiamese had sent: "Terrible! It turns out it's pretty complicated!"

Danika replied: "Sorry. I saw a new kind of dragon, I don't know if you'd have liked it though, it was half dog."

The last message was from Xander, who had accepted her friend request and asked: "So what can you offer in return?"

Danika considered his message without replying while she resumed her work with the old accounts that were being farmed for Karma. ZipZing had a lot of future profits invested in her little garden, but not much coin available. The goldenberries were about the only surplus items she had.

On her next break she replied to Xander: "I could teach you a skill, but it would require a time investment on your part as well?"

Aishin sent a reply that read: "My tracking skills don't work like that, you'd need someone with ranger type skills I think. I need at least a name, or to have seen the target I'm tracking."

--

When she logged in through the VR-medi pod after she finished her shift, Shrubbery was waiting in her garden. "I can play for a whole hour," Shrubbery announced.

Danika grinned at her and a few minutes later Kit came online and they exited the garden to meet her. Danika said, "I haven't gotten a reply back yet about the snow leopard cub, but I still need to collect wild Amaranth, if you two don't mind?"

"What's Amaranth?" Shrubbery asked curiously.

"It seems to be a plant with lots of edible seeds, like a grain, but different. But what I actually need is fresh cut flowers from it for the Bond Familiar spell," Danika explained.

"Oh, then I definitely want to find it," Kit agreed.

They left the spring and headed down the mountain. Once they were back into the foothills, and not chasing blindly after birds, wild Amaranth wasn't difficult to find. The old NPC had given very accurate advice. Danika's Identify Plant also told her: "Known as the unfading flower, Amaranth is used in a distinctive red dye. Its seeds are particularly well-suited to human nutritional needs, and the stems and leaves are also used in many dishes."

When Danika read the information aloud, Shrubbery commented, "It's weird that I've never heard of it then, if it's a real plant like most of the plants in this game."

"Maybe it's everywhere but has different names in different places, like dandelions?" Kit suggested

"Or it's dying out for some reason?" Danika suggested. "I feel like most of the animals I've seen since I started playing are endangered."

"Carrots, apples, and roses aren't endangered," Shrubbery objected.

"Well, neither are rabbits and goats," Danika agreed. "But I wonder if the varieties in the game might not be? I don't know."

"I guess that's possible, since there are probably thousands of varieties of common things like apples and horses so that even if both feel common, it wouldn't be too hard to find a rare type," Shrubbery agreed.

Kit grinned and said, "Now I feel like looking up all the kinds of animals I've met since I started and seeing if they really are rare in the real world."

A walrus laboriously dragged itself out of the bushes, and Danika stared at it incredulously until she saw the note it carried. She took its message and it vanished without bothering to travel out of sight first. "Wow, why a walrus?" Danika questioned before looking at the message.

"Why is a walrus even a purchasable messenger, is what I want to know," Kit said laughingly.

"I know right," Shrubbery agreed quickly.

The message was from Xander and read: "What do you mean teach me a skill? I meant how much coin can you pay? I want at least 20,000 for it."

Danika frowned at the message and Shrubbery asked, "What is it?"

Danika grimaced and replied, "It's the reply from the person who might know something about the snow leopard kitten. I offered a skill, but he says he wants coin instead. It says he wants at least 20,000 for it, and I don't have any coin left and I don't think the goldenberries I collected are worth that much. I'm not sure what 'it' is either."

Kit gasped and asked, "What if he's got the cub? I only have about 40 coin left."

Shrubbery offered, "I have that much coin, but I think from the pet shops I've visited in this game that a snow leopard would be more like 200,000. I doubt he's offering to sell you the cub."

Danika bit her lip and asked, "If he is, would you be willing to buy it? I want to return it to its mother, so it wouldn't be profitable."

Shrubbery tossed her leafy hair, making a few petals drift away from the flowers in it and declared, "So what? It's just a game, we don't have to always be practical here. Go ahead and ask, I'll pay for it if he's really got it?"

Kit stared at Shrubbery with open mouthed surprise.

"Even if it's just an NPC returning it to its mother would be worth it," Shrubbery added a little defensively.

"Absolutely!" Kit agreed quickly and Danika smiled.

"But if he's just offering a clue, I don't think you should pay that much for it," Danika warned, while she wrote a reply. Shrubbery and Kit both nodded. ZipZing's little bird carried the message off with much less difficulty than the poor walrus had had.

A few minutes later the walrus returned and delivered the response with a labored wheeze.

Danika read it aloud and they discussed how they wanted to approach the meeting before Danika looked around and suggested to Shrubbery, "Want to ride in the garden while Kit and I fly back to Kalunay?"

"Sure," Shrubbery agreed, although she added laughingly before touching the pebble, "The way we've been using them, it would be cool if the illusion just showed what's outside the stone itself."

Danika gazed at Shrubbery with a startled look as she entered the garden. Even if it wasn't the kind of thing that Logical Heart would have thought of, Danika felt like it really should have occurred to her. Kit transformed and launched herself into the sky and Danika tied her stone against her belly and zipped after her a moment later.