Ace had taken absolutely no convincing to clamber up onto Daybreak Gleaming’s back.

I hid a grin. Daybreak Gleaming was pony-sized, and Ace was taller than average. There was something almost Don Quixote-like in their disparity of sizes. That, and … both had unicorn horns -- Ace’s sparkling of silver and contrasting with the polished wood of my unicorn.

“How do I steer her?” Ace asked.

“You don’t. She’ll go where she needs to, which is … that way.” I pointed down the street, “And then south at the next intersection.” I fluttered nearby with my map still unfurled. I suppose I could have ridden Daybreak Gleaming, too -- or stood on Ace’s shoulder or something -- but, again, I was flying.

Sure, I flew all day yesterday and hovered around during the family meeting today, but the novelty had by far not yet worn off. If it ever would. So, yes, I flew. Even if it meant flying along at a lazy pace in between buildings instead of zipping over buildings and trees to take a straight-line approach.

For a while, as we navigated the little side streets of the weatherbeaten residential district, both Ace and I were quiet, other than the “We’ll be turning up ahead,” and other navigational comments I provided while plotting our route to the plaza.

We were making good time. Well, not in comparison to how I could have flown, but certainly in comparison to a regular person’s walking pace -- even if Daybreak Gleaming was walking rather than trotting, galloping, or any other horsey term of locomotion.

The houses gradually became more grand as we travelled -- not that they were anything fancy, but they were more like what you would see on the main street of town rather than the little side streets closer to the harbor. Not the homes of the wealthy or even affluent, but the homes of the comfortable.

Despite that, it was oddly quiet and still. There were no kids playing in the yards, no dogs or cats running around, not even other pedestrians going about their day. The homes didn’t look abandoned quite the way they did in the area we had our family meeting, but they were apparently untenanted.

Did the NPCs live in another district? Was this just for show or future player housing? Did the NPCs even need homes -- or were they all inactive during the hours we weren’t playing?

Normally, I wouldn’t have even considered that in a game. If NPCs had homes, they were for background and not places players would normally go -- unless one was playing a thief, of course. But with how lifelike Gren and Virgil had seemed, not to mention Desi, they had seemed a bit more, well, more than just regular NPCs.

Questions for another day, however. I wish some of the answers players had discovered on other community servers had made their way to the internet, but the company behind DVI had a lock on information sharing beyond the very basics.

* * *

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It had taken a while, but we had eventually made it out of that neighborhood’s little labyrinth of side streets and cul-de-sacs and onto a wider, tree-lined avenue. It wasn’t a main street, but according to the map, it was a major cross-city thoroughfare leading from a small plaza north of the east gate to a small plaza north of the west gate. Neither of which were our destination, but following the avenue to the west would bring us closer. The plaza Mikachu had sent coords for was a bit east and south of the western gate.

We even saw a few players going about their business.

A group of three short, stocky, bearded men -- dwarves of some sort, probably -- passed us, headed east on the other side of the avenue. They didn’t have the look of warriors, so probably crafters of some sort. And that might explain why they were in town on day two rather than out fighting. Well, unless they had a family meeting, too.

The trio waved as they passed, but didn’t stop their brisk pace, not even to stare, though Ace and Daybreak Gleaming did apparently warrant a little bit of rubbernecking. But sightseeing and curiosity were not as much motivation as whatever mission the dwarves were on.

We encountered a few other solo adventurers, but like us, they were focused on getting where they were going. Neither I nor Ace were inclined to stop for chatter, and it seemed none of the other players were, either. Until ….

“Well, well, what have we here?” A large man, flanked by two smaller men rushed in front of us, causing Daybreak Gleaming to stop short of running them over. Then again, the big man was as tall as Ace and nearly twice as broad across the shoulders; it might have been difficult to actually go over him without flying.

“Please move. You’re in the way,” Ace said.

Meanwhile, I was preparing for trouble. “As the dawning dewdrops nourish and protect, please, Great Goddess of Nature, bestow upon your faithful and her allies the subtle aura of protection: ⸢Prayer of Dawning Dewdrops⸥!” My voice was quiet, but the ripple of green light was surely noticeable.

I had my doubts that nature elemental resistance would do us any good, the men had the look of brawlers and ruffians, but it couldn’t hurt to have it ready.

> Ace, if it comes to a fight, you’ll need to get off the unicorn. Daybreak Gleaming is actually my weapon.

>> KK. You go up; I’ll go right.

The big man guffawed. “Move? You hear that, lads? This puffed-up, poncy peacock wants us to get out of his way. What do you say to that, lads?”

“I say it’s too early in the game for someone to have a mount. We’d best take it, probably can sell it for a lot and buy better gear,” said one.

“Sell it? Keep it,” said the other. “With a good mount, I can get started on the knight class early.”

“If you want to prance around like a fairy princess on a unicorn, do it on your own time, Flynn.”

“Well,” the big man said, “Looks like the lads agree with me. You’re going to be donating that fancy horse of yours to the Redskull Raiders.

“I don’t think so,” Ace replied.

The men didn’t seem to notice me. Or rather, they seemed to have immediately dismissed me as being Ace’s familiar or something, since I had been hovering next to their shoulder. They certainly didn’t seem to regard me as a player or a threat.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter what you think,” the big man said. “It matters what you’ll do. You have two choices. Choice one: Hop down off that horse right now and we’ll only rough you up a little for your rudeness. Or choice two: we knock you senseless, send you back to respawn with a killer headache, and take the horse anyway.”

Ace dismounted and slipped down Daybreak Gleaming’s right side. “I choose choice three: You jerks go away and leave honest people alone.”

The big man shrugged. “Your funeral. It’s three against one; you’ve got nothing but pain coming your way.” He unlimbered a large wooden club with one hand and reached for Daybreak Gleaming’s horn with the other.