Xander asked Shrubbery with amazement, "You can speak snake?"

Shrubbery shook her head and explained, "I can only understand full blooded animals thanks to my tree."

Xander hissed something to his snake and shook his head. The dark snake within the aquarium he held flicked its tongue at him.

Danika asked doubtfully, "You said that you want 20,000 for it, but didn't say what it is, and you don't seem to have the snow leopard cub?"

Xander looked up and set his snake back on the table in front of her. "I don't have it," he agreed, "but I can get it for you if you girls have got the coin."

Kit murmured, "He sounds sketchier the more he talks."

Shrubbery protested, "How is that sketchy? Optimistic maybe, but sketchy?"

Xander flushed pinkly and exclaimed, "I'm serious! I've been offered a quest to tame it that pays 20,000."

Danika questioned, "That sounds like you're taming it for someone else. How will you get it?"

Xander rolled his eyes. "I'll just take it instead," he explained with exasperation.

"Optimistic and naive," Shrubbery opinioned with amusement. "We need MatchlessMinion back."

"I won't do?" Aishin asked from behind them. His grin stayed on his uncovered face when all three girls spun and gasped in surprise.

Xander gazed at Aishin with a startled expression and then enthused, "This is great, I've never met so many Underneath fans in a game before!"

Danika zipped over to Aishin and asked, "Things must have gone well?"

He held out his hands, and after only a moment of hesitation she landed on them. His grin widened. "Very well," he agreed. "Plus, I get a whole day free in a few days."

Danika's heart was beating too fast and she half expected him to kiss her on the nose again, but of course, he didn't. Her wings sparkled in pale colors and her voice quavered a little as she blurted, "I've got an interview three days from now."

Aishin blinked at her. "Ok? For a job?" he asked.

Shrubbery snickered and Aishin's eyes flicked to her face questioningly. "I think she's trying to tell you that she won't be able to play that day?" Shrubbery suggested.

Danika nodded.

Aishin winked at her and said, "I'll make sure it's after that then ZipZing. Do you think you'll have the plants ready by the day after? I'm pretty sure I'll have everything else in time."

"I'll try," Danika promised.

Xander asked doubtfully, "So how do you think an assassin can help in snatching the cub?"

Aishin raised an eyebrow and suggested, "We could just kill whoever stole it." He looked Xander up and down and asked a little sardonically, "Wouldn't that be the piratical thing to do?"

Xander flushed and replied, "I'm an honorable swashbuckler."

Aishin kissed ZipZing on the nose and released her. "Sure you are," Aishin replied agreeably as he stepped forward. "That's why an assassin will be useful to you."

Danika hovered frozen in the spot Aishin had released her for about three heartbeats as a blush lit her wings, and then her wings stopped beating and she fell out of the air like a stone and bounced across the tavern floor.

"Zip!" Kit exclaimed worriedly.

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"You killed your own pet!?" Xander exclaimed.

Aishin glanced back at ZipZing and his eyes crinkled but his hands flashed and he stood with a knife tip against Xander's throat and said with soft menace, "She's not a pet, she's my friend."

"Right, sorry, I forgot that thing is a player for a second," Xander replied quickly.

"Thing?" Aishin questioned sharply. He spoiled it a moment later by grinning and exclaiming laughingly, "Get up ZipZing, you're going to make that girl cry!"

Despite his laughter Aishin's hands didn't move, and neither did Xander. The dusky sea snake did though. She coiled against the aquarium glass, and her eyes shimmered.

Aishin told Xander, "Sorry, that skill won't work on me."

Danika struggled to her feet and Kit knelt and patted her anxiously. "Are you ok? What happened?" Kit asked worriedly. Her head swiveled between ZipZing and Aishin.

Shrubbery's hands covered her mouth and her shoulders quivered.

Danika's wings were sparkling rose colored as she assured Kit, "I'm fine." She took a deep breath and added, "And you can see my health in the party menu too if you're worried."

Xander said faintly, "I'm sorry I called your miniature dragon girl your pet?"

Aishin withdrew his knife and grinned as he sheathed it.

Danika pointed out to Kit, "I can't fly with you patting me."

Kit snatched her hands back and exclaimed, "Sorry!"

Shrubbery groaned and complained, "Seriously, right now?" A moment later she vanished.

Aishin's expression sobered as he gazed at the spot where Shrubbery had been. Danika's sparkles shifted into violet hues as she and Aishin exchanged glances.

A moment later Danika launched herself back into the air and said, "Let's go collect the kitten before Kit has to go too."

Xander crossed his arms and demanded, "Who's going to pay me? I'm not leading you guys to it until someone gives me the 20,000 coin."

Danika's brow wrinkled. Kit looked at her worriedly. Aishin glanced at her and pulled out his dark stone and held it in his palm.

Xander declared, "I don't accept rocks. It's coin or nothing."

"He wouldn't take a skill either," Danika told Aishin quickly. "And you shouldn't offer anything that valuable, even if he would be able to carry his walrus with it."

Aishin raised his eyebrows, but didn't ask. He bent and placed his stone on the floor and his lips barely moved as he vanished.

Xander stepped forward and snatched up the stone.

"I don't think you want to be holding that when he comes out," Danika advised dryly.

Xander dropped the stone and stepped back.

Aishin reappeared a moment later. He bent and picked up the stone and then held out a small ordinary sack. "20,000 coin," he said simply.

Xander stared at the stone longingly, but gulped and reached for the sack. Aishin pulled it back just as his fingertips touched it and offered, "Or you could pay me 200,000 and show us the live snow leopard cub, and have the stone."

Xander licked his lips and asked sourly, "What makes you think I've got that much?"

Aishin glanced at the little aquarium and said, "It's a good bet that a man casually carrying around an item of such quality, and wearing an avatar that cost thousands in real money will have a couple hundred thousand coin in loose change?"

Xander argued, "Your avatar costs almost as much!"

Aishin gave him a sharp grin and replied, "So I would know?"

Xander looked at the stone again and asked, "Are you willing to make that offer with an enchanted contract?"

"If you pay for the enchantment," Aishin agreed.

Kit gasped and the two men turned to look at her and she flinched. Aishin asked gently, "What's wrong Kit Tay?"

Kit said nervously, "I just looked at the boundary of that." She pointed at the little aquarium. "And it's a lot bigger inside!"

"Such a little snake wouldn't have a gaze of such power," Aishin agreed. He glanced at Xander and asked, "How old is your 'little' pet anyway? A hundred years? Two hundred?"

The snake coiled against the glass and stuck its head up into the air at the top of the tank, and then dropped to the bottom and turned its back to them. Danika brought up her menu lens and focused on it. It didn't display any information and no label floated above the snake's head. After a moment she realized that it must be because of the aquarium, and that her eggshell before she hatched must have had the same effect for Quin, Justin and Terri back then.

"She says she's only 62, and that it's very rude to ask a lady her age," Xander replied huffily.

Danika giggled.

Kit asked Aishin, "Why do you think the snake is really old?"

Aishin glanced at her and then shrugged and explained, "It tried to use a really high level confusion skill on me, and NPCs seem to have a strong correlation between skill level and age."

Danika suggested, "That sounds pretty useful for stealing the kitten? Maybe he really could do it?"

Xander exclaimed, "Of course I can!" He reached out and clapped his hand against Aishin's shoulder and declared, "You should have a little faith in a fellow fan."

Aishin winced.