"Do you regret it? If you started while you were still in highschool you must have been doing this for at least three years now?" Danika questioned.

Aishin replied teasingly, "You'll make fans like Xander cry you know. You haven't looked up our history?"

Danika replied uncomfortably, "I have only looked up a couple things. Looking up stuff about Underneath seems kind of like I'm stalking you."

Aishin laughed a lot more than Danika thought her reply warranted. When he sobered enough to reply he teased, "No, I'm the one who's stalking you."

"Are you?" she questioned.

"Not really," he admitted. "I haven't really tried to look up anything about you. But trying to figure out where you live by where it was snowing was a bit stalkerish." He grinned at her and said, "Five years."

"What?" she asked.

"We started Underneath five years ago," he explained.

They talked a while longer before resuming the search for the next animal.

--

After Hikaru learned evasion the next day, Danika began trying to teach the firefly Aishin's random teleport skill, since the more she used it, the more chance there was that she could learn it herself.

Danika had expected to play with Shrubbery and MatchlessMinion on the weekend, but Aishin had been correct and the VR-medi pod had already been delivered, so instead she received a message from Shrubbery that said: "Sorry, I can't play like I expected. I have to help my dad rearrange our house. I did not really understand how big this thing was going to be. Match and Salty will be coming over to help later too."

Danika replied: "That's great! Don't worry about it."

After thinking for a bit Danika contacted Kit, and then made her way back to the human capital, and from there traveled to Kalunay. Enough time had passed that the town's residents took no special notice of the formerly notorious fairy dragon named ZipZing, but Danika warily avoided the section of town where the Envoy's residence had been.

She met Kit in the town square. The druid was, as usual, interrupting the transactions of other players by clinging to the traveling merchant's hands as his affectionate relationship interactions overrode his normal functions. She was blushing as he flirted gently with her.

Neither of them seemed to notice at first when ZipZing joined the queue of irritated players, so after a bit, Danika announced, "I'm here."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The player closest to Kit snapped, "We're all here, this is ridiculous. Hey! Merchant!"

The traveling merchant paused in his flirtation long enough to reply serenely, "I'll be happy to assist you after I'm finished talking with my wife." Then he lifted Kit's hands and kissed her fingers. He looked deeply into her eyes and told her sincerely, "You are doing so well love. I'm glad that your efforts are paying off, and I hope that the God of Separation will not increase the difficulty of your tasks beyond what is amusing."

Danika shot the merchant a sharp glance. That had sounded like a warning to her. She suggested to the irritated player, "You could patronize the permanent shops, unless your quest requires that you speak to the merchant."

Kit blushed again and said reassuringly, "I've generally enjoyed my quests." Then she released the merchant's hands and turned to look at ZipZing. "Sorry, I didn't realize that you'd already arrived."

"There's no hurry," Danika replied promptly. "The mountain guardian didn't specify a set time, merely that I'm allowed to visit once a month."

The grouchy player whose transaction Kit had likely interrupted elbowed his way past her and demanded the merchant's attention. The traveling merchant remained focused on his wife until she turned back to him and said shyly, "I'll find you again in a few days, I'm off to climb the mountain with Zip."

"Alright my love," he replied warmly. "Be careful and don't disturb any of the animals that are hibernating beneath the snow. They tend to be very irritable at this time of year."

"I'll watch for their territories," Kit assured him happily.

The traveling merchant finally returned his attention the the aggravated player as Kit walked away.

--

Kit transformed into her hawk form and they flew west, with Hikaru flickering along behind them like a lost sparkle. "I will get my phone back soon, so I'll be able to log into the game during its night and try weaving your claw into my belt beneath the moon," Kit told Danika happily.

"That's great!" Danika enthused. "With everyone's help I have already collected over 300 hair, scales, teeth and nails from living creatures, so I think I'll be able to learn to weave mine in another couple of weeks."

"How are you storing them all?" Kit questioned.

"Just in ordinary sacks which I'm storing inside the pouch I got from the beginner's vale," Danika admitted. "But I am going to run out of room before I collect a thousand even doing it that way, so I contacted a dwarf named Underground Kingsmith who agreed to make me storage rings that I can wear on my tail."

"That sounds expensive," Kit commented as they rose higher above the foothills.

"Yeah," Danika agreed. "But after giving Shrubbery a black moonflower seed, I sold the other ones my plant produced so far to the merchant. And I think the Winter-Flowering Honeysuckle will produce berries soon too."

"It sounds profitable, but I don't see how you and Shrubbery can spend so much time on plants without getting bored," Kit commented.

Danika grinned and replied, "So far taking care of them isn't any more trouble than my real houseplants?"

"Haha." Kit said laughingly, "I could never keep a houseplant alive either." Hikaru fell far enough behind them that the firefly was teleported back to ZipZing again. "Has your pet learned any attacks yet?" Kit questioned.

"No, I've been focusing on evasive skills," Danika explained. "Right now I'm trying to teach it Aishin's random teleport skill."

"I'd like to be able to learn things like that too," Kit said enviously.

Danika targeted Kit with her impartation skill, and then realized that it was still offering to let her target another person. "Woah!" Danika exclaimed and selected Hikaru. She triggered Aishin's random teleport, which tossed her ahead of Kit by about 10 meters.

Kit laughed and said as she caught up, "That looks fun, but why did you yell before teleporting?"

"It let me target both of you with my impartation skill!" Danika exclaimed. She brought up her menus again and examined the skill. A new line had been added since she last viewed it when it had still been level 3. "Impartation can be divided between a number of targets equal to half of the skill level."

Danika frowned. "Hmm," she hummed.

"What?" Kit asked.

"I think that it probably becomes less effective when divided between targets," Danika complained.

--

The entire landscape was snow covered at this season, so Danika aimed for the edge of the trees high up the mountain, instead of for the snowline. She zipped down to the ground first, and looked around as Kit landed. Hikaru circled them as Kit shifted back to her human form and asked, "Now what?"

Danika shrugged and called out as loudly as she could, "Helloooo!"