"Okay, let's go home," Danika suggested to Hikaru and Thimblepot.

Thimblepot spoke up at last and asked worriedly, "Are you sure that I won't break it?"

The Jade Emperor replied with amusement, "You will have to grow much stronger little one, before you will have the ability to destroy that house."

"You too," Danika said with another glance around the room.

The King of Cats appeared in front of her, and strolled towards the open doorway. She wasn't sure that it made any difference, since he could be in many places at once, but at least he'd acknowledged her.

"I can break house easy, if want," the cat said arrogantly as he stepped through.

Danika zipped after him and shouted, "Do not break it!"

MatchlessMinion paused on one leg and protested, "We're not breaking it!"

Danika stared blankly for a moment and then ignored him. She looked around for the King of Cats, and huffed a breath of relief when she saw that he hadn't headed straight for the guild hall. He sat washing his ear right behind her, with an expression of false innocence.

Hikaru buzzed away to join the firefly colony that lived in Shrubbery's garden, and Thimblepot appeared a moment later. The little pig immediately plopped down onto the ground. The leaves on the guild tree shivered as though a strong breeze had shaken it, and the flying pig trembled nervously.

"Nobody's breaking anything!" Danika announced firmly.

"That's what I said?" MatchlessMinion agreed questioningly.

ShinZing laughed as he launched himself out of the shrubberies beside the tree and zipped toward her. Behind him a strange reverberating twang rang out as MatchlessMinion jumped down, clearing all three steps to the ground at once.

Danika turned away from the pig and the cat and gazed at the tree doubtfully. "Um… that sound?"

ShinZing filled up her field of vision as he pinched her cheeks with a cheerful grin. "We're still tuning them, but they are all rooted finally!" he announced.

"What are?" she asked blankly.

"The steps. We're adding music to the guild hall," MatchlessMinion explained.

Danika raised her brows questioningly at the pixie in front of her. "You know those stringed plants that can play sounds? Apparently Shrubbery has been working with Icieth to try to create a garden bed that would play a song beside the guild hall."

MatchlessMinion added helpfully, "But it sounded awful, like somebody learning to play the violin."

"It wasn't that bad," Shinichi protested laughingly.

"It didn't sound like a song," the chinchillamin pointed out dryly.

"Icieth got them tuned to standard notes though, and I think that since I'm a witch now it should be possible to train them eventually. I'm just not skilled enough yet," ShinZing said ruefully.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Okay, it does sound like a cool idea though," Danika replied.

"Yeah," he agreed. "But for now we're just turning the entrance steps into a simple keyboard. Each one will play when its roots feel pressure on its step. The only problem is that I can't get them to react to anything much smaller than MatchlessMinion without having them just twang randomly."

"Which is what they were doing before," MatchlessMinion added. A breath later he asked incredulously, "Is that what I think it is?"

Danika leaned around ShinZing to see that the chinchillamin was pointing at Thimblepot. "Didn't you see all the messages we wrote on the guild board about the flying pig?" she questioned in return.

"No, yes, I mean, but you added him to the guild!?" MatchlessMinion exclaimed.

"What's wrong with that?" She felt kind of offended by his reaction.

"Who's going to be responsible for maintaining him?" MatchlessMinion asked doubtfully. He glanced at her and added, "Nobody bothers adding NPCs to their guilds as members because they have to be maintained with daily interaction, like a marriage."

"Oh, but just doing a guild quest together should be enough, right?" Danika pointed out.

"That's three of seven," he agreed.

"Don't we interact with our guild NPCs almost daily anyway?" ShinZing pointed out soothingly. "That part should be okay, but how did you become such great friends so quickly? Or does er… Thimblepot there have an obvious ulterior motive?"

"I don't have a motive," the little pig objected.

Danika explained quickly, "The King of Cats kind of pushed Thimblepot into it, so that he could get into the Emperor's room at the heart of the tree."

The cat looked at her sharply and objected, "Not me, path guardian encouraged."

"So you weren't there as that cat?" Danika asked facetiously.

The King of Cats looked thoughtful, and suggested, "There and not there? Me and not me? Both."

Danika wondered suddenly if he actually could create multiple instances of himself normally. She'd been assuming that he could, just like the merchant, but she couldn't remember a time that he hadn't vanished from one place before appearing in another.

"Should have let me stay," the cat complained.

"We had to leave the tree so that the two games can talk," Danika explained.

"I listen," the cat complained.

"That was the whole problem," she replied dryly.

"Why did you join the guild if you don't have a motive," MatchlessMinion questioned Thimblepot curiously.

The little flying pig got to its feet and looked over to where the fairy dragon hovered beside the pixie. After a moment it turned its gaze back to the plushy chinchillamin. "ZipZing has Strong Luck and is not hated? Bards sing songs about her?"

"Yeah," MatchlessMinion agreed with amusement. His own gaze slid over to the pixie and fairy dragon as he added, "Her luck is kind of incredible. I often wonder how she can avoid bringing back any treasure so consistently."

"Hey," Danika objected. "I brought back treasure this time, I think."

The King of Cats said smugly, "Very valuable, very rare."

"I didn't think we were the sorts to consider NPCs as property," ShinZing murmured.

"You think this counts as treasure?" MatchlessMinion asked incredulously while pointing at the flying pig. "As soon as people find out, it's more likely to become a huge target just like the philosopher's stone."

"You guys!" Danika complained. She tapped her storage ring and pulled out the odd purple crystal that she'd collected while chasing the little flying pig, and handed it to MatchlessMinion. "This seemed like it might be valuable," she said hopefully.

He read the name off of his appraisal screen with a puzzled look. "Taaffeite? I've never heard of it, but yeah… it's worth more than a diamond according to this. Nice! Good work! Now bring something like this back everytime you go out," he encouraged.

"I'll have to accompany Thimblepot on adventures then," she replied dryly. "Thimblepot is the one that found it."

"I have never seen that before," the pig objected.

Danika explained, "Shrubbery is actually the one who noticed first. A lot of the things that almost killed him seemed like they contained treasure of some sort."

MatchlessMinion looked at the little pig's incredulous expression. "Want to test your luck?" he suggested. "I've got enough time left for a short quest. How about the rest of you?"

"I'm about out of time here," ShinZing said regretfully.

Danika hesitated. "We start on the new demo tomorrow, but I could probably…"

"No don't," MatchlessMinion instructed. "You can just transform into something heavier and walk up the steps before you go."

"Can I walk on them?" Thimblepot asked hopefully. The little flying pig actually dared to trot closer to the tree before looking back for permission.

"Of course," ShinZing assured him.

Thimblepot trembled as he set one foot on the first step. Nothing happened.

"You're so small that you'll need to jump on it with all your weight," MatchlessMinion advised.

The little pig jumped up onto the step and froze as though the deep soft twang of a plucked string had been the sound of the tree cracking.

"It's supposed to make a sound," Danika said encouragingly.

Now that she was watching for it, she could see that one of the bushes had quivered, and that what had looked like a string tied to it to shape it as it grew, was actually part of the plant. She glanced toward where the King of Cats had been sitting, and then looked around, but the cat was gone.

After a moment Thimblepot suddenly scampered up the rest of the steps creating a soft arpeggio that hummed in the air for several seconds. "I'm inside and it didn't break!" he exclaimed happily from just inside the entrance.