His first quest after learning the basics of movement was to eat all the dandelions in a farmer's field. It was so ridiculously cliche. 'Ooh, complex animal quest. Let's eat something.' He thought that until he ate his first dandelion as a horse in VR.

It was exquisite. Like the best strawberry he'd ever tasted, only not like that, but amazing, lightly sweet, and extremely delicious. He was actually disappointed when he finished his quest, and kept an eye out for stray dandelions afterward.

Even gra.s.s was pretty tasty, not as amazing as dandelions, but pleasantly crunchy and tasty, kind of like bread sticks. But still, while eating was fun, it was not exactly showing off the customized quest system the game flaunted. His next quest was very predictable too.

But when he received the request to help the farmer plow his field, he expected it to feel like the drudging hard labor of ditch digging that it resembled. He soon discovered that while it did take physical effort, it wasn't actually as difficult as he'd imagined, and was enjoyable in it's own way. It was satisfying to accomplish easily in an hour what would have taken him days or weeks of hard labor in real life.

The quests were enjoyable enough that he decided to keep his horse until the novelty wore off and he got bored. After a few more quests helping various NPCs in the beginner's vale, the traveling merchant came to collect him. and asked, "Have you accomplished everything you'd like to do here?"

Since he wanted to see what kind of quests a horse would get in the main game world, he replied without hesitation, "Yes."

The traveling merchant took him to a portal and he walked through it into... horse heaven?

A rolling gra.s.sy landscape stretched out before him. He wondered if animal characters were really given nothing more than complex simulations. But he gave into his first impulse anyway, and galloped across gentle slopes far faster than he could ever run in real life. The wind in his face created by his own movement was startlingly addictive, and reminded him of how he used to run with a kite when he was younger.

When he was thirsty, streams were easy to find among the low hills. There were tall gra.s.ses everywhere he looked if he grew hungry, with plenty of tasty wildflowers and different foliages for variety. About the time he grew bored with idle pleasures, he met the children.

They lived in a village near the hills, and at first he was wary of them. It seemed like a trap. He thought, 'Look mom, it followed me home, and suddenly you're property.'

He collected several small quests from them though, and gradually relaxed as he completed them. The tasks slowly increased in complexity, and he decided that he was probably just developing his reputation with the children and that soon he'd probably receive a bigger quest from an adult.

It took him awhile to realize that one of the children who often came out to see him wasn't an NPC. He was carrying her around the meadow like he often did for the other kids, when she asked suddenly, "Mr. Horse, are you sad because you won't live very long?"

"What? I'm perfectly healthy!" he protested.

"Oh wow, you can talk," she gasped.

"Can't everybody?" he huffed.

"My mom says most animals just don't live very long," she explained.

'Her pet must be getting old,' he speculated. After a moment he repeated what his grandfather had told him once when his first cat had died of old age, "Everyone lives the same amount, one whole lifetime."

"But some lifetimes are really short," she protested.

"Well, you know there's a scientific theory about that? And it says, 'time is relative'." He was fairly sure he wasn't using it the way physicists meant it, but he added, "Lifetimes can be measured by experiences better than by time. Scary things, fun things, and delicious things to eat, we all have that in common no matter how long we live don't we?"

"Yeah," she agreed happily, and he heaved a sigh of relief.

--

They talked a bit each time she showed up with the other children.

Once she asked, "If you have to live in a cage, is life still fun?"

"I guess that depends on if the cage suits you?" Ranma told her after thinking for a bit. "Like, a fish would not do well in a cage, it just wouldn't hold enough water."

That made her giggle so he added, "But all the hamsters I've seen seem to love their cages. Plenty of food and water, and enough toys to play with sounds like a good life to me? What do you think?"

"I guess it's ok," she agreed.

--

And then one day she stopped showing up.

Finally he contacted support. The celestial servant who showed up to answer his inquiry only said uncomfortably, "I'm sorry, player information is private. But no one can acquire information about you either."

He was dissatisfied with it, but couldn't really argue, especially since it involved a kid.

Hanging out and doing little quests for the local NPCs lost its entertainment value though, so he left the area. His friend SaltySiamese had been bugging him about how slow he was to get started and asking when he was going to give up on playing a four legged animal without hands and come help them. And he kind of wanted to show off how helpful even a four legged animal could be.

He also hoped that playing with old friends would boost his mood. He hadn't gone far when he met the traveling merchant sitting beside the road.

He eyed the merchant suspiciously and said, "I don't have any coin, I'm a horse."

"No reason a horse can't have coin," the merchant argued. "There's plenty of storage gear made just for horses. Would you like to earn some?"

"Doing what?" he questioned without any particular enthusiasm.

"Make a delivery for me?" the merchant suggested.

They talked a bit longer and eventually Ranma accepted the quest, since it was in the direction he was going anyway. As the merchant hefted his pack he asked, "Want to know a secret about this world?"

"Uh, sure, why not?" he replied questioningly.

"It's built to let people meet people who can increase their happiness," the merchant said conspiratorially.

"Ok?" Ranma asked grouchily. Was the merchant trying to tell him that he'd met the girl because giving her rides and talking about animals had made him happy, he wondered.

"And when the twin G.o.ddess' of memory offers you a gift, remember that you may choose to refuse it. Such gifts often have an edge to them," the merchant added mysteriously and walked away.

Ranma stared after him for a bit, and eventually resumed his own progress. A ways further on, he met a young girl with a bright red bird with long feathers perched on her shoulder.

"Hi," she said chirpily.

"Hi," he replied with resignation. The probable twin G.o.ddess' of memory was younger than he expected.

"I have something for you, if you want it?" she announced.

"For me?" he questioned finally.

"I think it is probably/possibly meant for you," the girl and her bird replied together, although their words didn't quite match.

"Are you the G.o.ddess' of memory?" he asked dutifully.

"Of course," they answered in perfect unison.

"What kind of gift?" he asked despite the merchant's warning. A gift from a G.o.d might be pretty valuable. Maybe the game made up for predictable animal quests with extra loot?

"It's a kind of memory from your world," the girl told him.

He only considered it for a moment, after all, he didn't have much to lose. "Sure, I'll take it."

Suddenly he was elsewhere, wrapped in roiling mists, and a voice said tearfully, "We wanted you to know how much your game meant to our daughter in the last weeks of her life."

He spun, but there was no figure to match the voice.

Another voice joined in and he stood in the mists and listened as two tearful parents described the last years of their daughter's life. They spoke of how happy she'd suddenly been at the end, getting to play outside every day and ride her horses in her new virtual world.

It finished with, "And she told us so happily that everyone's life is the same length, that everyone lives one lifetime, we just can't tell you how amazing it was to hear that. Thank you."

The player named Ranma regretted that he had hands when he touched his face to wipe away his tears. Being a horse was so much easier sometimes.

"So this is what the merchant meant…" he whispered as the fog cleared.

A moment later a horse stood alone on the path. His coat gleamed in the sunlight. The breeze blew his mane gently.

"Was she really happy just because of a few hours and a few words?" he asked the empty air.

An ordinary little bird nearby chirped something that sounded like, "Were you? Were you?" A moment later it flew off.

After a minute he raised his head and trotted forward to deliver the pack he carried, and meet up with his friends who were waiting.

He didn't notice it at first, but he carried away something else from the encounter too. A new line was added in his character sheet that said, "The G.o.ddess' Blessing: 10"