MatchlessMinion was waiting for her again. Danika asked worriedly, "What's wrong?"

He gave her an odd look and replied, "Did you forget, I had my sister hire us to find the were cat you said you found?"

"I didn't forget," Danika protested, but then she asked, "Did she really agree to hire us?"

"Look at our quest board," he instructed. "You haven't checked in all day?"

"No," she admitted. "I answered messages from my family on my lunch, and then I went outside for a bit after work."

"Well, it's ok," he replied with a shrug. His little form went still for a couple of minutes.

Danika used Ais.h.i.+n's 'Locate Mark' skill while she waited. Having a familiar was really convenient, but she'd definitely stopped acquiring skills as quickly since she'd stopped being able to play on the side. The skill gave a much more accurate location than the Whereabouts skill, it let her see the were leopard's location on a map.

MatchlessMinion returned to his console and reported, "She's calling Justin because he wants to collect blood from the were, and then she'll log in."

Kit logged in a few minutes later. "Sorry, I almost couldn't make myself get up this early today," she complained. "I'm so glad I have tomorrow off."

The snow leopard cub appeared a moment later and delivered a message to her. "Oh, Shrubbery says she has family stuff tonight and can't play," Kit reported.

"Oh, right, I was supposed to tell you that first," MatchlessMinion told ZipZing a bit sheepishly.

Danika thought that he'd been keeping in pretty close contact with Shrubbery lately, but she didn't want to tease him, so she just replied, "It's ok."

When Ryullusion entered the garden and smiled at them. Danika turned and greeted him with, "Hi, you've been playing quite a bit?" He had gained a couple of skill levels since the night before.

"Ais.h.i.+n wants this console next weekend, and he also explained a bit more about the guild quests, so I figured that I should try to do some extras to make up for not having partic.i.p.ated in many so far and my upcoming absence," Ryullusion explained.

"Can't you use his full motion console?" MatchlessMinion questioned nosily.

"I can, but it certainly requires a lot more movement," Ryullusion replied laughingly. "I don't think I'm up to more than short sessions on it."

"Doesn't it just," Kit agreed. "I'm sure the exercise is good for me, but I don't see how you guys can play for hours at a time on this kind of system."

Danika winced when MatchlessMinion replied logically, "Well, I'm half your age, and my health is pretty good."

Kit Tay and Ryullusion both laughed, and then glanced at each other. Kit suggested, "Why don't we old people do this quick easy looking delivery quest before I go to work, while these kids go start trying to herd cats then?"

"I'd be delighted to a.s.sist," Ryullusion agreed cheerfully.

Kit seemed a little proud of herself for managing the menus to form the party with the bard. Danika felt a little surprised when she realized that it might actually be Kit's first time forming one. Not that Danika herself had done so in this game much. They'd both spent most of their time in the party Ais.h.i.+n had formed with ZipZing so long ago.

--

When SaltySiamese and Justin the Grey finally arrived, Danika said first, "I'd prefer if we can do this quest without harming the leopard and her cubs. I mean, I saw her teaching them to read, they definitely seemed like people."

"They're all just NPCs though right?" Justin asked.

"Yes," Danika admitted with a sigh.

"We can try talking first," SaltySiamese agreed more easily. "We can kill them later if we need to."

Justin shrugged and then nodded. MatchlessMinion rolled his eyes at his sister, but didn't comment. Danika sighed again, but decided that it was probably as much of a concession as she was going to get.

She had expected to travel by portal at least as far as Kalunay, but when she used her new illusion spell to show them the were leopard's location on the map according to Locate Mark, Justin pulled out a flying carpet. Neither SaltySiamese nor her brother looked at all surprised, so Danika didn't comment.

At first she zipped along beside the carpet which launched slowly but gradually sped up, but then Justin instructed, "Get on ZipZing, or you'll get left behind."

"She was keeping up ok," MatchlessMinion pointed out in her defense.

"It doesn't fly at a set speed, it flies at a set travel time," Justin explained. "Doesn't matter if it's across the room or across the map."

True to his word, the carpet rose higher and sped faster and faster until their ears, or in the wizard's case his robes, were pinned back by the wind and the landscape zoomed by far below them.

When the carpet finally slowed enough for them to talk easily again, MatchlessMinion exclaimed, "That was cool! How come we've only made relatively short hops before?"

"Didn't have our destination pinpointed on a map," Justin replied. "We don't have any bards or cartographers in our party, and even they can only map places they know about."

"For most towns and cities you should be able to look at the player maps on the forums?" Danika pointed out curiously. "How much energy does flying the carpet use?"

Justin turned his head to stare at her. SaltySiamese and MatchlessMinion gazed at him with questioning looks. The nearly transparent outlines of his menus s.h.i.+mmered into existence, but he only replied calmly, "It doesn't use any of my energy, but it can only fly three times a day."

"Woah, that's so useful!" Danika exclaimed.

"I know right?" SaltySiamese enthused. "Too bad he didn't get it from a repeatable quest."

Justin commented as the carpet descended, "I've heard rumors that the new expansion will have an Arabian theme and that enchanted items like this carpet will become more common. I guess that they'll be adding a city of enchanters?"

SaltySiamese and MatchlessMinion both turned to ZipZing with bright expectant expressions, and she could read their demands even though neither of them actually said anything. "It will have an Arabian theme," she agreed, "but not developed cities, and I probably shouldn't say any more?"

MatchlessMinion's eyes sparkled as he said, "That's ok, just confirmation of the gist of the rumors is plenty."