"I didn't blink, I just lost focus," Danika replied quietly. She looked around again and realized suddenly that Magna Silvam hadn't come out of the garden with the others. "Silvam?" she whispered as she reattached the harness for her pebble.

Nimitz declared, "I will try next!"

Shrubbery whispered as Nimitz climbed to the roof that the elder had sat on, "Silvam said that your garden is pretty but boring and she was going to do something really quick a bit ago."

"Foolish," commented the silver cat that was their snow leopard, as the elder made his way a bit stiffly, across the top of the walls to the rooftop ZipZing had sat upon.

Danika hadn't realized that she'd made the elder face the sun, but Nimitz's golden eyes glowed brightly in the sun as he glared toward the elder.

The elder met the player's gaze with the same indifferent expression he'd had when facing ZipZing. As an observer, Danika realized that he had triggered a skill shortly after the contest began. She used Ais.h.i.+n's Read Person skill, instead of the a.n.a.lyze Target skill she'd already learned from him, to see if she could view any information about the elder's skills.

She decided that he'd probably used Dominating Gaze on both of them, it looked quite useful and could even be used in combat, as long as you could get your opponent to meet your eyes. The description said that if it was effective it caused a delay in your opponent's actions, effectively making them unable to oppose you for a moment.

"Looked too late," the silver cat beside her said disapprovingly.

Danika couldn't see any change in the contest above them, but after a moment she realized that the leopard meant her. She had looked at the elder's skills too late. She turned to look at him, but he ignored her.

Nimitz was defeated when a winged shadow pa.s.sed over him, and he flinched and glanced upward. The elder huffed and told him, "Your mind is still injured even if the potion from that other little dragon half has mostly healed your body."

The player glared at the elder, but then gave a short nod and agreed, "Perhaps so. But if I am done here, there is no reason for me to limit myself to the paths an ordinary cat must travel." He stretched out the large bat-like wings that he'd kept folded against his back. They looked like they had healed well, and he launched himself into the air and flew away.

The elder watched him go before turning to focus on Kit, who was already climbing up to the rooftop that Nimitz had vacated. "Are you certain that you wish to challenge me from there druid?" the elder asked almost kindly.

"Yeah, you seem quite old, so I don't want to make you have to move again," Kit replied cheerfully.

"Kit," Danika called out. Every eye turned to look down at her curiously. "Umm, just stay focused even if there's a delay?"

"I will," Kit promised.

The elder's whiskers twitched, but he made no comment and the eyes that had looked down on ZipZing a moment ago all turned upward to gaze at Kit Tay. Her dark fur gleamed in the sunlight as she drew her little cat form up and met the elder's gaze. After a moment Danika realized that Kit was trying to use the gleaming skill the wizard's familiar had demonstrated for her so long ago. She hadn't realized the druid had acquired it.

The elder responded by using the same skill. Even though Kit was positioned better for the sunlight to reflect from her glossy fur into the elder's eyes, he was far more skilled and Kit didn't last more than a couple of minutes before she looked away.

She blinked furiously, trying to clear her vision and apologized, "Sorry. Even though it's just a screen I couldn't stare into his eyes with all that light s.h.i.+ning for long enough."

"It's ok," Danika a.s.sured her.

"What if we fail our guild quest and our reputation drops?" Kit asked worriedly as she hopped down.

Shrubbery reached up and picked her up as she descended to a ledge where the tall dryad could reach her. "We have all week to find a cat who can pa.s.s it, and the cat we brought hasn't even tried it yet," Shrubbery told her rea.s.suringly.

"Yes, you try next," the elder told the leopard. "You can even use your preferred form if you wish."

The silver cat pointedly looked away from the elder, and his gaze fell on SaltySiamese who quickly said, "I'll try!"

"You'll try what?" Silvam asked as she finally exited the stone s.p.a.ce and joined them.

"You are not even a cat," the elder refused the elven archer immediately, but his words were in cat, and SaltySiamese didn't understand him.

She told Silvam, "I'm going to win the staring contest. I can do it!"

"Siamese," said the silver cat in the common tongue, but in a growl that nearly matched his leopard voice.

SaltySiamese stopped with one hand on the ledge she'd been going to pull herself up on. "I can," she protested.

The silver cat stalked forward and then reached up and swatted her thigh with his claws out, hard enough to draw blood. "Ow! What the…" SaltySiamese's words faded into a mewl as her avatar curled instinctively around the wound. "That was half of my health you traitor!" she spat at the silver cat angrily.

"More than half," he replied smugly as he carefully licked his claws clean, "but less than all."

The little siamese cat uncurled and leapt to its feet before hissing at him. She froze in shock a moment later. Every cat there was staring at her, and at the silver cat who had transformed her.

"I thought you couldn't even remember your name," Silvam said dryly.

"The elder remembers me," the silver cat responded smugly and raised his gaze to meet the old cat's eyes as he looked down from the edge of the rooftop.

The elder closed his eyes and looked away. A moment later he looked back down at the silver cat and demanded, "The King must be fully restored!"

"Finish your game," the silver cat instructed blandly.

"I will win it first!" SaltySiamese declared. It took her a few tries in her new cat form, but she reached the rooftop that no one had contested yet with a bit of undignified scrabbling.