"Thanks," Jakyl called up to her.

"I don't think you really needed us, that gnome who was your fellow captive looked like he had the situation under control." Danika replied quickly.

"Haha, yeah, Mench Frest is quite the character isn't he?" Jakyl agreed and added chattily, "We're all from the same village."

"Are you involved in some kind of territory dispute?" Danika questioned as she turned into a side street that would hopefully lead her closer to Shrubbery. The dwarven capital felt a bit like a layered maze when in a hurry, but the fox couldn't fly.

"I guess that's one way of putting it?" Jakyl replied doubtfully. "Why?"

"It's weird to find people being caged?" Danika replied questioningly.

The gnome she'd cast invisibility on caught up to them on what looked like jet propelled skates, and shouted as he pa.s.sed, "I'm going ahead!"

Danika suspected that he had no way to stop himself. She pulled up her menu before he got out of sight and shot a Mark at him. She kind of expected the fox to follow him, but it just continued to dash along below her.

Jakyl asked, "Want to help us out a little more?"

"I need more detail and to consult with my guild mates before I can answer that," Danika answered warily.

"Fair enough," Jakyl agreed.

--

MatchlessMinion arrived, still carrying the tortoise shaped gnome, only moments after Danika and the fox caught up to Shrubbery.

"These guys are from a player owned village on the next mountain over! It's the first I've heard of anyone managing that within the dwarven kingdoms," he announced.

"Okay, but are you being chased?" Shrubbery asked worriedly.

"We will be when they recover, so we should just leave the city," Jakyl advised.

"What kind of additional aid were you hoping for?" Danika asked.

None of them stopped moving, although the streets were growing more crowded again as they made their way back to the main road that led down through the city. Jakyl looked up at her with sharp eyes, and then glanced at Little Tortoise, who nodded and said, "We might as well ask."

"We need help defending our village until the expansion," Jakyl said. "The dwarves keep saying that our mountain is going to be destroyed if we don't leave, and trying to force us out. They even offered a bounty for the capture of all of our villagers!"

"Wait, which mountain is your village on?" Danika asked worriedly. "The mountains to the south really are going to be destroyed in a few hours."

"That's just a rumour," Jakyl replied disparagingly. "Little Tortoise there is an oracle, and he'd know if the mountain was really in danger."

Little Tortoise protested, "I told you I'm not sure, since I don't think the game will know about events that haven't been released yet?"

"You're an oracle? How does that work?" Shrubbery questioned. "Can you really tell the future?"

"Um," Little Tortoise replied, "kind of? Usually it just seems to be reports on events in progress or about to start. Like for the last week the skill has pretty much been reporting dwarven battles, although there was one boss level nymph."

"Boss level nymph?" MatchlessMinion questioned before Danika could.

"Well, the skill uses their grade, like Genius or Sage, but boss level sounds better," Little Tortoise explained.

"Even low level nymphs are a pain to fight," Jakyl added.

"Why did you need to fight her?" Shrubbery questioned.

"We didn't," Little Tortoise replied. "But the NPC who came to ask for a prophecy probably did."

"What is the prophecy now?" Danika asked.

"Someone has to ask or I have to be at my temple," Little Tortoise replied.

"She just asked didn't she?" MatchlessMinion protested, and then added, "You have your own temple?"

"Hah!" Jakyl huffed a laugh.

"No, I mean formally ask, with the ritual that starts a quest for me to answer, and um, kind of…"

--

They managed to get out of Nabataea without ever seeing any sign that they were actually pursued. They caught up with Mench Frest outside the city gate, and the three players guided them to their village on the next mountain.

It was very small. Not that there weren't quite a few houses, but they were all very small. "The guild 'MiniMinds' bought it from the gnomes, but they'll let any player of small stature move in," Mench Frest announced.

"Yeah, any of you except your dryad could qualify if you wanted," Jakyl added.

"This is one of the mountains that's going to be destroyed," Danika said worriedly.

An NPC gnome hung clean laundry on an old fas.h.i.+oned line at one house, while at another an NPC was working in its garden. Two small players were working on the roof of another building farther down the street.

She had realized that destroying the mountains was going to destroy a number of NPC's and their homes, that was why they'd been relocating various species after all. She hadn't realized that so many players were going to be affected, although in hindsight it was obvious. Their department had even spent an amusing afternoon setting it up so that when the mountains came apart, some lucky structures could land in the new desert intact.

"You sound pretty sure of that," Mench Frest commented.

"She is," MatchlessMinion replied dryly. "You should probably evacuate."

The temple of Little Tortoise was a large flat rock. When the tortoise crawled onto it, its shape s.h.i.+mmered as it removed its tortoise sh.e.l.l coat and stowed it in its inventory. The little gnome stared down at the rock it stood on for a moment, and then turned back to them and told its fellow villagers, "I think they might be right. Now it's saying that 'the king will save the lucky ones and the rest will see the G.o.ddess'.

One of the decorative rocks stacked beside the temple stone moved, and Danika saw that some of those weren't really rocks, they were tortoises.

Jakyl flicked his tail, which became three tails, and sat up on his hind feet and asked, "Which king? Saved from what? We're lacking some important details as usual."

A piercing cry cut across the sky above them, and the sun seemed to grow brighter overhead. Danika flicked open her menus and checked the time. "It's early!" she protested.

The story lines and foundation of the expansion had been added to the game at midnight, but the triggering event wasn't supposed to have happened until 6am. A system notification popped up, asking that everyone log out for the expansion release that was expected to take approximately half an hour.

MatchlessMinion exclaimed, "Sweet! It's time!"

Shrubbery giggled and replied, "I guess this is the end of the world as we know it?"

Danika stared at them blankly, and then stared at the notification again. As far as she knew, the release had technically already happened. "The end of these mountains anyway," she agreed doubtfully.

"Seriously? What about our village then? My workshop!?" Mench Frest protested.

"I have a stone s.p.a.ce that can hold people," Danika said suddenly. "Bring all your villagers to Little Tortoise's temple as fast as you can and we'll save as many as we can before we're logged out!"

"Go! Now!" MatchlessMinion shouted. He gave her a thumbs up and dashed off.

"How much volume does it have?" Mench Frest demanded hopefully.

"Maybe enough for 30 small people?" Danika replied uncertainly.

Mench Frest heaved a sigh and then said, "Fine, we'll just gather people then." He dashed off without activating the powered boost on his boots that he'd used earlier.

Shrubbery moved next, and Danika unfastened her pebble's harness and laid it down on the center of the large flat stone. "The entrance word is 'dragonheart'," she instructed Little Tortoise. "Everyone must touch the pebble and say that to go in."

"Why are you telling me?" Little Tortoise asked nervously.

"You don't seem to move very fast, and everyone here knows you," Danika pointed out reasonably.

"I'll go gather people too," Jakyl announced.

Danika nodded and zipped away to help instruct the villagers to gather at the Tortoise's temple.