"Red Squirrel: Level 28, Health Excellent," read it's label. She tapped for it's details and read: "This arboreal rodent is one of the more dominant members of the local population. Identification: omnivorous, but prefers tree nuts. Long tail helps balance when jumping. Sharp curved claws for climbing."

Danika eyed the squirrel worriedly, but it didn't do anything besides sit there staring at her. She flew forward to the next acorn bud, and cast her spell again. The squirrel followed, and stopped to examine the newly plump young acorn.

After a few more, Danika resumed her routine of eating and casting. She kept a close watch on the squirrels, but they weren't gathering the young acorns up. They just seemed to be very interested.

Danika watched one squirrel drop to the forest floor and s.n.a.t.c.h a strawberry, like she was doing. It carried the berry back up to a high branch before stopping to eat it in small quick bites.

Night was falling when the traveling merchant found her. She told him worriedly, "I think the squirrels are waiting for the acorns to be ripe."

The merchant looked around and agreed, "Possibly so, although acorns aren't their favorite nuts."

"They aren't?" Danika asked questioningly.

"Not for red squirrels at least," the merchant clarified. He added helpfully, "They usually sleep during the middle of the day, perhaps you could do your harvesting then?"

"Oh," she replied thoughtfully.

He examined several of the trees she'd cast her spell in and shook his head. "These that were only advanced ⅔ toward maturity won't be ripe in time, and by the day after tomorrow the next ones at ¾ won't have enough time either." He glanced around and said without any hesitation, "You'll need 28 more trees full plus whatever the squirrels take."

"Oh," she replied glumly.

The merchant cast an amused look at her. "You're close to finished speeding up their growth, don't forget to rest up for the week in between so that you've got plenty of energy for collecting them," he advised. As he set off into the twilight he raised his hand in farewell.

Danika activated her dazzle and kept casting throughout the game's night. It was just past dawn when she finished the 28th tree worth of acorns since the merchant had departed. She thought of the squirrels and kept casting until the alarm that she'd set told her that it was past time to be sleeping.

--

Danika's next s.h.i.+ft kept her too busy to play on her phone at the same time. It was already too late to cast her growth spell on any more acorns and have them finished in time anyway.

She was glad to have consistent work for awhile, but… it really gave her the same feeling that grinding points in some really repet.i.tive games had in the past. Unendurable repet.i.tion. When her s.h.i.+ft finally ended she flopped back on the floor and laid there staring up at her ceiling.

She fell asleep.

When she woke up in the middle of the night, she was stiff, sore, and hungry. By the time she'd heated up water to make a quick packet of ramen, eaten it, and heaved herself over the edge of the VR-medi pod, she was entirely too awake.

Danika logged in, to find the sun s.h.i.+ning overhead and not a squirrel in sight. A b.u.t.terfly brushed past her to visit a blossom that snuggled among dozens of its siblings along the branches of a fruit tree. The tree stood in a bit of meadow beyond the last oak tree that Danika had been encouraging acorns in.

A little bat darted out of the forest shadows into the sunlight and dropped a message in front of her nose. Danika flicked her claws out and caught it. It was a message from Ais.h.i.+n that read: "You're on late?"

Danika a.s.sumed the pose and tapped her friend list up. It said his location was near Elmsbrook. Ais.h.i.+n still hadn't disbanded the party, and the compa.s.s now indicated that he was to the west of her. She was pretty sure that the human capital was in that direction.

She wrote a quick reply: "Couldn't go back to sleep. You?" The same little grey bird that had carried it before flitted off with her message as soon as she hit send.

The bat returned a moment later: "Up early but have time to waste in transit."

Danika replied with a question: "You're headed toward the human capital?"

When the little bird flew out again, a voice below said nonchalantly, "It's really too bad that messenger birds aren't edible."

Danika jumped, which disrupted her wings and she dropped toward the voice. She recovered and zipped upward just before the jaws snapped on air. She squeaked and zipped higher, before looking down at the red fox who was obviously laughing at her.

"How amusing," it said with a foxy grin.

"You can talk," Danika said with astonishment.

"So can you," the fox pointed out dryly, "but don't expect me to get all excited about it."

The bat returned again, struggling a little, as it dropped a larger message into her hands: "Yeah, need to restock. Do you want me to come back and bring you with me? I didn't think about it, but the area closer to the capital would be a lot safer for a novice."

Danika replied quickly: "Thanks, but I'm in the middle of a three week (game time) quest."

The bat zipped back with a tiny message: "Ok."

Danika closed her message menu and then flicked over to her lens.

The fox asked with apparent interest, "Not going to send them the bird again?"

She rolled her eyes at it and saw that through her lens it said: "Red Fox: Level 126, Health Excellent." It was more than three times her own acc.u.mulated level. A bit nervously she replied, "No. Can the squirrels talk?"

"I doubt any of those idiots can live long enough to learn to talk," the fox replied sourly. "But at least they're pretty tasty," it added more cheerfully.

"You only have one tail?" Danika questioned curiously.

The fox glared at her and pointed out, "So do you, but did I comment on it?"