When she finished, she planted it beside the carrots. She wasn't fond of carrots anyway, so if it poisoned them, she wouldn't be very disappointed. After she cast her plant growth on it, she discovered that even the foliage of the plant was dark and ominous looking, although it did make a rather pretty contrast with the feathery fronds of the carrot leaves beside it.

Danika sat in her little garden s.p.a.ce admiring her new plants as the active illusion displayed a stunning sunset that turned the reflecting pool her s.p.a.ce appeared to be sitting in into a pool of firelight. A sudden guilty thought occurred to her and she logged off abruptly.

Danika disconnected herself and pulled herself over the edge of the VR-medi pod. She scooted across her little room to her sink and filled her tea pot with cold water and then carried it over to the little houseplants beside her window. She apologized to them as she watered each one carefully. It didn't take long, but like so many things in life, would have permanent consequences if left undone.

She put her teapot away and tidied a few other things before pulling herself back into the VR-medi pod and adjusting its comfortable surface for sleep.

--

In the morning she remembered to write Shrubbery a thank-you message, and checked her messages again after she finished her morning routine. She felt unsettled as she settled in front of the screen to start her s.h.i.+ft. There was no greeting from Ais.h.i.+n.

She wondered if he'd felt embarra.s.sed by their conversation when he'd woken. And then she told herself firmly that he was just very busy. But she delayed another moment and sent him a short message that read: "Morning. I hope your day is going well."

After she'd sent it, she started her s.h.i.+ft and began working on the next account that was stuck in the horrible quest chain. When she checked on her lunch break there was still no message from Ais.h.i.+n. She logged in and checked, but she still couldn't store her garden pebble in her inventory.

Danika brought up the messenger screen again. She suddenly wished that "Living Jade Empire" displayed the last login time for your friends, instead of just their current status, although she'd found stats like that to be intrusive in the past. She scolded herself, "No wonder his friends tease him about his dragon girlfriend. You're acting like one, a twelve year old one. It hasn't even been a whole day!" She closed the messenger screen without sending another message.

During the afternoon she leveled ZipZing's skills on the side and received a reply from Shrubbery: "I'm glad Ais.h.i.+n could deliver them to you. I'm going to be lucky if I get enough time to take care of my garden, but message when the first edible plants are ready and I'll have my tree send me to a tree near you, it'll have plenty of energy to waste this way."

Danika replied: "Ok! I think with my plant growth skill level it will still be another few days for the fastest ones though, maybe the carrots could be ready this weekend?"

Shrubbery sent another message during the time she was probably still at school, making Danika hope that she wasn't being a distraction. It read: "You really don't know much about plants do you? LOL Carrots will be tiny, but edible right after a first level Plant Growth spell. You don't have to wait for them to reach maturity since this game is pretty realistic."

Danika decided to trust that Shrubbery knew how to manage her own schedule and didn't mention the time. She replied honestly during an idle moment: "I didn't know. I've never had a garden in real life, and none of my houseplants are edible. I've been reading a lot more about garden plants since I started playing this."

When her s.h.i.+ft finished she conscientiously took care of the rest of the little ch.o.r.es that needed doing in real life before pulling herself back into the VR-medi pod just in time to meet Kit. Kit was facing her with a puzzled expression that s.h.i.+fted abruptly to a startled look and she took a sudden step back when ZipZing exited her garden in front of her.

"Hi?" Danika said quizzically.

Kit replied nervously, "Sorry, it said you were online a minute ago and that I was very close, but I couldn't see you. Um, hi."

Danika blinked and realized that she'd never shown Kit her garden. After a moment she turned and picked up her pebble, and held it up as she explained, "I was very fortunate and was able to buy one of the first enchanted habitable storage s.p.a.ces that Logical Heart has made. He even customized it for me. Would you like to look inside?"

"Ok," Kit replied doubtfully.

Danika said uncertainly, "You don't have to? But if you want to you just touch this pebble and say 'dragonheart'."

Kit asked, "Should you just be telling me the pa.s.sword like that?" She sounded scolding when she added, "Even if it's just a game, I think you should be more careful."

Danika smiled at her and asked in return, "Would someone who would do something bad to it worry about things like that? I think you're ok."

Kit replied bitterly, "It's the people you trust who do the worst things." She wrapped her arms around herself and looked away.

Danika frowned. She wasn't sure how to respond. Kit pulled out a handful of the little wild strawberries after a moment. Finally Danika said, "Well, I would prefer it if you don't decide to destroy my little garden, but I think it's really cool and would like to show it off?"

"Oh," Kit replied after a moment. A bit shyly she agreed, "Ok then," and touched the pebble and said, "Dragonheart."

Danika followed her quickly and instructed as soon as she appeared, "When you're ready to leave you just touch the center stone and say 'exit', and suddenly I can see how Logical Heart forgot to mention that the first time."

Kit turned away from the illusory view and admitted, "Even though I just scolded you about being more careful, it didn't even occur to me that it could have been a trap. This is amazing!"

"I know, right?" Danika agreed with pleasure.

"My territory skill shows it as a perfect sphere," Kit added.

"It already shows as being my territory?" Danika questioned.

"Yeah, how long have you had it?" Kit questioned.

Danika thought a moment and replied, "Only 4 days now, so at most 12 days in the game?"

"Maybe it has to do with owners.h.i.+p," Kit speculated.

Danika was suddenly curious whether or not Ais.h.i.+n's stone would have shown as his territory during the Goblin event, given how much of the time she'd been the one carrying it. "Maybe," she agreed.

Kit looked around once more and then said, "But we should be outside trying to attract the guide bird again." She bent and touched the little center stone and said, "exit".

Danika followed her out a moment later, and then showed Kit the Winter-Flowering Honeysuckle with its little heart shaped red berries. They gathered the berries and waited, each holding strawberries in one hand and the honeysuckle berries in the other.

Finally Danika suggested jokingly, "Maybe we should close our eyes?"

"Worth a try," Kit agreed.

They closed their eyes and a minute later Kit exclaimed, "It worked! It's here!"

The Hooded Mountain Tanager flew away from them with one of the little heart shaped berries and Danika quickly stored the ones she carried, grabbed her enchanted pebble, and zipped after it. It veered upward toward the snowline and Danika came to a halt and waited for Kit at the edge of the snow.

"Should we still follow it?" Danika asked uncertainly. So far the traveling merchant's advice had always been good.

Kit didn't stop at the snowline and ran past, before she appeared to process Danika's question. Then she halted and turned and asked, "Isn't it supposed to guide us to the spring?"

Danika gulped as a large white form rose behind Kit and pounced. The enormous snow leopard knocked Kit to the ground hard enough that she rolled halfway back to ZipZing at the edge of the snow and roared, "Filthy human, you dare return to my territory!?"