Data Dragon Danika

Danika replied quickly: "Send food or an energy potion? I"m out." She didn"t waste time selecting another messenger, and the cub seemed to sense her hurry and vanished with the message almost as soon as he appeared.

The cub returned a moment later, dropping from overhead again and then dropping the message without staying long enough for her to complain, although it was less awkward than being pushed against the wall. She wondered suddenly what would happen if Xander"s walrus tried to deliver a message to someone in a closet. It read: "Sorry, too late."

There was a shrill scream outside the closet and Danika scuttled forward and slid her claws into the small gap to grip the door. But before she heaved on it, it opened, pulling her out to dangle from her claws. A hysterical woman clutched the gla.s.ses she wore while pointing at the nearly invisible outline of MatchlessMinion with a cry of, "Giant mouse!"

"I don"t think that"s a mouse," said the man holding a stamp mid air above a doc.u.ment. He didn"t seem to see MatchlessMinion, he was staring at ZipZing.

Another man, who seemed to be wearing a dark uniform, vaulted over the counter that lay between the closet and the door. Danika released the closet door and activated her wings as MatchlessMinion said with disgust, "Enchanted lenses."

Danika dodged the uniformed man"s attack and darted toward the door. The man"s momentum slid him into the closet door with a bang. A flicker of movement, as the label Aishin"s skill displayed to her flashed by, revealed MatchlessMinion"s position again as he dashed through the doorway a step ahead of her. He called out, "Go left!"

Only the uniformed man followed them out into the long hallway lined with faceless doors, and Danika regretted that she couldn"t just cast her invisibility. MatchlessMinion"s near invisibility seemed to be lasting longer than it had in the goblin tower though, so as they rounded the corner ahead, Danika aimed herself for the flicker of movement and smacked into him.

MatchlessMinion became fully visible in all his plush furry glory with the impact, and he hissed angrily, "What are you trying to do!?"

Danika reoriented herself quickly and landed on his head. "I thought if I was riding on you I"d blend into your almost invisibility," she admitted guiltily.

They flickered back into near invisibility as MatchlessMinion reactivated his skill and replied as he ran, "Oh, good idea."

A door opened ahead of them and MatchesMinion darted through it, narrowly avoiding the well dressed man who was just stepping out. The room was a dead end though, so a moment later he silently opened the door. The uniformed man had already pounded past, but had slid to a halt at the end of the corridor and happened to see the door opening.

The situation dissolved into a comedic scene from the era of early motion pictures, with doors slamming, and people darting back and forth across corridors. Confused workers added to the confusion as more doors popped open and people peered out like gofers popping out of burrows to see what all the commotion was about.

Two more uniformed men came clattering out of a stairwell from behind a door that looked exactly the same as the rest to Danika. The man who"d been trying to catch them since ZipZing had been released from the closet shouted, "Some kind of flying thing like a pixie with invisibility snuck into the finalizing department!"

"Pixies!?" exclaimed one of the new guards worriedly. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," the uniformed man said uncertainly as he turned and looked back down the hall toward the spot where MatchlessMinion pressed against the wall with ZipZing on his head. He stalked toward them with a determined expression. Danika braced herself, but almost fell off MatchlessMinion"s head when the man reached for the door k.n.o.b beside them instead.

He opened the door in one swift motion, startling the workers that stood behind the counter on the other side. MatchlessMinion ducked beneath the guard"s elbow and through the door. Aishin was standing in line at the counter in the big open room that lay beyond this door, and MatchlessMinion scurried around the counter and past Aishin before dropping his near invisible state.

Aishin turned and looked down at them when MatchlessMinion announced in a bored tone, "This line is too long, let"s try a different day."

Aishin blocked the view of the guard with his body, and said blandly, "Yeah, there"s no rush."

The guard was still staring suspiciously around the room, but mostly looking up into the corners of the ceiling. Aishin stayed between MatchlessMinion and the guard as they walked casually toward the outer door which opened onto the street outside.

Shrubbery and Kit were flanking the outer door of the government office as though they were guards themselves. As Aishin and MatchlessMinion walked toward the restaurant entrance, the two girls silently stepped out after them.

After a moment Shrubbery giggled and said, "I wish I had screenshots unlocked. You look like a really elaborate hair decoration crouched on Match"s head like that ZipZing, with only your wings sticking out of his fur."

MatchlessMinion turned and made a face at her.

Danika relaxed her hunched posture and sat up. She grinned and said, "I bet it was cute, but I"m just as glad that you don"t."

She turned and met Aishin"s gaze. Aishin winked at her, and dropped his hands from where he"d been holding them in the same picture frame pose that Terri had used. "I"ll send a copy to you," he said with a wicked grin.

"No fair," protested Shrubbery. "I want a copy!"

"Ok. That"s no problem," Aishin replied with amus.e.m.e.nt.

"If you give it to her, my sister will get a copy and I"ll never hear the end of it," MatchlessMinion complained.

Danika checked her energy level while they argued over who would get copies of the picture. It hadn"t risen at all. "My energy isn"t recharging," she said a bit anxiously.

MatchlessMinion halted midstep and asked, "What? Why?"

"I don"t know," Danika replied.

"How many pa.s.sive skills do you have activated, and does using mine cost more?" Aishin asked.

"Oh," Danika replied with embarra.s.sment. She turned off Aishin"s a.n.a.lyze Target skill, which had been activated in it"s pa.s.sive mode ever since she"d looked at him with it to see his "Fairy Dragon"s Familiar" label.

Aishin smiled at her and held out his hands to her. She left MatchlessMinion and zipped over to him. He carried her back into the banquet room where his band mates still waited with SaltySiamese, and whispered, "You don"t need your dazzling skill right now either do you?"

Danika shifted her position on his hands to look at him questioningly. "I don"t have it activated."

Aishin came to an abrupt halt beside the doorway and asked softly but intently, "How are you feeling right now ZipZing?"

Her sparkles pinkened as she admitted, "Happy. It"s so cool to have you as my familiar. I want to try all your skills later!"

Aishin grinned at her. "I see," he replied simply.

Danika frowned and said a little worriedly, "But I"m really getting the best part of the deal, it"s no fair that you can"t use my skills."

Her sparkle dimmed back toward it"s usual brightness and Aishin said ruefully, "Now I"m sorry I asked. I love seeing you so happy that your sparkles are a little blinding."

Danika"s frown deepened and she protested, "I don"t want you to regret asking me things?"

Aishin scolded her gently, "I have no complaints about what I"m getting out of the deal. You don"t need to worry about that, and just because what we"re getting isn"t identical doesn"t mean it"s not fair."

Danika questioned, "You"re sure?"

He lifted her closer, pulled down the cloth covering his face and kissed her nose. He declared softly, "I"m positive. I just wish you could always sparkle incandescently."

Danika"s sparkles flared like crimson fire as she protested, "No one can be happy all the time! The best you can hope for is to always be really happy now and then."

Aishin"s grin was as bright as his eyes as he agreed, "Yeah, so let"s be happy while we can."