Data Dragon Danika

At first the little dragon didn"t seem to understand her, but eventually it told her seriously, "Game play mechanisms can only be modified by the members of the seventh division. You can add new skills, creatures and story elements, but you can"t change how everyone plays the game."

"Oh, alright. In that case I guess I need to message Lin Hao after all," Danika conceded. She quickly composed a request. It wasn"t long before she received a reply either.

Lin Hao sent back: "LOL You really do come up with weird corners. Can"t work on it until after the expansion, but sure. And your request warms the hearts of the minions trapped here in the seventh, rea.s.suring them that even though quest creation is becoming automated and we"re running out of new species, there is still plenty of game structure to program."

--

That evening when Kit logged on, she cheerfully agreed to meet ZipZing at the prospective farm. She flew from the nearest portal that they could locate. When she arrived, she shifted from her hawk form and then back into a fairy dragon and shouted, "Tah Da!"

"Wow! Woah! Wait! It"s not the full moon already is it?" Danika asked anxiously.

Kit Tay was a bluer hue than ZipZing, and her wings sparkled more sedately. After a moment Danika realized that that might be because the full motion console didn"t have as much emotion detection capacity, although it would be able to read Kit"s heart rate.

Kit laughed and shook her little dragon head. "No. I finally successfully wove it in last weekend, I just didn"t get a good chance to show you since I figured out how to fly."

"What? But you already know how to fly as a hawk?" Danika protested questioningly.

"This is different though, that"s like flapping my arms, this, I don"t know, I imagine it"s how a b.u.mble bee flies? Or a helicopter maybe?" Kit explained. "It"s fun though!"

Danika grinned at her and agreed, "Yeah! And now you"re as cute as I am!"

Kit giggled, and after a moment so did Danika. When they settled down, Kit checked the farm site for boundaries. And then she suggested excitedly, "I want to try out my newest Druid skill. I just learned how to lay a boundary!"

"Will that make it so that you own it? Will we still be able to transfer it to the new farmer?" Danika questioned.

"I"m sure I could sell it in a quest, I"m not sure how it will affect the guild quest if I"m not here though?" Kit said doubtfully.

They stopped to look up other people"s experiences with it on the forums, but as far as they could determine, as long as the transfer was otherwise legitimate, the boundary setting only added a clear territory definition and helped prevent later disputes.

Kit happily set her first druidic boundary around the farm plot. The border wasn"t a very straight line, as Kit curved along the existing boundaries of the goblin grazing grounds and several animal paths that were clear enough for Danika to see them without the druid"s skills. When Kit was finished, Danika submitted the quest as ready to present to the player who"d presented it.

She hoped that she"d be online when they were ready, since otherwise Song Solvin would try to present the farm site for Endless Song, and she wouldn"t get the chance to suggest the giant snails.

She was still thinking about the snails when Kit logged off, and so she wasted a bit of Karma traveling back to the southern farmland where they"d cleared a field of unwanted snails. It didn"t take her long to find a farmer who had recently been plagued by the oversized snails, and collect several large leaves that had had eggs laid on them.

She also picked up a couple more animal essences there, and one of those was from a flying pig, moments after its birth. The poor thing was struck down by a legendary sword that dropped out of the sky two minutes later.

An embarra.s.sed player landed his griffon beside them shortly after the sword landed and said apologetically, "I don"t know what happened, the wind caught it or something? I"ve never had it fall out of its scabbard before."

The farmer wasn"t at all discouraged and commented cheerfully, "Wow, that one was much luckier than any of the others! I might be on the right track! I wonder if I crossed it with a green belly instead of a blue belly?"

He wandered off with the remains of the poor little animal, and Danika didn"t follow. She decided that flying pig breeding was a lot more morbid than she"d realized from just reading the description.

Danika spent even more Karma and returned to Fogton. The human capital was lit by a rosy glow as the fading sun tinted the fog that rose off of the river. She didn"t usually pay much attention to the river that wound through the city, and provided the water for the various water features that decorated it, like the koi ponds. It was bridged and constrained like most modern rivers were, where they tangled with civilization.

She zipped over the rooftops toward the inn that currently hosted their little rented guild hall. When she reached it she slowed down and entered at a more sedate drift through the air. Song Solvin greeted her cheerfully and took custody of the snail eggs, although she seemed a little confused about what Danika was asking her to relay to the player.

Eventually the little half parrot girl said, "Guild leader, I will simply inform Yakim that you wish to speak with him personally. I will tell him that you have additional information that may benefit his attempts to build a successful farm if he chooses the plot you selected."

"Thank you," Danika replied with relief.

She flew to Shrubbery"s garden and watched the last reflections of the sunset in the ponds across the street a bit listlessly. She was still subdued when Aishin logged on for a few minutes. She cuddled into his hands even though he was still on his phone and he petted her while she told him about the little pig and the rest of her evening.

He said wryly, "Maybe this is a bad time to tell you that I"ve been working on a new song? I kind of wanted you to hear it before I ruin it any more?"

Danika sat up and declared, "I want to hear it!"

"You"ll have to log out," he pointed out.

"OK!" she agreed without hesitation and logged out immediately.