Data Dragon Danika

Danika pondered the question and then shrugged. "I don"t know, but maybe she updated her physical data when she logged on from the new console?"

"Oh, that hadn"t occurred to me," Shrubbery admitted with a laugh. "Forget I said anything then."

Aishin was already back when they reached the garden at the edge of the city near the koi ponds. He flashed a smile that suddenly reminded Danika that he was sitting outside her VR-medi pod, in her room, and playing on his phone. He"d insisted that it was fine for her to play as usual while they formed the guild.

She zipped over to him and landed on his hands. He"d brought his headset so at least he sounded normal. He flashed another grin and kissed her on the nose.

"Saaki won"t make it early, but said he doesn"t care about the time stamp, and Nao1 is already on and heading here. SilentSky and Edwardian will be around half an hour to an hour, but said "don"t wait"," Aishin informed them.

"Okay," Danika replied.

Ryullusion and Eyes on the Sky were still sitting on a seat that Shrubbery had shaped out of a living tree in one corner of her garden, and they were whispering and giggling like teenagers. Danika grew so curious when they kept flashing glances at everyone else but didn"t stop, that she instructed Hikaru who had left her garden to visit with the other fireflies that had been added to Shrubbery"s garden, to stay with Aishin. Then she used her invisibility spell to sneak over and listen for a minute.

Once she heard the gist of the conversation she grinned and quickly zipped back to Aishin before her invisibility wore off. "What did you find out," he whispered.

Danika blushed. She hadn"t expected her impolite actions to be so transparent to him. She whispered back, "They"re telling each other about silly things their kids have done."

Aishin raised his eyebrows with a surprised emote and asked with soft amus.e.m.e.nt, "And you didn"t stay to discover my embarra.s.sing secrets?"

Her blush intensified and the sparkles of her wings deepened into rose as she protested, "It was rude enough to go listen at all!"

Aishin chuckled softly, and Eyes on the Sky called out loudly, "We can see you two flirting from here! You seem to have lost your Kit Tay? What"s the plan now?"

Shrubbery rolled her eyes and protested, "Mom!" Her next words were as embarra.s.sing to Danika as her mother"s had been as she told her mother, "They"re always like this when they get time together, just leave them alone. And Kit will return after half an hour.

MatchlessMinion returned a few minutes later, but he still wouldn"t tell them what he"d gone to acquire. Nao1 arrived next and she was practically bouncing with excitement as she demanded, "When are you going to do it!? Have you done it?"

Aishin said blandly, "We haven"t. I think I was warned that it wouldn"t be until next year."

Danika turned to stare at him.

After a moment he whispered, "Sorry. Are you mad? Your sparkles turned yellowish…orange?"

Nao1 just rolled her eyes and stamped her foot. She (or he) was obviously using a console instead of a phone now. "The guild! You idiot!"

"The guild hasn"t been made yet," Shrubbery told her rea.s.suringly when neither Aishin nor ZipZing replied right away.

Danika wasn"t sure what yellow-orange sparkles represented because she couldn"t even describe her own emotions at the moment. She knew what he was referring to, the moment on their date when she"d implied that he might be able to see her undressed a year later. She just couldn"t quite believe that he"d used it to joke with his friend in front of her, even though at the same time she felt kind of pleased that he was willing to imply calmly to Nao1 (and even in front of his dad) that he expected to wait so long.

"I"m not mad," she said finally.

His relieved breath didn"t show on his avatars face, or in his posture, but Danika was close enough to hear the soft exhalation. She felt another surge of affection for him at this small sign that her word was enough for him. She scooted to the edge of his hands and leaned out to kiss him on the nose and make the little heart float up between them on his mobile version of the game.

SaltySiamese, Terri, and Ranma arrived next, to MatchlessMinion"s dismay. Terri ran up to him and began rubbing her hands on the little chinchillamin"s head and then squeezing his plushy cheeks. "I haven"t seen you in weeks!?" Terri complained.

"Please stop?" MatchlessMinion squeaked.

Terri ignored his plea and replied, "I need my dose of fluff!"

Ranma scolded her gently, "It is unbecoming of such a n.o.ble paladin to take advantage of a young man in such a fashion."

To the shock of everyone who"d met her before, Terri immediately dropped her hands and blushed. "You don"t have to put it that way," she muttered.

The horse tossed his mane rakishly and declared with amus.e.m.e.nt, "It is only because I know that you are a good woman who would desist in such behavior if I phrased it in such a way."

The tall redhead walked over and shoved the stallion"s shoulder hard enough to make him take a sideways step and retorted, "You mean that you"re jealous that I"m not petting you."

Ranma gave a horse sized snort, but he didn"t deny it.

Danika gazed at them both with wide eyes. Terri looked around and saw that everyone was staring and lifted her chin and announced, "We"ve teamed up."

"They bonded," SaltySiamese corrected.

"You formed a familiar bond like ZipZing and Aishin?" Shrubbery asked.

"Of course not," Terri replied with disdain.

Ranma said cheerfully, "It"s probably similar, but an Equestrian Bond is more like a soul link, if one of us dies so does the other, but only because the entire health of both must be lost first and we can speak to each other on a private channel from anywhere."

"That doesn"t sound much like our familiar bond at all," Danika said laughingly. "I think Terri was right."

They talked about the differences until Kit returned and then they created the guild. Like the familiar bonding spell, there was a vow to read about commitment to working together toward common goals, and then it was done. Endless Song had begun. The names and current status of ZipZing, Aishin, Eyes on the Sky, Ryullusion, and Kit Tay were permanently engraved in the history of "Living Jade Empire" on the founding record of Endless Song.

MatchlessMinion, Shrubbery, and Nao1 joined within the first minute, which was as specific as the record reported, even though MatchlessMinion raced through the short vow and dialogue screens fast enough that he probably joined within his ten second goal.

Danika quickly sorted through the new guild menu screens that had been added since she was the guild leader. In the end she"d made no protest when everyone had a.s.sumed that she would be. The first available guild mission seemed to have been created in her honor too, it was to defeat the giant snails that had invaded a farmer"s fields to the north of Fogton.