As soon as Kit Tay had safely entered the little stone, Danika zipped away from the snow line and back down the mountain, doing her best to follow the same route they'd used to come upward. All of the trees tended to look the same to her though, and she'd been focused on the blue wings of the bird most of the time. She kept low, so that she wouldn't miss any glint of water, in case there had been a smaller stream that they'd crossed that she'd missed.
A thousand worried speculations crowded her mind as she flew. Things she'd never considered before like: What if your strongest wish, or the wish that you'd posted about most often was to get revenge on someone who'd hurt you in the past? If you were both playing the game, would the game arrange for you to meet and give you that opportunity? Or what if your biggest wish was to overcome some trauma? Would the game scare you over and over with it until you either stopped playing or learned to overcome it?
Danika had only ever considered the rumored wish-granting of the game to be for things like, "I want to play a dragon!" Or "I want to ride a unicorn!" Or, "I want to be rich and powerful!" Her thoughts churned and another reason that Kit had been able to marry the traveling merchant when the game designers hadn't expected it occurred to her. What if you'd wished to be able to fall in love, when you were scared of men but not attracted to girls?
When she reached the small rushing brook where Kit had had to transform to cross, Danika landed. She was fairly certain that this wasn't the same place where they'd crossed it. She set down her pebble, took a deep breath, and whispered the entrance word.
Kit sat on the bare dirt beside the little apple tree. She looked forlorn, but far more alert than she had since the snow leopard had smacked her. Danika spoke first, "We've reached the water, but if you don't mind I'd like to pause here for a moment and post about the stolen snow leopard kitten in the forums?"
Kit looked painfully embarrassed as she replied softly, "Um, sure? And, um, thanks. I'm sorry, can you tell your friend I'm sorry too?"
Danika replied, "Sure, but that wasn't him. It was one of his friends I think, for some reason he doesn't seem to be able to log in at the moment and he knows I can't store the pebble in my inventory as long as it has a player location set inside of it."
Kit stared at her uncomprehendingly. So Danika added, "He doesn't seem to have VR, and other systems are less particular about who is controlling the game application?"
"Oh," Kit replied, but Danika wasn't certain that she understood.
Danika asked uncomfortably, "Um, I know this might be a personal question, and you don't have to answer, but are you safe outside the game?"
Kit straightened and replied a bit stiffly, "Yes."
"Ok," Danika replied promptly without asking anything else.
Kit added with embarrassment, "I just have some anxiety problems and I'm being allowed to play this game as part of my treatment."
Danika blinked and replied with amazement, "That's so cool!"
"What?" Kit responded with a puzzled expression.
"I'm glad you get to do something this fun instead of just having people tell you how much they're trying to help while lecturing you," Danika explained.
Kit smiled and said, "They do that too." Then she asked, "Do you think you could find this spot again? I'd like to meet up with The Traveling Merchant before I have to log off. I really don't want his affection to fall."
Danika blinked and checked the time in her menus, It hadn't even been quite an hour since Kit had logged on, despite everything that had happened. She glanced at Kit and wondered if she really just wanted to go hug her digital husband and calm down. She also felt a bit stressed by their encounter with the mountain guardian and thought that a break didn't sound bad.
Danika replied thoughtfully, "I think the easiest way would be for me to wait here, since you can use your ring to find him, and the party screen to find me again."
"Oh, it works from a distance too?" Kit asked with surprise.
Danika nodded. "I could see Aishin's direction even when he was clear across the world map," she explained.
"Oh, that's cool!" Kit commented with some enthusiasm.
"Unless you're afraid to travel alone?" Danika asked a bit diffidently.
"Oh, no, being alone is usually more comfortable," Kit replied quickly. And then she blushed and added, "Not that you aren't really nice, and even The Traveling Merchant said I should spend more time with other people outside the vale."
"Thanks," Danika replied quickly. "And don't worry, I get it, being around other people can be tiring, especially crowds."
"Yeah," Kit agreed with relief. "Ok, I'll try to return soon, thanks." Kit touched the center stone and exited the garden.
Danika almost followed her out to make sure that she was ok outside the little protected space, but stopped herself. Instead she swiped over to the forums and posted: "Lost Kitten - Help? My party ran into a mountain guardian who looked like a giant snow leopard who is mourning her lost cub. It was stolen by humans fairly recently. Has anyone heard about a quest to capture a rare animal like this, or seen a snow leopard in a pet shop?"
When she finished that post, she moved on to the latest posts by 'The First Dwarven Smith', and submitted a query: "Did you visit the gnome town with the clockwork chainmail weavery or run into pirates with cannons before you started work on your pistols? The NPC sounded like the gnomeworks had existed since the beginning of the game, but I wondered if it was added after your projects from how so many people protested."
Shrubbery came online a few minutes later, and less than a quarter of an hour passed before Shrubbery's little golden mouse showed up with a message: "Are you inside your garden? My tree says that it can't reach any trees near you."
Danika swiftly exited her little space and sent a reply: "I was, but I just exited, and I'm in the middle of a forest. Do you think I'm too far away?"
A couple of minutes later Shrubbery walked out of the tree beside her and replied, "No, I think your garden isn't connected to the world."
Danika grinned at her. "You're probably right," she agreed.
Shrubbery asked curiously, "Which one is your stone and what's the entrance word? Is the new person in our party inside?"
"No, she's meeting up with her husband so that her friendship level with him doesn't fall," Danika explained, and then showed Shrubbery her little grey-green pebble and told her, "It's dragonheart."
Shrubbery laughed and replied, "It's perfect for you isn't it?"
She entered the garden and Danika followed her in. Shrubbery looked around and exclaimed, "Oh wow! This is so much more amazing than I imagined! Do you think he could build one big enough to hold my tree? If I could carry it around in a protected space half the disadvantages of being a dryad would be nullified!"
Danika asked, "Wouldn't that interfere with your magical transportation system?"
"I don't know, maybe," Shrubbery agreed a little sadly after a moment.
Danika withdrew the little book that Logical Heart had left her that spoke of his speculations about larger spaces, and handed it to her saying, "Here is the information he gave me, but he might have more ideas if you could talk to him about what your tree requires? If you do, you might also ask if he can include a water source, I'm using my aqua stone."
Shrubbery took the book and her expression brightened again. She turned and pointed to the plant the black datura seed had grown into and said, "That's the only dangerously poisonous thing in your garden, it's not spreading, and even when it's not flowering it's so pretty and dark." Danika blinked at her and she turned and pointed to the little apple tree that had been grown from the strangely furry seed and added, "But your apple tree is purring."