Danika logged out for a late lunch with Ryuske. Her assistant announced that ShinZing had messaged ZipZing right before a new message arrived on her phone. For a moment she was worried, but she smiled when she read the first line.
Shinichi's message read: "I'm fine, sorry to make you worry. I know I said I'd be back in a minute before the concert started, but it turned into hours. I have a couple of hours now, but you're probably eating, so take your time."
She promptly stuffed the rest of her food into her mouth and grabbed her dish. Ryuske raised his eyebrows questioningly. She chewed hurriedly and swallowed before answering his unspoken question, "Shinichi is back online."
Ryuske grinned at her as she stuffed her dish, and the dishes she'd used to prepare the food, into the washer. She ignored his amusement and hurried over to the lift. The chores she'd been contemplating could wait until Underneath's concert started.
--
ShinZing sparkled beside her, as they darted across a meadow that resembled what Danika had imagined, when Quicksilver had suggested a grassy field beneath a sky full of rainbows. The rainbows in this sky were a bit dangerous though.
ZipZing's evasion saved her once again as she narrowly avoided the beak of the large colorful bird, that her animal identification said was a Roller. Its rolling dive might have been the origin of its name, but Danika would have called it a rainbow bird. It seemed almost like the flock had been following the storm they were chasing.
ShinZing zipped toward her with his sword in his hand and Danika concentrated on flying faster. He was obviously planning to slice through the next bird that got close enough. To be fair, that also seemed to be the intent of the birds.
The dragon, or one of the dragons, in the storm ahead of them had captured the First Dwarven Smith's airship. Or possibly eaten it, the Smith wasn't sure. After their adventures with the cloud cat, Danika had messaged with a diffident inquiry about the ownership of the ship that Endless Song had helped destroy, and the Smith had denied building it.
The Smith's newest airship had apparently been launched during the Sugar Wings concert, since the message had been waiting when she logged in.
"It must be tiny like I suggested if it got eaten, but it doesn't seem like being small kept it from being noticed," Danika speculated.
"It's not a small storm, it might be a huge dragon," Shinichi replied in the flat tones that indicated he'd switched to text mode.
Saaki had logged in and tried teleporting directly to the Smith with a genie's racial skill, but he had seen nothing but wind and rain within the roiling mist that was the storm in flight. On the plus side, he hadn't appeared inside a dragon. On the minus side, a genie's movement skill of hot wind was apparently ineffective within the storm. Saaki said that he was never riding a carpet through a storm ever again, for any reason, even in the mobile version. Apparently the display had made him feel dizzy enough that he was now laying down somewhere quiet until Underneath's concert started.
"If only the ship could teleport," Danika said wistfully.
Shinichi gave a short laugh and flashed her a grin before replying, "If it could, it wouldn't even need to fly."
Danika flicked her tail over to tap ShinZing and renewed her featherweight spell for him and then herself. The meadow and the flock of rainbow colored birds fell behind them as they zipped along in the storm's wake.
"Do you think it knows about us?" Shinichi asked flatly. "Every time we think we've gotten into its path it changes course, and it keeps stirring up things that will attack us."
"You think the dragon, or dragons, inside the storm are avoiding us specifically?" she questioned in surprise.
"Maybe?" he replied with a shrug that scattered more sparkles from his wings.
"You know, that spell that Justin has that lets everyone hear what you say, as though they are standing beside you, would be handy right now. It would also make a good enchantment for a more magically enabled concert!" Danika shouted through the increasing wind.
"Magically enabled concert?" ShinZing called back.
"Quicksilver said people wanted a more magical experience from a VR concert! But Ryu said wait!" Danika explained loudly. Suddenly she realized that the storm was no longer moving away from them, and the swirl of wind that pulled them was the movement of its turn.
A flash of scales in the cloud, and the movement of ShinZing's sword as he blocked a swipe of claws that she couldn't even really see, made Danika trigger a random teleport. A soft familiar chime rang through the storm. It had been so long since she'd heard it that it took her a moment to identify it as the sound of her strong luck activating.
As the dragon snapped her up she couldn't quite decide if it was good or bad luck. Her compass indicated the location of the Smith in the burning darkness within the dragon. Her health was dropping swiftly, but her claw tipped hands met a cold, almost metallic, surface that she didn't think would be natural to the inside of a dragon's belly.
A light suddenly blazed off to one side in the murky fluid that enveloped her and whatever she was touching. Her eyes burned too much to make out any details on that surface, and she used her claws to haul herself along almost the same way that she would move in one of the space station instances in Jade's demo.
ZipZing skittered rapidly along the curved shell of the airship inside of the dragon's stomach, until she reached the round glass window that blazed with light. She flicked an assassin's mark at the barely visible figure behind the source of that light, and then wisely used her random teleport again. Her health was so low that teleporting to that mark would just kill her quicker.
She reappeared in the middle of the storm and let it toss her aside as she gulped down an expensive health potion. Before she could reorient herself, a loud bang preceded an angry looking pixie, who smacked into her side with enough force to send them both into a glittering winged tumble.
The legendary sword, Durandel, dripped something that hissed as the spinning motion flung droplets out to meet cold drops of rain. The drops flashed into steam, and the light from ShinZing's wings flickered out for a moment. Shock steadied her flight more than her attempts to reorient had, as she clutched the lighter pixie frantically, and the automatic function of her wings was the only thing that held them in the air. Durandel fell toward the ground as ShinZing released his hold on it.
Danika shoved the last of the potion into ShinZing's mouth by using the shape cantrip on the remaining liquid. "Stop that," he said flatly. "My health is full!"
She blinked and took the time to actually look at his status. His health really was full, although hers was barely up to a quarter. His energy was empty though, which explained the flickering light of his wings and his inability to fly.
"I think I put a mark on the Smith while I was inside the dragon," Danika replied.
Shinichi was obviously tapping out a string of laughing while crying emotes, as ShinZing reacted to her statement.