When Danika woke up, she remembered the glittering sand that had become a golden dragon that carried her into a golden sky above golden mountains before she truly slept. By the time she escaped the VR-medi pod's clutches, the sun was well up, and reflecting brightly off of the building next door.

Danika breakfasted on a somewhat elderly bread roll, and fresh fruit from the chiller. The secondhand sunlight illuminated her morning exercises and tooth brushing. Even the most advanced technology couldn't do those two things for you yet. When she finished, she checked her messages, and heaved a long sigh.

"Living Jade Empire" would have to wait, because there was a leveling job available this morning. She was lucky enough to be able to support herself through game related work, but work was still required. Living in the real world cost money, and money couldn't be gained in any world without investing time and energy into its acquisition.

--

By the time Danika returned to the beginner's vale in "Living Jade Empire", three "days" had passed. She returned in the morning of the fourth day.

Treebane took Danika to meet the village smith, where she delivered a load of wood, with mutters about novices too small to carry a useful amount.

The smith was a dwarf named Ivan Ironstone. Treebane didn't linger after introducing Danika, although Ironstone offered to sharpen her axe before she left. All of Danika's curiosity about what made dwarves different from the other dragon and elemental crosses rushed back, but the village smith refused to answer any questions unless she completed a task for him first.

The smith's requirement was simple, or would have been if Danika had been playing as a human, he wanted three buckets of water from the village fountain. Physics hadn't been completely abandoned by this game with dragons, dwarves, and unicorns, and Danika couldn't even move one empty bucket while flying.

After a bit she discovered that she was a lot stronger than she'd expected, when on the ground. She could push the bucket easily as long as she had something solid under her feet. When she commented aloud, "What is this? Do I have the strength of an ant?" the smith chuckled.

"The strength of a dragon," Ironstone corrected, while bending a strap of iron and fastening it around a wheel frame as easily as Danika could tie a ribbon.

Danika flew to the fountain to see how difficult it would be to fill a bucket before she did the work of pushing one all the way across the village square. There wasn't a handy spout, but there were two children playing with reed boats.

The hollow reeds gave Danika an idea, and she asked the children, "Where did you get the reeds to craft your boats?"

"They grow beside the stream," the taller child replied cheerfully. The other child pointed helpfully to a small bridge just beyond the last building in that direction.

Danika zipped over to the bridge and landed among the little patch of reeds. With a strength that belied her size, she easily plucked a long reed, but even though it wasn't very heavy, she still couldn't fly while carrying it. She sighed and dragged it awkwardly back to the fountain.

The children watched with interest, but neither assisted nor interfered. They giggled as Danika rolled a bucket from the smithy to the fountain, on its side.

Danika stood on the rim of the fountain with her reed, and stuck one end into the water streaming out of the decorative stone carving in the center of the fountain. The other end was positioned over the bucket, and she held that pose while the bucket filled.

When it was full, Danika hopefully pushed against the base of the bucket. It was much more difficult than pushing the empty bucket had been, but it did move. Danika had to stop a number of times on the way back to the smithy to move pebbles out of her path, and fill holes that caught at the bucket and tried to unbalance it, but she was successful.

After she repeated the process twice more, the smith said cheerfully, "Well now, such helpful perseverance and ingenuity deserves a reward doesn't it? You're too small for a regular pack, so I'll reward you with one of my storage rings." He lifted a silver ring off of one of his work tables and handed it to Danika.

Danika held the ring between her claws and looked at the smith questioningly. "How do I wear it?"

"There's a bit of magic in it," the smith replied, "just try to put it on your hand. Tap it with your other hand to activate it."

Danika pushed one hand through the ring and it shrank into a bracelet that fit snugly, but not uncomfortably. She tapped it, and an inventory screen popped up in front of her. It only had three spaces, but when Danika experimented, she could place a full bucket of water into one of the spaces, and remove it again without spilling any.

"Anything to say?" Ironstone asked after she closed the inventory screen.

"Thank you," Danika replied a little guiltily. She wasn't used to using polite phrases often in games.

"You're welcome ZipZing," the smith replied cheerfully.

"Can you tell me why dwarves are different from the other elemental and dragon halfs now?" Danika asked.

"Only the gods know why, but if you'll pump the bellows, I can tell you the story of the first dwarf," Ironstone offered.

Danika agreed quickly and labored at the new task while Ironstone spoke. "Long, long ago, when the mountains in the west were young, a dragon who loved gold was collecting ornaments for its treasure horde. Over the years its collection grew, and it discovered by chance, that its favorite pieces were all crafted by the same gnome. The dragon eventually captured the gnome over a course of adventures, that I won't bore you with, which span more than a dozen dwarven historical ballads. After the gnome had been held captive for a year, the dragon had become so enamored that it told the gnome that it would grant one request, in exchange for the treasures the gnome had crafted. Instead of freedom, the gnome demanded more crafting supplies. Each year the dragon offered to grant another request, but the gnome never left. Several hundred years later, the first dwarf was born, with the strength of a dragon and a gnome's affinity with the the earth. Most dwarves instinctively have a dragon's love of shiny metals, and a gnome's skilled hands."

Ironstone turned to Danika after he finished and said, "And now, perhaps you'll tell me why you didn't ask the children to help you fill the buckets at the fountain?"

Danika stared at the smith wordlessly. He waited attentively, and finally Danika admitted, "I don't know, it didn't even occur to me."

"It's ok to ask for help sometimes," Ironstone chided gently. "You have done well at every task I've asked of you, is there anything else you could use help with that you haven't thought to ask?"

"I want to raise my breath skill!" Danika responded immediately. "Please," she added belatedly.