Danika looked back over her shoulder at the traveling merchant after she turned away. She really couldn't tell that he was an NPC sometimes. All of this game's NPCs showed a surprising range of humor and emotion, but he was definitely the most natural to converse with.

She followed his instructions to a narrow side street. A butterfly fluttered up to her and landed on her nose. She blinked and it was replaced by the message it had carried: "Hi? Um, Salty said I should send you a friend request, but I wasn't sure if you'd want that?"

Danika read the message from Shrubbery. She'd sort of forgotten how diffident PrincessPrincess could be, she'd usually been busy blowing things up with her summoned creatures in the last game they'd played together. Danika sent her both a friend request and a reply: "Yeah. I was asking about guilds, and she said you'd been in a guild the longest?"

Shrubbery accepted her friend request, and Danika saw that her location was somewhere in the same city. A moment later she received a party invitation and another message: "I'm in 'The Gardening Club', it's great, but I don't think you'd like it? We mostly grow flowers. Um, if we were in the same party I could navigate to meet up and talk in person? If you don't mind?"

Danika examined the party invitation, the system offered to let her add Shrubbery to the party she already had with Aishin, or to leave her current party and form one with Shrubbery. Danika added her to the existing party, but sent a quick message to Aishin: "I hope you don't mind, I've added an old acquaintance to the party."

The party compass for Shrubbery indicated that she was back in the direction that Danika had just come from. She turned and stepped back into the larger street behind her and pulled up her menu lens to watch for Shrubbery's name on the passers-by. Aishin's little bat showed up with a tiny message first, even though he wasn't logged in to the game so he must have had the first layer of it open on his phone. It said: "Ok  "

Shrubbery was tall, with a cute face. Danika couldn't guess how much of her brown skin was natural coloring and how much was her Dryad race, but she was sure the green hair with living flowers and leaves growing in it was all Dryad. Her path was actually Gardener, instead of Farmer as Danika had expected. Her accumulated level was barely higher than ZipZing's at 50.

Danika said, "Hi," and then added, "oops, I forgot it's all meows." She pulled her message screen back up.

Shrubbery said, "Hi? I can understand animals. Why do you look like a cat when it says you're a Fairy Dragon?"

"You can?" Danika asked. Shrubbery nodded, so Danika dismissed the message screen and explained, "I ate the apple I got from the wizard in the beginner's vale."

"There was a wizard in your vale?" Shrubbery asked curiously.

"There wasn't in yours?" Danika questioned with surprise.

Shrubbery laughed and said, "When we compared notes, all of us had different NPCs in our vales. But each had three from combat, crafting, and magic paths. Salty thinks that we might be able to find those NPCs again somewhere in the game."

"Speaking of SaltySiamese, weren't you guys in the same party? It just let me add you to this one," Danika commented.

Shrubbery looked away and then said quietly, "Um, we were all playing in the same party, but there's a five person limit, and Salty has been crushing on that wizard. They talk about their cats all the time. Anyway, she and Match have been playing in his party all day. I think Match likes that redhead. And Ranma said he wanted to join a party with a knight to finish his Noble Steed quest."

Danika mentally face palmed. If Justin liked cats that much, no wonder he'd be more likely to accept a request from someone named SaltySiamese. She asked, "Match? Ranma?"

Shrubbery turned back to face ZipZing and chided, "You remember Match, Salty's little brother?"

"Oh, SweetPoison?" Danika asked.

"Oh, you don't have him here? He's MatchlessMinion now. And I don't think you know Ranma. We were all playing that LoveLove Kitty game in the same town and then we met him in person at the last AnimeCon." Shrubbery blushed and added, "He's pretty cute in real life."

"Oh, cool," Danika replied a little blankly. She vaguely remembered an invitation from SaltySiamese to play a mobile game like that the year before, but hadn't realized her whole group had been participating. She told Shrubbery, "I was about to talk to an enchanter that the traveling merchant recommended as being able to tell me if I'm cursed or enchanted and how long it's going to last. Want to come along? Apparently he's been having trouble with mice, so there will probably be some sort of exchange of favors."

"Oh, I don't know if I'll be any help, but sure, if you don't mind?" Shrubbery replied uncertainly.

"I promise I won't ask you to come along for anything if I don't want you to come," Danika replied dryly.

"Sorry," Shrubbery replied, and raised her hands to cover her pink cheeks.

"You're fine," Danika told her comfortingly. She turned and trotted back into the narrow side street where Shrubbery's butterfly messenger had found her.

The enchanter's shop was just as the merchant had described it, and Danika hopped neatly up the steps and then turned and waited for Shrubbery to open the door. Shrubbery grinned at her and said, "Oh, I see."

The shopkeeper addressed Shrubbery first, "If you came for a portal enchantment, go away!"

Danika blinked and checked him through her menu lens. His name was Inchy Antyr and it was NPC yellow. She huffed a silent laugh, apparently even NPC enchanters were tired of enchanting portals.

Shrubbery replied quickly, "No, my friend has been turned into a cat!"

The enchanter pulled a lense out of a pocket and held it up to his eye. It made his eye look enormous, and Danika would have bet that if you looked through a lens like that in the real world, everything more than a few centimeters from it would just be a blur, but he focused on her and said, "Hmm, a cat, how useful. Want to sell her to me?"

Shrubbery objected, "She's not for sale!"

Danika agreed, "I'm not for sale, but I can be bribed?"

Shrubbery turned to stare at her and asked, "Really?"

Danika shrugged and the enchanter asked, "What did the cat say?"

Danika wondered what would have happened if Shrubbery hadn't joined her party. Maybe he'd have pulled out an ear trumpet to understand her with. Shrubbery told the enchanter, "She said that she can be bribed."