Danika collected the essence containing fragments of 30 different kinds of animals before she logged off for the night. She also found two types of animal that she couldn't collect anything from. Neither slug nor snail seemed to have a hair, scale, tooth or nail to collect, unless the snail's shell counted as a nail, but she was pretty sure that removing its shell would have killed the snail.

She hadn't searched any out, but she was pretty certain that earthworms and many insects would also be lacking in the qualified attributes. Shrubbery and MatchlessMinion had only logged in for a few minutes each, and they'd exchanged quick messages and promised to make more time to play on the weekend. Apparently their school district was holding some sort of after hours event.

Aishin hadn't logged on by the time she logged out, so since Danika had collected from all of the types of animals that she'd been able to find easily within the druid's domain, she passed through the strange stretched border of the area and exited the grove of apparently angry trees. She found a tall tree with a cup formed where its branches split and placed her pebble there for the night.

When she entered her little garden space, Hikaru glowed angrily at her. Danika blinked at the sullen glow of the little firefly and said, "I'm sorry, I forgot you were waiting.

She pulled out a blackberry and offered it to the little beetle hopefully. The firefly blinked its light and flew into her strawberry patch. Some small strawberries were already beginning to ripen there.

Danika sighed and promised it, "I'll find out what you like to eat and get you some. And when I return tomorrow, I mean in a few days, I'll be sure to bring you outside while I search for more animals." Then she watered her various plants and logged out.

--

Over the next few days she worked her shift as usual, and even returned to practicing her skills in her little garden during her shift sometimes. Hikaru seemed to enjoy the extra time spent together, even though ZipZing was often idle. Danika also discovered that having a pet allowed her to practice more skills than she'd been able to before.

She was able to target Hikaru with both her impartation skill, and her assimilation skill. She hadn't learned glow yet, but she spent quite a bit of time playing with impartation and her various skills. She even tried imparting her assimilation skill to the firefly, with no discernable result.

After awhile she settled on trying to teach it evasion. It seemed like the most helpful skill to begin with. She hoped it would make taking her pet along while she hunted down various animals, which were sometimes very irritable about having their bits snatched, much safer.

At night she hunted animals while logged in through her VR-medi pod. Aishin hadn't been joking about being busier, and only got to play with her occasionally. Sometimes he was able to play while she was the one who was busy, and he often collected scales and claws of animals that he considered too dangerous for her during those times.

Danika complained, "You don't have to spend all your time on my quest," after he brought her the talon from a griffin.

Aishin just grinned at her and replied, "I have a vested interest in this project."

"Because you're my familiar?" she questioned doubtfully.

Aishin, who was apparently at home for a few hours and probably supposed to be sleeping, caught her and kissed her on the nose, making her sparkles turn rose colored. "Because the VR-medi pod should be delivered to Shrubbery and her mom this weekend, so I should have their old system sometime next week, if all goes well," he explained.

"Which has what to do with me collecting materials to learn to weave my own belt?" she questioned dryly.

"Since you won't let me meet you in person, I want you to learn a human form, so I can kiss you for real," he explained a little hesitantly.

His expression was uncertain and Danika would bet that her own expression was guilty as she regarded him for a moment. "Ok," she agreed simply.

"It's not demanding too much?" he questioned worriedly.

"No," she replied after a moment. "Aishin…" she began hesitantly.

"You're allowed to change your mind later," he said quickly.

"Thanks," she said dryly. She felt a little shocked when he actually blushed. She'd never seen him blush except for the emote when he was playing on the mobile version. She took a deep breath and said quickly, "Aishin, listen, this is… um, awkward to try to…"

He interrupted again, "Take as much time as you need, I'll listen."

She laughed until he grinned ruefully at her and said, "Sorry, I'll really just listen. Please go ahead?"

"I do want to meet you," she admitted after a moment. His expression brightened and he opened his mouth again, but then closed it quickly and waited. She grinned at him for a moment, and then her expression sobered and she said doubtfully, "But it might not go like you're imagining? And I keep telling myself that I should just try to explain everything first but…"

Aishin kissed her on the nose again and said, "Then don't explain? Just meet me whenever we can both find time, which won't be easy for awhile because of my schedule." Danika looked at him and he stuck out his tongue. "I know," he admitted, "I said I'd just listen and I'm talking again. But I don't like to see you struggling and letting your sparkles dim. And it might be kind of arrogant, but I think you're underestimating me."

"Underestimating you?" she questioned.

"I think I have some idea about what's worrying you," he explained. "I think you probably have some kind of limitation or health condition, since you bought the VR-medi pod. It doesn't seem like you got it just to be able to immerse yourself in the game for days at a time?"

"Oh. Yeah," she agreed uncomfortably.

"And I shouldn't have dismissed your concern about things being complicated before," he admitted.

"It's ok," she replied quickly.

"If…" He hesitated. "If I get close to anyone outside of work, things get complicated, and that's all my fault."

"Oh," she said with surprise. She waved her little clawed hands and added quickly, "I guess that makes sense, but that's not your fault?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and replied with amusement, "Yes it is. I chose this, despite having it explained to me very clearly with lots of small words." He grinned ruefully as he examined her expression. "It won't be easy if you choose to associate with me outside the game," he warned, "even if you decide that it's only as a friend, if anyone finds out, people will say that it's more."

Danika kind of wanted to ask what would happen if she decided it wasn't, but didn't. Instead she asked, "Is that one of the things you fought with your father about?"

"Yeah," he admitted ruefully. "He said we should wait until I was out of highschool even if that made us too old for a typical boy band, so that there was a chance to experience more before deciding."

"What did you reply?" she asked curiously.

"It's my life," he replied with a laugh.