Chapter 117: 34: Familiar Trouble

"We haven't started the spell yet," Danika told Shrubbery laughingly.

"But you're already out of the circle?" Shrubbery pointed as she questioned.

Aishin told Shrubbery, "Then since you're here, you can be in charge of keeping everyone from messing up the circle." He stepped forward and jumped neatly from the edge into the center, with ZipZing still balanced on his palms."

"Oh," Shrubbery replied doubtfully.

SilentSky returned with Saaki, Edwardian, and Nao1 in tow a moment later. Kit was the next to arrive, and she edged nervously over to Shrubbery and whispered, "So many people?"

Shrubbery replied comfortingly, "I think they're all Aishin's friends. And Xander will be sad that he's missing out on meeting more Underneath fans."

Danika shot a sharp glance toward Shrubbery, but Aishin just grinned and gave his head a little shake. He was still making introductions between the two groups when MatchlessMinion and SaltySiamese arrived.

SaltySiamese complained, "This restaurant is hard to find, how do they ever get any customers?"

Aishin blinked and pointed out, "It's not even a whole block away from the market?"

Shrubbery darted forward and caught Edwardian before he stepped on the edge of the circle again. "Um, sorry," she apologized, "but I think if you step on it it'll mess up the spell."

Edwardian went still and SilentSky dragged him back against the wall. Finally Edwardian said, "Oops, sorry."

Danika asked a little nervously, "Are we ready now?"

"I'm ready when you are ZipZing," Aishin said firmly.

Danika took a deep breath and said, "Ok." She pulled up her menu and targeted Shrubbery with her impartation skill, and then tapped to cast the spell. She quickly recited the content of the dialogue box that popped up in front of her. Her wings were sparkling brightly in pale flashes of color as she waited nervously after the dialogue disappeared. Nothing seemed to happen.

Aishin blinked and reached out to tap the invisible dialogue. The circle around them glowed for a second and then vanished.

After a moment Aishin asked, "That's it?"

Danika pulled her menus back up and exclaimed, "Woah!"

Shrubbery giggled. Everyone turned to look at her and she explained nervously, "Look at Aishin's name."

Danika tapped one of Aishin's skills and looked at him. His label read: "Aishin, the Fairy Dragon's Familiar." She giggled.

Aishin brought up his own character sheet and grinned. "Cool."

SaltySiamese complained, "Well, that was anticlimactic."

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ZipZing's wings sparkled like a firework as Danika tried the random teleport skill and vanished.

--

ZipZing reappeared in a dark place that seemed to absorb the soft light from her wings. Danika frowned and used her light cantrip to look around. After a moment she decided that she was probably in a closet somewhere. The skill only said "to a clear space", so she supposed that the inside of a closet counted.

Swaths of dark fabric hung to either side of her, and there were muted clanking and thudding noises and occasional sharp words from outside. The fabrics were too heavy for her to brush aside without some surface for leverage, and more fabrics filled the space overhead.

Danika examined the floor, which seemed to be bare wood, and dropped down to it. From the floor of the closet she could see a thin strip of faint light at the bottom of the door panel. She sent her light cantrip zooming upward along the surface of the door, but the dark fabrics were too crowded overhead, and she couldn't find any latch on the uncovered areas.

Her next light cantrip failed. Danika froze and brought up her menu screens. She was completely out of energy. She mentally face palmed, and scolded herself. The Bond with Familiar spell would obviously have used up quite a bit of energy, and the random teleport skill said that the energy use decreased and the range increased according to its level without specifying what the initial cost was.

Aishin had leveled his random teleport all the way up to 20, and she felt that being able to use Aishin's skills at the level he had them seemed like a bit of a cheat. But probably the usual sort of familiar would have lower leveled skills than the person who bonded with them. She hooked her little claws under the edge of the door and tried pushing on it. Then she tried pulling. Then she frowned and tried shaking the door panel.

The rattle of the door was faint, even from inside the closet. The snow leopard cub appeared behind her and his bulk pushed her forward so that her face pressed into the door. Danika shifted the position of her little clawed hands to the surface of the door and shoved back hard.

"Why are you even a physical obstacle when you can obviously pass through solid objects?" she asked a bit querulously.

The snow leopard cub gave her one of his growling meows and had a smug looking slant to the soft glow of his reflective eyes. He dropped the message and bounded away through the dark back side of the closet.

Danika read the message from Aishin: "Let me know if I should come rescue you from wherever you teleported?"

She did not want to admit that she needed rescued from a closet. She scuttled deeper into the closet and carefully examined as much of the back wall as she could in the soft glow of her own dazzle. She decided that the snow leopard cub had been taunting her with his messenger abilities, since it seemed quite solid.

Danika debated for a moment whether asking for help or destroying the door would be less embarrassing. It occurred to her that if she destroyed something in a restaurant she'd probably incur charges for damages, and since she was out of coin, her only real option was asking for help.

She sighed and wrote a reply: "Yes, sorry, I think I'm stuck in a closet." She gave the snow leopard a dirty look when he pounced in from behind her again and shoved her up against the back of the closet when she tapped send.

"I'm going to swap you out for the bird if you do that again," Danika threatened as the cub vanished.

--

She sat still on the floor of the closet while she waited for Aishin, so that her energy would recharge a little faster. She regretted not picking up her little pebble. According to Shrubbery she could be eating baby carrots right now if she'd brought it with her. She hoped Aishin had thought to pick it up.

After a few minutes her brow wrinkled into a little draconic frown. Even if he were only using the party menu to track her, she was sure Aishin should have been able to find the closet by now. A moment later the snow leopard cub dropped out of the space above her and landed with her hunched beneath his soft furry belly.

Danika growled at him. She couldn't see his furry little face from here, but she'd bet that he was laughing his silent cat's laugh.

The snow leopard cub emitted the softest most mew-like word she'd ever heard from him, it sounded like false innocence. The soft chime of a skill rang in the distance and he dropped the message he carried between his front paws, and said clearly, "Here!" His normal growling meow was only an echo beneath the word.

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