Chapter 13: 13: Warning : Kitten

Danika hadn't expected to sleep easily, but she slept well that night. She woke up to see the warning labels staring her in the face though. She crawled over the side of the VR-medi pod and landed with a thump. She was determined that if there was work available today, she was taking it, and ordering stickers.

She exercised, breakfasted and washed up before looking. There was a decent job waiting. Danika jumped into it with as much determination as if it had been a quest promising an exclusive pet of the cutest kind. 

While she ate lunch she browsed stickers until she stumbled upon a large decal of a particularly fluffy kitten in a wizard's hat cuddled within the curve of a sleeping dragon. It was too cute, and she ordered it without a second thought. Unfortunately, it shipped from overseas and would be in transit for at least two weeks.

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When Danika logged back into "Living Jade Empire" after she finished working it was still nighttime, or rather, it was night again. She cast her level 2 light, and noticed something that she hadn't before: the core of the light spell seemed to contain two tiny particles.

She peered closely into the light and they separated from each other so that she could see them more clearly and then vanished as the cantrip timed out. She blinked, seeing nothing but a fading dazzle for a moment, and then her eyes readjusted.

Danika called the light again and found that she really could move the two tiny particles of light that appeared apart from each other. For that matter she could also move them around together. The duration was too short to really play with them, and she discovered quickly that she had already run herself out of energy.

She assumed the pose and flicked over to the forums. No matter what search she tried, she couldn't find any mention of the light cantrip creating individual particles. There was a close up screenshot in "A Guide to Wizardry" though, that clearly showed at least a half dozen particles around a denser core.

That guide also mentioned that the summoned light could be moved anywhere within line of sight, although there was no mention of being able to move the particles individually. It helpfully included the information that the spell leveled at a flat rate. It gained exactly one second in duration per level, and a tiny, but consistent increase in size.

Danika was fairly certain that the increase in size would turn out to be one particle per level. No upper limit to leveling any cantrip had been discovered yet, although it took more time practicing to gain each additional level according to the writer.

Danika dismissed her menu screens and blinked. Two tiny lights were hovering in the bush directly in front of her. She hadn't cast her spell there, and it had long expired anyway. Hesitantly, she called out, "hello?"  

The lights vanished. After a minute, Danika started up the path to the village. The soft glow of the flowers in the enormous tree high overhead seemed dimmer than usual, but she thought that dawn should only be about 30 minutes away, or rather two bells in game context. 

A few minutes later, Danika saw the two little lights again. She didn't stop this time, but simply flew a little faster along the path. A rustling seemed to echo from the dim surroundings. A little farther along, she heard a strange scratching noise ahead where the path curved, and the lights appeared again, hovering above the branch of a small fruit tree growing beside the path.

Danika slowed her flight and hovered there a moment, watching them. Somehow they resembled eyes. She tried edging closer to them, and the lights vanished again.

Danika felt a little creeped out. None of the NPC's in the vale had ever mentioned predators near the vale, but no one had said that there weren't any either. She zipped along the path faster, and had gotten maybe 30 feet from where the lights had been, when she heard a faint and plaintive "mew" from behind her.

Danika spun and looked back warily. The lights had returned, tiny and faint in the distance, still hovering above the branch. She hesitated, and then, the unhappy little "mew" repeated. She flew cautiously back toward the little lights, they vanished again, but returned a moment later as she watched. The "mew" repeated, with a more demanding ring to it.  

As Danika approached the little lights more closely in the dim light, she could finally make out the shape of the half grown cat perched on the fruit tree branch. She heaved a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.  

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Danika liked cats, although she'd never dared get one as a pet, since her mother had disapproved of keeping animals in captivity. Now that she was on her own, she could have gotten one, but she lived in a one room apartment. However, a real cat's eyes only reflected light, they didn't create it.  

The cat itself looked normal enough, it had short dark fur of an indeterminate color, but its glowing eyes were still a little creepy. She craned her neck around to look behind herself, and saw that in the gloom the tiny sparkles that scattered off her own wings were brighter than they normally appeared.  

Danika looked back at the cat and laughed. It was her own faint glow being reflected in the young cat's eyes. The cat clung to the trunk of the tree with the claws of one forepaw and tried to stretch the other down to the next branch. It couldn't quite reach, and emitted another plaintive "mew". 

Danika asked it a little plaintively in return, "What do you want me to do about it? You're a little bigger than I am!"

The cat just looked at her expectantly. If she'd already learned the wizard's spell that made the apple lighter, she could have helped the cat get down, but she didn't see what she could do for it at the moment.

After a moment Danika tried landing on the branch below the cat and making coaxing noises with her forearms held out like she expected to catch it. The cat stretched toward her and she gazed at it hopefully, until it swatted at her and knocked her off the branch. 

Danika bounced a couple of times, and then quickly righted herself. She activated her wings and rose back up to the cat's eye level, where she glared at it and asked accusingly, "You belong to that wizard don't you?" 

The cat gave a noncommittal "mew" in reply and watched Danika with interest.

Danika pulled up her character sheet and decided that she probably had regained just enough energy to cast her light once more. She shifted her position so that she could see both the cat, and the other side of the trunk of the little tree from it.

She cast her little two second light right in front of the cat's nose, and then made it zip downward around and behind the tree just before it vanished. The cat jumped without hesitation, down to the branch where it could look behind the tree where the light had gone. It gave another plaintive "mew" and stared back at Danika. 

Danika rolled her eyes at it. She couldn't cast her light again, but she decided to trust in her evasion skill, and maybe just a little in the restore prayer to the Jade Emperor. She zipped down and circled the trunk below the cat before landing on the ground behind the trunk of the little fruit tree.

The young cat bounded downward gleefully. It hit the ground beside her, and Danika launched herself back into the air just before the overgrown kitten pounced. The chickens had been good practice.

Danika stared down at it for a moment with exasperation. It gazed up at her, with its wide eyes reflecting two little points of light. It was really cute.  

Danika couldn't stay irritated with it, but she turned away from it anyway, and zipped quickly toward the village. The sky was just beginning to lighten, and she hoped that woodcutters woke up early. The occasional rustle of a fast moving cat paced her for a little while, but faded away as she flew past the wizard's tower. 

Danika snorted. "Ha, I knew it," she whispered.

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