Chapter 208: 36: Bright Stars

The enormous piece of sandstone was a life-size representation of all of their guild members. They were gathered closely around a giant snail shell with Eyes on the Sky triumphantly posing on top. Aishin had his hands up in the screenshot pose, ZipZing stood on his shoulder pointing at the little squirrel, and the others crowded around happily in laughing poses.

Danika followed the goddess' instructions and thought a little about how to transport it. It would crush her garden if she tried to place it inside, but she suspected that it might fit into the embroidered pouch the witch had given her. Everyone else had the same idea and began trying their own storage containers on it.

MatchlessMinion handed a few things to Shrubbery and then stored it in one of his pouches a few moments later. Everyone turned to look at ZipZing expectantly, and Danika blinked.

Kit spoke up. "I only have a few minutes left before I need to go, should I log out from your garden so that you can carry my location out with you?"

"You can, but it shouldn't take as long to go out as it did to get here," Danika replied.

"How do we get back?" Shrubbery asked. "I know it might be cheating to ask since you helped make it…"

"It's ok, it's pretty simple anyway, we just need to go along the river until we find the moon's path again. You could all ride in my garden, but that sounds kind of boring?" Danika replied questioningly. She'd been eyeing the small trees of the oasis and wondering if Shrubbery could just grow them a raft for a more picturesque exit, but that would take time.

"What cool things would we miss out on Zippy?" Saaki asked. "Is the part you worked on still coming up?"

Everyone gazed at her with interest. "Um, I designed the whole outline of the quest, and Ariana and Takahashi helped detail it." Danika admitted nervously. "The stars are brighter on the way back after the sun finishes setting, seeing that is all that you'd miss I guess."

Everyone looked up. The sun was dropping toward the horizon, and had been since the goddesses had departed. Night was falling swiftly.

Edwardian said with surprise, "That's right, it was night when we entered on the moon's path. When did it become day?"

Aishin answered, "It got brighter and brighter after we started moving up the river."

"Let's stay long enough to see the stars and if I run out of time I'll log out from inside your garden space then?" Kit suggested.

"Sure," Danika agreed.

It didn't take too long, because the quest took place outside of Living Jade Empire and the day cycle was connected to your progress through the quest, instead of to time.

As darkness fell, Aishin asked quietly, "You designed the whole outline of the quest? Like, you wrote the story?"

"The system writes the actual story, so that it's individualized. We just," Danika waved her hands and tried to explain, "built the check points that everyone can pass through?"

"Isn't having a quest published already a pretty big accomplishment?" Ryullision asked with interest.

Danika admitted, "I didn't expect it to be published already, or uh, so publicly. It only got submitted about 12 hours before it went live."

She remembered how Devon Yu had patted her on the head and wondered if he'd known that she was in a hurry because she wanted to give better remembrance options to Shrubbery. She glanced at Shrubbery's cheerful face as the dryad looked into the sky. It hadn't played out like she'd expected, but it was good this way too.

Aishin must have been thinking something similar, because he held her up to his lips and murmured softly, "You did a good job, and Eyes on the Sky still got a central place." He smiled at her as she turned to meet his eyes and her sparkles shifted into a happier lighter pink.

The stars in 'Living Jade Empire' were always brighter than the stars on Earth, but after the sun departed, the sky really lit up over the golden sands below.

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"That is indeed a beautiful sky," Ryullision said quietly.

The turtle that had been sunbathing slid into the water with a splash that startled them. Kit laughed and called out, "Thanks turtle! OK, time for me to go."

Danika zipped over to her so that she could enter the stone space, and a moment later she logged out.

"It's pretty and all," Nao1 commented, "but just standing around is getting boring."

"OK, let's go then, and clear our guild quests," MatchlessMinion agreed.

Danika blinked. "Oh, right, I forgot we have more quests waiting," she said contritely.

"Fly swiftly dragon!" Saaki commanded as he entered the stone space.

Shrubbery waited until next to last and told ZipZing before she entered, "Thank you. It was an awesome quest."

Danika grinned at her. "Thanks," she replied quickly.

She zipped back and landed on Aishin's open hands again. He kissed her on the nose and suggested as he reached out to touch the stone on her back, "Let's use the mirrors again. I think if you face it away from yourself we can watch the scenery through it."

"Ok," she agreed. A moment later a tiny fairy dragon hugging a round mirror zipped quickly along a dark river beneath a brilliant night sky until she reached the place where the moon's light stretched across the water.

The trip back was meant to be short, beautiful, and peaceful. But Danika had been a little curious about how it would play out when their trip in had been so unusual. She turned and followed the brilliant white path back out to the riverbank where they'd started and the moonlit path fragmented and only ordinary reflections were left behind.

Her guild members reappeared at her side a moment later. A cat who'd been sitting nearby glared at them, and stalked off into the centaur town in an offended manner. Danika watched it go and blurted, "Oh no! I forgot Salty's werecat!"

"What?" Aishin asked questioningly.

Shrubbery clasped her hands together and asked, "You found Salty a werecat?"

"I marked it, before reaching the wizard's place," Danika explained. She counted the days in her head for a moment and heaved a sigh of relief. "There should be three days left to find her again after tonight."

"I'll tell her to hire us to find it," MatchlessMinion announced.

Even Nao1 looked a bit taken aback at that as they all exchanged glances.

"You're going to make your sister pay us?" Aishin questioned.

"Why not?" he asked. "Even if it's only a token cost, if we do it that way it'll help increase our rep."

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