Chapter 99: 17: The Walrus’ Charmer

When they reached the town tucked into the curve of the river Kit caught sight of the traveling merchant and veered off. He was standing in the square and talking with several other players, and Danika thought with amusement that they were about to have their transactions interrupted if relationship interactions always overrode basic functions.

Danika didn't protest, or follow Kit, but kept onward toward the southern dock. Since it was a human town, she could read all of the signs and easily located the grubby sign over the tavern called 'River Bender'.

She activated both her invisibility and her stealth, and brought up her menu lens before flying quietly through the doorway. She searched quickly for a good hiding spot and zipped upward to perch on a hanging lamp's heavy frame. The lamp tilted dangerously and swung back and forth for a moment, but no one seemed to notice and by the time her invisibility ran out she had her color cantrip in place.

Danika finally acknowledged that the Grandma-Girl she'd met in the marketplace in the human capital had had a point about how obvious messengers could be. She had no way to quietly inform Shrubbery of her current situation, and Shrubbery's idea of having the stone show its own exterior sounded even more useful. She turned her menu lens across each of the humans in the tavern, and determined that unless he was also hidden, Xander hadn't arrived yet.

She quickly prepared a message for Kit, explaining her current location, and informing her that it looked like their plan to observe the mysterious Xander before meeting him would work. She asked that Kit not reply unless it was critical.  She hit send and her little bird flitted quietly off, without chirping like it sometimes did. Then she activated her invisibility again and zipped down and landed on an unoccupied seat.

She entered her stone and a moment later she and Shrubbery both reappeared. The man in the seat beside them jumped and examined his cup suspiciously. Shrubbery picked up the pebble from where it had landed and seated herself with surprising aplomb while giving the man a smile, which he returned uncertainly.

Danika cast her invisibility a third time and zipped back up to the lamp. Her friend list told her that Xander was a Human and a Swashbuckler with an accumulated level of 83, which was about the same as MatchlessMinion. When he entered the tavern Danika stared at him for awhile before remembering to look through the lens.

Xander looked like the leader of Underneath, only dressed as a pirate and sporting a long curling mustache. He was wearing almost as many blades as Aishin, and carried what looked like a small bird cage casually in one hand. Danika couldn't see anything inside of the cage from her position. The only thing her lens told her that she didn't already know was that his sub path was Charmer.

Xander looked around warily and then chose a corner table. He seated himself so that he could see most of the room and had a clear shot at the doorway, and set the little cage on the table in front of himself. Danika and Shrubbery observed him quietly, but he just sat there watching the door.

A couple of minutes later Kit Tay walked through the doorway and halted in front of it. She looked around the dim room uncertainly. When she spotted Shrubbery, she hurried over to her with a relieved smile. Shrubbery whispered something to Kit as she sat, and tilted her head toward Xander.

Kit turned around to look at him with a startled expression that made Danika wince. Stealth was apparently not one of Kit's skills. Shrubbery glanced upward and shrugged. Xander didn't react to Kit's obvious gaze, he still watched the doorway.

Danika activated her invisibility once more and zipped down to the table Xander sat at. She peered at the little bird cage and jerked back.

It wasn't a bird cage, it was a miniature aquarium. Inside it a small dark muddy-purple snake met her eyes and Danika glanced down at herself to make sure that she was still invisible. Her invisibility wore off a moment later, and Xander scooted his chair backward at her sudden appearance, and then reached forward and grabbed the little aquarium and clutched it defensively.

"Why did you bring a water snake?" Danika asked.

"She's not a water snake! She's a Dusky Sea Snake," Xander said defensively. "And it's not like I could bring my walrus." His voice was rough and didn't match any of the voices she'd heard through Aishin's headset.

Danika replied, "Oh, sorry, I don't know much about snakes. Um, your walrus?"

"Yes," Xander replied in an aggrieved tone. "You can buy stones that will let you breathe underwater, but you can't buy stones to let your sea creatures travel comfortably on land."

Danika could almost see Shrubbery and Kit's ears stretching as they both stared with avid interest. "We traveled for a while with a dolphin who was kept comfortable in an enchanted elven blanket, but it didn't let him move around," Danika informed him.

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"A blanket?" Xander asked with interest. "So how did you carry the dolphin?"

"In an enchanted stone made by Logical Heart," Danika admitted warily.

"Oh," Xander replied glumly. "I've seen one of those new spaces, they seem really cool, but they're as expensive as a dragon's scale. I can't imagine how much getting a customized salt water one would cost."

Danika changed the subject and asked, "You bought the avatar of Underneath's leader?"

Xander straightened and asked with surprise, "You recognize him?!"

Danika looked at Shrubbery's curious expression and laughed and beckoned to her. "Only because I looked them up recently," Danika admitted.

"This avatar is from the movie and I love their newest song, 'Green Eyed Secrets', it's their best yet," Xander enthused.

"Movie?" Danika asked.

Shrubbery and Kit walked over together and stood near the table. Shrubbery laughed and said, "You'll have to forgive her, I think she lives under a rock. Although," she admitted, "I might have missed the newest song, what with everything, if Aishin hadn't asked me what I thought of it."

Danika felt a flash of jealousy that she didn't want to admit to and Xander startled, looked up at the tall dryad and leapt to his feet. "You didn't come alone!" he accused.

"You didn't tell me to come alone, and I wouldn't have come if you had," Danika replied dryly.

Kit spoke up and said, "It's kind of creepy that you expected a girl to meet you alone, a guy should know better."

Danika glanced at her and thought that that was a bit sexist, but Xander's appalled expression made her want to laugh. She cleared her throat instead and said, "It would have been useless for me to come alone, because I'm completely out of coin."

Xander hugged his snake's aquarium and said, "Oh."

The snake's tongue flickered as it gazed out at them. Shrubbery pointed at the snake inside the aquarium and said, "She's pointing out that you didn't come alone either."

Xander stared at Shrubbery.

The snake curled around and seemed to nod.

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