Closer Than The Moon

The mountain guardian rose startlingly out of the snow, like she had on their first visit to the mountain. Danika flinched and quickly turned her head to look at Kit as the big cat's expression displayed a silent cat's laugh. Hikaru flew back to ZipZing and landed almost imperceptibly on her back and hid between her wings.

Kit met her eyes and blushed. Her chin lifted as she declared quickly, "I'm fine!"

The big cat shook the powdery snow from her coat and bared her teeth at them. Kit gulped, but didn't flinch, so Danika turned her attention back to the mountain guardian.

"So, you claimed that you would speak of your world and of the beginnings of this one," the enormous snow leopard prompted.

Danika replied quickly, "Yes! And then I have a request if that's alright."

The snow leopard cub darted around his mother and spoke in his growling meow. Her new cat language skill only translated one word, "thief."

"I'm not a thief," Danika objected. "I'm asking."

Kit gasped and said, "He's gotten bigger!"

The mountain guardian said with amusement, "Young ones do that."

Danika looked at the cub again and realized that Kit was right, the cub was noticeably bigger than his messenger form.

The cub and his mother spoke to each other in their own language for a moment, and Danika thought that the weirdest thing was when the translation skill sometimes conveyed a word when both cats seemed to be silent. Her level one skill didn't convey enough for her to understand what they were talking about, but when they finished the mountain guardian declared, "You must accomplish a task for my clan before you may have a snow leopard hair."

"Ok," Danika agreed.

"For now, let us speak of worlds," the big cat instructed.

Kit edged closer to the cub and pulled something from her pouch and held it out to him while Danika began to speak. The cub eyed her with disdain at first, but then its nostrils widened and its ears swiveled towards her in interest.

Danika began, "Well, this world is a game in our world…"

When she described the computer that the game ran on, the enormous snow leopard grumbled, "Use real words."

Danika tried to explain more simply, "This world is contained in an object that circles my world above the sky.

The mountain guardian huffed and said derisively, "You describe a star. I already knew that you came here from another world visitor."

"It's not a star," Danika objected, "it's closer than the moon!"

"You speak of the moon's distance as though it can be measured like the length of a path," the large cat replied with scorn. "It's not as though you've traveled there yourself."

"Well, not me personally," Danika agreed, "but other people have flown to it."

"So the moon of your world is close enough to fly to?" the mountain guardian inquired with more interest.

Danika felt as though they had rather wandered away from the original subject, but describing the moon's relationship to the earth probably counted as telling the mountain guardian about her world, so she did her best. Kit occasionally added a few words when Danika faltered.

Danika also tried to inquire more about the guardian's memories. Any time the mate from her backstory was mentioned, she grew angry, so Danika wasn't able to find out much more about the disparity between her memories and her history.

After a while the mountain guardian declared, "That is enough time spent on idle curiosity for one day."

Kit brightened and asked, "What is the task that you wish us to accomplish?"

Danika looked at her with surprise and wondered if she'd gotten bored. If nothing else, all the time talking with the enormous saber toothed snow leopard seemed to have eased the last of her fear of the animal. Which made sense, because it was usually difficult to be scared of someone who engaged you in a calm discussion.

The mountain guardian replied heavily, "You must seek out and return the pelt of my lost mate."

Danika almost objected that it was silly for them to have to return a pelt full of hairs in order to get one hair, but the pelt would obviously not contain the hair of a living animal. "Do you have any clues about where we might start our search?" she asked instead.

The mountain guardian bared her teeth again and growled, "It was taken by humans and carried away from the mountain. All I can tell you is that it now lies somewhere within the mountain range to the south."

Kit replied, "Ok, we'll do our best to find it!"

The mountain guardian narrowed her eyes and replied, "That is good." A moment later she bounded away up the mountain.

The cub looked at them and growled his squeaky meow, which Danika's skill translated as, "King has."

"Thank you!" Danika shouted after the cub as he followed his mother. It was at least more of a clue than somewhere in the south part of this mountain range.

"He speaks more clearly now," Kit commented.

As they made their way down the mountain, Danika told Hikaru, "You can come out now?"

Kit suggested, "Maybe it's too cold? Aren't real fireflies tropical?"

Danika craned her head around and asked the little beetle crouched between her wings, "Are you cold? Do you want to ride in the garden?" She pulled her pebble out of her inventory and the little firefly launched itself off her back and flew into the stone. "I guess it was," Danika said laughingly. She used her binding string to attach the pebble and said, "I need to come up with a better way to carry this."

Kit suggested, "Could the dwarf who's going to make your tail storage rings make a ring to hold it?"

Danika eyed the pebble that hung against her belly doubtfully and asked, "Doesn't it seem like that would make it a big awkward tail club even if it were possible?"

Kit laughed and agreed, "Maybe. What about a sling pouch like babies get carried in? That's pretty much what you're making with your string isn't it?"

Danika agreed uncertainly, "I guess so?" After a few minutes flight she said, "I really want to have a long talk with the merchant now."

Kit asked cheerfully, "Do you want to do that next?"

Danika smiled at her enthusiasm and asked, "Do you think you could find an instance of him in a quiet village where we wouldn't disturb other players if we talk for awhile?"

"An instance?" Kit questioned.

Danika suddenly laughed at the thought that it probably hadn't been only the mountain guardian who'd felt like she wasn't using real words in her first attempt to describe the game. "You said your ring shows you multiple threads that lead to him, and the brightest is the closest, so each one likely leads to a different instance of him," she explained.

"Oh, a clone," Kit replied. "Yeah! And I think we should be able to find a smaller place without too much trouble since we're flying."

Danika enjoyed how the puffy clouds in the distance cast soft shadows across the snowy landscape, which reflected the blue-white tint of the game's winter sky, while Kit led them along her invisible link to the traveling merchant.