'Oh!' said Cani when she checked her mail after breakfast.

Guy, who was the only other one in the living area at the time, looked up from his Versaty. 'What is it?'

She grinned. 'I've just been challenged to a duel by a rival gamer called NotSoTammy. I've played more often against her and we're pretty evenly matched.' She looked up at Guy. 'A new game which hasn't been released yet. The gaming company wants to sponsor an event for charity and asked her for an idea and she suggested a duel between us since we've become known in the scene recently.'

Guy smiled. 'Sounds like a great idea. You're accepting it?'

Cani grinned wider. 'Of course!'

***

The girls and Guy gazed out over the tumultuous crowd filling the brightly decorated hall. There were members of every species and none seemed to be in the majority. With all the colourful clothing, caps, and skin or fur it was a giant slow kaleidoscope surrounded by giant screens on which the trailer for Hunt played, the virtual reality game which was about to be played live to raise money for neuroscience research and help people whose nervous system is failing. The players themselves would be playing in separate rooms where they could concentrate on the game.

Mami read the name tag on the room designated for Cani. '3YC?'

Cani grinned. 'Yep.'

Mami looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

'The answer to my name.' Cani said. 'Can I? Yes. Yes, you can. Y y y c, 3YC.'

Mami chuckled. 'Right.'

Cani smiled deviously at Guy. 'So anytime you say my name..'

Guy blushed and chuckled. 'Thanks.'

A young man with his shirt hidden by numerous badges came up to them. 'Hi, I'm George from Two Number Entertainment.' he said and unlocked the door. 'I'll be guiding you through the use of the virtual reality equipment and the rules of the game.'

Inside the room were a couple of couches , tables next to them, a fridge, several computers, and large screens displaying the game. But the main object of interest was a dark blue circular mat in the centre of the floor with a thick wire leading to one of the computers.

George walked up to the mat and gestured at it. 'This is what the new game is all about, the Opercé. The mat that senses anything that happens on top of it.'

Everyone gathered around it and George switched one screen to a test program with a simplified model of a person on it, then went back to the mat to stand on it. The moment he moved onto the mat the model on the screen moved in the same manner.

'So it senses every movement above it?' asked Guy.

George nodded, the model as well. 'Yes. It senses the complete position of anyone standing on top of it.' he said and moved his arms and legs to demonstrate. 'We'll be releasing the specs and driver for this thing soon and anyone can build peripherals to interact with it.' He stepped off the mat. 'And that's where this game comes in. It's designed to let players move as close to real life as possible in combination with the virtual reality glasses. Lean forward and you move forward, lean sideways and go sideways, back, etcetera. And the more you lean, the faster you go.'

Cani rubbed her hands. 'Well, let's get going.'

The gang watched while Cani went through a tutorial parkour and the system was set up to her preferences. Mami sniggered and made sure to take pictures in her most embarrassing poses for the calibration of the virtual model.

When they were done George started the game and opened the first screen for the choice of environment. 'All right, we're all set to start the real game.' he said and took Cani's glasses. 'We'll meet up with your opponent, speak a few words before the game starts to the audience, and then you can choose from the environment and models we have in the game.'

The hall where everyone was led to was filled with press and members of the gaming industry. Lights flashed when Cani came in and George introduced her to several people in suits. A minute later the buzz started from the other side of the hall where Cani's opponent and her friends walked in.

Ara watched the red-brown fox with black hands, feet, and muzzle who walked in front with a man probably her bodyguard, a woman in grey suit, a female rat in coveralls, and a female black cat in an equally black suit behind her. She leaned to Guy. 'That's her opponent?'

Guy nodded. 'That's NotSoTammy. Real name Tammy. Unless it's meant to be an alias and she's really someone else.' he said and chuckled.

The fox met up with Cani, shaking hands with her for the press and talking more with the members of the development team. The head of development took the microphone and spoke to the audience, briefing quickly on the game and the history of both Cani and Tammy before putting the choice of the setting for the game to them.

Cani and Tammy watched the choice of urban city, jungle, rocky formation with a lot of unnatural natural forms, hedge maze, forest, and a science fiction 3D maze. Another screen showed the various skins they could use with various forms of species and fantasy races.

Tammy leaned closer to Cani. 'You know, there's already lots of urban and sci-fi stuff, mind if we skip those?'

Cani shook her head. 'Fine by me. I'd like to do something in nature too.'

'But what would suit the both of us?' Tammy said. 'We also need to decide who's hunter and hunted.'

Cani nodded, then thought of something Guy once told her about. 'Hey, have you ever heard about how the humans went fox hunting in the old days?'

Tammy raised her eyebrow. 'You want to do that?'

'You're a fox, and I'm canine.' Cani said and grinned. 'We'd be natural at this.'

Tammy laughed once and grinned. 'Well, I did want to try being the hunted.'

'So, deal?'

Tammy glanced at the screen with skins. 'Think they have matching skins for us?'

'If not, they'll have to just make some on the spot.' smirked Cani.

'You just try and catch me then, you dog.' Tammy said and held out her hand.

'I'm so going to hunt you down, you sly fox.' said Cani and shook her hand.

They let their choices be known and two developers stuck their heads together and nodded after a short discussion. The lead developer went to the microphone and addressed the audience. 'The players have chosen a theme and we'll be creating two custom skins for them now.' he said. 'It'll take about half an hour to set up the game, so get ready to watch two of the best players in our worlds in a spectacular fight between hunter and hunted!'

The crowd cheered and one half chanted 3YC while the other half chanted NotSoTammy. Cani and Tammy grinned while the developers prepared cameras to capture their likeness and transform them into skins for the game.

It took even less than half an hour to get it done and both Cani and Tammy stood ready in their isolated game rooms for the game. Cani stretched herself and watched her player image on the screens in front of her dressed in camouflage pants and tank top.

She grinned at Guy. 'Well?'

Guy chuckled. 'I'm not into those kinds of clothes, but you make them look good on you.'

'Good answer.' she said and kissed him.

'Ready?' asked George.

'Ready.' said Cani and she put on the virtual glasses and placed the earbuds in her ears.

'Can you hear me?' he asked.

Cani nodded when she heard his voice clear through the earbuds. 'Yes.' she said and looked around at the virtual forest around her, heard the wind blow through the trees and birds singing. 'Still feels a bit weird. It's almost real.'

'We can make it completely real, but most people get disoriented after a while.'

'I can image. At least this tells me I can always step out of it if it gets too much.'

'Exactly.'

'Only the voices in my head are new.' Cani said and chuckled.

'You mean having voices in your head, or that these are different voices than the usual?' asked Mami and sniggered.

'I'm so going to whisper subliminal messages in your ear when you sleep.' said Cani and stuck out her tongue.

Mami grabbed Guy's arm. 'You will make her sleep on your other side, won't you?'

Guy chuckled. 'I leave who sleeps on what side of me to all of you as long as you don't fight over it.'

George raised an eyebrow as he double checked the workings of the game, glanced at Guy while the girls stood next to him, then shook his head and continued with his task. 'No way that's for real.' he said to himself.

***

Lars, the developer assigned to Tammy finished his task. 'You're ready to go.' he said.

Tammy nodded and pushed the virtual ready button in front of her and the start timer in front of her blinked while waiting for the ready signal from Cani.

Lars turned to the young man from the group of people Tammy came with. 'I understand she wants to play alone in the room?'

Dormin nodded. 'She is sort of shy in that aspect, and only plays when she's alone or any of us are around. With strangers around she's a little nervous.'

Lars nodded. 'Well, everything runs smoothly so there should be no problem playing the game without me monitoring in here. We monitor remotely anyway.'

'Thanks.' Dormin said when he walked with Lars to the door. 'She hates to show how agile she is to people directly.'

Lars nodded and walked out the door. 'If anything's needed, I'm at the systems room.' he said. 'And good luck.'

Dormin gave him a nod. 'Thanks again. I hope we can make it a great event.' he said and closed the door. 'Ourania?' he said to the rat sitting in one corner.

She reached down next to the couch into a backpack and took out a large double tablet and unfolded it. The two bezel-less screens lit up and a prompt in one window stated it had made contact with the game computers and intercepted the data stream from the mat.

Tammy did some stretches on the mat. 'Ismene ready?' she asked.

'She's ready.' said Ourania. 'You can come off.'

Tammy stepped off the mat but her character in the game continued her stretching. 'Tell her to have fun.'

Ourania typed on the on-screen keyboard. 'She says thanks, and hopes we'll have fun watching.'

***

The countdown to the start of the game went down from 10. Cani flexed her fingers and her legs. The crowd counted down with the timer. Her opponent on the screen seemed to relax. The crowd yelled start when the word flashed on the big screens and NotSoTammy ran off at once in a straight line. Cani pulled up the map of the hunters in her group.

As the hunting party she had assistance from four computer controlled characters. These were able to hunt the fox as well, but they were also the target of the fox. She'd win when she attacked and eliminated all of them. The hunters were set to default behaviour, which was a balance between an easy target and a very good hunter. Players of the game had an option to set the number and skill of the hunters to make things more or less difficult for either side.

Cani watched as the half men, half horses in old-fashioned hunting outfit with with white riding pants, high black boots and red jackets spread out over the map and left a trail of blue dots behind them in the virtual forest that represented a temporary scent trail. Two of them went to her right, two to her left. Cani closed the map and ran forward leaving a trail of red dots behind her.

NotSoTammy reached the edge of the map, a old high cobble stone wall. She turned left and ran through bushes to shorten the time for her trail of yellow dots to dissipate. But it also meant she had to keep her ears open for the hunters because they could hear the rustling of leaves she caused.

Cani didn't think she'd come across NotSoTammy before one of the hunters would spot her, or be eliminated by her. She'd just have to be patient for her to make the first move while she explored the forest and with any luck spot a trail. The problem was the many ways the trail could be hidden or wiped, burrows she could use to hide in and move unseen through, rainfall, the undergrowth she can move through, wading through streams.

NotSoTammy dove into a burrow the second a hunter came into sight. She was safe for the moment because the hunters couldn't enter burrows. But Cani could if the hunter saw her trail and called out to everyone. She peered into the dark. The burrows were random. No way to know how long the were and where they'd come out. She pricked up her ears. The hunter's footsteps came closer, she had to leave.

One half of the gamer audience held their breath watching NotSoTammy run through the burrows, the other half cheered Cani on to hurry to the hunter who had signalled about the fading yellow trail he had found.

Cani ran through the woods, jumped over fallen trees and a small stream. 'This thing works great!' she said. 'I could be out of breath even if I don't really run.' She ducked under a low branch and found the hunter at the entrance to the burrow, the yellow trail already gone. She took a quick look around to check for any movement nearby, then dove into the burrow. 'If I'm quick I might catch the trail.' she said as she crawled as fast as she could.

When she came up to a split she sighed. 'Damn. No trace left.' She picked left and hurried to get back to the surface somewhere and with luck near the fox.

NotSoTammy peeked out of the exit of the burrow and saw the hunter a distance away while he seemed to search the area around him. When it looked like there was nothing he could do he moved on in a direction away from her.

She pondered about how good her chances were, then hurried low after the hunter as quick and silent as she could.

Her fans were glued to the screens, and as quiet as they became, the more Cani's fans called out for her to hurry and get back above ground and for the hunter to turn around and see the danger.

NotSoTammy came closer, the red trail intertwining with her yellow one. She could hear his footsteps coming down with light thuds on the layer of dead leaves on the ground. She was only a few metres behind him.

He kept looking left and right as he moved forward around several large rocks.

One sound from her or him looking back would cost her the attack. Maybe even the victory if Cani was close and heard his call.

Cani's fans yelled at the screen for the hunter to turn around.

He did.

Too late.

NotSoTammy had rushed up a slanted rock and hit the hunter in the neck while she jumped over him. He went down without a sound, but the roar of cheers and disappointment from the crowd filled the hall.

The clock was ticking for her again. It would take a little time before the hunter would disappear from Cani's map and tell her he'd been taken down. She rushed into a clump of bushes and followed a ditch with a low level of water in it. It would help get rid of her trail faster.

Cani resurfaced and looked around. No trace of NotSoTammy, but she did see something red and white further away. She ran towards it and groaned when she recognised the downed hunter. 'Damn.' she said and searched for a trail. There was a faint trace of yellow near a bush and she ran off again. The trail led her to a ditch where it had already faded away. 'You have to come out somewhere.' she said and ran along the ditch looking left and right for the trail.

NotSoTammy kept looking left and right for a good spot to leave the ditch without leaving a clear trail. So hadn't found anything yet until she saw a branch hanging low enough above the ditch. She hunched and jumped up, was glad to see she could jump high enough to grab it, swung forth and back, then forth kicking her legs up high and swung back to push herself up the branch.

She crawled towards the trunk, climbed up another branch which hung over a large bush and jumped on top of it. It broke the fall enough to avoid any damage and she ran off away from the ditch.

Cani kept running until she reached the end of the ditch and flattened her ears. 'Damn, she's good.' she said.

Ara stretched her legs. 'I'm going to see if I can get something to eat and drink, does anyone want something?'

The others were in the mood for a bite as well and Guy wrote down a list and accompanied Ara. They found a crowded canteen for guests and ordered their meals and waited at a table at the side. There were many who ate and drank while they watched the game and talked business or delved into the technological side.

Ara nudged Guy when she noticed a familiar man in suit and female rat in coveralls sitting down at the table next to them, separated by a screen. 'They're with NotSoTammy.'

Guy nodded. 'I see. Must have gotten hungry too.'

'Do you think she'll win?' asked the man.

The rat pondered for a moment. 'I think she will. She's a fast learner and she has played several games with Terry.'

The man leaned back in his chair. 'I just hope no one will notice the change in play style. That could raise questions.'

'I don't think we'll have to worry. This is a new game and no one knows how either Terry or Ismene play this thing.'

Ara gestured at the other table and looked puzzled at Guy. He leaned closer to her. 'Do you think they're cheating?'

Ara shrugged. 'I don't know but I do have a suspicious feeling.'

Guy nodded. 'Let's check it out quietly then.'

A member of the kitchen staff brought two boxes with the order from Ara and Guy and they slipped out of the canteen to wait around the corner for the rat and the man to appear.

When they came out of the canteen with their order Ara and Guy followed them and kept out of sight as they entered the room where NotSoTammy should be playing.

Ara listened at the door and shook her head after a while. 'I can't make out who's playing. We'd have to get a look inside.'

Guy hummed and stared at the box in his hands. 'Oh, I know.' he said and knocked on the door. 'Sorry to bother you, but it seems your order has been mistaken and you were given the wrong box.'

The door opened. 'Really? It seems all right.' said the man.

Ara peeked through the opening and grinned. 'But that empty mat where someone's supposed to play a game on it isn't.'

Terry froze while she stood next to the mat. 'Lunch break?'

The man stepped back. 'Come in, we'll explain what's going on.' Guy and Ara moved inside and he closed the door after checking the hallway. He introduced himself as Dormin, then the rat as Ourania, the woman as Adalet, and the panther as Kalilah.

Terry stepped forward and gestured at the portable on the chair in front of the computer where the mat was plugged in. The cable from the mat was clamped by a small black box which was connected to the portable. The face of a cartoon version of a teenager appeared on the top screen. 'And this is Ismene, a young artificial intelligence.'

The girl gave a nod and friendly smile. 'Hello.'

Guy's eyebrows went up. 'An AI?'

Terry grinned. 'She still has a lot to learn. And one of those things was playing games.'

'So you thought it was a fun idea to let her play against Cani.' Ara said.

'Actually, it was her own request.'

'Really?'

Terry chuckled. 'She's observed me playing against Cani more often and suggested taking part in this event because she wanted to find out if she could beat her in a new game.'

Ismene nodded on screen. 'I've played against my friends here but not against someone else who's as good as Terry.'

Guy looked at Dormin who shrugged. 'At least we can still beat her at the high jump.'

Ourania chuckled. 'We didn't want to deny her this little request and agreed to participate in this scheme.' She looked at Ara and Guy. 'I hope you're not mad.'

Guy looked at Ara and chuckled. 'I think Cani would laugh when she finds out.' He turned to the others. 'We won't tell yet, but you'll have to tell Cani after the game.'

Terry grinned. 'Deal.'

Ara and Guy returned to their room and continued watching the game while they all ate their snacks.

Cani stopped in the middle of the forest and pondered about her options. NotSoTammy kept eluding her. She had to admit her opponent played really well and a loss would not be unthinkable. She checked her map and where her two helpers had been wandering around. With the way the others had been defeated she had to take the risk she'd already had in mind.

'All right then.' she said to herself and hurried off keeping under cover wherever she could.

Ismene moved carefully around, waiting inside bushes long enough for her trail to vanish. She calculated this would be a crucial moment in the game. Depending on the success of her next attack the game would be easy or hard to win.

She spotted the trail of the hunter. It seemed to move slowly. She slipped out from the bush she hid in to dive into a burrow. She was glad it led into the general direction of the hunter. At the exit she peeked at the red trail. It looked fresh and she slipped out of the burrow to crawl behind a large fallen tree.

A glimpse of the hunter's horse head appeared a little further. No sounds other than those of the forest surrounded her and she moved silently towards the hunter, making sure she kept out of sight.

She watched and listened to the forest around her. No sign of Cani and the hunter just meandered along as if he didn't want to go anywhere. He didn't look her way and she crawled slowly up behind him.

She pricked up her ears. Did she hear something move?

A bird flew up as the hunter stepped forward. She relaxed a fraction before crawling closer again.

The hunter still hadn't noticed her.

She tensed her body to jump at him as soon as he moved further along the thick trunk beside him. She could use it to jump higher again.

The hunter moved again.

She bolted at the trunk and jumped at the hunter's neck.

She hadn't heard her fans scream to get out of there.

She was already in the air when she noticed Cani jump from the other side towards her with a wide grin.

***

The audience cheered when Cani and Terry appeared at the balcony overlooking the hall and received thanks from the game studio and the charity organisers.

Cani shook Terry's hand. 'That was a fun game. I'm looking forward to play it again when you're hunting me.'

Terry chuckled. 'I'm looking forward to be the one playing against you next time too.'

Cani tilted her head. 'What do you mean, to be the one?'

Guy leaned closer to Cani's ear. 'We're going to pay them a visit in their room after we're done celebrating. You'll see.'

'Okay?' she said and tried not to wonder about it while she and Terry met up with fans.

***

At the end of the day everyone gathered in the room where Ourania had been busy with Ismene while they waited. Terry guided Cani towards the portable with Ismene's face on the screen.

She smiled at Cani. 'Hello Cani. I'm happy to finally meet you and congratulate you on a fine game. For a moment I calculated I could have won.'

Cani blinked at the screen. 'You could have?' She looked at Terry. 'I thought I was playing against you.'

Terry chuckled. 'Ismene really wanted to play against you and compare her skills. If we didn't pretend it was me she wouldn't have had a chance to.'

Cani looked at Ismene. 'You're an AI?'

Ismene nodded. 'I hope you don't mind. I'd like to play more often with you and Terry.'

Cani stared at her for a moment, then grinned. 'All right. What can you do then?'

Dormin opened up a bottle of liquor. 'Anyone care to join me?'

Feli, Avia, Mami, Ourania, Guy, and Dormin discussed how Ismene grew and how she could learn more about people and the world.

Feli hummed. 'I wonder how long before Ismene might get bored with games though.'

Kalilah, who'd been talking to Ara and Adalet, leaned closer. 'I wouldn't worry about that.' she said and gestured behind her at Terry, Ismene, and Cani fiercely battling it out over a rally game on the computers at the back.

###