The year is 2205 by the human calendar. The world has changed much in the last few centuries. The magical world of fairy and animals have come back, coexisting with the world of man once again, though there are those who still cling to the old ways utilizing the science of man, not magi. Man has learned to utilize both magic and their science creating dangerous machines and weapons.

Chapter One

The sun was setting down as they watched their city being burned down. Mothers with babies and fathers with their older cubs were crying as they fled from the warmongers who pursued them.
"Why did this happen to us? What did we ever do to them," many of them thought to themselves. The truth of the matter is, that the warmongers didn't care who they crushed in their war against who they consider their enemies. They conquered who they want and when they want, with very little resistance. But that will soon all change as the prophecy comes to unfold.
"We will have peace again, but there will come a cost," said the fox seer Ferdinad. "We must rally ourselves deep into the forest where they can't reach us. We must gain allies of the other animal and fairy kingdoms," he said.
Everyone believed him, and respected him since he was a seer, but he was beginning to have doubts. His powers have not been reliable as they have been in the past. "I must be getting old, why else are my powers not working?" Ferdinad thought to himself as he traveled along with the other refugees. Ferdinad is in truth not old on the outside. He looks to be of 20 to 25 years of age, though in truth he has lived for over several hundred years utilizing his magic to slow down his aging process, a trick that he learned from elves.
"Well, I'll have to go to the elves and see if they can answer my question."
As the refugees approached the forest, they couldn't believe their eyes. The forest was filled with fairies of every kind, flying around all over, giving comfort to the children. Everyone kept walking deep into the forest until they reached an elven city.
The elven city glittered as if it was covered with fairy dust. All the buildings were of a light green emerald color, and shifted slightly to protect the citizens and hide them as if they were part of the forest.
As everyone entered the city, a elf came out and said, "Welcome to our home. Please make yourselves at ease. No harm will come to you while you're under our protection," a tall and lanky elf said. His name was Hititino and was king of this region. Everyone bowed and curtsied and said their thanks. "Ah, Ferdinad. I see you're still alive and well," Hititino said, as he spotted the fox.
"Yes your majesty. I am well and am glad to see that you are as well. I have a favor to ask. I need to speak with you privately," Ferdinad replied.
"Very well. We can talk after everyone has been settled and after we have eaten dinner," Hititino said.
Everyone was soon settled into empty rooms that the elves always seem to have whenever there's an emergency. The people and animals marveled at how tall and graceful the elves were. They still radiated an air of regalness and command authority. They are the most knowledge able of how magic works, after all they lived through magical wars for several thousands of years, even while they were in an alternative reality hidden from man's world. Everything wasn't peaceful in their world either. There were those who were evil at heart was well. That's how their worlds came together again, through the work of a rogue elf and his followers, but that's a story for another time.

Chapter Two

Ferdinad went around searching for some of his friends that he had not seen in a while. "Ho, Barb. How are you doing, you rascal you?" he asked as he approached a lioness. "I'm doing fine, thank you. As you can see I've finally found a mate and decided to settle down from the life of thievery," she said as she pointed to one of her cubs running around with the elves.
"Ho ho. So who's the lucky fellow who stole your heart?"
"There he is now," she pointed to a huge male lion coming out of a tent.
He was incredible muscled and looked every inch a warrior of death armed to the teeth. Ferdinad gulped as he saw him approach.
"Well, so you're the one who finally got Barb eh? I'm Ferdinad, an old friend of Barb's"
"How do you do? I'm Harold. Nice to meet you. She's said a lot about you and the little adventures you used to have," Harold said.
"Heh. So she's told you about me eh? Nothing but good news I hope," Ferdinad smiled.
"So, how many kids do you have?"
"We have four. Davy who's sixteen, Alice who's ten, Ben who's five, and Angela who's two."
"Well, I better let you guys go and see ya later at the dinner reception okay?" Ferdinad asked as he left.
"You can count on it. We have a lot of things to catch up on," Barb replied.
He walked around seeing if he could get his powers to work to see the outcome of the war. Nothing happened as he tried to control his thoughts and clear his mind. "Damn, this is getting old. What in the world am I going to do? I can't go back to what I was before I got these powers," he thought to himself.
His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a paw on his shoulder.
"Thinking about the war?" a soft and kind voice asked.
Ferdinad turned to see his old mentor, a Rabbit. "George," he exclaimed. "How in the world are you? It's been so long since I last saw you."
"I've been well, yet I'm having difficulties with my powers lately. How about you? Are they giving you problems as well?" George asked.
"Yes they are. I'm going to be talking to Hititino after dinner. Want to come with me?"
"Yes, that would be good."
"Okay, great. See you later then." Ferdinad said.
He went off to take a quick shower and to rest before the dinner.
Soon it was nightfall, and everyone was gathered around the huge oak table laden with all kinds of food. The kings sat up front near the head of the table where Hititino sat. Everyone was dressed in their finest. "Let's have ourselves a good eat everyone, and not worry about the current events that are going around," Hititino toasted. "Hear hear," everyone said.
Soon people were tearing into the luscious food that was all over, and they made small talk as they eat, wondering what was going to happen to them and who was going to try to stop the warmongers.
"So, have you felt anything different since the last few months?" Ferdinad asked Hititino.
"We have felt a draining of our magical powers from the nodes that we used to be able to feel and track. It seems that the warmongers have developed a way to pump natural magic to use for their own use," Hititino said.
"How is this possible? I thought that magic nodes were only able to be drawn from magicians as they drew from their inner selves," a king asked.
"Apparently they have developed some kind of machine. We need to send a reconnoiter team to investigate what's going on in the cities that they have taken over. Then we should plan accordingly when they come back. Is this plausible to everyone?" Hititino asked.
Everyone murmured their consent. "This is a good plan, but who's going to lead and who will be the other members?" someone asked.
"I thought that Ferdinad would make a good leader, and he could chose who he thinks is capable of going along," Hititino replied.
Everyone turned to look at Ferdinad who was blushing beet red. "Who me?" he squeaked. "I don't know very much about leading, much less going into enemy territory."
"Nonsense, you have contacts that others don't when it comes to going into battle," Hititino said.
"Hmm, so he knows about that does he?" Ferdinad thought to himself. "I wonder how he found out."
"Sigh, all right. I'll do it," Ferdinad said aloud.
"Great, then it's agreed. We'll stay here and await to what ever information you are able to gather."

Chapter Three

They soon left and Ferdinad went off in search of Harold and Barb. As soon as he spotted them, they approached him as well. "We know what you're going to ask, and the answer is yes. We'll go with you."
"All right, I'll find you guys later tonight then. How did you know I was going to ask you to come along?" Ferdinad asked.
"Heh, you know how quiet we can be when we travel, plus we have a lot of other keen senses you need to scout out the enemy before they spot us," Barb said.
"All right. That's good. You're sure the kids will be okay?"
"Yeah, they'll be fine. They know our duty and theirs."
Ferdinad soon left them and went in search of George. "Hey, George. Care to come with me to find out why our powers aren't working as well?"
"You bet. I'm packing up my stuff now."
"All right see ya in the morning then."
He went off in search of a few others who seemed capable of going with him. He soon had seven people chosen and went off to inform Hititino who would be coming with him to gather info. "Very good. You've selected a lot of good people with various skills to combat different situations that may arise. We'll see you off in the morning, and be sure to take all the food and supplies you'll need," Hititino said.
"Very good your highness. By the way, how did you know my secret?" Ferdinad asked.
"Ohh, I have my sources. Besides one of your past lives worked with me in a war, and I remembered his moves," Hititino said.
"Ahh, I didn't realize that. Hmmm. Thanks for the info. I'll see ya in the morning then."
Soon everyone was asleep as nightfall began. They didn't notice when one of their own crept about silently, looking for Ferdinad's room. He approached it and silently opened the door. The fiend hid in the shadows and reached for Ferdinad's sword, hoping to kill him with it. Unfortunately, Ferdinad kept his blade close to him when he goes to sleep, an old battle field habit. The intruder cursed softly and quickly thought of what to do now. He then reached for his dagger and was about to plunge it into Ferdinad's throat when he woke up. "Unnh. Need to go to the bathroom," he mumbled. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and was instantly alert staring at the intruder in front of him. "Who are you? What do you want?" Ferdinad shouted as he showed his sword from it's scabbard.
"Drat. I was hoping to get you, but it'll have to wait until later," the intruder said as he made smoke fill the room and disappeared from Ferdinad's sight.
"Guards, Guards," Ferdinad shouted, as the smoke cleared.
Soon everyone was awake, and hurried towards Ferdiand's room.
"Ferdinad, what's the matter?" Hititino asked as he approached.
"Someone tried to kill me a few minutes ago. I got lucky and stopped him thanks to a little help from nature, which if you'll excuse me I have to go," Ferdinad said as he hurriedly went to the bathrooms.
Everyone laughed at the thought that someone was saved due to needing to go, but was soon searching all over for someone who was out of place.
"Everyone is accounted for. No one's missing, so who ever it was is long gone by now," a soldier reported.
"All right. Thanks. You all can go back to bed now. We still have a lot to do in the morning," Hititino said.
He waited until Ferdinad came back. "Well, did you get a good look at who it was?"
"No. Who ever it was, was covered completely in black. I could tell it was a mouse though, because the intruder was small and had round ears," Ferdinad replied.
"Hmmm. I don't know of any mice being near here. We'll have to discuss this more in the morning. Meanwhile, I'm placing a guard in front of your room until you leave," Hititino said.
"All right fine. I'll sleep a little bit better knowing that," Ferdinad replied as he crept back into sleep.

Chapter Four

Morning soon approached and everyone was awake and up at first light.
Everyone murmured as a spring storm approached. "Hmm, I hope this isn't a bad omen for things to come," Hititino said as he glanced up at the sky.
"Don't worry. I'm sure it's just normal weather," Ferdinad replied.
"Well, is everyone ready?" Ferdinad asked as he looked around at the others.
"Yep. We said our good byes," everyone said.
"Al right. Let's go," Ferdinad shouted as he marched in front of the others.
As they left the elven city, everyone was lined up to see them off.
"Come back safe. Don't do anything rash," they all shouted as the seven marched on towards the city's gate.
Soon everyone was out of the city. "All right, so were do we go now, leader?" Barb asked.
"I thought it would be best to see what they wanted to do with the village first, and then move on towards one of their cities," Ferdinad answered.
"Hmm, good plan. All right, so do you want me and Barb to be scouts?" Harold asked.
"Sure that sounds good, seeing as you're fast runners and can see things in the distance," Ferdinad replied.
They soon sped off in the distance, and were soon lost to everyone else's sight.
"All right everyone just simply stick together, until I say other wise," Ferdinad said.
The band of five pulled their invisible cloaks together, to cover their mechanical ones in case the magic failed, as well as their weapons.
They moved slowly due to the amount of rain that poured down, and luckily didn't run into any enemies yet.
"Okay, this looks like a good place to rest," Ferdinad said after they were walking for the past four hours towards the village.
Everyone just sat underneath some trees, trying to keep dry and eating from their food supplies while waiting to hear word from either Barb or Harold.
As soon as everyone was rested, they moved onward. As darkness approached, Ferdinad pointed to an area that everyone liked, and they camped there for the night. As they were setting up the tents, Barb and Harold came back.
"Whew, sorry we were gone for so long. There are a lot of enemy patrols around the village. We had to wait for awhile to see what was going on there," Harold said.
"Well, at least you're back. What did you find out?" Ferdinad asked.
"Nothing much. Just that there are humans and other furs walking around patrolling around and guarding a few buildings. One other thing though that was odd, was that I couldn't feel any presence of a wizard. They all had their weird looking pole weapons, along with others," Barb said.
"Hmm. That's interesting that their wizards aren't with them. They must be planning something huge back at their base," Ferdinad mused.
"Yes, well if you'll excuse us we had a long day and would like to rest and eat," Harold said.
"All right everyone. We'll take turns guarding in shifts. Be sure to take your turns when you're needed. I'll go first," Ferdinad said.
As everyone settled to go down to sleep, Ferdinad thought of how to approach the village and try to find out what was going on.
While he was concentrating, he didn't notice when Harold sneaked up behind him. He jumped when he felt Harold's paw on his shoulder and move downwards. "Opps. Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. Just wanted to see if you wanted some company," Harold said.
"Oh, sure. That would be great," the fox looked up and grinned.
"So. What are you going to do when we get to the village?" Harold asked.
"I don't know. I'll probably come up with something in the morning," Ferdinad replied.
"All right. We'll I guess I better get back to bed and get some sleep before my shift. See ya in the morning."
"Right. Talk to you later," Ferdinad answered.
The fox stayed alert while trying to think of what to do next. Nothing came to him unfortunately as his shift came to an end. He got up and went to the next person, a cat named Harriet. "Harriet, it's your turn to do guard duty," he said as he stood by her tent entrance.
"Okay. Who'll be taking after me?" she asked as she came out.
"You'll be going to Harry's and he'll take over."
"All right. Will do. Have a good night," she said as she went towards her station.
The fox gave a little smile as he watch the lithe cat stand to alert.
He soon went into his tent, and laid back in his covers. He couldn't sleep, so he remained awake.
"What in the world am I going to do?" he thought to himself. He was still pondering this when sleep finally overcame him. While he was sleeping, he dreamed of how to get in.

Chapter Five

As the morning sun came up, everyone was awake and getting ready to move on. "All right everyone, remember to go now, or there won't be a second chance once we enter the city," Ferdinad called out in a motherly tone.
Everyone laughed at the idea of Ferdinad dressed as a mother.
As soon as everyone was ready, and the camp was obliterated, they moved on.
While they were walking, Ferdinad told everyone of his idea of how to get into the city without being to obvious.
"All right everyone. I'd thought of this all night long, and I thought it would be easier to dress as the slaves do, so that we can move around without too much difficulty."
Everyone murmured their consent and voiced a few opinions on how to dress, and what to do if split up.
"If we get split up from each other, we'll just meet at the outskirts of town after dark," Ferdinad replied.
He then handed everyone miscellaneous clothing and clothes to cover themselves as peasants. As soon everyone was dressed, he went over to inspect them. "Not bad, but you all need to be a little bit dirtier. Slaves don't usually have time to bath much," Ferdinad said. He bent down and picked up a pawful of dirt and smeared some all over everyone. "There. That's better," he said.
"Okay, does everyone know what they are doing?" he asked for one last time.
Everyone nodded their consent. They continued to walk on, looking like a band of people on hard times.
As they neared the outskirts of the village, everyone paused to take stock in what was going on. They noticed only a few guards posted at the front gates, and a lot of people working in the farms nearby.
Most of them were tilling the soil, and gathering crop ready for harvesting. The ones who were done, were heading towards the gates. The guards didn't give them a second glance. The slaves were made up of a diverse of people, humans, elves, magi, and animorphs. The group quickly slithered through the wheat and popped up among those who were going in. They held their breaths a little as they passed the guards, pretending to hold armful of wheat and other crop. As soon as they passed, they followed the slaves for a while to gather their surroundings and to see what the situation was.
As soon as they saw a break near an alley, they quietly moved towards it and disappeared from view.
"All right. It looks like they have gotten lazy, protecting their slaves and food from raiders. Anyone has any comments before we move on?" Ferdinad asked.
No one said anything, but the mood was somber. "Don't worry. We'll be back to free everyone, but first we must gather information as to what our enemies are doing. All right let's go," Ferdinad said quietly.
The fox seer noticed that most of the overlords and captains were up on a tower, viewing all of the village below. "Hmmm, this is going to be trickier than I first thought," Ferdinad thinks to himself. They group broke up and went their separate ways, listening to the whisper of conversations among the slaves who were once living peaceful lives in the village.
"I have had enough of this crap. When are we going to do something about it?" a big burly bear asked a nearby human.
"Who knows? But do you want to lose a limb or your life? They have big guns and stuff ya know," the human murmured. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens."
Among the group that Ferdinad is with, he hears whispers of plans to overthrow the overlords from their homes. "How are the plans coming along?" a stout and muscular bull asked a small and thin skunk.
"They're going great so far. They haven't noticed that we have been bringing in fewer food and some supplies are more than enough for them to fret over a few missing pieces," the skunk replies.
"Good. Keep it up. Hopefully we'll get our chance soon," the bull said.
"Hmmm, so everyone is planning an overthrow attempt huh? But what about what the overlords are doing?" Ferdinad thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Barb and Harold have discovered some information while posing as a favorite slave who is able to move around with a little bit more freedom by being a messenger or anything else their overlord commands of them.
They are sitting at a bar, and sipping while looking around and listening to the conversation around them.
"Who cares what happens to the village? We're better off that the overlords are here. They give us better shelter and protection from the animals that used to attack us, and give us money and more food if we do a good enough job," a cat was said, who was talking to a female mouse.
"Sure that's all well and good, but what about our freedom? When will we be able to move and think and act for ourselves? I don't want to be a slave forever. I only do it out of necessity. As soon as I see a break, I'm going for it," she told the cat.
"All right, but if you get killed while trying to escape, don't blame me," the cat responded.
They continued their conversation, unaware of the lions listening in.
"Hmm, it seems that some slaves are happy, while others want to break free. But what about what their plans are?" Harold murmured to Barb.
"I don't know, but let's continue to listen around. We're bound to find something," Barb replied back.
They soon decided to leave, when they run into a captain.
"What are you slaves doing here? Do you have clearance to be here?" the big human asked them.
"Why of course we do. Where would we be otherwise?" Harold said.
"All right then, show me your papers," the human asked.
"Papers, of course. Here you go," Harold said as he quickly dragged the captain towards the back of the bar.
He quickly held the captain's throat and started to squeeze slightly.
"Gack, you're choking me," the captain mewed.
"Yeah, what are you going to do about it?" Harold asked.
"What do you want?" the captain asked.
"Information. What are the overlords doing here?"
"I don't know. I was only hired to make sure the slaves don't revolt or anything."
"You're lying. Tell me what I want to know, or I'll snap your throat." Harold growled.
"All right. I over heard one of the overlords say something about there being a lot of natural magic around here's that untapped. They're going to drain it and use it against the magi and others who are free." The captain gurgled.
"All right fine. If we find out that you're lying, you won't know what hit you, understand?" Barb said.
The captain nodded. "Good. You're not going to say anything are you?"
He nodded again.
They left him trembling in the corner as they continued to walk on as if nothing had happened.
As they walked on, they decided to mingle in and find out more info. They got in a line and followed it. The slaves were heading towards a shaft with smoke coming out of it. Barb and Harold soon realized that they were heading towards a mine. "Ohh, crud. It's hard to get out of a mine." Harold thought.
"What do we do?" he whispered to Barb.
"I don't know. It's too late to break away… I'm sure they don't keep everyone down there. They must give them rest, so we'll escape then," Barb said.
As they were going down, Ferdinad was going with the slaves heading in an opposite direction. They were heading towards what appeared to be a huge, round metallic ball. "What in the <bleep> is that?" Ferdinad wondered to himself.
He soon got his answer as they slaves entered the ball, and were forced to stand still atop of round cylinders under their feet.
As soon as the door closed, a voice commanded them to start to move.
As they did so, the ball moved forward as well. Ferdinad wondered what in the world was going on with this. "Psst. What are we doing?" he asked a nearby slave.
The slave whispered back, "We're to move this forward towards where there's a hole in the ground that they dig when they find magic nodes. All of our weight makes the hole larger and easier for them to get the draining machine ready."
"Wow. So that's what they do," Ferdinad thought to himself.
It felt like they were moving non-stop for hours until finally they begin to sink a little, and then falling straight down.
Ferdinad feels a lurch and the ball was moving up and down, forcing the ground to be removed and he felt a little bit sick from the movements.
"Ohh, gods I hope I don't hurl," he thought to himself.
As soon as it started, the movements stopped.
He then felt like they were being lifted up and they were commanded to move backwards.
"Oh man, this is painful having to move backwards. What if I trip and fall?"
Someone did trip and fall, and was trampled to death by the others who couldn't stop though they wanted to as they were crying the loss of one of their own.
"This is more horrible than I thought," Ferdinad thought to himself as he felt himself sicken as he heard the shrieks of the fallen slave go silent, and as his feet touched the trampled slave.
Soon they were back at the camp and were marched out. As the last one left, other slaves were forced to clean the bloody mess that was all over.
"We lose at least one person every time they make us do that," a slave murmured quietly.
They were herded into a tent and were told that they could relax for the rest of the day, and wander about the confines.
Soon the slaves were groaning as they tried to relax and live for another day.
Ferdinad quietly slipped out and went back to the alley where they first met.
As he walked back, he noticed Barb and Harold going into the mines. "<Bleep>. They're not going to do so well. Oh, well. They know how to take care of themselves. They've gotten out of worse spots than this, they'll be at the outskirts after dark," Ferdiand thinks to himself as he waits for the others to arrive.

Chapter Six

Meanwhile, as Ferdiand waited, Barb and Harold were being led into the mines along with the other slaves.
"Crap. What are we going to do?" Barb whispered to Harold.
"Don't worry. We've gotten out of tighter scraps than this. We'll make it out and be at the outskirts by dark," he whispered back.
As their eyes became adjusted to the darkness and dim lights of the mine, they noticed that a lot of the slaves were very ragged and wearing almost next to nothing clothing, barely covering their private areas not to mention the smell.
"Oh, gag. How can they stand it?" Barb thought as her senses were overwhelmed at the scents. She glanced at Harold and noticed that he too was holding his nose.
As the slaves passed one another, no one said anything. They were handed shovels and told to simple dig all the rocks and dirt that they could until they said other wise.
As Harold and Barb worked alongside the other slaves, the mood of them were very somber. "Hey, why are you guys so sad?" Barb whispered to a slave next to her.
The slave merely glanced at her and didn't respond. She then realized that he was deaf. "Oh, my. You poor man," she thought.
They worked in silence, straining to hear any whispers of conversation, but didn't.
They didn't realize that all the slaves were either dear, dumb, or just lost the will to care about what happened to them; or pretended that they did.
After for what seemed like a very long time, the slaves were finally given a break, which only lasted a very few short minutes long enough for a quick sip from a small cup of water and half of half a piece of bread.
They soon resumed working after their "rest" period.
"Oh, how horrible. No one can survive like this," Harold thought to himself.
After a much longer period, the slaves were finally allowed to go to sleep for the night, which didn't make much difference to them, since they practically lived in the dark anyway.
As soon as they were lead out and into their holding cells, Barb and Harold quietly and quickly formed a plan on how to get out.
"Guard, Guard!" Barb shouted.
A burly human and bear came along. "What do you want, wench?"
"My husband is sick. Please help him. He's one of your strongest workers. You don't want him to die do you?" she pleaded.
"All right. Calm down. We'll take him to the doctors."
"Thank you so much. May I please come along? He'll feel better if I'm at his side."
"All right fine. Just this once."
While they were picking up the listless form of Harold, Barb quickly pushed a sleep posion dart into each of the guards necks.
Harold quickly got up and they ran hiding in the shadows. As they reached the gates, it was heavily guarded.
"Crap. What now?" Harold asked.
Barb answered by pointing at the wall. They never thought that slaves would try to escape so easily by climbing the walls.
They extended their claws and began to climb slowly, keeping in shadows in case on of the guards looked up.
After what seemed like a long time, but only fifteen minutes, they reached the top of the gates and soon climbed down.
They quickly sticked to the shadows and then ran under the wheat fields.
Luckily no one noticed a thing, and they were able to spot the others as they reached further away from the village.
"Way to go you guys. I hope you didn't have too much trouble," Ferdinad said as they approached.
"No more than regular," Harold answered.
As they gathered together, Ferdinad suggested that they travel onward while the village was still sleeping.
Everyone soon moved onward towards their next destination. After traveling for a few leagues, they decided to camp and rest.
"All right, let's go into those woods over by the trail," Ferdinad said.
Soon everyone was pitching tents and eating a cold dinner, not wanting to risk making a fire and having it seen by the overlords. While they ate, everyone recounted what they saw and learned while in the village. After everyone talked, they soon went to sleep.
Everyone was put on duty patrol and replaced each other at intervals so each got some rest. Luckily nothing happened during the night.

Chapter Seven

As day break began, everyone was ready to move on.
"All right. We're going to be going to the town of Deodits. I hear that there's a lot of activity going on there and we might be able to get a better sense as to what's going on," Ferdinad said to the group.
"Sounds good. Looks like you've got everything planned out," George replied.
"Not quite everything, but enough," Ferdinad responded.







They then moved out towards Deodits. As they traveled the road, they noticed that a lot of people who were usually up and about at this time, were not. "Huh, wonder were everyone is?" George murmured.
"They're probably hiding or waiting til dark to move in fear of the warlords." Harold replied. "That's what I've seen a lot of in my travels."
They continued onward, not saying much to each other, keeping their minds on the tasks coming up. "Man, how in the world can we defeat this force?" Ferdinad thought to himself. "I guess I'll just have to wait and see. What happens will happen."
They soon reached the city of Deodits within a few hours of walking.
"All right everyone, looks like the city is coming up ahead. Shall we do the same thing we did earlier?" Ferdiand asked.
Everyone looked to each other for conformation. They all shook their heads in agreement. "All righty then. We'll do the same thing," Ferdinad said.
They decided to split up and enter the city in separate ways so they don't attract attention.
The guards didn't pay them any mind, which everyone thought was a bit unusual since guards usually asked people why the were entering the city.
They shrugged their shoulders and moved on, keeping to the shadows and watching how the people were attending themselves.
The occupants of the city acted like there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Huh. What in the world in going on?" Ferdinad though as he watched the other slink off towards their chosen destinations to gather info.
Ferdinad started to walk towards a tavern, when he felt other eyes upon him.
He cursed himself slightly, "Should have known that I'd have to change clothes. I must look like a rich merchant or something. Oh well, I'll deal with it if it comes," he thought.
He felt the eyes on him still as he entered the tavern. He quickly moved away, towards shadows to watch who would appear behind him.
The person who entered next, wasn't the one tho. It was just a mouse who looked like an ancient American culture object (hint M.M.).
Ferdinad continued to wait but no one else appeared. He relaxed somewhat and started to look around the place.
The tables weren't full. There were only a few people and groups around.
He went towards the bar and ordered a glass of beer.
As he sipped the bitter brew, he felt the eyes on him again. He glanced around and then up towards the stairs and noticed a pair of eyes looking right at him from the shadows.
He got up slowly, still nursing his drink and went up the stairs.
As he approached the top of them, he noticed a small figure go into a bedroom.
He followed pursuit, and quickly looked around the room.
As his eyes got  used to the dimness, he saw a  female mouse sleeping in the bed. He walked over and noticed that here eyes were slitted, watching his movements.
"Well, what do we have here?" He asked approaching her.
She squeaked with some control and shouted "Who are you? Why are you in here?"
"Well, you kept following me with your eyes, so I'd thought I'd come up and ask what you wanted from me," Ferdinad replied.
"Why, nothing honey. I'm just a girl trying to make a living. I thought maybe you could be persuaded to be hired to join me on my journey," She said flashing her eye lids at him.
He looked carefully at her before responding. "Prove to me that you mean no harm."
She answered by getting up and revealing her legs, removing a small handgun buried in the pantyhose.
"There, does that seem sufficient?" she asked with a smile.
"All right. I'll take your word then. What do you need with a hired bodyguard?" he asked.
"Why does any girl need protection? To scare away those who would do me harm, silly," she giggled moving nearing towards him.
Ferdinad gulped as the lithe mouse approached, grabbing his paw and pulling him towards the bed.
"Well, what do you say? Will you help me out?" she said, whispering into the fox's ear.
He gulped and said, "Well, if you help us in exchange you got a deal."
"Okay, What kind of help?"
"Any information about what' going on here with the warlords."
"Ah, you know about them do you? Well, I'll do my best to tell you what I know. Will you keep up your part of the bargain?"
"Don't worry. You have my word," Ferdinad said as he got up to leave.
"Stay here, while I get the others, okay?" he asked.
"Humph, fine. Keep a lady waiting forever why don't you," she said with a smile.
"Don't worry. You'll be safe with us," Ferdiand smiled back.
He then left the room and tavern, to look for more info.
When he left, the mouse quickly went to the closet.
She whispered, "Well, how do you think I did, brother?"
"You did fine. Just be sure to watch yourself around him and the others," a husky voice replied back. "I'll be following behind in case you need backup."
"Feh, don't worry. He's putty in my hands now," she smirked.
Both thieves laughed to each other at the stupidity of the fox, or so they thought……

Meanwhile, Ferdinad was out looking for more info. The others weren't having much luck. It seems that the inhabitants of the town are under a spell, and don't know what's going on. Everyone soon gathers to meet with Ferdinad at their predestinated site.
"Well, did you guys find out anything?" he asked quickly.
"No. Other than that everyone is under some kind of spell, making them think everything is okay," Barb responded.
"How about you?" Harold asked.
"Well, I found an informant who's willing to tell us some things in exchange for some protection going towards her destination," Ferdinad replied.
He lead them towards the tavern, where the female mouse was waiting for him.
"Well, there you are. I was beginning to think that you'd never show up," she smiled as she glanced at the others.