Chapter 4

	The town of Devreser was quite different then any of the trio of young travelers throught. The buildings seemed have been built around the trees rather then cutting them down, none of the stone sturctures reaching more then 5 stories high. The only exception was a large, circular building that poked above the tallest trees, easily over 400 feet tall. Streets made of cobblestone wound their ways through the forest, leading from the river down into the main part of the town. Standing at the town's dock, Angela looked on in wonder at the town, taken in by it's peacful-seeming charm. Vicki was more impressed by the size of the buildings, having only seen temples that could rival their size, while Trom had never so many building whole and standing up at once, except from some old news reels he had seen during his training. The streets were crowded with all sorts of creatures hawking their wares and goods. Down at the docks, Angela had recgonize several capybaras as they pulled their wooden boat up and started unloading bundles of fish, while several black panthers took those bundles to a stall to sell to anyone interested. As the trio took the first main street they came across, the crowds became thicker, the noise of people calling, laughing, arguing filling the air. Vicki and Trom were a little nervous at such crowds, the wolf closing the hood of his cloak a little more in case someone wanted a closer look at this metal face. Angela took the whole thing in stride however, leading the other two down the middle of the street, having to do a little pushing and a lot of excusing as they made their way through. Finally she found a less crowded side street, leading the leopardess and wolf down so they could talk.

	"So many people," Vicki stated, looking back toward the street.
Anglea nodded. "Just like some malls back home, but definatly a lot different....we need to find our way to that tower we saw; that has to be the one Stogra mentioned to us."
Trom leaned against a wall and yawned. "I think first we should at least get a decent meal in." He seemed more relaxed now that he wasn't surrounded by so many people. "We have enough money for that, I would think." Angela smiled and nodded.
"Good thinking, Trom." She turned back to the street they were on, catching sight of a mouse leaving a building across the street. Angela hurried across to the rodent, who stood maybe four feet tall and had a tail about half as long.
"Excuse me, sir." The mouse looked up at Angela, jumping back a few inches.
"Damn! How can one so large be so quiet?" He said in a high-pitched voice and strightened his suit. He looked up at the human. "What do want?"
"I just wanted to know where I could find a place to eat for me and my friends," Angela gestured over to where Trom and Vicki stood waiting. The mouse turned to look at the others, blinking as he swore to himself that the wolf seemed to having a glowing eyes.
"I-I would recommand the Spearmint Rhino...." The mouse pointed down the quiet street. "It's the only place around that doesn't have much of a record for fights; something I suggest you stay out of." With that, the mouse stepped around Angela, almost pushing her out of the way and quickly got lost in the crowd of the main street.

	Angela came back over to the waiting Trom and Vicki, giving a sour look towards where the mouse had dissappeared.
"If everyone here is like that, maybe we should let them be taken over...." she mumbled to herself. But inside she knew that was wrong; they had to help everyone, even the rude people of this world. Angela related what the mouse had told her to the other two and they all agreed to try it out. They set off down the street, not knowing how far they would have to go; turned out it wasn't that much farther down the street then they already were. It was hard to miss the three story building when it was surrounded by single story stuctures; that and the 10 foot picture of a rhino out front gave it away. There wasn't a constant stream of customers coming in or out, so Angela took a chance on opening the only door they saw, wondering if it was closed at the moment. On the other side of the door was a staircase leading down, the way lit brightly by lanterns all the way down. Angela lead the way down slowly, unsure about the whole thing, thinking they had come down the servants entrance by mistake. But as they went a around a bend in the stairs, the way opened up into much more then any of them expected. 

	The room was circular and looked like it had been hollowed out from some giant tree. It measured about 50 yards from wall to wall, the space on the floor taken up by tables, booths, several drink counters and a large music pit, the band playing local favorite songs. Looking up, Angela guessed they were about 20 feet underground as the roof was raised high above their heads, the only window was a large glass dome that sat on the roof, providing some light to everything below. Starting at street of level, walkways stuck out, lit only by dim lanterens. Running around the walkways were door after door, many of them closed, but those that were opened showed that patrons came for more then the food. The main room was filled with a mixed bag of animals and humans, all of them either laughing, shouting, eating or drinking. 

	Angela, Trom and Vicki somehow made their way to an empty table, somehow without losing each other or bumping into too many other patrons. They didn't have to wait long for a squirell, dressed in what might've passed for a waitress outfit if it wasn't made of leather, arrived at the table, placing down three wooden mugs of something. Angela didn't care what was in it; anything to slack the thirst she was getting. The liquid had the taste of beer, but was clear as water. By the time Angela snapped out of her study of the drink, she noticed the waitress had left. Trom assured her they just ordered whatever the house special was. Neither Vicki or Trom seemed interested in their drinks, each taking a sip and deciding it wasn't to their tastes. Angela finished her's while they were waiting for the food, but thought she would need to keep her wits about her, so declined the offers of finishing off the other's. The wait for their dinner turned out to be considerable, but given how crowded it was, it was understandable; but the group would never find out if the wait was worth it. As they three relaxed, a couple of drunken lions came over to the table, pushing themselves to either side of Vicki and pressing against Angela and Trom.
"Now wash a goooood lookin' thang lick you do(hic)in' 'ere?" The first questioned the leopardess, pressing his face up close to her's. Vicki tried to push away from the offending lion, only to find the other had somehow grabbed her arms to her side.
"Get your paws off me, you bastards." Vicki growled as she struggled, getting to a standing position and knocking her chair over. The first lion stepped in close.
"Nah wit'out a kees forst..." He leaned forward as his partner held Vicki's arms tight. The kick to the lion's crotch would've hurt anyway, but being drunk seemed to increase the pain as Vicki did just that. The first lion sagged to his knees, making the other one loosen his grip just a little on Vicki's arms as he looked over her to watch his friend. A tap on the lion's shoulder brought his head around where it met Trom's metal fist, sending the lion staggering back into another table and spilling the drink the occupants had been enjoying. From there it went downhill.

	The coyote from the table the lion had knocked over wasted no time in brining his axe down on the lion's arms, severing it neatly. The others that had jumped back as the lion landed each knocked into a neighboring table, setting off a chain reaction through the whole resturant. Angela just barely dodged a badger that shoved towards her, accidently tripping him. The badger growled, taking a swipe at her legs with a short  sword; Angela jumped up, landing on the table and getting her balance as the attacker stood up. He made another lunge, but was stopped short by Vicki's spear impaling his arm to the table. Vicki quickly removed the spear, smiling at Angela before turning her attention to an approaching black panther. The badger was yelling and cursing in pain, adding to the sounds of the battle. Angela saw her chance, delivering a well-placed kick to the badger's face. She felt the nose under her boot crumbling, and not expecting that or the badger to go falling back, she fell backwards on the table, landing hard. On the floor beside the table, Vicki was pairing off still with the panther, who had a pair of daggers in each paw and a small third attached to his tail; he was using as a scorpion would, raising it over his back and striking while Vicki blocked his other daggers. Trom had taken out the sword Stogra had insisted he wear, and with slowly growing skill was holding off a trio of lynxes. Angela wasn't sure what hse could do, proving she wasn't much of a fighter with that last kick. She was about to warn Vicki of the panther's tail when she felt a tug on her ankle. She turned, bringing one of the mugs that had somehow stayed on the table to smash on the head of whatever had hold of her, only to halt when she saw the figure jump back, holding it's paws out. It looked like a fox, but with the beaten fadora hiding most of his face, it was hard to tell.
"Wait, wait," he cried. "I do not want to harm you; just to get you out." Before Angela could ask for more details, she saw the shadow of a large bear cover the table. She rolled off to the floor just as a large sword cleaved the wooden table in half. Angela skipped back a little as the bear brought the sword up again when the fox stepped in front of her. She could hear him mutter something, then screamed as the sword desended, only to stop a foot above their heads. Confused, the bear tried several more times to hack with the sword, only to be stopped each time. Finally he was distracted when a band of three foot tall mice jumped him from behind, each carring little pitchforks. As the bear howled and lumbered through the crowd, tring to get the mice off. the fox turned to Angela.
"We must hurry....this shield won't hold out much longer." He started to move away, something almost right away pushing Angela from behind. She reached out, feeling her hand stop short by an invisible something that  was moving along with the strange fox. She tooks this time to get a better look at him.The fox was not much more then five feet tall. Along with the fadora, he also wore a robe, cinched cloesed by a belt that held several little bags. His tail come out of a hole in the robe, the tip black while the rest was mostly red. He continued his way through the crowed, hardly blinking as the shield he had somehow made either blocked shots at them or pushed some out of the way. They finally made it up a flight of stairs where the fighting was a little less when Angela suddenly grabbed the fox's shoulder. "Wait! My friends." She turned around, bumping into the air shield. The fox stopped, turning around as well.
"Trom! Vicki!" Angela cried over the din of the fight below. She saw the leopardess look up and waved down, gesturing them to following. Vicki looked around, found Trom and started to pull him towards the stairs, but the way was clogged with bodies either fighting or dying. Trom growled, having had enough of this fight. The wolf resheathed his sword, reaching under his cloak to bring out his gun. Angela saw this from high above, but was too late to shout at him not to use it. In the crowded room, the explosion of shot resounding for a full minute, but it did the job. Trom had cleared out a path with one shot, killing several fighters and scaring the others. He swung his gun over his shoulder, grabbed Vicki, who was still holding her ears from the noise and ran to join Angela and the fox.

	The fox watched the approaching wolf carefully, then lead them all to a door opening to the outside. They hurried to an empty alley, all breathing hard and resting against a wall or the ground.
"Are...you crazy, Trom?" Angela finally managed after getting her breath back. "That shot could've brought the whole place down."
Trom shrugged, looking up and down the alley, already seeming to have recovered from the fight. "I knew what I was doing..." He put the gun under his cloak, drawing his sword and pointing it at the fox. "But what about him?"
The fox quickly raised his paws up. "Please. I was not going to hurt her or any of you. I just saw that you needed help." He swept his hat off, bowing a little. "I am called Don."
Angela reached over to gently push Trom's sword arm down. "I'm Angela. And this is Trom and Vicki." She indicated them each in turn. "Thanks for the help...I hate to think what would've happened in there...."
Vicki slowly stood, coming over to face Don. "Yes, thank you....but it's a little stange how you knew which ones to save." Angela turned to the leopardess and wolf.
"Will you two stop being so paraniod all the time? Maybe if tried being friends with some of these people, we can find a lead to those statues."
Don's ears perked a little at the word 'statues', then were flattened again by his fadora. "Which statues, if I might ask?"
Before Trom and Vicki could stop her, Angela explained their quest to find these three statues that would help save the world; she didn't go into too much better, but didn't have to as Don seemed to catch on right away.
"Ah, I believe I can help you...." He stood a little strighter. "I happen to belong to the guild at the Tower of Tales. I can get you in and help you look up the information you require." He turned and head out of the alley. "But first we should go to me home where you can rest until night; it'll be less....crowded then."
Angela smiled as she walked next to Don. "Hey, that's great....we'll get this over with in no time." Trom seemed less enthuiastic though.
"If he can be trusted," he mumbled loud for only Vicki to hear as they walked a little ways behind. The leopardess nodded, resting her speard against her shoulder.

	Don turned out to be a passable cook, serving the three a decent soup in the little room he called home. Then after a short rest, and allowing the sun to set and the stars to come out, he lead them to the large building they had seen earlier. Don brought them to a small doorway, muttering something under his breath to open the door. He explained that all the doors, except for the main one, could only be opened by certain phrases. The group wound their way through dimly lit halls, slowly going up level after level. Don finally stopped them outside a door, which he opened with another mutter. Inside was a large podium surrounded by several chairs. Windows looked out to the city below, the few lights that still burned looking small from the current height. Don stepped up to the podium, placing his paws on the sides and closing his eyes. The podium face lit up with an odd blue glow, reminding Angela of a computer screen.
"I must confess this is all I know how to do....but I'm sure the information you want is here." He stepped aside, letting Angela look at the glowing face.
"What happens now?"
Don shrugged. "I believe you just think of what you want to look up and it'll guide you from there." Angela nodded, gripping the side of the podium.
"Show me something about the statues..." she addressed the podium, feeling a bit silly. But to all of their surprise, words started running across the face. Angela blinked, then swore softly. "It looks like it's showing me every listing of statues it had....this could take awhile..." She moves her hand over the smooth podium face, smiling to herself as the words scrolled, showing more. The others saw there was nothing they could really do, so wandered about the room. Angela found a heading called 'Dreams' that sounded promising. She touched the word with a finger, the face clearing and being replaced with a new listing of words.She whistled softly. "I was wrong.....this could take a long while...."

	Trom mumbled something, turning back out of the room. "I'm going to look around; make sure there aren't any surprise guards." Angela just nodded absently, concentrating on the poduim in front of her. Vicki hesitated for a moment, then grabbed her spear and followed Trom out.
"Knowing you canines, you'll end up missing something. I better come along." Trom acknowledgement couldn't be made out, but Angela figured it was reluctent. After several minutes, and several dead leads, she finally found something she hoped was useful. The podium was showing her a map of what had to be part of Dremara. The far left part was taken up by a range of mountains as well as the near the top had one that formed a wide U shape. Through the middle ran what looked like a river, one end coming out of the mountains on the left, traveling a long distance before meeting a second river the was from the top. The river continued in a stright line that lead to what had to be an ocean or sea; a bit away there were several small shapes that could have been islands. Surrounding the rivers were green patches that Angela identifed as forests. The bottom part of the map was dominated by a flat, orange-colored area, with a darker type of green indicating something else between the orange and the ocean. Angela looked up, finding Don staring intently at some kind of parchment.
"Hey, Don. Can you take a look at this?"
The fox nodded, coming over to stand next to Angela. "Ah, wonderful. You found a map of this corner of the world." He pointed to a spot along the river coming out of the left-hand mountains. "This is where we currently are. To the left we simply call the Western Mountains." Angela nodded, recgonizing where she, Trom and Vicki came down from Stogra's home. Don continued on. "The forest is known a Tesfor; it covers most of the north, right up to the DragonTooth Mountains." Don's paws swept across the range near the top. "From those mountains flow the Coldion river. It's rumored that where the two meet there is a town, but no one has proven where it is yet. Finally both rivers empty to the sea, where the town of Portsmouth is; the natural dent of the shoreline makes a perfact place for boats to land." Angela nodded as she looked the map over, putting the names to the places. "The islands don't have any names," Don continued. "They are uninhabitated, except for a town on the nearest one called De-Nal."
Angela pointed to the southern par of the map. "What about down here?" Don leaned closer over the mapping, rubbing the bottom of his muzzle for a bit.
"I believe the orange represents  what is referred to as the Desert of Shadows; no one has set foot there for over a thousand years, though there is supposed to be a lost city there someplace." Don stopped there, still looking over the map.
"What about this section between the desert and sea?" Angela asked.
Don looked up at her for a moment before answering. "That is Atlog Swamp; a very, very dangerous spot." Angela gave a  quiet 'oh', then studied the map a bit more. As they both watched, three red dots appeared. One was in the middle of the desert, another just past the DragonTooth mountains in the north and the third on one of the islands out in the sea. Angela smiled wide.
"I'll bet those show where the statues we're looking for are located...."
Don nodded quickly. "I believe you are right, dear....we must copy this down quickly." Don pulled out a quill and a long scroll, quickly coping the map as best and quickly as he could.
	
	Just as Don was finished up, Trom and Vicki came running back into the room.
"We've got a problem," the wolf came out right away. Angela moved around the podium and out to the hallway, looking down.
"Guards?"
Vicki shook her head. "No....it's much stranger. It's a kind of blue wall, moving slowly upwards. We watched it come up through the floor, then just vanish into the ceiling." Don looked up from the podium, rolling the drawing up. "A blue light? That must be the Guard Wall; a replacment for guards. It travels up one half of the building, searching for any lifeforms. Certain things it will kill on contact; others, like the four of us, it will sounds an alarm and the real guards will come after us. The blue light would hold us in place until they arrived."
Trom nodded as he looked into the hallway as well. "Oh, great...and to top it off it's on the side that we came in on. Do you know another way out, fox?"
Don nodded, placing the map into the belt he wore. "That I do. We must hurry though; we are near the top and the light will start coming down on us soon." He slipped out into the hallway, leading the other three towards the nearest staircase. The group slipped quickly down and back outside, following Don outside the city limits and into the forest.

	"We should be safe here," the fox as they settled down in a small clearing. Don had spread out on the cloak he wore a bit away from the others and soon had drifted off to sleep. This left Angela, Trom and Vicki to set up the rest of the camp. As they ate a small dinner, Vicki kept looking over at Don's quiet form.
"That was too close for me," the leopardess growled softly. "If he is a member to that tower, then why did we haev to sneak in and out?"
Angela shrugged. "Maybe it's the weekend or something for them," she said around a piece of meat. "The point is we got that map and it'll lead us to the statues and gets us all home much sooner." Vicki sighed and nodded, then looked to Trom, who was just eating quietly.
"What about you, wolf? I would think that you would be happy at the news of going back to your home early."
Trom stabbed at a hunk of meat with his small knife, quiet a few moments more. "I would be if I was sure I was....I still don't trust this guy." Angela reached over and put an hand on Trom's arm.
"Just relax, will you? I think we can trust him; he got us into that building after all...." They continued with their argument for part of the night, leaving it unresolved. They each quietly rolled up into their sleeping gear, not giving a second thought to the sleeping fox. Had they thought of checking on him, they would've found an unpleasant surprise....