[With Wildfall, Fumblies and Fahari]

 
Warning: Cursing

Todd was having trouble concentrating on his set, his ears twitching. A courier- dressed to show he ran for the Council- had come into the Inn he was playing at and was talking to anyone who would listen. Todd really didn't mean to eavesdrop but hey, his ears had other ideas.

… Ninja Village.. slavers…

Todd's tail frizzed. WHAT about slavers? He thought they'd taken care of those assholes! He tried to listen in, but the courier's voice rose and fell- often muffled by a mug of ale- and he only got a few more snippets- mostly repetitions of the words that got his attention.

He realized he'd been standing on the stage for five straight minutes without playing a single note! "Um.. sorry folks.. Need to take a little break. I'll be back in five."

He jumped off the stage and headed straight as an arrow toward the courier. "What's this about the Slavers, bud?"

The courier snorted, clearly on his third mug. "What's it to you shorty?" He stopped as Todd growled. Sure the guy was half again Todd's height- and twice his girth, although Todd was sure that was mostly beer storage, but this was a situation that made him neglect his usual 'avoid violence' ways. "Unless you want me to bust you over the head with my guitar you'll spill bud. For your information my kind has had more of a problem with these assholes than you'll ever know. All of the people where I come from- whether Vulpin, Feline, Lapine or even those asshole Muri-dan have banded together from time to time to take these piles of shit down- now GIVE before I start swinging!" He panted, felt his fangs baring as new memories of the work of the slavers mixed with old.

The messenger burped. "Don't think I caught your name, stranger."

Todd took a few seconds trying to calm himself but, damn it these Slavers were worse news than anyone here seemed to think! "Blackpaws.. Todd Blackpaws."

"Right then," the messenger said with a shrug. "Guess I should have known. Details are on this paper.." He pauses to hand Todd a scrap of paper. "But the gist of it is, the slavers that's after your furries, and anyone they can get a hand on, went and took over the ninja village. Worse'n still, they got themselves a fancy machine. Used it to keep their dead from bein' worthless. Sounds like nasty stuff t'me."

Todd was listening to the messenger but was also reading the paper- and as he read he got angry again, angry and scared until finally. "Shit.. Jack I gotta go see a man about a.."

His words cut off as he had been moving while talking, and not thinking about where he was going so that he ran smack head on into someone and bounced back onto his tail. A familiar looking North Ireacan looked down at him with an apologetic smile. "Hey, Todd, sorry about that. Is my lass Summer with you, by any chance?"

Todd got to his feet quickly, glad to see one of the people he first thought about going to. "Windy! Man am I glad to see you. No I haven't seen anything that beautiful- what I have seen is this!" He handed Wildfall the note.

Wildfall took several seconds to read it- after getting out of the doorway. "Ahh, my grasp on th' way you Kingdomers write might not be very good, but didn't we take care of those idiots, nice and sound? They should be runnin.." He paused and read further. "Son of an unnamed goat."

Todd chuckled, but it wasn't a happy one. "Yep. We need to get everyone together again."

"At least the weather's startin' to behave," Wildfall said, frowning. "Looked like we were about to get some tornadoes over the last half hour, but I guess we lucked out."

Todd rolled his eyes. "Great. Freaky weather what's next the de.. no wait that happened, didn't it? Crap there goes a good line."

Wildfall smirked. "Someone shoulda told the slaver iidjits, 'cause it looks like they're trying it again. Where should we head first?"

Todd kept moving as he thought, then nodded. "Cattaras. We need the big lummox on this."

Wildfall nodded. "Maybe I can track down Summer, too."

Todd nodded. "Yeah.. need to find Fahari too. Hell may just need to go the the Knob and see the Queen bitch about this."

Wildfall nodded. Right then, a couple drunken Gnollish stumbled up and tried to put their arms around Todd and Wildfall. The lesser drunk of the two (the one in a dress) explained, "Heeey, yous got fur and yous ain't.. got fur. You're different, but you're still buddies.. *hic* Just like me and my buddy here, misther tire tossing!"

Todd struggled a bit as the Gnoll was giving him quite the hug- and a few…"Hey man! I ain't that kind of fox. Well… not lately anyway but still!"

It was the other one who spoke. He was carrying a tire and a beer. "You 'n me and our new friends gotta go celebrate our new friendship by havin' us a throwdown."

"A what?" Wildfall looked rather confused by all of this.

"Ya know," the tire tosser explained. "A fight. You and mishther fur against me and mr dress here."

Wildfall looked more confused, and looked towards Todd. "You wanna handle this one, bard?"

Todd was having trouble breathing, let alone saying something that could get them out of this situation so he tried to handle both at once, kicking the Gnoll in the nuts and wheezing at Wildfall when he was dropped. "RUN!"

His partner turned to go after Todd, giving Wildfall the perfect chance to grab a bottle, smash him over the head, and slam the drunken crossdresser's knee with Wildfall's trademark wooden shillelagh.

Wildfall sprinted after Todd. "Ya'd fit right in at the bars in Northern Ireaca, Toddy."

Todd couldn't help but laugh as he got his breath back with an adrenaline chaser. "Only if your bars are as sweet as the cathouses back home mate!"

The Ireacan couldn't help but tease. "As long as the cats in question are the clients and not the main course."

"The cats were the main attraction, mate, not the main course." Todd kept running but took a second to glance back. "Not unless you mean eating-OOF!"

The foxbard felt like he'd just run into a brick wall- looking up with a hot retort on his lips- only to have it replaced by a grin. "Just the guy I was lookin' for- or more to the point- the lovely kitten usually wrapped around you."

Sir Fumblies looked down at the fox with a slightly amused smirk on his face. The last couple of weeks had been interesting for him but it all came with the territory. "Shouldn't you be charming the pants of some damsel in distress?"

"Usually he's the distress they're in," Wildfall said with a smirk. He remembered Sir Fumblies from the slaver incident over St. Boris Day's Feast. "Hey, Fumblies."

The 'kitten' in question- who decided to let being called 'kitten' slide for the moment- smiled as she bent to pick up some paper Todd had dropped. "Dear, it is quite obvious that something is distressing Mr...oh my..." Fahari had glanced at the paper- and was now staring at it- her features in that neutral look she got when she was battling her emotions.

Todd knew where she was going and nodded, rising and dusting himself off. "You see?"

Fumblies raised an eyebrow wondering what was going on but having the wisdom to know that he would be informed soon enough. Todd saw his confusion and filled him in with one surprisingly growl filled work. "Slavers."

"Ahh so another group of subpar intellects have come up to try and make a quick sliver of meat off the suffering of others." Fumblies sighed shaking his head. "Well I guess it is time to destroy even more morons."

"They got somethin' to bring their dead back now," Wildfall said, shrugging. "Doesn't sound too scary to me, though."

Fahari finally spoke- a growl edging her words. "They are cockroaches. You kill a hundred and a thousand more scurry in." She crushed the note and tossed it down. "So we will kill thousands."

With a frown Fumblie's contemplated the news that they had something to bring back the dead. "So any ideas on what is bringing their dead back?"

Todd finally cracked his sour face, smirking. "Don't look at me, mate. I figure not even Hey Daze'd let this lot in and they had to come back!"

Fumblies asked, "Are you forgetting the small matter of the Undead Invasion we had to deal with months ago?"

Todd was feeling up to facing that in his usual way. "Tryin' to mate. Tryin to."

"So you understand that if these slaver's have some undead making device that we could in trouble if someone a little smarter gets a hold of it." Fumblies was already contemplating the different possibilities and was finding that he liked very few.

"I knew they got into some dark stuff," Wildfall said with a frown. "Didn't think even they'd stoop this low."

Fahari moved to sooth Fumblie's thoughts, nuzzling him and purring. "Dear, Mr. Blackpaws has only one concern at the moment- as do I. As would any of our people faced with the fact that Slavers roamed the land free and alive."

"I know but you have to understand having been in the thick of that undead problem." Fumblies took a deep breath as he shook his head somewhat comforted by the purring but at the same a bit worried since he suspected that this could be more important than he first thought. "What if Hey Daze gets wind of this item and sends a force to capture it? I know you are worried about your people but I am thinking that maybe the best way to protect them is to get the item. Right now the Slavers are acting on the basis that even if killed they will be brought back to life. This will make them a lot braver than usual and open to taking more risks."

Todd chuckled, "Hope you wrote down that speech for later, mate. And you just go ahead and worry about whatever machine they got to do the job- we'll worry about the Slavers themselves. Deal?"

"Well no good dealing with the Slavers if they come back from the dead."

Again that smirk. "Somehow I figure with the reception they'd get they'd wish they'd stayed the first time."

"Ya know," Wildfall said, again interrupting. "Somehow I doubt they really get a choice in the matter."

Fahari growled and tailflicked a bit. "We waste time here." She looked at Todd. "I assume you will be gathering the others?"

Todd nodded, "Yeah. Much as it fuzzes my tail to go into that lion's den they should be told. And Cattaras was a good guy to have beside you in a fight like this. That bozo Daisuke, too."

Wildfall offered, "I'll see if I can track down Summer too, but we haven't seen Xodus in a while."

Fahari nodded. "Gather who you may at this time. The others we can only hope hear the whispers of the Goddess telling them to come."

"Or get the notice," Wildfall said with a smirk.

"I'd put my money on the Goddess. Half this lot can't even read. Hey- if this is at the 'Ninja Village' how in Boris's name we gonna find it?" Todd was smirking as he said it.

Fumblies raised an eyebrow, thinking back to the last time he had encountered the Ninja Village. He just had to remember how he he got down there. "I might know where it is."

I've always been fond of Ninja Village. We used it some missions ago near the end of Season One. It was fun to revisit.