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As the sun continued to rise over the horizon Lord Dryskale whistled as he entered the large building, giving a small nod to his elven assistant as she gave him a feral grin. Ever since the alpha werewolf had come into town he had been surrounded by the brutish creatures for his own protection, but after the events that led to the capture of the dangerous criminals in his city, he finally began to really feel their presence around him. While it made him nervous that those criminals were now loose in the city once again, he knew that he was very well protected by those that served him...

At least, he thought he did until he got into his office and saw Alkali sitting at his desk, the blood running from his scaly face as the ferret motioned for him to sit down. The Lord turned to run out of the room only to hear the door slam behind him and turned to see Draggor and Xander there staring at him. "Wha... how..." Lord Dryskale said as he looked at the three. "How did you get past my guards?!"

"Turns out werewolves are not immune to charm," Xander said with a grin as they converged on the small creature and motioned for him to sit. "Or, to be more precise, charm magic, which I'm told I'm quite talented in. For the next few hours as long as we don't hurt you those werewolves out there are our best friends, which means that if you do something to change that, we're going to make sure it's the last thing you ever do. Now sit."

"I hope you don't mind I switched chairs," Alkali stated as Lord Dryskale hopped up onto the chair opposite him. "Yours was a bit too small, I felt like a giant sitting in it and I was worried it would break."

"If you're looking to stop me from informing King Pandez of your whereabouts I'm afraid you're too late," the iguana sneered. "The message is already on route and impossible to intercept, so unless you plan to hold me in some sort of ill-thought out ransom attempt, I'm afraid you've failed."

"Oh don't get me wrong," Alkali replied as he held out his hands. "We are kidnapping you, that's for sure. But it's not the King we're holding you for ransom. I want you to get a hold of your alpha buddy and tell him to come here with Zen and Serathin and them only, we're going to have a little chat about our current situation. If you do well and he doesn't bring in his entire pack then you just might live, otherwise if he shows up here in force, he has to explain to the entire city that he's a werewolf and how their governor suddenly came down with a severe case of being dead."

Lord Dryskale swallowed hard despite himself and looked around at the three that surrounded him, then asked for a piece of parchment and an ink quill. After a few minutes the iguana gave the letter to Xander along with instructions of what to do, and the dragon went out into the front of the office and gave it to the elf. Once the handoff was complete the three waited tensely for the response. The three knew it was possible that the alpha werewolf would come in guns blazing and potentially kill them all, but if that happened he would not only lose his leverage over the city, but also their prize for capturing them. At that point though all they could do was wait and as the sun continued to rise in the sky outside as everyone in the office grew increasingly anxious.

Finally there was a very heavy knock on the door and Xander opened the door in response. On the other side of the threshold was a heavily robed creature flanked by two others in similar adornments, the one in the middle holding a chain that lead up to the neck of one of them. "Had trouble getting through the crowds?" Alkali asked as they walked in. "I hear that it can get quite busy when it gets close to noon, also the fact that you're a giant werewolf doesn't help, I'm sure."

A low growl escaped from the alpha werewolf as he ripped off the cloak, revealing his muscled form as his furry muzzle was bared in a snarl. "Spare me the pleasantries," he spat. "You have your audience, now what do you want before my pack comes in here and beats you all within an inches of your lives?"

"First we want to make sure that you held up your entire end of the deal," Xander mentioned. "I'm guessing that those two are Zen and Serathin under those robes?"

The alpha werewolf's fierce growl turned to a low chuckle as he raised his fingers and snapped his claws. Almost immediately the figure on the left removed their cloak as well, the orange-furred werewolf snarling as it looked at them all. It was clear that Zen was under the complete thrall of the alpha next to him, even turning their heads at the same time. As soon as Zen revealed himself Xander gave a small nod to Draggor, who had quietly been standing in the corner until he started to slowly slide his way towards that side of the room.

On the other side of the alpha the reveal was much slower, but when the robe was finally taken off it caused Alkali and Xander to look at each other. The black furred werewolf quietly stood at the alpha's side, eyes closed and his head bowed down. Silver stripes that lined his arms and legs and the elongated fangs that poked out past his lips made it clear that they were looking at their hybrid rogue.

"I take it you enjoy what you see," the alpha smirked as he tugged on the chain attached to the thick collar around Serathin's neck. "They're a bit unstable after their first chain so extra precautions have to be made, though considering his abilities it made leashing him more difficult. Now, you see that they're here, what is it that you want in exchange for my charge's life?"

"Quite simply we want to take our guys and go," Alkali said. "You can keep running this town, which good luck explaining all of this to the king, but if you let us continue on our merry way, we won't cause any more trouble for you." For a few seconds the alpha just stared at the ferret, then tossed his head back and laughed loudly before glaring at him once again. "I'm going to take that as a soft maybe?"

"It's a hard no," the alpha replied. "You are somewhat at a disadvantage, even if you kill Lord Dryskale you and your friends will still not leave this city dead or alive, and I'll just find someone that can take his place to pin the murders on you three."

"Wait just a second!" Lord Dryskale spoke up angrily. "You can't possibly be forfeiting my life that easily! I'm the one who let you into this city in the first place, you not only had the pick of my citizens to take as your pack, but I kept you all protected!"

"And we're all very thankful," the alpha werewolf said before he bared his teeth. "Now SHUT UP YOU SNIVELING WHELP! I am the one in charge here, not you! I keep this city safe with my pack, you wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for us!"

Alkali leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his back. "It sounds like you two have a bit of a lover's quarrel," the ferret goaded. "Why don't you just let us go and we'll leave you to hash this out."

"NEVER!" the alpha snarled. "You are my prize, my trophy! I will not let you just walk out of here!"

"Well I guess you leave us no choice..." Alkali replied with a sigh. "Looks like we're just going to have to challenge you for the pack."

An almost manic gleam came over the alpha werewolf's eyes as he once more let out a deep, throaty laugh. "You... challenge me?!" he mocked. "Despite the fact it wouldn't be much of a fight, you don't have the authority to challenge me!"

"Right... we need a werewolf..." the ferret exclaimed as he mimicked being in deep thought before he pointed to Zen. "I think he'll work, I mean, that's what this whole distraction was for, anyway."

The alpha werewolf's nostrils flared as Alkali smirked at him, then turned his head just in time to see Draggor cast the last of the scroll while his palm was directed at Zen's head. The alpha reached out mentally to the fox turned werewolf but he could already see the clarity sparkle in the barbarian's eyes as his gaze turned to meet his. Zen let out a loud roar before he swept his arm back, the demonspawn ducking just in time to avoid it as the barbarian grabbed a chair and threw it at the alpha werewolf's head. The wood cracked as the alpha blocked the attack with his arm, then brought it back down and let out a howl before he reached over to the collar around Serathin's neck and ripped it off.

"Kill them all!" the alpha roared before he was pounced by Zen, the two werewolves sliding into one of the office walls as Serathin's black eyes locked onto Alkali.

"Oh crap," Alkali said as he pulled himself out of the chair as the werewolf Serathin dived into a nearby shadow before reemerging a second later behind the desk. The chair shattered as the ferret hit the floor, his hands glowing in green energy as he powered up one of his spells. At the same time Xander moved around to the other side of the desk as Draggor moved to the office door where the wood had already begun to splinter from the creatures on the other side. Just as the thick hinges popped off the frame and began to pile in the demonspawn took the second scroll he had taken and activated it, the parchment disintegrating as red-hot chains emerged from his hands and wrapped around the first two that came in.

As Draggor continued to hold off the monsters at the door with his own spell Alkali and Xander moved to try and flank the shadow-jumping werewolf that continued to evade them. At first it appeared the necromancer had successfully caught Serathin in a magic web until he disappeared into the shadow beneath him and the ferret suddenly felt thick claws jam into his back. Xander countered with an arrow that buried into the werewolf's shoulder that caused him to retreat back and jump into the darkness once again. "You okay?" Xander shouted as he jumped away just as Serathin reappeared to swipe at him.

"Son of a..." Alkali said as he felt blood trickle down his back, but was still able to move. "I'm alright... he won't be." the necromancer said as green energy swelled up in his hands, glowing brightly before he gestured forward and flung it at his target. Just as Serathin was about to pounce down on the knocked over dragon the green energy elongated into several spears of light that pierced the werewolf's flesh and caused him to fly backwards before being pinned against the wall. Serathin howled in pain as he tried to move only to have the magic continue to hold him while banishing any shadows near him.

At the same time Zen and the alpha werewolf continued to scrap on the floor, both of them landing blows with their claws and fists as the wood grew stained with their blood. Zen was knocked backwards by a particularly powerful punch that caught him right in the snout. As the fox werewolf fell onto his back near the door the alpha slowly stood up, spitting out one of his fangs knocked loose by the battle before he strode over and placed his heavy paw against Zen's neck.

"I'm very... disappointed..." the alpha muttered as he applied pressure. "You could have served as my right hand, a leader in my pack, but you threw it all away for what? Them?"

Zen tried to say something but his breath caught in his throat, which prompted the alpha to lessen the force to let him speak. "I'm... a barbarian..." Zen said breathily as his eyes remained locked with the alpha's while his left hand reached out for a sharp piece of the shattered door. "And I do what I want!" Zen twisted his arm and stabbed the sharpened wood deep into the alpha's calf, causing him to howl in pain and back off enough for Zen to stand up. With the tide of the battle turned the barbarian grabbed a second piece and shoved it deep into the alpha's chest, which caused a small bubble of blood to emerge from the alpha werewolf's mouth.

"Zen wait!" a loud shout cried out just as Zen was about to deliver the final blow, the fox turning to see Xander reaching out for him. "You won! We need him alive!"

There was a moment where it appeared the fox was about to finish off the werewolf, anyway, but instead he let out a low growl and backed away. The other werewolves, most of them with burnt and smoking fur, had pinned Draggor down and was about to finish them off when they turned to see their defeated alpha on the floor. This seemed to trigger a response and they stopped, and ough they didn't seem to acknowledge Zen's victory, it was enough for them to stop fighting. "I thought that Zen would be the new alpha?" Alkali said as he winced from his wounds as he hobbled over to Xander.

"Not yet," Xander replied while he looked at the extent of the damages. "Zen's not an alpha werewolf, so while the pack acknowledges his defeat, they don't recognize him as their new leader. Zen can take the alpha's power and become one, himself, but then he won't be able to change back, and that may pose a problem."

"Well what if we just kill the alpha?" Alkali asked.

"Then all the werewolves in the city will go berserk," Xander explained. "We have to either keep him alive and somehow control him or have Zen be the alpha. The other problem with that is that since Serathin is fully infected we can only cure him if we remove his essence, so unless we kill the alpha, he'll remain a werewolf."

"That's not entirely true," Draggor replied, untangling himself from the werewolves that had stopped just before they eviscerated him. "I could magically imprison the alpha, that will remove the alpha's spiritual presence and should return Serathin to normal. Only problem is that both Zen and Serathin will still have a mental link to the alpha, which may or may not be a problem."

As they continued to discuss Alkali dispelled the magic that had pinned Serathin to the wall, the werewolf crumpling to the floor in an unconscious heap. The other werewolves continued to stand there and watch as they argued while Zen continued to stand guard over the severely wounded alpha werewolf. After a few minutes the only consensus they could reach was that whatever choice they made, they had to do it fast before the werewolves in the city lost control.

As Draggor and Xander continued to discuss the potential for their decision they failed to notice Alkali casually stride over towards the body. He gave one look to Zen, who seemed to have regained some semblance of his independent thought as his monstrous head gave him a nod. Alkali nodded back before he reached into his cloak and pulled out a dark purple stone that glowed faintly in his hand as he held it over the body.

"I just don't know how we're going to keep him magically imprisoned long enough for someone to get here," Draggor continued to debate until a flash of green light and the discharge of energy flooded the room. Both dragon and demonspawn slowly turned to see the ferret standing over a lifeless corpse, the essence of the creature completely vacant as the stone Alkali pulsed with bright purple light. "What in all the planes of hell did you just do?"

"What I told him I was going to do," Alkali replied nonchalantly as he rubbed the filled soulstone in his hands.

"That... that wasn't part of any of our plans!" Xander said in an exasperated tone. "Now how are we going to keep the werewolves from going berserk? Or cure Serathin?"

"I thought this out!" Alkali said in a loud voice as he pointed to the barbarian and his body slowly transformed back into that of a fox. "I can create an item to give Zen the power of the alpha so he doesn't have to actually become one and he can tell the werewolves to calm down. As for Serathin the body is still there, so we can use that to cure him back."

"It's a supernatural affliction, only the alpha werewolf can take back his own curse!" Xander exclaimed.

The ferret looked down at the stone, then at the body of the alpha werewolf that laid there limply. "I will admit, I probably wasn't paying attention when you got to that part," Alkali admitted. "Alright then, so he's going to be a big fuzzy, I can still use the soulstone to create an enchantment that will keep him from being an uncontrollable killing machine." A small, evil smirk crossed his muzzle as he looked down at the glowing crystal. "As for the rest of it... oh, do I have plans for the rest of it."

"So how long is all this enchantment going to take?" Draggor asked with his arms crossed. "Not to mention we have the matter of King Pandez finding out about a situation like this instantly."

"Well then it looks like we're going to need a fall guy," Alkali said as he walked over to the desk, the other two following suit as they saw a knocked out Lord Dryskale on the floor. "Hey you, wake up." Alkali's hand glowed with magic before touching the iguana on the head, causing him to bolt upright and look up at the three faces staring down at him. "We need to have a little conversation here."

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A few weeks later the skies above Draslyis were suddenly dotted with the appearance of several large griffons that quickly made their way down towards the city. While it was not uncommon to have winged riders visit the city it was the first time they appeared en masse, and only grew more into a spectacle when they saw who rode the lead. King Pandez circled the perimeter of the city several times before he landed in the middle of the town square with his squadron of knights doing so right behind him.

"A good day to all of you!" the large panda said with outstretched hands. "I am King Pandez, ruler of all he sees! ...except for other kingdoms that he sees, as well. Can you please point me in the direction of a Lord Dryskale?"

Most of the citizens that were within earshot of the royal bear pointed towards the large building they had landed in front of, and Pandez thanked them before he handed the reins of his mount to another knight. "That was masterful riding, my Lord," the knight commented as they found a place to keep the creatures. "Where did you learn to pilot a gryphon like that?"

"Well there was this time before I was king that involved three gryphons, a crystal golem, two vials of nymph essence and a half a peach cobbler," Pandez began to explain before he waved it off. "But that is too long a story to go into at the moment, please make sure the gifts from our druid friends remain safe while I go and talk to this Dryskale. Should I need you I will send the signal, until then keep your eyes and ears open."

The knight nodded and bowed and Pandez walked from the courtyard into the large building. Once he walked inside it did not take him long to figure out where he needed to go, eventually finding the office area with a young elven woman inside. "My Lord!" the elven woman said as she lowered her head. "Pardon our lack of preparedness, we were not expecting to have royalty in our midst."

"Yes, I find surprise visits are rarely expected," Pandez replied as he motioned for her to stand. "I'm afraid it's all business this trip, if you could please assist me, young miss, we really must hurry."

The elf nodded and opened the door, poking her head in for a few seconds before she came back and allowed the panda entrance. On the other side of the threshold sat Lord Dryskale on the other side of his desk with his hands folded together. "King Pandez," the iguana said with a small grin. "I'm afraid we weren't-"

"Expecting me, I know," Pandez replied as he slowly began to walk around the room. "I have to say I'm a bit confused with the letters that you messaged me, so I came down here myself in order to alleviate myself of such confusion." Lord Dryskale attempted to hide his nervous swallow as he watched the king pour himself a drink from the nearby crystal decanter. "You don't mind, do you? It's been a long trip."

"By all means," the iguana replied. "If this is about the letter for the reward of capturing those three criminals, I thought I was quite clear in my second missive that we had been mistaken. I'm sorry if you came all this way on the hope you may have been mistaken, but I'm afraid you're not going to find anything here."

"No... probably not any more at least..." Pandez replied as he knocked on several planks of newly hewn wood set into the wall. "Did something happen here? I've noticed new furniture, a new section of wall, a new door..."

"Just a bit of remodeling," Lord Dryskale attempted to explain as Pandez swirled the liquid in the glass. "We had a small infestation, termites, got rid of them but had to replace the wood they damaged."

Pandez just nodded slowly and continued to walk until he felt something beneath the sole of his shoe and stopped. For a few seconds he stood there and said nothing, then slowly poured out his drink onto the thick floorboards under him. Lord Dryskale rose and began to protest until Pandez stopped him by raising a single finger in silence, then pointed down at the wet floor. The iguana's eyes widened as his emotion turned from anger to horror when he saw the image of claw marks where his carpenters had carefully sanded them out.

"Walls and furniture can be replaced, but floors, that's where you find the battle damage," Pandez explained before he pulled out a crossbow and aimed it straight at the door as the elf barged in, then stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what was aimed at her. "Silver crossbow bolt, darling, and I'm told I'm a pretty good shot. Why don't you go ahead and have a seat with your boss there."

H-how?" Dryskale asked, flabbergasted.

"It's all in the eyes," Pandez smirked as he slowly led the elf with his crossbow until she was at the desk. "Now if we're quite done playing this little game your next answers are going to determine not only the fate of your position in this city but also your very lives, so tell me what happened to that blackguard necromancer Alkali."

About an hour later Pandez walked out of the building with a piece of parchment in hand, which he handed to one of his knights while explaining it was Lord Dryskale's resignation as holder of the city to him. As he told his men to find a place for them to rest for a few days while they figured out where to go next he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes, a glint of silver that caused him to turn. The silver raven quickly dived down and landed in front of him, hopping in place a few times before turning back into a statue. He picked it up and reached into the small pouch fastened onto its leg, only instead of finding any paper he found a smooth, polished black stone that he held in his palm and whispered into before tossing to the ground.

A few seconds later the visage of Serina appeared, the fox looking straight at him as the magic of her image flickered. "Good idea with the message stone," King Pandez said. "I was just about to suggest such a thing, I have news concerning a city full of werewolves and a lead on our targets."

"Werewolves?" the vixen replied with a smirk. "That must remind you of the Orchid Plains. But I also have news and it's not the kind you want to hear. We have deciphered the rest of the map and have had seers looking ahead at the path for you since they are unable to locate your quarry thanks to Draggor. They have found a problem in your path, a rather large one that requires such an expensive trinket as this one to inform you of immediately."

Pandez and Serina continued to talk in the square until the stone ran out of its magical energy, crumbling to dust in front of him. He swiped away the small pile with his foot and walked back to the inn they had commandeered. Inside his men were cheerful as they ate and drank, the gryphons they had ridden on up to that point secure in pens outside. As soon as one of them saw the disturbed countenance on their king's face they stopped, which caused another and another to do the same until they all looked at him.

"We have to let go of the gryphons and continue on horseback from here," the ursine leader said, which caused them all to look at one another.

"But my lord," one knight spoke up. "You said that the leader of this town said that Alkali and the rest of them only left here a few days ago, with those mounts we'd be able to catch up with them easily!"

"From here on our travels will no longer be easy," Pandez said in a low tone. "Madness lurks on our path; they're riding straight into it, and so are we."