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Chapter 64. We Built This City
by Pearl

Say you don't know me, or recognize my face
Say you don't care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night

The vixen hitched her granddaughter a little higher on her hip as she led the pack of little ones through the streets of Evnact. She had forgotten how tiresome it was to carry the kit around. Had the youngun grown so much in the past few days? When would she learn how to walk on her own two paws and give her old Gran's back a rest?

"Ms. Pearl." A ferretmaid's voice broke her train of thought. "Am I really going to get to see my daddy when we get to your place?"

The vixen hushed the child and looked around the seemingly deserted streets before offering her reassurance, "Yes yes, of course. Didn't I tell you? I spoke to him just the other day. He was detained when he went out to buy food for you. But he's just fine and he'll be able to take care of you just as he always did."

"He never did such a good job." The ferretmaid frowned.

"Yes, well." Pearl straightened and readjusted Sandy before setting off again. "Come along, quietly please."

"I wish Mr. Aras and the sheriff were still with us." This time it was Emma who broke the silence. She had one paw around the makeshift sling that strapped the tiny kitten to her and the other held the paw of one of the twin ratmaids.

Pearl ground her teeth audibly but didn't answer.

The catmaid continued, "But I suppose they were only doing what they thought was best to help us get the island back from the Heirs."

The vixen whirled around. "Help the island? What do they know about Evnara? All they care about is hightailing it off this rock and maybe getting their paws on Sarkleyet's Brandy in the mean time if they can manage it!"

"Ms. Pearl," Emma whispered nervously. "You really should keep your voice down. You're frightening the little'uns."

"Ha!" came the derisive chuckle from the back of the crowd of Dibbuns. "Your puny little island hasn't got a prayer if my father's set against it."

"Shut your muzzle, Mardrey." Pearl shifted the kit in her arms once again so she could rub her forehead where she felt an ache beginning to throb. "I've had just about enough of your..."

"I told you to call me Drey." The squirrel pouted but then he saw something over the vixen's shoulder and pointed. "Is that where we're going? Ha! If that's where you work then I know why my father wanted to see you."

The insolent pup's eyes raked the madam from ears to tail, "Yeah, he would like you; not so bad for an old hag."

Pearl ignored the comment and turned to look where he had been pointing. They had indeed reached the Oasis but it was not at all as she had left it. The front door was off its hinges and various pieces of furniture had been thrown out into the street.

"Emmy, stay with the kits and keep them quiet." The vixen ran to her establishment with Sandy still clutched in her grasp.

The kit giggled but was patted and hushed.

"H-hello?" Pearl called tentatively into hollow shell of the once grand building.

Broken glass clinked from one of the upstairs rooms and then Crystal ran down to greet the vixen, broom and dust pan in her paws. "Ms. Pearl, we were so afraid they got you!"

"What happened here?" The madam scanned the walls and floors in disbelief. Even the storm had not left her home in this bad a state. She continued to pat and hush the little one in her arms as if to calm her own fears.

"It was those Felldo's Heirs. They came in here bangin' doors down and makin' a horrible mess. Most everybeast ran out the back but me and Prell were hiding. They found us but they just sort of took one look at us and then carried on smashing up the place. I woulda tried to stop them, Ms. Pearl, I really would, but Prell said I'd just end up getting' myself killed so we stayed where we was until they lost interest and went away."

Pearl did her best to follow the rush of words and then asked, "Prell?"

"Prellon." Crystal smiled coyly up to the second story landing from which a shy male waved down at them. "Oh Ms Pearl, I know how you feel about species and all that but he's so sweet and brave and..."

"Never mind that," the vixen waved a paw settling the kit on her hip once again. "What about the others: Mr. Antonio, Rekkua, Zula..."

The ratmaid seemed not to have heard the question. She had just noticed the kit. "You found her! Aww hello, love. Come see Aunt Crysty." She held out her paws and Sandy willingly went to her.

"Crystal! The others, are they safe?"

"I – well they er..."

"We believe everybeast made it out unharmed," the male rat stepped up to the two females and answered for Crystal. "Except for the lizards. They sort of..."

"Well they just went crazy, Ms. Pearl," Crystal continued for him. "It was just like the madness all over again. But Prell was so brave!" She crooned taking a step closer to him. "You shoulda seen how brave he was, Sandy love, just like a knight in armor. He saved my life." She whirled the little vixen around, telling her the tale. "That mean old lizard woulda eated me up if he hadn't..."

Pearl rounded on the rat, if he was a rat. He smelled a little too woodland to be a proper rat but then everything in this place stunk of woodlanders after they'd all tramped through with their stinking little paws. "You killed her?"

"I-is everything alright?" Emma slipped cautiously into the building followed by the troop of little ones.

"Emmy!" Crystal ran to her friend. "Who's that you've got there? Aww he's so sweet. Why, he looks just like..."

The catmaid grinned. "He does, doesn't he? I'm sure he must be Di's."

"What's his name?"

"Well he didn't come with one but I was thinking of calling him Coal because you know he's sort of like a little diamond in the rough."

They both giggled but Pearl snapped, "Would you two shut up!" The vixen turned angrily on Prellon once again. "Well?"

"I - I, she was... I was..." the rat stammered taking a few steps backward.

"Just tell me where she is, her body I mean. I don't care what the circumstances of her death were she was still a friend."

"D-down in the basement. We threw er put her body down there with the other one."

Pearl shook a claw at the two silly females. "I'm going to pay my respects. You guard those little ones with your lives until I get back."

The vixen had to steel her nerves to go down into the cold damp place. She'd never liked the basement and with the promise of finding two dead monitor lizards...well, it wasn't going to be pleasant.

As she descended the stairs, Pearl thought of the last time she'd been forced to go underground. Rekkua had been with her then, alive and well, along with Sheriff Brull and little Zuzu. She wouldn't have been able to bear it if her friends hadn't been their beside her. She owed Rek this much, an official good-bye.

And where was that Zuzu girl now, she wondered. Poor thing, having to live all those years with Nelda Higgins. It wasn't her fault she had a drunk, nut-job for a mother. She was just another of the children who were the unfortunate victims of all this mess.

"Ugg!" The smell hit Pearl before she actually saw the bodies. She took a kerchief out of her pocket and held it over her muzzle. She nearly tripped over the crumpled heap of blood and scales at the bottom of the stairs. It was obvious that her friend had been unceremoniously dumped from the doorway above.

"Rekkua you deserved so much better," the vixen cried, her voice muffled by the kerchief. "When all this is over I will go personally to tell your family what happened. I'll make sure that you are given the proper burial or whatever it is your creatures do for their fallen warriors. Although I suppose if it was the madness you'll need to be burned. But don't you worry I'll be there to make sure you're honored for your deeds. I wasn't able to be there for my son when he..."

Pearl could have gone on rambling her good-bye until she passed out from the stench but she heard a noise in the darkness and then realized that there was a light coming from somewhere in a far corner. It had to be a very small light or else it was coming from very far away. But that wasn't possible unless...

"A tunnel."

It must have been here the whole time, an entrance to the system that ran under the whole town, the system where the victims of the madness had been forced to hide themselves away. Well, no longer!

Once the idea was firmly in her mind, Pearl knew what she needed to do. With only a quick glance back up the stairs to where her granddaughter and the other young ones were waiting, she made her way swiftly down the tunnel towards the source of the light.

The floor of the tunnel led steadily downward. Pearl yelped when her footpaw squelched into the sludge. That part of her previous subterranean excursion had been blissfully forgotten until this moment. The Madam, however, did not let this stop her and merely lifted the hem of her skirt as she pressed doggedly on.

It wasn't long before she came upon a gathering of the Marties. The vixen didn't question her good luck in finding such a large number of them grouped together, thus. She thanked the fates that she wouldn't have to wander the tunnels any further to find them.

Glancing around quickly, Pearl found just what she needed, and climbed atop a wooden crate so she could be seen by everybeast while she addressed them. She placed two claws in her mouth and whistled sharply around her fangs to gain the attention of the assembly and then smiled at them beguilingly.

"My friends, fellow islanders, the time has come for us to act. Too long have you been forced to hide yourselves away."

"What're you doin' 'ere, Ms. Pearl?" A cheerful voice questioned.

The madam hushed the interruption without a thought, "Not now, Zuzu. I'm speaking to the nice creatures." She turned back to her audience. "Above a hoard of woodlanders lays waste to our homes and businesses. Everybeast among you were witness to the effects of the storm that blasted our island..."

"But Ms. Pearl..." the little vixen chirped again.

"When I'm finished," the elder fox clicked her tongue and tried to regain her train of thought. "The force that comes against us now is far more destructive than any wind or rain. Remember the way we banded together to rebuild our city. Remember how you stood beside your fellow creatures paw in paw to reclaim your homes from the sea. And they..." Pearl pointed at the dark ceiling. "They call us vermin, while they murder and pillage and burn!"

A small paw tugged at her skirt but the madam was really getting into her speech now. She whispered down before continued, "Just a moment now, love."

Pearl made eye contact with as many of the creatures before her as she could, like the true performer she was. "Now is the time, once again, to take back our island! We are strong! We are survivors! We Are Evnakt!"

The cry was taken up by the assembled beasts, motley crew that they were. They raised picks and shovels, and whatever else was close to paw along with a few rusted blades and slings as they continued with the chant, "We Are Evnakt!" Their disfigurements from the disease made them look all the more fearsome.

"That was a good talk you gave 'em, Ms. Pearl," Zula complemented as the older vixen stepped down from the crate with a small splash. "Good thing we already asked 'em to join us and they had time to get their weapons and such."

"Yes, very good," Pearl frowned, looking from the face of the little vixen to that of the serpent who was draped over her shoulder and realizing that they had stolen her thunder. She shook her head then and forced a smile. They were on the same side after all. "I am glad that you, and you Ms. Silisk," she nodded at the adder. "got safely away from the woodlanders. It looked like quite a..."

"Brilliant! Now this is more like it!"

Pearl spun to see the unwelcome squirrel.

"I mean when it was just you measly beasts it was hopeless but with an army of the walking dead, Ha Ha! That'll take the fluff outta Dad's tail!"

The madam was prepared to give the youngster a piece of her mind when she felt the slithering of scales over her shoulder.

"What is the meaning of this tree crawler's presence in this place?"

Pearl weighed her answer carefully, fearing the coils that were wrapping loosely around her neck. "He's Marcion's," she croaked.

"Fat lot of good the family ties do me. He just shuffles me off with the Dibbuns," the squirrel pouted.

Zula waded over and patted his paw. "Me mam went and joined your dad."

"That's why..." the madam gasped. "My home."

Drey eyed the younger vixen curiously, "Is your mam like her?" He pointed a claw at Pearl, who huffed.

Zula however spoke in her defense, "Oh no. Ms. Pearl's gone respac- respic- respectibibble."

"An' what about you?" the squirrel asked the young vixen.

"Good grief!" Pearl rolled her eyes. "Like father, like son."

"Me?" Zula shrugged, clearly having not gotten the cut of the squirrel's jib. "I'm just Zula, 's all."

"That's too bad. I mean, maybe if you'd lose the specks you'd look pretty decent." He smirked as he walked away to get a better look at the rag tag army.

"Why did you bring him?" Silisk squeezed her coils a bit tighter and flashed her fangs.

"I didn't bring him," Pearl nearly squeaked. "He followed me. He's only a kit and I don't think he even likes his father. B-but maybe it could help us, somebeast from their side in our custody?"

She was saved from further scrambling by a very familiar one-eared dogfox. "Ms. Pearl," he smiled and then he nodded solemnly at Silisk. "Majesty." He seemed much more at ease here with others like himself than he had in Sarkleyet's garden. "We have organized ourselves into groups and we are ready to go to the s-surface." His voice broke a little nervously on the final word.

If these scarred and tattered beasts could keep it together they might make a decent fighting force.

Silisk loosened her coils slightly and patted Pearl's back with her tail, "Excellent."