At the end of the Bridge was a parking lot for about 2 dozen vehicles. A smattering of cars dotted here and there.

I had to park because a large glass building blocked the entrance to the town.

Not knowing the guns laws here, I decided to leave everything in the van for now.

If they had a problem with large canids, well, they could suck it.

The Visitor Center as it was called, had a Large double glass door setup. I held the door open for the Woen.

"What the Hell? Bears! Wait those aren't bears, they have wings, what the fuck?." A man in a uniform. He made to defend himself.

Pale skin, dark hair, flinty grey eyes, clean shaven, the name on the odd badge said Jacob. "Who the fuck are you, what did they put in your food?" The last question was directed at me, as I towered over him.

"My name is Victor. I would appreciate you lowering your tone, Chief." I patted the air trying to appear nonthreatening.

Rowdy was pressed against my back sideways, ready to attack. Sable and Smoke had spread out a little, to hit him from different angles. "My friends are excitable, we don't want any accidents."

The Huge reception area we were had a large welcome desk. A rather pretty woman was sitting there.

She cut in. "Ah Victor. Simmons, yes?" I kept my eyes on Jacob, but nod. "We were expecting you just not your...friends." Sable had turned to eye the lady. "My name is Jeannie, let's get you registered."

"Cowboy, huh." he snorted like this was a great joke. Maybe he was First Nations, hard to say.

"Well, Texan anyway, never drove any cattle, Hoss." I gave him my best, "That's a Joke." smile. Patent pending.

The Woen yawned letting their stress out.

The tension had died down, so I turned to talk to Jeannie. She was medium height, slim build, sun-kissed skin, dark hair just a shade off black. Her eyes were a pale blue, and you wanted to stare into them, but they were unnerving too.

Rowdy stuck by me, Smoke was cautiously sniffed Jacob and Sable had decided to explore the room while keeping a eye on everyone.

Jeannie was typing away at her keyboard.

A card printed out, laminated and everything, neat. It had my picture and name and said VISITOR.

"This is your temp badge, until your I.D. card comes in. There are four main restaurants, two stores for Sporting goods, A large general goods store, and an exceptional Global Food Market. A Butcher, a Bakery, a killer Donut Shop. Five separate coffee shops. Two excellent Hotels. A Theatre and a Cineplex." Her customer service rattle was on point. "Ah, no Skiing. Verboten."

I chuckled, "All that, and I'm here to get lost in the Wilderness." Rowdy puffed out a breath, amused. He got it.

"Ah, in that case on the West side of town there's a path leading down into the Valley. On the East side a trail heading North into the greater Forest. I hope you find what your looking for."

"Can I grab my gear, and my guns? Oh, do you have a charging and maintenance service for the van." I was eager to get going, but I also wanted to see the town. "I might poke around for a day or two before headin' out."

"Yes, we will take care of the vehicle as needed we'll bill you when you come to pick it up. As for the firearms..." She looked to Jacob.

"Keep them cased in town, but out on the trail no one's going to care. As to your friends, get them vests or something to keep anyone from shooting at them. I think Baren's place sells Kevlar for dogs, he might not have anything in Elephant, but they can probably figure something out. I think it goes without saying don't let them eat anyone."

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"No Promises. Alright, I'll get out of your hair. Go get something to eat." A stomped away grinning.

I went back to the van, found a large duffel bag threw in my armor, the Avenger's case and the Tent's box. How you fit a tent bed and stove in a foot cubed of space, no clue, yet.

I laid the BGH's case across my left shoulder, while holding my spear in the right. Without it's blade ignited it just looked like a weird metal walking stick. Hefting my duffel with my left, I unlock everything up, leaving the loot from earlier. Sucked but oh well. I did grab the pouch of metal ingots though, ya never could say when you might need them.

I walked back through the Visitor Center, nodding to Jeannie and Jacob.

On the other side, I got my first good look at the town.

It was stunning. Every pathway was laid out in a grid, each was about the size of a two lane road, but that wasn't the best part. They were made of transparent material, maybe glass, so you could see five hundred feet below to the Valley floor, or really, four hundred-ish feet to the sea of trees.

"Looks like you could dive right in." I muttered.

The Visitor's Center let out onto the main North-South thoroughfare. There was a glow of heavy mana to the North, outside of Town, but I'll explore that later.

East-West were mostly Apartments, three or four stories, from what I could tell. The exception being the two buildings at the intersection. One had a sign the read "Baren's", the other was "Global Market".

"I'll come back to to check in with Baren's, first a Hotel to drop off my stuff."

The Woen thought it was neat being so high without having to fly.

There was something vaguely European in the architecture of all the buildings. The style was mostly unified, at least from what I could see so far.

I didn't know much about design, but I found it charming. Also, no one was out and about right now, it was a bit creepy.

Not really knowing which way to go, I picked North. Sure enough the next intersection had the Bakery, a restaurant name "Varanne's", a Coffee shop named, "Outlook", and most importantly a Hotel, simple named "Regency". Good enough.

Service was a bit snooty, but I just powered through.

They balked at the Woen, but I just added an extra zero to the bill, and strangely enough they stopped making a fuss. The room was nice, with all the amenities, spacious too. I stowed my stuff except for the spear, then head back to Baren's.

On the way out, I asked the concierge, where everyone was.

Turned out, mostly working, or resting. Evening was the time everybody was out and about. Also, apparently everybody in town ate out at least once a day, because the prices of most things were cheap. Hotel excluded. I snorted.

I realized I was out of cash though, and I personally hated using cards. So I checked the handy, dandy Purchase Options. Wouldn't ya know it?

[ Basic local currency exchange - 1 credit per variable amount ]

[ Advanced local currency exchange - 1 credit per variable amount, better rates ]

I shrugged and popped 50 creds into the advanced exchange.

2 stacks of 50, $100 bills. My eyes got big. Well, I guess I don't need a job. Nah, I gotta earn those creds.

I tucked one stack into my waist band, changed my mind, not secure enough. Then I though, eh, let's have some fun. If someone made a grab for it, we can play, kick the thief.

When I got to Baren's, the Woen were a hit.

The Store owner and his Wife, loved them at first sight. Fawning over them, taking their measurements. They promised to have the vests done by tommorrow.

3 grand lighter. 3+ rated armor should stop most hunting rounds. I though it was a great deal.

I asked about ammo. They referred me to MacAllister's, they themselves mostly carried camping supplies, clothing, armor to prevent accidents. It was at the Eastern Trail head.

I found the Butcher's shop and decided to feed the Gang.

I bought them an already processed Elk carcass. Took 'em about thirty minutes to polish it off bones and all. They liked the frozen texture even if it limited the flavor.

For myself, I grabbed a few burgers from the nearby Eddy's. 400 bucks for lunch. Have to find a way to sort that out.

MacAllister's was not unlike a Trout Pro Shop, it has everything and plenty of it. I had to hike to get to the back of the store where they kept the firearms and ammo. A guy named Gordon was manning the area, "That's some big boys you got there, and are those wings?"

"Yup."

He shrugged like it was no skin off his nose. Had probably seen weirder.

I asked about getting some boxes of ammo, and showed him a couple of rounds from each of my guns, I had pocketed earlier.

"That some big hardware. I can supply the .50BMG, $50 for a box of 10 like you got there. The .60 pistol round. Woo, no we'll have to do those custom, be at least a week, maybe two."

I bought twenty rounds of the .50 and preordered 200, for the .60 at 20 bucks a round.

Well, damn almost out of cash again. I also grabbed a huge Hiking Pack, that looked like a school bag on me. Some water bottles and almost industrial sized jar of beef jerky, 20 lbs.

I burned another 100 creds on cash, threw the cash in the bag.

Then I decided to scout the Eastern trail for a campsite. I'll head back to the hotel after I deal with the day's Encounter.