Zootopia:

Far Beyond These Castle Walls

Chapter One:

Not Just Another Game.

Gideon awoke in a forest. The early morning sun pierced through the foliage above. It cast flecks of light upon the ground around him. The back of his shirt was cold and damp from the morning dew. How long had he been out here? He thought as he tried to sit up. Judging by how bad his back creaked when he sat up, he could only guess it must have been all night. The woods didn't look familiar, not in the slightest. The air was fresh and clean welcoming to his nose. The only thing he could deduce was he must have been somewhere outside of Zootopia, near one of the surrounding burrows, which lead to the biggest question of all. How had he gotten here?

Gideon struggled to get on his knees before coming to his feet. Blood rushed to his head causing him to swoon. It passed almost as quickly as it came on. He gave his chubby body a once over. Still wearing his blue flannel shirt and tattered jeans that he'd been wearing the day before but that wasn't the last thing he'd worn, no. Gideon mentally retraced his steps. He'd gotten tired of playing dungeons and dragons with his friends and decided to go to bed. Changed into his pj's and brushed his teeth, then lay down to sleep.

Maybe this was all part of a prank. There had been a small argument with Finnick about how brutal his dungeon master skills were. If this was a prank, the little fox has gone to a lot of trouble to put it all together. Nothing about his surrounding looked familiar. The trees looked young and thin. Beyond the closest trees was a path barely worn through the underbrush. To top it off there was no sign of any other mammals. Surely, the birds were singing in the sky above, there were sounds of bugs and even stuff that moved through the brush but other than that, there was nothing.

"Alright, ya dick. You succeeded, I'm plenty scared."

Gideon's voice sounded hollow in this large expanse. The fear really didn't set in until there was no response. There was no sign of Finnick, no sign of Judy, or Nick. Where the hell was everyone? He could try to walk back to the city, or at least some place close by so he could call for help...call for help! Gideon reached into his pocket but his phone was missing along with his wallet and keys. Finnick was as brutal at pranks as he was at Dungeon Master.

"Well, if anything, I should get a pretty good workout this morning." The fox conceded to his inevitability.

Gideon walked to the path and looked from left to right, again faced with another burning question. Which way was he going to go? Zootopia could be anywhere for all he knew. With the heavy foliage overhead, he couldn't even see the tops of the buildings. No sign of which direction the city could be in. The chubby fox knew he was going to have to reach deep down inside of him for good 'ol fashion deductive reasoning.

"Eenie, meanie, minie-" He swayed his fingers back and forth between the two directions.

A white-hot light flashed behind his eyes sending him reeling. Soon after that came the pain. A hard throbbing in the back of his head. Someone had struck him from behind, but how? They must have seen him from the trees, stalking him. It wasn't Finnick, was the last thought the pudgy fox had before he fell with his face in the dirt. His vision swam for a second longer, long enough to see a pair of feet come into view before blacking out.

"Roll the dice, I wanna see if your fortitude saves your ass." The small fox chided.

"What's the use, even if you miss me, you're probably gonna summon some skeletons to finish me off." Gideon picked up his teal die starting to shake it.

"Aw, come on. Don't be a whiner like the rest of these guys." Finnick smirked around his electronic cigar, the glowing blue light taunted.

"Curb that crap, tiny or I'll crush your head." Bogo, the cape buffalo nonchalantly flexed his massive arms as if to prove his point.

Gideon opened his mouth to say something but the other fox, Nick was already saying what the baker-fox was primed to mention. "Finnick, you always make this game too hard to play. Putting level two and three goblins in the starter dungeon is crap and you know it."

"You all have a party of..." Finnick pointed around the room counting the number of people. "Six, you should have no problem taking out some goblins."

Judy sat next to Nick looking at her downed fighter. Aza, the hyena, leaned against the chubby baker-fox, lost in thought about what exactly she was going to do with her Berserker and her one hit point. Benny chewed his bottom lip as he perused the D&D rules on his phone. A cleric with six hit points was no match for the goblins moving in for the kill and now he only had one healing spell left. Bogo's female mage had been the first one taken out. A fire arrow had brought about the poor mage's demise. The only other character on the battlefield with any hit points left was Nick's Bard but only because he knew what to expect from the evil Fennec fox.

"There's like twelve goblins and a mage on the battlefield and none of them are dead," Nick went on.

"Seriously, Gid, roll. The worse that can happen is you die, at least you'll be in good company." Aza added, pushing her perfectly painting figure around the play mat.

"No! I ain't gonna give him the satisfaction of watching me die. If he wants to cheat, that's his business, I won't play any part in it." Gideon got up from the table, all eyes were on him. "I don't even like playin' this stupid game. I only do it because I wanna be a good boyfriend."

With that, he stormed out of the room, all eyes followed him as he went but he didn't care. He could hear Finnick's angry voice calling down the hall after him.

"Just because you're a noob and can't play the game, doesn't mean I'm cheatin!"

If he said anything else, Gideon didn't hear him. Instead, he closed the bedroom door behind him and went on to do his nightly ritual of getting ready for bed. Brushing his teeth and changing into his pajamas before settling into his bed, still in quite a huff. The pudgy fox buried his face in his pillow and screamed. It was something he'd not done in a long time but something about the tiny fox pissed him off to no end sometimes. His face red with rage, his heart pounding in his chest so hard that his fingers hurt.

Now that Gideon had a moment to think about his actions, he started to feel a bit self-conscious about the way he acted. There was a nagging voice in the back of his head telling him that his grandma would've been ashamed of him acting so childish. How silly of him to let his temper get the better of him over a board game. The pudgy fox was tempted to go back into the living room and apologize for how he reacted.

Gideon threw the covers back but stopped when he heard voices from the living room. Nick was offering the clean up the mess, while Finnick defended his playing style. Aza, on the other hand, offered to be DM next week, so they could focus on the more fun aspect of the adventure. Bogo rumbled something about paperwork piling up and not being able to attend the following week but Benny would be there to fill the void. The pudgy cheetah whimpered and begged the larger mammal until he agreed to put off his paperwork for one more week. It all depends on whether is ex-wife could get the time off from work. Judy only agreed to return if Aza was the DM, which finally made Finnick agree that he would bow out of the position for the next get together.

Gideon lay in the bed listening to them talk. There was something mellowing about the muted voice through the walls. It almost reminded him of the days when his step dad would pass out drunk in front of the television. The pudgy fox was usually lulled to sleep by the laugh track on 'All in the Pack' or 'The Laverne and Squirrelly Show' reruns. He was starting to get tired, which he didn't want to fall asleep yet. Secretly, he wanted the little fox to come in and apologize, or maybe ask if he was alright. He'd even accept a late night roll between the sheets. Anything that would let Gideon know that Finnick didn't hate him for how he acted. The little fox didn't come and in no time, the baker-fox found himself battling with his consciousness slipping further and further into dreamland.

A cold rush of water washed over the pudgy fox causing him to sit up gasping. He didn't get far before something tugged hard at his neck bringing him down on the twisted roots of a very old tree. There was a rope tied around his neck, not tight enough to choke but just enough to keep him from sitting all the way up. His hands were bound behind his back so he couldn't free himself. Panic started to surge through him. Flashbacks of the terrible things his stepfather used to do to him. Even the alluring glow of the late morning sun did little to calm the torrent of emotions in his stomach. Before he could calm himself, he vomited onto his shoulder. He flailed to escape his own bile, but with his hands tied he couldn't get away.

"Halt!" A voice called.

The power behind the voice was enough to cut through the panic just long enough for him to glance a tall figure knelt down over him. It was hard to make out any specific details through his tear filled eyes but he was able to see a large double-sided axe digging into the ground only a foot away from his head. There was another figure standing behind the first. This one was a bit shorter and rounder in the tummy, this one held an empty bucket. Gideon tried to speak but was greeted with another heavy splash of cold water. The newly made mud under him started clinging to his fur and his clothes.

"Goddess, he's thrown up all over himself. A demon to be sure."

"Easy, Sister Aza. This stranger may not be well." The tubby one mused scooping down to grip the rope around the fox's neck.

"Addled in the head if you ask me." The gruff voice stated.

"Aza?" Gideon coughed as he tried to spit the flecks of his bile from his lips.

Gideon blinked the tears out of his eyes and looked up at the tall figure. It was the large female hyena he expected to see but there was something different about her. Instead of her manicured Mohawk, it was nothing more than a sloppy orange mess atop her head. It continued down her back in a long, rugged braid. She wore a flap of brown leather across her chest and around her waist. Gideon could see a road map of scars all over her body. She clutched a huge battleaxe that she was now using to support her weight. Her golden gaze locked with his, he could make out the many piercings in her face. A ring through one of her nostrils, one in her eyebrow. Several rings in her rounded ears, the weight of the metal caused them to droop slightly.

"Do not speak to me, demon."

"Aza!" The other said, his voice brought the fox's blue gaze to meet his.

"Benny?"

"I am Brother Benjamin, I serve my cloister, in the name of our most holy mother, Galestar."

With the exception of the ornamental leather armor, a cross burned into the front of it, the figure was Benny through and through. The same adorable smile on his rounded face. Fond yellow eyes studied the pudgy fox. On his back, he wore a large round shield that could barely be seen over his round shoulders. At his belt hung a wooden ankh and a heavy-looking metal ball on a stick, a mace, Gideon reminded himself. This had to be the most elaborate prank he'd ever seen in his life.

Gideon spat and looked back and forth between the two. "This is real funny, y'all. Where the hell is Finnick?"

"Who do you speak of?" The large hyena leaned close looking into the fox's eyes.

There was something wild in her eyes, something that he'd never seen before. The Aza he knew didn't exist her eyes. This was either a different person altogether, or she was definitely dedicated to the prank.

"Don't play dumb, you know who I'm talking about."

"Listen, strange one. We don't know this, Finnick and the only jesting going on, is yours. I must know, are you possessed? Are you addled in the brain?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gideon grunted pulling against the rope again.

"Demon-spawn, we saw you on the road preparing to cast your spell. I know not what a Eenie, a meanie, or a minie is, but I don't like them." The look on Aza's face was stone cold.

"What?" Gideon chuckled at the joke that wasn't particularly funny. "Let's forget for a second that this is a prank. You thought I was casting a spell? I was trying to pick which way down the path I wanted to take."

"Oh, OH!" Benjamin smirked. "Like the old Mother Maggie rhythm. You know the one, sister."

Unenthusiastic, the hyena started to sing in a broken voice. "Mother Maggie, brought her baggy, from the merchant's stall, she brought it home, to be alone, to find that she'd been robbed."

"And while you do the rhyme, you point to the different things you want to remove from the choices." Benjamin reached into his boot to pull out a knife.

Gideon started laughing. "Yeah, something like that. That was pretty good, Aza. Did you make that up on the spot?"

"Do not evoke my name, worm."

"Sister!" Benjamin gasped again, clearly struggling to keep her civil. "You will have to excuse her. She was left on the steps of our abbey when she was but a babe. I grew up with her and she can be very hard to get close to but once you do, she will be closer to you than your own shadow."

"You trust too easily, brother."

"Sometimes, Aza, you need to have some faith in your fellow mammal."

"I have faith enough for all, brother, but I know what I-"

The hyena was interrupted by the trumpeting of a horn coming in their direction. Aza snatched around hefting the heavy battleaxe to the ready. She glared out through the foliage. Gideon felt the rope fall away from his neck as he sat. Benjamin moved to free his hand in the same quick motion. The cheetah's eyes darted from what he was working on to the hyena, who was standing guard.

"What do you hear?"

"Small humanoids, three feet at the highest. Eight of them."

Gideon saw her ears working the air, despite the weight of the earrings. Once the ropes at his hands fell away, Gideon to his feet ripping his flannel shirt free throwing it to the ground. It was too late, the white t-shirt underneath was soaked through with his own sick. The fox sneered in disgust as he pulled the shirt over his head leaving him half-naked, fortunately, the two shirts had been enough to keep the vomit from soaking into his fur.

"What is she talking about?" Gideon grunted glancing at Benjamin, who freed his shield from his back and had it armed.

"Sounds like we've been set upon by goblins, stranger." Benjamin held his dagger out to him.

"Don't you dare!" Aza hissed.

It was too late, Gideon took the dagger and nodded his appreciation. "Goblins? This'll be a hoot."

"Let Aza be the first to strike, then follow me in. Keep your back to ours and we may just survive to see supper."

Benjamin banged on his shield before he started whispering. Gideon wasn't sure what words he was saying but one thing he was certain of was that the cleric was praying, just like Benny had done in the game. The baker-fox wondered, had they stayed up all night to put together this ruse? If so, then Gideon would have to feel honored that they were this dedicated just into fooling him.

"Here they come," Aza warned.

Gideon expected to see some small mammals in terrible cosplay stepping out of the trees. Instead, he saw something that terrified him. They were, in all essence, Goblins. Greenish skin, pointed ears. Fangs showed in their gaping mouths. Red eyes poked out from under their helmets and hoods. They were all wearing gnarled armor and wielding crude looking weapons. For a brief moment, the fox tried to rationalize what he was seeing, all it left him with was a cold feeling. Desperately, he hoped that these goblins were level one.