Prologue: What Lies Beyond the Scar of the World

Where worlds collide
Blood divides
When darkness falls
Fate calls

~Ruelle - Take It All~

Fate can be a funny thing. That is something that is held true to our daily lives in both the synergy of cruelty and mercy. Fate can determine who we are, what we will become, and what our actions both in this world and past it will take shape and cast an echo across the scape of time. Little do many know of the potential that can exist in such a volatile system. That was echoed clearly across the civilized world when the destiny of two collectives crossed their paths in a shocking revelation that demonstrated not just how funny fate is, but the influence that fate has on the forces that shape the world. Forces such as that of evolution, of which unbeknownst to us was at work setting the stage for the scene of this shocking reveal. Both societies only but mere pawns in this unscripted show of which had us dancing on the strings of our puppet masters.

The planet that fate and its cohorts had chosen was none other than that of our own familiar planet we call home. There exists several continents on this planet, but none were bigger than that of Pangea and Zootopia. These two continents are technically sub continents as they share the same land mass, only divided by one of the deepest and widest canyons on Earth. On one side of the continent, on the sub-continent of Zootopia, evolution set out over the course of millions of years shaping the various species that would eventually come to rule this land as their own. Only thousands of years ago did these species that dwelled here base their daily lives on survival, survival based on savagery…eat or be eaten. However, that savagery was soon put aside so that all species that dwelled here would live in harmony, and eventually found this great society at the heart of this land…at a place that would soon be called Zootopia.

Meanwhile, on the other side of this super continent was the sub-continent of Pangea. Here, society was a bit more uniform, but also dominated by a single species that would soon rise up from hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. While other creatures such as Amphibians, Avian, and reptilian species lived in Zootopia along with Mammals, they all paled in comparison to that of Homo-Sapiens, the last genetic evolution of this linage of primate. They would be known throughout the civilized world as humans. Life in this land was driven off of dominance for resources, food and territory, but unlike that of Zootopia, it would be another form of savagery that would drive this…war. In the beginning of their society, the collective of both their land and their species was called the Commonwealth Federation. Eventually these humans would grow and change into a united species, a singular super nation that would produce massive strides in technology, art and literature, and science, but would continue to cling to the darker nature of their kind. The brutality of which was both a driving factor of their society as well as marred it.

Two pawns dropped into this world, driven by the forces that made them who and what they are. Zootopia, a land of harmony, with strides in their own quest for science and technology. Pangea, a land of unity through violence, dominance, and a singular dominate species living in its borders. The stage has been set. The actors put in place, and the final reveal for all soon to see. Only both sides had no idea of what would happen, nor would either side foresee that these two "worlds" would collide thirty years ago not by the actions of war, nor the actions of conquest, but of four simple humans making a daring journey to see what was beyond the imposing canyon that laid to the East of their border.

This is our story on how two completely different species met.

It was a warm, spring day that day. The sun was shining, periodically revealing its figure out from behind the scattered dark clouds that rolled gently through the sky. There was just a gentle mid spring breeze that rolled across the land. It was a day that was both average, and yet seemed to promise some possible surprise. Oh, what a surprise that day would be. It was the day that four of the exotic foreign creatures from across the Canyon had decided to plan an expedition to see what laid beyond this canyon, or as both sides had seemed to refer to it as, The Scar of the World. These exotic creatures, these…humans, which were making this expedition, were part of a scientific effort by the Commonwealth Federation to catalogue what was past their only land border. It is from this quest for knowledge that these hairless creatures had, this sense of discovery, which would lead to one of the greatest finds of the century for both sides. Still, fate would not have it that easy. It would not be some simple story with a happy ending, no fairy tale. No…it would get more complicated than that…

A figure climbed up on top of a raised uneven boulder, one of the many reddish-brown lumps of rock that lay scattered around him. The sun, which was out for most of the day, had been beating down onto the sandstone rock that formed the Scar of the World. Even an hour after the sun being mostly blocked by the now rolling in dark clouds, the rocky area around him was still unmercifully warm, much more than the air above the canyon probably was. The man, clothed in cargo shorts, a white T-shirt and canvas vest and a ballpark cap, was forced to wipe the sweat which was very slowly running down his forehead to his eyes and nose away with his T-shirt. He stood atop of the boulder and tried to figure how far away he and his team were from the far canyon wall, the one that would present the next challenge in their trip…climbing it up to the top. The heat that radiated off of the sandstone around him distorted his view into the distance with the classic optical illusion effect. However, he could clearly see the other wall. He could also speculate that he and the crew were probably another hour to the wall. The man groaned with annoyance, not in part just to the near unbearable heat that felt like was roasting him, but mainly cause him and his team had been trekking through the canyon floor for nearly eight hours. He knew it was called the Scar of the World for a reason, but it had looked like a shorter trek from back up top, on their side of the canyon.

He heard the sound of footsteps contacting rock with a heavy hearty sound of that of a hiking boot. The man turned around and saw the three other members of his team catching up with him, each one appearing as exhausted if not more so than he was.

The first team member was Professor James Murdock, a biologist from the University of Hamden in the city of Hamden. James was a lighter skinned Caucasian of Anglo ancestry whose non-muscular build made it clearly evident that he was not used to field work such as this. Though he was in his late forties, he was doing a remarkable job in keeping up with the rest of the group. James was assigned to the expedition by their group sponsoring their expedition due to the need to accurately and precisely catalogue any possible forms of ecology that laid in the stretch of unknown land on the other side of the Canyon. The groups sponsor was actually the University of Hamden's Department of Natural Sciences, of which wanted James to take two of his grad students and himself across the Canyon to discover and catalogue any species both currently known and undiscovered that call this unfamiliar expanse of land home.

The team member behind James was the group's medic, Nicolai Voltenski. Nicolai had formal medical training as an army medic in the Commonwealth Federation Army, assigned within the 171st Mechanized Battalion. Though his service with the Army ended more than 5 years ago, Nicolai found a new job working with the University as the field medic for all of their science department's expeditions. He was slightly darker skinned than James, as his ancestry is Slavic. He was also dressed in tan cargo shorts, but was wearing a green T-shirt and was carrying a medical backpack.

The last team member was one of Professor Murdock's grad students, Sarah Chen. When she had found out that the University and Professor Murdock were planning on sponsoring this type of fieldwork, specifically in her major and field of Ecology, she was one of the first of his grad students to sign up. She was credited by the Professor as his brightest grad student he's currently worked with, and she was not just strong mentally, but physically as well.

James wiped the sweat from his brow as he then reached to his backpack and grabbed his water canteen. He unscrewed it as he spoke with a winded English accent to the man in front of him, "So Samuel, how far is it to the other side of the Canyon do you think?" James then took a long swig of water before offering the canteen to Samuel in front of him. Samuel grabbed the canteen and took a short sip before saying, "Maybe another hour to the wall." He then added with a sigh of annoyance, "Then comes the fun part of climbing up it." He took a longer sip before handing the canteen back to James.

Samuel Smith was Professor Murdock's second grad student that he chose for this expedition. He was a darker skinned 23 year old man of African descent who was almost as knowledgeable in the field of Ecology as his fellow student Sarah.

Professor Murdock grabbed his canteen from Samuel and then added, "Well then let's get going then, shall we? I'll lead for a while." The professor started walking ahead of where Samuel stood, holding his backpack straps that were still around his shoulders with both hands.

Sarah came up to Samuel and muttered softly, "…And I thought I was the one with the crazy love for science. Shouldn't we take a break or something after hiking for hours straight?"

To both her surprise and Samuel's, the professor then spoke up loudly saying, "Well let's get going you two, Science and discovery wait for no man."

The two of them looked towards the professor's direction to see that he and Nikolai were already walking towards the wall.

Sarah sighed and she said, "I guess not then…"

Later the group had made it to the wall, and after a harrowing climb in which Samuel almost suffered a steep drop off the wall, the group made it to the top. They were all personally grateful for the high quality climbing gear and safety gear they had used, and would use again to get back in 36 hours' time after exploring and cataloguing the forms of plant, insect and aquatic life that lived within this new lands ecosystem.

The group began the scientific part of their expedition. Murdock and two grad students began with taking some bio-samples from an unfamiliar tree species.

"Incredible Professor, this tree seems to be a new species of Ginkgophyta" said Sarah with clear enthusiasm in her voice as she closely studied the leaves of the tree.

Meanwhile, Nikolai was completely bored listening to the three of these science majors go on and on about words that had no meaning to him. He sighed and began to walk slowly and scout the surrounding area for possible dangers, an old habit of his former military training he had. Once he was out of sight of the science guys, but still close enough to vaguely hear them, he grabbed his medical backpack and unzipped one of the compartments to double check on the "personal security" he secretly brought along…A M1911 .45cal Colt pistol. He wanted to make sure if something went sideways out here, that they would have a fighting chance.

Nikolai began to walk over the crest of a hill that was slightly in front of him to get the lay of the land. Though Nikolai was doing this out of pure amusement of his paranoia that came from his training, he was stunned at what lay off in the distance beyond the hill.

Stretching off into the horizon was what one would expect from being away from civilization: Trees, grass, flowers, rivers, the usual things. However, something was cutting in a controlled and slightly curving fashion across the landscape…

A road.

Nikolai was stunned and perplexed at how there could be a road where no civilization existed, but even that too was proven to be even more shocking. When Nikolai followed the path of the road with his eyes, scanning to the right, he found…a town.

The buildings looked so unusual to him, their architectural design resembling something foreign and alien to him. Nikolai could see movement in the town, but it was too far away for him to be able to make out what it was.

Nikolai just stood, frozen with shock at what he was seeing. That is until he heard a voice cry out, "Guys, I found him. He's over here."

Nikolai was still too stunned to really pay them too much attention to the voice, which he knew to belong to Samuel.

Nikolai heard the two science majors and the professor jogging up towards him.

Samuel kept staring into the distance as they approached him.

"Nikolai, what's going on? You alright, mate" asked the Professor?

Nikolai finally regained his composure and snapped back to reality. He looked behind him and said, "Uh…you three need to see this."

The three of them walked further up the hill as Samuel said, "What's got you so…"

When the three of them saw the road and the town, Samuel trailed off and finished with a shocked and flat voice, "Spooked."

The four of them stared off at the town, Nikolai trying to piece together what sort of people could have built this town…or if they even were people. Meanwhile, the Professor spoke with shock, "Do my eyes deceive me, is that a town?"

To this, Sarah then said, "It sure looks like it."

The professor then shouted in jubilation and energy beyond his age, "By all the wonders of the world, we've made a discovery, lads." He then turned to Sarah and said, "…and lass of course." He then spoke with clear excitement, "Why this could be the greatest scientific discovery of our world."

The professor then started jogging down the hill towards the town shouting, "Come on, we've got to see what peoples have built that place. By Jove, this is amazing."

Nikolai yelled after the professor, "Wait, I'm not sure it's safe!" The professor kept on jogging, ignoring Nikolai. "Professor" he yelled!

The two grad students soon took off running after their professor, in part due to the possible danger that he was ignoring, but also due to the great discovery that lay before the three science majors.

Nikolai then groaned, "Oh hell…" and took off after them.

Soon the four of them arrived on the outskirts of the town. It turned out that the town was a farming community and upon seeing a sign along the side of the road as they crept stealthily through the brush off to the right of the road, this place was named "BunnyBurrow." The rapidly ticking number beneath the sign made them all realize that clearly a lot of people lived here, which surprised the team as the buildings were so small, only about a story or two at the most.

The team stopped and ducked down in some thick brush that was closer into the town. Though they all remained unseen, what they had seen blew their minds out of the water. There were various creatures that were moving about in the town, with the majority of them seeming to belong to a single genus with several species. The majority were a short statured hairy (furry) group of creatures that stood about four feet tall with various fur coloring to them, some being grey with white belly fur, others brown with white belly fur. Regardless, both species had elongated ears that sometimes drooped and sometimes stood at attention. There were however, other various creatures that were bigger, smaller, had more hair, or less hair. There were even some creatures with rough dry looking skin (scales) and others with strange looking mega hairs made out of smaller micro hairs (feathers). The team were stunned beyond their belief at the not only what they were seeing with that, but that all these creatures were bipedal just like them and all spoke a language they could understand, in addition to wearing clothes much like humans did.

Professor Murdock whispered to the team, "All my years of biological study and research, and I could never have guessed that life like this could have existed on Earth…let alone advanced, civilized life like this."

It was indeed true what the professor was saying. These newly discovered species of bipedal organisms wore clothes like humans did, spoke in a language the team could understand, had the capability to construct buildings like humans did, and had cars and other mechanically driven means of transportation.

Sarah whispered to Professor Murdock, "With such a find as this Professor, what do you think we should do? Contact the University?"

Nikolai then whispered, "Hell, at this point we should contact the federal government of Pangea."

Murdock however was more concerned with what to do about this discovery right now. The pure meaning for both the field of biology and what this discovery could mean well beyond his field was madly swirling in his head with the possibilities.

A first contact with an unidentified civilization he thought. As the first humans to bear witness to this, we should be the ones to make contact.

Murdock then looked to his two grad students and said softly, "The four of us have just found the find of a dozen lifetimes. I say we try to make contact with this society."

His two grad students cautiously agreed, but were still nervous about the capacity that these creatures might possess. With the biggest concern being their personal safety.

Nikolai was completely against the idea, but after much persuasion, had finally caved in.

So the four of them emerged from the brush they were hiding in and began to cautiously cross the dirt road in front of them and into the town.

As the four of them moved through the town, trying to find the creature whom might have the highest authority here, the occupants of the town started to notice the four strange new beings that entered their quiet little town.

The team's gazes of both wonder and nervousness, we met with equal gazes of wonder, nervousness and even fear from the occupants of the town. It was clear to both sides that they were unsure of what to do about the other…or what move the other might make.

Children were scurried out of sight by their parents. Some of the creatures ran into their homes and locked their doors.

Some of the creatures were actually taking pictures of the four of them on what appeared to be smart phones.

The four continued as uneasy as ever until they finally found one of the creatures who claimed to be the mayor of the town, one of those shorter grey and white furred creatures with the elongated ears. After that…well, things got both more surreal and tense for both sides.

As the first contact between two worlds that never knew the other existed was made, and the actors on this cosmic stage met, neither side was prepared for the shocking truth that there were living beings unlike them that had shared this planet with them for millennia, or possibly even way longer

"Breaking News just in folks…" spoke a human news caster.

What was understood in the order of the world, both biologically and technologically, was shattered. Picture this. Just as a hammer being struck onto a mirror breaks the perceived world, that world doesn't stay broken

"…A civilization living next door to our own, unseen by us animals…" spoke a Chameleon news anchor.

Though the old world you saw may have ended when the mirror was smashed…

"…The discovery apparently had been made by a research team from Hamden University" spoke another news anchor.

…When you put up the new reflection of reality, everything around you seems to change just then.

"…These unknown creatures apparently calling themselves human, have extended an offering of cooperation unto Zootopia" spoke a Horse News Anchor.

You now see that you weren't indeed the only one in that room. You weren't the only one living there, or even just there.

"The last stretch of the suspension bridge connecting Zootopia and Pangea was finished today, marked by celebrations as both sides cut ceremonial ribbons on their respective sides of the bridge over the Scar of the World" Said the first human news anchor.

Though you may see the same room, the same furniture and the same flooring, one can't help but notice that you now see another being in the room. This same being was born just like you…

"…Today marks the first day of open public tourism of Pangea" said another Snow Leopard news anchor.

...They were raised like you: a family, a home, an education. They were educated just like you…

"…The official opening for the Pangean Human embassy in Zootopia was marked with a protest outside…" said another human news anchor.

…And they will die just like you. But…

"Word is that the Zootopian City council has now rejected most of the terms of full cooperation with Pangea citing several shocking reports of internal conflicts within the human society. Though both sides will maintain diplomatic relations and trade deals, it is unknown what specific parts of the formal treaty were rejected by the Council" said a Falcon news anchor.

…They are not like you.

"Zootopia secretary of the treasury, Sheryl Meadows came out in an interview today saying that the treaty was rejected because the council was arguing about not what was in the treaty, but who had offered them it. She cited that the main cause of the disagreement among the council was that the humans were quote Too violent and dangerous to work with end quote" said a panther news anchor.

They don't look like you and their behavior is foreign and concerning to you. You are left with one question then…

"…City Hall issued a statement of the recent protests and demonstrations against the humans living in Zootopia today calling the acts misplaced anger and fear that does not reflect the view of Zootopia as a whole against the human species" said the same panther news anchor.

…Can I move past all of that…and trust them.

Soon however, both sides would soon learn the answer to this question…and it wouldn't be pleasant for one of the groups as this show of the century was only just beginning…

An: After such a long time here it is, I would like to thank SR2Turoka for helping co-create this story, always, I welcome constructive criticism.