"Why do these animals have to drive so dern fast?" Many thoughts were running through the black and orange fox while his paws gripped the wheel tightly. He turned his head back and forth frantically trying to find an opening to merge into the super highway that would lead him to his destination. He had never left the tri-burrows before in his life but since he had dominated the pie market in his surrounding home towns it was time he would try and expand his business to bigger markets. He would have never considered this if he hadn't been motivated by the courage that his new friend Judy showed by achieving the impossible. "Anyone can be anything" these words coming from the bunny in question rang in the fox's head, he had finally taking up the courage to contact a pie distributer that was located in Zootopia to get a meeting with one of the upper managers to try his pie for a possibility to set up shops around the different sections of Zootopia. Judy had become an inspiration to all critters outside of Zootopia to expand their limits and try new things. The fox successfully merged into the freeway and was speeding down the mega road to his meeting. His paws sweating at the wheel as he thought about what he would say and the multitude of different ways this could go horrible wrong for him. His ears lay flat on his head but he swallowed his fears and turned on the radio which was playing some of his favorite comfort songs from the multi-platinum country singer Tim McPaw. "Der' God in the morning what em I so afraid of? Not like these city slickers gone' eat me up or nothing." He laughed at the thought of a Gideon Grey Fox pie, which successfully calmed his nerves. His confidence was slowly recovering.
Gideon's eyes grew in size as he looked upon the city that was Zootopia, this was indeed a sight he never thought he would have the privilege of seeing. He parked his truck outside the city in a designated parking lot and took the train into city central which is where the distribution company building was located. He didn't need any of his equipment since the letter he received said specifically that all preparation tools and ingredients would be provided. The train ride there was an experience in and of itself, he really couldn't believe his eyes, the city was bigger than he could ever imagine. The train stopped, finally he had arrived, and he took a step out and looked around. His heart began to race at an alarming rate, never had this country fox ever seen so many critters in one place. "S'all good Gideon" the fox said to himself over and over, this was not working as well as the fox had hoped so in a panic he swung his body around and tried to get back onto the train, but alas he was too late, the door was already closed and the train was moving slowly to its next destination.
Gideon took a seat on a bench that was just outside of the train station. He sat and took in the city. He had only seen pictures of Zootopia when he was young as well as heard stories from traveling sales men that would frequently visit his farm. The noise was the biggest surprise to the bigger fox, the sounds of cars honking and the sound of a thousand conversations being had all at once. He reached inside his short's pocket and pulled out a gold chain watch, it was rough around the edges but it was his most prized possession, given to him by his father when was only 8 years old, a year before his daddy's passing. The lack of a father figure in his youth was a big contributor to why his childhood was a mess of anger, aggression, and bullying. The time was 12:30 and his meeting was not till later that evening. He had made sure to get in early to avoid any kind of complication that might arise and cause him to miss his meeting. With time to kill Gideon decided to visit his friend Judy at the police station in Central. Walking on the sidewalk down the road he found himself looking up at the large skyscrapers. He swore they went passed the clouds and some even further. He felt eyes on him constantly as he walked along, he did not quite fit in to his surroundings. It was very clear that he was from outside the city and even though visitors were welcome in Zootopia it was still a rare occurrence. He had on a button down red checkered shirt that tucked into a pair of slack shorts. The dead giveaway however was the orange suspenders that wrapped around his shoulders and connected to each end of his shorts.
The fox was nearly to the station but he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a low deep growl come from his stomach. "Settle down there Gid, guess I got time for a bite" He looked around at the multitude of businesses around him and saw, down the street, a pizza joint called "Rhino's Pizza Palace." Underneath the sign read "Best Pizza in Zootopia." Gideon padded across the street and walked in the doors. "Well all be, the best pizza in all of dern Zootopia, I must be luckier than a rabbit's foot on a cricket's leg." The fox grabbed a slice and after a few bites he was experiencing heaven in triangular form. It seemed that everything in Zootopia was so much grander than in his home town. Though to this fox that did not necessarily mean anything good. He found his experience in the big city to be, so far, very impersonal. He was too used to having friendly conversation with the people he encountered in his day to day activities and his deliveries. A culture shock was indeed what the country fox was experiencing, but at least he had this good pizza to keep him company.
While walking out of the pizza palace he patted his full tummy and gave a deep growl burp before continuing on his way down the street. The orange fox was a tubby creature, his belly hung off his belt by a good inch or two and his build was big and tall by nature. This made Gideon's social life a little awkward, he never had much confidence in his looks. It was a major reason why he never bothered dating anyone in his town. The fox found himself deep in his thoughts while walking, what seemed like out of nowhere he found himself at the large police station. "Well that was mighty quick," he thought to himself. His gaze lead up the many stairs that connected to the entrance doors, finding no other way in he began to walk up the many steps. "Well I reckon I might as well work off some of that devilish pizza here." It took a good five minutes to reach the top of the marble stairs, he swung the doors open and walked in catching his breath.
The vestibule of the police station was gigantic, police officers were standing around chatting amongst themselves, some were talking to citizens, and he even saw some offices bringing in shady looking animals in handcuffs. He made his way to the counter in the middle of the room, the only officer that was behind the counter was a quite large cheetah that was off to the side talking rather enthusiastically to a fox. The fox was in a uniform and had sunglasses on, he was leaning on the counter laughing at something the cheetah had just told him. "Sunglasses inside a building? Well I suppose it takes all kinds o-people." It seemed the city was never going to stop surprising him. Gideon had hoped that the cheetah behind the counter would notice him, but after waiting what he thought to be a respectable amount of time, he decided to ring the bell that was in front of him.
As soon as the sound of the bell went off the cheetah behind the counter whipped his head around so hard his very fluffy cheeks jiggled a bit. He then made what Gideon could only describe as a light fast job over to the center of the counter and slammed both of his paws down on the surface. "OH NOOOO, IM AM SOOOOOO SORRY!" Gideon was completely taken a back from the sudden excitement in front of him, the cheetah had the most genuinely worried look on his face, like he had just slapped Gideon's own grandmother right in front of him. "Hi I'm Benjamin Clawhauser at your service how may I help you… Waaaat is that?" The cheetah reach his arm over the counter and before Gideon could react, took ahold of one of his suspenders. "oh LORD, this is sooooo cute, Look! At! You!" The cheetah was talking so fast and so loud Gideon couldn't process anything that was going on, he immediately felt several eyes on him from different surrounding officers and citizens. The large fox started to blush from embarrassment and looked down at the paw that was gripping his suspender in confusion. He regained his consciousness and swatted the paw away from his clothing. "I..I..I'm Gideon Grey here to see Officer Miss Judy Hops i..if you done mind Sir." Benjamin retracted his paw and gave the fox in front of him a smile, then turning his head to the officer behind him he yelled "Hey Nickyyyyy someone's here to see your girlfriend."
Gideon looked over at the fox who was walking towards him and taking his sunglasses off and resting them on top of his head in front of his ears. "Judy's is in a meeting with Chief big-horns for hair, and who might you be?" Gideon's mouth fell a bit and felt a little more at ease since he in fact knew who this fox was. "Oh my goodness you must be Mr. Nick Wilde, Judy has told me all about you in her letters, it is a pleasure, see me and Judy go way back and I was in the city and was a-wondering to catch up a-bit." Gideon reached out his paw and was greeted with a shake from the smaller fox. Nick broke the shake off and gave a friendly nod, "Well you're free to wait here Gideon I'm afraid it might be an hour or two but she would be happy to see a friend, she's been quite down lately." Gideon's ears drooped down and his smile was lost, "Oh fiddlesticks, I'm afraid that won't work, I do have some business to attend to her' in town, do tell her that I stopped by won't ya?" The cheetah jumped into the conversation excitedly "Why of course we will right Nicky, we will tell her a cute-ol-fox came in with suspenders looking for her." Gideon felt his embarrassment coming on again, so he quickly thanked the two and headed on his way toward his meeting.
It was night time and Gideon was seated on the train heading to the parking lot on the outskirts of town, his head was resting on the window as he looked out at the town at night light up and passing by. The meeting was a mess of confusion to him, the people that he met with were rather cold and after making them his signature blueberry pie, they had tasted it with a few bites and they ushered him out of the building with sayings such as "we will be in touch." But that wasn't what was bothering the country fox at that moment, he had other thoughts on his mind. Number one being, why couldn't he stop thinking about that police officer? What was his name again, Benny….Ben, Benjamin, yeah that was it. He couldn't get his warm smile out of his head. Something about him made the fox feel like maybe the city isn't such a bad place after all.
