"Judy, we need arable land. You're our only hope. The Hopps Clan keeps growing and it is fast becoming time to move. Can you do it?"
Judy's father's words echoed in her mind. "Yes, father." She had replied.
For three days, Judy had been on the trek. For three days, she had kept her tall, rabbit ears alert and her wits about her. The journey was long, but not without companionship. Hers was a unique duty – scout of the Hopps Clan – and with it came a unique tool.
Beside her, on all fours, strode Nick – the Hopps family fox.
As they crested a hill, Judy surveyed the valley below. She glanced to Nick, who had stopped at her flank. Seeing him then reminded her of when they had met, so long ago. She was a child, and he had held her. Once, her mother told her that Nick had been with her ever since she was born. Now they were grown, fit to serve the clan. Judy had seen two dozen summers, and Nick nearly three.
"Mother said you were abandoned… Small, mewling. She said that without us, you would have died." Judy's words lifted Nick's ears as he listened to her, and they both sat. They stared at the valley, purported to be the Meadowlands by the elders. It was their destination.
"The clan was protective of me for as long as I can remember. Fox, they called me. Well, all but one…"
Judy narrowed her eyes, trained senses picking through the scenery, the rocks and grass. Now she had seen these Meadowlands, and it would be the talk of the village – if she could return home. Through her left ear, she heard Nick's voice. Through the other, a gentle wind blowing in from the east.
"And we still are, Nick." Judy said, turning to him. She moved her paws downward, tugging at a corn husk pouch full of berries she had picked earlier on the journey. "I know you think of this as a hunt, though you refuse to consume the other mammals we come across… you know, your nose for these berries is more keen than any hunter's for their prey." There was a lilt of jest in her tone, the light of a smile appearing on her lips.
Nick grinned back at her, and dug his paw into the bag. Blueberries, as he expected. He retrieved enough for the moment and began popping them into his mouth.
"We're far from the burrows, Nick. Eat with some restraint?" Judy chuckled, then she jogged down the hill toward a flat rock amidst patches of grass. She climbed onto it, and felt the sun's warmth. She peered into the distance. The grass was green, and clear. It was perfect. The Meadowlands were as the elders had said; even the breeze from the east turned out to exist after all.
Behind her, Nick's natural grace easily allowed him to keep Judy's pace. He stopped near her, waiting as she climbed.
"Nick, come." She said plainly, as if such orders were commonplace. Nick slid up onto the rock, his lithe, naked body rubbing against Judy's coarse cotton clothing. "Look there. See how open the plains? We could make this our clan's home if we could make the journey. There have been no cataclysms here. No wars. At least, not ones the elders speak of…"
Nick looked, but he couldn't be the judge of something so important. He tucked his head down into Judy's lap as she observed. He licked her paw once. "I am here to support you, Judy. Whatever you decide, I have to agree. You are the scout – I am just a fox." There was no malice in his voice. Just facts.
Judy nodded. "But brave for a fox. And loyal. And kind." She moved her paw to rest atop his head, stroking the space between his large, dark ears. He was warm. The cool breeze whipping up from the flatlands ahead did not seem so bad with his body against hers. He closed his eyes, tired limbs from a long morning's travel sapping away his energy.
"Haha, exhausted, brave fox? Or are you playing the sly one, feigning sleep so you can escape your duties? I know you better than you think, Nick."
His ears raised instinctively at the sound of his name. "I am what you say, Judy, but I will never be a rabbit." He spoke without opening his eyes. Just words, no actions. Judy looked down at him. Her eyes softened as she saw him lying there, the familiar russet fur. She had always been able to pick him out from a crowd thanks to his fur. She was still young when he was grown. Now, age was irrelevant.
"You are as good as rabbit." Judy assured, running her paw down his back. "You work hard, though you hope no one finds out. You play at sly, but you are good in your heart. The Hopps Clan values you. Treasures you. Nick, I treasure you." Her own words startled her. Never had she said such things. What would the elders say? Her father? Had she fallen in love with the clan's pet? Surely they would renounce it. Call it foolish fraternization. But they all loved this fox. She just more than any.
"You're too good to this fox, Judy. If I were a wild f-"
"But you are not wild. You are ours." Judy interrupted. Nick was quick to defer to her.
"I've seen the way the other predators look at me in wartime. When they attack, they half expect me to join them. They look at me and wonder why you ride on my back, and why I don't eat you. What if I were taken? What would I tell them?"
Judy moved both her paws down to hold Nick's sides. She pressed her body down to hold her chest against the fox's back. Her fox.
"No predator will take you from us. You and I are inseparable. You are Hopps Clan, no other. Those predators you talk about, they're not like you. They're simple. You are special. A fox, raised among rabbits. This is a gift for you, don't forget. Just as you… Just as you were a gift to me, from father."
Nick stirred, sniffing the air. It gave Judy pause. She replicated the subtle twitch with her own nose, trying to catch the scent on the air.
"Speak." She whispered.
"A wolf." Nick replied, and Judy lifted her head. She kept her ears down, and her body pressed to him. "Stalking… to the east." His tail twitched. Judy stroked it to keep him calm.
And there was a wolf. She was hunting, not a hundred yards from where they sat.
"We do not attack… Merely hide. Or… Nick, down. We will track the wolf. We must know the scope of this threat." Judy tapped his back, and he slid off her smoothly. Together, they crouched in the grass. The scent of the wolf grew stronger, then weaker, in threatening ebbs. The scouting pair moved through the grass silently. Every few steps they would stop, check, and continue, circling around to stay behind the wolf, away from the range of its ears.
As Nick stalked, his mind wandered. How well would he do against a wolf? After all, Nick was as good as prey. He thought only rarely that his life was akin to that of a charmed slave. But he daren't speak such idle thoughts aloud to rabbits.
Now was the time to protect Judy, not to consider his place in the world.
Judy's paw moved to her garments, patting the sling tied to her waist. She removed it, and palmed a heavy stone. Her eyes cast down to Nick, observing his methods. He was on all fours, tail down and ears fallen. He sniffed and pushed his muzzle through the grass, creating a sensory dome around them that allowed him to catch the wolf's scent without it catching him. As long as they remained downwind.
The sun beat down, but a cool breeze from the crags beyond which lied the ocean, brought a subtle chill every so often. Nick and Judy had only heard stories of the ocean, a vast body of water, to which they were not to stray near. It was a dangerous place; unlike anything they knew. A thousand times a pond. Still, they could not help but wonder, and assign mystic importance to that salty hint in the air.
The wolf knew of the ocean. She had seen it. Once, she had swum there. There were not as many fish as she had been told.
This wolf was the first predator whose scent they had encountered on this mission. It was a good sign, a sign that at least the path to the Meadowlands was safe for the younger rabbits to cross. Only the presence of a wolf here, now, concerned Judy. The sudden prickle along Nick's back concerned her more.
Something had changed. Nick sensed it immediately, and he whispered to Judy.
"The wolf changes course. It approaches."
Judy cursed herself. She had not felt the wind change. The stone in her paw and the fox at her feet gave her comfort, but still her nose twitched in apprehension.
"Nick. Circle. Ensnare the wolf. We must fight for the Hopps Clan." Judy's orders came quickly, and then she moved through the grass away from Nick. He watched her, then moved on his own toward the other side. Carefully, they changed position to flank around the wolf, who did not have a pack they could smell to help it.
Judy suddenly thought that was odd. Under what circumstances could a wolf have no pack? Then her stomach ached. She remembered tales from the elders of lone wolves who drank blood and cared for nothing. Mad creatures who roamed dark forests and tore rabbits apart without effort. Was this such a wolf? A mad, lone wolf? She hoped her stone would strike true.
Nick was brave. He knew he was to first gain the attention of the wolf, so that Judy could attack from afar. They had practiced this many times, and successfully defended against wild cats and wolves in a pack with the help of other rabbits. But never a lone wolf. Nick could smell it strongly now, and was sure it could smell him. He carefully moved his paws wide, in case he was to pounce. Surely the wolf thought the same. But the wolf had no Judy to help it.
He waited, tucked into a patch of grass before a broad, flat space amidst all the vegetation. He knew the wolf had to cross the open space, and then he would have the upper paw. Soon, it came. A blotch of white. The color of Judy's palms. In her mouth, the wolf held a bundle of mice by their tails. She wore no clothes, like him. She moved slowly, unlike a skilled hunter ought to.
Nick pounced out of the brush, his lips curled in a fearsome display of teeth. He growled. The wolf, taken by surprise, dropped the mice. Nick knew he had to hold the wolf's attention long enough for Judy to-
The rock came. It sailed down from Judy's position on a raised rock, striking the wolf in the ribs and bowling her over. She yelped as she fell, her tongue falling out. Nick approached the wolf, ready to kill. Ready to bite the neck and kill the enemy, the threat to the Hopps Clan.
But then, he saw the wolf's eyes. He saw her fear. He saw her regret. She panted, and on her side a red rose of blood blossomed.
"Peace…" She begged, her eyes wide and her breaths ragged. "Cubs."
Nick stopped at the word. Cub. This was no lone wolf. No monster. This was a mother, alone, lost, and struggling to feed her pups. He could not bring himself to bite her neck. Above, Judy watched in confusion, and worry. She pitched herself downward, scooping up another rock and approaching the two carnivores.
"Nick! Kill!" She commanded, her legs shaking. Never had she been so close to a wolf. It was enormous, bigger than it seemed from afar. The ears and the muzzle, the bushy tail: these were all similar to Nick.
Nick simply turned his head. He gathered himself up in a sitting position and he lowered his ears. "But I cannot." He muttered, bitter that he almost could. That he almost had. Judy took the rock from her sling. She approached the wolf and raised the heavy rock above her head.
"The wolf is threat. I will not abide threat to my Clan or my fox." This she addressed to Nick, but the wolf heard. The wolf, she knew the rabbit's conviction. She saw it, and she knew she was about to die.
But still, she pleaded, "Cubs…" And wheezed a long sigh of breath.
Judy's arms lowered and she looked to Nick, whose head was down. "You are the lone wolf. You are monster in the forest, why do you play at this trick? Where is your pack, lone wolf?" She asked the wolf, her tone still commanding.
"No pack." The wolf mumbled, wincing at the pain in her side. "Mother only… And cubs."
Her words were strange. Soft. Not the growl of a predator. But did all predators not growl? Well, not her Nick.
"Y-you… You wolf. Mother…" Judy stumbled over her words. She caught sight of the bundle of mice, killed clean and untorn.
Nick finally spoke, "She held them in her mouth, as if to make delivery. No doubt a mother."
And Judy knew Nick could not lie to her. She knew this wolf must be a mother, hunting small to feed small cubs. But still, why a lone wolf? Where was this wolf's pack?
"Where is your pack, wolf. Where? Why don't you have a pack?" Judy's voice quavered, and her conviction disappeared, leaving her only with the ache of worry in her stomach that she had felt earlier.
"No pack." The wolf gasped, licking her lips, and Judy realized it was the wolf's tears flowing from her eyes that had moistened her face. "He Alpha sleeps omega, omega a mother be. She Alpha casts omega from pack... It is law."
The words were strange, alien to Judy. Alpha? Omega? What were these words? What was the wolf hiding? She would have to ask the elders what they knew once she returned home. For now, she knew only one thing. That the wolf was a mother, and through this, had not sought to hunt or harm her. But wouldn't she, someday?
"Cubs… Cubs grow into wolves… And a threat is made." Judy reasoned aloud, still clutching her stone.
The wolf whined as she sensed the rabbit coming to a decision. Nick only watched, obedient.
"Why threat? Peace. Peace for cubs." The wolf begged.
Judy hurt. Her body hurt, and her heart hurt. She couldn't kill this wolf. Perhaps another, but not this wolf. A small part of her understood everything about this wolf's pain, her struggle. Another, larger part knew only her life in the Burrows, disturbed only rarely by strife and never by hunger. But she saw the blood spoiling the wolf's white fur, and she felt strange.
She felt strongly of – Guilt.
Nick's eyes lifted, watching Judy as she removed her satchel. From it she pulled the gourd of liniment, made from herbs and the oils of vegetables. She kneeled to the wolf's side, and the wolf whined and quaked in fear as she sensed her death.
"No." Judy whispered, softly, comfortingly, "Be still. I will help you." She spread the liniment on her paws, the off white liquid, and she pressed it gently over the wolf's bloodied fur. She found the wound and, though the wolf screamed in pain, she rubbed the medicine given to her to save her life in battle against it. The pain in the wolf's side faded, and her eyes watered not in fear, but in relief. Then, Judy unfurled a long, flat, rough cotton. She wrapped this around the wolf, who curled to allow it. She raised a bit, her front paws forward and her back paws resting to the side.
"You are... good rabbit." The wolf said softly, averting her eyes from Judy. Judy wiped her paws clean on the grass. Then, she stroked the wolf's back as if in apology. She felt the soft fur, like Nick's beneath her fingers. She felt a familiarity and a strange newness. She still felt guilt. Why should a wolf think her good? Why had a wolf any cause to think a rabbit bad, if all wolves did was hunt and kill rabbits?
"We go now, wolf. Take your mice. Feed your cubs. But hunt not a rabbit if you value their lives." With those words, Judy took up her satchel and sling, and clicked her teeth to summon Nick, who swooped alongside her. The wolf did not attack them, even though they had broken the old adage to 'never turn your back on a wolf.' The wolf only sat, and gathered up her mice. Nick looked back as he disappeared into the grass. Judy looked back, too. They saw the blotch of white fur. And the saw the soft blue of her gentle, mother's eyes.
"Nick." They were a good distance away now. Headed home to report on the Meadowlands. Nick's ears rose when he heard his name. "You… Did good. To not kill the wolf. You're a good fox. You're… a kind fox. The kindest." Nick rubbed against her, their fur intermingling.
"I do not know what tale I will tell the elders… I surprise myself, because I wish to lie."
"Then lie." Said Nick, no force in his voice. Judy thought she would. She knew she would face punishment for how she had left the wolf, left the threat. What would her father say? The elders? But the Meadowlands were not Judy's home. They were the wolf's home, not the home of the Rabbit Clan. Why, then, should they take it? Judy bitterly wondered if it were possible, ever, in a hundred summers, for the wolf to stay with them as Nick did. How far was a wolf from a fox, if a fox could be kind?