Chapter 2

The truck shook and rumbled as it drove down the road towards the station. Behind it, a great cloud of both dust and oily smoke was being kicked up, the latter a given considering that fuel rationing had led to a shortage of diesel. Thankfully being both on a farm and in a family of several hundred had its advantages, including enough used cooking oil to permit a few pleasure runs here and there. Then again, they were a lot rarer than before which only increased the novelty.

Judy loved sitting in the truck as it drove along. Beside her, Pop-Pop was standing tall and proud, hand on the gear stick as he shifted it up and down to traverse the widing country lanes. Everything shook with the vibration of the engine and the skitter of the wheels as they passed over the bare ground.

"What kind of mammal is he going to be?" Judy asked, as she looked up and smiled at her grandfather.

"A fine, young, clever prey mammal!" he said back, turning his eyes onto the road. Judy smiled back in return, she enjoyed it when he was like this. Happy. Smiling. Not berating her for her non-bunny ways or for not being a proper young lady. It was so much better than when he was mad, talking about those evil Chompers and how they were all out to eat them, his cane waving about in the air and ready to come down on someone.

"Do you know what type?" Judy asked. She'd read about and seen pictures of all sorts of different mammals in the big city of Zootopia, many of which she'd never seen before. Giant elephants and tall giraffes and gazelles and moose and hippos and rhinos and all sorts. There were also the predators, which she really didn't know much about. Pop-Pop had always warned her about them. How they were evil, how they used to eat mammals like her and how they still wanted to. He talked at great lengths about the worst of the worst. Foxes. The red devils as he called them, who were sneaky and cruel. Who would ruin the lives of everyone they could sweet talk, and who were vain and untrustworthy. Once, when he'd shown Judy his old knights uniform (and oh, did he talk about how great the 'Knights of the Muzzle' were and how he wished Judy, and everyone else, could join), he'd pointed to the tassel on top of the helmet and said that in his dreams it was a fox tail. 'Rather than care about other mammals, it's all those horrible things care about!', he'd waxed. While Judy had at first been happy that he was happy, talking about how great it would be to cut one off and fly it on his helmet, Judy couldn't help but see that something was off.

In school, her teachers had been teaching her something very different. While at home she'd learnt about the evil of the predators and the nobleness of the knights, her school had taken the line that it was the other way around. Pop-Pop's noble stories of ridding a mammal of its tail had been filled with the happiness of good defeating evil, but their counterparts at school were of evil defeating good. Warnings and sad tales of poor predators rounded up and attacked for no good reason. Of the Knights marching through towns and tearing up families. She'd learnt there that predators had long ago stopped eating other mammals, and were no more likely to 'chomp' than a sheep or bunny.

Moreover, there were some vile mammals in her class, both predator and prey. One fox, Gideon Grey (who certainly lived up to the 'red devil' moniker), had bullied many of the smaller children including her, despite her many attempts to stand up to him. There was also Doug, a ram who was equally as mean as Gideon, and who enjoyed throwing water or flour all over others and just laughing at them. But while Gideon had calmed down a lot a year or so ago, and Doug had carried on regardless, there was one thing that had linked both of them. That smile, that sneer, that glee. Judy had called it the look of the bully, and she saw her Pop-Pop wear it as he spun his stories.

When she'd asked Pop-Pop about this, he'd gone into a terrifying rage about 'the Chomper conspiracy' and 'race traitors' before threatening to beat it out of her. Judy hadn't bothered to ask him about things after that, instead coming to the conclusion that there must be both 'good' and 'bad' predators and prey, and that the schools were teaching her about one set and her grandfather the other.

"…I said, I don't know yet," Pop-Pop eventually replied, breaking Judy out of her train of thought. Judy flinched back a bit as he said it, knowing that it was the kind of voice he'd use if he were about to get mad. Judy didn't like it when he got mad, so she chose to stay quiet. Instead, she looked out of the window. They'd left the dirt track and were on the hard road now, moving along as they approached the station. Along her side ran two whitewashed fences, a single set of rails snaking through in between. Soon, they were passing the tall mast of a set of signals, as the streak of a much larger set of tracks began to appear in the distance. There were other mammals too, walking or driving along the road, all coming to pick up the city children.

Finally, the soft rumble of tarmac under the wheels turned into the crunch of gravel, as the truck slowly stopped in front of the worn wooden station. The engine turned off and there was the click of the door, as her grandfather got out. Judy followed him, jumping out of her side of the car before quickly feeling the tight squeeze of paws around her own. Almost immediately, her grandfather was pulling her out of the carpark and towards the main building. A quick look to her left and she realized why. It was the Greys, the foxes standing there and talking to a family of bobcats. Judy looked on as Gideon spotted her and gave her a small wave before his mother, her eyes wide as she saw Pop-Pop, put her arm around him and pulled him in. 'Must be scared of him,' Judy thought, and with good reason. If there were good and bad predators, then Gideon was most likely on the bad side, which meant it could be his tail flying up on a certain helmet. Still, he did seem like he was trying to be sorry. Then again, she knew that he could easily be faking it. After all, if he was a bad fox once that would mean he could be sneaky enough to pretend to be a good one.

Her thoughts trailed off as she walked into the station. Past the end of a small platform that attached to the little branch line, a small tank engine steaming in place with two bored looking donkeys in the cab, and then up the steps and through the doors. She was led past the ticket office and through the waiting room, all the old travel posters replaced with ones that warned her not to talk about army secrets or to save fuel and food, before they exited out onto the platform.

Many more mammals were there, including the leaders of all the big farms in the region. Many had one or two of their elder kids with them, and most were just waiting around and making small talk. Judy looked around to see if any of her friends were present, though it didn't seem like it. Pop-Pop, meanwhile, seemed to have many friends here, and he was already leading her over to them. She always had trouble telling them apart, but he could recognise them perfectly and immediately began to talk about boring adult stuff. Things about crop harvests, trouble with the land girls who'd come in from the city to help in the fields, issues with supply shortages and all manner of other things she couldn't understand. Letting go of his paw, she squatted down on her feet and looked out across the barren tracks. Four sets of two metal rails separated her from the other platform, which was empty of mammals. Attached to its opposite edge was another little platform, facing the other way, and as she peered she just about saw a small track leading from it and disappearing off into the fields beyond. The adults were still talking about boring stuff so Judy, waiting for the right moment, gently tapped her grandfather's legs before saying she was going to sit up on the bridge. He rolled his eyes and waved her off, though not before ordering her to come down the moment she saw the train coming. Judy nodded, before hopping off. Up the stairs and onto the little bridge that spanned the tracks. She walked until she was halfway across before she sat down, dangling her legs through some gaps in the metal and letting them swing in the wind. In front of her, the two outer tracks merged into the two inner ones, as did those behind her, and the two tracks then sailed off, together, into the distance as they gleamed in the bright morning sun.

.

"So..." One of the bunnies in attendance, Harry Lopp, said. "It seems like you get the smartest of the bunch?"

"That's right," Otto said proudly. "My son-in-law fought valiantly and put himself in the line of fire, to let thousands escape. As I said before, I chose him well, and I can't wait to congratulate him when he gets back."

"Though not before chastising him for fighting for the enemy," Bill Cottontail cut in. Otto turned to face him, blinking a few times as his face began to turn red, only to be cut in again. "I suppose you'll be stripping him of his medal for that."

Otto snorted, his teeth grinding against each other, as he turned away. "Don't take up that cheek with me!" He warned, "and respect your elders!"

Bill smiled and shook his head slowly. "I wish I could, but you make it so very, very hard for me."

"While you make despairing at the current depravity of the newer generation very, very, easy," Otto Hopps countered.

"When you say that, it has a strange way of turning from an insult to a compliment. You know that?" Bill parried, this time drawing the full ire of Otto.

The Hopps patriarch turned to face his younger counterpart in full, his cane rattling along the stone platform as he fought the temptation to give the young upstart a good beating. He was just preparing to release a long chain of expletives from his mouth, when a gentle tap on his shoulder drew his attention away.

"Calm down, Otto," Paul Skipson said. "You know he likes to get a rise out of you. Fills his days up, given that he has so few grandkits to look after."

Otto let a small smirk grow across his muzzle, from which an almost undetectable chuckle escape. "Indeed," he replied. "I'm more convinced that somewhere back in his bloodline, a fox got in. It would explain why he's so eager to defend those devil spawn!"

.

"Right…" Paul said slowly. "In any case, you're getting top pick of this lot, aren't you?"

"Yes, that's right!" Otto proudly announced. He looked around the group, noticing a few had already stopped talking to look at him. He cleared his throat, before shouting out louder. "ATTENTION! ATTENTION!" That got their attention, as they all turned to face him. "As per our agreement, I am getting the best pick, while you lot are getting the chaff! You hear!"

There was a soft murmur of agreement in the crowd, before one of them spoke up. "How will we know which one is the smartest?"

"They'll have a child minder, won't they?" Otto said. "We ask her who's the politest, smartest, most literate out of the bunch, and I get him. You lot get the rest!"

"Sounds fair," the same bunny replied, quickly followed by all the rest. Soon, the discussion died down back into general business talk and chit-chat. Meanwhile, up on the bridge, more and more children were settling down with Judy. Talking, joking, looking out into the distance. There was a soft huff at one stage as another little tank engine steamed towards the other side of the station on the branch line. It was only carrying a few wagons of goods, and it quickly crossed over the four tracks in the station and onto the other side, where it joined the branch again and carried on, on its way. After that, there was a quiet for a short while before, all of a sudden, all the children got up and raced down, screaming that the real train was coming. Everyone went silent and peered over the platform, as the heavy huffing of an express approached.

Judy stood on the edge of the platform, bouncing up and down on her two hind paws. Looking to her right, her ears tilting so that they could focus on the sound of the engine, she spotted the cloud of smoke off in the distance. It grew as the train got closer and closer, the sight of a dirty engine now clear in view. However, as it came, some of the kids began talking to each other, noticing that something was off.

"It's going too fast," one of them said.

"How's it going to stop?" another asked.

Judy just giggled, knowing what was really going on. Two sharp whistles cut through the air, the sound of not only the pistons but also the rattle of the wheels on the track now clearly ringing out. She had a huge grin on her face as the train roared through the station, giving the crowd a long whistle as it went, before the rattle of the carriages in tow followed. Even though the train was one track away from them, rather than on the line right next to the platform, dresses fluttered and even a few hats were carried off heads in its wake. Still more lines of carriages went by, all covered in coal dust and grime, but from the sight of it packed with screaming and hollering children. Kits, kids, cubs, lambs, calves, pups and many other sorts, all pulling their windows down to wave and shout.

"Hi there!" Judy shouted, jumping up and waving back at them. Then, almost as fast as it had come, the train left. Its last carriage whistled past and shot off into the distance, still carrying on down the line.

"Wait, what?" another bunny kit asked. Judy turned to face him, before tapping him on the shoulder. He was one of the Lopps, a family that it was joked never left sight of their farm or the spire of Bunnyburrow church. While it was a joke, it wasn't far from the truth, so Judy guessed that this was likely his first time ever visiting the station.

"I heard they're coming in the slip car," Judy said.

"The what?" he asked.

Judy grabbed his paw and leant out over the tracks, pointing down along it towards Zootopia. "The slip car," she clarified, as the Lopp kit set his eyes on a stray carriage trundling down the line.

He blinked a few times, almost as if he wanted to make sure that he wasn't seeing things, before whichever adult was looking after him grabbed his paw and pulled him back. Judy felt a tight grip around her shoulder too, and immediately jumped backwards before her Pop-Pop even had a chance to yank her back. She sighed with relief as she did so, happy that she hadn't made him cross or given him a reason to be mad at her. She didn't want the first thing her new friend's first sight of Bunnyburrow being her getting punished.

There was a soft squeal as the carriage rolled up in front of them all, a last metallic shriek coming out as the brakes were closed and the whole thing ground to a halt. Just like the carriages that had been carrying on with the main train, shrieks and cries of excited children were coming out of this one. For the first time, Judy got a good look through the windows and realised just how many different types of mammal there were. She saw different types of canines, many that she'd never even seen a picture of before. Some had golden fur, which she guessed meant they were jackals. Others had fur that was painted in lots of beautiful shades of brown, orange, white, black and red. Then there were some big cats. She couldn't help but feel nervous as she saw both some lions and some tigers, the first time she'd even seen those species in the fur. Further along and already getting out, there was a huge hippo. He looked younger than she did, but he was still larger than pretty much all the mammals around bar the horses. As he got out, the wolf guard who'd unlocked the doors jogged along with his keys and the clicking of latches rang out as the other compartments emptied. This time she didn't even give her Pop-Pop a chance, shuffling back to let them all have plenty of space to get out and stretch their legs. She looked up to him and smiled.

"Which one are we taking?"

"I don't know yet," he replied back, as he scanned around for the childminder. "Though that hippo would be very useful on the farm. Let's just find whoever was looking after them." After a moment he spotted her, a llama, at the back, talking to the guard who'd brought the carriage in and had just got back from unlocking the doors. "Hello! Hello there!"

Her ears picked up and she turned to face him. "Yes?"

"I am Otto Hopps," he said introducing himself. "I run the Hopps family farm and, as per a gentleman's agreement, I am to foster the smartest, most adept mammal that you brought with us. Do you understand?"

"Uh, yes," she said after a bit. "Do you understand that I've only known these children for the last few hours or so? I may not be…"

"Quit your stalling woman!" Otto barked. "In that time, surely you've spotted at least one or two children that stand out. Children that I'd be honoured to foster. To raise with the right values for this world, however much they may be lacking in others."

"What about Nicholas?"

Both the llama, Otto and Judy turned to face the new voice, as the guard turned to face him. Otto pulled his nose up in disgust, glaring at the large black wolf, all dressed up in a dirty uniform. What he hated the most about him was his strange left eye. It didn't focus on anything, instead it just drifted in its socket, and straight away Otto new that he was blind in it. The elderly bunny imagined the ways he'd acquired the injury. A poor harried prey mammal who he'd harassed or tried to assault might have had the courage to fight back at him. He might have done it himself, to escape the war service. Maybe he was born with it, a likely result of just how inbred city predators were these days.

"What would you know about a kid being intelligent or capable?" Otto asked skeptically.

The wolf looked up and down at Otto for a bit, before shaking his head. "Forget it."

"I don't see why," the llama interrupted as her ears perked up. "I mean, he was asking you all those questions about how the carriage worked and what your job entailed. I mean, he might be a favourite but thinking about it he was the only kid that really stood out to me."

"Miss, ugh…" the wolf began, turning to look at Otto again before turning back to face her. Yet she interrupted.

"In any case, we're either going to do this all randomly, or we could make a headway in sorting these poor kids out."

"But…" he began, only to be cut off by Otto.

"SHUT IT!" he shouted. "How dare you cut off a fine lady like that! Regardless, I've made up my mind. I'll be happy to foster this fine mammal! Do you have the paperwork?"

"Sure," she replied, as she pulled out a clipboard and sorted through the papers, before presenting Otto with the right form and a pen. He signed immediately, before handing the documents back and smiling. "So, where is he? Where is this Nicholas?"

"Here sir!"

Otto's ears rose, and he looked down the platform. He smiled as he waited for the kid to emerge from the sea of moving mammals, only for that smile to vanish as he laid eyes on the smiling kit that stepped forward. Dressed in a hardy fabric suit, and with two little suitcases in each paw, he had cunning green eyes, pointed black ears, long murderous claws, and red fur in the devil's own image. The elderly bunny immediately felt a burning rage begin to grow within him as he looked at the fox in front of him.

"Who are you?" he asked. "Because I was expecting Nicholas. Smart, capable, Nicholas!"

The kit looked around, before shrugging. "My name is Nicholas sir. Friends call me Nick. Nick Wilde…"

"And the other Nicholas?"

The child's eyes widened. "I think I'm the only one sir, or at least…"

"Is this the child you were referring to?" he snapped at the llama, who nodded slowly, suddenly seeming a lot more nervous. Down by Otto's side, Judy couldn't help but noticed that she suddenly seemed just as worried as the wolf. She reached down to her documents and opened up the one he'd just signed, revealing red fox as the species under Nicholas' name. Judy meanwhile turned back to face the fox, Nick, and she gulped as she looked at him. He didn't look like an evil fox, but the way he was treating her grandpa was certain to make him mad, and Judy didn't want him to meet her grandpa when he was mad.

"Yes," she slowly said. "But…"

"Come off it!" came a shout from behind the whole group. It was Bill Warren, along with the rest of all of Otto's current and former friends. The old buck trembled with anger as they looked on, giant grins on their muzzle, almost certainly straining to keep in their laughs. "You know the bet Hopps!" he said. "You get the smartest kid, which I think we've all agreed on is that little fox there! Don't we boys?"

A chorus of agreement came out from them, and Otto turned back to face the llama, then the wolf guard and then the accursed, devil-borne fox. He scanned him from head to toe, before making up his mind. "It seems I'm honour-bound to take him, so I will. I'm a Hopps, and I refuse to do anything that breaks my honour as such!"

A round of cheering went up from the crowd as they turned and went back into the station, ready to pick their own charges. Already some other mammals had brought out sets of neatly stacked forms and children were being allocated to new families. Otto Hopps meanwhile just glowered, his cane paw trembling ever so slightly. Judy just looked around and shivered, knowing full well how mean her Pop-Pop could be when he was this mad. He began shaking with rage, the base of his cane rattling along the platform like a pair of teeth chattering in the cold. Looking over at the fox, she saw that even he was worried, likely working out that something was wrong.

"Master Wilde," the guard wolf said. "You said you always wanted a go up in an engine. Why don't you ask the driver up in the tank? Remember to say old Gruff sent you."

Nick nodded before jogging off to the front of the carriage. The little engine that had been stabled on the other side of the station building had come around, backing onto the front of the slip carriage and already linking itself up. The guard watched as he came up to the cab and spoke to the driver, before hopping up in. There was a long whistle, at which point the guard hopped back into his cabin to unlock the brake, before jumping off to stand by the chaperone.

"Listen," he said, kneeling down to look Otto square in the face. "It's clear you don't like predators. It's clear you likely have an irrational hatred of foxes. Now, he is a nice kit, and I don't think it would be fair to make him stay with someone who sees red whenever he sees his species."

Otto blinked a few times, before he whipped up his cane, pointing it at the guard's face. "Firstly," he seethed, "you filthy mutt, you! You need to learn some manners. Don't speak to a civilized prey mammal unless spoken to and always call them sir or ma'am!" The wolf blinked a few times, before nodding with a grimace. "Secondly, no funny business or I'll poke your other eye out! If you haven't learned your lesson about harassing prey after losing the one, you deserve to lose the other! Do you understand?"

The guard scowled, but nodded slowly, before turning to face the llama who spoke up. "Listen, surely there are better options? Other families who‒"

"If I do not do this, my honour is tarnished," Otto plowed through the camelid's statement. "Regardless, none of those families will volunteer to take on the evacuee that they've decided to force onto me. Finally, I don't think your superior would be happy if you came back and said that you ripped up an agreement, particularly when it comes from someone who's evidently very successful at both business and raising a family!"

The llama nodded slowly, before turning to the guard next to him. "I'm afraid he's right. Legally, that mammal is his to look after, and there's nothing I can do to stop that unless the contract is broken or he decides to relinquish him. Mr. Hopps, it seems you are dead set in your ways, and so be it. But I'll make sure that that child knows to contact the police if you ever do anything vicious to him. Personally, I hope this whole affair changes you far more than it changes him."

Otto nodded slowly. "Fair is fair. Let's pick him up and get this over with." At that, he turned, leading Judy away. She skipped along next to him, quite confused at the whole matter. She knew he hated the idea of having to look after a fox, and while the other families evidently wanted him to look after such a mammal to make him mad, she didn't know why something couldn't be worked out. Surely her father could give him to the Grey's and they could look after him? However, as they exited the waiting room, her heart fell somewhat as he saw that family walk off with a pair of sandy coloured foxes in tow. Looking around, she couldn't see any of the predator families, and guessed that they must have left too. Two sharp whistles caught her attention and, looking forward, she spotted Nick operating the small tank engine's whistle. It was parked back in its bay, the slip carriage safely removed from the mainline, and the little fox seemed to have the biggest smile she'd ever seen on his face. His eyes turned to meet her, eyes that she couldn't help but notice were more vibrant than any she could remember, and he waved. He hopped down from the engine, pausing as the chaperone came over to whisper into his ear, before he carried on walking over to her.

"Hi!" He said.

"Hello," Judy replied, "my name's…"

"Don't talk to it!"

Both she and him looked up to see Otto sneering at them. He shook his head before pointing with his cane over to the truck. "In. Now. Fox first, then Judy." She looked at him and him at her, and they followed his command without a word. She turned back to see the chaperone and the wolf guard come together, talking to each other and looking over at the fox, both looking very worried. Her Pop-Pop turned his head to look at them and scowl, before he turned back to the truck. He unlocked it and Judy scrabbled in after Nick. As Otto went around to the other side of the truck and got in, both children somehow knew that this would be a very uncomfortable ride home.