It's been a while, hasn't it? This past month and a bit has been tumultuous and heated. But I'm back! Chapter 10 should be updated by June 15, but that may change depending on what's to come! I hope you enjoy this chapter (it still needs a hell of a lot of editing) but for now it's workable. Just trust me on the story, alright? All will turn out good in the end :).
Thank you. Thanks a ton for commenting your concerns/compliments of Chapter 8 - I read every comment posted on this story and consider its contents, whether they be critical or complimentary. Its all of you - the readers - that keep this enterprise afloat. If you enjoy it, then keep on commenting, and if you don't then comment even more! All criticism is appreciated, so please, tell me if something's bugging you!
"It's treason!" Judy spitefully exclaimed, her eyes red with temper and her ears straightened in indignation while her feet toured her back and forth across her suite's carpeted living space. "I am vociferating it now! There can be no other reason for his recklessness and inconsideration!"
"My Princess Hopps, with great respect I feel as if you are leaping to conclusions," Ambassador Dhani cautiously soothed, standing motionlessly beside a side table with his paws raised out towards her. He almost appeared as if he was afraid to approach her fuming form.
"What other conclusion can be reached?" She venomously hissed, spinning to look at his startled face from halfway across the floor. "He is almost killed in combat and the first thought he has is to embrace another Lady? And now they sit together, locked away in his suite - if his actions are not treasonous then I am as much a fox as you are a rabbit!"
"You must remember, my Princess, the Emperor and the King and the Marshals accompany them," Ambassador Dhani countered, his voice reserved yet staunch as he recollected himself with fresh coolness. "There are many possibilities of formal pastimes they could be participating in aside from the frivolous sin you suggest."
"Then I am immensely curious to observe what their 'activities' have been," She vindictively spat, turning and stalking towards one of her suite's tall, open windows that let midday sunlight spill over her as if heat in an oven. There were no other explanations for her 'betrothed's' malapropos behavior than the transgressions she was imagining - even the Ambassador's reassurance was more than flawed! The Prince had been injured in a duel, so his first instinct was to submit to a Lady he had known for hardly a day for what purpose?
Political gain! She internally sneered, and a snarl grew on her muzzle at the answer while she simultaneously pulled at the windowsill with her short claws. How fortunate is that?
Extremely! A voice growled back, making the fire in her chest burn even more furiously. She no longer cared if his wound became dire! If he died she'd probably be delighted by the news! It'd be no more than he deserved!
You do not truly think that, Judith. A new, worried voice fretted from the corner of her mind, and Judy felt a vexed expression take hold of her face as her ears collapsed behind her head and as her jaw stiffened. Your feelings betray you. If he were to die, we both know what would become of you. His injury does not exonerate him from his callousness, but it does not give you the right to isolate what feelings you have for him. Become the better mammal and make this situation right.
"Okay," She coolly whispered, closing her eyes for a brief moment while she took a calming breath. Rarely had she become this infuriated by anything, yet the Prince seemed to have a knack to make her disappointed or even more enraged. In this new light she realized her assumptions of his motives for engaging with Lady Caer were unfounded; no doubt there was something irregular occurring between them and the officials in his suite, however it was highly unlikely it was anything lustful. Ambassador Dhani was undoubtedly accurate in his assertion that whatever was happening was courteous in nature, yet that still did not explain why the Prince had pushed her so far away when they had been so close mere hours before.
"Something has changed..." She quietly pondered aloud, her eyes squinting open to stare half-frowning at the towering hills of green beyond the Burrow's walls while her ears perked up from behind her head. "Drastically..."
"My Princess," Ambassador Dhani unexpectedly announced, his necklaces rattling her train of thought as he looked over his shoulder. "Marshal Fenus has returned from the Prince's assembly."
"He's arguing with Prince Gregory," She absentmindedly acknowledged, flicking her ear towards the muffled shouts coming from behind the door in her suite's lowered landing without turning away from the fresh air. "Go let him in. But bar my brother access; I have no desire to speak to him."
"Yes, my Princess," Ambassador Dhani curtly replied, and she followed the jingling of his jewelry with her straight ears as he hurried down the steps. She spent several seconds mindlessly musing about the Prince and his ulterior motives, but when yells erupted from the other side of her suite she cut those thoughts short and sighed, turning her gaze downwards. She couldn't contemplate now that the Marshal had returned. What news had he brought back from the Prince's suite? Had his wound healed or decayed in the day she hadn't seen him? What had become of Lady Caer? Was he still just as belligerent towards her as he had been before the duel?
If you wish to know the answer, then stop perturbing yourself and ask! An urging voice pushed. With a clear mind she listened, letting a stern yet controlled expression take hold of her face as she turned away from the window. The aggressive bickering between her brother and Marshal Fenus subsided fairly calmly as she stiffly strode across the marble floor, yet the boom of her suite's wooden door slamming shut shook her ears along with anything that wasn't bolted down.
"That damned rabbit is as rebellious as Sir Caer," Marshal Fenus spitefully whispered as he and Ambassador Dhani slowly ascended the steps to the main floor, and Judy seated herself in a blue linen chair that conflicted with her gold dress as they approached, her paws clutched in her lap as a means to silently vent her ill feelings.
"It would be for the best if you did not say that before the Princess. She has been through too much this past day," Ambassador Dhani hurriedly and nigh-silently warned just as his tan and grey ears appeared at the top of the stairs, and she flicked her ear in wordless anger and annoyance just as the two foxes rounded the stone railing bordering the fall to the landing and turned to look at her.
"My Princess, it is good to make your acquaintance again," Marshal Fenus courteously greeted with a quick bow of his head. His large ears sagged like wet leaves behind his head, and his baggy eyes were no more lively than the remainder of his armored form.
"How fares Prince Piberius?" She worriedly pushed with as much formality as her contained aggravation would allow her, barely noticing her incessantly twitching pink nose at the end of her muzzle.
"Attentive in mind, but wounded in body," Marshal Fenus answered, stifling a gulp as his welcoming expression turned a shade more serious. "The palace physician noted that had his gash been any deeper then the arteries leading to his heart would have been severed. In addition, had he had his wound been cauterized any later he would be in eternal sleep now."
"But he will make a full recovery?" She fretfully fretted, her voice filled with concern and distress while the acerbity briefly retreated from her expression, as she anxiously raised out of the seat with her paws clutching its armrests.
"Yes, my Princess. He is well rested and fed, and Marshal Certus has been kind enough to have a courtier fetch him fresh water from a spring," Marshal Fenus reassured, a comforting smile coming onto his face, and she let loose a quiet sigh of relief as she rested her rear down again. Yet the peace did not last in her for very long; within an instant indignation had returned to her, now trimmed with confusion and annoyance.
"Would you care to inform me, my Marshal, of what has transpired between Lady Caer and Prince Piberius?" She forcefully demanded, the crowns of her teeth barely grinding against one another, and the short fox sent her a casual shrug, unfazed by her inquisitive attitude.
"I am afraid I can only tell you so much," He answered, his paws falling behind his back as his tan tail stolidly swished against the floor. "The Marshals were barred entry to the Prince's suite for most of the night. He and Lady Caer spoke for some time after his wounds had been treated, and as far as my knowledge ventures they discussed a great many things, mostly of Sir Caer. I am certain in the fact, however, that Lady Caer shall become the new Lord of Moorston, and will accommodate her grandfather until his passing."
"That is reassuring," She unenthusiastically admitted, standing from her chair and making her way towards a tall, gold-trimmed mirror hanging on a nearby wall. "Is there anything else I should know of the meeting he summoned?"
"Only that he will dismiss the other Marshals to their respective armies around the Kingdom in good time," Marshal Fenus responded. "I shall remain in the palace until he has prepared an equivalent task for me."
"That is pleasing to hear," Judy curtly chimed, her eyes scouring over her gold dress while her paws fixed the folds and imperfections that had built up across it. "Well, if you are not committed to any other obligations as of now then I request that you deliver a message to the Prince from me."
"I'm afraid I cannot do that, my Princess," Marshal Fenus neutrally denied, and she spun her head towards him with an intrusive frown. "The Prince has assigned himself a great many duties despite his injury. I doubt he could make the time to meet with you."
"Excuse me?" She blurted out, visibly offended, and she began to stalk towards the two foxes with her paws by her sides and her ears towering above her. Both the Marshal's and the Ambassador's ears fell in nervousness as she hastily approached them.
"He cannot make time for his fiance - that I should mention he has not seen since before he suffered a life-threatening grievance - and expects me to sit idly by while he ignores me?" She asserted, her expression and voice clearly irked, and she let her nose twitch in contempt.
"That is not what I sai-" Marshal Fenus hurriedly began, trying to calm her, but she silenced him with a sudden lunge of her face towards him.
"Shut it!" She growled, puffing out her chest and clenching her fists even tighter, and the short fox snapped his jaw shut, his large, solemn eyes reflecting her own scorn back at herself.
"You shall return to Prince Piberius with word that I wish to meet him before the throne room in no less than half an hour," She quietly and threateningly whispered, beginning to lean over the Marshal, and he wordlessly replied to her with a stiff and staid nod before hurrying away from her and around the stone railing to his right.
"As for you, Ambassador," She gruffly continued, reforming her stature and brushing down her gold dress again as she turned her grim gaze towards Ambassador Dhani, who was staring at her with eyes as clear as the air and a partially-panicked partially-nervous expression plastered on his face. "I require you to fetch me a torch."
"I was on may way to meet with Lord Fealer and Lord Mary when the Marshal interrupted me," The Prince gruffly stated between his hurried steps and the struggled pants escaping from his hunched form. "I hope this excursion yields results as equal in importance as that."
"It shall, my Prince Piberius," Judy replied with an equal amount of warmth. The torch in her paw was the only source of hope in the endless grey of the spiraling, descending stairway she found herself leading the Prince down. He trailed behind her with his right paw pressing the collar of his unadorned black and green-trimmed doublet, putting pressure on his sealed yet grizzly wound while his left supported himself against the wall. With every pace he took he grunted in pain, but she kept an ear on him at all times, monitoring every sound that escaped from him with immense caution.
A part of her wanted to wring his head off his neck right in this instant, yet another, more reasonable part wanted to ease the tension between them through much more direct and much less violent means. That was her entire purpose for escorting them away from the hum and buzz of the palace. Any potential disturbances could send their relationship into a corkscrew yet again, and with all that had transpired over the previous weeks that was a chance she was not willing to take.
"The catacombs?" The Prince loudly inquired in confusion, a frown furrowed on his brow, as he followed her descent from the staircase's final step and into an endlessly wide and inescapably black low-ceiling expanse. All she did was stiffly nod and grumble in confirmation, raising her torch so that the orange light radiating from it made long shadows against the effigies carved into the lids of the rowed caskets and the stone columns scattered between them.
Without giving time for the Prince to pry or question her motives like she knew he would Judy stormed off into the darkness, her feet taking priority over her mind as they guided her through the seemingly infinite grid of burials. She felt a minute feeling of grief wash over her as she steadily piloted past her brother's polished sarcophagi, almost a dozen all in all, but when her attentive ears caught the sounds of the Prince's heavy breaths and strained steps coming from the darkness behind her she turned away from them and pushed onward, deeper into the catacombs.
The Prince said nothing when he finally caught up to her side, his paw still gripping his wound and his breathing more like wheezing, and she shortened her pace to let him regain his breath when a feeling of pity burrowed into her heart.
"You mentioned there was a pathway into the hills from these catacombs," He eventually grumbled when he had caught his breath, clearing his throat and straightening his hunched back. "I assume that is where you are escorting me."
"Your assumptions are correct," Judy emotionlessly confirmed, cutting her eyes rightwards to stare at his perked ears and sharp eyes prying into the darkness in front of them. The cleft in his right ear had been sewn together with thick, black stitches that made her wince with distaste while his right paw continued to pressure the gash under his doublet.
She meticulously concentrated on each individual step he took and breath he breathed, keeping one of her eyes and both her ears focused on him as the space around them shrunk, leaving them travelling down an ancient, rock hallway with an uneven floor beneath and shallow inlets carved into the coarse walls. Within them were the cobweb-filled skeletons of rabbits, the sight of which made her shudder and move ever so slightly closer to her betrothed so that their paw fur brushed against one another.
No sound passed from him as he side-stepped away from her, his movements as ghastly as a wraith. His eyes never met with hers, nor did she concede and turn towards him, but at the sight of his stubborn expression and clenched paws in the far corner of her gaze she gripped the torch marginally more discontentedly.
Deep breaths, Judith. She pointedly eased, closing her eyes while her ears tilted towards the darkness. You are almost there. But a few more moments before the root of this nonsensical behavior of his is revealed.
The underground tunnel was long enough to house most of the Burrow beyond the Palace's walls, if she was as well mannered in mathematics as she believed she was. It nigh felt endless, however just as she began to pant from the gentle uphill climb a dim, natural light peeked into her vision from far beyond the torch. It became brighter and brighter until the torchlight became irrelevant, and she snuffed it out with wet fingers as she came to a stop at the edge of the darkness.
Beyond the low dirt cliff no taller than ten ear-lengths before her was the rhythm of a stream, yet it may as well have been a mountain range away as the Prince came to a halt behind her with fresh pants and heavy steps. Sunlight trimmed with the green of plants streamed in above, revealing the tan dirt ceiling of the tunnel and instilling vigor within her.
Judy dropped the blackened wooden torch at her feet and gripped an outcrop of rock just at the edge of her reach before she pulled herself up the cliff, hanging off it for several moments before she targeted a new ledge and threw her paw up towards it. The going was slow, and required careful concentration, however eventually she found herself staring outwards from the end of the tunnel and into a compact ravine of stone and grass. She could hardly remember the last time she had seen this place. Maybe it had been before Prince Johanne's death, when the war had barely been a concern of hers and the world was still a sphere of gold and green. Yet the green gulch was as lively and beautiful as ever, unchanged after all these years.
Her warming reminiscing did not last for very long. The Prince let loose an excruciating growl as dirt fell around him, and she spun on her feet and hurried the few paces to kneel over the side of the cliff with a startled expression. Her fiance was only a few paw-lengths away from her, with his legs floundering in the darkness and his body swaying in the light. He was hanging by his left paw, with his right gripping his gash vehemently while his eyes were clenched shut and his lips pulled back in a silent snarl.
"Here," She forcefully interrupted as she shoved her paw down towards him, a slight feeling of anxiety forming underneath her furrowed brow. The Prince kept his tongue between his teeth, yet his eyes snapped open at her voice and he moved his right paw off his wound, swung in the air for several seconds with an even more wretched look on his face, and finally threw his paw upwards to grip hers.
Judy could feel something slick on his velvety palm, and she felt her eyes widen in fright as she dragged him up and over the side of the ledge so that he was on all fours in the revealing sunlight.
"You're bleeding," She apprehensively commented, lowering herself onto her knees as her eyes picked at his open wound. The pink mass of skin that had formed during the cauterization had split midway, revealing the deep red flesh underneath and letting the dark red color of blood soak the collar of his black doublet. She moved her paws up towards the spot, her heart intent on applying pressure while he caught his breath, yet as soon as the tips of her fingers brushed it he snapped at her, his eyes burning and teeth bared in a vicious and warning expression.
"I can manage," He growled, pushing himself up onto his feet as he moved his left paw to press into his gash, a small jolt pecking his body at the touch. Judy squinted her gaze and clenched her jaw at his adamantly defiant behavior, and she raised and trailed behind him the few paces into the full sunlight with newfound resentment and suppressed feelings of worry and care.
"Well, you have me here now," The Prince eventually noted without casting a glance towards her, resting his rear on a felled tree squarely in the center of the ravine with his tail sprawled out across its mossy trunk. "I hope whatever you have brought me here to witness is truly worth the time and effort that it has taken to escort me here."
You do not know the half of it. Judy silently scowled, feeling the inquisitive desire inside her grow to even greater heights, and as she wandered to stand on the grass in front of her betrothed with her paws squeezed into fists she collected herself, ready to begin the conversation she had sought after for what had felt like an eternity.
"My Prince Piberius, I demand to know why you have been treating me with such disrespect these past weeks," She sternly demanded, taking a step forward with as much authority her body could muster. She felt absolutely capable of controlling their exchange as the Prince's cold green gaze darted up from the small, trickling creek to his side.
"What?" He burst out in confusion and disbelief, his mouth not fully closed nor open while a deep frown formed on his brow.
"At the duel you nearly carelessly threw away your life, no matter how much I pleaded with you to avoid the event!" She fiercely elaborated, frustrated by his blindness to see his grievances. "My words fell on ears deaf exclusively to me! And when all was over, with Sir Caer defeated, the first mammal you greet is not your betrothed but the loser's daughter! Can you not comprehend what that does to someone's faith in their partner?"
The longer her tirade lasted the more and more the Prince shook his head, simultaneously raising from the tree and wandering away from her with his back turned and a clenched paw raised beside his head, as if he was going to strike out at the air. Yet her frustration did not subside, and she followed him staunchly as he wandered further into the grassy clearing.
"Yet that does not take in consideration that you abandoned me shortly thereafter!" She extended, her voice filled with fire and hurt. "Do you know how it feels to know that your future husband is spending his nights recovering with another female after a near-death experience rather than with you? Of course you do not! You care not of my feelings."
"I shall not stand here and bicker pointlessly with you!" The Prince explosively erupted, spinning on his heels towards her as he threw his fist down to his side and visibly tightened the grip his wound, squeezing more blood from it. His eyes were as red as the liquid still drooling down his side while his teeth viciously shone in the sunlight.
"I have been nothing but kind and loving to you, and this is how you treat me?" He viciously hissed, slowly stalking up to tower in front of her and puffing out his shaky chest. "By suggesting that I have spent time courting another lady?"
"I do not suggest that at all, my Prince Piberius!" Judy passionately retorted, letting her ears straighten even more as she countered the Prince's aggressive stance with one of her own. "What I do imply - no, not imply. What I know is that you raise mammals you are hardly acquainted with to positions of personal importance far above me! Your own damned fiance! Now if you wish for this bickering to end, then tell me what has converted you from a caring individual to a spiteful one in a seemingly incessant cycle, and why you are suddenly making me an outcast once again!"
"Your jealousy that I spend more time with others is blatant," The Prince maliciously sneered, raising his lip in a show of disgust while he flexed his claws. "How selfish of you. But, for the sake of argument, I shall address your unfounded concerns. Lady Caer had to be dealt with in someway or another, and if peace was to be maintained then I had to allow myself time to befriend her. You see, Carrots, I don't give an inch of my tail if my actions make you experience doubt or fear or anger - I do what I must for the Empire and the Burrows."
"That hardly makes me feel at ease!" Judy defensively exclaimed, shaking her head with a frown while she took one more inquisitive step towards the Prince, studying his face. "You sound more like a despot than a representative of the common-folk! Not to mention that it is not you alone that is to ensure peace, but us! Why do you continuously doubt my ability to perform admirably when I could have aided you in times when you truly needed it?"
"I am quite aware of your aptitude for acquiring knowledge and quickness to learn, however those fail to outweigh your general inexperience of managing anything of note," He gruffly rebuked, the fire in his expression beginning to seethe, as he let his bloodied right paw fall from his wound with a wince and clasp it with his left behind him. "To me, you are more a distraction than a convenience. If I wanted your input or aid, then I would have approached you."
"I doubt you would have!" Judy harshly riposted, vehemently annoyed as she hurried behind the Prince with her paws clenched by her sides when he frustratedly turned away from her and began to stalk towards the uneven tunnel entrance against the ravine's rock wall. "You are so very indignant to allow me to work with you! It is not you alone who is supposed to bring a lasting peace to our species. It is us!"
"Us?" The Prince poisonously spat, halting his advance and throwing his snarling muzzle in her face. "Have you ignored everything I have said throughout this pointless conversation? I shall not waste precious time educating some stubborn, clingy, witless rabbit just so she can feel better about herself!"
"I can hardly believe what you are saying!" She gasped in horror, wildly offended by his insult, as she rested a stiff paw on her chest. She could feel the blood beginning to both broil and freeze within her veins.
"No," She anxiously denied, closing her eyes and shaking her head as the Prince sent her a final, loathing scowl. "We cannot continue conversing until you have come to your senses. Your feelings would not have warranted you to act this way to me."
"Feelings!" The Prince repeated, his edgy, half-amused voice making Judy open her eyes and stare confounded at his snarling face alive with the white of his teeth and inferno of his gaze.
"My dearest Princess," He malevolently cooed, leaning in towards her until her whiskers were brushing against his seething smile. "The only feeling I harbor for you is resentment."
"What?" She barely managed to choke out, her voice stuttering in fear as her eyes widened to the size of apples and as her ears fell and tucked against her back.
"Every time you speak, I learn to like you marginally less," He nonchalantly persisted, his unfeeling, unrelenting demeanor causing her to tremble with heartache and terror. "You are a disdainful mammal - a leech that pulls and sucks until all the energy in my body dissipates into the threads of the black blanket of death. Had I the chance, I would excommunicate you. And if you do not believe me, then answer me this; when have I ever mentioned my, I should add nonexistent, love for you?"
"We are to be married!" She rebuked, clenching her fists as a grievous expression took over her face. She could feel her tortured heart beginning to fail within her heavy, wheezing chest while the first shadows of tears began to blur her vision.
"A decision that was not mine," The Prince forcefully countered, his piercing smile falling back into the folds of his muzzle as he straightened himself, bringing his snout away from her clenched snarl. "If it were not for the sake of peace, I would not have batted an eye at you."
"You are not the same Prince who befriended me!" She wretchedly erupted, the words echoing inside her skull still cutting at her heartstrings, but all the Prince did was grin and turn, seemingly amused by her grief.
"Something has corrupted you!" She fiercely hurled, hard on the Prince's feet as he resumed his steady advance towards the tunnel's entrance across the grassy clearing. "You have changed so much that now I can hardly see how you were once Prince Wilde!"
Without any warning whatsoever the Prince's bloodied paw came swinging from his wound and struck her cheek, sending her flying and spinning onto the grass with an awkward thud. Her forehead landed on a fallen piece of damp timber, leaving her even more dazed than she already was, and it took what felt like hours yet wasn't more than an instant to roll over onto her back.
Before she could attempt anything else the Prince was on top of her with his flexed claws pinning her arms onto the ground and digging into her skin. The startled and shocked feeling that his strike had sent her reeling with slowly gave way to that of utter fear and horror, slowly snaking into her like a bad drink. The wetness in her gaze evaporated immediately, scorched by the blaze of his broiling emeralds, while the pain in her breaths escalated tenfold.
A hundred thousand thoughts passed through her head at once, each one shouting at her to follow its own orders, but all she found she could do was back into the ground in a useless attempt to distance herself from the Prince's murderous snarl that only drew closer as she retreated.
"Never address me as that name again," He savagely snarled, his quiet voice and brooding, maniacal gaze only exemplifying his point and stealing the shaking voice from her throat. "I am Prince Piberius, son of Emperor Canus and heir to the thrones of the Empire and Burrows. I shall not be called by the name of a pathetic fox. I am the hope for peace. Me. Not him. Do you understand?"
She could barely nod as he let loose a murderous growl that shook her to her core, his serrated maw only a finger's width away from her exposed throat. His claws were digging even harder into her skin, sending pain travelling up the length of her veins. She could hear blood roaring in her ears and feel her heart pumping against her ribs, but all she could do was sit still. He was going to kill her. She could see it in the blood still escaping from his wound.
"Good," He disdainfully growled, raising up off her with a horrible, cold expression. His entire weight was gone in an instant, leaving her arms free and her body able to move once again, yet not without pain. She backed away from him frantically, resting on her elbows as she watched him silently and sullenly stalk back into the tunnel with his paw once again clutching his shoulder.
It was only when the dark tip of his tail disappeared into the endless blackness that the full magnitude of her emotions struck her like a falling tree. She was beyond frightened, she now realized. And beyond miserable. The tide of emotion slowly wrapping itself around her was lonelier and darker than even an ocean trench.
As she hesitantly raised her paw to the side of her face she could feel dampness beginning to plague her vision once again. Fresh blood was slowly drooling down her cheek, the wound she had received from the bandits opened by the Prince's claw. She had confronted him, just like she promised herself she would. And look at where that had left her. What would have happened if she had angered him any more? Would he have killed her? Her gut was screaming he would have. She had seen it.
She opened her mouth to try and speak, to try and reassure herself that all would turn out fine, but all she could do was remain silent, wordlessly stuttering silent reassurances as salty tears mixed with the blood dripping onto the grass. And then, all at once, she screamed, curling up into a ball as she pressed her forehead into her knees and bit her lip until her mouth was filled with the bitter taste of blood.
He despises you. She kept repeating to herself, each repetition bringing her closer and closer to falling completely into despair. Her heart was aching beyond relief, but she kept on sobbing. What was she going to do about this?
"Nothing," She barely whimpered, embracing herself even tighter as the light of the sun dimmed behind the trees. That was all she could do.
The smoky haze rising from the thatched and tiled roofs and chimneys of the city's brick buildings turned the morning sun into a foggy light, more a nuisance than a blessing. It streamed in through the packed marble amphitheater like water through a leak in a dam. The building had been sealed off from the rest of the city by its noisy, vulpine occupants, more concerned with their own troubles than the state of the dirty yellow light.
"Order, order! We must have order!" One of them shouted from the nadir of the amphitheater, bringing down the angry din of noisy coming from the scores of foxes surrounding him with a stamp of his foot and shushes from other foxes seated in the fiery crowd.
"We have not come here to bicker and plot," He scorned once silence had given him the stage. "Emperor Canus must not know why we have gathered. We have a duty to restore the glory of the Empire with as little bloodshed as possible."
"Why should we bother caring if one hears who we are to kill?" A young voice spitefully interrupted from the highest seats of the amphitheater. "We are among friends here in Regnenburg! As we are in almost all of our cities!"
"That does not matter!" The graying arctic fox on the stage passionately rebuked, supported by shouts of agreement from the elder members of the crowd. "There are spies everywhere. Canus watches his dominion with wicked eyes and straight ears. No hamlet, town, or metropolis is safe for us. We must behave accordingly and prepare covertly for what is to come."
"Elector Schwarzhund is right," A fellow arctic fox sternly agreed, raising from the senior members seated at the theater's bottom steps and facing the crowd in his heavy chain mail. "We cannot go from town to town preaching dissent even if there are those who resist this nepotistic infringement instantiated by the Emperor! The Electors' powers must be restored, and punishment must be brought to the kingdom of beasts north of our borders!"
"Thank you, Elector Totenfluss," Elector Schwarzhund earnestly thanked, patting his counterpart on his mailed shoulder and motioning for him to return to his seat. "Now, if we may continue. Elector Yabrin, the floor is yours."
"Thank you, my Elector," A young, arabian red fox in full leather lamellar gratuitously expressed, standing from his seat among the elder electors and addressing the room with a brusque bow.
"As you are all well aware, Emperor Canus has organized a marriage between Prince Piberius and the Burrow's Princess Hopps, daughter of King Hopps," He informatively began, a piercing expression on his face and his paws clasped behind his back. "If this union progresses, then our Empire will be little more than a province of rabbits."
"Then we need to ensure that the two of them shall not be married!" A tall grey fox irritably hollered from midway up the amphitheater, raising mumbles of support scattered throughout the crowd and inciting an agreeing nod from Elector Yabrin. "They must be assassinated at the earliest possible convenience!"
"Let us not take drastic action just yet, Elector Johan," He carefully yet strongly continued, sweeping his prying eyes over every elector. "Thankfully for us there is an alternative. A fox in close proximity to Prince Wilde has been slowly turning him against his betrothed. We could use this to our advantage."
"Who?" Elector Schwarzhund inquired, frowning and stepping towards him from the edge of the platform. "Who has the gall to stand up to the Emperor's will in such volatile times?"
"He does not say," Elector Yabrin casually answered, unphased by the numerous grumbles of discontent coming from the elder electors. "He pens to me in the common tongue, and has passed to me vital intelligence on the movement of forces along with details of the Emperor's actions. In the last letter I received from him, he pledged his allegiance to us, the true rulers of foxkind."
"If this fox is truly aligned with us, and not a mere pawn set up by the Emperor's spies, then turning the Prince and Princess against one another may yet re-initiate the war," A lively corsac fox pondered aloud from the amphitheater's second step, attracting the eyes and ears of the room. "But that would only be if their relations became strained beyond repair."
"If, if, if!" Elector Totenfluss angrily interrupted from his seat, throwing his paws up in the air as he turned over his shoulder to stare at the corsac fox. "You speak too hypothetically, Elector Constantz! Elector Yabrin, when your intelligence fails to disrupt the marriage, what is the alternative course of action?"
"No plan is set in stone as of now, my Elector," Elector Yabrin conceded, sending a respectful bow of his head to the old fox. "However, if our friend fails to separate them, then we shall take Elector Johan's recommendation into consideration and summon the four who wait in Wien."
Talk about brutal! And the violence ain't over yet!
A Fox in Shining Armor: A Zootopia Fanfiction Chapter 10 - Frankly, whenever the hell I get around to it
This chapter was last edited May 31, 2017