The journey back to the caves the wolves called home was a march without words. A heavy pall of silence hung over the path ahead and for a long time Nick, Judy, and the wolves heard little except their footfalls. It was an awkward, pained sort of trudging walk – a walk of failure and of uncertainty. Negotiations had collapsed in spectacular fashion, and had ended in a worse-case scenario that haunted Judy's every moment.
She could see the sheep every time she closed her eyes. When she lay down to sleep under the cover of a thicket and the brush of Nick's tail, she could still hear their bleating as snarling wolves traveled into their stone circle and bared teeth at them. She could feel an anger and an impotent helplessness at the betrayal. All she wanted was for the mammals of these lands to live in accord with each other.
The sky remained a stifling grey above the Meadowlands. After the storm that night, an absence of light seemed to follow them wherever they went, with the sun hiding behind the clouds and a stiff breeze stripping them of momentary comforts.
Even when the group stopped to eat, they exchanged no words and rarely so much as glanced at each other.
Soon the wolves' home cave came into view, with Skadi sitting there at the mouth. Upon seeing the other wolves and the haze of their grief, her ears folded down.
"I smell fewer among you now than when you departed." Skadi spoke, nose twitching. "Frija no more."
Nick grumbled, plopping himself down several feet from the cave and folding his arms. "It's her fault. She jumped out at those sheep, attacked them. Now we have no way of knowing if this has all been a misunderstanding. They must think we mean war." As he talked he picked at the grass in annoyance.
"There's got to be another way from here…" Judy thought allowed, watching as Managarm approached Skadi and licked her forehead with his tongue, red as a beet.
"She and three others. Dead, or merely lost - I know not but them to be traitors all."
"Then our pack grows four fewer."
A long, silent moment passed between all gathered. On the fringes of the clearings, wolves sat with doleful eyes and waited for instruction from their leader.
Judy ended the silence. "Will you come back with us now? To help us make a home of these lands?"
Managarm turned his head and nodded once. "Once wolf lands these. We hunted and howled on prey of all kinds. Now we sleep with rabbits and fend 'gainst sheep invaders. The Meadowlands deserve'th life anew."
Nick looked up, "I thought these were always sheep lands. Aren't we taking something from them?"
"North only. They rare cross into south but think it theirs, I surmise."
Judy turned to Nick, trying to jog her mind by looking into his eyes. She couldn't think of anything, and sat down next to him instead. As she stared ahead, her paw absently sought out Nick's and held it in her lap. She traced her fingers over his pawpads and claws, and sighed.
"We'll leave soon, as soon as we can. I want to see if my father is well now. I want to return to my clan before something worse happens."
"All of our kind will join you. Rabbits shall count'th wolves both amongst their clan, and I – I shall count rabbits in my pack."
"And foxes?" Nick piped up.
"And foxes. One I know."
As if guided by an invisible path, Judy found her way to the Hopps clan. She was glad to have the wolves, for their keen noses helped locate the rabbits in record time. Without their own home to go back to, they had to make a new home here, and Judy knew it would take some time to get used to the land. It would take some time for her to learn the paths as a scout and as well as she did where she was raised.
It would take some time for things to seem normal again.
When she saw the first hints of mammalmade construction and of tall ears sticking out above the brush, she knew she was home.
The problem of approaching with a band of wolves had been forefront in her mind ever since leaving the cave. Judy, in fact, rode atop Managarm for the vantage, while Nick walked with Skadi and carried one of her young cubs in his arms. They were quiet, but Judy was sure someone had seen them. Perhaps it was best she rode so visibly, for she hoped they would see her first.
"A wolf draws near!" The cry was hoarse and desperate. Judy couldn't even place which of her brothers or sisters it was. She patted the back of Managarm's neck to get him to stop, and he eased into a sitting position to allow her to slide off. Whistles sounded, the chirps and squeals of reeds and blades of grass being blown to create an alarm.
Many of the wolves raised their hackles in fear or nervousness, but Judy's confident stance did not waver. She waited for the alarms to die down before calling her name.
"I am Judy, Scout of the Hopps Clan! Hear my voice and know no danger from my companions!"
There was a moment of silence, tense as any, before a cheer came from the trees and bushes ahead. Left, right, and center, the ears of interested siblings popped out. Twitching, curious noses pushed from between leaves and from behind the cover of trees and their branches.
"Judy! It's Judy!" Several cried. They burst from the bushes, but held back for fear of the great beasts sitting just behind their beloved sister.
Peter tumbled from the brush and stopped short mid-run, one foot in the air. "Judy, look out!" He half-gasped, half-screamed.
"Come now, come… I show my back to this wolf, see?" Judy called back in announcement, taking several steps forward in font of Managarm. "At least you can show him your fronts! He is a friend. They are our friends."
Peter set his foot down and straightened himself. He rubbed his neck with a paw and took a step back. "Sorry, but… Not until mom and dad get here."
Caution held both groups at bay. The wolves sat on their haunches and flicked their ears at passing butterflies. The rabbits stayed huddled in the bushes for minutes, holding fast until Stu and Bonnie appeared from a space between some wild, thorny copse.
Stu looked well, and held Bonnie on his arm. His eyes, however, were set hard, and his brow was furrowed in assessment.
"Father; I have come, and I bring news. Will you let us all in? Have you marked this our new burrow? Have you laid stones on the fringe?"
Stu kept his eyes on Managarm. "Judy… This is… I agreed to this, yes. But I never thought I would see it. You have brought the wolves to the edge of our new land, and now I must honor what I have said."
Managarm cleared his throat. "Know that near or far my pack honor'th pact of ours for the come and go of twenty winters. We will not pactbreak now."
The other wolves were silent, as were the other rabbits.
Nick stood by, rocking the wolf cub in his arms while his ears stood high and he listened intently to the proceedings. The cub was just like any bunny. Small, harmless. He thought for sure that it could be raised just like he was. But did it need some special dispensation? He was surrounded by adult wolves who had sworn off meat and acted honorably. Did that mean predators were not inherently monstrous; that they could coexist just as he had?
"Alright, alright. Come on. We'll show you what we've done here." Stu offered, and turned to lead the group beyond the protection of the bushes and trees.
Peter skipped past them, not sparing a moment to look over his shoulder.
Judy followed dutifully, and the pack of wolves paced behind her. As they walked, they exchanged glances with anxious and inquisitive rabbits, many of whom were reevaluating their conceptions of wolves as "mountains of fur and teeth, with claws like branches and eyes like raging fire."
The wolves, too, had to reconsider ideas of warlike rabbits.
"Our kind have not known congress for decades." Stu said. He pushed through a gathering of bushes and into a clearing.
It was vast, and the structures Judy had seen from afar were huts and homes for her family. It hadn't been that long, but so many rabbits could quickly complete projects. Already there were paths of dirt where grass had been walked upon hundreds of times. Firepits and storage tunnels were dug. There were signs of construction in process all throughout the open area. Rabbits cleared brush and prepared to plant fields.
The wolves, for all their trepidation, were in awe of the rabbits' ingenuity.
"We will need to make larger huts, it seems. Right, Judy?" Bonnie spoke over her shoulder before separating from Stu. She turned to Judy and Nick and paused for a moment, meeting their eyes. As she approached, she looked to the wolf standing at Nick's side.
This wolf watched the cub in Nick's arms and two others at her feet, and she did not look elsewhere.
"You are their mother. In a way, I am his." Bonnie gestured to Nick, and Nick looked up with a smile. "May I hold this one?"
Startled, Skadi lifted her head. She paused. "Yes. She." She said breathlessly.
Nick held the cub out in his arms. She squirmed and wagged her tail as Bonnie took her and cradled her.
"I remember when you were small enough to hold like this." Bonnie said softly, a smile tugging at the edges of her lips. "And you too, Judy."
"Things are going to be alright, aren't they mom? Dad?"
"I fed one predator; I can feed ten." Stu replied.
"Brothers and sisters, will you honor them as they have honored us? These wolves have saved Nick and I both."
A myriad of acceptances came like a flood – little siblings that looked up to Judy like no other, and even older siblings who had always respected her force of will. Some of the younger ones, in fact, imagine they could grow up to be just like her.
Judy could even see Lucinda standing there in the crowd of family. She seemed just a bit taller than last time she saw her, her tail ears tied back with a length of cord. The fur on her knees and elbows was tousled and ruffled. She offered a wave to Judy, which Judy returned.
There were those who were unsure. Those who stood on the fringes, arms folded, and with eyes burning into the strange and fearsome beasts Judy had brought back with her.
Bonnie's mother was among them, and she could silence herself no longer.
"Bonnie! You hold that creature in your arms – do you forget what they've done? How they killed your father?"
Abigail stepped forward, her can jamming into the earth and she separated from the other two elders – Stu's parents – and shook her head in disdain. She was hunched, her eyes bright but squinted, and her fur carried a bit more white-grey than the brown she had been in her youth.
"Mother," Bonnie replied, "One wolf of many. Not this one." She looked down at the cub.
"And if not that one, then that one!" Abigail scowled, pointing her cane at the enormous sable-furred wolf who led the pack.
Managarm responded calmly. "One wolf, true, killed a rabbit. One wolf guilty – a pack guilty. This we say'th. The wolf killed a rabbit am not here."
"Then where?" Stu spoke up, walking to his mother in law to steady her. She was shaking with anger. "Where is this wolf?"
Managarm and Judy exchanged a glance. Nearby, Nick watched the proceedings in a quiet sort of fear.
"Gone." Managarm muttered. "Gone, she. Twixt the talk with Whiteflock did she leap'th out to attack. To betray attempts at peace. She and some others gone. Gone from pack. Not my pack now."
Judy was nearly in shock. Frija was the wolf who killed her grandfather, the one who began all the enmity between their kind.
Frustrated and confused, she cleared her mind before nodding in Managarm's support. "He speaks the truth. We attempted to broach peace with the Whiteflock. Their ways were odd – unknown to me and like no story you've ever told, father. They wore antlers and spoke of blood and holy beasts."
All around them, Judy could see her siblings looking at each other in baffled concern. Had she said too much about the Whiteflock and the wolves? If coexistence was going to work, she needed them to be unafraid.
Despite this, there was much that Judy was afraid of.
"Look, if you want to know what I saw – I couldn't tell you. But I know the wolves we brought are the good ones. Right? Right?" Nick turned to Managarm expectantly.
"We eat of the Earth. Not one prey be hunted, not one. Like you."
As Managarm spoke, Skadi lowered her snout and felt a grim, guilty pain in her stomach.
"What shall we do? Believe these… creatures?" Abigail demanded, leaning against Stu as if she were close to fainting. "I can't stand the thought of it."
"Mother," Bonnie handed the cub back to Nick, and moved toward Stu and Abigail. "I feel the same agony. I miss my father. But these wolves did not do the deed. You know the truth – you know what Stu witnessed that day. Their own admonishment of the one who did. If they can protect us from the Whiteflock, then we may not have a choice. We may need them."