Coming in at a little under a week since number 13, it's... chapter 14! Funnily enough.

Before we dive on in, quick update on the whole audiobook thing: Alex Cole has just finished up putting the last touches on his recordings of chapters 4 and 5, so hopefully once he's got a bulk of them done we'll have the cover image sorted out and I'll be able to link you directly to the first part. Don't forget, everyone; you're welcome to send some drawings/suggestions in if you think they'd be good as a cover! Very exciting stuff.

Oh, and before I forget: a reviewer of Chapter 13 raised an important point which I thought I did address (or at least was suggested by the description in Chapter 3) but I'll clarify; Nick is no longer clothed. When he was at the hospital, the medics stripped him down to allow them to inject/scan/etc. So he's basically au natural now, like he was in the Zootopia teaser trailer. Isn't that neat?

Anyway, here's the story. Enjoy.

OK: assets, assets. I've got a day-old pack of chewing gum, a broken plastic spoon and a clump of lint. You know what would really help me break out of here, though? The rights to Zootopia. Which I still don't have, by the way.

By the time Judy made it back to the familiar territory of the stream, the last few straggling rays of sunlight had faded, blanketing the forest in an eerie darkness. The serene birdsong that had previously orchestrated the treetops had all but ceased, leaving her in silence as well; although this did, at least, make it easier to navigate via hearing. The rabbit had made sure to take a route that would allow her to go around the hill she'd fallen down earlier, not wanting to have to scale such an incline in her current state. Plus, she was tired as hell at this point.

The waters flowing in the brook still sparkled, but beneath moonlight this effect was far more haunting. The sight was almost skeletal; a milky whiteness interspersed with the murky depths, all twisted and distorted by the constant motion of the current.

Judy paused briefly to wash her feet and hands of the mud that had clumped on them during her travels. The water had cooled significantly since the sun had gone in, causing the bunny to inhale sharply as the icy liquid splashed onto her skin. She soon acclimated to it, cleaning the rest of her exposed fur as much as possible, and once she had finished, she clapped her paws together a few times to dislodge any remaining pieces of dirt.

The earth tumbled from her body and into the stream where it either dissolved, got washed away, or sank to the bottom, and it was then that Judy once again caught sight of the small school of fish in residence. Harder to see now, but definitely there, darting left and right as her activity caused more ripples in the water.

She pondered for a moment, reflecting on the events of the day. In initiating the first touch contact with Nick, she had broken down the first of many barriers that stood between her and the coveted certainty that she wouldn't be eaten, but it was unlikely he, in his feral mind-set, was fully comfortable in her presence yet. In other words, she'd demonstrated she meant him no harm – but whether he'd gotten to that stage was a different matter.

Judy recalled the old adage her mother had always jokingly brought up whenever Stu had come home for his evening meal after a bad day on the farm: the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Though she'd always dismissed it as an archaic cliché, and she wasn't sure how well the saying would apply to someone whose mental faculties had recently been set back several generations, the basic concept could prove useful.

If she could provide an alternative source of nourishment for Nick, the chances were that, given the natural psychological rewards of food, he'd gradually begin to associate her with a consistent source of sustenance and thus be less inclined to rip her apart. Which is always nice.

And if it wasn't going to be her on the menu, it needed to be something else.

Her mind made up, Judy focused her vision, already hampered by the low light levels, onto the fish.

As she watched them swim about helplessly, unaware that one of them was soon to meet a gruesome end, she hesitated. What right did she have, as a member of the animal kingdom just as they were, to decide their fate? To just pluck an innocent creature from its habitat and cast its life aside for her own benefit?

Judy faltered, her paw halfway to the water.

Nature, and indeed society, may not have classified her a predator; but if she went through with this, was she really any different from one?

And then, though his physical form was not present, his voice rang as clear as day in her head.

I think we passed the point of ethical consideration around the time you stole a car, Carrots.

The bunny mentally reasoned that it was for the greater good, but it was under a degree of duress that she dipped one paw into the stream, aiming for the largest fish in the group. If she was going to do this, she was going to make sure she made the best of it.

The creature reacted instantly to her assault, darting away from her paw; its streamlined build making her job more difficult. Undeterred, she backed off for a few seconds to allow the fish to calm down, and then she reached in again, much faster this time. Another miss. She groaned in frustration.

After a few more failed attempts, it clearly caught on to what she was doing and swam a distance upstream. Thankful that it hadn't decided to ride the current away from her, Judy shifted her ground and followed the fish to its new spot in the brook, where it began circling a collection of plants growing in the bed.

Her irises became a blur of black, white and purple as she leant over the bank, tracking its erratic movements. Waiting for an opportunity to strike. Eventually, a particularly powerful ripple nudged it closer to her, and Judy went in for the kill.

The fish had no chance. Her fingers closed around its body, grasping it firmly, and before it could resist the rabbit lifted it out of the water and into the cold night air. It fought furiously, wriggling in every direction, but to no avail; Judy, still riding a sudden wave of adrenaline, pinned it to the grassy ground with both paws. She averted her eyes, not wanting to watch this poor creature's life slowly ebb away at her hands, but still felt it gradually go limp in her grip, exhausted and starved of oxygen. An unrelenting sensation of guilt washed over her as, after a minute or so, the fish gave a few last tenacious thrashes, twitched once, and then became totally still.

Judy gasped as she turned her head back around and saw her motionless catch.

It was dead. She had actually killed something.

Breathing heavily, she took a closer look at the fish. Its scales, reflecting the moonlight as the water it dwelled in had done, were a brilliant silver, each one stunning in its intricacy and design. A gorgeous scarlet hue faded into this color near its neck, surrounding its gills in a breathtaking pink tone. But for all the beauty of its body, Judy could only focus on its eyes, which remained open; glassy, blank and lifeless. The last few flickering flames of existence having been doused, extinguished in a matter of seconds.

The bunny sat back on her haunches. She ignored the pain in her leg as one single solitary thought raced through her mind over and over. The harsh reality of it all came crashing down.

She was now a hunter.

However, she did not want her melancholy to become mawkish – she didn't have time for that – and so she simply sniffled, picked up the fish, dusted herself off and continued her journey back towards the cave. Even though its capacity to appreciate tenderness was now long gone, she cradled it in her right arm, holding it close to her chest as she walked.

Soon it loomed before her; the haphazard rock structure she and Nick now called home. For the first time, Judy got a good look at the exterior, and, seeing how low the 'entrance' was situated, was amazed that Nick had ever been able to squeeze himself in, let alone the both of them at the same time.

However, as she neared the hole, with dried twigs crunching underfoot, it was something else entirely that caught her attention.

Pooling in a disturbingly large amount, with some smeared on the sides of the entrance; drips leading from where she stood into the dark bowels of the cave.

Blood.

Fearing the worst, Judy jogged to the hole and, ducking down, made her way inside. Despite her best efforts, a smudge of the fresh haemoglobin rubbed off onto her shirt, leaving a bright crimson stain that she knew from experience wouldn't wash out with the limited resources she had available. But that was hardly important.

She didn't quite know what she was expecting, but the scene that unfolded before her came as a relief all the same.

A small part of her had thought that the monster had perhaps reared its head once more and killed a small woodland creature, bringing it back to its den to savour the meal, but in truth the blood had come from Nick himself.

Looking as pathetically mangy and downtrodden as ever, and still licking away at some recently reopened wounds on his sides (the source of the mess) the fox stood in the dead center of the cavern, turned away from Judy. As such, he didn't hear her come in – or if he did, he didn't acknowledge her – so she took advantage of this anonymity, pressing her back up against the wall and circling round the 'room' gradually. She didn't want to risk taking him by surprise, lest he pounce in instinctual self-defence.

The bunny had hardly made it halfway around the perimeter of the cave when Nick's head shot up, his nose twitching. Judy froze in place, not from terror, but from apprehension, and looked him dead in the eyes. She found that he was not returning her gaze, and indeed he made no sound or movement in her direction; instead, all of his senses appeared to be trained on the dead fish in her hands. Good. Exactly what she'd been hoping for.

Several audible sniffs issued forth from Nick's snout, his pupils dilated even further, and he began placing one paw in front of the other, nearing his prize. By this stage, Judy was fairly confident it wasn't her he had designs on, and so, with a dramatic flourish, she tossed the fish a safe distance across the cavern, where it fell to the ground with a sickening splat. True to her guess, the fox abandoned any cursory interest he may have had in her and made a beeline for the fallen morsel.

Feeling rather pleased with herself, Judy left him to it and crossed to the small ditch he had dug for her; she'd decided that if he'd gone to all the trouble of digging it, albeit for slightly more sordid purposes, she was going to make use of it, if only to appease him further.

The unpleasant sounds of the fish's flesh being decimated soon echoed across the cave. Judy, cursing the shape of the rockwork for having such damn good acoustics, settled into the soft patch, which by now bore an indentation in her image, and began speaking out loud (more to herself, really) in an attempt to drown out the noise.

"You'd better chew it slowly. Enjoy it a little. That's all you're getting for now."

Well, I'll level with you, Fluff: I wasn't expecting haute cuisine.

A perfunctory chuckle. "Bet it's a step up from prison food, though, huh?"

You assume they fed me at all.

Her brow furrowed. She urged her subconscious to change course; the idea of Nick being starved didn't bear thinking about.

A blueberry or two wouldn't have gone amiss, though.

A sly grin. "Kinda figured that'd be a sore subject for you."

I'm never living that one down, am I?

"Never."

And the worst I've got on you is that you got stuck in cement once. Fight fair, Carrots.

She sighed. "Well, that, and sparking unprecedented tensions in the city, marginalising all predators, hurting you and failing to catch the criminal responsible for everything. You've actually got quite the arsenal."

It wouldn't count. I already forgave you for at least three of those things.

Judy stiffened. "That implies there's one you're still stewing over."

Probably because it's the same one you're still stewing over.

Her head swam for a while, trying to make sense of this. As far as she was aware, none of those things had been particularly playing on her mind of late. At least not to the extent they had been around the time of her resignation.

Here's a clue: this one wasn't in your little list.

The rabbit sat dumbfounded, utterly clueless as to what her psyche was trying to tell her through Nick's voice. Something was clearly eating away at her from the inside; something she didn't even know about.

But she didn't have long to ruminate over this. She hadn't realised she had effectively fallen into a stupor until the sound of the fox's claws padding against the stone floor jerked her out of it.

Judy rubbed her cranium, in a mixture of tiredness and confusion, and looked over to where Nick now lay.

Still without a single indication he knew or cared about her presence, he had left what remained of the fish and crossed over to a small outcropping of rock which jutted from the 'wall', creating a shelter of sorts. Presently, he curled up beneath it, his long orange-and-brown tail stretching around his body in a neat semicircle. His black eyes, devoid of their usual vigour, closed beneath crusty lids, and his head settled between his front paws.

Within minutes, his breathing had slowed to a calm rhythm, and aside from the hypnotic rise and fall of his torso in time with his inhales and exhales, the rest of his form became still. He was asleep.

Judy was awed by the tranquillity of it all. Less than 48 hours ago, to even be in the same room with the savage fox would have been roughly analogous to being handed her own death warrant. And yet here they were, mere feet apart, and the predator did nothing but doze placidly. She had no idea in hell what sort of magic she had worked during their encounter at the stream, nor did she care; as long as he was both healthy and content to not tear into her, she was happy.

She watched him for a brief spell, allowing herself to be lulled by the reassuring reliability with which his breaths came. Eventually, she yawned, gave one final stretch, and settled down into the cool mud. Unsurprisingly, dirt didn't make for ideal bedding, but it was at least softer and more yielding to her weight than the unforgiving stone slabs she had as an alternative.

Judy clasped her hands together over her stomach and cast her mind back.

It would have been a real push to label the day a total success – for one thing, her hunger had been left largely unsatisfied – but at the same time, progress had undeniably been made. She'd gotten her bearings a little better, inched her way a bit further into Nick's good books and, most importantly, she was still alive. And so was he.

Her lavender orbs closed as his had done, and it wasn't long before the foggy onset of drowse seized hold of her thoughts and tugged them gently away, causing her to fall into a deep, comfortable slumber.

Her awakening the following morning was nowhere near as pleasant.

And just like that, I'm throwing you guys in at the deep end with another cliffhanger. Don't worry, there's a reason behind this one: I'm doing the chapter split in two thing again, as I noticed that the two halves of this instalment were stupidly different in tone and just didn't gel (you'll see what I mean in part 15) So it literally swung right from Judy feeling pretty good to being utterly terrified – not to give anything away – which didn't work. Thus the separation.

What that does mean for you guys, though, is that the next chapter is coming within the next two days; no week-long wait for you this time! On the minus side, though, it'll be a bit shorter, but I assure you: a real dun-dun-dun moment, like a serious plot twist, happens in it. It evens out.

Also, I noticed during editing a couple of parallels between the whole fish thing and How to Train Your Dragon. Before anyone calls me out as a plagiarist, I can sincerely say I did not have that scene in mind while penning this (though I do like the movie).

Thanks again for reading/bearing with my crazy schedule. Love y'all, and don't forget to check out Alex's stuff if you get the chance. The guy could always do with more support.