Chapter 14: Naked & Afraid

"Remember, there's always something cleverer than yourself."

Merlin in movie Excalibur

Agent Minos finds out that there are complications with his assignment of the vixen type. Nick and Judy struggle to fend for themselves in the primitive past.

Present Day

The aegean wildcat's ears flattened against the top of his head when he saw the crowd at the cottage. "What is everyone doing here?" he asked the officer who was driving the police vehicle.

"Well my dear Agent Minos, everyone wanted to see the prodigal son who has returned home," the officer snickered. "Oh, I also forgot to tell you that Nicolaus is getting married to little Maria too! It seems that her papa wants his little angel properly wedded before she goes off to the big city of Zootopia with you two."

"I wasn't planning to take anyone back with me, except for Nicolaus."

"Too bad, we have already made sure that she has a ticket on the same flight as you and Nicolaus. You should remember how headstrong the females from this village can be, there is no possible way that this vixen is going to let you take her tod anywhere without her."

"This will complicate matters…."

The officer pulled the car onto the side of the road and looked over at the cat in the black suit. "I've known you since you were a snotty nosed teenager and you could never lie to me back then and you sure can't nowadays. I know that there is more than just that medical device stuck in Nicolaus's neck which brought you running over here in such a hurry after all these years," he said and when the cat tried to interrupt, the gendarme held his hoof up to silence him. "Now I understand that there is secrecy in our business sometimes, but there is more to why you are here then you are telling me."

"It's just that…" Minos could not finish his statement, before the officer cut him off again.

"Nicolaus is having strange dreams about things which, as far as I can tell are real, but belong to this Officer Nick Wilde in Zootopia. Things like helping a rabbit by the name of Judy Hoops solve the savage animal outbreak in your city. These dreams are too vivid and match what I could find out in those reports which were available in our databases. They match too much to be more than just a coincidence."

"Still, I don't have clearance for Maria to travel with us."

"She is pregnant with his kits!"

"Shit, that does complicate matters."

"I'm sure that those doctors are going to be interested in that too!"

Minos stared down at the car's dashboard and sighed.

"Come on cat, we have a welcome home party and a wedding to attend," the gendarme laughed as he opened his car door. "Oh and no one else but Maria's family, the village priest, and our doctor knows about her condition, so please be discrete tonight. Even in a small little rural village like ours, some of us can keep secrets. "

10,000 B.C.E.

The fox and the rabbit huddled in the darkness under a large gnarly looking oak tree, they were naked and afraid. Around them they could hear the sounds of movement in the heavy undergrowth and distant growls made them sit up and look around in trepidation. Nick softly cursed as he first wound and then desperately shook the broken watch, the cause of their precarious situation, he was trying to get it to take them somewhere else in time.

As the sun finally rose, they wandered around the area near the pond and found out that besides the strange looking squirrel, they were alone and the squirrel was going to be of no help at all. All the grey furred creature did was chitter at them in anger, while he ran from branch to branch.

"Water, check!…shelter… we need shelter…food…got to have something to eat…" Nick mumbled almost to himself as he paced around in a panic and counted down what he remembered from watching all those survival shows on the television. Yeah…shelter …"

"Nick, stop!" Judy finally snapped at him.

"I don't know what to do, Fluff! I now wished I hadn't burned my old scout manual after …" his voice petered out.

"Nick, I'm a farm girl," she said in that upbeat chipper tone, which she used when trying to make the best out of the worst. Reaching up, she grabbed his muzzle with both her paws and pulled his head down so she could give him a kiss. His arms drew her into his embrace and she sighed as she felt his fur against hers. "Now stop, we've other things to think about," she finally panted out. "I have a good idea of what we can eat, so let's figure out someplace we can shelter for the night and start a fire."

"We don't have any matches or a lighter, so how are we going to do that? Don't tell me you're going to rub two sticks together?"

"No, but there are stones in the hillside and our bracelets are made of some kind of metal, maybe we can get them to spark if we hit them together?"

"What about shelter? We are going to need something safer than a lean-to. I think if any of my ancestors came to visit us, they won't see you as my lovely wife, but as their dinner."

"There are the brambles on the hillside and we can build a lean-to in there where it is safer. We could dig a warren, which is what my ancestors would do."

"With our bare paws?"

"Didn't foxes dig warrens too?"

"They were called dens, Fluff! A fox in a warren…please!"

"Okay, then we can just call it a den instead of a warren. Until we get one dug, I think we should get a ladder and sleep in the tree at night."

"I'll just run over to Wallaby-Mart and buy us one." Nick sarcastically replied and then he snapped two of his right paw's digits. "Oh wait, I left my credit card at the university in the twenty-first Century!"

"I'll show you how to lash one together, goofball!"

"Oh you farm girls!"

"Let's see if we can find something for breakfast."

Nick scooped her up and she giggled as he carried her towards a mossy spot by the side of the pool of water. "I've got a better idea!" he huskily said before he kissed her.

Breakfast was late that morning.

Judy found a patch of wild blueberries, they were small but tasty, and some edible weeds for them to munch on as they looked into the bramble patch. He admired the way she slipped into the thorny wall of vines and slowly pushed an opening though which he could also fit. The ground was black and rich, so digging wasn't too hard. But unlike their ancestors, they were not use to using their paws to dig and soon they figured out that a flat stone was more effective, plus it gave them less wear and tear on their now sore paws.

The fire didn't work out. Whatever type of metal the bracelets were made of did not spark when scrapped against any of the stones they found. So, they spent the first of many miserable nights huddled high up in the branches of the old oak.

It took them several days of hard work to finally build a small lean-to in a depression that they had dug amongst the brambles. As luck would have it they found several shards of flint and even some stones which Nick at first thought was gold, but it sparked when the fox hit the stone against the flint. After much trial and error, along with several pawfuls of Nick's shedding fur and ground up leaves, they finally made a fire. As the fox merrily gathered wood, Judy looked back at the hole that they dug and wondered why both types of stones were found in such a convenient location nearby? Especially in ground which she knew from her farming days, should not contain either type of stone. It was then that she realized that the brambles were planted as if they were almost evenly spaced. That was strange, very strange.

After a few days, they had piled enough stones and fallen wood to make some sturdy walls and had cut down bundles of ferns to make a somewhat water tight roof, thankfully they were finished just as the rains came. In the darkness, they turned their little home into a honeymoon love nest. After all, there was nothing else to do after sunset, so they snuggled together in their safe little den which was hidden in the sharp thorny brambles. On several nights, they could hear something prowling around outside, but whatever it was did not try to bypass the fire that guarded the entry into their thorny patch.

Nick had also figured out how to catch fish with a sharpened stick, but he would eat the raw tender flesh away from Judy's sight and it sated his natural craving for meat. He was worried about her, they had been there about four weeks and although he ate the same things she did, she had started getting sick and was still tired in the mornings.

A was about a week after she began to get sick, when she leaned against the oak tree and looked over at her husband as he sat there trying to get two rocks to spark. "Nick!" she finally cried out and he glanced over at her. "I think I know why I've been getting sick? I think I'm pregnant!"

"That's impossible, you know that Fluff…" he began to scoff, but then he realized that she might be right. "A fox and a rabbit can't…"

"Maybe it was something in that drink that they gave us on our wedding day? We both drank a lot of it and then we time traveled just as you…well you know!"

"Still, that can't…can it?"

"Think Nick…everyone knows that coyotes and foxes can't produce offspring either, but there were many of the coyotes who had reddish fur and some of the foxes had coyote looking features."

Impossible or not, Judy was indeed pregnant and it was quite evident within the many days which followed. Her hunger increased and she even had carnivore like cravings for grilled worms and other small crunchy bugs. Soon the fox found that he had to wander further and further away from the little campsite to find food. He went off early one morning with a basket that they had weaved from grass and a sharpened long spear like stick.

Nick was well over a mile from their campsite and the safety of the briar patch, when he heard rustling in the tall grass behind him. Something was stealthily moving his direction. He stopped and sniffed, cursing the fact that he must reek of wood smoke despite his attempts to bath in the cold water of the pond. Glancing around, he saw a tree and wondered if he could climb up into it fast enough and high enough to hide. His nose then picked up a odd scent and he froze, gripping his spear tightly. Whatever it was had now crouched and he knew from his long dormant predatory instincts that it was ready to pounce.

There was a grunt and a yell as three rabbits...well not quite rabbits, because they had sabre-tooth teeth and small deer like horns upon their heads…leapt out of the underbrush and brandished stone tipped spears at him. "Hey I remember seeing you guys at the museum!" Nick yelled in surprise. "You must be Judy's ancestors! I sure am glad to see you…" One of the rabbit looking creatures stabbed at him with his spear, causing the fox to almost trip as he leapt backwards. "Now wait a minute, I come in peace!" Nick yelled as he parried another spear with his pointy stick. "Aww come on now!"

Another of the rabbits said something to the others in a series of grunts and squeaks and Nick looked up just in time to see a the spear being hurdled straight at him, he panicked and tried to bring his arms up to block it but he knew it was too late. Suddenly there was a crackling noise and the stone tipped weapon bounced off of something in front of him. The rabbit like beasts all stumbled back in shock while they watched as the fox seemed to be patting himself as if he expected to have been stabbed. Finally, the bravest of the three assailants hopped forward and thrust his spear at the fox with all his might. Once again there was a crackling noise and this time the stout spear shattered.

Nick had heard the wrist bracelet begin to hum when the rabbit thing attacked him and he felt something which seemed to shoot out in front of him to protect him from the deadly strike. There were electrical sparks where the spear hit whatever was in front of him now. "This thing has a force field!" he exclaimed out loud in a triumphal yell, at least he guessed it must be a force field. He grinned as he watched while his three assailants ran away. But force fields are only science fiction, he thought to himself as he picked up his own spear, then he chuckled out loud as he shook his head and muttered, "But so is time travel!"

It was several hours later before he returned to their primitive home by the clear crystal blue pool of water. "Fluff, you won't believe what happened!" he panted out in excitement as he entered the clearing. Judy looked up at him from the water reeds she was weaving together to make another sleeping mat for their lean-to. "I was attacked by your family…I mean three rabbits with big teeth and horns on their heads!"

"Nick, are you okay?" she asked as she ran towards him. He had to smile because she definitely now had a small baby bump.

"I tried to tell them that I came in peace, but I don't think they liked me. They tried to kill me with their spears!"

"They must have been primitive jackalopes and they were probably just defending their territory from you, after all you are a predator. Are you saying that you ran off three jackalopes with a pointy stick?" the rabbit skeptically asked.

"No! No! It was the bracelet, Judy! The bracelet has a force field and it kept them from stabbing me!"

"Nick, that doesn't make sense? How could this little metal band keep you from being stabbed?"

"Here…here!" he cried out as he picked up a rock. "Throw this at me!"

"Nick, I'm not going throw a stone at you!"

"Come on Carrots, I'll be okay. Don't you trust me?"

She threw the stone and he grunted in pain and disappointment as it hit him on the arm. "Try it again, but this time you need to throw it harder!"

"Nick!" she sighed. "I don't want to hurt you!"

"Come on, I'm ready this time," he said as he held his arms up like he did when he was trying earlier to block the spear. He grunted in pain again as the rock slammed into him. "I don't get it, this worked before?"

Judy shook her head and turned to go back to her work. Nick stood there for a few moments, before he picked up a small stone. Above him the squirrel chattered out a warning and he frowned up at it. "Look you, who brings you nuts or acorns every day? I know what I am doing." With that, he lobbed the stone right at his wife's back.

Judy felt the arm band hum and then there was a crackling sound as the stone bounced off of the invisible shield behind her. "Nick!" she yelled as she turned around. "Did you just throw something at me?"

"See it works!"

"Still, you threw something at me!"

"Well, it bounced off of your force field. So, I was right." He ran to hug her, but yelped when the shield zapped him. "Hey!"

"I guess it's still defending me from my big bad fox?" Judy snickered.

Nick slowly reached out and waved his paw in front of her. When he realized it was safe, he took her in his arms and hugged her. "Remind me not to get in a fight with you when you have that on," he chuckled.

"Sure Slick," she laughed as she gave him a soft punch in his arm.

"Hey that hurt!" he grumbled. "So much for my force field thingie!"

He sat down and leaned back against the tree, as she joined him and snuggled into his now much longer plush chest fur. Nick had always been lean and was somewhat scrawny before he went to the Police Academy, where he did bulk up some, but now he was lean in a more muscular primal manner. Judy sighed as he lightly rubbed one of her ears while he picked up the broken watch again. He played with it in his other paw, held it up and looked it over.

High in the tree, the squirrel dropped his acorn in surprise when the fox and the rabbit just disappeared.

Nick fell backwards, because the tree was no longer there, and Judy leaned over with a groan, she was suddenly nauseous. They looked around and realized they were back inside the village hut and the red feathered cape, which she once worn, was laying at the end of the sleeping mat. Judy ears flicked when she heard a vixen's voice calling out to them. "Awaken yon sleepy heads, thy night of bliss tis over and tis time to return to the boat!"

"Nick, we're back and it's the morning after our wedding!" Judy hissed to the fox. We've been gone for months, but the watch returned us back almost to the moment when we left. Her ears drooped as she put her paw upon the small bulge in her belly. "How are we going to explain this?"

Nick and Judy found both flint and fool's gold or Pyrite. Archaeologist Andrew Sorensen at Leiden University in the Netherlands theorizes that Neanderthals were able to start fires using such stone tools.

There is no such creature as a sabre-toothed squirrel, but maybe QueenBookDragon and Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps are right and he is related to Scrat from the Ice Age movies? However, paleontologists in Argentina found a skull belonging a sabre toothed squirrel like mammal they named Cronopio dentiacutus...hummm!

Yep, the jackalopes were defending their territory from the wolf looking fox. We all know that Jackalopes do exist, after all the town of Douglas, Wyoming, has declared itself to be the Jackalope capital of America. According to the town's legend, the first jackalope was spotted there around 1829 and so they built a large statue of a jackalope in the town center to commemorate the elusive beast. You can even get a permit to legally hunt them on the 31st day of June.