Chapter 29 – Wedding with Surprises
Before they knew, the day of the wedding had come. Zootopia was used to big partys, but this was a new dimension. If Fru-Fru had planned to use the wedding as a commercial for her new wedding planning business, then she had succeeded big time. As Nick was not allowed to see Judy in her dress before the ceremony, he had spent the night at the Oasis Hotel together with his best man Gideon Grey.
They did not do anything spectacular, they sat at the bar and had a few drinks. Nick really liked Gideon a lot, even though he was so different from him. Gideon could not be called the typical fox, but how could he, being raised in a community so strongly dominated by prey. Nick had noticed that most animals in Bunny Burrows thought of Gideon as a little dim-witted, but Nick found out, that Gideon could be quite smart in his own way. Opening a bakery that had specialized on products using ressources from farmers in his neighbourhood had been rather clever and successful. Gideon even thought of expanding his business furthermore. Finding a mate had raised his self-esteem considerably, he was not stuttering anymore.
Nick never knew how much he missed a real friend, a friend you could trust a hundred percent. Finnick had never been this close to him, as soon as Nick had turned into a cop, Finnick had vanished. Nick felt a bit sorry about it, as he had really liked that small guy. As the following day would be quite long, they both decided to go to bed early.
Nine hours later, Nick stood in a wedding chapel inside the huge dome of Sahara Square Garden. He wore a white gala police uniform, tailor-made for this special day. Gideon next to him seemed to be more nervous than himself. Nick turned around to look at the crowded place, all the seats were packed. As Nick had not many friends and relatives and Judy had them in abundance, Fru-Fru had discarded the idea of seating bride family on one side and groom family on other side, so it was mixed. Nick waved his father who looked quite smug in a black tuxedo he had made himself. Peter waved back happily. Some 150 bunnies were spreading quite a lot of noise and excitement, even though Bonnie tried her best to hush them up every thirty seconds.
Mayor Lionheart had been in a crisis but thanks to Judy and Nick's unusual relationship, he had regained power and wanted to exploit this to the max. He had therefore insisted on holding the wedding himself, using a very old law from the foundation days of Zootopia. The archbishop had not been very happy about that and in the end they had agreed upon holding the ceremony together.
Finally, the wedding march started and the audience fell silent. When the huge door opened, Nick turned around slowly. Loud Oooohs and Aaaahs sounded from the entrance. The first thing Nick saw, was a tiny black dot on the long red carpet. This was the other Judy, Fru-Fru's daughter, named after her godmother, the minuscule shrew was throwing white petals and was running in order to keep pace with the much larger animals behind her. Stu and Judy followed. Stu looked like the proudest animal in whole Zootopia and he had all reason to be proud. Karl Otterfeld had really outdone himself with Judy's wedding dress. It shimmered in the light, radiating all colours of the rainbow and there were quite a lot of animals gawking wide-eyed at the bunny wearing it. And Nick was one of them. The dress showed her shoulders and accentuated her legs. She wore high heeled shoes, therefore she had to walk quite slowly. The dress was slitted up to her hips on both sides, so every step revealed her shimmering thighs. They had been careful with make-up on her face. A long veil extended a long distance behind her, in addition to her two bridesmaids, Kitty and Bren, six sisters of her carried it.
The ceremony started and Nick didn't get a single word. Even though he did not look at her directly, the mere presence of her consumed all of his senses. He seemed to have said the right words at the right moment as Judy kissed him and the crowd started to cheer. Everything happened as in trance. As usual, bride and groom themselves could not enjoy the celebrations as much as their guests. Games were played in abundance, most of them traditional bunny wedding games Nick had never heard of before. Most games ended with a kiss or with a dance. Fru-Fru darted from left to right always chasing her own tight schedule. Nick smiled when he remembered a scene from the wedding rehearsal two days before, when Kitty had asked, "These games all seem to be old bunny customs… are there no funny fox games you can play at weddings?"
Fru-Fru had sighed, "Actually, there are not many fox traditions… as foxes have been against matrimony until recently", she had explained, "Most fox couples live together without being married… even though, there is a custom… but I am not sure if Judy or Karl would like it…"
"Well, you haven't asked me about it", Judy had said, "And what has Karl to do with this?"
"There is the coloring ceremony that takes place at midnight. You must know, white dresses are considered as bad luck for foxes, so when they accepted the idea of matrimony that most animal followed, they found a way to cope with that… at midnight, everyone will assemble around the bride and pour beet root juice over her dress!"
"WHAT?!", Kitty, Bren and Judy had shouted out loud, "What a mess!", Judy said, "Now I understand why Karl would not like it! And I won't like that, either! How could you do that?"
"Hey, don't look at me that way!", Nick had laughed, "I have never done that, in fact, I never heard about that before. My parents were married, but I doubt even dad knows about that funny custom!"
He was shaken out of his memories by none other then famous singer Gazelle who asked him for the next dance. He accepted, but it was a bit awkward to dance with such a popular animal. He didn't know what to say, but he was lucky as Gazelle talked the whole time, thanking him and Judy for being so courageous.
"Rick and me would never had the guts to pull such a stunt like you two!", she said with her cute accent.
"Well…", Nick started.
"And now I am dancing on a wedding of a fox and a bunny", Gazelle interrupted, "I can't believe it! Even more, Rick and me will marry next month, too! You will be invited, of course. I am so excited!"
Judy saw Nick dancing with Gazelle and wondered why Nick did not look so happy as she would have expected. She had sat down on the table with her colleagues and Clawhauser was looking to Nick full of envy. Bogo played with his empty glass.
"That is typical Wilde, pulling a stunt like that during the award ceremony… saluting with lis left paw! Really! The commissioner was so furious…", Bogo smiled, "but Mayor Lionheart was happy about it, every headline in the paper about you two brings him new sympathy as he supports you… and finally, you will be back at work, we really need to solve that mysterious tame collar thing!"
Judy looked to the side, "Well, sir, about that… actually I have not found out much in the past weeks… to be honest, I have no clue where to start, as the case is quite cold…"
Suddenly, Bren darted to her from behind, "Judy, Judy, I looked everywhere for you, you must come, now, the dance lottery is about to start!"
Bogo nodded, "Don't take it too serious, Hopps… I mean, Wilde… go, have fun, it's your wedding! I don't think, El Ahrairah will show up to steal your cake!"
Bren laughed out loud, "Oh, but he would like it a lot, pulling a stunt like that would be so typical…"
Every single cop in earshot had jumped up and all stared at the little bunny nurse in her beautiful dress, who blushed and get smaller and smaller.
"Did I say something…?"
"Do you know El Ahrairah?", Bogo said with a quiet but dangerous voice.
"Well.. yes, of course I do…", said Bren.
Twenty-nine seconds later, the cops had seized a small side room that was used to store the wedding presents. But no one looked at the pile of valuables, instead the entire attention of the eight cops, some wearing gala uniforms, some tuxedos, some pretty dresses, were on the timid bunny sitting on a chair much too big for her. Poor Bren wished she hadn't said anything. Bogo started the questioning.
"So, you know El Ahrairah?", he repeated.
"Yes, sure…", Bren replied hesitantly.
"Since when do you know him? It is a him, isn't it?"
"Yes, he's male, of course… I know him… let's see… I think since second grade in grammar school…"
"In school?", Judy said, "Is he a teacher in Bunny Burrows?"
Bren laughed, "No, but wait, do you think…"
"We are asking the questions here!", said Bogo, "But he is a bunny?"
"Well, of course he is!"
"I don't get it", said Nick, "All the profilers said he is a predator and… wait, did a bunny work on the tame… I mean, on the issue in question?"
"No, according to the files we have, not", answered Judy.
"What are you guys talking about?", asked Bren, "Judy, you must know him, too! Haven't you talked about him in class? My school was pretty small, sure, but I think they teach the same stuff everywhere!"
"In class?", Bogo was confused, "You mean… El Ahrairah was a subject? In school?"
"That's what I want to tell you guys all along! He is the hero of bunny folk lore!"
"Wait, you mean, he is not real?"
"Sure he is! For us bunnys… but he is not a real person, you know…" Bren tried hard to explain, but it was kind of difficult under such a pressure. "Okay, Nick, you know Robin Hood, do you?"
"Of course I do! Every fox knows him! And most other animals, too. There were quite a bunch of movies about him!"
"So, is he real?", asked Bren.
"That is disputed… he is a legend, some say he had lived in the dark ages, shortly after the animals became sentient, but there is no historic proof…"
"Okay, can someone fill me in?", interrupted Chief Bogo, "I have not seen a lot of movies and I don't know who that Robin Hood is!"
"Oh, chief, you should!", said Clawhauser excited, "He was a fox, the most cunning thief who ever lived! He fought the evil king's brother who had usurped the throne in absence of the real king, he had to hide in the forest with his gang…"
"A thief?", said Bogo disgusted, "How can a thief be a hero?"
"Oh, sir, he was not a common thief, the evil prince took everything from the poor citizens, and Robin stole from the rich and gave it to the poor. With his help, the real king could be reinstated! Then, the thankful king pardoned him!"
"So, El Ahrairah was a thief, too?", Bogo asked.
"No, at least not like Robin Hood… there are stories about him stealing lettuce, but he was more a trickster than a thief", explained Bren, "And as a chief of bunnies he did all for the wellbeing of his people!"
"Okay, okay!", said Judy, "We must conclude, as El Ahrairah is not a real person, our mysterious source is using this name, so he must have a certain knowledge of old bunny lore. But why choose the name of a mythological bunny?"
"That's easy!", Bren smiled, "Obviously he thinks, he has a lot of enemies!"
Again, all cops stared at her disbelieving. Bogo said, "Yes, you could say that… but how did you know?"
Bren took a deep breath and started citing like she stood in front of a class, "In the old times, before Zootopia, when preds were hunting prey, bunnies were hunted by so many other species, weasels, foxes, stoats, badgers… that the chief of the bunnies was called the Prince With Thousand Enemies. Well, in old Lapine, 'enemies' means 'elil'. In Lapine, we only have words for the numbers from one to four, all higher numbers are called 'hrair', this could mean everything from five to thousand or even more. And the suffix '-rah' is used to show that a bunny is of high rank – like a prince or a chief. So, his name in Lapine is 'Elil-Hrair-Rah'. This has blended to 'El Ahrairah' over the centuries. Really, is there no one in ZPD who speaks Lapine? It's a pity this cool language is no longer taught at bunny schools, even in Bunny Burrows you could just chose it as an optional after class course…"
Bogo sighed, "I should talk to the education board"
Everyone laughed. Except for Nick, "She is right, you know. Maybe we could have saved years of investigation if this tiny fact had been known earlier."
Before Bogo could make a remark, the door opened and a huge polar bear entered. On his palm stood Fru-Fru.
"What are you doing? Everyone is waiting for the dance lottery! We are thirty-five minutes behind schedule!"
Obediently, the marched out of the room. Bogo put his large hoof on Bren's shoulder. "You know, whenever you get tired of being a nurse, you should consider a career at ZPD. Your mind works the right way!"
