The First Fox King; King Arthur
Paul McCartney; Hope for The Future (Hate it)
The vixen laughed as she was snatched around the waste and flew through the air with the red fox holding her. She giggled when he set her on the ledge as he looked back over the scattered clanking of swords. "Back to it, my Lady." He smirked as he tipped his head.
She grabbed him rumbling as she pressed her lips to his. "Come back to us my love. I will give you a son!"
"How could I not with that kind of incentive!?"
The red fox shot back into the crowd below as she waved a white piece of fabric around. He landed next to a bear and shook his head before he threw one sword up and was dueling with a large wolf. "King Arthur! Is that what they call you, you worthless pelt! A peasant from how you move is all I see!" The wolf growled as the fox snickered. They glared at each other before he smirked and threw his sword higher, shoving the wolf back again.
"They have called me many things but that is not one I have heard."
"You don't belong in these lands! They do not belong to you or the worthless nobles we battle here. It is our right to claim the throne as they all squabble over what shall be ours."
"Their king sent for me before he died. My king seems to think I am worthy as do the nobles you have brought together through tyranny." He twisted again as he rolled under the larger canine and they were both baring their teeth as they clinked swords again.
"You bring an army of worthless rabbits with you, prey and predator alike who have no business here! Just as worthless as the fox who claims them!"
"They are not worthless, can you not see how the numbers rise against you?" the wolf glared at him as he shook his head and the fox smirked when the wolf looked around at all the mammals battling around them. Numbers had dwindled for the other side and the wolf ground his teeth in a harsh growl as he used his weight to throw him off the other direction. The fox's eyes went wide as the wolf grabbed a rabbit around the throat and held her high as she kicked her feet out in a thrash. "SISSY!"
"FEMALES! You bring females into battle with all these other prey mammals you have fighting for you. Give me a female and I will show you how to drop any species that believe they are above the ways in the world. Drop your sword or I will snap her neck like a twig between my teeth, fox!"
The red fox tossed his sword away and grit his teeth as the bunny struggled against the large paw wrapped around her. The wolf motioned to the jackal leading their group and he picked up the sword, looking it over before he shot back into the fighting with it. "Ha! That is why you will lose!" The red fox in front of him smirked as the bunny dropped her weight and fell limp.
A vixen swung in from a higher landing and the wolf hissed as he clutched his side, after the sword she was wielding sliced under his raised arm, loosening the grip on the rabbit the vixen snatched her from him and swung back to the other side giggling. "My Love!" She shouted after she landed and he threw his paw in the air, catching the sword she had thrown to him.
The bunny beside the vixen rubbed her neck as she rolled her shoulders. "Are you hindered little Sister?"
She asked and giggled as the bunny jumped several times. "Why do you call me that mother?"
The vixen giggled as the bunny kissed her cheek before she clutched two daggers, grinning maniacally and dove from the ledge back into the fray. She shook her head as she watched the doe grab the horns of an antelope and kick her feet into his face before she shot the other way, barely being missed by the blade he was swinging. "Lucky little feet they have, our little Hopps do."
"RETREAT!" A loud rally cry shot out over the crowd as the vixen beamed.
The mammals who were fighting all raised their swords and screamed as those who could still move fled. The fox smirked as he looked around and laughed as many of the mammals looked at him. He raised his sword in the air glowing as he screamed. "ALL FOR ONE!"
"AND ONE FOR ALL!" The crowd of mammals rallied around him as they held their swords high. The fox looked around and smiled broader as a large brown bear stood above many others, and shuffled through the crowd until he got to the fox. He dipped his head lower and dropped his brow.
"We got a problem, Rob." The red fox set his ears as he ducked behind the bear where they could talk. "We can't find the other sword."
"They have searched already?" he asked as he kept his voice low and looked around as the bear nodded.
"That ain't all that's missing, Rob." The red fox snapped his eyes back to the bear as his head hung. "We had another group go chasing after the ones that got away. There's about two dozen of ours missing."
"Ours?" the fox asked as his face fell.
The bear nodded as he sighed. "Half are yours."
Robin shook his head as he looked up and saw the vixen searching the crowd as he swallowed. "Who, and does she know?"
The bear shook his head sadly as he sighed. "She doesn't know yet. Sissy, Christopher, Rachel, Thomas, Violet…" he continued through the list and the red foxes face dropped in horror before they snapped back at him in rage.
"Do we know who he was? Who was leading all this?"
"No Rob, but the captured said it was the first time he had ever lost. All we know is that he was a Jackal. They've been calling him Attila. Guess he thought if he wasn't going to win, he would take something as a…"
The fox shook his head as he closed his eyes and held his paws up, ceasing the bear as his jaw clenched several times. "He has one of my swords. Scourge of Gods. I'll tell her, you need to get them home after this is cleaned up."
"Rob?" Little John asked as his ears flipped back.
"They are mine, Little John. It doesn't matter what they call me in this land. I will not leave them to fend for themselves."
"You got little ones waiting, Rob. We've already been far from home for more than a year with this battle. This guy is said to be able to sail the seas and overtake any kingdom."
"Marion will understand and the girls are young enough they won't. It took us many years to have kits, Little John. I am grateful for them, but it doesn't change the fact that the bunnies are ours as well. No matter how much they have grown. They are still my kits. I'll not leave them to the paws of someone like this."
The bear shook his head as he watched the fox search the hillside. "Marion!? Wherefore art thou!?"
She stuck her head over the side of a small ledge and waved her handkerchief at him. "Here Love!"
The bear dropped his head and turned as the fox climbed up the vines along the sides of the hill until he reached the vixen. Little John turned his cheeks up as he watched the vixen's knees give out while the red fox held her in his arms.
"I will find them. I will search the world if need be, until we are all together again, Marion." She nodded as he let several rabbits overwhelm her in a tight embrace. Little John shook his head as he watched the fox gather several of the other rabbits around her.
A blue-eyed buck squared his shoulders and ground his teeth together as he clenched the sword at his hip in one paw. "Little John?" The bear looked down at him cringing as he stood taller. "They took my brothers and sisters. A few who got away said they boarded a ship on the eastern waters. We need a ship to go after them. Can you arrange it with the locals?"
The bear looked around and ran a paw over his head. "I do not think it will be a problem. But they are not going to be happy if Rob is going with you, Skippy. They have all given in to him being the king here and call him Arthur because this battle nearly tore the land apart before they all had to come together against this with him. Elizabeth will not be pleased."
Skippy frowned and shook his head. "She's a strong doe. My kits will be fine with her until we return. They have their Grandmother's blood in them so they will survive as we all have."
"I don't think purple eyes are going to make a difference in the place of their father's absence, Skippy."
"They have the eyes of the Gods just as some of my brothers and sisters' kits have and will have. It will be enough to see us all through."
Little John tipped his head as he headed into the crowd to search for a suitable ship….
Several years of searching had led Robin back to the vixen with a heavy heart, and though his mate and children were overjoyed at his return, they all mourned the loss of the bunnies they'd taken as part of their family. He was welcomed to a new land as a king, his mate and daughters had been running in his absence. The red fox was growing weary from heart ache as he was approached by a long-furred yak who wore the robes of other lands with secrets laid under hidden eyes, behind the thick stands of tangled fur. "If you wish to know the fate of your children, your children's children, you must travel to the loch in the next land. There you will find the darkest waters and from the depth within them, call upon the monster who swims the places no one dares to venture."
"Who are you?"
"I am Merlin. The monster that dwells within the waters can be called upon by shouting her name. If you are worthy, she will appear and grant you what you wish for." The red fox rolled his eyes as he sat upon a throne he'd been given. When his eyes returned to the audience that had requested him, no one stood before him any longer.
He fought with the idea for several days until he finally went to his mate and told her of what had happened. The vixen lowered in front of him as his weary eyes looked down at her. She held out the parchment to him and shook her head. "This land is not so far that it would take you from us for long. We are not meant to have any more, losing them has weighed heavy on all our hearts. Go, find out what has become of our lost children."
Marion sent him off after their daughters had packed several days' worth of provisions, and the fox loaded into a carriage as several bunnies stood with one of the daughters he and his mate had brought into the world. A blue-eyed buck climbed in beside him and he chuckled as a doe held up several tiny bunnies he was petting and saying goodbye to, before the fox waved at his daughters and mate. "Do you plan on stopping anytime soon, son?" he asked as they pulled away.
The buck looked at him smiling as he sighed. "Elizabeth wants a large family. I don't see a problem with it as long as I can keep feeding them, more to love anyway."
The fox chuckled as he leaned back in the seat. "True. It would be a shame to lose any more than we have and not bring forward more. But at some point, perhaps you should find something else to distract you so you can continue to feed them?"
"Dancing, perhaps?" The buck nodded as they settled, spending several days together as they traveled the countryside until they reached a large body of water. "What is it you know of this?" He asked as the fox sat up and looked out the carriage window after the driver had let them know they had arrived.
"Only what the wizard said, Skippy."
"Wizard?" the buck asked as he shook his head.
"I can't think of anything else to call him, he vanished as if he were nothing more than a shadow. He said that it wasn't the water that was Mystical here, but the creature that lived within it. That she could travel to any water in any land and become whatever she chose to be, give you whatever you wished if she thought you worthy."
"How will she know if one is worthy?"
"I am not sure. Only that it will be a test I must pass, a journey I must make alone." The buck stepped out hesitantly behind him and was wringing his hat in his paw as the fox looked back at him smirking. "I will be fine. This is family, and it is more important than anything else." The buck sighed as he nodded and watched as the fox disappeared into a wooded grove.
Robin traveled for several days until he reached a large lake. Pristine water as blue and crystal clear as that of any tropic front had him looking around in awe at the hidden oasis he'd traveled to. He stood at the edge of the waters and unfurled the paper that had appeared in his paw when the yak had vanished.
"I CALL YOU! MONSTER OF THE LOCH! LADY OF THE LAKE! COME TO ME IN ALL YOUR GRACE!" The ground under his feet shook as the earth rumbled, the pristine water in front of him swirled and turned black as night as it churned, sending waves crashing high and spraying over him. The fox fell back as a dark form appeared in front of him, curling out of the water like a great serpent and hovering above the water before it shifted. The shape became pronounced as he scrambled backwards on the sand below his feet. "WHAT MANNER OF DRAGON HAVE I CALLED FORTH!"
The shape shifted into that of a large fox towering under the trees as it dipped its head lower, and he shivered as he looked into black eyes that held nothing. "Dragon, fox, I am what I choose to be, as large or small as you choose to make me, what form would you have me take with such insults you throw upon me!?"
The red fox blinked as he got back to his feet and bowed his head as the figure above him narrowed its hollow eyes. "Forgive me, Lady. I am not accustomed to being in the presence of one so revered as a God."
"I am no God!" she hissed.
His ears flipped back as he shied his eyes away from the darkness that squinted in front of him. "Begging your pardon, great lady. I was told you were the only one who may help me in a quest I have failed."
"Quest?" she asked with a flat voice as he dipped his head again.
"That you could grant any wish I would ask if I could prove myself worthy of your audience. The wizard Merlin told me of you."
"It will cost you more than you may be willing to pay. King Arthur, master of the round table and soul heir to the throne under King Richard should his bloodline fail. Robin Hood, master of thieves and son of a fox who only found his way to nobility through the grains he grew."
The fox blinked as he curled his brow. "How can you know of such things? I have not been called by that name for many years and never in this land that I now rule."
"You have no secrets from me, as no one else ever shall."
"Then you already know why I am here and are wasting my time!"
The dark figure growled as she dipped lower, and he kept his teeth locked in a snarl as she shrank to his size, landing in front of him tilting her head. "You wish to know the fate of the rabbits lost, known as Hopps in your first lands, lost to the war to free this land."
"Yes." He spat as he glared at the darkness swirling around her.
"It is a heavy price you ask to pay and will cost you the thing you have desired more than all."
"What I desire is to know the fate of my children!"
"They are not your children. A fox can never sire a rabbit into the world and if I give you the information you ask of me it will cost you the heir to your throne."
"Heir? A son…that no one would oppose because the councils have…."
The dark figure in front of him lost its form as it swirled around him. "A son, that would keep the foxes in power. Never to be questioned as they go through history about their place in the world. Always revered and loved by others."
The fox shook his head as he watched the dark waft of smoke swirling around him and frowned heavily as he shook his head and spat at it. "This is not a test I will fail! I will not forsake my children for that of a possibility that may be caused through something dark and leave them to the wickedness of the world! If they are in need of my help it is my duty as a father to find them again!"
"You would give up this future, just to see their Fate, to find where they are?"
"Yes," he growled as the billowing black around him curled back together in front of him and took the shape of a fox again.
"Why would you do this for rabbits? They are not your kind."
He growled and grit his teeth as he spoke through tight lips. "They are more than rabbits! They are mine!"
"You feel they belong to you? As pets perhaps? Like the little lizards and snakes your true children care for? Or is it merely that the armor they gave you will not function without all the pieces intact? Perhaps you only wish to regain it so you have the power you once wielded? Even now you wear it as if you wish for its strength again."
"Foolish beast! I wear it to honor them! If you know all and can see all you would know that is not why I wish to find them! If you believe I have traveled and searched for them all this time for nothing other than keeping them as fodder I can claim under a crown of lies, you are nothing but the hollow creature that stands before me!"
The dark figure bowed slightly in front of him before she stood and lifted her head. "Would you be willing to lose this crown for them?"
"You already know my answer, Witch. Whatever you are, keep your black heart. I will not stop looking for them with or without your help." He turned clenching his fists and stopped as she swooped in front of him.
"Wait…. Forgive me my liege." The fox stopped with a lowered brow as she dipped in front of him as if on her knees. "The price for their whereabouts is that no one will ever know the name of King Arthur as anything other than a fairy tale. This kingdom will disappear from history and all will fall as if it had never taken place. The name of Robin Hood will go through history as revered and loved, but there will be no king under this forgotten kingdom. Your daughters will take the council under King Richard after your death and return to the lands they came from. The children you have taken under your wing will spread over many lands. The round table will be split in half, ten to each side, until all are reunited. Your family will come together again at the beginning or end of all. And their fate is unknown even to me."
"How is it you cannot see this when you have stolen every secret I and all others have had?"
"We cannot see past the choices we make. One who lives cannot see the next moment of life, for it is unwritten and can be changed. I cannot see past the choices I would make. I must hope that I will make the right choices. If you truly want to see their Fate, it will cost you these things and drain what little life you have left, but a reward will also be given at its price, Sire."
"Show me. Lady of the lake, Please…."
Notes; Most notes for this chapter are in the next chapter as it was split- But the name Arthur means Courageous - Stone – and bear – hehehe - The story in this chapter is what Rose told the boys in the second chapter of Black and White. King Arthur and Excalibur are just a 'story' and believed to be a myth. But this is how there was actually a first fox king and he was Robin Hood/Robert Whood. No one has put the connection together in Zootopia that he's referenced as being the first fox king, but there is no explanation of why he's called that with no record of it happening or being a fact.