A red fox-sized convertible rolled along an unidentified street, its AC circulating only the smells of the car itself (cleaning fluid, upholstery, and a couple of cold drinks). Music on the radio muffled any sounds from outside, preventing Taelia Fangaster from hearing indications of their whereabouts.
Of course, the blindfold didn't exactly help matters.
"Ah-ah-ahh, no taking it off," warned a smug voice as one of her paws involuntarily reached for a red cloth tied over her eyes. Another paw – and a rather strong one at that – caught her by the wrist and moved her paw decisively back to her lap. She was grateful that this particular kidnapping experience hadn't included being tied up, but if she wasn't allowed to move it really amounted to the same thing.
That is, it would have if not for the identity of her abductor.
"You know," she said with a tiny pinch of excitement creeping through her nervousness, "my dad used to warn me about riding in cars with strange guys."
The voice of her driver took on a fake-hurt tone. "Oh, come on now. Me? A stranger?"
"Stranger than anyone I know," she quipped back, quick as anything.
He sighed, and she could picture him shaking his head. Well, he had walked right into that one. "You've been hanging out with Carrots way too long," he muttered. "I'd think you would trust me by now."
"After the incident in Tundra Town? Please."
"Hey, now, I pulled you out of the way of that toboggan."
"Right into a frozen pond, yes."
Taelia's 'kidnapper' was Nick Wilde, known to the world as the first-ever fox cop. To her, he was her longest running and most promising boyfriend to date… and a fox to be always trusted, but seldom believed.
Case in point: today he had invited her to a date at a small water park in the Rainforest District, promising to take care of refreshments and everything else. All she was to bring were a change of clothes, a swimsuit, a towel, and sandals. He hadn't explained the sandals, but had made a point of mentioning them.
That had been her first clue that something was off, but she was still taken by surprise when, once she was in his car, he bade her to hold still and then tied his old red neckerchief over her eyes. This was when he clued her in that she was being taken to a mystery date location, and that everything had been arranged already.
"Remind me again why I let you do this to me," she complained as she fumbled for the cup holder. When Nick had arrived he'd had fruit smoothies freshly prepared for the both of them, and she took a sip of mango orange key lime.
"Hmm…" he mused, making a "show" of thinking. "Was it maybe my devilish good looks?"
"Oh, that's funny," she quipped, tapping her blindfold pointedly. She took another sip and pondered the flavor like a wine expert. She couldn't really taste the orange, but the tartness of the lime and the sweetness of the mango did set each other off nicely. As long as she couldn't see, she might as well enjoy what she could taste. A sniff of the air led her to suspect that there was some shrimp with curry in the trunk, but she wasn't positive on that part.
Nick, with his eyes unencumbered, paused at a red light and took the opportunity to survey his date. Taelia wore a dark green breach dress with floral print, made of a very lightweight fabric as best he could tell. It hung to around her knees even when she sat in what was a typically modest fashion for her, though a slit creeping up to mid-thigh showed some flirt as well. She'd become somewhat bolder since that past Christmas, and he couldn't say he minded the change one little bit.
Come to think of it…
"Hey, you know how your parents always kiss when they stop at red lights?" he teased.
She made an annoyed face and flicked the back of her paw in the direction of his voice, almost but not quite reaching his face.
"I should have known better than to start giving you an inch," she quipped, trying unsuccessfully to sound offended.
He chuckled and moved along as the light turned green. "Okay, okay."
As they carried on, Taelia began brainstorming where they might be headed and what her sneaky boyfriend might have up his Pawaiian shirt sleeves. Nick was notorious for being one step ahead of just about everyone, but after dating him and sharing a flat with his partner in crime-solving, Judy Hopps, she had learned a few things about piecing together clues.
Having not even tried from the start, she didn't bother thinking about turns and corners. Some mammals could figure out where they were in a car blindfolded, but she wasn't one of them. Instead she concentrated on more immediate clues. His instructions on what to bring and how to dress were something of a hint. Assuming he hadn't conspired with Judy to have other clothes ready and surprise her with skiing – which he had done before, it was true – they would probably be going someplace warm and sunny.
It occurred to her that she might test the possibility of a switcheroo by prodding him with a deliberate wrong guess. "You're not taking me to that Mystic Springs place, are you?" she asked, somewhat accusingly.
Nick actually sounded slightly hurt by that. "Oh, now I wouldn't do that to you. You know that."
This was true. She and Nick did have their differing ideas of how fast to take a relationship, but he had always been a gentlemammal and willingly went at her pace of choice with minimal teasing. Taking her to a place like that – especially unawares – would be way out of character.
"Sorry," she backtracked. She did feel sorry for accusing that, even as a ploy, but she was still dying to know. His simple denial was no clue to speak of; 'Not even close' or something like that would have been much more suggestive – which he probably knew. There was nothing for it but a direct question. "So where are we going?"
His answer was as frustrating as it was predictable. "I'll tell you when we get there."
She groaned through clenched teeth, and could practically feel his grin in her direction. It didn't help that she usually liked that grin, as annoying as it could be sometimes.
It's a good thing for him I'm crazy about him, she thought, though she wouldn't have said it out loud. He probably already knew anyway. The fact that she was wearing a showier dress than usual, and the perfume she had on, were probably good clues, and if they weren't then he'd be sure to figure it out in a little while.
They continued to drive, she gleaning such clues as she could from the alternating intervals of light and shade. Short of putting a thick bag over her head or something, he couldn't deprive her of that bit of evidence.
After a while, she noticed that they seemed to go from light areas to shadier ones and back again every few minutes. At least, she guessed it was minutes, though it felt like hours.
"Are you taking us in circles just to drive me crazy?" she pressed.
The grin in his voice was so audible she had to resist the urge to smack him. "Maybe."
It took all her self-control not to groan. "Nick," she pressed, resisting the urge to use his full name as she'd heard Judy do a few times. She would not give him the satisfaction of hearing her go that far. "If you don't get us wherever we're going, you might want to update your Z-Harmony profile."
He laughed, clearly knowing a bluff when he heard one. "Okay, okay."
The car took a significant turn at the next intersection, and Nick drove them into a much sunnier area. By the way he slowed down, he was probably trying to find a place to park.
"Ah-ha, here we go," he announced, and she could feel the familiar movements of parallel parking. At last the gear shift thumped into place.
Before she could ask if it was time to lose the blindfold, Nick answered. "Don't get up. Oh, and hold your nose."
Pointlessly rolling her eyes, Taelia made a show of pinching her nose. She still wasn't sure where they were, but she was starting to think it might be Solar Splashdown, a water park that had been all over the news lately for switching entirely to green energy. It was the kind of place that could only work somewhere like Sahara Square, but it fit with what Nick had described. Besides, the park had a ton of eateries that would explain Nick's latest instruction.
The door opened, and he felt her reach across her to unbuckle her seatbelt.
"I could have done that," she pointed out as he guided her out of the door.
"I know," he admitted, slipping an arm around her middle, "but why pass up the chance to lean on you for a second?"
She blinked behind the cloth, then rolled her eyes. "Shameless flirt, extra corny on the side," she quipped. After about two years of dating, Nick had been starting to get rather bold. He wasn't doing anything perverse, but she was starting to wonder what his plans were.
"So when can I take this off?" she pressed.
"In a minute. In a minute." Keeping the one paw around her midsection, he walked her out across a paved surface. The heat smacked into her, not quite as badly as opening an oven, but still enough to make her glad she had dressed lightly that day.
"Watch your step, now," he advised as they went over a speed bump at an angle.
She huffed. "Okay, the sight jokes are kind of getting old now. Where are…?" She paused as the tang of salt air touched her tongue. She didn't need her nose to recognize it; they could only be one place.
"The beach," she announced as Nick guided her up onto a boardwalk. "I should have guessed."
Nick chuckled. "Not quite, but you're nine tenths of the way there."
Puzzling over this, Taelia only half-noticed as Nick guided her up a ramp and further along the planks. She was still trying to figure out where besides the beach she'd be smelling seawater when she felt him grasp the blindfold at both sides of her head. "Ta-da!"
At first Taelia couldn't really figure out what she was looking at once the blindfold came off – in part because a ray of blinding sunlight chose that instant to smack her right in the face. "Ow!" she cried, throwing up her paws.
The radiance was crazy, and Nick hastily plucked the sunglasses from her shirt collar to put them on her face. "Sorry! Forgot about that."
The snatch was so quick and light that Taelia didn't even notice where he'd plucked them from. Blinking several times and shading her eyes with a paw, she managed to get a better look at…
Water. The two of them were gazing out over a massive stretch of water, much occupied with boats, jetskis, and all manner of other water sports craft.
"Okay, still not sure where we are," she admitted.
Nick chuckled. "Well, sweetheart, turn around and see."
Taelia turned, and her jaw fairly dropped as she took in a row of towering buildings mostly comprised of sandstone. Neon signs showed in every window, trees lined the paths, and all manner of wares were on display. Food, clothes, beach toys, and novelty goods jockeyed for space with advertisements for movies, public events, parasailing tours, and just about everything else you could hope to find on the waterfront.
When the whole scene clicked into place, Taelia's mouth fell open. "Golden Sands Waterfront?"
"The one and only," he announced with pride.
Taelia didn't know what to say. "Nick, how did you even afford this? Just parking around here for a day costs a week's pay easy for most mammals."
Nick chuckled and patted her between the shoulder blades, then let his paw slide down to just above her tail. "Eh, I called in a few favors."
She turned to him, half in admiration and half in worry. "Please tell me you didn't blackmail anyone."
The way he shrugged and smirked could have just as easily been an effort to cover guilt with mock innocence or an act of innocence passing as mock guilt. "Okay. I didn't."
Taelia resisted the urge to groan, even through a genuine smile. "Okay, now were you telling the truth or just saying what I said to say?"
"You'll never know," he answered brightly. "Now let's go. We've got an appointment down at the docks in about an hour. Until then, let's have a look around."
Heading off along the store fronts following Nick's lead, it occurred to Taelia to wonder what Judy was up to at the moment. The doe had said something about plans, but hadn't said what.
"Brr-OOO-oo-oo-oo-ot!"
Judy drew back slightly, her smile unabated as her lapine companion snapped down his ears and clapped his paws over them. Then, more out of sympathy than actual discomfort, she clapped her paws over her ears too when the elephant responsible for the first blast let loose again.
"I'd forgotten how noisy these parades could get," her friend uttered.
Chuckling, Judy patted him on the back. Shamus Stampett – an old childhood friend of hers – had asked her if she wanted to hang out at this event, but didn't seem to be enjoying it quite as much as she. This didn't surprise her overmuch; Shamus had always been on the quiet, reserved side. His withdrawn nature matched his somewhat woebegone looks, particularly the rusty orange-brown splotch around his right eye that looked as if he had fallen on a piece of fruit or something. Despite that, he managed to smile and assure her all was well whenever she suggested going somewhere else, so she had stopped asking.
As the float bearing the elephant passed, another trundled by bearing a troop of walruses. The parade was some sort of local holiday celebrating the establishment of a trade and water usage deal with the marine occupants of Polar Strait. With this kind of others-mindedness at its heart, it was no wonder that the float in question bore loudspeakers playing a song about 'giving more than you take,' or that the pinnipeds on board were liberally tossing out various treats to the crowd.
Of course, treats were in the taste of the beholder. When they caught a couple of the flying packages, they found themselves in for a slight surprise.
"Uh… oh," Judy uttered, seeing that hers was a package of Gummy Grubs… loaded, according to the package's boast, with real grub flavor.
Shamus chuckled awkwardly at the sight of his pack. "Want to trade?" he asked jokingly, turning it around to reveal a bag of seafood medley flavored crackers.
"I'll trade!" exclaimed an eager voice behind them. They turned to find themselves eye to eye with a half-grown arctic fox. He was holding a package of pressed kelp.
"Yeah, sure," Judy affirmed, handing over her gummy grubs.
Shamus glanced at the kelp and shrugged. "Ehh, two for one. Here you go."
The kit gladly accepted both packs in trade for his own and scampered off.
"That was nice of you," Judy approved.
The buck shrugged. "Well, I'm on a diet anyway. Doc said to cut back on the fish."
She chuckled more as an act of kindness than out of actual humor and shook her head. Then her eyes popped when she saw who was on the next float. "OMgoodness!" she jabbered out, paws flying up to her mouth. "I can't believe she came!"
Shamus turned his head to see a float coming along, guarded ahead by two long cars mounted by mammals bearing what looked like shuffleboard poles to nudge excited members of the crowd back. The precaution was unsurprising. On the float behind them stood none other than…
"Gazelle!" Judy cried.
The singer stood in company with her trademark tiger dancers, who on this occasion were wearing trim black suits with sky-blue carnations in the buttonholes. Gazelle herself wore a blue and silver outfit which was surprisingly form-fitting for the setting, though a coating of blue and silver feathers did some to hide her shape. Longer plumes stuck into her hair and hung around her waist swayed and bobbed with her every move – and boy was she busting some good ones. She sang out in full angelic style, drawing an echo from the crowd and a wave in her wake as those behind surged to stay with her float.
Shamus looked on, tapping his foot and lightly clapping his paws appreciatively to the beat as Judy jumped and pumped her fists. Truth be told, he was a little surprised she didn't press him to some further activity until he remembered that she knew of his condition. He'd only told her that past December, and given how intermittently they got to actually meet it was still hard to remember that sometimes.
"Oh, Judy! Hii!"
Any further ruminations on Shamus' part were disrupted by a high-pitched voice behind and above them. Turning around, he nearly jumped out of his skin – despite a jolt of pain in his left leg – at the sight of a massive polar bear kneeling down in front of them. A small gazebo-like structure was affixed to one of the ursine's shoulders, and in his paws he held the source of the voice.
"Fru-Fru!" cried Judy next to them, all but forgetting the celebrity singer still passing on her mobile stage.
As the paws came down, Shamus finally got a view of the mammal in question: a small Arctic shrew grasping the paw of a much smaller infant. Both wore matching green dresses, and a pack of Gummy Grubs sat close at hand looking – in relation to the microfauna – more like one of the rescue cushions firefighters would place outside high rises.
As excited as she was to see an obvious friend, Judy didn't hesitate to tend her duties as a mutual acquaintance. "Oh, Shamus, meet Fru-Fru – her dad runs Tundratown Limo – and Judy, my goddaughter. Fru-Fru, this is Shamus Stampett, a friend of mine."
Seeing Fru-Fru stick out a paw to shake, Shamus extended the claw of his smallest finger. Little Judy, taking it with both, shook with surprising vigor. Shamus said little besides "Charmed," however, evidently wanting to leave the dialogue mostly to Judy.
Little Judy quickly made him wish he hadn't held his peace. "Is he your boyfriend?" she asked, turning her face to Judy and her thumb toward Shamus.
"Uh, no," Judy countered with the practiced air of someone who was used to defusing awkward questions. "No, we just met up for the parade."
Fru-Fru eyed Shamus thoughtfully. "Too bad. He seems nice."
Judy chuckled, if somewhat awkwardly. Shamus absolutely blanched.
"Uh, no," Judy corrected, waving her paws. "We're not together. Well, not romantically. We just met up for the parade."
"Yeah," Shamus agreed in haste. He seemed a bit discombobulated by the implication, but he amply made up in emphasis what he lacked in coherence. "We're not… I mean, we're definitely not… we're just friends."
Judy cleared her throat and considered adding for clarity's sake that they had only decided to tag up since they happened to have the same day off. She thought better of it, knowing that trying too hard to look innocent would only make them look more guilty.
"Where's your husband?" she asked, looking up towards the little structure in search of the other shrew as well as a change of topic.
"Oh, he's managing one of the floats," she explained. "Henry likes to be in the thick of things, you know."
The diversion worked perfectly, throwing Fru-Fru off onto other topics completely. After a long schpiel about this, that, and the other thing, Fru-Fru returned the conversation to her listeners by way of inviting them to the party she was hosting later.
"It's gonna be the biggest party in Tundra Town," she boasted, clearly in full hard sell mode. "We've rented out the Iceberg Lounge, and the guest list has all the big names in the city."
Shamus thought he might choke. Judy, evidently catching his expression, started to bow out. "Actually, we're not really-"
"Don't worry about a dress," Little Judy added with the impetuosity common to small children. "Mommy keeps some for you at home, remember?"
Under Shamus' puzzled gaze, Judy cleared her throat while Fru-Fru chided her progeny for interrupting. "Well, I actually had plans with Shamus, and I think he'd be a bit uncomfortable."
Fru-Fru studied him. "Well, it is short notice, but I'm sure we could get him something to wear."
Partially tired of being talked over, and partially feeling he should help Judy out, Shamus broke in. "Uh, what Judy's trying to say – or not say, I guess – is that I have, uh, trouble with large crowds of strangers. It, uh, must have been something that happened a long time ago. This parade is about my limit for one day – but I really appreciate the offer."
Fru-Fru looked crestfallen. "Aww, poor dear. Well, I guess if you can't you can't. You owe me next time, though, Judy."
Judy nodded and promised she'd come to the next party she could. Then, helped by the arrival of Henry's float, the two rabbits made their escape as discreetly as they could.
"Is she always like that?" asked Shamus.
Judy shrugged and smiled. "She's really nice when you get to know her, but… yeah, she can get a bit pushy sometimes. And she really loves parties."
"No kidding," he remarked with dry humor.
As the parade died down, Judy noticed Shamus' posture beginning to lower a bit; not exactly sagging, but definitely not as tight as it had been. It took her a minute to decipher the reason.
"Wait a minute. Were you serious about the crowds thing?"
Shamus raised a fist to his mouth and coughed. "No, I'm fine there." Then, hesitating a bit, he added, "but my leg is starting to act up. I think I'll go sit down for a while."
Judy followed, not sure how worried to be although her police instincts kept her braced. Shamus hadn't told her just how bad his leg injury was, but any rabbit with less than their natural agility was at something of a risk in a city where so much of the population could step on them without knowing it. Despite her concern, Shamus waved her off when she offered to help.
"No. Thanks, but I'm okay. Thanks for sticking around, though."
She shrugged, eased to see him getting along better. "What are friends for?"
Half-hobbling, he led the way to a nearby coffee shop where they found a quiet corner booth and sat down. Shamus ordered them a couple of 'Firesides,' which turned out to be a dark-roasted blend with tones of chocolate and spices, and the two sat sipping for a while.
"I guess it's only fair to admit I wasn't totally honest," Shamus admitted when the coffees were about half-gone. In answer to her quizzical look, he added, "I kinda lied about the crowds thing. I actually was getting close to my limits."
She frowned, partially at the unexpected appearance of this news and partially because most rabbits didn't tend to have problems with crowds. True, Shamus had always been a bit of a loner, but she'd thought that was because hardly anyone liked to do the things he liked best.
"Then why did you go to the parade?" she asked, not voicing her real question: 'Why did you ask me to come to the parade?'
Shamus shrugged helplessly. "Well, only dead fish swim with the current," he reasoned. Seeing that this had little impact, he elaborated. "My doctor's been saying I need to get out more. Besides, I thought you'd like it and we've hardly talked in forever."
Wrapping both paws around her drink, she thought about this answer. On the one paw, it made sense from what she knew had happened to Shamus in the time that they'd been separate. After a leg injury, breathtaking dad problems, and a bout with cancer that nearly killed him, he had almost done the cancer's job for it and ended himself. All that had stopped him was seeing a news article about her and realizing that she, at least, would be sorry to see him go. That nigh-ancient friendship, as crazy as it seemed, had been enough to turn him around, and at present his cancer was on the retreat if not quite in remission. A diagnosis of getting a little more fresh air and seeing some new sights made sense when she looked at it that way.
On the other paw, it also sounded suspiciously like an excuse to spend time with her, and as great of a guy as he was she didn't know if she liked him that way. The past Christmas had been the first time they'd communicated at all in about a decade, and since then they'd had maybe a couple of chats online and one or two odd texting conversations. Suddenly meeting out of the blue – especially to do something he'd just admitted to doing because he thought she'd like it even if he didn't… well, that was kind of fishy.
And there you have it. Nick and Taelia are off for a day at the beach, but I have a feeling it's not going to go as planned. And what's up with Shamus? Is he really just trying to have a good time with an old friend, or are Judy's suspicions justified?
It may help the reader a bit to know some context – or lack thereof – tied into this story. I got the idea to have Nick and Taelia go scuba diving while writing Santa Clawed, in which Nick claims that he and Taelia (respectively playing Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claws) do so in their free time. Thus, this story may be regarded as a sequel to Santa Clawed. However, since Fox Dens and Rabbit Trails is more of a collection than a proper series, I have tried to write it so that it may be read before Santa Clawed or its predecessor, Christmas in Bunnyburrow without any particular loss. I still recommend reading Santa Clawed at least, and/or Sing Me to Sleep, but if you want to just jump to the fun in the sun the worst that can happen is you'll wonder "where'd this other rabbit come from?"
When I first set out to write Rendez-Bleu (as I was still working on Santa Clawed), I was somewhat dissatisfied that Judy seemed to have no place in it. This was amplified by the fact that I was still working on Something Stinks, where I also felt as though Judy needed more stage presence. I cannot recall just which chapters of either work I was writing at the time, so I can't say now how accurate that proved to be in the long run. However, at the time I consoled myself with the encouraging feedback on Nick and Taelia's chemistry, and the knowledge that writers must always give their projects some wiggle room on how and where to develop. I'm pleased to say that a last-minute inspiration for Santa Clawed, and the prequel to Something Stinks (Sing me to Sleep), allowed me to give Judy a rather significant role in this story. Thus readers will get to see her doing what she does best, side-by-side with the initially planned plot of Nick and Taelia going on a date destined to end in chaos.