Written in the Stars
"Here you go Judy, both your dinners." Bonnie Hopps passed over the small wrapped basket.
"Moonlight picnic, huh?" Stu Hopps looked out the kitchen window. "Not much moon tonight Jude, it's already setting. Not full til near end of the month. Just make sure you're out of sight of the house if…well…not everybody's to bed yet; don't want to…give em…you know..." Stu stuttered to a halt.
"Daaad! We've been married a year now, and you wanted us here for our vacation. Nick's going to show me the stars—he went to get the starchart." When her foxy husband returned, Bonnie stripped away his usual curious escort of family youngsters, and the couple escaped out the side door.
It was a pleasant August night—back light from the house guided them to a small hill crowned by an oak tree. They spread their blanket on the far slope where they had a good view. Dinner began normally, then progressed to first alternately feeding, then when they ran out of food, nibbling on each other.
"Pleasant though this is," Nick finally said as he disengaged muzzles, "there's something I need to show you." He unfolded the chart and produced a laser pointer. "Now north should be…"
"Over there, Nick." She grabbed the pointer out of his paw and aimed it to his left. "And here's the Great Bear! I do know some of this; I'm the one that grew up under a dark sky you city slicker." Unfortunately, Nick saw her glance at his chart.
"OK astro rabbit, what else you got?" He turned off his penlight and the chart became an unreadable ghostly rectangle.
Judy winced. Memo to self; don't con the ex confox. "Alright…above the bear should be…the Lawgiver…yeah back over the tree." She vaguely traced it, unsure of the complete figure. "And here past this…half circle, is the…uh…what is this, a jumbo pop?"
"That should be the Hero Fluff." Firm paws lifted her onto his lap as the pointer she held sent a photon scribble out into space. Judy relinquished it to him as she settled into a most comfortable fur trimmed seat. Nick leaned all the way back and held her close with his other paw.
"Now overhead here, is the star Vega," Nick said with authority while holding the green thread of the pointer on a brilliant blue-white star. "And here's the Northern Cross. This star at the bottom…yeah I know it's kinda sideways but this is the bottom," he stole a look at the chart, "is called Albireo." Just below that is something very important to all foxes, our own star group named Vulpecula! No matter what other mammals may think of us, or how they decide to treat us, we have a fox in the sky!" Nick carefully traced out the small pattern of stars.
It wasn't very big and none of the stars were bright; Judy thought it looked more like someone's workboot than a fox—but she'd never say that since it was so meaningful to him.
"How many mammals are there in the sky Nick? I know we have the bunny in the moon, but that's not visible now." Judy knew that its brilliance would have blotted out his faint star pattern—he'd obviously prepared for this outing.
"I think forty or so, but not all constellations are mammals. See, way down here—this bunch makes a scorpion. She saw it before he traced it.
"Don't despair bunny mine!" he continued. "You have your own constellation called Lepus, just below the Great Spirit—but that's in the winter sky so it won't rise for seven or eight more hours.
"Night's warm Nick," she turned briefly to unbutton his shirt and push it away. She snuggled her back against him and wormed her paws into his fur. "I'm comfortable right here, you can tell me more about the stars!"
"That's not going to fill eight hours. You might get bored."
"You'll think of something."
"Alright fluff, how about this—if you see a meteor, you get to kiss me! Maybe you'll get lucky and see a few!" She could feel the smirk form on his muzzle as it rested between her ears.
AN. The Lawgiver in the Zootopian sky is our constellation of Bootes. The half-circle is Corona Borealis and the Hero is of course Hercules. The Great Spirit is Orion. The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks around August twelfth, with a rate of 60 to 100+meteors an hour, so Nick is working a very pleasant hustle on Judy! Somehow, I don't think she will object too much.
Although small, the constellation of Vulpecula the Fox contains Messier 27, the brightest and largest of the planetary nebulas, the shell of expelled gas around a dying star.