Chapter 34

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"Thanks for standing up for me."

Matt glanced over at Kris, smiling. "That goat was a bully," he said, narrowing his eyes.

The silverfox nodded back. "And I don't like them."

"Well neither do I," the little pup agreed, his eyes narrowing. "The bullies should be here. Not us!"

"Well, thinking it through, all mammals..." Kris began, before pausing. "Though I guess it would be good if that was the case," he sighed, glancing back down. They were back in their cell block, morning lessons and lunch over. Soon they'd be back in for lessons, then getting free time again. Well, some of them, at least. Matt said that he'd be going to meet a councillor, happily going on about how he could tell him how much of a mistake it all was and how much of a good boy he was and just why he shouldn't be here. Kris meanwhile had got laundry duty. He'd been hoping that his father would be able to visit. Supposedly though, the first chance was coming the day after. He was looking forward to it.

There was a cough from his side, Timofey looking over. "Now is good time as any," he said, glancing back. Their eyes trailed back to the large table behind them, the 'nerds' busy at work. At their head was the capybara from before, pouring over some piles of paper, along with his pals. Kris glanced at the polar bear and nodded, slipping down and heading off. He was held in place by a paw on his sleeve, and glanced back to see Matt. "Don't talk to him…" he whispered, glancing at the large rodent.

"Why?"

"They're nasty mammals, those types."

He looked over. "They just seem to be drawing, and…"

"The roo and raccoon will be nice, but not the big marmot. They're all big bullies and liars!"

Kris turned back, putting his paws on his shoulder. "I've talked to him before, I'll be fine. Also, he's a capybara."

He turned and left, but not before Matt spoke out, his voice cracking and tears forming in his eyes. "But they're why I'm here… A little marmot… or capybara… or… He… He…" He broke down sobbing, Kris coming back to him and holding him tight.

"Don't worry. You can talk to your councillor tonight about it. The one over there is different, so I'll talk to him, okay?"

"O-okay…" he mumbled, Kris letting go of him and giving him a pat on the back as he left. He watched the younger boy turn to TImofey, before gliding up to the nerd table, the whole group busy drawing.

"Wait your turn," the raccoon prisoner said, holding up his pencil before turning down. He was busy working on a drawing of a deer doe from a picture. However, while the pretty mammal there was shown dressed in some beachwear, her foot hooves dangling off a low quay and into the water, the still dressed reproduction was more in what could be called a 'like one of your french doe's' position.

"My turn for what?" he asked, pausing as the procyonid turned and gave him a harsh stare.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm busy, and I will be for a while! I've got paying customers to satisfy."

Kris slowly put his finger up. "I could do with an explanation of…"

He was cut off as the racoon slammed down his pencil and grabbed the picture, holding it up. "This is his," he remarked, gesturing to a stag further back, reading a book on the stairs. "He wanted me to do this," he said, gesturing down to the picture. "And I'm doing it. Now, if you have any cut out pictures of model vixens you want the same done for, then get in line."

Kris backed away a bit, looking down, then up again. "I have a girlfriend…"

"Well, bring a picture of her then," he said, looking at him. He bulged his eyes out slightly and gave a pair of knocks to his head. "Duuuuhhhh…."

The slight confusion was broken off as the capybara, Armando, walked over. "Chill Dex, he's new here."

"Yeah…" Kris mumbled. "Also, Timofey asked me to talk to you."

There was a cool hush that spread over the group, a nasty stare in particular coming from the kangaroo. The capybara though pulled Kris over and settled him down. "Okay then," he said, glancing around and adjusting his glasses. "Where's the picture, and what does he want done?"

"I'm not here about that," he corrected. "I'm not even sure what that is."

There was a long pause. "Well, for the second one," Armando began, gesturing down to some drawings of a female antelope, again dressed in swimwear, only this time she was on all fours in a feral position, giving a cheeky smile out the side of her mouth. Kris looked over and saw the photo, and exact recreation.

"Isn't that, just the same," he asked.

"Yeah."

"But then why draw it?"

"Because…" the large rodent said with a cunning smile, "this is the limit of what the guards will tolerate. You can just say it's a posing picture, it isn't rude. But…" He then pulled out a picture of some flowers, pointing to a set of foxgloves.

"They're nice, though past the flowers the stems look a little off…"

"Yeah, they're meant to," he chuckled. "See that mark there and that mark there…"

"Yeah," he said, not sure where this was going. "Well, if you fold along here, fold along there, hide that bit, now go to the drawing of the doe. See the marks there, there and there, now you align it all up against her underside and… TA-DA!" he spoke, clapping his paws and glancing over at Kris.

The fox looked down and blinked. "Those are… big."

"No cuss," Armando said. "Now, if you fold behind the tail, and then take this drawing of a corpse flower I did and fold here and here…"

"I get the point," Kris spoke, his voice clipped a little. He glanced around at all of the drawing mammals, then looked back.

"Yup," the big rodent said, smiling. "There's a reason why everyone out there respects us. We keep them entertained, we're untouchable," he said, kissing the tips of his fingers and waving them out into the air. "Say, you a good artist?"

"I think I'll decline," he said, his voice hushed a little.

The capybara shrugged. "Why do I care, more work for us," he smiled, as he picked up a large packet of sweets. "More payment for us too," he laughed. There were a set of chuckles from his group, though his smile faded as he glanced back at the disconcerted vulpine. "What, we're a bunch of boys locked up all the time. What else do you think everyone does when they get some alone time?"

"...Reading?"

"Well, if you write your thing and you're happy with the increased risk, I'm guessing plenty of mammals would pay you for stories… I mean, I don't think the guards have a rule against that, but I wouldn't push it. Say, you write any stories on the outside."

"I mean… I did do a comic, but…"

"Well that's the worst of both worlds," he grumbled. "Can't hide anything naughty like we do, and if your buyer doesn't hide it well and a guard finds it, they'll trace it right back to you and…" He made a throat cutting gesture with his paw, before doing a noose one for good measure.

Kris stepped away, his paws up, before his eyes narrowed. "I mean I'd feel uncomfortable making this stuff…"

He blinked, then rolled his eyes. "Listen, while we do make stuff for the ex-sicko Founders and sicko's themselves, who we charge triple for, we have an 'old mammals only' policy for them."

"It's more, this whole in general, I…" he tried to articulate.

"Oh, right," he remarked, leaning forward and patting Kris on the shoulder "No worries, you came to the right mammal! Show me the Todd. Heck, you could even pose yourself, and…"

"-I have a girlfriend," he spoke, enunciating each syllable.

"Dude, chill. That's great news, give us a picture and…"

"I don't want any of your pictures."

…

"Fine," Armando huffed. "I mean, give it a few days and your imagination will do, it…"

"-I'm not into that kind of thing," he spoke.

There was a pause as a hush fell over the room. "Dude, is he an ace?" someone asked.

"What's that," someone else asked.

"Asexual. It means he has nothing to no-one."

"What, nothing?"

"Yeah, nothing."

"To no one?"

"To nobody!"

"But he said he had a girlfriend?"

"Maybe he feels the same way to her that you would to a sister?" someone suggested.

"I guess so. So no…"

"None at all."

An awkward silence filled the table, all the mammals turning to Kris. The raccoon spoke first, sincere at first but something definitely cracking through. "Dude, I'm sorry, but life is gonna be soooo much more boring here for you."

"Uh…"

"Yeah," Armando ageed. "Number one pastime. Deleted!"

What followed next was a round of sympathies and giggles that Kris just decided to put up with. The thing was he did love Agnes, and she was pretty, and she was cute, and he'd argue he did feel an attraction and that meant he wasn't asexual. He knew what it meant and he was entirely certain he wasn't it. He just didn't feel a need to be anywhere near as… openly lurid as those around him. It was also one thing he certainly didn't want to change. Still, for the sake of simplicity, he shrugged and rolled with it.

"I mean," Armando said, "what else is there worth paying others to draw for you?"

He put a paw up. "I think I said earlier I wasn't interested in that, and that if I was I could draw it myself."

He slapped his face. "Duuuhhhh, stupid me. That's it, Timofey sent you. Right, where's the polar bear pic…"

"No," he grumbled. "He wanted me to talk to you on a non-business related venture."

A quiet hush filled the table, the big rodent grabbing his papers and unfolding the folded ones, before gathering them up all together. "Back to my cell," he spoke, leading the silverfox on. It wasn't far back to his cell, secluded down on the ground floor and with a nicer view; out onto the yard, with some blowing trees and far off mountains visible from one corner, rather than just facing a wall. Inside though was plastered in pictures and drawings, the former ranging from zero to 'childhood acceptable' sexiness. The latter also petered out there, though Kris couldn't help but notice all the drawings of flowers and patterns nearby, and all the little marks and fold lines, and have his mind begin to uncomfortably estimate what exactly could be done with them in conjunction with all the other drawings around the place. He also noticed that there were a lot of male capybaras too, often in skin tight undies, and looking around he noticed that a lot of the female lots of the species, in their frilly swimwear, had necks or waists that were the same width as the boys were, and had folds running through them.

"Oh, looking at Sammy?"

"Sammy?" Kris asked.

"-Oh, uh… The Beaver. Sam," he said. "He got out a month ago, he was my best friend here."

Kris then noticed the drawings of the beaver, mostly hung up on the wall above his pillow. A lot of them had the rodent with just his vest and underwear on striking poses, maybe pulling his tail around in a certain way. There were others, ranging from a naked 'draw me like your french does' pose (a certain area covered by a sheet) to a few where he was almost strutting around in his vest and with either mini jean-shorts down below or a pillowcase hanging around his waist like a skirt.

Kris blinked a few times. "If you're worried about me being offended about that kind of thing, I'm not offended by the kind of thing."

The capybara broke into a loud set of coughs. "-I… -Shut up, okay! What does Timofey want," he said, anger tinging into his voice.

"It's about the herd," he spoke, watching the rodent in front of him give a hard glance around.

"Dude. I'm not getting into a cussin' gang war!"

"It's not gonna be a gang war," Kris assured him. "He wants to try and split the herd, pull away the normal prey mammals from the pred haters. That way, things can be more peaceful for everyone."

"I… Maybe I'm fine as I am," he spoke, folding his arms. "Things aren't so bad out there, and I'm out in seven months. Three weeks if I stay outta trouble and get parole! 'Sides, I'm not in the herd." he said, pulling out a draw, almost overflowing with snacks from the machines. He gave a cocky smile as he glanced down at it, then up at the drawings. "I'm a nerd. Maybe you should give it a go."

"Then what about when the herd and the pred haters did all that stuff earlier," Kris began, remembering back to what he'd told him previously. "And what about your racoon friend, Dex, surely he'd be better off if they were split?"

"Dex and I aren't friends," he spoke, his eyes narrowing. "We're business partners, nothing more. He used to lash out a me a lot when I had Sam, the stupid Trash Panda was jelous that I had the real deal all the time." Kris' ears flicked and twitched back again, the large rodent crossing his paws. "Yeah," he spoke, confidently. "That's right. You ain't the only one who had a squeeze in a skirt who'll get down and tail up when you want to and…"

He was cut off as Kris jolted up, paw shooting out and past his nose and opening into a flat palm, a fur's width away from his eye. The big rodent yipped and jolted back, his glasses almost flying off as he settled down, pulling himself into a corner of the bed. He panted a few times as the fox spoke. "Do not talk like Agnes like that," he said, his voice hardening. It was the only part of him doing that, his legs felt like jelly and his mind was turning, as he recoiled from the sudden flash of anger that had come across him. How could he dare talk about Agnes like that, or claim that she'd… or he'd… He kept his cool facade hard, but inside his mind was slipping. This wasn't like him, he'd slipped up, he'd lost his cool, and the chances were he'd screwed up for Timofey too! He released he'd just been a stupid cussing idiot as the big rodent spoke.

"Crap, I… Kung fu, right…" he managed, paws going up even as his glasses remained askew on his face. "Okay," he panted. "Maybe I went too far."

Kris was hit with a wave of relief. Yes, he'd lost his cool, he had to make sure that didn't happen again. But he'd not lost enough of it to screw up entirely. "Yeah, you…" he began.

"-Listen, honestly, beavers are about the only thing outside bara's that I…" he fumbled around with his paws. "And you're way out mam, I mean, your fur is all pale and thin and wiry, and dry… -You'd need a few oil baths to get close, then dye it brown at least... And your face is ugly and pointy, same for your ears, they're ugly big too, I mean not as freaky as fennec or bunny ears but up there,.and the way a fox nose sticks up? Ewww… And your tail, now a paddle tail kinda reminds me of a big morillo when it's really swollen," he added, tapping on the bridge above his nostrils, slightly raised from the large scent gland beneath. "But yours just reminds me of a bog brush, and even before I started pushing Sammy into more femmy stuff for fun, he had a kind of cute thing about him that you don't have, and…"

"-I get the point," Kris stated, cutting the big rodent off.

"Right, uh…. No more kung fox?" he asked, finally finding the time to set his glasses straight.

"No more saying things about Agnes?" he asked, harder.

"Oh… About… Right, yeah. I, uhhh…"

Kris sighed. "We're talking about Timofey's plans. Listen, earlier on, an antelope was giving me advice, trying to be friendly, but he then had to punch me to keep up his societal obligations in the herd."

"You mean keep his cred."

"I… suppose, though I think that word's a bit vulgar."

The capybara blinked, shaking his head. "You know I said you weren't like Sam, but still. Where the cuss do you come from to speak fancy like that?"

"Canidea."

He blinked. "Oh, uhh… -Say about."

Kris' head tilted to the side. "About?"

"Hang on!" he exclaimed. "You're meant to say A-boot!"

One of Kris' ears twitched. "That's actually a popular misconception…"

"I mean, what's the point of Candiea if you don't say aboot?"

"Listen, I'm sorry if…"

"-That's better!" he said, a smile growing on his face.

"Huh?"

"You said sorry."

Kris blinked again. "Are you happy now?"

"Not quite," he said, his grin growing.

Kris groaned, not helped by the sound of a bell. They'd be going back to lessons soon. "Listen, what would it take for you to side with Timofey?"

"If he had everyone else on his side, and we were all together, ready to do this?"

"Yes."

"And we could split the herd, putting those speciesist jerks in their place."

"Yes. Also, you do care."

"Hey," he said, "we've had Predo's in the herd before who can't get their fix due to their rules. This is good for business."

"I'm now less impressed."

"Just chill dude, you may speak fancy but get some of that situational awareness" he said, gesturing around before grabbing and tugging his prison stripes. "Listen, what I want? One, if anyone gets in after and has a thing for foxes and todd's… Not that I could work out why… You model for me, down to the undies, ditto for any other species' in the pack until I get out, which might not be that long anyways. The pack will swear that to us, together."

Kris grumbled, but he breathed in and out. For what he wanted, he was pretty sure Timofey would accept. That was no biggy. "Okay. And two?"

"Whenever I want you too," he said, leaning forward. "You say A-boot."

Kris blinked a few times. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

He groaned. "I suppose it's... a-boot... the best I could hope for…"

"YES!"

"And it's a-boot time I get going for lessons," he muttered, slipping off the bed.

The capybara chuckled enough times to make his glasses slip off the bridge of his nose again, before pushing them back on, filing away the day's drawings and walking off behind him.

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"Hi there, Beavis," Catano greeted. She looked down at him as the chipmunks eyes flicked back to her, relaxing by several degrees. She glanced back over at Wolford, who's gaze, if anything, had hardened. Her eyes narrowed at him and he glanced back, giving a shrug.

"I'll let you handle him. I'll just see if any of the other kitchen staff have seen anything?"

"Okay then," she said, relaxing a little bit. She watched him wander off, glancing back a few times at the small rodent, before turning a corner.

Her tail swished around behind her a few times. "I'm guessing you two have a history," she opened.

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled. "I kinda like street stuff, you know! Because hey, I'm a kid and kids got a right to dress how they want and hang out in places. Adults are always telling us to get out more, but then say the places I like to get out to are the wrong place. I mean, make up your mind, right?"

"Ah," she said. "Questioned by him about loitering?"

"I… -yeah," he said, scowling a little. "I mean, I like the kind of run down places. They're interesting, and there's cool places like narrow alleyways to hang out. And I mean, it's in my species to like deep, narrow, darker places. I'm a burrower, yo!"

"Uh-hu," she said, thinking. "I get that too. Well, I mean, I like high places or wide open places, and I guess that's due to my species," she talked on. Honestly, the kind of places that he was talking about sounded pretty miserable to her, and that was if he was being truthful. She wasn't a dull knife, she knew that certain mammals enjoyed hanging out in places like that for less than legal purposes, and, like any kid talking to the cops, he'd be trying to sugar coat it. Of course, a good rule of thumb to follow when doing these talks was to never give anything away. Wilde had once mentioned that a police interview was like poker, you had your cards on you and, even with the worst set, you could go a long way with a good bluff and a great poker face.

"Cool. Yeah, cheetahs are cool mammals."

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

"And I guess wolves are too, except him. I told him that and he told me to Mam up, and that we'd all evolved and I couldn't use that excuse. Ordered me trudging back home, and howled at a job well done."

Catano frowned slightly, her tail giving a sharp flick, while Beavis cast his eyes down. "And… There may be the time with the weasel…"

"Weasel?" she asked, her ears pricking.

"-Not that one! I'll get to him later. I mean, one time I was minding my own business when this weasel pulled a couple of bucks from me! I turned and grabbed it, and we were fighting over it, and then he turns up. I kept on saying that the weasel did it, the weasel saying I'd stolen his stuff, but then he sided with him! And…" He turned down, trembling a little. "And then he was screaming at me, calling me a speciesist, a filthy little rodent, all because I was saying that weasel had stolen from me! Saying he was 'too smart' and he wasn't going to fall for my scapegoating, and that… and that if he could he'd fine me more for my slurs. All I said was that he'd sneaked up on me and stolen from me, that he was a criminal! But no, saying that made me the bad guy there! Though I think me being a rodent had something to do with that too… So I then had to just live with being robbed, and walk for a few hours to get home in the rain as he'd stolen my bus fair!"

Catano looked down at him, her ears drooping down, especially as he carried on.

"-The thing is I'm fine with weasels. Heck, I really liked the weasel you really want to know about."

"Did you?" she asked.

"Yeah, he'd be hanging outside of the school gates and we'd just get chatting, you know?"

She nodded. She was pretty sure there was a little more to it than that, but at the same time he sounded genuine, which made her all the more irritated about how Wolford had treated him. Sure, you always got jerks who'd think the cops were just as speciesist as they were, and would take their crazy accusations as gospel… But in this case. "I'll talk to him after," she said. "What about our weasel?"

He looked up and nodded. "Right. Well, I used to meet him outside of school a lot, and then he vanished. Then at the weekend, I met him again. The dude they took away, and his wet sandwich of a cousin…"

"-Wet sandwich?" she asked, her head cocking.

"You know, he talks weird, he dressed oddly, he acted out and seemed to want everyone to treat him seriously while he was being grumpy all the time. A wet sandwich."

"Right…" Catano erred.

"They were there, with the bunny and fox cop and the two foxes girlfriend."

"Girlfriends?"

"Girlfriend. First Ash's, but then when Kris arrived at the school she switched. They're now a cute couple, she seems much happier. Though the wet sandwich spent an age going around, calling her things, and saying she wasn't loyal."

Catano nodded along. He'd definitely been there then, he'd seen it, and that thing with the girlfriend would certainly be a contributor to the red fox's past… incident… She hoped that the girlfriend hadn't been given any of the blame for that by him after, given what he'd supposedly been saying before. She breathed in and nodded him on.

"Anyhow, they were there, and they'd made a mess for him to clean up, and he was angry and just wanted them gone. They all got angry that he didn't want help, then acted all high and mighty as they finally went away. After that, he just worked, moaning about them. We chatted a little, then I left him."

"What did you talk about?"

"Uhhh, well, I just asked where he'd been, and then we complained a bunch about the wet sandwich as he's the one who snitched him out earlier. We just talked crap a little, then I left."

"Did he ask any questions?"

"Uhhh, I mean he asked if I knew Ash, how I could stand him, how much life sucks. Nothing specific."

"Nothing relating to school?"

"No," he said, relaxing a little.

"Did you see him talking to anyone else, anyone from your school," the cheetah queried, saying nothing specific but having a specific mammal in her mind.

"Not that I saw."

"Or were any nearby?" she asked.

He blinked a few times. "Oooh, I remember now. There's a sheep in my class, Maisy, who I saw a bit early from up a tree."

Catano's ears perked up. "Go on."

He smiled. "She was walking along a path, and it would lead to the one that he was on, but I didn't know he was there until later. So they might have met, if that's what you're asking!"

"I didn't have any specific questions in mind," she said, standing up and smiling. This had been useful. "Anyhow, anything else to add?"

"No…" he began. "Though I did see the girlfriend, Agnes, back with Ash a lot more after… -you know. That might be useful, I don't know."

"I'll keep it in mind," she said. "But thank you very much, this was very useful and… sorry for your bad experiences with Officer Wolford."

He smiled. "Water under the bridge," he said, using his paws to make an approximate gesture for that phrase. She gave him a wave and went back to find her partner, mulling over everything…

For a start, how what had been said just then fitted in with the things he'd said early, almost casually, as he explained how predators got the better jobs due to things about their biology, and that was just how the world worked and there was no shame in that. Yet there might be and being a chipmunk, and…

She closed her eyes, taking a breath in and out. A simple conversation would clear this all up.

She found him in the process of asking all staff about their experiences with Duke, and waited for him to finish off his current one before waving him over. "I see you endured him," he said, crossing his paws.

Catano, again knowing that an interviewee could be his own worst enemy, smiled and nodded. "Yeah, he seemed nice, but I guess he and you have a history."

He snorted. "Yeah, wannabe gang mammal, you know the type."

"Ever caught him for anything?"

"Annoyingly, no, but he's the type who know that you know, and enjoys sticking his tongue out behind you as he knows that you know you can't prove anything."

"Ever seen that tongue out?" she asked.

His eyes narrowed a little. "It's a figure of speech, Kii."

"Like calling him a rodent?"

"Which I didn't do, that's him lying," Wolford said, his tone hardening. "Besides, you shouldn't like him. I almost got him this one time he'd tried stealing a bunch of money from this weasel. Tried blaming it on the little guy, it was like he'd got the list of slurs and was reading them out one at a time. Annoyingly it wasn't enough to slap him with a hate crime fine, so I handed the money back and sent him on his way."

There was a long pause. "Anything else to prove that it wasn't him who'd been stolen from?" she asked.

He snorted. "It was obvious. 'Sides, the little punk would try and use every little excuse he could think of to try and squirm his way out of trouble. Heck, just now he's trying to paint me as a speciesist, and it seems to be working."

His gaze lingered on her, as her tail swished behind her.

"Did you get anything out of him?"

"Nothing from him or on our weasel, but… There's something I want to go out and check."

He nodded. "Uh-hu, you do that."

"I shall," she said, firmly. She walked away, noting that if he hadn't been in the middle of interviewing witnesses, she'd have some choice words and questions for him. He might have said that everything was fine and that he didn't see anything, but to her displeasure she did, and in a small way she hated the fact that she was about put the pressure once more on the mammal most affected by it. "I'm sorry, Maisy. Hopefully this can be quick and painless."

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AN: Just to let you know, as next week is Christmas Day, I'll be taking a break from updating. See you again on new years day. Merry Christmas and a happy new year, I wish you a holiday full of cheer, and hopefully you can salvage something from this dumpsterfire of a year.