A/N: Sorry you had to wait so long for this chapter! I'll make it up for y'all and try to get another update out this week!

Chapter 4: Midnight Howl

A scrawny weasel perspired out of exhaustion as he heaved luggage on his back. He gasped for air as he staggered on the sidewalk. Mammals offered him help but he pushed past and ignored them, adamant about continuing his search. His eyes wandered from left to right, fervently hoping to find his objective.

He sighed and slouched down on a bench, catching his breath as he wondered what to do. Suddenly, his ear quirked slightly to the right. He listened intently and could make out the sound of lively music being played. He grabbed the luggage and tottered over to the sound. The music became clearer and louder as he got closer.

He came into the view of a small group of mammals clapping to the rhythm of music pouring out of the crowd and laughing. The weasel ran towards the group of mammals as fast as he was able. He poked his head in the crowd to catch sight of what they were gathered around. A handsome tod was dancing with a ukulele as a small fox kit danced beside him.

The tod grinned as the kit spontaneously did a split in the air. He let the kit have the spotlight, which he took full advantage of by doing a mini breakdance.

The tod grinned. "Whoa! Yes!"

The weasel looked at the tod and did a double-take. He squeezed into the crowd and stumbled towards the fox. Wheezing, he spoke, "Sire! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

The tod winked and tipped his hat. "What a coincidence, Duke! I have been avoiding you everywhere."

Duke looked around nervously. "Nicholas, we're going to be late for the masquerade."

Nicholas shushed him. "Listen, Duke, listen!"

The bright and rich tone of the tubas, clarinets, and trumpets rang out from the chatter and laughter of the crowd.

Nicholas grinned delightedly. "It's jazz! Jazz music! It was born here!"

He nonchalantly rested an arm on Duke's head as he winked at a few vixens nearby. "It is beautiful, no?" The vixens glanced at each other and giggled.

Duke rolled his eyes and pushed Nicholas off him. He threw the luggage on the floor and threw his paws up in exasperation. "We are supposed to be at the Bigs estate by now!"

Nicholas waved him off. "Yes, yes, yes, but first, I will buy everyone here a drink!"

The crowd cheered as Duke's eyes widened. He gaped at Nicholas. "With what, Nick? At this point, you have two choices. Woo and marry a rich young lady or get a job!"

Nicholas grimaced in disgust as he thought of all the labor that a job entailed. He rolled his eyes. "Alright. Fine...but first we dance!"

Duke's eyes widened. "Wait! No! Stop!"

Nicholas grabbed Duke by the paws and spun him around, but Duke, being a very uncoordinated weasel, accidentally tripped and fell directly into the bell of the tuba.

Nicholas burst out into laughter and walked over to the tuba. He started speaking into the mouthpiece. "It's perfect! You finally got into the music! Do you get my joke? Because your body is...it's in the tuba."

"Get me out!"

"Alright, alright, hold still."

Nicholas and the tuba player both held the tuba and shook it until the scrawny weasel fell out. He stood up and stomped out angrily. Nicholas followed him, laughing all the way. Duke shook his head. "I've never been so humiliated I—"

Duke crashed into Nicholas' back as he stopped suddenly. In front of the fox was a small ewe. She stared unnervingly at them until she grinned and giggled.

"Gentlemen, what a surprise! Welcome! How are y'all doing?"

Nicholas tilted his head. "Ah, good? Who—"

"Bellwether! Dawn Bellwether! I'm the owner of the little store you are currently near."

Duke and Nicholas looked up to see a small building with a dusty sign that read, "Bellwether's Emporium."

Dawn smiled. "Beautiful, isn't she?" Duke raised an eyebrow skeptically. Dawn sighed, "It's just too bad that no one ever shops here. Are you two—wait, you're the fox prince that everyone is talking about!"

Nicholas nodded. "Yes, yes I am."

"Well isn't that just the darnedest thing! You two should take a tour of my sweet little shop, it would be my honor to give you one!"

Duke shook his head. "We...really should be going actually!"

Dawn's shoulders drooped and her eyes started to water. "Of course." She sighed. "I—it probably would be selfish of me to think that the Prince of Zootopia and his handsome butler would want to come into my little shop. Especially when no one comes in anyway."

Duke's eyes widened. "W-well I uh—I'm sure we could come in for a little while, right Nick?" He turned to Nicholas.

Nicholas snorted. "Sure, buddy."

Dawn beamed at them. "Wonderful! Follow me you two!"

They followed the ewe into the small, eerily quiet building. The cheerful ewe contrasted greatly from the musty, dimly lit building. Small trinkets lined the shelves against the dark purple walls. Traces of cobwebs could be seen in several corners.

Nicholas was not sure what he expected the inside of the "Emporium" to look like, but for some reason, he was not very surprised at the state of things.

She's too peppy, she's trying too hard, he thought. Something's not right here.

Dawn began to speak. "That is everything that we sell, the small trinkets and such. And over here is my office."

She opened a door and they walked through a small hallway before arriving at her office. She smiled proudly as they looked on with blank expressions at the dingy, cramped office. A few moments later, the clomping of hooves was heard behind them. Nicholas and Duke turned around to see three rams walking up to them. An uneasy feeling came upon Nicholas as he managed to wave casually. He tried to brush it off, but that feeling stayed in the pit of his stomach.

"Ahh! These are my employees! Doug, Jesse, and Woolter. The most loyal sheep you will ever meet!" Dawn smiled happily as they were introduced. Her eyes suddenly brightened as she seemed to have thought of something.

She looked at the rams. "Guys, can you take the prince to the staffroom? I'm sure he would love to see the rest of the shop. Which is, admittedly, just the staffroom, but it is beautiful! I wanted to have a chat with Mr. Duke for a while, okay?"

The rams nodded and led Nicholas away as he looked back at the door closing on Duke and Dawn. The uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach bubbled up to his chest. He had a strange feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong. Though he did not show it—at all— he did care about Duke and did not feel so great about leaving him with the overly peppy, peculiar ewe. Hopefully, nothing bad would happen to him.

Doug opened the door to the staffroom and led Nicholas inside. He looked around the room and was surprised at how wide and clean it seemed.

They must spend most of their time here, Nicholas surmised.

They stood there for an awkward moment before he decided to speak up. "So...this is a very nice room, newly painted?"

Doug nodded. "Yup."

Nicholas scanned the room again until a large machine caught his eye. A vending machine. Nicholas' stomach rumbled and he grinned sheepishly. "Is that vending machine working at all?"

Jesse nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! It has the best food and drinks in there too. We always use it on our lunch breaks. I recommend the Midnight Howl Soda, which is the best drink there. The honey-dipped carrots are really good too. We also added some roasted crickets for any preds that come our way."

Nicholas' stomach rumbled louder at this. "Well...thanks! I'll try those roasted crickets and maybe some of that soda. Is that—"

Jesse waved his hooves at him. "Oh don't worry, we'll pay for you." They walked over to the vending machine and pushed a few buttons until the soda and bag of crickets came through. Jesse passed them over to Nicholas. The rams stared at Nicholas as he ate his crickets; they stared long enough for Nicholas to grow uncomfortable.

"Do...uh...you guys want some?"

They shook their heads as Woolter said, "No, no we're good. How's that soda?"

Doug tried not to roll his eyes. Could you be any more obvious?

Nicholas shook his head. "No. I should probably have some to wash down those crickets now, am I right?" He grinned.

The rams laughed mechanically, humorlessly, which caused Nicholas to look at them strangely. He raised an eyebrow at them as he drank the fizzy liquid. As he set the bottle on the table, he prepared to leave the staffroom. He wanted to get over to Dawn's office because that sinking feeling of dread would not leave him. In fact, that feeling seemed to be making him dizzy and...slightly nauseous? The whole world seemed to be getting bigger, bigger, bigger.

Wait a second.

What kind of soda was that?

The rams all stared at him in shock. No words were able to be spoken. Nicholas looked with curiosity at their paling faces and realized they were gawking at him. Nicholas glanced at his paws, expecting to see his rough paw pads and russet-colored fur.

His paws were gone.

In their place, he was greeted with thin, long, and green fingers. Large and sticky pads were at the ends of the fingers. Nicholas closed his eyes, wishing away the ungainly sight. He slowly opened his eyes to the same sticky green fingers. He willed himself to look at the rest of his body. His eyes widened in panic and disbelief as he found that his body was not there. Instead, he found a tiny torso and long legs with sticky green feet.

In horror, he realized that the world had not been getting bigger. He had been getting smaller.

The rams slowly started walking backward and broke into a run. They quickly shut the door to the staffroom and stared at each other before deciding that one of them had to tell Dawn of the new...developments.

Dawn and Duke had been chatting in the cramped office, with Dawn sitting on a small flimsy chair and Duke leaning on her table. As they spoke, they found that they had much in common. Duke had explained how he had never wanted to become a butler for the royal family, especially since they were foxes. He was raised in a home that was strongly against foxes, but he needed the money. Being Nicholas' butler only reaffirmed his dislike for foxes. He told her how Nicholas somehow always managed to humiliate him with his shenanigans. How cocky, arrogant, and lazy he could be.

Dawn sympathized with Duke, having gone through much trouble to start up her business only to have hardly any customers. She had a distrust of foxes as well. The wheels in her head began to turn as they spoke.

She smiled pleasantly at Duke. "You know, Duke, we have a lot in common. Now, I wouldn't go around telling just any mammal about this. You seem to understand my problems, which is why I trust you."

Duke nodded, unsure of what to say to this.

She continued. "Well, tell me honestly, do you think Zootopia is in good paws with this royal fox family?"

This, Duke knew how to answer. "No. I know Nicholas and he's the future of Zootopia. The future of Zootopia is in terrible paws."

Dawn nodded knowingly. "That's what I thought. So! I am about to make you an offer you can't refuse."

Duke raised an eyebrow.

Dawn grinned slyly. "It involves money. Lots of it."

Duke smirked. "I'm listening..."

Just then, the door swung open and Doug burst in. He composed himself as quickly as he could and looked at Dawn. "Ah...we have a little problem."

Dawn tilted her head. "What kind of problem?"

"A small, green problem."

Dawn's expression quickly switched from annoyance to curiosity with a hint of suspicion. She looked at Duke. "I'll be right back, don't go anywhere!"

He grinned. "Heh, why would I?"

She grinned back, walked out, and shut the door. The grin quickly disappeared and was replaced with a scowl. She whipped her head around to face Doug. "What is it?"

"You really need to see for yourself."

Doug led Dawn into the staffroom and she froze at the sight that awaited her. Two rams were huddled around a small jar. As they got closer, Dawn noticed a tiny green figure inside the jar. Once they got close enough, she grabbed the jar and brought it up to eye level. The small creature inside looked at her questioningly.

Dawn's eyes widened as she glanced around frantically. She noticed a pile of clothing on the floor, a tan-colored hat on top of the pile, and on the table, a half-filled bottle of indigo liquid. She slowly turned to the three rams.

"What. Did. You. Do."

The rams started to speak at once.

"We weren't sure—"

"Couldn't have been the right time—"

"Looked kinda weird—"

"Midnight Howl—"

"Pushed us too early—"

"Excuse me?" The icy venom in her voice stopped them cold. Dawn glared at them. "Who pushed you too early?"

"You did," Jesse stated. Doug stomped on Jesse's hoof.

Woolter chuckled nervously. "What he means to say is that you pushed us just fine, in fact, you didn't push us at all! Hehe..."

Dawn nodded coldly. "That's what I thought. Anyway, from what I could gather, you made a mistake with the serum. Somehow, it turned our foxy prince into this...creature. Will one of you guys go find out what he is? Go to the library and pull out all the books if you must. And keep him in that jar. I don't need any of that slime in my shop."

Woolter scratched his head. "I...don't think that's slime. Looks like mucus."

"I don't care what it is," Dawn snapped. "I don't want it in my shop, do you understand?"

"Understood."

Doug tilted his head. "You seem...calmer about this than I expected."

Dawn gave him a wry grin. "Yes, well, I have an idea. There is a very gullible weasel sitting in my office as we speak. I currently have him wrapped around my little finger."

Doug raised an eyebrow. "I'm not so sure a weasel will be too keen on joining our plot to see the downfall of his fellow predators."

"Of course not, of course not, however, we don't have to tell him the whole plan. We just tell him enough to get him hooked."

He nodded. "Okay..."

"Now here's what I'm thinking. This weasel likes money. It's written all over his muzzle. We'll use his weakness to our advantage. He will pose as the fox prince and somehow manage to woo Big's daughter. They're just about royalty and practically control the entire Bayou District. Hopefully, Duke manages to successfully woo her into marrying him. If and when he does, we'll stage a little...accident with Mr. Big. Duke will be on Big's good side then, and we'll get him to give Big the serum in his tea or whatever he drinks. You had better have the serum fixed by then. When mammals see Big—a mammal of high class— go savage, it will open their eyes to how dangerous preds are. After that, we can change Duke into a weasel again, seeing as he will become useless to us. We will get rid of him and I will step in and be a voice of comfort to all the mammals. We'll rid Zootopia of the royal fox family and I will rise to power as the leader of Zootopia! It's pure genius!"

Woolter and Jesse stared at her with blank expressions as Doug nodded in understanding.

Dawn sighed. "Simply put, we are switching targets. Big is our guy, and our weasel will buy us the time we need to fix the serum. Come to think of it, this could work better than the fox would have. I mean, Arctic shrews are very small predators. If small predators can be dangerous then any pred can be dangerous."

Jesse nodded. "Got it...this plan sounds like it has a few holes in it but apparently we are now making things up as we go along."

Dawn grinned. "It's called improvising, which I am fantastic at! Besides, you've learned to trust me!"

Jesse rolled his eyes. "Sure sure, just a quick question. How on earth will that scrawny weasel pose as a fox?"

Dawn grinned wickedly. "Do you three still have that pink potion, liquid thing?"

"You mean the one Doug spent 5 years developing?"

"That's the one!"

"Yeah, we have it...oh no."

"Oh yes!"

"We haven't used it yet! We don't know what could happen if he ingests it!"

"It's worth the gamble."

"You are ruthless Bellwether."

"I know!"

Doug nodded. "Alright, guys and I are gonna go find it. We have a lot of work to do."

Dawn grinned. "Perfect. Oh and fellas?"

The rams turned to her.

Her voice suddenly turned harsh. "I don't want to see you three until the serum is absolutely finished. Don't even think about showing it to me unless you are one hundred percent sure it is finished, got it?"

They gulped simultaneously. "Got it."

"Fantastic! You guys do have a lot of work to do! Get cracking!"

As they left, Dawn picked up the jar again. She looked into the eyes of the fox-turned-strange-creature and grinned maliciously. "I hope you enjoyed hearing my genius master plan. You guys will never bounce back from the destruction I will cause!"

Dawn peered into the jar and giggled, a strange sound coming through her malicious grin. "You are so tiny! Heh, look who is smaller now! Oh, how the tables have turned. Anyway, enjoy watching everything fall apart for you preds from the comforts of your suffocating jar! Bye!"

Nicholas looked out of the jar dejectedly as Dawn skipped out. He was suffocating. He was slimy, green, and couldn't believe what had just transpired right in front of his very eyes. He was miserable, but not only for his sake. He was miserable because he knew Duke would go along with this horrible plan for the sake of money and power. He knew Duke would be taken advantage of in a horrible way, and he knew things were about to go south for predators very soon.