Ladies, gentlekin and cryptids of all shapes and kinds, welcome to chapter six. In this story, the two finally get a little break. Heaven knows they deserve it, no? This chapter is not extremely plot-intensive but it is meant to be more gentle. Enjoy as Judy and Nick bring Thursday to a close at last.

I remain your obedient servant,

Thrash Evaine Lovelocke

It was 7:45 PM when Judy finally finished wrestling with her own frustration and exited their patrol car with Nick walking slowly in fear behind her. The image of the snake-like monster that had attempted to capture him still burned vividly in his mind and the dust from the room he was stuck in hanging on his uniform despite his best efforts to try to brush it off. The patrol car used by Nala and Shenzi-Marie had already returned and the two women were, thankfully, nowhere to be seen. Taking a deep breath to calm down, Judy grunted with anger, "Lovely. Lovely! Well, as if it would not have been difficult enough to convince Chief Bogo that this was a real problem. Nick, we have to… Nick?" She asked as she realized that her partner was no longer near her.

The fox in question had already walked ahead of her and was setting his sights on the rear entrance of the Precinct One main building. He did not seem to care much about anything Judy was saying presently. Understanding that even Nick had not before seen something remotely close to what he had seen today, Judy opted to be lenient with her partner and offered him some patience for his swift and wordless retreat to the department's entrance. By the time she had entered after him there was already no sign of him in the hallway or main foyer. Her worries for Nick took a side as she began to realize how exhausted she was. She took a look at her watch and jotted down the current minute to retire her and Nick from their time on the clock. 7:55 PM exactly.

After dealing with the clocking in of their hours, Judy took leave to the women's locker room. Swimming in Judy's mind was the anger she felt at that monster who had denied her the ability to report this as she needed to. She could feel the odd excitement welling in her that she was once again to be on the track of something that was seemingly out of her league. Evidently, they had at least a basic understanding of technology as the one who deleted her photos did so with no guidance. What did they even have on these creatures? They were militaristic, organized, prepared and apparently stealthy.

With that, another thought occurred to Judy: these creatures had the ability to step into someone else's body. McHorn could really be a spear-wielding maniac waiting to stab someone through the throat. Jeremy Howlitzer could suddenly have the ability to arc lightning between his paws. There lied another problem. The naga were rather large. Granted, she was pretty high up, but guessing their height allowed her to estimate even the relatively small females could have easily sized up one of the wolf officers. These things were not only unnatural, they were impossible. She did her best to shake herself from the thoughts as she approached and entered the locker room. She could hear the voices of Nala Nobleheart and Shenzi-Marie ya Fisi conversing about something, but they were just barely quiet enough for her to make heads or tails. They stopped quickly when Judy made herself known with a small sneeze. "Is that you, Hopps?" Nala asked.

After taking a moment to curse herself for not being quiet, Judy responded. "Yeah, it's me. I didn't know anybody else was in here."

"S'alright, honey," Shenzi-Marie said smoothly, "we were beginning to wonder when you'd get in. It's late."

"Yeah," Judy chuckled with unease. "Hey, though, I could make the same point to you. You two still haven't gone home. Nala, don't you have children to take care of?"

Laughter came as Nala stood and walked around to Judy's aisle. "My youngest was practically born fighting and my oldest is a monster. Anyone who is stupid enough to try and take them on I pity. Now, then, about you. What is it that brings you in so late?"

The secrets she knew had to be revealed at some point, but what was she meant to say to these girls? At the very least, Nala would try to believe her. She, however, was very practical and did not often trust only words. Shenzi-Marie would likely either laugh or just doubt anything that Judy said. For all the strange habits she and her kin had, they were quite down to Earth when it came to being introduced to new concepts. Normally, being down to Earth would imply that they simply took a logical route when it came to things they did not yet understand, but in this case it more implied that she and her clan were simply grounded in their current beliefs and often did not recognize new things with any real regard. "We st… We stopped for dinner," Judy started hesitantly. She had become a better liar over the course of her career with Nick, but she was still far from perfect. "It took us a little longer than we meant it to. There was some shifty hippo there. He looked like he had a crime boss energy about him."

Nala had on the same face she had when they had left that morning. She was concerned. It was a feeling she would get at times that basically made an instinct deep inside her stir and move. That instinct, in turn, told her that something was wrong and that she needed to find out what that something was. In an odd way, it could almost be described as an itch. She felt a constant need for a sort of intangible satisfaction that would only come if she was able to sort through her subject's problem or problems and give them the satisfaction of understanding or, at least, sympathy. Judy knew this look. She also knew better than to look at it. It was notorious for making people putty in Nala's hands. She had never been happier to hear Shenzi-Marie's interruptive voice inject itself into the conversation. "Must have been delicious. You better've clocked out already. If Bogo finds out you've been rooking the bucks," she laughed.

"Relax, ya Fisi, Bogo would not fire me. He can't afford to lose his star employee," Judy said confidently, taking the opportunity to look right past Nala. The change in demeanor seemed to convince the lioness that her previous instinct had, perhaps, been misjudged for once. She sat back down and Judy continued. "Even if he did, who would reject the opportunity have me on their staff? I'll have the entire city bearing down on me with job offers."

Shenzi-Marie laughed. "No denyin' that. Anywho, I'm off. Gotta go and make sure Ed hasn't burned down the house while I was away."

"Isn't Banzai at home?" Nala asked with a raised eyebrow.

As she opened the door, Shenzi-Marie gave another chuckle. "For all her talk of biology and natural instinct back in the day, Judy was right about one thing: men are idiots. I can't rely on Banzai to handle anything. He can barely deal with the clan accounting. I'll catch you girls on the flip-a-flop!" She said with a smile as she waved and walked out the door.

Now alone with Nala, the room felt much heavier to Judy. Nala's motherly aura filled the whole space with an oppressive nervousness. Even though she was on the other side of Judy's locker wall, it was almost like Nala was staring right at her. "Hey, Nals. Have I done something wrong?" Judy asked in a desperate attempt to break the torturous silence.

Nala sneezed before answering. "Ugh," she laughed, shaking herself from the nervous shock, "No. I just… had a strange feeling."

Those were perhaps the most dangerous word in the Universal language when it came to Nala Nobleheart. She was already zeroing in on the fact that Judy was distressed about something. "Oh, you did? What about?" The rabbit asked, trying to keep an air of ambiguity about her.

As Judy shut her locker, she saw Nala's curious face staring down at her. "Frankly, about you and Nick."

Once again, she was on point about these things. She was only scratching the surface, being cautious not to intrude too deep before starting to remove possible causes for Judy's problem. Judy understood Nala's process. She knew how the conversation would go, for the next few minutes at least. "Look, Nala, I know that you and Shenzi like making jokes but we are really not dating," Judy stated truthfully. She knew Nala was not stupid enough to fall for that, but she wanted to do her best to get the lioness to forget about the real situation and, in the best case, leave her alone for the night.

Surely enough, Nala shook her head and winced. "No, Kicker, I know. That's not it. That's not it at all. It feels like there's something you're hiding. I don't really know what or why though."

"Th-there's nothing," Judy lied. She heard her own hesitation and cursed herself. Nala was bound to catch onto that and continue pressing questions harder than she was before.

Sitting down on one of the benches in the middle of the isle, Nala gazed over to Judy with a curious expression. "Oh, no? I'm sorry, then."

Out of all the things Judy had expected to come out of Nala's mouth, that was not one of them. "I… wh-what?" Judy stammered for a moment.

Nala shook her head. "I don't really know what I was thinking. I could have sworn that you and Nick had been avoiding me with some… y'know, purposefulness this past day. I thought I had offended you in some way," she laughed.

Judy sighed in relief and shook her head. This lie was about to become easier to manage. At least, for now it would be. "Oh, thank God! I was afraid I had offended you, actually! You kept giving us strange looks and I thought you were angry."

"Not at all!" Nala denied, shaking her head. "I don't know how we got on this path, but let's put it behind us, yes? I frankly can't stand being the subject of drama. So, is it done?" With a laugh and a hand extended upwards, Judy offered her reconciliation to Nala and the lioness reached a hand downwards to accept it. An idea came to Nala in that moment and she patted Judy's shoulder. "Hey, if you aren't too busy this weekend, would you like to come visit Simba and I? We're doing a little bit of a dinner party with Shenzi's clan. We're going to have guests from other prides and clans as well, but it'd be nice to have at least one member from the ZPD aside from Shenzi there. Think you'll be available?"

Since it was now a sure fact that Nala had been thrown off the scent, Judy did not feel nervous about being around the lioness. She thought to her schedule which she had made out to herself earlier in the week. Saturday would be the day where she finally rested. Well, a carnivore meal was bound to be less than satisfactory, but considering how her weekend was looking rather bland at the moment, she saw no harm in it. "Spare some extra salad for a bunny?"

Nala chuckled, "If the bunny brings the root ale, maybe."

Sighing, Judy shook her head. "Never a thing as a free meal, huh?"

"Kidding! Kidding! You'll get your salad," Nala scoffed in mock annoyance. She then chuckled awkwardly, "Seriously, though, could you bring some root ale? I said it wouldn't be a BYOB event but Simba called and said we are really almost out of sodas."

Judy nodded in return. "Don't worry, girl. I got you! Do you have any specific preference?"

"Bark's, if you can find any. Last time I went to Paw-Mart they were pure out of the stuff," Nala groaned. "I swear, they wait until I decide I like something to stop putting it on the shelves."

"Fat mood!" Came the voice of Bridgette Kodia from the next isle. The great bear came from around the corner and exited the room with a laugh.

Nala and Judy gave her their farewells as she left and then continued into more casual conversation. The subject alternated between Judy's hobbies, Nala's hobbies, Nala's family's business, Nala's children and their interests and friends and romances. By the time they had exhausted all their conversation and decided to leave, they had been there a lot longer than they had meant to be. Judy took her leave first, relieved that she had successfully kept Nala from discovering about the currently incredulous things she and Nick had seen. With a deep sigh, she exited the department. It was 9:48 PM.

It was 8:25 PM and Nick was still a little shaken by what he had undergone earlier that day. Well, to say he was a little shaken was a gross understatement. He was thankful that Judy had gotten to him when she did. He would have sworn he was going to die in Scalehide's Shell. The way that thing slunk up to him and wrapped itself around him. Then it left him tied in the room and…

That image would never totally leave his head. The thing's body bubbled like a kettle of water and it collapsed in on itself. Its scales swallowed themselves and shoved orange fur in its place. The tail broke and divided itself into a pair of legs. The tendrils extending from its face shriveled away and its snout narrowed into a sleeker shape. Where there had been fins, it produced large, triangular ears. Once it spoke again, it spoke in his voice, with his mouth. Judy may have been afraid of what those naga were capable of, but Nick had seen it. They were like no savage predator or sleazy herbivore. These things were monsters who knew exactly what they were doing. He was ready to get back to the safety of his home and leave today behind to any extent he could.

He stopped in the foyer of the precinct and looked down at his phone. He wished he had gotten a picture of that thing before it got away. Scrolling through his texts, he sputtered loudly before putting his phone back in his pocket. He rubbed his snout and looked around to see if anyone else was around. Seeing as Bogo's office was dark he assumed it was safe to go home. He sang quietly to himself, trying to calm himself down.

"Echoes of arcane, intangible and strong,

Singing history as they go,

Land, ocean and sky,

Where my forebearers died,"

"How safely your wisdom has guided us so long,"

Another voice took the lyrics out of his mouth and finished the line with a level of elegance. He turned around and looked down the hall leading to the boiler room. In the entrance to the hall, there stood Proserpina do Rosário. "Siobhan O'Terrapin, right?" She asked.

"You listen to her?" Nick asked with a smile.

Proserpina nodded as she twirled her keychain around her fingers and approached him slowly. "Any girl with a grain of common sense acknowledges Siobhan O'Terrapin as one of the greatest singers of all time. At the least, one of the greatest in Aecor Oceana. Echoes of Arcane is one of my favorites of her works," she chuckled. Her tail swayed slowly behind her in a display of content.

"Echoes of Arcane and Silver is the Ring," Nick replied.

With a snap of her fingers, Proserpina hummed and said, "Put Craters in that mix and I'm sold."

The two of them gave each other approving looks at their choices and chuckled in a friendly tone. "I have, unfortunately, not had the opportunity to listen to her new single, though. Work keeps getting in my way."

"Oh, it is a beautiful one," Proserpina responded with an awestruck sigh. "Its title is Alabaster Moonlight. I know you missed the chance to buy the discount on Spawtify, but it is so worth it anyway! You should check it out."

Nick nodded. "If I ever get the chance to, I will," he said affirmatively. A long moment passed where neither of them said anything. Proserpina blinked a lash out of her eye and it prompted Nick to break their silence. "Are you okay?" Nick asked, to which Proserpina chuckled and gave an affirming 'uh-huh' sound. Nick chuckled as she regained her posture and he scratched his ear. "Hey, we're still on for Saturday, right?"

Giving him a puzzled look, Proserpina responded, "Is there a reason we shouldn't be?"

"Definitely not!" Nick said quickly. "I just wanted to make sure you had not forgotten."

Proserpina shook her head in mock disapproval. "Have I not taught you that a girl is always right?"

He snapped his fingers as he remembered their conversation from the previous night. "Even when you're wrong, you're right."

She gave a satisfied nod at his remembering of the mostly unspoken law. "It's good to know you still have a strong head on your shoulders," she smirked. Their banter was a very interesting and, in her opinion, needed change to the conversations she was forced to maintain in records. She looked outside and put on a pondering look for a moment as she thought. She sighed and turned her gaze back to him. "Do you mind if we walk for a bit? I don't know why, but I doubt I'll be able to sleep well tonight if I don't exhaust myself a bit more."

Nick gestured for her to head towards the exit and he followed her as she went. The two of them had only gotten about twenty yards down the road when they were ready to break their silence again and continue their conversation. "Do you walk a lot to clear your thoughts?" Nick asked as he looked down an alley, trying to be wary of any shifty individuals who may be stupid enough to hang so close to a police department.

"Oh, I do. I find it gives me the peace of mind I need to sort through things. I had a street back in Novas Margens that I used to walk up and down every night. It ran straight through a place which we called, translated into Universal, Baker's Seat. It was a square consisting of nothing but bakeries. Oh, that street was dangerous to walk through if you were on a diet. So many goods to try and not nearly enough time in the world to try them all." Her reminiscent sound was completed with a longing sigh and she looked in what Nick assumed was the general direction of Novas Margens. He refrained from asking her the same question he had already asked her once about if she really liked Zootopia or not. However, it was the only question he could think of to continue the conversation meaningfully. He opted to remain silent and let Proserpina pick it up again when she was done with her current thought. It took a long moment for that to happen, but the vixen finally looked back at him and asked, "Do you have any specific place you like to walk through when you are processing your thoughts?"

The question took Nick a moment to think about. He suddenly realized he did not go out much except for eating with Judy or hanging out with Judy or doing volunteer work with Judy or going to an interview with Judy. All those jokes and ridiculing comments that the members of the department made were suddenly starting to sound valid. He had barely done anything on his lonesome since he and Finnick went separate paths. He did spend some time alone back then. Whenever he felt lost, the first place he went was… "Tisiphone Park," he said.

At that, Proserpina stopped walking. Nick turned back to her with a questioning expression. "Take me there," she said softly.

Nick laughed a little. "Isn't it late?" He responded and folded his arms with a smirk. He got taken aback a little by the fact that she was walking towards him. Again, he got caught off guard by her. Having to match wits with another fox was harder than he remembered. "Too late to go into Tisiphone Park at least."

"Now, now. Why can't we go? I want to see a new part of this city. Come on! Tisiphone Park doesn't close at night, does it?" She asked. Nick shook his head slowly in response. She then tapped him on the snout with a finger. "Then take me to it."

He sighed. "Okay, okay. If you insist, we'll go."

The nighttime image of Savanna Central's Tisiphone Halmaw Memorial Recreational Park was considered one of the closest things to natural beauty in the largely artificial city. The place got its name from the unfortunately deceased dingo child of the same name who lost her life at the hands of a giraffe who could not see down far enough to notice the toddler as she jumped out into the street. The giraffe, knowing he could never truly repay the Halmaw family for what he had done, at least wanted to guarantee that her name was never forgotten. Buildings had been where Tisiphone Park is now back then. People had said that the reason it was always so calm there was because Tisiphone Halmaw stayed there in her afterlife and watched with joy. No, it was not at the fact that her death had created a small spot of pure nature within the skylines of Zootopia. It was because the result of her life was a place for people to escape from those horrid responsibilities of the daily work place. Proserpina had never heard those legends for herself, but she did not have to in order to know that there was a level of significance to the place to her new friend. "This place is so beautiful," she sighed as she took in the sight from the entrance of the park.

Nick nodded and looked back to the direction of the street. He always thought it was incredibly ironic that a place as gorgeous as Tisiphone Park could be overlooked by so many people. "Criminally so. Is it, uh…" he paused and chuckled a bit, "is it anything like Novas Margens?"

"Not in the slightest," she responded almost too quickly for Nick's liking. "Not so to say that it is not beautiful. Novas Margens is a lot messier. Vines hang over the streets and down from the trees. The beauties are different from each other."

As Proserpina's eyes began to tear up at the thought of her home, Nick took the initiative to lead her into the park. "Come this way," he said, turning left down a fork in the road, "there's a bridge that goes over a stream. I always go there to relax because you can see the moon in a large opening in the trees."

Giving a nod and following him closely, Proserpina looked into the trees at the fireflies that created small bursts of light as they communicated in their strange and intricate way. The two foxes walked silently for a long time, one because he was nervous and the other because she was enthralled at the sights. The gentle clashing between the artificial Tisiphone's Light Creek and the edges of the land it ran through sent yet another wave of relaxation into Proserpina's mind. She let out a happy sigh and stopped on the bridge with Nick. "Thank you for bringing me out here. This really is a great place to just…"

"Stop?" Nick said intuitively. Proserpina huffed with laughter and nodded. Nick returned the nod. "I agree." Looking up slightly through a gap in the trees, he pointed to the great, silvery plate in the sky. "See? There it is; the greatest view of the moon in all of the Sovereign Microregion of Zootopia."

Proserpina followed Nick's gaze and smiled at what she saw. "Meu Deus," she sighed, "I was never able to see the moon in Novas Margens."

That statement surprised Nick. "Really?"

"Oh, of course not. Novas Margens is a rainforest with a thick canopy. The only difference between night and day is whether or not you can see without streetlights. Colloquially, we do not even have 'sunrise' and 'sunset'. We have 'sans lights' and 'limelight'," she laughed.

Such an existence must be strange to anyone not native to the country of Novas Margens. To never be able to see the sun was a thought that Nick did not even want to understand. "I think I can see one of the real reasons you wanted to move up here instead. It's unnatural to not be able to see the sky. At least not having the opportunity." As he said that, his trains of thought all converged back at Scalehide's Shell. The naga, serpentine things with anthropomorphic tops and an ancient language, lived under no sun. Their existence was unnatural on so many levels. They slunk about so stealthily, but they were extremely powerful. He did not know whether or not to think he was lucky he did not see the things Judy saw. However, he suddenly became much more aware of the shadows moving in the surroundings.

The sound of Proserpina's voice broke him away from dangerous thoughts once again. "Are you okay? You don't seem to be very relaxed," she observed.

With a shake of his head, Nick looked back to her. "Oh, yeah! Yeah. I'm… I'm okay."

"Lost in thought, I suppose? It is a good place to do that." Nick only responded to this with a quiet, affirmative hum. The image of the moon in the sky made a song pop into Proserpina's mind. She smiled as she tapped her fingers on the bridge's rail and her foot on the floor to a slow but pleasant rhythm.

"Ahh, what a beautiful sight,

In the sight of midnight,

At midnight it seems so bright,

So bright to be under alabaster moonlight with you,"

Siobhan O'Terrapin's new single. Nick would recognize that poetic form anytime. "I thought I told you I hadn't listened to that yet," he said with a smile.

"Yet, you have not told me to stop, so here we are," she answered as she turned to face him.

"Dark and beautiful are the leaves,

Reflecting the moon with their dewy greens,

The stars awake and aroused to shine,

Shining like gemstones down in a mine,

The light up in the sky,

With comets passing by,

Are those the same ones that I saw when we met?

Ahh, what a beautiful sight,

In the sight of midnight,

At midnight it seems so bright,

So bright to be under alabaster moonlight with you,"

"Under alabaster moonlight with you,"

Nick repeated the last lyric and seemed not to realize that he was now facing Proserpina instead of out at the moon and streams as he had been before. Her face was smiling and she clutched her small bag tightly to her side. Nick cleared his throat and looked away very quickly. He took a look at his watch. "Oh, dear. It's getting late. I already hate waking up in the morning. If we stay out much later, I just won't do it at all."

"Oh, right!" Proserpina agreed suddenly, as if she had almost missed what he was saying. She turned away from him and looked back into the water for a few moments. "It has been a pleasure hanging out with you again, Nick Wilde. I greatly anticipate our outing on Saturday," she said with a noticeable hint of joy.

"So do I."

The two of them walked back to the Precinct One building together and mostly in silence. The silence was not even slightly awkward as the two of them looked around at the artificial lights and, in their minds, compared them to the infinitely more impressive natural appearance of Tisiphone Park. Of course, the metropolis of Zootopia could do very little to ever have hope of raising a candle to that gracious little spot of beauty. Speaking in anticipation of their expected rendezvous in two days, they prepared to depart to the confines of their bedrooms to hope that whatever sleep they would get would be enough to allow them to wake up in a good mood in the morning. With fond goodbyes at 11:33 PM, Nickolas Wilde and Proserpina do Rosário went their separate ways home.