-Ranger 7-

For someone so small Finnick could sure make a lot of noise.

The small fennec fox nearly fell into a puddle that was hidden just behind the log he had to scramble over.

Nick froze for what must have been the third time now as he heard his friend from the city let out a rather colorful sentence.

The fox turned and looked at Finnick, noticing how the smaller canine had managed to get caught by a root that had grown across the path.

Before Nick could hurry to his friend though something large rushed past the ranger's back.

Chris had stopped and turned to return to the smallest of their group's aid, the old wolf taking a knee as he spoke to Finnick.

"Stop squirming or you will twist an ankle," The wolf said gruffly as Finnick did his best to get his foot free. He then looked back at Nick and gave the fox a nod. "I'll look after the city slicker, you get going."

Normally Nick would have protested but when his eyes locked with Finnick's the smaller fox gave Nick a determined nod.

They all knew what was at stake right now. They had been looking for their lost ranger for weeks and now they had the first solid lead in what felt like forever.

Nick gave his friends one last nod before he turned and darted down the path.

Now that he was no longer burdened with maintaining a certain speed the vulpine could move quickly down the old forest trail and in the direction of the call he had just received.

Reports of a pinecone-related incident…

The words kept playing over and over in Nick's head as he hurried past a series of moss-covered boulders that sat next to the trail.

It has to be her! It must be her!

Images flashed in the fox's mind.

A brown bunny with a pair of brilliantly blue eyes smiled up at him, tossing a pinecone up and down in the air before sending it soaring.

"Better hurry Wilde…I am probably not in the best of shape after you let me fall…"

The pang of guilt weighed heavily on the fox but he did his best to focus on the task at paw.

Ducking under low-hanging branches, and diving over logs, caused the memories of his missing friend to continue to fill Nick's mind.

The two of them running through makeshift obstacle courses, the brown bunny looking back with her blue-eyed gaze, a smug smirk on her face as she quickly outpaced the fox only for Nick to catch up causing the doe to laugh.

Nick lost track of time as he rushed down the path but eventually, he came upon a concerning scene.

A coyote in a ranger uniform Nick recognized from his times as a Firewatcher was currently on the path, the canine having taken a knee as he inspected a rather dazed-looking skunk who was rubbing his head.

The ranger on the path detected Nick's arrival and looked up suddenly, his body tense at first but relaxing at the sight of the new arrival.

"Wilde," The coyote said as he took a second to touch the brim of his dark green ball cap.

"Brush," Nick said as he slowed and caught his breath.

He looked over at the skunk who was sitting on the damp path, a lovely female skunk stood over the other two looking rather concerned.

"What happened?" Nick asked as he approached.

"No idea!" The female said as she waved her paws about, looking up at Nick. "We were just walking down the path and came across a clearing and then someone tossed a pinecone at Jonny."

"It sounds worse than it is," The male skunk grumbled. "Just caught me by surprise is all."

"You're bleeding Jonny!"

"He will live," Ranger Brush chuckled as he took a small first aid kit from his side. "Looks like it did break the skin, I can patch you up for now and call for a pick up if you are in immediate danger but-"

Two answers came from the couple.

"Yes!"

"I am fine."

The coyote chuckled as he looked over at Nick who had a serious expression on his face.

"Did you see who did this?" The fox said, trying his best to hide his anxiousness. Sure the skunk's injury was concerning but it was who had caused it that was the fox's main focus.

"As we told the painted dog we only caught a glimpse," The female skunk sounded rather annoyed. "It was small and wearing a dark blue outfit…it looked feral."

Brush and Nick locked eyes before the coyote finally spoke.

"Delta already ran off to the south to check, you head west and I will wait here till the others arrive."

"Have you called it in yet?" Nick asked.

"We are waiting until we get more information," Brush grumbled. "Last thing we need is to pull everyone for a false call."

"False call? Look at my boyfriend!" The female skunk barked.

"I am good Dolly it's just a scratch, but wow whoever tossed that pinecone sure has an arm on them."

Nick didn't stay to listen to the rest, the hikers were safe, and Brush was more than capable of handling things.

He had to get out there, he had to find her!

The fox hurried down the wet path, his eyes darting this way and that as his ears raised in some vain hope of picking up some odd noise that could signal his friend's location.

With each step though Nick grew concerned that Brush was right, this could have been a false call.

Just because someone was tossing pinecones at hikers didn't mean it was her. Pinecones after all seemed to be the tool of choice when it came to the residents of Fairfax so it could have been anyone.

There was something else that concerned Nick though.

"It looked feral."

Dolly's words echoed in the fox's mind.

He had heard of mammals going feral before, he had seen it back in Zootopia.

Some mammals would overdose on some kind of drug or maybe they had been involved in an accident and their mind reverted to a more carnal state until they got some kind of medical treatment.

He had even heard from Judy how one of her uncles had gone feral once and bit the bunny's mother.

Can a bunny really go savage?

The thought was still on Nick's mind when he suddenly heard something behind him.

The fox had wandered into a clearing just off the path to get atop a boulder he had spotted that could help him survey the area.

Nick froze and turned his head in time to see a limp branch swaying in the wind.

The only thing was, there was no wind right now…

A snapping of a twig in another direction caught Nick's attention and he turned quickly.

Nothing.

*Snap*

*Crunch*

Twigs were breaking around him, something was darting in the underbrush and causing a real stir and for the first time, Nick suddenly became concerned about being on his own in the woods.

His ears were raised and suddenly twitched as he heard a familiar sound coming from behind.

He knew exactly what to do, he simply dropped to the forest floor and looked up in time to see a pinecone fly over his head and smash into the boulder he had intended to use as a lookout.

Suddenly the serene sounds of the forest were interrupted by something that made Nick's blood go cold.

It was some kind of shrill shriek mixed with some kind of hoarse yell.

Nick turned over on his back only to see something flying through the air in his direction.

It was small but when it landed on his stomach he felt the wind knocked out of his lungs.

The fox was still in a state of shock as he looked up, his green eyes meeting a pair of blue.

"Trisha!" Nick shouted at his friend who was towering over him.

What looked back at him was not his friend though, no… there was something wrong.

The bunny looked like a shell of herself.

Her face was covered in mud and looked gaunt.

One of her ears was jutted out at an odd angle as if it were broken while the other one surely was as it flailed limply behind her.

Her ranger uniform was gone and had been replaced by some kind of tattered blue uniform with an odd patch on the arm which Nick could not see as the doe suddenly clawed at the fox.

The uniform jacket was unbuttoned and Nick could see the doe's cream-colored stomach which was also smeared with mud, a few scratches were exposed from spots where the doe's fur had become matted or gone missing.

"Trisha it's me!" Nick shouted as he put his paws up, easily able to stop any attack from the smaller creature on top of him.

He didn't understand, why was she attacking him?

Why wasn't she speaking?

Why were her eyes bloodshot like that?

The bunny continued her attack and with each failed attempt she seemed to grow more savage and growl as she tried to claw or bite the fox.

Eventually, though she must had realized this was a futile effort so she changed tactics.

The bunny remained on top of Nick only to reach for something next to the fox.

In Nick's defensive state he had failed to take in his whole surroundings and his eyes widened with fear at what Trisha had grabbed.

It was a rock, but not just any rock, a sharp jagged piece that was half the size of her head.

Nick had never in his wildest dreams had thought Trisha would hurt him, even with her skills handling a pinecone.

Those thoughts vanished as the bunny lifted the rock over her head and let out a growl.

Nick raised his paws, preparing to try and grab the rock before it came down on his head.

Fortunately for the fox, he wouldn't have to.

There was a sudden whooshing sound and something flew through the air right at Trisha.

It must have impacted as the doe suddenly tensed up and let out a surprised shriek before starting to sway.

She let go of the rock which fell to the side of Nick who let out a relieved sigh as he watched the doe on top of him sway.

Trisha looked down at Nick and then back over her shoulder before letting out an odd sound.

She then went limp and fell off of Nick.

The surprised fox sat up and saw what had just saved him.

Delta was standing at the edge of the clearing, his tranq gun still in his paw, and aimed at where Trisha had just been.

The painted dog looked shocked and his paw began to shake as it held the tranq pistol.

The two ranger's eyes met and though he didn't speak Nick could tell Delta was concerned for his fellow canine.

Nick just nodded which earned him one in return.

Delta then holstered his pistol before hurrying over to the now unconscious Trisha who was laying in a heap on the ground.

In one fluid motion, the painted dog fell to his knees and scooped the doe up, holding her close as he openly wept, burying his face into the doe's neck.

"We found you…thank the gods we found you…" Delta could be heard whispering to his unconscious mate.

Nick stood up and let out a sigh as he brushed the dirt from his uniform.

Movement at the edge of the clearing caught his attention and he looked up in time to see Chris and Finnick arriving.

"What happened?" Chris asked hurriedly as he approached.

"We heard the commotion," Finnick added before falling silent at the sight of Delta holding Trisha.

The painted dog looked up, wiping tears from his eyes, "Nick found Trisha…"

The words hit Nick like a train and he felt himself falter before turning to look at Delta.

From the looks of it, he hadn't just found one of his missing friends but had gotten back another.

"Is she-?" Chris began but was cut off.

"She attacked me, out of nowhere, Delta hear saved my tail and tranqed her."

"She attacked you?" Finnick asked in disbelief.

"She was feral, just came out of nowhere and started attacking me and growling," Nick admitted.

Chris muttered something under his breath.

Nick didn't hear all of it but he managed to get two words out, "...forest fever…"

Before the fox could pursue the subject Delta cleared his throat, "We need to call in…she needs a doctor.."

All eyes went to Nick before Chris finally spoke, "Why don't you do the honors, Ranger. Tell everyone Trisha is coming home."

While there were still so many questions left unanswered Nick knew that finding Trisha was only half the battle, she was obviously not in the right headspace and looked like she had been through a lot.

Nick unclipped the radio from his belt and cleared his throat before pressing down on the transmit button.

"Wewa this is Ranger 22 Wilde."


Judy was sitting in the conference room at the lodge looking down at a folder currently in her paws as a softly spoken ewe stood in front of a screen at the other end of the room going through a presentation for the Fairfax winter festival.

"And the historical society has advised that due to some mechanical issues the old locomotive we use for the snow tours is out of commission," the sheep said with a sigh. "However I believe we have another option."

The presenter changed slides and the image of a familiar train engine suddenly appeared on the screen.

There were some laughs from the audience as they all recognized the Lily Belle from the Barn bar.

"Oh great, as if my tab with Echo wasn't already high enough," The mayor tossed in which was met with even more laughs.

"Echo has said if we promise to take care of the Belle then we can feature her but she hasn't pulled cars in a while. We were going to send an engineer over to see if it's an option," The ewe continued. "At the very least we can dress her up and have her displayed at the train station in-"

The doors to the conference room suddenly burst open with a force that made everyone jump.

This was a rather big surprise to all of them, especially with Lily in charge of the conference center. The raccoon would have never let anyone interrupt a meeting like this.

Which made it all the more confusing when everyone realized it was the raccoon who had actually caused the interruption.

All eyes went to Lily but no one spoke as they watched the raccoon enter.

Judy felt her heart racing, her eyes never breaking away from Lily who was looking right at the bunny.

The doe turned in her seat and stood up as the raccoon approached.

Lily stopped just a step away from Judy, the fur around her eyes looking damp.

Judy's mind was racing as she stared at her friend.

No….please no….please…

Try as she might Judy couldn't keep the worse fears from forming in her mind as she stared at Lily in silence.

The raccoon however smiled as she raised a walkie-talkie up, another tear rolling down her cheek.

Judy glanced at Skye who had a panicked look on her muzzle before she immediately whipped out her phone and began to type away furiously.

During meetings, Judy and Skye would normally turn off their radios which meant they must have missed a transmission.

"Rock Pile for the Lodge, can you repeat the last traffic," Lily said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

The voice that came back over the radio sounded like it was holding back tears, not of sorrow, but of joy.

"I say again: We found her! Ranger Trisha Rose has been found and is alive! Helitak has been dispatched."

Lily immediately dropped the radio and took a step forward in time to catch Judy as the doe burst into tears.

Applause broke out in the conference room as Judy wept into Lily's shoulder.

Seconds later Judy felt pressure from behind and realized Skye was now holding her as well, the vixen not even trying to hide the tears of joy streaming down her cheeks.

As Judy continued to cry tears of joy her ears picked up the transmissions coming from the radio.

Apparently, others on the frequency were now calling in to confirm what had just been sent out.

"All units it is with much relief and joy I say again, Ranger Trisha Rose has been found alive. They found her. Our Ranger is coming home!"


Hey there Firewatchers,

It's been a while.

By now you all know the excuses; School, internships, job hunting, world domination.

Still find the occasional moment or two to write though. :)

I know this chapter will be a bit conflicting with some folks. Try as I might I just couldn't see this story without my favorite little troublemaker.

The thing is; though she is back we aren't out of the woods yet.

Till next time.

Pinecone!

-Blue