[A/N] Here is part three of a story idea I had in the spring of 2021. It has taken me nearly a year to finish writing this much. I had hoped to end the story here with part three but so far this one has been longer than the first two and the conclusion is still one more chapter away.
Please remember that these are all very rough drafts with no proofreading or editing before I uploaded them so mistakes will be made.
As a side note this short story is a random idea that I felt needed telling, but I do not intend to go beyond these few chapters. If anyone would like to take this concept and run with it please fell free. My hope with publishing these random ideas is to inspire others as the WildeHopps community has inspired me.
Thank you everyone for reading and enjoying my work :)
Chapter 9 - The Wall - Part 3
Judy was running late. Today was the day that she was supposed to deliver her letter across the wall, but the store had been extremely busy for the autumn festival and she had been unable to get away. It had been a full week since she had read the letter from her mystery friend that went only by the letter N, and now she had her reply in paw.
She should have delivered the note across the wall earlier this morning, but her entire family had risen before sunrise to prepare the store for the busy day. After that she was unable to get away until the sun began to sink towards the horizon. Once the last customer had finally left with paws full of neatly wrapped packages, Judy rushed upstairs and quickly tied her note to it's special rock.
Now she sprinted and bounded through the broken back alleys with the rock and her latest letter held tightly to her chest. The rock was fairly heavy for a rabbit, but its weight did not slow her quick pace as she leapt over weeds and loose rubble. She barely looked up as the sun dropped to touch the horizon while casting long shadows across the city.
It was nearly dark when she finally arrived at the drop spot. With a single bound, she hopped up onto a large boulder and then over to a broken ledge that jutted from the side of a half demolished home. Lastly, she vaulted off a broken street lamp into a backflip before hurtling the precious rock with her letter attached over the huge wall. Upside down and high in the air, her large hind paws collided with the thick stone wall to slow her momentum before she fell to the ground with a soft umph.
Letting out a loud sigh, she clapped her paws together and hoped that the letter had been delivered in time for her friend to find it. She only knew that when she delivered her letters early in the morning on this day of the week, she would find a reply the next morning. Her letter was twelve hours late and she hoped that Mr. N would forgive her this tardiness.
Slinking through the dark, evening streets, Nick did not whistle or make any other sounds as he passed a group of unformed tigers and bears. He ducked behind a rusty old car to avoid being spotted by the large predators as they stomped their paws and waved their brightly burning torches.
The patrols had recently changed their routines and the red fox was required to alter his course to avoid them. One of the back alleys that he regularly used was now being watched by a pair of unsavory wolves and he had to circle around three blocks to avoid being caught by their strong noses.
Due to shortages everywhere across the city, another main street had run out of oil for their lamps and he was able to skirt along the edge of a few large buildings. When the patrol stomped around the corner, the swift fox had ducked behind the old car and hoped that the shifting winds did not blow his scent in their direction.
Without stopping to check if anything was hiding under the car, the noisy patrol marched further down the dark street. Once he was well beyond the circle of light created by the smoky torches, Nick sprinted in the direction that the patrol had come and with any luck he would easily miss the next one that passed this way.
Dodging down a familiar dark alley, he carefully approached the giant wall that split the once grand city into separate districts. All his life the fox knew that predators lived on this side of the wall and prey stayed on the other side. Neither side ever spoke with each other until he had stumbled across a curious letter tied to a rock.
This evening Nick broke curfew and snuck past all the patrols to look for a note from his friend on the other side. He rubbed his thumb across his own letter that rested in a poorly stitched jacket pocket. A warm smile crossed his muzzle as he thought about reading the newest correspondence from this mystery friend.
His friend had opened his eyes to life on the other side of the wall. While they lacked the tough guards and endless patrols, the prey on the other side had their own hardships. Bad weather and blocked rail lines were causing scarcities for everyone in the city this season.
When Nick reached the wall, he bent down to feel around for the rock with its note attached by a pretty little bow. It was usually fairly easy to spot in the day's dying light. The white parchment could usually reflect the sun's last rays, but today he did not see anything lying near the wall.
He leaned over until his front paws touched the ground and began sniffing around trying to detect the scent that he knew covered the rock. After touching the same rock off and on for more than two years it had his scent all over it as well as the smell of the prey mammal that he communicated with. Growing up behind the wall, he had never met any prey and had no way of knowing what this animal even looked like so the scent only brought the image of a well creased note and elegant paw writing.
A moment after he fell to all fours and began sniffing the area, he heard a soft cry and a whump like someone had fallen off a roof. Before he could turn to see what had caused the noise, a sharp pain filled his head and knocked him to the ground. He lay across the broken cobbles whimpering for several seconds until he was able to move his arm and rub his aching head.
Judy turned and began to hop cheerfully back towards her family's above ground burrow when she heard a loud yelp from some kind of small predator. Who could that have been? Had she hit someone with her rock? Her heart raced in excitement and her nose twitched wildly. What if it was Mr. N?
"Hello," the rabbit called shyly. "I hope I didn't hurt you."
The span of several breaths passed before a voice from the other side responded, "I will be alright in a second. I don't think I am bleeding."
Sniffing, Nick could not smell any blood, and his head did not feel wet, but something tickled his nose. He could smell the rock and it's well tied note.
Everything spun around him for a second, but he still pawed around until he found the precious rock. To his excitement he could feel the freshly folded parchment and the pretty little ribbon. When his eyes adjusted to the gloom again, he saw that it was indeed true.
Rubbing the lump that was forming on top of his skull, realization crept into his consciousness slowly replacing the cloudy disorientation that still buzzed in his ears like an insistent insect. The rock, with the note, had hit him on top of the head and hard enough to almost knock him out. That means that it had fallen from the wall, or flown over it. Rocks don't fly on their own, so that means someone had to have thrown it, but who.
The voice he had heard a moment before must have come from the other side of the wall. He could not hear or smell anyone nearby so he walked up to the wall with his muzzle pointed towards the sky and tentatively asked, "Hello, is anyone there."
A soft and sweet voice immediately replied, "Sorry about the rock. I didn't mean to hit you with it."
Nick clutched the rock with its note in his paw and was filled with a strange warming sensation. His intense gaze focused on the rock and he stammered quietly, "Your a, your a." Shaking his head, he told himself, "Jay is a girl? Stupid fox, say something nice to her."
He lifted his muzzle again, "Jay?"
"Yes?" came the sudden reply.
Something caught in the tod's throat as he tried to say something nice. He knew you had to say nice things to girls so his mind frantically raced to find the right words. "You have a very pretty voice." His palm smacked into his forehead and ran down his muzzle. Why did he say something so stupid?
"Um, thank you, I think," Jay said with a sweet chuckle that caused Nick's heart to flutter again.
"I'm sorry, was that rude of me?" He replied shyly. Her voice was really quite lovely. He had never heard anything like it before and it reminded him of a choir bell or maybe all the bells rung at once.
"No, not at all," she giggled again. He heard some shuffling noises before she spoke again, "My name is Judy."
"Judy," the tod said as he rolled his tongue around inside his long mouth like he was sampling the word as one would sample a fine wine. "T-that's a really pretty name."
In the dark of early evening, no one saw the bright blush that filled the rabbit's muzzle and rose up her long ears. As a plain and homely doe, she had never been complimented like that before and could not help but enjoy the feelings her friend's words brought.
Sitting down on a ledge that hung halfway up a nearby wall, she pointed her tall ears towards her pen pal and asked, "En?"
"Yes?" Nick replied.
"What does En stand for?"
"Oh, right, my um," the fox patted down his coat like he was looking for something but then remembered to speak. "My name is Nick. Nicholas Wilde." He untied the note from the rock and slipped his own from one of the coat's many pockets.
"Well, it's nice to finally meet you, Nick," Judy replied pleasantly. She wanted to leap over the wall and give this kind predator a warm bunny hug, but she knew that if she tried that, she might never be able to get back again.
"Y-yes, you too, Judy," Nick replied while trying to tie the tiny string in the dark. "Very nice to make your acquaintance."
Judy hummed and was about to respond with another compliment, but the voice from across the wall cried, "Stand back."
Standing up on her ledge, Judy tried to look over the wall, but could not see anything in the evening light. "What? Why?"
"Because I'm going to throw my note back across the wall for you to read."
"Oh, right," she said, stepping slightly away from the wall. "Ok, go ahead."
When the rock clattered to the ground, she hopped off the ledge to retrieve it. Even with the bright moon and stars out tonight she could barely see in the dark, but her ears had told her that the rock fell near the wall. Squatting down she felt around with her paws until she found the rough paper and her friend's crude knot.
"Well, I should be getting back home before my mother begins to worry," Nick called over the wall.
"Please wait," Judy cried. "Now that you are here, I would like to hear more about you."
"Are you sure?" the tod asked. "It is very late and there are patrols everywhere."
Rubbing her paws together, she tried to think of what to say that would encourage her friend to stay. "You-you have a lovely voice too. And I want to hear you tell me more about yourself. In your letters you hardly write about yourself. Please, just stay and talk to me, Nick." A tear formed under her eye and a lump caught in her throat when she said his name.
Nick knew that he should have fled that very second. He should have run all the way home and never looked back, but the sweet tones of her lovely voice and the way that she pleaded with him like he was the last mammal on earth eased his tension and erased all sense of self preservation.
He had no idea what she looked like or what kind of prey mammal she was, but something inside dragged him back and a strong urge drew him closer to her. They had written back and forth for years, he knew who she was inside fairly well, all her hopes and dreams, but hearing that voice for the first time, pleading with him, was like lightning from a dark and cloudy sky. It was like a brilliant light shone down in the middle of his dark and dreary world.
Plopping his tail on the ground, he leaned back against the solid stone wall and lifted his muzzle into the air. "Ok, Judy. What do you want to know?"
Tapping her hind paw and twitching her nose, Judy waited for a reply. She did not know if he had heard her or had simply walked away silently. When his voice fell over the wall again, she leapt into the air and twisted around to clap her paws excitedly as she landed. A cheerful squeak escaped her lips as her hind paws touched the ground once again.
"I want to know everything," she demanded. Hopping up to the ledge she had previously occupied, she pointed her muzzle at the tall wall so that she could better hear his voice. "I want to hear the story of Nicholas Wilde."
The two very different mammals never felt the temperature drop while they chatted together warmly through the night. Listening to Nick's voice as he talked about himself and his life on the other side of the wall made Judy's heart sing and she felt like she could listen to him for days on end without getting bored. Nick on the other paw found her naivety cute while her quick wit and intelligence was very attractive. It wasn't until Nick saw a sliver of light on the eastern horizon that he realized how much time had passed.
"I have to go," he declared sadly as he stood up from the wall.
"Why?" The rabbit asked in confusion. "You only started to tell me how your father was able to borrow money to build his tailor shop."
"The sun will be coming up soon, long ears."
"No. That's not right. It can't be much past midnight, can it?" She was sitting with her back to the wall and could not have seen the horizon with such a tall structure in the way.
"Don't worry, toots," he explained as he stood up. "We can continue this conversation again next week."
"Nick?" she begged loudly as she heard him take a step away from the wall.
"Yes, Judy?" Nick stopped and tried to look over the wall.
She took a deep breath and wrung her paws together while her nose raced. "I was thinking of something more permanent."
The fox sighed loudly and his arms fell to his sides. "As much as I love the company, I can't spend every evening out here sitting against a wall."
"But what if we could talk over a nice hot pot of tea and biscuits?"
Nick's tail swished wildly at what Judy was suggesting, but she could not see the effect her words had on the fox. "That would be truly wonderful, but we both know it would be completely impossible."
"What if it was possible?" Judy said, standing up so quickly that she nearly fell off the ledge that she sat on.
"Now you are just talking pure fantasy, babe. I should go before gremlins or dragons show up and carry us both away."
"Wait!" she cried loudly. "I am serious. I know a way to get you over the wall."
"What?" the fox asked as he turned back and put his paw on the wall. A glimmer of hope filled his heart, but he shoved it back down. There was no way that this creature called rabbit could get him over the wall, and besides why would he want to live among all those prey?
"My brother is in a gang remember," Judy reminded him. "They could break you out of there easily."
"That would not be a good idea," Nick said flatly. "What would everyone think if a fox like me was found wandering the streets on that side of the wall?"
Puzzled, Judy's ears fell. "What are you talking about?"
"I thought you were a smart mammal," Nick chided. "Everyone knows that all the preds in this city live on my side of the wall and all the prey live on that side."
"That is not true," Judy put a hind paw down with a loud thwump. "I only know what my grandparents have told me, but after the great war all the preds in this city locked themselves behind this wall and never spoke to anyone until you answered my letter."
With her heart in her paws, she continued to explain, "We did not lock ourselves away from the rest of the world and opened our borders shortly after the wall was built. Pred and prey live in relative peace over here."
"What are you saying? That doesn't make any sense." Nick leaned his head back against the wall. "This is very hard for me to take in, but after exchanging letters with you these past years I realized that our government has been lying to us. I guess if that is true then it only makes sense that everything they have ever told us is a lie." He pressed his paws to his temples and shook his head.
"I should have told you that I already have a friend who is a fox," Judy explained. "He used to pick on me when we were kits, but now he makes the most amazing pies. You could probably stay at his place, and I could come by every evening to visit with you."
Nick stood with both paws pressed against the cold stone wall while the horizon grew into a silver sliver of light. "Are you sure about this, Judy? There is really a whole world on the other side of this wall?"
"Of course, Nick," she yelled back cheerfully. "We don't even have to stay here in the city. We could explore the entire world together if that is what you would like to do."
"Together," he whispered loudly. When he saw that the edge of the horizon was quickly turning orange, he called over the wall, "I am sorry, Judy, but we will have to continue this conversation next week. The guards will be returning to the wall any moment."
"Ok, Nick. Please be careful until we speak again." She turned and walked away from the wall with a letter tied to a rock and held tightly to her chest.
"You too, Judy," Nick replied while he skipped happily down a side alley with Judy's letter held firmly in one paw. He had to stop himself from whistling happily several times as he found his way home.
He did not know what to do about this strange prey mammal. No matter what rabbits might look like he wanted to spend more time with her, a lot of time. There was no one in this entire walled off city that made him feel the way he did after only a few minutes of speaking to her. But could he give up the shop and his family for this mammal that he had only met a few hours ago.
"You have known her for two years," he reminded himself. Did it matter that today was the first time they had actually spoken, she was actually offering him the world. He had always wanted to see what was beyond these cold stone walls. How could he refuse?
When he returned home, he placed the unopened letter with the others in his hiding place and opened his shop with a smile that rivaled the rising sun.
