"Every reunion gives a hint of resurrection." - Arthur Schopenhauer
Home is where the heart is.
For the longest of times, Nick had always despised that old saying. For most of his life, he'd been homeless and hungry on the merciless streets of the city. His home was underneath a run-down bridge that was subject to weekly flooding. How could anyone truly call that a home? No, to him, it was just a temporary refuge; A place not that he could call home, not even a place that he could call safe, but a place that he could call his own.
For years, that bridge was the only home that he ever knew, if a home counted as several tons of mossy rock. He would spend his restless nights lying atop his rickety, makeshift bed, staring up at the bottom of the bridge, which was swamped with damp patches of moss and crawling with insects ranging from spiders to roaches. He hated it, but never complained a single time: He didn't want anyone, even himself, seeing that this nasty old bridge actually got to him.
As with pretty much everything else about him, this mindset too was altered upon meeting his beloved carrots.
Over time, he began to realize that as long as he had her, he would always be happy. And why wouldn't he? She'd saved his life numerous times, and completely changed his life around for the better. Now, instead of sitting cold and hungry beneath a crumbling bridge, he had the privilege of visiting faraway places like Pawaii, and Outback-Island. His life wasn't full of abundance or wealth, but his true calling was nothing more than standing by the side of his beloved mate, Judy Hopps.
In the end, that was all that he would ever need.
10:46 A.M
Inevitably, all good things must come to an end.
The fox and bunny had spent the last two days of their life on the tropical island of Pawaii; Enjoying themselves through luxurious relaxation and passionate indulgence. It was their own paid, private vacation, and they both thoroughly believed that they had earned it. Through blood, sweat, and tears, the two of them had rewarded themselves with a well-earned break.
But now, said break was concluded, and it was time for a homecoming.
After checking out of the hotel, Nick and Judy bid their farewells to Dyvim and Natalia before promptly making their way back to the island's public docking area, where they could only hope that the Trafalgar was still safely anchored. Strolling paw-in-paw down the length of the smooth-wooden dock to the place where they had last seen the narwhal and his ship, the fox and bunny reared around the stern of a pristine white yacht, and came to the end of the dock.
Scanning around the grungy wooden-dock section where the Trafalgar was last seen, neither Nick nor Judy could see the old boat: The Trafalgar and its captain were gone.
"Great... Just great! That two-timing unicorn marooned us here! How're we supposed to get back home now?" The fox growled, balling his fists and throwing his paws in the air.
"Now hold on, Nick..." The bunny reassured. "He wouldn't just leave us here, would he? We weren't even paying him, so it's not like he took our money and ran or anything."
Judy's ears twitched slightly, her keen sense of hearing detecting a deep and bubbly snoring sound, emanating from just behind a stack of barrels and crates to her right. Rearing around the boxes of cargo, Judy's amethyst eyes rested on the form of their ship captain, John Haddock, passed out and curled up behind the barrels, cradling a large bottle of wine in his arms. The narwhal inhaled through his mouth, snoring deeply before exhaling from his blow-hole, causing bubbles to form around the edges. The weight of his massive, blubbery body had caused some cracks to form in the boards of the dock below him, indicating that he must've fallen over hard before falling asleep.
"Uh, Nick... I found our captain." Judy muttered, briefly glancing at the fox as he made his way over and groaned at the sight of the dozing narwhal.
"What the heck happened here?" Nick questioned, to which the bunny shrugged.
The fox bent down on his haunches and hovered his left paw over the narwhal's head, snapping a few times before standing back up and crossing his arms.
"Mornin' captain..." He started upon seeing the narwhal stir and lift his head up slightly. "Any particular reason why the ship is gone?"
"The ship? We're on the ship!" Haddock grumbled before lolling his head back onto the wooden surface of the dock.
Milliseconds later, the narwhal's beady-black eyes flew open, and he spewed a jet of misty water straight from his mouth and directly at Nick and Judy, dousing them from head to toe. Haddock stumbled to his feet and rubbed at his eyes before whirling around in every direction, scanning the environment around him as he searched for the Trafalgar.
"The ship is gone!" He sputtered in bewilderment.
"Gee, really? I had no idea!" The fox grumbled, looking down at his soaked clothes.
"John, what happened to the ship?" Judy questioned, all the while ringing the salt-water out from her long and floppy ears.
The narwhal looked around irritably, eyeing the fox and bunny with looks of distrust before grumbling beneath his breath and leaning down to pick up his wine-bottle.
"Well, the ship is, eh... Gone... Why is the ship gone?"
"You mean you don't know?" Nick growled as he squeezed the salt-water out from his tail.
"I don't remember anythin' about anything, boyo." The narwhal replied, clutching at his brow. "It's been a crazy few nights." He chuckled to himself.
"So you don't know what happened to it at all?"
"Is that it over there?" Judy interrupted, pointing to a spot some one hundred meters out into the water.
Having captured the attention of the fox and narwhal alike, both mammals took in the sight of a sunken ship; It's blue-white stern sticking out of the water, with the words, The Trafalgar, painted on the very end. John groaned and put his flippers to his face, rubbing furiously at his eye sockets.
"Aye, that's her alright... Gah!" He slammed his fists on his knee-caps in a bout of frustration. "She be scuttled!"
"Scuttled?" The rabbit inquired.
"Sunk. Destroyed. Taken by the sea... This, be her watery grave." Haddock trailed off, reaching out to the ship with one of his flippers as if to try and touch it.
"Is there no way we can save it?"
"Not now, at least... I can probably ring up one of me friends and see if we can pull her out, but that might take a few days time."
"You think you can pull it out? Is that even possible?"
"Aye, if we have enough harnesses and maybe a few empty buckets, it should be an easy task... This ain't the first time I've accidentally sunk her..."
"You're kidding, right?" Nick added with raised eyebrows.
"No jokes here, boyo." The narwhal pointed to the wreck. "An' from the looks of it, I reckon that she's only sunk about one-third a' the way down... I can probably salvage her."
"Great. So how are we supposed to get back to the mainland now, huh?" Nick asked with his arms crossed across his chest.
"You two can take a public ferry... I-I think I'll stay here and, uh... And stay here." The narwhal grumbled, his eyes locked onto his sunken home.
"Absolutely not!" Judy piped out. "We're not just abandoning you here, especially since you just lost your home!" She stated, pointing to the wreck of the Trafalgar.
Nick walked over behind Judy and placed one of his paws atop her shoulder, and sighed while pinching his brows with his other paw.
"Carrots, if captain loose-cannon here wants to stay behind, then I don't think we should hinder his hiatus, you know what I'm saying?"
"Ah, nuh-uh! We're not leaving him here!" Judy retorted.
The fox was about to drop a sarcastic comment of his own, but faltered when Haddock grunted audibly in an effort to acquire their attention.
"Alright, I'll come with ye... I suppose that ye do have a point there, lass: No sense in me standin' around an' waitin' for some miracle... Let's head back home then, shall we?"
Bogo wasn't the most patient of mammals, but when it came to his own personal work, he was always willing to go the extra mile, one way or another.
For the sake of completing an assignment, issuing a new directive, or in this case, acquiring information, he was quite the determined mammal. After Grygorri Ratsputin's surprise visit, the chief of the ZPD began trying to acquire as much information as he could to use against the rat when the time came. If he was going to have to outsmart a blackmailer of all mammals, he'd have to have some intelligence of his own to counteract Ratsputin's devious schemes.
By this time, he'd already visited Jack Savage twice, and had done some research of his own in the ZPD's archives. He hadn't exactly uncovered very much on Ratsputin, since Jack wasn't feeling very talkative, and the archives were limited, but still, every little bit of information counted. Now, he had only one more lead to follow in this personal investigation of his: He needed to talk to Shahaz the Stinger.
Although the water-buffalo had been present during the pangolin's incarceration and imprisonment, he hadn't visited the Zootopia County Prison ever since. Truthfully, he didn't want to make the trip, but he knew that if he wanted to get the full spectrum, he'd have to find Shahaz. Bogo figured that the pangolin crime-lord must've had some sort of connection to Ratsputin, much like Jack had, and that he might be able to shed some more light on the rat. The water-buffalo had spoken with the prison's warden earlier that week, and had scheduled himself an appointment with Shahaz, who was being held all by himself in one of the farthest reaches of the prison.
So now, walking down the long, bleak, and narrow hallway of the prison's eighth cell-block, the water-buffalo steeled himself for his meeting with the pangolin.
He reared a corner to his left, and it was then that he heard the scratching noises.
Bogo had been warned by the prison guards to stay as far away from Shahaz's cell as he could, since the pangolin still had his scales intact and as sharp as ever before.
The water-buffalo wasn't afraid of Shahaz, but even he began to feel rather uneasy as the noises grew louder and louder with each step closer to the end of the cell-block. The sounds were hard on the ears, and were about as appealing to listen to as a knife being dragged across a chalk-board, save for the fact that what Bogo currently listened to was even worse; Like one hundred blades being scraped down a pile of rocks. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to know that the noises source was none other than Shahaz himself.
Peeking his line of vision around the wall of a nearby cell, Bogo's eyes locked onto the form of a smaller creature pressed up against one of the cell's walls. It's sand-paper colored flesh looked coarse to the touch, but thankfully, Bogo didn't have to get any closer to make out the rest of the mammal's details. The pangolin had his back to Bogo, and was shifting his weight consistently; Dragging and scraping his scaly back and shoulders along the length of the concrete wall, etching chalk-white lines into the gray-colored material.
Scanning around the pangolin's cell, Bogo resisted the feeling of bewilderment that grew upon him as his eyes traced along the length of hundreds, if not thousands of bone-white scratch marks, each one long and bearing the texture of chalk. The walls of the cell looked like they had been attacked by a tornado of knives, but Bogo knew better: The grand architect to this art-project was standing just a few feet in front of him.
Analyzing the strange marks and mysterious symbols painted and etched into the pangolin's back, Bogo noticed that the pointed edges of Shahaz's scales were even sharper than the last time that he had seen him, with nearly every scale ending in a sharp, but almost jagged point. The water-buffalo reasoned that the pangolin must've kept his scales as sharp as he could manage back when he was on the streets, but now that he was locked up, the only thing he could really do was sharpen them even more.
Now, many of the bony and pointed plates on his body seemed to be even sharper than before, though not quite as fine or intricate. They looked extra rough around the edges.
"I used to use a file..." A grainy voice mumbled, catching the water-buffalo's attention. "Now, all I have is this."
Shahaz raised up one of his clawed arms, and lightly dug his talons into the nearest concrete wall before scraping down it's length and creating a terribly discomforting noise.
"The guards told me that I was to be expecting a visitor sometime today, but I had no idea that it would be the chief of the ZPD himself." The pangolin concluded.
"Well, if you'll pardon the sudden introduction, I came here for a reason, Shahaz: You." Bogo responded steadily, keeping his eyes trained on the back of the prisoner.
"And to what do I owe the occasion, chief?" Shahaz asked as he turned around and locked eyes with the water-buffalo. "Company is such a rare thing to come by here in solitary."
Bogo grunted and crossed his muscular arms. "I just have a few questions for you, and then I'll be on my way." He claimed with an expressionless face.
"Ah, well then go right ahead: I have all day... For the next thirty years." Shahaz grumbled.
Despite his stony poker-face, Bogo had to resist chuckling aloud at the pangolin's sardonic comment. Clearing his throat and straightening himself out, Bogo's hazel-colored eyes locked onto Shahaz's orange ones, and he breathed in heavily through his nostrils before explaining his predicament to Shahaz, who listened carefully with intent and interest.
"I need you to tell me everything you know on Grygorri Ratsputin." The water-buffalo ordered, to which the pangolin snorted and made a slurping sound with his long tongue.
"That's a name that you're not supposed to speak, chief... You know that, don't you?" Shahaz crooned, tilting his head slightly to the side as he did.
"I know what I said, and I know who he is: He's nothing more than a shifty newspaper mogul!" Bogo retorted with balled fists.
"Oh, but you wouldn't have come to me for advice on dealing with just some shifty newspaper mogul, now would you?" The pangolin repeated in a mocking tone.
"Take care your words, pangolin." The chief warned.
Unimpressed, Shahaz slashed his claws down the nearest concrete wall, interrupting the water-buffalo with a horrid noise like nails grinding on chalk.
"You embarrass yourself, chief..." Shahaz hissed harshly. "Trying to hide what is so plainly obvious."
A battle of wills was being held between the chief and the crime-lord; each mammal staring the other down with hate. Bogo maintained his sturdy poker-face all the while.
The pangolin then paced over quickly and grasped the thick iron bars of his cell between his sharp and pointed claws, rattling the door slightly before speaking aloud quietly;
"He visited you, didn't he?"
"How could you tell?" Bogo asked softly, lowering his head closer to Shahaz's height. Meanwhile, the pangolin chuckled in that raspy voice of his and leaned out even more.
"For as inscrutable and hard to read as you are, it's quite obvious that your usual dominant attitude and expression has been dealt a small blow. Small, but noticeable. You're a hard mammal with a thick-skin, and it would take something really forbidding to unsettle someone such as yourself. There's only one mammal I know who has such an ability."
"Ratsputin." The water-buffalo finalized, his voice impossibly soft.
"That's right. He has quite a way with words, doesn't he? Able to unnerve mammals with even the strongest of wills. He came to you, no? What did he say?"
"He told me to try and rig Jack's imminent trial... To try and keep him out of jail, or at least reduce his sentence."
"Hmm... Interesting. And you aren't sure why?" Shahaz inquired with raised eyebrows.
"No. I do know that he's one of Jack Savage's largest shareholders, so I can see the appeal of wanting to keep him out of jail, but what I don't understand is why he would go to such lengths as to blackmail the chief of the ZPD! His attempt to threaten me into subservience seems flawed, and there's something off about it... Something I'm not seeing."
"You have to be careful with that one... The rat is a trickster, and I truthfully wouldn't be surprised if he purposefully made his plan flawed just to mess with your head."
"He would go through all of that, and even risk getting himself arrested, simply to mess with my head?" Bogo repeated, his teeth grating together in frustration.
"Possibly, but like I said, he's a trickster... Enjoys confusing his victims into a state of paranoia and agitation for his own personal amusement."
"I'm not his puppet!" The water-buffalo growled broodingly.
"Still, if he left a hole in his scheme, then there's no doubt a reason behind it. He wants something from you... Something more than just your attempt to keep Jack out of jail."
"And what more could he want?" Bogo asked, causing Shahaz to lick his scaly snout with his long and slime-coated tongue.
"Your attention... It's the only plausible answer! Think about it, chief: He comes to you with a purposefully faulty threat... One that he knows will confuse you, make you paranoid. One that isn't enough of an incentive to make you bother trying to arrest him, but just enough to make you want to talk to him again. One that will make you send a very certain vulpine and lapin out trying to question him. Why do you think that is?"
Bogo was silent to a count of ten, of which caused the pangolin to laugh dryly and without humor.
"He's using you to get to them." Shahaz concluded, his raspy voice filling Bogo's ears with certainty and dread.
"What does he want with them?" Bogo questioned. "Why would he go through all this effort just to speak with Wilde and Hopps?"
"Ah, now that's a question that you need to answer for yourself, chief."
The pangolin backed away slowly from the iron-barred door, not breaking eye contact with Bogo a single step of the way.
"So you don't know, do you?" The water-buffalo asked slowly, to which the pangolin sighed and shook his head from side to side.
"I've met Ratsputin only thrice before, and never for more than a few minutes at a time. My knowledge of his inner-workings is limited, so I can tell you nothing more than what you already know... Assuming what you already know is anything more than allegations. Think on that while you piece together the remainder of this silly puzzle of yours."
And at that, the pangolin sat down in the corner of the room and curled himself into a ball, his pointed plates jutting out in every possible direction.
"Thank you for your time, Shahaz." Bogo grumbled before raising his hoofs to his face and wiping away at his eye-sockets.
He then set out back in the direction that he came, bound for anywhere that wasn't riddled with mystery and uncertainty. As he paced through the narrow concrete halls of the cell-block, he thought back to his conversation with Shahaz, and what it meant for him. Some of his questions were answered, but now even more had been unearthed.
In the end, the pangolin was right: Bogo had intended on sending his two best officers out in an effort to question the rat. Deep down, he had a slight feeling of doubt, knowing that this wouldn't be the first time that Ratsputin had been interrogated: The ZPD, city-hall and the council... All the higher-powers of the city had tried questioning him before, but to no avail. There simply wasn't enough proof to prove that Ratsputin had been behind the various scandals that his newspapers had printed all along, so he always ended up getting away scot-free.
The water-buffalo wasn't sure why, but for as far as he could remember, city-hall and the council had never issued a search-warrant for Ratsputin's home in an attempt to see if he held any physical evidence of his blackmailing scams. They'd tried multiple times before, but suspiciously, it was always either discontinued or ruled against. Bogo suspected that the rat must've been behind that as well, to a certain degree. If he was, then perhaps Ratsputin was hiding something... Something that he didn't want city-hall to know about.
Bogo had many questions of his own, but to keep from driving himself to madness, he focused on what was directly in front of him: He needed to speak with Nick and Judy.
11:30 A.M
Nick wasn't a fan of the open ocean, especially after his sickening experience with the journey to Outback-Island several days past.
But thankfully, the public ferry was a much smoother ride; It was a large red and white boat with multiple stories, and actually chairs for sitting down. Nick was very much pleased with that last fact, since the best thing that the Trafalgar had to offer when it came to bracing was the railing itself, which was slippery and rusted over.
Speaking of the Trafalgar, the fox couldn't help but notice that it's captain seemed to be taking it's destruction surprisingly well. Sure, John Haddock was still just as crude and cantankerous as ever, but if he had any hard feelings over the loss of his ship, he certainly didn't show it. The narwhal was quite happy enough on his own just by sitting down with a thick cigar and a large bottle of wine, which he took occasional sips out of.
The three mammals had all positioned themselves on the highest level of the ship, which was relatively free of crowds and clutter. Nick and Judy stood by the railing and gazed out into the vast expanse of water that lay ahead of them. Meanwhile, Haddock was sitting cross legged on the deck, reclining against the railing some ten feet away from the fox and rabbit, peacefully smoking his cigar.
"So, what exactly happened to the ship anyways, huh John?" Judy found herself asking out of the blue.
"Good question, lass! I'll be sure to let ye know when I remember it!" Haddock replied as he exhaled through his blow-hole, emitting a large cloud of smoke from his cigar.
"Lemme get this straight... You completely forgot how you crashed your own ship?" Nick added with a face of cynical disbelief and disapproval.
"Aye." The narwhal responded simply. "Me memory's as blank as the sky itself." He claimed, nodding up towards the clean, cloudless blue sky.
He took a quick swig from his wine bottle before breathing out heavily from his mouth and placing the container back down on the hard wooden surface of the deck.
"What about ye then? What'd ya end up doin' fer the past three days on that lovely little island, hmm?"
Nick and Judy looked to one another and smiled, their thoughts suddenly filling to the brim with memories of their latest adventure, ranging from paragliding, surfing, and even just relaxing in the warm sand on the beach. They reminisced on the passionate indulgence that they had undertaken on their second night of vacationing, and thought back to their most favored of moments that took place on the island.
"Oh man, we had an absolute blast!" Judy stated with bright purple eyes. "We did all sorts of fun stuff, and I think it's safe to say that we might be coming back in the future!"
The narwhal snorted without humor.
"Comin' back? Well if ye do, yer gonna have to find a new ride, because I ain't takin' you again!" He grumbled, causing the fox and bunny to snicker.
"What's so funny?" The narwhal growled.
"Oh, nothing... We're just thinking back on our favorite memory from Pawaii, thas' all." Nick lied.
"And what would that be, eh?" Haddock inquired with raised brows.
"Good question, lass!" Nick mimicked in his best impression of the narwhal, who glared broodingly at the fox. Chuckling to himself, Nick took to answering John's question.
"Well, my favorite moment was the Luau... Now that was some fun stuff!"
Nick remembered the moment quite well in his mind: It was the third and final night of their stay in Pawaii, and the hotel that they were residing in was hosting some sort of party right down on the beach in the late evening. Curious to the point of excitement, Judy had ended up practically dragging her mate down to the sandy beach, where many of the hotel's guests and employees were already enjoying themselves with a myriad of activities, ranging from food and fine drink to surfing and even dancing.
He remembered the setting of the scene, with tall tiki-torches glowing with soothing orange flames, and countless beverages and snacks to indulge in at the buffet, including a strange dish that consisted of nothing more than a thick and creamy gray-substance called poi, apparently. Judy didn't particularly appreciate the taste, but Nick adored it, and wound up choking down three bowls of the stuff before settling down and talking with Dyvim and Natalia, who were both also attending the party.
It was all very enjoyable, but perhaps the fox's favorite moment of all was when the music started reving up, and everyone started to dance. He remembered seeing some Luau performers come out and lead the occasion, with their grass skirts and crowns of colorful flowers. After losing Judy, Nick spent some time searching around for her, and eventually spotted the rabbit outfitting the very same style; With a thick and flowing grass skirt, her fluffy chest bare with the exception of the green cloth that wrapped around her breast and underneath her arms.
Together, the two of them danced the night away to the sound of native music mixed with a little bit of modern beats. It was lovely as it was.
"Attention all passengers," A loud and robotic-sounding voice suddenly jarred Nick from his day-dreaming. "We will be arriving at The Docks in approximately five minutes."
Clearing his throat before looking around across the horizon, Nick came to sight with the outline of the city, erect and shining in the distance. He spotted the grungy dock-town directly in front of the boat's path, and soon began feeling a sense of excitement building up in his chest: He couldn't wait to tell all their friends about their vacation!
Soon enough, the public-ferry anchored down in The Docks, and Nick and Judy bid their final farewells to John Haddock, who promised them that he'd be alright without the Trafalgar. The experience of their entire vacation, from Outback-island to Pawaii, had been one of great pleasure and enjoyment, and in truth, it almost saddened Nick to leave behind John... Almost...
Still, the narwhal assured them that they'd meet again in the future, one way or another. In the end, it was a day that Nick and Judy would be looking forward to.
But until then, they longed to set foot back in their old apartment. The fox and bunny promptly boarded the monorail and set out back to the mainland city, where their home awaited them. Though, much to the surprise of both mammals, they had received a single phone-call from chief Bogo himself soon after boarding the train.
Eager for what awaited them, they answered the call and listened, all the while watching the beautiful city sky-line pass by through the glass-windows of the speeding monorail.